USC Football Player - Faith In God Amidst Adversity
Read and watch more here.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
When a Japanese Baby is Born
Mark Rood: I don’t mean to strengthen stereotypes but my aunt sent me this and I thought it was cute. Enjoy.
Mark Rood: I don’t mean to strengthen stereotypes but my aunt sent me this and I thought it was cute. Enjoy.
Japan is Beautiful
When you get out of the cities and up into the mountains or down near the sea, Japan is really a beautiful place with amazing scenery. It really is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
(HT: Mark Rood)
When you get out of the cities and up into the mountains or down near the sea, Japan is really a beautiful place with amazing scenery. It really is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
(HT: Mark Rood)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
That's Christmas
Why celebrate Christmas anyway? What's the point?
Why celebrate Christmas anyway? What's the point?
That's Christmas (Short Film) HD from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.
Monday, December 21, 2009
My Christmas Poem 2009
I like to write short poems during the holidays to help me focus on the season and what it means to me. I encourage you to do the same for yourself. Here is mine for this year:
O come O come Emmanuel
and ransom captive Israel
who scattered like lost sheep throughout the world
grow hungry and weak in this stable’s hold
O come Emmanuel and set us free
To the bright and shining star of your sovereignty
Rescue us from all of our despair
And lead us home to the victory there
Our home is with you and with you we will stand
And sing there forever with the angels according to your plan
I like to write short poems during the holidays to help me focus on the season and what it means to me. I encourage you to do the same for yourself. Here is mine for this year:
O come O come Emmanuel
and ransom captive Israel
who scattered like lost sheep throughout the world
grow hungry and weak in this stable’s hold
O come Emmanuel and set us free
To the bright and shining star of your sovereignty
Rescue us from all of our despair
And lead us home to the victory there
Our home is with you and with you we will stand
And sing there forever with the angels according to your plan
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Do I want my kids to play football? Hmm...
(from CNN.com)-
Former NFL star Dave Pear is sorry he ever played football
Dave Pear has a message for you.
(from CNN.com)-Former NFL star Dave Pear is sorry he ever played football
"Don't let your kids play football," he says. "Never."
It is an odd thing, hearing these sort of words from a man like David Louis Pear, University of Washington standout, Pro Bowl defensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Super Bowl champion with the Oakland Raiders. His five-year NFL career was one thousands of high school and college athletes would envy -- charging out of a darkened stadium tunnel, 70,000 fans screaming for you, loving you, praising you, idolizing you.
"You wanna know the truth?" says Pear.
The question lingers -- the 56-year-old ex-athlete preparing to unload one more skull-splitting hit.
"I wish I never played football. I wish that more than anything. Every single day, I want to take back those years of my life ..."
The words are not subtle. They spit from Pear's mouth, with a blistering contempt normally reserved for drunk drivers. We are speaking via phone. I am in New York, sipping a hot chocolate, leaning back in a chair. My two young children are asleep. A Pretenders song, "2000 Miles," plays in the background. No worries, no complexities. Pear is sitting at his home in Seattle. His neck hurts. His hips hurt. His knees hurt. His feet hurt. When he wakes up in the morning, pain shoots through his body. When he goes to sleep at night, pain shoots through his body. What does Pear do to stay active?
"My life is simple," he says. "It's hard to get out of bed, but eventually I do. I try and do a little walking on the treadmill. I take naps. I go to physical therapy once per week. I read my Bible."
He is, in basic terms, a train wreck -- a football-inflicted train wreck. Pear walks with a cane and, often, simply doesn't walk at all. He suffers from vertigo and memory loss. Over the past 18 years, he has undergone eight surgeries, beginning with a Posterior Cervical Laminectomy on his neck in 1981, and including disc removal and rod fusion in his back (1987), arthroplasty in his left hip (2008) and, earlier this year, four screws removed from his lower back. Though he chalks up his physical ailments to snap after snap of punishment, he pinpoints the biggest problems back to 1979 and '80, his final two NFL seasons. While playing for Oakland, Pear suffered a herniated disc in his neck that never improved. Despite the unbearable agony, he says the Raiders urged him to keep playing.
Be a man! Be tough! "Those last two years in Oakland were very, very difficult times," he says. "I was in pain 24 hours per day, and my employers failed to acknowledge my injury. Sure, I won a Super Bowl ring. But was it worth giving up my health for a piece of jewelry? No way. Those diamonds have lost their luster."
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Koshien Bowl: Collegiate National Champs!
- And Some Cultural Reflections
I've always wanted to go to a college national championship. I just never thought it would be in Japan! Just so you know, football is not very well known or understood in Japan. I think that is why it was so very refreshing to be among people who did know what was going on, and to actually be a part of a great game. My team (via my sister-in-law, who is a manager on the team), Kansai University beat Hosei University 50-38. Great scoring, great offense... bad tackling, bad kicking - but overall an exciting game.
