The Explosion in my Apartment

“Ugh. Another answering machine,” I thought. I’m not sure there were any more coal dealers in the phone book. I had called several and every one that I called was away for Christmas. After a year and a half in Berlin, I no longer lived with the woman I thought I would marry. (This was before I became a Christian.) I no longer had central heat. I had a coal furnace…but no coal.

“I can get coal at the building supply store,” I thought. It was a forty five minute trip to get there. Carrying as much coal as I could, I still could only bring enough home for a day or two at a time. Until the building supply store didn’t get their shipment.

The furnace looked like a big ceramic box: nothing complicated. There was an iron door about 10 inches square at the bottom on one end. The whole thing was five or six feet tall by 2 feet deep and 3 feet across and had a chimney at the top of the side farthest from the little door. When I say, “ceramic”, I don’t mean the whole thing was ceramic, rather it was covered in ceramic tiles. So when I had wet laundry, it worked well to hang my laundry on. A string fit nicely in the grooves between the tiles and then held the laundry against the furnace. I didn’t have a washing machine, or a dryer and paying for a dryer was expensive. So why bother? I had this great, big, hot box in my bedroom that dried my clothing just fine…or so I thought…until I ran out of coal.

“I’ll just get wood for today. It’s just a big box anyway, right? There won’t be any harm.” So, I bought wood instead of coal. Wood, unfortunately, doesn’t burn like coal. With coal, the fire is actually in the coal. When wood burns, it gives off gasses when heated and then the gasses burn…unless there isn’t enough oxygen for the flammable gasses to burn. Remember the big, simple, box that was my furnace? It wasn’t as simple as I thought. Coal just burns more slowly if there isn’t enough oxygen to burn quickly. Then the smoke gets routed in a sort of zig zag pattern through the inside of the furnace so that as much heat as possible is sucked out of the smoke and is used to heat the room. When you burn wood in it, though, that zig-zag slowly fills up with those un-burned flammable gasses until the air inside the furnace goes critical and then, “poof,” or “bang,” depending on your luck.

Remember the laundry? Those ceramic tiles are just held on with clay. Get it wet and the tiles come right off. That’s how those furnaces are repaired. Did I know that, as a foreigner? No. Did anyone tell me? No. Am I thankful no one told me not to hang my wet laundry on my coal furnace? Yes. When those furnaces get old, sometimes they go, “bang” and the top comes off, flying across the room. If you are lucky, you won’t be under the hundred pounds of clay, iron and ceramic tile when it lands. If I hadn’t hung my clothing on my furnace to dry before putting wood in it, it might have gone “bang” instead of “poof”. I might not have seen the little black puffs of smoke come out from between those tiles except for my laundry getting them wet.

Or, someone might have told me not to put wood in my coal furnace…even if I’m out of coal and I’m cold. Then, I might not have blown up my furnace (even gently) and had to go two weeks without heat.

Deu 10:19 So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Do you know any foreigners? If so, ask them about differences between where they are now and where they are from. Maybe give tips on how to live here. Perhaps you can prevent them from suddenly hearing “bang” or “poof”. You might save that foreigner’s life. They might appreciate it. Seriously, though, it might be rare for you to be able to find something that will keep anyone from accidentally causing an explosion. However, if you ask them about themselves, you can show them that you care. Maybe the above experience of mine has opened your eyes to something that you didn't even know existed just a short time ago, but is common in another country. Knowing about such things can make it easier to know what to talk about with foreigners, which can make it easier for you to "show love to foreigners."

Have you had any similarly bizarre experiences? Have you traveled? If so, you probably have lived through some shocking things. Why not let us know about those in the comments? Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you about it.

Earning an Escape from the Flames

"What you are asking for, I cannot sell you," said the old man.

Rufus replied, "If I'm not offering enough, I'll pay more. How much do you want?" They walked steadily and quickly, but calmly through the city as others ran past frantically.

But the old man answered, "There is no price. I'm sorry."

Amidst angry shouts around him, Rufus persisted. "But, you've offered it to me hundreds of times before...I just wasn't ready."

"You weren't ready? Are you sure you weren't just unwilling?"

The old man had volunteered at the orphanage for years. He told all the children wonderful stories whenever he came. But he also told the children to follow him and that doing so would be both extremely difficult and more fun than anything they'd ever done before.

"Well, I don't know. The things you said didn't make any sense to me. How was I supposed to know that the things you were saying were true?" The old man had also told them what would happen to their city. The old man had told of the problems the city had: the rising tensions and the unwillingness of the people who lived there to do what was right. The people who lived there always wanted more and more: even after they’d been given as much as they could use without hurting themselves.

"I know and understand that. But, they didn't make sense to Jimmy, either, and yet he is now coming with me."

"Why does he get to go and I have to stay? He doesn't have anything to give you! Look how much money I've offered you and he hasn't offered you anything!"

