The Living Bible

I have a secret that not many people know about, until now I guess. I’m what’s known as a Bible Geek. If you've never heard that term before it’s not surprising because it’s not widespread in use. But a Bible Geek is someone who collects Bibles. I won’t tell you how many I have because you would probably consider me ridiculous after hearing the number but suffice to say, it’s a bunch of em.

When people come to my place or even my office and see that I have so many Bibles they are usually a little shocked. I’ve become very good at justifying my habit to others and once I get through my spiel they usually start asking Bible related questions. Almost everyone ask “So which one is your favorite”? I never know how to answer that because if I keep a Bible I really like it. See I have given away a lot more Bibles than I own, usually with the Book of John marked with the ribbon and a note with my phone number to call me with any questions. But in order to explain which Bible is my favorite? I need to share a little story 1st…




His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college.


He is brilliant. He is kind of profound and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college.


Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how to go about it.


One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and his wild hair. The service has already started, so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat.


The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now, people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything.


Bill gets closer and closer to the pulpit. When he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet.


By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick.

About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill.


Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and is wearing a three-piece suit. He is a godly man — very elegant, very dignified, and very courtly. He walks with a cane. As he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do.


How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?


It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy.


The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The minister can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.


When the deacon finally reaches Bill, the church watches as this elderly man drops his cane on the floor. With great difficulty, he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and worships with him so he won't be alone.


Everyone chokes up with emotion.


When the minister gains control, he says, "What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget."




So what is my favorite Bible? It’s the Living Bible, the Bible that I hope we all represent to those who may never have read one.


I think our greatest shortcoming as Christians can be how we interact with those we consider of the “World”. But the truth is we were all part of that world until “something” happened and that “something” was usually a “someone”.


As you go through your day and week think about that "someone" who made the difference in how you looked towards the faith you now have. Think about the way you perceived them at the time. Would someone that didn’t have Christ in their life perceive you that way?


Be careful how you live and how others see your life if you make it known that you follow Christ. You may be the only Bible some people will ever read.


Grace and peace,


Jeff

Who's your audience?

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

No matter what action we take, we are taking it for a reason, an audience if you will.

When I’m at work I wear certain clothes and keep a steady demeanor.  I do this because the clientele I service have that expectation of a person in my position.  You could say I’m playing to my audience.  I’m very mindful of what I say and do when I’m with my children.  Always attempting to validate the lessons and principles I represent to them.  Even when we aren’t aware of it, we are playing to an audience of the general public and judgments are made about us based on how we deal with the different elements of our day.  

I believe I follow a behavior pattern in line with what the Bible tells me God wants from me.  Most of the time that is.  But I have a huge desire to please people around me and give them what they want.  I’m even guilty of making an allowance to what I know is right in order to deal with a specific issue occasionally.  Modifying principle to meet individual circumstance may seem reasonable and acceptable to do, but it’s really just practicing situational ethics.  Situational ethics is when we initiate a certain behavior or practice that is motivated by individual circumstance.  Give them what they want; it isn’t really a big deal and no bodies going to get hurt. 

But the Bible tells us the only audience worth playing to is Jesus Christ.  As Christians we have the Bible, God’s living breathing Word, to point out the behaviors He wants to see in us.  If we allow obedience to God’s Word to penetrate every facet of our lives, situational ethics becomes obsolete.  Most of what is considered good in “the world” is also in line with God’s will.  God tells us to look at the interest of others before ourselves.  If you’re in business you are to provide good service to your customers.  You would be hard pressed to find an audience those principles wouldn’t play to.

But sometimes we’re expected to just “go with the flow” and let things just happen like they are going to happen.   But when we choose to adjust our beliefs we are really just saying God wasn’t right as far as this situation is concerned.  And this friend is when we have to decide what’s important in life.  Jesus recognized we would all be in this position and left us with His thoughts.  You can find His response to this very question in Matthew 6:24.  