The thing that made this game the most interesting though were the things that were new to me, the things that are very unique to Japan-style football. Instead of a drum major, there was a cheer-major who was dressed kind of like an old Buddhist monk. He led big chants that seemed almost ritualistic. Of course the Japanese national anthem is also very solemn, which was also unique. 30-40,000 people singing sadly is an interesting sound to hear. After the game, there was the usual for-T.V. interview and the presentation of awards. But then, instead of goalposts being ripped down, there were deep bows from both sides and then deep bows to the crowd and people bowing to each other in the stands! Everyone was deeply grateful for each other I guess. I was grateful to God for a good game. Then as the awards were held the most unusual thing happened. Instead of some kind of party music, the tune to the song, "Thine is the Glory", an old hymn I remember from childhood was played. I guess I shouldn't be shocked. I often hear the tune to "When the Saints Go Marching In" when I am in the local appliance store!
- And Some Cultural Reflections
I've always wanted to go to a college national championship. I just never thought it would be in Japan! Just so you know, football is not very well known or understood in Japan. I think that is why it was so very refreshing to be among people who did know what was going on, and to actually be a part of a great game. My team (via my sister-in-law, who is a manager on the team), Kansai University beat Hosei University 50-38. Great scoring, great offense... bad tackling, bad kicking - but overall an exciting game.
The thing that made this game the most interesting though were the things that were new to me, the things that are very unique to Japan-style football. Instead of a drum major, there was a cheer-major who was dressed kind of like an old Buddhist monk. He led big chants that seemed almost ritualistic. Of course the Japanese national anthem is also very solemn, which was also unique. 30-40,000 people singing sadly is an interesting sound to hear. After the game, there was the usual for-T.V. interview and the presentation of awards. But then, instead of goalposts being ripped down, there were deep bows from both sides and then deep bows to the crowd and people bowing to each other in the stands! Everyone was deeply grateful for each other I guess. I was grateful to God for a good game. Then as the awards were held the most unusual thing happened. Instead of some kind of party music, the tune to the song, "Thine is the Glory", an old hymn I remember from childhood was played. I guess I shouldn't be shocked. I often hear the tune to "When the Saints Go Marching In" when I am in the local appliance store!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A Simple Explanation of Baseball
This is a game played by two teams, one out the other in. The one that's in, sends players out one at a time, to see if they can get in before they get out. If they get out before they get in, they come in, but it doesn't count. If they get in before they get out it does count.
When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that's out comes in and the team in goes out to get those going in out before they get in without being out.
When both teams have been in and out nine times the game is over. The team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless the ones in are equal. In which case, the last ones in go out to get the ones in out before they get in without being out.
The game will end when each team has the same number of ins out but one team has more in without being out before coming in.
(Taken from Crosswalk.com)
This is a game played by two teams, one out the other in. The one that's in, sends players out one at a time, to see if they can get in before they get out. If they get out before they get in, they come in, but it doesn't count. If they get in before they get out it does count.
When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that's out comes in and the team in goes out to get those going in out before they get in without being out.
When both teams have been in and out nine times the game is over. The team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless the ones in are equal. In which case, the last ones in go out to get the ones in out before they get in without being out.
The game will end when each team has the same number of ins out but one team has more in without being out before coming in.
(Taken from Crosswalk.com)
The Effects of Pornography
Ed Stetzer writes:
A new study done by Patrick F. Fagan examines the effects of pornography on individuals, marriage, family and community. Fagan is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion at the Family Research Council. He specializes in examining the relationships among family, marriage, religion, community, and America's social problems. This study is important for everyone to read as it demonstrates that it has damaging effects on individuals and families. In the summary Fagan explains,
(HT: Z)
Ed Stetzer writes:
A new study done by Patrick F. Fagan examines the effects of pornography on individuals, marriage, family and community. Fagan is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion at the Family Research Council. He specializes in examining the relationships among family, marriage, religion, community, and America's social problems. This study is important for everyone to read as it demonstrates that it has damaging effects on individuals and families. In the summary Fagan explains,
Pornography is a visual representation of sexuality which distorts an individual's concept of the nature of conjugal relations. This, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior. It is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children and to individual happiness. In undermining marriage it is one of the factors in undermining social stability.
Social scientists, clinical psychologists, and biologists have begun to clarify some of the social and psychological effects, and neurologists are beginning to delineate the biological mechanisms through which pornography produces its powerful negative effects.
Some of the findings inside the study include:
- Pornography is addictive, and neuroscientists are beginning to map the biological substrate of this addiction.
- Users tend to become desensitized to the type of pornorgraphy they use, become bored with it, and then seek more perverse forms of pornography.
- Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their conjugal relations and less emotionally attached to their wives. Wives notice and are upset by the difference.
- Pornography use is a pathway to infidelity and divorce, and is frequently a major factor in these family disasters.
- Among couples affected by one spouse's addiction, two-thirds experience a loss of interest in sexual intercourse.
- Many adolescents who view pornography initially feel shame, diminished self-confidence, and sexual uncertainty, but these feelings quickly shift to unadulterated enjoyment with regular viewing.
- The main defenses against pornography are close family life, a good marriage and good relations between parents and children, coupled with deliberate parental monitoring of Internet use. Traditionally, government has kept a tight lid on sexual traffic and businesses, but in matters of pornography that has waned almost completely, except where child pornography is concerned. Given the massive, deleterious individual, marital, family, and social effects of pornography, it is time for citizens, communities, and government to reconsider their laissez-faire approach.
(HT: Z)
Oh, My God
My friend Dustin Schramek writes:
I’ve only seen the trailer, but I hope I will be able to see the movie. The premise of the movie is simply someone going to 23 different countries asking the question, “What is God?”
Hugh Jackman is in the video and states that if you put a bunch of religious leaders (Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, etc.) at a table he “can’t see them having an argument.” This sentiment sounds great as people try to build bridges between people of different religions, but it is empty and won’t work. They would have arguments (read the New Testament and see how Jesus argued against the religious leaders of his day). My point is that arguments don’t negate peace. In fact, I believe that true peaceful dialogue between people of different faiths depends on having people who will be honest enough to tell someone else that he or she is wrong, but to do it in a respectful, honorable, and loving way.
I’m not offended when someone tells me wrong if he has first listened to me and sought to understand me. I welcome such honesty. It gives me freedom to say what I was already thinking, “You’re wrong!”
Another thing that looks interesting is that the filmmaker doesn’t just ask religious experts. I like the idea of asking regular people about their concept of God.
(HT: Z)
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Problems with Science Today
Justin Taylor highlights some good articles in his post on Climate Gate. I thought this quote was especially important:
"What they (the criminating e-mails) reveal is something problematic for the scientific community as a whole, namely, the tendency of scientists to cross the line from being disinterested investigators after the truth to advocates for a preconceived conclusion about the issues at hand."
I think it is fair to say that this is true not just in the field of climatology, but in all fields of science today. As I alluded to in my previous post, none of us start off as disinterested investigators without presuppostions in our search for truth. We all have filters that we use to judge the data we receive. Therefore, I believe, science should never be relied on fully. Science is in danger of becoming an idol if we relate to it too much authority.
On the subject of problems in science, I was especially intrigued by a movie I saw last night called, "Lorenzo's Oil" (1992 - Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon). It details the amazing true story of how a boy named Lorenzo is diagnosed with a rare incurable and fatal disease and yet, while receiving little help from the medical industry, discovers a medical solution with his parents that saves his life for another 25 years. With their backs against the wall, the boy's parents (who had not been trained in medicine) begin to search for the cure on their own, only to find that politics had gotten in the way of medical science advancing a cure. Today "Lorenzo's oil", as it is called, prevents or stops this fatal disease in up to half of the patients who take it. Hundreds of lives have been saved.
I recommend this movie to you heartily.
Justin Taylor highlights some good articles in his post on Climate Gate. I thought this quote was especially important:
"What they (the criminating e-mails) reveal is something problematic for the scientific community as a whole, namely, the tendency of scientists to cross the line from being disinterested investigators after the truth to advocates for a preconceived conclusion about the issues at hand."
I think it is fair to say that this is true not just in the field of climatology, but in all fields of science today. As I alluded to in my previous post, none of us start off as disinterested investigators without presuppostions in our search for truth. We all have filters that we use to judge the data we receive. Therefore, I believe, science should never be relied on fully. Science is in danger of becoming an idol if we relate to it too much authority.
On the subject of problems in science, I was especially intrigued by a movie I saw last night called, "Lorenzo's Oil" (1992 - Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon). It details the amazing true story of how a boy named Lorenzo is diagnosed with a rare incurable and fatal disease and yet, while receiving little help from the medical industry, discovers a medical solution with his parents that saves his life for another 25 years. With their backs against the wall, the boy's parents (who had not been trained in medicine) begin to search for the cure on their own, only to find that politics had gotten in the way of medical science advancing a cure. Today "Lorenzo's oil", as it is called, prevents or stops this fatal disease in up to half of the patients who take it. Hundreds of lives have been saved.
I recommend this movie to you heartily.
