Don't Blame Jesus

Archive for January, 2009

Today Rich and I talk about all those things that drain the life out of us, both spiritually and physically.  We are entrenched in a spiritual battle waged for our souls and the things of the physical plane often get in our way.  Turn in your Bibles to 1st John 2:15 and follow along as we light a fire under this one.  Especially for Kurt, I mean Karl.

Podcast 11 - The Lust, The Flesh, They Eyes and the Pride of Life [ 36:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3)

We also play the most meaningful Seventy Sevens song ever called The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes and the Pride of Life.  Hopefully they won’t be mad.  If you have to have it I found one on Amazon but since it is out of print it is rather pricey.

Here is a You Tube video from them as well…

Rich and I talk about the growing intolerance for Christianity from many of those seeking tolerance.  This double standard seems to be gaining strength in our society.  Rich and I discuss this and more in episode 10 of the Don’t Blame Jesus Podcast.

We briefly mention the amazing apologists Ravi Zacharias and Dinesh D’Souza.
If you want to be challenged and encouraged in your faith there are no more excellent teachers than Ravi and Dinesh.  They are truly an investment in your faith, plus there are tons of Dinesh D’Souza debates with atheists on YouTube.  Do a search and  you’ll find a ton.

Podcast 10 - Pearls before Swine [ 35:41 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5)

Ken and I were talking at church today. I know that some of you guys are quite the readers. Ken is going to see how we can link up to a book seller. That make it so that you can get some of the books that would help with your spiritual walk and we could get a little money back from the book seller to defray a little bit of the cost of the annual web hosting.

One book that I absolutely love is now available for free. It is called “Harvest” by Chuck Smith. Mike MacIntosh, was my pastor when I lived in San Diego. There is a chapter in Harvest written about him. It is about how God uses unlikely men.

Enjoy!

A couple of days ago I was chatting with one of my friends on the phone. He just got a new computer and he is back on line now. This is all a big deal for him, as he is a grandfather and can use this to keep in touch with his daughter and grandkids.

This friend of mine and I go back about 4 and a half years (something like that). At that time I was an associate pastor at a small church in Northern California, and I had just started a new program called “Celebrate Recovery” at our church. You can check out the ministry at www.celebraterecovery.com.

I met him like a day or two after he had been released from prison. (I think you said that you had been inside for 17 years, with maybe 30 days out from time to time on parole.) He had been Special Forces in Viet Nam, then in a motorcycle gang and then in a notorious prison gang. I must admit he was the scariest man I ever met.

He had come to Christ inside prison, but was still super rough around the edges. Heck, today he is still a little rough around the edges, and we joke about it.

There were times as we were going through the program together that he would get unbelievably angry about certain people, and there was a real risk of violence. BUT, He also had a love and respect for God. Times when I had to stand up as tall as I could and confront him with the word of God to get him to calm down. If I had just tried to calm him down with my own opinion or philosophy, I really don’t believe for a second it would have worked, bad things would have happened and my friend would be back in prison.

He’ll tell everyone “Man, you know it is God, you and the program that has kept me out of prison.”

He gave me a lot of sleepless nights as I was praying to God about what to do. But also I learned more than I ever thought possible about the grace of God. It doesn’t matter what you have done, and it may have been a lot, but if you give it to God, He will forgive you. God’s grace is sufficient for all the sin of the world, if people will just respond to the forgiveness of His son, Jesus Christ.

We walked together to get through the program, all those Bible verses and letting those effect our lives.

I ended up having to move to another church in Oregon to continue ministry. While my friend stayed in that area and tried to disciple anyone that was willing.

So 4.5 years or so out of prison, and a year or so off parole. Instead of the 30 days that he would get, when he was running his life his own way, doing all the same things that got him into prison.

No, now he has found freedom in Christ that he never knew before. Now we talk about Jesus, fishing, and his family that he gets to know.

So my friend I am glad that I met you. You are a trophy of God’s grace. God is willing and can change the lives of anyone.

Two days ago, Ken and I were looking at the stats of DBJ and saw that we had people coming to this site from across the US and from Sydney, Australia. Ken called me today excited that Internationally we picked up 10 more countries overnight. Some from the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Netherlands and more. I want to give a shout out to those in Singapore (Yes, I know that Singapore is not in Europe, but thank you).

I love Europe. I have been to Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Scotland, England, Holland, Austria, and Belgium.

I served with Inverness Youth for Christ in Northern Scotland, and I absolutely loved it. I would be there still serving if I could, but I ended up with Visa problems and could not stay.

The other countries I went on a couple of short term missions trips when I was in my teens and early twenties.

We would do drama, puppets, clowns and music in campgrounds and city squares to draw a crowd. Then when we were down with our performance we would ask those who were watching, if they wanted to hear more about Jesus, would like to share with them.

We would use a little gospel tract called “The Four Spiritual Laws”. One of the best things about the tract is that it is translated into more languages that any other tract.

http://www.godlovestheworld.com/ <— Sample of the 4 Spiritual Law

One time was just incredibly cool. We were in Paris, and had just finished our presentation and I went to talk to a man who was waiting around after the presentation. I went up to introduce myself and his son said, “He is a Hollander, he doesn’t understand a word that you are saying.”

