Tag Archives: Christianity

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Part 1: Signs and Wonders in the Digital Age

Westernized Christianity can seem dull, and most of the time, Christians don’t appear any different than their non-believing counter parts.

My friend in the Middle East visited again this summer to super charge and challenge my thoughts on signs and wonders.  The Bible is filled with supernatural signs and wonders.  The western world teaches that these were only for the time ‘back then’ or explains these events away by claiming that people ‘back then’ were very naive.  These miracles never actually happened, were fancy analogies/examples of key teaching principles, or misunderstood by superstitious people back in the past.

What if these signs and wonders could be seen today?

This is the 1st of 3 sermons given by my friend from the Middle East.  I would love to know what you think….

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Do Miracles Happen?

My friend in the Middle East has transformed his outreach to non-Christians by adopting the Acts/early church model of outreach:  He prays for people and they are healed.  The New Testament is FILLED with miracles, exorcisms, and other bizarre supernatural events that challenge our western, modern, scientific minds.  Here is a video clip of a miracle.  Is this real? What do you think? More to follow…

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Trials, Temptations, & Thankfulness (James 1)

This is a brief excerpt from a  series at Pathways Church on truths from the book of James (from back in Oct 2008).  

  • TRIAL: I sat on the porch watching my 3 little kids playing in the street realizing that I would/could very well lose everything; a lawsuit that threatened to cause me to lose everything–KEY: No matter how much you have prepared; no matter how much you have planned for every situation; no matter what you say and do; no matter how much control you think that you have–you will be hit in life with things that are unfair and out of your control and yes, even devastating.
  • TEMPTATION: The night before Thanksgiving I lost sight of God.  I doubted His love, His presence.
  • THANKFULNESS:  Thanksgiving day came and although I was not that thankful, I chose to be thankful and list and look for thankful moments “…consider it all joy…”-James 1:1 Later on James mentions a ‘crown of life’.  My pastor friend, Bucky, shared with me that maybe we have misunderstood the ‘crown of life’ to be a crown we receive after we die.  Maybe this is a crown that we wear now on this side of heaven in the kingdom of God that is NOW HERE!  Maybe the trials we go through give us the eyes to see LIFE as God wants us to see LIFE as a GIFT!

Please enjoy my short audio about my “trial” and what it has taught me about thankfulness.  And as always please leave a comment!

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Where is God? Part 2: No Where Else To Go (CREATOR)

During our 6 week series titled: Where is God? We will be exploring 6 C’s of Evil and Suffering: Connection, Creator, Choice, Cross, Compassion, and Conclusions.

Part 2 addressed the Creator by looking at the Book of Job.

  • Why ask Why? It is ok to ask why in times of suffering.
  • Friends or Fiends? Job’s friends had it right the first time when the comforted Job with not trying to answer why but being present with him.  The most honest answer may be: I don’t know, or as C.S. Lewis responded to a theologian friend of his when his wife, Joy, died, “It’s just a bloody mess!”
  • The God of our misunderstanding.  Job’s heart was right, but his theology was wrong.  When we go through a dark time, we often turn to our false understanding of God.  I turned to my understanding of God–a distant God who told me that I was not enough.  Our times of suffering are defining times because we will either run away from a false god of our own making, or we will finally see the true God who is closer than we could ever imagine and who is whispering in our ear, “you are enough! You are my beloved child!”
  • Why to Who.  Finally we turn away from the why and focus on the Who.
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Wild and Crazy? Maybe it is the Holy Spirit

I had the opportunity to speak on the Holy Spirit for my wife’s women’s group.  They are doing a series based out of Francis Chan’s book: Forgotten God: Reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit

The take home message: If it sounds wild and crazy, maybe it is or maybe it is and it is the Holy Spirit working!

“Our guide is the Holy Spirit, whom the early Celtic christians like Patrick called the Wild Goose.  They knew he could not be tamed.  Ours is merely to trust and follow his haunting call, and he will take us on the adventure he has for us…”-Eldridge (The Way of the Wild Heart), pg 125

Please share with us your thoughts after you listen to the teaching.

Questions:

1. Have you ever been ‘healed’ or have you heard of anyone being ‘healed’ by God/The Spirit?

2. Do you believe that the Holy Spirit still is active? In what ways? Are ‘the gifts’ open or closed?

3. How active is the Holy Spirit in your life?  How does the Holy Spirit manifest?

References:

uberlumen posts:

An Encounter With God

Do Miracles Really Happen?

