Christians vs. Atheists: Christmas Style

I saw this video on the Foxnews website.  It talked about atheism so I was intrigued and I watched the 6 minute clip.  There are two ladies in the video.  The first one is the show's host and I never did catch her name.  She states that she is catholic.  The other lady is Annie Laurie Gaylor, who works with an atheist group that has purchased billboards that say "Reason's Greetings" and "Heathen's Greetings."

The exchange is absolutely terrible.  The lady from fox news treats Annie terribly.  She talks over her and never really lets her answer.  She is condescending and mocks this lady.  If you know the truth and you are confident of the truth - you simply have no reason to treat people poorly. She knows the truth of the gospel and yet she treats this other woman as dirt.

Of course, I believe that the atheist lady Annie is hurting people by spreading a message that there is no God.  She says some terrible claims in there like "young children should not be exposed to religion."  I just wish the lady from fox news could have calmed down some and actually talked like a real person.  If you are right - you don't have to be a jerk.  "And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:2

The Shepherds

I have never worked in the sheep industry.  I have seen sheep and I have owned a couple of wool sweaters.  I have eaten lamb and I read about sheep (in the Bible) quite a bit.  If I met a modern-day Shepherd I don’t think we would have too much in common.    However I do relate to the Shepherds in the Christmas story.  They were out in their fields watching there sheep when an Angel appeared to them.  The Angel told them to go find a baby lying in a manger and worship him as the Savior.  The most amazing part of the story is that these Shepherds did what the Angel asked them.  In the middle of life and work, God reached out to them and they listened.  How busy are you?  How set is your life?  Is there room for spontaneity?  Is there room for God to speak in your life?  The Shepherds listened and their lives suddenly took on more meaning.  They became part of the Christmas story.

What story are you a part of?  Is there room for God to speak into your life?  Have you become so set in your ways or so busy that there is no room for God to move you?  When you pray do you pray for God to help you as you live life -or- do you pray that God would show you the path that your life needs to be on?  My life has changed a lot in the past year.  I have moved my family.  I have started a new job.  I have gone back to school.  My wife and I have decided to go through the long tiring process of international adoption.  Through all of this we have faced many obstacles.  My wife lived 20 minutes away from her parents and now lives 8 hours away.  I have had to balance living in a new town, meeting new friends, taking graduate level courses, preaching each week, and being a dad and husband.  We have faced financial trouble with not being able to sell our house and more.

I wouldn’t change any of it.  This year has been the best year of my life.  My life was fine.  I could pay all my bills and I was saving for retirement.  I had a fine job and lived in a fine place.  Jesus says, in John 10:10, that he has come to give us life and life to the full.  A fine life simply won’t cut it.  There is something better in store for each one of us if we choose to follow God.  I took him at his word.  So did the Shepherds.  The big question is, will you?  What does God have in store for you in 2010 and will you be a part of it?  There is a bigger story and you can be in it.

Authentic Manhood - Expect the Greater Reward

This is the last in the Authentic Manhood list.  Robert Lewis' 4 pillars are:

Reject Passivity
Accept Responsibility
Lead Courageously
Expect the Greater Reward

Moses was one who was looking to the greater reward.  Hebrews 11:24-26 states; "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.  He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.  He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as a greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."

Moses traded the earthly reward for the heavenly reward.  He traded the immediate success for the long-term success.

When I was in high school I drove a little 3 cylinder car called a Chevy Sprint.  It was tiny and would barely go 65 miles an hour.  One day someone pulled out in front of me and totaled my car.  It was sad.  I liked that little car because it was my first car.  My dad gave me two options for replacing the car, after all it was really his car.  I had two options:

Option #1: Drive my mom's station wagon and she gets a new car.  In two years when I graduate that new car will then go to me and mom get's the station wagon back.

Option #2:  Go buy a car for $2,000.  One that wouldn't be half as nice as my mom's new car.

I wanted to go with option #2 because I did not want to drive a station wagon.  My friend talked me into doing option #2.  He still made fun of my station wagon, but he told me to wait and get the better car for college.  I did it.  I chose to forego immediate satisfaction to wait for the greater reward.

My mom ended up getting a really nice little toyota sports car.  I drove that station wagon for two years of high school and then for the last week of high school I drove one of the nicest cars in the school parking lot.  I put over 100,000 miles on that car and even delivered pizza for almost three years in that car.  That car provided me with the money to get through college, buy my wife her wedding ring, pay for a honeymoon, and put food on our table.  What a great car and what a great decision.

Being a man has more to do with our heavenly reward than it does getting a nice car.  We work hard now because we know that our joy is made complete in our service to the Lord.

Authentic Manhood - Lead Courageously

This is part 3 in a 4 part series on a look at authentic manhood from Robert Lewis' book: Raising a Modern Day Knight.

The third pillar of Biblical manhood is to Lead Courageously.  I'd like to point out first of all that it doesn't say "lead confidently."  There is a large difference between confidence and courage.  Courage is the ability to face your fears and not be paralyzed by them.  Courage is not the absence of fear.  It simply not being controlled by your fears.

I lead with a lot of faith.  I place a lot of faith in people and a lot of faith in my own abilities.  I generally believe that everything will work out as long as we do our best.  I am not a visionary leader that sees things before they happen.  I hold fast to the maxim that "if we just do the right things over time we will succeed."  People around me generally have one of two reactions.

