if you seek you will find…

if JESUS is the only way to GOD what about those who live in isolated places?  good question.  GOD hasn’t told us explicitly the answer but HE has given us enough clues that we can figure it out.  here is something we do know.

everyone has enough information from observing creation to know that GOD exists, but people reject GOD anyway.  romans 1:20-21 (niv), for since the creation of the world GOD’s invisible qualities – HIS eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse…  for although they knew GOD, they neither glorified HIM as GOD nor gave thanks to HIM.  

we have enough information from nature, from creation, to know HIS truth, yet we reject HIM.  that’s why we become separated from HIM. 

but, we also know from the bible that every person who sincerely seeks GOD will find HIM. 

jeremiah 29.13 (niv), you will seek ME and you will find ME when you seek ME with all of your heart.  the bible says it is the HOLY SPIRIT who first seeks us, making it possible for us in the first place to seek GOD. 

what does all of this mean?  what it means is that people anywhere in the world who respond to the understanding that they have and who earnestly seek after the one true GOD are going to find an opportunity in some way to receive the eternal life that GOD has graciously provided to JESUS CHRIST in HIM alone.                 

i read of a guy who grew up in india and he was in a hindu area where there were no CHRISTians.  he was mentored by gurus his whole life.  he was from an upper caste in india.  as he got to be a teenager he began to realized, just as ghandi realized, there are so many contradictions within hinduism.  ghandi actually wanted to edit out part of the hindu scriptures because he didn’t like the way they contradict each other.  this is what this kid thought.  he got to be about seventeen and said, “how can i believe that hinduism is true when it tells me things that contradict each other?”  so he began to reach out.  “i want to know YOU.  if YOU are there, i want to know the one true GOD.”  and in an amazing set of circumstances GOD brought into his life some CHRISTians who shared with him the message of JESUS CHRIST.  he received CHRIST as his forgiver and leader and he is now a very strong CHRISTian to this day.  this happens over and over again.

just a thought from the front porch…

who we are is because of WHO made us…

how exactly did GOD create man? how did HE do it?

well GOD took some dust and out of the dust of the ground HE formed a man. then later GOD takes a rib out of man, and out of man’s rib HE forms eve, a woman. if that were the whole story, it wouldn’t be enough. the real story is what happens after HE forms man out of the dust.

when the bible says there in verse 7 of genesis chapter 2 (niv), HE breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, the word breath is the same exact word in the hebrew language as the word “SPIRIT”.  HE breathed HIS SPIRIT into our lives. and man became a living being.

the most significant thing about us is not what we’re made of. it’s who breathed life into us. now they have somehow figured out the chemicals that are in our body and how much we’re actually worth if we reduced those chemicals and sold them down at the pharmacy. you’re really worth $4.95 – as if i needed that today!

but the truth of the matter is science has been trying for years to create an artificial intelligence that can do something as simple as walk. it’s something a baby can do at one or two or three. they spend billions and billions of dollars on this. but GOD made it and we just start doing it. it’s an incredible thing that GOD has made. you’re not worth five bucks. you’re invaluable. GOD created us in HIS image, in a perfect way.

the man who carved out mt. rushmore, his first commission for the united states was to do a statue of abraham lincoln for the capital. as he was working on the statue, a little girl walked by and said, “i think that’s abraham lincoln.” he said, “yes, it is.” then she said, “how did you know he was in there?”

the greatest truth about us is the fact that you and i are who we are because of WHO made us. it’s HIS creative power that makes you and i who we are. it’s HIS creative power that gives us the hope that we need.

just a thought from the front porch…

male and female…

genesis 1.27 (niv), so GOD created man in HIS own image, in the image of GOD HE created him male and female HE created them. each time in genesis when it says, GOD created man in HIS image, after each time it says, male and female HE created them. four times it says that in genesis. that’s true throughout the bible too. why is this emphasized?

well, GOD wanted to make sure that down through the ages no one would ever rise up and say, “GOD created men in HIS image but it doesn’t say ‘women’ in here, so women must not have been created in his image.” HE wanted to make sure that in no society women would ever say, “GOD created women in HIS image because obviously they are much more SPIRITual than men. anybody could tell that!” GOD wanted to make sure that we all knew that both men and women were created in HIS image.

but there’s more to it than that. it doesn’t just say HE created a man and a woman. it says, “male and female, HE created them.”

