Everyone has complainers

We all are judged. Whether we admit it or not we live in a society that judges people. You can look at what’s popular on TV and it’s full of people judging: The Voice, America’s Got Talent, American Idol, Survivor, So You Think You Can Dance, and Big Brother to name a few. I am a huge sports fan, ask any person why their sports teams didn’t win the championship and we have a list of complaints.

I love to watch the drafts of professional sports and it’s all about judging a person. While every job has this, these drafts show all your strengths and weakness. They say what you do well and what you do horrible in. On top of that, there are stars with a ton of potential but have some character flaws, sometimes it keeps them from making millions. Could you imagine being judged in primetime television?

Everyone is judged. Paul is one of my favorite biblical authors, yet this is what people said about Paul: he has no power or authority, he is an extremely good writer but once you meet him he is unimpressive and a lousy speaker. Man, this is what they said about the writer of a dozen or so books in the Bible and his teachings are still looked at widely today? People didn’t like Paul? As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “I get no respect.”

Everyone is judged, but how do you respond to being judged? Paul responded to this in 2 Corinthians 10:11-12, “Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

Paul looked at the actions of his enemies. Rather then looking at people the way God looks at them, they had typical human standards. This is like the armchair quarterback syndrome. I can watch the Lions and tell everything that is wrong with the team, but I also never played football other then a year of fully padded flag football. In other words, I have no way to truly judge how good or bad the Lions are. Human standards often fail us.

It’s funny when we look at churches and judge them by numbers. People can judge churches by how many people come in the doors. While there is a little truth to this it can miss the whole point. I had a friend share this info from Doug Fields, it went something like: judging if a church is doing well by numbers is like saying how is your family doing and you respond 4.

When we as Christians focus our goals by human standards we can fail a ton. Succeeding in the world is not the same as succeeding to God. When Christians judge based on human standards rather then Godly standards it can make us look like a fool.

What gives us the right to judge? Do we have the standards of God when we look at other people? Does God care more and think someone is successful by how much money they have? Does God care what kind of car you drive or home you own? Does God care about what type of electronic devices you have or the clothes you wear? Does God care what degrees you have? If these things don’t matter as much to God, why do we put so much emphasis in them?

If we look at the world the way Jesus did, it would change our perspective on how we view life. Do you need to look at life and the world differently? If so, what do you need to change about how you judge?

Have a great day.

Witnessing the Lions knocking off the Packers for Thanksgiving

The Lions will give the Packers something they won’t want to give thanks for, a loss.

I have a really good feeling about the Lions on Thanksgiving this year.

I always think they will win, but by halftime, that is usually erased.

This year we are going to witness a great event on that day.

There are some things that it would be nice to witness to in my life.

Things I would like to witness….

·         The Lions, Tigers, Red Wings, Clippers and Spartans winning championships

·         Seeing my kids get married to great spouses

·         Seeing my kids doing something amazing with their lives

·         My kids getting baptized

·         A miracle

The list could go on.

What would be something you would like to witness?

Witnessing can take a different take.

Witnessing could be something good or bad.

Witness the Lions win….good.

Witness a murder……bad.

There are certain things we witness in our lives but witnessing can mean more.

In the bible, witnessing can mean sharing Jesus with other people.

You witnessed what he has done in your life and the impact that has made so you want to share it with other people.

Jesus tells the disciples this in Acts 1:8…

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

In other words, once being filled with the Holy Spirit, they will share Jesus in these places.

Think of it this way, you will share Jesus where you are currently at, in your state or region, in your country and to the rest of the world.

For me this would be Terre Haute, Indiana/Great Lakes, United States and the end of the world.

This is how we are supposed to serve and show love.

We show love to our community then to our state then to our country and to the world.

God put you where you are at right now to do something amazing there.

You can do something great where you are currently at, you do not have to go overseas to be a witness.

We try to this this up with our ministry programs by having the ability to serve.

We just got done with Operation Christmas Child in which we make presents and ship them overseas to different countries where they will receive the gifts.

We can wait to witness great or we can help be a good witness by doing something great.

