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 Every Sunday I stand before the congregation and I give a sermon on what I believe God is telling me to preach. It takes a lot of prayer and discerning to get a sense of what God wants me to say. But one thing I’ve always been convinced of, God does not want people in the church to simply know about Christ…

I grew up knowing a lot about Jesus. I knew he was the Son of God. I knew he was born of a virgin. I knew he taught people and healed them. He managed to get 12 men to follow him who were so devoted that they dedicated the rest of their lives to continuing his ministry. I even knew Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead 3 days later. I knew a lot about Jesus.

The problem was, I didn’t know Jesus. I knew about him. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of this simple fact.

When I was a teenager I went to church camp. I was a great church camper. I was a good student. I knew all the answers. I paid attention. I listened. But one night I heard. I don’t remember the speaker’s name, the stories or jokes he told. But I remember hearing what he said about Jesus.

I always knew Jesus died. But I learned he died for me. For me! I knew he was raised from the dead. I could be raised from the dead too! That night I went from knowing about Jesus, to knowing Jesus.

Do you know about Jesus? Maybe you go to Church every Sunday. You might even volunteer with an organization or two. You may know a lot about Jesus. You may know more than the pastor preaching the message. But do you know Jesus?

Jesus wants you to know him. He knows you. He loves you. He came to prepare a way for you to know him. He died for you. He defeated death for you. He is preparing a place for you. Do you want to know about those things? Is it enough to know about all the things that Jesus has done? Or is it something more to know him, to live with him, to go to the place he has prepared for you?

Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (John 10:14) This know is an intimate kind of know. He knows their name, what they like, what they fear, what they need. If Jesus is your shepherd, he will know you. He will know what makes you happy, what brings you peace, your favorite movie line (He knows my favorite movie line is: King Arthur to God: “Good idea Lord;” God to King Arthur, “Of course it’s a good idea!”). He will know your favorite song, your hopes and dreams.  And he knows how to save you.

Jesus doesn’t just know about you. He knows you. Do you know him?

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Get Plugged In 04/24/2012
 
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The other day I noticed my laptop was running out of power, but the power cord was inserted. Great, my laptop is dying. I can’t live without this thing. How am I supposed to write all these great articles for you to read without my computer right?
I double checked the cord. It was pushed into the laptop. I checked my settings. Everything seemed fine. Maybe my battery was going dead. But that doesn’t make sense, it’s plugged in. So why was the unit about to die? Well it turns out the other end of the cord wasn’t plugged into the wall. Hey, at least I figured it out before the pc died.

How many times do you find yourself running out of power? When your battery runs down, what do you plug into? Better yet, is what you plug into enough?

The world offers a lot of power sources. Some good, some not so good. We have self help books, therapy, prescriptions meds and friends. These are great power boosters. But they can’t be our only source. When we treat them as the sole source of our power we can become addicted to them or wear them out. When we abuse them, they will fail us.

We need a power source that never goes out. Not when there’s a storm, high winds, or too much demand. We need a perfect source; a clean, steady stream of energy that gives us the power we need.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;  and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Right after he said this, he raised someone from the dead. The world has a lot of power, but I’ve never seen one that raised someone who was dead a few days.

Plug into Jesus. His power never runs out. The only thing left to say is the question Jesus asks, “Do you believe this?”
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Let's Bolt 02/26/2012
 
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I bought a new snow blower this year. I was tired of having to take a shovel to the ice and snow at the end of the driveway that my smaller blower couldn’t handle. I made the plunge and bought a big metal, 208 cc, rust resistant snow blower with 11 in. steel serrated augers, electric start, and alloy steel gears….(caveman sounds) AAAUUUggggg Aarrrggh, Ahhh ah Ahhhh ahhh!!!

Boy did that baby blow! (Insert your own joke here.) I could practically hit the neighbor’s house across the street! Yes! No more shoveling for me!

I pulled my new snow blower out this weekend for the second snow of the season. Four inches. No problem. My baby can handle it. I was half done with the driveway when I noticed something…. the whole machine was wobbly. It was bending sideways back and forth. It looked more like a slinky than a snow blower. The bolts holding it together were literally breaking apart and falling off. My precious snow blower was about to be in pieces!

Turns out the bolts that held the machine together were not properly heat treated when they were made. They were brittle and couldn’t take the stress of a moving machine. Because they were falling apart my favorite new winter machine was falling apart. It didn’t matter if the engine was strong and the transmission worked, the machine as a whole is only as good as the bolts that hold it together.