"He loves me. He is a child. Jimmy trusted me and came when I called him. He has no other parents. He needs me. You have said over and over again that you don't need my help. You are all grown now. Your father came to claim you years ago and you willingly went with him. Don't you remember the story of the soup kitchen?"

Rufus knew it well. The old man had explained to him and the other orphans using a story about how strange people could be. He said that he had run a soup kitchen for a time and that one night a proud man came in who had lost his home. He was still well dressed, in spite of being homeless. The man had no more money because of legal difficulties and problems with his own business. The proud man had wanted to earn his soup. The old man told him that he couldn't do that.

"But, I don't want a hand out. I don't want to take anything for free. Let me work for my food."

The old man could only reply, "You are welcome to work. You are welcome to eat. But the food is free, whether you work or not. You cannot earn it. All the ingredients have been donated. I promise all donors that I will never charge for what they have freely given. Should I put a price tag on it now? I cannot."

The proud man hadn't eaten in days and began to weep because he didn't want to take charity.

"But what does the soup kitchen have to do with us...here and now?" asked Rufus. Meanwhile, as they had walked, they had come to the docks and the old man began to board a ship, little Jimmy running quietly alongside him to keep up. The old man gave the fare for himself and Jimmy and continued to explain to Rufus, "When I told you not to steal, you did it anyway. Others punished you. I could not. I was just a volunteer. When I told you to tell me about your homework and let me help you with it, you would not. Your grades suffered for it. You didn't trust me in the little things. Jimmy did and does. Jimmy is clearly willing to be my son. You didn't seek me early. We haven't spoken in years. But now, when the things I told you would happen have finally come to pass, now you claim to want to be my son, but you aren't." By this time, everyone had boarded the ship except the old man and Jimmy. Then, they walked up the gang plank, too. The ship began to pull away.

Rufus looked out at the large ship as it kept pulling further from the dock. He had to speak ever louder in order for the old man to hear him.

"But I'll work for you. I'll do anything you say. Whatever you ask me, I'll do."

"Rufus, you've said that before, but you never keep your word. You have always lied to me. And anyway, I can't turn the ship around. The gap is now so large, you couldn't leap it if you tried. And, remember the soup kitchen."

Looking back, Rufus could see the city on fire. With all the noise in the background and the growing distance to the ship, Rufus was now yelling so loud it was hurting his throat.

He said, "I was only in the orphanage because I thought my father was dead, but he wasn't. Now I know my father is an evil man. But you were always kind to me. Even though I didn't do what you said, the things you told me...I see now that you always only gave me good advice. Please take me with you. And why do you keep bringing up the soup kitchen?"

Rufus began to sweat from the heat of the burning city. He was also sobbing by this time. The buildings in that city were made mostly of wood and it had been dry lately. The fires were spreading quickly, even while the people rioted instead of trying to put them out.

The old man yelled, "You don't really love me. You haven't ever loved me. You are only saying those things now to try to escape the flames. Immigrations would never allow it. You have no more time to make those decisions. You are too old now. I can't bring a grown man home and claim to have adopted him. This is your city. This is where you belong. I keep bringing up the soup kitchen to remind you that there are some things you just can't 'earn'."

The fires were close enough now that Rufus could feel pain from the flames, and he could no longer see the ship because of the smoke. It was so thick he was in complete darkness. As he tried to watch the ship sail away, Rufus gnashed his teeth in agony from the heat, but there was no way to earn a place aboard the ship. He couldn't buy a ticket any more now than he could pay the old man to adopt him. His wicked, natural father had deserted him again at the first sign of danger and his chance to go with his savior was gone. The last words Rufus heard were, "There are some things you just can't 'earn'."

Jimmy and the old man watched from the ship as the smoke flooded over the docks and absorbed Rufus but were unable to do anything to help him. Jimmy asked the old man, “Daddy, what is Rufus doing now?” He answered, “I don’t know, Jimmy. I can’t see him any longer.” With that, they sailed on to the old man’s home land. There were, of course, times when Jimmy did things he wasn’t supposed to. But, he kept learning. When he was punished for something, he would learn not to do that thing again and he stopped doing it. His relationship with the old man continued until the old man’s death many years later. Then, he went on to teach other children how to live uprightly as well. And yet, he always knew that his relationship with the old man did not exist because Jimmy was “better” than Rufus. They had both lied. They had both stolen things. But Jimmy never left the old man for long. And if he did something wrong, he came back and apologized. The relationship didn’t exist because Jimmy paid the old man anything. It wasn’t there because Jimmy “worked” for the old man, but because they were both willing to maintain a relationship.

There is an old man who wants to adopt you, too. Are you willing to be his child? If you wait too long, one day, there won’t be any more time for you to decide to change, either. If you decided once that you wanted him to adopt you, have you kept up the relationship? Or have you walked away and only return when you are in trouble? What kind of a relationship is that if you only show up when you want something from him?

If you have questions or comments, I’d love to hear what you think. Thank you for reading.

