Thoughts On Ezekiel

Been reading Ezekiel this week and I should finish it by tomorrow, so I thought I'd share some passaged and thoughts on the last few chapters that I read.

Chapter 33 is familar to many, with the analogy of the watchman often used to show how we are responsible to warn the lost that judgment is coming. Here are verses 1-9:

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. 5 Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’
7 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for[a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.

It just got me to thinking about the "job" of the church. If we are not leading people to Jesus...taking the gospel out of the four walls and into the street, then no matter what else we are doing, it really amounts to nothing more than rearanging the furniture while the house burns down around us.

I wonder how many Christians, how many churches really believe in hell. I wonder how many really believe that people will die and go there and burn forever without Jesus? I wonder, because I don't see a lot of churches reaching the lost...maybe it is just MY church...maybe we are the only ones with the problem...but I have to come to the realization that the guy next door is on his way to hell...and the guy acorss the street, and the one at the corner...I have to let this sink in...and maybe, maybe it will cause me to move, to take action.

I understand that we cannot make people believe, and that it is not our job to make them believe even if we could. But it is our job to take the message to them, to warn them of their condition.

Yes, it will be inconvienient. I know it might make us a little uncomfortable. And maybe that is the root problem. The job the church was given, commissioned by Christ Himself to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, has been seen, not as the normal life of a believer, but instead it is seen as an option. After all, it seems that too many believers won't even adjust their schedule to make a church service, much less adjust their lives to reach the lost. What's sad is that there has to be an adjustment at all.

Isn't the proclaimation fo the gospel supposed to be a part of the normal Christian life? Isn't the church called to be the watchman to the world? If the watchman does not sound the alarm...then who will?

Thoughts on Ezekiel...thoughts on the church...thoughts on me. Lord, give me the boldness, the passion and the love for the lost so that I will set the trumpet to my mouth and sound the alarm.

Just some thoughts...
Pastor Dave

A God Sized Vision

Sometimes I am amazed at my ability to drop the ball (spiritually speaking), to get complacent, to coast, to let things ride, to just go through the motions. A few months ago I was so very fired up about this blog...ready to go, both guns blazing...and then three months went by and nothing...zip...nada.

It has only been in the last week that God has shaken me to my very core. He has convicted me of my sin, driven me to my knees, and shown me the coldness of my heart. He has served up a plate of steaming, tasty food in His Word! I have devoured the written Word of God as never before, and renewed my commitment to be not only a man of the Word, but a man of prayer, and a man who seeks the face of God.

As a part of this process He has done two things that have led me to this point. First he directed me to a book that has caused me to question the state of the church in America as never before. I am more sure than ever before that if Revival does not come to the church in the United States of America, that judgement will. For the sake of our children, and our childrens children, but even more for the glory of God Almighty, the church must once again march on her knees, cry out to God to send the Holy Spirit with fire and wind and for God to bend us towards Him, His ways, His Word, and His throne.

The book that has impacted me is this one: "A God Sized Vision - Revival Stories That Stretch And Stir" by Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge:


Room does not allow me to post all the quotes that are recorded in this book by those who lived through past revivals. But I will post this one by Jonathan Goforth, who was used to bring revival to China in the early 1900's. The quote is not really about revival, but it is inspiring to me as it reveals the heart of this missionary when it comes to revival and the plight the church in the US finds herself in:

"Brethren, the Spirit of God is with us still. Pentecost is yet within our grasp. If revival is being witheld from us it is because some idols remain enthroned; because we still insist on placing our reliance on human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that 'it is not by might, but BY MY SPIRIT.'"

To be honest, if you can read this book and not be moved...if you can read this book and not desire to see revival in your lifetime, well, you don't need to be revived, you need to be resurrected.

The second thing He did was inspire me to preach the boldest most evangelistic sermon that I have ever preached in my life...and with good reason. The Sunday that I preached this message, two people showed up who did not know the Lord...and one of them has cancer, and it is terminal. Although they did not respond to the message and accept Christ, the intensity of the Spirit that morning was evident. I cried more during this message than any other as I sensed that here was someone who was knocking on the very door of death itself and yet would refuse the offer of eternal life. In my heart as I was preaching God began to speak to me that I needed to share my faith more, that as a pastor I was to teach the church, but as a Christian I am to take the gospel to the lost and the dying and the hellbound. I got a very clear picture of hell in my minds eye....and I cannot be quiet any longer.