Miracles and Healings AMAZING Stories

Miracles and Healings #1-4
Books:

Acts

Turnings by Guy Chevreau

The Kingdom Triangle by JP Moreland

You Were Born For This by Bruce Wilkinson (how to develop a life of everyday miracles)

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Where is God? Part 1 Now Here: A Walk Through Psalm 13

I had the honor of flying solo for a sermon at my church.  We are doing a 6 week series titled: Where is God? This 1st in the series addresses some practical tips that can be applied to help all of us to deal with life’s stress, anxiety, pain, and suffering. It is subtitled: Now Here, a walk through Psalm 13.
Here are the power point slides, the 2 video clips, and the audio is below. Please share your thoughts.


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The Suffering of Christ for us: Station 7 of the Cross

How do we ‘modernize’ the suffering of Christ on the cross? How do we depict His suffering so that we can best understand the brutality of our sin? One artist has tried:

“This piece was originally created by Jackson Potts II, for a collection of works hanging in Xnihilo Gallery. The installation is a modern take on the traditional Stations of the Cross, and the gallery requested 15 artists to each depict one of the stations. Due to reasons which will be explained in subsequent posts, the gallery was not able to hang this piece. We invite you to view it here and to comment upon it.
Here is Jackson’s artist statement.

Jesus Falls for the Second Time.
When I came up with this idea for my piece, one of the things that I wanted to show was that Jesus was innocent, and the crowd still wanted him to die. So I used a child (my brother Dietrich) to show the innocence of Jesus and how wrong it was for him to be treated that way. The police officer was just doing his job, as was the guard that was escorting Jesus to Skull Hill. The crowd was angry and violent except the one girl in the blue dress, who represents the people who loved Jesus.”

Here is the link to view the photo (it is brutal but thought provoking):

http://jacksonsstation.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html

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Part #3: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God

Part 3  Pretense and Little Children

Tozer proceeds to share another of our burdens: Pretense.

“Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of pretense. By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the common human desire to put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward poverty. For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been the infusing into us a false sense of shame. There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day come upon a man more cultured than himself. The learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he. The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison with those of another rich man. So-called `society’ runs by a motivation not higher than this, and the poorer classes on their level are little better.”

Tozer then points the solution to our pretense.  The way of the child.

“Let no one smile this off. These burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims of this evil and unnatural way of life. And the psychology created by years of this kind of thing makes true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star. To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says, `Ye must become as little children.’ For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they have without relating it to something else or someone else. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts do jealousy and envy appear. Then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else has something larger or better. At that early age does the galling burden come down upon their tender souls, and it never leaves them till Jesus sets them free.”

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Part #2: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God

Part 2 Pride and Meekness

The first burden that A.W. Tozer discusses in Chapter 9 of The Pursuit of God is PRIDE.

“Let us examine our burden. It is altogether an interior one. It attacks the heart and the mind and reaches the body only from within. First, there is the burden of pride. The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.”

Tozer proceeds to point out the link between Jesus wisdom in Matthew 5:5 regarding the meek, and His ability to lighten our burdens (Matthew 11:28-30)

“Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, `Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.’

The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto…As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.”

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How to Pray

If you are not prayer warriors…then start small….10 minutes per
day…start a list of prayers and add to it…

How to pray? As I have mentioned, I am a rookie at focused time in
prayer to God, and I often don’t know how to start/what to say to
God….so I always fall back on a simple neumonic: A.C.T.S.
A: Adore God–tell God all the ways and reasons why you adore Him.
C: Confess to God–God is your secret sharer–tell Him ALL your
struggles, secrets, etc.
T: Thank God–tell God what you are thankful for…
S: Supplication–ASK! “Supplication is a continual praying–an ongoing quest for God’s will…”-Jack Hayford

…this usually takes up at least 10-15 minutes…I set my timer and so
often the alarm goes off and I am shocked at how fast the time with
God goes by….(Please don’t use a timer if you don’t have to or want
to…it is just my way to not worry about looking at my watch…It
helps me focus on God for the entire time…)

Finally, I would emphasize the practice of praying continually:  Wake up with the meditative image of Jesus waiting for you to wake up and start His adventure for the day with you, and spend each and every moment with God in prayer throughout the day…

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Part 2: Atheists claim that they are MORE moral than Christians.

I agree with the comment posted in Part 1 that these stats need to be taken with a grain of salt, and Christians probably don’t report as openly their bad behaviors.  This 3 part series of posts is pointing out that playing the hypocrite card is not entirely fair.  A KEY point and pleading would be to not look at the Christian but look at Christ.  Don’t let a Christian hypocrite get in the way of your relationship with God.

