Michael's Blog

Daniel In Parallel

2010-12-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

I'd decided to stop writing this blog because of lack of material and lack of time. No sense in keeping up something that isn't being contributed to, right?

But I ran across something in reading Daniel that needed to be shared.

Who knows, maybe this will launch me back into writing regularly. Hope so, anyway.

--

In Sunday school we are covering the book of Daniel via the "Be Resolute" book by Warren Wiersbe. It's a good deep study behind what makes Daniel tick, along with expounding on what God was doing behind the scenes.

We just finished chapter 4 of Daniel, discussing the last days of Nebuchadnezzar, with the culmination of his 7 year discipline for being such a prideful beast of a man, and basically making a profession of faith, before his son Belshazaar took the throne.

The study up to this point took about 3 months, so it was a very in-depth look, just at the relationship between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar.

I am also doing daily bible readings using the Our Daily Bread devotional (free, if you're interested here's a link). On top of the devotional itself, centering on a specific passage, there is a set of chapters that will get you through the Bible in one year.

Surprise! Today's reading is Daniel, chapters 1 and 2.

I went into this thinking, "Yeah, maybe there's something God wants me to see that I didn't pick up on in the previous 3 months of going through it." And you know what, there was something in there I didn't expect.

--

At the end of chapter 4, the following events have happened:

Daniel and his three friends impacted the guards when turning down royal food in favor of water and vegetables, proving their allegiance to God was more important that defiling themselves with food sacrificed to idols
They also avoided being killed when they were able to describe and interpret the king's dream (when no one else could)
Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael declined to worship the king and were thrown into a furnace, and they survived
Nebuchadnezzar was challenged by God with another dream in which his pride was going to be punished, and it was for 7 years.
When the 7 years was done, Nebuchadnezzar finally gave glory to God, completely, acknowledging that He is in control of all things. This appears to be as close to a profession of faith as you can find in the Old Testament.

--

You notice things when reading through a second time. Starting off, Nebuchadnezzar was being used by God to punish the Israelites, while at the same time, setting him up to be affected by a group of godly men in a way that would change the most powerful kingdom ever to rule.

Let that sink in. God used Nebuchadnezzar to punish Israel, while at the same time getting Daniel and his three friends in a position to positively affect Babylon. God does cool things like that a lot.

Just thought I'd share.

Step by Step

2009-08-24T17:06:00.001-07:00

Wow. It's been awhile. Last publish was back in December.

So I guess it's about time.

I wanted to share with you my thoughts on how people arrive at their ideas.

It struck me that no matter how different people get idea-wise--how they approach ideas or their own leanings--it's because there are thousands, if not millions, of steps to that point.

It's like taking a step in a random direction, and then seeing where you are in relation to everyone else. After thousands of steps, you may not be in the same zip code as other people.

The steps aren't random though. Each idea that you take in actually builds upon the previous ones.

However, it's not just random ideas so much as it is the people behind the ideas. If you really get down to brass tacks, you will find that people don't follow ideas, they follow people.

And when people follow other people, it becomes a lot less random.

People all start out at the same place. As they get older they become introduced to different sources of information, which in turn varies where they go.

Christians are attacked because of their ideas, when it's pretty obvious there's a path from where they were to where they are. There is a progression that led them to where they are, and leading them to where they're going.

These attacks do not make sense. If how people think is governed by what information is introduced to them, then why are Christian ideas considered invalid?

More information is available from God. God Himself is another source of information--information you can't get from any person, any group of people, any groupthink.

And it's not like we're trying to hide it from everyone else--we're actually commanded to share what we know about God.

But how many times are we struck down or labeled because of what we're trying to say? People get their ideas from other people--so what's wrong with these ideas?

Is this information somehow wrong? How can someone who thinks God doesn't exist confirm whether an idea about God is wrong? It's impossible.

Think about it. There is a completely different source of information out there, but some will refuse to explore the option.

Maybe what God says flies in the face of how they want to live their life.

But is that really an excuse to not pursue God?

---

There is no such thing as true relativism. If there were, people wouldn't care about what Christians had to say. It would just be a bunch of words. But continually, there are foul words about what we believe.

But something about what we're saying hurts. And it's just words. We can't make you feel guilt, or conviction or anything else about your life. Anything you feel in response to what we say, that's coming from inside.

Encouragement During Economic Downturn

2008-12-22T08:38:00.001-08:00

I posted this on the church newsgroup last week:

It seems like lately we only ever hear about the bad stuff happening in the job market. Last night on here, I saw at least 3 posts about someone getting laid off. That, coupled with what the media is constantly saying, it appears that all we ever hear about is the bad news.

But, there is some good news. Obviously, none of this surprises God. He knew this was coming trillions of years ago, and He's not chewing His fists over the status of this nation's economy--and neither should we.

God has always supported us. I think about how chaotic the world would be if God didn't maintain control of it. For the most part, we have jobs already, which is more than some of the most impoverished places can say. For that we should be really grateful.

God may be using this time to "shuffle the deck"--shake up the population to get them in a prime position for spreading the Gospel even further. You hear about people one or two at a time being inserted into secular society and seriously leveraging people toward Christ, but with the moving and shaking going on in the job market, God might possibly be using this evil for good by shoehorning thousands of people in places where otherwise an opportunity wouldn't be present.

For those of us looking for jobs, I'd like to share a word picture. I play computer games, and if I have to kill monsters to get a certain kind of item, I find that 99 times out of 100 the monster drops something totally useless. But it's exciting, because every time that killing blow lands, I wonder, "Could this be it??" Usually it's something dumb--but that's okay because there are 99 other monsters left.

The same idea I carry into interviews. You might go to 100 interviews and bonk on 99 of them... but that last one that pays off is finally it. And as a bonus, while it seems like it's taking forever to find something else, it won't seem like it took as long when you're finally at the new job.

Also, this is prime opportunity for us to not put God in a box. As some of you know, both Charlotte and I are looking for something different job-wise. Lots of prayer has gone into this. The other day I received a note from a headhunter regarding a temporary gig for about 8-12 weeks. Here was my train of thought: Is it a job? Yes. Is it secure? Probably not, but you know what? God is in control. I can't cherry pick the opportunities because I don't see security in something lasting 8-12 weeks. I also shouldn't see security in any job because as we know too well, people get laid off sometimes, even in a "permanent" position.

I couldn't help but think this was how Abraham felt when the Lord told him to go to a country that He would talk about later. Didn't even give him a destination, He just said, "It's south." That's even LESS secure than anything we can face, and yet the Lord did some wonderful things with Abraham because of his faith in the Lord.

I heard a sermon one time about a guy equating God to a mapmaker. The theme was "Why would anyone want to march off their map?" Why would anyone want to trade what's comfortable, visible and traversable for something unknown, "out there" somewhere? There's only one reason why someone would want to do something and it's this: They've talked to the Mapmaker.

Folks, we know the Mapmaker. Yes it’s uncomfortable to walk off the map, but there comes a point where the only way to take the next step in your faith in Christ is to make the next step be off the map. The Lord’s not going to steer you wrong and He can put us in places so much better than anything we can decide for ourselves, because He has the kind of sight to know what’s best.

I don’t know if this spoke to anybody but it feels like I’m done. Hope everything is going well for everybody.

Love you all,
Michael Fritzius

Arguing Into The Kingdom

2008-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have to give an apology.

For years I have been steeped in the idea that arguing one's beliefs are just part of Christian life. I come from a long line of debaters and can clarly remember the highlight of any family gathering being an argument of Some Kind was going to happen. Every time, without fail, there would be some kind of verbal brawl.

But I was convicted on the way home today. There was a program on the radio that shot right through me, and one of the things that really stuck out was when he said, "You can win the argument, but lose your audience."

I could argue about whatever, and it still wouldn't accomplish the goal I thought the arguing was meant for. There could be 100% of the facts on my side, and I could even possibly convince the other person I was right about my faith, and it still would not matter. That freshly-convinced person with all the head knowledge would still go to Hell.

Faith isn't a brain excercise, it's a heart issue, and I can't convince someone's heart to change. When I look in the Bible and see that Jesus never argued with anyone, just simply acted or quoted scripture, it hurts me. It hurts because now I realize that I haven't been representing Christ in this area of my life. It shows that my actions on this blog really is a poor witness, and when I go back and see that I've written this:

This whole blog, including the arguments we have, is meant as a witness for what God's done in my life.

And now I'm sitting here thinking, wow, what a great way for me to show what God's done in my life. By arguing. Instead of spending time coming up with actual USEFUL blog entries, that minister to Christians, or flesh out some other ideas about the Bible, I argue.

One thing a good friend uses during sermons is, "It's not about being right, it's about being rescued." I really never understood that as fully as I do now.

Nobody can be argued into God's Kingdom, and Christians aren't called to debate their beliefs.

Anonymous, I wish I could get across how sorry I am for fighting with you about beliefs. The truth is, unless God does the saving work in a heart, none of what I say matters. If I could change your mind, it wouldn't matter, because head knowledge isn't what God is looking for. My true goal in that was for you to know Christ, and I've failed at showing what He's even like. As I've said above, He didn't argue points, just acted to show His character.

Wax On, Wax Off

2008-06-25T08:06:00.001-07:00

If you've seen "The Karate Kid", you know about Mr. Miyagi.

If you're not familiar with this guy, allow me to explain.