My desire is to be used by God and to sacrifice anything and everything that takes away from this goal. I want to pour my life and love into my wife, to give myself to my children, to shepherd the church God has given me with the heart of the Great Shepherd, to pour my life out as an offering to the One who has given me not only the purpose of my life, by my very life itself. I want to have a broken heart for the lost and a fresh heart for the Lord and His people.

Part of that, I pray, will include firing up this blog once again. How often I will post I do not know, but this one thing I do know, that God has called me to a work and I dare not fall asleep on the job. I pray that from this day on I will be found ever pressing on to the high calling in Christ Jesus.

Join me in praying for the church, for the lost and if you would be so kind, pray for me as I embark on the next stretch of my journey on the God trail.

No turning back,
Pastor Dave

AND THE WINNER IS....

Ok, just did the drawing for the latest book giveway....drumroll please....and the winner is: Brenda May! Brenda, contact me ASAP so I can get your book to you. To everyone else...remember, I am giving away another book at the end of the month: "Unashamed" by Robby Gallaty. All you need to get a chance to win this book is to leave a comment on any post in the month of December. You get one entry for each post you leave...the more comments, then the better your chances.

Ok, so there's that.
Pastor Dave

HOW FULL DO YOU WANT TO BE?

In 2 Kings chapter 4 we read the story of the widow who is deeply in debt and the creditors are about to come and sell her only two children into slavery in order to pay her debt. In desperation she cries out to Elisha about her situation. We’ll let scripture tell the rest of the story:

2 Kings 2:4-7 “Elisha asked her, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." Then he said, "Go and borrow empty containers from everyone—from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few. Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side." So she left. After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring. When they were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another container." But he replied, "There aren't any more." Then the oil stopped. She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest."

Now I want us to stop for a second and think about a couple of things here.

First, the woman said she had nothing except a jar of oil. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been down and out before, but I’ve never been so down and out that all I had was some Crisco. I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck, and had to rob Peter to pay Paul, and have had to humble myself and go to Dad and Mom and ask for some help, but I’ve never been so broke that all I had of any worth was one jar of oil. Now the oil here was valuable as it could be used for a variety of things, but one jar was not going to get anyone very far….or was it?

You see, no matter how little you or I have, if it is given for use by God, if it is offered up for the Lord, if we are willing to let go of what we have for Him and for the sake of the gospel, God will take it and multiply it and expand it far beyond what we could ever imagine.

Another thing we see is that she had to pour out the oil from her container into the other containers. God wants us to pour our lives into the lives of those around us. God wants us to give away our most valuable asset we have to those around us. No, I’m not talking about your house, your car, your 401K, or your computer…I’m talking about yourself. Your experience in walking with the Lord, your knowledge of the Word of God, your spiritual depth…He wants you to give it to others. The church is not to be a holy huddle, but an ambulance with a spiritual emergency kit to take to a lost and dying world. We are to be a lean, mean disciple making machine!

And lastly, notice that the widow told her son in the end:

"Bring me another container." But he replied, "There aren't any more." Then the oil stopped.

I think that often the reason we don’t see more of the Lord working in and around us, the reason we don’t have revival in our homes and in our churches and in our country, and the reason we don’t see the lost coming to Jesus all around us is that we are satisfied with far less than all.

Jesus doesn’t want much from you and I. Only all. Everything.

The oil flowed until they ran out of containers. What if they had held back a container or two? You know, the one they got from Grandma the last time they saw her…or that one that was special because it was from the widow’s childhood…or maybe the one that was won as a prize for the best oil at the county fair…or that one that is the collectible one - you know it’s worth a lot on eBay as long as it has never been used.

You see, we have all sorts of excuses as to why we don’t bring Jesus all of us. We like to have a little control here and there. We have our pet sins. We have no problem giving God a certain portion of our live, a certain amount of our time, a certain (10 %) amount of our money, but we feel free to do with the rest what we want.

And because we do not give all of our containers to God, we do not get all the oil that we could have.

When it comes down to it, we get all of Jesus that we really want. We get as much revival as we desire.

How much do you and I really want to see a mighty move of God across this land? How badly do we really want to see our loved ones come to know Jesus? How serious are we when it comes to our relationship with the Lord? The real question we must ask, is how full do we want to be? How full of Jesus do we want to be?

Are you, and I ready to give all of containers to God? Are willing to allow Him to fill them up completely with Him? Are we willing to say, “This is all I have Lord…and all I have is Yours.”?

Well, I cannot answer for you…but for me…well, I gotta go know. I think I have a few more containers in my closet that I need to find.

