Daniel Part 2

Before Daniel and his companions were even known to the king, God used them to save themselves and all of the wise men, sorcerers, and magicians by trusting in God.

“Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.”
— Daniel 2:14

Oh how I wish it would be said of me that I answered anyone with counsel and wisdom!

We need, no matter the circumstances; to be able to hold our tongue until we hear God speaking.  Even in the face of destruction!

All the wise men were going to be killed, and not pleasantly either!  So Daniel did the only thing we should be thinking about.  What is God doing?  What is He saying?

Do we seek counsel with other Christians who might not necessarily agree with our point of view? But they went to seek God—not a way out—not a pity party.  Then they went to sleep.

Does your encounter with God give you rest, or do you keep yourself up at night wondering if God has  the ability to do what He says?

God is bringing the answer, are you ready to hear it?  Can you hear over the din of what is the world’s noise.  Satan is not a roaring lion, he is like a roaring lion because he wants us to think he is like Jesus.  But, we know who he is and we can rest in the God of Heaven and His place.

Pastor Brent

Daniel

In our present time we should be able to relate to certain individuals in the Bible.

I would like for us to begin a study on the person of Daniel. We will go through the book of Daniel and see the stands that he made, the way he treated the people in authority, and especially how he treated His God.

This was a time where the covering of God had ran out and Israel was going into captivity for a specific period of 70 years!

During this time the nation would basically be enslaved and given over to the rule of the Babylonians. All of the young men of promise were brought to Babylon to serve the king. All the others were left to tend to the country (Israel), those left behind were to get their tribute ready to pay to the king of Babylon and hope there would be enough left for them to live on.

We get to determine how much of ourselves to give to God, and He will never judge us for that, but rather encourage us to seek Him deeper.

Daniel has a really famous story, but he also had a very instructive life leading up to that point.

Pastor Brent

Pure Religion - Part 3

So now we come to the final week in our series on the purity of, not only religion, but the entirety of our gospel.

James is very stern when it comes to the seriousness of the Lord’s words and their impact on what is, in fact, our new way of life.

But in addition, he tells us the love of Christ is of the utmost importance because only out of this will we be able to embrace our “rebornness” and, in turn birth someone to a new and better life free from the trappings of our old one.

God is not interested in our old story. He helped us endure it and turn it into a winner. He is interested in our now. Now is all that matters in concern with our actions, our intentions, and our being.

If we ignore the now to focus on the future or dwell on the past we lose. Period. There is nothing beyond the now because it is not promised. And there is nothing before the now because it is forgiven. Not that our past has no meaning, it’s just not now a dwelling place. Out past makes it possible to have a now that we can live through Christ.

So, now, let’s live.

Pastor Brent

Pure Religion - Part 2

Paul charges Timothy in his letter to him not only what things are important to teach; but how you teach them is equally important.

If we focus our teaching toward one group or another because of the success we think it will bring, (Fame wise or financial) we kid ourselves into thinking we are doing God’s will because of the crowds.

Jesus focused on what God was saying and was not swayed by what He saw or was experiencing.

And we need to be the same.

God is no respecter of persons and if we, as children of God, look for someone like us to minister to, we are missing God’s leading.

He doesn’t want you at comfort and at ease, He wants your attention and your willingness to seek and save the lost.

Have you ever noticed that the “lost” hardly ever wander into the camp (think church) that the rescue party has set up?

You actually have to go out to the wilderness to bring them in after they are found.  People who are already found don’t need the rescue tent.  But that is exactly what Jesus had to tell the Pharisees.  You who are well don’t need a doctor.

Preach the Good News with your life, then enjoy who God is drawing to you, because they are the people who will listen to your message.  Good and bad.

Pastor Brent

Pure Religion

“But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
— James 1:25-27

James, the Lord’s brother, doesn’t really mince words when it comes to our responsibilities as followers of Jesus.

As such, when he comes to what we should be carrying out here on earth, he says what pure religion is.

But do we contemplate this enough as we carry on our duties?  Because if we start from an imperfect foundation, our building will be suspect and have no chance of being what God wants.

Let’s look at the verse in James and a few others over the next few weeks and see what he has to say that our walk, boiled down, should look like.

In a world where everything seems to be skewed, I hope that as we come out of this study, we take on the task to keep our relationship with Jesus one that He wants.

In this book James uses the statement “pure religion” and I think we all would agree we need to seek to eliminate our prejudices and even our preferences for the purity that is found in Christ.

When God made man and woman it was out of pure motivation to have fellowship with another being.

No other agenda and not holding anything back.  Now that the relationship has been restored, don’t let other distractions take the place of what God has put in front of us. Pray that God would open our eyes to see what is good and what the Lord desires for us.

Pastor Brent

Give Me Your Words

“And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for the Jews and Gentiles alike. ”
— Ephesians 6:19

Paul is dealing with two completely opposite cultures, sound familiar? He is doing so not by highlighting one culture against the other, but rather asking for prayers from all that the Good News might be shared.

