Today’s question comes from a faithful CLC’er, and is one I’ve never been asked before: “Does it hurt to die? Act 2:24 mentioned the pangs of death.”

Interesting question, for several reasons, but especially because each of us will face death someday, unless we are alive when Jesus returns to the earth (1Thess 4:16-18).

I’d never given thought to this subject until your question came, but here’s what I know:

• I don’t think this passage addresses the concept of physical pain that may or may not be associated with death.  (Obviously, the cause of death could have a lot to do with whether a person experiences pain, so I assume your question is whether death itself is painful, and this verse actually speaks to a different idea than that.)
• ‘pangs’ is used by the KJV and the AMP versions, but most of the more modern translations use other words, including “pains” and “horrors”.
• The Greek words translated as ‘pangs of death’ literally refer to the ‘birth pains’ of a women in travail as she delivers her child.
• It seems the ‘pangs of death’ in this verse specifically refer to the fact that death has held mankind captive – all of us face it someday; none have been able to escape it – until JESUS!  His resurrection loosed us from the terror of death, since we will also be resurrected someday!
• Because HE overcame the ‘pangs of death’, we no longer need live in fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15)
• So the bottom-line for me is that Acts 2:24 is primarily about the Resurrection and that Jesus overcame death for us.  The ‘pangs’ of death referring to ‘birth pains’ could even be a word-play that He experienced the ‘pain of childbirth’ to deliver us from the fear of death!

Hope that helps.  (It made me dig a little, and that’s always good)

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “I have a friend that used to be on fire for the Lord. She now says she believes in God, but not the White man’s Jesus. She speaks of this African ‘voudom’ that she says early white Americans demonized to ‘voodoo’ to push Jesus on black slaves. She writes mean things about us now on Facebook. I recently asked her if she still had her Bibles and if I could have it. She responded that she had a Bible she would give me. I asked. ”is it the one you have all your notes and highlights in?” She said, “oh no you cannot have that one.” I smiled and thought ‘right, she doesn’t want to give up her Good Word of knowledge and revelation’. What would cause a person to leave what gave them life and happiness? I don’t understand this.”

Sad.  But a very valid question, because probably all of us have known individuals who once walked with the Lord but are far from Him today.  Obviously, I cannot answer with any certainty about your friend specifically, but I can give you several possibilities:

• actually, this one is a certainty: she has been deceived.  As always, the problem with deception is that when you’re in it, you don’t realize it!  The Bible speaks of ‘seducing spirits’ (KJV) - 1Tim. 4:1, which sounds clearly to be the case with your friend.  Certainly some people go astray because of demonic influence that deceives them.
• Paul also warned the Ephesian elders that false teachers would arise to ‘distort the truth’ (Acts 20:29-32), specifically to draw a following.  I’ve lived long enough to see those verses fulfilled by misguided teachers who were more interested in having people follow them than in teaching truth from God’s Word.
• Some people who once walked with God turn away because they love the things of this world more than the one to come.  See 2Tim. 4:10.
• Some Christians just get weary of resisting sin, & eventually walk away (Heb 12:3-5; Matthew 24:11-12)

It saddens us to reflect on these things, and especially the memory of our fellowship with people who once walked closely with the Lord – but there is one protection for all of us, and that is to fall so deeply and completely in love with Jesus that NOTHING could ever separate us from Him (Rom. 8:38)

Can you think of other reasons that would cause someone to walk away from Christ?  If so, leave a comment below, please-

Hope this helps a bit.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question was submitted back in December during our “You Asked for It” midweek series: “Please explain Acts 1:5 and Acts 11:16“.

Gladly.  Especially since next Sunday (May 19) is Pentecost Sunday, which is arguably the 3rd biggest day on The Church calendar, right behind Christmas (when we celebrate the coming of the Messiah into our world) and Easter (when we celebrate His death, burial and resurrection).  

Pentecost Sunday is the day The Church was born, when about 120 disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4)  (If you’re not already familiar, I suggest you click that link and read the verses slowly and carefully)

The first verse you asked about occurred after Jesus’ resurrection, shortly before He returned to heaven.  He commanded His followers to not leave Jerusalem until they had been baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5), and He told them why (Acts 1:8); namely, that they would receive the power to be His witnesses throughout the earth!

The second verse you asked about came during Peter’s explanation to the Jerusalem church as to why he had ministered to the Gentiles gathered at the home of Cornelius (Acts 11:14-16).  According to Peter, the Gentiles (whom the Jews considered ‘heathen’ or unclean) were baptized in the Holy Spirit in the same way that the followers of Jesus had been back in Acts 2!

So both of the verses in question speak of this ‘baptism of power’ that comes to us through the Holy Spirit.  Let me remind you that there are actually 3 baptisms in the New Testament that every child of God should experience:

• When we receive Jesus as our Savior by turning from sin and believing on Him, we are baptized into His body (1Corinthians 12:13).  This baptism is what Jesus called being “born again”(John 3:3-5) and it’s the identification that we belong to Christ (we are “saved” – Ephesians 1:13-14).  It’s the Holy Spirit who baptizes us into Christ.
• To celebrate our salvation from sin, we bury our past and ‘announce’ that we now belong to Christ through a baptism in water (Romans 6:4) It’s usually a minister or elder who baptizes us in water.
• We are baptized in the Holy Spirit to empower us to be Christ’s witnesses in a subsequent experience that is usually accompanied by the phenomenon known in Scripture as ‘speaking in tongues’ (at CLC, we usually call it a ‘prayer language’), whose primary benefit is to enable more intimate communication with the Lord, strengthening and refreshing us in our relationship with Him.  This is the baptism discussed by the original questions in this post, and it’s Jesus who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. (John 1:33-34; Acts 2:4; 1Cor 14:4)

My suggestion today for any reader is that if you have not experienced each of these three baptisms, you can and you should! (I also invite you to join us on May 19 for a fuller look at this subject as we celebrate Pentecost Sunday together!)

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question is a doozie: “my question is in regards to remarriage after divorce. Though we see it everyday, is it ok? Is it simply a matter of repenting for the divorce (and everything that caused it)? How does 1st Corinthians 7:11 & 39 play into the situation?”

Oh my.  No softballs today.  I hope this isn’t a repeat of Matthew 19:3, because I don’t like traps! In faith that this is a sincere question, let’s dive in:

• First, I don’t personally know of a thornier question anyone could ask me.  I say that in part because there seems to be some leeway in Scripture (albeit limited) and especially because of what I see in today’s Church, as well as the overall concept of God’s grace and kindness.
• Having said that, I also plead with every reader NOT to use this post as personal guidance, since every situation is different and this issue is definitely NOT ‘one-size-fits-all’!  If you are contemplating divorce OR remarriage, I urge you to get counsel from your pastor!
• Most believers would agree that there are some Biblical grounds for divorce, after which a remarriage could certainly be in order.  The rub comes when we try to agree on what those ‘Biblical grounds’ are.  In my understanding of Scripture (Free community service announcement: I don’t expect others to agree with me, so please don’t fill up the comment box with your interpretations – use your own blog for that, please), those Biblical grounds would include sexual unfaithfulness and abandonment for sure (Matthew 19:9; 1Corinthians 7:15)
• However, please don’t forget Malachi 2:15-16 and Matthew 19:7-8.  Just because a divorce is ‘allowed’ under some circumstances doesn’t mean it’s ‘advisable’.  My counsel is always that if the injured party is able to forgive and release their spouse and move on after infidelity, that’s the best solution.  Only in those cases where the ‘guilty’ spouse is unrepentant and/or the injured spouse is simply not able to forgive and trust again would a divorce be recommended.
• Some have made remarriage the issue, but I don’t personally follow that.  IF a person has Biblical grounds to divorce, then I certainly think they have the right to remarry.
• In regards to the specific question concerning 1Cor. 7:10-11, my understanding is that this applies to those cases where there is no Biblical grounds for divorce.  In that case, reconciliation is the only proper solution – or remain single.  Verse 39 seems to confirm that.  However, please do not use my words OR these Scriptures to judge someone else’s marriage – you don’t know all the circumstances, and John 8:7 still fits today!
• That’s about as much trouble as I should get into for one day, but let me close with great parting advice from the Apostle Paul: 1Corinthians 7:26-28.

Hope that helped.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. Don’t miss THIS Sunday at CLC when the John Tiller family will be our guests to share their story that is sure to inspire you!  Invite a friend-

One of my favorite CLC’ers emailed me this week’s question: “I was reading in Matt 17:10-13 when the disciples ask Jesus why the teachers of law insist that Elijah must come before the Messiah. And Jesus says that he already came but was essentially ignored. Then Matthew says that the disciples then realized he was talking about John the Baptist. I know we don’t believe in reincarnation, so how can that prophecy be fulfilled through John the Baptist?  Was scripture speaking of the Spirit of Elijah resting on John the Baptist, thereby fulfilling scripture?  Or am I missing the point completely?”

Well, you’re right that the Bible doesn’t embrace reincarnation, so we know that this Scripture could not have been speaking literally.  (I mention that before one of the primary rules of interpreting Scripture is that we should always use the literal interpretation UNLESS there is a clear reason not to do so.  In this case, the literal interpretation would force us to accept the false idea of reincarnation.)

So what did Jesus mean?  As always, it’s best to let Scripture interpret Scripture.  In this case, Luke 1:13 speaks prophetically of the birth of John the Baptist, and in verse 17 we are told that he will come in the “spirit and power of Elijah”! 

Not only that, but verse 17 also shows that John the Baptist would fulfill the prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6.  So clearly Jesus was comparing John the Baptist to Elijah because of the similarity of their ministry and spirit.

Wish all your questions were this easy to resolve!  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

By the way, there’s still time for YOU to invite someone to be your guest this Sunday for the clearest presentation of the Gospel that I’ve ever given, as we wrap-up our “Remember the Story” series.  Can’t wait to see what God will do!

This week’s question comes from a reader who wrote, “Just reading your answer about continuous prayer in asking God for blessings. I’ve never told people to stop praying for something, nor have I stopped. But, I have told people that you only need to pray once for forgiveness of a particular sin, and stop doing that sin and God will forgive you. Would that be correct?”

Great question, because so many people, including born-again Christians, still struggle unnecessarily with guilt and shame.  And while my previous post that you refer to addresses the broader subject of perseverance in prayer, the prayer for forgiveness is entirely different, and you are totally correct that asking once in faith is enough!  Probably my favorite verse on that subject is Proverbs 28:13.

Here are a few verses to verify that wonderful promise: 1John 1:8-10; 1John 2:1-2; 1John 2:12 (note: they ‘have been’ forgiven – already!)

Note also Psalm 103:8-12; Psalm 86:5 and Hebrews 8:12, where HE promised to never again remember our sins!  Hebrews 10:11-18 adds to that promise!  What a wonderful, merciful, forgiving God we serve!

Hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

This week’s question was submitted anonymously during our “You Asked For It!” midweek series back in December, but we weren’t able to cover it publicly then: “It is a sin to be depressed?”

Great question, simply because so many Americans (and believers) suffer from depression.  I think I’d be safe in saying that almost all of us deal with it from time to time.  Here’s my answer:

• If depression is a sin, then a LOT of Bible ‘heroes’ were big-time sinners (like us) because Moses (Exodus 5:22-6:12), David (Psa 42:3-11), Elijah (IKings 19:3-14) and even Jesus (Matthew 26:37-39) experienced moments that we would probably call depression!
• In addition, I’ve learned from my wife (the licensed counselor) that some depression is clinical, which means there is a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes the depression.  I don’t think any of us would say that diabetes is a sin, or that high cholesterol is a sin, so why would we classify someone with clinical depression as sinful?
• On the other hand, most depression is caused by circumstances (Numbers 21:4; Lamentations 1:12-20), and while most of us have experienced moments of despair when we don’t see a way out of our situation, as believers we must admit that such a viewpoint is not of faith, since nothing is impossible with our God.
• So when it comes to circumstantial depression, no believer should wallow there for long, because the Word of God and worship are mighty weapons (2Cor 10:4-5) to help us see beyond our present circumstances to the glorious plan He has for us!  (2Cor 4:16-18).  That was Jesus’ secret (see Isa. 42:4; Heb. 12:2)

In fact, this message of HOPE is what Easter is all about, for the Resurrection is God’s greatest object lesson: if He can do that, He can do anything! (see Ephesians 1:17-21) – and we’re going to CELEBRATE that fact in all 5 of our Easter Experiences this weekend (Saturday at 5pm & 6:30pm; Sunday at 8:30am, 10am & 12noon) - I hope you’ll reach out one more time to invite someone to be your guest!

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question was submitted several weeks ago during our “You Asked for It” midweek series: ”When a person chooses celibacy/becomes a secondary virgin, does God forgive a person having sex outside of marriage?”

Great question, because I’m sure many Christians have asked it.

Actually, I’m not sure if you’re asking if God forgives us for making a vow of celibacy or whether He forgives a person for sexual activity outside of their marriage – but it really doesn’t matter, because the answer to either of those questions is unequivocally, YES!

I could go a step further and say that God will forgive any sin, no matter how small or how grievous in the eyes of man – IF we turn to Him in repentance.  Keep in mind that repentance in Scripture is NOT just being “sorry I got caught” (like many of the politicians or celebrities we’ve seen), but Biblical repentance is a “change of mind”; i.e., we have a change of mind and heart that results in a change of conduct as well.

Of course, I don’t recommend that you make a vow of celibacy with the thought in mind that “God will always forgive me”, because the Bible does warn us of the sin of presumption, and I certainly don’t want to take His grace for granted.

Let me close with the only Scripture you really need for this question: 1John 1:8-2:2.  And let me add, thank God for His grace, because without it/Him, we would all be lost!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

My favorite questioner writes, “I have a question regarding “Praying in the Spirit”. I hear that phrase so much and I’m starting to wonder if I know the full meaning of it.. When people suggest that we pray in the spirit, does it mean to pray in tongues during our prayer or does it mean to put our whole self into our prayer? I’ve always thought that it means to pray in tongues but there are some dominations or churches who are not familiar with speaking in tongues and/or don’t really teach about speaking in tongues. But most churches or dominations I’ve ever encountered fully believe in the Holy Spirit. So, I would like your explanation of “Praying in the Spirit”.

Great question.  As you mention, there are many churches/denominations who do not practice speaking in tongues, but ALL Christian churches/denominations believe in the Holy Spirit.  For my views on tongues (which I often refer to as a ‘prayer language’, since it’s primary purpose is to enhance our prayers), you can read previous posts here and here and here.

As to the meaning of “praying in the Spirit”, I think there can be two different meanings.  If we’re just talking about the anointing of the Holy Spirit on various actions, we can say of certain musicians, “they were really playing in the Spirit”, just as I hope to preach or teach “in the Spirit” each week, or someone else was really “in the Spirit” when they prayed.  All of those examples are just man’s way of expressing the idea that someone was anointed by the Spirit to do what they did, much like you said, “put our whole self into prayer”.

However, if you’re asking about the term “praying in the Spirit” as it appears in the Bible, then I must say that it certainly appears to be a synonym for “praying in tongues”.  I say that because the phrase “in the Spirit” in regards to prayer ONLY appears in Paul’s writings to the churches.  Notice in 1Cor 14:1-3 and especially 1Cor. 14:14-17, where it seems quite clear (to me) that the Apostle Paul contrasts “praying in the Spirit” with “praying in words I understand”.  

The ONLY other time that phrase appears in Scripture is in Eph. 6:18, where Paul did not explain it further, neither did the context give us additional insight – so I am left to believe that his meaning didn’t change; i.e., since praying “in the Spirit” in 1Corinthians clearly means praying “in tongues”, it stands to reason that praying “in the Spirit” in Ephesians also means praying “in tongues”.

The bottom-line, really, is that every believer should pray at times in their own language, with their understanding, AND at times in their “prayer language” (speaking in tongues) for all the reasons we’ve stated before.  I practice both daily, and it’s a blessing to my life!

Hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question came from someone who listened to Joel Osteen when he said, “…God has already given you the right gifts, the talent and the ability to fulfill the dreams He has placed in your heart.” (Joel Osteen) IF this is true, can/does not being in weekly attendance at the local church, block, diminish or hinder the destiny that God has for you and even more specifically, if “that” which God has placed in our heart is kingdom building, church work, ministry?

Great question…..well, great for a pastor, because you just lobbed a big softball at me and now I get to hit it out of the park!

Let’s begin with Pastor Joel’s quote.  I definitely agree with him that the Bible teaches God has already given us what we need to fulfill our dreams – read Phil. 2:13 for just one verse on that subject.

Since that is true, I can definitely attest that being absent from the local church can hinder your destiny (at best) or block it altogether (at worst).  

As a pastor, I have long sensed that many of today’s believers haven’t fully grasped the significance of what happens each week when we gather together to worship the Lord:

• we meet with God, and in His Presence, wonderful things can happen to unlock our destiny! (see Genesis 28:16-17 for a foreshadow of what can happen each week)
• we hear from God through His preached Word, which can reveal or confirm our destiny! (see 1Thess. 2:13 for just one example of it’s potential)
• we fellowship with other believers, and in those gatherings is the opportunity for us to share spiritual realities that can change the course of our lives & enable our destiny to be fulfilled! (see 1Cor. 14:26 for an example)
• no wonder then that the Apostle stressed the importance of not neglecting this awesome privilege we have to gather together weekly! (see Hebrews 10)

Our ‘THRIVE’ series is now history, but last week one of our most faithful CLC’ers asked a question that others have asked her: ”As believers, how are we to respond to the flood of requests to give – from various charities & organizations in our mailbox, to special offerings at church – it seems like every time we turn around we’re being asked to give again.  What are we supposed to do?”

