Foundation for Faith

Writing Again

2010-01-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Now that my transition from full-time pastor at Compass Bible Church is complete, I will once again begin to write blogs for this website. It will be a place where I can share with my friends and family what is going on in our lives, and also share ideas about events and concerns that I may have. I am sure I will comment on topics ranging from every day life, to theology, and probably even politics.

I look forward to this new opportunity to begin writing for myself once again - I hope you join me.

Amazon Affiliate Program

2009-09-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

I will be posting information about the Amazon.com Affiliate Program soon...

Mercy Me: You Reign

2008-11-10T23:18:00.001-08:00

Eat Your Daily Bread

2008-04-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

"Give us today our daily bread" - Matthew 6:11

Jesus would often remind his followers not to be anxious about potential problems, pointing them instead to a daily dependence upon God. In our daily struggles (relationships, jobs, bills, etc.) we too would be wise to listen to the words of Christ found in Matthew 6:25:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

When the Israelites were wandering in the desert there was no food for them to gather because of the desolate conditions. But God provided manna each new morning as a very important and tangible reminder to His chosen people of the love He had for them. In fact, if the Israelites tried to store food for the next day, God ensured that it would spoil. He wanted them to trust Him daily for their provision.

Today God wants us to trust Him for our every provision as well. This is not a call to be a poor steward or not to plan, rather a call to truly understand and trust in the One who is providing you with what you need every day in order to serve Him and glorify Him.

This understanding will help to truly recognize our dependence upon Him. God knows the problems that we will face today and tomorrow and He has already supplied everything we will need to overcome them. All He asks is that we trust Him everyday.

Eoghan Heaslip: How Great Thou Art

2008-04-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

Counseling 101

2008-03-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

This is a great sketch about counseling. Tim Challies posted it on his website today, and he beat me to the punch, because I have been meaning to share this for the past few weeks. Oh well...he beat me to it. Enjoy.

***Disclaimer*** In no way do I believe this is the most effective way to counsel...but it sure is funny.

How To Get Eternal Life

2008-03-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

www.howtogeteternallife.com

www.compasschurch.org

www.ustream.tv/compasschurch

Thank You!

2008-02-27T22:49:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take a moment and say thank you for those of you who have been praying for me over the last week. God has heard your prayers and answered them very specifically. My headaches have weakened and clarity is returning (at least as much as I had before). I know I can speak for my wife as well when I say that your cards, calls, visits and prayers carried us through the last week knowing that God was in control. We continue to focus on that truth knowing that our Lord will utilize this for good (Rom. 8:28).

Ambassadors for Christ

2008-02-10T21:57:00.000-08:00

Windbreakers + Minnesota in February = Dumb

2008-02-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

For many years I have heard my father tell me that Californian's were wimps when it came to weather. Of course in my ignorance I discounted his opinions as "east coast swagger". Tonight however I learned that my dad was right in his assessment (at least in my case). The irony in my newfound acceptance of my wimp ness of course runs deep - the theme of this year’s pastor’s conference is "Fathers and Sons".

Tonight, after a fantastic dinner with the rest of the team, Pastor Jon and I decided to "man-up" and walk from the restaurant to the convention center. Now, it was only a 7-8 blocks, and according to the digital sign on top of one of the skyscrapers here in Minneapolis, it was a balmy 17 degrees (that doesn't count wind-chill...more on that later). Armed with nothing but our Compass Bible Church windbreakers we set off on our adventure to the convention center.

The first block was easy...actually invigorating would be a better word. Pastor Jon and I scoffed at our weak willed teammates that chose the comforts of the downtown skywalk (an indoor sidewalk for wimps). Feeling very much like men, we marched onward towards the prize.

I am not sure if it was block 3 or 4, but we realized that we had no idea where the convention center actually was (perhaps the temperature froze the internal compass within our brains?). Being men neither of us asked anyone for directions...at least for another couple of blocks. That is when I realized that I couldn't feel my hands...no...strike that...that is when I realized my hands felt like they were burning as if being dipped in acid and ready to fall off my wrists. Of course, it was now time to ask for directions.

A nice young fellow, who was bundled up like the kid from the Christmas Story movie, told us that we were just a "few" blocks away and he pointed us in another direction towards Grant Street. I could feel the air freezing in my lungs at this point and it actually hurt to breathe. I didn't care about being a man anymore. I just wanted to get inside! Of course this was all just internal dialogue that I was having with myself, because there was no way I was saying anything to Pastor Jon about my lack of toughness...if he could take it, I could take it, that is what I kept telling myself.

As we turned on Grant Street the prize was in the distance and that is when I felt my ears burning as if I was being seared by a cattle brand. How could cold burn so much? I thought to myself.

Well, we finally made it to the convention center and as we entered (and were blasted by the well heated indoors) I noticed that a screen said it was 17 degrees outside, but that with the wind-chill it felt like 11 degrees. Now, I know for these parts, that isn't cold at all...but for a guy born and raised in Southern California (never more than 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean) I might as well been at the North Pole.

At the end of the evening session I was asked if I was going to use the skywalk to get back to the hotel and I said, "yes, do you think I am crazy? It's cold outside!"

Desiring God Conference 2008

2008-02-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

I am currently sitting in my hotel room in Minneapolis and I am all alone. My roommate was supposed to be Jess Williams (Men's Ministry Director at Compass Bible Church) but he is currently in a hotel room in Chicago. Jess, along with the rest of our pastoral staff were supposed to change plans in Chicago and then head to the Twin Cities - however God had a different plan. There were over 500 flights canceled today in and out of Chicago and our team got stranded.

Pastor Mike and I took another flight that was non-stop and though we have hit some really cold weather and snow we have had no traveling issues.

Tonight, Pastor Mike and I attended a session where D.A. Carson spoke to about 1500 pastors in the Minneapolis Convention Center. His message was mostly focused on who God is as Father, who Jesus is as Son and who we are as sons of the Father. Carson, who is a highly respected theologian, was surprisingly a dynamic speaker as well (they usually don't go hand and hand in my experience).

I am looking forward to the arrival of the rest of the team tomorrow morning and I am praying that God grants us a time of fellowship, learning and rest with each other.

Many Thanks: Cards Are Most Welcome

2008-02-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

I have never really been someone who is "in" to giving or receiving cards. Maybe that says a little something about me, I don't know. But I never understood how spending $5.00 on a piece of cardboard was important. Why not just tell someone how you feel about them? But, in the last couple of years I think I have become much more sentimental.

Every morning when I come into the office I open up my mail folder to retrieve what was deposited the day before. Well, for those of you who don't know, pastors get some really strange mail. Book offers, conferences in Iowa, sermon helps, church management, etc., etc. Basically we get a lot of junk mail.

But every so often we get something that is in a light purple, or yellow Hallmark envelope and I have to be honest and tell you that I now get excited when I see those envelopes. Not giddy, but happy. Because I know that God has touched someone through our ministry here at Compass.

I officiated a funeral yesterday and the family gave me a card that I would like to share with you. I want to do this go honor God and to share with you what He is doing here at Compass. The card reads:

Pastor Dale

Thank you so much for presiding over my dad's funeral. We've only been at Compass since August and we were a bit apprehensive to ask a pastor to officiate at the funeral, but you and Pastor Pete have helped us to feel so comfortable and to really feel ask if this has been our church home for a long time.

We've been so blessed to have found Compass Church and already feel we have learned more about God's word these past few months than in past years. Thanks again.

What an affirmation that God is working here at Compass! I love these cards.

The Four Soils

2008-01-26T10:50:00.001-08:00

What A Shock! Osteen and Mormons Believe in the Same Jesus

2008-01-25T11:54:00.002-08:00

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. - Galatians 1:6-10

It's no secret that Joel Osteen is not a traditional pastor with a traditional style of teaching. In fact, he would readily admit that truth himself I am quite sure. Now, because Joel (sorry, I can't refer to him as pastor for my own personal reasons) has a best selling book and heads up one of the biggest churches in the world, he has become something of a media darling. People love Joel. His accent, his charm. I even admit that he seems like a real nice guy. The only problem with Joel, and it is no small one, is that he is a false teacher, and thankfully in orthodox Christians circles, false teachers are still frowned upon. On December 23, 2007 Joel was on Fox News being interviewed by Chris Wallace.
Now, as I stated above, it's no surprise that Joel was on Fox News. He is widely popular and you can't channel surf without running into him at least a few times a week. The surprise (and I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised) is that Joel Osteen made an incredible claim in his interview with Chris Wallace. Osteen, in a few short words, put a century long problem to rest! According to Osteen Mormons, specifically Mitt Romney, believes in the same Jesus that he does. Here is a portion of the interview:

WALLACE: So in that sense, what do you make of Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor who's doing so well and, in effect, using his faith as part of his platform? OSTEEN: Well, you know what? I like Mike Huckabee. I've never met him. My brother's from Little Rock and he knows him and says he's a fine man. And so I like what he stands for. From what I've seen, I don't think he's overdone it. I think he's just — you know, he's a Baptist pastor. That's in him. And I think he's just standing up for what he believes in. WALLACE: And what about Mitt Romney? And I've got to ask you the question, because it is a question whether it should be or not in this campaign, is a Mormon a true Christian? OSTEEN: Well, in my mind they are. Mitt Romney has said that he believes in Christ as his savior, and that's what I believe, so, you know, I'm not the one to judge the little details of it. So I believe they are. And so, you know, Mitt Romney seems like a man of character and integrity to me, and I don't think he would — anything would stop me from voting for him if that's what I felt like. WALLACE: So, for instance, when people start talking about Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, and the golden tablets in upstate New York, and God assumes the shape of a man, do you not get hung up in those theological issues? OSTEEN: I probably don't get hung up in them because I haven't really studied them or thought about them. And you know, I just try to let God be the judge of that. I mean, I don't know. I certainly can't say that I agree with everything that I've heard about it, but from what I've heard from Mitt, when he says that Christ is his savior, to me that's a common bond.This quote is so outlandish I don't even know where to start. So, I am going to collect my thoughts and tomorrow return to deconstruct what Joel tried to build through his admitted ignorance on the topic. What I am saying is this, don't make plans for a pilgrimage to Salt Lake City just yet on what Joel believes. See you tomorrow.

Counter Cultural Christians: January 6, 2008

2008-01-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

It Started With Saying Hello

2008-01-03T21:12:00.000-08:00

It started with saying hello. I was walking up to the condo where my wife and I live and I spotted one of our neighbors walking her dog. This particular neighbor is a 50 - something single gal and as I stepped up from the parking area on to the sidewalk I glanced at her and I smiled and said "hello, how are you tonight?" She responded with honesty and stated that she had been better. Sadly in my mind I am sure I was expecting her to politely respond to my question with a "I am fine, how are you". This of course would have enabled me not to break stride as I headed to the comfort of my home.

Prompted by her response I did stop my stride and I turned around to engage her in conversation. Through our conversation I found out more about my neighbor in 10 minutes than I had found out about her in the year since she had moved in to the condo complex (can you say convicted?). I found out she is lonely. I found out that she is struggling with life. I found out that she is seeking to find a church (WOW! Here I am a pastor and I have my next door neighbor telling me that she is having a hard time finding a church! Yes, go ahead and say convicted).

"The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." - Romans 13:9

As Christians it is very simple for us to get comfortable in our church and social surroundings. Week in and week out we see the same people and ask the same questions, yet how often are we meeting new people and engaging them in conversation? Tonight when I pulled my vehicle into the parking space I had no plans on having an important conversation with one of my neighbors. In fact, I was solely focused on getting home, getting into my sweat pants and sweat shirt and flopping on the couch. However, God had different plans for me. Here is part of an email I received tonight from my neighbor:

Dale,

Your presence in my life at this time is such an answer to prayer. Thank you for caring about me and offering to provide counseling. You and your wife are such nice people. I feel blessed to be given the opportunity of becoming better acquainted with you.

I know I am running the risk at sounding boastful by sharing this with you - however my motivation is not based on pride or feeling the need to boast. My motivation is to encourage you to reach out to your neighbor and engage them. Get to know them. Invite them to discover the same God that you know. It's pretty simple to start...just say hello. Remember that God works through people to bring them to Himself:

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." - Matthew 28:18-20

By the way, she is going to come and visit our church. Do you have any neighbors that need to hear the same teaching you are hearing week in and week out at CBC? Say hello to them the next time you see them and see what God does.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

2007-12-31T00:57:00.000-08:00

Okay, it is about 1:00 a.m., and I am about to post a blog!

It will be short, and even though I should be trying to sleep, I have to get this out of my system.

I received a message tonight from someone in our congregation who I counseled a few weeks back. It was a tough counseling session that dealt with an extremely emotional topic and I didn't really know if our time together was at all fruitful...until tonight. While I obviously can't share the details of the note that I received, I can share that it came at an amazing time.

You see, I had a tough day...actually, that might be putting it mildly. Frankly it was one of those days when I question why God has me in the role that He has me. I was feeling discouraged. Then, while sitting in the lobby of Lone Star Steak House (yum) I checked my email on my PDA. I was pretty much feeling the weight of the day on my shoulders as I waited for my email to download. Then, I saw that I had a message.

As I began to read the message and the encouraging words within it, my eyes began to water. I got emotional because I was reminded by that email that I am exactly where God wants me. He wants me where He wants all Christians. Building into the lives of others with the Truth of Christ. Encouraging other believers to stand firm on the foundation that He provides in Christ and that He has revealed in His word. I was able to do that a few weeks ago for this individual, and tonight they did it for me.

I love how God works!

For a great sermon on Christian encouragement our very own Pastor Bobby Blakey preached on the topic this weekend at Compass...watch this:

Sorting Out the End Times: Q and A

2007-12-16T22:32:00.000-08:00

Answering the Challenge: Ambitious Faith is Born

2007-12-12T23:14:00.001-08:00

A few months ago our senior pastor, Dr. Mike Fabarez, preached a sermon series titled "Ambitious Faith" that challenged the congregants at Compass Bible Church to live ambitiously for Christ. Well, to say that the sermon series produced some fruit in the life of CBC'ers would be a mild understatement.

A group of CBC'ers took Pastor Mike's message to heart and they started a clothing company called, funny enough, Ambitious Faith. While entering into the clothing industry is ambitious in and of itself, the founders of Ambitious Faith are looking to find a niche within the culture by targeting the world of extreme sports while boldly proclaiming the Truth of Jesus Christ through their apparel. I know this blog isn't about marketing or advertising, but if you are still looking for some Christmas gifts, please visit their website today and support this ambitious venture.

Biblical Counseling: Advice or Truth?

2007-12-10T19:45:00.001-08:00

Counsel; "advice; opinion or instruction given in directing the judgment or conduct of another" - www.dictionary.com

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you" - Psalm 32:8

Last Friday I had the pleasure of teaching at Navigating Motherhood, a ministry at our church focused on outreach to mothers in our neighborhood who wouldn't usually darken the doors of a church. The program is designed to give mothers and their families an entry point into the local church by engaging them with real life issues. Ranging from raising children, finances and marriage, with the Truth of Christ being highlighted on a weekly basis.

As I said, I was invited to teach last Friday. To say that I had a great time would be an understatement. I taught on the distinction between Biblical Counseling and what I call pop-culture counseling (Dr. Phil, Oprah, Dr. Laura, etc.).

I explained to the group of mom's that the distinction between the two types of counseling is one is steeped with humanism and often irrelevant 'advice' or 'opinion' while the other is purely focused on the perfect wisdom of a Holy God.

I don't know if you think with the same type of black and white filter that I do regarding this issue, but I can tell you that through my own counseling ministry I have witnessed first hand the destructive nature of trusting in the wisdom of people rather than trusting in God's revealed word.

So if you are currently struggling through a difficult time and the latest and greatest pop-culture fad in counseling has left you feeling empty, call your church and ask if they do Biblical Counseling and if they do, make an appointment. I am sure God has something to say regarding your issue.

Suggested Reading:

Compass Bible Church Sermon: Counter Cultural Christians

2007-12-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

Sorting Out the End Times

2007-12-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Hey! Have You Prayed Today?

2007-11-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the word "pray" is in the Scriptures over 366 times! Here are some examples that I hope draws you into prayer today:

"In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly" - 1 Samuel 1:10

"The LORD said to him: "I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there" - 1 Kings 9:3

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" - Matthew 6:6

"On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation" - Luke 22:40

"So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him" - Acts 12:5

"I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me" - Romans 15:30

"I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers" - Ephesians 1:16

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" - Philippians 4:6

"And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains" - Colossians 4:3

"Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well" - 3 John 1:2

Living in Peace with One Another: Not a Suggestion

2007-11-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" - Ephesians 4:30-31

This Just In: People Seem to Squabble

If one did a brief survey of human history they would easily discover at least one (and without a doubt many more) undeniable absolute truths: People have a hard time getting along with one another.

In his epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul calls upon the Ephesians to be kind and compassionate with one another, going as far as giving the imperative to "forgive" each other, just as Christ had forgiven them. Of course the implication of this imperative text is that the people in the Ephesian church weren't getting along all that well. They were struggling with bitterness, rage and anger and because of that they were brawling, slandering and engaging in all kinds of malice towards one another. According to Paul, this grieved the Holy Spirit.

So, what about us?

If bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slandering and malice grieved the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago shouldn't we assume that the same behavior from us today would also grieve the Holy Spirit today? Yes, it would be very safe to assume that assertion to be true.

Who do you hold bitterness against? Do you struggle with rage or anger towards others? Perhaps it's a co-worker or more likely a spouse that you are guilty of slandering. Regardless of who it is, the Scriptures are clear that it is not acceptable behavior for Christians to be involved with. So the question being begged is this: how do I not act this way towards others?

Life Through the Spirit

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other" - Galatians 5:22-26

It's interesting to note that "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" is described by Paul in Galatians as "the fruit of the Spirit" and not the fruit of the man. This of course is consistent with the rest of the Scripture that claims that the righteousness of man is worthless in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6).

Briefly stated, the fruit of the Spirit is produced as the Christian yields or submits to the authority of God in his or her own life. Jesus was asked by the Pharisees what the greatest commandment of God is:

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these" - Mark 12:29-31

So Then, What is Love?

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" - 1 Cor. 13:1-8

The Solution?

Duh...instead of harboring bitterness, rage and anger in your life, yield to the Spirit's desire to produce "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Compass Bible Church: 11/24/2007 Sermon

2007-11-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

Respectable Sins: A Call to Personal Holiness

2007-11-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

"The motivation for this book stems from a growing conviction that those of us whom I call conservative evangelicals may have become so preoccupied with some of the major sins of society around us that we have lost sight of the need to deal with our own more "refined" or subtle sins" - Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins (page. 9).

I think this is the first book review that I have put on this blog, and honestly, it probably won't be much of a review, but more of a recommendation for you to read this book and face the challenges that the author has laid out. Author Jerry Bridges, best known for his book "The Pursuit of Holiness" returns to the topic of Holiness in his book "Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate".

This was a very quick read, written in a devotional style, with the following sins being tackled starting in chapter seven:
* Ungodliness
* Anxiety and Frustration
* Discontentment
* Unthankfulness
* Pride
* Selfishness
* Lack of Self-Control
* Impatience and Irritability
* Anger
* The Weeds of Anger
* Judgmentalism
* Envy, Jealousy, and Related Sins
* Sins of the Tongue
* Worldliness

If you go to Compass Bible Church, you will be able to find this book in our bookstore (I have made sure that they have ordered plenty) or if you don't have access to our church bookstore, you can find this book on amazon.com as well. I told you it wouldn't be much a review, but I highly recommend that you order this book and give it a read, I truly believe it will be helpful to you and your walk with Christ.

Who Do You Work For?

2007-11-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving - Colossians 3:23-24

Day in and day out, each of us wake up with daily tasks to perform. Many of these tasks are aimed at pleasing others. Tasks in the home that please our spouse or parents. Tasks in the workplace that please your boss or your co-workers. Tasks in school to please your teachers and your parents. Let me ask you a question: How often do you think of these tasks in the context of working for the Lord?

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" - Matthew 5:16

Every day that God gives us to live is a day that we can glorify Him through our work. I want to gently remind you that if you are a Christian, the first person you should be seeking to please through your work is God.