Pastor Dave

Unashamed

A few weeks ago I was in our local Christian Book store (Crosspointe Christian Books and Gifts, find them here: http://www.crosspointebooks.com/), and I came across this book by Robby Gallaty:



To be honest, the first thing I noticed about it was that it carried the following recomendation by David Platt, the author of "Radical". "I wholeheartedly recommend this pastor and this book to you." Now the book "Radical" has had, for lack of a better word, a radical affect on my life. So I thought, if David Platt recommends not only the book, but the pastor, maybe this is worth checking out.

So I bought the book. I took the book home. I put the book on the shelf. The book stayed there. I forgot about the book.

Last week I was on vacation, and I saw the book on my shelf of "books I want to read", and decided to give it a go.

All I can say is "WOW!" Just in case you didn't get that let me say it again: "WOW!"

Robby has taken his messages from the book of 2 Timothy and turned them into chapters for this book, and although most read 2 Timothy from the perspective of Paul writing to Timothy as a pastor, Robby takes this and makes it applicable to anyone who calls themselves a Christ follower.

Reading the short biography of the author in this book goes along way to appreciating the content of the book. You realize that Robby did not grow up with a spiritual "silver spoon" in his mouth. He lived a hard life...and then lived a redeemed life. The contents are not dry knowledge...it is the stuff you find that has been lived out and put into practice by the author.

If you are a pastor...you need to read this book. If you are a Bible teacher...you need to read this book. If you are a believer in Christ...you need to read this book.

Very few books have moved me to tears...but by the end of the chapter, as Robby is talking about finishing well and the Apostle Paul, I was crying, crying tears and crying out to God that I might finish well. I have been convicted by the words in this book and the teaching of Robby Gallaty. It has inspired me to crank up the ministry that God has given me, so much so, that I am considering taking some of my sermons and attempting to put them into book form...you can pray for me about that, ok. It has motivated me to dig deeper into the Word of God. It has caused me to refocus my energy and my attention to those things that have eternal value. It has reminded me that to run the race that has been set before me and to offer my life up as an offering to the Lord, poured out in ministry all for His glory!

There is much more I could say about this book, but let me just sum it up in three words: Buy this book! Ok, let me sum it up in six words: Buy this book! Read this book! Ok, nope. Let's try nine words: Buy this book! Read this book! Live this book! No, that's not it either. Hmmm...ok, let's try twelve words: Buy this book! Read this book! Live this book! Share this book! Yeah, that works. Twelve words.

In fact, I'm so pumped about this book that I want to give one away.. Yep, I will give one of these away to anyone who comments on any of the blog postings this month. (And no, I haven't forgotten the "Think" book giveaway...the winner will be announced tomorrow).

The only "negative" thing I have to say is that the book does have some errors that a good proofreader should have caught. At least my printing did. But that is a minor quibble...nothing that would cause you to misundertand what Robby was trying to get across in the pages of this book.

You can check out the church that Robby pastors here: http://www.brainerdbaptist.org/index.php

Taking a radical stand for Christ,
Pastor Dave

CRITICS, COMPLIMENTS AND ELISHA

I’ve been reading 2 Kings over the last couple of days, and right at the beginning something jumped out at me. As Elijah is getting ready to go home to be with the Lord, he tells Elisha that he should leave him (Elijah) at this time. As Elijah is going forward, he tells Elisha to stay put and not to follow him any longer.

This is not a one time statement from Elijah. It happens several times.

2 Kings 2:1-2 “The time had come for the LORD to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal, and Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; the LORD is sending me on to Bethel." Elisha responds in verse 2: “But Elisha replied, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

Once again in 2 Kings 2:4 Elijah instructs Elisha to stay behind while he (Elijah) goes on where the Lord has instructed him: “Elijah said to him, "Elisha, stay here; the LORD is sending me to Jericho." And in verse 4 we see the answer of Elisha, the same as before: “But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

A third time (2 Kings 2:6) Elijah tells Elisha: 6 Elijah said to him, "Stay here; the LORD is sending me to the Jordan." And the response from Elisha? You guessed it, the same as before. Here is the response of Elisha from verse 6: “But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

Three times Elijah tells Elisha not to go with him. Three times Elisha responds with “I will not leave you.”

Now, Elisha knew where Elijah was heading. If you read, you will know that Elisha knew that Elijah was going home to be with the Lord. We find this in verse 3 of the same chapter: “Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?"
He said, "Yes, I know. Be quiet."