In "The Karate Kid", a young guy is troubled by getting picked on, so he approaches Mr. Miyagi about teaching him some karate. Instead of karate though, he gets taught how to "sand the floor", "paint the fence" and waxing the car, using the elusive "wax-on wax-off" technique. Further, when the kid tries taking shortcuts to do the job faster, Mr. Miyagi comes out and corrects him. One scene showed the kid (Daniel) sanding the deck until night, and instead of using the two hand-sanders, he was using both hands on one. Mr. Miyagi called him on it, showing him the right way yet again--do a few circles with the left, and a few with the right. Left-a circle, Right-a circle. Finally the kid gets upset and complains that all he's doing is being used for odd jobs... and it turns out that the way the jobs were done were training him for karate. The same weird, unefficient moves that were used in sanding the floor, painting the fence and waxing the car were ideal for defending against punches and kicks.

Today I'd like to talk about how God sometimes plays the Mr. Miyagi card.

We're human. Sometimes we take shortcuts in life. The things we used to do the "right way" evolve into doing things the "better way"... better because the job the procedure is applied to gets done faster, or with less energy.

God sometimes gives us stuff to do, not just to keep us busy, but to train us for something else later on. There is a "better way" that we can do it--a way that makes it easier on us--but are we defrauding ourselves out of bigger lessons that could be learned by doing it the right way? How often do we think that God is focusing on the job at hand, when He's really not, and we concern ourselves with getting the job done well?

I just got done reading 1 Samuel 13, and the part where Saul chose to make the sacrifice instead of waiting on Samuel really stands out. Samuel was the one that was supposed to do the sacrifices, but Saul chose to do it when Samuel hadn't shown up by the proper time. Saul's reasoning was that the sacrifice needed to be done so that his army would defeat the Philistines, and Samuel wasn't there, so the next best thing was to just do it himself. Instead of using biblical ethics, he used situational ethics.

That wasn't the proper response. Putting that rule in place wasn't for Samuel's job security, it was for people to learn to trust and wait on the Lord. Samuel was God's prophet, so if he really needed to be there at a particular time, God would get him there on time. Saul's reaction to this really revealed what was in his heart. When things got dicey, Saul trusted in himself, not in the Lord.

So, my point is, think about what things are going on it your life that God's given you to do. What kind of work is going on inside you that seems indirectly related to the job? Don't short yourself by doing things the quick way if the right way nets you more growth in your faith in the Lord.

Behind the Scenes 3

2008-06-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Received another comment from Anonymous:

Your opinion does not change the fact the invisible fairies are true either. What kind of argument is that? There are books dedicated to the question of where "morals" and a sense of right and wrong come from. Simple answer, if society doesn't figure out that lying and throwing rocks aren't productive, its a society that doesn't last long. When you treat people nicely, you feel nice as well. It isn't some magical being who channeling rules into our heads. If what your talking about is truly unknowable and you concede that point, then you still remain ignorant in your description of it. Merely asking the question doesn't get you off the hook. Atheists who haven't moved things along? Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, Einstein...you've reduced this to name dropping because of your ignorance? The fact that you end on the absolute ridiculous Pascal's Wager only shows just how little you know what your talking about. Didn't you know the only people god lets into heaven are the people who have the gull to disbelieve in him? Are you willing to gamble? Understand how ridiculous you sound, then try again.

Your opinion does not change the fact the invisible fairies are true either. What kind of argument is that?

You're not getting what I'm saying here. Neither of our opinions have any effect on whether what I'm saying is true.

There are books dedicated to the question of where "morals" and a sense of right and wrong come from. Simple answer, if society doesn't figure out that lying and throwing rocks aren't productive, its a society that doesn't last long. When you treat people nicely, you feel nice as well. It isn't some magical being who channeling rules into our heads.

If what your talking about is truly unknowable and you concede that point, then you still remain ignorant in your description of it.

I never said it was unknowable.

Merely asking the question doesn't get you off the hook. Atheists who haven't moved things along? Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, Einstein...

I was thinking sarcastically along the lines of Hitler and Stalin...

you've reduced this to name dropping because of your ignorance? The fact that you end on the absolute ridiculous Pascal's Wager only shows just how little you know what your talking about.

All I did was state a two-variable problem: Either this is true or false, and what would be the possible reactions to it? Even looking at it from a utilitarian point of view, the choice is obvious.

Didn't you know the only people god lets into heaven are the people who have the gull to disbelieve in him? Are you willing to gamble? Understand how ridiculous you sound, then try again.

Anon, I haven't made fun of you, or called you names on your blog, so don't track mud through mine, ok? I'm not required to sit here and reason with you. You and I have got two totally different ideas on what's true and what's false.

I'm required to witness what's happened to me, to people around me. That's why it's called "witnessing"--it's because I was there when it happened, and I was who it happened to. You weren't there. So stating that what I'm saying is false because it's never happened for you is moot. Stating that it's false because you don't believe in God is moot. And really, if I said it's true
because I believe in it, that would be moot.

We're going to round and round on this because I'm talking about absolute truth, not this "It may be true for you, but it's not true for me," stuff. This is the kind of real truth that exists regardless of if everybody believes it's false. It's true... and it doesn't care what any of us think.

This whole blog, including the arguments we have, is meant as a witness for what God's done in my life. You can say anything you want about how I'm deluding myself, or how I'm blinding myself to the truth, but everything you're saying about it goes against Truth. That doesn't make you differently-opinioned, it makes you wrong.

There. I said it.

I'm sorry that I can't pull God out of my back pocket and say, "Here's God. He's real. Repent and believe." The only thing I have for you is my witness of what God's done in my life. I didn't choose for it to happen. I didn't wake up one day and say, "It's a slow day, I think I'll get saved." It wasn't on my own terms. Most Sundays I'd go to church and sit under preaching, and come
home and sin dozens of ways and none of it would bother me. There was a little bit of niggling in the back of my mind about how I was living my life, but I could squash that down easily enough and keep going. I also made sure to pray for forgiveness so I could live like I had a license to sin.

One day though, I remember looking in the mirror and suddenly I realized what a mess my life was. No lead-up to this point, just WHAM, I was convicted. It wasn't my timing, and up to then, teachings just kind of slid over my head. I cannot explain why it happened when it did other than it being supernatural.

Such a radical change has happened in my life, and already I know you might say it's just a bunch of psychological misfirings or mental conditioning, but I'll explain anyway. I wish you had been my right-hand man five years ago, going with me everywhere I went and doing everything I did. If you were, you'd see how different things are now.

Everything about me has changed.

The best way I can describe it is, I'm a changed person inside and out. What's more, I can look back and compare to how I USED to act, and what my responses USED to be to certain things, and it's totally the opposite. My motives are different. Now, everything I do is for God's glory. I belong to the Lord. I use the word "belong" because the evidence of what He's done is so clear to me that it's like looking down and seeing a brand on my skin. There is no doubt.

Anon, I've given you some of my background in the past, back when we first met. You know that my line of work requires some intelligence. Does it even seem possible that I could switch it off in favor of believing in some cosmic vending machine?

Behind the Scenes No. 2a

2008-06-04T07:50:00.001-07:00

Received a comment from someone curious about the goings-on at camp:

I read the blog "The Camps, and a Prayer Request" and then I read the comment posted by anonymous. Wow! I don't think two people could have beliefs/opinions any different than these two. I'm curious...did the kids have to be forced to sit and listen to the preaching or were they there because they wanted to be there? Does God really want to send everyone to hell? Were the kids hyped up about what they heard, forced or not? How do people know where to find a passage in the Bible that suits their situation? Where do I turn to find help?

I'm curious...did the kids have to be forced to sit and listen to the preaching or were they there because they wanted to be there?

The kids and staff were sent rules and schedule and what's going to happen at the camp. Everybody knew way ahead of time that coming to the camp means they would hear some preaching. We did keep a schedule on when things happened. They weren't forced though, and many stayed around in small groups discussing what they'd just heard.

Does God really want to send everyone to hell?

Of course not. This is why He sent Jesus for us to take the punishment on His behalf. Up until Jesus' crucifixion, people were responsible for providing for their own sacrifices. The reason for this is that God told the people these sacrifices were just a shadow of a perfect Sacrifice that would come later on. They were told to excercise faith in God's promise, that it would be fulfilled, and if they did their sins would be forgiven. Jesus was that perfect Sacrifice.

How do people know where to find a passage in the Bible that suits their situation? Where do I turn to find help?

If you're looking for a particular type of passage, a Nave's Topical Bible should help. Verses and chapters can be found based on subject matter. If you're looking for help, and you're not a Christian, please don't waste time. The Bible says that if you seek after God with all your heart, soul and mind, He will be found. If you have a healthy fear of Hell then I would say you're probably pointed in the right direction.

Hope this helped.

Behind The Scenes No. 2

2008-05-22T18:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another edition of Behind The Scenes. I suspect the next comment is from someone who visits this page regularly. So here's his comment, and here's my reply:

Of course they "can't help" but talk about god when the idea is unceasingly shoved down their subjective little throats. You people are useless. Spend time at a food shelter or something, stop sitting around pretending the voices in your head are divine. Grow up and be a man and forgo this imaginary friend that who's sadistic desires would see you burn in hell for eternity. I wish people like you would maybe read history books or study something productive so we can maybe cure cancer or not lose ground to China and India. No, lets all get into a hyped up hysteria induced coma and and smile as the drug slowly runs through our veins. You lie and pretend to know anything about something allegedly outside of what it is possible to know. You lie to children and yourselves about what is happening in your life. It's sickening. You pretend like no other cultures existed with any sense of right or wrong before Jesus. You pretend like your "perfect bible" makes any sense when your just as quick to pick and choose which passages best suit your needs for the time against any atheist you'd levy such a charge against. You deny thousands of years of scientific understanding, of pure human struggle for understanding, and shit on it when you worship your own mental impediments. It is because of people like you that I have lost any real hope in our species to last indefinitely. You will forever be responsible for perpetuating ideals and lies that clog men's minds and retard progress. I don't care how good believe this crap makes you feel. I don't care how much you believe its real. You are in denial, you need help and its not going to be from an invisible sky daddy.

