The King of Pop Now With the King of Kings?

According to an article on Christianity Today's blog, there is some speculation that Michael Jackson may have become a Christian shortly before his death. Apparently, Jackson met with Gospel singer Andrae Crouch and his sister, Sandra, who also happens to be a minister. There was some discussion about Jesus and the annointing of the Holy Spirit. They did pray together as well.

Jackson was raised in a Jehovah's Witness home and was forbidden to celebrate Christmas. When the Crouch's visited with Michael this month, there were still Christmas decorations in his home. As my good friend Mark Jarvis always says, "Every day is Christmas when you celebrate Jesus!"

With so much speculation surrounding Michael Jackson's death, it is important to consider his eternal life. With so much stardom, money, popularity and worldly success, none of it matters now. Where he is right now depends on the authenticity of his search for Christ and the annointing of the Holy Spirit. We can't know for sure, but we can hope that the King of Pop is now dancing on the streets of gold for the King of Kings.

Conditional God

The Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give a tenth." Genesis 28:20-22 NIV

In this vow, Jacob is clearly making his promise of worship conditional on the receipt of blessings from God. I wonder how many times we do this to God.

"Okay, Lord, if you give me this job/promotion, then I'll give you a tenth of all that you give me."

"Lord, if you give me this relationship, then I'll share the Gospel with this person."

"God, if you make this problem go away, I'll worship you above everything else."

Regardless of the material blessings we can see in our lives, God is still God and is on the throne. He loves us in spite of who we are and how we act. Our worship of who He is shouldn't be conditional on what we can see or touch or what we think He should do for us.

The Lord is My Shepherd

This weekend we're kicking off a series entitled "God's Antidote to Stress". Using Psalm 23 as the primary text, we'll take a look at God's prescription to overcoming the strongholds of worry, hurt and bitterness, and discouragement.

Scripture tells us that the Lord is our shepherd. As our shepherd, the Lord acts as our provider, our protector, our guide and as the One who corrects.

He is also our host and our friend - the One who invites us to celebrate life with Him. In this celebration, He blesses and honors us as His special guest. He extends an invitation to spend the rest of our days with Him, in His presence, in His home.

Do Not Be Afraid

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you." Genesis 26:24 NIV

Over and over again, we see examples of the Lord telling His people, "Don't be afraid." He said it Abraham (Gen 15:1), to Hagar (Gen 21:17), to Isaac (Gen 26:24), to Jacob (46:3) and to the Jews through Moses (Exodus 14:13 and 20:20). It obviously seems like we have a shortterm memory when it comes to the providence and blessings of God.

I see fear being a result of two different things in our lives. First, we allow the boundaries of our responsibility to swell inappropriately. We get wrapped up in what we're doing and how we're doing it, and then we begin to believe we're responsible for more than we really are. We've removed God from the throne and put ourselves in His place.

Another reason we get distracted by fear is a lack of focus on what God's plan is: why He put us in the place we're in right now and where He's going to take us. Ultimately, where God is taking us - the destination - is what we can fear most. How are we going to get there? What's it going to be like? It's the circumstantial uncertainty that makes us uncomfortable. As Mark Batterson writes in Wild Goose Chase, "circumstantial uncertainty is also known by another name: adventure!"

Just as God reminded Joshua, He reminds us to "keep it simple stupid." Be strong and courageous in the midst of our adventures with Him. How do we do that? Simple. Our only responsibility is to merely stay focused on God's Word and, then, walk in obedience to it. That's right! We don't have to have all the answers to every question. It's not up to us to fix all the problems. That's God's department. When we realize our resposibility in life is simply staying focused on our own choices and making those choices based on God's Holy Word, life becomes much less complicated and much less fearful.

Respond

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 NIV

In the last several months, this verse continues to pop up in conversation or study at least once a week. This morning in my quiet time, it came up again - this time in the context of response.

In science, we learn about response. For every stimulus, we offer a response. In physics, we learn that Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In Christianity, response is also important. John's statement about why we love indicates that a response is necessary in our lives. Our lives, in fact, should be a response to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, our faith should always be an outward manifestation of what God has already done on the inside of our lives.

What's my response through my willingness to forgive?

What's my response through my willingness to be generous with my time, energy and money?

What's my response through the amount of time I spend alone with God every morning?

God is looking for us to respond in every area of our life. As the day goes on today, consider your response to each and every situation. Hold your response to the light of Jesus and allow God to shape and mold the way you respond to people and situations in your life.