How can you be a good witness to other people today?

Have a great day.

Would you want to know how you would die?

Weird question but interesting.

I don’t know if I would like to know how I would die.

Not when but how you would die.

It’s like knowing when the Lions are going to win the Super Bowl.

They will win it this year but past this year, who knows.

If I find out they wouldn’t win another Super Bowl till 2035, would I pay attention?

Would the thrill be gone?

That’s football, this is death.

I don’t think I would want to know how I would die.

Yet, this is what Jesus tells Peter in the final section of John.

Chapter 21:18-19…

“I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.  Then he said to him, “Follow Me.”

Stretch out your hand was another way of saying, crucifixion.

If you don’t know what crucifixion is (According to Wikipedia)….

Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead. The length of time required to reach death could range from hours to days depending on method, the victim's health, and the environment. Death could result from any combination of causes, including blood loss resulting in hypovolemic shock, sepsis following infection due to the wounds caused by the nails or by the scourging that sometimes preceded the crucifixion, or eventual dehydration.

I couldn’t imagine being told this was how I was going to die.

Yet this is what Jesus told Peter and Peter still followed him.

He believed in Christ and his mission.

This trumped the painful death he knew he would know receive.

Would you still follow a person if he said you are going to die a painful death by following me?

Peter did.

How can I believe Jesus was real and worth following?

Peter.

Peter came through and died in a horrible way for a cause he believed in.

People suffered painful, agonizing deaths because of their faith in Jesus.

Why do I believe in Christ?

These people were told you can live good lives if you lie about Jesus, him being raised from the dead and his miracles.

They choose the painful deaths.

Jesus brings good news to those without any hope.

He did for me and he does for you.

We know he did this because people gave their lives for the mission of Christ.

What would you give your life for?

Have a great day.

The ending to the twilight series

It was 1999 and a girl and I were going to see a suspenseful movie.

It was a shocking movie with a surprise at the end nobody saw coming.

Guess what movie it was?

Wrong, it was Titanic.

Just kidding.

We saw the Sixth Sense, a very good movie and if you went to the movie without ever hearing about it, you would have a shock at the end of the movie.

It was a good movie.

There was something that ruined the shock value for me, I already found out about the ending.

So my girlfriend and I at the time just ended up making fun of Bruce Willis’s career.

“I used to star in action movies like Die Hard and spend the movie fight people after stepping on broken glass, I was beast, now I’m a psychologist, what happened?”

We were joking and almost in tears laughing.

It changed to atmosphere of the movie when we knew it was going to happen.

Sometimes you have to see it to believe it.

Is that always the case?

How do I know someone wasn’t tell me a lie?

My status on Facebook today is the supposed ending to the Twilight Series, or is it?

Can you trust what I wrote down as being the actual ending or not?

Sometimes we can trust what other people say and other times we do not.

Do you trust me when I tell you every year Michigan State, The Lions, Tigers and Red Wings will win the championship?

What can you trust and what can you not trust?

Jesus appeared to his disciples except Thomas.

In simple words the other disciples told him, “Dude, we saw Jesus.”

He didn’t believe them and said this in John 20:25…

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

Certain Circles started using the saying doubting Thomas.

It was a week later when Thomas did actually see Jesus and Thomas was in shock.

Jesus told him this in verse 29…

“Because you have seen me, you have believed’ blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

I used to be hard headed with faith.

“I am not going to believe until I see Jesus or witness a miracle that only he could perform.”

I was thickheaded.

If you wait to see an amazing miracle to believe in Jesus you could be waiting a while.

Faith takes trust.

You trust in what you don’t always see.

It took time but I believe in Jesus because of what I have learned about him.

I was taught that people gave up their lives for what they witnessed with Jesus.

They could have lied and lived, but they suffered painful deaths because they couldn’t lie.

With movies, we could be told the ending and might believe or not.

The decision is ours.

Just like with faith.

We can believe in Jesus without seeing him.

If you can believe the ending of a movie because a friend told what happened, could you do the same with faith and Jesus?

Have a great day.