I’m speaking at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship tonight here at Drake U. We’re doing a “Sunday School Remix” series in which we take the most famous stories of the Old Testament that you learn when you’re little, and dig out the adult themes.

I’m speaking about Moses. I’m quite excited. What follows is pretty much an outline of what I’m talking about.

Moses gets credit for being one of the most Godly men that has ever walked the Earth. And for good reason. He parted the Red Sea, delivered the Ten Commandments and even wrote multiple books of the Bible. He was very human though. We often miss that part. When God first approached him about setting free the Jewish peopl, he wanted nothing to do with it.

• Ex 3:11 “‘Who am I to appear before Pharoah?’, Moses asked God. ‘How can you expect me to lead the people out of Egypt?’”
• 3:13 “But Moses protested, ‘They wont believe me.’”
• 4:1 “But Moses protested again, ‘Look, they wont believe me!’”
• 4:10 “Moses pleaded with the Lord, ‘I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been and I’m not now. Even after you have spoken to me, I’m clumsy with words.’”
• 4:13 “Moses again pleaded, ‘Lord, please send someone else!’”
• 6:12 “Moses objected, ‘How can I expect Pharoah to listen, I’m no orator.’”

He doesn’t feel like a leader. He doesn’t feel like he has the right qualities to be effective for God. He says he’s not a good speaker. He says “Why would they listen to me?”. He tells God to send somone who plays the part better. What’s cool though is that God could care less. He’s specially chosen Moses for this task. Just like he’s specially chosen us to do His work here and now.

We don’t need to have “leadership” qualities. It’s bombared into our head though isn’t it? We have leadership conferences, leadership books, leadership mentor programs.. We obsess over this idea. All these things are theoretically teaching us how to gain the right qualities in order to lead effectively. Take these characteristics x, y, and z and boom! Leader. Do all this stuff and you’ll be impactful and successful and powerful.

That can be kind of intimidating. What if you’re just not a born leader? What if you dont have charisma? What if you’re not naturally a “people-person”? Moses’ mentor was God. That was it. The good Lord gives us this incredible promise in Exodus 4:12. “Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak and I will tell you what to say.” God promises to be with us, and all we have to do is “go”. If we give just a little bit, He will blow it out of the water and split the Red Sea [excuse the pun ].

Moses didnt look like a leader. He didn’t feel like a leader. Honestly, there’s probably a lot of us that feel the exact same way. We think we dont have the right qualities. God is with us though, and He is the only thing we need to be a great leader and to do amazing things.

God will use you no matter what personality traits you do or dont have. It’s not just those people who are born preachers who are called to change the world. Moses was a very ordinary man who did incredible things because he put faith in God to overcome his lack of charisma and speaking ability.

“Seek first His Kingdom, and all these things will be given to you.” Matt 6:31.

Think about it.

There’s been a recurring theme in my life the last few weeks. 

In my reading, the teaching I’m listening to, the conversations I’m having with people, etc. 

This is when God is trying to get my attention. 

“Then Saul gave David his own armor – a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. ‘I cant go in these,’ he protested. ‘I’m not used to them.’ So he took them off again. He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them in his shepherd’s bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd’s staff and sling, he started across to fight Goliath.” 1 Sam 17: 38-40 

Saul tried to make David something he wasn’t. He tried to make David fight with weapons that weren’t his to begin with. 

People ask us to do this all the time. They try to put us in armor that isn’t specially designed for us. Most of the time though, we go ahead and put on that clunky gear and march right into battle without even thinking. Sometimes, we even volunteer to put on Saul’s gear because we think it will make us look better. Or more prepared. Or more like the person we’re seeking approval from. 

God gave David great aim. Plain and simple. To kill Goliath with one rock, I’m guessing it would have had to hit him right in the temple. David wasn’t gifted with sword-fighting. He was gifted with throwing rocks. Have you ever thought about that in simple terms. He was good at throwing rocks. That’s what God gave him to do. Doesn’t that seem kind of ridiculous? 

Had David fought Goliath with the wrong weapons, the ones that weren’t his own, he would have failed. I’m sure of it. But he bravely took the stones and the sling. They weren’t flashy by any means, but it’s what worked. It’s what slayed the giant. 

Dont try to put on someone else’s armor. It’s a recipe for failure. Use the weapons that God has already given in to further His Kingdom. What are good at? What do you love doing? If you think your gifts can’t be used in a church setting, think about David. He had good aim with rocks. And God used it to create one of the greatest stories of courage in the Bible. You dont have to be something you’re not. That is not what God intended. 

God has been pounding it into my heart that I need to take time to reflect and discover what my true gifts and talents are. I dont entirely know yet, but I’m getting there. I hope that you can too. 