I'm seeing a split even in the supposed "church" from people up in arms at the far right Christians, who are in turn up in arms at the far left Christians. Sorry, you're both wrong. 

God is neither the author of confusion or division, and if you have a problem with your brother or sister you go to them. You do not rant about where people get their views. i.e. CNN or Fox, Facebook or Google. 

I'm afraid we've gotten so far from actually wanting God to lead us that He has gotten off to see if we notice He is gone.

If, and it's an interesting if, you are a believer and follower of Christ, then ask, with me, for prayers as to open the mystery of the Good News; not to close dialog because we have chosen to close grace for people who don't agree with us or share our same vision of Jesus.

Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, black and white, right and left, gay and straight, it's not about who's the loudest or, in our view right or wrong; it's that the Good News gives us all a place of repentance and peace in Christ. 

Pastor Brent

Wisdom Needs To Reign

“Wisdom cries aloud in the open air and raises her voice in the public places; she calls out at the street corners and speaks out to entrances at city gates: “How long, you whose lives have no purpose, will you love thoughtless living? How long will scorners find pleasure in mocking? How long will fools hate knowledge?””
— Prov. 1:20-22

Wisdom

Need To Reign

These are valid questions we need to ask ourselves. And if when you read this you thought, "yeah, how long are those idiots going to think like that, maybe you're not ready for wisdom. Which would be sad. If I cannot admit that I have a problem, it will never even be addressed, much less fixed. 

But how, how do I address something so vital that earlier in this Proverb it clearly states that the fear (think respect) of the Lord is the BEGINNING of wisdom. You will not capture it all at first glance, but it is the start to how God wants to speak to you individually. Recently and reluctantly I was pulled into a debate over facts and the interpretation of them. The Holy Spirit was pretty clearly trying to get me to back off but, I was totally in the right and on the side of truth.....so I pushed past His warning. Guess what? No one changed their opinion and now it will be even harder to introduce God's love and favor back into future conversations. But I won, right?

Let's address how Solomon said we can get a handle on our own agenda and move forward. Prov. 1:23 Repent when I reprove-I will pour out my Spirit upon you, I will make My words known to you.

Unless we are slow on the uptake or in denial, this is what we all need. God's Words. So, I repent, I accept that I was simply in my own way and making my own opinion to have preeminence over what God wanted. And going forward allow me to express His desire for His people, whether or not they know they are His.

Pastor Brent

God Weeps

 
 

And God looks down on the earth and sees the fighting in the middle of a plague and he weeps. He sees people arguing over their own fear and doubt and turning into hate and He weeps.

He sees those who purport to be his children, wrapped up in some other agenda, not of His doing, and He weeps.

Jesus wept when He felt the hurt of his friend's death and Lazarus's sisters grief. God got angry in the Old Testament when He saw the people following hard after every destructive thing they could imagine and were unwilling to be led to peace.

But now, He weeps. We have not turned from that which is unattainable but we have turned from the simple belief in His Son, to our own destruction. And God weeps. Jesus lamented over Jerusalem in His time that the Father had so many times tried to envelope them under His wing but they would not. And God wept. 

I have to ask myself, am I making God weep? I am certainly not above opinion as to what is happening and have surely voiced some things bordering on giving God pause, but I desperately do not want to make God weep. So, turn my heart God into that which will cause you to sing over me songs of deliverance that our nation may be healed and your kingdom might come in a powerful and healing way. Please God do not let your weeping over us be in vain.

 Pastor Brent

How to Treat People

“Furthermore, if anyone does not obey what we are saying in this letter, take note of him and have nothing to do with him, so that he will be ashamed. 15 But don’t consider him an enemy; on the contrary, confront him as a brother and try to help him change.”
— 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15

This is a very delicate statement for where we are as a fellowship and as a nation and as a people of faith. First question, determining what they are saying in this letter. Second question, who gets to determine that who needs to be talked to (again, framed by the context of this letter) and how we should bring this message.

How many of us enjoy being corrected? I see no hands. But how many of us truly believe we are doing everything exactly as God has asked us to? Again, no hands. It is part of the reason the apostles ask us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, so that we can check our headings with reasonable, Christian brothers and sisters and see if our lives match with Christ's teachings.

So, when those who are mature in the faith and have been proven to have a true sense of what God is at least about, speak to us, we should be able to listen. There have been many turning points in my life, and many who want to point out things they don't agree with; but the people who have stopped long enough to point out dangerous or unproductive parts of my life are those who have seen many faults but use their power of revelation wisely knowing that only some of what we are working through is deadly.

Be those people. Even if we get to the place where we might have to tell someone we are backing away from them for a time, it is only to get them to be ashamed of their behavior so that we can welcome them back. Never treating them as a leper, but as a brother needing our love. This whole life is about restoration. Of you, of me, of those of us who oppose even ourselves. Help us return to God the Father this day.

Pastor Brent