Tag Archives: faith

SERMON: About The Resolution for Men

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As a kid at Mahaffey Camp, I remember a speaker saying something that surprised me. They went something like this:

Now, some of you are going to really encounter Jesus at camp this year. You’ll make commitments that can change your life. Something you should give thought to is the reaction of your parents. When you tell them how your decisions and they say, “Yeah — right. We’ve heard this before. We’ll believe it when  we see it,” how will you respond.

I say this surprised me because, honestly, it never crossed my mind that a parent would be so cynical. And I immediately realized why my parents, in their wisdom, had never done such a thing: It would teach the child to, either, never make a promise again, or never share such a thing with Dad and Mom.

But I see Christians exhibiting this kind of cynicism too frequently.

Recently, men from our church stood before us and took The Resolution — from the movie Courageous:

  • I DO solemnly resolve before God to take full responsibility for myself, my wife, and my children.
  • I WILL love them, protect them, serve them, and teach them the Word of God as the spiritual leader of my home.
  • I WILL be faithful to my wife, to love and honor her, and be willing to lay down my life for her as Jesus Christ did for me.
  • I WILL bless my children and teach them to love God with all of their hearts, all of their minds, and all of their strength.
  • I WILL train them to honor authority and live responsibly.
  • I WILL confront evil, pursue justice, and love mercy.
  • I WILL pray for others and treat them with kindness, respect, and compassion.
  • I WILL work diligently to provide for the needs of my family.
  • I WILL forgive those who have wronged me and reconcile with those I have wronged.
  • I WILL learn from my mistakes, repent of my sins, and walk with integrity as a man answerable to God.
  • I WILL seek to honor God, be faithful to His church, obey His Word, and do His will.
  • I WILL courageously work with the strength God provides to fulfill this resolution for the rest of my life and for His glory.
  • As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. —Joshua 24:15.

I can’t imagine a parent, brother, sister, or even an in-law responding to that in cynicism. On the other hand, I can imagine the enemy, Satan, replying in that manner. But not someone who is living in the Spirit. NEVER.

When you encounter men who have taken such a vow, don’t discourage them. Instead, may I suggest you  do two things:

  1. Pray for these men  — that they will carry out this commitment.
  2. Encourage them, telling them that you believe in the sincerity of their commitment and the power of their God.

A sermon concerning The Resolution is here.

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“Scientists” warn of Solar Flares: The Sky IS Falling!

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A warning concerning upcoming solar flares has been the most popular news item on Yahoo News for two days. That shows that people are really concerned they may not be able to text their sweethearts!  You can find the article here.

Because I had a ninth-grade science class, I know that solar flares have been a part of life throughout the history of humankind. The cycle is eleven to thirteen years, depending on who you read. When they first came to my attention, I was into CB radios and “scientists” were warning us that CBs would be unusable. That didn’t happen. It got noisy, but the problem wasn’t as severe as was advertised.  A dozen years later I was into Amateur Radio, and again, “scientists” warned that the solar flares would cripple the hobby. Didn’t happen. Static? Yes. But not so bad it made it unusable — not even the low-bands.

Once more, “scientists” are alerting us to this terrible natural phenomenon of solar storms. (They changed the name from solar flares to storms — probably for effect.)

Watch the video on the Yahoo! site and try not to laugh when “Scientist Baker” says, regarding the electrical power grid, “It could cause blackouts that could last for…years” and “[I] don’t believe this is a chicken little thing” all in the same breath.

And they wonder why people don’t believe them when they talk Global Warming! (Which — to cover themselves — they have renamed as “Climate Change”).

I expect to see these “scientists,” wearing sack-cloth saying, “Repent!” Meh — skip the sack-cloth, Gore’s been preaching repentance in Armani suits for years.

Don’t get me wrong. I love science. And I respect true students of science. What the media is showing us today is a different kind of scientist — one who seems to have a flair for the dramatic.

Why Theists Persist

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Even though I am not a real Lord of the Rings fan (There’s just too much data there), I love this thought from Tim Keller:

Jesus spoke of his return to earth as the palingenesis. “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things (Greek palingenesis), the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne.” This was a radically new concept. Jesus insisted that his return will be purged of all decay and brokenness. All will be healed and all might-have-beens will be.

Just after the climax of the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandalf was not dead (as he thought) but alive. He cries, “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?” The answer of Christianity to that question is – yes. Everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost.

Embracing the Christian doctrines of the incarnation and Cross brings profound consolation in the face of suffering. The doctrine of the resurrection can instill us with a powerful hope. It promises that we will get the life we most longed for, but it will be an infinitely more glorious world than if there had never been the need for bravery, endurance, sacrifice, or salvation.”

Dostoevsky put it perfectly when he wrote:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

More succinctly, C. S. Lewis wrote:

“They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.”
~Tim Keller in The Reason for God, p. 33

What a great reason to believe.