Anonymous,

Why do you think that personal attacks are going to have any effect on me?

Where else but in the realm of persecuting Christianity can one claim that “I don’t see this, therefore it’s false”? Your opinion about anything I write here has no bearing on whether it’s true or not. Do you understand what I’m saying? Stop spewing out these half-baked remarks, and putting words in my mouth, and actually listen to what Christians truly believe. I’m afraid the only exposure you’ve had are the pinatas that the media pundits put up for ridicule. Allow me to set the record straight.

You pretend like no other cultures existed with any sense of right or wrong before Jesus.

This is news to me. I’m fully aware of Hammurabi’s Code that would show that people had a sense of right and wrong way before Jesus showed up in the New Testament.

Where do you think the ideas of right and wrong even came from? Do any other holy books explain the origin of these concepts?

You lie and pretend to know anything about something allegedly outside of what it is possible to know.

How could you possibly know if I’m lying if what I say is truly unknowable?

You pretend like your "perfect bible" makes any sense when your just as quick to pick and choose which passages best suit your needs for the time against any atheist you'd levy such a charge against.

You sound just like the complainers talked about in Luke 7:33-34. You’re not happy with someone just giving you a Bible, and you decry anybody who dares target your accusations with specific scripture. I’m sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.

To sum things up:

Basically you’re calling me blind to some kind of “truth” when I claim to see something you can’t see. You claim I’m lying about something that YOU can’t see, therefore I must be the one that’s wrong. Give me a break.

You won’t actually deal with what I’m saying, instead accusing me of being some short-sighted bigot, and then you fill up my blog with nothing but opinion about what you see in your limited view of Christianity.

I’m sorry you think that we’re slowing people down, but last I checked, I just can’t find any examples of atheists who have moved things along.

The problem here is that you cannot understand spiritual things because you are spiritually dead. The Bible describes this condition. And again, I can’t say this enough--your opinion does not matter when it comes to the truth.

God has made Himself very available. You might say He doesn’t exist, but can you know that for sure, or is that more opinion? Have you even tried looking, or is this just wishful thinking? I just can’t get over how foolish that argument sounds about claiming something isn’t there because you can’t see it, but never checking to see if your eyes are even working properly.

You don’t like the idea of there being a God that will hold you accountable for your life. Every day you live without Jesus is one more day that God’s wrath piles up a little more. I don’t know how you expect to stand up against the Creator of the universe when He hauls out this laundry list of offences that you don’t care about right now. He’s not some angry little kid throwing a temper tantrum. He is the most high Judge you’ll ever face, with a standard of holiness NONE of us can measure up to. There are no other gods to run to, and there is nowhere to hide. He’s the only game in town. He’s God. He is infinitely holy. He doesn’t answer to you. He made you for His glory, not yours. Claiming ignorance will not help since you already know the difference between right and wrong.

So what are you going to do? Are you actually going to do something about how much trouble you’re in, or are you going to risk everything on the dumbest gamble of your entire life?

The Camps, and a Prayer Request

2008-04-21T06:58:00.002-07:00

Long time no see. Down to business.

CAMP NUMBER ONE!

Two weeks ago, there was a Grace Camp Meeting at Rockport Baptist Church which featured a number of great speakers. I really hope these guys preach this hard all the time, because I know that if I were preaching at a church, I'd be taking the street-sweeper approach, being as true to the Bible as I could be, but not worrying about opinions :) Just like Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, the message brought by God, (and ideally, by the people preaching it) shouldn't bring peace, but a sword.

There were a number of people who had to take a startling look at their own lives and realize they aren't as safe as they thought they were. Can I make this clear? We should not assume we are as safe as we are if our faith is based on an assumption other than what Christ did for us. This message brought a sword to what they were basing their faith on instead of bringing them peace about some "decision" they made.

And there was such a variety of sermons, all different topics, the whole thing was just like a taste of Heaven. So awesome. The fellowship was intense, we sat around discussing what we heard, and everything just seemed to be so God-focused. I'm just sorry I can't remember more because the details are fuzzy.

All the sermons (along with others that we post from a church normally) can be found at SermonAudio I've had an account with them for forever, and I don't know if hoops are to be jumped through. If you can't easily get an account and download stuff, let me know and I'd be happy to post them up on here.

CAMP NUMBER TWO!

The other camp, which is not so fuzzy because we just got back from it two days ago, was a youth camp out at Bates Creek. This was the second time I've ever been to Bates Creek, and it's with a bunch of people who grew up there for the most part.

I'm used to the kind of camps that focus more on activities than study and worship. The worship was like an afterthought put there by people who suddenly realized, "Oh. That's right, this is a church camp. We should talk about God or something."

And I feel bad for saying that, because in all probability, if they had a sample of what it was like at THIS camp, they probably would have structured it differently. But many churches seem to flock together on how they organize stuff, and this was at a time when packages and programs were what was being used. I remember at K-thru-six camp, they always had some kind of theme that the skits and activities centered around. I mean seriously, it came in a kit. A box, ok? And you could find it at a Christian bookstore. The kit was the size of a suitcase and in it, you found all the ideas you wish you had about how to keep kids distracted during a church camp. Youth camp wasn't much different. It just had loud concerts and the sermons were about topics geared toward that age bracket instead of the overall goal of learning more about God.

You want to know what kind of program we had for this camp? We had preachers preach. People brought their skillsets and used them for the glory of God and for service. One guy works at Starbucks and he brought out all his coffee paraphernalia and brewed coffee for people. We had people who were called "Ninjas" whose sole purpose was to serve and not draw focus to themselves. The sound guy brought his skills, and I'm glad, because I didn't know a thing about wiring up the sound in the tabernacle. There were fierce 3 on 3 basketball games and muddy volleyball to be had. The cooks made good food.

The main difference here was that, with kids at the first camp, their goal was to go to camp, get away from the folks for awhile, and have some fun. They got it. Those same kind of kids came to our camp, and instead of the focus being the fun, they found God waiting. And then they had better fun.

The last session, Aaron got up and asked if anyone had anything to say before we left. I came down front and spoke, and one thing I noticed was that I saw a lot of smiling faces. I mean tons. These are the kids in the age group whose cliche thing is not showing much emotion, just kind of mumble-grumbling along, not really caring. Apathy. But I saw smiles. And they weren't smiling because we'd gotten them high emotionally--some hard stuff was preached and it really turned heads the first night--this was solid smiling. I told them, "You all have learned some heavy stuff, and you'll be going back to school and home and to friends and talking about what you learned." For the hecklers on this blog, I want to point out that it's not because we made this into some kind of "Jesus Camp", but because what they learned, they can't HELP but to talk about.

The first night there, Scott preached a sermon. My wife was a "mole" in the audience (read: group leader) and she told me later on that a lot of kids around here were being really disrespectful until about a fourth of the way into the lesson. Then they totally got caught by what he was saying.

Afterwards, a young guy from Grubville was coming up and just started talking to me (his group was in the same cabin as ours) and was just BEAMING with CONFUSION or SOMETHING. And I said to him, I said, "Do you need to have a sit-down or something?" and he's like, "I don't know!" What he'd heard was so unexpected and true that he didn't know how to process it. But he knew he'd heard good stuff.

Before we had the first session we had a small group time with the kids in the cabins. Basically just asking a few questions about what they thought they'd expect, what their backgrounds were, their hobbies, etc. Also we asked a few questions about the whole subject of the weekend, which was "Don't Waste Your Life" (a book by John Piper). Not many deep answers were given. After the first session, something happened and people were just bursting with answers and questions they never knew they had. Charlotte's cabin had used almost ALL of the 2-hour break between a session and lunch just to discuss what they'd heard.

The whole weekend was cold and wet, and the tabernacle we were in doesn't have any walls--just a roof. So wind was whistling through constantly. Most of the camp was muddy and wet. We almost lost a van in the swamp. Kids looked like giant mudballs. the preaching was hard material. And after all that, at the front of the group, they were smiling.

That's what I'm talking about. Praise the Lord.

PRAYER REQUEST...

I don't get on here enough and flesh out ideas that I get. I really do have a passion for blogging, and you have no idea how many things pop in my head and I think, "I should put that on the blog..." and then never do. I almost forgot my username and password to even get on here today. Please pray that I can make time to blog in the future.

Take care,

Divide and Conquer

2008-01-14T09:54:00.001-08:00

"You're Baptist and happen to be a Christian. I'm a Christian and happen to go to a Baptist church."

I heard this from my father-in-law yesterday regarding a thought he had about churches in this region.

Too often, we tend to want to label ourselves in favor of packaging our beliefs in a quick way so we, in a sense, give a mini-biography about our faith. In just the realm of Baptists, there are Southern, Reformed, Freewill, tons of others. Living on the fringe of the Bible Belt here, you can't throw a rock without hitting a church of some kind.

I'm starting to find it a bit distasteful that people, including myself, will tend to congregate with people of like beliefs. The funny thing is, I know that in my church of about 200 people, there is not a pair of people with the same exact theology as another person.