Such an excellent question – and I’m sure one that many have wanted to ask, but perhaps been hesitant to put into words, for fear of being thought stingy.  I really want to help today, and the good news is that this question IS directly addressed in God’s Word.

2 Corinthians 9:5-8 is the clearest instruction about giving in Scripture, and it directly addresses when & why & how to give, as well has how not to give, if we want God’s blessing.  Read the passage again slowly and carefully.  Notice:

• my giving should only be done with a willing heart, never when it feels like extortion or that it’s being wrung out of me! (verse 5)
• when I give grudgingly, Paul says I will reap grudgingly but if I give in order that others will be blessed, then I will reap with blessing (verse 6)
• note especially verse 7, where we are told to give as we decide in our own mind & purpose in our heart, and NEVER reluctantly or sorrowfully or ‘under compulsion’ (feeling as though we’re being pressured or forced to give!)
• Instead, that same verse tells us that God ‘loves’, ‘prizes’, ‘takes pleasure in’ & will not ‘abandon’ a person who gives cheerfully, joyously, “prompt to do it” and whose heart is in his giving!
• Finally, when we give like that, verse 8 gives us some of the most wonderful promises in Scripture about our giving.

So with those clear guidelines in Scripture, my conclusion (and recommendation) is that you give when you can do so willingly, feeling ‘good’ about the opportunity to sow into a ministry or cause, but that you keep your money in your pocket when you can’t feel good in your heart about that particular offering or opportunity.

I’ve actually put money back in my pocket that I had intended to give, simply because the person receiving the offering put so much pressure on the audience in an attempt to manipulate us to give more – and I knew I couldn’t do so willingly in compliance with the verses above.

Personally, I’m a ”local church” guy, so as a general rule I don’t respond to all the pleas from various charities, because I’ve seen the good that can be done through the Body of Christ around the world and prefer to invest my money there – but that’s just me.  If you can apply 2Cor. 9 to secular organizations or charities, then certainly you can give with freedom & generosity.

At CLC, when you give your tithes & offerings, you can also know that 10 cents of every dollar is going to help fulfill the Great Commission, which I hope gives you an added reason for your ‘heart to be in your giving’!

By the way, one good way to ensure that you’re not being manipulated by emotion or giving because of “the heat of the moment”, is to automate the important by setting up automatic debit through online giving.  Your bank account will carry out your heartfelt desires every payday (or however often you choose) with no possibility of reluctance or compulsion.

Hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question comes from a faithful CLC who writes, “Keeping in tune with our current sermon series, I decided to step out and up and be a better steward of God’s money. I set my tithe up for auto debit for the proper amount and not what I have left over each pay week. In doing so, I was sharing with another believer (non-CLC’er) what I am doing. She stated that she “felt paying via auto debit or in a lump sum says that you are no longer “presenting” your tithes to God but are paying him like a bill. He has the right to reject or accept your offering”. I was attempting to explain that in my opinion as long as you are paying / presenting your tithes with a clean, open and loving heart it shouldn’t matter (how) they are paid. I too was raised in the traditional church she currently attends and understand the logic behind what she is saying, but also believe that times are changing and paying by auto debit is the same as bringing my check / cash into service on Sunday as long as it is done in reverence to its true purpose. Am I wrong?”

I’m so glad you asked this, because I’m sure other people struggle with the same worry and it gives me a chance to help them as well as you.

The quick answer is, ‘No, you’re right! I pay my tithes thru an automatic debit online! I certainly don’t think online giving violates in any way the OT concept of bringing my tithes to the Lord. What it does do is insure that I don’t forget to write a check or get sick or go out of town on weekend and as a result get behind on giving to God first.

As you’ve probably heard about my past, I came out of a very legalistic denomination, so I think I can spot “religion” a mile away, and honestly, when I read your email about your friend’s response and the church that you used to attend, that was my first thought: ‘religion’ strikes again. I’m saddened that she (and a million others like her) is caught up in a legalistic, religious way of doing things that says “my way or the highway”, based on the tradition of men only – when the reality is that the main point of Scripture is that we give to God first; not how we deliver it.  In fact, when the Bible spoke of tithing, there was no such thing as writing a check or putting cash in a church offering envelope & bringing it to the Lord!  Their tithes were literally newly-harvested crops and the firstborn of their livestock, which they brought to the priest.

If we were to take the attitude or approach that we shouldn’t use technology to accomplish tithing today, we probably need to re-think a lot of things we do in church: let’s see: how about no air conditioning in the summer; no audio/video system; no indoor rest rooms, etc. – since they obviously didn’t have any of those modern conveniences in the Bible either.  Wonder why no churches teach against those practices?

Now, I will tell you one thing that I do – not because I need to feel like I’m ‘presenting’ my tithes to the Lord, but because I’m conscious of the fact that others are always watching me as pastor and I want to be an example: I fill out an offering envelope each week and write in the amount that I’ve given online & what it was for (tithes, missions, Kingdom Expansion, etc) and then in the box where it says “total”, I write “ONLINE”. I then submit my offering envelope along with everyone else during that part of the service. That way I am participating in the offering along with everyone else, even though my monies have in reality already been transferred to the church electronically. If you have any misgivings about not ‘presenting’ your tithes, you could always do that as well.

Bottom-line: I think we should take advantage of technology wherever we can to be more effective in the Lord’s work, and this is certainly one of them.  By giving tithes & offerings electronically, we free up our volunteers from hours of counting & recording our gifts AND we enable the Church to more accurately project our income for budgeting purposes, since the gifts are consistent instead of haphazard.  I encourage every CLC’er to consider online giving!  In fact, you can enroll here right now.

Hope that helps.  Don’t forget our “THRIVE” series comes to a close this Sunday as special guest Joe Sangl will encourage us to believe God for financial MIRACLES in all 3 morning services AND then share his free seminar, “Financial Learning Experience” from 5-7pm.

Now what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question was submitted during our “You Asked for It” midweek series in December, but we weren’t able to answer it then.  A CLC writes, “I really need help with disciplining my son.  I failed utterly w/my older son & don’t want to make the same mistake.  I’ve tried everything I can think of – I need help!”

Since it’s been so long since I’ve had to discipline children (and my wife will tell you it wasn’t my best area, even then), I’ve asked our KidsLife Director, Brent McQuay, to be our guest today in responding to this very important question:

That is a great question, and one we like to talk about a lot on the Kidslife Blog. We actually have 3 posts on Discipline you can check out: “Time to talk about the “D” word”; “Creative Discipline Ideas” & “Top 10 Things Children Want Their Parents To Do With Them”

The Bible is pretty clear on the benefits of discipline and even the dangers of not disciplining our kids, one of my favorites is Proverbs 29:17 ESV.  How does that sound as a parent: to have a child that gives you rest instead of stress, and brings joy instead of frustration!

I could talk about this subject for days but for the sake of time I believe that “healthy” discipline really requires two things, LOVE & CONSISTENCY.

Love has to be the motivation and foundation of your discipline. It needs to be communicated clearly to your child repeatedly. “I am doing this because I love you” As your child grows, add to the statement, “I am doing this because I love you, and I want you to succeed in life” or “I am doing this because I love you, and I don’t want you to repeat my mistakes.” Be open and honest with them and above all let them KNOW, not just HEAR that you love them, especially when you are disciplining them.

I have seen well-meaning parents discipline out of principle, and out of frustration, or out of a desire to enforce the rules, and while I don’t doubt that they love their kids, they simply failed to express their love in the midst of discipline. I have seen this “discipline without love” lead to rebellion, especially in teenagers!

The second thing I believe your discipline needs is consistency. This applies to both WHEN you discipline and HOW you discipline, and needs to be the same no matter WHO is doing the discipline; i.e., Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, whoever!

Consistent discipline means every time you see a certain action that you have decided needs correction, you discipline the child and you use the same type of discipline. If talking back to you on Monday earns the child a 5-minute time out, but on Wednesday it earns a “Go to your room without dinner” there is no consistency and it can create confusion. And even worse is when on Monday it earns “X Discipline” and on Wednesday it is ignored. This creates a mentality that this behavior is sometimes ok, or the feeling that sometimes they can get away with it.

Sit down with your kids and let them know what behavior is NOT OK, and let them know what to expect when they misbehave. When there are clear expectations it is easier for you as a parent to discipline because their are no surprises.  It even removes a lot of the argument that typically takes place when disciplining older children (although nothing can remove all chance for argument from a teen)

Setting up clear expectations and pre-defined consequences can also help you when you start to lose your parenting cool. Let’s say Johnny has picked the wrong day to misbehave, you are already tired and frustrated and then he goes and does the 1 thing that bothers you more than anything else. Sticking to the pre-defined consequences can protect you from “going off” on your kids.

Discipline is rarely easy to receive or to give for anybody but there are a lot of resources out there. For my own parenting journey I use the resources provided by Focus On The Family almost daily! They have an incredible series of articles on “EFFECTIVE BIBLICAL DISCIPLINE”. If you are really struggling in this area, take the time to read some of those articles. Also know that the Kidslife staff is here for you, if you ever need someone to talk to give us a call, shoot us an email, or just stop by, We are here for you!

Hope that helps!  For all you parents, my son posts regularly at his blog, and I encourage you to subscribe here – just add your email in the “Follow by email” box and submit.

By the way, financial pressure affect even our children, too – it’s not too late to sign up for the Financial Learning Experience on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 5pm

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my favorite CLCers writes, “I’ve heard it said by at least a few biblical scholars that there are promises throughout the Old Testament given specifically to “Israel” and not the Church. My understanding is that ALL of God’s promises are “YES and AMEN” in Christ and that we, as believers, can pray and decree ANY promise God has made in His Word when our hearts are right with Him. Please clarify.”

Excellent question.  Reminds me of a chorus we used to sing in my early years of ministry: “Every promise in the Book is mine; Every chapter, every verse, every line; I am trusting in His Word Divine; Every promise in the Book is mine!”

Great chorus; not-so-great theology, in the sense that we don’t even WANT every promise in the Bible, since a lot of them have to do with judgment & destruction!

But I digress.  The best answer to your question is that (a) there are promises to Israel in the Scripture that some Christians have tried to apply to the Church instead of Israel – and that’s wrong.  God may have turned from His people Israel for a season, but He has not forgotten her, and He will fulfill the promises made to Israel long ago.

But what is true is that (b) as believers, we can appropriate promises made in Scripture to ourselves, at least partially because of the verse you cited, 2Cor. 1:20 (AMP) or MSG or the NIV translation.  What Paul asserts is simply this: Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises – HE says ‘yes’ to them; and we as believers add the “Amen”, which means, “so be it!”  In other words, God makes a promise; Jesus says ‘yes, I’ll fulfill that’, and we claim it for ourselves by adding our ‘Amen’ – so be it in my life!

I will add the caveat that you implied: oftentimes promises in Scripture are conditional; i.e., God will do this if we will do that - so in order to claim those promises for ourselves, we must also meet the conditions He laid down in His Word.

Hope that helps.  This Sunday we’ll look at some of His promises concerning our finances as we continue our ‘Thrive’ series – so I hope you’ll join us & invite a friend!

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question comes from a faithful CLCer, “Why does the church not support or believe in climate change?”

Now, that’s a question I’ve never been asked before.

But since you asked sincerely, I’ll give it my best shot – with a disclaimer that there is NOTHING about this in Scripture, so I’m strictly giving my opinion:

• First, by “climate change” I assume you’re referring to what is sometimes called “global warming”, which gained greater attention with the public after a documentary by Vice-President Al Gore called “An Inconvenient Truth”.
• From what I’ve read (which is admittedly only a little), while there is wide consensus in the scientific community that climate change is real and is largely a result of human activity that release greenhouse gases – there are still other voices in the scientific community who disagree, and they cite studies which contradict the more popular view.  I would say that’s one important reason why the church at large doesn’t support climate change; i.e., even the scientific community is divided on the issue.
• Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, since the Bible is silent on this issue, and since there are so many other priorities given in Scripture for the Church’s attention, it would seem we should stay focused on those areas that Jesus has commanded, rather than the issue of climate change.
• Thirdly, the Bible is also clear that this earth is temporary and will eventually be replaced in God’s plan – so our priority is different than others who have no eternal hope (see 2Pet 3:3-14).  As the old-timers used to sing, “This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through!”
• Finally, even though climate change doesn’t work its way into my sermons, don’t assume that the Church isn’t doing anything.  I know that we are called to steward creation (see Genesis 1:26), and if we are to have dominion over the earth, then surely environmental issues are of some concern.  There are a number of Christian writers and leaders who are advocating our responsibility in these areas – here’s just one such website, if you’d like to know more.

An anonymous CLCer asks, “If a person commits suicide because of a mental illness is it still a sin?”

Interesting question. I suspect the underlying question is really, “Will they still be lost & spend eternity in hell?”, so I’ll try to answer both questions.

However, I should begin by saying that the Bible does NOT address this question directly, so we are left to speculate based on what we know from other principles found in Scripture.  Therefore, my answer is really just my “sanctified opinion”:

• First, in my humble opinion, anyone who commits suicide does so in a ‘moment of insanity’; i.e., I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could take their own life. And in my opinion, if they are not in their right mind, I don’t see how their actions could be considered sin, since they don’t know what they’re doing.
• More importantly, a person’s eternal destiny is determined by what they did with Jesus – not how their life on earth ended.  So, again in my humble opinion, if a person who knew Jesus as Lord & Savior, perhaps because of life circumstances or sorrows had a temporary moment of insanity & took their own life, I think the Lord would look upon their relationship with Him rather than their foolish choice to end their life, and they would still be able to enjoy eternity in heaven.
• Having said that, I cannot stress enough that this is MY opinion, and I have NO Scripture upon which to base my opinion, except that our God is a merciful God.If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, PLEASE get help – see a pastor, a Christian counselor, or a trusted friend in whom you can confide.  Do NOT listen to the voice of the enemy telling you to end your life!

That’s heavy, but I hope it helped some.  And I hope you will be present THIS Sunday at CLC when we’ll wrap-up our “Treatment” series with ’Prognosis’ – what you can do to win the battle for your mind!  It’s the most important message of the series.

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “Is there someplace in the Bible where it says they will take our Bibles away?”

This one actually brought a smile to my face, because I well remember in my younger days when preachers certainly made that assertion, warning us of end-times events.  (Actually, now that I think of it, their ‘predictions’ about how our world would change weren’t quite as scary as the reality we’re facing today in post-modern America!)

However, there is NO verse in Scripture that makes that statement.  The closest idea to it would be found in Amos 8:11-12, but if you notice, it’s not the result of a radical government or human enemies removing our Bibles.  Rather, it’s God’s description of His judgements upon Israel who rejected His Word, so He will remove it from them.

The GOOD NEWS is that there’s NO shortage of His Word to His people today – and this weekend at CLC will be FULL of the Word of the Lord from some of the most anointed men of God I know – so I hope you’ll make every effort to join us for each session of our

Hope this helped.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

My favorite questioner wrote me with the biggest question in her heart: “My question is regarding John 1:1-4.  Pastor, why is it that John is the only book of the Bible that refers to Jesus as the Word? I I’ve often wondered if my prayers were directed properly & respectfully in the way that God desires us to pray. I know that there is a Trinity that consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. I have also been taught that they are three, yet one. I’ve also heard that we can pray to God the Father and end our prayer with “in Jesus name”. But some people feel that we can pray directly to Jesus because He and the Father are One. Others feel this is not the correct way to pray. If God and Jesus are One, should it really make a difference if we pray directly to God or directly to Jesus? If God and Jesus are not One and the same, is God greater than Jesus? While reading the book of John, it seems that there is no difference, but sometimes it does seem like there is a difference. I really need to have this question answered once and for all so that I can praise and worship God in the way He wants me to. How can I teach and instruct someone when I’m not sure of what I’m teaching?”

Wow.  There’s at least 3 or 4 or 5 different questions here, and all of them are somewhat controversial in the body of Christ, so I know before I start that my answers won’t please everyone.  But since you asked me, here’s my conviction based on 44 years of ministry:

1. I don’t know why John is the only writer to refer to Jesus as the Word since he didn’t tell us – but it’s possible because John is the one who traced Jesus all the way back to the beginning, whereas the other Gospels started with His birth & traced him back to Abraham, or even to Adam – but only John went all the way back to His eternal, pre-Bethlehem existence (see vv 1, 14).
2. Since Jesus himself teaches us to ask in His name(John 14:13-14) and to ask the Father directly (in Jesus’ name – John 16:22-27) and to ask the Father(without mentioning Jesus’ name – Matthew 6:8; Matthew 7:11), I personally don’t think it makes any difference, and I think people who try to teach otherwise are guilty of confusing Christians & causing unnecessary struggles such as you describe in your own heart.  In other words, I believe that you can pray directly to Jesus OR directly to the Father OR to the Father in the name of Jesus without any fear that you are praying incorrectly or addressing God in an improper or disrespectful manner!
3. I would like to suggest a correction to your description of the Trinity, because nowhere in the Bible do we read the term, “God the Son” or “God the Holy Spirit”.  If we did, we would no longer have a Trinity of One God in Three Persons, but we would have three Gods, and what the Muslims say of us Christians would be true – we would be worshipping more than one God.  The Bible does speak of “God the Father” as the all-encompassing term, and it refers to “The Son of God”, but not “God the Son”.  Some will think I’m splitting hairs, but I personally think it’s an important distinction.
4. I wouldn’t say that God the Father and Jesus are ‘one and the same’ as you put it, since they each have distinctive characteristics – but they are one Godhead (with the Holy Spirit).  In other words, again, Christians worship One God in three persons, not Three Gods.
5. No, God is not greater than Jesus in His essence (John 10:30).  The only verse that might sound contradictory to that is John 14:28, but, again, to interpret that statement literally would mean we must worship three gods.  The only logical explanation is that the Father is greater than the Son in regards to His office or His work – since the Son came to this earth in a position of humility as a man, to accomplish our salvation through His death on the cross.
6. I do understand why it sometimes seems one way in John and sometimes another way, but I believe almost all of those difficulties go away when you consider this concept of “office” or “role” that Jesus plays in the work of salvation, versus the “office or role” of God the Father.

