Confused? Ask For Help!

James 1:5-8

5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.

​There are two things we can take from this passage. First, we need to understand that times will come when we do not understand a situation or circumstance. We need to know that its okay when we reach that moment but we also need to know that we can (and should) seek the Lord's wisdom on it. God desires to reveal things to us. So many people live shallow Christian lives simply because they are trying to figure everything out on their own and not seek wisdom from the Lord. 

Lack of understanding is dangerous because it can cause us to doubt and when we doubt our God and our faith we are stuck with an inward struggle that results in no outward reflection of Jesus in our lives. That's why James says that the doubter is tossed about like the waves of the sea. 

Instead, God wants us to have a clear sense of direction and understanding. The only way we're able to do that is to seek Him on a daily basis and ask for understanding.

The second thing we can take from this passage is that God gives generously and without criticizing when we ask for understanding. In other words, He treats us with grace and mercy. We all have been, or will be, in a situation where someone around us doesn't understand our position, instruction or direction. The natural reaction is to respond with frustration but let's always remember how God responds to us. 

Pray for the trust to seek understanding from the Lord and the ability to respond to others with the grace and mercy of Christ. 

Use Difficult Times As Teaching Moments

James Chapter 1 

Greeting 

1 James, a •slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ:To the 12 tribes in the Dispersion.

Greetings. Trials and Maturity 

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. 

​Difficult times are going to come about. Sometimes it may be with you and mom or I or with your brother and sisters. Sometimes it may be at school, work or with athletics or something else. The point is this, you will not guide your way through life smoothly. 

The question is, what do you do in difficult times. James (the brother of Jesus) tells us that we should consider it joy when those times occur. The reason is because God is trying to teach us something and better us. Our immediate response seems to be to answer difficulties with frustration, blame and anger. I want to encourage you to instead, respond by thanking God for an opportunity to learn something about yourself, someone else or Him. Then seek the purpose behind your difficult circumstance by seeking the Lord. 

There are two ways to respond to difficult times/situations. One way destroys our relationships and reputation and the other builds our Godly character. I pray that you seek the later of the two. 

Occupy Movement Linked To Bomb Plot In Cleveland

I'm not sure why we didn't see this on the national news over the weekend (sarcasm) but there is a strong connection between the Occupy movement and domestic terrorism in Cleveland, OH. According to CantonRep.com, five men were arrested on an accusation of trying to bomb a highway bridge south of Cleveland using fake bombs that were provided through an undercover FBI agent.

One of the men arrested, Anthony Hayne, also happens to have signed the lease to a warehouse that houses around a dozen Occupy protesters in the Cleveland area. Now the Occupy movement is trying to distance themselves from Hayne and the perception of violence. Don't be fooled though!


The Occupy movement is grounded in socialism and in violence. Occupy Cleveland spokesman, Joseph Zitt, says that the group of men arrested don't reflect the non-violent philosophy movement and have been removed from the group. “These people participated in aspects of the movement, but once we discovered what was going on we decided they could not be part of it,” Zitt said. “I wish we had learned earlier.”


As with just about any other aspect of life we need to look at what people are doing as opposed to what they are saying. Actions always, always speak louder than words. The video above is from an Occupy the Occupy Los Angeles camp. You tell me, do the words, " the bourgeoisie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class. Long live revolution! Long live socialism!” followed by cheering sound like a non-violent group to you?

Don't Think We Take The Bible For Granted? Watch This Video!

In a culture where we leave Bibles laying around in our cars from Sunday to Sunday, on coffee tables or stuck on bookshelves its very easy to take the Word of God for granted. However, what if we didn't have the Bible in our own language? How would our attention to the detail of God's Word be then?

A friend of mine sent me this video. Its of the day that the Kimyal Tribe of Papua, Indonesia received the Bible, written in their language, for the very first time. I'm amazed at how much they celebrated the arrival of the Bible and the amount of emotion that was shown once it was received. Its certainly something that we can learn from because to these people the Word of God has legitimate value. I'm willing to bet that you won't find one just laying around on a shelf among this tribe.

How about we learn something from our brothers and sisters here and start celebrating the Word of God!

Did Abraham Believe In The Resurrection Power Of God When He Offered Isaac?

We just celebrated Easter weekend and the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. It’s the ability of God to raise Jesus from the dead that should give every Christian believer the confidence of knowing that there is no circumstance in life that we cannot overcome through the power of Christ who lives in us. However, in a follow-up to my sermon from Easter Sunday we discover that believing in the resurrection power of God is not limited to the New Testament.