Think about it.

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated! Between finals week and getting out to Seattle for Christmas break, my life has been a little nuts. 

I recently started a one-year Bible reading plan. I did mainly so I can get through the Old Testament, because I’ve never done it before. I know there’s a lot to be taken from it, and I also know it takes discipline to get through it all. Anywho, I obviously started in Genesis [which I've read about a thousand times, because I've started a plan so many times and failed], and have come across a few new things I’ve not noticed before and are pretty sweet! 

1) In chapter 1 alone there are six instances of the phrase “it was so” [vs. 7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30]. It is always in reference to something God says [or commands, really], and then his will is done. There are no questions or complications, it just happens. This is such an awesome display of his power and sovereignty. God’s will WILL be done. 

2) In the first three verses of chapter 2, God rests. Isn’t that incredible? God has no reason to rest. He doesn’t get tired, or weary, or have any need to take a break. Yet he did. For our sake. vs 3 actually says that God made rest holy. He made taking a Sabbath a holy experience. Our culture seems to be on constant fast forward, and this is one of those commands we tend to pass over without much thinking. It is so important though, especially because of our high speed society. 

3) Verse 15 of chapter 2 says that Adam was in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. The Hebrew for those words is to serve and to guard. The Earth is ours, yes, but we need to respect it and take care of it. Isn’t that cool? The Earth is ours to serve…I”ve never thought of it that way before.

4) There are a couple instances of God asking his people questions that he obviously knows, in order to extract some kind of confession and humility. In 3:9, God asks Adam where he was, and then later in 3:11 God asks Adam if he had eaten from the tree. God, being all-knowing, clearly knew where Adam was and that he had eaten the forbidden fruit. He was looking for a humble heart though, and a man that was willing to admit his depravity. The same thing happens in 4:9 with Cain and Abel. I’ll explain the full story a little later, but God asks Cain where his brother is. Abel is dead, and God knows this, but wants to hear Cain humble himself. He wants the same from us! He knows what we’ve done, but he wants us to admit it ourselves.

5) God still blesses us in the midst of our sin. Chapter 4 tells the story of the brothers Cain and Abel. I’ll give ya the basic rundown of the story. They are required to give God an offering, and Abel gives God the firstborn sheep, while Cain seems to only give the leftovers of the fields he had harvested. God was more pleased with Abel’s offering, and this made Cain very jealous. So, while they were out in the fields, Cain gave in to sin and murdered his brother. Cain freaked out, and was terrified that if he were to go out in the wilderness he would be robbed and killed himself. In verse 15 however, God puts a seal on Cain that whoever even touched him would be killed himself. Isn’t that amazing? In the very midst of our darkest sin, God will protect us!

6) It is possible to remain righteous in a wicked generation. 6:9 tells us that Noah was a righteous man, even while God was planning on destroying the entire Earth because of its wickedness. I often think about how my sin is justified, because how can we help it in such a wicked world? Noah did it though, and so can we.

7) God sometimes directs us to go places we are comfortable with, or to leave our friends and family. 12:1 “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” God tells Abraham to pack up and leave him home for a foreign land. He made Abraham get uncomfortable, and he will do the same in our lives. All we can do is be obedient.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Hopefully you can find at least a small morsel to chew on in all of this.

Think about it.

Have a blessed Christmas!!

This topic could be a book in itself, so there’s a lot to choose from as far as a discussion goes. I’m gonna focus though on just one small aspect and make this a relatively short post. 

The theology of Light has always been something very interesting to me. It runs throughout the entire Bible, being mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis and last chapter of Revelation. God created light. Jesus is the light of the world. God’s light will conquer darkness. There are so many sub-themes within this broad topic. 

In the beginning, God created light. He saw it was good, and then He separated it from the darkness [paraphrase of Gen. 1:3]. One of the first things God did was separate light and dark. There is no interaction. Heaven is total light and hell is total night. Earth though is interesting because we experience both every single day, literally and figuratively. It’s like God is giving us a choice. We see both with the hope that we’ll choose light over darkness.  

We don’t though, do we? We love our darkness. For so many reasons we love our darkness: 

• It’s easier to live in dark. It’s easier to hide and do what we want to do without the fear of being caught. Being in light makes us more cognizant of our failure, and makes us change in some way. We don’t want to change though, because it can be hard. 
• Light exposes us and our sin. Similar to the first one, we can’t hide in the light. It creeps into every corner of our lives. 
• It’s fun. Let’s be honest, being in the dark is sometimes more fun. Why do people have random sex all the time? Because it’s fun [not that I know from experience, I'm kinda assuming]! People think that living in light will take away their fun. This is literal too, how often have your worst moral decisions come in the middle of the afternoon? 
• We’re afraid. We are scared of God judging us if he sees our crap, so we try to hide in the corner in our darkness. We’re also afraid of being judged by other people. So we wallow in our filth.  
• Ignorance. Sometimes we don’t even realize the darkness in our lives. Sometimes it takes a smack in the face from God to get us to pay attention to our actions and thoughts. 