Catching Up

After being sick most of last week, I'm trying to move the piles off of my desk. I'm making significant progress, so I hope to offer something of more substance later today. Keep checking back!

Turning Things Around

I gotta tell you, the last couple of weeks have been two of the hardest weeks the Dameron clan has experienced. Every time we turned around there was just something new popping up. Sickness, something breaking, some kind of bad news, ... something. After spending most of last week on my back either in bed or on the couch getting almost nothing done because of some strange strain of feverish infection (I ended up on both antibacterials and antivirals), I was really praying that this week would be better.

When Abby Rae has her "quiet time" every day she listens to her clock radio/CD Player. As any 7 year-old does, she has her favorite songs and bands now. Her favorite is the Newsboys, and her favorite song is Million Pieces. Whenever we drive down the road, listening to WPER, and the Newsboys come on, I can hear her singing along.

So a few weeks ago, when we heard (rather, when Abby Rae heard) that KingsFest is coming to Kings Dominion and Newsboys are headlining the show, she's done nothing but talk about how much fun it would be to go and how we need to listen for the song of the day on PER since they were giving away tickets and a grand prize family package.

On Thursday, the song of the day was, none other than, Million Pieces. Carrie called and won a free day's pass for Friday's show but was also entered into a drawing for the grand prize: family 4-pack of tickets to all the shows and the Park plus hotel accomodations. The grand prize winners would be declared this morning at 7:21am.

As I came in from feeding the dog, Carrie and the girls were sitting expectantly on our bed listening to the radio for the announcement. Just about that time, our phone rang, and guess what... It was PER giving us one of the grand prizes!

Gotta say... I feel like this week's gonna be a better week. Thanks God! Thanks PER!

Frank Laubach

In my last post, I mentioned a guy by the name Frank Laubach. He's one of those "old school" 20th century icons that many people in today's Christian culture don't recognize. I came across him because of a book that I have that was given to me by my great aunt. She read "You Are My Friends" back in 1956 according to her note on the inside cover. My Aunt Reba was a born again Christian and was very studious when it came to following the Lord. Her academic nature carried over into the rest of her life as well. She was the first female inducted into the science honor society at William and Mary so I'm told.

Enough about my Aunt Reba though...

Some would consider Laubach a mystic. In addition to the literacy ministry he brought to the Philippines, he also created a game that became world famous. It was called "The Game with Minutes." In this game, Laubach challenged believers to think about God at least one second of every minute of the day. Of course, Laubach took this to the next level and claimed that he was in constant communion with God, echoing Paul's challenge to the Christians in Ephesus and Thessalonica.

How many minutes of the day do you think you spend in true communion with the Lord?

City Transformation

The concept of city transformation is labeled by many as a Church response to the post-modern culture. However, city transformation has been on the hearts of Christians since the mid-20th century. Frank Laubach made his name in Christian circles for bringing literacy to thousands of people in the Phillippines. In his book, You Are My Friends (published in 1942), he writes the following:

Unfortunately we are all to some degree slaves of our environment. We unconsciously believe what our neighbors and our social set believe, and we doubt what they doubt. The only way to save ourselves from a downward drag is to lift the neighborhood and the social set to a higher level. We might of course move to another neighborhood which would uplift us, and many people have done so. But to do this is the exact opposite of Jesus' way. His practice was to go where he was needed most, and begin to try to transform tthe neighborhood. If we are his fellow workers we will do as he would do.

Transformation is not the work of human beings though. It's the work of the Lord. The first verse of Psalm 127 reminds us of this truth:

Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

**Are we following God where He leads us?

**Are we trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit ourselves?

**Are we uniting together as One Body across denominations and cultures to be used by the same God we all serve?

**Are we exalting the works of our own hands or are we lifting the name of Jesus above every name?

These are but a few of the questions we need to challenge ourselves with in the work of city transformation.

Rough Week

In the last few days, here are just a few of the challenges my family and I have been facing:

-all three girls caught some kind of virus with fevers, vomiting and sleepless nights
-lightning struck our home which fried a computer A/C adapter, modem, router and satellite TV connection
-my car had to go into the shop for a major repair
-some additional unexpected expenses have come our way

I can remember someone telling me once that when the enemy leaves you alone, you should be worried because he's content with where you are and what you're doing. If the enemy is attacking you, then he recognizes you as a real threat.