What are the bolts that are holding your life together? Can they handle the stress of life? Or are you risking falling apart because the bolts of your life are overburdened, overstressed, or just not properly made?

We all have something to keep our lives together. Sometimes its family, work, church, friends, even alcohol and drugs. We use any manner of things to keep it together. But everything, eventually will fail us. Nothing can compete with the stress of life. Except the One who made life.

In speaking of Jesus, the apostle Paul said, “all things were created by him and for him. He is before all thins, and in him all things hold together.” (1 Corinthians 1:16b-17)

If you are looking for something to hold your life together look to the one who created life. He understands you. He made you! And if he can hold the universe and all creation together, think how much he can do for you!

By the way, I took my failing snow blower back to the store and they traded it for an upgrade at a deep discount for my inconvenience. I almost can’t wait for it to snow again. And just to be sure, I swapped out some key bolts with new stainless steel ones.

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Ever have one of those conversations when you ask someone how they are doing and they look back at you, shrug their shoulders and say, “I’m surviving.”

We’ve all had seasons in our lives when things are tough. We’re glad just to make it through the day. We know things will get better, but for the time being we’ll get by with just surviving.

I’ve had those times. But the thing is, I don’t want to live my life “just surviving.” I don’t want to look back on my years and see a life of no substance. Because a life of survival is a life without significance. I don’t need to be a rock star, but I want my life to mean something.  In order for my life to be more than it is, I have to be more than I am. And the best way to be more than I am, is to let Christ live in me. Because if I have Christ in me, I am more than the sum of my genes. I am a new creation filled with the Spirit of God himself.

Jesus wants you to be more than the flesh and blood you are. Surviving is not what God has called you to do. He has created you to live. He has created you to experience the life he has laid out for you. And just to make sure you got the message, he sent his Son to give you His very life. So that you can be more. So that you can have more.

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10b

Jesus doesn’t want you to survive. He wants you to have an abundant life. Are you ready to live it?
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What's So Funny? 03/09/2011
 
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Because I grew up in the church, I’ve seen a lot of pictures of Jesus. Jesus praying on a hillside. Jesus holding out his hand. Jesus hanging on the cross. Jesus watching over sheep. Jesus healing a blind man. Jesus walking on water. Jesus. He’s so serious.  

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining that these paintings are objectionable. I’m sure each of them in their own way, captures a part of who Jesus is. But what I never see is a picture of Jesus laughing. I mean, head back, eyes shining, mouth opened laughing. At least until I saw this one.

I may sound mad, but I want to worship a God that knows how to have a good laugh. That’s why I love this picture of Jesus so much.  

Why is Jesus laughing? Did one of his disciples Peter just tell a joke? Was Peter the joke? Did Jesus punk one of his friends? Please, leave your ideas of why you think Jesus would laugh.
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Sometimes churches just amaze me. And by amaze I mean baffle. And by baffle I mean drive me crazy. And by drive me crazy I mean, “Hello, I’m the Mad Pastor.”

I am a big believer that churches should have a mission and vision. How are you supposed to carry out your role in the Great Commission unless you’ve determined what it is? So I like to read other churches’ mission statements. Here’s a portion of one from a mainline denominational Christian church I’ve been to:

“We do not presume to tell people what to think or believe. Ours is a community of free inquiry. We explore together our faith document, the Bible, and the Tradition that has been handed down to us, using our Reason along with personal Experience to determine what we believe and how we will act. There is room within this spiritual community for a wide variety of viewpoints on faith and life. Indeed, we believe that we are enriched by this variety.”

Huh? I have no idea what this church believes in. Seems to me like anything goes. Believe Jesus is the Son of God and your savior? Then he is! Believe you have salvation because you did a good deed once?  Bippity Bop - You’re saved! Believe you can finance your way into heaven? Good News! God accepts all denominations! (Get it? I made a funny!)

As a pastor, every Sunday I stand behind the pulpit and I tell you what to think and believe. That is my job. It is your job to determine if you want to believe it. You don’t have to. I won’t make you. But that’s my job.

A church without standards has nothing for which to aim. There can be no growth because there is no challenge. Anything goes. You will not have any spiritual depth because there is no standard of measurement. A healthy church cannot have “a wide variety of viewpoints on faith and life.”  It needs to have one. Otherwise, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6) …unless you believe in something else.

Call me crazy, but shouldn’t churches state up front what they believe and set standards and help people achieve them? Does that mean some people will disagree? Yes. But is that such a bad thing? What do you think?
 
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