There are many more, but those, in my opinion, are the most common reasons we avoid the light of God. So the question then is how do we stay in His light? 

“When Jesus spoke to the people he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” [John 8:12]

Jesus promises us that if we follow him, we will never be in darkness. What does it mean to follow him then? [See how loaded this is, everything just leads to more questions. It's fun though, and what studying is all about!] 

Following Jesus means knowing what he did. What he lived for and preached and practiced in his everyday life. And how do we do that? By reading his word. It’s pretty simple [seemingly, at least]. Read, pray, discuss. The key though then is action. 

“Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” [James 1:22] 

Walk in the light of Jesus Christ. It is a choice. A hard one, mind you, but a choice nonetheless. 

Think about it.

It’s so easy to put Jesus in a box and carry him around with us. It’s so easy to just take him out when we need him, and put him back when we don’t. Sure, he was a sweet guy and said some cool stuff, but he’s not my King, right? I don’t actually have to be his servant, do I? 

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself recently. I am going through the Gospel of John, and to put it mildly, I’m blown away by the things that Jesus does and says, and I realize that recently I’ve kind of put Jesus off to the side in my life. So, I’m coming back to the question, who do I say Jesus was? 

“‘Who do people say I am?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He [Jesus] said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the son of the living God.’”    [Matthew 16:13-16, slight paraphrase] 

In our culture everyone has a different idea about Jesus. Some people flat out don’t believe he ever existed, [even though there is historical evidence that he did as human at least]. Some people see him as a political revolutionary [this view was generally held by Jews at the time]. Others see him as a cool guy with some fun teachings. Some view Jesus as a radical hippie who walked around “healing” people. Christians though, they hold another view altogether. Jesus is the very Son of God. The Messiah and Savior of the people of the world. He is the King. 

Do I really believe this? Do I hold this to be true in my life? Most of the time, no. I’m beginning to understand though that Jesus is more than a friend and a buddy. He is the Lord of my life. He has authority in my life. Absolute authority. 

Here is what the Bible says about who Jesus is:

• He has been given all authority in Heaven and Earth [Matt. 28:18] 
• He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins [1 John 2:2] 
• The Sovereign King of Kings [1 Tim 6:15] 
• Jesus is God himself [Romans 9:5] 
• The head over the entire Church of believers [Eph. 1:22] 
• He is the Eternal King [1 Tim 1:17] 
• He is the Mighty God [Isaiah 9:6] 
• The Power and Wisdom of God [1 Corinth 1:24] 
• The Ruler of God’s creation [Rev. 3:14] 
• Savior [Eph. 5:23, Titus 1:4, 2 Peter 2:20] 
• The Way, the Truth, the Life [John 14:6] 

Jesus is so much more than just a friend. He is the one who has saved us from Hell. He has saved us from a life of sin and condemnation on this earth and in this present life. If we truly understood the weight of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we would jump to him and bow before him in trembling. Hopefully I can begin to learn what this means in my life. 

Who do you say Jesus is? 

Think about it.

Found pretty much smack dab in the middle of your Bible, this book was written by the wisest man [Solomon] to ever walk the Earth outside of Jesus. It is also, by his own accord, his greatest collection of writing. The name, Song of Songs, states that this is the best stuff he’s got. And it’s all about relationship. Isn’t that great? King Solomon says in the Old Testament that relationships are the most important thing in life. Five hundred years later in the New Testament Jesus says that relationships are the most important thing in life [Matt. 22:34-40].

Many Christians have studied this book from the perspective of a metaphor about our relationship with God. Most Biblical scholars will agree however that although that can absolutely be taken from this book, it’s primary purpose is describing a love relationship between a husband and a wife. If we are going to be with one person for the rest of our lives, wouldn’t it be nice to have some instruction in that area? Luckily, Solomon did just that. 

There is SO much to be taken from this book, that there’s no way I can do it by myself within one post, so my suggestion is to go here for an excellent sermon series by Mark Driscoll. It is well worth your time. I promise. 