Regardless of the theological accuracy, it's simply comforting to rest in the truth that my family and I are a threat to the enemy and his work. I know that the God I serve is bigger than any of these challenges we've faced and that He is Jehovah Jireh. When I catch myself beginning to feel sorry for myself and my family's circumstances, I will choose to praise Him. As Paul, I will find contentment in every circumstance. He is my joy and my peace!

Conversations

Here are just a few snippets from conversations I've had in the last 24 hours:

"I'll drop off the State Corp Commission forms for SCOOP to you."
Somehow I've found myself leading SCOOP. I didn't really ask for this. It just kind of happened. There's an opportunity in this. I need to pray for wisdom and discernment on what God wants me to do with this.

"The high school hallways have become segregated for whites, blacks and hispanics."
I get how people with similar interests and cultures have a tendency to gravitate towards one another, but this is extreme for our community. How do we confront this? Lots of prayer is needed for this one.

"I've got to take both Emma and Hope to the doctor's office. Can you watch Abby Rae?"
My afternoon's plans got wrecked today, and it will drift into tomorrow as well. At least Abby Rae and I had a chance to do some father-daughter bonding. We went to PetSmart to buy our supplies for Layla - the dog we're adopting in the next week. Even though my schedule got bombed, I'm grateful for a wondeful few hours with my daughter who just loves to ask all kinds of interesting questions that keep Dad on his toes!

"When God gives a vision, He'll also give the provision."
A quote from a pastor speaking about how God provides just enough, just in time. I love how our God works in our lives!

Intervention

There's a popular television show on A&E right now called Intervention. Each show focuses on a person who has an addiction problem. Family and friends hold an intervention with the assistance of a professional interventionist to encourage the person to seek professional help.

In the story of Abraham and Abimelech, we see two different kinds of interventions occur. The first is a divine intervention. God's intervention to Abimelech prevents him from falling into sin with Sarah. It comes in the form of a dream.

The second intervention comes in the form of prayer. After Abraham and Abimelech settle the issue of who Sarah is, Abraham prays. In Genesis 20:17-18, we read that God responds to Abraham's prayer by "undoing" a judgment on Abimelech and his household. Abraham played the role of interventionist in the life of Abimelech.

Words

In April, I posted a blog about watching our words. When I wrote it, I wondered if I was the only pastor who was fed up hearing the "young, cool" pastors of the megachurches around our country using foul language from the pulpit.

Today I read Ed Young's blog that documented his thoughts on foul language. You can see the video blog here:

http://www.edyoungblog.com/

It's comforting to know that I'm not alone in my feelings about this issue. Reading the comments posted to his blog entry further confirm my impression that the words themselves are not definitively classified as "acceptable" or "foul". A word that was considered "foul" when I was young is now deemed acceptable language in today's society.

Maybe here's the guideline... If it's even questionable, just don't say it... Take the time to increase your vocabulary so that you can use a word that demonstrates your mastery of the English language as well as your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.

Abrahamic Covenant

The story of Abraham and Sarah reminds us of the greatness of God's power, the authenticity of our human weakness and our propensity for sin.

We can be someone who God has spoken to directly and yet still have a strong temptation to turn our back on God and try things our own way. Consider the fact that God had promised Abraham (then he was still called Abram) that he would be a father to the nations. Genesis 15:6 tells us "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." So there was no factor of distrust involved. Yet Abraham accepted his wife's cockamamie idea for him to sleep with Hagar and bear a son. I can think of at least one reason why Abraham didn't buck against this idea much (can someone say "lust"?). Perhaps there were others. Regardless, God overlooked their impatience and still kept His promise.

Another great example of Sarah's sin in the face of the Lord is found in Chapter 18. It's so slight, that it can often be overlooked. In this passage, two angels and the Lord Himself visit Abraham and Sarah. The Lord tells them that Sarah is about to become pregnant. In response, Sarah lets out a sarcastic question and laughs in the face of the Lord Almighty (almost the same response Abraham has in Gen 17:17-18). To add insult to injury, she then lies to him about laughing.

One can make the argument that Sarah may not have known it was the Lord. Regardless, the text makes no mention of God's wrath being poured upon Sarah for her sin. God's mercy and grace just flows through the whole conversation and encounter. It's great to know that God has grace to offer us even in the midst of a serious situation like the one found in Genesis 18.