So why do we do it? My theory is that it's just sin at work dividing people into ever smaller groups.

The problem with this is that people will not get out of their little boxes and challenge themselves with "new" ideas about the Bible because they are surrounded with a group of people who believe a certain way by default--or they just won't be introduced to anything new. I really think that this is the reason we don't see as many revivals or reformations amongst us. The last time I heard of a huge change in ideology was started by a guy who's dead now.

We divide ourselves too much. The result of being divided into smaller and smaller groups is that Satan will pick them off with false truths and bend their learning slightly, and over time they will be so far off the mark that it's ridiculous.

I mean, how many times have we read that living the Christian life is like a war? It's not smart to take a tiny group of people away from a whole platoon of soldiers to do their own thing because they think they have it right is it? They'll most likely get blown into chunky bits because a small group is easier to take out than a bigger one.

So why treat church any differently? We shouldn't. Here's a list of things people have divided over that I can think of off the top of my head:

Music--hymns vs. contemporary; drums or no drums; too noisy, not loud enough
Hand raising--OMG YOU CHARISMATIC!!!11 vs. It doesn't bother me
Shouting during worship--Everybody's going to start doing it vs. Who Cares

This stuff isn't really worth dividing over, because that's the only thing it can do IS divide. What does Paul say about this kind of stuff? Basically that if something you're doing is offending a brother, cease doing it. It's implied that you shouldn't be grumbling about ceasing. But what's the ultimate goal here? It's unity, right? So wouldn't the ultimate goal be to just not get upset at all about this kind of stuff, to realize that these are really fringe issues (if they're even issues at all) and that it's MUCH more important to just maintain unity?

I don't know. I really hope that this rambling of mine is making some sense because I have what feels like an idea what looks like a plate of spaghetti that can't be untangled. I'm trying to just get across the idea of NOT dividing over minor issues.

Castrating the Gospel

2008-01-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday at the Men's Prayer Breakfast, one of us got up and talked about how important it is to not water down the Gospel in favor of making it easier to swallow.

There are a lot of teachers and preachers today that will avoid touchy subjects such as grace, salvation, sin, Hell, and a whole host of others. It's a huge problem because it means that there are thousands of people who aren't willing to tell people about the grievous disease of sin that they have that WILL kill them, and it's in favor of making sure people aren't offended or scared off.

And I'm really getting tired of seeing so many preachers absolutely refuse to engage on this topic. This is THE topic--the most important one. It's got peoples' souls at stake here, and preachers are dancing around it like something unclean.

As Christians, we are not called to treat the Gospel like a thing which can be talked about at a bare minimum, and receive a merit badge for it. No. No, we're called to be true to it, not to add or take away. The Gospel by itself is offensive to people who hate the idea that they need a Savior to get to Heaven, that they can't get there by themselves.

We so badly need a revival in this country. I almost weep when I hear teachers like Paul Washer come out and I'm just thinking, "Why can't everybody be like that?" This man has been banned from quite a number of places simply because he preached as if this was his only opportunity (and apparently it was). Why are we castrating the Gospel in favor of not offending people?

Please pray that more Christians have the fortitude to take this burden on in the future, especially our younger generations.

AWOL

2008-01-14T09:36:00.001-08:00

I am so sorry I haven't posted in quite awhile, but a lot of things have been going on.

First and foremost, as of October 6 2007, I got married to a wonderful, Godly woman named Charlotte.

That, in addition to an added workload at my jobs and teaching Sunday School, there's not been a lot of time to update.

So, the next entry will be what's on my mind.

Take care,

Michael Fritzius

Behind the Scenes No. 1

2007-08-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hey folks.

I want to try something new. For the first time since the start of this blog, I've received a couple of anonymous comments that challenge what I'm saying.

I'm fine with it. I'd be foolish if I didn't expect a public blog be challenged by people who have differing points of view. I'm not going to be some kind of nazi and police comments based on their content--but I'm also not going to let them just sit there in some dusty corner for someone else to find and wonder why I didn't address them.

With that in mind, the first (and I'm thinking, less serious comment) of the two is found in the entry Breaking Boards For The Glory Of God. Here the comment is in regards to masturbation:

Anonymous said...

masturbating relieves stress, helps prevent prostate cancer, and provides for better fertillity in the future. you should tell him to beat it all the more if he wants to feel better

Ok. Well the downside is that it misdirects the focus of sexual pleasure from your current (or future) spouse to yourself. Worse yet, he'd end up probably equating sex with what he gets out of it, rather than treating it as a giving of himself.

The first two reasons for continuing have holes in the logic. First of all, you do not need to masturbate to relieve stress. The stress relief comes from a release of endorphins upon orgasm, so it's more likely that the "stress" is caused by a light withdrawal from the endorphin rush that's caused by an orgasm. The problem with this argument is that whatever is causing the stress is still going to be there after you're done, but your body isn't going to be responding to it since it's had its fix.

If it's actual stress, then a better way to relieve it is to just fix whatever is stressing you out instead of wasting time beating off.

The second--preventing prostate cancer... Whoever wrote this probably isn't in danger of prostate cancer at his age, so if he's using this as an excuse then it's a total cop-out. But if you're that worried, then a foolproof way to catch this is to have regular check-ups. Prostate cancer is not dangerous if it's caught in time. It's the slowest growing cancer that a man can get and doesn't get really dangerous until late in the game. Personally, I'd rather know about it and have something done about it, rather than taking my chances by "reducing my chances".

The final reason, while not wrong, is still redundant. Yes, it may make you have more virile sperm, but you already have means of weeding out ineffective ones anyway. Your body absorbs sperm that aren't used so that "fresh" ones are always available.

You will not die of cancer, or go crazy because of stress, and your balls will not explode from not masturbating. So it's not something that needs to be done, and with that in mind, if all the positives are cancelled out, leaving only the negatives... then don't do it.

The second comment was left in an entry titled Finally:

Anonymous said...
I have actually gone to school as a bible critic and have studied extensivelly what parts made it in and what was left on the cutting room floor. I believe what that "quasi athiest" as you put it was getting at is there are hundreds if not thousands of little mishaps that have occured in the bible ending up in the different translations we have today. If even one word is changed in a passage it completely, and has completely, changed the meaning of what is being said. I don't think that you should renounced what "good" things you've learned from the book, but I would advise that you do some unbiased research of your own about the origins and contents of the "trusted" word.

Anonymous, I can tell you're a relativist. I see that you assume that my research is biased, with (I'm guessing) the reason being that you don't like the conclusions I've made.

Let me ask you this simple question: What makes you think you're right?

I've heard so many attacks against the Bible that aren't even backed up by examples. I would think that if the Bible is full of so many flaws and contradictions that, first off, Christianity would dwindle to extinction because of people becoming more intellectual, and second, people would at least present something instead of straw men and blanket generalizations.

I have actually gone to school as a bible critic and have studied extensivelly what parts made it in and what was left on the cutting room floor.

So you went to school and other people told you that the Bible was hacked, edited, and compressed for time and content to fit your tv, and you believed it. I can guarantee you that nobody who makes these claims was present at the time even one of the books of the Bible were written. How did they get their information then? Who told them? Who told the people who told them?

I believe what that "quasi athiest" as you put it was getting at is there are hundreds if not thousands of little mishaps that have occured in the bible ending up in the different translations we have today.

What I said to the person mentioned here was that there is no way to make a simple change to such a complex book as the Bible, and have it still be logically sound. There are still no contradictions in there. It's a conditional statement, and it implies that if a change would cause a contradiction... and there are no contradictions... then there have been no changes.

I'm not saying there aren't variants that DO have changes that DO change the meaning--those ARE the ones I'm decrying. But just because some of those exist doesn't mean that all Bibles, everywhere, printed at anytime, are flawed because of "guiltiness by association".

If even one word is changed in a passage it completely, and has completely, changed the meaning of what is being said.

That's true, but again, just having the possibility of that doesn't mean that every Bible is broken. And there are examples of a one-word change that totally uproots the true meaning of something. The Jehovah's Witnesses have re-worded the passage in John 1:1 from:

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

to:

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.

See? They've added a simple word--just a letter, really--and changed the whole idea of God's triune nature and made it seem like a polytheistic religion.

So yes, adding to or taking away from the Bible is alive and well. But ask yourself this: What are they changing it from? Doesn't having a ton of variants imply that there is an original, un-fooled-around-with version?

I don't think that you should renounced what "good" things you've learned from the book, but I would advise that you do some unbiased research of your own about the origins and contents of the "trusted" word.

Again, what makes you think I'm the one that's biased? Do you feel that you should be free to do whatever you want, whenever you want, as much as you want, regardless of responsibility for those actions? If you're human, then you do--all of us have that nature deep down. So if the Bible says that you're not made to give glory to yourself, but to God... and you really want to just give glory to yourself, all the time... then it's reasonable to say that the biased one here isn't me.

Anonymous, you need to understand that there's not a single person that knows everything, and that has everything right. No one. People, instead of taking the approach of saying, "Hey, I might be wrong about this," changed it to, "Hey, YOU are wrong about this." If I'm wrong, if the Bible is wrong, that implies that there's something it can be compared to that IS right, and you haven't presented anything to compare it against.

Can you see where I'm coming from? If it's possible to say that something is wrong, and it IS wrong, then there must be some kind of standard or model to compare it against. But you haven't got anything to compare it against, just your claim that it's wrong. So... I don't know what you expect me to do about this.

Breaking Boards For The Glory Of God

2007-07-17T07:36:00.001-07:00

Fighting sin is a lot like a karate chop.