Here is another very interesting Barna poll.  This poll suggests that atheists have different moral values than Christians.

A survey of 1,600 Canadians asked them what were their beliefs about God and what moral values they considered to be “very important.” The results of the survey are shown below:

Moral Values of Theists vs. Atheists1
Moral Value Theists Atheists
Honesty 94% 89%
Kindness 88 75
Family life 88 65
Being loved 86 70
Friendship 85 74
Courtesy 81 71
Concern for others 82 63
Forgiveness 84 52
Politeness 77 65
Friendliness 79 66
Patience 72 39
Generosity 67 37

Although the differences between theists and atheists in the importance of values such as honesty, politeness, and friendliness are generally small, moral values emphasized by religious beliefs, such as Christianity, including patience, forgiveness, and generosity exhibit major differences in attitudes (30%+ differences between theists and atheists).

What really concerns me is that only half of atheists think that forgiveness is very important. Either these people have not been married or maybe married multiple times, since a lack of forgiveness in a marriage is a sure recipe for disaster. Couple that moral belief with a perception that neither patience nor generosity are very important, and it seems that the divorce rates are likely to go up significantly in the near future.

According to Professor Bibby, Grandma is the “symbolic saintly person in the clan. So valuing Grandma also means valuing many of the things important to her. In successive generations you have a lingering effect of morality. But further down the road generations get further removed from the sources of those values. That’s where it gets tricky.”2

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Life Principle #2: Give Honest, Sincere Appreciation

I have been struck by the power of affirmation and appreciation.  I have also been struck by the destructive power of criticism.

Recently I tried to encourage someone to always find the good, always look for the opportunity to compliment and appreciate, and never complain or criticize.  Their response was, “But if you only knew that person, if you only knew how difficult they can be, and how much criticism they deserve.”

This response misses the point completely!  It was only when I dropped the contempt and criticisms did I start to see the gifts in the other person.  It is only when you look for the appreciation will the critical spirit in YOU fade away.

It is NOT about the other person; it is about YOU.  It is about healing YOUR image of yourself, the world around you, and others.

Our marriages and relationships would truly be transformed if we followed Carnegie’s first 2 principles always leading with this one.

“I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people…the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.  There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors.  I never criticize anyone.  I believe in giving a person incentive to work.  So I am anxious to praise but loathe to find fault.  If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise… in my wide association in life, meeting with many and great people in various parts of the world… I have yet to find a person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism.”-Charles Schwab

“Every man I meet is my superior in some way.  In that, I learned from him.”-Emerson

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Carnegie:

  • “That is what Schwab did.  What do average people do?  The exact opposite.  If they don’t like to think, they ball out their  subordinates; if they do like it, they say nothing.  As the old couplet says: “once I did bad and that I heard ever/twice I did good, but that I heard never.”-pg 38
  • “I once succumbed to the Fad of fasting and went for six days and nights without eating… I was less hungry at the end of the sixth day than I was at the end of the second.  Yet I know, as you know, people who think they had committed a crime if they let their families or employees go for six days without food; but they will let them go for six days,  six weeks, and sometimes 60 years without giving them the hearty appreciation that they crave almost as much as they crave food.”-pg 40
  • ” When Alfred Lunt, one of the great actors of his time, played the leading role in Reunion in Vienna, he said, “there is nothing I need so much as nourishment for my self-esteem.”  We nurish the bodies of our children and friends and employees but how seldom do we nurish their self-esteem?  We provide them with roast beef and potatoes to build energy, but we neglect to give them kind words of appreciation that would sing in their memories for years like the music of the morning stars.”-pg 40 one
  • “When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95% of our time thinking about ourselves.  Now [just imagine], if we [ could] stop thinking about ourselves for awhile and begin to think of the other person’s good points…”-pg 41
  • “Try leaving a friendly trail of little sparks of gratitude on your daily trips.  You’ll be surprised how they will set small flames of friendship that will be rose beacons on your next visit.”-pg 42
  • “Pamela Dunham of  a New Fairfield, Connecticut, had among her responsibilities on her job the supervision of a janitor who was doing a very poor job.  The other employees would jeer at him and litter the hallways to show him what a bad job he is doing.  It was so bad, productive time was being lost in the shop.  Without success, Pam tried various ways to motivate this person.  She noticed that occasionally he did a particularly good piece of work.  She made a point to praise him for it in front of the other people.  Each day the job he did all around got better, and pretty soon he started doing all his work efficiently.  Now he does an excellent job and other people give them appreciation and recognition.  Honest appreciation got results where criticism and ridicule failed.”-pg 42
  • “Hurting people not only does not change them, it is never called for.  There is an old saying that I’ve cut out and pasted on my mirror where I cannot help but see it every day: ‘I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now.  Let me not deferring or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.'”-pg 42
  • “Let’s cease thinking of our accomplishments, our wants.  Let’s try to figure out the other person’s good points.”-pg 43
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Men on the Path, November 4, 2009: True Success