the words that are used had to do with our sexuality, the way that GOD made us. in our society, when i say the word “sexuality” what do most people think? sex. that’s only one-third of the word “sexuality”. it’s only a part of the story. but because we have so focused in on just the physical aspect we’ve forgotten what it means to be created in GOD’s image. you and i as believers know that’s not right. we know that the way the world is acting isn’t right but what do we do? sometimes we make a bad choice, and some of you have. we make the choice to repress our sexuality because we know that the world is wrong. but that’s just as wrong. there’s a better answer.

instead of repressing our sexuality, we rejoice in our differences. “male and female, he created them.” this is saying that my distinctives as a man or a woman reflect GOD’S image. “male and female HE created them.”

listen, GOD has shown HIMself to us as a male image. HE’s GOD our FATHER, not mother. JESUS came to this world as a man. HE’s shown HIMself to us as a male image but is GOD our FATHER in heaven a man like i am, with a body of a male like i have? no. HE’s a SPIRIT. especially for you women, don’t let anybody say you can’t reflect GOD’s image because HE shows himself to us as a father. you can reflect GOD’s image just as much as i can.

we talk in psychology about the masculine and feminine side. in our terms, what i'm saying is GOD has a perfect masculine side and a perfect feminine side. HE is the perfect, perfect person. HE’s got the perfect personality. and HE can complete any one of us and make us into anything that HE wants us to be.

now recognizing GOD’s image in us helps us to fulfill our sexuality. it helps me to fulfill what it means for me to be a man or a woman, created in GOD’s image. this is an incredibly important truth in genesis and one that many of you need because of hurts that have come into your life, because of abuse that’s been heaped on your life, because of wrong choices you may have made in your life, because of what comes into our lives everyday from our society. it’s what many of you need at the core of your being. our sexuality is all tied up with our identity and if you don’t realize that my sexuality is also created in GOD’s image, that’s an important of me. if i can’t recognize that part of me is also created in GOD’s image to reflect GOD’s glory, i'm leaving out a big part of my life.

just a thought from the front porch…

how are we like GOD?...

how are we created in GOD’s image? what does it mean when the bible says we’re created in GOD’s image, GOD’s likeness?

some brand-new believers think that means that GOD must look like we do. that must mean HE has a body, legs, a photocopy of GOD, a fax of what GOD looks like. it’s not talking about that. JESUS told us very clearly in john 4, GOD is a spirit and those who worship HIM worship him in spirit and in truth.

but we’re created in GOD’s image SPIRITually. so what does that mean? well we’re created in GOD’s image because of our personality.

the way that we’re made – our mind and our will and our emotions are all a part of our personality. my mind and the way that i think. we think in different ways – we’re different people – but we think as human beings. we have a personality that thinks. we have a will. we decide. that's part of our personality. we have emotions. we feel.

GOD thinks, GOD decides, GOD feels.

animals don’t think. not like we do. they have instincts, but they don’t think. i know sometimes you look at your dog and you wonder if that dog thinks. but your dog never sits there and looks at you and wonders if you’re thinking. we’re different. GOD’s made us differently. because of that we have a personality. insects don’t decide; they have instincts. plants don’t have feelings. if they did the ones in some of your offices would feel very hurt right now because you haven’t watered them recently. in fact they’re dead – they wouldn’t have any feelings!

we’ve got a personality – an ability to think, an ability to feel, an ability to decide about life. that’s a part of what it means to be created in GOD’s image. i need to take that personality – the way i think, the way i feel, the way i decide – and use it to reflect GOD’s choices and GOD’s heart and GOD’s thoughts. when i do that i'm living out what it means to be created in GOD’s image.

just a thought from the front porch…

we are at the center of it all…

GOD rested on the seventh day because HE had a plan for your life and my life.

hebrews 4.9-11 (niv), there remains then a sabbath rest for the people of GOD. [this is one of those deep truths of the bible that we don’t come across often enough.] for anyone who enters into GOD’s rest also rests from his own work just as GOD did from his. let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest.

listen as long as i'm depending upon my work, the things that i do to get me to heaven, there’s no way i'm going to make it. i can work as hard as i want, there’s no way. but when i rest from my work and i enter into GOD’s rest – faith in JESUS CHRIST – guess what? that’s the key! that’s what brings me to HIM. so the sabbath day was also a picture of what JESUS CHRIST was going to do for us not only now but through all eternity. that’s why GOD rested.

the truths of the first chapter of genesis are ultimate but they’re also personal, they’re also individual.

now we also see that you and i are at the center of the entire creative process.

someone might say, “isn’t that prideful to say that we are at the center?” we’ve got people saying we live in the milky way galaxy out on some far corner in fact, most of the universe probably doesn’t even know about us. that’s a bad image of who we really are in GOD’s sight.

but when you look at genesis 1 and 2 it’s not prideful to say we’re at the center of creation. it’s biblical. if you look real closely at the bible you’ll find that nothing else in creation so much reflects GOD’s glory as you and i, so much affects GOD’s creation as you and i. that’s how important we are in creation.

just a thought from the front porch…

HE rested as an example for us to follow...