A New Direction for Foundation for Faith

2007-11-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader,

For the past 18 months I have blogged on various topics within the Christian faith. Topics that ranged from handling the "storms of life" to exposing the false teaching of the Emergent Church movement. I have had a great time writing these blogs and posting videos, however, as of late, I have been convicted about lacking a focus for the blog.

As of today, Foundation for Faith will be committed to posting blogs that will assist the believer in building a foundation for their faith. I will blog about the need for a Biblical-centered approach in counseling. I will blog on the need for us to submit to the authority of God's word. I will blog on the application of God's word. I will highlight heroes of the the faith.

I am excited to have an answer to my prayers in regards to this site - I am happy that this site will have a clear vision and focus. I will keep most of my posts from the past up on the blog in the archive area, so you will still have access to them.

Thanks,

Pastor Dale

Early A.M. Wake-up Call for Prayer

2007-10-22T05:17:00.000-07:00

Anytime your phone rings in the middle of the night it probably means that someone needs help. This morning my phone rang at 3:45 (and as I reached for it in my half awaken state) I saw a familiar name on the display, which of course sent my heart rate up. As I answered the phone I heard my friend's voice, a little shaky, yet no sign of panic or distress.

"Dale, I wanted to call you and let you know that we are safe, but the fire is so close to our home that we were forced to leave."

My friends Tim and Donna Fritcher, who live in San Marcos, were forced to leave their home this morning because a brush fire is threatening the Cal State San Marcos area. Tim and Donna have two children, Thomas and Hannah. Of course, I am concerned about their home, but I am so thankful that they were able to evacuate and flee to safety.

My wife and I were led into prayer this morning after this phone call. A prayer for protection. A prayer of thankfulness. A prayer for His will. Though the want and desire of sleep is still hanging over me as I write this post, I wanted to post what a blessing it has been to be in prayer this very early a.m. for my friends. Prayer is a gift and I was reminded this morning that regardless of the time of day, our God stands ready to hear from us, so much so that he gets us out of bed in order to have us pray for our friends and neighbors.

Hell's Best Kept Secret

2007-10-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

A Look at the End Times

2007-09-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

Join us this fall in the main auditorium at Compass Bible Church as we gather together every Thursday night for a large, all-church dinner, followed by an in-depth study of what the Bible has to say about the future. Don't miss this systematic look at the forthcoming end times events taught by Pastor Mike. Bring your notebook, pencil, and your appetite as we settle in each Thursday night for an edifying and memorable gathering with food, fellowship and the study of God's word.

If you live out of the Southern California area visit www.fpr.info to order the CD's.

Fall Schedule

September 13th
September 20th
September 27th
October 4th
October 11th
October 18th
October 25th
November 1st
November 8th
November 15th
November 22nd
November 29th
December 6th
December 13th

Why Study Eschatology?
The Various Views & the Emotional Disagreements
Understanding Israel & God’s Covenants
Reexamining the Nature of the Church
A Closer Look at the Millennial Views
A Study of Daniel’s 70 Week Prophesy
The Rapture Debate
A One Hour Overview of the Book of Revelation
A Closer Look at the Tribulation
Death & the Intermediate State
Thanksgiving Break
The Resurrections & Judgments
The New Jerusalem & the Lake of Fire
Question & Answer Night

Like it or Not: The Way We Dress Matters

2007-09-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

This post is bound to ruffle some feathers but please know that is not my intention. My sole intention is to draw attention to a matter that I think contributes to sexual sin in our churches. In fact, I believe this so much that I am willing to take some heat for posting this article.I have chosen to publish a transcript from a woman who shared a message at Grace Community Church (Pastor John MacArthur's church) two years ago. Her name is Pam Hardy and she is the wife of Pastor Carey Hardy who pastors a church in North Carolina. This post is very long compared to most blogs, but I hope you will read it in its entirety and comment on what you think.
I know this is an important topic at my church because I am the counseling pastor there and I have also led a men's small group in Bible Study over the last several years. These men share their struggles with me. I know this a problem at my church because I am a man and I too see the way that some of the women in our church dress and at the very best, in can be extremely distracting. I know this is an important topic in my home church and I am sure that it is an important topic at your church too.

Good Morning Ladies. I have really been looking forward to being with you today and I am truly honored that you would ask me to come speak with you about this subject of modesty.

Today we are going to talk about matters related to modesty, and the reason we are going to do that is because modesty matters. In fact, when we are talking about how we live our Christian lives and the testimony that we present to the people around us—it matters a great deal. Now, I will be honest and tell you that I approach this subject with great fear and trembling. This is not the easiest subject to teach on.

There are several risks to teaching about modesty.

1. I guess the first one is that, when you teach about modesty, basically what you are doing is inviting every person that hears you to scrutinize your wardrobe for the next 20 years. So that is one negative to this.

2. Another risk that is actually much more significant is this: I may offend someone, and I hate to do that. I love you ladies and I think you know that, but this has really been a burden on my heart for a long time now, and I am afraid that it is the type of thing that simply needs to be addressed from time to time. I have been at Grace Church for over 14 years and I have basically kept my mouth shut for most of those 14 years. But just for my own conscience’s sake I simply cannot stay silent any longer. There are some things about modesty that just need to be said.

Now, I realize that we will always have some examples of immodesty here at our church, because we are a large church and we have so many visitors and new people. Every Sunday we just have tons of new people on campus, but I am not talking to them. I am directing what I say this morning to the faithful people who come here on a regular basis, and as will be very obvious this morning, I have some very strong convictions about modesty. They have developed over the course of many years and I have tried very hard to base what I believe on what the Bible has to say about modesty and purity.

Now, there are a few things I will say today that will fall under the category of my personal opinion and I will try to make that very clear when that’s the case. Also, I want to be very compassionate in what I say because I have come to believe that modesty is a process. I see a tendency for women to become more conservative with age and maturity, and it corresponds to an increase in wisdom about how our dress affects the men around us. I have seen that as women get less naive they tend to get more conservative.

Now, let me say right up front, I am not the “Fashion Police”; I am not the “Cleavage Patrol”; I am not the “Modesty Mafia” of Grace Church. I do not want you to run when you see me coming. I am not the last word on modesty and I do not claim to have all the answers. I especially don’t want you to think that I walk around every Sunday judging everyone and writing things down in my “Little Black Book.” That is absolutely not the case, in fact, I have never written anything down until I began to type up this lesson.

On the contrary, do you know what I do? And this is the honest truth. Instead of walking around judging everyone, I am constantly excusing everyone. I do my best to just believe for the best in people, and I choose to believe that much of the immodesty I see is mainly due to ignorance or naiveté. I cannot really believe, myself, that people wear what they wear, many times knowing exactly how it looks and the effect it is going to have on people. I just choose not to believe that.

I was talking with a lady at the church recently, and she made the comment that her teenage daughter was never intending to be immodest—that was not her goal at all. She just wanted to be fashionable. And I really do think that is the case with many, many girls. They’re not intending to dress in a way that is sensual; they just want to be fashionable.

One reason that this is such a difficult issue to tackle is because the popular culture is so strongly opposed to the biblical standard. There is a scripture in Jeremiah that talks about the children of Israel and it says, “They were not ashamed, and they did not know how to blush” [Jeremiah 6:15, 8:12]. Well, ladies, today I think we live in a culture that does not know how to blush.

You know it was kind of interesting at the last Super Bowl; the Janet Jackson incident that happened. You know on the one hand I was pleasantly surprised that there was such an outcry about what happened, but on the other hand I was surprised that there was such an outcry, because we see such immodesty around us all the time that was not too far from what happened there.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss has written a great book called, The Look, and in this book she contrasts what the world says about how we should dress and what the Bible says, and as is often the case they are diametrically opposed to one another. For instance, the world says beauty is external and physical. The Bible tells us that beauty is internal and spiritual. The world says you should dress for people to notice you. The Bible says we are to dress to please God and to glorify Him. The world tells us that the purpose of clothing is to uncover and to reveal. The Bible says the purpose of clothing is to cover and to conceal.

We, as Christian women, should look different from the world. What does it tell us in Romans 12, verse 1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God…and do not be conformed to this world” [Romans 12:1-2]. We are not to dress like the women of the world, but we are to be “transformed.” The women of the world don’t know any better. When I go to the mall I don’t expect to see modesty, but when I come to church I do. But I am sad to say that too many times, when you see a group of girls standing around, there is very little difference in dress between those who profess to know Christ and those who don’t.

One of our pastors on staff, Rick Holland, recently did a three part series on modesty in our college department. He did an excellent job and I will probably quote him several times in this lesson. When Rick taught on this, he opened up his lesson with the story of the “Emperor’s New Clothes,” and he made the application that just like the Emperor, those who wear revealing clothes believe the lie that they’re not really indecent. And those who are looking on are often afraid to say the truth for fear of being thought hopelessly ignorant or old fashioned, or worst of all—legalistic.

You know, I thought of another illustration that I think would apply here. You’ve all heard the story of the frog in the boiling water. You know, if you put a frog; if you throw him into a pot of boiling water, well he will immediately jump out. But if you put him in a pot of cold water and you ever so slowly turn up the heat, he won’t realize what’s happening and he will stay there until he boils to death. You know, I think we could apply this to our churches because I feel like immodesty has crept into our churches so subtly and so gradually that all of a sudden modestly is boiling to death in our churches.

So, this morning, all I am asking is that you hear me out and hopefully I can give you some food for thought related to this issue.

Alright, let’s get started. You should all have a syllabus, and so you can follow along with me, and let me reassure you, every scripture that I mention today I’m sure is in your syllabus, so you if you miss one, don’t worry, it’s there in the syllabus and you can look back at it later.

I. THE NEED FOR MODESTY

First, we need to talk about the need for modesty. Modesty is necessary because of several reasons:

A. The Fall (Genesis 3).

The first reason is because of the Fall that we find described in Genesis 3. We need to understand that there is a theological foundation for modesty that goes back to Adam and Eve. The very first thing after the Fall—what did Adam and Eve do? They looked for fig leaves to cover themselves up. They immediately tried to cover their nakedness.

So the very first result of the guilt of sin was the recognition that they were immodest. I think that is huge and it should tell us that this is a very important issue. When you read the account of the Fall it becomes clear that clothing is a direct result of the guilt of sin. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve had no fear that their nakedness could ever be used for evil purposes. But when sin entered the world it changed everything and the innocence of nakedness was lost forever. And you will find, as you study the Bible, after Genesis, chapter 3, whenever nakedness is mentioned, except in the context of marriage, it is always associated with shame. There are many Old Testament scriptures that link these two concepts together.

So, first, modesty is necessary because of the Fall. Another reason it is necessary is because of the similarities between men and women.

B. The Similarities between men and women (James 1:14-15; 1 John 2:16).

In James, chapter 1, it says this, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” In 1 John 2:16, it says this, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”

These scriptures tell us how men and women are similar in their temptation to sin. These things affect both of us: “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Both men and women have to be on guard against those things.

But there is one more very important reason that modesty is necessary and that’s because of the differences between men and women.

C. The differences between men and women (Job 31:1; Proverbs 7:10; Romans 14:12-13).

I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet but men and women are different—they are very different. And one of the main differences that is crucial here, is that God has designed men to be more visual. Women tend to be more verbal—men tend to be more visual.

In Proverbs, chapter 7, verse 10, it says this, “And there a woman met him, with the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart.” Look at that phrase, “the attire of a harlot”—the Bible specifically calls attention to the way an immoral woman dresses. Why? Why does it do that? Because that is one of the main ways that men are tempted. Now think about it, the Bible never talks about how an immoral man dresses—why not? Because for most women sight is not a major avenue of temptation, but for men it is a different story, because men are tempted by what they see.

Remember what Job said, in Job 31:1, he said, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?” I think of King David. When did all his trouble start with Bathsheba? What was he doing? Remember it tells us, he was walking on his roof one evening and “he saw” Bathsheba. He saw her bathing and he was tempted through what he saw.

Nancy DeMoss, in her book, says this, “What a man’s touch is to a woman, the sight of a woman is to a man.” That’s how important it is and how powerful it is. Our poor men: our husbands, our sons, our fathers—men are tempted everywhere they look—the Internet, TV, movies, billboards, and magazines. My heart really just goes out to them, because they are surrounded by temptations every day, and I think as Christian women we should take this very seriously, that we are not to make men stumble with how we dress. When men come to church they should be able to rest. They should have a little bit of a respite from this constant temptation that they face out in the world.

Now, let me hasten to say this, immodesty is no excuse for lust. A man cannot control what women wear, but he can control what he looks at. So yes, the bottom line is this: it is still basically the man’s responsibility, but ladies they don’t need any help sinning. Okay? Don’t be guilty of feeding those sinful thoughts by the way you dress.

Nancy DeMoss says this, “This is not to suggest that men are not responsible for their thought life or their behavior—they are. They have to learn how to walk with God and bring those thoughts under the control of Christ, even though they live in a culture where immodesty is rampant. However, as Christian women, our clothing choices can either help men succeed morally or can put temptation in their path that they may find difficult to overcome. This means that both men and women are responsible for moral purity. We should do everything in our power to help our brothers stand and to be sure that our dress and our appearance brings glory to God.”

Romans 14 speaks clearly about our responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Romans 14:12-13, says, “Each of us shall give an account to God…and we should resolve not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.”

And you know what? This is not a new problem. The great old Puritan preacher Richard Baxter said this, “You must not lay a stumbling block in their way nor blow up the fire of their lust. You must walk among sinful persons as you would with a candle among straw or gunpowder. Or else you may see the flame which you did not foresee when it is too late to quench it.”

If there is anything in your dress that is sensual or suggestive you are inviting the men around you to go some where in their imaginations where they should not go. The sad reality today is that many times a man doesn’t even have to use that much imagination, because so much is already revealed.

All right, so we understand about the need for modesty. Now let’s turn our attention to the:

II. THE GOAL OF MODESTY

Before I tell you what our goals should be I want you to remember a couple of key points, and the first one is this, remember:

· Goals begin internally (in our hearts)
(Proverbs 4:23; 23:7; 27:19; Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 139:23-24)

Many scriptures testify to the importance of the heart, and I have listed some references there in your syllabus.

o Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

o Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

And you know as I began to think about this issue I began to realize that the most important question is not, “What do I wear?” But instead, “What is the state of my heart?” Because the real issue ladies is the heart. How you dress on the outside says a lot about who you are on the inside. Our pastor John [MacArthur] made this great statement one time in a sermon; he said this, “The train of sin runs on tracks that were laid in the heart.” So you must be very honest with your self about your motives. Why do you dress like you do? What kind of reactions are you trying to get?

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be attractive and pleasant to the eyes of other people, but a woman must be very careful that, that does not cross a line and becomes something she craves, because that becomes a pride issue. We should never ever get secret pleasure from thinking that we are attracting attention from men. So we need to examine our motives, and I am dead serious when I say that you have to be brutally honest with yourself here, because our hearts can be deceptive.

o Jeremiah 17:9 says, “"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

A woman can be trying to get attention from men and all the while pretending to herself that she is doing nothing of the kind. This is an area where we really need to pray the prayer of,

o Psalm 139:23-24, where is says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and…see if there is any wicked way in me.”

In John MacArthur’s commentary on 1 Timothy, he made this statement about the heart, “How does a woman discern the sometimes fine line between proper dress and dressing to be the center of attention? The answer starts in the intent of the heart. A woman should examine her motives and goals for the way she dresses. Is her intent to show the grace and beauty of womanhood? Is it to reveal a humble heart devoted to worshipping God? Or, is it to call attention to herself and flaunt her beauty, or worse to attempt to lure men sexually? A woman who focuses on worshipping God will consider carefully how she is dressed, because her heart will dictate her wardrobe and her appearance.”

You know sometimes the problem is not even modesty, but instead it is a pride issue. Sometimes a girl can be relatively modest but she is very focused on buying certain name brands of clothes, or she always buys very expensive clothing, and she wants other people to notice that. That is just as wrong as being immodest, because that is a heart issue. So ladies, I implore you, examine the motives of your heart.

Ok, the second key point we want to look at is this:

· Goals are expressed externally (Matthew 12:34; Mark 7:20-23)

They begin in our hearts, but they are expressed externally in our attitudes; in our actions; in our appearance. God always sees external actions as expressions of what is in the heart. In Mark 7:20-23, it says this, “What comes out of a man, that defiles the man.” It talks about “evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,” and it goes on and on about these things and it says, “All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” So this scripture tells us the things that on the inside will eventually be manifested outwardly.

In Matthew 12:34, Jesus made this statement, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” I think we could adapt that and say this, “out of the abundance of the heart the body dresses.”

Never forget ladies that your clothing says something about you. A person’s first impression, is often, and actually, usually based on outward appearance. When you walk in a room, before you have even said one word your clothes are making a statement, and if a woman’s dress is a revelation of what’s in her heart; what you are actually telling others is whether you have a modest heart or an immodest heart.

And while we are talking about externals here let me caution you to guard against being legalistic in this area. Legalism is an overemphasis on external things in the belief that, that is what produces spirituality, and unfortunately this mindset often leads to becoming self-righteous and judging other people by those same external standards.

Do you know what? You can be very modestly dressed and still have a wicked heart, or you can be immodestly dressed and just be naïve and need someone to come along side and help you. I cannot stress it enough ladies: it is all about your heart! It’s not just about what you wear.

Now with those key points understood lets move on to what our goals are, and they are really very simple.

The goal of every Christian should be:

A. To glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31; 6:19-20)

We find the first one in 1 Corinthians 10:31, where it says, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” So our first goal, of course, is to glorify God. The goal of every Christian should be to glorify God in every area of life and that includes modesty. Why? Because Christ sacrificed His life to pay for our sin and we are bought with a price. If you know Christ you are owned by God and your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Think about it this way: you are dressing a body that belongs to God—it doesn’t belong to you anymore, so how we dress is all about the glory of God, just as everything in our lives should be.

There is another goal that we must have and that is:

B. To please God (2 Corinthians 5:9)

This is one of my favorite scriptures, 2 Corinthians 5:9, it says, “Therefore we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

How do we please God? By loving Him, by worshipping Him, by obeying Him, and I think another way that we please Him, is by loving the things He loves, and one of the things He loves is righteousness.

Let me challenge you to take the scriptures that I have given you in your syllabus and study these, and you will discover that purity and righteousness are a priority with God. Over and over the scripture talks about things like “clean hands and a pure heart.” It talks about whatever is pure and lovely; it talks about the “pure in heart”—over and over you read those words.

From Psalm 11:7 and Psalm 146:8 it is very clear that the Lord loves purity and righteousness. Why? Because that is the very essence of who He is, and if we want to please Him, we should be very concern with reflecting what is right and good and pure in our personal lives. And you know what? A clear conscience is worth more than gold. It is a wonderful thing to go to bed at night with the assurance that you did not make anyone stumble that day by how you were dressed.

Ok, lets review what we have looked at so far:

o We have discussed the need for modesty.

o The theological foundation for modesty.

o Two major goals of modesty:

1. To glorify God.

2. To please God.

As we move through the rest of the lesson, please keep in mind these basic biblical principles that I have already mentioned:

1. Our bodies belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; 2 Corinthians 6:16)

2. Our external appearance reflects our inner condition (Matthew 12:34-35; Proverbs 6:14)

3. We are responsible to not cause our brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble. (Romans 14:12-13)

Alright, I want to turn a corner here and move now into the last section of our lesson, which I have called:

III. THE EXPRESSION OF MODESTY

Modesty can be expressed in many ways but it is primarily expressed by how we dress. And here is where I want to address the specifics of how to dress modestly. But before we do this, I want to look for a moment at the two watershed passages on modesty in the Bible: 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and 1 Peter 3:3-4, these are the scriptures that really define the issue for us.

Now we don’t have time today to study them in detail but I do want to give you the main point of each passage.

o 1 Timothy 2:9-10 says this, “…in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”

Now, don’t misunderstand the intent of what Paul is saying here. He is not saying in these verses that you cannot braid your hair, instead what he is confronting is the showy hairdos and clothing that some of the women were wearing when the church would gather to worship. The women in Paul’s time often wove gold and pearls and other jewelry through their hairdos to draw attention to themselves and to flaunt their wealth and their beauty.

Another important thing to understand here is that the prostitutes of that day also tended to wear lots of jewelry and elaborate hairdos and expensive clothes. In the MacArthur Commentary on First Timothy we read this, “The wearing of expensive clothes and jewelry that drew attention away from the Lord was obviously was inappropriate for the women in the church. They were supposed to be demonstrating humble godliness—not appearing like prostitutes or showy pagan women. To come to church so attired was at best a distraction, and at worse an attempt to seduce the men of the church.”