Whew.  I really hope that helped, because I know God doesn’t want any of His children to be in confusion or to struggle about how to pray to Him properly.  Just as earthly parents want to fulfill their children’s requests, your heavenly Father wants you to call on Him so He can give you exactly what you need! (see Matthew 7:11 again)

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

By the way, you’ll get more than your questions answered; you’ll hear Words from God & be able to drink deep of the Holy Spirit next weekend at our First Love Conference on January 19-21.  Take some time off work and plan to join us!

The first question of 2013 is, “How do we balance or should there be a balance (meaning should it be all or none or one of the above) “religion”, “spirituality” & “relationship with God”?  I see a lot these days where people want spirituality (finding their inner self and connecting to that “higher power”) without the rules of religion (please do this and don’t do that). But there is no mention of the relationship with God or his son, our Lord Jesus. I notice many of my un-churched friends, though they appear so very thirsty for God through relationship by way of Jesus, they seem to always gravitate to these, please forgive me, “Oprah-approved” “spirituality” teachers.  Religion, spirituality or relationship?”

Interesting question.  And spot-on in regards to current trends, I might add.

In my understanding of Scripture, the hunger for ‘spirituality’ & ‘religion’ are pretty much the same thing: God created us body, soul & spirit, so there’s a part of us that won’t ever be satisfied with anything less than Him.  Religion is the result of man trying to satisfy that desire – it’s man’s attempt to find God.

Of course, a relationship with God is the ONLY Biblically-approved answer, and it’s the whole reason that Jesus came – so we could truly know God.

So to answer the question, how do we balance those (or should we), I would say NO.  The ONLY answer is to seek/find/enjoy a life-giving relationship with God, and actually, religion is an enemy of that hunger to know God, since it substitutes man-made effort for Biblical obedience.

Since this is primarily a philosophical question, I didn’t refer to Scripture in my answer, but I think John 4  and Acts 19:1-6 are great examples of the difference between religion and relationship.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

The final question of 2012 comes from my #1 questioner who writes, “1Cor. 14:27-28 is kind of confusing to me.  Pastor, I know that your church believes in speaking in unknown tongues which I believe and support 100%. However, according to the Apostle Paul, it should not be done unless it is done in the way he explains above. Can you give me your interpretation of this?

I’d be glad to, since this question is similar to one that so many people have asked, especially if their background does not view speaking in tongues as a valid practice for today’s Christians.

In my humble opinion, most all of the confusion results from misunderstanding that are at least two different purposes or uses for speaking in tongues (both of which are mentioned in 1Cor. 14).  If you do not distinguish between those two very different purposes, then the Scripture starts to sound like it contradicts itself.  Here’s my take after over 40 years of study on this topic:

• the primary purpose for speaking in tongues is to enhance our personal times of prayer, which is why at CLC I have resorted to referring to this gift as a “prayer language”.  That purpose or use of tongues is always referred to in Scripture as a positive experience that Paul (and by inference, the Lord) wants for every believer (see 1Cor. 14:2; 1Cor. 14:5; 1Cor. 14:14; 1Cor. 14:17; 1Cor. 14:18; Jude 20; Romans 8:26-27).  
• Please note that this use of tongues is for our personal devotional experience, and it does edify (build up or strengthen us in our faith!)  But it’s intended ONLY for our benefit; not for the public benefit of others, such as during a church meeting.
• Please note that this secondary gift must be strictly regulated, since it affects the entire congregation – and the order and manner in which this gift is to operate is what Paul describes in verses 27-28; i.e., that only 2 or 3 people should speak in tongues during the meeting, and that should be one-at-a-time, not all at once.  Then the person with the gift of interpretation should declare the meaning of what they spoke, so the entire congregation can be edified.
• Again, in my humble opinion, almost ALL of the confusion regarding speaking in tongues is a result of someone trying to apply rules for the public use of the gift to the primary private use of the gift.  In fact, a quick look at the 3 places in Scripture where speaking in tongues took place historically will reveal that not once were Paul’s rules in 1Cor. 14:27-28 followed!  (See Acts 2:1-4 where about 120 people spoke at once, instead of only 2 or 3 in order; Acts 10:44-46 where a large gathering of Gentiles all spoke in tongues at one time, not in order; and Acts 19:1-7, where about 12 men spoke in tongues instead of only 2 or 3 — and in EACH of those passages no one gave an interpretation!)

I hope this helps.  In my own walk with the Lord these past 47 years, I have found that the devotional practice of praying in tongues privately has done more to strengthen me than anything else, and like Paul, I thank God for this experience!

It’s my heart’s desire that every reader would receive and use this gift of a prayer language to help them become more intimate with the Lord – and it’s yours for the asking!  (Acts 2:38-39; Luke 11:11-13)

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my favorite CLCers writes, “What does the Bible say about tattoos?  Is this defacing your body?  Are tattoos “wrong” in God’s eyes?

Great question, especially since this has become such a popular practice in recent years.  But, in all honesty, the Bible doesn’t address this specifically – unless you want to use Leviticus 19:28.  That verse may sound clear at first glance, but if you consider the context, which was about avoiding heathen practices and which also includes other prohibitions that we practice everyday (see verses 19 and 27)

Pastor Craig Groeschel answered this question via video as well as anyone can (in my humble opinion).  Take a look at this and see if it answers your question.

Bottom line: as with all questions which involve ’questionable’ behavior for a Christian, I recommend Col. 3:15 and Rom. 14:22-23.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Don’t forget: 5 opportunities to worship with us this Christmas – Sun., December 23 at 8, 9:30 or 11:30am and 5pm AND Monday, Dec. 24 at 6pm – bring the whole family & enjoy!

A faithful CLCer writes, “Pastor, is it possible to receive a prayer language at a young age and not realize what it is?  When I pray in tongues now it seems to be like the experience I had as a young boy in the Catholic Church.”

Good question.  I am sure that many people have had experiences with the Lord in which they received their prayer language  without knowing the Bible basis for that experience (speaking in tongues).  In fact, I’ve heard many testimonies through the years from folks who had a prayer language, but were almost afraid to use it because they didn’t understand the Bible basis for it, and, after all, “it sounded like baby talk”.

The Scripture is clear to me that this is a gift that God wants for ALL of His children – see 1Cor. 14:5; 1Cor. 14:18; 1Cor. 14:39; Acts 10:44-46; and perhaps my favorite, Acts 2:39.

If you don’t have a “prayer language”, and you are a born-again believer, then just ask Jesus to baptize you in the Holy Spirit, and expect to receive.  You will have to do the speaking, but the Holy Spirit will give you the language!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

My most regular questioner writes, “I have always been taught this if you pray and ask God for a certain thing, you only need to ask Him once. I’ve heard that asking Him more than once shows a lack of faith and you really should not keep asking Him for the same thing over and over again. However, it seems there are different ways you can interpret this in Luke 11:9, especially when you read other translations like the AMP or the NLT.  What are your thoughts on this?”

I’m so glad you asked – because I’m convinced the teaching cited is a serious error that has probably kept thousands of believers from receiving answers to their prayers!  In fact, I think the whole of Scripture would teach just the opposite; i.e., that we can and should be persistent in our prayers, until the answer comes!

It’s ironic that even the KJV that you quoted shows the very same interpretation when you continue reading the next verse, because each of the verbs (ask, seek, knock) end with “eth”, which is the old English way of indicating a continuing action!  So even the KJV bears out the truth that we continue to ask and continue to seek and continue to knock, until we receive!

This is NOT because God is trying to make us beg or that HE needs us to ask repeatedly; it’s most often because of our own indifference in prayer.  How many times have we prayed for something one day and forgotten all about it by the next?  I love how the Message paraphrase reads in the first part of Prov. 25:15, “Patient persistence pierces through indifference!”

Jesus once told a parable to correct the very notion that we only pray one time – in Luke 18:1-8, and His clearly stated purpose was that we would never quit!  As the noted pray-er and author E. M. Bounds once said, “Too often we get faint-hearted and quit praying at the point where we ought to begin.  We let go at the very point where we should hold on strongest.”

Finally, if it’s wrong to pray more than once for the same request, someone should have told all these Bible characters:

• Jacob – wrestled all night (what if he had quit at a decent bedtime ?)

• Moses – prayed for 40 days/nights to spare Israel

• Elijah – prayed for rain 7 times before the cloud appeared

• Daniel – pressed his case with the Lord for 3 weeks before the angel showed up

• Bartimaeus – was rebuked for crying loudly to Jesus, but he cried out the more!

• Jesus himself – in Gethsemane, thru tears & bloody sweat, made the same request three times!

I think the message of God’s Word is clear – we have not, because we ask not!  And if we don’t receive the first time we asked, perhaps we need to be persistent and ask again!

Hope that helped. Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. Don’t forget to invite someone to join you this Sunday at CLC as we look at the Christmas story through Mary’s unique perspective.

A non-CLCer wrote, “My question is regarding Matthew 21:12 and John 2:15.  Every church I’ve ever been to sell items in the church. I think there is nothing wrong as long as these items are sold to help the church, right?  When Jesus went into the temple and cast out those that sold, were these people selling because they wanted to make money for their own greed, as opposed to selling to help the church or temple?  Does it make a difference? Should we sell items in the church or should we have a separate place to sell items and not in the house of God?”

Great question.  It reminds me of a similar question I heard as a boy in the church I grew up in, whenever the church would have a fellowship event with food, and some critics would quote 1 Cor. 11:22 and grumble that we have houses to eat in and should never serve food in the church building.  (Of course, they completely missed the point of Paul’s teaching, just as you point out in this question)

The issue (as the questioner says) is NOT selling items in church (or the Temple, in this case); the issue is the motive.  There was no doubt a need for someone to provide animals for sacrifice, since many of those coming to Temple had traveled far from their homes and it would have been impractical for them to bring those sacrificial animals with them.  Even the money changers could provide a needed service, since everyone would need the pay the Temple tax.

But instead of serving the people, these greedy merchants were gouging people with their charges, lining their pockets with unreasonable profits.  Even more importantly, they had turned the Temple into a commercial enterprise that Jesus called “a den of thieves”, rather than reverencing it as a “House of Prayer” as God intended. (see Matthew 21:13 with Isaiah 56:7)

In fact, my favorite part of the story (sometimes overlooked) is what happened after Jesus removed those greedy merchants to restore the Temple to it’s purpose in Matt. 21:14-16! When God’s house functions as it should, miracles happen & praises go forth!

We sometimes offer items for sale at CLC, especially books & resources to help you in your walk with God.  In fact, THIS Sunday my wife will be doing a book-signing for her newest release, and several other CLCers with books in print will make them available for purchase – but I promise we won’t be gouging anyone in price or with greed.

I hope this helps a bit.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

My most inquisitive questioner writes, “My next question is regarding 1Pet 3:18-20. Pastor, does this mean that after Jesus died, He went to hell and spoke to the spirits of those who died who were not saved and who were disobedient to God before Jesus came? If so, did he change their circumstances? Were they able to repent? If they were not able to repent, why did he go and talk with them?”

Great question about a controversial and interesting passage of Scripture.  Here’s my take:

• first, I know that Hebrews 9:27 teaches that all men die once, then comes the judgment – and since Scripture never contradicts itself, I know that Peter can’t be saying that Jesus gave some people a ‘second chance’ at salvation after death.  So I look at the passage more closely to see what it does say.
• Then I notice that verses 18-19 indicate that the action attributed to Jesus happened “by the Spirit” AND according to verse 20 that it happened “in the days of Noah”.
• So, my understanding is that this passage is somewhat figuratively expressing that during the time that Noah was building the Ark, the Spirit of Jesus was preaching through him to warn people about the impending judgement, but that they rejected his preaching and only his own family was saved from the flood.  In fact, the same writer referred to Noah as a “preacher of righteousness”.
• Genesis 6:3(the chapter that begins the story of the Flood) tells us that God’s Spirit will not always strive with man.
• Putting all of this together leads me to conclude that during the time that Noah was building the Ark (some think 120 years, but I suspect it was much shorter than that), the Spirit of God was dealing with the wicked society to whom Noah preached, but despite God’s dealing with them by Noah’s preaching, they still didn’t repent, and only Noah’s family was saved.
• So to answer your questions, I don’t believe Jesus changed their circumstances or gave them an opportunity to repent after death, because I don’t believe this took place after their death, but rather during their lifetime in Noah’s day.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today I want to answer a question that I suspect many CLCers have asked: “why do we want to open a campus in Matteson, when we already have a nice building in Tinley Park?”

Here are several valid reasons, in no particular order of importance:

• The Great Commission of Jesus demands that we continue reaching people with the Gospel, not until our building is full, but until every one has heard!
• We have been maxxed-out in Tinley Park since about 2003, and we’ve been earnestly looking for a way to expand since 2007.  Our initial thought was that we would relocate to build a facility at least twice as large as our Tinley location, but the projected cost was between $15-20 million dollars, and we simply were unable to raise the funds to do so.
• In 2011, we felt impressed to use the funds we had raised to maximize the Tinley location, believing that as we did our part, God would open doors for expansion.  The story of how we located the Matteson facility would take too long to tell, but I truly believe it is God’s open door for us.
• The Matteson property will double our size (in square footage) and more than double the number of seats available on Sunday morning and the number of parking spots for those who come to worship (including our Tinley campus).  But instead of costing us $15-20 million, we project that the entire project, including the remodeling, will cost us about $2million!!! (That sounds like God to me!)
• The Matteson campus is so close (less than 5 miles away), yet it enables us to expand our outreach further south, and should provide a ready-made launch team, since we have over 500 people who drive past that location to get to Tinley Park!
• The Matteson campus will significantly increase our visibility in the community, as 81,000 cars per day drive drive past that location!
• The Matteson building will seat 800 (compared to Tinley’s 550), so between the two auditorium’s we will be able to seat over 1,300 people.  This means we could offer four services during the prime inviting hours on Sunday morning when most people are likely to attend, with potential to reach more than 2,600 people each Sunday!
• By offering services in both locations, we will be opening the door for many more CLCers to discover & use their gifts (since we’ll need twice as many ushers, greeters, children’s ministers, choir members, musicians, etc) and that’s a hugeblessing, becausepeople grow best by using their gifts to serve others!

Those are some of the reasons I’m so excited about opening a new campus in Matteson in early 2013.  It’s also why I am pleading for your prayers, because this week we learned that the Village of Matteson wants that Auto Mall property to remain for commercial use only, and in order for us to get the special use permit to have a church there will require God to intervene and give us favor.

I am not discouraged by that news, because I know that God has the last word.  And I also remember reading in The Circle Maker, how many times our friend Mark Batterson was told “no” on property he wanted to acquire for National Community Church, only to have the “no” turn into a “yes” after prayer.  I’m believing that God is no respecter of persons and that HE will do the same miracle for us – IF we’ll do our part in prayer!

Will you join me in believing God for FAVOR in Matteson?

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my favorite CLCers writes, “The scripture in Eph. 4:11-13, talks about the fivefold ministries, which are apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists and teachers.  Are these gifts still in the church today? I hear the pastors and the teachers, but not the others. Can you explain this?”

Great question that I’ll be happy to address!

First of all, if we look at verses 12-13, I think it becomes clear that these ministry gifts are to function until “we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”  In my humble opinion, I’m not sure that any of us have quite yet measured up to the full and complete standard of Christ – I know that I haven’t!

If that’s true, then it must be that those ministry gifts of verse 11 are continuing until this present day, and will continue (in my understanding) until the coming of Christ.

Second, as my questioner points out, we regularly hear the pastors and teachers today, and I think I could safely add that we still recognize and hear evangelists from time to time.

So the real question is whether or not apostles and prophets still serve the body of Christ today.  In that regard, I would emphatically answer, ‘YES’, even though I’ll admit that there are many who disagree with me in that regard.  Probably the strongest argument I’ve heard against the present ministry of apostles & prophets is Ephesians 2:20, which tells us that we are built on the foundation of the apostles & prophets.  Some have interpreted that to mean that those ministry gifts were only involved in the foundation of the church, and that they no longer serve in the upbuilding of the church today.

I disagree.  Given the times in which we live, I feel the need today is greater than ever before, and the ministry of apostles & prophets is just as necessary now as it was in the early years of the Christian church.  Since I don’t want this post to become a book, let me just briefly say that the ministries are needed, but the titles make us uncomfortable.

For years I’ve declared that I would much rather (at CLC) that we do the stuff without the title, than that we have the title but not the stuff!  I suspect most of us have been turned-off by men calling themselves ‘apostle’ when they meet in a storefront with a handful of people and have never really established anything in ministry.  But just because the titles have proliferated in recent years, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

We NEED the fathering ministry of apostles.  These are ‘sent-ones’ who are able to establish networks of churches and ministers.  I believe my pastor is a true apostle, but I seldom hear anyone ascribe that title to him.  I’ve even had several leaders tell me that I’m an apostle, and I sure don’t want the title – but I do sincerely want to be a spiritual father.

We also NEED the accuracy of forth-telling (and fore-telling) the Word of the Lord from prophets today.  I’ve met several men (and brought some of them to our pulpit at CLC) that I believe are prophets, although we don’t often use the title as freely.

I hope this helps a bit – if you need me to dig a little deeper, let me know and we’ll pursue this in a future post.