Monday, December 07, 2009
Friday, December 04, 2009
Climate-Gate and What Science "Knows"
If you haven't heard of the big scandal over global warming, you need to go look for it on the internet. It won't be on the major networks because they are also trying to hide it. It seems scientists have been hiding real data and adding their own numbers for the past decade to bolster their own theories about global warming. Sound strange? No, not really. We all have an agenda and a worldview. Some have a moral foundation (like the Bible) for their agenda and some do not. (Secularists)
Whether it be outright lies, deception or just plain assumption-based thinking, scientists are making "mistakes" all the time. Some accidentally, some very purposefully.
Roger Patterson writes, "Most people, including those with training in the sciences, are not aware of the many assumptions that radiometric dating, the geological column, and fossil interpretation use as foundations. Biologists assume that geologists have correctly identified the age of rocks. The geologists assume that the chemists have correctly identified the half-life of different isotopes. Chemists assume that physicists have correctly identified the details of radioactive decay." (Evolution Exposed - Biology)
This circular reasoning and chain of assumptions support the misconstrued idea that the fossil record actually proves the theory of [marco]evolution. Knowingly or unknowingly entire theories (and worldviews) are based on these teetering presuppositions and assumptions.
Now, what are your assumptions and presuppositions about what scientists "know to be true"? Could what you believe about scientists be affecting your beliefs about God or the Bible? Be honest with yourself.
If you haven't heard of the big scandal over global warming, you need to go look for it on the internet. It won't be on the major networks because they are also trying to hide it. It seems scientists have been hiding real data and adding their own numbers for the past decade to bolster their own theories about global warming. Sound strange? No, not really. We all have an agenda and a worldview. Some have a moral foundation (like the Bible) for their agenda and some do not. (Secularists)
Whether it be outright lies, deception or just plain assumption-based thinking, scientists are making "mistakes" all the time. Some accidentally, some very purposefully.
Roger Patterson writes, "Most people, including those with training in the sciences, are not aware of the many assumptions that radiometric dating, the geological column, and fossil interpretation use as foundations. Biologists assume that geologists have correctly identified the age of rocks. The geologists assume that the chemists have correctly identified the half-life of different isotopes. Chemists assume that physicists have correctly identified the details of radioactive decay." (Evolution Exposed - Biology)
This circular reasoning and chain of assumptions support the misconstrued idea that the fossil record actually proves the theory of [marco]evolution. Knowingly or unknowingly entire theories (and worldviews) are based on these teetering presuppositions and assumptions.
Now, what are your assumptions and presuppositions about what scientists "know to be true"? Could what you believe about scientists be affecting your beliefs about God or the Bible? Be honest with yourself.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Focusing on the Food that Doesn’t Perish
(My message at church last Sunday)
God loves to turn our attention to what truly matters, to what will truly satisfy us.
During this thanksgiving week maybe you thought, “I am rich. I have what I need.
I have a place to live. I have an education. I have a job.
I am not a low class person. I am from a leading nation in the world, and I am living better than most people in the world.
I have need of nothing today. And honestly, I don’t need to hear another message. I am fine.”
Sadly, I sometimes feel this way myself.
Or on the other hand, maybe recently you feel as if everything around you is going poorly.
You cannot see why God would let certain things to happen that have happened.
A few weeks ago I was reading in the book of Revelation.
Jesus is speaking to the church in Laodicea in chapter 3.
In many ways this church was very similar to the churches in America and Japan.
They were rich and powerful and their focus was on their worldly circumstances.
For the most part things were going very well for them.
But they were the only church of seven that Jesus addresses in Revelation in which he finds nothing at all to commend.
The reason is that they were no longer passionate for God.
They had been lulled asleep spiritually by their focus on small physical comforts.
They no longer sought for much spiritually, because they had become so focused and consumed with this world and the comfort it brings instead.
As I read, I was feeling more and more like Jesus was using this to speak to me and my own issues, and then I read the next line.
Jesus says, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16)
Jesus goes on to the root in v. 17, “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”
I was cut to the heart and really felt that Jesus was really trying to wake me up to my own lukewarm heart.
I was putting my focus on my temporary physical comforts and therefore, not on God and real and deep comfort and joy.
I believe in either a shocking way, or in a gentle way, God wants to turn us all away from our focus on outward circumstances and comforts and turn us to His amazing goodness in Christ today.
He wants us to see that we will never be fully satisfied if we focus our lives and hearts on any other than God.
And although we may feel just fine and content and rich, in reality we are poor, blind, naked and destitute.
We, who pity the materially poor of the world, often do not realize that we are in fact the truly impoverished ones.
The problem is that this world- the things in it and the people in it - have turned our heart’s attention away from what is truly great and significant in life.
Let’s turn our attention to God’s Word in John 6 today.
Lately I have been studying the gospel of John in our small-group Bible study.
Over and over we keep seeing that Jesus has to wake people up to the reality that there is much much more than just the physical world.
One day a large crowd was following Jesus because he was healing sick people.
