DESIRING GOD

If you've never been to a religious conference or Promise Keepers, I urge you to do so.

My wife and I and two friends made the journey from AZ to Minneapolis this past weekend for John Piper's Desiring God Conference. We were blessed along with 3,200 others to worship and hear Dr. Piper, along with Sinclair Ferguson, Paul Tripp, Bob Kauflin, Daniel Taylor, and my favorite Mark Driscoll.

Mark Driscoll pastors Mars Hill Church in Seattle where as he said, "we had a good week--we added 2,000 new members." In one week! Mark must be one of the Lord's favorites, too, though I didn't hear anything this past weekend that makes me think God has favorites.

Besides uplifting singing and fellowshipping and preaching and bookstoring (ok, I tried to use parallelism--there was an excellent Bookstore that featured many great Christian authors at reduced prices), there was a video played Friday and Saturday night that was a highlight. It can be downloaded for free at desiringGod. org. It's based on James 3, and it will hit home so closely and tug at your heart: I guarantee it.

If you read my entry today, Pastor Rob, don't bother downloading; I bought you a copy. I couldn't wait. It's that good.

So we returned last night after "a weekend with God" as one of our friends called it. I'm sure I'll be sharing more in future entries. Praise Him! And don't forget to download.

CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN

And it's not the former world champion Cassius Clay (nee), Mohammad Ali. The change you can believe in is Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

One of the biggest if not the biggest change in history came over Saul (nee), Paul. Paul persecuted the church of God through zealous behavior. (Acts 8:3) He literally went from house-to-house dragging men and women off to prison for following Jesus. Furthermore, he voted to put them to death.

Yet on the Road to Damascus, he had a change of heart. That's what Jesus does. If he can change a persecutor of Christians into an apostle who wrote 13 books of the Holy Bible, He can probably change anyone.

There's nothing we can learn that can change our heart. Intellectual knowledge alone cannot bring about spiritual transformation. We become followers of Jesus just the way Paul did. Because of the person Jesus we've encountered.

In perhaps Paul's first letter written in 50 AD to the Galatians, he emphasized the freedom that believing in Jesus brings. "Do not let yourselves be burdened by a yoke of slavery." (Gal. 5:1)

He knew, and I pray that Mohammad Ali comes to know who really is The Greatest.

HE LOVED THE SUNDAY MORNING CHURCH BELLS

An agnostic lived near a church in a small town. He never darkened the doorway of any church in the twenty years that I knew him. The Left Behind series infuriated him as did morality and Christian values.

In fact, I may have been kind calling him an agnostic. He was probably more of an atheist. A Marxist. And he might have had a cataclysmic change in his young adult life because of a divorce.

His wife left him for another woman. Yet instead of turning to his conservative roots--he was once a John Birch Society member after college, he became a flaming liberal and espoused his views to whomever was within ear shot. Part of his anger was directed at religion for whatever reason.

I think he was raised in the church, but I'm hazarding a guess based on distant memory. But I'm hoping so. I'm hoping he will return to the church as others have that used to go to church with me when we were young.

He loved to hear the church bells. When he moved, he told me he missed hearing them. Maybe there's still hope, and just maybe that's a sign.

HIRELINGS ARE NOT TRUE SHEPHERDS

Every Sunday morning at our Prayer Works, Lori our leader asks what God has done in our lives over the past week. There are most always a number of people who share. The following is what God has taught me this week.

I began my BSF class on The Life of Moses. I continue our Band of Brothers Men's Bible Study on spiritual gifts. I continue our Small Group study beginning with 2 Corinthians. I have a Mid-month Elder Board meeting on Saturday when we continue to study the 8 systems of a church.

If I'm not careful, I can become a hireling. John 10:22-28 differentiates between a hireling and a true shepherd. The hireling leaves when danger approaches. The true shepherd, of course, tends or watches out over the flock.

Now, the application. I don't want to be a mere hireling, going through the process of studying scripture. How ever intellectually I can answer biblical questions from my studies, it still comes down to making a decision to trust and have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord of my life. The people who belong to Jesus' flock listen to His voice. He knows them, they follow Him. There are a myriad of voices in our lives, but we must hear Jesus' voice if we are His sheep.

Not all voices in our lives are bad. Not my teaching leader, discussion leader(s),nor pastor. I love to hear their voices as they teach me and take me further down my Christian walk. But the voice I have to be able to discern is that of the Savior. Intellectually won't get it. Spirituality will.

M-O-U-S-E

Maybe because this is 1-Way's 199th entry, maybe because our pastor wore a Mickey or maybe Minnie Mouse shirt at our Elder Board meeting last night, or maybe because we're finishing our study of The Lord's Prayer in Sunday School, but my wierded out thought today connects The Lord's Prayer to the Mickey Mouse Theme Song. And certainly nothing sacrilegious or disrespectful is intended.

Much of the way we pray in our intercession before church services is based on the ACTS principal from the Lord's Prayer. First we give adoration to the Lord. Then we confess our failures. Then we give thanks. And finish with petition or supplication to the Father.

The Lord's Prayer begins the same way "hallowing God's name". In Rev 4:4 we are shown the throne room of Heaven with the 24 elders praying continuously, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God..."

The next part of the prayer, "thy kingdom come/thy will be done" illustrates God's sovereignty and power.

In Mickey's song, recognition is given by spelling his name. Followed by "forever let us hold his banner high". Allegiance is important in the Mickey Mouse club house. But mostly, it's more refrains about spelling his name, and even repeating his name. Of course, he's not holy nor in control of anything. I mean, c'mon, he's a mouse, thus not even a man.

Yet, his followers are asked to "join the jamboree". Now, that's getting too close, because we know from scripture that jubilee( I know the difference) was OT based on a time to allow the fields to lie fallow and forgive debts. But I really think the term was used to rhyme with M-O-U-S-E. Which could have been jubilee. So, good diction there, lyricist.

Yet while most all analogies run out eventually, maybe this one should never have even started.

WHAT TO FEAR

The Presidential election of 2008, notwithstanding, there are things to fear. We can't help it. We trust in God that He is sovereign. And we are to fear Him. To have a reverential awe of Him. And we do. Yet we still have something to fear if we aren't careful.

Followers of Jesus will have to answer. For our lives. What we did with the talents, with the spiritual gifts that we were given. We shouldn't have to fear hearing from Jesus, "I never knew him." If we've given our life to Him, if we have believed, if we have repented, if we have turned from our wicked ways, if we have been saved by grace through faith, then that fear of rejection by the Savior is alleviated.

But what about that question? Why were you afraid to live out the Father's calling? To live out your passions that God gave you?

Do we have something to fear on that Last Day? Let's pray not.