tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-98831622024-03-12T20:20:41.632-05:00Ask The Pastor ©A place to learn and think about God to be sure you are headed for heaven * A place to find answers to life's and the Bible's hard questions
Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-61582165304379692672020-09-12T09:35:00.002-05:002020-09-12T09:35:25.435-05:00The 7 Trumpets in the Book of Revelation<p><b><a href="https://youtu.be/Y1h81qdOlMw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The 7 Trumpets of the book of Revelation</a></b></p><p><b>(click the above title to listen)</b></p><p>As terrible as they sound when one reads about them, and as terrible as they will be for mankind when they take place, the 7 Trumpets in the book of Revelation are not God bringing Judgment mankind. Only the 7th Trumpet is a judgment.</p><p>The other six Trumpets are WARNINGS to mankind to repent of sin and to put one's faith in Jesus Christ while there is time to do so. One day the door will be closed on that opportunity. Come to Christ NOW and ask that God forgive you by putting your trust in Christ's death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, and in nothing else, as payment in full for your sins, is the message of the first six Trumpets.</p><p>But notice what is said in Revelation 9:20-21 about the attitude people have on earth even after the Sixth Trumpet has been blown:</p><p><b><i>9:20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.</i></b></p><p>God has told us his purpose for these first six Trumpets. They are a final warning before his wrath begins.</p><p>Note the major announcement made by a mighty angel in chapter 10 about the blowing of the 7th Trumpet. People have not repented, so the Lord says, "there would be no more delay."</p><p><b><i>10:5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 10:6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 10:7 but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.</i></b></p><p>Then notice what is said in chapter 11 about God's wrath, once the 7th Trumpet has been blown.</p><p><b><i>Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,</i></b></p><p><b><i>“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, </i></b><b><i>who is and who was, </i></b><b><i>for you have taken your great power </i></b><b><i>and begun to reign. </i></b><b><i>The nations raged, </i></b><b><i>but your wrath came, </i></b><b><i>and the time for the dead to be judged, </i></b><b><i>and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, </i></b><b><i>and those who fear your name, </i></b><b><i>both small and great, </i></b><b><i>and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”</i></b></p><p><b><i><br /></i></b></p><p><b><i><br /></i></b></p>Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-73123810411402228102020-08-27T07:36:00.009-05:002020-08-31T06:43:54.322-05:00Are we near the end of the age?<p>August 2020</p><p>Recent events in the news have many people, Christian and otherwise, wondering out loud if we are nearing the end of the age when Armageddon happens, the Lord returns and eternity begins.</p><p>Back in 1995 and 1996 when I was Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Free Church in Minocqua, Wisconsin I preached a 52 week series verse by verse through the book of Revelation. A friend recently took the cassette tapes of that series and digitized them. Thank you Greg Buzzell!</p><p>After getting some feedback from friends who expressed an interest in hearing these sermons, I decided to make them available online in my Ask the Pastor blog here, which I am in the process of updating.</p><p>For those are interested in further study about the end of the age I have also written a book on Bible Prophecy.</p><p><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Clearing-Chronology-Bibles-End-Times/dp/1709108126/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29G66NZD0I94E&dchild=1&keywords=clearing+up+the+chronology+of+the+bibles+end+times+gordon+magee&qid=1598002993&sprefix=clearing+up+%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Clearing Up The Chronology Of The Bible's End Times </a> i</b>s available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Click on title to go there. </p><p><b>104 pages - </b><b>Description</b></p><p>A book on Bible Prophecy written by a pastor who has studied the subject for over 40 years. The book uses common sense Bible study principles to clear up the confusion in the chronology of what will happen at the end of the age. Also explains why the Crucifixion of Christ was on Thursday without question, pointing out that there were two Sabbath's the week that Jesus died. Explains how the Feasts of Leviticus 23 fit in with End Times Prophecy. The author espouses a Mid-Tribulation Rapture but is rooting for those who hold a Pre-Tribulation Rapture position to be correct. No secret formulas or odd interpretations, the author follows solid Bible study/exegesis principles.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Clearing-Chronology-Bibles-End-Times/dp/1709108126/ref=pd_bxgy_img_3/143-6359510-7548638?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1709108126&pd_rd_r=ce086e0d-b35e-4c15-8379-bd535a6e2683&pd_rd_w=fUdq2&pd_rd_wg=NeiEn&pf_rd_p=ce6c479b-ef53-49a6-845b-bbbf35c28dd3&pf_rd_r=SQ4Y09Z69K3CNA385K5D&psc=1&refRID=SQ4Y09Z69K3CNA385K5D" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1289" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lSQA53gIVqs/Xz-sY7FIQoI/AAAAAAAAQl0/8s4xV9-DRng4GhNMj7-bpXc79yva8-uOACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Cover%2BClearing%2Bup%2Bthe.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Another book I have written, also available on Amazon, is, <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Pastor-Theological-Questions-Small/dp/B086FY8Y57/ref=sr_1_1?crid=169RHRNM54KUT&dchild=1&keywords=ask+the+pastor+gordon+magee&qid=1598873463&sprefix=ask+the+pastor+g%2Caps%2C211&sr=8-1" id="https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Pastor-Theological-Questions-Small/dp/B086FY8Y57/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RLIN0AME41DS&dchild=1&keywords=ask+the+pastor+gordon+magee&qid=1598003199&sprefix=Ask+the+pastor%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-1" name="https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Pastor-Theological-Questions-Small/dp/B086FY8Y57/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RLIN0AME41DS&dchild=1&keywords=ask+the+pastor+gordon+magee&qid=1598003199&sprefix=Ask+the+pastor%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ask The Pastor</a> C</b><b>lick on title to go there. </b><b>400 pages</b></p><p><b>Description</b></p><p>Ask the Pastor is a compilation of hundreds of articles Pastor Gordon Magee wrote for the Friday edition of the Lakeland Times newspaper in Minocqua, Wisconsin when he was Senior Pastor at Faith Evangelical Free Church. It includes notes and details of the near Revival-like goings on during that time, where hundreds of people came to know Christ. These Ask the Pastor articles were written with a focus on helping people who aren't yet Christians understand that the Bible makes sense and Jesus is who he says he is. Its answers are a great help to Christians as well. The answers given in these articles were limited in size due to the advertising cost of putting them in the newspaper each Friday. The result is a set of easy to read, brief articles that make them more likely to be read and understood.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Pastor-Theological-Questions-Small/dp/B086FY8Y57/ref=sr_1_1?crid=169RHRNM54KUT&dchild=1&keywords=ask+the+pastor+gordon+magee&qid=1598873463&sprefix=ask+the+pastor+g%2Caps%2C211&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FnX7PV5l-9I/XzU0Qe5btaI/AAAAAAAAQhQ/Ycu4gs7P7zsOEYdxnKv-HQB5-wwuE85JQCPcBGAYYCw/s640/COVER-2%2B1%2Bpoint%2B1%2Bmb.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Other books:</p><p><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Talk-Signed-God-moments/dp/B084QKY1FS/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=lets+talk.+signed+God+Gordon+Magee&qid=1598003671&s=books&sr=1-2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Let's Talk. Signed God Subtitle: In your quiet moments I know you think about me.</a> C</b><b>lick on title to go there. </b><b>34 pages</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Description</b></p><p>Everyone thinks about God. People wonder whether a God exists and if there is a God what is he like? Is there a heaven? If so, how do you get in? Do you have to qualify? How? So many questions come to our minds. In our quiet moments, we all think about God, even if we never admit it to others. This short booklet was written to help people think through those questions and help them come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It is also written for people trying to help people still in the searching process, by giving them a short, non-threatening and logical tool they can feel comfortable giving to a friend.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Talk-Signed-God-moments/dp/B084QKY1FS/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/143-6359510-7548638?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B084QKY1FS&pd_rd_r=9a00946c-9898-4ff3-a62b-56c8a3f7480b&pd_rd_w=Ik0Nr&pd_rd_wg=OFKfH&pf_rd_p=ce6c479b-ef53-49a6-845b-bbbf35c28dd3&pf_rd_r=XRZRHXCXBWZG7WA04PHY&psc=1&refRID=XRZRHXCXBWZG7WA04PHY" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="825" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eeRLrDUmvZY/Xz-tMVFm_8I/AAAAAAAAQmE/86yqCYldXxkncc4_oXoDV9nZK9jJjE81wCPcBGAYYCw/s640/Cover%2BLets%2BTalk%2BSigned%2BGod%2BFeb%2B10%2B2020.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Practical-Preaching-Principles-Gordon/dp/1701649217/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1CZS84RXK7IOP&dchild=1&keywords=pocket+practical+preaching+principles+gordon+magee&qid=1598874190&sprefix=pocket+practical%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pocket Practical Preaching Principles </a> <b>C</b><b>lick on the title to go there. 38 pages.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Description</b></p><p><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Pocket Guide of Practical Preaching Principles for those who Preach the Bible</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Practical-Preaching-Principles-Gordon/dp/1701649217/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1CZS84RXK7IOP&dchild=1&keywords=pocket+practical+preaching+principles+gordon+magee&qid=1598874190&sprefix=pocket+practical%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1296" data-original-width="974" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XVxWybCNiHY/Xz-t229jepI/AAAAAAAAQmM/8b0KQfd6B4A9fgYYQkyPoY1iYR5NSUSywCPcBGAYYCw/s640/Cover.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But first, the beginning sermon in the Revelation series. This series began January 8, 1995. I hope you find it helpful in understanding the book of Revelation, a difficult book, but a book that is meant to be understood.</p><p><br /></p>Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-73791998321335244512006-10-10T01:36:00.000-05:002020-08-21T10:37:10.201-05:00A Muslim Perspective on Jesus's CrucifixionA Muslim man from Sweden recently wrote me with a question:
<em><span style="color: #000099;">In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. What is the proof that Jesus was Crucified? (as the Bible shows that there was no eyewitnesses.) </span></em>
<em><span style="color: #000099;"></span></em>
<span style="color: black;">I wrote back to explain that of course there were eyewitnesses. John, the writer of the 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">th</span> Gospel was there, as was Mary, the mother of Jesus, and some other women. And there were of course the Roman Soldiers. So it seemed a bit odd to say that there were no <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">eyewitesses</span>.</span>
The gentleman wrote back to explain that the Bible says regarding Jesus that, "all deserted him." It was interesting that he was willing to hear one verse in the Bible that makes a general statement, which he then attached a "for all time" meaning to, but he would not accept other verses that clearly stated that there were eyewitnesses.
We carried on a conversation via email for a couple of days with this pattern repeating itself.
In several polite and respectful exchanges back and forth I noticed another pattern: While I would address each and every one of his questions and present Biblical evidence showing his assumptions about the Bible to be incorrect, he would not acknowledge that his questions had been answered and would simply move on to another subject as though the last one had not been discussed.
I suggested that our conversation wasn't going to be productive with only one party--me--actually addressing questions and "arguments" laid out by the other. We ended our conversation on a positive note.
<strong><em>I mention all of the above to say this:</em></strong>
Unless a person is intellectually honest in discussing an issue, there is no point in continuing on. To do so creates unnecessary conflict. We can agree to disagree and respect each other's differences, but when one person won't acknowledge that their questions have been answered or their arguments have been addressed, conversations become unproductive and problematic.
For some, like this gentleman, it is often the case of an unwillingness to believe rather than them needing <em>another</em> convincing reason to believe. At some point when all reasonable questions have been answered, belief comes down to a matter of the will. And some people refuse to believe no matter what evidence is placed before them.
This man sought me out with a question and followed up with others. He was clearly somewhat well read about the Bible. His struggle however, was that when his questions were plainly and clearly answered, the answers didn't fit with his preconceived view of what the answers should have been.
This is how it went, to paraphrase and shorten:
<strong>Question from the Muslim writer:</strong>
"How can you believe in the resurrection when there were no eyewitnesses?"
<strong>Answer from me:</strong>
"There were eyewitnesses...here are there names."
<strong>His Comment:</strong> (as he claims the Crucifixion never happened)
Quran 157-58. And because of their saying (in boast), "We killed Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allâh," - but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but it appeared so to them , and those who differ therein are full of doubts. They have no (certain) knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely; they killed him not . But Allâh raised him up (with his body and soul) unto Himself (and he is in the heavens). And Allâh is Ever All-Powerful, All-Wise.
<strong></strong>
<strong>Answer:</strong>
"If I might say, without giving offense, you mention that the Koran says--if I understood your words correctly--that Jesus only appeared to have been crucified. Since you are rightly concerned about eyewitness accounts, why would you believe some one who came along 600 years later and who was not an eyewitness?
If you say the Koran's writer (whom you believe) was a prophet of God, then it would be important to believe other prophets of God like Moses and Jesus himself (both of whom Muslim's believe to be prophets).
In Luke 24, Jesus says this:
<em><strong>"44 He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled." </strong></em>
<em><strong></strong></em>
<em><strong>45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.</strong></em>
<em><strong>46 And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day 47 and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
</strong></em>
<em><strong>48 You are witnesses of these things. "</strong></em>
Notice that the testimony of Jesus is that Moses the great prophet, prophesied that the Messiah would suffer and rise from "the dead on the third day." So there is no doubt that Jesus was dead and that he is speaking of himself in this passage.
He also says that these men to who he was speaking were eyewitnesses."
<strong></strong>
<strong>Question: </strong>
(As he ignored my answer) "Differences in what day Christians think the crucifixion happened make Christians liars."
<strong>Answer:</strong>
"There is a difference between being a liar and being mistaken. And the real issue isn't the precise day (Thursday or Friday) that Christ was crucified on, but that he <em>was</em> crucified.
<strong>Question:</strong>
(Again he ignored my above answer) "Also if this is not enough, let me mention to you that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">Qur’</span>an has 114 chapters, over 6000 verses and there were hundreds of people in the time of the prophet Muhammad who memorized the book entirely. Did anyone memorize any of the gospels? Did anyone memorize the Torah? The Psalms? The Old and the New Testament? Nobody, not even the pope himself."
<strong>Answer: </strong>
<strong></strong>
"You are mistaken that no one has memorized the Gospels or the Psalms for example. In Rabbinical schools in past centuries the Psalms were memorized. And whether the Bible or the Koran is memorized is irrelevant as to either being truth. Many people memorize nursery rhymes, but that doesn't make the nursery rhymes true."
Then as we ended the conversation the gentleman, still not having addressed nor acknowledged that his arguments had been answered, he signed off with a respectful comment and added:
<em>Qu<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">ran 3</span>:64. Say "O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians): Come to a word that is just between us and you, that we worship none but Allah (Alone), and that we associate no partners with Him, and that none of us shall take others as lords besides Allah. Then, if they turn away, say: "Bear witness that we are Muslims."</em>
<em></em>
Interesting that I was not trying to convince him to believe in the God of the Bible or in Christ. I was merely answering his questions. He had come to me, not the other way around. None of my comments had to do with asking him to believe in Christ, although of course that would be my hope for him.
Yet he seemed to feel pressure on the subject in his closing comment that, "<em>none of us shall take others as lords besides Allah." </em>
Of course the Bible says the same thing essentially about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so this isn't unusual. What the Bible does say, however, as God speaks to Israel in the book of Isaiah, is, "Come let us reason together."
God is a God of reason. Logic did not invent itself. It comes from the Lord himself. He expects us to use our minds and to think. But as is demonstrated in the above conversation, there is also a matter of will.
This gentleman, though his questions had been answered (in greater detail than shown above) was I am sure, intellectually aware that his arguments had been defeated...not to put it in an adversarial sense. Yet he could not believe just then.
I understand. It takes time to reprocess things. Perhaps one day he will rethink things and come to understand.
But if today you find yourself where this man was: unwilling to believe in the face of the evidence, let me ask you to consider rethinking your views. Is it really an issue of truth that is in the way of your belief, or is it a matter of the will...you just refuse to believe?
I don't want to overstate this, but the reality is that your eternity depends on you being honest with yourself. John 3:16 is still quite true: <em>For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."</em>
The <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">corollary t</span>hought, friend, is that those who don't put their faith in Christ will perish. That statement is either true or it is false. There is no middle ground. Reason it out and consider the implications. Your destiny hangs on what you decide.
May God grant you wisdom to choose well.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-8490459908712548712007-02-02T12:40:00.001-06:002020-08-21T10:36:41.684-05:00My idea or His? How do I know? Ask NehemiahATP: Have you ever run across a kook who tried to tell you that God had "told" them something? Something to do, for example?
Even as a believer in God who believes that God does "communicate" with us, I've always been uncomfortable when I have heard people say, "God told me to...." whatever. Did God really speak to that person? Did they hear his voice?
The phrase they used normally means that some one spoke audibly to a person. And when people use such phrase as "God told me to...." they seem to have very specific information as to what God was telling them to do.
How do you argue with a person about to do something stupid, who says "God told me to...." If God spoke, who are we to intervene?
Well, I'm not so sure that God speaks so audibly as some would have us think. And we need to be cautious both in how we speak, but particularly in how we respond to people who say God told them to do such and such a thing.
However, it is clear from the Scriptures that God does communicate with us. And certainly in the Bible we find God actually speaking to people audibly. So it is not impossible. But it seems to me that more often, God speaks to our hearts.
What in the world does that mean? Sounds pretty vague doesn't it.
What I mean by "speaks to our hearts" is what I think Nehemiah experienced. For months he had prayed about the broken down condition of Jerusalem. This was God's city and at the time it was in ruins. People living there were living in shame because of its condition.
So Nehemiah prayed and prayed about this. In the end we read an interesting sentence in Nehemiah 2:12: <strong><em>I told not one what my God had put into my heart do do for Jerusalem.</em></strong>
There is a similar thought expressed in chapter 7 verse 5, when Nehemiah says:
<strong><em>The God put it into my mind to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">geneology</span>.</em></strong>
Nehemiah was keenly aware that it was God who had put this thought in his mind.
Does God communicate to us in this way still? Yes, I believe he does. And certainly I believe that God can speak audibly to us. He is after all, God. He is free to do anything he wants within the make up of his perfect character.