Which audience are you going to play to today?

Do you ever have doubts?

Do you ever find yourself doubting your faith and beliefs?  

Have you ever caught yourself thinking “is this real”?

The Lord has done so many things in my life and I’ve seen and experienced things that can only be attributed to a Divine Creator.  But the truth is I still catch myself questioning things and trying to assign rational explanations from time to time to things that can only be credited to God.  Fortunately that doesn’t happen very often (anymore) but it just wouldn’t be truthful to say I don’t have the occasional doubt.

I don’t know why but some Christians don’t want to admit that they have questions about Church Doctrine or basic Theology, much less admit they suffer bouts of doubt from time to time.  Somewhere along the way some develop the idea that questioning God, or admitting that we don’t understand something is a sin.   I’ve even heard it referred to as “spiritual treason”.  I believe you would have a difficult task in front of you if you went looking for anyone who claimed a deep faith in God who wouldn’t admit to the occasional doubt.

John the Baptist was a prophet and by that definition, God spoke to and through him.  Certainly someone who had that relationship with God would never suffer from doubt right?   Wrong.  While sitting in prison he sent a message to Jesus asking:

"Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

Matthew 11:3

John the Baptist communed with God and baptized Jesus.  If he had doubts, something tells me it’s OK if we do too.   

In his book  “The Myth of Certainty,” Daniel Taylor doesn't choose to use the term “doubting Christians” he refers to the doubters among us as “reflective Christians.”  Nobody received all the answers when they made the decision to give their life to Christ, it doesn’t work that way.  Our growth is directly proportional to our desire to learn and the commitment we make to do so.  I like being a “reflective Christian” and love that God always remains faithful to us no matter what.

I pray that the grace and peace only available through Christ touches your life today.  

In His precious name,

Jeff

Why Christ?

Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Hebrews 7:25

God has spoken!  He has spoken and sent us a message of victory and not left us to wonder for our spiritual direction.  We have the Old Testament Prophets who shared a unique insight towards God but more importantly, He spoke completely through Jesus Christ.  We don’t serve a silent God, our God has spoken and we must search out the meaning of His message with the same zeal we would if given a map to buried treasure.

So what’s so special about Jesus?

1. He is the Creator.  All things belong to Him and began with Him.
2. He is God, the radiant outburst of the Father’s glory who has not hidden His divine nature.
3. His plan is being fulfilled today as events unfold as told in the Word, by His hand.
4. He has met every spiritual need we will ever have by dying for our sins.  And know He sits at His Fathers side praying for us.

And that is just how he is revealed in the first chapter of Hebrews!  The truth is that given the simple facts about Jesus that there is no doubt He is worthy of our praise and worship.  He is not just our friend or Counselor but an eternal God, to whom we must give our complete obedience,

In F.F. Bruce’s commentary on the Book of Acts, he is quoted as follows:

“We should not disparage any of the leaders of the great world-religions, but the simple truth is none of them is entitled to be called Savior of the world.  Jesus alone bears this designation, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”.

Praise Jesus name today and rest in His finished work.

Grace and peace,

Jeff

If I were the Devil

If I were the Devil. . .

I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world;

I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man's

effort, instead of God's blessings;

I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of

the other way around;

I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue;

I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to

leadership;

I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies;

I would make it socially acceptable to take one's own life, and invent

machines to make it convenient;

I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that the life of animals

are valued more than human beings;

I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was

grounds for a law suit;

I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I

would get sports heroes to advertise them;

I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the

mind of every family member for my agenda;

I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation.

I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family

crumbles, so does the nation;

I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and

movie screens, and I would call it art;

I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals, and that there

lifestyles should be accepted and marveled;

I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who

call themselves authorities and refer to their agenda as politically

correct;

I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, and

the Bible is for the naive;

I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is

not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are good enough to get by;

Hmmm...I guess I would leave things pretty much the way they are."

Does passion drive your life?

