Ken

In my morning reading of John 6, I've been paying close attention to the words Jesus uses to teach the crowd. Unlike us, Jesus didn't just ramble on in order to pass the time. We have idle words. Words spoken without much thought, therefore, without much (if any) purpose. We might call it chit chat, shooting the breeze, or killing time. I approach the Bible with the belief that it is inspired by God, that the Holy Spirit guided the individual writers in conveying God's message. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) cover approximately three years of Jesus' life. We know from the end of John's Gospel that Jesus did many other things that John didn't record, with John surmising that the "whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." So, what does get recorded is there on purpose -- through the inspiration of the…

As a pastor, I've worked with people at all stages of belief -- including unbelief. I'm use the term "unbelief" on purpose. When Christians speak of categories of people, we use many different labels: Lost or saved Christian or non-Christian Believer or non-believer To call someone a non-believer is misleading. I've met many "non-believers" who actually do believe in ... Will power Self-determination The law of attraction Karma Superstitions Homeopathic drugs The Golden Rule Survival of the fittest Tony Robbins Luck In other words, they are very much believers -- they just don't believe in the same source of power that a Christ-follower believes in. By nature, all of us are believers. I've never met anyone who held absolutely no beliefs. Now, they might have been strange beliefs or not-well-thought-out beliefs, but they were still beliefs. Unbelief is different. Non-believer implies a person who does not belief. Unbelief is a…

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; donʼt be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. - John 1:16-21 It's early in the morning while I'm writing this blog post. I've got my coffee nearby and the house is still quiet. It's actually one of my favorite times of the day. I'll turn on the necessary amount of light…

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm starting 2017 by focusing on one chapter in the Bible. John 6 contains only 71 verses, but the thrust of the chapter is a challenge to believe. Or, perhaps more accurately, a challenge to reconsider who we believe in. If you were do a Google image search of the word "believe", one of the more popular results will be "Believe in Yourself." And that is the problem that causes many of our problems. All too often, we do believe in ourselves ... in our abilities ... our wisdom ... our invincibility. From an early age, we are taught that we can do anything, be anything. The self-esteem movement was built on the premise that all we need is to feel better about ourselves and everything will be OK. But everything isn't OK. What the motivational poster doesn't tell us is that "believing in yourself" won't…

Believe. I believe that believe is the word God gave to me for 2017. During my first devotional time of the new year, before anyone else was awake, with my first cup of coffee in hand. It was clear. Believe. Not an audible voice but a definite impression. I believe he was telling me to believe ... again. To believe and not doubt. To believe that this year -- 2017 -- will be one of the best years of my ministry. To believe that this year -- 2017 -- will be a great year for my family. To believe that my children and grandchildren will be faithful, passionate followers of Jesus. Believe it or not, this was all before my second cup of coffee. The past year was a bit overwhelming at times. OK, for just a few weeks and a month or two here and there. At Mountainview, we…