Mary Delivers Again!

We just wrapped up a 3-week message series called Mary the Mother of Jesus. We live in a predominately traditionally religious area and we thought it would be a great idea to address some of the differences between Evangelicalism and Traditional Religion as it relates to Mary. We promoted it as a series honoring Mary and her role in the gospel story and used excerpts from the gospels that demonstrated things we can learn from Mary - What she said, what she did, etc. We encouraged our people to pass out invites to their Traditionally Religious friends, neighbors, coworkers and family and actually distributed 12,000 invitations. We ended up averaging typical attendance and visitors during the three weeks so our effort to get new people in the door fell short of our expectations. However, I feel good about the fact that our people got a chance to see how you can point out the differences between Evangelicalism and Traditional Religion without being rude or condescending and we had over 100 salvations during the series! 

The thing we focused on most was the extraordinary faith that Mary had. She was willing to lay aside her own plans to carry out God's plan for her life. We must be willing to do the same. She went directly to Jesus with her needs and so should we. However, when bringing her needs to Jesus, she didn't try and tell Him how to meet the need but trusted that His solution would be the right one! 

Although Mary was the one chosen to literally bring Jesus into the world, we all can "deliver" Him to that part of this broken, hurting, messed up world that we have influence over! All we have to do is submit to His plan and trust Him to use us any way He see fit! 

So God Made the Missionary...

Syria: A Call to Prayer

What's happening in Syria is frightening. The fact is, none of us know what's really going on. From Regime to rebels - All of them are capable of unthinkable acts of brutality. Should the USA get involved? I have no idea! I just know we need to pray. Pray for our leaders making the decisions concerning our involvement. Pray for the innocent people in that part of the world that are being victimized. Pray for missionaries and ministries that are there carrying out covert efforts to share the gospel where it is unwelcome. 

Through this entire ordeal the question keeps rising in my mind: "Is this the beginning of the end?" Perhaps this is setting the stage for the return of Jesus Christ and the great years of tribulation. We all need to be ready and we all need to be praying!

The Miley Generation

So many have expressed everything from outrage to pity over Miley Cyrus’ performance at the VMA’s this week. It seems we are unaware that her performance was a wake up call. A look in the mirror. A strong dose of reality! We created this! This shocking performance is a glimpse into the soul of the Miley generation. 

It is a generation that will do absolutely anything for attention! A generation that has absolutely no sense whatsoever of shame or propriety. Why? Because we tossed those values aside long before these children were ever born. We made words like “decency” and “modesty” curse words. Bigoted. Intolerant. So this is what we’re left with.

The great desire of every little girl is to be loved by her father. The Miley generation’s father is so self-absorbed he uses his own children to bring attention to himself. He teaches his daughter that nothing is worth more than being the center of attention - So she’ll do whatever it takes! He is obsessed with pornography and so his daughter strips down to her underwear and bumps and grinds on stage like all her father’s favorite performers. Like Herod, he sits there undaunted as the eyes of his friends feast on the flesh of his own little girl. Soon the voice of reason and conviction will be served up in a pool of blood on a silver platter.  

The great need of every little girl is a mother who will teach her daughter the very virtues we have abandoned. Instead the Miley generation’s mother shops at the teen clothing store with her daughter, trying to live vicariously through her size two dresses, her push up bras and her daisy dukes. She paints her little girl’s face with lipstick and mascara by the age of four and teaches her that worth and value are found in everything external, while everything internal rots away in neglected silence. 

Here’s the wake up call America: Miley has a soul! What we as parents do with the souls of those God has entrusted us with determines what shows up on the stage of life. As fathers, we must come out of the stupor of our sexual addictions and self absorption and be dads again - providers, protectors and leaders of our families. As mothers, we must abandon our worship of youth and be the kind of moms our children need us to be - nurturers, care takers and instructors in righteousness. 

Miley is worth it. God demands it.