But notice how God's communication came to Nehemiah. In one case something had been "put on his heart to do," in another, he said that God had "put it into his mind" to assemble a certain group of people.
What is that first thing, this "putting on the heart?" Simply put, Nehemiah developed an inner desire to do something for Jerusalem, an inner desire to accomplish a task.
The second thing, "put it into his mind" was an idea of what to do, to assemble the nobles and others.
But notice that in neither case did Nehemiah say, "God told me to do....." or, "God spoke to me...." Nehemiah recognized that his inner desire to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem had been planted there by God. He recognized that God gave him an idea regarding assembling a certain group of people.
Is there a difference between that kind of communication from God, and a claim of verbal communication? Yes, there is.
When a person says, "God told me...." they are making an unequivocal statement that this came directly from the mouth of God. When, on the other hand, they say, "God put it on my heart to...." or "God put it in my mind to...." notice that their "heart" and "mind" are the recipients, one in the area of desire, the other in the area of ideas, but neither in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">arear</span> of "I heard a voice and here is the command and instructions I received."
Miles apart these are, from the "God told me to..." approach.
So how do we know the difference in our own lives? Check out <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">Nehehiah</span> chapter 1. Nehemiah had been praying for months and months. No <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)">nightime</span> vision popped in on him to give him direction. He had spent significant alone time with God, seeking God's direction.
While doing so does not guarantee that all our "desires" or "ideas" are from God, such an approach is part of being led of the Lord. Our focus on God's will, God's direction, God's wisdom, guides our prayers and guides God's response to us.
As we pray and earnestly seek His direction, we can be assured that he will answer us. So in the end, for us to say "God put it on my heart" or, "God put it in my mind to..." are both perfectly Biblical comments and ones that we should be comfortable with. God is at work in and through the lives of his children. And when we call on him, he will answer us.
There are other factors that we must take into account to determine God's leading. The Scriptures tell us about them....things like seeking wise counsel from others and so on. But when we have done all the Scriptures tell us to do, we can be comfortable in knowing that God does lay godly desires on our hearts and put ideas in our minds to do for him.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-62114489555371625282007-07-06T21:42:00.000-05:002020-08-21T10:36:19.599-05:00Learning from Simple ThingsIts been awhile. Lots happening. All good, but busy.
I was out walking the other day early in the morning, asking the Lord to teach me something...just anything that he'd like to, from his Creation. Living in northern Wisconsin, with eagles flying, otters cavorting, and surrounded by lakes, there is so much to see and learn from.
The forests here are lush and beautiful this time of year...they are also ubiquitious (meaning everywhere).
After I asked the Lord to teach me something that morning, I noticed the "V-shaped" piece of sky above me. If you have ever walked down a forested road, you know what I mean. On either side of the roads here in the Northwoods, there is nothing but trees, the view of which is only broken by a v-shaped band of sky above the road, as it narrows from being wide right over one's head, to being a small sliver of light off down the road where perspective brings the trees together in a point.
It dawned on me that so often in life we worry about that point out in the future where we can no longer see with clarity either the sky above or the road below. Above us and nearby is this wider band of sky that we can see clearly. That wider band of sky is much like "today," today that is so clear to us, today, the realities of which we have no doubts about and less concern.
So often we worry about things far down the road, that if we had only waited to experience or waited until they were nearer, we would have been less concerned about.
I realized too in that moment that God is not bound by our limited vision. Residing above the forest of time and the concerns of life, he can see perfectly what is coming. He is above it all, he is "on top of it" soaring above and seeing it all. He knows what is up ahead and can be trusted with whatever it is.
What a simple thing that v-shaped band of sky was that day...and yet so helpful.
The Scriptures tell us, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." It was nice to relearn that truth again.
My hope is that if you are going through a time of questioning or concern about what lies so far down the road you can barely see it, that you will choose to trust the Lord about that "whatever it is thing" out in front of you, and simply enjoy today. God knows your future and can be trusted with it.
Be at peace as you walk with him. Lift your head! Enjoy today, knowing as his child you are safe in his care. And if you aren't sure that you are his child, this simple prayer when prayed sincerely will settle that for you too:
"Lord Jesus, I ask to become part of your forever family. Please forgive my sins through Christ and what he did for me by dying for me on the Cross...paying for my sins. I repent of my sin and commit myself to follow you. I don't know all that that means, but I know I need you in my life and in charge of my life. I give my life to you to do with as you wish. Thank you for the eternal life in Christ you have promised all who will turn to you, as I do right now. Amen."
If you honestly prayed that prayer, you are God's child. Trust him. Trust him. Trust him. He loves you.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-20280452920536873592007-09-26T07:04:00.000-05:002020-08-21T10:34:15.809-05:00Just Ask!Surprise, surprise to discover that the following words are not a prayer formula nor some grandiose promise about how God answers prayer:
<em><strong>Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8 New American Standard)</strong></em>
What they are is a statement about the nature of our relationship with God.
Here's what I mean.
The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus, which contains the words above, is a listing of what we have come to call, "The Beatitudes." For those who are new to the Bible, the Beatitudes are that set of verses in Matthew 5 that being with the words "Blessed are..." as in <em><strong>"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"</strong></em> and so on.
The Beatitudes are followed up in verse 17 of Matthew 5 with an interesting comment by Jesus: <em><strong>Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill."</strong></em>
The comment is interesting, but it is also odd, unless you understand why he likely said it at that moment. He said it, because what he had just taught people in the Beatitudes might make them think that he was speaking against the Law.
The Beatitudes say that if you are poor in spirit, yours is the kingdom of heaven; if you are gentle, you will inherit the earth; if you are pure in heart you will see God; if you are a peacemaker you will be called sons of God.
Each of these comments flies in the face of what the Pharisees and Sadducees and frankly all of Israel, had been teaching about how one will see God etc. It was following the Law, they had been taught, that would eventually allow one to see God.
Jesus' teaching, sounded like he was going off in a different direction. He wasn't, but he needed to correct their erroneous view of the Law.
To explain further his view of the Law, Jesus gives several examples of faulty thinking, each beginning with words like, "You have heard it said....but I say to you."
In each case he tells the people about some application of the Law they had been taught, and shows them that actually God's interpretation of the Law was much stricter than the interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees. In fact he tells the people:
<em><strong>For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5:20)</strong></em>
To make it worse he finally tells them in verse 48:
<em><strong>Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.</strong></em>
Houston, we have a problem: ain't none of us going to make it. None of us are perfect, and none of us even close. Now what?
The now what is answered as Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount thoughts, leading people eventually to this statement in Matthew 7:7-8:
<em><strong>Ask and shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened.</strong></em>
What is he saying? Here's what it seems to me:
"Friends, I know you have been following the Law. I'm in favor of that. But know that following the Law in some ritualistic manner isn't going to get it done. Here's what you need to do to have a forgiven relationship with me: Just ask! Just seek! Just knock on the door! I'll open it!"
Just ask! What a great comment by the Lord. Friend, he is saying, just ask me, I'll forgive you. Friend, if you want to get your life in order, just seek me, I'll answer. If you want to have fellowship with me, just knock on my door, I'll open it! Relax! I'm for you!
While this section does relate to prayer in a secondary sense, it is not a formula or some promise about prayer. It is rather the Lord's freeing instructions for how to have a healthy relationship with him, a relationship not based on ritualistically following a set of rules we ultimately can't keep well enough to have it count for much in the first place anyway.
Just ask! he says! Just ask! I'll be there, I'll forgive, I'll walk with you. Lighten up. Relax. Get off the rules bandwagon. Talk to me. I'm here. Knock on my door, I'm in!
Wow, what a relief.
The Lord is saying, Come on over. Lets be friends. Just ask me and it'll happen.
Yes there are things we'll need to clean up along the way as God works in our lives. That's called repentance. Its part of the deal. But because we can never clean things up well enough to be perfect, Jesus is saying we can't and shouldn't base our relationship with him on whether or not we have met the requirements of the Law. We haven't and we never will.
Solution? JUST ASK!
Critics and fundamentalists will say that such an approach leaves out our need for repentance and Lordship and all that. I get that. I understand that. My point today is not to explain every nuance of all those things, as important as they are.
My point today is to set people free who have been on the one hand bound by rules that they can never follow well enough, and on the other hand, to set people free from having their faith damaged because their prayer formula isn't working for them.
"Ask and it shall be given to you..." is a statement about having a relationship with the Lord. Enjoy that and don't let the naysayers rob you of that freedom and openness.
Look to the sky today and give the Lord a "Good morning." He's waiting to talk. He said so, and the "come on in" sign is on the door.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-64385387928585708082008-07-27T04:44:00.000-05:002020-08-21T08:47:49.697-05:00The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald<div><br /></div><div>A couple of weeks ago on the way back from beautiful Bayfield, Wisconsin, we stopped in at the visitor center near Ashland, near Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior. One piece of Lake Superior history we learned more about was the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the ship hauling iron ore that was lost in 1975 during a big November storm on Lake Superior. She was the grandest ship in the ore shipping fleet, but she went down.
Gordon Lightfoot's song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" immortalized the ship for all of us.
All 29 members of the crew died that stormy November day. Twenty years later the ship was found at the bottom of Lake Superior, broken in half, most likely from the terrible impact of it hitting bottom some 600 feet down.
The bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald was recovered then, and a commemorative one with the names of the 29 sailors, was put in its place at the bottom of Lake Superior. A memorial service was held at that time, as it is now each year, and the actual bell from the ship was rung in memory of those 29 sailors, one ring for each of the men lost.
The bell ringing for each of those men, was to symbolize their "voices still speaking." It was very moving to think about as family members or friends came to that bell to ring it in honor of their sailor.
Let me ask you a question, however, about that memorial service or others like them.
<em><strong>What difference does it make that the bell was rung and that names were mentioned? </strong></em>
Those men will never know. They are gone. They were not in the audience that day, so what does it matter?
And if we have all come simply out of the primordial ooze and will one day go back to that primordial ooze, isn't the fate of these men simply the fate that awaits us all in one form or another?
Of course it is offensive to think that such a memorial service doesn't matter or that it has no meaning.
It has great meaning and the memory of these men does matter. But why? Why does it matter?
<em><strong>It matters because there is a God in heaven. </strong></em>
It matters because of God's view of life, and that is that life and lives matter! They mean something in the world! We are not just specks of animated dust, mindlessly responding to our environment for a short time, but with no real hope for anything beyond this life. We have been created in the image of God.
<em><strong>God has plans for us to spend eternity with him if we will turn from our sin and follow him through Christ.</strong></em>
We matter to Him. Life matters! Without that reality, memorials to lost souls are a sad and painful joke. But intuitively, whether we intellectually believe in God or not, we know that such memorials are right and good. Deep down in our own being, we know and believe there is a God and that life goes on after this life is over.
And even if these men cannot see the memorial that their family and friends held in their honor, God can see! He pays attention to what we do. He honors those who honor him, and he honors those who love their fellow man.
After you shake out all the religiosity from whatever brand of Christianity you subscribe to, the Bible says that the two greatest commandments are:
<em><strong>"To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself."</strong></em>
My hope and prayer is that if you have not already, you will give your life to the Lord through Christ. Jesus died on your behalf and mine, paying to God the penalty owed for your sin and mine. The "bell" of his story is still ringing throughout history, calling us all to remember the meaning of his death.
Around the world that message has been proclaimed. We mark the calendar by his life. We call this year 2008 because it is 2008 "in the year of our Lord." It is no mistake that the whole world marks its calendar by Him. The bell is ringing, his voice is still speaking.
Each December 25th, the world stops to consider his birth, and even those who don't believe, hear the bell ringing telling his story.
You know the story. You know the ship wreck he faced for you. What will you do? There is an audience watching. It is God. Will you ring the bell of your own voice and speak to acknowledge your need for him?
If you will and would like to be sure that one day you'll be in heaven, sins forgiven, sincerely pray a prayer something like this in your own words. God promised to grant you eternal life if you do. One word of caution: You have to mean it. This isn't a magic potion.
<em><strong>Dear Lord, I confess to you today that I am a sinner, a sinner with no remedy of my own for my sin. I have offended you by the way I have lived and I'm sorry. Today I turn away from my sin and ask that you would forgive me through what Jesus Christ did on my behalf.
I believe that Christ died for my sins and that it is only through his death and resurrection that I can be forgiven and saved from my sin. Being good won't get me forgiven, going to church won't get me forgiven, nor will any number of other religious acts all put together. What you have said will get me forgiven is putting my faith in Christ as my Savior and turning away from my sin.
I do both today and ask that Jesus be the Lord of my life, leading me each day in the future. I don't know what that will look like, but I trust you and surrender my life to you today, to do with as you will.
Please come into my life and grant me the eternal life you have promised, filling me with your Spirit so that I can live a life that it pleasing to you.
In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.</strong></em>
If you prayed that prayer and would like some help getting started in your Christian life, shoot me off an email. I'll recommend some reading for you and some other steps you can take to begin life well in following Christ.</div>Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-5556314706443578922017-11-21T10:48:00.004-06:002020-08-21T08:46:04.027-05:00God's Grading System for HeavenI did a funeral for a good friend some time ago, a friend who for sure is in heaven even as you read this.<br />
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But that brings up the question of "How do we know for sure we are headed for heaven?" There are lots of theories on how God decides who gets into heaven. Most of those theories can be explained by comparing them to a grading system in school.<br />
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RIGHT MINUS WRONG<br />
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Some people think that God grades on a "right minus wrong" system. Do more right things than wrong things and you are in.<br />
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PERCENTAGE SYSTEM<br />
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Others think that just squeaking by with 51% right actions like those who believe in the "right minus wrong" system, isn't enough. There must be a percentage higher than that, that a person has to hit. No one knows what that percentage might be, but it has to be more than a simple 51% majority, they presume.<br />
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GRADING ON THE CURVE<br />
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Still others think that a percentage system isn't the way to go, but that God grades on a curve. All you have to do is be a better person than that old church-going hypocrite up the street. If he is going to get into heaven with all his faults, surely "you" are going to get into heaven, since you have fewer faults. (Nevermind the "pride" factor that is a serious problem with this view! LOL!)<br />
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E IS FOR EFFORT<br />
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Others suggest that none of the above are correct. What really matters is trying to be a good person. Effort is what this is all about. God knows who is trying and who isn't trying. All who make an effort to be a good person should get into heaven in this view.<br />
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BREATHING<br />
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Still others don't like any of these grading methods that have been listed. As long as we are breathing we get to go to heaven, these folks think. Breathing, being alive, that's all that matters. Effort shouldn't matter. God is love, they say, so all should get to go to heaven (never mind that that God is also just!)<br />
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Of course you immediately see the problem with these views: They can't all be right at the same time. Second, in every class I have ever been in, the teacher or professor selected the grading system. Third, with these grading systems those who hold them are only guessing!<br />
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But there is an answer to what God's grading system is. It is the percentage system. If we are going to get into heaven on our own merit, we have to be 100% perfect. And of course there is immediately a problem for us with that grading system: We all know that we have sinned. We know that we have done some wrong things in life.<br />
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Thankfully God in his mercy has provided a way out for us. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross in our place, paying the penalty for our sin. When we put our faith in Christ's death on the cross as payment for our sin, asking God to forgive us through Christ's payment, God does forgive and grants us the eternal life he promised.<br />
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The Bible says in 1 John 5 in the New Testament:<br />
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<b><i>God has given us life and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life, he who has not the son of God has not the life. I write this to those of you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.</i></b><br />
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John also wrote in the Gospel of John:<br />
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<b><i>For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.</i></b><br />
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Paul wrote:<br />
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<b><i>If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is (our) Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.</i></b><br />
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While these statements are either true or false, they are not unclear. Your decision is whether to believe them or not. My recommendation is that you believe them and bet your life on them. Ask Christ to come into your life before it is too late.<br />
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Here's a prayer to pray sincerely so you can be sure you are headed for heaven when you die:<br />
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<b><i>Lord God, I recognize today that I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I ask you to forgive my sins through Jesus Christ dying on the Cross as payment in full for my sins. I trust in his payment and his payment alone for my forgiveness. I surrender my life to you and give it to you to do with what you will. Fill me with your Holy Spirit as you promised and grant me the eternal life you promised through Christ.</i></b><br />
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If you prayed that prayer, tell someone you love and trust about it. When the day comes for your funeral it will give them and your family comfort to know of the decision you made. And find a Bible believing church to attend.<br />
<br />Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-48783218066853123432011-04-10T21:57:00.000-05:002020-08-13T09:08:48.929-05:00Looking out the car window and wondering about lifeI remember as a little boy growing up in Iowa, riding along in the back seat of the car looking out across the farm fields at the night sky, and wondering "what was out there;" out there in the heavens. I wondered where life would lead and I wondered about God and a lot of things.
I probably wondered too, why I got car sick! Dad would be smoking up front as he drove and in those days no one had a thought that smoking was a bad thing for one's health, let alone that second-hand smoke might be a problem for kids. I couldn't wait for some of those rides to end so I could get out into the fresh air. It wasn't that I was thinking about the smoke; it was just that it seemed stuffy in the car. A stuffy boy wants some fresh air.
As my mind wandered from little boy thoughts about horses and baseball and dreams of life to come, it would drift back to those bigger questions about life. What I've discovered since those boyhood years, is that I am not alone. We all have those thoughts and wonder about God and life and life after death.
Even if you aren't what we would normally call a "believer" in God, what I do know about you is that you have had those thoughts. Ecclesiastes says that "God has put eternity into man's mind, and yet so he cannot figure out what he has done from beginning to end." You have thought about eternity, about God, I know you have. And you have wondered, maybe even angrily, about "god" or "a god," but you have wondered.
What I want to share with you is that you don't have to wonder any more. There is a God. He is real. He created you and he really, really does love you...no matter what you have done in your past and no matter what kinds of thoughts you have had about him.
