Pedestrian God

Paralyzed in Sin

Sep 21 2016

This past Sunday, our middle school girls’ class studied the passage of the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him through a roof to Jesus. Since we were all very familiar with this story, we decided to retell it from each viewpoint in the story – the paralyzed man, his friends, the crowd, the scribes, and Jesus.

And we collectively admitted that we are not as passionate about bringing our lost friends and family to Christ as we ought to be.

To get to that realization, let’s look just 5 verses before this story. In Mark 1:40-45, a man with a serious skin disease came to Jesus on his knees and begged for healing. Jesus healed him, warned him not to tell anyone, yet the man proclaimed his healing widely anyways.

So Mark gives us this wonderfully enthusiastic story of a man healed. And then instantly transitions to the story of the paralytic man. (If you’re not familiar with this story, read Mark 2:1-12).

We know very little about the paralytic. He doesn’t say anything. We don’t see him fall before Jesus and beg for healing. We don’t even know if he knew who Jesus was. All we know is that his friends so desperately wanted him to know Jesus and His healing that they were willing to carry him onto the roof, tear a hole in it, and lower him to Jesus. Nothing deterred them from their passion to bring their friend to Jesus – not other people or physical barriers.

Book Review: Unashamed

Sep 07 2016

When Lecrae Moore watched his son take his first step, he knew it would be followed immediately by a fall. One step. That’s all his son could take. In the process of learning to walk, falling and injury were expected. This is how Lecrae’s faith in God developed also. One step followed by tumbles and stretches of time refusing to get back up.

But today, Lecrae is known for his commitment to his faith and as a hip-hop artist. Among numerous accolades, he is a two-time Grammy Award winning hip-hop artist whose studio albums and mix tapes have sold nearly 2 million copies. His 2014 album, Anomaly, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200.

Many of us know the Lecrae who achieved musical success. In his recent autobiography Unashamed, Lecrae recounts the painful years of his life spent for his own glory.

Lecrae writes openly about his rebellious childhood filled with poverty, physical and sexual abuse, drugs, and fights. But through a college Bible study, he came to know a personal relationship with God. It was a shallow faith that he packed full of legalistic rules.

In fact,he threw away his secular CDs and taped the empty cases together into a 5 foot pillar in his room to brag about how great of a Christian he was since he sacrificed so much. Reflecting back, Lecrae calls it “a monument to my own self-righteousness.”

Reap the Whirlwind

Aug 08 2016

I only know of one twister that landed a person in a magical land, complete with traveling companions. Outside of Dorothy’s (and Toto’s) experience in the merry ole land of Oz, tornadoes are capable of tearing cities apart, brick by brick.

It’s hard to imagine that the same wind I enjoy outside – the one that makes me pause on my walks outside and to open the windows in our house in the autumn – is the same wind that, when moving more intently, was the tornado that once caused $40 million of damage to my college campus while I lived there my freshman year.

Hosea 8:7 says, “Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”

In other words, the sins of these people had snowballed out of control!

Ever experienced that? Maybe you told a “small” lie to your parents, which led to more and more lies in order to cover up that first one.

Carved Idol

Jul 14 2016

The Second Commandment clearly teaches us that we are not to have any idols. In the Old Testament times, idols were often carved or sculpted into a form that people could direct their attention to and worship.

A recent sermon reminded me that idols are created objects that are being misused. God designed them to declare glory to Himself. Yet people sinned and misdirected their worship from God to these objects.

Psalm 97:7 says, “All who serve carved images, those who boast in idols, will be put to shame. All the gods must worship Him.”

A clear example of a carved image worshiping Yahweh can be found in 1 Samuel 5. The Philistines captured the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon. Yet Dagon’s statue fell prostate before the ark of the Lord each night. How embarrassing that a created idol recognized the splendor of the true Lord before the people did.

Is Your Testimony Boring?

Jul 08 2016

I’ve been there before. Sunday school teacher asks a couple kids to share their testimonies in front of a group and you’re one of them. The kid before you gets up and you get that sinking feeling in your gut. Here he/she goes again. It’s not that they are insincere; it’s just that their testimony is so exciting and yours is, well, it’s boring.

Everyone claps and brushes away tears as the kid in front of you finishes telling about how his/her parents died, their uncle abused them, their grandma abandoned them, they live in the children’s home, but God has protected them this whole time.

You, however, accepted Jesus when you were seven, maybe younger, and have grown up in church, never really messing up ever since. Sigh. What a boring testimony. No drugs, no alcohol, not even a good fight!

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