GOD rested on the seventh to give us an example to follow.

you and i need rest. we were built that way. if we don’t rest, we’ll break down. GOD says in exodus 20.9-11 (ncv), work and get everything done during six days each week. but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the LORD your GOD. the reason is that in six days GOD made everything. the sky, the earth, the sea and everything in them. on the seventh day HE rested.

i would suspect not many of us are resting one day out of the seven. and that’s one of the things that is stealing joy, stealing purpose in our lives.

how you rest is between you and the LORD. but you and i need rest. we need rest physically, we need rest emotionally, we need rest SPIRITually where we recharge. for most of us that day of rest is going to be the day of worship. that’s the best day because you’re already at church, already focusing on the LORD.

the key is in our hectic life that we live, we need to rest. GOD rested as an example to us.

just a thought from the front porch…

why did HE stop working?...

genesis 2.2-3 (niv), by the seventh day GOD had finished the work HE had been doing; so on the seventh day HE rested from all his work. and GOD blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it HE rested from all the work of creating that HE had done.

so why did GOD rest on the seventh day? did HE have to rest? was HE tired? no, GOD doesn’t get tired. HE wasn’t tired but HE rested.

for one HE rested because HE was finished. hebrews 4.3 (ncv), GOD’s word was finished when HE made the world.

you and i, GOD’s creation, are not works in progress. this universe is a finished work of creation marred by the presence of sin. but it’s finished and it would have been perfect if sin hadn’t come in.

does that fact create a difference in the way we look at his world?

yes. you and i, HIS creation, are not like a framed house that needs someone to come in who has the intelligence to finish it. we’re like a beautiful mansion with some need of some restoration.

so when we look at what GOD made, when we look at ourselves, we think, “maybe it will get better someday.” the truth is, it already was better. GOD made it perfect. do you want purpose? don’t try to do better, building out of the materials of your own life. that’s a dead end. it might work for a few weeks, a few months, maybe even a few years. but it’s a dead end. because you and i don’t have the materials to build true, lasting purpose. if you want purpose, ask for GOD’s restoring love to be set free in your life. there’s something really freeing about that when you recognize it’s not all up to me. GOD wants to restore me to the person HE wants me to be.

just a thought from the front porch…

everything that HE made is good…

an exciting truth here in genesis chapter one is that GOD was joyful at the end of each day of creation.

the words it was good, genesis 1.4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 (nkjv), impacts our purpose in powerful ways still today. when GOD looks at HIS creation and says, “good!” that means something. that means material things aren’t evil in and of themselves.

there’s some people that believe that way. just because it’s material, because it’s money, because it’s a house, because it’s a car, because it’s a church building, or just because it’s a human body, just because it’s material it has to be evil. that powerfully impacts you and your purpose.

if you believed that deep down, you end up one of two ways. you end up as a puritan or a playboy. if you think everything around you is evil, you think, “i can’t touch anything because it’s all evil. i’ve got to become a monk and go up in the mountains somewhere. i’ve got to get away from everything.” or you think, “i'm living in an evil world. i'm already corrupted. so why not? i may as well go and do everything i want to do.”

but if i begin to see that everything GOD made is good and useful for his purposes, instead of saying, “i want to stay away from these things,” we start to think, i want to use these things for the good that HE created them for. has evil come into this world? yes. are there evil things in this world? yes. but everything that GOD created is good and i want to use it for HIS glory.

another truth is, GOD rejoices in what HE made. HE gets to the end of each day and takes a minute to step back and look at what HIS word created. HE rejoices in what HE made.

i know some believers who feel they can’t enjoy anything until they get to heaven. they go around with a spiritual frown on their face and don’t enjoy anything. listen, don’t wait until you get to heaven. start practicing now telling GOD how grateful you are, and telling GOD what good things HE’s done in your life.

just a thought from the front porch…

an expression of the creative mind of GOD…

it’s interesting to me as you look through the first chapter of genesis how exciting the truths are. how simple but exciting.

for one GOD’s word started each and every day. genesis 1.3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26 (niv). …. and GOD said. that’s how each day started.

it’s one of the most striking things in the first chapter of genesis. is this a poetic way of saying through some unknown process that GOD set the wheels in motion and eventually certain things would come out of that process? no. GOD spoke and things existed. that’s the power of GOD. that’s the creativity of GOD. if you miss that you miss the essential truth in the book of genesis. GOD said it and it happened.