Far away from any markets, with everyone worrying what to do about food, Jesus receives one boy’s lunch, thanks God for it and miraculously feeds more than five thousand people from it.
Note this: Jesus is able to care for every physical and outward need we have.
John 6:14 says, “When people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet (the one prophesied about in Deuteronomy 18) who is to come into the world!”
“Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” (v.15)
The Jews were looking for a physical ruler Christ or Messiah, but Jesus is not interested in simply providing food and health and ruling a physical kingdom.
As Jesus retreats into the mountains, Jesus’ twelve disciples get into a boat and start back to Capernaum across the sea, but again they run into another physical problem: a dangerous storm.
Miraculously, with no boats left, Jesus walks out onto the water in the dark to the boat the disciples are in and they cross together safely to the other side.
Again and again Jesus meets the needs of those who follow Him.
The next day, “When they (the crowd he fed the day before) found him on the other side of the sea they said to him, ‘Teacher, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (v.25-27)
In essence Jesus is saying, “Yes, I can meet your physical needs, but do not build your life around physical and material prosperity.”
Getting physical necessities is not the goal of life.
Jesus is saying, “Don’t you see from the miracles that I can do so much more than just give you food and safety?”
“I can give you deep spiritual food for your souls that will satisfy you deeply and fully and forever! Focus and work for that food!”
“Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works of God? Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God is this: to believe in him whom he sent.’
We need to work for regular food, but Jesus, the food that gives eternal life, God gives for free, to all who would simply trust and receive as their all satisfying food.
So they said to him, ‘Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work will you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’’ (John 6:28-31)
They had just seen two amazing signs and now they want still another.
I can imagine Jesus either sighing or laughing here. When will they get it?
But these people are very similar to us aren’t they?
We see miracles all around us everyday in every graceful butterfly and lily, in every beautiful sunset sky or glimmering star, in every facet of creation all around us at any given moment, and yet we still want and even demand that God give us still another sign that He even exists!
God is certainly an amazingly merciful God.
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is ‘he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’” (John 6:32-33)
When Israel was rescued from slavery in Egypt through the miraculous opening of the Red Sea, they found themselves in the desert.
At that time, instead of looking to the God who had just brought them through the Red Sea on dry ground, they could only look at their present circumstances.
“We have nothing to eat! We have no food or water! Did God bring us out here to die?”
They wanted to leave their leader, Moses, and find a new leader that would lead them back into slavery just so that they could eat the food they were used to eating!
I imagine that today that in many churches there are some people who are wondering whether or not to leave the church and go back to life as a non-Christian.
If you feel this way at all, I encourage you to listen carefully to God’s Word this morning.
The Bible says that God miraculously provided for the Israelites in the desert.
“The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot and made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna came down also.” (Numbers 11:7-9)
Despite their complaining, God sent “manna” or bread that fed them everyday.
And not for just a few days, but every day for forty years!
And God will feed us in every situation so that we can follow Him.
Still these Israelites did not rest in and trust God, but continued to look to their negative circumstances alone and continued to complain.
And sadly some of us still do this today.
We give little or no thanks for life and the ability to think and work.
We give no thanks for little things like air and water and food and a million other things that we freely receive and enjoy everyday.
But yet when even a little bit is taken away, we start to accuse God, as if we sit as judges over him.
In both America and Japan we often read or hear people say, “Surely God does not exist if he would let things like these happen.”
All the while we are forgetting how much we ourselves have ignored God and His amazing daily blessings.
And just as the generation of doubting Israelites were punished and not able to go into the land God promised to them, we will not be able to go into the promised land of heaven because we have rejected God.
But God is a God of mercy.
We all complain at times and our focus slips to our circumstances, but Jesus says that all we need to do is simply rest in Him and receive Him as our food.
Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.” (6:29)
We need food to live, but more than physical food our souls need Jesus, we need to rest in and feed off God Himself in every circumstance.
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)
Jesus is the only lasting satisfier of our souls. And Jesus is the true bread and the true life-giving water for our souls’ thirsts.
Not a church, not a pastor, not a new house, not good health, not a high paying job.
None of these things will ever give us fullness of joy and life forever.
Jesus says, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.” (v. 49-51)
Jesus gave his own body, his own body and shed His own blood to provide eternal forgiveness for the sins of all who would simply believe and receive Him.
Now that He has risen from the dead, if we take His resurrection life as our life, if we eat this bread, if we live off Jesus Christ in God for our heart needs,
We will not only live life to the fullest, we will live with God in heaven forever.
And the good news is that you don’t have to be rich to get it,
You don’t have to have everything figured out,
You don’t even have to go to the perfect church,
No, the gift of fullness of life in Christ forever is free, independent of our outward circumstances – to all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
That is the good news – that is the gospel.
