Too Much Christmas?

 “ Christmas is getting to be too much,” an acquaintance of mine shouted to me as he hurried after his wife and their quickly filling shopping cart. I wonder if that’s true? Can celebration of our Savior’s birth become “too much” ? The short answer is no, but truth is much has been made of Christmas that isn’t Christmas. 

Music has been composed. Songs have been written and sung. 

Characters have been conjured from  imaginations. Yarns were spun, fables were told and retold. Wonderous legends where carved into our hearts. When man gazed at sacred truth and perceived something malleable, we fashioned a Christmas spirit. Century after century we pounded on an amplified inflated dramatized versions of facts. Traditions have been held and are kept now as if the survival of the species depended on them. The season marries the talent and effort of those who would help you see what they see or feel what they feel, or at least wish they could, about Christmas. 

Christmas will always be a loftier  

event than our ability to communicate it. 

So, we deflect our attention from celebration to decoration. We made our plans and got busy. Effectively, running back to chains Christ unshackled us from.

I wonder what plans Mary had just prior to the Gabriel’s visit?

Maybe a grand wedding. 

What dreams did she lay aside to be obedient? Did the memories of what we call Christmas console her visions the crucifixion must have left her with? It's in her words I find the spirit of Christmas.

Luke 

38Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

Christmas ushered in a new era of man's ability to serve something greater than our primordial pleasures. Jesus became our spiritual food to curve our emotional and sensual appetites so that we could feast rather than starve. As long as what we celebrate truly is the first coming of Christ, we will never be guilty of overdoing Christmas.

  God's word reminds me we’re to be living sacrifices. Never trade His vision for your Dreams. Never exchange His purpose for you for your passion. For those who cannot break free of those desires, Christmas will always be ”too much”. If through Christ you can declare, ” let it be to me according to your word, Lord” it will be enough. And Christmas will always be as it should be.

May the season afford you peace in every blessing. May Love and Joy come to you. 

Merry Christmas,

Clint

When They Walk Away: 4 Reasons People Leave the Faith

Does the name Marty Sampson mean anything to you? If your like me, you never heard of him until last week. However, if you attend church, chances are you’ve heard his music. Sampson has been a singer-songwriter and musician for Hillsong United since the group began in 1998. He has written and performed lots of songs. Earlier this month in an Instagram post, Sampson said he was, “ loosing his faith and was ok with it” . Later, after pressure from his audience and colleagues to clarify, Sampson said he wasn’t renouncing Christianity but described his faith as on “shaky ground”.

 Sampson isn’t by himself.  Joshua Harris, the former pastor of Covenant Life Church, a mega church located in Maryland, and the founding church of Sovereign Grace Ministries, “walked away from the faith” following his divorce. Grace Family Fellowship’s pastor, Dave Gass, renounced and condemned the Christian faith after 40 years in the ministry. If you’d like to know more, just look them up on the net.

These kind of stories break my heart for all those who have been effected by the apparent “falling away” of church goers and teachers. Christians will grieve their absences and question the outcome of having followed their teaching. The collateral damage is potentially crushing to relationships. Marriages and friendships may or may not endure, but the comfortable atmosphere will have eroded. The adhesion will have lost some of it’s grip. Trust will now teeter on mortality where forever had once tied an eternal bond. While there are unlimited scenarios surrounding the circumstances of the individual quandaries people find themselves in, nearly all of these kinds of disaffection for God have similarities. If you investigate the stories you’ll find these common threads:

A loss of faith in humanity. The realization that mankind is a hopeless case bent on destroying itself.  It means coming to the understanding, in the name of survival or self preservation, humans have a tendency to become savage beasts. Knowing 

sometimes the best people, the people you know and love the most, will hurt you deeply. So, to them a perfect God could never be real. Ironically, it is this truth that leads many to search for a God, who can fix this, in the first place.

A revelation from Scripture. The understanding that the God of scripture is uncontrollable. He isn’t a galactic cuddly version of Aladdin’s genie. When people discover He has done some things they don’t like, they judge Him as evil. Deciding He cannot be Holy, by their standard, they choose to believe at the very least He shouldn’t exist.  