I know a guy who decided to quit looking at porn and quit masturbating. He came to me and expressed some concern about the concept of never looking, ever again, and never touching himself, ever again. It's understandably hard to think about it, much the same way it would be for a drug addict to imagine never using their drug of choice, ever.

I told him, "Your focus is wrong. The sin is still the focus of your attention, even if you are saying 'I'm focusing on not sinning', because NOT sinning still puts the focus on the sin."

When we focus on not sinning, we still put the focus on sin--it's just what we do with it is different. The focus should instead be, How could I glorify God now that I'm not sinning like this?

This is why I'm saying that fighting sin is a lot like a karate chop. I've heard (and am not sure if it's true but will use the analogy anyway because that's how I roll) that when you go to break a board with a firm chop or punch, the focus should NOT be the wood. You want your hand, or fist, to get to a point two feet or so past the board. Just take your hand, and move it very quickly from where it's at, to the point behind the board. Guess what: The ultimate goal of breaking the board has been achieved but the focus was different.

The reason why they say to aim past the board is because when your focus is on the board itself, whether you realize it or not, your fist actually slows down enough that you will probably fail. Much the same way, you will probably fail if you focus simply on not sinning. You will sin though, and it's going to sting. It'll sting when you break the board as well, but not as bad as when your fist is stopped cold.

Snakes on a Spiritual Plane

2007-07-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading in Psalm 18 and a lot of things jumped out. Here it is for your convenience:

The Lord Is My Rock and My Fortress
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:
18:1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.

7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16 He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

20 The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
26 with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
27 For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 For it is you who light my lamp;
the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
29 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

31 For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
32 the God who equipped me with strength
and made my way blameless.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand supported me,
and your gentleness made me great.
36 You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
and did not turn back till they were consumed.
38 I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise;
they fell under my feet.
39 For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
you made those who rise against me sink under me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and those who hated me I destroyed.
41 They cried for help, but there was none to save;
they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them fine as dust before the wind;
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

43 You delivered me from strife with the people;
you made me the head of the nations;
people whom I had not known served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;
foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart
and came trembling out of their fortresses.

46 The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation—
47 the God who gave me vengeance
and subdued peoples under me,
48 who delivered me from my enemies;
yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me;
you rescued me from the man of violence.

49 For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations,
and sing to your name.
50 Great salvation he brings to his king,
and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his offspring forever.

When I got to my lowest point of sin I basically had the same response of just turning to God to help me. I can't believe how much my life mirrors this psalm in what He's done...

None of us can save ourselves from the kind of sin that is impulsive. That kind of sin is never satisfied with a status quo, it always wants more. The only way to get out is to just plead with God to take it from you.

Bear in mind that what I'm talking about here is the type of sin that is more of an addiction than anything else--the kind where you sin because of the manufactured desire to do it. All of us sin, even after we're saved but it's the "slip-up" kind, not the "gotta-do-it" sort.

I've been tossing the word picture around about describing sin as a giant boa constrictor. They're big, strong snakes and they kill by crushing... but they're not very fast creatures. You have to stand still for awhile for one to catch you, and even then, it takes a little while for it to get enough coils around you.

Then it starts squeezing.

How similar is that? How often do we not consider that sins like drugs, or lust, or pornography are like a very sneaky snake that WILL crush you if you stand still long enough? The first picture you look at or the first joint you smoke is like seeing the snake's head appear maybe a few feet away. But it's a few feet away right? And as long as it's over there you're safe. So keep puffing.

Pretty soon it's at your feet, kind of gliding across your shoes. Look, it doesn't even have fangs and if I stand still long enough it'll probably slither away. It can't bite me, so I'm not in any danger.

Then it's actually on you, maybe a few coils around the shoulders, around a leg, around the waist. This sure is a friendly snake, you think. But it's also fairly heavy and you can sense the rippling muscle underneath its graceful, beautiful yet deadly form.

And then it starts to squeeze.

See, the problem is that you didn't move. As soon as you saw the snake, you should have been in the next county. Why is it so hard to keep a presence of mind about ourselves to just watch out for snakes? We know they're out there.

Friends, please be aware that sin is a very real, very powerful and intelligent enemy. I used to play a game that was about a special ops team that would covertly do missions. A motto used in there was, "The more you sweat in peace time, the less you bleed in war." There is no better way to display the idea here, which is, if you think sin has given up attacking you, you're wrong. The best way to defeat an enemy is to wait between attacks. Constant wailing on a target just calluses them up and makes it more difficult to kill them, so sin will wait... for a more opportune time. Even Satan waited for a better time, and he was tempting Jesus.

Battles are often decided within the first conflict. An army will have the best chance of success when their enemy is caught off guard. Run in, kill as many as possible, and if not successful, then it'll be easier to pick them off later on.

Keep on your guard.

Purification

2007-07-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I was talking with my friend Billsey about the topic of purification. Something he said made certain verses stand out to me, and I'd like to share with you this possibly new angle.

Take a look at Phillipians 3:8

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

When I got ready to make this entry, I had to ask for that reference again so I wouldn't spend much time finding it. I was told this by him:

Philippians 3:8. In the King James the translators used "dung"; in the
NIV they used "rubbish". According to what I've always been told,
"dung" is the better translation. Remember to get the context.

The thing is, people often forget that being purified is a process that takes a lifetime. To use the analogy a little more bluntly, if being purified is like pooping, keep in mind that you (should) poop every day. You are getting rid of wastes that, if left in your body, can cause you harm or even become fatal.

Much the same way, in your Christian walk, if you don't take the time to purify yourself, or to let yourself be purified by God and the Word, you too will suffer the same result.

I get upset at myself that I'm still sinning. Looking back at my own life I see mistakes made that I can't take back, but then looking ahead there's a long way to go. It's hard.

The point of this entry is to let you know that the process of being purified is not something that will happen instantly. It will take ALL the time of your life, and then God brings you home. Most human attributes we try to apply to God are of things that would take time. For example: Smelting gold to burn off the dross... takes time. So does building, or creating a proper foundation. Purifying through fire is a time-taking task as well. Many things about God are in His own time. Our constant purification is one of these things.

Folks, don't let the slowness of purification stymie you. Tempering metal is not done with open flame but with hot coals. God is working to make you stronger, and this is something that will take time.

Take care,

Ministers of Holiness

2007-06-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile. A lot of things of note have happened lately which have kept me from updating. When people start prodding me for some output then I know it's time to say something ;)

Last night I was listening to the radio and the preacher on there was talking about how people are usually not prone to enter confrontations. They want to serve in church in the form of a missionary, or a deacon, or a teacher... but there's an often overlooked ministry that is quite crucial to a healthy church.

If Your Brother Sins Against You

Matthew 18:15-20

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Here we see the protocol for handling sin. I do not mean to quote out of context since this is for sins against a person and how they should handle it, but the idea I'm talking about leans heavily on this one. Firstly, it's handled in private. Failing that, a few people are made privy and then approach that brother. The last resort is to make it publicly known in church.

This is actually the most loving, and the most difficult, ministry of them all. What's being spoken of here is what that preacher phrased as a Ministry of Holiness.

It's not often done, but there are a few people who have a drive to get up to their armpits in other peoples' lives and take a good hard look at their sin. Sin will kill, if left untreated. Sometimes it takes someone who's willing to be a target of one's anger to get the point across that they cannot continue on like this.

The Christian is to show the kind of love that is only known when a person knows God. God constantly shows people their sin. What we need are people who are willing to actually ENFORCE holiness instead of standing idly by while their brothers and sisters in Christ are being killed by internal sins like pornography and adultery. It would be hard work, yes. But, think about this: After the fact, when they're pulled up out of those sins do you think they'll still resent you for what you've shown them? Definitely not. Taking the risk and possibly failing is tons better than not taking the risk at all and assuring their destruction.

If you feel like you want to have a ministry like this for someone, seriously consider the results of taking this on. It'd be a heavy burden. But we actually do need people that are willing to make sure that people in church are accountable for their lives outside of church, and that are willing to enforce the kind of holiness that God expects.

Shaken--Also Stirred

2007-05-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

So.

A lot's been going on lately.

Today at St. Arbucks, Aaron and I were discussing salvation.

It's really difficult to describe to someone who's lost what it truly means to be saved. In this country, the problem of the "once prayed always saved" mentality is pervading people young and old. The problem is that people treat Christianity like a title, or a license, and then live life no differently than anyone else.

I prayed a prayer when I was 8 or so and became a Christian. Honestly I don't remember a whole lot about that time in my life because I was 8. The thing is, after talking with Aaron, I'm not entirely sure I even was a Christian back then. I don't know, I mean maybe since I was so young, it was a fear of Hell that made me want to be saved.

Here's the problem: Until about 3 years ago I had slowly slid into a sinful lifestyle, and looking back, I noticed there was more of a "license" attitude toward my salvation.

Friends, I have to say, now more than ever there's a desire to serve the Lord and to show His glory to everyone around me. I have no idea how this happened unless a) this change comes about after a certain amount of time, much like growing a fruit tree, or b) I never really was a Christian.

This spooks me a little bit... Partly because if the second option is true, then I was dangerously close to being doomed to Hell until VERY RECENTLY. It's also spooky because... how many people are in that same predicament, thinking they're saved when it's really manufactured security?