We were in session #3 from a quiet strength a men’s Bible study by Tony Dungy and our question for today is: How is God’s definition of success different from how most people define it?
We looked at five key verses: Psalm 1:1-3; one Samuel 16:7; Micah 6: 6-8; Matthew 22:34-40; acts 1:8; Philippians 1: 21

God’s definition of success is “to live is Christ to die is gain” only when we can die to ourselves can we truly be successful. J. C. Ryle in his book titled Holiness points out what it costs to be a true Christian (to gain true success).

“For one thing, it will cost us our self righteousness. We must cast away all pride and high thoughts and conceit of our own goodness… for another thing it will cost us our sins. We must be willing to give up every habit and practice which is wrong in God’s sight. We and our sin must quarrel, if we and God are to be friends….For another thing, it will cost us our love of ease…we secretly wish we could have a vicarious Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for us. Anything that requires exertion and labor is entirely against the grain of our hearts… in the last place, it will cost us the favor of the world… surely a Christian should be willing to give up anything which stands between him and heaven…A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing! A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown…”-pg 82-86

“We must seek to have personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus, and to deal with him as a man deals with a loving friend. We must realize what it is to turn to him first in every need, to talk to him about every difficulty, to consult him about every step, to spread before him all our sorrows, to get him to share in our all our joys, to do all as in his site, and to go through every day leaning on and looking to him.”-pg 113

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Men on the Path, October 21, 2009: What does Quiet Strength Look Like?

Monte did a GREAT job discussing what quiet strength looks like.  Here are some points that we discussed:

  • The values of our culture are the opposite of the values of one with quiet strength.  Here are how the beatitudes would sound if they were written to our culture: Blessed are the popular for they will be admired.  Blessed are the consumers for they will keep us in the black.  Blessed are those with skeleton’s in their closets for they will remain hidden….
  • quiet strength is seen when we are helpless without God, when we are NOT in control, when we share our fears and ask for help instead of isolating (just recently I had another neighbor who was in the hospital for 2 days and did not mention it to his friend/neighbor, his wife appeared shocked when I said that I would have come and visited…men live isolated, lonely lives and don’t reach out!)
  • Are we afraid of success in the Kingdom of God?  What are we afraid if we followed the values seen in the Kingdom of God (i.e. the Beatitudes)?
  • Who is your Sam? When Frodo didn’t have the strength to make it up the mountain at the end of his quest, his quiet, strong friend Sam carried him on his back.  Monte shared that he had a friend when he was going through a tough time in his life who called him and said, “I will be your Sam.”  (btw-the name Samuel means God hears…hmmmm)
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C.S. Lewis Society introduces Tyler & Family to France

I have had the privledge to get to know Tyler over the last few years.  He has a passion to reach those who have not met God’s love.  He is taking the adventure of a life time by going to France for the C.S. Lewis Society to spread God’s message of love to Europe.

He recently sent me this email to invite anyone who is interested in learning more of this great adventure (please read and check it out!):

“Lisa and I want to invite you and your family to attend an evening event at RockHarbor Church on the 24th of September (next Thursday).  As you know we are about to leave for France to spread the good news of Jesus as the European Field Directors for the C.S. Lewis Society.  RockHarbor has offered to host a night for us to share our passion and heart for the least evangelized continent on the globe.  I really hope to see you there.

Also, would you be willing to forward this invitation to 3 to 5 christian brothers or sisters whom you think would be blessed by attending as well?  I realize I am competing with things like back to school nights and bible studies,  but with your help it could really make a difference in having this be a great event.

For Christ’s glory,

Lisa and Tyler Geffeney

RESPONDING TO THE CALL TO “GO”

“The Geffeney’s journey to Evangelize Europe”

ROCKHARBOR Church

3080 Airway Suite 100, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

In the Lab: **Child Care Provided**

September 24, 2009   6:45 P.M.

(please RSVP # of kids to lisageff@yahoo.com)

Coffee and desserts will be served

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