How do I know? Well there was this guy named Jesus who claimed to have know the Father, the Father we call God. And how do we know that we can trust what Jesus said? Because he was raised from the dead to show, among other things, that he was God's Son. That Jesus was raised from the dead isn't just a fairytale. We have proof. Really? Proof?<div>
</div><div>Ya, we do. Witnesses, many of them. Witnesses who saw him, talked with him, ate with him, touched him and were changed by him. Witnesses who saw him over a period of time, not just as some ghostly figure floating around a room once. Witnesses who went to their deaths because of their claim that he was alive.</div><div>
</div><div>Did you know that over 500 people all at once saw Jesus alive after the Resurrection? Did you know that he cooked fish for his disciples after the Resurrection? I've seen the spot where it likely happened. I've stood on the shores of the Sea of Galilee on the spot where the Apostle John says that Peter ate that fish meal the Lord had prepared.</div><div>
</div><div>I could go on, but if you are new to all this, it may be that you have heard that such things are a myth. Nope. They were recorded as fact by people who said they were eyewitnesses. Did you know there is no contemporaneous record (a record written at that time) that says, "Nope, those disciples are crazy. This stuff never happened!" There is no record like that. If someone today were to say that Elvis is still alive and living in Memphis, there would be a whole bunch of evidence presented that that isn't true.</div><div>
</div><div>Ditto for the resurrection of Christ. The Disciples and others claimed that he was resurrected, but there was no one presenting evidence that it hadn't happened. Just a small point, but something for you to consider.</div><div>
</div><div>God is real. He loves you. He does have a plan not only for your life but for your eternity. He is reaching out to you; reach back. You can start with John 3:16 that says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."</div><div>
</div><div>God is for you. He wants you to have eternal life and joy with him. Christ is the way that that happens. Confess your sins. God is waiting to forgive. Put your trust in Christ and Christ alone as your Savior and only hope for heaven. God will come into your life and change you and your future in ways you never could have dreamed. </div><div>
</div><div>Then find a good church to go to...there really are some. Do it today. You'll be glad you did.</div>Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-70865332242739693372014-02-16T07:27:00.002-06:002020-08-13T09:08:31.221-05:00Being Ready for Your Last DayLast Sunday my wife and I returned from a trip to Nashville. We were there in the recording studio while a country music song I co-wrote was being recorded. When we arrived back home and went through the mail we discovered that a friend of mine had passed away.<br />
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A young man of 56 years, always in good health, exercising regularly and keeping his weight in good shape all the time, suddenly and unexpectedly was gone. In the middle of the sadness and shock, a thought came to mind: I wondered if he was "ready."<br />
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Are you ready for that day?<br />
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When that day will come for me I want to be ready in a variety of ways.<br />
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I want to be sure that I've put things in order for my wife so that she'll be taken care of when I'm gone. I want to be sure that my children and grandchildren know that I loved them. I want to be sure that there are no loose ends relationally. I want to be sure that to the extent humanly possible, the wrongs I've done in this life have been righted, apologies given, relationships restored. I want to be sure that the paper trail of my life says, "This was a life well lived."<br />
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Most importantly I want to be sure that I'm right with the Lord in terms of eternity. <br />
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We are eternal beings. When our bodies die, our spirits live on. That is what the Bible teaches. God has a preferred destination for each of our spirits, and it is heaven. Know that if you are reading this today, heaven is God's preferred destination for you when this life is over.<br />
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But how to be ready? How to get there? <br />
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That path is clearly laid out in the Bible in John 3:16, <b><i>"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."</i></b><br />
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God gave his Son Jesus Christ, so that Christ could pay for all the "I'm not ready" parts of our life, that is to say, so he could pay for our sins so we don't have to.<br />
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If you have never said "yes" to God's offer of forgiveness, let me encourage you to do so today. The precise words aren't the issue, but the meaning behind them is. Here's a sample prayer which if said with genuine sincerity (meaning you have to mean it), makes you ready to meet the Lord and will start you on a path in this life of walking with him now.<br />
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If you want to be sure you are headed for heaven when you die, sincerely pray this prayer:<br />
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<b><i>"Lord, I confess to you today that I'm a sinner and that I have sinned. I don't deserve heaven, but am grateful that you have made a way for my sins to be forgiven so I can go to be with you there in heaven when I die. I ask that you forgive me through Christ. What I mean Lord is what you have laid out in the Bible, that if I repent of my sins and put my faith in Christ's death and resurrection and payment for my sins, that I will be forgiven and will go to heaven when I die. Please do forgive me through Christ. I put my faith in him and ask that you fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can begin to walk with you now by faith until the day I see you face to face. I pray this in the name of Jesus who is now my Lord. Amen"</i></b><br />
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Friend, I can tell you on the authority of the Bible, that if you pray that prayer and mean what it says, you are on your way to heaven. You are "ready."<br />
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Don't wait until it is too late. Put your spiritual house in order while you can. You will never regret doing so.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-8299700818913814972007-09-21T06:11:00.000-05:002007-09-21T07:08:05.116-05:00You can be wrong about a lot of "God" things and still be headed for Heaven<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:gordonmagee@gmail.com"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br />Some thirty years ago when I was in college, one of my professors blew me away with a statement he made in class one day. It was a passing comment on some subject the content of which I don't remember. In his comment he mentioned some Christians friends of his who were amillennialists. (Nevermind what an amillennialist is. It's simply some one who has a certain view of the "end times.")<br /><br />I was shocked when he called them Christians! As a relatively new believer at the time, I couldn't imagine how one could come to the conclusion about the end times that amillennialists do, and still be a Christian!<br /><br />Of course my immaturity in things theological was showing through in my thinking. But my professor's comment started me on a process of thought that led me to an even more startling conclusion:<br /><br /><strong><em>There are tons of things we can be wrong about when it comes to our beliefs about God, even very important things, and still be headed for heaven.</em></strong><br /><br />That may not seem like a great revelation to you, but believe me it was to me. For example--and this may be a shock to someone who hasn't thought this through--we can be wrong in our belief about the virgin birth or the inerrancy of the Bible or when or if there will be a rapture and so on, and still be "saved" people headed for heaven.<br /><br />You see, it is what we believe about and do about Jesus that gets us to heaven. It isn't what we believe about the Bible, as important as that is. We could believe that the entire Old and New Testaments are filled with human errors, but if we believe correctly about Jesus and respond to that belief correctly, we'll be headed for heaven one day.<br /><br />Certainly if we don't believe the Bible is trustworthy we'll have problems along the way in living life in a way that is pleasing to God. So I'm not advocating such a position! My point is simple: We can be wrong about lots of things...even important things...and still be headed for heaven.<br /><br />By the way there is a corollary thought about all this that works in the other direction as well: <br /><br /><em><strong>There are some things we just can't be wrong about, no matter how right we are about everything else.</strong></em><br /><br />We can't be wrong about who Jesus is and still be headed for heaven. If we think he was just a good man with good teaching, but not the Son of God whose death on the cross paid for our sins, then no matter what else we may be right about, we are still lost.<br /><br />We can't be wrong about salvation being a free gift from God through Christ. If we think that even one little part of God's forgiveness is "earned" by us through us being good or doing good deeds, then we are still in a lost condition. <br /><br />We can't believe that going to church and being a nice person or just believing that God exists is going to get us to heaven, and still actually be going to heaven...no matter how right we are about everything else.<br /><br />I could go on and one with illustrations, but I think you get the point I am making. Ok, but, "So what?" you say, "What difference does it make to come to these conclusions?"<br /><br />It makes a great deal of difference. <br /><br />Understanding this concept can help narrow minded or judgmental Christians relax a bit. Not everyone has to believe everything exactly the same way to be headed for heaven. Certain things yes! But not everything. "Getting it" will help people relax a bit and be able to see others more positively who may disagree with them on subjects they hold near and dear to their theological hearts.<br /><br />Understanding this concept can help people who have wrong ideas about salvation but right ideas about lots of other things, examine their position on salvation. It isn't enough to be right about many or most things. What matters is being right about the right things. <br /><br />So, are you sure that you are right about the right things when it comes to salvation?<br /><br />This post is already long, but here are some bullet points for you regarding salvation. Check'em out to see where you are at. If you want to be sure you are headed for heaven, I've included a prayer at the end for you to pray to take care of that with God.<br /><br />Salvation bullet points:<br /><br /><ul><br /><li>All people have sinned, including you.<br /><li>God requires a remedy for sin.<br /><li>There is only one remedy: The death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.<br /><li>Salvation comes by putting our faith in God's remedy (see previous bullet point).<br /><li>You can't earn any part of your forgiveness. It's a gift from God.<br /><li>Repentance is required at your salvation step, not just an intellectual belief in the truth. <br /><li>Even the demons believe, so just "believing" isn't enough. You must respond to God's call to repent, putting your faith in Christ as your Lord and Savior.<br /></ul><br /><br />Ok, there you go. There may be some other ways to phrase things, but this gives you the idea.<br /><br />If as you have read this today, you aren't sure whether you are headed for heaven, I've included a prayer for you to pray so you can be sure. Sincerely pray this prayer and you are on your way to heaven. Yes, that will only be the start of things, including changing your mind about some things you have been wrong about up until now. But you'll be able to do that "mind-changing" without worrying about where you are going to end up when you die.<br /><br />Here you go:<br /><br /><em><strong>"Heavenly Father, I realize today that there is only one way to heaven, and that that way is through Jesus Christ. I may have done this before, but today I want to be clear about it in my own mind. Today I put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and as my only hope for heaven. I ask that my sins be forgiven on the basis of what Christ did for me by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead. I offer you nothing for my forgiveness but Jesus and what he did for me in paying for my sins.<br /><br />I ask that you give me the eternal life you promised. Today I surrender my life to you. Though I don't know where it will lead, today I give you control of my life, repenting of my sin.<br /><br />Thank you for forgiving me. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen."</strong></em><br /><br />Ok, did you pray that prayer? If you did, and you meant it, you are on your way to heaven. Yes, there will be things to relearn and change your mind about along the way...important things...things that make a difference. But today you took care of the main thing.<br /><br />Go grab a cup of coffee and have a talk with God. He's smiling right now. Oh ya, and welcome to the family!Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1156245825258700542006-08-22T06:02:00.000-05:002007-09-21T06:05:43.349-05:00Forgetting What Lies Behind, We Press On<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a><br /><A HREF="mailto:gordonmagee@gmail.com"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br />It was amazing to watch Tiger Woods this weekend win the PGA tournament again. His 12th major tournament and his second this year. He dismantled the competition on the way to his 51st win over all. Barring injury or some other onforeseen circumstance Tiger will certainly win more tournaments and more majors than any golfer ni the history of the sport.<br /><br />What sets him apart from other players? Certainly there are other players with amazing talent. Some putt better, others are longer drivers, and at least one is a better iron player. So what is it?<br /><br />His competitors will tell you that it is his smarts. He is the smartest and most mentally tough player in the game....maybe ever. He is able to put behind him whatever bad shots he does hit, and stay focused on what he needs to do with his next shot.<br /><br />That was Paul's message to us in the letter he wrote to the Philippians. He said, <br /><br /><em><strong>Forgetting what lies behind, I strain forward to what lies ahead...</strong></em><br /><br />In some ways a person could think that such an approach is a cop-out, a form of denial. But it isn't. <br /><br />Paul describes this kind of thinking as how those who are mature in the Lord will think. Interesting. Not a cop-out at all, but it is a sign of maturity in Christ that we don't dwell on the past, but rather strain forward to what lies ahead.<br /><br />I recently preached a sermon on this subject and during the sermon on the screen behind me I projected a Power Point slide of two runners, hurdlers to be exact, leaning forward toward the tape at the finish line.<br /><br />Behind them in the background of the shot, you could see the hurdles they had come over. In one lane far in the back, was a downed hurdle. What was interesting to notice as it relates to the subject at hand, is that neither runner was looking behind them. Both were only looking toward the finish line.<br /><br />Whether hurdles were down behind them or they had cleared them all made no difference. What mattered was the finish line.<br /><br />Far too often we knock over hurdles in life--failing in some way, sinning, whatever it may be that is our "knocked down hurdle"--and we stand in the running lane of life staring at the hurdles on the ground.<br /><br />We are immobilized by our failures, frozen in a spot on the track. We look around for more of our hurdles that have been tipped over. And sure enough we find them. So we spend time looking at those hurdles too.<br /><br />Depending on our personality, we may spend a fair bit of time looking at the hurdles that have been knocked down in other lanes. All we see is failure; our own failure and the failure of others.<br /><br />Another group of us stands in the lane on the track admiring the fact that they have knocked down fewer hurdles than others! Pride! What great hurdlers they are! Really? They are still on the track staring at hurdles rather than running toward the finish line.<br /><br />The Lord would have us stop spending so much time looking at hurdles, either hurdles still standing (our successes) or hurdles that have been knocked over (our failures). Yes we need to repent when we fail, but we aren't to stay at the point of our failure in the lane of life. <br /><br />We are to press on. We are to strain forward to what lies ahead--the upward call of God in Christ.<br /><br />What we may not realize as believers in Christ, is that when we knock over hurdles in life, as we will, there is someone coming up behind us in our lane! It is the Lord. And he is picking up those hurdles. He is making all things new. He is forgiving our sins.<br /><br />So don't live in the past. Don't stand staring at your failures. Where repentence and restitution is needed, do it. Repentence and restitution are Biblical steps. But note that they are "steps," that is, that we should be moving on from them. They are steps, not stopping points.<br /><br />God wants us to forget what lies behind and to press forward to what lies ahead.<br /><br />As a believer in Christ he has set you free. Lean forward, press on, feel the wind of the Spirit that has set you free. This is God's will for you. Enjoy it. <br /><br />And tomorrow or next week when you knock over another hurdle, as you will, repent but keep moving knowing that there is someone coming up in the lane behind you to pick up your hurdle. His name is Jesus and he'll take care of things.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1150287996424068632006-06-14T06:59:00.000-05:002006-06-14T07:26:36.436-05:00Bitterness is a poison we drink hoping that some one else will die.<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br />Hebrews 12:15 says, <em><strong>"See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."</strong></em><br /><br />I can't remember where I heard it, but some one once said, "Bitterness is a poison we drink hoping that some one else will die." How true a statement. Bitterness doesn't help us with our hurt, it only poisons us in our pain. And as Hebrews says, bitterness can spread and defile others around us.<br /><br />Recently I witnessed bitterness at level that I haven't seen in the past. The context will remain private, but the general situation I can share.<br /><br />Two people with an estranged relationship due to the actions of one of them had cause to meet in an official legal setting. One person, clearly broken because of the actions of the other, was as bitter a person as I have seen.<br /><br />I understand the person's pain. They were the innocent party, so to speak. But the level of bitterness in them was malignant. It had spread to others who came to the meeting with them. Frankly I don't think bitterness is a strong enough word to describe what their emotions exuded.<br /><br /><em><strong>Cold, hard hatred was more like it. The bitter root had surely grown up and brought with it defilement.</strong></em><br /><br />They had reason for their pain. As I said, they were the innocent party. But the palpable hatred they exuded toward the one who had caused the injury and to everyone else who didn't see things their way, was cancerous...not to others, but to themselves. <br /><br />My heart ached for them. It ached for any number of obvious reasons, but also because the events that caused them pain were in the main, not new.<br /><br />Months and months had passed, actually more than months, but I don't want to overstate the time issue since lessor offenses in more recent days have torn the scabs off the past.<br /><br />But the level of pain and bitterness expressed in the meeting would have been understandable if the painful events had occurred recently. They had not.<br /><br />Christians to the core and claiming the moral high ground, they have fallen prey to a poisonous bitterness; a kind of bitterness that if not resolved will leave them crippled emotionally for the rest of their lives. My heart ached for them.<br /><br />Bitterness is a poison we drink hoping that some one else will die. What a mistake.<br /><br />Years ago I spoke with my Mother about some of the things my father did during their estrangement and eventual divorce. Years and years after that estrangement Dad gave his heart to the Lord and repented...just months before his death as it turned out.<br /><br />But there was a season that Dad was not a very nice man. In talking to Mom about some of those days and the things that happened, she said, "You know Gordon, I don't remember them."<br /><br />I was stunned because of what some of those things were. I couldn't imagine anyone not remembering them.<br /><br />I asked her how that could be. What she said may be helpful to any of you wrestling with bitterness. She said:<br /><br /><em><strong>"I went to my pastor, Dan Bean and he prayed for me. What he prayed for was that my memories be healed. And they were. There are many things that I just don't remember."</strong></em><br /><br />Mom was not in denial. She wasn't that kind of person. She honestly didn't remember some of the most hurtful things that had happened. God had healed her memories.<br /><br />Of course she wouldn't have had to go to her pastor to have that prayer prayed for her. I merely shared that part with you because that is how it happened for her. The key point the prayer to the Lord for her memories to be healed. <br /><br />You don't need a pastor to pray....and I say that having been a pastor since 1982. You can pray that prayer or any other prayer, just fine by yourself.<br /><br />If you are experiencing bitterness in your life, let me encourage you to pray that your memories be healed. Pray that God will release you from the pain of the past, so that it doesn't poison your present.<br /><br />Let no root of bitterness grow up and defile many. Be honest with yourself. If you are bitter, admit it...then deal with it. God will help you if you turn to him.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1148558569782453082006-05-25T06:33:00.000-05:002006-05-25T07:02:49.816-05:00Productivity is not a goal; it is an attribute<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br />Paul had me in a quandry for awhile as I read in Philippians his comment, <em><strong>For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. (1:21)</strong></em><br /><br />It wasn't that I questioned the truth of the long treasured verse, it was that in this comment and his other discussion around it, he seemed to be too willing to let go of this life and get on with the next.