Some people see that as a source of strength.  I worked with a lady in Omaha who would always just laugh at me when I would say, "I'm sure we can figure this out."  She believed me and together we were able to do some great things.  She had several gifts that I did not and I believe I had the courage and the encouragement that she needed.

Some people see my leadership style as that of a person who has his head in the clouds.  I don't spend a lot of time doing risk assessment or weighing all the possibilities.  When faced with a decision I generally think through a few things and come to a resolution rather quickly.  Some see that as lacking foresight.  I see it as someone who seizes the moment and sets up action.

There are different types of leadership styles.  Different circumstances need different perspectives in order to make good decisions and lead well.  That's why no one person should ever have complete control over anything.

Men need to live out of faith in God and the ability that God has given them.  Men do not need to live in fear.  Fear causes us to do all sorts of terrible things.

Lead courageously.  God created you to do so.

Christian Church Crackdown in China

Please pray for Christians in China.  They are dealing with persecution from the police.  Here is the news story:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579979,00.html?test=latestnews

Authentic Manhood - Accept Responsibility

God walked up to Adam and asked him why He was hiding.  Adam told him that he was hiding because he was ashamed and naked.  God asked him why he was ashamed asked him if he had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Adam, in his amazing brilliance, tells God this;

"The woman that you gave me told me to do eat the fruit."

What a wuss.  Adam shirks responsibility and blames his wife.  If you really read into it Adam blames his wife and blames God, "you gave her to me."  No one made Adam eat that fruit.  Adam ate that fruit by his own account.  He is responsible for his actions.

In Hebrew class yesterday we took a look at Genesis 3:4.  "The serpent said to the woman, you will not die."  What's interesting about this is that the "you" that is used her is used in the masculine plural sense.  That means that the serpent wasn't just responding to Eve, he was responding to Eve AND Adam.  While this whole exchange was going on - Adam was standing quietly by watching his wife get deceived.  Adam wussed out.  He didn't speak up.  He just let is happen.  Adam was passive and did not accept his responsibility.

How has this affected me?  Well I am still terrible in this area.  I have come a long way in conquering passivity, but I have a long way to go in accepting responsibility.  Here is where I am growing:

Fatherhood - Instead of getting mad that my wife won't take care of the kids and keep them quiet, I try to get my butt off the couch, turn of the TV, and be a father.  I try to teach my kids life lessons.  I try (TRY) to keep my patience and do things slower so that I can explain them to my kids.

Husband(hood) - If there is work to do - I try to take care of it.  Are there dishes in the sink?  I should clean them.  Is there close that need to be put away?  I should do that.  Does a diaper need to be changed?  I should take care of it at first smell.  (Mindy reads this - so let me be honest and say that I am TRYING in all these areas!)

Friendship - I am terrible at this.  I have started to carve out time each week to talk to my friends.  I get so caught up in work, school, and family that I often leave out people who are very important to me.  Over the past year I have realized that I am not a very good friend.  I need to accept the responsibility of working on my friendships and caring about my friends as much as they care about me.

Are you accepting responsibility?

Authentic Manhood - Reject Passivity

In his book Raising a Modern Day Knight Robert Lewis's first principal of authentic manhood is Rejecting Passivity.

It is very easy for me to be passive.  Standing up for what I believe is right does not come naturally for me. When faced with a tough situation or a lot of work my first reaction is to just keep my mouth shut and quit before I start.  The best things in my life have happened because I reject passivity and made a move.

When I finally decided to follow Christ with all of my heart I knew I had to move from where I was.  I needed to get away from the town, those friends, and that life.  I needed an escape.  The only place I knew to go was to a camp in northern Minnesota that I went to as a high schooler.  Instead of just hoping for it or thinking that they wouldn't want me in the first place, I went for it.  I wrote them a letter and told them that I would do whatever it took to be up there for the summer.  If they would feed me and provide me a place to sleep I would work for free.  It happened and that summer is when I really opened myself up to the working of God.

When I met my wife for the first time I thought she was way too pretty for me.  She was very confident and she was by far the best looking girl in school.  Instead of hoping that she would see me or think that I just wasn't good enough, I went for it.  At a basketball game I walked right next to her and started talking to her.  After that I called her house to ask her out.  I pursued her and life has not been the same since.  I'm glad I wasn't passive in that situation.

The best things in life are free.  Well, in the sense that they don't cost money.  The best things in this world are things that we must risk everything for.  In Matthew 13:44, Jesus states, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.  When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field."  The man gave everything that he had in order to get something that was much better.

It's about safety.  Passivity is being scared to step out  onto unsafe ground.  When we reject that passivity we can hold on to a better life with more adventure.  That's what I want (even when I don't think I do)!

Authentic Manhood

How do you answer the following questions?

1. You become a man when ______________________.

2. What makes you a man is ______________________.

There are a million different answers for those questions.  Last week I did a Message about Joseph (the earthly father of Jesus).  I said that he was an authentic man.  Here are my quick points:

1. Joseph was righteous

2. Joseph loved his wife

3. Joseph was a man of action.

Robert Lewis, in his book Raising a Modern Day Knight, states that there are 4 characteristics of biblical manhood.  He states that a man:

Rejects Passivity

Accepts Responsibility

Leads Courageously

Expects the Greater Reward.

I started praying for these four characteristics about 5 years ago.  I pray them (among other things) each morning.  In the next few weeks I will share with you what Lewis is talking about and how this has shaped me as well.