How to Lead a Valuable Life

You need to lead a valuable life. Perhaps that's obvious, but most of us drift through life without much thought to how to make ourselves more valuable. If you want to be valuable, there are several steps involved. First, you have to decide that being valuable is your goal. Second, you have to know what your goal means. Third, you have to know how to achieve it. Of the three, once you've achieved the first two, the third is easy.

Why focus on being valuable? The easy answer is, "Because God commands it." Now, he doesn't come right out and say it that way, but consider the two commandments from the Bible which Jesus said are the greatest: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Now, when the Bible commands us to "Love God" and "Love our neighbors", what is it saying? First and foremost, remember that love is a verb. In the case of those two commandments, it is not only in active voice, it is COMMANDED! Sometimes people lose the idea that love can be commanded, but know this: love isn't just a feeling. It can be commanded because we can choose to act out our love toward others regardless of how we feel.

What does love have to do with being valuable? The opposite of love is not hate, but rather selfishness. There are only two ways to lead a life. You can be self centered or others focused. There is very little room in between.  If you seek to gratify your self, that path can only lead to failure. A very rich man from the early twentieth century was once asked how much money would be enough for him. He answered, "A little bit more." We are no different. One of my children really likes Pokemon cards. As a way to help him understand himself better, I asked him that same question, "How many will be enough? 100 cards? 500 cards?" He answered, "Some of my friends have binders and binders full of them." The answer doesn't really depend on some absolute, measurable goal, but rather on measuring up to those around him. What about you? Do your goals include measurable results?Do those results make sense on their own, or are your goals aimed simply at having as much as the next person or being as good as the next person? Are your goals all focused around how to get more _______ for yourself? (Go ahead and fill in the blank: money, power, prestige, stuff, comfort or other physical pleasures...it doesn't really matter what you put in that blank unless it is that you want more of God in your life...) To see a verse which talks about selfishness, read Isaiah 56. Towards the end of that chapter it says (of people not following God)

Isa 56:11

Yea, [they are] greedy dogs [which] can never have enough, and they [are] shepherds [that] cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

The one who follows God is satisfied...not necessarily because God pours out money and possessions and power on those who follow him, but rather because God commands us to be content with what we have...and because he commands us to love our neighbors as our selves.

This is why the idea of selfishness is important: we can never be filled by seeking only our own good. We can only be filled by giving to others. By seeking to empty ourselves, we find out how full we are. That's where contentment comes from. I'm not saying we can be content merely by giving. God has to have a hand in it. There's no value in giving away so much that you become homeless and are no longer taking care of your family. Poverty isn't valuable of itself, either. There are ways to be poor which benefit no one. The value comes not from being poor, but from serving God by serving others in his name.

I know I haven't spent much time writing about how to actually be more valuable. But, as it says at the beginning of this post, actually doing it is the easy part. God will make you more valuable if you decide that making yourself more valuable to others will help you to love them, which is the second greatest commandment. He tells us that if we love him, we'll keep his commandments. So, being loving toward others (and you know that doesn't mean just fawning over them or feeling a certain way towards them) is second in importance only to living out our holiness towards God. And, He doesn't command us to do anything He doesn't give us the ability to accomplish (1 Cr 10:13, Matt 11:30 & 1 Jo 5:3).

As always, I look forward to your comments. They are a huge help to me. Thank you.

How to Receive Many Benefits from God

A reader recently posed a question about preachers taking the idea of the command for holiness out of context and turning it into a works gospel. I told him I would write about that soon, but I have been finding it challenging because there are so many aspects to these issues. I think, though, that I have found a way to write about it that will be positive, encouraging, true and helpful. (And I have a lot more to say about avoiding the idea of "earning" salvation...so if you still think I'm too much in that direction after reading this, stay tuned! I have more to say on that topic and will deal with it more in future posts.) For now,would you like help in receiving benefits from God? If so, read on.

First, what are the benefits of a good relationship with God? I know of thirteen things one receives beginning right at the first moment of salvation, but to keep this post short, I'm only going to list four of them.

1. He provides for us. (see Ps. 78:20 and following)
2. He heals us if we get sick. (Acts 4:10-12)
3. He protects us. (Pro 18:10)
4. He forgives us and cleanses us from unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

(For details on how you can learn about all 13 things and a lot more, you can click here). To be even more general than the items in the list above, God is just (Deu 32:4) and he is good! (Psa 73:1) He wants to give us the desires of our hearts. And yet, he commands us to love him with all our hearts, minds, bodies and souls. If we love him, we are to keep his commandments (John 14:15). We are told that if we do not love him, we will not keep his commandments (John 14:24). Looked at from the other direction, if we don't keep his commandments, not only do we not love him, we don't even know him. (1 John 2:3-4) So, what are we showing the desires of our hearts to be if we are showing him that we don't love him? Jesus said we are either with him or against him. So, if you don't love him, you will want to get away from him, or even fight against him. I don't want to get into condemnation, though. Rather, let's think about a positive example.

