Oneofhis’ Weblog

I know my posts aren’t the most light-hearted most of the times. So I thought I would share some Calvinist jokes that I found scouring the Internet:

How can you tell if you’re on a Calvinist train?
- They’re all Calvinist trains. You’re only going where they want you to go…

How many Calvinists does it take to change a lightbulb?
- Well, is the lightbulb meant to be changed? Maybe this lightbulb was never intended to change. Maybe this light bulb is meant to stay dark.

How do you confuse a Calvinist?
- Offer them three cakes and say it’s up to them which one they eat.

What do you call a Calvinist ex-prisoner?
- A Reformed character.

How many Calvinists does it take to change a light bulb? 
None. God has predestined when the lights will be on.. 

How many Calvinists? 
Every Calvinist knows only God can change a lightbulb.

This is for the folks who think Charles Spurgeon was the Chuck Norris of the church!

CHUCK” SPURGEON FACTS:
-It was Chuck Spurgeon who wrote the book of Hebrews.
-A few of the early Puritans wanted Chuck Spurgeon to come preach, but most thought he was too extreme.
-Chuck Spurgeon once found Jesus in the second chapter of 1 Chronicles.
-Chuck Spurgeon once preached on Election and ended up converting people. That’s not a joke.
-Phillip Yancey’s book Where is God When it Hurts? was written after Chuck Spurgeon got a hold of him.
-They once tried to carve Chuck Spurgeon’s face into a graven image, but the granite wasn’t hard enough for his beard. Oh; and the craftsmen were struck dead.
-Once Chuck Spurgeon and John Piper held a contest to see who had the most of the five points of Calvinism. Chuck Spurgeon won. By eight.

What did the guardian angel say to the preterist as he carried him upwards during the 2nd coming to be resurrected with Christ?
“Surprise”

Enjoy,

Kevin

I was reading a posting from John Piper today titled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer” .  It just blows my mind the trust that he has in Christ despite the fact that he has cancer, and that God allowed him to have it for God’s purpose and plan.

My brain has a hard time wrapping itself around that thought sometimes. I was raised with the Good God Bad Devil point of view. God doesn’t cause bad things to happen, that’s just Satan. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, everyone said it was the devil trying to “take her out”.

I went along with this line of thinking till I had prayed all I could pray, I did all I knew to do, I rebuked satan as many times as I could, and she still was not getting better. There was a point where I had to concede that God had no plan on saving her life and for some reason, He saw it fit that she had to go  through what she went through. It was ultimately His will!

We have been fed a load of crap from men  with good intentions that have no clue (not that I have the corner on God or claim to understand His ways) about what His sovereign will is all about.  Jesus came to save us, He did not necessarily come to give you lots of money, (not that that is a bad thing)  or give you a life without trials and tribulation. He did not come to make “everything better”. He came because you were lost in your sin. You needed a Savior. Jesus came and suffered. He even told His disciples that they would face various trials and tribulations. He said you will suffer for My namesake. You will be beaten, persecuted, mocked, and killed. He also said that He would be with us as we are in the middle of these things. A far cry from the your blessing is right around the corner teaching that has gone around. Do I think He wants to bless us? Listen, He has already blessed us with the most precious gift. He has bestowed on us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The work is done. You are blessed! You are His child! He is your Father! Your fate is eternally sealed with Him!

Obey His Word and you will be blessed, but don’t obey to be blessed. You may need to read that a couple more times to get it.

Ultimately, I chose to believe that she was predestined to go through the things she went through to show the unbelieving that in the midst of suffering and pain, one’s faith can be just as strong, if not stronger then when everything is hunky dory. She was a shining example of faith in the face of impossible odds.

Let us worship Him with our lives as we conform ourselves to His will and His plan for our lives. Let us not waste our lives pursuing blessings, but let us allow Him to shine within us as we obey Him, no matter where we are, or what place He has put us.  

Kevin

I’ve been looking at the news lately.  Most of the stuff to see and read is just one sad story after another. I don’t pay attention to it much. News most of the time is kinda like a glass of water. You drink it in you feel the sensation as it enters your mouth and it is gone from your memory. Endless images of atrocity after atrocity flashes before our eyes to such a degree that we are not moved by most of what we see. Some of the things I have seen lately in the news have been sticking out more in my mind and making me think.

