Catching Up!!

I cannot even remember the last time I looked at this screen, it has been that long since I've written.  I don't know who even reads this, I have always used this blog as an outpouring of what God is teaching me, but if you are reading this, I am sorry for the silence.  It has been way too long, I am getting frustrated with myself here because I feel like I have forgotten how to do this.  I feel like I can't even put a complete sentence together.  So I'm sorry it has been so long and I am even more sorry if my writing is horrible.

God has been doing so much in my life and the lives of my family, I don't even know where to begin.  As I said I don't remember the last time I wrote or even what I wrote about, but I would guess that is has to be close to a year ago, so I that is where I will start.

About a year ago I was feeling very lost, frustrated and extremely discontent.  The bigger problem was I couldn't shake it.  No matter what I did, I could not get rid of this feeling.  So, I began to pray about it.  I have to admit, that part of my feeling of discontent was that I wanted to be in ministry full time.  But I had been down that road before and it didn't seem to pan out so I "knew" it couldn't be that.  Little did I know that God was starting a movement within me that was literally about to change my life.

I prayed and prayed and prayed for God to take this feeling away and help me to be content, but the urgency for me to move to full-time ministry just kept growing stronger and stronger.  Finally...when I couldn't take anymore, I decided that God had to be doing something here.  Now, the funny thing is, this was not like times before.  Before when I wanted to do ministry full-time I would try everything at least twice to make it work but this time I didn't want to have any part of it.  I prayed "God if this is you moving then I know you will make it happen."

Over the next few months Abby and I really began to pray about this and we came to a very disappointing, exciting, and scary realization, God may be calling us away from the place we call home.  I began having conversations with the key people at the church where I was working part-time but the answer was the same as before, it just was not in the cards for the church.  So back to praying I went.  I remember saying to God, "Well Father, if I feel like you are calling me into full-time ministry but it is not going to happen at the place I currently am.  Then I can only conclude you must be calling me away to a different place".  So back to praying I went.  I felt that I did not want to limit where God may be calling me, I know I serve a pretty HUGE God and I had no idea what He was cooking up for me, I just knew I wanted to be a part of it, so I put no limit on it.

I began to put out my resume to churches all over the U.S. and even Canada.  There were so many...and all those cover letters...ahahahahahahahaha....it was....a time, if you know what I mean.  Don't get me wrong I wanted to do them and see where God was taking me, but at the same time, it was a bit of a pain having to rewrite that letter for each new prospect, but I digress.

Finally I had 4 churches reach out to me about interviewing, they were scattered across the States, I couldn't believe it.  It was really above what I ever expected.  So back to praying I went.  This time I prayed very specifically that God would show me clearly which area He was calling me to.  Within a week...a week!!... three of the four dropped out and the one left had made it clear that from the beginning of the interview process they wanted to hire me.

This was it!!!  I have never felt more peace-fill about anything in my life (with the exception of asking my wife to marry me).  I knew beyond any doubt that God was calling me to this beautiful church in Greencastle, PA.

So that is my story.  Here we are; Abby, Zion, Saffron and me, this is how we came to be in Greencastle, PA.  I can honestly say I love this area and the people of the church.  It is not all sunshine and roses.  I really miss being able to see my friends, play with the band and be closer to my family but Jesus said that if we are not willing to forsake all things for the sake of the gospel than we have no business being his disciple.  So the sacrifice is worth it.

The book of Ecclesiastes says that life is an adventure meant to be lived with God.  We need to be open to what God has for us.  In the last chapters, Solomon uses all of these analogies to say this.  We need to be watchful and willing to go where God has asked us and through all of this that is what I wanted to do, go where God was asking me too.

So as I said before, that is my story.  That is how we ended up here in Greencastle, PA.

Strong Enough

I don't know if I have posted about this before but the idea came to me today and so I really feel lead to write about it. 

I hear the phrase all the time, "God will never give you more than you can handle,".  I find that statement to be incorrect.  If God would only give you what you can handle than we would never need to rely on Him for anything.  The bible says that we should rely on God for everything.  When Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray he made that clear, we should rely on God. 

Phillippians 4:13 says that "I can do all things through CHRIST who gives me strength".  It doesn't say anything about you, it talk about Christ.  Relying on Him for your strength. 