A loss of faith in themselves. Many times, those who walk away are guilty of some moral failure that has come to light. Since God allowed their sin to come to become public, something His Word promises, they conclude a loving God would never allow them to fall. So, He must not be there for them, nor could He be for anyone else, since they are the best.

A faith in science: When people becomes convinced collectively mankind has obtained enough intellectual knowledge to dismiss the spiritual elements of life and conscience, he will arrogantly determine there is no God. Then he can do as he pleases in the name of advancement. Science, can offer nothing but a satirical faux-hope to mankind. It celebrates individuality, leaves man to law, but gives them no moral code. Science has given the world wonderful advancements in medicine, agriculture, and communications. It also gave us mustard gas, agent orange, and nuclear weapons. While science, as wonderful and benevolent as can be, cannot produce life, it has mastered producing death.

Christians don’t have a faith in humanity either. We believe what we do in this life has eternal consequences. We believe the God of the Bible is all powerful and cannot be controlled nor are there any reasons He should be. We have lost all faith in ourselves, so Jesus now controls us. We believe in scientific facts, but realize they do not disprove God’s existence. We don’t stand on “shaky ground” we stand on the rock of our salvation. We stand on a solid foundation of hope in someone stronger and more intelligent than ourselves. Someone who created individuality, and a morality to temper the laws. We stand on Him who causes science to work and creates life. We believe Him when he said,”...My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness..." (2 Corinthians 12:9).

1 John 2:19  says They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 

These words are a reminder that not everyone who calls Jesus Lord actually knows Him. (See Matt 7)

It’s heartbreaking when dynamic influencers walk away from the faith.  The great work Jesus did for us makes walking away inconceivable if it were even possible. Based on what the Bible says here and various other places, many of us believe they never had a faith to walk away from. Still, some of the faith will interpret this as a change of mind and heart in a once upon a time believer. A problem easily remedied by another decision. Others will say they can never return. Here questioning becomes it's designed purpose, a distraction from the evil one. Debating rather than serving is the great sin of our time. The farther away you are from a tragedy the easier the words flow. The closer you are to a tragedy the easier tears flow. From compassionate concerns to angry condemnation, people will respond any and everywhere in between. Meanwhile there's still the mission God called us to. Making disciples.We have not been called to figure out all the mysteries of the universe. We have not been called to a speculation of individuals’ futuristic relationship status with the Almighty. We’ve been called to tell the story of Jesus. 

Humanity’s only Hope is Jesus. My only Hope is Jesus. Your only Hope is Jesus. Run to Jesus for Hope. Run to Jesus for Life. Run to Jesus and Live.

Less is More

I don't know if you can have too much of a good thing or not, but the older I get, the more I believe " less is more". Most of us, who grew up in America, were sold a "bigger is better" philosophy. It's sown into our DNA, the notion success is measured by quantity or sheer mass. We have been told "go big or go home". Christians need to stop buying it.
So many of us think we need to do something "big" for God. Somehow we forget that God does much with little. He created a universe from nothing except His words. Started a nation with one man named Abraham. God used Gideon and 300 men to scare an army to death. In John Chapter 6, He fed 5000 with five loaves and two fish. The very next day, He cut the size of His following down to twelve men, who would change the world. He miraculously saved countless through the sacrifice of one man named Jesus.

 For some reason, we engineer everything we do and measure everything we accomplish by the numbers. Large numbers are rarely associated with quality. Mc Donald's might have sold the most hamburgers, but I don't think many would argue McDonald's hamburgers are the best . They aren't. The best hamburgers are sold in the little hole in the wall restaurants. Ministries now borrows themes  and tactics from some the biggest and best marketers. If we have to sacrifice  the details to reach the masses, so be it.  Somewhere we forgot small things matter to God.

 In Jesus's concern for the "least of these" , He did not suggest a complex solution. He suggested we supply food and drink for those in need, and a visit for lonely isolated souls. No branding, no marketing. No entertainment. Just one simple strategy. He equated the importance of those considered "the least" to Himself. In other words, the source of life itself.


 Jesus taught in Luke 16:10
 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much... 

So you could say, following Jesus means you might have to sweat the small stuff.
We serve a big God, who cares about the little things.
He even cares about each and every little sparrow. 
That's Good News for us. He is faithful.

