“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

                           -John 3:3

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

                             -John 3:5-7

In just a few days, 2010 will come to an end. As it does, people everywhere will resolve to get in shape, out of debt, and any number of other things they would feel proud to accomplish. Unfortunately, most of these  resolutions will be discarded before February, and the people who made them will divert their attention to something far less strenuous than going to the gym every week. The problem we face, however, is much more serious than a failure to shed a few pounds; it’s that most of us are annually wasting a God-given time of new beginnings.

You see, I believe that what this country needs is not another handful of broken New Year’s resolutions. It needs a revolution. It needs each of us standing up for something bigger than we are and making a Godly difference in our society for the glory of God. While I think it’s great for a person to determine they will get out of debt or spend more time with their family, what’s even greater is when people resolve together that they will put God first every single day of the coming year. When we do that, we can rest completely assured that everything else will fall into place accordingly (Matthew 6:33).

As we have read in the Scriptures, “… ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14) In light of this truth, let us make a resolution each and every day to serve God from the depths of our heart and not allow something as uncertain as time to shape our actions. After all, who’s to say this day won’t be our last?

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

                          -Hebrews 12:1

There are 30 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That's a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, "The books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight." Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus; there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. God Bless.

Looks can be very deceiving. In fact, some of the worst sinners that can be found are often the ones who outwardly appear to be the most holy. Though this doesn’t mean the outward aspect of our life is unimportant, it does mean we should give first priority to making sure all is well with our soul rather than vice-versa.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.”

                                 -Matthew 23:27

Notice here that Jesus doesn’t condemn the Pharisees for their outward appearance of holiness; His point is simply that they had a very distorted concept of what holiness consisted of. Rather than recognizing the fact that true holiness begins inside and works its way out, they had come to believe just the opposite. In essence, they put more faith in what they could do outwardly than what God could do inwardly. It got so bad that anybody who dared to violate their sacred traditions was labeled a heathen, even if those traditions had no Biblical foundation (see Matt 15:9). On one occasion, the Pharisees even questioned Christ’s spiritual integrity simply because He didn’t wash His hands before He ate (Matt 15:2)!

The truth is, inward holiness will always be accompanied by outward holiness. Yet this does not mean that every instance of outward “holiness” necessarily  indicates its presence within. Like the old math law which says  “all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.”, every one who is holy looks holy, but not everyone who looks holy is holy. Am I making any sense? God’s first and foremost priority is to purify our heart, which will then purify our actions. He doesn’t try to do things in reverse, and neither should we.

The above is a short video I put together last night with some of my free time, and I hope you’ll enjoy watching it. Whether it will have the same effect on you or not I don’t know but, at least for me, it really draws me into a spirit of worship and reminds me of our Creator’s majesty.

Call me Charlie Brown, but every Christmas season I attempt to discover true meaning in a holiday that has become quite shallow by modern definition. Over the past few years especially, it seems the holiday season has become nothing more than a full-scale assault on our bank accounts, and a time when businesses all over the country try to balance out their annual figures with sales that have people turning violent just to save a few dollars. A time originally intended to celebrate family, generosity and, above all, Christ, has now turned into a time of greed and materialism for many people across the world.

Now don’t get me wrong. I already know the true meaning of Christmas, but, at least for me, that meaning is something you must rediscover on a yearly basis in order to fully appreciate it. It’s easy to fool ourselves into believing that we “understand Christmas” just because we have a nativity set in our living room, yet still miss out on the blessings God has for His children during this special time of year.

Yesterday evening, as I was trudging through the Christmas snow, I found myself singing the song “How Many Kings” by Downhere. It’s a song I’ve sung many times, but it doesn’t always sink in. Yesterday was different, though, and I was overwhelmed with a sense of joy as I sung out, “How many kings stepped down from their thrones? How many Lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? How many gods have poured on their heart to romance a world that is torn all apart? How many fathers gave up their son for me?”

Only One has ever given of himself so completely and so freely as Christ did. He didn’t just sacrifice Himself one time while dying on a cross;  He gave His life away every day of those 33 years He walked this earth. He did what no one else had ever, would ever, or could ever do: He saved us. That, my friend, is the true meaning of Christmas.

Imagine with me two men in an airplane flying 6,000 above the ground. All seems to be going well when, halfway through the flight, one man is approached by an attendant who offers him a parachute. She promises that wearing this parachute will dramatically enhance his flight. Though somewhat hesitant at first, not seeing how a parachute of this size could possibly “enhance one’s flight”,  he decides to give it a try after several minutes of persistent nagging by the woman.

A few hours pass and the man finds himself miserably uncomfortable. He looks around and sees dozens of other passengers who seem to be enjoying themselves quite nicely, yet none of them are wearing parachutes. What was supposed enhance his flight has done little more than remove his ability to sit upright and rub several terrible blisters on his shoulders. With a sore neck and aching back, he sees no reason to continue bearing this terrible burden and thus removes the parachute and tosses it to the floor.

Meanwhile, another flight attendant approached a man at the opposite end of the plane with an identical parachute as was offered to man #1. Rather than promising an enhanced flight, however, she informed the gentleman that, in just a few moments, he would be forced to jump from the plane and that wearing this parachute was his only hope of survival. No debating was necessary, for the man immediately recognized the impending danger and strapped himself to the parachute without a minute’s delay. He didn’t give a second thought to the weight he must carry while he waited to jump or the apparent happiness of  other passengers who were wearing no parachute; he rather thanked God for saving Him from a terrible death.

Think about this story. Man #1 represents every person who is told that becoming a Christian will “enhance their flight.” They are promised joy, peace, lasting happiness, and anything else they’ve been missing in life. Though somewhat hesitant at first, most decide to give Jesus a try and see what happens.

Not long afterward, however, they realize that serving Jesus doesn't always make you feel warm and cozy inside. They lose their friends at school, are ridiculed by those closest to them, and maybe even get put in jail. After a quick taste of the persecution promised to all who truly serve God (II Timothy 3:12), they want nothing to do with it and thus discard their faith in what they thought would give them a happier, more peaceful life (see Matthew 10:34).

Man #2, on the other hand, represents everyone who is confronted with the truth of the Gospel: man is a sinner in need of forgiveness, and God is a Savior willing to give it out. Instead of being led to salvation with the promise of joy and lasting happiness, they accept Christ fully aware of the wrath of God which will be revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Romans 1:18). They understand that Jesus Christ is the only way to avoid hell, and so any inconvenience they encounter is disregarded for the sheer joy of knowing they are saved.

We are doing a great disservice to both God and the world when we reduce Christianity to just another way of enhancing your life. We must confront people with the truth of sin, judgment, and hell if we hope for them to respond to the gospel is such a way that they will endure the tribulations of this life without losing the faith. Doing things the easy way might please more people, but it certainly won’t be pleasing God.