My top 8 New Testament draft picks

I enjoy playing fantasy football. It has been a hobby of mine for about 15 years.

For those of you who are not familiar with fantasy football, it is a game where a group of players create their own league and draft current National Football League players to form their own teams. Each team uses the players it drafts to score points based on ho the players perform in a game.

It is a lot of fun and can be a source of frustration. I have succeeded in not have fantasy football become an idol in my life. I like to play but it hasn't replaced God in any way in my life. Before I was saved, fantasy football was a major idol in my life. I'd spend many hours a day studying players to get the best team I could.

Now, to be honest, I could give it up easily if it interfered with my walk with God.

No clergy at 9-11 tribute; what did you expect?

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has banned clergy from the 10th anniversary tribute of the 9-11 attacks.

Big surprise there. Bloomberg is a secularist. He wants no part of religion and definitely does not want it anywhere near anything to do with a New York City event.

(I find it ironic how religion is being kept out of the tribute when millions of  Americans turned to god when the attacks happened ten years ago.)

He is just another in a long line of people who want to remove religion from the public square. And I don't doubt he would like to remove all references to God from our history. Whether you believe this country was founded on Christian principles or not, it is undeniable religion, prayer and a belief in God has been an integral part of the American culture.

Live as Bible demands, not as Christians do

Go tell someone the world would be a better place if we all lived according to the Bible.

The reaction you will get will go something like this: "What?! The Bible is all about killing people." Or, "The Bible has stupid rules like 'you can't eat shrimp' or 'you can't cut the sides of your hair.'" Or, my personal favorite, "Christians are the worst. They lie, cheat on their spouses, steal, lie and are the biggest hypocrites."

I have had these arguments before. The people trashing the Bible either never read or only parts of it. They don't understand that the battles the Israelites fought for their land were ordained by God and those battles are over. God is not commanding Christians to go fight for the Holy Land. Yes, we can defend ourselves or others, but we should not be warring for whatever reasons we chose.

Adam and Eve, faith and Albert Mohler

I used to think the story of Adam and Eve was just a fable. I knew God created the universe and everything in it as well as everything else that might be beyond our universe.

I believed in the God of the Bible and everything in the Good Book was true or real events - except Adam and Eve. I figured it was some fancy storytelling to get people to understand the creation of man. I thought people were born sinners and needed forgiveness and Adam and Ever were just illustrations of that need.

As I dug more into Scriptures and learned about God, I realized there was a literal Adam and Eve and Eden was an actual place. The fall of man happened because of the first two people's arrogance, which brought on disobedience and sin.

Throwing Jonah into the sea, proclaiming God as King

In the Book of Jonah, we learn that Jonah was a profit and was told by God to go to Nineveh and warn the people they were going to be destroyed by God for their pagan lifestyle, which included torturing and killing Jews.

Jonah hated those people because he was a Jew and refused to go. He tries to flee from God on a boat but you can't escape the Lord. The boat was stuck in a horrendous storm and Jonah was thrown overboard. Jonah gets swallowed by a great fish, spit up on shore and decides to obey god and delivers the message to Nineveh. The city repents and is spared. Jonah sulks.

1 John 5 causes me to think

Take a moment and read this from 1 John 5:1-5:

¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. ² This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³ In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (NIV)

I find these verses very powerful, encouraging and a little perplexing all at the same time.

I live in fear at times, is that sin?

I have heard from various pastors and Christians that having a spirit of fear is a sin.

I struggle with that idea because when you are facing homelessness or a child with a deadly illness how can you not worry?

The Bible tells us in Matthew 25-29: ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ?

   ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. (NIV)

I try to not argue with what God tell us but worrying seems so natural. But, so do many other sins.

Talk politics? Maybe - Talk religion? Yes

(Editor's note: This a reprint of an earlier post)

Recently, a Facebook post I wrote regarding men seeking respect and finding it through loving and respecting the women in their lives, drew some responses about women needing to submit to their husbands.

One friend wrote she might submit to God but never a man.

Wowed by Romans: Chapter 12, serving God

(Editor's note: This a reprint of an earlier post)

For some reason, the book of Romans used to intimidate me. When I began reading the Bible I heard "Romans was full of doctrine" by someone and the word "doctrine" scared me.

I imagined reading about doctrine meant big scary words and ideas I wouldn't understand.

Once, I finally got to reading Romans, I fell in love with it. There are so many great things in the book.

I was just skimming some verses and came across Chapter 12:3-8. It's titled "Humble Service in the Body of Christ"

I struggle with hospitality (Roman 12:13-14)

(Editor's Note: This is a reprint of an earlier post)

There is so much in the Bible I struggle with. I have trouble controlling my tongue. I am not always nice or even-tempered. At times, I have no motivation to read the Bible

Living for Jesus can be difficult, especially when He tells use to love our enemies. In Romans 12, Verse 14, it states: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (NIV)

That is hard for me. I can deal with showing love towards people who don't like me, but to someone who physically persecutes me for Jesus' sake? I am not sure if I can muster up that much love.

Religious persecution on the rise

Jesus said, in John 15:18-20: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." (NIV)

I am not surprised by a recent study by the Pew Research Center that says about one-third of the world's population has experienced a rise in religious restrictions. It is an in-depth study so please read through it. This is important information.

While we in America are not being dragged from our homes or having our Bibles confiscated - yet - I can see a time where that could happen.

More and more, Christians are being marginalized and having our rights taken away in this country. Don't believe me? Ask a public school teacher to bring a Bible to school to read on his or her lunch hour and see what happens.

Beyond what is happening here in the United States, we must consider our Christian brothers and sisters who face violent persecution around the world. The stories of Christians being arrested, beaten and killed for their faith are endless.

This is a serious subject that we Christians need to be aware of.

Another groaner from Joel Osteen

As I was getting ready for church yesterday, I flipped on the TV and Joel Osteen's smiling face stared back at me.

Usually, seeing Osteen on my television would be followed with a quick change of the channel. I know Joel Osteen  has the biggest church in the country and sold millions of books and sells out stadiums to people excited to hear his sugary version of the Gospel, but I don't think he is a good illustration of a minister.

Sometimes I think 2 Timothy 4:3 was written just for his ministry: For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (NIV)

Ground Zero Cross

 This link leads to the American Center of Law and Justice's website and a blog about a lawsuit an atheist group filed to keep the Ground Zero Cross from being displayed at a 9-11 museum. Please read and search the ACLJ site for more on this situation.
 
http://aclj.org/american-heritage/americans-get-it-no-constitutional-crisis-with-cross-at-ground-zero

The problem with John 3:16

The image of the fan at the football game wearing the rainbow wig and holding a sign that reads "John 3:16" is burned in my mind.

The first time I saw that was in the late 1070s or early 1980s.

My dad told me John 3:16 was a Bible verse but I don't remember ever looking it up. Over the years, I learned John 3:16 said: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (NIV)

No greater love was shown for anyone. Jesus died so we could have eternal life. John 3:16 is a wonderful reminder of His sacrifice. 

God shows wrath in the New Testament

I hear quite often from Christians who say they focus on the love of Jesus and not His judgment or they think God's wrath was reserved for the Old Testament and not the New Testament.

I disagree. Many people think of judgment as simply pointing out their sins. Ever tell someone they are not acting Bucolically and they get upset saying: "Don't judge me!"

Jesus judged a lot of people while He was on the Earth. He confronted many people and told them to stop sinning. Jesus also had a way of pointing out people's sin. In Luke 18, a rich man ask Jesus how to get eternal life:

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

   ¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’

 ²¹ “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

 ²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

 ²³ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. (NIV)