Believe It or Not

A few more days of the Christmas season left. I'm not one bit tired of it yet. I love the Christmas carols, the lights in the neighborhood and the fun of being together. One thing that I have noticed about this time of year and around Easter is that television networks will air specials that they have on Jesus. The History Channel and National Geographic and the Discovery Channel will all broadcast shows with titles like, "The Real Jesus," "In Search of Christmas" and "The Secret Lives of Jesus." I will occasionally tune into one of these just to see what swill they are pushing. And it is swill. They will interview some of the most liberal and and outlandish "theologians" and "scholars" without even giving a chance for a rebuttal from a conservative. But, what would you really expect? They are pushing an agenda. Not a political one necessarily, but a spiritual one. "The world" (John 7:7), as Jesus describes it, is the system that the enemy operates in. It will always set itself up against the Lord Jesus and His kingdom. So, it is not surprise that it would use it's greatest platform, mass media, to sling fiery darts and arrows at the truth of the Son of God. Here are a few examples of arrows that have been slung recently and a defense of faith against them.

Herod did not kill the Bethlehem infants (Herod: Madman or Murderer on The Discovery Channel).

Rebuttal - Herod the Great, the one of whom scripture says was the instigator of the death of the infants 2 years and younger and who prompted the family of Jesus to flee to Egypt, ruled from 37 B.C.- 4 B.C. Herod interestingly was not a true Jew and was greatly disliked by the same, but was an Idhumean and was appointed King of Judea. Fearful of the brand of "Jew," he was a frequenter of the commercial Greek marketplaces and strove to be, as his adopted title suggested, a "friend of the Romans." Though a diplomat at heart, he was a man of great cruelty and paranoia. Reports have it that Herod had his nephew drowned, his sons strangled (7 B.C.), his mother-in-law Alexandra executed as well as his wife Mariamne. If Herod could kill family members, what would foreign infants matter to this murderer?

There was no Virgin Birth (Jesus: Holy Child on A&E).

Rebuttal - Just read this.

Jesus was the son of a Roman named Panthera (In Search of Christmas on The History Channel).

Rebuttal - Celsus, an influential 2nd-century Platonist of Alexandria and perhaps the first serious critic of Christianity is the source of this falsehood. Read more on Celsus here.

Jesus was confused about whether he was the Messiah (Mary, Mother of Jesus on NBC).

Rebuttal - There is no proof that Jesus was confused about his divinity or mission. See Luke 2:49, Mark 2: 1-12, 28, John 20:28.

There are many more that I could list off, and the best and most powerful rebuttal to all of them is the Word of God itself. And that brings us to the true point of contention. Is the Bible really accurate? There are many, many more TV specials that discuss this topic and I will just let you figure out what their consensus is. Bill Maher, the comedian and the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, has said, "The Bible is a fairytale," and "The people who wrote the Bible...it was not meant to be history, it was not meant to be literal." William Dever from the University of Arizona and frequent Bible Archaeology Review magazine contributor has said, "The Biblical tradition is a composite of...legends that still may be regarded as containing moral truths but until now they must be regarded as uncertain historical provenance." It is that last point that I want to speak against.

It is true that Bible contains some pretty incredible and fantastical stories. The Old Testament writers of the most dramatic of these stories are Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Jonah and Daniel. Moses gives accounts of the world being created out of nothing and man being formed out of dust. He talks about a worldwide flood, a bush that speaks and burns with fire but is not consumed and about a sea that is split in half. Joshua tells the story of the destruction of the great city of Jericho without even one finger placed on the walls of the city. Samuel writes about how Elijah called down fire from heaven and was also taken up into heaven by a chariot and horses that are made of...fire. Jonah tells the story how he spent 3 days in the belly of a giant fish before being vomited up onto the shore, alive. Daniel speaks of men being thrown into a very hot furnace and walking out unharmed, a disembodied hand writing on a wall and surviving an entire night in a den of very hungry lions. Those are incredible stories. And what about the New Testament? Look at all of the miracles that Jesus performed. Turning water into wine, walking on water, silencing a storm, feeding thousands of people with a handful of food, giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, causing the lame to walk and run again and raising people from the dead. Are we supposed to believe all of this? Yes.