In Genesis chapter 22 God asks Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him in the region of Moriah. Keep in mind that Isaac was the promised child of the covenant who the Lord had said would use to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. There’s no doubt that Isaac meant the world to Abraham because in addition to being the fulfillment of God’s promise he was Abraham and Sarah’s only child.

So why would God ask for Isaac to be sacrificed? The brief moral of the story is that God was testing Abraham to see if Isaac had replaced the Lord’s spot in Abraham’s life and whether Abraham still looked at Isaac as God’s blessed child or as his own child. If you’re familiar with the story then you know that the Lord ultimately sent a substitute sacrifice for Isaac once he saw Abraham’s willingness to be obedient. God then reiterated his promise to Abraham in regards to the covenant. However, what did Abraham believe was going to happen if he had truly sacrificed Isaac?

Part of the answer is found in verse five. There he tells his servants to stay with the animals while he and Isaac go up to worship. The he says specifically that “we will come back to you.” There was no doubt in Abraham’s mind that he was returning with Isaac. He was fully committed to living out God’s covenant in his life and was devoted in following the Lord’s direction even when it wasn’t crystal clear and extremely difficult. God’s promise meant so much that he actually would have sacrificed his own son for the sake of obedience to the Lord.

Today we look at that story and are tempted to comment on how sick and twisted it is that Abraham would have actually slain his child in the presence of Jehovah. In doing so we fail to see that the focus of the story isn’t on Isaac at all but rather Abraham’s heart. The fulfillment of God’s promise wasn’t based on Isaac’s health or life. It was based solely on God’s power and Abraham was confident in that power, so much so that the author of Hebrews tells us in 11:19 that Abraham believed that God would have risen Isaac from the dead had he been sacrificed. Now that’s faith!

You and I also have a promise that we can stake our lives on. Jeremiah 29:11 (what I’m preaching on this Sunday) tells us that God has a plan for our lives that is to prosper us and not to harm us. God’s plan is to give us hope and a future. Seek to live out God’s plan for you and be willing to sacrifice all at the altar of God knowing that His resurrection power can restore and rebuild broken, hearts, dreams and lives as well as supply all that we need for prosperity within his plan. Ho

Melchizedek - Could He Be Jesus In The Old Testament?

One of the great things that I love about my church is the inquisitiveness of our congregation. In my sermon on April 1st I mentioned that Abram's encounter with Melchizedek in Genesis 14 could have been an encounter with Jesus Christ. In fact, that's actually what I believe and here's why.

In Genesis 14 Melchizedek is described as a "priest of God Most High" but he's also introduced as the king of Salem which is important to note because of the meaning of both his name and the meaning of Salem. Before we go there let's look back at Genesis 14 real quick. It says that he is a priest and that Abraham gave him a tithe of ten percent. This is long before the tribe of Levi and eventually the priestly order that came through it. At this point in history there is no Levitical Law to tell people to tithe. Melchizedek surpasses all of that!

While that's not enough evidence on its own to indicate that Melchizedek is an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament so consider this. In Psalm 110 David is clearly speaking of the Messiah when he says, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." Did you catch that? Genesis describes Melchizedek as a priest of God Most High and then David says that Jesus is a priest forever!

Now, consider this. To my knowledge the only other place in the Bible to talk about Melchizedek is the book of Hebrews. In chapter seven we are told that the name Melchizedek actually means King of Righteousness and that king of Salem means King of Peace. There is no other King of Righteousness or King of Peace above Jesus Christ. He is the King of Kings!

Then the author of Hebrews goes on to say that Melchizedek is without origin. No beginning or end, no mother or father and without beginning of life or end of days. He then goes on to say that he is a priest forever (the exact same phrase David attributes to Jesus) resembling the Son of God.

How could Melchizedek be anyone other than Jesus?

Memos From The Mission Field - According To Plan?

The first rule of mission trips that we try to teach people is that nothing...absolutely nothing...goes according to plan. You can have the best laid out plans in the history of mission trips but I promise they will change once you actually get on the ground. That's what happened to us on Friday.

We met up with a friend of mine named Tim for breakfast around 7:15 in the morning. Tim is a resident of Panama where he and his family serve as missionaries. He will soon have a new job title of connecting local churches in the states to local churches in Panama. For that reason I invited him to travel to David with us in order to meet some

of the contacts that I knew there.

