Video glimpse of Pastor Training & Gospel Proclamation in Romania & Albania.
Christmas Song 2022 Brenda (Stan)
Recent special Christmas song from Brenda about why Christ was born.
Good Friday Message
Message delivered in home Hawaiian Islands offering hope in the cross of Christ.
"From the Uttermost"
Jesus commanded to take the gospel to the uttermost. We continue the effort in the other direction!
Solid Foundation
How do you keep your head when everybody else is losing theirs? Excellent question. Sooner or later, life presents a crisis bigger than you, and me. Then what? How do you cope?
Said scenario is being played out before our very eyes, as I compose this article. Our world is on full-alert, and some in full panic, over the spread of Coronavirus. —Been to Costco lately?
This is not the first crisis in history: it won’t be the last. (Spoiler alert: Christians already know how the world ends.)
When, not if, you face a genuine emergency, calamity, or plain old bully, you have three options.
- Defiance: best captured from the contemporary novel, Circus of the Damned, by Laurell Hamilton, “I don’t have a master. I’m not sure I have an equal.” It begs the question: Self-assurance grounded in what exactly?…
- Dalliance: whistling past the graveyard. Summed in the popular philosophy, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Granted, said phrase is found in the Bible, but hardly as an endorsement for a guiding rule of life. In fact, quite the opposite.
- Deference: Trust in a source other than yourself. Such may be…
- Government: Let’s hope they know what they’re doing. Can't balance a budget. Medicare is a mess. Honolulu rail boondoggle.
- Society: Just go with popular opinion. I’m not so sure I want to surrender my survival to the herd instinct.
- God: “I distinguish the end from the beginning” (Is 46:10). “The mountains may be removed, and the hills quake: I will not remove my devotion from you” (Is 54:10). “We have this hope as an anchor of the soul” (He 6:19).
I must be honest: said hope requires faith. Faith in One bigger, better, and beyond me. I will testify: it works for me! …You got a better alternative?
(Look closely at photo)
Everyone Believes in Something
Which requires more? To have faith in God or faith in yourself?
Skeptics, cynics, and unbelievers are everywhere: I know some and love others. The explanation for their rejection of a Supreme Being seems to fall into one of three categories: Rational, Emotional, or Spiritual.
- Rational: Some particular intellectual objection has convinced the denier of the unlikely possibility that God exists. (Notice my words “unlikely possibility”. It is impossible to know conclusively that no eternal being exists. For that would require you to be omniscient {all knowing} and infinite {eternal}. In essence: to be…God!) The most common and understandable hurdle to belief is the existence of evil and suffering (not withstanding that much has been wrought by renowned atheists namely Lenin, Stalin, & Mao). Pain bothers me, too. The Bible does offer an answer that is sufficient, though, not satisfactory.
- Emotional: I have conversed with doubters for whom some past negative encounter, even injustice has soured them toward faith. On occasion, said misdeed may have been at the hands of so-called people of faith. If a professing Christian has acted in a manner genuinely inconsistent with tenants of the Christian faith; shame on them! Repentance is in order. However, when a cynic paints with a broad brush, it sometimes shrouds truth.
- Spiritual: Some reject God simply because they prefer the alternative! The Bible unapologetically calls that sin. I heard a scratchy recording of an old preacher from nearly a century ago. In the vernacular of the day, he repeated the coarse phrase, “They love their sin.” Terse but true. Often, objection is merely a smoke-screen for obstinance. If so; shame on you!
While I do not concur with the scoffer, I do admire the courage of a dissenter to candidly confess the basis for their non-belief. Of course so doing can be a precarious endeavor; as it may be a first ascent toward assent!
Now, back to our original thinker: which requires more? To have faith in God or faith in yourself?
Life Learning
Nature vs. nurture: the age old debate rages. Be it musical talent, criminal activity, or sexual orientation; that timeless equation comes into play. Consider “Learned behavior”, a phrase referenced in the science of Psychology, and observed in the laboratory of life. At the risk of stealing my own thunder, it is likewise a concept occasionally spoken in my sermons over the years. Read on, and see what you think. And, don’t worry, I’m not going to get on any soapbox or take a controversial political stand. That, I save for another time.
Four Learned Behaviors in the arena of character, come to mind:
- Patience. Nobody has to teach you to be impatient. It comes naturally. From infancy we want what we want, and we want it now! Think about this. The only way to learn patience is…..wait for it…. to wait! Scripture references are too numerous to cite. The best I can offer is that patience is listed as one of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. If you are a regenerate believer, the indwelling Holy Spirit is producing patience, and as you cooperate, you are learning it.
- Obedience. Ever notice, you don’t have to tell a child to disobey. They’ll do it on their own. And, if left unchecked, they will repeat and up the ante. One way emerges to embrace obedience: learn it. I stopped counting Bible verses addressing obedience when I hit 100. Apparently, it’s a big deal as far as God is concerned. It certainly was for Jesus. Consider this instructive glimpse into His life from Hebrews 5:8, “…although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.” In our Christian walk, God loves us enough to teach us to obey.
- Compassion. When you see homeless, or a despondent person holding a cardboard sign at a stoplight, what is your first reaction? Is it disdain, skepticism, guilt, or compassion? Each may be grounded in fact and experience. The latter is founded by our higher nature. In Scripture, Jesus was often, “moved with compassion”. Are you?
- Prejudice. This one stings a bit. Watch kids. When they are playing with others of a different race and culture, they either don’t notice, or don’t care. Innocence prevails until some “enlightened” adult comes along and forcefully informs them that they are not to treat “those people” with dignity and respect. Hatred is generally an acquired trait. Capacity to love is innate. (A vestige from the Imago Dei.) Ponder this instructive and inclusive morsel from the Word, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; but all are one in Christ Jesus.” In that verse, you have just read the secret to deflate hate.
We are all learners on this journey of life. Jesus said, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me”. I know of no better teacher.
Holy Land
Video highlights of recent visit and service where it all began. Faith grounded in History!
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