Some of the highlights: 

1. The entire book is a conversation between Solomon and his wife. Communication is something that will make or break any relationship you have, and these two do a great job of portraying that. They are very open with each other about their sex lives and what they like and don’t like. The women talks way more than Solomon and she even talks first in the book. Men, pay attention to that. 
2. Men are visual by nature and women are verbal by nature. This couple is very good at satisfying those needs. Solomon throughout the entire book is verbally complimenting his wife and her beauty. That satisfies her need to talk and hear she’s loved. In return, she is visually generous to her husband, and at one point even does a striptease for him. Scandalous! See ch. 6, verse 13. The footnote says the “Dance of Mahaneim” which is an ancient striptease. Crazy huh? This stuff is in the Bible! Now, this is not to say that all wives need to do this for their husbands, it’s simply one way that she remains visually generous in order to fulfill his needs. 
3. The big question in marriage, and in making it successful, is “How do we deal with sin?” That’s really the only difference between Christian relationships and non-Christian relationships. We have a way of dealing with each other’s problems. It is very easy to keep secrets and to hold grudges when we’re not happy with our spouse [or in ANY relationship]. The key though to maintaining love is grace. Putting two very sinful people together forever isn’t actually a very good idea. Unless we have a way of reconciling that sin. Grace is one of the keys to any relationship, so it especially applies to your marriage. 
4. Within marriage, there is total sexual freedom. This may be slightly inappropriate, but I don’t think it is. In this book Solomon and his wife do the following: oral sex [2:3], heavy petting [all over the place, but especially 4:5ish], sex outdoors [7:12], and also the striptease I mentioned earlier. Again, this is in the Bible! Within marriage, sex does not have to be something we’re scared of or something we see as kind of dirty. Have fun! 

I sincerely hope this post isn’t thought of as too explicit or inappropriate. Too often in the church the topic of sex is just ignored until wedding day. For two people who have potentially remained virgins, this can be a very awkward and strange thing to all of a sudden have total freedom in. It needs to be talked about in my very humble opinion. Now, we certainly shouldn’t obsess over this, or be the only thing we study, but to just ignore it is setting ourselves up for failure. 

Think about it.

[Disclaimer: these are thoughts I took from a sermon by Mike Householder in Des Moines.]

Why is this such a sticky topic? 

Is it Biblical? Or is it created by our society? 

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” 1 Timothy 2:11-12

“Women should remain silent in churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 

Seems kinda clear doesn’t it? Or maybe, just play along, these are two singular passages in which Paul is addressing a specific church in which women [new Christians to be specific] were acting up in Church. We use that passage in Corinthians as an example of women not being in leadership, but then if we’re going to take it literally for today, why do we allow women to even speak during church? Isn’t that clear too?

There are examples of women in leadership positions throughout the entire Bible. In the Old Testament Miriam and Debra are prophets. To clarify, a prophet simply means somebody who speaks the Word of God. Isn’t that exactly what a pastor does? Paul writes that Phoebe was a deacon at the end of Romans. There are countless examples that I’m sure you guys aren’t interested in, but take my word for it that there are many, many more examples of women in leadership. [If you dont want to take my word for it, that's perfectly okay, and please let me know. I'll show you.] 

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.” Galatians 3:28 

Are we seriously going to exclude 50% of the population [many times in churches it's more than that] from being in a spot of leadership? 

Think about it.

Pastor Mike Householder spoke this morning at Lutheran Church of Hope here in Des Moines about the true Church, and what that actually means. It was awesome, and here my thoughts on what he said. 

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ”But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Peter, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.”               [Matthew 16:13-19] 

The Church, the family of Jesus Christ, is built on the rock of Peter’s faith. Peter himself is not the rock necessarily, but it’s his faith. The other disciples are afraid to admit that Jesus is the Messiah, but Peter steps out and tells Jesus he is indeed the One. It is on that display of faith that Jesus constructs his family. This passage also tells us that Hell and Satan cannot overcome the church. The Bible tells us that Satan has dominion over the Earth, and it’s my belief that any one person on their own will cannot defeat him and his temptation, but as the church, with God on our side, he cannot enter our gates.

Now, it needs to be clarified that the Church is not just a building. It’s so much more than that. The church is all the people in the world who share Christ in their hearts. This means that wherever you go, the church goes. We are always representing our Savior, no matter where we are or what we’re doing. Who we serve, the church is serving. On the flip side of that, and more powerfully in my opinion, who we ignore, the church is ignoring.

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” [2 Corinthians 5:20] 

The church is God’s vessel for reaching the world. For reaching the hurting. We can’t do it on our own as individuals. As a group of servants though, as a family, we can reach the whole world. Do you really believe that? 

Do you see church as someplace you go on Sunday mornings, or do you see it as a lifestyle? A lifestyle of servanthood. A lifestyle of learning and growing. Be the church. 

Think about it. 

P.S. See Acts 2 for more detail about what church is, and I may do on a post on that in the future.