I have heard many proclaim that the return of Christ is upon us soon. I have heard it since I was a little kid crawling around my parents legs in church. I once saw a movie in church that scared me so bad, that I was afraid and had nightmares that someone was going to come into my room, stamp the mark of the beast on my forehead and I would  go to hell. The fear-factor type evangelism of the 70’s and 80’s fizzled out but gave birth to the end-time prophesy guys. These dudes who could take the most abstract news article like a story about the Colonel’s secret recipe and tie it to the rise of the anti-christ and a one-world government. At the same time you had many men that were prophesying the world would end more than once in my lifetime. There are those who are still predicting and prophesying devastation and destruction. I remember standing outside once as a kid standing on one of those days waiting to see Him split the Eastern sky which never happened. So many people looked so rediculous trying to predict His coming when the scriptures explicitly say “that noone knows the day or the hour”(Matthew 24:36). Anyone who thinks that they can predict the hour, day, or year need to read the scripture and learn what the bible truly says.

Our mandate is preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the Earth. We are to proclaim the gospel to the nations. He will not return until the world had heard the gospel (Matt 24:14). Our mandate is not to scour the newspaper to look for signs of His return. Our mandate is to read our bibles, find out what He is telling us to do to futher His kingdom and go do it! We are to reach those who do not know Christ personally and start new churches with the same mission, whether locally or in other nations! Anything that takes our focus off those things are dangerous distractions. I say this all the time but too much of any good thing is not a good thing.

Do I think we are in the last days before Christ’s return? Yes I do. How much more important is it to preach Christ crucified, risen, and returning again knowing this? Let His Word be our draw, not fear of a coming world dictator, or one world currency. Our time is short. His Word is more than enough. Let us focus on the work at hand and reach this world for Christ until He returns!

Kevin

^{Genesis 32:30}

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

Face to face with God.

I have had so many visions and dreams of You in a splendor that I know my mind can do no justice to.  I can see the angels like flashes of lightning around the great white throne. As You speak, a sound more powerful and majestic than anything produced by human or human means that penetrates into the very spirit! That creates galaxies out of nothing!

It’s easy to have that picture of You. What I struggled and sometimes still do is seeing You and I, face to face, like man speaks to His friend. Standing before the most perfect person, the most powerful being in the universe, who can hold 7 stars in His hand. Who made something out of nothing. The One who breathed my spirit into my body and created my life! Yet now, You stand before me, face to face. The culmination of my whole life, my existance standing before me. The reason I was created, to fellowship with You, to be Your friend, Your child. Your ultimate creation fulfilling it’s ultimate purpose. What an incredible thing! I can’t get my mind around it. What seems so complex sometimes, is really so simple.

Although my spirit abides in your prescense . One day I will stand before You. Truly face-to-face as a man speaks to his friend. Till that day I will yearn for You, my God, my Father, my Friend.

Till the day You come again.

Kevin

1 Peter 1:

^{8 )} Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹⁾obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I can just sense the joy in Peter’s heart as he is writing these passages of scripture! Here is Peter, a man who physically walked with Jesus, who was personally taught by  Jesus, watched Jesus die, and saw Him risen from the dead! This man who had the privalege to know Him personally, yet he is hearing about people from all around the known world, coming to know Christ by the preaching of the gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit!

I’m sure his thoughts go back to a sun-drenched beach on the Sea of Gallilee. He and his brother Andrew were fishing when this man came and told them “Come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men!” I’m sure throughout his time with Christ, Peter was trying to figure out in his head “How am I going to be a fisher of men?” “Why is anyone going to listen to me? I’m just a fisherman!” ” I have never preached anything!” ” How am I going to do this?” 

Sitting there, writing that letter, had to be such a humbling, awe-inspiring thing. It should inspire us to dream big! It should inspire us to believe big! If God used these men that noone, including themselves, believed could do anything of worth, could truly impact their world(literally), how much more you and I, we who have not seen Him with our physical eyes, lovers of Christ, cleansed by His blood, filled with His Holy Spirit can make a difference in the world today!! We who were not worthy of His grace. Dirty and depraved we were lost in our sins, but now we rejoice because we are truly alive!!!

We love Him for what He has done for us despite the fact we cannot see Him with our eyes! We have experienced His love in a powerful way, by faith in Him. We live for Him, becaused He first loved us! We know one day we will see Him. Face to face. What a day that will be!!!

Kevin

1 Peter 1:

6) In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7) so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This scripture really pumped me up this morning! The Bible says to rejoice when you are grieved by various trials. I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally rejoice when all hell breaks loose. As a matter of fact, I would rather jump in bed and sleep through it, but the scriptures say to rejoice!

It goes against every fiber of our being to rejoice but look at the scripture again. When you face these trials, the genuiness of your faith is being tested! I know there have been many times when I have despaired, and allowed the devil to get the best of me, but there have been times when I have stood firm in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and by God’s strength and power and He has shown up mightily on my behalf!! It’s those times when we overcome that we realize how incredibly awesome that faith is! It is at those times He reveals Himself to us in ways we never seen Him before!