Listen, if there's something I need to tell you, it's this: Make sure of your faith. If you consider yourself a Christian ask yourself, do you show the fruits of the spirit like kindness, charity, patience, perseverance, all the others? Most importantly: Does sin bother you? I can't stress this enough, friends... if you're living a lifestyle where you're not actively seeking to eradicate every foothold sin has in your life, you are probably not a Christian. Sin, to the true Christian, should be just as offensive as it is to God. There is no way for a Christian to be able to tolerate much sin, and it gets to a point where even "small" stuff will anger you. The Christian life is not passive, it's active. It's impossible to be sitting idle, not doing any of God's work, not serving others in some capacity, and be for real about this.

If you feel like you can't go there, don't look away. Take a close, careful look at yourself. By God's standards, are you a Christian or aren't you? What are your motives for living your current lifestyle? Are you living as if you are being watched by the Most Holy God, or are you living as if you've got fire insurance? If there's any doubt here, then please, please don't rest until you know for sure that you truly are one of God's children.

Sanctify yourself, every hour, every day.

I'm All Shook Up

2007-05-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hey.

So. Last Sunday a woman came forward at the end of the service and gave her testimony. She thought she'd been saved for quite awhile and only recently realized that wasn't the case, based on her mindset of a few things. All of us were really glad for her. I kind of noticed something weird about her before, like she was "out of phase" with the rest of us, but I guess wrote it off. I didn't know her well enough to make a call on whether she was a believer or not.

But then it had the effect of making me question myself. Am I really a believer? I mean, the only thing I know for sure is what's in my own mind and heart, and don't know what's going on in the minds and hearts of everyone else. What thoughts did she have in daily life before she realized she wasn't a true Christian?

So I prayed, and read, and was all over the place in the Bible today. Now I feel a little like someone who's just snapped out of a crazy fit and is sitting there wondering what just happened.

God is always with us, but is not always visible to us. I guess that's the main problem. But it's like being led through a dark place... if you can't see the one leading you, it doesn't mean they aren't there. They're leading you, so they have their hand on you or you're hanging onto a belt loop or something.

It's kind of funny, this happened to me right on the heels of me deciding I wanted to write an entry about 1 John for the people who questions whether they're of the faith or not. Surprisingly enough, all this ruckus has happened in the course of one day. I was fine yesterday, and the day before (Sunday) was the day I asked the pastor if he thought I was a Christian and he not only said he thought I was but pointed me to 1 John where I read and agreed that I showed the proper signs. There is absolutely NO reason for me to think, now, that I'm not a believer. With that out of the way, I'll start with the intended blog before something else goes crazy in me ;)

One of the best indications of true belief is found in Galatians 5:22-23. It says:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This is hot on the heels of the idea that if you are not of God, you cannot have these qualities, since to have them flies in the face of the natural man hating God. It doesn't serve the non-Christian to have these traits since the focus of natural man is Self, and the focus of Christians is God.

Then I read in 1 John, how it says that if you are a believer, you cannot continue in sin. I mean, it's an automatic thing, you just will gravitate away from sin and toward God.

And then again, where it says that the believer knows that Jesus was the son of God, that He really *was* God, and died for our sins. That price was paid for us so that we wouldn't have to.

So I look at my own life... Do I show these fruits? Yes. Do I continue in sin? Well, to borrow a phrase from someone I can't remember, I'm not sinless but I do sin less.

The problem here is, if you think you might not be saved, be sure that you're not forgetting something. God is at work all the time in those who truly believe. I guess it's an issue of being human, being forgetful, sometimes being in some kind of mental fog, that people get like this. I don't know. It's part of the human condition I suppose. Anyway, the point is, if you get like this and you wonder... am I just faking it? Ask yourself if how you feel about the Lord actually can be faked. If you love the Lord, there's no way it's fake because we cannot love Him through our own emotions--it comes as a direct result of Him first loving us. So right there, if you do love Him, it's a pretty big evidence toward you being a Christian.

Also, God will never start something in you He doesn't plan to finish. Maybe you're feeling a little spiritually stagnant or something. I've been there. There's no foul in praying for some "rain" in your life to keep things fresh. Renew yourself daily, preferably multiple times a day. Stay in the word. Today when I was talking to a fellow brother I mentioned that right now it was like I was in the middle of a desert. Things are fine when you can look around and see all kinds of reference points, or can clearly see a destination... but when it's nothing but sand dunes in every direction it's a little harder.

Sorry if this entry seems a little disjointed but I just needed to throw this out there. It's my sincere hope that if you're feeling a little unbalanced with your faith that something here can help.

God bless,

Finally.

2007-04-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

I just finished MacArthur's "Hard To Believe". It's a Hard to Read book. It's been awhile since I picked up something that hurt good. It's a good feeling. Kinda tickles.

Also I've added a link to M'Cheyne's Daily Bible Readings to the list on the right. If you click it, it takes you to today's selections. If you're not familiar with how M'Cheyne's works, the ones labeled "Family" are to be read by the husband to the family, and the ones labeled "Secret" are read individually. If you decide to start this, pick a time and regularly get everybody prepared to read the word, every night, at that time.

So now it's time for me to start the next book in this fat stack sitting on my dresser, which is "A Christian Manifesto". From Hermano Urn's report of the book it should shake me up a little. Good eatin.

I'm noticing more that most people who bear the title Christian aren't living up to their descriptions. There is a numbing sea of apathy amongst American Christians that is as far as the eye can see. I'm disturbed by the lack of ambition toward improving spiritual life and there are a huge amount of people who are content to just benchwarm at church. I may have said this on here already, I can't remember.

"Hard to Believe" hit on this fact pretty heavily. He doesn't waste any time getting to the point of saying that he doesn't make any assumptions about peoples' salvation. Never assume that a person who says they're saved really is.

I guess the way to describe how we should be towards people like this is to be what I could call "fire tenders". We should be working on stirring people up and keep them hot so they don't fall out and cool off. Intead, a lot of people are practicing a form of spiritual isolationism, forgoing fellowship in favor of treating church like a roll call is being taken. Blah.

In other news, I'm in contact with a young man who started off coming across as a quasi-atheist with some questions about the Bible. After a late-night visit to his blog I've noticed that he's more or less calling down anathema against everything God-related. I almost--ALMOST--left a comment... but chose not to because his commenting reader base seems to support this view and it's not my intent to make him look like a twit in front of his friends. One of the views is that the Bible shouldn't be trusted because if even one contradiction shows up, the whole thing is trash. I told him that if the Bible has been around this long after being attacked the same way for hundreds of years, it's probably pretty stable if people are still trusting in it. So he points me to the verses Deuteronomy 27:22 and Genesis 20:11-12. To save some time, here they are:

Deut 27:22 Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen'

Gen 20:11-12 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

He didn't even quote the verses themselves, just the references. I'm assuming he thinks there's a contradiction here because a rule instated in Deuteronomy appears to have been broken with God's sanction before it had even been invented... It would be like being arrested for selling whiskey 20 years before the Prohibition.

In a way, I'm thankful that people like him and the American Atheists organization exist. They have a tendency of shaking the fakers off that don't have true faith. I don't have a problem saying the Bible is true because there's some kind of God-given information inside me that I can't trace logically and can't just tell anybody about either. It's just THERE. I can't deny it, and I'd be a fool if I did after seeing what all He's done in my life.

Also, I've been pressed lately on the topic of Christian persecution. I don't know why. I read these stories about how Christians were killed for their beliefs and I wonder, what would I do if that started happening here? It's a distasteful thing to think about but it's a possibility. What would you do if someone held a gun to your child's head and threatened to shoot if you didn't recant your beliefs? This BUGS me. Not because of the situation but because I honestly don't know what I'd do. Even Peter denied Christ 3 times in a pretty short time span and he was RIGHT THERE with Him.

Today's Prayer:
Lord... there is a ruckus coming and I can feel it. I would ask that you watch over all of us who truly pursue the faith and strive to live for Your glory. It's a hard road, which is to be expected. We have no idea what in particular is on this road, but You do. It's one thing to say that we're ready and another to actually believe it. I don't know where I'm at on this, but I know that You have the power to strengthen us for what's ahead. I'm asking now Lord, that You please give us that thousand-yard stare that goes along with focusing on the eternal things so that the quick lives we live here aren't what we focus on. In Jesus' name, Amen.

This Is The Coolest Thing I've Seen All Day.

2007-04-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

Look at this.

What you're looking at is the Romanesco Cauliflower. It's in what's known as a fractal formation, meaning there's a pattern here that repeats itself.

You'll notice that it's made of small cones that get smaller as they spiral around the center axis until it reaches the end at the top. You'll also notice that each cone is actually made of even smaller cones that spiral around, and get smaller as they reach the top.

Design in action, folks. I just wanted to show you that not only did God make this example of His intellect, but also made it, for us, to taste good with ranch sauce.

Take care,

Some Emerging Problems.

2007-04-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

I've been a little remiss about posting this blog, not because I'm afraid of the subject matter but because until now I haven't been able to accurately explain my stance.

In case you've been out of the loop on this, in Missouri (and only, as far as I'm aware) there's a movement in churches to reach out in previously unconsidered or poo-pooed methods. It's known as the Emergent Church Movement.

A local church here has taken it upon themselves to have Bible studies at a nearby bar. This wouldn't make anyone bat an eyelash but for the fact that this church claims to be a reformed southern baptist church--not quite the kind of people you'd expect to see in a bar, much less conducting a Bible study in one.

On the MO Baptist Yahoo group, there's been a huge debate about whether it's biblical to drink. There are plenty of verses that can be spun either way but it comes down to the concept of: Does it say it's ok or not? The answer is: Neither. If neither is true then it's a moot point but now the two sides of the coin are: If it's not right or wrong, then why do it... and, If it's not right or wrong then why NOT do it?