So that tough situation you are going through, can you handle it?  No, you can't.  By your self, but with relying on Jesus you can handle anything, because he gives you the strength to handle it. 

Friends STOP trying to handle things on your own and rely on the strength of Jesus.  The Bible says that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us. 

Life...

1 Peter 2:4-8
"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to he a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For it stand in Scripture:
'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
'the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,".

I am reading in 1 Peter chapter 2 and I came across a thought I wanted to share.  In verse 4-8 Peter is making reference to an Old Testament passage found in Isaiah that is making reference to Jesus.  The prophet is saying here that Jesus is the cornerstone.

This is an interesting little tidbit about history and architecture.  In the ancient times when they were building a building they did not have all the fancy tools we have now, what they would do is take a stone that was perfectly cut.  The lines were perfect, corners were perfect, everything about it was perfect.  They would lay that stone at the corner and it would act as the measuring line for the rest of the foundation of the building.  This stone was so important to the integrity of the building that if it was not perfect, the whole building would collapse.

Peter is saying here that Jesus should be in our lives that corner stone, the one upon which we build our entire foundation.  This makes sense because the bible is clear that Jesus is the source of all life.

So my thought is this, what does it say about people who do not build their lives on Jesus?  The ones that reject him?  What does it say about a person's life when they reject the very one who is the foundation of life?

We need to tell people that Jesus is life.  He is the one on which a person can build the foundation of their life.

May our LORD be with you
Josh

The After (High School) Life

Here is an excerpt of a book that i am writing for teens.  Let me know what you think!!

LIFE!!

The After (High School) Life

            I often think back to my own High School days...oh (not) so long ago.  I think about all the popular people, all the drama people, all artsy people, all the smart people, all the sporty people and I think about how I didn’t fit into any of those categories.  Looking back I can safely say I was pretty much invisible in High School.  I mean I did have friends and people that I cared deeply about but in the grand scheme of my High School class, I was like the invisible man.  When I think about all that two words come to mind...THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!

            I like the fact that I was invisible, that I missed out of 95% of all the junk that an adolescent has to wade through during those years of your life.  The problem for you reading this is the amount of stuff you have to deal with is much deeper and thicker than when I went through it.  Whether you are a believer in God or not I want to be there to applaud you and give you an epic high five if and when you make it out on the other side of High School without too many emotional or psychological scars.  When I went to High School I like think of all the drama and stuff I dealt with (this does not include academic stuff) as a sprinting race.  Only I’m not on a racing track, I’m standing in a field of mud and gunk, up to my knees and I have to wade through all of it in order to finish the race.  When I got to the finish line, they handed me my diploma and a nice pat on the back saying, “Those were the best years of your life.”  I thought if those were the best years of my life, I want to quit life right now, cause if that is the best life has to offer, life didn’t do a very good job. 

            For you, however, the amount of muck you have to run through is way past your knees, it’s more like at your waist.  When I hear about things that teens are going through today, it’s like someone decided you should skip learning how to grow up and just expects you to be grown up.  I can’t believe what I hear my some of my students telling me is going on in their schools.  Teens, kids making decisions that affect the rest of their lives and setting them on a path of death and total heartache and they don’t even realize it.  Teens dealing with subjects like sex, homosexuality, smoking all kinds of wacky and awful stuff, drugs, alcohol, deep depression and the list could go on and on.  Why are the “best years of your life” so terrible? 

            I want you to hear this, what I am about to say.  If you are bored out of your mind reading my book and are thinking about putting it down, just give me one more paragraph.  Then you can throw my book out for all I care, but I want you hear this next statement and really think about it to the point of believing it as the truth (cause it is).  YOUR HIGH SCHOOL YEARS ARE NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT, THE BEST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE.  They are so far from the best years of your life, the true best years make High School look like that movie with the great trailer, but soooo disappointing when you actually go and see it. 

Your High School Years are NOT the best years of your life!!!

            I can’t say it enough, if fact I think I might just randomly put it in other places in this book, just to remind you, if in fact you keep reading.  But if I am boring you now, you have my permission to put this book down because I have said my main point.  Your High School years are NOT the best years of your life.  If you want to find out why....keep reading.