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

My #1 questioner writes, “Why does the New Testament speak about women keeping their heads covered in the church when praying or prophesying? (1 Corinthians 11:5)  Pastor, was this something that was just meant for women in that century or does it pertain to women in this century also? Some churches demand that a woman’s head is covered when she enters the church, but others do not.  Give me your take on this.”

I’ll be glad to – especially since your question is asking for my “take”; i.e., my opinion on this topic.  That’s all I can offer, since this passage is admittedly one of those obscure references that is not interpreted elsewhere in Scripture, and since this is the ONLY place it appears in the Bible, and the meaning is not obvious to us, we are left with controversy and questions.

For that reason, in my humble opinion, this passage had a cultural application in the first century that no longer applies today.  In fact, the approach that you mention in which some churches insist on women wearing a covering or hat when they enter the church is clearly a man-made attempt to comply, since verse 15 of the same chapter clearly states that her hair (not a veil or hat) is given for a covering.

This passage led my original faith family to teach that women should never cut their hair so as to never displease the Lord.  Obviously, I no longer agree with that interpretation, since it cannot be substantiated elsewhere in Scripture and since the logic that Paul appeals to in verses 13-14 no longer makes sense in our culture.

I hope this helps, but honestly, passages like this one make me think of the Mark Twain quote, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”  As someone else has observed, most of us Christians are educated way beyond our obedience as it is.

That’s why THIS Sunday I’ll be sharing some important principles from Scripture that I KNOW will help us NOT to be defeated and live with less than what God intended, so I really hope you’ll invite someone to be your guest as we begin perhaps the most important series I’ve ever shared at CLC, to help us overcome the plans of the enemy!

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question seems especially appropriate after last Sunday when about 60-75 people were baptized in the Holy Spirit at CLC, as my most frequent questioner writes, “This question is about speaking in unknown tongues.  In Acts 2:4-11, when the disciples were gathered in the upper room and began speaking in tongues, their tongues seemed as though they were speaking another language such as Spanish, German, Hebrew, Arabic, but it was a language that another nationality in the room could understand. When people speak in tongues these days, nobody in the room can understand unless there is an interpreter and even then it does not seem like a language that is spoken by another culture. Pastor, was this way of speaking in tongues done to make people believe? Does this way of speaking in tongues still go on today? All of those men in that room were of other nationalities, but there was someone who understood each language without an interpreter.”

Great questions, all.  Let’s address them one at a time:

• First, just to clarify, it’s unfortunate that the KJV inserts the word “unknown” in 1Corinthians 14:2 – if you’ll notice, the word is in italics, which means it was not in the original manuscript, but the translators chose to add it in their attempt to clarify the meaning. Many people (such as my questioner) use that term “unknown tongues” because of this, but the truth is the apostles just described it as a “tongue” or “language”.  There is NO evidence in Scripture to indicate the languages that someone might speak by the Spirit are “unknown”.
• To the contrary, every example in Scripture would seem to indicate that these languages are actually languages spoken on earth, but not known by the person who is speaking.  (One possible exception would be 1Cor. 13:1, which might indicate that someone could speak a language used by angels in heaven)
• That’s an important truth to point out, because the assertion that “nobody in the room can understand unless there is an interpreter” is simply not true, provided that someone is present who understands that language.  I’ve experienced this personally in that my wife was once praying in the Spirit and a young man from South America overheard her & recognized what she was praying in Portuguese.  Another time when we were overseas, a young person was baptized in the Holy Spirit & spoke in English that we could understand, although they didn’t speak any English.  There are numerous examples of this today, with one of the best being a classic book by John Sherrill, “They Speak with Other Tongues”.
• This would also refute the idea that “even then it does not seem like a language that is spoken by another culture“; indeed, it is very possible for someone to speak in tongues in languages known and used here on earth!
• As to the question that I think most important in your list, “was this way of speaking in tongues done to make people believe?“, the Bible emphatically would say, ‘NO’!
• I say that’s the most important question you’ve asked, because the most common error made by those who reject speaking in tongues as valid today is the idea that (they say) the purpose of speaking in tongues is to preach the gospel to foreigners who might otherwise not have a chance to hear.  There is not one example in Scripture of this being the case!  Notice in Acts 2:11, the listeners didn’t hear the gospel preached in their language, they heard praises – “wonderful works of God”.
• In fact, the result of them hearing the people speaking in tongues was NOT their conversion, but according to Acts 2:12-13, there were 3 reactions: some were amazed (jaws dropped open); some were perplexed (scratching their heads); and some mocked(pointed their fingers) – but no one got saved by hearing others speak in tongues!
• It wasn’t until Peter stood up and preached the gospel (in a common language of the day that they all understood), that 3,000 people believed and were baptized (Acts 2:37-41)
• Even though the speaking in tongues was understood by people from different nationalities in Acts 2, and it does still happen on occasion today, that is not the norm, as we see people speaking in tongues in Acts 10:44-46 and in Acts 19:1-6 but there is no mention that anyone understood what they said.
• The primary purpose of speaking in tongues is to increase our intimacy with the Lord in our own devotional times, as 1Cor. 14:1-5; 18-19.  That’s why I encourage those who have a prayer language to use it every day!  (And if you haven’t received that gift, why not ask the Lord for it today – it’s your promise in Acts 2:38-39)

I hope this helped.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

My most-faithful questioner writes, “I am confused as to why God hardened some people’s hearts and the person whose heart is hardened suffers the consequences of his actions even though it seems like he had no choice in the matter, i.e., Exodus 9:12 or Hebrews 3:8.  This is where I get confused: If God hardens a person’s heart, why should that person be held accountable? I know that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart because He wanted to prove Himself to the people of Israel, but did Pharaoh have a choice in the matter?”

Great question; the wording is confusing to anyone who thinks as they read.  Here’s what I’ve learned:

• first, there is some disagreement as to whether God hardened Pharaoh’s heart or whether Pharaoh himself did so (see Ex. 8:32 and 1Samuel 6:6 where the ‘hardening’ is attributed to Pharaoh, not God) 
• second, it seems from Scripture that Pharaoh was rather unresponsive toward God even before the plagues began (see Ex. 3:19 and chapter 5)
• thirdly, there is a natural result of revelation: when God speaks to responsive hearts, they melt before Him. When God speaks to unresponsive hearts, they harden. That’s why the same heat of the sun will melt wax, yet harden clay.
• That leads me to conclude that God only strengthened (the literal meaning of the Hebrew word for ‘harden’ in these verses) Pharaoh’s own stubbornness. Think about it this way: God could have judged Pharaoh immediately and taken his life – but He allowed him to live and Pharaoh could have chosen to surrender to God’s dealings, but he only persisted in his hardened heart all the more.
• most importantly (and I suspect the ‘question behind the question’) is not the theological question between man’s free will & God’s sovereignty, but much more personal: am I just a pawn or does God really care about me?  And to that question, Scripture is abundantly clear: ‘YES, God cares about you!”  In fact, Jesus was willing to leave heaven & come to earth in the form of a helpless baby, walk among us for 33 years and then willingly be jerked up on the cross, stretched between earth & heaven to give His life’s blood for us!  Yes, He cares, and He does intervene in our lives, to bring us into right relationship with Him!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “Pastor, Is Cremation Christian? or going against God will? I know you have answered this question time & time again but am still not clear. or please point me to some verses in the bible that I can read. Because this question keeps coming up with my friends and I would like to be clear on the answer I give.”

No problem…..I can understand why you’re not clear, because the fact is, I cannot give you any Bible verses to read, since cremation is never mentioned in Scripture.

My thought is that since it is never mentioned by God in the Bible, then it must not be against His will.  (While an argument from silence is somewhat weak, it still seems to be that if God was against cremation, He would have told us so in His Word.)

What I can tell you is that the Jewish people did not practice cremation in the Old Testament, but always buried their dead.  Some would argue from this fact that Christians should not be cremated, but again, that’s another argument from silence as far as the Bible is concerned.

I think the BEST answer I can give you is Colossians 3:15, which literally says that peace should be the “umpire” of our heart.  So if you do not have peace about cremation, I’d say do not violate that; if you do have peace, don’t worry about what others say or think, but go with your sense of peace.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. If you live in Chicagoland, I hope you’ll join us at CLC this Sunday for the finale of our series on what we’ve learned in 40 years together about “Love, Sex & Marriage”, as we specifically focus on ‘Family Matters’!

No questions were submitted online this week, so I’m responding to a question we didn’t have time to answer in our recent midweek study, “You Asked for It”.  An anonymous CLCer wrote, “I need help with the fact that my spouse is a believer but does not lead spiritually – he practices not going to worship, drinks wine & beer, even w/unsaved friends, and does not pray with me.  How do I still respect him?  And what is ‘respect’, because I don’t feel respected.”

Ouch.  These are all good questions, because I’m sure many other Christian women have asked similar questions, so I hope somehow to address your pain as well as answer your questions:

• For what it’s worth, I think we sometimes use the term “believer” a little too casually.  From my understanding of James 2:14-26, if a person practices not going to worship, continues in the same conduct as his unsaved friends, and doesn’t pray, chances are pretty good he is not really a ‘believer’.  He may have prayed the ‘sinner’s prayer’ at one time in his life, but it certainly sounds like he is not walking in fellowship with the Lord.
• However, if your interest is in helping turn him around and see him become a spiritual leader in your home, then I would still urge you to “respect” him.  1Peter 3:1-2 makes it clear that a Christian wife can actually ‘win’ her husband to the Lord without saying words – but by the influence of her life!
• Please note that the passage opens by saying the wife must “accept the authority of her husband”, which is certainly another way of saying, “respect him”.  Respecting him, even though his conduct is not at all becoming of a Christian, means that you do not criticize him or cut him down with your words in such a way that he loses respect in the eyes of your children or his peers.
• In my experience, a man will actually “live up to” his wife’s words, because wives have tremendous influence over their husbands!  So if you speak positive words of faith (I’m not suggesting you lie or ‘flatter’; I’m saying you look for the good that you can praise, in hope & faith that he will be motivated to improve his conduct to live up to your praise).  
• As you live your faith before him, I’m believing that God will change his heart and you will soon enjoy the respect that is lacking in your home now.

Hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

PS I hope you’ll join us this Sunday at CLC – I believe the message will be used by God to save some marriages from divorce!

My most frequent questioner from the past finally wrote again: “I am curious about parables and their meanings. How do we know if a parable is fact or when it is a parable? i.e., when He speaks of faith and how we are able to move a mountain with just a little faith. I know there is an underlying message to this parable but for a long time I heard people quoting this scripture and speaking as though a mountain could actually be moved easily. I’m not putting a limit to what God can do, but I don’t think that this is actually what He was trying to get across with this particular parable. Also, why did Jesus use so many parables, because sometimes it does actually get confusing and I don’t want to think that I am one of the ones Jesus spoke in Matthew 13:11 who are not permitted to understand. Finally, if He was teaching them, why did He not intend for them to understand?

Good questions, all!  Let’s dive in, one at a time:

• first, I think there’s a slight misunderstanding about parables and similes.  A parable is a method of teaching that Jesus often used, where a story is used to convey a message or truth.  A simile is a figure of speech in which we compare two different things.  So when Jesus spoke of faith as a grain of mustard seed, He was using a simile to illustrate that we don’t need a large quantity of faith; we just need to exercise the faith we have, and, if we do, we could “move mountains”, which is clearly a figurative expressionsince there is no example in the Bible of anyone (including Jesus) who ever physically/literally moved a mountain.  The idea of moving a mountain clearly speaks of ‘mountains’ in our life such as obstacles, challenges, opposition, etc.
• Back to your original question: a parable is always factual, since the purpose of the story is to convey a fact or truth.  In other words, it is a fact (for example) that seeds planted on thorny ground will be limited in their fruitfulness, since the thorns will choke the nourishment the plant needs to flourish.  But the real message of that parable has nothing to do with agriculture and everything to do with our fruitfulness after we receive God’s word into our lives.
• To complete that answer, I would say that if a parable were not completely true, it would not serve its purpose, since the reason Jesus used these stories (parables) was to communicate a spiritual truth He wanted to teach us by comparing it to a natural fact that we already understand.
• Next, as to why Jesus so often used parables, He answered that question himself in Matt. 13:11-16.  (You quoted the first part of His answer, v. 11, where He explained that some people are not able to receive the spiritual truth hidden in the natural facts of the story, but you’ll need to read vv. 12-16 to see why – and that is because their hearts are not open, but hardened toward God’s Word).  I think Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase called “The Message Bible” has it best here.
• Finally, as to your question why Jesus wouldn’t intend for some to understand, again I think that’s a misunderstanding.  It’s not that He didn’t want or intend people to understand; it was that because of their hard hearts they didn’t understand.  As the Message translation makes clear, one reason Jesus used parables was actually to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight.  He loves us all & He will do anything to help us ‘get it’!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. If you live in the Chicago area, I urge you to join us at CLC this Sunday at 8, 9:30 or 11:30 a.m., when Chris & I share “Making It Last” in our series of what we’ve learned in our 40 years together about “Love, Sex & Marriage”!

A faithful CLCer asked during our recent midweek series, “I need help in learning to be a good listener – not to jump in when it’s not necessary.  I can’t always have the answers.”

I wasn’t able to get to this one during the ‘You Asked for It’ series, but it’s a great question that I’m sure others share, so let me tackle it today:

• First, good listening is a discipline.  As you already mentioned, it’s not necessary for us to always have the answer or jump into every conversation.  The wisest man who ever lived had a lot to say about that: Pro. 18:13; Pro. 12:15; Pro. 29:20; Pro. 31:26
• Secondly, the more we talk, the likelier we’ll say stuff we shouldn’t say: Prov. 13:3; Prov. 18:21; Prov. 21:23; Prov. 10:19)

So my recommendation is that we discipline ourselves to listen carefully, even using tools like ‘restating’ to be sure we’ve heard the person well (e.g., “What I’m hearing you say is ____.  Is that correct?”) before responding with our answer.

It may even help to remind ourselves that it could be pride that’s always wanting to jump in, whereas godly humility would cause us to value the other person above ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4).

Hope that helps a bit.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. – Don’t miss the kick-off of “What we’ve learned in 40 years about Love, Sex & Marriage” this Sunday!

A favorite CLCer writes, “Can you explain why Proverbs 26:4-5 seem to contradict each other?”

Good question.  Honestly, when I read the verses myself, it does seem contradictory.  So I resorted to a few commentaries (sometimes the scholars do get it right!)

Here’s what I found that made sense to me:

These two sayings belong together; they complement each other. Their point is that we should not be drawn down to a fool’s level (v. 4) but at times we must use the fool’s language to refute the fool so he does not become conceited (v. 5) See also verse 12 and verse 16 about this.

We also need wisdom to know when to apply verse 4 and when to apply verse 5. The Jewish Talmud suggests that verse 4 pertains to foolish comments that can be ignored and that verse 5 refers to erroneous ideas that must be corrected.

Hope that helps a bit.  Now what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. I hope you’re making plans to be a part of our “Miracle services” with Evangelist Daniel Kolenda this Sunday (Sept. 2) at 5pm and Monday (Sept. 3) at 6pm.

(sorry this is late – I didn’t have internet access until now)

An anonymous CLCer submitted this question: “what about unforgivable sins?”

Ahhh, THE question.  I’ve been asked several times, and my answer is the same: the only unforgivable sin in Scripture is the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. (see Matt. 12:31-32)  The issue is that Jesus didn’t define what that sin is, so it’s been left to interpretation or speculation ever since.

Here’s my opinion: if you read the context that preceded Jesus warning about blasphemy, it was that some were attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan. (see Matt 12:22-30) That leads me to believe that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is when someone attributes His work to the devil.

However, I don’t believe that people who don’t know better can be held accountable for that sin; i.e., I think that sin can only be committed by someone who has actually been baptized in the Spirit, has tasted firsthand of the power & Presence of God, and later recants that experience and says it is of Satan.  (see Heb. 6:4-6 for a similar idea)

Here’s my final thought: anyone who is worried that they have committed the unpardonable sin can stop worrying – if I understand Scripture, if you commit that sin, even God gives up on you and you would never again sense Him speaking to you or dealing with you.  So if you’re feeling guilt & condemnation & worry that you can never be forgiven, it’s a sure sign that the enemy is the one talking to you and you have NOT committed the unpardonable sin.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLC writes, “Jesus helps me to tolerate & be cordial with my enemy, but HE says ‘love them’.  What is this kind of love?”

Great question.  And please don’t feel alone…..because this kind of love is not human!  It is human to want revenge on our enemy or to to want to hurt our enemy, or even to hate our enemy – but how can we truly love our enemy?

The only answer to that is agape – the Greek word for “divine love”, the kind of love that would cause Jesus to lay down His life for us. (see John 3:16, Romans 5:8, 1John 3:16)  That kind of love ONLY comes from Him.

So how do we get it, in order to love our enemies?  I’m glad you asked.  Romans 5:5 tells us that the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  That’s certainly my testimony and I’ve heard the same report from many people through the years – in fact, I noticed it as soon as I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, that I had a new sense of love for people.  I don’t mean to imply that it was perfect, or that I’ve never had difficulty with loving those who’ve mistreated me since – but I can tell you that the Holy Spirit does a work in my heart that enables me to love those who would otherwise be unlovable.

If you’re struggling a bit with an enemy or with people who just rub you the wrong way, make it a matter of prayer – ask God to baptize you with His love for people.  I believe He’ll answer that prayer and help you to see others through His eyes.

Hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

The last several days have been most unusual for CLC, with 5 deaths affecting our church family in such a short span of time.  So for today’s post, I’m re-posting a question from several years ago (no questions were submitted this week) that might be relevant for those who ask about cremation- what does the Bible say about it and is it compatible with a Christian view? 