Joshua Harris, in his book, Not Even a Hint, made this observation, “There is a difference between dressing attractively and dressing to attract.”

When you do a study on the key words in these verses in 1 Timothy, such as, “adorn, modest, propriety, moderation,” you will find that they are referring to qualities, such as, “orderliness, modesty, humility, and self-control,” so that is what Paul is encouraging here.

o Now, let’s look at 1 Peter 3:3-4, where we see a parallel passage. It says this, “Your adornment must not be merely external: braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and a quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.” In this passage Peter is reminding us, that as women, our beauty should not come from outward adornment, but rather from a spiritual character that is honoring to God. The emphasis here is on cultivating inner beauty.

In his commentary on 1 Peter, D. Edmond Heibert makes this statement, “It goes without saying that this passage does not encourage slovenliness or indifference toward appearance. Neither does it constitute absolute prohibition of braids or jewelry any more than it forbids the putting on of dresses. This passage is a warning against extravagance and self-centered display.”

So, you don’t want to wear things that are immodest or things that are designed to attract attention, but (let me caution you here) be balanced. You don’t want to completely ignore the outside either. In 1 Peter, that word, “merely” is very important. You do not want to take 1 Peter to the extreme and not do anything. Certainly, you can attract attention by being too made up, but you can also attract attention by being too austere, or too sloppy.

Many years ago Melody Green wrote a little pamphlet called, Uncovering the Truth About Modesty, and she says this, “I have seen people go to the other extreme and they try to prove to others that they are more spiritual, because of their lack of concern about the way they look. But this too can simply be another form of pride and self-righteousness. God wants us to be balanced and to seek to glorify Him in everything we do.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I wake up in the morning, I’m kind of scary—okay? Why should I scare my husband for no reason at all? I mean, I’m a little scary, but you know when I get up and I put on a little makeup and I fix my hair, it’s better. So, ladies be balanced, and I think this especially applies to the married women—after you get married do not let yourself go and stop putting much effort into your appearance. Be beautiful for your husband. When I go out with my husband, I want him to be glad I’m with him. I don’t want him to be ashamed of how I look. But, ladies, again let me stress: be reasonable. Please understand I am not talking here about plastic surgery and tummy tucks and six hours at the gym everyday—that’s ridiculous. Some women, even Christian women can get way too focused on their external appearance, and it really becomes an idol in their lives, and if you are not careful you will get very out of balance in this area.

There was a wonderful lady in our church years ago named Sandi Keasling and she used to say this, “Your character is the picture and your appearance is the frame. The frame should complement the picture, not distract from it.” Now think about that. When you look at a picture, the frame should not be the main focus of attention. Right? I mean it’s the picture you want to see, not the frame. So remember, in conclusion, don’t pay too much attention to your appearance, but on the other hand don’t pay too little either—be balanced.

So, from these passages, in 1 Timothy and 1 Peter, we are told that we should dress in a way that is orderly and appropriate, modest, and in a way that demonstrates humility and self-control.

One more thing. Remember that we are always to dress like women. In Deuteronomy 22:5 we are forbidden to dress like the opposite sex. So just make sure that whatever you wear supports the fact that you are a woman. Don’t wear clothes that were designed for men or intended to make you look manly. You always want to look feminine.

Alright, now we need to turn our attention to the details and I do want to be specific today. I think sometimes you can be so vague and so general that it really doesn’t help at all. But I will tell you I will do my very best to be tasteful and tactful as we talk about these things. And as we begin I do want to give you a foundational principle to remember and this is it: if you dress in a way that draws attention to a certain part of the body and makes a man take a second and a third look—it is wrong. Okay? It is sinful and it is wrong. I mean here are the poor guys trying to fight temptation and guard their eyes, and here are girls dressing in such a way as to draw attention to the very areas that the guys are trying so hard not to notice, and I personally think that is sinful to do that.

You know, the way a woman dresses should draw attention to her face, to her countenance, not to her body. We do want to be an overall vision of loveliness, that’s fine, but you don’t want to draw attention to certain parts of the body.

Now as we examine our wardrobes

I want to tell you what Nancy DeMoss says to ask yourself, as you look at your wardrobe: “First question is this, does it expose? Second question is, does it emphasize?” And I think that’s a good place to start.

As our college pastor, Rick, was preparing to teach on this subject, he asked his Bible Study leaders to write down what the main temptations were to them in how a girl dresses. And let me remind you, these are guys who love the Lord with all their hearts. They are trying their best to live holy, godly lives. These are not men off the street—okay? But they were very honest about things that were temptations to them, and here were the things they listed:

1. Low pants

2. Midriff showing

3. Bare shoulders

4. Cleavage

5. Low necklines

6. Thin tops

7. Tight form-fitted tops

8. Tight pants

9. Skirt slits that are too high

So, as we go through this next section I just want you to keep those things in mind.

Now, let me give you my philosophy about clothing. There’s nothing wrong with being fashionable as long as it does not lead you to violate the rules of modesty. Our goal should be to make reasonable accommodation for the current fashions without compromising biblical principles.

There is one thing that you really have to guard against and that is: measuring yourself against the popular fashions and using that as your standard, and the reason you can’t do that is because the culture is so blatantly immodest. You can make some accommodations to current fashions as long as it doesn’t cross the line and become a modesty issue.

I have had to learn as a mother, what are the hills to die on. What are the non-negotiables? I’ll just tell you this, many years ago, when my oldest daughter was young; it was when all the weird strange colored nail polish was getting popular; you know, the purple with the white dots, and the green, and all the different colors. At first, I was very hesitant about that, because I was thinking, I had always worn pink, or red nail polish and so should she. But you know what? Those are the type of things that I have kind of mellowed on through the years, because especially that is not a modesty issue. Now, if she wants to wear green fingernail polish, well, you know, that’s not that big a deal. I am much more concerned about the things that really matter, which are things like modesty.

Let me just say a word to any teenage daughters that may eventually listen to this lesson. Let me reassure you, your mother does not want you to be ugly and out of fashion. That is not her goal in life. Let me reassure you, she loves you. She wants the best for you. So when she gives you direction on how to dress—listen to her. She has been around a lot longer than you have, and she’s got a lot of wisdom, and just remember that she loves you.

I have been there; I have been there on those six-hour shopping trips at the mall, trying to find some modest clothing. Trying to find things that we could agree on, and you know, you both end up in tears by the end of the trip—I’ve been there, so I do understand this. But daughters, you just have to trust us, just remember how much we love you.

I will give you a practical suggestion. You may have to be going to some of the more of the traditional stores and not spending a whole lot of time in the teen clothing stores, which are specifically geared towards the teenage girls, and in general, the clothing in these tends to be very immodest. So, you just have to keep looking; you will find modest things, and it is hard sometimes, believe me. Another good idea is to get Dad’s input, or actually let your daughters go shopping with their fathers. That is a great way to kind of get the man’s viewpoint on this, so try that.

Alright, let’s get started. I want to give you three broad categories, and I think everything we need to address today will fit into one of these categories.

You need to examine you wardrobe and ask yourself some questions:

A. Is it too short?

This can apply to dresses, to tops, to shorts.

First, with dresses and skirts. This is hard to set an exact limit; an exact length that your dresses and skirts should come too. I will give you kind of a general guideline, and I would say you need to stay around the knee. Obviously, anything longer than that, kind of a midi-length or a long-length should be fine. As long as you stay right around your knee I think you would be okay. I have seen some wonderful, godly older ladies in our church that will wear very nice suits to church and many times they are right to the knee. Okay, so they are not super long and they stay right around the knee and they’re fine, they’re beautiful and they’re modest. But as you begin to go up the leg; every inch you go up it becomes more and more immodest.

Also, keep this in mind of what happens when you sit down, especially a straight skirt—it may not be too bad when you are standing up, but when you sit down it really will come up.

Now, tops; just different kinds of blouses and tops. Remember the list of the college leaders—don’t show your midriff. Okay? Do not make that too short.

Now, the issue with shorts is a little more challenging. I think shorts and bathing suits are in special category. With shorts, I would definitely say this: absolutely, definitely, no “short-shorts.” I had one mother say that she told her daughters, that their shorts could be the length where their fingers came to, with their arms hanging down at their sides. Just put your arms down at your sides, and wherever the end of your fingers are, the shorts should not be any shorter than that. Well, that’s great unless a girl has really short arms, and then it could be shorter than it should.

I personally think that mid-thigh is okay for shorts, but I know junior high and high school girls, and I know they would rather die than wear their shorts that long. So let me give you a wonderful alternative here, and that is in the form of Capri pants. Amazingly this is one of the few times that fashion actually works in our favor and that is in the form of Capris. Capris are cute; they’re fashionable, and they come down below the knee and they are quite modest. So I would get rid of a lot of your shorts and go buy some Capri pants—I really recommend those. If you do insist on wearing shorts just make sure that they are as modest as you can make them, but again, I really recommend Capris.

Alright, let’s talk about swimsuits. Let’s analyze a swimsuit. A swimsuit basically covers the same area of the body that underwear does. Right? And you think about it—would we wear our underwear to a pool or to the beach? No. But people wear that today; bathing suits that are incredibly immodest.

I will give you a little food for thought here: in 1922, if you wore what today would be considered a very modest one-piece swimsuit you would have been arrested for indecent exposure (Jeff Pollard, Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America). That is how much the standard has been lowered in our society, in the last 80 years.

I heard somebody say this, “You know when you get really honest, there is no such thing as a modest swimsuit.” You may think, “O my goodness, that’s somebody that’s really out of touch. That must be some much older woman who’s out of touch with today.” No, on the contrary, do you know who said that? My 20-year old, college age daughter, who I think is being much more honest about this than most girls her age.

But, I am realistic enough to know that you are probably not going to go home today and immediately throw your swimsuit in the trash and say, “Boy, I’m never going to wear that again.” In our culture, from time to time, most of you will probably wear a bathing suit. So, if you do, let me say this, just be super modest in this context. Today, amazingly, there are actually some fashion trends that really work in our favor here, and we see that in the skirts, the sarongs, the paseos, the boardshorts—any kind of skirt or wrap that covers up the swimsuit, obviously, is a great help. Just remember this, absolutely, even with a one-piece suit, you should not wear anything that is low in front or back. Do not wear the high-cut legs.

My own personal conviction on this, is this, I personally am not comfortable wearing even a modest one-piece around any men other than my husband. Now, I am not going to tell you what to do. You will have to make your own decision before the Lord on this. I am still really thinking through my own convictions in this area, and I think possibly in some contexts, it is permissible to wear a modest, one-piece swimsuit. For instance, I know in our fellowship group we sometimes, in the Summer, have a day, when the mothers can bring their children to go swimming at someone’s house, and there’s not any men anywhere around. You know, also, of course, you may go swimming with your family. I do think, possibly, in those contexts a modest swimsuit is okay, but you will have to make your own decision in that area.

Okay, so that’s the first category: is it too short? The second one is this:

B. Is it too tight?

This could apply to just about anything you can wear. Now, let me be very tactful here. If you are, shall we say, “endowed,” you have to be particularly careful not to wear things too tight. Do not dress in a way that emphasizes your figure, but in a way that minimizes it. You can still look like a woman, just don’t dress in a way that draws attention to that area.

Now, this next point, I guess would be my personal opinion, and actually this is just a personal request from me. Please, I am begging you, don’t wear those thin, stretchy, tight bras that are made of nylon or spandex. Wear a bra that has some sort of thickness—kind of a rounded appearance. Those thin, stretchy bras, I mean for all the good they do—you might as well not wear anything, because they really don’t cover or camouflage anything. Now, if you just really like that kind, and you really insist on wearing them, I am begging you, please don’t wear tight knit tops or sweaters with them.

There are three things that should never go together: one of those thin stretchy bras; a tight knit top; and a cold room! Okay? So, do you get my drift? I am trying to be really tactful here.

You know, talk about something that will make a man stumble—I have seen some things that—it embarrassed me, and I just don’t understand sometimes how woman do not understand that everything is showing. So please, I am begging you, wear something underneath your tops and your blouses that kind of camouflages. Okay?

Now, again, does this mean that you can never wear a knit top or a sweater? No, of course not, just don’t wear them too tight and make sure you wear proper undergarments with them. Okay?

Now, how about dresses and skirts? Again, don’t wear your dresses and skirts too tight. Don’t wear thin stretchy material that is so tight across the back that it hugs every square inch. Sometimes the girls don’t wear a whole lot underneath, and it is truly indecent.

You know gals, so much of this comes down to this: what do you want? I do not want men staring at me as I walk past, and I don’t think you do either, and if you don’t want that, then you cannot wear your pants and skirts so tight that, that is exactly what they will be tempted to do as you walk by.

This applies to pants and jeans—they need to have some slack.

And since we are talking about tightness here this is a good time to address something else, and that is the issue of our weight. No matter what I do, every year I seem to be adding on a few more pounds, and I think most women struggle with their weigh to some degree or another. So let me give you a few helpful hints.

If you are overweight consider these things:

1. Consider color. Light colors make you look larger. Dark will make you look slimmer.

2. Think about the patterns you wear. Horizontal lines add width and weight. Vertical lines make you look taller and slimmer.

3. Tightness. This is absolutely the most important thing, do not wear your clothes too tight. That is the worst thing you can do, because it accentuates the extra pounds. Now, does this mean that you have to wear a tent dress all the time? No, of course not, just wear things that drape nicely on the body and are not too tight.

Alright, the third section; the third question to ask is this:

C. Is it too low?

This mainly, obviously, applies to the tops that you would wear. Let me be very clear on this—no cleavage! Cleavage is for your husband and nobody else—nobody else. I taught this to the junior high girls last year, about modesty, and one of the mothers caught me later on and she thanked me for what I said, she said, “My daughter really listened,” and she said, “We even took some things out of her closet.” And the mother said, “You know I had a top that was a little bit low and I was going to give it away, and my daughter said, “Well mom, no, no, don’t give it away.” She said, “You can wear it with daddy, because Mrs. Hardy said that, “Cleavage is for your husband.” So, just remember that—cleavage is for your husband, it is not for the men of Grace Church; it is not for any other men except your husband, and any cleavage at all will draw a man’s eye, and even an inch is too much.

Here is probably also a good place to address a very controversial area; that is the area of weddings. I am going to give you my personal opinion here and you may not agree, but I really must say something here about this.

I have been so disappointed at so many weddings with the wedding dresses and the bridesmaid dresses. So many are strapless, backless, and show lots of cleavage. The main problem with strapless wedding dresses is the cleavage that goes along with it. You know, I don’t care what the occasion is—cleavage is cleavage, and skin is skin! I do not understand why people throw out all the modesty rules just because it’s a wedding or a formal occasion. No one has ever been able to give me a valid argument of why it is okay, suddenly okay, to be immodest in those settings.

Think about this, there are several aspects of a wedding that make it a worship service: we join together in the Name of the Lord; we are reading the Word; there is proclamation of the Word; there is prayer, and it is shameful what some women wear in that context.

Now, please don’t get offended here. I know there are probably some of you here that wore strapless wedding dresses, but believe me I don’t know who you are. I mean I can barely remember sometimes if today is my carpool day, much less remember what you wore at your wedding five or ten years ago. So I don’t have anybody in mind here today, I just know that I have seen it a lot. I know the current fashion is all strapless wedding dresses. I realize it’s hard to find one that is not strapless. I have seen one, maybe two at the very most that were somewhat modest. They didn’t gap or pull away from the body and there was no cleavage. Another big problem with these, is that as you twist and turn they do gap—they pull away from under the arm and it’s immodest.

Let me give you a behind the scenes peek at Grace Church. My husband, who is a pastor, has given me permission to tell you this. Every Monday they have a staff meeting and they discuss what the pastors think are significant issues at Grace Church, and more than once the issue of immodest wedding dresses has come up. The pastors are shocked and grieved by some of the immodesty they see at the weddings, and they are currently doing their best to find a way to encourage a higher standard for wedding attire. And personally, I think it is shameful, that our pastors are even having to deal with this issue, because I think the women of Grace Church have been so well taught they should know better.

My husband also was talking to some of our leaders in our fellowship group and he asked them, “Guys, just be really honest with me. When you go to a wedding and you see a wedding dress and it’s low, it’s very bare, do you just look at it like this beautiful vision of loveliness, or is there anything in that, that comes across a little bit provocative, a little bit tempting? And you know what? And these are godly men who love their wives and love their families, but all of them said, “Well, to be honest there is something that is a little bit sensual about that.”

So ladies, I am just appealing to you to really consider this. Many of you are already married, but you know girls that are going to get married someday; you have daughters; you have granddaughters—just encourage them to think about this. If there is ever going to be a day in your life that you should look chaste and modest and pure, it should be your wedding day. Now, if you don’t agree with me on this, don’t worry, we can still love each other. My husband and I don’t agree on every little thing either and we love each other a great deal. So all I want you to do is promise that you will think about it.

Just a few more things. We are still in the “too low” category—is it too low?

Alright, let’s talk about jeans. Please make sure that your tops that you wear are over the top of your jeans no matter what you do. Raise your arms, look in the mirror, do jumping jacks, whatever you need to do, but make sure you do not show your belly button. A belly button is something that really catches the eye of a man! It’s just terrible. I go to the mall and I begin to wonder if there is any girl in that mall, under the age of 25, who is not showing her midriff. It is just awful, and modesty issues aside, just from a practical standpoint, believe me they should not dress like that—it begins to make you wonder if they have mirrors at their house.

Let’s keep going—I don’t need to get on my soapbox here, but just keep that in mind, don’t wear your jeans too low. Also, this goes without saying, don’t wear things that are low in the back. Okay? That’s just common sense.

There are a few more miscellaneous issues I just want to consider here.

Think about color. Now I love white. That is about my favorite color of clothing, but the big negative to white is that it can be see-through. Any kind of white or light colors can be see-through, and yet dark colors are a natural concealer.

Now, I am not big on visual aids. I am not a big visual aids person, but I have brought something today that I thought would be very helpful. This as you know is a camisole and contrary to popular opinion this is not to be worn by itself. Ladies, we live in a day when, as Nancy DeMoss reminds us, underwear has become outerwear. What this is intended to do, is to be worn under those things that are a little bit thin, a little bit see-through. I do encourage you, if you have like a dressy white blouse; sometimes those are a little thin—wear a camisole under it—whatever you need to do to keep it from being see-through and to see lines underneath it. Let me encourage you—don’t buy a white camisole, because that again shows up…you’ll see a line against your skin. I recommend buying something that is as close as you can get to the color of your skin and so it all just kind of blends together.

Another issue is the writing that is on clothes. I think this is really only a problem if your clothes are too tight. I have some loose sweatshirts that may have something written on the front, but it’s loose—it’s not tight on my body. But sometimes you see things that are very tight and they have writing that draws the eye to that area, so don’t do that.

Also, be careful when you wear sleeveless shirts. Be careful of the armholes, you may need to sew them up. I love button down sleeveless shirts when it’s hot in the summer, but you know what? I think probably half of the ones I have in my closet; I sewed them up because the armholes were too big.

Another thing, how about exercise clothes? Be modest in your exercise clothes, you don’t have to wear skimpy little outfits. You know when I do walk around my neighborhood or jog sometimes, I wear sweatpants and I wear kind of a loose T-shirt, but I have seen women out jogging in outfits that were just totally indecent—little short, kind of biking shorts; tight little tops—you don’t have to do that.

One last thing to consider here is modesty in the home. It is so important to set a good example—be modest around your children. Set a good example for them. My husband and I have always been very careful around the house to be modest. Now, I am not saying you have to…remember that wonderful old show, Leave it to Beaver…I am not saying that you have to look like Mrs. Cleaver. I don’t clean my house and cook dinner in my Sunday dress and a string of pearls, but I do dress modestly.

Now, as we begin to wind down here, I want to say a quick word to both the single ladies and the married ladies. Never lose sight (single gals) that you are to save your body for your husband. The kind of man that you want to marry is not the kind of man that will be attracted by suggestive, immodest dress. If you a woman who loves the Lord, don’t send a confusing message by the way you dress. You will give men a wrong impression of who you are and you don’t want to do that. The right kind of guy will be looking for the right kind of girl.