            See the problem is when you are told that these are the best years of your life (which they are NOT) you never want to grow up and really experience the best years.  When those are the best years you’ve had, you spend the rest of your life (missing the best years) trying to relive and recreate those 4 years and you never really grow up and become an adult.  I could give you so many examples of people I know, who are adults in age, but are still in High School in the way they think, because they bought into this bologna that the best years are back there and not in front of them. 

            My friends listen to what I am writing to you.  Life is so much more than the drama you go through in High School.  There is life (great, wonderful, exciting life) after you get out of School.  I work with students from the grades of 5 to 12 and I can’t tell you how much they don’t know.  I hear them say all the time about this and that happening in school and I just want to shout at them, “NONE OF THIS CRAP IS GOING TO MEAN ANYTHING IN 10 YEARS!!!!!!!!!”  Students worry and obsess about things they are going through now that do not amount to anything in the grand scheme of life.  Do you know what the “popular” people in my generation got out of being popular, when they were in school....not a darn thing. 

            They other week I was looking through my Senior Yearbook (talk about self-inflicted torture) and I came to the “Best of Pages”.  You know best eyes, best actor, best school spirit, best smile, most likely to succeed, and so on and so forth.  Those people in those pictures, did they get anything out of those awards?, no, not a single thing but a picture in a book, which for most normal people will sit on a book shelf and collect dust. 

            If you get voted for one of those awards, good for you!!  That truly is great for you; I’m not trying to diminish that recognition in anyway.  What I’m saying is realize that even though that is a good thing, in the grand scheme of life, it really doesn’t matter. 

            Most of you may be thinking that I’m just bashing High School, especially if you are having or had a good High School experience and I want you to know I’m not.  My intention here is not to use this book as a platform for my verbal vomit about the awfulness of High School.  If you had/are having a good High School experience, that is great!!  I am truly happy for you.  My intention is to get you to see that there is life after High School and getting all wrapped up in the drama and social system can lead to consequences that set you up for failure for the rest of your life. 

Old Testament Survey

Here is the write out of the sermon I preached last Sunday.  Enjoy!!

I want to start off by asking a question.  Can I do that?  What was your favorite subject in school?  What was that one subject that you just understood without any trouble?  Now, what was the subject that you dreaded because you just couldn't get it?  Have you ever been completely confused by or about something?  No matter how many times some one explains it to you, you just don't get it.  I have this problem with several areas but most notably with mechanics.  I have no idea how a car works, or what is wrong when it stops working.  When I pop the hood of a vehicle the only thing I am capable of doing is saying,"Yep, looks like an engine".  In reality there could be huge pieces missing and I would have no idea. 

            I think sometimes it is like this when it comes to the Old Testament for us believers.  We see this giant book with stories that we don't really understand and prophecies and song that aren't relevant to us here in 2012.  The Old Testament talks about a people and a time that was so long ago, we just don't understand. 

            In 2 Timothy Paul says that all scripture is god breathed and useful for teaching and rebuking, the scripture he was talking about was the Old Testament.  What we know as the New Testament was not put together until about 300 A.D.  So Paul is saying that the Old Testament is good for us, we should read it but we get the impression its not for us, so it doesn't interest us.  Because I have no clue when it comes to mechanics, cars don't really interest me.  I mean besides how they look and how fast they drive, I have no interest in cars. 

            I feel that, that is our approach to the Old Testament but the truth is, the Old Testament is wonderful and we as followers of Jesus we can learn a great deal from the it and it can be very meaningful to us. 

            So what I want to do is go through a survey of the Old Testament so that we all have at least a brief knowing of this first half of our Bible.  I have included a chart to help as a visual aide.  Then once we go through the survey, I want to hit the 2 biggest mistakes the nation of Israel made during the Old Testament time and how we can benefit and learn from their mistakes. 

            To start out, our Old Testament is divided up into 5 parts.  Some of the parts overlap, some of them are straight forward but the entire Old Testament can be followed like a time line. 

            The five sections of the Old Testament are the Torah, the History books, Poetry which is called the Writings and the Major and Minor Prophets.  The Torah would be the first 5 books of the Bible; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  This section gives the beginning of time and space and humanity.  Then it goes into God establishing the Nation of Israel as his people and their journey to the land that He had promised them.  During this time the Law was given and scholars believe that the story of Job took place during this early time. 

