You Must Be Born Again

"Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3

Truth is a mystery received by revelation. It does not come through education or learning. It does not come by traditions or practices. The new birth is the gateway to knowing and understanding all that the kingdom of God contains. Revelation is God, by the Holy Spirit, opening our eyes to understand truth that previously we did not even consider.

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Mat.16:17

Jesus used the metaphor of being born again. Nicodemus understood what being born entailed. He said it is impossible by natural laws of birthing to re-enter your mother's womb. Jesus told him that it was a spiritual birth, not governed by the laws of nature. Being born again has a time, a place, a circumstance. It is not a course that you take or a book that you read. It is an event that changes your life forever.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2Cor.5:17

Being born again is not natural, it is supernatural. It is a miracle. What is impossible to man is possible to God.

I was born again on December the eighth, 1973. At that moment the trajectory of my life changed. I understand it all better now, but it did not depend on me understanding it, I just had to believe it.

"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John 3:19-21

Science tries to rob God of His glory by cheapening His work with human intellect. God is not mocked. It is time for men to repent and believe the Gospel. My prayer is the the Light will shine in the darkness. Jesus said that until you are born again you cannot even see where you are going.

Science Gets It Wrong

 What if accepted science is all wrong? What if, in their zeal to avoid God, science has created this exotic idea of how the universe came to be? The Bible has one message concerning creation. God did it in six days. The laws of nature which science frets over are simply the laws by which the universe works, not the reason for it's existence. No one know how long God spent planning creation. The actual work only took six days.

Science makes it's biggest error when it views the laws by which the universe works as the laws that brought the universe into existence. Also, science spends a lot of time on the universe, but very little time on planet earth.

Another thing. The Bible says very little about the universe. Maybe the stars and galaxies are not that important. Maybe studying black holes is a waste of time. Maybe cosmology is majoring in something minor.

It takes faith to believe in evolution, not wisdom. It takes faith to believe in the big bang, not wisdom. It takes faith to believe in God, not wisdom. But, only one of these belief systems has power to save your soul.

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea." Rev. 21:1

Long after the universe is replaced by something new, people will still be in the mix. People are more eternal than the planet. Christians will be in the New Jerusalem, the rest in the Lake of Fire. You decide now where you spend eternity.

God makes the important things simple and easy  to understand. Pride makes things complex and dark. Only Jesus is the light of the world.

The Benefits Of Growing Older.

 There are benefits of getting older that only other older people will understand. I no longer get excited by drama or by pending disasters. I no longer get stirred up by things that I see or hear, even in church. I no longer find myself striving to get married. I no longer find myself striving to get sent out. I am content where I am and who I am with what I have.

I have heard enough sermons to judge the good ones from the not so good ones. I have Bible study tools to find out about things in the bible or that I heard in a sermon to see what it really says. I pray enough. I have my daily devotions and I read God's word daily. I go to church more than I need to. 

Marriage is a fundamental human relationship. I think everyone needs to get married. Except me. I was married. I stayed married. Death did us part and I am not looking to get joined to a new wife. I support marriage and all that it stands for. But not for me.

I support our vision for evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. I give towards it. I pray for workers. That is all I can and will do about that. Old men dream dreams. Young men see visions.

There really is a benefit to growing older (if you do not act like you are still young).

Blind Leaders Of The Blind

When you reject the truth you condemn yourself to endless wandering; searching and never finding answers to your problems. You begin the fruitless and unsatisfying time of wandering and thinking that you are going somewhere.  This is the problem that modern science finds itself in today. Study the natural law and natural structure of anything and you will bump into God. God is the creator and sustainer of the natural world. Math works because God designed the world to work. The universe is not a chaotic jumble of unregulated matter and energy swirling around hoping for order to emerge. It is perfect and ordered and structured so that brilliant scientists can spend their entire lives studying it.

"Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch." Mat.15:14

If you are traveling and unsure what route to take, getting directions from someone who doesn't know where you are or how you got there or where to go is foolish. No matter how confident they seem or how strong their argument seems to be they are more lost than you because they think that they know where they are.

"...If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Mat.6:23

The bible is a rich resource of truth and light. By only focusing on one thing we miss so much of the richness of God's self revelation contained in the Bible. Truth is made light through the church. We need light, not a laser beam, to guide our way through the darkness. Between three services a week and adult bible study we have ample opportunity to learn more than we currently know.

"...For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." Luke 12:48

Pastor, turn your office into a study. Turn your office from a travel agent into a place to study and read.

All Science Points To God

 On the surface, the creation story in Genesis reads like a children's Sunday School lesson. Very simple and easy to understand. And yet, beneath the surface of this simple story are depths of wisdom and engineering that boggle the mind.

"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." Heb.11:3

First, it takes faith to understand the creation story. Not intellect, not learning, not even wisdom, but faith.

Second, God is the architect and the engineer for creation. His idea, His plan, His design. It is His.

Third, creation appeared on the scene fully formed. God did not create a big bang. He created a fully formed and fully functioning universe. He did not mold it like clay, or mix together existing elements. He spoke, and the universe appeared just as we see it today. The big bang is science trying to rob God of His glory.

Science discovers natural laws that God set in place to govern how the universe works and how life on earth is sustained. All science points to God. It is dishonest for science to not tell the truth. Once you reject the logical answer, you are condemned to searching and never finding any more answers.

Adam and Eve were never babies. They were created as adults. The Garden of Eden was a real place designed by God just for man. The Garden was destroyed by the Flood. Sin robbed humanity of their dominion and their dignity. We will not see that level of rulership again until after the second coming of Christ. 

An Interesting Pattern

 I am not a pastor or an evangelist. I am just a man who has been around a long time. I have paid attention and I have noticed certain patterns that, now that we as a Fellowship have been in existence for a few years, I see emerging.

We have churches that have been in existence for many years now. Our churches have reached a size that reflects the pastor's ability to care for. We have a vision that works, but it seems to not be working as well as it used to. So we try harder to make something happen. Or we adjust our focus to minister to the people we have now. We support the overall vision of evangelism and discipleship and church planting. But we have changed.

One thing that I have noticed is that the explosive growth of our Fellowship is not happening in our older, more mature churches. It is happening on the cutting edge of church planting. New pastors and new churches in new cities doing what we do. And they are seeing the spectacular growth and the exciting evangelism we used to see. No one church has planted 4000 churches. We have seen God use our vision to keep the fire burning out on the fringes of civilization.

The older churches that are still thriving today have come to grips with where they are in the trajectory of revival and have found a way to continue to minister to faithful people who have stayed by the stuff, some for many years now. 

If you are a pastor and you miss the exciting days of early revival, then go pioneer a brand new church or be a missionary in a new country. We will miss you and we will support you and we will pray for you. 

Oh How He Loves Us!

 The night sky is full of stars which they tell us are not just stars but galaxies. But the night sky is still dark. The only star that makes our sky light is the sun. The rest of the night sky is more like a calendar than anything. 

"Then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth; and it was so." Gen.1:14-15

The earth spins on it's axis at 1037 mph as it zooms around the sun at 67000 mph. All of this motion and high speed and on earth we feel nothing. We have no sense of moving at all. 

Science asks questions for which no scientific answer is needed. The night sky is light enough and as interesting as you want to make it. The planet we live on is moving but it is so big and the distance is so great that no instrument on earth can measure it. Pride makes God's place for us seem small and insignificant.

We live in a world that is perfect for us. God made the place first to make sure it was right before He put man in it. And one day He will make a new heaven and a new earth to be perfect for us for eternity.

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea." Rev.21:1

So if you think that Heaven will be like your favorite spot on earth I hate to disappoint you. Heaven is where we go until we return to the new place that God will prepare for us.

Oh how He loves us!