To the married ladies here, just remember that marriage was designed by God and God designed a woman’s body to be beautiful and attractive to her spouse and only to her spouse. But to dress in public in a way that is alluring to other men is wrong.

Now, what do you do, and we have run into this situation, occasionally, where the wife wants to be modest, but her husband wants her to dress in an immodest, sensual way. First of all, she should appeal to him. What this really boils down too is an issue of obeying God rather than men. Obviously, we are to honor our husbands and submit respectively everyway we can except when he is asking you to sin. A wife has been given clear direction in God’s Word about how she should dress and in this situation, her husband, tragically, is encouraging her to disobey God. And as important as the modesty aspect is, I think an equally important problem here has to do with the husband’s motives.

Why would a man want his wife to dress immodestly and show off her figure to other men? I have really thought about this and I cannot think of any reasons for that except of pride. The husband is getting some sort of satisfaction out of showing off his wife because it builds him up and it makes him look good. Now, it’s one thing just to be grateful to the Lord that you have an attractive wife, and just be thankful for that—that’s okay. But it’s another thing altogether to flaunt a wife and make her a temptation to other men, and that is sinful. In fact, in Ephesians 5, it tells the husband that he is to love his wife and cherish her, which means he would never want to lead her into sin.

So, if a husband is insisting that his wife dress in an immodest way; she needs to pray about it and then she needs to appeal to him respectfully. If he keeps insisting, she needs to enlist the help of a friend, a pastor, an elder, someone she respects to go intercede for her with her husband. I think you follow this course of action, whether your husband is a Christian or whether he is not; I think you do the same thing.

Alright, we have covered a lot of ground today, so let’s wrap it up.

When it comes to modesty, we’ve seen that both men and women have a responsibility:

· Men are to guard their eyes and thoughts and they need to train their sons to do the same thing.

· Women are to dress modestly and exhort each other to be modest.

· Mothers, please talk to your daughters about the importance of modesty. And you need to start young. You can't allow immodesty when they're young and then expect them to suddenly become modest when they're 13!

When you dress modestly, what are the results? You glorify God and you please Him, and you will be an encouragement to both men and women. You will not be tempting men and you will be setting a good example for women.

Let me give you a word of caution. Should it ever be necessary for you to confront someone on a modesty issue—give them the benefit of the doubt. Don’t be judgmental and condemning, but instead, come alongside them with humility and compassion for them as your sister in Christ. Make sure that you desire to honor Christ and that your own motives are pure.

Alright, here are my final thoughts on this:

Instead of drawing attention to ourselves in our dress, we should bring glory to God. Instead of dressing to please ourselves we dress to please God. Instead of being clothed with immodesty, we should be clothed with what the Bible tells us. I’ve given you some scriptures there that talk about, “Strength and honor are her clothing.” And 1 Peter says, “Be clothed with humility.” Ladies, these are the things that the Bible says we should be clothed with.

"DeMoss makes this observation: As women, our beauty should not come from outward adornment but rather from character that is honoring to God. When others spend time with us or even meet us for the first time, they should be struck by God’s work in our lives (our character, our pure speech, our gentle and quiet spirits) not by our trendy clothes."

In your appendix, I’ve given you something called the Modesty Checklist written by Carolyn Mahaney. This is a great checklist to help you as you dress.

Now, I do want to close with this final prayer by Nancy DeMoss, that says this:

Lord, this body of mine belongs to You. I desire to bring You glory and honor through my words, my attitudes, and the way I dress. I resolve to be pure inwardly and outwardly, and I am willing, where necessary, to stand against the culture. I accept responsibility for how I dress. Help me to be teachable and to have an attitude and spirit that brings You glory through my actions and appearance.

If you will make that commitment today, I can promise you that the Lord will bless you and you will know the joy and peace that comes from obeying the Lord and living your life in a way that glorifies Him. Let’s pray.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Nancy Leigh DeMoss, The Look. [Buchanan, MI: Revive Our Hearts, 2003].

Nancy Leigh DeMoss, What Does Your Clothing Communicate? [Gresham, OR: Eternal Perspective Ministries, 2004].

Mary Mohler, Modeling Modesty. Southern Seminary Magazine, The Beauty of Biblical Womanhood. Winter, 2003. (www.sbts.edu/resources/ssmag.php)

Josh Harris, Not Even A Hint. [Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2003].

Melody Green, Uncovering the Truth About Modesty. (www.lastdaysministries.org/articles.)

D. Edmond Hiebert, 1 Peter. [Winona Lake, IND: BMH Books, 1992].

Modesty Checklist

By Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, Janelle Mahaney

(Used by permission)

“…Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with

modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls

or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess

godliness- with good works.”

1 Timothy 2:9-10

First, it’s time for a heart check…

“How does a woman discern the sometimes fine line between proper dress and dressing to be the center of attention? The answer starts in the intent of the heart. A woman should examine her motives and goals for the way she dresses. Is her intent to show the grace and beauty of womanhood? Is it to reveal a humble heart devoted to worshipping God? Or is it to call attention to herself and flaunt her beauty? Or worse, to attempt to lure men sexually? A woman who focuses on worshipping God will consider carefully how she is dressed, because her heart will dictate her wardrobe and appearance.”—John MacArthur [emphasis added]

· What statement do my clothes make about my heart?

· In choosing what clothes to wear today, whose attention do I desire and whose approval do I crave? Am I seeking to please God or impress others?

· Is what I wear consistent with biblical values of modesty, self-control and respectable apparel, or does my dress reveal an inordinate identification and fascination with sinful cultural values?

· Who am I trying to identify with through my dress? Is the Word of God my standard or is it the latest fashion?

· Have I solicited the evaluation of other godly individuals regarding my wardrobe?

· Does my clothing reveal an allegiance to the gospel or is there any contradiction between my profession of faith and my practice of godliness?

So, I’m ready to leave the house, but I still have to do a modesty check. What are some things I should look for as I stand in front of my mirror?

Starting at the top…

· When I am wearing a loose-fitting blouse or scoop-neck, can I see anything when I lean over? If so, I need to remember to place my hand against my neckline when I bend down.

· A word on purse straps: How could a purse possibly be a modesty concern? When you’re wearing the strap across your chest. Regardless of the shirt you’ve got on this accentuates your chest and creates a temptation for men.

· If I am wearing a button-down top, I need to turn sideways and move around to see if there are any gaping holes that expose my chest. If there are, I’ve got to grab the sewing box and pin between the buttons.

· The same check is needed if I am wearing sleeveless. When I move around can I see my bra? If I do, I need the pins again!

· Am I wearing a spaghetti-strap, halter-top or see-through blouse? Not even pins will fix this problem! Most guys find these very unhelpful. It’s time to go back to the closet.

· Can I see the lace or seam of my bra through my shirt? In this case, seamless bras are a better option.

· One final shirt check: Does it reveal any part of my cleavage? Does my midriff show when I raise my hands above my head? Is my shirt just plain too tight? If the answer is “yes” to any one of these questions, then I need to change my outfit.

Moving on down…

· Does my midriff (or underwear) show when I bend over or lift my hands? If so, is it because my skirt or my pants are too low? Either my shirt needs to be longer or I need to find a skirt or pants that sit higher.

· I also have to turn around to see if what I’m wearing is too tight around my derriere, or if the outline of my underwear shows. If so, I know what I have to do!

· And for my shorts – I can’t just check them standing up. I need to see how much they reveal when I sit down. If I see too much leg, I need a longer pair.

· The “sit-down” check applies to my skirt or dress as well. And I must remember to keep my skirt pulled down and my knees together when I’m seated.

· And speaking of skirts, watch out for those slits! Does it reveal too much when I walk? Pins are also helpful here.

· Before I leave, I need to give my skirt a “sunlight check.” Is it see-through? If so, I need a slip.

· Finally, I must remember to do this modesty check with my shoes on. High-heels make my dress or skirt appear shorter.

· And don’t forget – this all applies to formal wear as well.

· A note on swimwear –the pool or beach. Look for one-piece bathing suits that aren’t cut high on the leg or have a low neckline.

How is Your Fruit Today?

2007-08-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' - Matthew 7:21-23

The above passage in Matthew holds by far the scariest words in all of the Scriptures. The implication in the text is people will think that they have had a relationship with Christ and that they were saved, when in fact, they didn't and they weren't.

In a recent sermon by a guest speaker at Compass Bible Church I heard the illustration of the "Virtual Christian" i.e., some one who thinks that they are in the faith but aren't. The speaker suggested that he believes one of the reasons that God allows trials in our lives is in order for us to see if we are truly in the faith - we do that by honestly assessing our response to those trials (James 1:2-4). Jesus says the following about false prophets:

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit" - Matthew 7:15-17

If we can tell false prophets by their fruits, we should be able to tell real Christians by theirs too according to the text. So the question is this: How do we inspect our own fruit to see if it's good or bad? There is only one way: we have to allow the Scriptures speak to which is which.

"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law
- Galatians 5:19-23

Now, for the record (because I know some will question me) I do not believe that the Christian will bear good fruit all the time. But I will say that as we all progress and mature in our faith, we should be producing more and more good fruit and less of the stench of filthy byproducts of the sinful nature.

We all need to be in the practice of checking our sanctification progress. This is what the apostle Paul has to say about it, and I think I will let the Scripture have the last word tonight:

"For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test" - 2 Corinthians 13:4-6

Dave Ramsey: The Total Money Makeover...Does it Make Good Sense?

2007-08-21T23:55:00.001-07:00

Statistically, most people who read this blog live in Southern California. Because of that fact it is safe for me to assume that many of you have not heard of Dave Ramsey. So let me give you some background; Ramsey is a nationwide (at least everywhere but Southern California) talk show host whose sole purpose is to convince his listeners to get out of debt and become good stewards with the money they have. He has also written several books, one of which has been on the New York Time's Best Seller's List, "The Total Money Makeover".
I use this book in my counseling ministry.
Ramsey is a professing believer/follower of Christ and he boldly proclaims Christ as Lord and even reads from the Scriptures (although at times he does so out of context) to a mostly secular audience. He is no theologian, however he fully understands the financial principles found within the Scriptures and he is not afraid to let his audience hear the Truth. Ramsey is heard on over 300 radio stations and also can be heard on XM Radio. The amazing thing about Ramsey is that he has a huge secular audience.

While I am not going to write an exhaustive review of his book, I am going to recommend to you that you purchase a copy of it and read it. Actually, I am going to challenge you to get this book quickly and read it.

Ramsey's take on finances is pretty simple:

The borrower is "always" the slave to the lender
You should always spend less than you make.
If you can't pay cash for something, you shouldn't get that something.
Finally, if you are not servicing debt, you can become a bigger saver and giver.

While his book is incredibly simple in theory, it is at the same time extremely challenging because it forces the reader to consider how they are handling their own income. As I have discussed this book with those who have read it, one theme has been constant: This guy Ramsey makes a lot sense. That is why I say it makes sense for you to read it!

For more information on Dave Ramsey you can click on the following link:

www.daveramsey.com

The Gospel Isn't Difficult to Share

2007-08-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

People love to talk.

People are good at talking.

We love to talk so much that we will talk about the weather with a complete stranger on a bus bench. We will talk about movies, sports and the news of the day. We talk about our lives, hardships and blessings. We freely talk about ... well almost anything. Except, the gospel.

It's not that sharing the gospel has really ever been a problem. If you have a mouth and you know the truth, you can easily share with anyone the Truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as easily as you discuss yesterday's football game. For the believer, sharing the gospel is actually pretty easy. However, truth be told, the hard part for us is the response we get from others.
Personally, after sharing the gospel with others I have received all of the following responses (this list is mostly compiled from responses of just my family members):

Looks of disgust
Smirks
Polite smiles
Friendly nods
Angry verbal barrages
Silence
Mocking laughter
Attempts to change the subject
Intellectual debate
Submission to the Truth of the gospel (yes, from time-to-time God actually uses a broken vessel like me to deliver His truth in order that He might give them life)

The Simple Truth

If you are a believer, I would like to challenge you with the following assignment. I want you to consider the circumstances of your salvation. Start at the cross and the life and work of Jesus Christ. Then please consider the ministry of the Disciples. Then I would like you to consider the centuries and centuries of persecution and fine-tuning of Biblical doctrine that our church forefathers endured. Then I would like you to think about the person that God used in your life (perhaps there are multiple people) to share the Truth with you. Here is the final part of the assignment - please mentally picture a steel link chain (I have included a picture of one to help you).
All of the people that I asked you to consider and contemplate represent the links in the chain. If you are a believer, you represent a link as well.

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." - Matthew 28:18-20

God in His wisdom has decided to use people to share the Truth of the gospel. He decided to use people like you, people like me. Fallen people. People who fear, people who doubt. People who fail. Yet, with the authority given to Him, Jesus Christ has commanded all believers to GO and MAKE disciples, BAPTIZING them and TEACHING them to OBEY His commands.

The point I am trying to make is that you don't have an excuse not to be sharing your faith with others. You simply must share the Truth. God has chosen you to be a link in the chain so that He may use you to continue growing the chain. You see, this is God's chain. You are a link in it and according to the above text, He wants to use you, no wait...He is commanding you to share the Truth so that He can add to the length of the chain.

The final distinction I would like to make is this - If your attitude is "I guess I should share the Truth because I have to" then you are missing the point entirely. The correct attitude should be "How great is our God that He would allow me to share the Truth with others!"

The long and short of it is this - It isn't about you. It isn't about your comfort or protecting your feelings or status with others. This is about Jesus. This is about saving people from an eternity separated from Jesus because of their sin. This is about growing the chain.

Get busy.

Greetings from Maui

2007-08-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Dale and Shawna

Brian and Crystie

Shawna looking like a celebrity

The Two Sisters

Happy to be in Maui (and off the plane!)

Dale not at all happy to be on this plane

To Find Rest You Don't Need a Vacation

2007-08-10T07:50:00.001-07:00

The LORD protects the simplehearted;
when I was in great need, he saved me.
Be at rest once more, O my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.
For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the LORD
in the land of the living - Psalm 116:6-10

Mini Blog Thought: The Cost of Following Christ

2007-08-08T13:57:00.001-07:00

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Do You See the Pattern?

Throughout the Scriptures there is a pattern that just cannot be ignored; when God calls you to follow Him - there is a cost. Old Testament patriarchs like Noah, Abraham and Moses knew of the personal cost that was involved in following God. New Testament saints like Paul, Peter and John knew of the costs as well. As Christians, we will pay a price to follow our Lord.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
" 'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' - Matthew 10:33-36

To hear many teach today, gentle Jesus meek and mild, came to offer us a fulfilling life of materialism, harmony and tolerance for others. But the True Jesus, the one who paid the ultimate cost for our salvation, promises to the believer that if you follow Him, it will come at the expense of some of our relationships. The simple truth is that people will reject you and the message you proclaim.

I believe it is a good practice for all of us to constantly consider the price of following Christ and to test ourselves. We should challenge ourselves to answer the following questions: Are we allowing God to work through us even at the expense of our relationships? Are we resisting the dropping of "our nets" and holding onto the things of this world? These are questions that can be addressed in our lives on a daily basis - I would challenge all of us to seriously and truthfully consider if we are actively following Christ.

Mini Blog Thought: A Better Wedding Day Awaits

2007-08-06T23:38:00.002-07:00

On Sunday I had the privilege of officiating an outdoor wedding ceremony at Kindred Community Church in Anaheim Hills. I must admit that the setting was beautiful. It was a warm Southern California day with a slight breeze that kept everyone comfortable, despite the heat of the afternoon.

There was nicely arranged music (my good friend Ty played guitar) big towering oak trees for shade, ivy filled lattice and everyone was dressed appropriately for such and occasion. Yes, there was a sense that something special was happening. It was a great day.

On my drive home, I found myself thinking about another wedding that will be happening in the future:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
"Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' " And he added, "These are the true words of God." - Revelation 19:6-10

For the believer, the true believer who has made Christ Lord, there is a wedding day that will make all other wedding days seem unimportant. At the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the
Bride of Christ (the Church) will be presented to Him and they will be with Him for eternity.

Earthly marriages are a sacred symbol for what is to come - a picture for the time we as believers will spend an eternity with Christ. While earthly weddings and marriages can be great, the one to come is ... well, better.

In God We Trust: Really?

2007-08-03T21:58:00.001-07:00

"But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God" - Psalm 31:14

There is no doubt that King David showed tremendous trust in God when his enemies surrounded him. All one has to do is read through the Psalms to see that David depended greatly upon the mercy, love and protection of God as his enemies plotted to kill him. However, as with many of us, it was during the "good" times that David had a hard-time trusting God. It was during the "good" times that King David's eyes and mind turned away from God and onto himself and his own pleasures and desires.

Are you trusting God today for your very breath? Are you totally dependant upon Him for your every basic need? Or, like many of us that have fallen victim to a false sense of independence from time-to-time, are you living your life outside the parameters that God has called you to? A life of obedience. A life devoted to serving Christ.

Take note from the example found in Scripture; anytime you start to live life for your own pleasure or desires and it directly violates what God has called you to do (To Love Him with all your heart, mind and soul - and to love your neighbor as yourself) and you are truly a believer, a Godly correction is on the way. So, if that is you today, repent from your behavior (1 John 1:9) and submit yourself to the authority and call of God.

You will find comfort and peace in the Trustworthy One, even if you are being surrounded by your enemies, just as King David did.

The Umbrella Analogy: Come In, Out of the Rain

2007-07-09T17:15:00.001-07:00

"When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever" - Proverbs 10:25

Do you own an umbrella?

I would guess that most people do.

In fact, I would say that if you don't own an umbrella you aren't very wise. I say that only because odds are that one day it will be raining and you will need an umbrella to stay dry and comfortable.

Indeed, we all go to great lengths to ensure that we are comfortable in our lives don't we? We furnish our homes for the sake of comfort. We spend extra money on our cars for comfort. We ensure that our office chairs are comfortable. We pick out shoes for comfort. You get the idea; we are very concerned with comfort. That is why it makes sense that we all would own an umbrella, right?

Practical comforts are nice, in fact they can be very nice. However, I would like to challenge you today to consider if your eternity will be comfortable.

The Umbrella

Forgiveness: Is it Really Optional?

2007-07-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

Pondering Scripture....

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." - Matthew 18:21-35

Something to think about, eh?

Mini Blog Thought: The Allure of Sin

2007-06-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

My parents live in Henderson, Nevada and from their backyard that sits up on a desert hill you can see the Strip of Las Vegas. At night it sparkles, shines and glitters, and you can't help but stare at the lights as they twinkle down below.
With the barren dessert hidden by darkness the city lights are somehow beautiful. However, during the day the city closely resembles what a forsaken cityscape built upon the moon might look like.
As I was sitting out on my parents patio the other night taking in all of the lights, I thought to myself "how many lives have been damaged or ruined in this city over the years? How many people have followed the allure of those lights and willingly submitted to their fleshly desires in the cities casinos, bars and strip joints?"

What Happens Here Doesn't Stay Here...

I am sure you have seen the commercials on television, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". According to the scriptures, this isn't accurate:

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account" - Hebrews 4:13

It is interesting to me that in the 1950's Las Vegas was built-up in the middle of the dessert, literally hundreds of miles from the nearest major city, perhaps in an effort to hide from the rest of the then conservative American culture?

That is the sinful nature that we all have in us...we go to great lengths to hide our sins from others. We put on false fronts and try to let others think that our lives are in perfect order. But, the truth is, everyone struggles with sin to some degree.

Do you have any 'hidden' sins in your life? Sins that you think no one else knows about? I promise you that God knows about them and that one day, you will give an account to the Creator.

Confess your sin!

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" - 1 John 1:8-9

Mini Blog Thought: The Resurrection Matters

2007-05-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men" - 1 Corinthians 15:14-19

Pivotal Point: He Has Risen

There is only one way to say this: For the Christian, faith hinges upon the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the above passage the Apostle Paul goes as far as to state that the Christian faith is useless without that truth. In this scientific age where 'truth' is relative and 'new' theology is hashed out in local universities, Starbucks cups and really bad bestselling books, the 'need' for the resurrection is fading. Sadly, many local churches seem willing to not put up much of a fuss as they continue to engage the culture with sermons on "how to improve your marriage" instead of sermons like "how to stay out of Hell".