<br /><br />There is a time for such thinking of course, when one has lived a full life and the inevitable is facing us. But at the time Paul wrote this he had much more life to live and work to do. How could he be so prepared to simply walk away from this life with so much yet to accomplish for the Lord?<br /><br />We have all heard of stories where a person dies long before their time, and the plattitudes come out about "How the Lord can use this in the lives of others, as others consider the meaning of the life of the wonderful person that has passed away."<br /><br />And we understand that there is some truth to that, but the logical part of our brain says, "Ya, but what if they had stayed living? Wouldn't that have been better? Wouldn't they have been able to impact even more people? And what about their families, as in wives or husbands or children that have been left without them? How is having them without their loved one a "better" situation?<br /><br />We don't articulate those things except in private perhaps, or maybe even at all. But deep down inside something nags at us for an answer to something that just doesn't make sense to us.<br /><br /><em><strong>That same "something" nagged at me as I read of Paul's willingness to let this life go and move on to the next.</strong></em><br /><br />Finally the light bulb went on: I was looking at life and our relationshp with God in a very deficient way. <br /><br />Growing up in a home where having a work ethic was prized and productivity was to be sought after, I could not imagine that having some one like Paul in heaven rather than on earth, is a "better" thing. Too much productivity for the Kingdom would be lost for that to make sense.<br /><br />Not so, if productivity isn't our target, it dawned on me.<br /><br />This may sound obvious and maybe you have already understood this...and it may sound seem not very profound, but believe me it is. It will set you free if you understand it correctly. Here it is:<br /><br /><em><strong>Productivity for the Lord is not our goal as believers; it is simply an attribute of a healthy Christian life.</strong></em><br /><br />Ephesians 2 tells us that "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared for us that we might walk in them."<br /><br />You see, the "good works" are not God's ultimate target....we are. We are his workmanship. The good works are to be "walked in," yes, that is, we are to do them. But doing "good works" (sharing our faith, serving others etc.)is an attribute of a person being shaped into the likeness of Christ. It is not the ultimate goal.<br /><br />The ultimate goal for a believer is not to rack up an impressive list of spiritual accomplishments, it is to be like Christ. Accomplishments will take care of themselves as the "fruit" of the attribute of being productive for the Lord in all that we do and say.<br /><br />Again, I know this may not sound all that profound, but if you are a "word person," a person that understands that how a person articulates a thought or a concept to themselves can truly make a difference in life, you will perhaps grasp that the idea that productivity for the Lord is an attribute of a healthy Christian and not the ultimate goal, has the potential to absolutely life changing for some.<br /><br />Go out an enjoy your life for the Lord. Acknowledge him in all that you do. Be productive, be efficient, work hard. But know that he tresures you...he treasures YOU! You are his workmanship. Productivity, while an important attribute in a healthy Christian life, is not the goal. <br /><br />So much is it not the goal, that if the Lord chooses to take the most productive person on the planet at the time...Paul...home to be with God in glory, Paul is able to say, "Wow, to live is Christ, but you know, to die and be with him is truly ultimate gain." <br /><br />No regret for tasks yet undone. How could he be that way? Because he was productive of course. He took every thought captive and made the most of the time...and that is all we can do. The results and the scope and the depth of "our" impact is up to the Lord. We can be at peace knowing that productivity isn't the driving slave master that we once thought it was. It is simply an attribute.<br /><br />Productivity...stay in your attribute category and get off my "to do" list. AmenGordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1146372275862296842006-04-29T23:39:00.000-05:002006-04-30T06:18:49.246-05:00Dealing with injustice...but how?<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br /><br />Have you ever struggled with your own feelings when some injustice has taken place in your life? <br /><br />Some one attributes a comment or an action to you that you didn't make, and consequences in your life result from their actions. When you eventually find out the source of the problem--the other person--it is too late to undo what they have done. They seem to go about their merry way repeating their actions with no consequences in their own lives.<br /><br />A crime happens, you are robbed, your house is torn apart by vandals. The vandals are either never found or when they are found, they are given a slap on the wrist while you are left to clean up their mess and deal with the loss of possessions that may be irreplaceable.<br /><br />Worse, a life is taken. A few years ago a young woman formerly from our community was murdered in another city by some one looking for a few dollars. A lovely person's life was snubbed out, creating a permanent and horrifying injustice in her life and in the life of this young woman's family. An injustice that will never be corrected fully because she is gone.<br /><br />How do we deal with such things? And how do we as believers who preach forgiveness, reconcile these colliding feelings in our souls: one feeling crying out for justice, the other an awareness of how much we have been forgiven by God and that we should thus likewise forgive?<br /><br />Even when we do forgive, as we should, we want to <em><strong>feel</strong></em> that we have forgiven not just know that to be true intellectually. But we often battle with feelings that don't match the forgiveness we know we have chosen to give. There is not-so-latent anger and frustration, even bitterness in our hearts. <br /><br />What do we do with these feelings when injustice happens and appears to be the final outcome of our situation?<br /><br />It is complicated and what I am about to share won't be the full answer, but if you are struggling with some injustice in your life, I think this will help.<br /><br />As I battled to think through a major injustice that happened in my own life by people who lied and manipulated and appeared to get away with it, I've prayed and prayed and prayed for the Lord's direction and help with my own feelings. Until today. This morning I ran across some verses that are a great help. I still have some things to work through as I consider these verses, but I've finally found a starting point: <em><strong>2 Timothy 4:14-18</strong></em>.<br /><br />Listen to what Paul says here and notice the difference between Paul’s view of Alexander the coppersmith and Paul’s view of those who deserted him (Paul):<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Be on your guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching. 16 At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. <br /><br />17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth. 18 The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />The Alexander listed here is almost certainly a fellow believer whom Paul knew. <br /><br />In <em><strong>Acts 19:33</strong></em> an Alexander attempts to make a defense of Paul, but the Ephesian crowd shouts him down. Ephesus is the place where Timothy was, to whom Paul was writing in our passage above. <br /><br />In <em><strong>1 Timothy 19:20</strong></em> an Alexander is also mentioned. This time Paul speaks of a disciplinary action he had to take because of blasphemy being spoken by this Alexander. The kind of discipline that Paul refers to is one that is spoken of elsewhere regarding believers. Alexander, therefore, appears to be a believer, surely the same Alexander in each instance.<br /><br />I mention that Alexander is almost certainly a believer because it is often the case, sadly, that it is a fellow believer who perpetrates injustice in our lives. These hurts are the most painful. <br /><br />David wrote in the Psalms, <br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>“If an enemy were insulting me I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked along with the throng in the house of God. (Psalm 55:12-14)</strong></em></blockquote><br />How does God deal with believers who do injustices to other believers?<br /><br />Well part of the answer is in <em><strong>2 Timothy 4</strong></em>. He repays them for their deeds. We must be careful as we think about this. This isn't the only way that God deals with us as believers. Thank the Lord that he doesn't always repay us for our deeds! The Cross of Christ is about forgiveness and God does forgive.<br /><br />But here we find that Alexander did harm to Paul as he was preaching the Gospel. He did harm by opposing Paul's teaching. Rather than just write this off and say, "The Lord forgive him," Paul says something quite different. He says that the Lord will repay Alexander for his deeds.<br /><br />Paul was very direct about what had happened to him. He didn’t put on a happy face and pretend that nothing inappropriate had been done by Alexander, nor did he excuse Alexander’s behavior as simply the actions of a fellow sinner as Paul was quick to point out that he was himself. On the contrary. Paul says frankly that Alexander had done him great harm and that God would repay Alexander for what he had done. <br /><br />In contrast, in the very same context, Paul mentions those who had deserted Paul when he desperately needed defending. About this group Paul says, <em><strong>"May it not be counted against them."</strong></em><br /><br />Interesting isn’t it? <br /><br /><em><strong>About one he says, "The Lord will repay him..."<br /><br />About the other he says, "May it not be counted against them." </strong></em><br /><br /><em><strong>Why the difference? </strong></em><br /><br />In part because the one who had done harm clearly had not repented. Paul says to be on guard about him. Alexander is still who he has been, out there causing problems. In that condition God is going to deal with him. God is going to repay him for what he is doing.<br /><br />The others, those who deserted Paul, while acting inappropriately, were merely cowards not perpetrators. Paul openly extends forgiveness to them. <br /><br />Frankly when I read this and understood it, it was a great relief. <br /><br />This nagging internal conflict of, on the one hand, having forgiven others and recognizing my own need for forgiveness, and on the other hand, wanting justice to be done and truth to be known, had left me confused about how God deals with such things. <br /><br />It always seems in my own life that God doesn't let me get away with things. He brings things to my mind to get them dealt with and if I don't deal with them consequences result. But I was unwilling to see that as God's way of dealing with others. <br /><br />It seemed that forgiveness, full and complete on my part toward them, should wipe away that need for action by God...yet that didn't seem right. Like me, people still need to deal with what they have done and not "get away with it" so to speak.<br /><br />These verses have shown me an aspect of all this that has been helpful in dealing with the unresolved internal conflict in my own soul: the conflict of wanting justice and truth to be known even when I have forgiven people—but not feeling an internal release about that forgiveness in my own soul. Something seemed to be left out of the equation: their repentance and reconciliation with God.<br /><br />What these verses have shown me is that God will bring about consequences in the lives of those who do damage to others. <em><strong>The point should be made that it is God who will repay; we are not to do the repaying. </strong></em> God is perfectly capable of handling things and he will, no matter what it looks like to us on the outside. <br /><br />One more point in closing. Notice that even with all deserting Paul--that is all human beings--verses 17 and 18 say: <br /><br /><em><strong>17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth. <br /><br />18 The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.</strong></em><br /><br /><strong><em>The Lord will stand with us when no one else will.</em></strong> When all have deserted us, God will not. When some one does us harm, know that God has a plan to bring us safely to His heavenly kingdom. He will deliver us from every evil deed. Every evil deed. Every one. <br /><br />That delivery is not a promise for an escape of the evil actions of others here on this earth. Clearly the passage acknowledges that evil deeds happen. This delivery from every evil deed is a promise that all will be made right in heaven. We’ll be brought safely to that heavenly shore. Count on it. This is His promise to you.<br /><br />Perhaps I should say a word to those who are perpetrators of harm to others. Know this, that God will not let you get away with it, even though for a season it will seem that you have gotten away with it. God, in his time, will bring you face to face with the consequences of your actions. It’s how he does things.<br /><br />For those who are merely weak and who fail, may it not be counted against you. That is how God does things as well.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1144530866725482522006-04-08T15:44:00.000-05:002006-04-08T22:21:30.990-05:00They saw the wonderful things he did...and were indignant...<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br />It seems to be a law of nature and human nature to look for the weakness in people rather than their strengths. <br /><br />I remember listening to a tape by Dr. Howard Hendricks years ago, as he talked about how he worked with students in teaching them to do public speaking, specifically preaching. One of his techniques was to have class members evaluate each other, but with a caution as to how to go about it.<br /><br />In Dr. Hendricks' humorous style, as my memory recalls his words, he said,<br /><br /> <em><strong>"Now listen: I want you to write down, not what these speakers are doing wrong, but what they are doing right. Any moron can pick out things they are doing wrong. What they need to know is what they are doing right!"</strong></em><br /><br />As I was reading in Matthew 21 this week in preparation for Palm Sunday, I ran across a passage that reminded me that we can become so focused on what we presume is a fault--but may not be--that we miss the big picture in a person's life or actions.<br /><br />Shortly after Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he went to the Temple and turned over the tables of the money changers. Not a good way to "win friends and influence people" you would think!<br /><br />However, the next passage after the incident says, Mat. 21:14 <em><strong>"And the blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple and he healed them."</strong></em> People were drawn to him--by dozens and hundreds and thousands.<br /><br />Now you would think that healing people who are blind and lame would be a good thing, especially in the eyes of religious leaders whose profession of faith in God one would presume would be evidence that they are compassionate people. <br /><br />But not so.<br /><br />You see it turns out that in an act of fulfilling prophesy about the coming of the Messiah--though they didn't know it was a fulfillment of prophecy--some small children began to say to Jesus, <em><strong>"Hosanna to the Son of David!"</strong></em><br /><br />The name "Son of David" was a title for the Messiah who was to come. And of course Jesus was and is that Messiah. But the religious leaders, these very ones who had been waiting so long for the promised Messiah, couldn't see what was before their very eyes. They struggled to take "Yes!" for an answer.<br /><br />So when Jesus was healing people, even when they saw those "wonderful things" with their own eyes, rather than see the good that was happening, they chose to focus on what they viewed as a violation of appropriate protocol: giving praise to Jesus as though he was truly the Messiah.<br /><br />So they became indignant.<br /><br />Ever been there? Not about the Messiah, but about a fellow human being? <br /><br />They are doing good things in their lives, they are serving the Lord, serving humanity or some cause, but you think they don't seem to be as polished as they should be, or you don't like their spouse, or you don't like it that they are getting praised, when your opinion of them is that they are not much to write home about. <br /><br />We can become so focused on what we perceive is a short-coming in a person's life that we miss the person they truly are; or we diminish in our minds the things they have accomplished. In short, we write them off.<br /><br />We can become so hardened in our hearts toward people that even though we see the "wonderful things" they are doing, we become indignant.<br /><br />Ever been on the receiving end of such treatment? If you have, let me encourage you with a question that the chief priests asked of Jesus in verse 23 of the same chapter:<br /><br /><em><strong>"By what authority are You doing these things and who gave You this authority?"</strong></em><br /><br />I just loved it when I read that! Not because it was a great question. It wasn't. It was a question that demonstrated the hardness of heart of these leaders. No, their motivation and reason for asking was off base completely.<br /><br /><em><strong>The reason I loved the question is because it reminded me of the answer! </strong></em> <br /><br />By what authority are you doing what you are doing and who gave you that authority?<br /><br />Almost certainly the authority that is the basis for what you are doing to serve the Lord--those things you are doing and being criticized for--is not found in your critics. It isn't your critics who authorized you to do good! It is God! And no critic or institution can remove the authority that God has given.<br /><br /><em><strong>Get a life critics! It is God who gives this kind of authority, not human beings.</strong></em><br /><br />We need not worry about those who nit-pick and tear and complain and question about the "wonderful things" God does through his imperfect servants. The critics neither have the power to give authority nor to revoke it.<br /><br />Sunday School teacher, Missionary, Pastor, Christian--whomever you may be--don't let the critics get you down! They didn't commission you in the first place. God did. So get on with things. The Lord knows, even if the religious establishment has its head screwed on backwards. Don't be afraid of them, and don't be discouraged.<br /><br />If Jesus was questioned about the authority by which he acted when he was doing good, it is likely that we will be questioned and criticized too. Its a part of life.<br /><br />And if you are one of those critics that focuses in on the things you perceive to be wrong (even though what you think is wrong may not be wrong at all), remember that any moron can point out what is wrong with something. What we need to do is focus on what is right with some one and encourage them.<br /><br />Every day people are rejecting God, dying and going to hell. Our job is to share the love of God in Christ so people can avoid that terrible consequence. God wants people to know that he loves them and that he wants them to believe in His Son so they can be forgiven and spend eternity with the Lord.<br /><br />Yes there are times when wrongs need to be pointed out in the lives of our fellow believers, but get over yourself and become an encourager, not a criticizer. You'll be amazed at what you'll see and how less self-righteously indignant you will become. You may also be amazed to see people blossom even more in the areas where they are doing well, and those areas that need adjusting will often take care of themselves as those same people mature.<br /><br />So to paraphrase Paul, who said "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice," let me say, "Get over yourself always, and again I say, GET OVER YOURSELF" and be an encourager not a critic.<br /><br />Just a thought.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1142422971615242772006-03-15T05:20:00.000-06:002006-03-15T05:46:32.076-06:00Life is Not a Game of Perfect<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br />I just finished reading Dr. Bob Rotella's book, "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect." Its been around awhile, and even though I am an avid golfer, this was my first look. Even if you aren't a golfer, this one is worth the read.<br /><br />Like golf, "life" isn't a game of perfect either. Learning to accept that, but in a healthy way, is part of what it means to be a believer in the Lord.<br /><br />Philippians chapter 1 tells, us that <em><strong>"...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6</strong></em><br /><br /><br />Paul, the same writer, also tells his friends in Philippi:<br /><br /> "<em><strong>But this one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14</strong></em><br /><br />Dr. Rotella's book is all about changing the way we think. He points out that most really successful golfers think differently than those who are less successful.<br /><br />I remember watching a Master's golf tournament years ago, in 1986 as a matter of fact, when Jack Nicklaus was on his way to winning at the ripe old age of 46, a feat that had never been accomplished before and has never been duplicated.<br /><br />Jim Nance, the CBS broadcaster, asked golfer/commentator Tom Weiskopf a question as Jack Nicklaus was about to hit his tee shot at the 16th tee. <br /><br /><em><strong>"What is Jack thinking right now as he is at the tee, Tom?"</strong></em> Nance asked.<br /><br /><em><strong>"If I knew how that man thinks,"</strong></em> said Weiskopf, <em><strong>"I would have won a lot more tournaments!" </strong></em><br /><br />Funny! But true, and not just for Weiskopf!<br /><br />As I read Rotella's book on how to think differently, it dawned on me that part of what Paul and other New Testament writers are trying to do as they teach us, is get us to think differently.<br /><br />We need to think differently about so many things. And in this context, my point is to think differently in a positive sense, even about past failures or present personal struggles.<br /><br />He (God) who began a good work in us (ship-wrecked beings that we are) will (its positive he will) complete (not part way, but fully) the work at the day of Christ Jesus.<br /><br />God has not abandoned us to ourselves, thank goodness. And he loves us and he is working on us. We can think differently about ourselves. No excusing our sin or giving in to temptation, but thinking differently about ourselves; not being so down on ourselves.