Imagine a boy on a baseball team. Can you imagine him telling the coach, "Coach! I love playing baseball, but can you just let me sit on the bench throughout the whole game? In fact, I don't want to play at all. I just want to sit here and watch the whole season." It doesn't make any sense, does it? No, the one who really loves baseball is going to show up early for every practice and be the last one to leave. He'll want to play in every game. He will probably even practice on his own outside of the full team's practices. What does this have to do with Jesus and whether or not we follow him?

Jesus tells us that his commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3) and his yolk is easy and his burden [that which he asks us to do/carry] light. When he gives us his supernatural power to live rightly before him, our lives are changed. When we see how wonderfully he has changed our lives, we will not be able to help but to talk about him. It will be like the apostles in Acts 4:20, "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." So, rather than wondering what will happen if we DON'T do what he says, we should be overjoyed to have the opportunity to be ABLE to do what he commands! Then it will be like the boy who plays baseball every chance he gets. It will be obvious to everyone how much you love Jesus. Now, keeping that comparison in mind, which do you think has a better chance of scoring one for the team? The person who is out doing the work of our Lord, or the person who just wants to sit on the sidelines and watch? It is really not a question of whether we have to work. It is a question of whether or not we are even in the game! Are you showing up and asking to be put in? Or is it just there for entertainment...a mere spectator sport?

The last point I'd like to make here, since this is supposed to be a post about receiving benefits from God is just this: In Mat 10:10 (NIV), the verse ends with, "for the worker is worth his keep." If you were a professional baseball player, but you weren't preparing for the games, if you weren't asking to be put in, if you didn't have a good attitude about playing the game, if you really weren't committed to the team's goals, do you think you'd keep receiving the benefits of being one of the workmen on that team for long? Would you really be worth your keep? This is how I look at working for the Lord.

I normally go out street preaching Saturday nights. However, times do come up when I can't make it. For example, sometimes I'm out of town (and I try to bring Bibles with me to give away wherever I am). Sometimes, my wife is out of town and I don't have any childcare. So, I can't go out street preaching. I don't feel like I'm condemned for not managing to find a sitter to be at my house from 10:30 PM till 2:30 AM. That would be a pretty hard sitter to find. However, when I can make it out there, the whole rest of my week goes better for me. God provides me with a peace that is beyond understanding. When I don't go, I have trouble sleeping. I don't get along with people as well. So, does God provide for me? Absolutely. Do I get a pay check signed by him (or a church)? No. But his provision is every bit as real as if it had a church's name on it. I work for him, regardless of who signs my checks and I hope you do, too.

Please let me know what you think. I always value comments.

What Does it Mean: To be Dead to Sin?

The Bible has multiple verses which indicate we are to be dead to sin. Two of them are Rom 6:2 and Rom 6:11, which follow (with a little context):
Rom 6:1   What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2   God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

One of the greatest divisions within Christianity is in the understanding of what sin is. If you look up the greek word that was translated into English as, "sin", you'll find several similar meanings. (Go here for a thorough definition.)  Most people who've done ONLY this part come away with the idea that it means to err or miss the mark. Now that doesn't seem too hard to understand, does it? The trouble is that what you get from the dictionary is only a short explanation of the meaning behind the word in Greek as it existed when Christ took on flesh and preached among us. However, Christ didn't just leave the word as he found it. Rather, he (and his followers) added meaning to that original context.

When you read the Bible to see what it was that the Bible means with the word sin in the context of what Christ meant with it, you can look at James 4:17 since that verse tells what sin is. That verse says, "Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does [it] not, to him it is sin." Notice that it says, "to him" it is sin. Why? There's the idea of the importance of intentions. We see this importance also in Mat 5:28, where Jesus tells us, "But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." The part where it says, "to lust after her" shows us that it is not the looking which is sin (adultery), but rather that the intentions are the problem.  If a man is in a crowd of people looking for his wife or daughter and sees a bunch of women who are neither his wife nor his daughter, he has not sinned because of having looked at a bunch of women...unless he has intended to lust after them. The importance of intentions are also evident in Luke 6:45 which states, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." So, when you read the Bible, keep in mind that the word "sin" was not used the same way in all places. Think about what was meant by it. Is a particular text speaking about any mistake you make, or only mistakes with wrong intentions?

My point here is that if your ultimate goal in life is to serve God rather than to serve self, then ultimately, your intentions will be right. Then, when you look at people, whether you are a man looking at women or a woman looking at men, your intention will be to be a servant of others rather than to be trying to get what isn't rightfully yours. If your ultimate goal is to serve God, then when you realize you've done something God didn't want you to do, you will fix your course and again serve God (that's repentance). If you believe in God, and are intent upon serving him, then he will forgive you for your past sins (if you ask). Then, he can also cleanse your conscience of your past misdeeds. From this perspective, God is not being unreasonable when he tells us to "be perfect even as the father in heaven is perfect," because he isn't telling us to never again make a mistake, rather he is telling us to follow after him and give up all wrong-doing in our lives. This is what is meant by being "dead to sin." Using only the meaning of, "to miss the mark, to err" it is completely impossible to ever "stop sinning," like Jesus commands us to do in numerous places (see John 5:14 and 8:11 for examples). If, though, Jesus only meant to live up to the truth that we know, every one of us can do that by simply asking Jesus to cleanse our consciences and give us right intentions. Then we can act out of those right motives and have confidence before God.