Let me quickly outline 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 for you:

If Christ has not been raised:

"Our preaching is useless and so is your faith" (v.14).
"We are found to be false witnesses about God (v. 15)
"Then the dead are not raised" (v.16)
"Faith is futile" (v.17)
"You are still in your sins" (v.17)
"Those who are dead in Christ are lost" (v.18)
"We should be pitied more than all men" (v.19)

So, If Christ has been raised (hint: He has)

Our preaching is useful and so is our faith
If we preach the resurrection, we are found to be truthful witnesses about God
The dead are raised
Faith is not futile
You have forgiveness of sins (for the believer)
Those who are dead in Christ are found
The message of the Gospel that we deliver should be taken seriously

My encouragement to you is this: Never be afraid to share the truth about who Jesus Christ is to this culture. More than ever, this world needs to hear about the salvation made available through Christ. Remember too, that all of it has been made possible through the work of Christ and His defeat over death.

He has risen.

Mini Blog Thought: Hey, Can You Give Me a Hand With This?

2007-05-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen
- 1 Peter 4:9-11

I have driven trucks since I started driving. My first truck was a small one, a Chevy S-10. That was a mistake...after my fourth transmission, I stayed away from Chevy's (please, no emails from you Chevy lovers).

Today, I own a Ford F-150. It's a nice truck. A solid truck. It's a man's truck (Insert the Tim the ToolTime Taylors grunting here).

If you have never owned a truck, this "mini-blog" may not make much sense to you, but try to follow along with me just the same. You see, as a truck owner, I learned very early on that my 'services' would be called upon often by friends, family, co-workers and fellow church members.

"Hey Dale, can I use your truck?"

"Hey Dale, I have a couch that needs to be moved."

Hey Dale, I have a bunch of stuff in my garage that needs to go to the dump, any chance you could help me?"

A month doesn't go by that I don't have someone asking me to utilize my truck for some reason or another. You see, as a truck owner, it comes with the territory.

Being a Christian works the same way. God has gifted each of us specifically, and He expects that we will utilize those gifts to "serve" others. Maybe your "truck" is your a great electrician? Maybe you have a heart for yard work? Maybe you are good with teaching kids? Perhaps visiting others who are in the hospital is something that you can do? Whatever it is, just know that there are people all around who sure could use "your truck".

Are you willing to let them use it?

Answer the Call to Minister: No, Really...Answer the Call to Minister!

2007-04-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

"The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini willed his marvelous violin to city of Genoa on condition that it must never be played. The wood of such an instrument, while used and handled, wears only slightly, but set aside, it begins to decay. Paganini's lovely violin has today become worm-eaten and useless except as a relic. A Christian's unwillingness to serve may soon destroy his capacity for usefulness." J.K. Laney, Marching Orders, p. 34

If you have been reading my Blog for any amount of time, you know that I usually place a Bible verse at the beginning of every post. But, I was so taken by this above illustration that I thought it would be good to lead with. But, to satisfy myself and my need to allow the Scripture to set the tone for my writing, let me also share this with you:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" - James 2:14-17

At the church where I am a pastor, we have been blessed with swelling attendance numbers over the past couple of years. That of course means more ministry opportunity for those of us on staff and also for those within the congregation who have stepped up to serve.

When our church was started, we insisted upon eight distinctives that would help define who we were as a congregation. Our sixth distinctive states:

" At Compass Bible Church we have highly committed participants" (Eph.4:11-16; Ac.4:34-35).
To effectively and efficiently accomplish all that God has called us to do, we cannot maintain the all-too-common '20% of the people do 80% of the work.' At Compass we must always encourage that "each part does its work." (Eph.4:16b)

Now, I must admit that I have been amazed by the commitment level of many in our congregation; serving unselfishly week in and week out in the name of Christ. I am sure that compared to other churches, because we have set the bar high, that we have a higher than normal percentage of our congregation involved in a serving ministry. We do have "highly committed participants" who are joy to serve with.

However (you knew it was coming) I must also admit that some in our congregation consider themselves customers and come to church expecting others to serve them. Of course, we should accept the fact that not everyone within our congregation will have the heart to serve. However, as leaders I don't think we can accept that fact.

We live in a culture where it's about what we are getting...not about what we are giving. Many church-goers, at least in Southern California, have become accustom to the mega-church environment. And sadly, most mega-churches in Southern California are "seeker-churches". So, many of today's Christians are used to being served by the staff of these churches, and have little concern for getting involved themselves, satisfied with being spectators.

Dr. John MacArthur in his blog recently said the following:

But one of the most disturbing side effects of the seeker-sensitive fad is something I haven’t said as much about: When one of the main aims of a ministry philosophy is to keep people entertained, church members inevitably become mere spectators. The architects of the modern megachurches admit that they have deliberately redesigned the worship service in order to make as few demands as possible on the person in the pew. After all, they don’t want the “unchurched” to be intimidated by appeals for personal involvement in ministry. That’s the very opposite of “seeker sensitivity.”

Such thinking is spiritually deadly. Christianity is not a spectator sport. Practically the worst thing any churchgoer can do is be a hearer but not a doer (James 1:22-25). Christ himself pronounced doom on religious people who want to be mere bystanders (Matthew 7:26-27).

Something is seriously wrong in a church where the staff does all the “ministry” and people are made to feel comfortable as mere observers. One of the pastor’s main duties is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12). Every believer is called to be a minister of some sort, with each of us using the unique gifts given us by God for the edification of the whole church (Rom. 12:6-8).

Over the next month or so, I will explore what the Bible says about serving vs. being served.

Is it wrong to be served?
Can you serve too much?

I hope you return.

Real Hope: Only Found in Christ

2007-03-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Do you have "Real Hope"?

In Christ you can have the hope of a "New Start". The hope of a "New Purpose". The hope of a "New World". The hope of a "New Body". Join us this Easter at Compass Bible Church to see how you can have "Real Hope".

Click on the poster to visit our website.

A Careful Wake Up Call

2007-03-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

Good morning church, did you have a nice nap? What, you still feel groggy?

Hmmm, well, you have been sleeping for awhile, so I guess we should expect some lethargic behavior from you. But, before you get up, I think I need to tell you something.

No, really, please don't get up just yet. I really need to tell you something.

Now, bear in mind that what I am about to tell you may shock you so much that you may experience an extreme feeling of light-headiness, which could cause you to become faint. Please know that isn't my intention. But because you have already been sleeping as long as you have, I don't want to cause you to consider just going back to bed and hiding under your covers.

One more thing I should tell you is that you may actually go into a state of shock after I get this news off my chest. Yes, a state of shock. In fact, it may be so profound and deep that you will pretend that I didn't say anything at all and you will get up out of that bed without ever remembering what I said. Trust me, that would be bad.

Now that I have clearly stated the disclaimer, are you ready to hear this news?

Are you sure you are ready?

Okay, here it goes...Christianity is under attack.

Okay, you aren't blinking. Let me try this again.

Christianity is under attack.

You are looking a little pale, you better get some water and take some deep breaths if you plan to keep reading. Wait, you are looking a bit dazed. Are you pretending I didn't say that Christianity is under attack? Don't go to your happy place! Please, stay with me.
It's okay. Go ahead and say it with me..."Christianity...is...under...attack"...very good, don't you feel better?

Say it again, but this time faster. "Christianity is under attack"..."Christianity is under attack".

Good.

I am proud of you.

Okay, what I am about to tell you now may be even harder for you to deal with than what I have already shared with you. Deep breath...ready?

The attack is coming from within the "church".

Yes, you heard me. There are people who are calling themselves Christians that actually deny the deity of Christ. They also deny the miracles of Christ and any "so-called" claim of miracles by the Apostles. Get this, they too deny the complete authority of the Bible.

Yes. Everything we consider essential and orthodox, they deny it.

Yes. Everything.

I know what you are thinking, and I must confess that I thought the same thing. "How is this attack coming from within the church? Non-Christians don't hang out in church."

Well, you must realize, just like I did, that not only are non-Christians hanging out in church, they are actually redefining what Christianity means in our culture.

Yes, I guess you can say they are tyring to hi-jack the faith.

Who are they? Well, I will get to that later. Just know that they call themselves things like "progressive" and "emergent". They adhere to the new "social" gospel, which is "post-modern" in thought. You see, they view themselves as advanced. Leaving the dogmatic claims of we "born-again, right-wing" believers and instead imbracing unity, acceptance of many ideas about God and tolerance.

What was that?

Of course their beliefs aren't based on the Scriptures.

No, salvation isn't based on the grace and mercy of God. You will love this one, salvation, according to them, isn't necessary at all, at least in the way we would think about it.

What was that? How do they call themselves Christians?

Okay, before I tell you, you better sit-up.

Ready? They claim they are Christians based on their own authority, their own understanding and their own feelings.

You're drifting away again...

Okay, I knew this was going to happen. I have sent you into a dangerous state of denial.

What? You are just trying to clear your head and get your bearings?

How do we fight back?

That's what I wanted to hear! Get up out of that bed church! Get dressed! We have work to do!

Blake Snake Moan: Should Christians See This Movie?

2007-03-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

The following is a letter to the editor of The Chimes student newspaper at Biola University. It is in response to an article written by a student at Biola about the move, "Black Snake Moan".

By Shawna Thackrah

Today in our office I opened up the Chimes and saw the additional section on movies, TV, music, etc. The top of the front page had a huge picture from the movie “Black Snake Moan” below the related movie review titled, “Collision of Christianity and Sexuality on Film” and subtitled “Heavy film explores difficult subjects.”

I had seen a preview for the movie on TV and was curious to know what this review was going to say, especially with a title that so immediately caught my eye. While reading the article, though, my heart became dismayed and actually amazed at how the author came to his conclusions that ultimately led him to give the movie an enthusiastic recommendation. It also caused me to continue to wrestle with and clarify my own thoughts on how we as Christians view media and the arts in light of what the Scriptures say.

Here are some of the statements that were made and that caused me to question what was truly being promoted in the review:

"'Black Snake Moan’ definitely deals with sexuality, but Brewer [the writer/director] shows he is a true artist by dealing with the subject matter professionally. The sexual dialogue is brief, and well-edited sex scenes are shone in a negative and non-explicit light.”

So, a “true artist” who acts “professionally” is someone who can take something that is considered completely sinful (sex out of wedlock) and that is emphasized in Scripture as an especially egregious sin because it is a sin against the body (1Cor. 6:18), and keep it “non-explicit” or avoid it being looked at in a “negative light”? Isn’t the movie viewer still taking in the scenes and filling their minds with depictions of acts that were meant solely for the marriage bed? In regards to the music that is used throughout the movie the reviewer says, “…it was amazing to watch how it helped them deal with their pain and sickness so they could truly search for love, meaning and grace.”

Now, I haven’t seen the movie but I have to truly wonder, were these characters really shown as looking to the True God to find His love, His meaning, and His grace? If not, then they are looking for man’s part in all of these things and we conveniently relegate the character’s “faith search” to the category of “Christian themes” so that somehow we can still be okay with participating in the “art” and “faith” message of a sin-filled movie. I saw this same point when I read this line of the review, “It’s very apparent in this film, which runs much like a parable about two broken people struggling with faith through their situations and trying to find redemption and meaning in this world.”

Finally, the last few lines of the article were the ultimate catalyst for me to write this response to the author expressing my struggle with his promotion and excitement about this movie. He says:

“It’s a great film that Christians and non-Christians alike should see, and it’s a perfect conversation starter about faith…The film carries an R rating for its sexual nature, a good deal of language and some violence. However, none of this seems too much or overbearing. I hope many will flock and see this powerful film, which will easily become a favorite.”

My first and one-word response to reading these words was, “WHY?”

Why “should” I spend money to sit and watch a fictional movie in which people curse, have sex out of wedlock, and cause violence to others (each blatantly and clearly sinful), all to watch Hollywood try to interact with “Christian themes”? Also, at what point does depicting, and in turn viewing, all of these sinful actions ever become “too much or overbearing”? Is there a scale out there that shows when we should no longer deem the movie “artistic” or the “perfect conversation starter about faith” because it has somehow shown too much sin?

And why, when this movie and so many others are full of scene after scene of sinful actions that we are clearly told to stay completely away from in Scripture after Scripture, should I “flock” to see it and fill my mind with these ungodly things instead of keeping my eyes on things above (Philipians 4:8)? Weren’t we told to be so saddened and convicted of sin that if our hand sins we are to cut it off and if our eye sins to pluck it out? (Matthew 5, Matthew 18, Mark 9) Do we understand that through this drastic word picture, Jesus is telling us to completely remove ourselves from the causes of sin in our lives?

Furthermore, do we not remember that our Lord and Savior died for those sins to be forgiven and that in Hebrews 10:29 it says that when we continue to sin, we are essentially trampling Jesus under our feet and walking all over the blood of the covenant in addition to insulting grace? (my paraphrase) If we are clearly told not to sin, to completely avoid it, and to never continue in it then where do we see that it is okay to fill our minds and thoughts with these same things? Why “should” I consider something to be art when sinful acts are put to music or shot in a movie scene in a supposed minimally offensive way just because the artists or characters involved are searching for Christian themes like “love, meaning and grace” through it all?

Am I saying that we should never listen to or watch any secular forms of entertainment? No. I would simply submit to the movie reviewer and all fellow believers that we need to stop, confront our culture that says we must be entertained by pop-culture to be relevant, and instead to first and foremost filter all of our entertainment through the Word of God. I honestly cannot see through anything that was written in the reviewer’s article that would convince me that he did this most important first step but if he did so in the future, he would be incredibly hard-pressed to find a fit for this movie.

Using the word “collision” in relation to this movie and its themes seem right on but on a much larger scale. The true “collision” is between God’s Word and our culture today and I plead for you to encourage others to “flock” to the Bible and the exciting and truly relevant stories found within its pages. There you will find true art, true love, true meaning, sex, war, truly “difficult subjects” and so many other exciting themes and events that, as we know, all culminate to the story of God’s redeeming his creation through the life, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

New Look, New Name: Same Truth

2007-03-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, you have come to the right place, this is Pastor Dale's blog. However, there is a new name, "Foundation for Faith" and a new look. I am committed in my efforts to continue to blog on the truth of Christ and the relevancy of the church in today's culture.

I am working on drawing a bigger audience to the sight and plan on opening up this blog to guest writers as well. I want this sight to be a community for orthodox Christian thought where ideas can be exchanged on how to impact the world for Christ.

Please pray for this work and please continue to come back to see the progress we are making.

Thanks,

Pastor Dale

Tipping the Scales: Do-Gooding Our Way to Heaven?

2007-03-10T22:09:00.002-08:00

" All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" - Isaiah 64:6

Do-Gooding Our Way to Heaven?

I went to dinner with some friends tonight and heard a story that made me shake my head. One of my good friends is a manager at a Wal-Mart in Orange County and he told me of a real-life situation that occurred this week in his store. You see, a customer came up to him and confessed that he was able to shop-lift some items without being noticed by any of the employees and because there was nobody stationed at the front door to check receipts, he could have left the building without being noticed. However, the customer did not leave the store with the items because he claimed that he "was working his way in to heaven" and if he were to steal something, it would be bad Karma and thus harm his chances of entering the "pearly gates".

What do you think about that? Can a man earn his way into fellowship with a perfect and holy God by doing good works? And if so, how much good does one have to do in order to satisfy the payment to enter into heaven? Finally, just what does 51% good and 49% bad look like?

Only Two Religions

Many of you might have heard this before, but when you think about it, there are really only two classifications of religions in the world. The first classification is that man, by doing good works, can earn his way into good favor with God and go to heaven. The second, is that God through His grace and mercy, satisfied the necessary work (on the cross) for salvation, and that those who repent and place their faith in that work shall be saved.

Examples of "man-centered" salvation religions are:

Roman Catholics
Mormons
Muslims
Jewish
Jehovah Witness'

Example of "God-centered" salvation religions are:

Protestant Evangelicalism (many denominations fit into this category)

So, can we work our way into heaven? Is there enough good we can do to qualify for God's plan of redemption? According to the above Scripture, no.

As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."
"Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."
"The poison of vipers is on their lips." - Romans 3:10-13

Dead Men tell no Tales

According to the Scriptures, man can not (and will not) do enough good to qualify them for heaven. Why? In Paul's letter to the Ephesians the following verse states the answer clearly:

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath" - Ephesians 2:1-3

Because we are born spiritually dead, there is no physical act that we can perform that would bring us into a relationship with God. There is no work great enough to pay for the transgressions of our sinful nature. Left to ourselves, we are hopeless.

Thank God, the story doesn't end there. Let's keep reading from the passage in Ephesians:

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" - Ephesians 2:4-10

So, in hindsight, the guy at Wal-Mart didn't accomplish anything (spiritually speaking) by not stealing those goods. The only thing he did, besides exposing his really bad theology, was probably keep himself from getting arrested.

Blogs You Need to Know About

2007-03-05T23:08:00.001-08:00

The 21st Century will most likely be remembered as the century the church in America either gives up the Gospel message for the sake of unity and political correctness, or it will be known as the century where the church rose and defended Biblical Orthodoxy, even to the point of extreme persecution by other more "tolerant" religious systems.

We are close to the point where the church will be faced with either conforming to the world, or remain faithful to the call of Christ to make Disciples. In other words, the wheat and chaff will be sorted as society continues to spiral out of control and "up" becomes "down" and "black" becomes "white". I take heart in the truth that Christ is never changing:

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings - Hebrews 13:7-8

I am encouraged to know that there are other Christians in the blog sphere who are committed in their stance to defend the orthodox faith. So, I wanted to link to some of them in order that you would know they were out there.

Please visit these websites often. If you have any other suggestions for blogs committed to Christian Orthodoxy, please comment on this blog and let me know!

To Be or Not To Be: Relevent?

2007-02-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

A Lost War?

I don't think that I am overstating the issue when I say that we have an emergency in the church today that pastors all across the country better take seriously. In fact, I believe (in part at least) that this issue has been the cause of America's turning away from the true living God over the past 50 years.
If it doesn't change, our culture will continue to spiral down further into the abyss if the leaders in the church do not address this emergency. What is the emergency you ask? Well it is very simple really: we have a church that doesn’t read their Bible. And if we have a church that doesn’t read their Bible then we have a church that doesn’t know how to study their Bible and practically apply its wisdom and instruction and it’s call to “make Disciples”. The church has been disarmed.

What Happend?

Regardless of the 'fantastic' sermons that are preached on Sunday's all across this country, if we have a church that isn't wrestling with the text of Scripture then we have a handicapped, impotent church. Because of this truth, our culture has shown signs of our handicap. Homosexuality is widely accepted as normal. Pornography has gone mainstream. Abortion is practiced as birth control. Up is down and black is white. Why? Because the church has stopped engaging the culture with truth. It makes sense, if we have a church that is unsure of what the truth is, how can they go out and share it with anyone?
The sad thing is that this trend started in the church when leaders, afraid of losing their tax-exempt status, stopped engaging the culture-war and retreated back into their air-conditioned churches satisfied for the 'few' that remained faithful in attending.
Not willing to fight modern thought coming from the state run universities, they even began to 'lighten' their messages, taking out Bible based truths and replacing them with man-centered storytelling and entertainment. Church became a show, a distraction from the stresses of life. For some, church became about positive thinking and motivation. Churchmen all across America abandoned the truth of the Scriptures in the name of being relevent with the changing 'post-modern' culture. Somewhere, the Son of Perdition is smiling at what he has been able to accomplish through the church. The Enemy has been successful in getting the leaders of the local church, to put down their swords (the Bible) and the sad thing is it doesn't even appear there was a battle.

Solution: Dust Off Your Bible and Study; Then Apply

This really is a topic that is worthy of a book (maybe I will undertake that). But until one is written all I can say is this:
Leaders: Return to Bible-Centered preaching. Teach the Word. Forget about top-ten lists and wanting people to like you for entertaining them. Pick up the 'sword' and don't be afraid to engage the enemy on his turf.
Congregants: Demand that your leaders lead. Demand they teach the Word. Open up your Bibles and learn. Go out into the world and make Disciples. Pick up the 'sword' and don't be afraid to engage the enemy on his turf.