everything was created out of nothing. that’s hard for me to envision. for me, creativity is trying to rearrange something. we take a lump of clay and rearrange it into a pot but the clay was already there. we rearranged something. for GOD, creativity is speaking something into existence. it wasn’t there. nothing was there and then it was there.

everything you see in creation is an expression of the creative mind of GOD. it’s not just wonderful science. it’s not just an interesting fact. it’s an expression to you and i of the creative mind and power of GOD.

imagine GOD says, “land” and there’s land! GOD says, “water, ocean” and they’re there, separated from the land. GOD says, “tiger,” and there’s a tiger. it’s incredible. GOD spoke a word “whale”, “flower”, “rose”, “red”, “yellow” and they came into existence. everything’s an expression of the creative mind of GOD and everything is an example of the supernatural power of GOD.

is what i'm talking about scientifically impossible? to speak and it exists? yes, it is! but it’s supernaturally powerful. science studies how creation works and does a pretty good job of it a lot of times. but it does not follow that a study of how things work right now will always tell you how it came into existence.

if i held up an orange in front of you and you’d never seen an orange tree and said, “what does this grow on?” would you know? you could guess – a tree, a bush. if i asked you what okra grew on, would you know? an okra tree? an okra vine? what do they grow on? (they’re actually a little plant.)

we live in a scientific age. there’s a lot of benefits to our scientific age. but don’t let anyone, anything, steal from you the awe that you and i need to have in GOD’s creation. it is sad when we become so sophisticated that we can’t say, “wow! look at what GOD’s done!”


just a thought from the front porch…

is the bible reliable or just poetic?…

would you agree that the way that you read the first page of a book determines how you’re going to read the rest of the book? if you open a book and the first page says, “three cups salt,” you’re going to think, “cookbook.” if you open a book and the first page is humorous you start to think this is a funny book. if you open a book and the first page has all kinds of equations, you close the book immediately! right? the first page determines how you read the book.

when somebody comes to me and, because of a scientific theory, says, “you can’t trust the first page of this book, the bible. i know it says GOD said it and it happened but that’s not really what happened. that’s just poetic,” do you think that’s going to affect the way they read the rest of the book? he’ll start to think maybe everything is sort of poetic, maybe it says GOD said that but it doesn’t really mean that. it’s an incredibly important battle.

the fact is, in the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth. genesis 1.1 (niv). that fact is a foundation in our lives. it’s the foundation of purpose. a personal creator, personally made the heavens and the earth, personally made me and HE has a personal plan for my life. if HE didn’t create me personally, how could HE plan for my life personally?

henry morris said this, “if the bible’s truths about creation are not acceptable to the modern mind, then there’s no reason to think that the biblical commandments are applicable to modern morality or that the biblical truths about the future are meaningful in planning for your future.” it’s a battle for how we’re going to read this book and the importance of it. that’s why this is so important. that’s why you hear people talking about it.

CHRISTianity has science on its side too. there are creation scientists who said, “we’re not dumb as believers. we don’t say just have faith and ignore the facts. there are facts on our side too. but it comes in the fact that GOD created the heavens and the earth.” it’s such a simple truth but it’s under attack in our society. this simple truth that is the foundation for my purpose is under attack all the time. GOD created everything i see. GOD created me. and that’s a core truth, a purpose, in the book of genesis.

just a thought from the front porch…

a real battle for what i believe...

we all intuitively know (and even those who are not CHRISTians, who are on the other side of the issue of creation, know) that we’re not just talking about science facts. we’re talking about our view of ourselves and our view of this world.

g. richard bozar said in american atheist magazine, “CHRISTianity has fought and still fights and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason JESUS’ life was supposedly made necessary. destroy adam and eve and original sin and in the rubble you find the sorry remains of the SON of GOD. if JESUS was not the REDEEMER that died for our sins and this is what evolution means [this is not a CHRISTian talking but an atheistic scientist but he sees the truth.] then CHRISTianity is nothing.”

it’s more than just a discussion about what happened. there’s a real battle for what i believe. they are competing philosophies. if evolution and creation are not competing philosophies, why is it that when CHRISTians have a fish on their car there are people who decide to put a “darwin” on their car? it’s a little fish with amphibian legs that says “darwin”. it’s saying they’re two different philosophies of life.