One thing for us to consider is the motivation of the writers. Why were these men writing these accounts down? To point people to the one true God. Now, if you wanted to accomplish this goal, what do you think is the best possible means of doing so? Would you want to write stories that were believable? Sure you would. But, if you set out writing with the express goal of writing stories that are believable you are already being dishonest because in a sense you are saying, "I will only write down and record the things that people will believe." That was not the motivation of the biblical authors. Their motivation was to write down the truth, no matter what that looked like. I wonder sometimes if this thought ever crossed Moses' mind, "They are never gonna believe this, but that's how it really happened."

When Homer was writing down his epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey, he knew that he was writing mythology. He knew that he was writing a story that was always only supposed to be fantasy. When the biblical writers were writing down these incredible stories they knew that they were writing down history. These were historical records of things that they had really seen and experienced the one true God do. The Gospel writers had either seen these things first hand or they wrote down the accounts of those what witnessed these events. It only makes sense. If you wanted to write down or have a story that would convince people that you were right, wouldn't you try to make it the most rational and realistic story you could? What Moses, Samuel, Matthew and John wrote down was not primarily intended to be persuasive, but to be an accurate accounting of events. So, you and I make our choice. Do we choose to believe these things as they were always intended to be or do we say, "No, that is too unbelievable and mystical"? I choose to believe the truth, wherever it leads. Merry Christmas.

What We Do At Christmas

I want to begin with saying that I know that Mark Driscoll just posted a blog talking about what he teaches his kids about Santa, but I have not read it. I really wanted to, but I have been preparing this post all week and didn't want to be influenced/impacted by what he has said. Also to say that these opinions are my own and I have not gotten anything from any other source.

Okay, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I wanted to write about what my family does during the Christmas season. I have realized that what we Cloers do at Christmas is pretty different from what a great number of people do. First off, let me hit Santa. Oops, let me put that another way. I will discuss what we do/teach about Santa. We do not do anything with Santa Claus. We don't take our boys to see a Santa at the mall. They don't write letters to Santa nor do they leave cookies out for him. If we are ever going to tell them anything about Santa it will be about the historical person that his mythology is based on. But, I'm sure that they won't care at all about that nor will they commit those facts to memory. We don't do Santa for one simple reason: WE HAVE JESUS! That's it. TheLord Jesus' coming to Earth for the rescue of sinful humanity is a big enough and special enough reason for celebration. Some people ask, "Don't you feel like you are taking something away from your children by not letting them believe in Santa?" Or they say, "We do Santa with our kids because it just adds to the magic of Christmas for them." Really? My response to that is: WE HAVE JESUS! I could go on and on about this, but it really is that simple to me. We have the greatest thing in all of the history of the universe to celebrate in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. And to say that adding a mythological story about an overweight, elderly man that rides in a sleigh that is powered by flying reindeer to deliver presents to the children of the world by slipping down chimneys will make that glorious celebration "more special" or "magical" is totally absurd. So, I have been trying to teach Michael some things to say when he is asked, "What's Santa gonna bring you?" First response, "There is no Santa." Second response, "He sits on a throne of lies."

Seriously though, on Christmas morning, when our children are opening up presents (more on that in a bit) we want them to know that those were given to them by their parents who love them very much. And we love them even if they have been bad and they don't have to be good for goodness sake in order for them to experience love from their parents. So, no Santa, all Jesus.

Christmas day has always been special in my family. Here is what a Christmas day looks like in the Michael Cloer (my father) family. Wake up to smell of deer tenderloin being fried up. It is a wonderful smell. My parents get up early, I have never really known how early, to start making us breakfast. Breakfast will consist of the aforementioned deer tenderloin, scrambled eggs, biscuits, sawmill gravy, grits and my mothers fruit salad with miniature marshmallows and shredded coconut (so good). There is always Christmas blend coffee that is brewing all morning, cold milk and my mother's Christmas fruit cocktail drink/punch (non alcoholic, of course). When everything is ready, we sit down at large table together, everyone wearing their pajamas and such, Dad prays and we enjoy a great meal. A great thing is that the size of our family has grown numerically over the past decade. This Christmas there will be 11 of us around that table.