Godsong Music: A Return to Thoughtful Worship

2006-12-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know me, you know that I am not one to market something just for the sake of marketing. Having said that, I heard a song this week that I simply had to share with you. My good friends at Godsong Music (Ty Saeger, Brad Smith and Bobby Blakey) have produced the best Christmas song that I have heard in a long time. The name of the song is "There Has Been Born". What makes this song so special? Well, it's truly a Christmas song. It's not about snow, bells, sidewalks, trees, lights or any other traditional "American Christmas idol". No, this song is about the birth of Christ. Imagine that, a true Christmas song.

Please have a listen and let me know (more importantly, let them know) what you think. I truly believe that those of us who promote the doctrines found in the Scriptures about the truth of Christ, need to support music like this so we can ensure that it keeps getting produced. No more "rocking around the Christmas tree"...let's fight for the meaning, truth and reality of Christmas. Click on the Godsong graphic to visit the site.

The Real Christmas Gift: Jesus, the Christ

2006-12-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

Every year when Christmas rolls around our culture reacts with great peculiarity. As a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, I know what I am celebrating; the birth of Christ! But I am not sure what exactly the majority of the people in our culture are celebrating, are you? Maybe it's the gifts, the songs, the food? Maybe they sense that something much bigger than themselves is being celebrated by others and they just want to be a part. I really don't know. I have been thinking back to the time before I was a Christian and why Christmas was special to me. I have been thinking and thinking, and I still don't have any concrete answers on why this time of year was so special. It was a time when family gathered, but in my house that happened all year long. It was a time we decorated our home with lights, trees and fake snow maybe that was it. Hmmm? I don't know, but even before I was a Christian, I knew this time of year was special. Oh sure, I knew that it had to do with Jesus - but I didn't know who Jesus was and I certainly didn't know what He claimed about Himself:

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6

I of course later discovered the claims that Christ made about Himself and I responded to them and placed my trust and faith in Him. I did this by confessing my sin and then repenting from the ungodly lifestyle that I was accustomed to.

I then was able to view Christmas as the true gift that God gave the world:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." - John 3:16-17

The Greek word "pisteo" has been translated into the English as believe. The problem is that the English word believes does not fully encompass what pisteo means. In our culture we can believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. We believe that the Easter Bunny is going to hop, hop, hop to our home and leave us chocolate eggs to eat. What I am getting at, we have a very low-bar for the word believe. It wasn't that way in the first century with the word pisteo.

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."- James 2:19

Pisteo in the Greek means, simply stated, to know, to act and to trust in something.

To know - This was usually knowledge that came with eyewitness or empirical data.
To act - based on this knowledge, people were called to act upon it
To trust - this trust came from knowing the truth and placing trust in it's veracity, even unto death.

Again, this is a very simple definition, but I trust that my point has been made. Believe in Jesus Christ is more than just saying "I believe". It means that you have heard (you have knowledge) you have acted (confessed and repented of sin) and you are trusting (knowing that your eternity is secure in Him). Simply stated, you have made Him LORD in your life and you are now living out His commands:

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me"
- John 10:27

That statement by Christ should speak volumes in what we have been called to as believers. We are followers of Christ. That is why we have the term Christian. It was a term that was coined in the late 1st century as the church began to explode with growth, and it simply means "Christ followers".

To follow Christ, we have to know what it is He is commanding of us, right? The only way to do that is by reading His word, the Holy Bible:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
- Romans 12:2

How did I get here from Christmas? Easy, once you realize that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the Godman, Jesus the Christ, you will understand that He came into the world for one unique purpose; to save it. The gift is the opportunity to have your sins forgiven by a perfect God who you are separated from by your sins, and I pray that you realize that mental assent of God or even Jesus is not enough for salvation. I pray that you will invoke pistos in your life when it comes to the truth of Jesus Christ and that you and I will have eternal fellowship with each other, but more importantly, with the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Merry Christmas.

Remember the Deeds of the LORD

2006-11-17T12:20:00.000-08:00

“I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is as great as our God?” – Psalm 77:11-13

As life remains busy (and seemingly only gets busier) it is difficult to carve out time to consider who our God is and what He has done for us. Between marriage, work, raising children, friends, television, movies, sporting events and countless other “priorities” that we fill our schedules with, it turns out that spending ‘quiet time’ meditating on the Lord and remembering His deeds and His miracles falls somewhere close to last on most of our lists. Yes, it is difficult to find the time; but it should be a priority of ours none the less – our top priority!

“Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.” – 1 Chronicles 16:11-13

Did you know that in the Bible we are called to remember what God has done for us (in some way or another) over 233 times! There are 66 books in the Bible, so on average we are called to remember God 3.5 times per book. So, it would appear that God wants us to remember Him and focus on Him (rather than on ourselves) and yet we do the opposite – consistently placing our own needs and priorities above Him.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1-2 is one of my favorite passages in all of the Scriptures – it is a call to us from God to “be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” and to leave our old patterns of behavior behind us. The equation, when you think about it is very simple:

Reading/Studying/Meditating/Applying the Scriptures = Transformed mind

Some of you will say, “Oh that is a simpleton answer.” Yes, it is. But think about it, doing what God asks of us is only difficult because we make it that way. We allow things in our lives to become a higher priority than God – then we can’t understand why we feel disconnected from God in our spiritual lives.
So understand the simplicity of what God is asking of us – He is asking us to ‘change’ or be ‘transformed’ from our old patterns of behavior (selfishness) by submitting to His authority and His truth found in the Scriptures. As we do this, and I have seen it time and time again prove itself, we will become people who remember the deeds of the LORD…remember [His] miracles of long ago… meditate on all [His] works and consider all [His] mighty deeds. Because as the Psalmist said:

“Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is as great as our God?” – Psalm 77:13

Part One: When Conflicts Arise - Seeking God's Wisdom during Turmoil

2006-10-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

Conflicts.

No matter how we try to avoid them, they always seem to pop-up.
At work, at school, with friends, at home with your spouse, it seems we can always bank on a conflict arising in our interpersonal communications. The facts, unfortunetly, are conflicts are unavoidable. Why? Well, the simple and short answer is this – we are selfish creatures and often times we aren’t doers of the Word.

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” – James 1:19-27

So we are to be doers of the Word – not just hearers. So what does the Word say about how we should handle ourselves in a conflict? Well, let me start by sharing with you just what God’s word says about what we should not do...

1. If there is a problem…Don’t avoid it.

Don’t:

Keep quiet (Eph. 4:29): Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

The implication of this text in Ephesians is this – while we are to watch our mouths when we are communicating with others, we are still required to speak in order to ‘build others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen’. When was the last time you thought of 'building some' one up during a conflict instead of ‘tearing them down’? When was the last time you focused on benefiting your ‘opponent’ during a conflict instead of concentrating on winning or having things your way? That is a pretty convicting passage in light of how we really deal with people. Next,

Don't:

Change the subject (Proverbs 12:22): The LORD detests lying lips,

but he delights in men who are truthful.

If you have offended some one (or they have offended you) and you purposely change the subject in order to not deal with the offense, according to God’s Word, you are sinning. Why? Well, you are guilty of lying through omission. You are purposely avoiding dealing with truth – which is lying. If you wrong someone, confess it, repent from it, and reconcile the relationship Biblically. Next,

Don't:

Let time heal it (cf. Matt. 5:23-24): “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Regardless of what you have heard or believe, time doesn’t heal all wounds. The fact is this – wounds that go untreated, over time turn to ugly infections and potential amputation. Just like a lot of our marriages today. Why? Because men and women are busy pretending that if they stay away from each other or change the subject from the problem to something else or let time “heal” their hurts, that everything will be just find. But then they wake up one day and fine that the wounds have turned to ugly infections and are on their way towards amputation…which equals DIVORCE.

So that's how not to do to avoid conflicts - so how are we supposed to handle them Biblically? Come back in the next couple of days to find out.

The Biblical Response to Trials: Joy?

2006-10-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. - James 1:2-4

Pure Joy?

We all have experienced painful trials and I think it is safe to say that none of us actually enjoyed them. But almost every one of us can look back at a trial and say that we grew from it. We can honestly make the claim that we learned about ourselves and about how God worked in our lives through our trial(s) to mature us.

Have you ever considered the above passage in regards to your trials and struggles in life? As a pastor, almost weekly, I turn to this passage to minister to someone who is hurting, struggling or being tempted in his or her lives. Inevitably I am asked by a counselee, "how am I supposed to be joyful about what I am going through? This is painful and I don't feel like being joyful!"

It's a good question and it's a fair question. So what's the answer? Well, the answer is in the Scripture itself: "because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Focus on Your Citizenship

According to Jesus in John 15:18-19: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

Jesus in this text was preparing His disciples for the trials that they were going to experience because they were followers of Him. While not all of our trials in life are because of the world coming directly against us and our faith (though some are), it is still a good reminder for the believer to remember that we have been chosen "out of this world" by Christ and that after a short season here on earth, the Lord will bring us home to live in perfect harmony with Him and each other.

Looking Forward

Because trials can sometimes be so encompassing in life, I will often instruct believers to read the following verse in Revelation 21 so that by looking forward, they can remind themselves that their current trial is nothing more than a test of faith, and that one day we will experience a relationship with God the way He intended.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." -
Revelation 21:1-7

The Goal? Being Joyful. How? By Overcoming!

As I close my line of thinking, let me restate the question that I hear from counselee's about finding joy through trials: "how am I supposed to be joyful about what I am going through? This is painful and I don't feel like being joyful!"

The key to finding joy through trials is remembering and staying focused on the fact that God is putting you through a test in order to mature you, so on that day of completeness, you may experience a perfect relationship with Him. As Jesus said in the above passage, "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

Whirlwind Creates Energy

2006-10-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

The last four days have been a whirlwind.

Friday of last week the Men at Compass Bible Church went to the Lake Arrowhead Resort for the first –ever CBC Men’s Retreat. Over 250 men attended the retreat, which is amazing! For the first time ever, I was asked to sing on the CBC Worship Team. After some serious misgivings, I decided to give it a try. I had a blast helping lead others in worship (they must have turned down my microphone, because nobody complained about my voice!).

After a weekend filled with a tremendous time of worship and fellowship and after receiving teaching and exhortation from Pastor Mike Fabarez about the Biblical mandate concerning the role we as men have in our church, I left Lake Arrowhead on Sunday morning and high-tailed it home.

After spending just 30 minutes with my wife Shawna, she drove me and Pastor Bobby Blakey to John Wayne Airport where we boarded a flight to Indianapolis, Indiana to attend the NANC Conference. Though I currently feel like I am in a fog, having only slept about 12 total hours during the last 3 nights, I am at the same time more energized in my faith and my call to church leadership than I have ever been.

There are many reasons why I am energized, but there is one I want to bloviate about tonight and it’s this blessing: The realization that God has placed me on a team at Compass Bible Church of like-minded, hard-charging men (all of whom are committed to advancing the Gospel of Christ in the local church setting).

It is no secret that when you get a bunch of leaders together, all of whom have their own ideas about how to get things done, you often run into problems with egos (yes, even in the church). But God has blessed us with a group of men who not only respect each other, but also who share a desire to see others on the team succeed. We have one purpose as a team: To impact the world for Christ.

Pastors Bobby Blakey, John Goodrich and Lucas Pace are all in our youth and young adult ministries and they have such a passion for their calling that you can’t help but get fired-up about your own calling by just being around them. They are with me in Indianapolis along with fellow CBC leaders Rick Talcott and Ted Boldt. Both Rick and Ted have a gift for counseling and a desire to learn more about how to use God’s word to impact change in people’s lives.

Today we heard 7 sermons (well, a couple of us only heard 6 because of our inability to stay focused due to being exhausted) from such churchmen as Dr. Albert Molher, Dr. Don Whitney and Dr. Jay Adams. It is truly humbling to realize that God has allowed me to be exposed to these high caliber people and teachers, both on staff at CBC and here in Indianapolis. Because of this training, I know that God is calling me to utilize the gifts and the training that He has allowed me to receive. He will be expecting a lot from me. Not perfection, just a willing heart…He will do the rest.

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"- Isaiah 6:5-8

This is a picture that I am using without permission from Pastor Bobby Blakey's blog. Pictured from left to right, Rick Talcott, John Goodrich, Lucas Pace, me, Dr. Jay Adams.

The Heretical Views of Brian Mclaren: A Savage Wolf Among Us

2006-09-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them." - Acts 20:28-30

It seems that every generation brings a challenge to Christian orthodoxy. Seemingly well- intentioned teachers come forth with a “new and improved” way to interpret the Scriptures and they claim that the conservative approach is too stiff and cold, lacking emotions and feelings. Our generation is no different. A group of self-described Christian leaders (that refer to their movement as the "Emergent or Emerging" church) has started to make serious inroads from the fringe of Christianity trying to convince the church that we can’t really know what the Scriptures say and that absolute Truth was never what God intended the Scriptures to be. Talk about bad hermeneutics.

'I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” – Galatians 1:6-10

The following is a transcript of an interview that Emergent Church leader Brian Mclaren, who authored “A Generous Orthodoxy”, gave in January 2006. In this interview Mclaren dismisses the doctrine of Hell and the atonement. While this is pure heresy on Mclaren’s part, I am printing this portion of the interview because this man has a very big following among liberal Christians and there is a very good chance that you will be coming across this kind of thinking from people you know, very soon.

McLaren: I don’t think that Jesus or any of the other biblical writers—and you’ve got to remember that Jesus was a speaker. He wasn’t a writer. But you know, the speakers and writers of the Bible, I don’t think that they’re working in this technical theological way that we very often push them into. I think they are speaking the way we would speak. The way we are having conversation right now. Some day if you go and parse one of your sentences or parse one of my sentences and you know, 500 years from now be making really bizarre conclusions about it. You know, you said a couple minutes ago something about being a pain in the ass. Well, 500 years from now people don’t know that that is an idiom that is used today. You can imagine a whole theological school developing from some of that. And that’s kind of what we’re saying actually happens with the biblical language.

But—and this is a huge problem with all of biblical interpretation. To what degree when things happen in the world, is it safe to say God made this happen? And to what degree is it safe to say, God wants us to interpret this happening in a certain way?

McLaren: This is, one of the huge problems is the traditional understanding of hell. Because if the cross is in line with Jesus’ teaching then—I won’t say, the only, and I certainly won’t say even the primary—but a primary meaning of the cross is that the kingdom of God doesn’t come like the kingdoms of the this world, by inflicting violence and coercing people. But that the kingdom of God comes through suffering and willing, voluntary sacrifice. But in an ironic way, the doctrine of hell basically says, no, that that’s not really true. That in the end, God gets His way through coercion and violence and intimidation and domination, just like every other kingdom does. The cross isn’t the center then. The cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God.

Hansen: Oh, Brian, that was just so beautifully said. I was tempted to get on my soap box there and you know—Because as you and I know there are so many illustrations and examples that you could give that show why the tradition view of hell completely falls in the face of—It’s just antithetical to the cross. But the way you put it there, I love that. It’s false advertising. And here, Jesus is saying, turn the other cheek. Love your enemy. Forgive seven times seventy. Return violence with self-sacrificial love. But if we believe the traditional view of hell, it’s like, well, do that for a short amount of time. Because eventually, God’s going to get them.

McLaren: Yeah. And I heard one well-known Christian leader, who—I won’t mention his name, just to protect his reputation. Cause some people would use this against him. But I heard him say it like this: The traditional understanding says that God asks of us something that God is incapable of Himself. God asks us to forgive people. But God is incapable of forgiving. God can’t forgive unless He punishes somebody in place of the person He was going to forgive. God doesn’t say things to you—Forgive your wife, and then go kick the dog to vent your anger. God asks you to actually forgive. And there’s a certain sense that, a common understanding of the atonement presents a God who is incapable of forgiving. Unless He kicks somebody else.[1]

The above exchange is so incredibly ignorant and lacking of any Christian doctrinal understanding, that I actually cringe when I think that Mclaren has been so successful as a so-called "Christian” author. Galatians 1:6-10 was given to us by the Holy Spirit to warn us about guys like this. So what's the conservative response? Keep checking back to find out.

[1] http://www.understandthetimes.org/mclarentrans.shtml

Christian Psychology?

2006-09-12T12:04:00.001-07:00

By Christa Blakey - "The BlakeyBlog"

I have the opportunity to attend a Biblical Counseling conference next month and am very excited about the theme–”Counseling and the Attributes of God.” I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about counseling but this is a subject that I am passionate about especially since studying Biblical Counseling while I attended The Master’s College. Counseling in the Christian community has been greatly influenced by psychology, so much so that many Christians and churches today will not counsel because they don’t think it is their responsibility or they don’t think they are qualified to do so.

I was talking with someone once about Biblical counseling and they said:

“Some people have very complicated pasts and hurts or problems that are too complex…they need to see a professional psychologist to get real help.”

I asked, “I agree that some people have really complex things going on in their lives, but what do you mean too complicated? Do you mean too complicated for God or for the Bible to address?”

“Not too complicated for God, I mean they can pray to Him and be encouraged by His Word, but that’s not really going to heal them, they need more help than just that because their problems are just too big, they go too deep.”

I’m afraid that this perspective is all too common. Anticipating this conference has inspired me to read through some of my counseling text books and re-examine some of the problems with Christian psychology. I hope that you will consider some of the dangers for yourself and have a renewed confidence in God and His Word as all we need.

The Danger of Denying Sufficiency of the Word

Christian Psychology is different from just secular psychology in that it uses some of what Scripture has to say and sees that people need God. We might be tempted to think—well, at least it’s not as bad as secular psychology! But this Christianized version is still very dangerous and its influence on the church is detrimental to real spiritual growth.

The main flaw with most Christian counseling is that it is integrationist. Another way to say this is to say that the Bible alone is not enough to answer our problems. Christian psychology would say that Bible is enough as far as what it directly addresses. This kind of counseling would grant that the Bible says everything we need to know about salvation and sanctification—“spiritual things,” but on matters of the emotions, the Bible does not say enough. In this case it would require a trained counselor and other written material, or even therapy.

It seems that many Christians are ready to believe that the Bible is inspired by God, but are hesitant to believe that is speaks to the struggles they are facing. This often happens when Christians don’t know what the Bible calls their “condition.” They need more because they have not delved into the depths of Scripture to see how God speaks to the issues on their hearts.

On occasion I tune into a radio program where callers can ask a group of pastors spiritual questions and have them answered on the air. Much of the time a caller has a question about a personal or relational problem and what they ask is, “Could you tell me if the Bible has anything to say about this…?” On an individual level, we can be lazy about searching God’s Word to see how it addresses our problems. I’m afraid that this same laziness has seeped into how we talk about our own problems with our friends about their problems and even how pastors or counselors sometimes view people’s problems. Instead of opening God’s Word as a book full of hope and help, we assume it can’t help us (because it might not use the terms we’re looking for to describe what we’re going through) and so we look for help outside God and His Word.

People get caught up in statements like “All truth is God’s truth.” And they don’t want to throw out all of psychology because it might have some insights to offer. 2 Peter 1:3 makes a powerful statement about the power of God’s Word–

“His divine power has given to us all things
that pertain to life and godliness…”

In God’s Word we have all we need to deal with life and godliness. What do we need psychology for then? Does it offer some helpful methods or observations? Maybe. But psychology doesn’t offer anything that we need for life and godliness. Biblical counseling is committed to God speaking through His Word to us (2 Timothy 2:15). By this I don’t mean that someone comes to a Biblical counselor for help and goes home with a sheet of verses printed on it with nothing else said. But I mean that a Biblical counselor let’s Scripture define our problems and solve them.

Many Christians have a problem with this all-inclusive view of God’s Word because they find some problems overwhelming and daunting. For example, what is a Biblical counselor to do with someone who has what psychologists call bi-polar disorder or is having hallucinations? He would show that person the Lord and how God’s Word speaks to their life. We should be careful to never undermine the power of the Spirit to work through the Word in the lives of both believers who need an exhortation or word of encouragement, or in the lives of unbelievers who need the Savior.

The Danger of Self

On this issue psychology and the Bible can’t ever be joined. Psychology is human centered by nature. With man at the center God can’t be and the Bible could not be in harmony with such a method. Someone said, “Psychology is man’s way of trying to understand and repair the spiritual side of man without being spiritual.”

Psychology paints a picture of man as good and innocent with his problems being the fault of most everyone but himself. In psychology, man’s ultimate goal is to find happiness for himself. The danger with Christian psychology’s twist on this view is the idea that God wants us to have that happiness. And with Him in our lives we will have a better chance of finding meaning and purpose in life.