Now, you have a choice to make: Are you going to go through the rest of life simply saying, "No one is perfect," and therefore thinking that it doesn't make any difference how you actually live since you can't be perfect anyway? Or are you going to give up serving self and live your life to serve Christ thereby doing what is right?

Has this post been helpful to you? Am I being ridiculous? Have I neglected to take something into account and you can help me grow closer to Christ by correcting me? I'll be O.k. with your comments regardless of whether you like or hate my views. Let me know what you think. I value your feedback. Thanks and God bless.

Patience: The King of Parenting Skills

My wife often gets mad at me for stating the obvious, but I do it anyway. I sometimes say things to her like, "Honey? We have children." Another favorite of mine is, "Honey? We're married." I figure these things are SO obvious, that saying them is funny. Seeing her get flustered because I've said these things is funny, too, because it is such an easy situation to create. Mind you, we've been married almost fourteen years and our oldest son is 12 (we have three). I don't say these things to be malicious. Rather, it is kind of a game for me. (Not a game I play often, either, but one doesn't need to play it often.) What's the point in my writing this?

My wife is gone on a trip for the weekend. It is 2:41 AM. My three year old has woken me up every 20 minutes or so since about 9 PM. His tummy hurts. His leg hurts. He wants something to eat. He wants to talk. He wants his Mommy. You name it, he wants it. He isn't sick. I think he's fine, really, other than that Mommy isn't home and he knows it and doesn't know what to do about it.

In situations like these, there isn't really anything that can be done but to endure. It is like when a child is sick, or during the times when one has to drive children around town: to baseball practice, to or from school, to or from the grocery store, day in, day out. While we are doing all the mundane tasks that make up the bulk of our day to day lives, there isn't really anything that can be done about it. Life isn't like TV or the movies, where something interesting is always happening. Often we have to find ways to appreciate the little things about what's going on. We need to keep looking at the same old, same old and keep finding new ways of seeing it so that it isn't boring. I was just reading someone else's blog post about, "writing what you know," and it made me think of this. This is something I know a LOT about (I think, while I'm watching my three year old eat his 10,000'th bowl of cereal.) Don't think I'm complaining, either. I love my children. I really do. When I look at his little nose and hear his little three year old voice, it makes all the monotony O.k.

Perhaps this doesn't need to be said, but I'm going to say it anyway. Parenting takes a lot of patience.

How Dracula Can Help your Preaching

Do you ever have to work at coming up with topics to preach on?  You may well not be a pastor, but you might still want to be able to share the gospel with people, (or maybe you just like vampires!) and if you have new ideas on how to do that, it will make it easier to keep engaging those around you. So, here’s a new idea for you: copy Dracula! (the book, not the villain) I know that sounds like an odd thing to recommend, but here’s what I mean. We all know that when we want to become better at something, one way to do that is to copy those who are the best at it. Bram Stoker’s book, Dracula, is one of the greatest horror stories we have.  On the one hand, the Bible tells us that “God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2Ti 1:7) So, I’m not trying to get you to be afraid. However, the Bible also tells us, “The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do [his commandments]…” (Psa 111:10)  The second part of Proverbs 1 is written as being from the voice of wisdom and ends with the words, “but whoever listens to me [wisdom] will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” So, it will be of great use to our audiences if we can bring them the fear of the Lord. I’m not saying that all our time should be spent trying to make people afraid. Rom 2:4 says, “…the goodness of God leads to repentance.” So, our preaching has to be balanced. But, people love to read about villains they love to hate, otherwise, Dracula would not have been so successful (as a book). So, how can Dracula be useful to us in our efforts to teach people the fear of the Lord? First of all, he sticks in your mind, as your words to people about the Lord should. Another thing about Dracula that makes him a great villain is that he is obviously bad. One of the biggest hurdles we face when trying to evangelize is that people don’t actually see sin as being bad. The book, Dracula, shows us how to make things that are bad appear as being bad. Jonathan Harker, the main character aside from Dracula himself, doesn’t really understand what Dracula is for the first several chapters. And yet, he is still subject to mounting fear. One of the biggest things that bothers him about his situation is the isolation. He is all alone in a castle where his only companion is his captor. Why is he all alone? Although I didn’t get this part from the book, sin and evil isolate us. Sin breaks our relationships with those around us and with God. Thus, it is natural that Dracula must be largely alone. That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed reading some ways that fiction can be used to strengthen our message about the most real subject there is: God.

Tell me what you think. I’d love to read your reactions to my ideas.