Since I’ve been asked that several times over the past few years, perhaps this will help others: as to your question regarding cremation, this is my opinion (keep in mind that there are Christians who disagree with me): I cannot find anything in the Bible that would forbid or discourage cremation.  Probably the strongest argument against it would be the fact that the Jews, who were God’s covenant people in the Old Testament, never practiced cremation; they always buried their dead.  But my understanding of Scripture is that in the resurrection, no matter what has happened to our earthly body – lost at sea, burned, or decayed back into dust – it will be ‘transformed’ into a glorious body like Jesus had after His resurrection. (see 1Corinthians 15)

Since the Bible is ‘silent’ on this issue, my personal belief is that each family or individual can choose for themselves how they want to handle this.

And as we begin the first of three funerals this weekend, I’m so thankful to know that this body is merely the ‘garment’ that we wear during our days on earth, while our spirit is eternal, and we can rejoice with those who have already begun their reward! (2Cor 5:1-5)

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my readers wrote, “My question is in regards to tithing. If you are not a member of a church, is it ok to pay tithes at that church?  I could guess many reasons why a ministry would say yes but if one does not have a “church home” but wants to make sure that they don’t “rob God”, what does one do?”

Wow….what a conscientious and sincere question.  In a world where some internet Christians delight in ridiculing the 5,000-year-old practice of tithing (giving 10% of one’s income to the Lord) and where the average church member in America reportedly gives just over 2% of his income to the Lord, this question is an encouragement to any pastor!

Here’s my sincere thoughts on this subject:

1.  The Scripture indicates that our tithes should go to the ‘storehouse’ where we are fed (Malachi 3:10), which most Bible teachers interpret to mean our local church.  (see also Deuteronomy 12:10-11 and Nehemiah 10:37-39)

2.  When a person doesn’t have a  ‘home church’, they’re really in a circumstance that’s not directly addressed in the Bible, since Scripture is clear that we should be joined to a local assembly.  (see Psa 92:13, Acts 2:41-47, and the opening verses of virtually every New Testament Epistle!)  In fact, I can’t think of a single example in the Bible of a believer who was NOT part of a local assembly!

3.  So I would say (most importantly), you should seek to be planted in the local church where God would have you be, as your top priority.  God will lead you, because He wants you to be planted.

4.  In the meantime, while you’re looking for that church, I think you can do one of two things (please understand: I don’t find anything in the Bible about this because of #2 above, so this is my ‘sanctified common sense’ speaking) – you could either: (a) pay your accumulated tithes each time you visit a Bible-believing church (wherever that is); or (b) you could put your tithes in a separate account (so you’re not tempted to use them for another purpose) and let them accumulate until you find your church home, at which time you’d give the accumulated balance to that congregation.  I would only advise that approach if you are being sincere & diligent about finding a church home, because I don’t
think it’s wise to ‘store’ our tithes instead of giving God the FIRST tenth of our income.  Thanks for your sincere desire to please the Lord, and I pray that He leads you to a church home soon!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. Don’t forget THIS Sunday is the final installment of “God@the Movies” as we grab some Biblical principles & life lessons from the first Avenger, “Captain America” – invite a friend to join you – 8, 9:30 & 11:30 a.m. at CLC!

After my post here a few weeks ago based on Proverbs 16:21 & 23, a faithful CLCer wrote, “Does this mean sweet speech in the midst of someone slandering or talking down to you?”

Hmmmm.  Good question.  Let me give a two-fold answer:

1.  No, I don’t think that’s the literal or specific meaning behind Solomon’s encouragment for us to use sweetness of speech in Proverbs 16:21 & 23.  I really think he was pointing out the obvious: that when we like someone, we’re much more likely to be influenced by their words.

2.  However, I do think that when someone slanders you or talks down to you, the best possible response is sweet speech – note Proverbs 15:1 and Proverbs 18:6, for starters.  It’s certainly not easy when others are disrespecting you or lying about you, but if you can curb your tongue, the chances of a happy ending go up significantly! 

I think we should all pray, “Lord, sweeten our mouths!”

Hope this helps a bit.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my most faithful readers wrote, “Pastor Jerry, what is the “hidden manna and white stone” that Christ refers to in Revelation 2:17?”

Great question.  I wish I knew the answer.

Unfortunately, there is no clear explanation given in Scripture.  As a result, scholars have speculated, but it seems to me that all of their conjecture is just that; conjecture.  The most common opinions seem to focus on the fact that the manna was given to Israel during their time in the wilderness to sustain them, and that Jesus is promising He will have a supply to feed the true believers of Pergamum, unlike the food offered to idols that was mentioned in verse 14.

The white stone could possibly be a reference to the  Old Testament practice of the high priest wearing 12 stones on his breastplate with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel inscribed on it. Though believers at Pergamum may not have had precious stones or gems of this world, they had what is far more important, acceptance by Christ Himself and assurance of infinite blessings to come.  For sure, we are promised that we will feast with Him in heaven (Rev 19:6-9) and that we will have a new and hidden relationship with Him (Rev. 19:12).

Sorry I couldn’t give you anything more definite.  Do any of my readers have a better idea?  If so, leave your comments below.

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer asks, ” I would like to know why don’t we observe certain festivals that are in the Bible? After the death of Jesus, Paul wanted to observe the festival of Pentecost (Acts 20:16). Is it because we are not Jews?”

Very interesting (and observant) question.  The ultra-short answer would be, “yes”, but that’s no fun, so let me elaborate:

• First, the festivals that were observed in the New Testament after the death of Jesus were all Jewish festivals established under the Law of Moses.  Notice that actually only 2 are mentioned in the Epistles (Acts 20:16 & 1Cor 16:8 – both refer to the festival of Pentecost; and 1Cor 5:7-8 – the festival of Passover, although it’s only alluded to)
• While those verses clearly indicate that the Apostle Paul continued to observe Jewish festivals even after he came to faith in Christ, there is no indication in the New Testament that those feasts were mandatory for believers.  In the spirit of Acts 15, it seems that Evangelicals and Charismatic believers today are exempt from the need to observe those festivals.
• Having said that, though, let me quickly add that for many years I completely overlooked the Jewishness of our Christian faith.  It wasn’t until God dealt with me about “to the Jew first” (Rom 1:16) that I really started noticing our Jewish roots and the fact that the early Church continued to observe their Jewish practices, even though they obviously and clearly understood that “all the law is fulfilled in Christ” (Rom 10:4; Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9)
• So I would conclude that it’s certainly ok for believers today to observe the Jewish festivals so long as we understand that all of the festivals were pointing us to Christ, and that any such celebration would be to further our appreciation of what Jesus has already done for us.  It’s in that spirit that we’ve held a Seder (Passover meal) at CLC on Good Friday several times (and one is already scheduled for 2013).  In my mind, a deeper understanding of our Jewish roots can only help us love Jesus more!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful online CLCer writes, “How can we look at each other, not for what we do or don’t do to each other, but who we are and how God sees us.  This is the area that I need the most help with.  Is there Scripture to support this view and how do you feel about what i ask?”

I had to get clarity first, but the question my friend is asking is really, “When people disappoint you or mistreat you, how do you continue to look at them the way God does?”  That is a great question, because unfortunately, as long as we’re alive, there will be those who disappoint us or even mistreat us – so how we can keep a right attitude and not view them with contempt is a question most of us could use some help with.

Here’s my favorite verse of Scripture on that subject: Matthew 9:36.  Jesus had just traveled around Galilee, through all their cities and villages, healing and ministering to people everywhere he went.  And when he looked at the multitudes, he looked past their sinful behavior and saw their need:

they were confused

they were harassed

they were distressed

they were dejected

they were helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

If we can remember how people really are, it’s a lot easier to see them with God’s eyes of compassion and love.  I read a great story some time back, about a man on a metro train watching three children running wild and their father letting it happen, seemingly in a daze.  The man is annoyed by the rude disturbance and finally confronts the father.  He pulls himself together to explain that they have just come from the hospital where his wife had died about an hour earlier.  In that moment the man experiences a complete, spontaneous reversal, all of his assumptions and projections and judgments, his very mental and emotional state, shift from anger to compassion:  “What can I do?”

Granted, we won’t often know the “back-story” behind some of the rude treatment we receive from others – BUT we do know the truth of Romans 3:23 and Romans 3:9-12 and Matthew 6:14-15 and James 4:11-12 and 1Peter 3:8-11.

I’d say we ALL have a long way to go, to be like the Lord.  But we’re walking toward that goal!

Hope that helps a bit.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S. Don’t forget THIS Sunday will be our guest at CLC!

A faithful CLCer asks, “Is there something in the Bible that says all our Bibles will be taken away in the end times?”

Great question, since I’ve no doubt that many readers have heard preachers wax eloquent in suggesting that very thing.

However, I would have to say the answer to that is “NO” – there is no verse in Scripture that indicates Bibles would be forcibly removed from God’s people during the last days.

The closest thing to that idea is found in the Old Testament prophecy of Amos 8:11-12.  Notice that it’s NOT that the Bibles are removed, but that there would be no prophet or man of God to proclaim the Word to the people.  My understanding is that this was literally fulfilled in Israel’s past, when they were taken captive by heathen nations because of their sin, but it’s possible that it would have a future fulfillment as well – although I don’t see the issue as being a removal of Bibles.

Having said that, please keep in mind that even today there are places on earth where oppressive governments have banned Bibles and made it very difficult for believers to obtain a copy.  (We sometimes forget how blessed we are in America to have free access to God’s Word, whether in printed form, via radio broadcasts or television ministry, etc. – thank God for our religious freedoms!)

Hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

PS – just a reminder: I’ll be interviewing Mark Batterson about his upcoming visit to CLC and the book, Circle Maker, at 10:30am today on WYLL AM 1160.  Tune in for a chance to win the book free!

One of our faithful CLCers wrote, “what is the church’s position on members taking outside speaking engagements?”

Hmmmm, I’m not completely sure I understand this question, but I’ll take a stab at it – please write again if I miss the mark:

Assuming that the question is, do I as a pastor approve of others at CLC having opportunities to use their gifts & callings to speak for other churches or groups outside of CLC, the answer is mostly ‘YES’.

As I understand Scripture, no pastor was ever intended to be a one-man show; in fact, the history of the early church as recorded in Acts is quite clear that there were always a multiplicity of ministers (pastors, evangelists, teachers, prophets and even deacons) who preached the Gospel alongside the apostles (Acts 13:1-5 & Acts 6:5-10 are 2 examples).

So personally I’m always pleased that God has called men & women to “five-fold ministry” (Eph 4:11-12) AND planted them at CLC as well, and I would fully expect that they will have opportunities to exercise their gifts & callings in various settings.

(Having said that, I perhaps should also say that I do believe my calling as the ‘set man’ in this house means that I will be the primary communicator.  I love the fact that we have several capable teachers & preachers here that can step in at any time to deliver God’s Word with clarity & anointing – but I do take my responsibility to guard the flock and the pulpit very seriously, and I don’t open our pulpit to just anyone who announces a calling)

But I digress.

Probably the only reason that my originally answer is ‘mostly’ yes is that there have been times in the past when the invitation for someone to minister came from a pastor or a place that we knew was ‘tainted’, either by the lack of integrity of the leader or the false doctrine that was being taught, and on those rare occasions I have usually advised the minister from here not to accept the invitation – but, as I said, those situations are rare.

Let me close by echoing the sentiments of Moses, when Joshua wanted him to forbid some of the Israeli’s from prophesying, but Moses said, “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that He would put His Spirit upon them all!”  (Numbers 11:27-29)

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer wrote me after last Friday’s post and said, “I read your Ask the Pastor this morning & was wondering about the 7 Mountains movement. You say u agree with the principles, but you’re not a member. Why are u not a member? Is there something “not quite right” about it? Is this a principle you will be teaching at CLC soon?”

Ahhh…..nothing like people quoting you & asking for clarification.

Seriously, for someone who makes a living by communicating, I think I did a poor job of expressing myself last week.  Let me try to clarify:

1.  I’m not even sure there is a “7 mountains movement“.  I used those words loosely to describe some in the body of Christ who do seem to “major” on this teaching.  Those individuals seem (from my limited exposure/understanding) to use the idea of 7 mountains as a ‘divine strategy’ revealed by God for the church today.  Again, from my limited exposure, their idea seems to align with “Dominionist” or “Kingdom Now” theology.

2.  When I said that I’m not a ‘member’ of that ‘organization’, I was referring to the website that I linked in the post.  What I should have said is that I don’t subscribe to all of the “Kingdom Now” theology.  (Like most doctrinal errors, there are some good teachings mixed in with some Biblical error in that theology, again, as I understand Scripture.  For instance, I do believe in a literal ‘rapture’, in which the true Church is caught away to meet the Lord Jesus – to give just one example – whereas the Kingdom Now folks do not believe in a literal rapture.)

3.  I see the “7 mountains mandate” as a helpful description of the fact that there are different spheres of influence in our world.  As I stated here last week, I believe that godly men & women can & should serve & reach people in each of those spheres of influence.  While recognizing & understanding those different spheres can certainly be helpful to us, I don’t see it as a ‘mandate’ from God on the level of other Biblical teachings.

4.  As to whether I’ll be teaching about the “7 mountains” at CLC anytime soon, I can honestly say it’s not in my plans – but I learned a long time ago to never say never!

Finally, let me just close this discussion by saying that the real gist of what I was trying to say last week is that I believe God has called CLC to balanced Bible teaching, and that’s been a hallmark of our ministry through the years.  Unlike some churches who perhaps major on the prophetic, or deliverance ministry, or end-times prophecy or any other number of valid truths, at CLC, we are called to be a balanced family church.  So we believe in deliverance, but it doesn’t dominate our teaching or our services.  We believe in the prophetic, but it doesn’t control our meetings.  We believe in end-times prophecy, but it’s not the only thing we talk about on Sundays. We don’t throw stones at those who major on any of those areas, but that’s NOT who God has called us to be.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

This week’s question comes from a CLCer who writes, “I know we are urged in scripture to pray for our leaders (1Tim. 2:1-3), but is there anything in scripture that states that I have to actively participate in the voting process? As we get closer to election day, I hear many Christians say that we need to vote based on our beliefs and that Christians should “vote for Jesus”, but as citizens of God’s Kingdom, which is not of this world (John 18:36), should we be involved in the upcoming political process?”

Hmmm…interesting question.  And no doubt a question that many others have asked themselves, if not verbally.  Since this is my blog, here’s my opinion:

• Unless my memory is failing me, I don’t think there is any verse in Scripture that specifically says a believer must vote.  (I’m not sure there were any democratic elections in Bible days )
• However, I think Scripture is clear that our governmental leaders are ordained by God  (Romans 13:1 AMP) and that fact seems to imply some responsibility on our part (Romans 13:1-3 MSG).  SELAH: if God is the one who appoints our leaders, shouldn’t we participate in the process?
• There is no question that our ultimate allegiance is to a heavenly kingdom, not our earthly country, as you cited from John 18:36. However, other Scriptures certainly indicate that we do have a responsibility for the well-being of our city (and by implication, our nation).  For example, see Jeremiah 29:4-7 and even the first passage you cited, which indicates one reason we are to pray for our leaders is so thatwe can live a blessed life.  If that’s true, i.e., that our governmental leaders have a direct bearing on our lives, why wouldn’t we want to vote?
• As far as your second question about believers being involved in the political process – I understand why any of us would shrink back – since it all seems so corrupt (all of it – Republicans, Democrats, independents – you name it – it seems filled with lies, cheating, greed & corruption).  One could argue that a born-again Christian would find it difficult if not impossible to get involved in all of that without becoming tainted in the process, or worse yet, compromise their own character & integrity.  So I think I know where you’re coming from & why any Christian could throw up their hands & say, “why bother?”
• However, I also know that if Christians withdraw from the public arena & debate, then we leave the world in the hands of the enemy!  The passage in 2Thess 2:5-8 describes the future AntiChrist and tells us that he cannot be revealed quite yet because of the one who is holding him back.  Many scholars believe the ‘restrainer’ is the Holy Spirit in the Church, and that those verses are saying the AntiChrist cannot be released until the Church is removed via the ‘rapture’.  If that’s true, I think the principle remains: if we are the salt of the earth (the ‘preservative’ that keeps meat from spoiling)then if we disengage from society, what happens to our world.  (Another way to say it is, “if it’s this corrupt with Christians involved, what would our world be like if we separate ourselves & refuse to participate?”
  
• President James Garfield answered that question many years ago when he said, “Now, more than ever, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. . . . [I]f the next centennial does not find us a great nation. . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.”
• Personally, I lean much more toward the view that as believers, we are called to exercise dominion on the earth – and that God’s will is for us to have influence in the 7 major areas of our world: government, education, media, entertainment, business, family & religion.  We need Spirit-filled men & women of integrity in the marketplace, in the media, in education, and yes, in government!  We dare not abandon all of that to the world and cloister ourselves in the four walls of the church.  (I’m not a ‘member’ of this organization, but the concept I’m talking about is discussed here)

Wow, think I’ll step down from my soapbox now before this turns into a sermon.  I hope it helped answer the question somewhat.

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

By the way, this Sunday we’ll celebrate the class of 2012 in a great Graduation Sunday, and then Chris & I will be back from vacation to share with you this Wednesday in our Family Night service – can’t wait to see you!

A faithful CLCer writes, “I’ve been trying to get stronger in my prayer life lately and I was wondering why is it that sometimes God is quiet from time to time? I know He will never leave us, but sometimes when I pray, I don’t hear anything; other times, I do. Why is that?”