Obviously this topic is causing a lot of debate and unnecessary fighting amongst people that were really close before. A church recently split up over this. So here's my take on it...

The drinking isn't what we should be focusing on. The problem is not that some Christians might drink and some might not, the problem is: Should this church be toeing the line on where they conduct their studies? Should they be using this bar as a guise of "fitting in" with nonbelievers? Shouldn't they be doing more to set themselves apart from the rest of the world--not in some prideful, snooty way, but in a holy way, where their actions belie a different root cause?

There's something extremely reckless about choosing to have a bible study at a bar when they know full well that it's going to get out and people are going to find out about it. Why do something that's going to knowingly cause a division? Why not just preach the Gospel when people are out of the bar the rest of the time? They aren't going to stay in there forever--they have jobs and families and friends to keep up on. Make relationships and tell them. Doing it in a bar just appears "cutting edge" and increases the risk of seeding your church with nothing but weeds that are more concerned about excitement than education.

This thing is just another fad to build a church quickly. Building a church is Jesus' job, not ours--our only job is to teach the congregation (pastor) and spread the Gospel (congregation). Anything else that tries to appeal to peoples' emotions or sensibilities takes the power of God's Word out of the equation. It becomes more a function of the messenger's ingenuity rather than the dull thud of the truth in scripture. There's immense power in a message when--knowing that peoples' true nature is to hate the things of God--people turn toward Him when they hear that none of us are able to impress God, or be holy in His sight by anything other than Him reaching down and choosing us for His good purpose. That really takes the wind out of your sails.

I guess the thing that upsets me most is that once again the true Message is being obfuscated in the name of "reaching out" much in the same fashion that wine was diluted with water to make it less offensive. Done correctly, the Message is going to make some people mad. I hate seeing people trying to pad the truth and make it easy to swallow. It's not meant to be, and anybody who buys into it is getting gipped, quite possibly their soul is being damned by being wrapped up in farcical teachings, with a thin stubborn shell so there's no chocolate mess.

The Gospel is a sledgehammer, not a scalpel. Believe it. Don't be afraid to get greasy doing God's work.

Take care,

Today's Prayer

2007-03-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

Father, I humbly ask that you forgive me where I've failed you. I want so badly to be close to You and not focus on anything but You, but I realize as a human I'm prone to wander. That scares me to death, so I want to put my trust and faith in You that You will keep me close.

Also, I ask that you keep my heart humble and moldable for use in Your work. I don't ever want to get callused toward life, or toward people. Make me into a tool for Your glory that Your will might be realized.

Make me want to sacrifice myself daily for Your glory, so that all dross is burned off. I should not have pride, or anger, or jealousy, or fear, or mistrust in You, Lord. Instead I should have love, peace, longsuffering, kindness, hope, and charity. Help me to understand my shortcomings and surround me with people who would be able to see them better than I ever could by myself.

And Lord, please keep turning me toward You. I may fight it, but you are more than powerful enough to make it happen. You alone can harden or soften hearts, and You alone can change the will and the focus of my heart. I ask that you continue allowing me to focus on You, and form me into a Godly person, fit for work in Your Kingdom.

All these things I ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

Title Pending

2007-03-21T20:01:00.001-07:00

Hey people. Sorry about it being so long since the last entry. Things got me all tied up and then I could NOT come up with a suitable topic.

But now I have one.

I am tired of seeing churches that graft themselves into the world to make the Gospel more palatable to people. There's a disturbing trend in this country (hopefully not any further) that causes people to try and water down the Bible to gradually get people used to what the crux of the Gospel really is--that it's not all about you, and that God didn't have to extend mercy if He didn't want to. Blending in too much takes much away from the glory of God's handiwork in converting the hearts of the lost. When well-meaning people try to be delicate about it, they're really saying "I don't trust that the God I worship can do what He says he can do, so He needs a little help". A saying I made up awhile back that I use as a sig for my emails is "The Gospel is a sledgehammer, not a scalpel". It's all about using the right tool for the right job.

I don't know, there's just a lot going through my mind on this topic. I'd like to attribute it to the fact that a lot of the lukewarm types aren't being called onto the carpet about their beliefs, or that the amazing amount of supposed religious tolerance in this country enables people to skew off in thousands of different directions. But one thing is for certain, this country, as powerful as it is, is practically impotent when it comes to spreading the Gospel. We spend so much time gossiping, and devoting hours of our precious time to infighting and arguing about STUPID topics, that nothing gets done. The workforce of God has become more of a "workfarce".

My dad and I were talking, and he's arguing online to people elsewhere in Missouri about what kinds of music are to be played in church. He's of the opinion that it doesn't matter, as long as it's within reason and is directed at God. Many other people think that certain instruments, or musical genres, are just completely out of line. I just cannot get into the argument because... I simply don't care. It's not apathy, it's just that I don't want to expend energy that I could be using toward learning more about Scripture, or praying, or sharing my time with people.

What did I even start talking about?

*scroll scroll*

Now I remember. Anyway, it's becoming pretty apparent that the American church is getting lukewarm. We aren't hot for Jesus as much as we could be, because we're handling preaching with kit gloves. The church I'm attending now is the first church I've been in where the pastor isn't afraid to preach sermons that can tick people off. Whenever I see new people show up, I think (and not in a hateful way mind you) "I wonder how long they'll stay". I've heard pastors from other countries say that they're glad they aren't preaching here because we just have too much silly fighting going on.

I can't even think of a time when an American was martyred for their beliefs on American soil. Are Christians getting to be so passe that we're largely ignored? Where's the tribulation? The worst I've endured are people giggling because they think I believe in some magical old man in the sky, or call me out on some Biblical "contradiction" that can be struck down in a couple sentences. Johnny Cash said "It's good to know who hates you, and it's good to be hated by the right people." If people don't boisterously hate us, are we really doing our jobs right?

Woo! It's good to be back. God bless.

The Thickness of Praise

2007-03-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

I don't often get the chance to go Sunday evening services because I work at a deli most Sunday nights, so when the opportunity came up I went NUTS doing things with families and friends through church. It was about 5pm before I realized I could still make it to evening service so I scarfed down the Mexican food I was eating and burned rubber to get there.

Tonight was pretty intense. I hate considering people that show up for evenings to be "for real" believers, but it does take a higher amount of dedication to show up at church when it's not normally expected. Serously, people go to church on Sunday Day, it's the American way and that's how it's always been. But to show up at night, or on a Wednesday, or maybe a Friday for whatever reason... takes some dedication.

The thing I enjoy the most (and one that I've almost forgotten the sweet taste of) is the degree of fellowship amongst us these nights. It just seems calmer and allows a heaviness take up residence that maybe isn't noticed because of the bustle of morning worship.

Tonight was no different, but there really was sort of a "thickness" about this evening. I even told somebody "that was a THICK sermon" and they knew exactly what I meant before I had to explain. Just... thick. I don't know. It's times like these where I feel so broken because I think I'm coming along nicely in my faith and then something happens where I get this feeling that I'm like a little kid who's seeing something simple, like GRASS, for the very first time.

There are a lot of people who, although they claim to be believers, maybe don't get what it means to truly celebrate God. For the longest time I thought it was just manufactured posturing but now I know better. And I don't mean just being happy that they're saved, I mean just celebrating God just because He's God. The desire to want to do that comes from God, and it's my sincere hope that everyone whose heart is Jesus' home experience just one good taste of what it's like to be fully centered on God, not caring about what else is going on, and then suddenly realizing that they're surrounded by fellow believers who are on the same wavelength. It's truly wonderful. Again, I feel blessed that a God such as ours would even allow such dirty fools into His presence, but that it pleases Him to show us His glory by doing something as simple as letting us see what He's doing... and then to take that a step further and let US be pleased by pleasing Him.

Just wow. I'm done. Praise God.

Foreign Bodies

2007-02-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to put a brief description of a weird "vibe" I got this weekend during a youth retreat.

We were at church late at night, and playing a game with one of those giant "earth balls" that are like 5 feet wide. During a break a few of us were in the trailer out back waiting for the others to re-air the ball (it was an old ball and there was a hole).

I had wandered back into the room where the youth girls have class and was looking at a podium sitting on the table. It was covered in signatures, dates, sayings, from lots of people over the past five years or so.

I suddenly realized I was by myself and it was completely quiet except for the buzzing of the light behind me. I had my hand on the podium trying to see which names I could recognize and suddenly I got this vibe that I'll have to tell another story about to make an accurate analogy:

Years ago when I was a little guy I used to go to a weeklong summer camp with people from a previous church. We weren't really roughing it because we stayed in these wooden cabins. When we first showed up, the cabin was just a cabin, and completely empty. But after even half a day the place was hopping with activity and every rafter and stray nail had a purpose.

And I remember one time the week was over and I was the last one in the cabin gathering my stuff. The bus was ready to go and that antsyness of "I got somewhere to BE" was present. But I took a look at the cabin and saw it was just as empty as it was when we all showed up. It was like the walls had absorbed some of the energy that we left there through laughter and tears through growing spiritually, and in a way we had left our mark on that place. But still, the most overwhelming thought in my mind was: This is not where you belong anymore, and you have someplace to be. Home.

That's the analogy that went zipping through my head when I had my finger on the podium. What looked like dozens of people had stood right where I was and signed their name, or left a funny saying, or a date. Each marker-stroke represented one snippet in time where a person or group of people felt like leaving their mark for someone else to see and possibly leave THEIR mark too.

