Living life with a Biblical worldview can sometimes be uncomfortable when conversations with certain people reach a point of contention. Such a moment occurred with me the other day when I was asked, very frankly, by a self proclaimed atheist if I believed in a literal hell. My answer apparently enraged her. She considers the notion of hell to be a contrived means of manipulating weak minded people into following a bunch of made up rules so that organized religion can manipulate people to eventually drain them of all their money, intelligence, and free-will. (or something like that) Though it is not a very original argument, I was enjoying the conversation.

She told me that I can only compel others by fear because of the prospect of hell. This brings up an interesting point. Can we effectively preach the gospel without preaching hell?

A couple of points to ponder.

1. Jesus clearly taught on hell.

Matthew 8:11-12, Mark 9:42-48, Luke 16:19-31

2. Since God is omnipresent, hell is the presence of God in His full judgment and wrath.

3. Hell is just because God is just.

4. Hell is …

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After Elijah called down fire against the prophets of Baal in the spiritual Superbowl, he informed King Ahab that there was a “sound of heavy rain”. Ahab had just been through 3 years of being called out by God. Elijah had prayed for the drought and God brought it to humble Ahab and the nation. The Baal’s they worshipped were specifically honored for things like fertility, harvest, and…RAIN. After Elijah proved, by God’s mighty hand, that there is no question whose God is the strongest, there was no need for the drought so Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of heavy rain”.

Even when you are a great person of faith who has seen the miraculous, there is always a moment where a huge demand is put on your faith. Elijah knew that God had caused the drought and he knew God would end it. Still, Elijah climbed to the top of Mt. Carmel (revisiting the place where God had done amazing things before ) and bent down with his face between …

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My responsibilities as a pastor give me the opportunity to talk to every type of person you could imagine on a weekly basis. As I do my best to try and help people navigate through life with a great sense of purpose and hope in knowing Jesus, I have found one issue that distracts people more than almost any other.  Farmville. I kid, I kid. The issue that truly confuses people is the issue of identity.

People want to fit in. As a matter of fact, according to psychologists, our desire for acceptance is greater than our need for food, water, or shelter. It is a need that drives us to do nearly anything. We will search for it anywhere imaginable, we will starve ourselves for it, punish our bodies for it, we will work for it, we will finance things we cannot afford to have it, and many times we will compromise our own values to get it.

I am so moved when I look at Jesus’ life because He had such a huge sense of who He was. Remember, He was …

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I thought I’d share this new song I wrote a few weeks ago on healing.

I’m Healed

When the pain is more than I can bear

When the voices lead me to despair

I remember who can make me whole again

I remember who can make me whole again

I’m Healed

I’m Healed

Jesus Your wounds have made me whole

You were wounded so body could be set free

Every stripe that you took gave me victory

When the years are shortening my days

When my fears are crippling my faith

I remember who can make me whole again

I remember who can make me whole again

Death has no hold on me

Sickness no control of me

You healed all my disease

Nothing  can ever take that away from me

Death has no hold on me

Sickness no control of me

For me and my family

Nothing  can ever take that away from me

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Alright, this has been a fun “mini-series” for my blog. We will close it out today with Part 3. The chapter we have been studying begins by Paul stating his desire that this wild church at Corinth would stop being ignorant about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I believe there is a lot of ignorance even today about these gifts.

Paul masterfully addresses the subject in question in chapter 12, writes chapter 13 about the superiority of love over any gift (one of the major problems still…no love), then addresses the protocol necessary for the functional use of the gifts in public.

1 Corinthians 12:3-6

3            Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4            There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5            There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

6            There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

It is important to realize the context here because clearly Paul is …

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Better to Receive?

If God gave you a gift would you receive it? That is the question I ended Part 1 of this blog with. I think when the question is asked with no context, almost anyone would enthusiastically say, “Yes!” God has, in fact, given us many gifts. Salvation is the greatest gift of all.

Rom 6:23



23            For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I am happy that I received God’s gift of salvation. When it comes to the gifts He has given us there is such an awesome degree of intentionality on His part. It makes me want to treasure the gift all the more. As a shepherd, or a pastor, I appreciate the gift God has given me to help lead people closer to Him, to watch over them and to build them up. We see in this scripture that the Lord gave these gifts, which are many times are vocational, specifically so Christians could be built up.

Ephesians 4:8, 11&12

8            When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and …

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A Wild Church

1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14 have always been so awesome to me. Let me explain why. The church Paul was addressing the church at Corinth, one of the most immature, enthusiastic, sinful, yet hopeful churches imaginable. They were messing everything up. They didn’t know how to do communion. They were going wild using spiritual gifts without order. They were having orgies and yet still showing up to worship passionately. They were trying to one-up all the other leaders in the church with their deep spirituality while still practicing extreme paganism. These people were wild, but they loved Jesus. They were new in their faith but they didn’t quit just because they were doing it wrong. They kept pushing forward (with the help of one extremely wise apostle).

In these chapters you find an amazing story of Paul explaining the “gifts” of the Spirit to these energetic people. The context of these chapters is one of rationale and gentle correction. He is not chewing them out. He is lovingly explaining why they are doing things wrong and how …

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God has never let me down

He has sustained me through failure, shame, victory, regret, and joy

Why have I ever questioned His faithfulness?

He cannot fail

When I was so lost, I couldn’t find myself

He showed me the benefit of what an heir is.

I deserved nothing and He gave me everything

I was surely headed toward heartbreak but He showed me what rejoicing truly was

I will tell nations of this love

I will persuade men to sing songs of my Father’s majesty

But most of all I am marked by this moment

Stretched so that I no longer am the same man

This becoming is beautiful and I don’t want to miss any of it.

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We all have our labels. Check your birth certificate. The labeling begins when we pop out of the womb. Boy or a girl? Race? Country, city, county, time of birth? It continues as we get older. Wealthy, poor, attractive, unattractive, overweight, thin, educated, not-so-much? Diabetic, short, tall, blonde, brunette, blue-eyed, democrat, republican, sexual orientation, preppy, emo, piercings, tats…on and on.

As if that is not enough, everyone has some belief system with regards to religion. Even atheism (a non-belief) has become a belief system, replete with proselytization and everything. To name a few you have agnostics, existentialists, Universalists, New-Agers, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Shintoists, spiritualists, and finally, Christians.

Once you actually decide to follow Christ, the labeling continues. There a reportedly over 38,000 types of denominations within Christianity (all of whom fully believe they are correct in every way, tee-hee). So if you believe in Christ and you are not affiliated with a mainstream denomination where does that leave you?

Well one of the most popular labels for these people is “non-denominational”. There are certainly hundreds of types of non-denominational churches, but as a pastor …

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This morning I woke up pretty early. We are in San Francisco and Aim is still recovering from the East coast West coast jet lag thing, so I decided to go drive around while she was getting ready. First of all San Fran is extremely beautiful, maybe as beautiful as any city I’ve been to. I rolled my windows down and popped in the City of Life Worship CD. I cranked up the track “Strongman” and I could hear it echoing off of the eclectic Victorian and contemporary buildings I was driving by. I couldn’t help but start praying for the city. I just began to cry out desperately for the people that live in the city that serve the Lord and find it difficult to move forward with their faith every day, those that are weary. That’s who God put on my heart. It was a really cool time.

Later I dropped the car off at the hotel and I rendezvoused with my extremely happy wife. (Tall Skinny Vanilla Latte in hand) We ended up at Union Street doing some …

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