Great question.  GREAT question….because it’s one that I’m sure many readers could also be asking.  The bad news is that there’s no quick & easy answer.  But I’ll give you several possible obstacles to consider when you’re not hearing God:

1. First of all, expect to hear Him thru His Word, the Bible.  That may seem overly-simplistic, but the truth is, while He sometimes does speak in our thoughts with impressions or nudges (or for some, even an audible voice), the normal, regular way for God to speak to us is through the Scriptures.  So along with your prayer times, always be sure to read the Bible with an expectation that He’s going to make something “come alive” for you. (Heb 1:1-3; John 1:1;
2. As much as possible, try not to ‘rush’ this time.  In my experience, when I rush into my time with the Lord, distracted by other things, I seldom ‘hear’ anything from the Lord, whether in my reading or in my prayer time.  I personally love the story of how God spoke to Moses thru the burning bush, because it’s clear in Scripture that God did not speak until first Moses was willing to turn aside to investigate (Ex. 3:1-4), and I think for us to hear from God usually requires a willingness to turn aside from other stuff we’ve got going on, to focus on our relationship with Him.
3. Hate to mention this one, but it’s true: sometimes we don’t hear from God because we’re ‘cozy’ with sin.  (That’s how the Message translation puts it – but Scripture is clear that if I have unconfessed sin in my heart, it creates a ‘blockage’, and I probably won’t hear God.)  So the obvious solution is to repent regularly – confess any sin to the Lord during your prayer time, so your heart is open to hear His voice. (Isa. 59:1-2; Psa. 66:18)
4. Probably the biggest blockage of all (so I’m giving it a category of it’s own) is the sin of unforgiveness.  When I refuse to let go of the hurts of the past and instead harbor bitterness in my heart toward others, I probably won’t hear from God – not because He’s not willing to speak, but because my heart is no longer sensitive to hear!  In fact, after Jesus taught us how to pray (in what we call “the Lord’s Prayer”), he immediately emphasized the importance of us forgiving others – see Matt. 6:14-15

I’m sure there are many other reasons that you may not hear anything in prayer, but I think these are the biggies.  Let me just close with one final encouragement: don’t beat yourself up if you don’t hear from God on a particular day.  Sometimes we do the enemy’s work for him (remember, Satan is the ‘accuser of our brothers and sisters – Rev. 12:10).  When we get down on ourselves we tend to press too much and fail to hear God for ourselves.  My advice is to relax, enjoy your time in prayer & the Word, and you’ll hear His voice!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my favorite CLCers says, “In Genesis 1:18 (KJV), is there a “deeper” meaning (or revelation, i.e., sun and moon literally, and/or good and evil too) in this verse when God says, “to separate (or divide) the light from the darkness?”

Hmmm…interesting question, and one I’ve never been asked before.  Let me take a stab at it nonetheless:

• First, I would say the verse (like all other verses in Scripture) should be interpreted literally unless there is a clear reason not to do so; i.e., unless the verse or passage is clearly meant to be symbolic.  There’s no reason to think that Genesis 1:18 should be interpreted figuratively, so I would say it very literally means that God divided light from darkness by means of the sun and moon and stars.

• However, I definitely know that light & darkness are used throughout Scripture to describe good and evil.  A number of years ago I preached a message at CLC from Genesis 1:4 that “Light is Good”, and it became quite a “revelation” to me personally (because of how some use that word to describe extra-Biblical teachings, I prefer to use words like “illumination” or “insight”, but I think you know what I mean).
• In fact, from that insight I gained an understanding of the power of confession and the danger of keeping our sin secret – since anything that’s done in secret remains in darkness, which is clearly Satan’s domain (Luke 22:53; John 3:19; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 5:11; Ephesians 6:12; 1Thessalonians 5:5)
• In sports, there’s such a thing as “home field advantage”, and odds-makers believe it’s worth several points in a game.  I think the same principle holds true in the spiritual – when we keep our sin or ‘issue’ in secret or darkness, we are playing on Satan’s turf, so to speak, and he is empowered to keep us in bondage to that sin.  But when we expose that sin to God’s light by confessing it, just that act alone seems to help begin to break the power of that sin off of us!  (At least, that’s been my experience & observation thru the years.)
• That’s what I love about James 5:16 and the principle that it reveals: we confess our sins to God in order to be forgiven, but we confess our sins to others in order to be healed!  (Of course, I’m talking about confessing to a trusted, mature believer who will pray for us, not gossip about us!)

Not sure if that’s what you had in mind in asking the question, but that’s the ‘deeper’ insight that I have on the passage….hope it helped.

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Another favorite CLCer wrote to me on FaceBook and said, “I was having a conversation with a friend this morning about priorities, and her pastor teaches that our priorities should be (1) God, (2) church stuff (ministry work, church fundraisers, preaching, etc), (3) family, and (4) work. I will hold my opinion on this & simply ask…what do you think our priorities should be and why?”

Great question!  And while I’m always hesitant to disagree or critique another pastor, since I can’t possibly know the context or even the accuracy of someone’s statement about his teaching, I’ll just answer the simple question at the end of your paragraph.  Here’s my list of priorities, in order:

1.  God.  How could anything else go in this position, in light of Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:35-38, and Matthew 6:33?

2.  Family.  I hope that doesn’t surprise you, but the reality is that God created a family before He birthed the Church!  We pastors are sometimes the worst at getting this priority out of whack, but remember that the family can actually disqualify the ministry – (see Paul’s instructions for the selection of church leaders in 1Tim. 3:1-12 and you’ll see what I mean)

3.  Church.  I could wax eloquent here, but I’ll resist the temptation.  Let me just say that, in my humble opinion, many believers today have no idea how important the local Church is in God’s plan.  The Church is HIS plan for reaching the world with the Gospel.  The Church is your greatest friend in helping you to live a godly life, bring your children up in the way of the Lord, keeping your marriage strong and even finding financial freedom!  I’ll just one verse to support this priority – Psalm 92:13

4.  Work/Ministry.  I place these two together because many times, your work is your ministry!  After all, the average believer spends far more time on their job than they do in volunteering at their church.  And if we are to reach the world with the Gospel, it certainly won’t all happen on Sunday mornings inside our church buildings!  God wants to use YOU in the marketplace!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

P.S.  Chris & I are enjoying our ministry time in Perm, Russia, but we can’t wait to get back home to CLC – and I’ll be teaching this coming Wednesday night – hope to see you there!  And don’t forget next Sunday, May 27 is Pentecost Sunday with a special guest who will inspire your faith with what God is doing in the 21st Century!!!

A long-time CLC member writes, “While most Christians will condemn any form of gossip, there seem to be those that use a community prayer time to gossip. ‘Lets pray for so and so because…..’ Do you think people know how destructive gossip is? What are your thoughts?”

First, let me say, “thanks for lobbing me a big ole softball question!”  Not only is your question easy to answer from Scripture, but it’s also a subject that every pastor has to deal with from time to time, lest the congregation be destroyed from within.

In fact, in my experience, this may be the single-most-destructive-weapon in Satan’s arsenal.  I share the story in every new Members class at CLC about the time I was listening to Pastor Jim Cymbala of Brooklyn Tabernacle preach and he said, “If we have a member of the choir at Brooklyn Tab who slips back to their old lifestyle & we learn that they’re drinking or doing drugs or committing sexual sin, we will work with them, love them, counsel them, pray with them and do everything possible to restore them to God and return them to the choir.  But if we learn that a member of the choir has been spreading critical words about the ministry, gossiping against the church, we put them out of the choir and they can never be allowed back in.”

When he said that I immediately thought to myself, “man, that’s hard!”  Then, after thinking for a few moments, I thought, “man, that’s smart!”  As a pastor for over 38 years, I have never seen a church destroyed by members drinking alcohol, doing drugs, or committing sexual sin (for the record, I’m not in favor of any of that) – but I have seen churches literally ripped apart and eventually destroyed because of gossip.

No wonder Proverbs 6:16-19 says God hates it!  And it doesn’t matter what form the gossip takes, whether disguised as a “prayer request” or some other excuse.  And the easiest way to stop it is to refuse to listen to it – read Prov. 18:7-8 and Prov. 26:21-23.  Of course, the ‘gold standard’ in Scripture gives us help for what to say about others in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31 and (my favorite) Philippians 4:8.

Maybe since Mother’s Day is almost here, I could have cut right to the chase and just repeated what your Mom no doubt told you: “if you can’t find something good to say, just don’t say anything”.  Amen, mom!

Hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A reader submitted this question: “recently I’ve been thinking and I have a question I can’t get out of my head… We are told to pray for the sinners of the world.. (correct?)…. then why don’t we pray for Satan?   Is he not a sinner like us?  What makes him any better then one of us?  Is not the only thing making us different from God himself is that He’s perfect?  So since Satan is a sinner, is he just as equal to us?”

Interesting questions – I think I counted 6 in all.  Let me try to answer them, in order:

1.  While (technically) the Bible doesn’t say “pray for the sinners of the world”, we definitely should pray for others – 1Tim 2:1-4 is very clear about that.

2.  We don’t need to pray for Satan because it would accomplish nothing – his fate is already forever sealed & settled in God’s Word and there is no hope of change for him.  (see Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10)

3.  No, Satan is not a sinner like us – he was the ‘anointed cherub who covers’ (KJV) or the “mighty angelic guardian” (Ezekiel 28:14-16), and unlike us, he didn’t begin on earth, but in heaven, from where he was cast out for his rebellion (Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:7-10)

4.  Because Satan was created to be an angel of the highest order, in that sense I suppose he is ‘better’ than us (Psalms 8:3-5), although many translations of verse 5 read, “a little lower than God“ rather than “a little lower than the angels” - so I’m not sure we can say that Satan is truly better than us.

5.  I would say God is different from us in many ways, not only in that He is perfect.  He’s also from “everlasting to everlasting”, whereas we normally are here for only 70 or 80 years (Psalm 90:1-2, 10) and He possesses qualities that we don’t, such as omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence, etc.

6.  No, Satan is not just a ‘sinner’; he’s an angelic being who wasn’t content to fulfill the role for which he was created in heaven & whose pride caused him to aspire to God’s own position, and for which he was cast out of heaven to the earth (Isaiah 14:12-15)

I hope this helps – there’s NO NEED for any of us to pray for Satan, since his fate is sealed.

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “You mentioned during a recent message that insecure people cannot serve.  Why is that?”

Great question.  I probably should confess that my statement may have been a little misleading, as I’m sure that many insecure people do serve in churches all around the world.  In fact, often times (in my humble opinion), insecure people volunteer to serve in the hopes of proving their worth to others.

What I probably should have said is that insecurity hinders true service.  In order to truly serve others, I have to “get out of myself, and into them” (as one of my mentors from a secular job used to remind us regularly).  And if I’m insecure, it’s almost impossible for me to focus on others instead of myself.  (That’s why some teachers insist that insecurity & a sense of inferiority is actually just another form of pride, since the focus is still on self & it’s still ‘all about you’).

People who are secure of who they are in Christ have nothing to prove, so they can follow Jesus’ example, put on the apron, and serve.  (John 13:3-5)

Hope that helps clarify.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLC member writes, “I have been reading, studying and trying to understand what Hate is. Personally I think there is nothing Good about it. Why are so many things in our world decided and reacted upon and accepted as the norm when the actions, results, and decisions are the result of hate?”

Wow. Great question. My initial thought was ‘if I knew the answer to that, I’d run for President’. But I wouldn’t – I’d much rather pastor CLC!

Honestly, the only thing (ever) good about hate would be if it is directed at sin & Satan – but never at sinners or people!

As to your question of “why”, I can only say, because we live in a fallen, sinful world. After all, you only have to read into the fourth chapter of the Bible, and only the first sons of the first family, before you read about murder! I think it’s obvious that hate has been a part of our world since those earliest days of man’s history.

Since I can’t really answer your question, let me instead give you an encouragement from God’s Word: Romans 12:17-21. The way for us to overcome hate is to love, unconditionally.

By the way, on a related topic, we’re dealing head-on this Sunday with ANGER ISSUES, giving practical help for all of us…hope to see you here!

Hope that helps a little bit. Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “In Genesis 1:28 (KJV) it says “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” In this version it says to replenish, in other translations it says to fill. If replenish is the accurate translation does that mean there were once people living before Adam?”

Great question – one I’ve been asked many times before, but never based on this verse of Scripture. Here’s my take:

• As you point out, the vast majority of other translations use the word “fill” instead of “replenish” – in fact, in my study, the ONLY time I found ‘replenish’ used was in the KJV – every other translation I looked at said “fill”.
• The Hebrew word translated ‘replenish’ there is found 249 times in the Old Testament and was only translated ‘replenish’ 7 of those times.  I’m no scholar, but from the scholars I read, even the root of the Hebrew word clearly & obviously refers to something being ‘full or filled’.
• So, from a Biblical standpoint, I feel very comfortable to say that “fill” is a better translation in that verse, and that there is no connotation that there were other humans on earth before Adam.

Now, as to my personal opinion, I have never seen any evidence in Scripture that would lead me to believe that there were humans on earth prior to Adam.  I know that scientists calculate our world as being millions of years old and we only have 6,000 years of man’s history from Adam – but I personally feel there are several other possibilities to explain that – NOT that God has a prior creation of humans and that He started over again with Adam & Eve.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful choir member of CLC writes, “Earlier this week, while I was asleep and dreaming I kept hearing the words spoken over and over, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord”.(Zech 4:6).  Since then, I have asked the Lord what He wants me to understand by this dream, and have  also read and studied the scripture and chapter. What is your insight on this scripture?”

Great question.  Great Scripture!

This passage was a specific prophecy to Zerubbabel, who would eventually rebuild Solomon’s temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians.  It was a monumental task and he faced much opposition that caused numerous delays & discouragement.

But this prophecy seemed to be the catalyst that enabled him to finish the task, as the Lord assured him that the temple would not be completed by military might or by human will power, but because of the anointing of the Spirit of the Lord!

That ‘word’ not only applied to Zerubbabel then; it’s a principle for every one of us now: whenever we are faced with challenges or daunting odds in trying to walk out God’s will for our lives – we can take courage in knowing that it’s not up to us – our strength, our willpower, our ingenuity, etc. – but our dependency is on the Spirit of God!

It’s also a good reminder to us everyday, whether the task seems bigger than us or not – that it’s not about us; we need His Spirit in everything we do!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A brand-new CLCer writes, “I have a question about women in ministry and pastoral positions. Since the scripture says in 1st Timothy 2:11-15. “Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. 12 But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression: 15 but she shall be saved through her child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

I understand each of our “gifts” are a unique form of ministry to others; however, I am referring to a leadership position in a church or ministry.

What’s your take on this?”

Excellent question – one that’s been hotly debated in different church circles for years, and that I’ve answered several times through our history at CLC.

Let’s start with what I know: the Bible never contradicts itself.  NEVER.  Otherwise, it loses its authority and we are left without a rudder – we don’t know what to believe.

And since I know that the Bible never contradicts itself, I personally don’t see any way that 1Tim 2:11-15 (or the only other passage in Bible that seems similar, 1Cor 14:34-35) could possibly mean what some have interpreted it to mean; i.e., that ministry or leadership positions in the New Testament church are reserved for men only.

I say that because there are so many other references in Scripture to women who obviously ministered publicly: John 4:39; Exodus 15:20; 2Kings 22:14; Acts 18:24-26, Acts 21:9; Romans 16:1-2, Romans 16:7; Joel 2:28 w/Acts 2:17-18. 

Think of women in the Old Testament who influenced nations, like Deborah and Esther.  Or how about the “ministering women” who defied the custom of the day in Palestine to follow Jesus, and  their names have been recorded for us as a memorial of them. (Luke 8:3; 24:10).  These women were among the last at the cross (Matt 27:55-56) and the first at the His tomb!  (Mark 16:1-2)

Or how about these women in the New Testament Church, who obviously had a ministry: Mary (Acts 12:12); Tabitha (Acts 9:36); Priscilla (of Acts 18 and 1Cor 16:19); or even Euodia & Syntche (Phil 4:3).

Personally, I’m convinced that Gal 3:28 makes it clear: women canfulfill any ministry that a man can fill.  In fact, my experience in ministry over the last 43 years tells me that the real issue is usually gender-bias or male chauvinism!  And in my mind, the only thing worse than human prejudice is when we try to use Bible to justify it.

I’ll get down from my soapbox long enough to try to address the specific passage you asked about – 1Tim 2:11-15, and I can tell you that ‘silence’ in verse12 is same Greek word as ‘quiet’ in verse 2.  According to Greek scholars, it does NOT denote a verbal quiet, but a quiet as in peaceful.   (I’m not a scholar, but I’m told that there are 2 Greek words, one indicates ‘tranquillity arising from without’, and this one, indicating ‘tranquility arising from within; meaning, ‘causing no disturbance to others’, and it was also used in 1Pet 3:4 so it is often associated with ’meek’, to characterize the spirit or disposition of a person.

Finally, IF that one verse of Scripture is to override all the rest of the Bible and truly forbids a women to minister publicly, then why has God blessed so many women in ministry through the years, including just a few that I’ll list here:

• Sojourner Truth -  an ex-slave, mother, evangelist, abolitionist, author, women’s rights advocate, temperance activist.  Those who knew her remembered her as a “dynamic woman with strength, integrity, poise and wit.  She was a powerful public speaker and knew large portions of the Bible by heart, but never learned how to read or write.  Sojourner Truth spent more than 50 years on the front lines.
• Aimee Semple McPherson started a church, the Foursquare denomination, and a Bible School.  She applied for and received the first FCC license ever issued to a woman and was the first Christian radio station ever operated.  In her lifetime she composed 175 songs & hymns, preached thousands of sermons and graduated over 8,000 ministers from L.I.F.E. Bible College.  It is estimated that during the Depression, some 1.5 million people received aid from her ministry.
• Bertha Smith was a missionary to China for nearly 42 years. She retired at age 70, returned to USA where she had another ministry of almost 30 yrs, awakening American Christians to their need for revival and inspiring them to pray for an awakening in their land.  During her travels and constant speaking engagements she touched thousands of lives.  She died just five months short of her 100^th birthday.  She left a legacy in the form of the Peniel Prayer Center, a retreat center for spiritual life conferences.
• Kathryn Kuhlman was known for a worldwide ministry that began to develop in 1950. Her messages were heard all over the United States and overseas. Most of us remember her as a woman of miracles.  However, although there were thousands upon thousands of miracles, the greatest miracle to Kathryn was when a person became born again.  It was common for tumors to dissolve, cancers to fall off, the blind to see and the deaf to hear.  Migraine headaches were healed instantly.  Even teeth were divinely filled.  It would be impossible to list all the miracles that took place during her prolific ministry.