After breakfast, we excuse Mom and Dad to go and take showers and get themselves ready while we do the dishes and clean up. Then later in the morning, around 11 we all sit down together again, but this time it is in the den/family room where the Christmas tree is (that is a picture of it up there). Then Dad begins us in a time of prayer. Each one of us then prays and thanks the Lord for the blessing of the past year. It is usually a pretty emotional time. After that, Mom leads in some songs and we usually crack up at least once because it is either to high or too low for some of us. Then we refill our drinks with more coffee or more of the Christmas cocktail and maybe grab a quick bite of some goodie from in the kitchen and then settle back in for the giving of presents. That's right, it can be after noon sometimes before we start doing anything with presents. It has been that way my whole life. And sure when I was younger I might have been annoyed or irritated by that, but it taught much such a valuable lesson. It has taught me that there is so, so much more to the celebration of that day than getting presents. And that is what we want to teach our children too. We want them to know that this is a very special day because we get to be together and love on each other and celebrate Jesus and worship Him. We get to give to one another.

And we will not be showering our children with literally tons of gifts. I think that we can all agree that there is a tremendous amount of excess that American children experience all the time and especially at Christmas. It is not the aim of Melissa or myself to raise our children to be greedy, selfish or ungrateful. We want them to be generous, giving and compassionate. We want to give to people, families, in need. We want to give money toward global missions. We want to serve people in our community and love our neighbors. We want to celebrate Christmas in deed and not just in word. Our children will receive a few presents each year and they will give many gifts each year as well.

Christmas day usually ends with a ride around town to look at Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate and some of Dad's homemade peanut butter cookies. I love my family. I love being a member in my family. I am not in any way saying that what other families do is wrong or sinful or anything like that. We Cloers are not better than anyone. But we are different. I love and embrace that difference. I truly am thankful to be a son of Michael and Tebra Cloer and I want my children to feel the same way about Melissa and me. Merry Christmas.

A New Chapter

For those of you who don't know you (there shouldn't be many), I am the new youth pastor at the First Baptist Church of Athens, TN. Just saying that statement brings back a flood of memories and emotions for me. Melissa and I went through a long process, not with First Baptist, but with the Lord about this transition in our lives. We prayed and started asking the Lord for some specific things concerning the next pastor and church that I was going to be serving in. It was, and still is, awesome to us how the Lord answered those specific requests and has so abundantly blessed us in the process. I could not be more pleased and at peace with where the Lord has brought us. This is the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in our lives.

I'm not making any promises here, but I do hope that I will be able to post at least once a week from now on. I hope that you will keep checking back in and seeing if there is something new. Also, please respond/comment if you wish. I think that probably every person that writes a blog really loves it when a person comments on the things that they have written. I have a tracker on my page that tells me how many people have viewed my blog that day, and I love seeing the numbers, but I would really like to hear what you think. Whether it is disagree or agree, I want to hear it all. But hey, no pressure.

Soooo, I figured that I would use the remainder of my time here to reflect on some thoughts that I have had about Christmas. Well, I guess I should clarify that. I want to talk about something that is pretty cool about Matthew chapter 1. If you haven't read it recently, take a minute or two and read it. Isn't that genealogy incredible? I think that it is fascinating that Matthew, a Jewish man writing to Jewish people, would use his first statement of his gospel to set the precedent for the entire book. Essentially what he says is that Jesus Christ is greater than David, the greatest king in all of Israel, and Abraham, the father of all Jewish people. You may be saying, "What? Where does he say that?" He is making that statement by placing Jesus first in the genealogy. Typically, if this were the genealogy of anyone else, then Abraham would be listed first according to his importance and the fact that he is the patriarch of the the Jewish people. If not Abraham, then certainly David, the greatest and most beloved king of Israel. But Matthew doesn't do that. Matthew, making the case throughout his entire gospel that Jesus is the promised Messiah and true King of Israel, places Jesus prominently at the head of His own genealogy.

Another amazing thing about this genealogy are the people that it is made up of. First, the women. Women were never included in genealogies. If there was a woman mentioned in a genealogy it would be extremely rare. Matthew places five women in the lineage of Jesus. Each one of them was either marked by scandal or the appearance of scandal. Tamar was a Canaanite woman who posed as a prostitute to seduce Judah, her father-in-law (Gen. 38:13-30). Rahab was a prostitute from the destroyed city of Jericho (Josh. 6). Ruth was a Moabite woman and a worshipper of idols (Ruth 1:3). Bathsheba, “Uriah’s wife” committed adultery with King David (2 Sam. 11), and Mary bore the stigma of pregnancy outside of wedlock. This shows us that the Lord can use scandal and what the devil meant for evil for His purposes and His glory.