Who Will Find the Nativity

Every year at Christmas, Millions of people, from all walks of life, sing ”O Come, All Ye Faithful.” In unison, they collectively beckon the joyful and triumphant to vicariously visit the God in the manger. During this festive advent, representatives from most political parties and practically every vocation will visit a model of Christ’s Nativity. If you were to ask someone to describe the invitation to the original Nativity, you might hear words such as: glorious, spectacular, wonderous, or beautiful. As mesmerizing as the angels must have been, let’s not forget the selectively few invited to that First Christmas. 

Excluding Mary and Joseph’s obvious roles, the Christmas caste was an interestingly short list.

Unlike the Wise men, who may have been there or may have come later, Shepherds did not decipher signs or scriptures before searching heaven and earth for Jesus. Shepherds received a divine invitation. 

Shepherds were  given a heavenly assignment.

Their mission was planned out. God had declared ”you will find”.

Not you might, not you can. You will. When they found Him was determined, where they found Him was determined. Most importantly, was the understanding of who it was they'd found. Christ, The Lord.  Emmanuel, God with us, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, but He is also the Alpha and Omega. He who is, who was , and who is to come.

In His infinite wisdom, planning throughout eternity past, God chose shepherds from one nation of peculiar people as the singular profession invited to birth of His only son.

 He didn’t choose doctors to heal or attend to them. Neither did he bring  lawyers to help them understand or keep the rules.  God didn’t enlist guards to protect them. He didn't get an interior decorator to . He didn't hire performers to entertain or dynamic speakers to preach. He didn't invite cool cowboys, He only invited humble shepherds.

 Here in the west, many have confused the metaphorical shepherds of the Bible with metaphorical cowboys. The differences aren't subtle. Shepherds lead the flock, and the sheep follow. 

Cowboys drive the cattle. They choose a direction for an exciting adventure and head off into the sunset. Occasionally, a stampede happens but a cowboy stays safe in the rear. The chaos leaves a carcass or dozen in the desert, but the drive goes on. At the end of a hard day, Cowboys bed down for the night . 

 Shepherds are called, not only to feed the sheep, but to watch their sheep. Though the night brings prowling lions, shepherds guard the flock.  Sheep, as it turns out, are easily scattered and lost. Christ says, ”Shepherds will leave the ninety-nine to find a stray one. A Good Shepherd will do it even at the cost of his life.” Then He died on a cross to prove it. Shepherding is a dirty, humiliating job society saw as demeaning.

 It isn't an obscured, eternal, celestial viewpoint God chooses from. In the most precious moment of history, when the most gracious, wisest, and powerful King this world has ever known, was born, God was orchestrating more than choirs of angles. He has purpose. He gives purpose. He knows exactly who He calls.

 Shepherds did not randomly stumble into the presence of God, on that first Christmas. Neither can we randomly find ourselves there today. God must call us, and we must answer.

At the manger, God, as He often does still, brought those society had discarded to come into His presence to worship Him. 

1st Corinthians 1

28 He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast in His presence.

Despised unto humility, who better than shepherds to announce the birth of the Lamb of God? 

2000 years later, despised shepherds are called to carry a message. That message echoes from the Nativity, where the virgin wrapped her newborn in swaddling clothes. Free from the inherited stain of man’s sin, Christ, from the manger, doesn't simply initiate the first Christmas. From this miraculous birth, God certifies the work He is to do at the Cross and validates a defeated grave. Here He qualifies the sacrifice that will redeem believers from a deserved firey torment for the eons of eternity. From here begins the consecrated life lived to lead souls to heaven. 

As the sun sets, the cowboys ride, the herds will leave. When the lights taken down, the Nativity set is boxed away for another year, a new song will be playing in the background. The flock will face the temptation to temporarily stifle the marvelous awe found in the truth of the manger's mission, but there will always be a Shepherd, who will face bears in the night, even the grave itself, to carry the news of what began that night in Bethlehem.

May Love and Joy come to you, in knowing The Good News.

Merry Christmas,

Clint

Suffering: Hope's Romances

Pick up a book written by some modern evangelical pastors and we will find the romanticized version of evangelism. Story after story of  lost souls coming to faith through their conversations and interactions. Of which some, I’m sure are true and unarguably a treasured source of hopeful reassurance. Most of us cherish those moments of much needed inspiration. What we won’t find between, in, or on the majority of those pages is broken heartedness, frustration, and helpless concern any person of faith feels for those who are lost or strayed from the faith. Especially for, but not limited to, those we are closest to.