            Then we move into the History book and from here is where it really overlaps.  The Israelites go and conquer the promise land in the book of Joshua and then establish themselves in the book of Judges.  During the Judges is when the account of Ruth took place.  After that we move into what is known as the United Kingdom Era.  1 and 2 Samuel talk about the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel, they begin to have kings, Saul, David and Solomon come onto the scene.  During this time is when the Writing and Poetry books were written and collected together.  The Psalms and Proverbs were written along with Ecclesiastes and the Song of Song.          

            After that we come to the Divided Kingdom Era.  When Solomon died his son took over and made a decision that split the Kingdom in two, so then we had the Nation of Israel in the North and Judah in the South.  This is where things really start heating up in the Old Testament, it's kinda like the beginning of the End.  Now we are into the books of 1and 2 Kings and a lot of the prophets.  Both kingdoms kept falling farther and farther from God.  They were doing their own thing, worshiping other gods.  Still doing what they had to do as far as sacrifices to God but they added all the other gods of the surrounding nations.  So the prophets would come and tell the people to repent and turn back to the true God.  Two prophets were in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Amos and Hosea and six in the Southern Kingdom of Judah; Joel, Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah. 

            Eventually though, both kingdoms went too far and were taken in to exile to Babylon and that is when Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations, lamenting over the fallen Jerusalem. 

            During the exile the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles were written to account the kings of Judah and all the good they did.  We also have Daniel and Ezekiel written during the exile.  Then after about 70 years the political powers shifted and the new world power went from Babylon to Persia.  The Persian king thought it would be a good idea to send all the people that got displaced during the Babylonian empire's rule, back to their home countries.  This takes us to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  They tell the story of a remnant of Jews coming back to Jerusalem and trying to rebuild the city and begin agin their sacrificial system of worship.  During these books you have the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi and the story of Ester is during that time period as well. 

            So that is the Old Testament in a nut shell.  I know we covered a lot of ground there in a short time period and there is a lot of information to take in and understand.  But out of all those books and prophecies are two key ideas that we today really need to take to heart.  If we learn these lessons as individuals and as a church we can avoid a lot of the mistakes that the people of the Old Testament made. 

            The first is putting too much of an emphasis on externals.  In the early books of the Old Testament, God gave his people the system they were to use to worship him and to make sacrifices to atone for their sins.  He also gave them the ways that they were to live.  All of these were external things that were meant to shine light upon an inner problem.  God never meant for his people to only serve him on the outside, but more importantly on the inside, with their hearts.  Deuteronomy 6 says that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and might.  All are inward things, wouldn't you say.  The problem is the people took these external things and put way too much emphasis on them.  They thought that all they had to do was say the right words, make the right sacrifices, do the right things and then they could live their lives however they wanted. 

            That's not what God wanted.  He wanted a people who would serve him out of a love for him so great, that they wouldn't even think about doing anything else.  He wanted a people who were with him heart and soul, not just on the outside.  Hosea 6, God says I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  He is saying, I want your heart, not just making a good show of loving and serving me, I want you to be genuine with me. 

            We, as followers of Christ are not exempt from this, we fall prey to the trap of externals as well.  We come to church and put on a show, we put on a mask that everything in life is grand when in reality we are falling apart.  Church should be the one place where we can be real with each other.  Church should be the one place where we don't have to hide, we can be honest.  But we, just like the nation of Israel, focus on the outside rather than a genuine heart.  In Isaiah God said to his people, what is the multitude of your sacrifices?  I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs, or of goats.  When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?  Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations-I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.  your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates, they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.  What if we were to put this in today's language.  What if God said to us, I hate your church services, the Christmas Eve service, the Easter Celebration, the 40-day campaign, they all have become a burden to me.  I have had enough of your offerings because it's all fake.  You worship me on the outside but inside there is not difference, you don't live like I'm apart of your life. 

            Being a follower of Jesus is more than showing up on Sunday, it is all about a real, heart-felt relationship with the God of the universe.  It's about living a completely different life from the rest of the world.  God does not require external perfection, He wants your heart, he wants to have a friendship with the real you.  