<br /><br />If you are a believer in Christ as your Lord and Savior, God has forgiven you! Get over it! (Man, I need to hear that same counsel!) Don't keep hanging on to that old view of yourself that beats yourself up for all the failings you have had.<br /><br />As a believer you have admitted them and God has forgiven you! Again, GET OVER IT...IN A GOOD WAY! Forgive yourself now, being sure to have made restitution to others where it is required and needed, and then do what Paul did: <em><strong>forgetting what was behind, he pressed forward!</strong></em><br /><br />What a great way to live...and its Biblical! That means that is ok to think that way folks. Its not a cop out. Its what we are supposed to be doing...better put, it is how we are supposed to be THINKING!<br /><br />Golf is not a game of perfect. That's why they make the greens bigger than a dinner plate.<br /><br />And life is not a game of perfect either. That's why God's grace is so big that it can handle any miss-aimed actions on our part. <em><strong>All our shots land on the green of God's grace.</strong></em> Good or bad shots, God loves us still, and the "green" always funnels the ball of life into the promise of eternal joy and forgiveness.<br /><br />What a God we have. <br /><br />Life is not a game of perfect. You know it, so now accept it, but in a healthy way, understanding that God loves us in spite of ourselves, and one day his work of transforming us will be complete. <br /><br />Count on it.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1140004945899888162006-02-15T05:55:00.000-06:002006-02-15T06:05:25.700-06:00Headed for Israel today!<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br />We're headed out for Israel this morning, flying out of Chicago. Can't wait to have our feet hit the ground there again, on this our third trip.<br /><br />We'll see some new sites this time, like the dig at Dan and some other things, and we'll stay in some new places. <br /><br />I remember our first trip, provided for us by some friends through Northwest Baptist Seminary of Chicago. While I had thought for years about going, the idea of travling there had not been a huge desire for me. The Lord walks with us wherever we are, so being in the Holy Land wasn't going to make a big difference in that.<br /><br />But my interest in travel to Israel changed in a heartbeat when we arrived at the first archaeological site in Caseara, on the Mediterranean. After about 3 minutes I looked over at my wife and said, "Honey, we have to get a group togther and come back here! This is amazing!"<br /><br />And we did. The next year we were back again with a group of 30 that I hosted. And then a few years later we went to Greece/Turkey/Rome on a "Footsteps of Paul" tour that I organized and led.<br /><br />Its been awhile since we have been to Israel and we are greatly looking forward to it. If you ever get a chance to go, don't pass it up. It will be the trip of a life time, believe me. It is an amazing, amazing place.<br /><br />I'll get caught up here when I return after the 25th.<br /><br />Shalom!<br /><br />GordonGordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1139886661503512892006-02-13T20:50:00.000-06:002006-02-13T21:34:29.756-06:00The Philippian Church is Born Part 2 Acts 15-16<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><strong>Ask the Pastor Readers: </strong> <br /><br />I've been away for awhile, busy with some other things, and will be gone from the site for a time while I take a trip to Israel. So I have left you with a sermon about God's leading. His leading isn't so linear as we might wish for, and it isn't so severe as we expect it to be. <br /><br />No need to wring our hands at every turn with concern that we'll miss his leading. If we are sincere about knowing God's will, we can be sure that he is sincere about revealing his will...in time...and sometimes in ways we could not have imagined.<br /><br />The following is a sermon I preached on Sunday. And once again as a reminder, these are my notes to preach from. That means that this wasn't written to be "read" but spoken. I don't read my sermon notes from the pulpit, but have found that writing things out helps me do a better job.<br /><br />My hope is that the sermon notes below, typos and all, will be helpful to you in your walk with the Lord, or in the process of coming to know him if you aren't there already.<br /><br />See you in a couple of weeks with some highlights from the Holy Land.<br /><br />Gordon<br /><br /><br /><center><strong>Eaglebrook Church – Minocqua, WI Sunday February 12, 2006<br />The Philippian Church is Born: Acts 15-16<br />Introduction</strong></center><br /><br /><br />Did you ever go through a bafflingly difficult time in life when you were trying to do something good, and have some well intentioned person ask you, <em><strong>"I wonder what God is trying to teach you through this?" </strong></em><br /><br />Or maybe it wasn’t someone else asking, but you were asking the question: <strong><em>"Lord, what are you trying to show me here? What is the purpose for what I am going through?"</em></strong><br /><br />Well I have some good news for you if you are going through some tough times or thinking through tough times of the past: <br /><br /><em><strong>Experiencing trouble in our lives doesn’t have to mean that we have done something wrong and deserve the trouble, and it doesn’t it have to mean that God is trying to teach us anything.</strong></em><br /><br />God does take us through tough times to teach us and sometimes to discipline us, but it ain’t necessarily so that that the reason that each piece of trouble that coming our way has anything to do with us.<br /><br /><em><strong>Having trouble in our lives might mean that we are right in the middle of God’s will</strong></em> and that God is using what we are facing and how we handle it, as a vehicle to speak to some one else.<br /><br />My hope is that as we continue our study this morning about the church of Philippi, we’ll be encouraged to know that some of the bumps in the road we face may be because we are doing exactly what God wants us to do.<br /><br /><strong>Review</strong><br /><br />We will be in Acts 16 again today, looking at the events surrounding the planting of the church at Philippi. When we left off 3 weeks ago, Paul had just met and led to the Lord, a woman named Lydia from the town of Thyatira who was in Philippi on business.<br /><br />Paul’s trip to get to Philippi for that divine appointment with Lydia had a rather rocky start as you may remember.<br /><br /><em><strong>It began with a fight between Paul and Barnabas about whether John Mark should come along.</strong></em> Mark had quit on them during the first missionary trip a few years earlier, and Paul was not about to risk taking him along again.<br /><br />So strong was the disagreement between Barnabas and Paul about this, that they parted company on the spot and there is no evidence in the book of Acts that they ever work together again. <br /><br />There are other comments in the New Testament that indicate that they still thought highly of each other, but their missionary partnership in terms of travel, was over.<br /> <br />So they part company, each going off in a different direction, Barnabas with John Mark and Paul taking Silas.<br /><br /><em><strong>That was Trouble Item Number 1.</strong></em><br /><br />No sooner do Paul and Silas hit the road than they run into <em><strong>Trouble Item Number 2:</strong></em> God won’t let them preach where they want to. In fact three times they get stop signs.<br /><br />They want to preach in Galatia and then in Phyrgia and then in Bithynia, but each time they try, the Holy Spirit says, "No." <br /> <br />About that time <em><strong>Trouble Item Number 3</strong></em> shows up: They do get a green light to do ministry in the town of Troas, but now Paul is uncomfortable doing so because his friend Titus wasn’t there and Paul is concerned about him.<br /> <br />Conflict with a friend, God closing doors, and now inner anxiety that stops Paul in his tracks from doing ministry that he has the opportunity to do.<br /><br /><em><strong>Humanly a person would have to feel a bit confused. But not Paul.</strong></em><br /> <br />Even with the fight, the stops signs and the anxiety, he takes it all as the leading of the Lord, late explaining it to the Corinthians by saying, <br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>2 Cor. 2:14:<br /><br />But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.</strong></em></blockquote><br /> <br />What Paul saw was that God had led him to Philippi where Lydia and her family became believers starting the Philippian church. And if we were to stop here, you could almost see the credits rolling at the end of the movie, with the violins playing in the background.<br /><br /><em><strong>Trouble Item Number 4:</strong></em> Being Beaten "around the head and shoulders!"<br /><br />But Trouble Item Number 4 in Philippi is about to rear its even uglier head. And that is where we pick up the reading today, in Acts 16:16-23.<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Acts 16:16-23 (NASB)<br /><br />16 And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortunetelling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. <br /><br />18 And she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment. <br /><br />19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans." <br /><br />22 And the crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them, and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely;</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br /><strong>Church Planting 101</strong><br /><br />I’ve seen the jail in ancient Philippi that they suggest was the jail that Paul was kept in. It’s not a pretty place. It’s little more a hole in the ground. Not a cozy place to spend the night.<br /><br />If you are Paul and Silas in Philippi planting a church, and the final story hasn’t yet unfolded to you, <em><strong>you might begin wonder as they are tearing off your robes so they can beat you with a stick on your bare back, whether you made a mistake </strong></em>by not staying in Troas where the wide open door for ministry was! I know I’d be thinking that way!<br /><br /><em><strong>"Lord, are you trying to teach me to pay attention when you open a door of ministry? Did I take a left turn when you wanted me to go right?" <br /><br />"Lord, if you let me get by without this beating, I’ll pay better attention in the future, I promise!"</strong></em><br /><br />And certainly you can imagine that well intentioned Christian friend coming along about this time, saying,<br /><br /><em><strong>"You know, I thought you should have stayed in Troas. I cautioned you that when there is an open door for something you are supposed to go through it. You always have been a bit unstable."</strong></em><br /><br />Man I can hear the logic now. And some one else would probably say: <br /><br /><em><strong>"It is no wonder you are always getting yourself in hot water the way you treated John Mark and Barnabas! I think brought this on yourselves because of the fight you had with Barnabas over John Mark!"</strong></em><br /><br />Paul clearly didn’t think that way, but let’s come back to that in a minute. I want you to notice some things here first that will be helpful.<br /><br /><strong>It is normal to have conflict when God is storming the Gates of Hell</strong><br /><br />It is normal to have conflict when God is storming the Gates of Hell. <br />Do remember what Jesus said about the building of his church? <br /><br />He said,<em><strong> "I will build my church and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it."</strong></em><br /><br />I suspect that you had the same problem with that verse that I always had over the years, and that is, thinking of the verse in a way exactly the opposite of its meaning.<br /> <br />I always thought the verse described Satan attacking the work of God and that certainly happens, but a Gate is not an attacking device! Did you ever think about that? A gate is something used to keep people in or to keep people out or as an entrance to go through.<br /><br />Jesus was saying that he would break through the Gates of Hell into enemy territory and that the Gates of Hell would not be able to stop him! Paul is in the process of being used by the Lord to break through the Gates of Hell that are holding lost people captive in Philippi.<br /><br />When Paul came to Philippi there were no Christians there. None. As the Bible records it, Lydia was the first believer converted in all of Europe.<br /> <br />All at once with Lydia and her family becoming believers the Gates of Hell have opened a crack. There is a leak in the dike. From Hell’s standpoint, there is danger that a stampede to freedom might begin! <br /><br />Just like today, when people find out the truth about God’s plan of salvation, they want to get out from behind the Gates of Hell and on the road to life with God.<br />Hell doesn’t like that.<br /><br /><em><strong>This is particularly relevant, by the way, for Eaglebrook as a new church.</strong></em><br /><br />We haven’t had this that we know of, but spiritual conflict and resistance is normal when a new church starts. The Gates of Hell are being stormed. When we share our faith like Paul did, when we start a new witness for the Lord, we are pressing on the Gates. <br /><br />We’re pushing to see if we can get the doors open and by God’s grace, set the prisoners free. We shouldn’t be surprised if we see some resistance along the way.<br /><br /><em><strong>So the trouble that happened to Paul and Silas wasn’t from not hearing the leading of the Lord. It was from pushing on the Gates of Hell it seems to me.</strong></em><br /> <br />It had nothing to do with Paul and Silas deserving the beatings they got, and it had nothing to do with them needing to learn something. God was planting a Church. The Devil didn’t like it. Case closed.<br /><br /><strong>At the Agora: Everybody Sees</strong><br /><br />Notice how God is working things out for good. <br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Verse 19: But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.</strong></em> </blockquote><br /><br />The Greek word there for marketplace is <em><strong>"agora."</strong></em> The agora was in effect the center of town. It was a place where people gathered not only to buy things they needed each day, but also to converse. <br /><br />There would also have been what was called a <em><strong>"bema"</strong></em> there, <em><strong>a judgment seat.</strong></em> A "bema" would have been an open air platform so to speak, where cases were heard publicly and judgments rendered by the authorities exactly as is happening here.<br /><br />And there are two ways to look at Paul and Silas being dragged before the magistrate:<br /><br /><em><strong>1. Paul and Silas, you guys blew it!</strong></em> <br /><br />You confronted a situation you could just as well have left alone. The entire town will think that you are a trouble maker.<br /><br />Or,<br /> <br /><em><strong>2. God is up to something. </strong></em> <br /><br />God has a plan to send a message to this entire town and to publicize the existence of this newly founded church that few would have known about.<br /><br /><br />You can imagine a church meeting today to talk over these two points of view can’t you? People would be divided about what Paul had done. There would be debates about how to handle things and whether it is a good idea to be so confrontive and open.<br /><br />But there is no division in reality as to what was happening. God was working things together for good.<br /><br /><strong>The Level of Attacks: Lies, Race Card, "Law Breakers"</strong><br /><br />Before we make that point further, notice the level of attacks that come in verses 20 and 21: <br /><br /><em><strong>"and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, 'These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or observe being Romans.'" </strong></em><br /><br />The race card is played, lies are told that Paul and Silas have stirred up confusion in the city. The only thing confusing so far is that the owners of the demon possessed slave girl are now confused about how they are going to make a living!...and Paul and Silas are accused of being rule breakers, law breakers.<br /><br />Doesn’t sound like anything good could come of this mess.<br /> <br /><em><strong>In fact humanly speaking you would have to say that Paul and Silas aren’t too bright!</strong></em> <br /><br />Paul has a fight with Barnabas, God doesn’t allow him to preach in three different places, and then when a door does open up he refuses to go through it. Now he gets annoyed at a demonic girl because she is in a sense making fun of them. If he had only exercised a little more patience and care, he wouldn’t be in this mess.<br /><br />And now he is standing before a tribunal and charged with being a trouble maker and the entire community can see it. Surely Paul is outside the will of God. There can be no mistaking about that.<br /> <br /><em><strong>Paul is so dense that God is going to take the extra ordinary step of allowing Paul to be flogged and then thrown into prison.</strong></em> And not only into prison, in verse 24 it says: <br /><br /><em><strong>"and he (the jailer) having received such a command, threw them into the INNER prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks.</strong></em><br /><br />Some people are just denser than others aren’t they? Maybe, just maybe Paul will figure out that he has fouled up here.<br /><br /><em><strong>It’s about now that we discover how really clueless Paul and Silas are.</strong></em> <br /><br />Take a look at verse 25:<br /><br /><em><strong>"But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God...</em></strong><br /><br />Guys, you are unbelievable. How in the world can you be praising God at a time like this when clearly it is your own foolishness, disobedience and divisive spirit that has brought you to this moment!"<br /><br />Oh wait a minute…what does the last half of verse 25 say that we haven’t read yet?<br /> <br /><em><strong>And the prisoners were listening to them.</strong></em><br /><br />That little transition phrase tips the direction of the story. God was about to do something very significant. <br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Verses 26 through 34:</strong></em><br /><br /><em><strong>And suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 And when the jailer had been roused out of sleep and had seen the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.<br /><br />28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." 29 And he called for the lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas 30 and after he brought them out he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />(Wait a minute, where did that question come from? How did he know anything about being "saved" so to speak? I wonder hymns Paul and Silas were singing and what praises they were proclaiming so that this man would even know to ask such a question?)<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household. 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.<br /><br />34 And he brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />Do you remember 3 weeks ago when we talked about divine appointments? God set up a divine appointment between Paul and Lydia. <br /><br />God didn’t let Paul preach in some places and allowed him to be uneasy about preaching in other places where it would have been ok to preach, so that Paul could meet Lydia and leader her and her family to the Lord.<br /><br />And now there has been another divine appointment. A jailer and his family were ready to hear the Word of the Lord, but God had to shake things up a bit to make the connection between the jailer and Paul and Silas.<br /><br />We can look at Paul’s annoyance with the mocking of the slave girl and say he should have been more patient and not reacted...because his actions created a stir that wasn’t necessary. <br /><br /><em><strong>But when we get to heaven we are going to meet a jailer who met Paul in a prison in Philippi</strong></em> and we are going to meet his family and their children and children’s children who got saved in the years that follow this story, and they are going to have quite a different spin than any suggestiong that Paul was outside the will of God.<br /> <br />God was shaking things up through Paul and Silas. God led them in their actions so they could bring a jailer and his family to Christ and to loose the chains of the prisoners who also heard the message of salvation that day no doubt.<br /><br />But there is more. <br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Verse 35-40:<br /> <br />35 Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, "Release these men." 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, "The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Now therefore, come out and go in peace."<br /> <br />37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now they are sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out."<br /><br />38 And the policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. And they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, 39 and they came and appealed to them, and when they brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city.<br /><br />40 And they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />I wonder how safe it would have been to be a member of the Philippian church if Paul and Silas had not been wrongfully thrown into prison and the magistrates the next day discovered that they were Romans?<br /> <br />Some one suggested in the reading that I did, that this incident may have given the church legitimacy in Philippi. The magistrates would not be likely to attack other members of the church, for fear that their treatment of Paul and Silas who were Roman citizens would come back to haunt them.<br /><br />More than that, who in Philippi would now not have heard the story of what happened? A public trial, the wrongful beating of Roman citizens, an earthquake opening the jail cells, but no one choosing to escape, and the magistrates apologizing publicly for what they had done.<br /><br />Surely there was word on the street that would have made people curious. A prominent businesswoman Lydia, who traveled regularly enough to Philippi on business to have her own house there, and the town’s main jailer had come to Christ. What is this teaching that they are following? <br /><br />God had been up to something, had he not? Yes he was. Yes he was.<br /><br /><em><strong>In doing this study it has become clear to me that far too often we are anxious about making perfect choices and second guessing ourselves when the decisions we make lead to unpleasant situations. </strong></em> <br /><br />Surely we ought to pay attention and seek to do God’s will at every step. But the reality is that the resistance and conflict we meet along the way, as we endeavor to walk with God, may well be God giving us divine appointments. It may well be that it is God providing an example to others of how to rejoice even when we are in a prison. It may well be God shaking the foundations of authority figures who need to have their own chains rattled. It may well be God restraining authority figures from interfering with the work God wants to do through a church.