what I think I thought…

Had some people asked to share this from my sermon a few weeks ago about heaven…so here it is…

So what is heaven going to be like?

I don’t think you have to go further than then Garden of Eden to find out.

If you lay the first couple chapters of your Bible next to the last couple chapters of your Bible…look at what you find…

Genesis                                                                                   Revelation

God made Heaven and Earth (1:1)           New Heaven New Earth (21:1)

God made light (1:3)                                   God gives light (22:5)

Two great lights (1:16)                               The light of God and the Lamb (21:23)

It was very good (1:31)                              There is nothing impure (21:27)

Tree of Life (2:9)                                        Tree of Life (22:2)

A river (2:10)                                               Crystal clear river (22:1-2)

Gold in the land (2:11-12)                          Pure Gold (21:18, 21)

God was there (3:8)                                    God is there (21:3)

The story of God is the story of Paradise lost and Paradise restored again.

Again check out the contrast…

Genesis                                                                    Revelation

Serpent deceived them (3:13)                 Devil cast into lake of Fire (20:10)

Forced to hide from God (3:8)                See Gods face (22:4)

God increases pain (3:16)                         no more pain (21:4)

Cursed is the Ground (3:17)                    no more curse (22:3)

Death enters (3:19)                                   Death exits (21:4)

Keep from tree of Life (3:24)                 Access to tree of life restored (22:13)

Adapted from Kenny Boles study:  Heaven:  What a Wonderful Place.  College Press

So I got an e-mail today about last week’s sermon on prayer.  I am sharing with you their e-mail and my response because if one person walked out feeling like this…there may be others.  Anytime you have a question about anything said in a service…please let me know…

Okay.. so I’ve been trying to digest the sermon from Sunday.  And it has left me feeling awful.  I have     struggled all my adult life with the idea that God loves me.  And after your message on Sunday I now feel     convinced that I am nothing more than a nuisance to God.  I bother him with my daily babblings.  Is it true     that he really only wants to hear from me when I need him to do something miraculous?  Otherwise I     should just let things play out as they will and leave Him alone?

My Response

Let me begin by saying…I am so sorry.

As I mentioned Sunday…this is a HUGE topic and there is no way to cover all that needs to be covered on this issue.

I Peter 5: 7 says…”Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  He CARES for YOU!  He desires for you to bring everything to him…all your anxieties…big and small.

My point…which obviously I didn’t make very well…for us to think, dream, and ask BIG!  We can and should pray for the small things but I want us dreaming God size dreams too.  I heard someone say recently that for those of us who are parents…when we pray with our children…the size of our prayers teach our children about the size of our God.  I want my boy to understand we serve a big God by expecting him to answer big prayers.

The thing about bothering God…those were Jesus’ words…but they were told in a parable…Jesus was making a point…not a declaration.  And in both of Jesus’ parables…the “bothering” was a GOOD thing!

The point wasn’t that our prayers bother God.  Eph. 2:12 says this…”In him, and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”  Hebrews 4:16 puts it this way…” Let us then approach the throne of Grace with confidence so that we will receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

On the Day that Jesus died the veil in the temple…a curtain three feet thick…ripped from TOP to BOTTOM.  God opened up the holy of holies to everyone…he invited us into his presence.  He longs to hear from us.  Jesus parables weren’t meant to paint a complete picture of God in prayer…as he said in Luke 18:1…He told them this parable “to show them they should pray and not give up.”

That was the point…Jesus wanted us to learn to pray and not give up…but to pray and keep praying.  That is was the point.  To get you to do it more…not less.  If you walked out wanted to pray less…then I thoroughly failed.
God wants you to pray and keep praying.  To more and more bring your requests to him.  We are going to touch on this a little this week…God desires for us to know and be known intimately.  And that can only happen by us spending more time him not less.

As I said…I am sorry you have been tormented…God adores you and is longing to spend time you.  He sent his son to die to make that happen.

This past Sunday I shared a message about just how powerful our words can be.  Proverbs 18:21 says the tongue has the “power of life and death”.

Today I had an old friend comment on a totally unrelated FaceBook status…that was a perfect example of what I was trying to say.