If you know the story of Anpan-man you have the idea.
Jesus says, “Eat me – take from me, live from me.
Let my life be your life and you will live – and have life to the fullest.”
Jesus says in v. 40 - “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (say 2x)
In John 10:10 Jesus says, “…I have come that they might have life and life to the full.”
Now, how can we begin to focus our appetites more on God and less on this world?
To start with, we need to admit that without Christ we are all completely blind and dead spiritually already.
We cannot focus on God more than the world, unless God performs a miracle in us.
In v. 44 Jesus knows that we are so weak and helpless that he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
Only by God’s power can we taste God's goodness, believe in Him through Jesus Christ and be saved from our addiction to this world.
Let us plead with God that by His power He will wake us up and give us spiritual eyes to see and taste buds to taste His amazing goodness.
Second, we need to ask Him to help us focus our lives and heart on God in all things, because we all naturally tend to focus too much on our outward circumstances.
The apostle Paul need to remind the church at Corinth that we are to consciously, “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:8
Instead of putting fast food into our souls every day, we have to get away and take time to focus and enjoy slow-cooked dishes like Isaiah 55:1-2, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me; hear that your soul may live;”
We have to slow down enough to spiritually taste and see verses like Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does he prospers.”
And we need to be reminded of the only other option: “The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
Either we are hot or cold for God, lukewarm is not an option.
Either we are filling ourselves with life-giving bread and water, or drying up like chaff.
Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that may test and approve what is the will of God; his good pleasing and perfect will.”
Therefore our work as Christians is to not focus on the food that perishes, but to believe and focus on the bread of life, Jesus Christ, who will satisfy every need we have and transform us into joy-filled followers of God.
Psalm 1 says that either we are those who delight in the bread of God’s word and are filled with life by His goodness and are flourishing like a tree planted besides streams of water,
or we are slowly drying up and dying like chaff that the wind will drive away.
Either we are eating and enjoying God through His Word and are growing, or we are slowing dying inside.
We cannot stay in the same place.
Of course being a Christian doesn’t mean you will never choose the wrong way.
But it does mean that we will have it in our hearts, by God’s grace, to seek God’s goodness, even if we lose focus again and again.
Paul the apostle said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ has made me his own.” – Phil. 3:12
Jesus takes hold of us, and even when we let go and sin at times, he hangs on and will lead us back to holding onto Him.
Therefore, it is not by our willpower that we continue as Christians, but by His Spirit we are given faith to enjoy God and continue the race.
Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh (human effort) is of no avail. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:63, 65)
I believe Jesus is saying the same words he said to us that he said to the church at Laodicea so long ago – “be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.” (Rev. 3:19-20)
Jesus is speaking to us today through His Word.
Jesus wants not only to be our food and our life,
He wants to fellowship personally with us and be our closest friend
And He wants to be our Father God, our leader and provider in all the hunger and storms of life.
He wants us not only to eat from His goodness, but He wants to live life with us.
He wants to be our greatest joy, and our focus in all circumstances, good or bad.
The question is, will we open the door and let Him live with us daily?
Will we open the door to Him daily for fellowship and for life-giving nourishment?
Jesus wants to be our comfort and our joy.
If you want that then Jesus is saying to you, “be no longer lethargic and spiritually blind, be zealous and repent.”
Set a time when you can quietly spend time with Him in the Bible and in prayer each day. A time when you can reset your focus on what truly matters in life.
In Psalm 63:3 David says, “The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life.”
Desire the true riches of knowing God and the true spiritual food of being with Jesus in His Word more than the temporary things of this world.
It will not be easy, but Jesus promises this:
“The one who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” - Rev. 3:21-22
(My message at church last Sunday)
God loves to turn our attention to what truly matters, to what will truly satisfy us.
During this thanksgiving week maybe you thought, “I am rich. I have what I need.
I have a place to live. I have an education. I have a job.
I am not a low class person. I am from a leading nation in the world, and I am living better than most people in the world.
I have need of nothing today. And honestly, I don’t need to hear another message. I am fine.”
Sadly, I sometimes feel this way myself.
Or on the other hand, maybe recently you feel as if everything around you is going poorly.
You cannot see why God would let certain things to happen that have happened.
A few weeks ago I was reading in the book of Revelation.
Jesus is speaking to the church in Laodicea in chapter 3.
In many ways this church was very similar to the churches in America and Japan.
They were rich and powerful and their focus was on their worldly circumstances.
For the most part things were going very well for them.
But they were the only church of seven that Jesus addresses in Revelation in which he finds nothing at all to commend.
The reason is that they were no longer passionate for God.
They had been lulled asleep spiritually by their focus on small physical comforts.
They no longer sought for much spiritually, because they had become so focused and consumed with this world and the comfort it brings instead.