He knew where Elijah was going, and although he also knew that he could not follow him all the way to glory, he was determined to follow him as far as he could…he was determined to see him off. Even when the sons of the prophets were basically telling Elisha, “Hey, you DO KNOW what is happening here right? Why go any further? He told them to be quiet…in other words, “Don’t distract me. I know where Elijah is going, and I know what is going to happen, and I will follow him to the end.”

As a pastor, I think this is huge.

Let me say it again, as a pastor, I think this is HUGE!

Why?

Well, simply, every pastor needs an Elisha.

We need someone who is determined to walk with us, to travel the faith journey with us, to not be deterred or sidetracked. When the end is near, and we are ready to depart, we need to know that we have poured our life into others that will continue on the work of the Lord.

Before I was a pastor I could be very critical of the pastors that I sat under. I have since found that almost every criticism that I leveled at one of my pastors in the past, has now been leveled at me. I have found many who have told me how great I was as a pastor, as a teacher and as a preacher. Unfortunately, somewhere down the road, most of those have leveled criticism at me to the point where they have left the church that I was the pastor at.

I’m not saying that you should only give your pastor glowing compliments. That would not be honest, or realistic. I’m also not saying you should not have any criticism when it comes to your pastor. As a pastor I try to turn my critics into my coaches. I try to learn from the critical comments and emails I receive. However, many times the critics main concern is that things did not go their way.

Let me speak plainly here. Your need to be careful before you lob your criticisms at your pastor, and your pastor does not necessarily need compliments. What he needs are a few good “Elisha” men. Men who will stand beside him. Men who will walk with him. Men who will say, “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

Ok, so there’s that.
Pastor Dave

YOU'VE GOT TO HEAR THIS!

When I was a child and we would have family over for the holidays, there were two tables set up. One was for the adults…and the other was for the kids. Of course, those of us at the kids table always wanted to sit at the adult table. We always felt marginalized at the kids table. This would become even more humiliating to us as we entered into our teenage years….how dare they make me sit at the kids table…I’m not a kid any longer…I’m 13!

As the years passed, so did the kids table, until one day I found myself at the adult table and my kids were now sitting at the kids table. As I looked at my kids, I wondered what the hurry was for. The conversation at the adult table did not seem to be nearly as entertaining as what was going on at the kids table. No one at the adult table was putting olives on the ends of their fingers! No one at the adult table was making a lake of gravy in the middle of their mountain of mashed potatoes! Or pretending that the gravy running down the side of the mountain of mashed potatoes was molten lava about to destroy the village made of cranberry sauce. And no one at the adult table was eating a turkey leg while pretending to be an ancient barbarian!

This whole idea of separation seemed to be merely for the sake of convenience for the adults. I understand there may be space issues, and such, but mostly it often seems as if the adults don’t want the kids to enter into the adult conversations that they are having…and while there is a time and place for adult conversation…it hardly seems to me that the best time and place is the holiday dinner table.

As adults, we need to spend this time when our families are together, sharing our lives with our children. Sharing our family history together. And most of all, sharing the Lord, His Word and what He has done in our lives together.

Psalm 18:3-4 expresses this: “things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us. We must not hide them from their children, but must tell a future generation the praises of the LORD, His might, and the wonderful works He has performed.”

I come from a family of believers in Christ (on my Mothers side), and yet rarely did I hear any stories of how the Lord worked in her family. Her Dad (my grandfather), was a preacher and a pastor, and yet I don’t remember her ever sharing a sermon he preached, a revival she saw, or an answer to prayer they experienced. The results of this lack of sharing what the Lord had done resulted in a salvation experience for me that was limited to church. Church is where Christians went. Church is what Christians did. Church is where God was. There was life outside of church, and that was yours, and then there was church life and that belonged to God.

It took me years to come to the point that what I had with Jesus was not a religion but a relationship. It took me years to come to the place where I understood that my whole life was to be offered up to the Lord as an act of worship. It was years before I realized that I did not need to come back to church, but that I needed to come back to Jesus. Once I was back with Jesus, well, church took care of itself.

This year, when you gather with the family, even if you have to have a kids table and an adult table…take time to share what the Lord has done in your life. Take time to sing the praises of the Lord. Take time to tell of the wonderful works that He has done.

In fact, why wait for the holidays? Why not make it a tradition to share every day with our children something that God has done?

Excuse me now, I’ve got to go….kids come here…you’ve got to hear this, did I ever tell you about the time the Lord…….


Pastor Dave