<br /><br />It may well be that the conflict and resistance and even beatings and imprisonment we face are evidences not of God’s discipline for things in the past, but are rather indicators that we are right in the middle of God’s will at the very moment of that conflict.<br /><br /><em><strong>Pursue God’s leading. Pay attention to his direction. But walk with him in confidence, no second guessing ourselves at every turn.</strong></em><br /><br />Whether the struggles are conflict with others, closed doors we can’t get through, open doors we feel anxious about, or lies being told about us and conflict with authorities...even in these things, we need not fear that it must be true we have stepped outside of God’s will.<br /> <br />It may in fact be that we are doing God’s will and that churches will be planted and souls saved as a result. Oddly enough a chunk of this sounds like the genesis of a place called, not just the church at Philippi, but Eaglebrook, right here in northern Wisconsin.<br /><br />Right in the center of God’s will. What a great place to be.<br /><br />PrayerGordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1137935351597892412006-01-22T06:43:00.000-06:002006-01-22T08:31:54.396-06:00Figuring Out the Will of God When Neither "No" nor "Yes" are the Right Answer.<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br />For those who can't make it to church today, here is my today's sermon. A reminder that this is formatted for me to speak from and isn't written to be "read" either by me or others. So ignore the typos and the style...these are just speakers notes.<br /><br />Thanks!<br /><br /><br /><em><strong><center>Eaglebrook Church – Minocqua, WI Sunday January 22, 2006<br />The Philippian Church is Born: Acts 15-16</center><br /><br />Introduction</strong></em> <br /><br />Over the weeks ahead on the Sundays that I will be preaching, I want to take us through the book of Philippians, the book that Pete read from at the beginning of the service today. The book of Philippians is a remarkable book for a variety of reasons and is one of the most personal letters Paul wrote. Of all the churches in the New Testament, this church was perhaps the closest to Paul. <br /><br />Paul refused to take financial support from newly planted churches so there wouldn’t be any confusion about why he had reached out to them, but his relationship with the Philippian church was so close that he was willing to accept their financial support over the years because he knew they knew his heart and there would be no questioning of his motives.<br /><br />But before we get into the book of Philippians itself, I want us to know how the Philippian church got started. <br /> <br /><em><strong>Have you ever wondered how to discern the will of God in your life or how to measure the will of God when trials and tribulations have come your way? </strong></em> <br /><br />You feel like you are going in the direction that God wants you to go in, but doors keep closing left and right. You wonder where God is leading or whether he is leading at all. You wonder if you are up a creek you should never have been paddling on.<br /><br />If you have ever been up that creek looking for the current of the Spirit to take over again, I think you will find what we are going to see today from the book of Acts very helpful and encouraging, because the church at Philippi was not born in an ordinary way. God closed some doors to Paul and made him feel uneasy about other open doors, all as God divinely directed Paul to a specific place at a specific time.<br /><br /><em><strong>The Second Missionary Journey” Acts 15: 36</strong></em><br /><br />If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me over to Acts chapter 15 beginning with verse 36.<br /><br />Just a couple of years before the journey Paul took to Philippi that this passage describes, he and Barnabas had been on another missions trip; a trip that has been labeled Paul’s First Missionary Journey.<br /><br />In time Paul decides that he and Barnabas should go back to those churches to see how they were doing. That decision spurs a bit of controversy between them about John Mark, a young man who had gone with them the first time. We pick up the reading in verse 36 where Paul and Barnabas have a little head butting session.<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Acts 15:36-41 (NIV)<br /><br />36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.<br /><br /> 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br /><em><strong>1. Born of a Brothers going in different directions</strong></em><br /><br />One of the fascinating things about the church plant in Philippi is that the journey that started it all began with a fight about who was going to be on the bus trip.<br /><br />John Mark had been on the first trip. He is the person names Mark who would later write the book of Mark. So clearly the fact that Barnabas stuck with him turned out to be a good thing for you and me and for millions of people over the centuries.<br /><br />But in his original try at ministry on that first mission’s trip, John Mark gave up and went home. So when mission’s trip number 2 comes along, Paul decides that there is no way that John Mark is coming with them.<br /><br />Funny isn’t it that this early on with such mature believers as Barnabas and Paul, there would be a fight. Barnabas was the man who had spoken up for Paul when no one would believe that he was really converted. And here he is, speaking up for Mark too. So is Paul the one that is wrong?<br /><br />What is fascinating about this rift over whether or not Mark should travel with them, is that neither Paul nor Barnabas is ever corrected in the Scriptures. There is no reference that either was mistaken. <br /> <br />As I thought about this a few years ago, it seemed to me that the reason for this is likely because both Barnabas and Paul were right. Each was demonstrating an aspect of God’s character that needed to be displayed. Neither is told that they were wrong because neither was wrong.<br /><br />Barnabas was displaying the part of God’s character that says:<br /><br /><em><strong>"Even when you fail, I will not give up on you. Even when you are weak, I will be there for you. Even when you fall flat on your face, I am going to stick by you and build you up and use you in due time."</strong></em><br /><br />Paul was demonstrating the part of God’s character that says:<br /><br /><em><strong>"There is work to be done. There is an urgency about what we are doing that should not be watered down with half effort or fear. There are things to be done that are going to be difficult, and in order for God’s work to be accomplished, I need to move on and be at it. Yes Mark is important, but so are the people we are going to be reaching."</strong></em><br /><br />So neither Barnabas nor Paul has to be viewed as having been in error. Not all of God’s servants have to be doing the same thing. Both did what it appeared that God was leading them to do and both it seems, were right.<br /><br />The point about the events that led up to the founding of the Philippian church is this: Even the process of brothers going in different directions, can be the will of God and can accomplish the will of God in each case.<br /> <br />The Philippian Church, it will turn out, was born out of a strong disagreement between Barnabas and Paul, each rightly pursuing differing aspects of the will and character of God. That pursuit eventually led Paul to Philippi and to a river bank near Philippi where he met a woman named Lydia.<br /><br /><em><strong>2. Born of the "negative" and "positive" leading of the Lord</strong></em><br /><br />Verse 4 of chapter 16:<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Acts 16:4-8 (NIV)<br /><br />4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. <br /><br />6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />Have you ever been in a situation where everything you tried to do in following the Lord seemed to take you up a dead end street? You go off in one direction only to find a road block. So after prayer you adjust and head off in another direction, and that road is blocked. You head off in a third direction and that road is blocked as well.<br /><br />By now you are thoroughly confused, wondering where in the world God is in all of this. You’ve been praying about things and you are seeking God’s will but you keep hitting dead ends. For the life of you, you can’t figure out what God is up to or where he is leading.<br /><br />Been there before? I know that I have.<br /><br />Finally you do arrive at your "Troas" like Paul did. Troas was a coastal town.<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>When you find yourself at a Troas you feel like you must either turn around and go back to see where you took a wrong turn or you jump on a ship into uncharted waters. The problem is that you aren’t too sure that either one of these options is the right way to go.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />That is right where is appears that Paul was: Stuck. And life was going to get more complicated. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 2:12 for a minute. We are going to see some things about Paul’s experience at Troas.<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>2 Corinthians 2:12-14 (NIV)<br /><br />12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13 I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. <br /><br />So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia. 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />So Paul is on this journey with Silas. <br /> <br />The Spirit of God doesn’t let him preach in the region of Galatia, kind of off to the right as he is traveling. Then God keeps him from preaching in Phyrgia, which is kind of off to the left and south.<br /><br />So Paul tries to go into Bithynia to preach which is further up the road to the right, and the Lord blocks that direction as well. He finally swings completely west over to Troas on the coast and at last he finds a wide open door for ministry. God isn’t blocking him this time. But although it isn’t God who is blocking him he has a blocking problem of a different kind: He is unsettled in his spirit. <br />Call it anxiety. He was anxious to learn about Titus, to be sure that Titus was ok. And since Titus isn’t at Troas as Paul had expected that he would be, Paul is uncomfortable doing ministry there, even though there was a wide open door to do so.<br /><br />Now about this time, a person might wonder if Paul had any way of ever determining the will of God.<br /> <br />He had had a "No," "No," "No," and now that he was getting a "Yes" from the Lord with a wide open door for ministry in Troas, PAUL was saying no, not being at peace until he learned about Titus.<br /><br />Sound like a place any of us have ever been in? Wondering, confused, uncertain? Wondering what the will of God after so many doors have been closed, and then when a door is open you don’t feel at peace about that decision either, so now you are thoroughly at wits end. <br /> <br />Man I know I’ve been there. Many times. Many times.<br /><br /><em><strong>What is interesting is that with all the "no’s" and now the uneasiness about the open door in Troas, we find that Paul is right in the center of God’s will for him.</strong></em> <br /><br />He is right in the town he needs to be in when a vision comes. A vision of a man from across the water further to the northwest, calling him for help. Through all the "no’s" and now with the uneasiness about the "yes," God led Paul right to the dock so he could get on the boat. Verse 9<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Acts 16:9-12 (NIV)<br /><br />9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />Here is the completion of God’s direction: all the lights are green and they are making a bee-line for God’s appointed location.<br /><br />In John Stott’s commentary on the book of Acts, he points out that God’s leading here at this point has been both negative and now finally, positive. God restrained Paul from going in several other directions…but that did not fully determine God’s will. Only now does Paul get the positive direction to go to Macedonia, that is, Greece, to help some one who is wanting to hear the Gospel.<br /><br />God was steering Paul and Silas, moving them where he needed them to be by "negative" direction, with "no, no, and not here either." And now finally God says, "Yes, this is the way, walk ye in it."<br /><br />Paul is so confident that this has all been direction from the Lord, that in our passage in 2 Corinthians 3 he said:<br /> <br /><em><strong>14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.</strong></em><br /><br />Paul took even his uneasy feelings that kept him back from the open door at Troas, as God’s leading. He didn’t wring his hands as we so often do and as I know I so often have done. He was confident that if he was pursuing God’s will, that God would reveal the proper application of that will, and that all the "no’s" coming along the way, were just as valuable as the "yes’s" and would in time bring Paul the divine "yes" that he was looking for.<br /><br />I have to tell you that as I read this yesterday morning it gave me great peace.<br /><br />Over the past 3 years as we have sought the Lord’s will for ministry situations, I have had numerous opportunities come my way to pastor churches. One of those I consider a privilege to have been considered for as people here at Eaglebrook have asked me, is this one. I’ve been approached by churches in the Twin Cities, in Illinois, in California in Ontario and in other places.<br /> <br />But for some reason God has not given me freedom internally to say yes. I feel a bit like Paul did when he was not allowed to preach in the region of Galatia at that time, or in Phyrgia or in Bithynia. And then when a wide open door was there for him, he didn’t feel at peace about it. Something internally was telling him no.<br /><br /><em><strong>And I have wondered over time what the Lord was up to. It has been hard to figure out. </strong></em><br /> <br />I know that my situation is not unique. You have had similar kinds of decisions to make in your own life as God has closed doors, or not allowed you the internal peace to walk through open doors. It can become confusing as we wait and as we wait and as we wait and wonder.<br /><br />But Paul’s perspective on just such situations is to praise the Lord! To praise the Lord that the Lord is always leading, spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.<br /><br /><em><strong>3. Born of a Divine Appointment: A Thyatira Business Woman in Philippi</strong></em><br /><br />That God was involved in all of this couldn’t be more clearly seen than in the vision that Paul received. We’ll talk about that another time, but since you and I are not likely to have such visions come our way as Paul did, I want to show you something else that marked the leading of God in the planting of the Philippian church.<br /><br />Verses 13-15:<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Acts 16:13-15 (NIV)<br /><br />13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.<br /><br />15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us.</strong></em></blockquote> <br /><br />Paul lands in Neapolis on the coast of the Aegean Sea, and heads about 10 miles inland to the town of Philippi. Philippi was the capital city of Macedonia and was on the Egnatian Way. The Egnatian Way was like Route 66 years ago. It was THE way you got somewhere. It went from the Adriatic Sea coast on the west, and traveled roughly due east to Byzantium, today’s Istanbul. It was the road people traveled when going from Rome to Byzantium. <br /> <br /><em><strong>And what happens when Paul gets to Philippi?</strong></em><br /> <br />He goes to a small creek on the edge of town looking for a place to pray. A place away from the busy-ness of town. Its still a quiet place. I have been there. He figures that on the Sabbath he might find worshippers of God there. Turns out that he is right. Lydia is there with some other women.<br /><br />Lydia hears the word, is saved and invites Paul to her home there in Philippi.<br /><br /><em><strong>(Lydia is from Thyatira? Yes, Thyatira)</strong></em><br /><br />Funny thing that. Lydia was from Thyatira. Do you know where Thyatira was? It was back across the Aegean Sea, back across in the direction Paul had come from! It was back there in the area that Paul was not allowed to preach in!<br /><br />Lydia, this seller of purple who invited Paul to her house, was in Philippi on business. The house she invited Paul to stay in was no doubt her second home, the one she stayed in while on business out of town.<br /><br />Why in the world didn’t God just have Paul hang out near Thyatira back on the eastern side of the Aegean, until she came back through? Only God knows, but part of his reasoning no doubt was timing. She was where God wanted Paul to be. God had set up a divine appointment. If she had been at Thyatira and if God had sent Paul there, today we might have a book in the New Testament called Thyatirains instead of Philippians!<br /><br />Paul and Lydia met at just the right time and in just the right place. And when they did God opened Lydia’s heart to say yes to the Gospel.<br /><br />I wonder what happened when Lydia went back home to Thyatira. Is it possible that it was better for some one from Thyatira to preach the Gospel there, and better for a respected business woman like Lydia to do so, than for Paul, a stranger?<br /><br />We’ll never know if that was God’s motivation for not allowing Paul to go there; we’ll never know if the reason for not letting Paul go there was because the hearers in Thyatira needed to hear the message from Lydia and her family rather than from Paul.<br /> <br /><em><strong>But what we do know is that a church was established there.</strong></em><br /> <br />How do we know that? Well the church in Thyatira is one of the 7 churches listed in the book of Revelation. It is the church of whom it was said, I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.<br /><br />They were a church that grew and continued to grow. They had some problems with those who followed a woman called Jezebel, not the Old Testament Jezebel, but another one; a false teacher who misled with false teaching. But the church had much to commend it. And the Lord’s instruction was to not follow this woman’s teaching and to not tolerate it. Beyond the issue of not tolerating this false teachers message he said, <em><strong>"I will impose no other burden on you."</strong></em><br /><br />Apart from this flaw, the church at Thyatira was apparently a good church.<br /><br /><em><strong>Yet there is no record that Paul traveled there on his missionary journeys. So who planted the church? </strong></em> <br /><br />It is likely, as John McArthur points out, that it was Lydia and her family. Locals. A woman and her family who had been on a business trip to exactly the place where God led Paul with a no, no, no, and yes, but not right now. It was planted perhaps by people whose path intersected Paul’s and did so because Paul was confident that God was leading each step of the way.<br /><br />If you have ever been confused about God’s leading and the "No, not here," and "No not there’s" that come along, take heart. I think we have all been there.<br /><br /><em><strong>Keep on keeping on. Keep on seeking. Keep on moving. Keep on pressing to do God’s will.</strong></em><br /><br />This sequence of what happened to Paul has been a personal encouragement to me this week. God didn’t let Paul preach here, or there, or over there, or over there…and then when a door was open, Paul wasn’t ready because of his own feelings about Titus not being there.<br /><br />Coincidental with that ill at ease feeling came a vision for Paul to go to Philippi. And who did he meet there? A business woman who was ready to hear the Gospel.<br /> <br />Funny to now be in business, meeting people who ask from time to time how long I have been at Drs. Foster & Smith and what I did before coming there. "Pastor?" they say. "That’s an odd career path to lead you to be the head of an Internet Marketing Department."<br /> <br />It is an odd path. But I suspect there are some divine appointments coming along. Some already have. Appointments with business people; with Lydia’s that are ready to hear about Christ.<br /><br />What a comfort to know that God is leading. And he is leading in your situation as well. Keep on pressing forward. God has come appointments coming your way and some people who need to hear about Christ from you.<br /><br />One day you may just run into that divine appointment along side a river bank. And a church might spring up. One that you couldn’t have planted yourself because you weren’t the right person for it. But you were the right person for the moment to help the person who is the right person come to know Christ.<br /><br />Born of brothers going in different directions; Born of negative and positive leading; and Born of Divine appointments…not one birth, but two: a church in Philippi and likely a church in Thyatira.<br /> <br />Amazing how God works out his will.<br /><br />We’ll talk some more about the birth of the church at Philippi in two weeks and then later on get into the book of Philippians itself.<br /><br />Prayer.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1136723916754101812006-01-08T06:27:00.000-06:002006-01-08T06:41:58.313-06:00Sometimes I feel like I have sinned so much that God won't accept me and that it would be hypocritical to be in church.<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>Question:</strong></em> Sometimes I feel like I have sinned so much that God won't accept me and that it would be hypocritical to be in church. How can I go to church when I am living in a way that I know God does not approve of?<br /><br /><em><strong>ATP: </strong></em> This is a feeling that many have when they have stumbled in life and fallen into serious sin, or have simply become numb to spiritual things. <br /><br /><em><strong>The truth is that God knows what we have done. </strong></em> <br /><br />When Adam and Eve sinned in the book of Genesis, one of the first things they did was hide from God. When God said to Adam, "Where are you?" it wasn't so God could find out where Adam was. God already knew. It was Adam who needed to face up to their broken relationship. <br /><br /><em><strong>It is natural to feel a separation from God when we sin. That guilt and separation is the result of sin.</strong></em><br /><br /><em><strong>But the message of the Bible from beginning to end is one of a loving God who forgives when we repent. </strong></em> <br /><br />When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, trusting in God's mercy through Him, our sins are forgiven and our relationship with God is restored. Never forget that God loves you. Never forget that the Church is not the assembly of perfect people, but rather is the assembly of broken people in the process of being made whole by a loving God.