Are struggling against overwhelming odds today? Rejoice, for your faith is being tested by fire, a fire that will burn away the things that we thought were so important and leave a pure, genuine, faith that will stand forever if we will only believe!

Kevin

This blog is a journey of things that God is teaching me. Having said that, I would like to share about enabling and empowerment.

Ephesians 4:11-14

¹¹⁾And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹²⁾ to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³⁾until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴⁾so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

In this passage of scripture, we see God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints and help them to grow into a level of maturity in their lives and their walk with God. They are called to empower people so they can go out and live the life that God has called them to live with confidence and an assurance.

A pitfall can come when we do not empower, but we enable people to not have to grow up, and not have to take responsibility for their actions. I have heard churchfolk say (myself included) “Brother, I need a Word from the Lord!!” or “I need you to pray for me. I stubbed my toe.”Let me just say that I believe in lifting up each other in prayer, and I also believe that God speaks to people. The problem is when we as leaders don’t use these times to empower those entrusted to us, and instead we just do for them what they can do for themselves. When someone needs a Word from God, are we using these times to instruct them how to pray, and read their bibles? When someone has stubbed their toe, are we instructing them how to pray for themselves and slap a band-aid on it? 

This is for those of you who are not in leadership. At some point in your walk with Christ, you should be able to walk in some confidence as a Christian. There are some things that take longer than others to overcome but you should be maturing in your faith so you can help others.  If you are not growing in your faith then you need to ask yourself and God why and what you need to do. If you aren’t scared of what you might hear, ask a pastor, source group leader, or elder. They want to see you grow and help you. They will tell you the truth in love. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it will set you free!

Leaders, if your people can’t even pray for themselves when they stub their toe, we haven’t done our job. If God put people in our charge, then we should be teaching people how to pray for themselves. I have no problem praying and standing with anyone, but if they haven’t even attempted to pray for themselves, I have a problem with that. This is enabling. This is not equipping. This is creating an unhealthy dependence that will cripple people and stunt their spiritual growth possibly for the rest of their lives!

Once again, let me reiterate the fact that there will be times when we need someone stronger in faith and authority at times. We were never meant to walk alone. We should always have at least one person we can lean on when we are getting our noses bloodied by the enemy that will cry with us and fight with us and for us when we can’t stand anymore.

Let us instruct those who need help, so they are empowered to stand with boldness and authority the next time that struggle faces them, so they can have the faith in God to stand when all hell breaks loose! Let’s help those who are struggling and give them tools to be overcomers so they can help themselves and others.

Kevin

My eldest daughter Selena turns 13 today! I can hardly believe it! She is growing so fast! She is a beautiful young lady and I am very proud of her! I wanted to get a picture of her but everytime I try to take a picture, I get her back! Lol!!

She reminds me of me a lot. I was so shy and introverted. I can still be that way sometimes. My greatest prayer is that she will serve her Lord and Savior for the rest of her life. My second prayer is that I can be an example of Christ to her.

Happy Birthday Selena. You always be daddy’s little girl. I love you!!!

Kevin

I don’t know about you, but I am a multi-tasker. I can do 3 to 5 different things at one time. I can talk  on the phone,  I can search for information on my computer, listen to music in the other ear, and check my blackberry email, all at the same time! It is a skill I have had to learn due to the demands of  my job, which can go from slow to off the chain busy in a matter of seconds!

I don’t recommend doing too many things at one time. The quality of what you do can be adversely affected by how many things you are trying to do at one time. Some of the best ideas, innovations, and improvements have come when I could focus my attention on one thing. On the other hand, some of my worst mistakes have occured when I tried to do too many things at one time, or I got distracted by something while doing something that was very important.  

It can be so easy to lose our focus. We can be in one place, and before we know it, we are somewhere and we don’t know how we even got there. This happens in many different areas in life. Our marriage, and our kids are areas that if we lose focus, it can have terrible ramifications involved.

Jesus must be in the center of our focus. If we make Him the center of our marriage,  and our families, we will make decisions based upon what Christ would do if He was facing this or that situation. The whole “What Would Jesus Do” idea was an awesome concept, the problem is that we are fallible. We make mistakes and blow it all the time due to our sinful, corrupted nature. We are going to mess up, but if Christ is our focus, He is there to help us get up and keep going, not keep us in the same ole mess! Our problems come when we take our focus off of Him and focus on our problems.

Don’t lose your focus. Keep your focus on Christ.

Kevin