JESUS is alive and darwin was a man who had a theory who is dead. it’s a theory that depersonalizes GOD.

now when we’re talking to unbelievers they might think, “when you talk about sin and stuff like that, you’ve got me. i know that’s true. but when you talk about genesis, i’ve got you! genesis doesn’t make sense.

we know that evolution is a scientific fact.” no, it’s not. it’s not provable and it has to be provable again and again to be a scientific fact. it’s a scientific theory.

a scientific theory can be influenced by fact but it can also be influenced by my philosophy. scientists are just people too. if i’ve got a philosophy that GOD’s not real, that says i don’t want to believe in a GOD, that philosophy is going to dramatically impact this theory. when you and i talk about this with our kids, when we see what’s happening in schools and share about this, we need to realize the difference between those things.

i encourage you to fight for this truth but not to make it a battleground with people. make it a battle for the truth. far too many times people turn this into a point of argument with an unbeliever or even an argument with a new believer rather than a point of truth. some of you love to argue but instead of arguing why not just tell the truth. we need to stand for this very important truth.

just a thought from the front porch…

but HE did it…

genesis 1.1 (niv), seems like such a simple verse, in the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth, but if this verse were a battlefield, there would be many monuments and many graves erected on this one verse.

there’s a big deal, a big controversy around this one verse. creation and evolution: who did it? when was it done? how was it done? – incredible questions, incredible battles fought over this one verse. a lot of times we’re in the trenches with this battle, lobbying scientific truths and what’s important. so why this is so important. why is this important to believers?

for one because of the importance of a personal GOD.

forget all the science, all the arguments. the biggest problem of the theory of evolution is that it depersonalizes GOD. it makes GOD step back from his creation that HE set in motion by a series of events that eventually led to you being created and animals being created – life being created. that’s very different then in the beginning GOD spoke and this happened. GOD spoke and we existed. GOD spoke and plants existed. see how different that is?

even science has struggled with the theory of evolution because they realize that it’s just theory. what i want to say to you and what we need to teach to our kids is don’t let an unproven theory keep you from seeing the hand of a personal GOD at work in creation, at work in my life, at work in your life. that’s why this is a battleground. that’s why this is so important because HE is a personal GOD.

austin clark in the quarterly review of biology said this “as far as it concerns the major groups of animals, the creationists seem to have the better argument. there’s not the slightest evidence that any of the major groups ever arose from any other.” he’s one of many scientists that believe evolution is a theory that people are still working on. it’s still developing. they’re still trying to figure it out.

have you noticed that the more the theory of evolution develops, the closer it seems to be getting in some camps to what the bible actually says? what’s the big bang theory all about anyway? it happened all of a sudden. it happened all at once. there’s a lot of explanations for that that are scientific. but when it comes down to it, you and i believe it happened all at once. but it wasn’t energy, it was the word – GOD’s word immediately spoken.

just a thought from the front porch…

GOD uses nature to teach us…

genesis 1.1 (niv), in the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth.

nature and revelation – both are useful when it comes to learning what GOD wants us to do. and nature and revelation are not contradictory; they’re complementary. they complete each other in a lot of ways. they’re not two separate sources.

the same GOD made both of them. HE built into what HE made examples to teach us. GOD wanted to teach us the value of working hard. there’s several proverbs about that. so HE made an ant, the tinniest little thing you can see and look what an ant can accomplish if it works hard –back and forth, back and forth. they never get tired. and they’re there the next day. there’s something about that that teaches us the value of industriousness.

GOD knew that someday HE would want to teach us about dependence, about what it means to depend on GOD. so HE made a sheep. HE knew HE was going to use the sheep HE was creating to teach you and i about depending on HIM. the sheep is totally dependant and it’s pretty dumb. HE uses the sheep to teach people how they need to depend on HIM. i’ve got to believe that when GOD made the sheep HE had to laugh. can’t you just see the joy in HIS heart when HE realized it would be perfect? HE made it so when it falls over it can’t get up without help. it will be a perfect object lesson to them about who HE is.

one of the greatest expressions though to us about who GOD is, is light. have you ever seen a lunar eclipse, where the light is cut off? couldn’t GOD have made the heavens and the earth so there would never be an eclipse? yes, HE could have made it that way but HE didn’t. why?

when you see the light cut off it fascinates people. what an object lesson to us of the fact that we need GOD’s light in our lives. what an object lesson that sometimes the earth (in a lunar eclipse) comes between the source of light and the reflected light. sometimes we let that happen, we let earthly things come between the source of light, GOD, and the reflected light that HE wants to shine in our lives through JESUS CHRIST. it’s built into creation. HE built into creation examples to us of who HE is and what HE wants to do.

just a thought from the front porch…