Secondly, the men. These were not a collection of winners themselves. Jacob was a liar, Judah had sex with a prostitutes (one was his daughter-in-law), David was an adulterer and murderer, Solomon led the nation into worship of false gods and Rehoboam split the kingdom of Israel. So why did God choose this group of people? I believe it is because He likes to show how great He is in spite of how pathetic we are. He likes to display to world that He can uses the broken down and beaten up. I know that is is true because I can read it clearly from His Word and I have experienced it in my own life. I'm a nobody. I have screwed up more than I have succeeded and yet Jesus still loves me and wants to use and does use me for His glory. I get the feeling as I read the Word of God that the Lord is drawn to broken things. It's not because He likes to fix things/people. No, God is not a fixer. It is because He like to make them brand new. Born again, if you will. He is the Creator.

I will continue these thoughts later. Merry Christmas.

Harry Potter, Spiderman, Witches and the Apostle Paul

My sister-in-law, Erin, sent me this post a few weeks ago and asked me for my opinion. I will let you read it first before continuing.

Why All Good Christians Should Celebrate Halloween

I found this to be an interesting article. I think it would be awesome if more Christians would do something like this. I hate "Fall Festivals" that are really just Halloween parties held at churches. I am all for Fall Festivals held at churches that have nothing to do with Halloween. When I was the youth pastor at Hepsibah Baptist Church, the church would put on a fall festival that was either in the middle of October or in the first Weekend in November. There were hay-rides, games, boiled peanuts, cotton candy and usually some Bluegrass music. I loved it.

Now, I don't know this person that wrote this article but I did not like the way he references "good Christians." I know that he is using it sarcastically, and it rubs me the wrong way. I try to live my life to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus. Being a 'good Christian" is not my aim. But, that is just a small issue.

The main point of this post, and what I want to spend the most time one, is that I would not call what he and his family are doing as "celebrating" Halloween. It is using Halloween for evangelistic purposes. And I am all for that. I am all for taking advantage of something that the world does in order to impact the culture for the sake of Christ's kingdom. I believe that we need to do whatever it takes in order to shine His light into the darkness.

About this author, I just wonder if his house is decorated with spider webs, coffins in the yard and ghosts hanging in the trees. Are he and his family dressed as witches and goblins in order to be more "missional?"

I don't ever ask myself the pointless question, "What Would Jesus Do?" but I do often ask myself, "what would Paul do?" I wonder if Paul would dress up as a zombie or a wizard and shout, "Happy Halloween" as families approached his house. But, getting back to the point, I wonder if Paul would have wanted the churches that he had planted to join in with what the culture was doing? Would he have wanted the church at Ephesus to join in with the worshippers of Diana duirng their festivals at the Temple of Artemis? I wonder. So, in the end, I am all for using Halloween as a means of reaching the lost world, but I am adamantly opposed to Christians celebrating Halloween.

I am in favor of Reformation Day however.

My trip to Jiuzhou

I just re_ently took a trip to an Asian country t_at boasts the largest populat_o_ on the pl_net. I'm still not sure whether or not I can actually say where I was, so I better just play it sneaky. It was an incredible trip. Seriously, the best missions experience that I have ever had. And so much different than I actually thought it would be.

Our mission was to train "club" leaders. We trained them in two areas: The Good News and The Family. They soaked it up. They took pages upon pages of notes. The goal for the training was to equip these leaders with what they would need to train the people in their clubs. By the end of our days together I felt as though these people were my family. They showed such love and passion. It was inspiring and humbling.

The country, especially the cities, was so much more modern than I thought it would be. The capital city was extremely impressive. What wasn't so impressive was the intense smog that was present in the cities. On a clear day the sky had a brownish tint. After a few days I could feel that in my lungs and in my eyes.

I loved the people. One thing that I realized pretty quickly was that there were people everywhere all the time. It didn't matter if I was coming back to my hotel late at night or when I was looking out my window at 6 in the morning, there were always people stirring around. And I wasn't even in a big city. There were only about 1.6 million people there :) I loved how it just seemed like everyone was just sort of in sync with each other. That's the only way that traffic works over there. I believe that everyone operates with the trust that the other person will not hit them.

Well, there is a lot more that I want to share and more details that I would like to go into, but like I said, I'm just not sure what all can and can not be said. I will close with this passage from Psalm 22:27-28

"All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’s, and He rules over the nations."

Don't Stop Believing?