One aspect of psychology that has permeated Christian counseling and the church is the emphasis on self–self-image, self-esteem, self-worth, self-confidence. With this self-centered thinking it isn’t hard to give man’s “needs” prominence. This view states that man needs self-esteem, love, acceptance and significance and if these needs are met people will generally be happier, moral and fulfilled. This perspective cultivates a big view of self and a small view of God. Change then becomes superficial and temporary because we have neglected the heart of the issue—we have sin.

Christian psychology rarely addresses the problem of sin because people do not accept it. Nobody wants to be told that he has to take responsibility for his own actions, words or even worse, his own thoughts! But the Bible presents a very different view of man—

Man was created without sin but he disobeyed God (Gen 3). Because of Adam’s sin all people are as Ephesians 2:1 describes “…dead in trespasses and sins.” The solution to spiritual death is spiritual life, this is our deepest need. God is not at all silent about this need. He provided His own Son to make spiritual life possible. Apart from Christ there is no healing and apart from Christ, there is no real change. We need to focus fully on Christ and not on ourselves if we want to have any real solutions to the struggles in our lives.

I hope you can see from these two dangers of psychology that it cannot be united with Christianity. Psychology is about promoting self and Christianity is about denying self (Luke 9:23). God’s Word is sufficient for us to be obedient to follow the Lord. We can’t trust Christian psychology because it undermines the authority of God’s Word, weaving the gospel with promises of personal happiness and self-worth. I am sad that we are so quick to turn from our all-sufficient God to the man-centered message of psychology. We don’t need anything that psychology offers. We need to take God at His word.

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you
in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord,
as His divine power has given to us all things
that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.”
2 Peter 1:2-3

People Get Ready

2006-09-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

Are you a Christian?

If you answered yes to that questions, did you know that you have to get ready? Yes, get ready. You need to prepare, you need to study you need to get busy so that you are ready! So, I ask you again…are you ready?

Are you ready to have an answer?

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander”- 1 Peter: 15-16

Are you ready for every good work?

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men - Titus 3:1-2

Are you ready to die?

"Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus" - Acts 21:13

Are you ready to meet the Lord?

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night - Luke 12:34-38

Are you ready?

Lies, Lies and More Lies

2006-08-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

"Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator" - Colossians 3:9-10

Truth: Lying is an acceptable behavior in our society.

There is no doubt that sometime in your life you have lied about something to somebody. Actually, odds are you have lied in the past 24 hours about something. Lies are actually glorified in our society. From the big screens in Hollywood, to the small screens in our homes, lies are so prevalent in entertainment and advertising campaigns that they are expected rather than abhorred. Movies and television shows about couples lying to each other and covering up adultery are #1 hits.

Truth: Lying is an acceptable behavior in our society.

According to the folks at Gallup, 75% of people admit to lying on their resumes about their education and about what they accomplished in prior jobs (funny enough, the other 25% are lying about not lying). There are big lies, and small lies. There are lies that come in all shapes and sizes. Presidents lie. Church leaders lie. Homerun hitters lie! Everyone lies! Why? I would submit that in every situation (and I mean every situation!) it was done to protect or promote self in some way.

Truth: Lying is an acceptable behavior in our society.

The most common form of a lie is the 'little white lie". This is by far the most prevalent type of lie. For example, you know this scenario:

“Honey, do I look fat in these jeans?” You answer, “No! They look great on you! In fact, didn’t you wear those same jeans in high school when we were dating?” You smile and think to yourself “Smooth, good job getting out of that one.” In man’s economy that is an acceptable answer. However, that is not only an answer designed to protect the feelings of a loved one – it is chiefly designed to keep you from sleeping on the couch. That’s why a husband will ultimately tell that little white lie – to protect his self-interest.

Truth: Lying is an acceptable behavior in our society, but it’s NOT acceptable to God!

The problem with protecting the feelings of others and your own self-interest through lying is that it’s sin, which means that perspective and reasoning is man-centered and not God-centered. As believers in Christ, every time we participate in or originate a lie, we are guilty of not keeping in step with the will of God in our lives. Did you know that at least in part, Jesus went to the cross, based on the lie that Satan told Eve? That single lie resulted in the fall of all mankind. So you can understand why our God has a complete distain for lying.

Truth: Lying is NOT Acceptable to God!

Don’t take my word for it, read what God says in Proverbs 6:16-19:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,

A lying tongue,

Hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked schemes,

Feet that are quick to rush into evil,

a false witness who pours out lies

And a man who stirs up dissension among brothers

Did you notice that God mentioned lying twice in the above passage as something He finds detestable? I am thinking that is substantial and something that should cause us to take notice in the body of Christ.

The world versus the Body of Christ

So what is the role of the believer in a world that is blind to the harm and fallout of lying and sin? What are we called to do and what are we not called to do? According to 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, we as Christians are not called to judge the world of it's sin:

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

We are not called to have fellowship (bonds) with the world or it's behavior:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” – 2 Corinthians 6:14

But we are called to be a light in the world as a witness to the Truth of Christ in order that some may be saved:

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house – Matthew 5:14-15

Practical Steps for Protection:

There are some very practical commands in Scripture that lay people and leaders have been given in order to protect the sanctity of the body of Christ. The following is what Jesus instructed His disciples to do if someone sins against you and is a said believer:

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector” – Matthew 18:15-17

To Timothy, the Apostle Paul gave this charge:

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (lies, emphasis mine). But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Conclusion

It is clear that God does not approve of lying or any other kind of sin in the body of Christ and we should always remember the following two verses:

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account" - Hebrews 4:13

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly”- 2 Timothy 15-16

The Emergent Church: Should We Really Trust These Guys?

2006-08-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

I know this is the internet and that at anytime someone from any part of the world can happen upon this rarely viewed website and read what I am saying. Honestly, that is why I dedicate time out of an already very busy pastoral and student schedule to continue to write.

There is an issue that is challenging the Church today that I cannot and will not be silent about any longer: The so-called "Emerging Church". While I am no expert about the movement (but I plan on becoming one), I have recently read and heard some very alarming things coming out of this movement that need to be rebuffed immediately. An Emergent Church leader, Brian McLaren, who is both a pastor and author, recently gave an interview where he claimed that the teaching of the doctrine of Hell and the teaching of the cross by Evangelical Pastors were "false advertising" for God. His main point is that if pastors and Christians continue to be mindful of the Kingdom of God in a future tense, then they will not be motivated to usher in the Kingdom of God in today's world. His belief is that the church can usher in a cultural utopia and that the prophecy of the end-times can be canceled. While this sounds as nice and fluffy as a circus clown, it isn't Biblical. I usually would not link to heretical teaching, however this has to be heard to be believed. Please listen to the whole interview and please take notes. Then, please turn to Galatians 1:6-9 and read. Then please return to this blog in the days, weeks and months to come because I plan to educate myself about the Emergent Church Movement and I plan to expose the false teachers, refute their teaching and share the Truth about the gospel of Christ.

It is amazing that after 2000 years, we finally have people who have been enlightened about the real meaning of Scripture, eh? (SARCASIM ALERT!!!) Please pardon me if I don't buy a word of it.

Storm Watch: Embracing the Storms of Life

2006-08-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

I live in Southern California.

We don’t experience changes in weather here very often, so when we finally get a taste of wind or rain we can get really excited. In fact we can get so excited and sidetracked that it can get down right silly actually. Anytime we get more than an inch of rain the local television news is transformed into “Storm Watch 2006”. We get fixated on the weather so much it’s all we can talk about. Storm systems that are a normal part of life in other parts of the country often times snarl and gridlock our freeways because drivers aren’t sure how to drive while their windshield wipers are on.

I guess we aren’t used to the storms.

It struck me today that as a pastor I deal with people that are not used to storms either. Much like we who live in SoCal, they go on “Storm Watch” and let the storms of life impact them so much they too get snarled and gridlocked. They haven’t learned how to drive with their windshield wipers turned on yet.

I guess some Christians aren’t used to the storms.

The fact is that as Christians we should anticipate storms in our lives. God is clear in His word that He uses the storms in our lives to mature us as believers. The first century church understood all too well that persecution and trials were to be considered a blessing for the believer.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” – James 1:2-4

But today some Christians think they should be immune from the storms of life. I hear it all the time in the counseling room, “this isn’t fair…I am supposed to be happy, God is supposed to bless me because I am a believer!” When I hear this, I always ask people to turn in their Bibles and show me where God promises happiness to them. 100% of the time, I get blank stares and silence.

God promises a lot of things to those who are called according to His will…however complete and utter personal happiness isn’t one of them. Okay, let me interject something right here – I am not saying that Christians never experience happiness. Of course we do. All I am saying is we shouldn’t expect happiness 24/7 for the rest of our lives. We need to expect storms. We need to pray for storms!

Some of you just thought to yourself, “Wait...did he just say we need to pray for storms?”
Yes, I did.

Scan back up and read what James 1:2-4 says again.

That is a verse that doesn’t need to be exposited by a pastor for you to understand the application. It is pretty clear. Trials or storms produce perseverance in the believer. Perseverance is required for the believer to become mature and complete in their faith.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed – 1 Peter 1:6-7

There is a great line in the movie “A League of Their Own”. It is a movie about a women’s baseball league that was formed during World War II – Tom Hank’s character responds to a comment by Geena Davis’ character after she says she is quitting because her life and playing ball “got too hard”.

Tom Hanks responds, “It's supposed to be hard. If it weren’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.”

I know it’s a movie … but that’s true. Think about it. In what circumstances have you had the most personal growth? Was it during easy patches, or during storms?

The fact is that God uses trials to test the Christian. God allows trials to mature the Christian. God brings trials upon the Christian in order to complete the Christian.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose” – Romans 8:28

We need to learn to embrace the trials and trust God through them. If it isn’t obvious yet why we need to do this, let me explain. What we often times view as bad or negative, God works for good. Read Romans 8:28 again, it doesn’t say in “all good things” it says in “all things”. The implication in the text is that God works “all” good, bad, easy, hard, joyful, embarrassing (and any other thing), “for the good of those who love him”.

Storms can be hard to charter through. Some storms can cause damage. However, expect them to come and expect them to grow you and mature you in your faith.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” – Matthew 7:24-25

A Call to Action for the Believer

2006-08-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” – James 2:15-17

Everyone remembers or has seen those posters from the World War II era – Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the viewer with the phrase “I want you!” printed boldly under the artwork. That poster is now an iconic reminder of an era when Americans rallied behind the cause of freedom and fought and died to liberate Europe and beat back the threat of the Japanese in the South Pacific. As Americans everyone rallied behind the cause of freedom, no questions. There was a faith in the American way of life. There was a faith in our democracy and a faith that we were righteous in our actions as a nation to stand-up against the evil that was choking-out the world. Regardless of their backgrounds people all across the nation arose and united in the common fight against evil. Did you know there is a much more dangerous war that is being waged today? It is a war that is raging in the realm of the unseen and it too is being fought against evil.

Do you realize that as Christians we have been called by God to do the same thing as the Americans of the 20^th century? Since the ascension of Christ over 2000 years ago, we have been recruits called into action in the spiritual war that is taking place all around us. However, unlike the response received in the United States in the 1940’s, many Christians today have gone M.I.A. in this spiritual war. There doesn’t seem to be an understanding in the church that this battle has even bigger implications eternally than WWII ever did in the physical realm.

Did you know that according to George Barna, “only 18% of ‘born again’ believers said that completely understanding and carrying out the principles of their faith was the highest priority in their lives (14% of men versus 18% of women) (2005)”[i]. That is simply a staggering number. What kind of faith do many of these people who claim to be Christians have? It would appear that some of them may not have a saving faith, because we know that a faith without works is a dead faith:

We have been called into action as proclaimers and defenders of the Truth of God.

“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”- Ephesians 6:11-18

If you are a born again believer, you have been drafted into the battle that is currently being waged and there is an expectation that you will engage in this fight in order that you may glorify God. This truth is found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves…In him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. – Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12

The hope for the Christian is that once the fight is over, they will be able to say the same thing that the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7-8:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Until that time comes, engage your culture and share the Truth. If your brother needs a blanket give it to him. If your sister needs a meal, provide it to her. If your neighbor needs to hear about the love and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, share it with him. Remember, Jesus is the ultimate spiritual protection from storms, the only true food for the soul and the only way to the Father (John 14:6). And acts of love done in His name and for His glory are the best way to witness to a dying world that needs His saving grace. So, get in the war.

[i] http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=23

Forgiving Others: Optional or Imperative?

2006-08-05T22:57:00.000-07:00

Forgiveness.

It’s an easy word to pronounce but it is not easy to ask for or to give. Often times we as the offended or as the offender place conditions on forgiveness. I counsel a lot of people in my role as a pastor. Many times in the counseling room, the major issue we are trying to work through is forgiveness. A husband might wrong a wife and because of pride or the need for control, the wife may not have a forgiving heart towards her husband, even though he has repented from his behavior and has asked for forgiveness and reconciliation. She knows that if she forgives her husband that she has to let go of her hurt and offer a full pardon for the pain that she has been put through by his behavior. She has convinced herself that the penalty of his sin must be greater yet still and that she will not forgive him unless she places some conditions on her forgiveness for him. While this may seem rational and ‘just’, it is not biblical. As a believer, she has forgotten the unconditional love and forgiveness that Jesus offered her while she was still in her sins. There is one Scripture in particular that I find myself turning to quite often in these circumstances:

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." – Luke 17:3-4

There is no question of the literal imperative that Jesus is teaching His followers. If a fellow believer repents and asks for forgiveness, we are bound by a straightforward divine command to forgive that person of their particular sin. According to the text, we don’t have the option to say “yes, but…”

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins”

– Matthew 6:14-15

The forgiveness of our sins (which simply means missing the target…i.e., God’s required perfection for fellowship with Him) was granted to us by a God who shows mercy and grace to those who call on the name of the Lord. We have been given forgiveness because we have believed (we know the Truth, we act on the Truth, and we trust in the Truth) so we should forgive others as they trespass against us as a sign of the gift that has been given to us and because of the command from God to forgive fellow believers (see Matthew 6:5-13).

If you are reading this and you are not a believer, the principles of Christian forgiveness may seem strange to you. You may have a notion or a demand for justice that requires a payment for a wrong against you. Christians believe that Jesus paid for every wrong (past, present and future) on the cross. And it is because of that we can offer forgiveness to those who wrong us - without condition. Because we have been forgiven, we forgive. In Romans 1:18-32 the Apostle Paul states that everyone who has ever lived knows the truth about God but because of their own desires for self pleasure, they squelch the truth and deny the Creator. Don't do the same. If you have general questions about the reliability of the Scriptures, please write to me at dale@compasschurch.org. There are a lot of really good questions about the authentencity of Christianity and the divinity of Christ. If you have any, let's talk about it.

“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

– Romans 10: 9-13

11,680 Days to Go - Maybe

2006-08-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. – Psalm 90:12

Have you ever been guilty of loosing track of time? Boy, I have. I Can remember sitting in school as a child, daydreaming and not taking advantage of the time to study and listen to my instructors. I was a habitual timewaster. I still am, just ask my wife.

I will turn 38 years old in one month. According to the Department of Health and Human Services the average American male life expectancy is 72 years. So, if all goes according to the norm, I have already lived more than half of my life. Of course, God in His grace could grant me more years than that, but He could also call me home today. When you really think about it, the old adage is true – “tomorrow is not promised to any man.” Here is what I am thinking: This knowledge should motivate me to share the Gospel more and to live out the second half of my life fully focused on serving Christ, His body, and my community.

Let’s do some math.

I became a Christian 8 months into my 27^th year. So, I roughly lived 332 months or 7,968 days before I became a Christian. That is 191,232 hours without living for Christ. That is staggering and quite frankly, somewhat depressing. So, let me total up some more optimistic numbers.
I have been a Christian since May 20, 1996. That means I have been a Born Again Believer in Jesus Christ for 10 years and 3 months (roughly). Which means that I have been a Christian for 123 months or 2,952 days. That is 70,848 hours. Now, if you average that I have slept 8 hours a day during that time (that is liberal) that means I have had roughly 47,000 hours to serve Christ. Wait, that is still depressing. Actually, that is convicting. If I were an employee at a company and my productivity on the job matched my self-perceived productivity as a Christian doing Kingdom work, I would have been fired long ago. It's with this realization that I hold onto the promise of John 10:27-28, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”

I can’t be fired from being a Christian, but I can be an unproductive Christian. But because of God's grace I can't lose my salvation.

As I stated earlier, I am almost 38 years old. When I look back at my life before Christ, I count it lost. I know that whatever works of righteousness I did before I became a Christian will be burned as ‘wood, hay and straw’. I know this because Paul instructs that there are works of ours that we have performed in Christ that will be burned too. Here is the text from 1 Corinthians 3:11-15:

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

This text is suggesting that there are things we do with our time on earth as Christians that won’t amount to anything in the Kingdom of Heaven. That is sobering to say the least. So with that parameter, I know there is nothing I did before Christ that will add up to anything in Heaven. Maybe it’s because I am now officially middle-aged that I am thinking this way. But I want to be a Christian that knows how to number his days as Psalm 90:12 instructs us. I want the remaining hours, days and months of my life to add up to something that will survive the fire of the Bema Seat Judgment. Bible.org does a good job explaining the Bema Seat Judgment so I will share with you what they wrote:

The Judgment Seat of Christ is not a place and time when the Lord will mete out punishment for sins committed by the child of God. Rather, it is a place where rewards will be given or lost depending on how one has used his or her life for the Lord. Both Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:9 speak of the “judgment seat.” This is a translation of one Greek word, the word bema. While bema is used in the Gospels and in Acts of the raised platform where a Roman magistrate or ruler sat to make decisions and pass sentence (Matt. 27:19; John 19:13), its use in the epistles by Paul, because of his many allusions to the Greek athletic contests, is more in keeping with its original use among the Greeks.

This word was taken from Isthmian games where the contestants would compete for the prize under the careful scrutiny of judges who would make sure that every rule of the contest was obeyed (cf. 2 Tim. 2:5). The victor of a given event, who had participated according to the rules, was led by the judge to the platform called the Bema. There the laurel wreath was placed on his head as a symbol of victory (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24-25).

In all of these passages, “Paul was picturing the believer as a competitor in a spiritual contest. As the victorious Grecian athlete appeared before the Bema to receive his perishable award, so the Christian will appear before Christ’s Bema to receive his imperishable award. The judge at the Bema bestowed rewards to the victors. He did not whip the losers.”³ We might add, neither did he sentence them to hard labor.

In other words, it was a reward seat and portrayed a time of rewards or loss of rewards following examination. It was not a time of punishment where believers are judged for their sins. Such would be inconsistent with the finished work of Christ on the cross because He totally paid the penalty for our sins.

Though believers are under no condemnation in respect to their sins, having been justified by faith (John 3:18; 5:24; Rom. 8:1, 13-17), they are subject to judgment at the Judgment seat of Christ in relation to their works. At the Judgment Seat of Christ believers’ works will be evaluated to demonstrate whether they are good or bad, and rewards will be conferred (2 Cor. 5:10; cf. Rom. 14:10-12; 1 Cor. 3:9-14; 9:24-27). The goal of the Christian in his life is to be pleasing to God whether in time or eternity. The Judgment Seat of Christ is not related to salvation but to the bestowal of rewards, and every Christian is assured that he will receive some reward (1 Cor. 4:5; cf. Eph. 6:8; 2 Tim. 4:8; Rev. 22:12).⁴

According the national average, I have roughly 11,680 days left to live as a Christian. I pray that the quality of my work will survive the fire and that my reward will be great. I look forward to the day that Jesus looks me in the eyes and says “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” (Matthew 25:21).

A Bowl of Cherries it Isn't

2006-07-31T17:33:00.000-07:00

Life is hard.