Sorry to wax eloquent on this subject, but I do feel passionate about how the Church has oftentimes gone into battle with one hand tied behind our back by not allowing women to fulfill the calling that God has placed upon their life to minister, simply because of their gender.

I do understand the authority that God has delegated to the husband in his household and the principle of men in leadership even in the Church.  But as I’ve explained in the past, my wife is not “usurping” authority at CLC; I have given it to her, knowing that God has gifted her to pastor here alongside me.

Hope this helps a bit.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Today’s question comes from a former CLC member who has struggled greatly in the last few years with a divorce, alcohol, unemployment & more.  He writes, “through all the things I’VE been through…it seems I have lost my purpose in life…don’t really know what to do next..I cleaned up my life & trying to do the next right thing…unemployed… ..living in a sober living house… what direction to go I’m having problem with..is there scripture I can read to help???”

Wow.  My heart goes out to him, and many others in similar situations.  Let me offer a few suggestions:

1.  Do something.  Ecclesiastes 9:10 is sobering in regards to the fact that our time here is limited, but the first part of the verse is the key: whatever you find to do, do it with your whole heart.  For someone who is unemployed, the worst thing you could do is sit around all day thinking depressing thoughts about your situation.  Instead, get up as though you had a job to go to – get dressed and find something constructive to do – whether it’s hitting the streets to look for work, sending out resume’s, or scouring the area for temporary jobs of some kind.  And even better than that,

2.  Serve someone.  ALL of us will become direction-less, confused or stagnant if we focus on ourselves and our situation only.  Instead, find someone else in need and do what you can to meet that need.  Shovel snow for an elderly neighbor, rake leaves, volunteer in a soup kitchen, tutor a child, volunteer at your church – there is something you can do to serve someone else.  And by getting out of yourself and into them, you’ll start to feel good about yourself – there’s no joy like the joy of serving others!  There’s no better example of this in Scripture than Joseph, who served with his heart even though he was a slave: Genesis 39:2-20, 41:9-57, Acts 7:10.

3.  Spend time daily in praise and worship.  I know it’s important for you to pray, but in a situation like yours, it’s so easy for pray time to become self-pity time, rehearsing all your needs.  So I would encourage you instead to make the willful decision to spend extra amounts of time in worship.  Use the book of Psalms if you need some help getting started, but instead of just pleading with God for relief from your circumstances, start reciting all the reasons you’re thankful – all the attributes of God that deserve your praise – all the blessings of the past – all the promises of His Word that you’re believing for.  Here are a few verses to help: Colossians 3:15-16; 1Thessalonians 5:18; Hebrews 12:28; Hebrews 13:15; Psalm 103.

I sincerely hope that helps, not only my friend who asked the question, but for any other reader in similar circumstances.

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “I have looked for this in every bible, study bible and dictionary and can’t find it.  Can you tell me what is meant when Scripture talks about the month of A’BIB in Exodus 34:18?”

Certainly.  I’m sorry you had difficulty in the resources you checked, but as you can see in the footnote under Exodus 34:18, Abib was simply the Hebrew name of the first month of the year in the Jewish calendar, which usually falls in March or April.  For what it’s worth, according to Strong’s, the word literally means, “tender”, and was occasionally translated as in “green ears of corn” or the ‘greening’ of a crop.

Keep in mind the Jewish year didn’t begin in January, as ours does, but when they were released from Egyptian bondage and set out for the Promised Land, God instructed them to change their calendar to celebrate the anniversary of their deliverance as the first month of the year (as if to say, “life begins when your sins are forgiven!”)

You can read more about it in Exodus 12:1-2, 40-42.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer (and fellow Israel trip buddy) wrote, “Isaiah 7:14 reads, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” so why was Jesus called “Jesus” and not Immanuel? I have heard it explained as a descriptive term but it does read “and he shall be LIKE Immanuel.” Can you help explain this?

Hmmmm.  Interesting question….one I’ve never been asked before.  Here’s my thought, without doing exhaustive study:

at the risk of being overly-simplistic, the first thing I notice is the NLT is that ‘name’ isn’t in the verse, just that the virgin would call him Immanuel.  However, a quick review of the several versions of the Bible on my computer shows me about half the time “name” was included in the verse and half not – so I can’t be definitive with what I was about to say – which is that Jesus was called Immanuel, since it means “God with us”, and even His name, ‘Jesus’, includes that connotation, for it means “Jehovah has become salvation”, or “Jehovah-Savior”.

The same question could be asked of Isaiah 9:6 as well, since none of the wonderful titles given there was His given name.

I guess I should just say, “I don’t know” how to fully answer your question, except to say the prophecy was fulfilled in that we know Jesus is God with us.

Dunno if that helps, but hoping so a bit.  If someone reading this has a better explanation, please share it below – we’re all ears!

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor.

A favorite CLCer asks, “Why did Jesus commission us to go and make”disciples” of all nations, instead of “believers, followers’?”

Great question….one that I’ve never been asked before.

I don’t think Scripture gives us any reason behind this word choice, and one could even argue that the words are somewhat interchangeable, since Jesus invited us to believe on Him (John 7:37-39) and to follow Him (Mark 1:16-20)

But I must admit that I like the term ‘disciples’, because it seems to imply there’s more to the Christian walk than just believing or just following.  It carries the idea of discipline (since they come from the same root) and of a real commitment.  As a pastor, I’ve observed sadly over the past 40 years how that level of disciplined commitment seems to be waning in the American church.  I’m not negative about God’s Church overall, and I do believe He’s coming back for a ‘glorious’ church, without a ‘spot’ or ‘wrinkle’ or ‘blemish’ (Eph. 5:27) – but sometimes the American version seems to be lacking the commitment that I see so obviously in other nations during my missionary travel.

Here’s something we can all agree on: God is calling me to be a true disciple!  No matter what others do, I want to follow Him closely, as a true disciple!  Amen?

Hope this helped.  Now what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful young CLCer writes, “I go to a Christian High School that’s affiliated with a denomination that emphasizes the ideas of Predestination and the “elect” of God.
I question some of the doctrines taught in class such as God chooses who he wants to be saved (the elect) and non-believers do not have the free will to choose to follow Christ. As a result, they will never be saved because they are not chosen by God. It has also been taught that because of man’s sinful nature, he is unable to understand God, seek God, or do anything good (Romans 3:9-12). Because of this, God chooses those whom he wanted to be saved even before the beginning of time. All others were to be eternally damned. I know it is true that man has a sinful nature. My only question is to what extent is this all true? I’ve always thought that God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn, but to save (John 3:17). What are your thoughts on these “elect” and Predestination ideas?”

Great questions.  As you perhaps know, this debate between ‘Calvinists’ and ‘Armenians’ in the body of Christ has been going on for several centuries, so I’m not likely to resolve it in this post.

However, I can certainly give you my view of Scripture, which probably mirror your own.  To keep this from turning into a book, let me just summarize by saying that my understanding of Scripture is that The Church is predestined, but individuals are not – i.e., there’s no doubt since the foundation of the world that there will be a Church of people who have been called out of the world to serve God, and Jesus is returning for them some day.  But whether or not I will be a part of that Church is a matter of free-will – I can choose to answer God’s call by obeying the Gospel. or I can reject His call and refuse to trust Him for my salvation.

Jesus told a parable that illustrates this in Matthew 22:8-14.  The man who was rejected could have chosen to wear the proper garment (it was a free gift), which is why he had no excuse.  Thus, when Jesus said in verse 14, “many are called, but few are chosen”, it certainly wasn’t because the man wasn’t chosen from the beginning; he wasn’t chosen because of his response to the invitation.

Jesus died for all.  Everyone on this earth has an opportunity to trust Him for salvation.  Many never will.  That doesn’t change the fact that God loves them and that we have a responsibility to preach the Gospel to them, so they can choose for themselves.

Admittedly this is a complex subject, but I hope this helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

After last Sunday’s message, a CLCer emailed me, “You touched a little bit on how filing bankruptcy is NOT the answer. Does the scripture say anything in particular about that specifically?”

Great question – and I’m bumping it to the front of the line, especially because of our current series and also because I’m sure there are other Christians who have asked the same question.  Here’s my best shot:

As to whether Scripture mentions bankruptcy specifically, the answer would be “no”, since there was no such thing as bankruptcy then.  And I want to quickly tell you that I am sensitive to the plight that some Christians have gotten into with their finances, just as I’m always sensitive to questions about divorce.  It’s easy for any of us to sit in judgment and condemn someone for filing for divorce or filing for bankruptcy, but I’ve observed thru the years that few issues are black-and-white; there are almost always difficult circumstances that make it nearly impossible to give ‘one-size-fits-all” advice.  I have a real sense of compassion as we begin this series for those who find themselves trapped in financial hardship.

Having said all of that, I do find verses that speak in principle to the idea of bankruptcy.  For example:

• Psalm 37:21 says, “The wicked borrow and do not repay.”  (That’s pretty strong – God says it’s wicked to borrow & not repay)

• Romans 13:7-10 says “Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.”* These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”  (Would refusing to pay those we owe through bankruptcy be doing wrong to them?)

Here’s a possible suggestion for any believer who’s contemplating bankruptcy:
Write a letter to your creditors and say, “I am a Christian and I don’t want to file for bankruptcy.  I don’t want to stiff you on what I owe you but I can’t pay it all off right now.  But I will pay it all off.  Here’s my plan.” And you tell them.  Maybe your payment is supposed to be $25 a month and you say, “I can’t pay you $25 a month.  I’ll pay you $5 a month.  But if you’ll be patient with me, I will pay it off.”  You might even beg for mercy and say “If you keep compounding interest on this note I’m never going to get out of debt and you’re never going to get repaid.  Please.  Stop the interest from this point on and let me just pay it down.”  Ask them.  Many might do just that.  If you’ll take the initiative by communicating honestly with your creditors instead of ignoring the bills and letting them keep piling up – people hate it when you ignore them – but if you write them a note and say, “I can’t pay this but here’s what I can pay and I intend to pay it off.  I’ll be good on my loan.”

Here’s what God says in Proverbs 16:7 – “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

Hope this helps a bit.  And I especially hope you (and all my readers) will be a part of the rest of this series, because with God, nothing is impossible – including our financial problems!

Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my favorite CLCers asks, “In our daily reading, Genesis 42:38, why does Jacob tell Ruben that Benjamin is “all he has left” when he clearly has 10 other sons in his presence…with Simeon having remained in Egypt; and he believed Joseph to be dead?”

Great question.  And while it was somewhat of a figurative expression, I think it’s understandable when you remember that Benjamin and Joseph were the only sons by Rachel (Gen. 35:24).  Scripture is very clear that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah or the other mothers of his children (Gen. 29:30-31).  So it’s only natural that he would favor Rachel’s sons more than his others.  Then when you add the fact that Benjamin was born as Rachel died in giving birth to him (Gen. 35:18), it’s obvious that Jacob regarded Benjamin so dearly, since he was all he had left from Rachel.

Thus, his statement to Reuben.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to ask the Pastor?

An anonymous reader writes, “What does the Bible say about people who insist on spreading rumors of molestation, homosexuality and other sensitive topics about a person? Does that mean that the gossiper is struggling with those issues?”

Interesting question. Actually, the Bible doesn’t say anything about that specific issue – but the Scripture is FULL of admonitions against gossip, period.  (See Leviticus 19:6; Psalm 15:1-3; Proverbs 11:12-13; Proverbs 16:28; Proverbs 20:19; Romans 1:29, just to name a few)

If you read those verses, you’ll see that gossip is NOT an ‘innocent pastime’; it’s a serious sin!  I’ve wondered for years why some churches focus on other sinful behaviors but seem to ignore this one that can be SO damaging.  In fact, as I’ve said many times at CLC, I’ve never yet seen a church destroyed because one of its members smoked, or drank or committed adultery (for the record, I’m not in favor of any of those behaviors), but I’ve seen numerous lives destroyed by gossip.

Does this mean the gossiper is struggling with these issues?  There’s nothing in Scripture that would indicate so, but that’s really not my concern.  It does mean the gossip is disregarding the Word of God and the Savior who died for him/her, and damaging another member of Christ’s body – and the way we treat each other is ultimately the way we are treating our Lord (see Acts 9:1-5)

Let me be a pastor for just a moment: the wording of the question makes me think that perhaps my questioner is harboring some deep resentment or bitterness over the rumors and gossip.  I understand that words can hurt.  But I also know that resentment will destroy you.  I would plead with you to forgive those who have caused you pain with their words – not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you don’t deserve to live with the bitterness – and because you, too will need God’s forgiveness, which He promised to withhold if we don’t forgive others (see Matthew 6:14-15).  I pray you’ll find grace to release all those who have wounded you.

Hope that helps.  Now what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A dear, faithful CLCer writes, “sometimes I pray better silently.  When I pray aloud sometimes I stumble remembering Scripture or what I want the Lord to know, yet I could be laying in bed and just having a good time with my converstation with Him.   Any ideas about that?”

GREAT question.  I’m sure you’re not alone in feeling that you express yourself better to the Lord silently, in your thoughts, than aloud.  And there’s certainly a Biblical precedent for that, in the case of Hannah, who was noted in Scripture for her prayer in 1Samuel 1:1-18.  Note especially verses 12-15, where it clearly tells us she prayed, even poured out her heart to the Lord, but no sound was heard, for she prayed in her heart, silently.  And God answered her prayer!  So I know that praying silently is acceptable to the Lord.

However, I would be misleading you if I didn’t quickly add that silent prayer in Scripture is the exception, not the rule.  Instead the Bible repeatedly encourages us to “lift up our voice to the Lord” (see Psalms 5:2, 17:1, 18:6, Acts 4:24, etc.) and Hebrews 13:15 makes it quite clear that some of our praise must be verbal (“the fruit of our lips”).

So probably the best answer to your question is that both kinds of prayer are acceptable to the Lord – silent and aloud, but the normal practice in the Bible is to pray aloud.  The good news is that HE answers both – so let’s pray!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “In our daily reading of Matthew 9:29-30, Jesus heals the 2 blind men. Jesus sternly warned them to “tell no one about this.” Is there a reason Jesus would want them to remain silent concerning this? Also, I wonder if Jesus became upset when they did not listen! Any thoughts on this?

Good question.  Unfortunately, I don’t think the Bible ever explains this one, so we’re left to our own logic and some inferences from other passages.  Here are my thoughts:

• I know Jesus was concerned about timing(see John 2:3-4 ; John 7:8 for examples).  He did not want to rush his betrayal & crucifixion, and he knew his fame/popularity would no doubt result in attention by the Pharisees that would eventually led to that.
• Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah wouldn’t call attention to himself (lift up his voice in public, etc), which was connected to another incident where he told those healed not to talk about it – see Matthew 12:15-21
• Some have suggested that Jesus didn’t want to call attention to physical healings, knowing that many people would then be attracted to him only for their physical needs, whereas He came primarily to heal us spiritually.
• Maybe it’s just me, but I even wonder if perhaps He was using some reverse psychology, because it seems the more He told people to keep it quiet, the more His fame grew!  (see Matthew 9:30-31; Mark 7:35-36)

As to your last question, no, I don’t think Jesus would have been upset – since He’s called each of us to be His witnesses!  Even today, the more we tell our story of what He’s done for us, the more people will be drawn to Him!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would you like to Ask the Pastor?

One of my favorite CLCers writes, “What are your thoughts on the infamous Christian cliche: “WE ARE SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE.” How can we be sinners if we are saved? I thought we were “saints” once we got saved. How then can we still be sinners? It’s like a former drug user getting in front of an NA group ten years after he has been delivered from drug abuse and saying ” Hi, my name is so and so and I’m a drug addict who hasn’t used drugs in ten years.” I know we still sin in word, thought and deed, but if we’re still sinners, then we’ve emptied the Cross of its power and Christ died for nothing.  Please advise.”

I love this question, because I’ve never been able to address this issue before – and I totally agree with the questioner.  I do understand (I think) why so many preachers & believers use that cliche’, in an effort to try to connect with unsaved people and not come across as spiritually superior or arrogant – and I agree with each of those desires!

However, I do NOT find any Biblical use of that phrase or even support for that concept.  Instead, we read in 1Cor 6:9-11 that we were like that, but we were cleansed, made holy and made right with God!  Yes, absolutely we were sinners, but Scripture never refers to us now as “sinners saved by grace”.

Before someone cites 1John 1:8-10, let me quickly say that I’m not suggesting that we never sin after coming to Christ.  But I am contending that that is NOT who we are – our new identity in Christ is that we are called to be “saints”  (Rom 1:7; 1Cor 1:2; 2Cor 1:1; Eph 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:2; etc.).  In fact, I found about 60 times in the New Testament where believers were referred to as “saints”, but not once where they were called “sinners”.