This is just a quick post that I hope makes you laugh and think. I just saw this video of some motivational speaker wanna-be and he demonstrates a great spiritual lesson. Watch this first, and then I'll comment further:

Yeah, that is where believing in yourself will get you. There are a lot of people (smiley J for one, Rob Bell for another) who are perverting and changing the Gospel to incorporate this same message. They will preach that God believes in you, has faith in you and you need to believe in and faith in yourself too. That all that you really need is to tap into your inner strength. Of course, this is ludicrous. God doesn't have faith in us because we are sinful people. We are frail, fallible and faithless. Christ however is quite the opposite. He is consistent, steady and faithful. He, not ourselves, is the anchor of our soul. What happens when we want try to believe in ourselves? We end up smacking our head against the proverbial wooden board. And to God, we look about as stupid as this guy.

Blockages in my heart

I hope your pulse didn't quicken when you saw that headline. I am not referring to my physical, made of tissue, four chambered heart. I am talking about my real heart, my spiritual heart. So many times we say that we just have a lot of stuff on our mind, but I don' t feel that sentiment is true enough for me. Not right now anyways. I feel like I have some stuff that is blocking up my heart right now. Stuff that makes me want to cry, laugh, sing and be quiet. So, bear with me as I bare my soul a little bit.

Jesus is so...whew. It is hard to put into words all that I am feeling about Him right now. My relationship with Him has been so rich and sweet lately. For the past several mornings I have felt as though I could hear His voice beckoning to me to wake from my sleep. He calls me to His Word, He speaks truth to my heart and challenges, convicts and blesses me with it. We have spent some really beautiful times together on some really long walks during the past few weeks. I am not trying to be super spiritual or mystical with what I am about to say, but it has felt as though He has literally been walking right beside me. He speaks about what He is doing in my life right now and what He has planned for me in the future. I am overwhelmed at His love for me. He is so patient with me, so tender, so gracious. As I head back into the house after about an hour it is as if He gives me a big hug and says, "I can't wait for tomorrow." Jesus is my best friend. I can truly say that.

The world has been heavy on my heart recently. Some really good friends of mine have just returned from a mission trip to Romania where they loved on some orphan children with the love of Jesus. I have been with many of them on that same trip, or should I say on a trip like that (since every trip is unique and special). I know that it is such a blessing to be with those kids. I miss their smiles and their laughter. I miss watching their eyes as they listen to how much God loves them. I am leaving for Asia in less than 2 weeks. My team, which there are only 6 of us I think, will be teaching house church and factory church leaders for multiple hours a day. Teaching them what? The good and glorious truth of God's Word. We will be covering topics like the family, the Gospel, singleness, persecution and the New Testament. I am beyond words when I think about the incredible privilege and honor that is mine in this endeavor. Please, pray for us. Pray that we will be empty of ourselves and that we will walk full of the Holy Spirit. It is just such an awesome reality to be apart of what the Lord is doing all over the world. I am looking forward to being out of my comfort zone and smack dab in the middle of such an important work that the Lord is doing.

In the Gospel of John, in chapters 14-16, Jesus says something pretty incredible. He says that if we ask Him, God, for anything, He will give it to us. Now, I know that this is not referring to a spiritual blank check and that whatever we ask must be complicit with His will. I know that, but don't miss what Jesus is saying. He says that if we ask for anything, and that thing being pleasing to the Father, He will give it to us. I am not espousing "name it and claim it" theology, but I do believe that this truth should change our prayer life. I'll tell you one area that this has really impacted my praying and that is in my ministry. Youth ministry. I am praying, asking the Lord that He would give us Brighton High School. I am praying, asking that He would use students from my ministry to greatly impact that school for His glory. What all does that mean? Well, I will write more about that later and I am going to be preaching on it very soon. I just want to see the Lord display His power and might in our local context and I want Him to use our students to do it. I know that is a bold, big request, but I am talking to Jesus and I know that He can handle it.

Well, those are just a few of things that have been lodged in my heart as of late. I know that all of this seems random, but it's my blog, so deal with it. :)

The Author and Finisher

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2

I love this passage. The guys that I disciple are in the process of memorizing all of Hebrews 12. We have spent some good time discussing these two verses. It would take about 30 or 45 minutes writing my thoughts/commentary to these two verses but I want to focus in on the phrase, "author and finisher." These two words are so rich and deep concerning the Lord Jesus that they demand some time spent focusing upon them.