But now I said to them, “You know very well what trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace!” Then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me, and about my conversation with the king. They replied at once, “Yes, let’s rebuild the wall!” So they began the good work.

Nehemiah 2:17-18 NLT

In my personal Bible study I’ve recently started Nehemiah, and always love when I find my way back to this wonderful historical book. And what a great time to read this book while our Ministry is taking the One Month To Live challenge as a group. And while Nehemiah was a great man and a hero of the Old Testament, he was also a man of great passion.

Nehemiah had a passion, rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem that had been damaged during the Babylonian Empire take over years before. Through prayer God revealed to Nehemiah a goal, and he pursued that goal passionately. With king Artaxerxes blessings and checkbook, he began to rebuild the wall at a frantic pace. Obstacles after obstacle presented themselves in the effort to stop the rebuilding effort but Nehemiah would not be shaken. When enemies threaten to attack the workers during construction he issued orders to carry a sword in one hand and tools to work in the other. During shortages of food he shared his personal food stores given to him by the king with those who did the work. In the end the wall was rebuilt in 52 days. And while we don’t know for sure the amount of damage that was repaired we know it was extensive and 52 days for repair was quite a feat.

Nehemiah was driven by passion to reach his goal. I know I need to be more like Nehemiah in my daily life.

Too often in life we let other people or circumstances determine what’s important. Our schedules and lives are re-arranged to make things work “better”, but better for who? I’m sure it would have been a great deal “better” for the enemies of Jerusalem if those working on the wall would have quit when threatened. But Nehemiah decided it would be “better” for the rebuilding of the wall, his passion, if the workers carried swords. Nehemiah wouldn’t let anyone or anything stand in the way of his passion.

So how often do we let the passions in our life become insignificant or put to the side because something else comes up? How come the things we are passionate about in life are those we feel can take away from the easiest? Why do we take the passion out of…passion?

In the One Month To Live challenge the purpose is to identify what keeps us from having a life with no regrets. A life filled with love and learning that allows us to boldly proclaim Christ and His place in our life. And to live passionately in those pursuits.

The question we ask ourselves in the 30 day challenge?

If you only had month to live what would you do? This question determines what’s important.  If you had one month to live what wouldn’t you do in the next 30 days? That question will tell what’s keeping you from doing the things in the 1st question.

So what are you going to do today that you are passionate about?

 Grace and peace,

 Jeff

Does God have a sense of humor???

If you’ve ever wonder that for yourself think no more, the answer is yes.  As our Ministry is moving through the One Month To Live Challenge I’ve had the joy of speaking on some great subjects.  Living a life with no regrets and pursuing our passions in life, I have those principles down and practice them regularly.  But this Sunday was a little different.  And how was it different?  The best way to explain that would be for me to explain how I know God has a sense of humor.

• I was at a Church on Sunday.
• I was the one doing all the talking.
• I was delivering a lesson on “How to Love Completely”

To anyone that’s met me in the last couple of years that might not seem like a big stretch.  But if you were to look back in the not too distance past, the man I was wouldn’t do most of what I enjoy doing now.

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matthew 19:26

I couldn’t sum it up better.  Operating in and drawing strength from myself usually led to failure and most often disappointment.  But by looking to the cross and the power we all have available to us in Christ, I can do anything God wants me to do.  And I believe God wants me to talk about Him to everyone I get the chance to spend time with.  And it just so happens I have a great passion for doing that.  What an awesome blessing for God’s will and my desires to overlap in this area.  Without God in my life none of this would be possible, not a chance.

I’ve seen what God can do in the lives of people who choose to place their faith in Him over and over, time and time again.  I’ve seen people change and things move in their lives that can’t be explained outside of divine intervention.  So the fact that I’m a Bible Teacher isn’t what makes me believe God has a sense of humor.  Where the humor is found was Sunday’s topic – How To Love Completely.  And a lesson on that topic delivered by a 40-something single guy with a fear of commitment; proves God has a sense of humor.