It’s not the sorta exciting world changing glamour that sells books ...or anything else for that matter. It’s just an emotional reality known, all too well, by those who believe and share the gospel. We just can’t nonchalantly take the “you win some, you lose some “ stance when it’s the eternity of those you know best on the line. No matter where our doctrinal beliefs fall in the theological perspective, it simply just isn’t up to us. Suddenly, this glorious knowledge of the free setting truth make is us realize we are in unshackled chains without the ability to free another soul.

We mourn for those we love who are still chained. Though Christ has empowered us through His  death and resurrection, when we are close to those who are squandering grace, we can feel spiritually paralyzed. If God planted our Hope within us, then spiritual paralysis is Hope’s great fertilizer. Organic fertilizer. In other words, it feels like crap dumped on us to make us grow.

Proverbs 13:12 says

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Understanding who we are and who God is, is the key to hope in this life and for the next one. Nothing of this world can destroy our hope if we don't find it here or keep it here. 

Hebrews 10:23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised God keeps His promises.

Do we know all of those wonderful commitments He has sworn to Himself on behalf for us?

To maintain hope requires a connecting focus on God's word. 

Psalm 119. 114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word

Most of us Christians avoid disappointment and emotional suffering as if it were the plague, but the Bible teaches us to rejoice in suffering. 

Romans 5:3 but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

Suffering, is when God frustrates the attacks of the enemy, for His glory, to grow us into something more powerful and beautiful than we were before it attacked.

If we are to share the gospel, we must overcome the fear of disappointment. In short, you must have hope.

Psalm 42:11

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

 If I were to define Hope, it would be: practicing the emotional goal setting to intentionally think differently now about circumstances, in order to keep from being blinded to the potentially positive outcome of those circumstances in the future.

To hope, you must have more than just a need for it.

You must have faith to go with it.

The well known biblical definition for faith found in Hebrews 11:1 confirms:

...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Sometimes, when we've bared our soul, prayed our hearts out, made our concerns known,  hoping is the only thing we can do. When all we can do is hope, it becomes a catalyst for testing our faith. These verses bare, not only a reminder, to not lose hope, they teach us God is the God of Hope.

Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

When we were not connected to the creator, we were not connected to the source of this life and had no hope for another.  But God’s grace gave us Hope. Sometimes, most times, the best thing to do for ourselves and those who doubt is Hope. Hope in God. He is a good God. He is merciful. 

If you'd like someone to pray for you or someone you know who needs hope, feel free to contact me.

Psalm31:24

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.

 

Let the Way Wow You.

Some honest people will bluntly tell you a church ( not The Church ) operates as a business. In many aspects, they must. 

While marketing a venue is inevitable, sermons mirroring varietal sale techniques should cause us to examine more than mere merchandise. You can't buy or sell a relationship with Christ as if it were a weekly special at your favorite store.

Jesus is the same yesterday and today, God has no limitations and no room for improvement. Consequently, we can serve Him, but never help Him. Even if we could give Him all of ourselves, we can never add anything to Him. 

Yet, if you listen closely to the sensationalized sermons, you're bound to hear voices sounding oddly similar to infomercial salespersons declare,

”But wait, there's more!” If you act now, we will throw in a WWJD bracelet absolutely free.

Constantly entertained and instantly gratified we like the Gospel with a side of wow!

Palatable conjecture is easier to deliver than hard truths. Thereby, setting the trend for popular pastors to unveil an exciting new perspective every week. It doesn't have to be doctrinally sound. Never mind if it's biblically inaccurate. So long as it makes an audience gasp with surprise or promotes prosperity, happy thoughts, and book sales, we will buy it. 

There's nothing wrong, per se, with excitement or positive thoughts in sermons. Slogans and catch phrases are not necessarily harmful . Selling books is not intrinsically evil. The volume level or light intensity does not communicate anything other than audience preference. When bold definitive statements are made that unintentionally entice conjecture, unworthy of the All-knowing, All-powerful God we serve, we got problems.

 Why isn't the Way Wow enough? 