Author. Faith originates with Jesus. I see this unfolding in two particular ways. First, Jesus is the originator of faith in general. Salvation through faith was His idea. He could have brought salvation through any means that He wanted to. He could have designed salvation to be attained through the keeping of the law, but He didn't. He could have hung a monetary price tag on salvation that you and I could have worked toward and eventual purchased with a treasure chest, but He didn't. He could have set up salvation for only the most moral do-gooders on the planet, but He didn't. The Lord Jesus has made, authored, salvation to come through faith in the work that He has already done on the cross. He designed it to be that way. Secondly, Jesus is the originator of faith for the individual. That goes deeper than just the system or means of salvation. This means that Jesus authored my salvation. I did not seek after Him (Rom. 3). I did not choose Him (John 15:16). Faith began in my heart because the Father began drawing my heart toward Jesus (John 6:44; Heb. 7:25). This overwhelms my heart. To think that Jesus pursued me, purchased me and began the work of faith in my heart is, well, overwhelming. Wow!

Finisher. Faith ends with Jesus. Just as with the truth of faith's authorship, it's ending unfolds in two particular ways as well. To really understand these two aspects however, you have to see a deeper understanding of the word finisher. Finisher can also be understood as perfecter. Our faith becomes perfect in Jesus. That really means that our faith finds it's perfect match in Jesus. There will be many, many very faithful people that will spend eternity in hell. Having great faith is not the key. There are Hindu men that have devoted themselves to crawling on all fours for the rest of their lives because they really, genuinely believe that by doing so they will find favor with one of their millions of gods. The emphasis is not about how much faith you have, it is what/who you have placed your faith in. This lands the heart of the Christian squarely in Jesus. He is our perfect match. In Christ, our faith is made perfect. Secondly, Jesus will bring an end to our faith. What? Is that true? That doesn't sound right. I know it doesn't, but it is true. Think about it. On the day that you and I see Jesus face to face, will we have any need for faith? Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now

faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." On the day that I see Jesus face to face I will not hope for Him and I will be seeing Him. Faith will disappear. It will be finished. What began in the heart of God in eternity past will fade away in the light of His wonderful face. Wow!

I know that I have only scratched the surface of the these two words and their implications. I encourage you to dig into God's Word and let it's richness soak into you. As for me, I am gonna keep pondering, but I am gonna do so over an ice cold slice of watermelon.

Summa Summa Summa-time

When I was in high school, The Fresh Prince himself, Will Smith, released a song titled, "Summertime." The title of this post comes from the chorus. It is a great song talking about all the fun that comes with summer time. For the most part I like summer except for two related aspects: Heat and Humidity. I'm a big dude, so I already have a natural propensity for sweating. In the summer, I run for air conditioning like new born sea turtles flee to the ocean.

Well, anyways, I want to talk about some of the things that I like/love about summer. I'll begin with food (Like I said, I'm a big dude). I love to grill and I love all things bar-b-que. Is there anything better smelling in the warm summer evening air than that of meat cooking over open flames? We love to grill, eat, take an evening stroll and then come back and roast marshmallows over the last of the coals. Some would argue that you can grill all year long, and that's true, but it is the best in the summer. Then there is all of the great, fresh produce that comes with summer. Sweet corn, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon. Ooooo and what about homemade ice cream? I believe that I have perfected mint chocolate chip. Okay, last thing about food. We have some really good friends, Matt and Julie Sliger, and they (Julie, really) have a blog that covers a lot of stuff but my favorite part are Julie's recipes. She is a great cook and she, by her easy yet delicious recipes, is helping Melissa to be a great cook. We have probably made and devoured about 2/3rds of her recipes. Check out the link to their page.

Swimming. I have always loved to swim. If we could afford it, I would want to have a house with a pool. Last summer we received an invitation to an open house at the Germantown Athletic Club. We went and they had everything open to the public. The have a huge outdoor olympic size pool and a really amazing kids pool/splash park. Michael had just turned 2 then, so he was a little bit intimidated by all of the fountains and the bucketfuls of water falling all over the place. While we were there someone talked to us about having a free trail week. We jumped on that immediately. So, the entire next week we had a little miniature vacation or stay-cation. We would get there at 10am, right when the gates opened, and stay until around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. They have a snack shack there and we ate there every day. We loved it. We loved swimming and playing all week. The weather was great. About halfway through the week I discovered their gigantic indoor pool. The deep end is over 2o ft deep and they have huge diving boards. I LOVED it. So yeah, I love swimming.