Our short, one-hour, flight to David left at 9:30 and we were ready to hit the ground running. The plan was to meet Pastor Ricardo, who is a local pastor and is heavily involved in mission projects, upon arrival and start exploring ministry options. That was the plan...

When we were met at the church by Jim (a North American who lives in Panama) we were informed that Ricardo was ill and wouldn't be able to be with us for the afternoon. So much for the plan, right? Well actually that's wrong. On the mission field plans don't completely fall apart...they just change. We were ready to adapt and move on.

One of the things that we needed to do while in David was to find a tour option for our mission team to enjoy on their day off. After grabbing a homemade lunch we were off to the Pacific to check out some beach options. There's a great beach resort close to David named Las Olas but unfortunately they didn't have enough rooms available for our day off for our group...but that didn't stop us from enjoying the beauty of the beach.

After striking out at the beach we decided to head to the Panama/Costa Rica boarder to see if there were any options there for a group to enjoy on a day off. Unfortunately we struck out again. While it was pretty cool crossing the boarder into Costa Rica there was absolutely nothing a mission team could do in that area on their day off.

We may have failed in our quest to find a tour activity but we got to enjoy some of the most beautiful scenery on the face of the planet in doing so. We talk a lot about how big God is with the understanding that there's nothing we can encounter that's bigger than Him. Exploring His creation and seeing the vastness of it goes a long way towards advancing that understanding.

The day ended with us attending a Friday night Bible study at the local church we're working in partnership with. It was an amazing day but there's still a ton of work to get done. Including finding a tour option.

Memos From The Mission Field - Mission Trips Really Aren't Like This

Typically when it comes to traveling I enjoy being in different places but I really don't enjoy the process of getting there. That has changed a little bit for me on my last two trips to Panama.

Flying on a plane can be a bit exciting if its your first or second time but after a while the adrenalin rush of speed and high altitudes gets replaced with the burdens of cramped seating, crying babies and anxiety to arrive at our destination.

Last November when I was leading a team from the Capital Baptist Association the airlines had a mix up on our plane tickets by overbooking the flight. The end result was a majority of our group being bumped to first class on our flight from Orlando to Panama City.

Now, fast forward to this trip. We are on a scouting trip in which we are exploring ministry opportunities for a group we are bringing in March. There are just two of us traveling this time and a great friend of ours from church got ahold of our flight information and upgraded our tickets to first class. So here I am again arriving to Panama in front of the plane and once again the process of getting there has become fun.

We arrived in Panama City around 2:00 local time and met up with one of our missionaries named Dave. Dave took us to his house for a little while where we enjoyed some iced tea and caught up on how our families have been since we last visited a few months ago.

After visiting for a little while we were off to our hotel to check in and then to dinner. We actually chose a Lebanese restaurant which I found amusing because we were in Panama. Over dinner Dave and his wife Nancy shared with us some of the amazing things God has been doing through their ministry.

As I settled in for bed that night I couldn't help but think over the day and how much I had enjoyed it. I got to fly first class with a good friend I've had since college. Got to visit with another longtime friend at his home and over dinner and I was settled into a comfortable bed in Panama City. The final thought I had was that if all mission trips were like this then I bet a whole lot more people would come. Fortunately they are not like this.

I say fortunately because comfort is the thing that keeps us off the mission field the most. We're not too keen on giving up our lavish lifestyles to be uncomfortable serving Christ to people who live in a completely different culture.

You could very well be screaming, "Wait a minute! Who are you calling lavish?" Well...its you. I'm saying that you live a lavish lifestyle. Even if you're on the complete opposite end of the tax bracket from the multimillionaires that you consider to be lavish you are still so far ahead of the people we're about to encounter and compared to them you've got it made.

We put so many things in the way of fulfilling the Great Commission and reaching out to make disciples in "all the world." The excuses of family, finances and culture among other things all become excuses we offer to God when we are asked to instead pick up our crosses and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23).

The question we must all ask is, are we willing to sacrifice family time, finances and embrace another culture to advance the cause of Christ? Mission trips aren't about first class, nice meals with friends and comfy hotel beds. Its about being willing to abandon comfort zones to answer the call of Jesus to go and make disciples. That's what we'd be doing and over the next 60 hours our hearts would become broken and our world views completely shaken to the core.