A Bowl of Cherries it Isn't

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 – 2 Timothy 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

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

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

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

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?

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

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