There are so many other great things about summer. Baseball (Go Yankees!), fun movies, vacations, ice cream trucks, the smell of cut grass, staying up late, fireworks, tubbing down a river, road trips, smores, camping and going to the beach. And not to mention all of the fun stuff that comes along with youth ministry. In youth ministry, summer is big time. I love it. Well, I thought I would use this post as something fun and not so serious. I am still feeling my way through this whole blog thing and not real sure what my blog will be like. I hope you enjoy.

Dead Sea or Galilee

I've been to Israel 4 times in my life. Each time I go is better than the time before. I guess that is because I'm older every time I go and that gives me a greater appreciation for what I am seeing and experiencing. You should go if you ever get a chance. Anyways, there are 5 main bodies of water that are connected to Israel: 1) The Mediterranean Sea, 2) The Gulf of Aqaba, 3)The Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberias/Lake Gennesaret, 4) The Dead Sea, 5) The Jordan River. It is the last three that have been on my mind recently.

The Jordan river has several tributaries that run into it but the main one is the melted snow that runs off Mt. Hermon. The Jordan flows down into northern Israel and enters at Dan and then proceeds into the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is today as it was in the time of Jesus; full of fish and surrounded by life. Men still catch nets full of fish today just as Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee did two millennia ago. Then the Jordan flows out of the southern end of the Sea of Galilee toward the Judean wilderness. Even then it is still full of fish and life. Groups that visit Israel will get baptized in the Jordan here. I have video of Melissa being baptized in the Jordan by my father and you can see the fish all around here in the water. It was also along this stretch that Joshua lead the people into the promised land for the first time. Then the Jordan comes into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the entire planet at over 1300 feet below see level. In the center of the Dead Sea it is over 1200 feet deep. It is also the most poisonous body of water on the planet. If you drink just two ounces of it's water it will kill you. It will destroy your kidneys and liver in a matter of minutes. Question is, how does that happen? What makes these two bodies of water so dramatically different? The Galilee is teeming with life and abundance while the Dead Sea is, well, dead. Both Seas are feed by the same great river. Both are in the same country. Why does one contain life while the other contains poison?

Outlet. The answer is that the Sea of Galilee has an outlet while the Dead Sea has none. Life comes into the Sea of Galilee and life flows back out as well. When the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea it ends there. All that flows into the Dead Sea just gets more concentrated and more potent. You can see the same effect take place in the lives of Christians. There are so many people that are a part of our churches that are just like the Dead Sea. They receive and receive and receive but there is never any outlet from them. They come and listen to good teaching and the Word of God preached, but they never do anything with what they hear or learn. They are plugged into discipleship groups and they go on retreats and to seminars, but still there is nothing coming out from them in an outlet of ministry, missions or service. I applaud and encourage an academic pursuit of the truths of God's Word. We need to know what we believe and believe what we know. But, we also need to put into practice all that we learn. If we learn and believe that Jesus loves us without limit and yet fail to pass that truth along to others in practical ways, then we are really just poisoning ourselves. This is the essence of Pharisee thinking. Learning and knowing so much good stuff but never sharing that goodness with anyone else. We are hanging onto and hoarding something that was never meant to be bottled up. I want to live a life like the Sea of Galilee. I want to receive all of the great things from the Lord (love, peace, grace, blessinsg, etc.) and I want to be conduit of those things as well. All that He brings in, I also want to put out towards others. We should be asking ourselves, "What are some practical ways that I can show others the incredible things that God has put in me?"

Letting it begin

So, I have decided to start blogging. I've never been against the idea, but until now I really have not had the time to dedicate to this endeavor. I have graduate from Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary and, unless the Lord changes this, I won't be sitting in a classroom anytime soon. Most of you who will be reading this know me already. For those of you who do not know me - stay tuned, you will.

What will I be blogging about? Everything. I love Jesus, so I want to devote and dedicate this to Him and His kingdom first and foremost. But, I am confident that the loves of my life will also be making their way in here. Those loves being: Melissa, my boys (Michael and Gideon), youth ministry, Clemson sports, Superman, movies, music and missions (do you like how I ended that with the 3 ms?).

I want to be honest, authentic and genuine with what I put here. I want to bare my soul, expose my heart, guide, preach and teach - all in this blog. So, enjoy.