But even if God has a sense of humor, His sense of purpose isn’t in question.  Simply put, a sovereign God has a reason for everything.  I could spend hours and hours talking with anyone who can bear to listen about the things I’m passionate about.  Love…  Now that’s a different story, I’m not so good at love. 

I have no problem loving people in my life and even showing that love openly.  But to revisit the ideas around loving in a relationship environment wasn’t the easiest thing to do based on my not so stellar track record.  God used his sense of humor to remind me that what He has in store for my future has nothing to do with the past.  His future is so much more than I could ever do on my own and it is all based on a simple directive…

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:35-36

God wants us to love, that's the future.  The past has nothing to do with the future God wants for us, He’s only concerned with giving us something better.  I’m glad I was reminded of that even though that wasn’t my intention when I wrote my lesson on love, but apparently it was His plan all along.  A lesson on how to love completely has reminded me that God not only loves us completely, he forgives us completely as well.  God doesn’t look in the rear view mirror because that’s not where our potential is.

We get so wrapped up sometimes in what WE want in our lives we forget that God has offered to take care of that for us, if we’ll let Him.  If we just follow His will.  But somehow we make that too difficult and make God’s will out to be this mystic journey and we have to hunt for clues to find it.  Not so.  The will of God isn’t that hard we just make it that way.

Are you willing to surrender your life - today?

Are you willing to trust Him and obey Him one step at a time - today?

The will of God is not so much what were going to do 10 years from now, but what will we do today?  What can you do to please God today?  

If we start there God will get the rest for us.

Grace and peace my friends,

Jeff

30 days to a life with no regrets

God knew what He was doing when he inspired the men who wrote the Bible. I believe that every answer to every question we can pose can be found in its pages. God tells us through many different scriptures that our time in this world is precious and He wants it to be filled with great things. The following passage has some very direct meaning but can also be related to time….

Do not have two differing weights in your bag - one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house - one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly

Deuteronomy 25:13-16

God is telling us not to have a double standard in anything we do, including what we do with our time everyday. You don’t really know how much time you have, only God does, every minute of everyday has value and meaning.

We started the “One Month To Live, 30 days to a life with no regrets” challenge at Church and it is proving to be an amazing experience. I had the opportunity to take part in this study as a participant and it had a profound impact on me. What a blessing it is for me to now again be re-visiting the 30 day challenge from a leadership role and hear the effects it is having on others. Many of you reading this are included in that group and I hope you are taking an active part in the study. And in the weeks to come I hope to share some examples of individuals different experiences in our present endeavor.  The premise of the study is simple:

If you found out today that you only had 30 days to live, what would you do?

While we can’t really re-create what happens to individuals that get this news it is an interesting exercise. When you look at what you did last week, would you have done all the things you did if you only had 30 days left to live? Probably not. Most of us have put schedules together that are just too busy. And too often those schedules are based on what others tell us is important or must be done; our needs and desires become secondary. And the two areas that most begin to make compromise?

Health and Spirituality, two large factors in our relationship with Christ.

We stop exercising and eating right. That’s hard to do when you work so many hours or have made so many commitments to get our kids to different activities. It’s just easier to swing through the drive thru and get a burger than put the effort into something healthy.

Church and the activity that surrounds it becomes “flex time”, time we determine that we can be done later to make up for missing. Truth is we seldom make up the time we take away from the Lord, He won’t mind… Will He?

We live in such a performance based society that downtime and rest is looked at as laziness by some. I’ve been around discussions in the business world where schedules are compared to see who does the most so full of pride that one could only assume there was a trophy for the winner. Does anyone really win in that competition?

We all have to dates in our lives we have no control over, a start and an end. The day we were born is set and determined we use this as a cause for celebration every year. But the day we’re all going to die is something with very few exceptions, we just don’t know. We’ve all heard stories about the super healthy guy that had a heart attack while jogging. And conversely some people live into their 90’s and even clear a 100 all while smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. We just don’t know.