The privilege to Worship God, who created everything, who lived, suffered, and died to save us in spirit and truth, should be more than adequate. Why isn't the clear commandments of His Word enough of a challenge for us? The Sword of the Spirit cannot be dulled by the sharpening of man’s senses. Dynamic platitudes aren't equal to simple truths of His Word.

The the inerrancy of God’s Word is as sure as man’s inability to become worthy of opening it. Knowing the impossibility for flawed creatures to handle God’s perfect Word perfectly, means eating the meat and spitting out the bones of most sermons. It is essential to verify the teaching. The wow factor must stand up to the way factor. The teaching must be biblically sound. 

Learning to ignore the tones and the nuisances of our imperfections is key for “iron to sharpen iron”. The pulpit, rightfully so, is the most scrutinized place on the planet. Sometimes, you feel as if you are underneath a microscope being dissected by the blind. To stand in the pulpit is to invite criticism, both constructive and destructive, to a mysterious, yet necessary task. 

AW Tozer wrote these words,

”What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us...For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”

Don't take Tozer’s word for it.

What we allow ourselves to be taught matters to God. 

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.

In hopes of catching a glimpse of God's supernatural power, two thousand years ago people used to follow Jesus waiting for a miracle. Two thousand years later, while focusing on dynamic teachers, we often forget salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the most supernatural event we can experience. Look out the window or a mirror to see evidence of God's power.

When the rivers of living waters pour from the broken vessels the Almighty has called to carry the Gospel, His people should be refreshed, empowered, and ignited.

We shouldn't allow the conceptual ideas or energy of our favorite preachers or teachers cause us to focus on the mysteries rather than our thankful obedience to our Redeemer. The Way, The Truth, and the Life does the saving. The truth sets you free to live the life. Let the Way wow you. 

5 Biblical Responses To Bullying

I don't do subtitle. I hate it when there’s a problem and the preferred solution is to pretend there isn’t one . I’ll sacrifice pleasantries most any time to get to the point.

 Bullying is a REAL problem. No, it’s not a new problem or a bigger problem. It’s just a different world with new minds with a new problem that complicates the old Bullying problem.

I know, cause I’ve been on both sides of this. I am ashamed of been on either side because  it means I believed lies and told them. I offer my apologies.

On this subject, I’ve read and listened to everyone from teachers to psychologists chiming in. Meanwhile, crickets are chirping louder than those who should teach the righteousness to cry out to the Lord. Pastors should attack this as any other sin.

(I am committed to teaching a biblical response and practical application of God’s word on this subject for healing, survival, and redemption. While this post is written primarily to a mature audience, It can be modified to impact teens.  Contact me, if I can help you or your organization)

I remember saying, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” , before I knew Proverbs 18:21 says that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” We all have misunderstood and misused this power.

Words can hurt. Words can kill.

At the risk of sounding like the Water Boy or Forest Gump, My mama says, “never point out a problem without offering some sort of a solution.”

While I cannot,  here’s 5 things in God’s word that does.

1.Teach your kids and yourself of the intrinsic worth of all people. Every person we have ever met, including the one in the mirror, was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of the one who made them. Though we have all corrupted that image, we mustn’t forget who owns everyone. We must not have the audacity to have contempt for His work. SEE

  PSALM 139 :13-15    GENESIS 1:27

2 Never forget God sees differently than people.

1 Samuel 16:7

....For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Before us may be a farmer, a poet, a musician, a warrior, or even a king. Perhaps, even all of these rolled up into one. It might be that guy, or it could be you. Only God knows... for now. 

3 Be careful what you think and  say. 

Jesus said, what comes out of a man defiles him and we will give an account for every word. We can’t make your fire burn hotter by peeing someone else’s coals. Never try to make yourself feel better by tearing down the spirits of another.

Proverbs 15

26The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.

4 Be different. Not just different, but make a difference. Change your mind.

Romans 12:2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 Its a rare, beautiful thing in this world to reach across the aisle to those who need love. Especially, when it comes from those who you have rejected or those who have rejected you . No matter what part in this mess we’ve played , learn to love like Jesus. Remember Christ called out for to the Father for the forgiveness of those who crucified him. Because He was perfect, He responded perfectly to bullying.

5 Change

Over and over the Bible says change. 