Why does it matter?  Because how you see yourself affects how you live!  If you see yourself as just a sinner, it will be easy for you to go on sinning.  But if you see yourself as a saint (made holy by the blood of Jesus), you will strive to walk worthy of that calling!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Well, I thought the last question of 2011 was….ahem……different….but it seems like the first question of 2012 is out of the ordinary as well, as a faithful CLC volunteer writes, “my question is more of wanting to hear your thoughts about Tim Tebow.  I’ve been watching ESPN as they debate whether or not Tebow should dial back his faith.”

Interesting question, both as a pastor and as a sports fan.  Here’s my perspective:

• First of all, I happen to know that Tim Tebow spent his formative years in a charismatic church much like CLC, so he grew up in an environment of the Word and the Holy Spirit, and from everything I’ve seen and heard, seems to have embraced those values fully as his own.  In other words, in my humble opinion, Tim is the real deal – a genuine follower of Christ, not someone who is grandstanding the Christian faith in hopes of some publicity.
• Secondly, while I don’t pretend to know about every interview he’s ever given, I can say that everything that I have personally seen him say or do in print or TV interviews, he definitely comes across as a genuine believer.  In spite of the fact that the liberal media wants to portray him as a religious nut, he has consistently given balanced, sensible, and Biblical answers.
• Finally, there’s really no such thing in Scripture as a “private” relationship with God – personal, yes, but private, no.  As believers we are called to do everything for the glory of God. (see 1Cor 10:31 and 1Peter 4:11)

As a pastor, I wish that all of us in whatever occupation or arena of life we operate could so publicly demonstrate our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – and I, for one, thank God that Tim Tebow is using the huge platform he’s been given as a sports celebrity to glorify God!

So there you have it.  Now, what would YOU like to ask the Pastor?

Our final question of 2011 comes from a friend to me & CLC who writes, “If a man has had a sex change, surgery and all, and now lives as a woman and wants to be a Christian attending church, how should the church respond to him/her? Also would you tell her to stay a woman or go back to a man?”

When I first read the question I thought (in my best Lovie Smith voice), “Now what kind of question is that?”

But in case it’s a serious question, I’m gonna give it a serious answer, as my final Friday post for this year.  Let’s consider the facts:

• since there was no such thing as “sex changes” in Bible times, we must understand that the Bible does NOT address this question.
• Since there are no direct references to this dilemma in Scripture, our only hope would be to apply Biblical principles to try to answer this.
• The ONLY verse I can think of that might somehow apply to this hypothetical situation is 1Cor 7:20-24.  Since this person had the sex change before becoming a Christian, as I apply these verses, I would say ‘she’ should remain as ‘she’ is.
• As to how the church should respond to her, I would hope that any local church would respond to this individual as we would any other person; i.e., with love and compassion and the same Christian courtesy that we would want for ourselves – while also helping to disciple this individual in the ways of Christ, including sexual purity and wholeness.

For sure, it’s an interesting question – but probably not that far-fetched in today’s world.  May we shine as lights in this dark world so that people who are hurting and lost without Jesus, regardless of how their ‘lostness’ (sin nature) may be manifest, will be drawn to the light and not repelled by it.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

And I hope you’ll join us Saturday at 5pm as we bid farewell to 2011 and welcome 2012!

A faithful CLCer writes, “What does Deuteronomy 7:20 mean when it says, ‘Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you are destroyed’?”

Hmmm, maybe I’m missing something, but just in case, I think it means exactly what it says.  In this chapter, the Lord explains to Israel that He chose them to be His special treasure and that He is driving out the previous inhabitants of this land in order to give it to Israel as a permanent possession.  So in verse 20 He says that even if some of those nations try to hide, He will send hornets among them, to drive them out.

So unless your question is about some deeper, ‘spiritual’ truth contained in this verse, it simply means that God was fighting their battles for them, in order to give the land to Israel as He had promised.  He specifically charged them not to compromise and intermarry with the previous inhabitants, since that could entice them away from the worship of the true God (verses 2-4).

As to a New Testament truth for us here, I just see it as another aspect of how thoroughly the Lord takes care of His people and how He watches over every detail of His Word to fulfill it (Deut. 7:16-20; Jer. 1:11-12)

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “I have heard the statement ‘If the Devil really knew who Jesus was when he was on earth he would have never crucified Jesus’.  I am not too sure this is a true statement; if it is not, then my question is answered.  If it is, then I do wonder!! Here is the question:  If the Devil did not really know who Jesus was, then how did the demons know who he was every time he was casting them out?”

GREAT question.  Great because it does have a Biblical answer, and I don’t just have to give my opinion.  I think the statement you’ve heard is based on 1Corinthians 2:7-8.  As you’ll note there, it doesn’t say the devil didn’t know who Jesus was; it says he didn’t know the hidden wisdom of God.  My understanding of that passage is that the devil and his cohorts didn’t understand that God’s plan was for Jesus to die in order to redeem us from the Fall and make it possible for us to receive eternal life.  (If the devil had known that, surely he wouldn’t have tried to have Jesus executed at the Cross!)

As you point out in your question, the demons always seemed to know exactly who Jesus was when He cast them out; but thankfully, they didn’t understand God’s hidden plan, and thus even the enemy of our souls unwittingly cooperated with God’s plan and became a pawn to help bring about the very plan of God from before the foundation of the world – that the Lamb of God would be slain for us!  (see Revelation 13:8)

So the bottom line is, the statement you’ve heard was just a little bit off – but thank God for the truth that God’s plan, though hidden from the enemy, is clearly revealed to us: we can have eternal life because of the death of His son!

Hope that helped.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Our next question is regarding dreams.  A reader writes, “I know that in the Old Testament God spoke through dreams.  Also, there are instances in the New Testament that God still spoke through dreams.  Sometimes people dream and it seems that there is a message in the dream and sometimes the dreams don’t make sense.  How are we to determine if God is trying to speak to us through our dreams in this time?”

GREAT question.  This is, in my humble opinion, a much overlooked subject in Scripture.  In fact, Job said the God speaks to us again and again in dreams, though we don’t recognize it, while we are asleep! (Job 33:14-15)  I suspect, for some of us, that’s His best opportunity, as we often don’t slow down long enough to hear His voice when we’re awake, so He tries to get our attention when we’re asleep!

I’m sure there are many answers to your question as to “how” we can determine if it’s a “God-dream” or just “bad pizza” that’s speaking to us, but here are a few:

• Generally, I think the dream stays with you.  I don’t mean by that that you won’t ever forget the details, because that’s certainly what happened to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2 (assuming he wasn’t just testing his sorcerers, but actually couldn’t remember the details).  But in the other examples in both Testaments, the individual who had the dream was often troubled by it when they awoke, because the dream stayed with them.

• Sometimes, you just “know” that the dream is from the Lord.  Personally, I almost never remember a dream, and in all my ministry I only recall one dream that I knew was from God.  It happened about 13 years ago, when I saw the main stage of a General Conference service for my former denomination and heard the emcee say, “And now, introducing our newly-appointed missionaries to Senegal, Jerry & Chris McQuay”.  With those words, I awoke.  It was so specific that I just ‘knew’ it must be from God.  I also felt certain that He wasn’t calling us to return to our denomination, so the only conclusion left was that God had an assignment for us in the nation of Senegal.  It’s too long a story to go into now, but after a couple of years of searching, we finally found a contact there and we’ve been involved in that West African nation ever since, as CLC has since provided 20% of all the evangelical church buildings in the entire country!

• It may be that the dream results from a prayer you’ve prayed or a desire you’ve had.  In my case above, while I certainly hadn’t even thought about Senegal (didn’t even know where it was located in Africa), my friend David Shibley from Global Advance had challenged me earlier to find CLC’s unique role in fulfilling the Great Commission, and I was asking the Lord to show me what HE wanted specifically from CLC in that regard – and now, I consider that dream a major part of His plan for CLC.

• There are books and teachings now available in the body of Christ on the subject of dream interpretation, so if this subject piques your interest, I suggest you search for those.  By no means is my list complete, and others will offer additional insights, I’m sure.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

My favorite questioner is at it again: “Can you explain to me the Heart versus the Soul, versus the Spirit?  Are all of these connected together some type of way? If yes, what way?”

No more softball questions, huh?  This one is difficult, because while there are many opinions, I’ve not found much in the way of clear-cut, unequivocal statements in Scripture about these terms.  Anyway, you asked, so I’ll give it my best shot:

• The heart (and I’m assuming you aren’t thinking of the muscular organ that pumps blood throughout our body, enabling us to live) is usually considered the center of who we are, our inner-most being and the seat of our emotions.

• The soul is also usually defined as the center of our will and emotions – so, in my mind, those two terms of pretty much interchangeable.  Having said that, I know that Matt. 22:37 uses both words, so I can’t really defend my opinion.  Perhaps someone reading this has a better definition – if so, please leave your comment below and help us all!

• The spirit seems to refer to the life-force that comes from God and that enables us to relate to God.

Boy, I’ll readily admit that this is not a strong suit for me – does anyone else have insight beyond just your own opinion?  (As I sometines say, opinions are like belly-buttons – we all have one, but we that doesn’t mean we have to pull it out & show everyone).  But if you have some Biblical insights on this question, I’m all ears!

Not sure that helped anyone, but I’ll still say: Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer asks, “In Acts 9:8-9, why did God blind Saul for three days and he didn’t eat nor drink until he got to Damascus?”

Hmmm, good question.  I don’t know.

Just kidding, sort of.  It is a question I’ve never been asked before and never given a lot of thought to.  But since you asked, I did a little digging.  Here’s what I found:

• the blindness no doubt was to humble him.  Imagine: this persecutor of the Church, who was capturing Christians and throwing them into jail was now a helpless captive himself, who had to be led by the hand just to get into the city.  I’m sure it was a humbling experience that resulted from his vision of Christ on the road.

• Every scholar says the three days of no food or drink was a fast – and again, it was a very humbling experience for Saul.  Imagine, in just a moment of time he had been told by the Lord that everything he had ever believed and fought for was mistaken!  Don’t you know those three days were a real time of soul-searching, as he tried to make sense out of what happened to him when Jesus appeared and told him that HE was Paul’s Lord!  Anyone who has ever fasted, especially for three days, can testify of what a humbling experience it is (yet how good for us!)

• Seems like a great segue, after we’ve all stuffed ourselves full of turkey and all the trimmings yesterday, to be talking on Black Friday about fasting.  (I’m sure we all need to repent of some of yesterday’s excess, and the fasting would do us good in more ways than one!)  But while I’ve got your attention, it’s not too early to get this on your radar: we will join with churches all over the world to set aside 21 days of fasting and prayer in early 2012, and I want to challenge you NOW to purpose in your heart to participate in some way.  At CLC, we believe God will lead you as to how you and your family should fast with us, whether it’s a juice fast, a ‘Daniel’ fast, designated days of absolute fasting within the 21 days, or even fasting certain meals throughout the fasting period.  The important thing is that each of us takes some time to humble ourselves before the Lord (Ezra 8:21; Psa 35:13).  I hope you’ll start making plans to join us!

Hope that helped.  Now, what would you like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, ” If people commit suicide, yet ask for forgiveness for the act that they are “going” to commit, do they have an opportunity to find Heaven or are they damned for all eternity?”

Ouch.  I sense the pain behind that question, and my heart grieves for anyone who has ever had to ask themselves that question in the aftermath of a suicide.

Let me say this upfront: The Bible is silent on this issue.  From my 40+ years of studying the Scriptures, I’ve never found anything in the Bible that addresses this question directly. SO, anything that I say (or that anyone else says on this subject) is strictly an opinion, and NOT ‘thus saith the Lord’.

In my humble opinion, the act of suicide (besides being a horribly selfish act considering what it does to the surviving family and friends) is an action taken in a moment of ‘temporary insanity’; i.e., I can’t imagine that anyone in their right mind would rationally choose to end their own life.

Having said that, it’s my opinion that such an act would NOT be the final criteria by which God judged an individual for all eternity – just as I don’t believe He judges an innocent child or handicapped individual who doesn’t have the mental capacity to choose Jesus as their Savior.

Instead, I think that someone who commits suicide would instead be judged just like all the rest of us, on the basis of whether they had turned from sin and fully trusted in Jesus Christ to be their Savior. After all, there is salvation in no other way (Acts 4:12; John 14:6, Galatians 2:15-16)

How all of that sorts out in eternity is really in God’s hands, not ours, but you asked, so I gave you my opinion.

Hope that helps.  Now what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

A faithful CLCer writes, “My friend and I just discovered the pagan roots of the celebration we call Christmas and were thinking about not celebrating it the conventional way and time. But by doing that are we acting as those under the law or are we just being responsible for what we now know?”

Interesting question.  Let me begin by applauding your sincerity in wanting to please the Lord fully, as evidenced by your willingness to go against peer pressure and all of our culture in order to not do something that might be displeasing to the Lord – I wish every believer were so motivated! (It also fulfills 2Cor 5:9 and 1Thess. 4:1)

As to whether you are being legalistic or responsible, I’m not sure I could answer that, since only you would know your true motive.

However, in my humble opinion (since you asked me), I think you may be starting down a slippery slope IF your motivation is to avoid the ‘pagan roots’ of Christmas.  I say that because virtually everything has some pagan roots – (including our calendar & the days of the week!) and if we start “majoring on minors” it won’t be long until you can’t observe any holiday or enjoy almost any tradition – because almost all of them have some kind of pagan roots somewhere.  Most of this is so because after the Roman Empower Constantine declared himself a Christian in the early 300′s A.D., the Roman church made it a ‘strategy’ whenever engaging in missionary activity among the heathens to incorporate any of the pagan’s holidays & beliefs into their practice of Christianity.  That strategy or practice is usually called syncretism.

My personal practice with my own family (and my suggestion to you) is that you observe the holiday according to your belief’s; i.e., just because someone somewhere at sometime in the past observed Christmas in a certain way doesn’t have to dictate to me how I celebrate.  For instance, I understand that colored eggs and marshmellow bunnies don’t have anything to do with the Resurrection of Jesus, but as long as I know the meaning of the holiday and celebrate His Resurrection (actually, every day!), then I don’t see the harm of allowing my children or grandchildren to enjoy the festivities — and I do know that some well-meaning Christians have ‘scarred’ their children by requiring them not to participate in similar activities, causing the children to feel they were missing out and making them feel isolated among their classmates, sometimes even to the point of ridicule, etc.

That’s my opinion.  Pastor Mark Beeson has this great post on his blog about observing Halloween, which may have some similar principles to what I’ve stated here.  The only Scripture that comes to mind that might have some bearing on this whole issue is Romans 14, so I’d encourage you to read it carefully to see all the principles involved.

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

For the 3rd straight week we’re focused on this area of forgiveness & consequences, as another follow-up question came: What does Romans 9:18 mean? Does God allow some people to have consequences for their sins, and others to not have consequences?

Big question. Hard to understand subject – but lets try:

The short answer is no, I wouldn’t say Romans 9:18 is addressing the idea of consequences to our sins. It really speaks to a much bigger, more difficult issue: the sovereignty of God & the doctrine of “free will”. (if you read a larger section of that passage, say, verses 10-24, you’ll see what I mean – that God is God, and as mere humans we may not always understand, but we’re not in a position to tell Him what He must do!)

That probably opened up a can of worms that’s bigger than this post to resolve.

But to the heart of what I perceive your question to be, I would say 2 things:

• just because WE don’t see consequences for some people’s sins doesn’t mean that THEY don’t have any.  Everything is not always visible – and they may be suffering in ways we know nothing about.
• Just as importantly, we live in an imperfect world, where bad things sometimes happen to good people, and good things sometime happen to bad people.  When it comes to consequences, why is it that I’ve known Christian youth who lived godly lives until a moment of weakness & passion they committed fornication one time, and became pregnant, while other youth sleep around with no regard for God’s Word and never faced pregnancy or shame for their actions.  That’s not a hypothetical; I’ve pastored & counselled people in those exact circumstances!  WHY?  Because we live in an imperfect world and sometimes things just happen that way.

I do realize that’s not a satisfying answer, and maybe I set up unrealistic expectations by inviting people to send me their questions, because the truth is: there are some things in this life that we won’t ever understand until we get to heaven.

The bottom-line on this issue, for me at least, is that while God is ALWAYS ready to forgive our sin if we are willing to truly repent, sometimes there will still be consequences to those sins that we’ll have to deal with, even though we’ve been forgiven.  Sometimes, in God’s mercy, there are no lasting consequences.

Hope that helps a bit.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?

Last week’s question and answers generated many responses, including follow-up questions – so I decided to “strike while the iron is hot”:

One reader responded: “If a “believer” repeatedly commits adultery, for example, and repeatedly confesses and repents, does God continue to forgive and forget? Doesn’t repentance include turning away from the activity you are repenting from? Isn’t the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us able to deliver a sincere, repentant believer from habitually sinning?

Unfortunately, it is the misuse of God’s forgiveness among the Body of Christ that turns off many non-believers, and some believers, because of those who continue in habitual sin who feel they are OK with God because God forgives them no matter how many times they commit the same sin. Under these circumstances, it is as though God has no expectation of behavioral change, that God has no regenerating power and that the Body is hypocritical.”

Great questions, all. And my answer is, “Yes, Yes, and Yes” – yes, God does forgive & forget even repetitive sin; yes, real repentance includes turning from our sinful activity; and yes, the Holy Spirit is more than able to deliver us!

I do think my reader’s final paragraph is where the rub comes in, so let me elaborate:

My answer last week is directed at sincere believers, not hypocritical charlatans who profess to be Christians without any heart-change. I know from experience (mine & others) that it is possible to truly repent & sincerely want to do right, but fall into the same sin repeatedly because of one’s own weakness (after all, read psalm 78 and luke 17) and still God’s grace extends forgiveness.