I know, that is not a big revelation that is going cause people to gasp when they read it. But, it’s true. Life is hard. People get cancer. People lose loved ones to death. People get divorced. We fight and bicker and don’t get along with each other over the pettiest things. We war and drop bombs on each other. We cause strife and we gossip and we lie about each other. We struggle against lust and pornography. We struggle against alcohol and drugs. We struggle against weight. We don’t like our jobs.
Before you accuse me of being a “glass is half-empty” kind of guy, I am not saying all of life is hard. There are good times. There are good experiences. There are blessings from God. But, we must admit as Christians, that life is sometimes hard and that God seemingly allows it to be that way. So, it’s a good thing to contemplate the areas in which we struggle to see if God is trying to reveal anything to us.
I don’t know about you, but there are times when I am just plain tired and don’t feel like serving Christ. To admit that truth is hard.There are times that I feel disconnected to God and don’t feel like reading, let alone studying His word. To admit that truth is hard.There are times when I wonder if God is truly interested in what is going on in my life. To admit that truth is hard.
As a man, I struggle with constant bombardment of sexual images that are found on televisions, in magazines, in movies, on billboards and on the Internet everyday. To admit that truth is hard. As a husband, I struggle in the act of spiritual leadership in my marriage. I am committed to it, but it’s hard. To admit that truth is hard. As a pastor, I struggle with balancing the problems in my own life with helping others through the problems of their own lives. To admit that truth is hard. With a truly humble spirit I say the following: Someone like me shouldn’t go through such trials or have such thoughts, right? (WRONG!) I mean, let’s consider who I am. I am a leader in my church, a pastor. I am a leader in my marriage, a husband. I am a follower of Christ, a Christian. My life should be great, all the time! I am going to heaven! I have the Holy Spirit indwelling me even as I write this to you! My sins are forgiven! I am free! I have it all!
But…there are times when I don’t ‘feel’ the truths that I just listed above. There are times when I struggle to understand my ‘dryness’, times when I struggle sensing God’s presence in my life. Of course I realize that my faith isn’t built on emotions or feelings, rather on evidence and truth, but I must confess that in my flesh, I am weak. My flesh causes me to doubt. My flesh causes me to sin. My flesh too often wins the battle against my spirit.
I have been considering lately why God allows Christians to struggle through sin and hardships. Why does He allow us to seemingly drift through stages of our lives when we experience doubt and dryness? I am not trying to break any new ground here, believe me there have been countless Christians throughout the ages that have undergone similar circumstances. The Scriptures are full of examples of God allowing people to go through trials. Does Job ring a bell?
In my service at Compass Bible Church, I serve as a Biblical Counselor. Day in and day out I open up the Scriptures and share with people the truth about who God is and who they are in light of His work on the cross. I implore these people to read and study the Scriptures to learn about the person of God and to discover His will for their lives. I do all this and yet, at times in my own life, I struggle to understand His purpose. At first, that bothered me. But it doesn’t bother me any more. As usual, as we search the Scriptures, God speaks and reveals His Truth and His purposes. Hardships are a part of our journey. Hardships started because of the Fall of Man in Genesis 3:16-19 it is written:

To the woman He said,
"I will greatly multiply
your pain in childbirth,
in pain you will bring forth children;
yet your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it';
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return."

But God in His wisdom has allowed another use for hardships outside of the curse. He has utilized hardships as part of the sanctification process for those who believe on Him:

“But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry – 2Timothy 4:5

“You have made Your people experience hardship” - Psalm 60:3

The Apostle Paul struggled through hardships, probably more than anyone in the Scriptures outside of Christ. But he understood their purpose and wrote the following Truth in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Here is the deal. God allows hardships in our lives because He loves us and He desires that we would seek Him in all things in order that He may bestow upon us His grace and His will for us. I am not saying that God wants us or causes us to sin in our Christian life. Paul handled that notion in Romans 6, however I am saying that God has made the claim that His grace is sufficient in all circumstances by saying "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9a). I will make this confession, when I think I am strong, I tend not to lean on God or seek Him in my life. In my perceived strength, I have a tendency to go down my own road. However, when I am weak, I seek Him, even if it’s hard, even if I don’t ‘feel’ Him, even when I don’t necessarily hear Him. But because I know His word is true and that He is who He claims to be, when I am experiencing hardship in my life, I can rest assured and know that God is active in my life. I know that I am being given an opportunity to grow closer to Him and to mature in Him. In other words, as Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:1-3:

“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Pastor Mike's Focal Point Newsletter

2006-07-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

In light of the past two posts, I thought it would be good to share with you an article that Senior Pastor Mike Fabarez (pictured here) of Compass Bible Church - Aliso Viejo, wrote on the importance of presenting a 'pure' Gospel to the world. Enjoy. This article is being reprinted and can be found at the Focal Point Radio Ministry website here.

Purity of the Gospel

God delivered a stern warning to the churches of Galatia informing them that a small distortion of the gospel message was tantamount to all out apostasy, and is in fact nothing less than a desertion of Christ! The Holy Spirit inscribed with clarity that when we mess with the message of how one finds acceptance before God, we have tinkered with the very heart of Christianity.

Reread the opening salvo of the apostle in the first chapter of Galatians: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned” (Gal.1:6-9).

Surely God had these scathing words penned way back in the first century knowing that every subsequent church-going generation would need to heed its warning. God is certainly aware that our spiritual enemy has been working hard from the beginning to distort the most important words he delivers to his people (cf. Gen.3:1-5). We can be sure that the twenty-first century church has no immunity. In fact, we may be more susceptible to a gospel distortion than most generations that preceded us because of our culture’s increasing obsession with “seeking” a docile deity who wants nothing more than to make us feel good and perpetually affirm us.

Unfortunately for those seeking a message of unmitigated affirmation, the New Testament message of salvation begins with an unavoidable assertion that we are utterly sinful and deserve nothing less than God’s just retribution. Without a humble confession of this fact the gospel declares that we get no further with our Creator. Consider the story Jesus told of the tax collector and the Pharisee (Lk.18:9-14). When we fail to admit our sin and our desperate need of God’s grace, we don’t receive it.

The gospel message that the Galatian churches had initially received from the apostles was the same message that Jesus came proclaiming – “Repent and believe” (Mk.1:15; cf. Ac.20:21). They were called to turn from sin to God and trust exclusively in what Christ did for them.

Not only is recognizing and forsaking our sin passé as a tenet of the gospel, so is an exclusive trust in Christ’s finished work. This aspect of the gospel that was under such a heavy attack in the Galatian churches is rejected by so many today because it is completely humbling. It takes any way any illusions of personal power or acceptability. It forces us to realize that we cannot “improve ourselves” or “meet God half-way.” In the New Testament gospel we are called to see ourselves as wholly unable to fix our sinful dilemma. We cannot work our way into any kind of recovery. We cannot pull ourselves into a redeemable position. We cannot turn over a new leaf or start a new trend. To be right with God we must trust that Jesus did all that was necessary and all that was acceptable to fix our ruined state.

It should be easy to see that in an age where so many are seeking an affirming encounter with a divine therapist, the gospel cannot possibly conform to itching ears, which was the problem in Galatia in the first place. Notice how the apostle follows up on the stern warning we read a moment ago: “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Gal.1:10). If we want to rework the gospel to be more palatable to our modern audience, we will certainly lose the approval of Christ and end up peddling a message that may have more initial appeal, but will, in the end, have no power to change people’s eternal situation.

May we all continue to be sold out to pleasing Christ and letting the chips fall when it comes to men’s approval. May we be willing to proclaim a message of salvation that beats in sync with the gospel which actually has the power to save. May we never forget that when this life is over that approval of men and women won’t matter, but only our adherence to the instructions left for us in the pages of God’s word."

Seeker Danger: If It Isn't Right, It's Wrong

2006-07-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

I know that in the first installment of this "Seeker Danger" series, I was a bit edgy, even boarding on sarcastic. However, we very well could be living in the last days before the rapture and the return of Christ and I don't think this is a time we should be trying to get people to feel good about their lives. Pastor Ray Comfort, author of "Hells Best Kept Secret" uses an illustration to describe the urgency of getting the Gospel right that I would like to share with you.

The Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life gospel is much like a guy who is on airplane flight traveling across the country. The flight attendant approaches him with parachute and tells him that if he puts in on, he will have a much better flight than anyone else on board the plane. He asks if the plane is alight mechanically and if he should be concerned about crashing, and she tells him "no sir, everything is fine and we are in no danger at all, but this parachute will enhance your experience while you are in flight. Not understanding fully the need for the parachute, the passenger puts it on and sits back down in his seat.

After a few moments he discovers that the parachute is uncomfortable and that it is starting to draw attention from the other passengers. Actually the other passengers are starting laugh at him and ridicule him for putting on the parachute when everything is obviously fine on the flight. Frustrated and hurt because the flight attendant lied to him about improving his flight experience, the passenger stands up, takes off the parachute and throws it in the aisle. The promised improved experience wasn't what happened at all so the passenger, trusting the flight attendants comments about not being in danger felt very justified about removing the parachute, because it didn't do what was promised.

Honestly, he should feel justified in doing that, because the flight attendant lied to him and he was working off information that he received, from a very reliable source. You see, the flight attendant knew that the plane was not going to make it to its destination, but not wanting to alarm the man, she told him that it would improve his experience while on the flight. Just five minutes before the crash, the man took off the parachute because its promised use wasn't true at all and its real use was never shared.

Now, let's change the illustration a bit.

The flight attendant approaches the man and tells him that the plane is going down within five minutes and he needs to put on that parachute in order to save his life. The man without hesitation understanding the situation puts on the parachute and sits back down. The other passengers start to mock him and laugh at him for wearing a parachute on a perfectly safe airplane. What they don't know is going to kill them. What he knows is going to save him.

Okay, what’s the point? If we try to seek people out and share with them that Jesus wants to be their best friend, their buddy and He is going to improve their lives then we are approaching them in an unbiblical manner and we are just as guilty as the flight attendant who lied to the passenger. The Biblical approach is to warn the world about the impending crash that is coming. Because when people know what they are being saved from and put on the parachute of Christ they will not throw it off when times get hard. When they get ridiculed and made fun of for wearing the parachute and they know the truth about the coming crash, believe me, they are holding on to that parachute.

If someone puts on the parachute of Christ under the pretense that its main purpose is to improve their journey, then we should expect that when difficult times come and life gets hard they of course will take off the parachute. There have been countless people in frustration and anger that have ripped off their parachutes because it didn't live up to the hype. They claim that the church is full of liars and hypocrites and they have walked away. Why? Remember the promise of the flight attendant. The parachute was going to make the passengers experience on the flight better, not harder. If we witness to a dying world that believing in Jesus is all about making their experiences on earth better, we are no better than snake oil salesmen. If the church doesn’t tell the world about the true use of the parachute – then we are guilty of ignoring the call of the Great Commission found in Matthew 28 and no matter how well meaning we are, or how big some of our churches grow, like the flight attendant we are guilty in trusting that our own reasoning is better than the Truth.

Seeker Danger: Paul's Call for a Pure Gospel

2006-07-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

Purity is Crucial

In Galatians 1:6-12 the Apostle Paul was concerned about any person that would change the Gospel message other than the one he delivered to the church. The purity of the Gospel was so crucial for the health of the church that Paul wrote the following chilling words to a church who obviously started to water down the Truth of the Gospel message:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ”.

Understanding the Times

In this age that is fueled by relativism, individualism, technically savvy real-time media, personalized entertainment and self-pleasure, some leaders in the “church” have thought it necessary to adapt the way they evangelize to the world and turn the Sunday morning church service (orginally designed to equip the Justified) into a mixture of 'reaching' and 'teaching' that is designed to keep pace with an everchanging culture.One movement that has been successful at taking the ‘edge’ off Christianity to make it consumable for the unsaved masses is the “Seeker-friendly Movement.”

Seeker-friendly churches and their pastors have tried to keep pace with the world by reaching out to the unsaved masses with their own form of entertainment and a ‘nicer’ version of the Gospel message that excludes doctrines like repentance and truths about the existence of Hell. These much too exclusive doctrines have been deemed divisive and unloving by a new generation of Pastors.

To keep pace with the world they have come up with glitzy, fine-tuned worship-bands, great drama presentations and skits that keep people entertained and laughing in the aisles, and finally towards the end of the show, they throw in a nice little 15 minute sermon that has ‘real’ world application for their member’s relativistic, individualized, technically savvy, media driven, pleasurable and purpose driven life. I like to call it the “Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your marriage, your children, your job and your stock portfolio show.” Repentance and Faith have been replaced by Positive Thinking and Emotionalism.

And it’s playing in a town near you too. Mega-Churches with this “purpose” are popping-up all over the country and boy are they are packing them in. Yep, they can’t build new worship centers fast enough to house all of the ‘new’ responders to this new and improved call of Jesus.We need to ask a question though: Is this new movement Biblical? If not, who said it’s okay to change the gospel? Who said it’s okay not only to repackage Christianity but then to go-ahead and actually be bold enough to change the formula of salvation? According to Galations chapter one, not the Apostle Paul, he warns against such things with unapologetic earnest.

Part two in this series coming soon....

Ponderings in Phoenix

2006-07-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the day trying to convince myself that 116 degrees isn't all that hot. Afterall, it's a dry heat. I am in Apache Junction this weekend ministering too and meeting the congregation at Compass Bible Church Apache Junction. High School Pastor Bobby "Double me up" Blakey is with me and we are both having a hard time understanding how people deal with this high pitch noise that these 7 inch Flying Date Beatles make as the sun goes down in the Valley of the Sun. It's not only deafening, it's down right scary. I think they were all playing the Battle March earlier tonight. Also, and I don't think I imagined this, one was smoking a cigar!

Thank you! I am hear all week...two shows a night, don't forget to tip your waitress.

When were the Bible books written?

2006-07-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

There are times out on the patio after church service when people will ask pastors about the historicity of the Scriptures. When were they written is a question that comes up a lot. In light of the recent Gnostic gospels and the book and movie "The Da Vinici Code" I thought it would be a good idea to publish the dates of authorship for the books of the Bible. Last Sunday at Compass Bible Church I was asked by a congregant the following question "If the books in my Bible don’t follow a chronological arrangement, what was the order in which they were written? I of course, of the top of my head could not answer fully, but after some research here is the full answer to the question.

The following list arranges the books of the Bible according to their most probable dates.

Old Testament

Job—Unknown
Genesis —1445–1405 B.C.
Exodus —1445–1405 B.C.
Leviticus —1445–1405 B.C.
Numbers—1445–1405 B.C.
Deuteronomy—1445–1405 B.C.
Psalms—1410–450 B.C.
Joshua—1405–1385 B.C.
Judges—ca. 1043 B.C.
Ruth—ca. 1030–1010 B.C.
Song of Solomon—971–965 B.C.
Proverbs—ca. 971–686 B.C.
Ecclesiastes—940–931 B.C.
1 Samuel—931–722 B.C.
2 Samuel—931–722 B.C.
Obadiah—850–840 B.C.
Joel—835–796 B.C.
Jonah—ca. 775 B.C.
Amos—ca. 750 B.C.
Hosea—750–710 B.C.
Micah—735–710 B.C.
Isaiah—700–681 B.C.
Nahum—ca. 650 B.C.
Zephaniah—635–625 B.C.
Habakkuk—615–605 B.C.
Ezekiel—590–570 B.C.
Lamentations—586 B.C.
Jeremiah—586–570 B.C.
1 Kings—561–538 B.C.
2 Kings—561–538 B.C.
Daniel 536–530 B.C.
Haggai—ca. 520 B.C.
Zechariah—480–470 B.C.
Ezra—457–444 B.C.
1 Chronicles—450–430 B.C.
2 Chronicles—450–430 B.C.
Esther—450–331 B.C.
Malachi—433–424 B.C.
Nehemiah—424–400 B.C.

New Testament

James—A.D. 44–49
Galatians—A.D. 49–50
Matthew—A.D. 50–60
Mark—A.D. 50–60
1 Thessalonians—A.D. 51
2 Thessalonians—A.D. 51–52
1 Corinthians—A.D. 55
2 Corinthians—A.D. 55–56
Romans— A.D. 56
Luke—A.D. 60–61
Ephesians—A.D. 60–62
Philippians—A.D. 60–62
Philemon—A.D. 60–62
Colossians—A.D. 60–62
Acts—A.D. 62
1 Timothy—A.D. 62–64
Titus—A.D. 62–64
1 Peter—A.D. 64–65
2 Timothy—A.D. 66–67
2 Peter—A.D. 67–68
Hebrews—A.D. 67–69
Jude—A.D. 68–70
John—A.D. 80–90
1 John—A.D. 90–95
2 John—A.D. 90–95
3 John—A.D. 90–95
Revelation—A.D. 94–96

Re-Printed from GTY.ORG

Maui Bible Conference Closes

2006-06-24T03:06:00.000-07:00

After months of prepartation and anticipation the 2006 Maui Bible Conference has come to an end. Pastor Mike Fabarez preached 10 sermons on the topic of "What the Church Needs Now". Pastor Mike's sermons were an attempt to share with local pastors the need for churches to return to the roots of Biblical-centered teaching as well as outlining the role of congregants and leaders in local bodies.

Compass Bible Church, which has been founded on the premise of always planting churches, had 27 people fly to Maui and attend the conference.

Each night the conference was attended by an estimated 125 people, some of whom are leaders in local churches here on Maui and the rest local congregants, many of whom listen to Pastor Mike on 91.3 fm daily from 11:30 - 11:45 on Focal Point's radio broadcasts.

Maui has a very laid back attitude and the local churches are no different. So, it took them a couple of days to warm-up to Pastor Mike's style of teaching, but by Wednesday night with Pastor Mike's consistency of preaching from the Word of God (and doing it in a well organized and clear way) we could sense the crowd starting not only to warm to Pastor Mike's sermons, but start to embrace them and hunger for more. By Friday night, the congregants were giving very loud ovations at the beginning and the end of each sermon! It was something else to see! The Word of God is alive and causes people to stir when it is preached, and I will bet that from this point on, these congregants will demand that their pastors teach from the Word as well.

Please continue to pray for the people on Maui, especially the believers on the island. As a group, I know we have been impacted greatly (almost like a missionary team, I guess) by these people and wanting to see them become on fire for Christ.

We will be back in So. Cal on Sunday, Aloha and Maholo for your prayers.

Pastor Dale

Bible Conference Update: The enemy is not happy we are here

2006-06-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

Aloha from Maui! It has been an extremely interesting few days here on the islands. Everyone from Compass is getting along great with each other and having fun exploring the island, and the people on the island have been very friendly and welcoming. However, there has been one group that has not been very welcoming to our presence on Maui, and that seems to be our enemy in the spiritual realm.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph.6:12)

There have been attacks on our Senior Pastor and strange things going on with our technology (computers crashing, etc...). Last night Pastor Mike delievered the most powerful gospel presentation that I have ever heard and he did it while relying on God to protect him from a blood vessel in his nose from bursting open. Pastor Mike had a nose bleed for over three hours straigth right before the conference was to start. But, God heard and answered our specific prayer to protect Pastor Mike from another nose bleed and He used Pastor Mike to deliever, again, the most powerful Gospel message I have ever heard.

There was a comment by one of the local pastors claiming that was the first time many of the people in attendance have actually heard a 'Biblical' Gospel message. Honestly, that made me scratch my head a bit. Apparently, there is a 'universialist' feel to many of the churches on the islands. There have been comments made by one pastor in particular that Compass Bible seems to be setting the bar too high for the local islanders to understand. My take on that is this, we don't set the bar...God does. All we do is preach His Word. Please continue to pray for Pastor Mike as he delievers his last 4 messages of the week on Thursday and Friday nights.

I will have a more comprehensive update when we get back to the mainland.

Maholo,
Pastor Dale

Triology in Maui

2006-06-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday afternoon, the Compass Clan charted the Triology III and toured the Northern coast of Maui. We were all stoked about the killer scenes, aqua experiences and the grinds were extra special. From top to bottom, we have the clan hanging out on the trampoline located on the front of the boat (although, no jumping was allowed). Then we have Pastor Dale trying not to lose his lunch on the way back to shore...just kidding, nobody got sea sick. Pastor Mike and his daughter Stephanie are basking in the Maui sun and finally, the kids enjoyed jumping ship in Honolulu Bay in North Maui.

Maui Trip: Four in the Morning?

2006-06-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Sunday morning in Hawaii...4:00 in the morning! I am still on California time, so I am WIDE awake. Yesterday was a long day of traveling, yet it went very smoothly. Upon check in at the hotel we saw several Compass Bible Church congregants who were already enjoying Hawaii. Today is a free day for us, meaning there is no conference schedule.

A group of us are going to go over to Calvary Chapel of South Maui for church this morning. They have a beautiful church in Kihie Town.

Aloha,

Pastor Dale