The other point that jumps out at me in this story is the greatness of God's power found within the Abrahamic Covenant. In the description of the covenant, God explains His role within the covenant:

...I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God. Genesis:17:5-8 NIV

God's doing all the hard work. And here's Abraham's role:

Every male among you shall be circumcised.

While temporarily uncomfortable, this responsibility is relatively easy to fulfill.

Isn't it interesting that from the beginning, God tells us that it is He alone who does the wonders and it is He alone who has the power. We, as men and women, are merely the ones who reflect in our lives the promise that He's made to us.

Our jobs? Submit ourselves to God so He can work His magnificent power in and through us and simply be a reminder to the world that the power and glory is not ours, but His alone.

Unity

In the last few days I've had so many different conversations about unity within the Body of Christ with so many different people. The issue just seems to be popping up all over the place. Right now, there are churches all over the world participating in One Prayer. This morning I was speaking to someone at another local church about the possibility of participating in Faith In Action.

There seems to a movement of the Spirit towards unity. We've seen different movements within the Body of Christ before. Sometimes, they're fads that direct the style of how we do church. Sometimes they're directly from the Holy Spirit. I certainly can't predict the consequences of One Prayer and Faith In Action, but I know God will bless those whose hearts are in the right place.

Locally, we're seeing an emphasis on unity within the Body of Christ that goes beyond just words. I spoke to three pastors yesterday about the very issue of yesterday's blog post. Racial reconciliation is a big first step.

Christ In Culpeper's monthly prayer gatherings and community service events are still another example of Christians in our community who want to see unity within the Body. People from different churches, cultures and denominational backgrounds are coming together in unity to pray for and serve our community. For example, the opportunity that is coming on July 4 when churches and ministries from around the community will gather together and host a carnival area with games at Yowell Meadow Park. We'll forego the promotion of our individual churches and ministries and wear t-shirts with "Jesus" in bold letters on our chest. The theme of the outreach is "Jesus: the Name above all names".

Houston, We Have a Problem

Yesterday was the Global Day of Prayer, and, naturally, Culpeper hosted an event to celebrate this occassion. Christians from several different churches in our community (and surrounding counties) gathered together at Yowell Meadow Park from 3:30pm until dusk. We worshiped, we prayed and we preached. It was a great event that Pastor Jeff Light (Novum Baptist Church) organized. I appreciate the wonderful work Pastor Jeff did in gathering so many Christian brothers and sisters.

A worship band from Primera Iglesia Bautista Maranatha led us in worship as did members from the choirs at White Oak Run Baptist Church and New Life Annointed Ministries West (two churches that are primarily comprised of African-Americans).

Almost immediately, I noticed a problem. As we got started, the audience segregated itself. In front of the stage, the audience was predominately white. To stage right, the audience was predominately black. Sitting behind the gazebo, completely isolated from everyone else were the representatives from Primera Iglesia Pautista Maranatha.

Folks, there's a major problem with this. If the Body of Christ in Culpeper is to be a light to the world, we've got some serious work to do in the department of racial reconciliation. Pastors, choirs and worship bands from different ethnic churches leading us at the Global Day of Prayer is incredible! I love it!! But if we rejoice in their leading and then turn our backs or segregate ourselves when it comes to authentic friendship, fellowship and demonstrating Biblical love towards one another, we're nothing more than an obvious, superficial show. We've become like the white-washed tombs that Jesus criticized. It looks great on the outside, but inside is rot and filth.

I'm not calling for Christians in Culpeper to throw away their cultures and diversity in worshiping God. I'm not asking for churches to turn their back on their denominational support. I'm not expecting Christians across our community to gather together every Sunday in one ecuminical service.

But it would be nice to see Christians setting the example and leading the way in racial reconciliation. It would be great to see Hispanic, African-American and Caucasian churches ministering together, shoulder-to-shoulder and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ unified. I don't claim to have all the answers, but pastors and ministry leaders need to begin having some open and diliberate conversations about how the Body of Christ can model racial reconciliation for our community. It's time!

Abram's Tithe

Abram is well known in the Bible as the one whom God called to be the Father of the nation of Israel. He's the one who pretended his wife, Sarai, was his sister to save his own neck (more than once, I might add). He's the one who picked up and left Ur of the Chaldeans upon God's request. Abram is the one who took Isaac to be sacrificed even though Isaac was the chosen son through whom the nation of Israel would be born.

Abram is famous for a lot of different things, but did you know that Abram was the first person with whom tithing is mentioned in the Bible?