            The second mistake is that God's people never handed down their faith to the next generation.  The book of Judges 2:11 says, and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.  There are verses like this all over the Old Testament.  The people get established, everything is going great but they don't hand down the faith to the next generation and by the time they grow up, the whole nation is in the tanker again.  They were great at coming back to God and living right for a while but when it came to teaching the next generation to do the same, they failed every time. 

            The account of the kings is like this as well.  After every good king Israel had there was inevitably 2 or 3 bad kings that followed.  King David for all the great things he did for God, being called a man after God's own heart, all the worship songs he wrote, he was horrible when it came to his fatherly duties of passing down his faith.  His family had all kinds of horror stories, all because he failed to teach his children the importance of following after God. 

            What do we teach our children today?  Do we teach them the importance of following after God, I don't think so!  We teach them that sports and school activities are more important than a relationship with Jesus.  We teach that church is fine if it doesn't conflict with something else on the schedule.  Whether we mean to or not, our children are learning from us that it is more important to be in sports, school plays or clubs than to attend a small group, or Youth group, or choir.  We are not passing on the importance of faith but passing on the importance of stuff that is not going to matter in 20 years let alone eternity.  Francis Chan, a pastor out in California, was quoted in a sermon saying this, "Our greatest fear should not be failure, but succeeding at things in life that don't really matter".  We are repeating this Old Testament mistake of not passing on the faith to our children but teaching them that God, Jesus, church doesn't really matter in this life, what matters sports and activities. 

            Friends with this kind of thinking we are killing ourselves, as the church.  The church is always one generation away from being non-exsistent and we are helping that along with what we are and are not teaching our children.  We need to teach that church and a relationship with Jesus is more important than anything else.  That might mean missing games or practices or whatever.  That might mean not getting the lead role or playing as much in the game and not's not cool but look at what they will be learning in return.  Jesus is the most important thing in life, which is how it should be anyway. 

            Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, and these words that I command you today shall be be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  We need to teach our children the importance of a relationship with Jesus and pass on our faith. 

            Well I hope this has given you a better understanding of the Old Testament.  There is a lot of great material here that can help us in life.  It is my prayer that we will learn from the mistakes of the people of the Old Testament and have a genuine faith and pass that faith onto our children.

You May Never See the Results

1 Peter 1:12- "It was revealed to them (the prophets) that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look."  

The students in our Youth Group are going through a lot right now.  Obviously I'm not going to go into any details but a good number of them are struggling with real life problems.  Some of them have been with us for a number of years and we have seen and worked through a good bit of junk.  Problem after problem after problem it seems, it makes me stop and think, when are we going to see real change in these teens.  When are we going to see the fruit of our labor and lead these students to a relationship with Jesus that will ignite a massive fire within them.  So much so that their love for Christ spreads and their friends become believers.  

The truth is, we may never see that.  It may never happen in my life time or in the time that we have to minister to these kids.  That is heart breaking but comforting all at the same time.  

It was the same for the prophets, not that I am comparing myself to the prophets but part of the job descriptions match up here.  The prophets spent their lives telling people about a hope that they themselves would never get to see, they spoke of a Savior and Messiah that would never come in their lifetime.  

How hard would that be?  

All the work, all the suffering they went through and they wouldn't even get to enjoy any of the benefits.  Did that stop them though, no way!!  They spoke with boldness and clarity and never gave up or backed down.  So, neither should we.  As workers, ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we should never give up on people.  We may not see the results of all the love we have poured into them, or the seeds that we planted but that shouldn't stop us.  God is the one who ultimately does the work and the people we minister to are in his care, not ours.  It didn't stop the prophets, they knew what they were doing would take generations and centuries to come to completion but they did it any way.  

I love the words of Amos the prophet in Amos 7:14 and I hope this brings you encouragement

"Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah,'I was not a prophet, nor a prophets son, but i was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.  But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'  Now therefore hear the word of the LORD."

May our LORD be with you

Josh

Getting Culture Out of Our Faith

This is the write out of the sermon I preached this past Sunday.  Enjoy!!