As I read, I was feeling more and more like Jesus was using this to speak to me and my own issues, and then I read the next line.
Jesus says, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16)
Jesus goes on to the root in v. 17, “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”
I was cut to the heart and really felt that Jesus was really trying to wake me up to my own lukewarm heart.
I was putting my focus on my temporary physical comforts and therefore, not on God and real and deep comfort and joy.
I believe in either a shocking way, or in a gentle way, God wants to turn us all away from our focus on outward circumstances and comforts and turn us to His amazing goodness in Christ today.
He wants us to see that we will never be fully satisfied if we focus our lives and hearts on any other than God.
And although we may feel just fine and content and rich, in reality we are poor, blind, naked and destitute.
We, who pity the materially poor of the world, often do not realize that we are in fact the truly impoverished ones.
The problem is that this world- the things in it and the people in it - have turned our heart’s attention away from what is truly great and significant in life.
Let’s turn our attention to God’s Word in John 6 today.
Lately I have been studying the gospel of John in our small-group Bible study.
Over and over we keep seeing that Jesus has to wake people up to the reality that there is much much more than just the physical world.
One day a large crowd was following Jesus because he was healing sick people.
Far away from any markets, with everyone worrying what to do about food, Jesus receives one boy’s lunch, thanks God for it and miraculously feeds more than five thousand people from it.
Note this: Jesus is able to care for every physical and outward need we have.
John 6:14 says, “When people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet (the one prophesied about in Deuteronomy 18) who is to come into the world!”
“Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” (v.15)
The Jews were looking for a physical ruler Christ or Messiah, but Jesus is not interested in simply providing food and health and ruling a physical kingdom.
As Jesus retreats into the mountains, Jesus’ twelve disciples get into a boat and start back to Capernaum across the sea, but again they run into another physical problem: a dangerous storm.
Miraculously, with no boats left, Jesus walks out onto the water in the dark to the boat the disciples are in and they cross together safely to the other side.
Again and again Jesus meets the needs of those who follow Him.
The next day, “When they (the crowd he fed the day before) found him on the other side of the sea they said to him, ‘Teacher, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (v.25-27)
In essence Jesus is saying, “Yes, I can meet your physical needs, but do not build your life around physical and material prosperity.”
Getting physical necessities is not the goal of life.
Jesus is saying, “Don’t you see from the miracles that I can do so much more than just give you food and safety?”
“I can give you deep spiritual food for your souls that will satisfy you deeply and fully and forever! Focus and work for that food!”
“Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works of God? Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God is this: to believe in him whom he sent.’
We need to work for regular food, but Jesus, the food that gives eternal life, God gives for free, to all who would simply trust and receive as their all satisfying food.
So they said to him, ‘Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work will you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’’ (John 6:28-31)
They had just seen two amazing signs and now they want still another.
I can imagine Jesus either sighing or laughing here. When will they get it?
But these people are very similar to us aren’t they?
We see miracles all around us everyday in every graceful butterfly and lily, in every beautiful sunset sky or glimmering star, in every facet of creation all around us at any given moment, and yet we still want and even demand that God give us still another sign that He even exists!
God is certainly an amazingly merciful God.
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is ‘he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’” (John 6:32-33)
When Israel was rescued from slavery in Egypt through the miraculous opening of the Red Sea, they found themselves in the desert.
At that time, instead of looking to the God who had just brought them through the Red Sea on dry ground, they could only look at their present circumstances.
“We have nothing to eat! We have no food or water! Did God bring us out here to die?”
They wanted to leave their leader, Moses, and find a new leader that would lead them back into slavery just so that they could eat the food they were used to eating!
I imagine that today that in many churches there are some people who are wondering whether or not to leave the church and go back to life as a non-Christian.
If you feel this way at all, I encourage you to listen carefully to God’s Word this morning.
The Bible says that God miraculously provided for the Israelites in the desert.
“The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot and made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna came down also.” (Numbers 11:7-9)
Despite their complaining, God sent “manna” or bread that fed them everyday.
And not for just a few days, but every day for forty years!
And God will feed us in every situation so that we can follow Him.
Still these Israelites did not rest in and trust God, but continued to look to their negative circumstances alone and continued to complain.
And sadly some of us still do this today.
We give little or no thanks for life and the ability to think and work.
We give no thanks for little things like air and water and food and a million other things that we freely receive and enjoy everyday.
But yet when even a little bit is taken away, we start to accuse God, as if we sit as judges over him.
In both America and Japan we often read or hear people say, “Surely God does not exist if he would let things like these happen.”
All the while we are forgetting how much we ourselves have ignored God and His amazing daily blessings.
And just as the generation of doubting Israelites were punished and not able to go into the land God promised to them, we will not be able to go into the promised land of heaven because we have rejected God.
But God is a God of mercy.