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Genesis 14:18-20 NIV

Tithing (giving "one-tenth") is certainly an Old Testament tradition. In the book of Deuteronomy, tithing is explained as a means by which to celebrate the abundance of the Lord's provision (Deut 14:22-26), to support the Levites (Deut 14:27) and to provide for the poor (Deut 14:28-29). God wasn't too pleased about the postexilic Israelites who were withholding their tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:6-12). They were accused by God of not only robbing the Levites and the poor, but robbing Him!

Jesus also endorsed tithing and He did all the Law (Matthew 5:17-20, 23:23). Of course, obedience to the Law doesn't result in our salvation; however, our salvation should result in our obedience to the Law. Throughout Scripture, loving God and worshiping Him are at the heart of tithing.

We should also understand that all of what we have ultimately belongs to God, Himself. We are merely stewards. Giving a tenth back to God is simply giving back a portion of what rightly belongs to Him in the first place.

In America, there is an old adage. It says, "20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the giving and ministry within the Church." I would venture to say, that the adage should be updated to something along the lines of "15 percent of the people do 85 percent of the giving and ministry within the Church." And in this current economy, churches and ministries are having to further cut budgets even more.

Tithing began with Abram. It continued with the Jews during Moses' time and then with the nation of Israel under Malachi's watch. Jesus endorsed the tradition so that we can continue it today.

Noah

I'm re-reading the entire Bible in my devotional time with the Lord. Currently, I'm in the Book of Genesis, and this morning I read chapters 6-9 which contains the story of Noah. Noah's story is such an interesting story on many levels. Aside from Bill Cosby's routine on Noah, we don't know much about his personality or character. We know that "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time" (Gen 6:9) and that he had three sons and a wife. We know that Noah was obedient to every detail given by God in building the ark (Gen 6:22, 7:5). Noah was also the last person to live over 500 years.

What's interesting to consider about Noah is his patience as well as his response after the flood.

We read in chapters 6, 7 and 8 of Noah's patience. He built the ark according to every detail from God and brought all the animals on to the boat as God instructed. Both of those tasks must have taken a really long time to complete. We don't know for sure how long. From the time Noah entered the ark until the earth was completely dry was 375 days. That's a long time to be couped up with your family and a bunch of animals! Imagine Noah's sons asking, "Are we there yet?" for a year!

The Bible also tells us that Noah was "a man of the soil" (Gen 9:20). God's Word goes on to tell us that Noah planted the first vineyard recorded in the Bible, drank its wine, got drunk and passed out naked. The Bible doesn't clarify, but I wonder if this was a one time (perhaps the first time?) thing or if it was a regular occurrence for Noah. Either way, it's an interesting thing for Noah to do considering what he's been through. For such a great man (Hebrews 11:7), his drunken stupor and condemnation of his son's ancestry are the last recorded acts of Noah's life. I guess I'd want my life's record to end on a little more positive note than that if I'd been the forefather of all human civilization.

Christ In Culpeper

We had our second Christ In Culpeper prayer gathering today. We had about a dozen people attend, representing at least six different churches and four different denominations (and non-denomination).

This is one of those things that isn't about numbers, though. The intimacy of the smaller group really brings something precious to the mood and environment of the group. In fact, if we were to get much bigger, we would probably need to discuss planting a second prayer gathering. Love it!

Plan on joining us in June. We meet on the last Wednesday of the month from 12noon to 1pm at the Depot Center, Room #2. Invite a friend, too!

Fat Portions of the Firstborn

In the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4), we read that Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord while Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The discrepancy between these two offerings is worth mentioning since the Lord's response to the two offerings was different.

The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. Genesis 4:5 NIV

Many of us today are just like Cain. We put all of our time, treasure and talent into things that don't express an appropriate response to God's grace and love. As a result, we don't receive all the blessings that God has for us. Then we turn around and get mad at God for not giving to us what we want.

God wants our fat portions from the firstborn. He doesn't want some of the fruits. In other words, He wants us to respond to Him first. He wants us to respond with extravagance and generosity. He wants us to trust that what we give to Him will be multiplied and returned to us (see Malachi 3:6-12).

When we get our paychecks, I believe the first check that is written should be the tithe check. It's the fat portion of the first fruits - not some of what is left over. Our attitude towards serving in ministry and time spent with God should be the same. If someone was to look at my calendar, I'd want them to see that my priority is spending time with the Lord and serving Him through ministry.