Winning the War

He was coming at me...with a sword, and not just any sword, but a sharpened, two edged sword. And, he was fast. But, no matter, I thought, because I'd studied Aikido, a Japanese martial art. I'd trained against attacks with (and without) weapons. I'd also studied western style fencing, and wrestling. I was well trained and agile with excellent balance. Although I had no weapons other than my hands, I was not afraid. In fact, I was even enjoying myself, and was proud of it. No matter which way my attacker sliced or stabbed at me, I just got out of the way. I could dodge the best offense he could muster: not a problem. I felt like I could go on like this for ever.

The problem was that my opponent was Jesus. And, even though it was like a game, after a time, I DID gradually begin to wear out. I was getting tired and slowing down. My opponent, however, was not slowing down or tiring out. I realized that regardless of how well trained I was, regardless of how fit I was or could have been, regardless of how clever I might be, Jesus was stronger, smarter and had greater endurance. God does not wear out. He doesn't need to sleep. He doesn't even get tired. So, how did I win?

Sometimes, if you lose one battle, it can cause you to win a war. And, if it does, isn't it worth it?

Additionally, over time, I figured out that Jesus wasn't trying to kill me. Yes, he was attacking me with a sword, but he kept going for my arms. He was trying to cut them off not because it would damage me, but to replace them. He wanted me to be able to use his arms and hands. The Bible says that we are to be Jesus' hands and feet and he wanted me to have hands and arms that would never wear out, that would never grow tired. If I could just give up my pride and stop trying to be clever; if I could just give in to Jesus and stop trying to be in control, then I could stop fighting with him as my opponent and start fighting with him as my strength and my deliverer. By using His body parts, I could run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. By giving up and letting Jesus win the battle, by letting Jesus have his way with my arms, I could just change sides! By surrendering to Jesus, we win in the end. After surrendering, I no longer had to fight alone, and with God on my side, I might not always FEEL like I could go on fighting forever, but it would still be true. And, it would be more true, in fact, than if I just FELT like I could go on forever. As Christians, we win in the end.

Why This Matters to YOU!

Are you fighting with Jesus, or against him? We are all engaged in a war. Are you sure you're on the right side? I had the above dream about 13 years ago, and I'm still finding ways to give up more of my life to him. And every time I do, my life gets better. What is there in your life that Jesus is trying replace with something better? All these years later, I've just recently started getting to the point where I can tell people about this dream. I had to give up a lot of my pride and fears. I had to keep letting Jesus give me more of himself so that I could learn to trust him enough to really tell people about him in a powerful way. What about you? What's your story? I'd like to hear it. Please leave a comment...whether you love or hate this post in terms of style or content, if you have questions or a link to your own blog with more details, it is all welcome. And, aside from how this post about my dream might affect you, is there someone else you could talk to about something supernatural in your life that might help them? I expect I'll post again on related topics, because they are important. Until then, keep thinking about these kinds of questions. Find ways to let Jesus win in your life. You'll be glad you did. Thanks.

I Said Something New

I said something new tonight. I often find myself saying the same things over and over again. Even though I like to think that what I tell people and what I ask people is spirit lead, people so often come up with the same comments, the same questions, week after week, my responses often end up being the same. But, tonight was different. I said something new, that I hadn't prepped for particularly and yet that I liked and I found effective. So, I thought I would share it with you here.

Someone new came by the street corner I usually go to in order to witness or do street preaching. We got to talking and when it seemed like we were running out of things to talk about regarding his questions or comments about the preaching, I told him something he wasn't expecting, but which made sense to him. People often say things like, "You can make the Bible say anything you want," but I don't believe that. Naturally, people can twist the scriptures; but we are all responsible for figuring out for ourselves what is true. None of us will be judged in the end based on what our pastors or other spiritual leaders believe. We are only going to be judged based on whether we did what we PERSONALLY knew to be right. I asked him if he reads the Bible on a regular basis. He said he does. I asked him how he reads it and I gave him some examples of different ways people might do that. He said he generally reads the things around what his pastor preached on the prior Sunday. So, I encouraged him to read the WHOLE Bible and ask himself two questions. First, what is the purpose of what he's reading? And second, what is he supposed to get out of what he's reading?

When we read the Bible, if we are to apply what we've read, we have to understand the context. One of the easiest ways to misinterpret the Bible is to pull something out of context. The thing that can be difficult is figuring out how NOT to pull things out of context! By that, I mean there are a lot of different ways to ask the two questions I posed to him. What's the purpose of the Bible as a whole? What's the purpose of the particular chapter I'm reading at any given time? What's the purpose of the book of the Bible that I happen to be reading? Those same variations on the question of the purpose of the material can be applied to "What am I supposed to get out of it?"