I made the comment that God has called us to make disciples…and asked how do you know when a disciple has been made…here was the response…

When a young woman opens a business and isn’t sure she was listening to God’s plan or going off on her own. She confides this in a young youth minister. He shows her that God intended that business to be her ministry and all the opportunities there are to minister to others. Maybe you don’t remember that conversation between you and I. But I will … never forget it. Ten years in business this year and my ministry here is still strong.i don’t know if I would have saw that on my own. But everytime I minister to someone, I think of you. Thank you for that. I believe you made a disciple that day. Wondering if that were the answer you were looking for.

WOW.  You are right Brandy.  I don’t remember that conversation specifically…but I do remember you stepping out on faith.  Thanks for sharing…I am honored to be a part of the story God is writing with your life.

So…what’s the moral…believe it or not it has nothing to do with Jason…the moral is God can take your words and use them to bring life into the people around you.

Words are a powerful thing…use them wisely.

Well sometimes there isn’t time to put everything in a sermon you want to.   Below is an article claimed to come from a 1954 Home Economics Textbook.  It is entitled How to be a good Wife.   I thought it would have been a funny way to introduce the topic of the husbands need for Domestic Support…Enjoy!

How To be a Good Wife

• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal, on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home, and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.

• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so that you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.

• Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the home just before your husband arrives, gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift, too.

• Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.

• Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad he is home.

• Some don’ts: Don’t greet him with problems or complaints. Don’t complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.

• Listen to him. You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first

• Make the evening his. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to be home and relax.

• The Goal: Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

• A good wife always knows her place.

What do you think about that?

Moms don’t get the credit they deserve…I think for all of us fathers and husbands…who try and give mom a day off on mothers day…we wouldn’t be able to cope it it was Mother’s week or mother’s month…

I don’t think moms know the power they hold.  Kelli had it right today, mothers will never have the opportunity to share Jesus with another human as they do in the lives of thier children.

I appreciate Kelli sharing her heart and a little more of her story…no way I could have done as good a job as she did today.

I hope moms (and dads too…) make it a priority to get their own hearts right with Jesus…only then can you be the parent God designed you to be.  So go get help…talk with someone, join a group, retrace your steps, do whatever it takes to get your heart right again.

Shooting the “Mothers Day Picture” video was a blast…although I think my back is still a little out of sorts.  Thanks Dwight and Brad for joining me and Karla for doing the editing….that is the real hard work!

Next week we are kicking off a series geared toward our men.  So if you are a man, are married to a man, are raising a man, or wish you were a man (just for you DN…) you aren’t going to want to miss out on this.

I love being a part of what God is doing at PCC…each week we are getting to pray people who are are sensing God moving in their lives…may it only increase.

Well I heard some great responses to this weekend’s message…and one that left me shaking my head…but you can’t please everyone, right?

Well anyway…I was able to share the “big pile of rocks” God has given to me to remind me of his faithfulness, but I didn’t get to hear yours. As you think about your life, what are the “big pile of rocks” God has given you?

When has God showed up and done amazing things in your life?

I would love to hear your stories…so please share them with us! Just click on the comment link below…

if you don’t know what I am talking about…you can catch up here.

Most every week there are some things that don’t make it into the sermon.  A cool story, a great passage, or some insight we just don’t have time to use.  But this week…to say we had to leave a few things out would be an understatement.

On the topic of Creation and Evolution, there was so much material…we couldn’t get it all into 6 sermons much less 1.  This is a monumentally important subject…I shared this quote with the 1^st service…but let me share it again…

An atheist, G. Richard Bozarth, understood this well when he said, “Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god [sic]. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer who dies for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing. Christianity, if it is to survive, must have Adam and the original sin and the fall from grace, or it cannot have Jesus the redeemer who restores to those who believe what Adam’s disobedience took away. What all this means is that Christianity cannot lose the Genesis account of creation like it could lose the doctrine of geocentricism and get along. The battle must be waged, for Christianity is fighting for its very life.”

 He nailed it.  If the first five words of the Bible aren’t true…then there is no need for the rest.

This week I spent an hour listening to Richard Dawkins speak…as I mentioned in the sermon, he is called Darwin’s Pit-bull…he is the poster-child for atheism and a staunch proponent of Evolution…I encourage you to check him out…you can view the lecture through the link below.  As I listened I couldn’t help but think of Romans 1:18:23…look it up…listen to his lecture and come to your own conclusion…I would love to hear what you think.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,2989,Richard-Dawkins-Lecture-at-UC-Berkeley,Richard-Dawkins  

BTW…as you listen…see if you can figure out how all of this got started.  What is it that started the rest of it…something had to be first what was it?