Bethel

One balmy evening in the South Pacific, a navy ship spied smoke coming from one of three huts on an uncharted island. Upon arriving at the shore, the crew was met by a shipwreck survivor. He said, "I'm so glad you're here. I've been alone on this island for more than five years." The captain replied, "If you're all alone, why do I see three huts?" The survivor answered, "Well, I live in one and go to church in another." "What about the third hut?" asked the captain. "That's where I used to go to church."

This little story hits on the truth about our sin nature. Our sin nature tends to push us away from a close relationship with God and not towards Him. Just like the story above, even if we were the only ones on a uncharted island by ourselves, we would probably find it difficult to worship God without finding other distractions.

I don’t want to go into the whole life of Jacob, but we see the same tendency with Jacob in the Old Testament. In chapter 28 of Genesis, we have the old deceiver Jacob making a vow to God. After his vision of the ladder and the angels, saying that "this is my God and I will follow Him all the days of my life”. (Genesis 35:1-13)

God had promised Jacob land and had promised to make his seed like the dust of the earth. God promised to keep him. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel (v16).

Afterwards he went on his way; he became rich; he forgot God and the vows he made at Bethel. The years go by and now he is coming home. He has another experience with God; he wrestles with the angel and prevails. He meets Esau, and Esau forgives and forgets. But Jacob is not yet filled with peace, for his sin is still on his heart.

Then God calls him: "Go back to Bethel. Go back where you made your vow, go back to where you first felt My presence. Go back and renew you vows and start life over again." Jacob heard God's call and went back to Bethel and rededicated his life in that holy place.

The name Bethel comes from the Hebrew “beth”, meaning house, and “el”, meaning God. Bethel means House of God. Today many of us are far away from God.

For some Bethel “or that close relationship with God” is just a fond memory.

We remember when God touched us and saved us, but the years have come and gone, and our spiritual freshness has grown colder and further apart than it was at first.

We have lost the joy of our salvation.

“Let’s go back to Bethel”.

That's my five minutes!

Growing Spiritually versus Growing Physically

Jonathan Moore is a fantastic worship leader and singer and was the full-time music minister for Rex Johnson in Austin, Texas. I admire this guy because he is going out on his own to plant a church in San Antonio Texas. He has been blogging all the activities and feelings associated with such a venture!

Anyway, Jonathan Moore recently wrote something that i think was really cool - i had to share it! Also.....i just had to share a few pics of my little boy Lachlan (see below).

Maturing as a Christian is the polar opposite of maturing mentally & physically as a person. In normal life, as you grow up, you pass milestones that are directing you toward independence (i.e. learning to ride bike, learning to drive, graduating from Jr High, High School, College, getting married, etc). But, as you grow up as a Christian, instead of heading toward independence . . . we actually move toward more dependency on Christ! In fact, spiritual maturity is much more child-like in it’s nature than adult-like.

Remember, in Matt 18:3, Jesus told his followers, “Unless you change and become like little children, you’ll never enter the kingdom of Heaven.”

Thanks Jonathan......i hope you dont mind me using this!

That's someone elses five minutes!

Don't be distracted!

Life is full of distractions. It doesn’t matter what you put your mind to do, there will be some sort of distraction. While common to life, distractions can end in pain, suffering, and even tragedy.

I recently heard of a tragic accident in a circus during the “big cat” show, where the lion tamers enter a cage with the dangerous big cats such as lion, tigers etc. In this case, the lion tamer was tragically injured when he was attacked by one of the lions. The day of the accident was the same as any other day - just another circus act, just another town, doing the same thing they have been doing for years. The lion tamer was well aware of dangers associated with these animals and was well experienced. But one day tragedy stuck when he became, in his own words “distracted”.

Later, while lying in a hospital bed paralysed, with little hope of ever walking again, the lion tamer told reports that he had simply become “distracted”. When questioned about what distracted him, he replied that he could not recall what it was – “I was just distracted”. It is sad enough that this man’s life was never going to be the same – but it was even more of a tragedy that this man was nothing more than the result of a distraction. The irony of the story is that something had captured his attention, only for a moment, but now he could not even recall what it was.

While distractions in the physical world can result in tragedy, the same applies to the spiritual world. Spiritual distractions are just as fatal. Distractions to our soul!

Most people that I have seen backslide into the world didn’t do it because they woke up one day and decided that they no longer loved God. In all cases, it was simply a distraction. Like the lion tamer, when you ask them what it was they usually cannot recall what it was. They can't tell you what distracted them and resulted in them walking so far from God. It was a distraction that allowed the enemy of their soul to maime them and lay them down a cripple in the presence of God.

There are so many things in this world that would try to distract us from our relationship with Jesus. We cannot let anything get between us and our relationship with Jesus! Jesus said “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched” (Mark 9:43).

This was God’s way of telling us – we may make mistakes that cause pain and suffering – but Jesus would rather us make it to heaven with a handicap than to go to hell with everything we have. We cannot afford to make a mistake with your soul. Physical distractions cause us pain and suffering for a time. But spiritual distractions have an eternal consequence.

Luk 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back (distractions), is fit for the kingdom of God.

The most grievous errors and mistakes are the ones taking place in the heart of men and women – distractions to our souls. A distraction to men and women who love God and know God and want to live for God and somehow become distracted by the things of this world – only for a moment – but ending in disaster!

That's my five minutes!