He had said that we were putting way too much emphasis on sin in our message. My response was, "If you haven't even read the whole Bible, how do you know what the proper emphasis should be?" More than 3/4 of the Bible is Old Testament, and yet more than a few people who call themselves Christians think it just doesn't even apply to them. All they pay attention to is the New Testament. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever. God doesn't change, and many people still throw out the Old Testament all together. Rather than thinking that the purpose of the Bible (as a whole) is to just show us how overwhelmingly in love with us God is, I believe that the main purpose of the Bible is to show us how important it is that we stay as far away from sin as we can. The Bible tells us how really bad sin is and that it is a large part of God's love for us that he showed us a way back to him in spite of how really bad we've been by sinning. Then, also, it shows us that we don't need to keep on living that way any more.

There were numerous other things that we discussed, but the upshot of the whole conversation was that he really appreciated me and my friends and what we were doing and he said he would start reading the Bible differently now. He told me he'd start studying it more and really start thinking about the big picture rather than just thinking about the content of his pastor's sermons.

I've started praying differently lately, too. These are the common elements I've generally started asking for prior to going out to preach or witness to people. I ask that God send people with open hearts, ears and eyes to see, hear and understand the truth. I also ask that he give me the right words to say to people at the right times and in the right ways to the right people. I've been finding that he's answering those prayers. As I see that he answers my prayers, I believe I'm praying with more confidence. And, over time, I'm seeing him answer those kinds of prayers more and more. I find it overwhelmingly worth while and exciting to see people willing to reconsider their lives and their walk with Christ and the things they believe about God and the Bible. I see these things just about every week.

God's word does not return unto him void, but accomplishes that for which He intended it. Praise be to God and God bless all of you in your efforts to serve him!

Three Reasons to Change Your Screen Name on Twitter

I hope you find this post both humorous and helpful. Without more introduction, please enjoy my reasoning.

The first situation when you might want to change you screen name is if you were drunk or high when you picked your screen name and it has some really crude and offensive meaning when that's really just not your normal personality. I'm assuming that if you did this, then you don't have many followers yet. While it seems like there are people out there who manage to have large numbers of followers and are really crude and offensive, they have to be consistently that way. So, if your name isn't true to who you are, you should change it. And, if you don't have many followers anyway, it won't hurt much to do so.

Second, if the mafia is after you and you think that changing your screen name might make it harder for them to find you. Now, seriously, if someone is trying to hunt you down and take your life, you might want to just have your twitter account deleted all together and don't create another one. But, if you just can't get twitter out of your mind, at least don't use your real name or picture on your profile.

The third case is if you are into doing things that most people would think just mean you are completely crazy, like street preaching, and you want it to take a while for people to figure it out. I'm not suggesting that you need to hide your true nature from people. On the contrary, even if you are a street preacher, that's ok. I love street preaching and care a great deal for other street preachers. But, if you want people other than just your street preaching friends to read what you write, then you might want to pick a screen name that doesn't turn people off before they ever even read what you've written. Of course, if you start out using a screen name like @strt_evangelist (like I did), you aren't going reach a very large audience. Most people (even those who consider themselves Christians) don't like street preachers. At the same time, the goal is to get your message out to as many people as you can.  Therefore, if you can keep people reading long enough to get something out of what you've written, everyone will be better off.

Clearly, none of these will apply to the majority of people, but you can understand why someone in any of the above situations would want to change their screen name. Sometimes it is good to not have people recognize you, and sometimes it isn't. For example, if you have street preacher friends that don't know you REALLLY well, but you still want them to be able to figure out who you are, the whole name change thing will be a little risky. I have one friend on twitter who quit following me after I changed my name. When I asked him about it he said, "nothing personal, we follow those who post Christian, Bible & evangelism related tweets & love street preachers & evangelists."

I'm sure everyone understands that just changing your name doesn't suddenly change who it is that you care for or love. I fully expect everyone realizes that you can change your bio without changing the content of your tweets. Now, I've recently broadened the content of my tweets in order to (hopefully) attract a larger audience to reading Bible verses and evangelism related tweets. However, when you change your name, sometimes people just can't tell who you are any more and so you risk misunderstandings and some people will fall away.

Hopefully some readers will get something out of my experiences and can avoid losing friends they care about.  Now, it may be that the benefits outweigh the risks, but be careful and try to pick a good name early on in your twitter career so that you can minimize the damages a name change can cause.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your feedback!

@DaveDerPunkt

Why Evangelize?

It might seem obvious to you why people "evangelize," but I was surprised tonight to realize that I had forgotten. So, I thought I'd write about it a bit. You see, while I was out preaching tonight on a street corner in East Lansing, Michigan, someone asked me a question. That's not unusual. Every time I go out preaching people ask me questions. However, I don't know that anyone had ever asked me this particular question under quite these circumstances before. It surprised me; not so much the question itself, but their reaction and my reaction (internally) to their reaction. The question was if I had ever actually saved anyone (or something like that). That question and that subject have both come up before. But tonight, it really got me to thinking. I fired off a response quickly at the time as usual, but the more important thing was what came up after the guy left.

I've recently heard the name Simon Sinek in multiple contexts, once at work and once when I heard him interviewed on a podcast unrelated to my job. He recently published a book called, "Start with Why." Implicit in the title of his book is the idea that we need to keep in mind not just what our goals are, and not just the minutia of what it is we are actually doing at any given time, but also WHY we are doing the things we are doing. I love that idea, because our motivations really do have a huge impact on how we do things and on what directions we go with our lives.