           I want to start off by telling a story.  A year or two ago we took the Youth Group backpacking.  On that trip Abby and I had the great idea of bringing our two dogs.  It was good at first, they behaved, really enjoyed the exercise, they had a great time.  The problem came when we were done with the hiking and took the students to the lake near the trails, so go swimming.  There were lots of people around and lots of other dogs.  Now what you have to understand is our dogs are very large and very playful.  So when they see another dog they want to go and play, the problem is the other dogs just see these two gigantic beast coming at them.  So needless to say I had to play a lot of let's go this way, no let's turn back around and go that way, to avoid causing a scene. 

            At one point in the day we were near the lake at a spot that was kind of hidden so it was working out.  Until, that is, one of my dogs slipped out of her collar.  I started to panic, I had no idea what she was going to do, or go.  There were some people picnincing near by and she hustled over to them to charm her way to some food.  So there I am trying to keep a hold of one dog while chasing the other one down.  The thing I remember most is, I was totally alone.  There were lots of people there watching me, but no one go up to lend a hand.  Not one single person!  In fact it seemed the more she was around them, the more they avoided her and me trying to rescue her. 

            Thinking back on that story, I am still shocked at the scene but, you know, that is the way our culture is these days.  Everyone seems to have the attitude of "Look out for #1," and "that is none of my business,". 

            Now if you are not a follower of Jesus you get to pick and choose what you want to do with this here but, if you are a follower of Jesus, the bible says that we are to be counter cultural.  We are not to fit into the square peg that is the norm, we are to stand out and be different form the people of this world.  God says in Colossians 3, that as followers of Jesus, we are to focus on things above not on earthly things.  It goes like this, "since  you have been raised with Christ," meaning if you are a follower of Jesus, we are talking to Christians/church goers here.  "Set," meaning you stand something in a specific position, in this case we are talking about you, yourself.  "Set your hearts on things above," this is talking about what you seek after, needs to be heavenly things, "where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father".  We as followers of Jesus are to specifically position ourselves to seek after heavenly things because that is where Jesus is and we should be seeking after Him. 

            Then it goes on, "set your minds," again, specifically position your thoughts, intellect, the way you process information and reason, "on things above, not earthly things,".  Let's think about it this way.  We are to have our hearts and minds, what we seek after and our reasoning skills, positioned on following Jesus, so much so that it is like we are with Him in the heavenly places, looking down on earthly things.  This is not a pride, we are better than you kind of thing, this is a we have found something so wonderful, so much greater than what the culture and world has to offer, we are way up here looking down on earthly stuff and saying, that is not worth it.  In Jesus we have found the greatest of the great and we are not giving it up for any of that stuff. 

            Friends, that is what it means to be counter cultural.  Sadly though, there are a few things in our culture that have crept their way into the lives of Jesus followers.  There are two areas that I want to cover, culture practices and culture thinking and I want to mention a few specific things with those two categories because I have noticed that Christians in general and even people in my own church, whether out of rebellion or ignorance, believe in these things and involve them in their lives. 

            The first thing under culture practices is the belief in Ghosts and house hauntings.  There is absolutely no biblical support for disembodied spirit of a human wandering the earth.  The bible says in Hebrews 9:27,"just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgement."  What that means is, we are a physical being and a spiritual being, once this physical body stops working our spirit transcend into eternity to either spend it with God or apart from God.  Our spirit does not pass go, does not collect $200.  Once we die here on earth, we transcend into eternity, our spirits do not stay here on earth.  There are spiritual beings that can transcend the physical world and spiritual world, they are called Angels which are sealed by God to do his will and Demons who are fallen angels who joined Satan in the rebellion.  The bible gives plenty of support for them. 

            So let's think about this logically shall we, if when we die and go into eternity with no possibility of staying here on earth but there are beings that can travel between the physical and spiritual world and on group only does what points out God and gives Him glory, what can we logically deduce from this?  The phenomena we chalk up to ghosts are nothing more than the enemy trying to turn our focus away from God and the truth.  Satan and his demons will use whatever means necessary to turn you away, make you believe lies and pull you away from the truth of God's word. 

            I am not saying this to scare any of you, I am saying this to expose you to the truth that there is no such things as ghosts, no matter what kind of eerie feelings or weird things you experience, it is nothing more than the enemy trying to make you believe a lie. 