We all complain at times and our focus slips to our circumstances, but Jesus says that all we need to do is simply rest in Him and receive Him as our food.
Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.” (6:29)
We need food to live, but more than physical food our souls need Jesus, we need to rest in and feed off God Himself in every circumstance.
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)
Jesus is the only lasting satisfier of our souls. And Jesus is the true bread and the true life-giving water for our souls’ thirsts.
Not a church, not a pastor, not a new house, not good health, not a high paying job.
None of these things will ever give us fullness of joy and life forever.
Jesus says, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.” (v. 49-51)
Jesus gave his own body, his own body and shed His own blood to provide eternal forgiveness for the sins of all who would simply believe and receive Him.
Now that He has risen from the dead, if we take His resurrection life as our life, if we eat this bread, if we live off Jesus Christ in God for our heart needs,
We will not only live life to the fullest, we will live with God in heaven forever.
And the good news is that you don’t have to be rich to get it,
You don’t have to have everything figured out,
You don’t even have to go to the perfect church,
No, the gift of fullness of life in Christ forever is free, independent of our outward circumstances – to all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
That is the good news – that is the gospel.
If you know the story of Anpan-man you have the idea.
Jesus says, “Eat me – take from me, live from me.
Let my life be your life and you will live – and have life to the fullest.”
Jesus says in v. 40 - “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (say 2x)
In John 10:10 Jesus says, “…I have come that they might have life and life to the full.”
Now, how can we begin to focus our appetites more on God and less on this world?
To start with, we need to admit that without Christ we are all completely blind and dead spiritually already.
We cannot focus on God more than the world, unless God performs a miracle in us.
In v. 44 Jesus knows that we are so weak and helpless that he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
Only by God’s power can we taste God's goodness, believe in Him through Jesus Christ and be saved from our addiction to this world.
Let us plead with God that by His power He will wake us up and give us spiritual eyes to see and taste buds to taste His amazing goodness.
Second, we need to ask Him to help us focus our lives and heart on God in all things, because we all naturally tend to focus too much on our outward circumstances.
The apostle Paul need to remind the church at Corinth that we are to consciously, “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:8
Instead of putting fast food into our souls every day, we have to get away and take time to focus and enjoy slow-cooked dishes like Isaiah 55:1-2, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me; hear that your soul may live;”
We have to slow down enough to spiritually taste and see verses like Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does he prospers.”
And we need to be reminded of the only other option: “The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
Either we are hot or cold for God, lukewarm is not an option.
Either we are filling ourselves with life-giving bread and water, or drying up like chaff.
Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that may test and approve what is the will of God; his good pleasing and perfect will.”
Therefore our work as Christians is to not focus on the food that perishes, but to believe and focus on the bread of life, Jesus Christ, who will satisfy every need we have and transform us into joy-filled followers of God.
Psalm 1 says that either we are those who delight in the bread of God’s word and are filled with life by His goodness and are flourishing like a tree planted besides streams of water,
or we are slowly drying up and dying like chaff that the wind will drive away.
Either we are eating and enjoying God through His Word and are growing, or we are slowing dying inside.
We cannot stay in the same place.
Of course being a Christian doesn’t mean you will never choose the wrong way.
But it does mean that we will have it in our hearts, by God’s grace, to seek God’s goodness, even if we lose focus again and again.
Paul the apostle said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ has made me his own.” – Phil. 3:12
Jesus takes hold of us, and even when we let go and sin at times, he hangs on and will lead us back to holding onto Him.
Therefore, it is not by our willpower that we continue as Christians, but by His Spirit we are given faith to enjoy God and continue the race.
Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh (human effort) is of no avail. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:63, 65)
I believe Jesus is saying the same words he said to us that he said to the church at Laodicea so long ago – “be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.” (Rev. 3:19-20)
Jesus is speaking to us today through His Word.
Jesus wants not only to be our food and our life,
He wants to fellowship personally with us and be our closest friend
And He wants to be our Father God, our leader and provider in all the hunger and storms of life.
He wants us not only to eat from His goodness, but He wants to live life with us.
He wants to be our greatest joy, and our focus in all circumstances, good or bad.
The question is, will we open the door and let Him live with us daily?
Will we open the door to Him daily for fellowship and for life-giving nourishment?
Jesus wants to be our comfort and our joy.
If you want that then Jesus is saying to you, “be no longer lethargic and spiritually blind, be zealous and repent.”
Set a time when you can quietly spend time with Him in the Bible and in prayer each day. A time when you can reset your focus on what truly matters in life.
In Psalm 63:3 David says, “The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life.”
Desire the true riches of knowing God and the true spiritual food of being with Jesus in His Word more than the temporary things of this world.
It will not be easy, but Jesus promises this:
“The one who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” - Rev. 3:21-22
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)