<br /><br />1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." <br /><br />If you have sinned...and you have, because we all have...Church is exactly where you need to be and it's where the Lord wants you to be. He already knows about your sin, so staying away from church to avoid appearing to be a hypocrite isn't a solution. <br /><br />You are already a sinner! Avoiding the appearance or reality of being a hypocrite won't change that.<br /><br />To be honest, those who want to avoid "hypocrisy" and who say, "At least I'm not a hypocrite like those people that do go to church. I've seen how they are living, and at least I'm honest about how I live..." have another problem. It's a worse one that hypocrisy. <br /><br /><em><strong>It's called pride.</strong></em> <br /><br />This isn't the situation that you have described in your question, so this last comment is not directed toward you. <br /><br />But there may be others who read this who are proud of their lack of hypocrisy, using it as an excuse. They need to know that God isn't fooled.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1136286191879486052006-01-03T04:33:00.000-06:002006-01-03T05:37:18.930-06:00I need a Bible, but I'm not sure which one is the best for me.<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><br /><center><img src="http://webpages.charter.net/gmagee/Bibles%20kitchen.JPG" alt="Bibles"><br /><em><strong>So many Bibles, but which one to choose?</strong></em><strong></center><br /><br /><em>Question: </strong></em> "I need a Bible, but I’m not sure which one is best for me. This is the first Bible study I have ever done." <br /><br />E-mail question, Wisconsin<br /><br /><em><strong>ATP: </strong></em> There are so many good options out there in the Bible marketplace that if a person is new to the process it can be very confusing.<br /><br />Let me begin with the issue of translations first. <br /><br />The <em><strong>New International Version (NIV)</strong></em> and the <em><strong>New American Standard version</strong></em> (NAS) are probably the industry standards right now. They have overtaken the <em><strong>King James Verson</strong></em> in popularity because of their ease of reading by comparison.<br /><br />The NIV is the most widely used of the new translations, but for my money the NASV is more accurate. I have both and use both. <br /><br />The NAS combines readability with accuracy as well as anything out there, and is probably the most accurate translation available today. I use the NIV in public services most of the time, however, simply because a larger number of people use that version.<br /><br />As for specific Bibles to purchase, I have usually recommended these two: <br /><br /><em><strong>The Ryrie Study Bible or the Life Application Bible.</strong></em><br /><br />Either of these can be purchased in the NIV or the NASV. What makes them different and helpful from just a Bible alone, is the addition of study notes and background material. You’ll want to look them over to see which kind of notes are more helpful to you personally.<br /><br />There is a third Bible to recommend that may well be better than either of these, in terms of notes--although I hasten to add that you can't go wrong with any of the three.<br /><br />It is the <em><strong>NASB Study Bible by Zondervan.</strong></em> <br /><br />My daughter is a junior at a Christian college and this is the one the college recommended for students to use. It is excellent and I may soon be purchasing one.<br /><br />If a person is looking for Greek/Hebrew background helps, there is a great Bible available called, <em><strong>The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible. </strong></em> It was edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D., and is published by AMG publishers.<br /><br />You don't have to be familar with Greek or Hebrew to use the helps that are available. Bible verses have numbers beside certain words. Those numbers are the numbers of word definitions which can be found at the back of the Bible. This is an excellent tool and one I highly recommend that a person own.<br /><br />In a Christianity 101 class I have taught, I usually begin the first session with a discussion of translations. Included in that discussion is a handout that I will paste in here below. It contains some thoughts on differing translations.<br /><br />In some cases people criticize translations for not being "accurate" without understanding the style of translation the translators were attempting to produce. Hopefully the information below will be of help to you in understanding translations and why they were written as they are.<br /><br />There are two sections in the handout: A list of translations under headings of the style of translation the translators intended their version to be; and then some additional comments about versions to consider for purchase.<br /><br /><center>***************************************<br /><br /><em><strong>CHRISTIANITY 101</strong></em><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>TRANSLATION GUIDE TO SOME POPULAR ENGLISH BIBLES</strong></em></center><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>STRICTLY LITERAL:</strong></em><br />New American Standard Bible (NASV)<br /><br /><em><strong>LITERAL:</strong></em><br />New King James Version (KJV)<br />Revised Standard Version (RSV)<br />New American Bible (NAB)<br /><br /><em><strong>LITERAL WITH FREEDOM TO BE IDIOMATIC:</strong></em><br />New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)<br /><br /><em><strong>THOUGHT-FOR-THOUGHT:</strong></em><br />New International Version (NIV)<br />New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)<br />Revised English Bible (REB)<br /><br /><br /><em><strong>DYNAMIC EQUIVALENT (MODERN SPEECH):</strong></em><br />Today’s English Version<br /><br /><em><strong>PARAPHRASTIC:</strong></em><br />The Living Bible (TLB)<br /><br /><em><strong>[Adapted from: Philip W. Comfort, The Complete Guide to Bible Versions, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1991.]</strong></em><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>Some Suggested Study Bible Versions </strong></em><br />(This is just a short list of the many that are helpful)<br /><br />What makes a Bible a <em><strong>study</strong></em> Bible, is simply the inclusion of notes, maps and other helps, by the author/publisher to help the reader study the Bible more effectively. <br /><br />Study Bibles can often be purchased in differing translations. Thus a study Bible of the same name--the Ryrie Study Bible for example--can come in more than one translation of the Biblical text. <br /><br /><em><strong>So when you purchase a study Bible, be sure it is in the translation that you are looking for.</strong></em><br /><br /><em><strong>Life Application Study Bible (NAS or NIV)</strong></em> (Tyndale/Zondervan publishers) Very popular Bible, with excellent study helps included. <br /><br /><em><strong>Ryrie Study Bible (NAS or NIV)(</strong></em>Moody Press) Excellent Study Bible, filled with study helps and cross references. <br /><br /><em><strong>The NIV Study Bible</strong></em> (Zondervan) Excellent study notes.<br /><br /><em><strong>The NIV Teen Study Bible </strong></em>also from Zondervan is available for teens. It includes many interesting features that are helpful to teens and new believers. Worth looking at for your kids.<br /><br /><em><strong>The NAS Study Bible </strong></em>(Zondervan) The same excellent study notes as the NIV Study Bible, but combined with the NAS translation<br /><br /><em><strong>The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible (NIV)</strong></em> (also: The Complete Word Study New Testament) both edited by Spiros Zodhiates, (AMG publishers) Extremely helpful Bibles for simple original language study. Does not contain as many extra notes as other study Bibles. Key feature is language help, not history, background information or explanatory notes.<br /><br /><center>***************************************</center>Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1135859039458023592005-12-29T06:02:00.000-06:002005-12-31T09:45:57.153-06:00Another Bethlehem? And what does that mean?<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><center><img src="http://webpages.charter.net/gmagee/Bethlehem%20and%20Shepherds%20field.jpg" alt="Bethlehem and the Shepherds Fields"></center><center><em><strong>Bethlehem and the Shepherds fields south of Jerusalem</strong></em></center><br /><br /><em><strong>Another Bethlehem? And what does it mean?</strong></em><br /><br />Yes another Bethlehem. Recent archaeological discoveries seem to confirm what the Bible spoke of in Joshua 19:15, that there were at least 2 Bethlehems. The well known Bethlehem in the picture above, and another Bethlehem not far from Nazareth.<br /><br />What is perhaps predictable and typical of skeptics and critics of the Bible and critics of Christianity is the recent discussion that, "Perhaps the writers of the New Testament, knowing that Mary and Joseph really went to the Bethlehem near Nazareth, changed the story to mean Bethlehem Ephrathah (the one south of Jerusalem) so that Jesus would have fulfilled the prophecy about where the Messiah would come from."<br /><br />Interesting the machinations critics will go through to try to discredit Christianity and Christ. Since as believers we are not afraid of the truth or of investigation or of questions, lets examine this issue for a moment.<br /><br />First, if the critics suggest that New Testament writers may have changed the so-called real story of Christ being born in the northern Bethlehem near Nazareth, to a fabricated story having him born in the city of David south of Jerusalem, also known as Bethlehem, <em><strong>they acknowledge something that perhaps they would prefer not to have acknowledged: that there is a prophecy about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem!</strong></em><br /><br />So it isn't just those who are believers who acknowledge the meaning of that prophecy from Micah 5:2-4 (NASB) that says,<br /><br /><em><strong>2 But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.<br /><br />3 Therefore, He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren Will return to the sons of Israel.<br /> <br />4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock In the strength of the LORD, In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, Because at that time He will be great To the ends of the earth.</strong></em><br /><br />Bethlehem Ephrathah, not Bethlehem in the north near Nazareth, would be birth place of a ruler of Israel, a ruler out of eternity, a ruler who would be great to the ends of the earth.<br /><br />Thank you skeptics for acknowledging the meaning of this passage, matching what we as believers also believe is referred to in this passage.<br /><br />Second, lets think about the story as told by Matthew and Luke to see if it were to fit with the view of the skeptics.<br /><br /><em><strong>Joseph was of the line of David.</strong></em> <br /><br />The reason that Mary and Joseph went to the well known Bethlehem south of Jerusalem and not the one near Nazareth, is because it was the <em><strong>"city of David."</strong></em> That was where they had to go to be counted by family lineage.<br /><br />Clever these tricky New Testament writers to have thought to have invented not only the town that Joseph and Mary went to, to validate the prophecy but also to have fabricated Joseph's family background.<br /><br />The skeptics also suggest that Mary and Joseph must have gone to the northern Bethlehem rather than the southern one, because it was so close by. Makes more sense to them.<br /><br /><em><strong>Ok, if that is true, then how in the world did Mary and Joseph show up in Jerusalem, some 70 miles away, so they could dedicate Christ at the Temple and only 8 days after his birth!? </strong></em> <br /><br /><em><strong>Luke 2:21-23 (NASB)<br /><br />21 And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. 22 And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "EVERY first-born MALE THAT OPENS THE WOMB SHALL BE CALLED HOLY TO THE LORD")...</strong></em><br /><br />Oops, the writers of the New Testament didn't think about the issue of distance here. <br /><br /><em><strong>Imagine a conversation between Matthew and Luke:</strong></em><br /><br />"If skeptics were to discover later that Mary and Joseph had to have gone to the close by to Nazareth northern Bethlehem instead of the one near Jerusalem, how will we explain the travel of a mother and new born baby some 70 miles to Jerusalem in just 8 says?"<br /><br />"8 Days? What are you talking about Luke? You are thinking like the Gentile you are. It has to be only 7 days, because one day would have had to have been a Sabbath on which we Jews would not travel far."<br /><br />"Houston we have a problem! What do we do Matthew?"<br /><br />"What's this Houston stuff? Never heard of it. Anyway, I don't think there is any way around this but to hope that the northern city of Bethlehem somehow disappears, never to be found again. It's a thriving city now, but maybe it will die out and no one will know."<br /><br />"Matthew, what about the reference in the book of Joshua? Chapter 19 verse 15. People are going to know that there was another Bethlehem even if the town itself disappears."<br /><br />"We'll just have to risk it Luke. What else can we do? Mary and Joseph would have to take Jesus to the Temple to fulfill all righteousness. So we can't leave that out. We do have a problem, but lets just hope that no one ever figures out that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem North instead of Bethlehem South.<br /><br />If they don't figure that out, we don't have to worry about the other lie, the one about them showing up at the Temple 8 days later. That would be a problem wouldn't it."<br /><br />"You're not kidding there Matthew. And I hope people in the centuries to come forget that we walk everywhere."<br /><br />"Whattaya mean by that Luke?"<br /><br />"What I mean is that Bethlehem North is only about 11 kilometers from Nazareth. For those in the future who aren't used to the metric system, that's a little over 6.8 miles. Maybe they won't think about the fact that we can comfortably walk that distance in a little over 2 hours, no problem."<br /><br />"What's your point Luke?"<br /><br />"The Inn doofus. The Inn! Why would Mary and Joseph have needed to stay at the Inn if they could walk to Bethlehem North and back in one day? Of course they might suggest that since Mary was pregnant that she couldn't go back from Bethlehem north in one day, but that blows holes in the way we have written the story. If she couldn't travel 6.8 miles back to Nazareth, how did she and Joseph travel 70 miles down to Bethlehem south?!"<br /><br /><br />"Yikes! I hadn't thought of that. But it's such a good part of the story, Luke. We can't leave it out. Houston, we do have a problem or whatever town you said."<br /><br />"Ok Matthew, here's what we do. Lets just leave the story as we have written it and hope that no one ever finds Bethlehem north."<br /><br />"Luke, we have another problem."<br /><br />"What's that?"<br /><br />"The trip to Egypt. The trip to Egypt! That only makes sense if Mary and Joseph are in Bethlehem south for the birth of Christ!"<br /><br />"Matt, you are talking like an accountant. Speak to me in English. Sorry, in Hebrew. What language do we speak? Ok, in Greek. But get on with it."<br /><br />"The way we have written the story so that the other prophecy could also come true, about God calling his son from Egypt, has an Angel warning Joseph and Mary not to return to Nazareth but to head out for Egypt."<br /><br />"Why is that a problem my tax collecting friend? I thought it was a clever twist in order to make both prophecies come true?"<br /><br />"It's a problem because if they went to Bethlehem North instead of Bethlehem South, then in order to get to Egypt they would have to head south right toward Herod, the very guy who was wanting to kill their baby. That doesn't make sense!"<br /><br />"Crud. Hadn't thought of that Matt. You know what else that brings to mind?"<br /><br />"Spit it out Lukie my boy, spit it out. This is getting complicated."<br /><br />"The Magi."<br /><br />"Whattaya mean the Magi?"<br /><br />"Matt, we have the Magi not returning the way they came. And they came from Jerusalem! So if they were warned...rats, why did we have to put that in there...if they were warned not to return to Herod and went home a different way to avoid him, we have just goofed up and have Mary and Joseph heading south from Bethlehem North, going exactly where the Magi were told not to go!"<br /><br />"Luke, you think too much. You are right of course, but you think too much. No way would Mary and Joseph be headed off in the same direction the Magi had come from if the Magi had been told not to go back that way. We got problems bro, we got problems."<br /><br />"Our only hope is that people never find out about Bethlehem North."<br /><br />"Matthew, let me remind you again that Bethlehem North is mentioned in Joshua 19. There is no way we can go out and find all the copies of the Scriptures and tear that page out. <br /><br />Hmmm, maybe we'll get lucky and one day the Scriptures will be called the Old Testament and people won't read it, thinking that they only need this New Testament that we are making up on the fly."<br /><br />"Luke, you are a dreamer on two counts. Bethlehem North is a thriving city today and there is no chance that the book of Joshua is going to fade into oblivion. Our only hope is that people are stupid. Man, we really goofed up here in the things we invented to go into this story."<br /><br />"You are correct Sir Matthew, you are correct. The only way this is going to work...no it can't work. Sooner or later we are going to be found out, when people realize that Bethlehem North is where Mary and Joseph really went."<br /><br />"Oh well, it is a good story we have made up, don't you think Matt?"<br /><br />"I do, but there is another problem."<br /><br />"You are a serious downer dude. What's the other problem?"<br /><br />"Luke, the other problem is that right now people are being killed for believing the story about Jesus. Chances are that if we write this stuff down, even though it is a lie, that not only will others be killed by the Romans, but we will be killed. How's that for a problem?"<br /><br />"Matt, I don't see a problem at all. If we are ever confronted, we'll just cough up the truth like a hair ball and denounce the whole thing as being a lie. I'm not dumb enough be knocked off for a fabricated story! No way on that score."<br /><br />"Right Luke. I'm with you. Lets see how far this can go before we get found out. If I'm caught, I'll spill the beans. I'm not going to put my life on the line for this goofed up story that we made up!"<br /><br /><center>**************************************************</center><br /><br />The "only" problem dear reader is that Luke and Matthew did give their lives for this story.<br /><br /><em><strong>Foxes Book of Martyrs records this about Luke:</strong></em><br /><br /><em>The evangelist, was the author of the book which goes under his name. He travelled with Paul through various countries, and is supposed to have been hanged on an olive tree, by the idolatrous priests of Greece.</em><br /><br /><em><strong>And about Matthew it says:</strong></em><br /><br /><em>Whose occupation was that of a toll-gatherer, was born at Nazareth. He wrote his gospel in Hebrew, which was afterwards translated into Greek by James the Less. The scene of his labors was Parthia, and Ethiopia, in which latter country he suffered martyrdom, being slain with a halberd in the city of Nadabah, A.D. 60.</em> <br /><br />(A halberd is an axe head that has a spike or a hook opposite the blade of the axe. Not a pretty way to go.)<br /><br />So they made up the story? Is that right critics? They switched cities in the story so the prophecy could come true? I don't think so. They died for their belief in the truth of what they wrote. Stupid people they must have been to have done that for a lie.<br /><br /><em><strong>"Houston" </strong></em>(i.e. critics) you have a problem with your version of the story. Actually quite a few of them.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1109335851945960402005-02-25T08:50:00.000-06:002005-12-22T04:41:11.226-06:00Is it wrong to "use a fleece" in determining God's will for decisions in my life?<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br /><strong>Question:</strong> Is it wrong to "use a fleece" in determining God's will for decisions in my life?<br /><br /><strong>DC</strong><br /><br /><strong>ATP:</strong> A great question and one that I learned something about in doing the research to provide the answer.<br /><br />A little background first for those who may not know what a "fleece" is in this context. Here's the Biblical text from the story of Gideon in Judges 6:-40.<br /><br /><em><strong>36 Then Gideon said to God, "If Thou wilt deliver Israel through me, as Thou hast spoken, 37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that Thou wilt deliver Israel 1through me, as Thou hast spoken." 38 And it was so. <br /><br />When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not let Thine anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground." 40 And God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground.<br /><br />(The New American Standard Bible: The Lockman Foundation)</strong></em><br /><br />From this example of Gideon using a "fleece" in his discussion with the Lord, people have looked to apply the principle of receiving a sign from the Lord to help make decisions in life.<br /><br />Others have looked at the same text and commented that it was only because of Gideon's weak faith that he used a fleece, and thus this is not a good example to follow in making decisions as to whether a "go left or go right" or "yes or no" are from the Lord.<br /><br />There is a third and better way to look at this passage, as I discovered in reading some commentaries about the above passage.<br /><br />The fact of Gideon's "decision making by fleece" method is that this wasn't about making a decision at all. Reread the passage carefully. Gideon had already decided to go ahead with his army in helping protect Israel from the Midianites. In the earlier verses of the same chapter in Judges we read: <br /><br /><em><strong>33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east assembled themselves; and they crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel. <br /><br />34 So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they also were called together to follow him; and he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.</strong></em><br /><br /><br />Gideon had already assembled his army. He was moving ahead. What is discovered in a careful reading of verse 36-40 above, is that he was asking the Lord whether he would be successful or not! So the original "Gideon's fleece" much to my own surprise as I took a new look at this, wasn't about decision making at all. <em><strong>Gideon's fleece incident was triggered by an understandable curiosity on Gideon's part about the success of what he had already been led to do by the Spirit of the Lord.