That said, I'll now get back to this particular guy's question. By asking it, he was implying that he didn't think my methods were effective. And, he was implying that to be "effective", I should actually be getting people saved. It is funny, because I think we all can very easily slip into the idea that "getting people saved" is what evangelism is all about. My understanding of the word, though, is that "evangelism" is about spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Are you asking, "What's the difference?" Well, in a perfect world, there wouldn't be a difference. In a perfect world, though, everyone would already be a Christ follower, so we wouldn't need evangelists! In my world, I generally have time to myself after my kids are in bed. But, I work a 9-5 job during the day and if I don't get a good night's rest, I don't perform too well at my job. So, I tend to not go out after my kids are in bed during the week. That leaves the weekend. Where am I going to find people to talk to on the weekend? Since I live next door to a secular college town, the drinking district has a lot of traffic. If I'm going to spread the Good News, I think I should do that where there are lots of people. Jesus said, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." (Matt 9:12) I believe that since there are lots of people there who are sleeping around, doing drugs and drinking lots of alcohol, that's a great place to go since there are lots of people who need to hear about Jesus. Now, they generally don't like to hear what I have to say about Jesus, but that's not really the point. Lots of people didn't like to hear what Jesus had to say when he was here, either. I imagine that his "Repent or perish" message has never been particularly well received.

Mind you, I was involved in a Christmas production last month that saw hundreds upon hundreds of people make "first time decisions for Jesus Christ." But, while I was out street preaching, I don't think the young man who asked me if I've ever saved anyone was asking about that. My response to him was, "What difference does it make?" To him, it makes all the difference in the world. If I said to him, "Oh, I get people saved at a rate of several hundred a week," then I'm not sure how he would have reacted. Perhaps I could have gained his respect. Hopefully, by admitting that was not my response, I'm not losing your respect as a reader. However, is that why I'm writing this? Do I go out preaching on a street corner to gain the respect of man? Certainly not!

Why, then? I walk by faith. I know the voice of my Lord and I follow him. I see his work in my life and in the lives of those around me. I see the difference it makes to me and my walk when I go out to preach. I see the difference it makes in the minds of the people I talk to when they stop and have long conversations with me every week. Now, I know when I got saved that it wasn't because of a single conversation I had with any one individual. I know that the Lord was working with me on any number of different issues and questions I had over a period of many years. The Bible says, "One soweth, and another reapeth." (Jhn 4:37) If I'm to do unto others as I would have them do unto me, should I not be there for students when they have questions about Christianity? That's what I would have liked to have had when I was in college. Not that there weren't people around who would have liked to have the opportunity to answer my questions about Jesus when I was in college. But, the ones I asked (at that time), didn't have what I thought were good, well reasoned answers. Since then, I've researched those questions I had back then and found good, well reasoned answers. So, I believe I can now provide to others what was not available to me when I wanted it. Should I then be discouraged because I can't see the reaping being done? Should I stop sowing seeds and watering them just because I'm not blessed to be the one doing the harvesting? Heaven forbid!

He didn't stick around long enough to hear a response as long as what I've included here. But, two weeks in a row a member of the "Wicken religion" has come back and stayed to talk for well over an hour in the cold (it was 13 degrees Fahrenheit when we left tonight). He has also talked many times to my friends on campus when they've been there during the days. A Greek orthodox man came by again tonight who's been there before. He had many questions for us again as well. I've spoken to many Muslims, too, some of whom are there for the drinking others of whom have just gotten off at one of the three bus stops that are within a block of where I preach.

Years ago while I was reading the Bible, I came to Ez 3:17 (Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.) Up until that time, I had always thought that the term "Son of man" was used to refer to Christ. Then, that particular time, it was obvious to me that since it was a passage where the Lord was talking to Ezekiel and there was no reference to Christ, that could NOT be the only possible meaning to the phrase! What was I to do? It was as if the Lord had been talking directly to me. God is no respecter of persons and there is neither Jew nor Greek in the kingdom of God, so I couldn't claim that verse only applied to people preaching to natural Israel. That verse hit me like a freight train. I couldn't disobey my Lord and still call myself a Christian. So, I go out to warn a rebellious nation just like Ezekiel did. And, just like Ezekiel, they hate me for it. But, also like Ezekiel, I have received Ez 3:19 (Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.) That sounds to me a lot like I'm not responsible for getting results, just for delivering the warning.

As I said earlier, I hope I'm not causing any of you to think I'm no good as an evangelist by admitting that I've not yet personally led a single person in the prayer of salvation while out street preaching. I can see the seeds I plant growing, and I no longer feel guilty of not fulfilling my calling from Ez 3:17. And, I'm out to please God, not man. So, even if no man ever thinks of me as a "good" evangelist, I'm going to keep it up until God tells me to stop.