The connection was made that, as Christians, we are not where we belong. We are away from Home while we're here, and we are leaving marks for other people to notice. The question is, are we leaving the right kind of marks? Are we leaving the kind of good marks that would prompt other Christians to leave many MORE of the same kind of marks?

One day, we're going to be on our way Home and the bus engine is going to be idling. All of our affairs will be packed up and we'll take a last look at this temporary home where we've been staying for this short time. The small link we have here, that idea that this is home, will be like a small thread connecting us here, while a giant cable connects us to our true Home, and as soon as we turn around to head that direction, the thread will snap, and we'll have only one direction to go.

Home.

The Changing Of The Guard

2007-02-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

Take a moment to think about all the people who've impacted your life in a positive direction. I don't mean the people that just kind of nudge you in a good direction, I'm talking about the people that have basically shot you in the best direction possible, expecting nothing in return, and having you end up someplace where you never could have gotten to on your own.

To me, one such person is my grandfather, Willis Gerald Lewis.

As far back as I could remember, Grandpa was the strong silent type. He never complained about anything, just did what needed to be done.

He was in the Marines during the Korean War. I've seen pictures of him in black and white and in uniform. Surprisingly enough, he still looks a lot like his picture even after all this time.

He served the Post Office for who knows how long. Before that he used to fix old cars with the mechanic my family still trusts to serve vehicles.

Fairly recently, after years of not really being involved in a church setting, he began coming. Soon after that, he got in with serving food at a local shelter downtown, and was well-known at church as a guy who just "got the job done". He also cut the church lawn on a regular basis, stocked the soda machines, and helped with maintenance. The little things that not many people would think of, just got done.

He came to the forefront when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer about eight years ago.

We all thought he'd probably want to slow down and eventually the disease would run its course. Surprisingly though, he didn't. He was still cutting his own lawn until about three years ago, when I took over.

Grandpa was also the only reason I made it through school financially. For whatever reason, he felt he should give me enough money for tuition per semester just to see me succeed. He turned down the offer of getting paid back once I got a good job, simply because he didn't give me the money to expect to break even or to make a profit. So I made sure to tell him all about what neat things are going on in my job now, and some of the last non-sad conversation we had was about the projects going on there. He was pretty proud.

Things took a turn for the worse about 3 weeks ago. He had to be rushed to the hospital for reasons that are fuzzy now, even that short a time ago. It wasn't long before it was decided he'd be better off in a hospice near the hospital where the staff could take better care of him.

I went to see him a couple weeks ago, while he was at the hospice, and it was a far sight better than he was at the hospital. Instead of being doped up on pain meds, he was sitting up, feeding himself and talking to me. I stayed for about an hour I think, the both of us basically dancing around the fact that he would probably never leave that room physically, and talking about whatever random stuff would come up. He was glad for the company and I was glad for the strength to not break down a number of times while I was there.

The second to last time I saw him, was when we all showed up after hearing he wasn't doing too well. My father and I were in the room together and after dad sitting there for awhile holding Grandpa's hand, we switched. Grandpa was asleep at the time so I took his hand and held it for awhile.

I sat there for awhile, wondering what it's like to be basically riddled with cancer. Thinking back, I remembered all the bad reports the family had gotten when we'd heard that cancer was found somewhere else. It was kind of odd at the time, but none of that seemed to faze him... he just kept on going. In fact, the sudden turn for the worse happened at such an unexpected time that some of thought he might pull through this, like it was a temporary relapse. Statistically, I'm probably going to die of some kind of cancer--just look at all the flavors available. And looking back now, Grandpa never really complained about the pain; once in awhile he'd wake up for a little while and you could tell because he'd be grunting a little and squeezing my hand a little harder.

I sit and think, how can I possibly measure up to that kind of dignity, that kind of resolve?

Grandpa's eyes peeked open a little and shot open when he realized I wasn't dad. It was probably a surprise for him.

"Hi, Son!" he croaked out.

"Hi Grandpa," I replied. After a pause I said "How's it going?"

"I'm dying," he returned. Shortly after that I completely lost it and started sobbing.

This man was always the soft-hearted type and would cry a little over things you and I wouldn't be bothered by. He cried at my graduation, both from high school and college. He cried a little when he heard about my first girlfriend, both when we got together and when we broke up. Little things that showed he was more sensitive than most people.

And this man, when I put my head down next to him on his death bed, stroked my hair to comfort me because I was sad. It was about that time I asked dad to leave for a few minutes.

I tried to compose myself enough to get out what I felt I needed to say.

"Grandpa, I just wanted to tell you I really love you."

"I love you too, son"

"I also wanted to say that I wouldn't have gotten where I am today if it weren't for you."

"No, you would have made it,"

and I said "No, I wouldn't. I mean if it weren't for all the money and support I wouldn't have even gone to school. I don't know what I'd be doing now if it weren't for you." Now it was his turn to pause.

"Well just make sure to give credit where credit is due," and I knew he was talking about God.

I don't think I ever saw him cry the whole time I was there.

Willis Gerald Lewis died at 9:10 am on Friday, February 23, 2007. He's the first man and first family member I've ever felt comfortable giving a eulogy for--even though I wouldn't know what to say. He's the first man I would drink to with a bunch of his buddies. He's the second man I'd feel honored to be a pall bearer for and he's the only family member I wish I'd been with right when he died.

-------------

Right now the family is still pretty tender. I cried while writing just now and I'm sure that the funeral Monday won't be fun. But I can take solace in the fact that, although technically we can't be sure of anybody's salvation, I'm fairly certain that where he's at now, he's not in pain from cancer anymore.

So yeah Grandpa, I'll hold the fort here for awhile, and tie up some loose ends. It might take fifty or sixty years, but keep a light on for me, I'll see you in awhile.

Our God Is An Awesome God

2007-02-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a prayer meeting at church and it occured to me how great our God really is.

Here we are, a bunch of insignificant people that have no value by ourselves, but what God does for us every day makes us have value to Him.

It amazes me that God would even waste His time on a people that seem more interested in themselves than worship. But He does. He is longsuffering.

He is patient and perseveres, in that the rate of spiritual growth we have is very small if it weren't for our sin. He is constantly working in the lives of all Christians to forge them into the tools we need to be to do His work. I can't think of many people that would work with such a stubborn, unyielding material without throwing their hands up in exasperation.

He is so forgiving, and I compare each sin, no matter how small (because every sin is based in the fact that we focus on ourselves instead of on God) is like a spouse committing adultery. We still are punished for it but we are always forgiven and cleansed. What an awesome God!

He is loving enough that He would send His own Son to die in our place for our sins, simply to show His glory. We don't deserve that. Make no mistake, even I deserve to go to Hell but for God's grace set on me. None of us by our own doing can make it into Heaven since the very essence of trying is a selfish act where the aim is to NOT go to Hell.

He is also loving in the way He disciplines His children. Parents who want children who are well behaved often have to punish them for their mistakes. This is an act of love, not hate. Our God, who knows all things about our lives and the entire world, knows what's best for us and steers us in the right direction. Our God loves us enough to do that, and that is amazing.

Spend Some Time With God

2007-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

I have no idea how to make introduction paragraphs for things like blog entries. I see these pastors that just fire off into the wild blue and gradually merge into something that flows and builds into something really easy on the eyes. So this paragraph, while totally unrelated to the topic, is for filler. You can completely ignore it or read it through, it's your choice. On with the show this is it.

The problem is that too many people don't really spend a lot of time with God. I heard a good analogy on the radio that sounds a lot like what some Christians' attitude toward this is. A wife tells her husband "You never spend any time with me," and the husband's response is, "I spend all kinds of time with you. I mow the grass and I fix the car and all kinds of other stuff." But the point is that he's not spending any TIME with her.

And a lot of us don't spend any time with God. It might seem like we do because we might spend time thinking about Him, or doing things in His name but really... how much do we spend time with a Bible out on a table, reading around in it and wanting to learn new things about His character? If there's any tug in your heart that says you should do it more, then you probably should.

It might seem impossible, or that there's never enough time in the day. But I want to challenge you: if you're not already reading a little bit every day, start. Keep it small, maybe 30 minutes a day, sometime when you can really sit down and focus. Then just flop it open and start reading a few chapters. Maybe pick an obscure book like Jude or Habakkuk and see what it has to say. Take some notes on what you learn and keep a list of all the things you pick up. After one week you'll have amounted three and a half hours of study, which works out to 175 per year. Pretty decent.

If you want a good start, check out the story of Joseph in Genesis 37, Genesis 39-Genesis 50

Dating

2007-02-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

Today, Josh Harris was on the radio talking about his book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye". This is an excellent book for singles who are seeking godly mates, and how to approach the problem.

One thing that really struck home pretty much upended the way I think about being single--it's not something to try and get rid of like some kind of hot potato, it's something you can use to increase your faith and do more of God's work. Being married or even being involved in a relationship is a heavy burden, one which shouldn't be taken lightly. Being single is actually a gift from God, and shouldn't be squandered trying to quench something in your life, or fill a hole, when God's will includes you being married sometime in the future. Just like Josh says, "The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing."

Josh's Blog

Mount Up

2007-02-13T18:27:00.000-08:00

Hello.

My name is Michael Fritzius and I started this blog to talk about some things I discover during my Christian walk. I hope you find something useful to you that reveals more about the character of God, or that strengthens your faith.

It's important to constantly try to learn new things to keep your spirit fresh and alert. There will be links to other places that are pretty informative as I put them up.

Take care,