Ephesians 4

22to put off your old self,f which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

In general people don’t like change. Most southern people, like myself, ain’t going down that road of change peacefully. Even if it means we lose touch with reality, so long as we don’t make waves, we can live at peace. All we have to do is pretend the world is the same place it used to be.

One problem with that philosophy for Christians is following our savior requires us to embrace the truth. And the truth is, this world is radically different from the world that us parents grew up in.  It’s not a brave new world. Though it’s a different world, it is the some old lost and dying one. Only this age has a new problem. It doesn’t fear the creator nearly as much as it used to. Therefore, it isn't wise and it doesn't love like it used to.

Christ has always instructed us to change, not just ourselves but change the lives for others. Christians should lead in combatting the evils that come with bullying.

 Most people might agree on what the problems are, but spend so much time debating solutions, nothing gets done. Let’s change that.

Thank God for Sledgehammers

This Thanksgiving,

I’m very thankful for sledgehammers. I’m not just referring the kinds they sale at the hardware store. I’m talking about the metaphorical figurative ones. 

Back in the day, our youth leaders used hammers for an illustration of proper Christian behavior. Eloquently, they explained hammers have a side for building up and a claw to tear down. “Christians should be in the building up business.” I’ve never forgotten the truths in this lesson.

Over the years, I’ve  discoveredafew more, harder learned 
truths. The truth about the Truth is one of those.

The world would have us believe every word must be co mmunicated in a fluffy coating of powdered sugary sweetness. Never mind it might be dripping from the tongue of the devil himself. Truth is, you can deliver truth, nice and sweet, only to have, those who don’t want it, claim you sent it laced with poison and delivered it on a wrecking ball.

Christians should be good hammers. We should build up people, but building takes time. Construction is often painful sometimes even deadly. It is a labor intensive cooperative affair .

During construction, it’s incredible how much tearing apart, and breaking down, goes into building something. 

No matter if we remodel or began a new construction, the greater the building, the more tearing down will be involved in the process. The builder will pick up a sledgehammer and separate the useless pieces of the design to carry the project forward. Occasionally, he will break away concrete to correct the problems buried beneath the hard exterior. Eventually, much as the artist breaks stone, he will reveal the finished work. 

God said to Jeremiah 

"Is not My word like fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock? (23:29)

God sometimes uses people as sledgehammers. A great example is Peter’s reaction to Simon the Sorcerer. 

Trust me, Peter was all out of powered sugar that day.

He was a sledgehammer.

God’s sledgehammers tear down walls.

Once torn down, it reveals a separation of the beautiful truth of His Word from the hideous truth of man’s destructive damnable faith in themselves. Once out of the way, the construction can proceed.

Christ would be broken, so we might build upon a firm foundation.

While the foundation is perfect, as we who are not, work together, let us encourage those laborors,

who focus on the finished product, rather than how dirty the process can be.

So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, "It is good"; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter. 

                    Isaiah 41:7

Construction isn’t something most would want to listen to.

Sledgehammers breaking things into pieces
doesn’t sound anything like Beethoven’s 9th in D minor ( Ode to Joy) Then again, Ludwig wasn’t in the construction business. Construction is the culmination of unpleasant sounds to produce a complicated structures, built to endure the world’s harsh elements.

God has shown me to trust His process and His truth, regardless of unique and sometimes unpleasant tone, He created His messengers to deliver it with.

I’m indebted to those, Who were bold enough, to chip away the stones with ultimate truth of His Word and continue to do so. 

A word that reminds me 

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Proverbs 27:6

With this truth in mind,

Occasionally, reluctantly, I’ve been the sledgehammer.

Being an instrument of truth doesn’t offer instant gratification. To be honest, Most truth doesn’t offer any. 

Often, it’s a source of depression. Just like no one want to use a sledgehammer, no child of God enjoys being one.  Occasionally, someone will come and thank you for allowing God to use you in breaking down their walls. You’ll tearfully recollect the pain you underwent doing the unpleasant job you know God called you to do, but rejoice when you see the finished work of the changed lives. You’ll recall a moment, when God punched a hole in your wall, with someone and it came down and changed your life for the better. And then you’ll praise God for His Sledgehammers.

Has God ever called you to be a Sledgehammer?

Who has been your Sledgehammer?