</strong></em><br /><br />So the answer to the question, "Is it wrong to use a fleece in determining God's will?" is probably "yes." In the New Testament we are told that we are to walk by faith, not sight. Having a supernatural sign be our guide is not acting in faith, but rather is acting by sight.<br /><br />We are also told that it is an evil and faithless generation that seeks a sign. Mind you that comment is made in a different context, but it would seem that the principle of not being "sign seekers" applies.<br /><br />Last, if we were to use a "Gideon fleece principle" in order to make decisions, we would have to ask for a supernatural sign, something that could not be naturally fulfilled. Most often when people attempt to "put out a fleece" they do so asking for natural things to occur that will cue them as to God's leading.<br /><br />That is inconsistent with what Gideon did. He asked for something that couldn't happen naturally.<br /><br />In the end, the "fleece" question is made clearer when we see that Gideon wasn't asking for direction about what to do. He was asking whether what he had already decided to do and had been led to do by the Lord would be a success. Was he right to do that? That's hard to say. <br /><br />What isn't hard to say however is this: there is no Gideon's fleece example in the Bible where a fleece was put out to help make a decision. That alone is perhaps the answer to the question.<br /><br />So how do we make decisions and know with confidence that we are being led of the Lord? Good question, but one for another installment at another time.Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883162.post-1135165930584136202005-12-21T05:16:00.000-06:002005-12-21T05:55:56.520-06:00Mary Did You Know?<a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/ask-pastor-how-it-got-started.html">Ask The Pastor: How it got started</a> <br /><A HREF="mailto:g.magee@charter.net"><!--"blogg.magee@charter.net.biz"--> E-mail your questions</A><br /><a href="http://askthepastor.blogspot.com/2005/01/master-list-of-articles.html">Master List of Articles</a><br /><br />For those that may have to work or miss out on Church on Sunday for whatever reason, I've included a sermon below that I preached last Sunday. <br /><br />Several people who were at the service prayed to receive Christ after listening. Some were reaffirmations, others may have been new commitments to the Lord. <br /><br />Whatever your situation is, believer or unbeliever, I think there is some encouragement here for you. If you'd like to hear an audio version you can find one at the website for Eaglebrook Church at: <a href="http://www.eaglebrookminocqua.org/sermons/?linkid=11">Eaglebrook Online Sermons</a><br /><br />As I have noted in the past, what follows are my notes from preaching, so they are formatted for my own eyes during sermon delivery, rather than being formatted for a "reader" like yourself. <br /><br />I don't read the sermons during the presentation. The manuscript style helps me think through things more clearly during development. I hope the result of having saved the material in this format will be helpful to you.<br /><br />Merry Christmas, and if you as a result of reading this you make a commitment to the Lord, whether first time or a repeat, drop me a line. I'd love to know about it.<br /><br />Gordon<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Eaglebrook Church – Minocqua, WI Sunday December 18, 2005</strong><br /><br /><strong>Mary Did You Know? Luke 1:28-35</strong><br /><br /><strong>Introduction</strong><br /> <br />When I was a boy I was like most kids who grew up in our small town. I thought about baseball and football and basketball and hunting and fishing and outdoor stuff almost all the time. And I thought about music and one day being a famous singer. Of course I wondered what I would actually end up doing, because I thought I might have to choose between a professional baseball or basketball or football career too.<br /><br /><em><strong>It never occurs to you when you are younger that there are people who may be better than you are at something. </strong></em> You just think you can do stuff. And then in time you learn that there are people who are much better at things than you are and that you frankly aren’t all that talented! Its part of growing up!<br /><br />While this sort of frivolous childhood thinking was going on, there was also another line of thought that was going through my head that I suspect was not unique: <em><strong>I wondered about life and what the meaning of life was and what life in the future would hold.</strong></em><br /><br />I remember being in the car with all five of us kids stacked in a station wagon on winter evenings about this time of year, driving along to destinations that I now can’t remember, looking out of the windows across the Iowa farm fields near our home, seeing the lights of farm houses off in the distance.<br /><br />As they sparkled against the black sky, and as I saw the stars out beyond the farm houses above the horizon, I remember wondering: <br /> <br /><em><strong>I wonder what is out there in space. Is there really a God? What is he like? I wonder what happens after you die? I wonder what the future holds? </strong></em> <br /><br />On and on my thought process would go, wondering, thinking, considering, trying to analyze and think my way through things I didn’t know the answer to as a boy.<br /><br /><em><strong>Mary Did You Know?</strong></em><br /><br />As I was thinking about this morning’s sermon a week ago, I was reminded of the words to a song that capture a sense of this same kind of wondering about one aspect of the birth of Christ. That song is titled, "What Did Mary Know?" <br /><br />We know that Mary understood that her son was to be the Messiah, but what else did she understand about her son?<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Mary, did you know, that your baby boy would some day walk on water?<br />Mary, did you know, that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?<br />Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?<br />This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.<br /> <br />Mary, did you know, your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?<br />Mary, did you know, that your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?<br />Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?<br />When you've kissed your little baby, then you've kissed the face of God.<br /> <br />Mary, did you know?<br />Mary, did you know?<br />The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.<br />The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb.<br /> <br />Mary, did you know, that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?<br />Mary, did you know, that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?<br />Did you know that your baby boy was heaven's perfect lamb?<br />This sleeping child you're holding is the great "I am".</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />Mary did you know?<br /><br /> <br />Luke 1:28-35 (NASB)<br /><br /><em><strong>28 And coming in, (the angel) he said to her, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you." 29 But she was greatly troubled at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. <br /><br />30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end."<br /> <br />34 And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."</strong></em><br /><br />What did Mary know? She pondered the salutation in her heart. She asked a question: How will this happen since I am virgin? She was curious and interested at the amazing news she had heard.<br /><br /><em><strong>The Promised Messiah</strong></em><br /><br />What we know she did know from the meeting with the angel must have made her so excited that she could hardly contain herself because Mary for a moment was a representative really of all of Israel.<br /><br />Israel for centuries had lived in extraordinary faith that God would deliver as he promised, a Messiah. And while it is true that the largest majority of the people of Israel rejected the idea that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah, even today, those who are committed Jews live in steadfast faith that Messiah will come. There is great trust there in the Lord and there is great wonder as well. <br /> <br />They wondered in that day as they wonder yet today, "When the Messiah does come, how will it happen? What will Messiah be like? What all will he do?"<br /><br />There in a small town called Nazareth, just a short 65 miles from Jerusalem, about the distance from here to Wausau, was a woman named Mary who suddenly had learned how the promise of Messiah’s coming would unfold—things that all Israel had wondered about and had prayed about for centuries.<br /> <br />Here is how it would happen: Though she was a virgin she would bear a child, the child of the Holy Spirit. And his name...his name, this name that no one had known would be the name of the Messiah, to use the English rendering—his name would be Jesus. Jesus or Yeshua, which means: Jehovah is Salvation! <br /><br /><em><strong>So this is how it would happen! So this is what all the prophecies had pointed to!</strong></em><br /> <br />What was resident for a brief time in the mind and heart of Mary alone out of all the human race, information that no one else had ever known. David had not known, Abraham had not known nor had Moses known what Mary had learned from Gabriel that day. Solomon with all his wisdom had not known what this young simple woman from Nazareth knew.<br /><br /><em><strong>How interesting that the first person to have this information was a woman.</strong></em> <br /><br />How much like God to do something that flies in the face of convention. Men were the spiritual leaders. Men were the priests. Men were the warriors and so on, but the Lord sent an angel to speak first to a woman.<br /><br />All of prophetic history, recorded almost exclusively by men, the stories of which focus mostly on men, yet here at this pinnacle moment for Israel when the wrapping paper of history is being lovingly removed from the package of prophetic truth, is a woman who is opening the present.<br /><br />I loved that thought, not just from what would be a politically correct view in our society of how this shows God’s value of women, but of God’s love for all people. He shows no partiality.<br /> <br /><em><strong>Believer did you know how loved you are? Unbeliever did you know?</strong></em><br /> <br /><blockquote><em><strong>Did you know this baby boy would one day walk beside you? <br />Did you know that this baby boy would one day come to guide you? <br />People, did you know?</strong></em></blockquote><br />God chose some one from a small town. No power-broking religious family from Jerusalem where the Temple was. No priestly connections, since Mary was from the tribe of Judah, rather than the tribe of Levi. Humble family circumstances were Mary’s, until there was a quiet visitation from an angel announcing something that no one else had thought of in precisely this way.<br /> <br />Women of Israel hoped to one day be the mother of the Messiah, but the passage from Isaiah 7:14 regarding a virgin bearing a son, was some how missed. That the Messiah would be God in the flesh was also missed.<br /> <br />Now as Mary was in her room there in Nazareth, it was as if the curtain of history had been opened a crack, so that she could see behind it what was to come.<br /><br /><em><strong>Luke 1:30-33 (NASB)<br /><br />30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end."</strong></em><br /><br />What Mary heard were astounding words on several levels. That she heard an angel speaking to her was remarkable enough, but she was hearing words from the angel that came as direct fulfillments of promises given to David back in 2 Samuel 7 where the Lord said to David through Nathan the prophet:<br /><br /><em><strong>2 Samuel 7:12-17 (NASB)<br /><br />12 "When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever." <br /><br />17 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.</strong></em><br /><br />Jesus never committed sin or iniquity; he became sin for us, our sin piled on him and by his stripes we are healed.<br /><br />Mary, did you know when the angel spoke that this was the prophecy that was being fulfilled? Did you know that words that had been spoken to David a thousand years before were being brought to life with God using you as a tool? Mary did you know? I suspect that she did on this point.<br /><br /><em><strong>Believer did you know that these words of the Lord from Nathan the prophet some 3,000 years ago are part of your heritage? </strong></em> <br /><br />The Messiah, the son of David has come. He was born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, the God of all the ages fulfilling the promise he had made, and he will fulfill all is other promises.<br /><br /><em><strong>Israel Trip – "Looking at a living piece of history"</strong></em><br /><br />Denna and me are once again planning a trip to Israel. We’ll be going in February and taking some other folks from town here with us...a small group of us, joining up with a group from Texas. <br /><br />I remember our very first trip there back in 1998 I believe it was. One of the highlights was standing on the top of Masada, 1100 feet above the Dead Sea, with the Dead Sea in sight, as our tour guide told us the terrible story of what had happened there. I would encourage you to read about Masada and what happened.<br /><br /><br />As she began her story, Susan our guide said, <em><strong>"You are looking at a living piece of history."</strong></em> <br /> <br />My split second mental response was not to fully understand what she meant. I suppose I thought she was talking about Masada, this rock enclave we were standing on, with its evidence of the battle that was fought there, both lost and won by the Jews.<br /><br />But Susan pressed forward with her meaning quickly leaving me no time to be confused, when she said:<br /><br /><em><strong> "You are looking at a daughter of Abraham. I am living piece of history." </strong></em> <br /><br />I can’t tell you of the impact of those words as we stood there in Israel hearing the story of the heart of the Jewish people. It gives you chills to consider the import of her meaning.<br /><br /><br />God is faithful and has preserved his Chosen People. The sons and daughters of Abraham live and have carried their heritage to this age and to this day. God promised that it would be so. No other nation on the face of the earth in all of human recorded history has ever been displaced from their land and then returned after 2,000 years to once again possess it. Nation after nation has disappeared from their land, their names part of the past, not the present.<br /><br />Not so with God’s children Israel.<br /> <br />1,000 years from a promise to David to the time of the fulfillment in the birth, life and death of Christ. And now it has been another 2,000 years since the time of Christ, and God’s Word is no less trustworthy. God has been faithful.<br /> <br /><blockquote><em><strong>Believer did you know that you can fully trust God’s word and the promises in it? Believer did you know that when God says he will save you, he really means it? Believer did you know this baby boy fully became a man, to die a death on Calvary and be resurrected again? <br />Believer did you know?</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br /><em><strong>Perspective on the shortness of life</strong></em><br /><br /><br />It has been just over a year since my mother died and recently I have undergone a treadmill stress test to see how my ticker is working. Things turned out ok with the treadmill, but I was reminded again of the shortness of life.<br /><br />One of my co-workers and I have been working on a project for the company that required us to go to Wausau on several occasions and we have had some time in the car to talk about fishing and hunting and life and other things besides the project as he and I talked. The other day he spoke of the loss of his own mother not so long ago and how it got him to thinking. He is 62, and he said:<br /> <br /><blockquote><em><strong>"You know in a good long life a person might get to see 80 springs. That’s not very many. We tend to think of spring and summer and winter and fall as always being there, but they won’t be for us. We only have so many, and I have only so many of those springs left."</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br />What a great perspective on life that was for me to hear from this gentleman. We only have so many springs left. <br /><br />As I thought about that and the fact that one day our own time will come to leave this earth, I was reminded of the importance of the promises of God. How easy it is to tell others of how trustworthy these promises are, and yet how difficult it can be for us ourselves.<br /><br />Believer did you know that you can trust God’s word? <br />Believer did you know that God’s word is faithful and that he himself is faithful and true?<br /><br />I remember talking with Mom just last year about this as she was dying from a form of leukemia. We knew her time was short and so did she. She said that she wasn’t afraid to go, but she said that there was so much to her that was a mystery. <br /><br />Oh how I understand what she was driving at! So much we don’t know. So much we don’t understand.<br /><br />But so much to count on. So much to be certain of.<br /><br /><em><strong>God’s word, no matter how much time passes, will be fulfilled. Not one word will fall to the ground.</strong></em><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>Promises Delivered Through Abraham</strong></em><br /><br /><br />Though the 1,000 years is remarkable between the promise given to David and the birth of Christ it was long before David’s time that another version of the same promise was given. Back in the days of Abraham 2,000 years before the time of Christ, a promised son, a boy named Isaac, was asked by God of Abraham to be given up, to be sacrificed.<br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>Abraham, did you know your baby boy would be father to a nation? <br />Abraham, did you know your baby boy, son of promise and expectation,<br />Would portray the sacrifice of Christ, the message of salvation?<br /> <br />Did you know your baby boy would speak down through the ages? <br />Did you know that hearts would be moved as they turned the pages, <br />Of Isaacs life as it revealed to them the Rock of all the Ages.</strong></em></blockquote>Abraham did you know?<br /><br /><br />Abraham did you know when God sent you to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice your son, that God himself would intervene and prevent you from doing so, and this was only a test to see if you truly feared God and would obey him? Abraham did you know?<br /><br />So much Abraham did not know about what would happen, and so much that he did know by faith.<br /> <br />He trusted that if God had asked him to sacrifice his son and if God had promised that through his son he would be the father of many nations, that God must be planning on resurrecting Isaac after the sacrifice.<br /><br />It never occurred to Abraham that God might not be telling the truth or that God’s word would not come true! How much we need that reassurance when we go through our own deep waters. And how difficult it is to trust.<br /><br />One of the key messages of Christmas, among the wonderful messages that are part of the story of the birth of Christ, is the message that God’s word can be counted on. He will keep his promises.<br /><br /><em><strong>Believer you know that, but do you really know that?</strong></em><br /> <br />Believer do you know that down deep in your soul that you can trust God? No matter how deep the waters you are going through or the fires of trial you are facing, God’s word, God’s promises are trustworthy. Believer do you know?<br /><br /><em><strong>Unbeliever, do you know that? </strong></em> <br /><br />Do you know that God’s word will be fulfilled? Do you know that if you trust Christ as your Lord and Savior, that no matter what you have done it will be forgiven? Did you know that God will wash away your sins and mark you as his own, preparing a place for you in heaven? That is his promise to you.<br /><br /><em><strong>But did you also know that if you refuse his offer of forgiveness through Christ that his word is just as certain that there is no other hope for you?</strong></em><br /> <br />Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. There is no other provision for the forgiveness of sins. As surely as it is true that Christ was born according to the promises that came 1,000 and 2,000 years before his birth, in the years and ages to come whenever it may be that God chooses to return to earth to finalize things before eternity begins, there will be a judgment day.<br /> <br />It will be a day when all accounts will be settled. A day when questions are asked and answers will be given. One of the questions in so many words that will be asked, will be:<br /><br /><em><strong>"Have you said yes to my offer of forgiveness through Christ?"</strong></em><br /><br /><br />The answer you need to be able to honestly give if you are going to spend eternity with the Lord is:<br /><br /><em><strong>"Yes, I repented of my sin and put my trust in Christ and Christ alone for salvation." </strong></em><br /><br />If you haven’t done that I hope you will do so today.<br /><br />And for those who have, my hope is that today will be a day of peaceful reflection on goodness and trustworthiness of God.<br /><br /><em><strong>"Mary did you know your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?"</strong></em><br /><br />Yes she knew and we know. And we are so grateful.<br /><br />If you haven’t received Christ into your life, today would be a good day.<br /><br />Here's a prayer that will help you do so. Pray this with honesty and heaven is yours: <br /><br /><blockquote><em><strong>"Heavenly Father I admit today that I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Today I turn away from my sin and turn to you, asking that you forgive my sins through Jesus Christ. I put my trust in Jesus as my Savior, accepting your offer of allowing Christ's death on the Cross to be my payment for sin, and his resurrection from the dead to be my guarantee of eternal life with you.<br /><br />I offer you nothing in payment for my sin except what Christ did for me on the Cross; no good works on my part, no merit on my part, only what Christ did can wash away my sin. I ask that you grant me eternal life as you have promised, and fill me with your Holy Spirit, making me a new person, born spiritually into the family of God.<br /><br />I pray this in Jesus name."</strong></em></blockquote><br /><br /><br />(Friend, if you honestly and sincerely prayed that prayer to the Lord, you are on your way to heaven. Drop me a line if you did, I'd love to tell you how to take the next steps in your new life with the Lord. Gordon)<a href="http://www.eaglebrookminocqua.org/sermons/?linkid=11 "></a><a href="http://www.eaglebrookminocqua.org/sermons/?linkid=11 "></a><a href="http://www.eaglebrookminocqua.org/sermons/?linkid=11 "></a>Gordon Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16808094634511246786noreply@blogger.com0