Every tombstone in a cemetery has three things in common, the day they were born and the day they died and the dash mark between the two dates. And while we have no control over the two dates, we do have complete control over how we use the dash mark between them. That little dash mark between the day we were born and the day we died is the summation of the life we lived. How are you living your dash?

For the next month or so the writing you find on this site will be dedicated to my experience and thoughts that surround the One Month To Live, 30 day challenge. Every week we look at some principles designed to help us look at what is really important in life, things worth the value the Lord has assigned to time. If you aren’t a member of Green Acres or don’t happen to live in Tyler, TX you can still join us. Just ask yourself the question...

What would you do if you only had 30 days to live?

Grace and peace,

Jeff

Are you ready?

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10

We just started the One Month To Live Challenge at my Church and the initial reaction is really amazing.  I had the opportunity to take part in this study when I was at Prestonwood and it had a profound effect on the way I viewed things.  Now, leading others through the challenge has really opened my eyes to how precious each day we have really is.

If you aren’t familiar with it, the One Month To Live Challenge is fairly self-explanatory.  What would you do if today, you found out you had one month to live?  You start to identify what is and what isn’t important and you also quickly think about some of the things you do that you could easily do without.  Looking towards the future with a limited time available allows us to see things very differently.  Your thoughts turn from “someday, I’m going to _____” to “I have to get _______ done right now”.  But more importantly it lets us see that many of our daily routines and habit just aren’t really that important.

If you had One Month To Live, how much of the next 30 days would you:

·      Spend watching TV

·      Gossiping with your Co-workers
·      Trying to find a party or place to “hang” with your friends

I would guess very little would be the answer that most would give to those questions.  And why is that, because they just aren’t that important.  Not important but how much time did you dedicate to those things in the last 30 days?

In Ephesians Paul says that we are to live a life worthy of the gift we have received.  Our gift is salvation and eternal life and there just isn’t anything else you can receive that comes close to comparison.  I have seen so many receive Christ in their lives and find the joy and passion of that union.  They are on fire for God and have a passion that lights up a room when they enter.  Then a few months later that same person just blends into crowd the radiance is not so evident. 

So what happened?  They came down with a bad case of the “Someday’s”.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.  1 Peter 5:8

As a Christian our ultimate goal should is to find the will of God and how we can be of use to Him.  How our worship of Him can be complete.  And while Peter paints a very dramatic picture of Satan in the above verse, the world paints one quite a bit different.  The world tells us we have all the time we ever need.  The world tells us “why do today what you can put off until tomorrow”.  The truth is the world we live in is charged by the king of the air to do just that.  The Bible tells us the devil has dominion over the world we live in and that becomes more evident as you attempt to look through the eyes of Christ.

Once you ask Christ into your life, he will never leave you nor forsake you.  The life of a Christian can be one of unparallel joy or one that is very average.  Satan can’t take salvation away from you but he can sure try and keep you from doing anything with it.  And the number one way he does this?  By convincing us that we have all the time in the world.  Do it later.

Life can change in the blink of any eye.  It’s a little after 6am as I write this and I have an idea of how my day is going to unfold but it could be drastically different, we can’t really know these things.  It could be significantly better or worse that I predict.  But as the saying goes “That’s why we play the game”.  And in any game we make a plan and a good plan includes offense and defense.

Jesus said the end will come like a thief in the night, in other words we aren’t going to be expecting it.  So are you ready?

Grace and peace,


Jeff


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Explain God

This was written by an 8 year old, Danny Dutton of Chula Vista, CA, for his third grade homework assignment. The assignment was to explain God. Wonder if any of us could do as well?

One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth.

He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.

God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.

God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your Mom and Dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.

Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.

Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.

His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So He did. And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.

You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they've got it worked out so that one of them is on duty all the time.

You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.

If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.

But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases.

And...that's why I believe in God.