            But the bible says that greater is He who lives in us than he who is in the world.  So the next time you may experience strange things don't jump to the conclusion that it must be paranormal, set your heart on Jesus and pray in his name that whatever it is will go away. 

            Isaiah chapter 8 says should we not seek God instead of ghosts and things, should we inquire of the dead on behalf of the living.  Absolutely not!!  Don't seek after the belief in ghosts, seek after Jesus. 

            Another big one is Zodiac signs.  By definition the Zodiac is an ancient system of divination based on belief that the stars can influence the fate or behavior of men and the general course of human events.  The bible is clear that we are to stay away from things like witchcraft and divination and we should no look to anything to influence our behavior or the purpose of our lives.  We are to look to God for those things. 

            Genesis 1:14 says, the stars and constellations were created by God to tell seasons and keep the yearly calendar.  Why would we look to anything in creation is influence us when we can go right to the Creator himself for influence on our behavior and purpose.  Deuteronomy says that when we look to creation not the Creator for anything that is idolatry, plain and simple. 

            Friends, checking your Horoscope or being in the know with regards to your Zodiac sign is having an idol, period.  You might says, well how come the description of me from the Horoscope is so accurate?  Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps you are that way because of the season or time of the year you were born and not because of the set of stars that happen to be in the sky at that particular time?  Since you were born in such and such a month you learn to adapt and adjust to the weather climates and patterns and that is what makes you stubborn or easy going.  Or could it be that that is the way God created you? 

            John 14 says that the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send, is the one who will influence you, teach you all things, not the stars.  To look to the stars for anything in your life other than the time of year it is, is idolatry and we can't have anything in the place of God or before God. 

            These are only two specific areas but the list could go on and on.  But now I want to shift gears and look at the way our culture thinks and how that differs from how we are to set our minds on things above. 

           

            All throughout the Old Testament God places huge emphasis on the value of Human Life.  The scriptures are peppered with phrases like protect the innocent, give a voice to those who don't have it, seek justice, look out for orphans and widows, defend the fatherless, I mean it's all over the place.  Human life is a big deal to God and in today's society we just don't get how precious life really is.

          This subject covers a whole host of issues.  When we think about the value of human life and what a big deal it really is, we get into entertainment issues, political arenas, sporting events and literary fiction the list goes on and on. 

            Psalm 8 says, "when I look at your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?  You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor."  God created human life and He holds it in the highest of value, all human life.  There is not a person on this earth that he did not put here for the purpose of loving and having a relationship with them.  In the whole creation account, mankind is the only creation that God did personally, with his hands.  Everything in creation God spoke into being, but with man and woman God formed them from the ground. 

            In our thinking, in every area of life, as followers of Jesus we need to place an extremely high value on human life.  In our culture today life is not valued.  We see this in entertainment; sports and movies that are coming out.  Abortion is such a hot button issue that boils down to whether you value human life or not.  Every year billions of dollars pour into pornography, an industry that completely dehumanizes women and sexual relationships and now even erotic literature has become a norm.  Even something as simple as fashion of our culture undermines the value of life by exposing more and more, it is completely turning humans into nothing more than animals.  All of these issues are so destructive because they seek to destroy the value of life, which should be held in the highest regard. 

            Friends we need to view our culture through the filter of our faith not the other way around.  When we view issues in the bible or in the world through the culture we live in we completely miss out on the things above that we should be focusing on.  When we focus on earthly things we miss out on the greatness that Jesus has in store for us as his followers. God places a huge, huge, huge value on human life.

            I want to close with a little observation.  In our church this will be the third message preached from Colossians chapter 3 in a matter of a few weeks...I think God is trying to tell us something.  I think God is telling us as individuals and a church body that it is time to really set our hearts and minds on things above.  It's really time to get serious about viewing earthly things in their proper place.  It's time to see the greatness that Jesus has in store for us and say to our friends, neighbors and the community around us, look at the awesome things that we have found in Jesus, this will completely outweigh anything this culture has to offer you.  Jesus is so much greater than anything this world will give you when you focus on this culture, when you focus on earthly things you miss out of the greatness Jesus has waiting for us.  

May our LORD be with you

Josh