So I went over to our supply of tracts and pulled out the one that was in Dutch. It looks sorta like German, but yet obviously different from the German version.

I handed him the Dutch version, and I read it and underlined it with my finger in my English version and then underlined it for him in Dutch, so that he would know what I was trying to communicate.

It got to the part where there are two circles. One circle represents the self directed life, the other circle represents the Christ directed life.

I asked him which circle represented his life (The question was already written out in Dutch). He pointed to the self directed life.

Then I asked which circle represented the life that he wanted, also written out in Dutch. He pointed to the Christ directed life.

After that, there is a prayer, for one to recognize Jesus as Savior, and asked Him to make that person, the kind of person Christ would want them to be.

He nodded that he wanted to receive Christ. We went through that prayer together.

It was an amazing thing. I figure that God had to orchestrate it. Some 20 year old from the US, in France, sharing Jesus of Nazareth with a man from Holland. That is 4 countries represented, and not being able to communicated verbally in any language by our own.

I have thought of that man at different times for years now. I wonder what happened in his life after that. I do look forward to seeing him one day in Heaven and being able to talk him about it then.

I just want to encourage, my brothers and sisters in Christ in Europe. You have it tough in a lot of ways, there are a lot of pressures trying to squeeze your Christianity out of you. I want to help if I can. Please contact us here. show (at) dontblamejesus (dot) com Would love to know where you are surfing from and would love to keep you in our prayers.

God bless,

Rich

On today’s podcast Rich and I talk about the problems we have pronouncing and communicating ancient names in modern times.  After thousands of years of language changing through different cultures the fact is that nobody has a prayer or pronouncing anything correctly, at least according to ancient standards.  We may be able to make them sound similar to what we have heard but it is unlikely that we even approach what someone from ancient times could even understand.  The bottom line is to not get sidetracked or discouraged but instead plow through to find the meaning and the intent that God has for you.  At DontBlameJesus.com we freely admit that we mess it up all the time, we just hope that you end up hearing our hearts instead of our words.

Then Rich gets a phone call and DontBlameJesus takes it’s first commercial break. Today’s episode is brought to you by PressCats.com.  PressCats is The Graphic Designers Printer.  If you have a project that needs printing or design please visit the website and check it out their prices.  Thanks PressCats.

Finally we talk about our new President Barack Obama.  It is our hope that regardless of party affiliation, that all Christians will turn their hearts toward the Lord and lift up our new President in prayer.  Indeed, it is the prayers of the righteous that bring true change and we as believers too often become lax in our responsibilities.  We are commanded to pray for our leaders and we want to see the change that only prayer can bring.  Everyone, regardless of their party affiliation, wants to see the United States succeed and do well.  It is our desire at DontBlameJesus to see believers in America unite in prayer and see the change that only prayer can bring.

Standard Podcast [ 30:33 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4)

Ken and I were just looking at the Google stats on this site. Thanks to all those who are coming and taking a look at www.dontblamesjesus.com. Lots from Washington State, but also from Texas, Ohio, South Carolina, Michigan and more. Thanks you Australians who are coming and checking out the site. Hopefully we are encouraging you.

Ken and I recorded a new podcast today, and hopefully it will be posted up soon.

Please take the time to check out the podcasts if you haven’t yet.

We were also talking today about posting up our first DBJ video. Hopefully it won’t be to far off.

Richard

It is not a new book. But a lot of guys don’t know about it. You can pick it up cheap used, or get the latest edition with a couple of new chapters.

The book is called “God’s Smuggler” by Brother Andrew. True story. He lived through WWII, later became part of the Dutch Special Forces, and eventually God gets a hold of his life and he is used to smuggle Bibles into Iron Curtain countries.

My mom read it to me in the 70s. I read it my son this last year. He loved it.

I wish that I could buy all my friends here copies.

I know that some of you are in used bookstores getting books all the time, check it out and then report here how you like it. I know that you will.

Are you an ex-pastor, former pastor, former youth pastor or served God in some position previously and now you are out? Don’t give up!
A number of things happened just recently, that I want to encourage you with.
1. I just past the one year mark of when I was asked to resign my senior pastorate. A year ago January 13th was the last sermon that I preached. You know what I am still here. Still ministering. A couple of friends who are ex-military were telling me, with men who were soldiers, or ex-cops, and also ex-pastor, you might not be that thing anymore, but it can’t be taken out of you. You are still a pastor and minister unless you give that up and turn your back on it.
2. I just was on facebook a couple days again and came across another friend who went to Multnomah Bible College with me, who also went through the wringer with some church politics. In fact I hardly know of any godly men who are in the ministry who haven’t has some horribly painful experience of betrayal and being back stabbed. Many great pastors have to just shake off the dust and jump back in to ministry somewhere. Don’t judge Jesus on church politics.
3. In training today with work, there was a quote about winners have scars. If you have been scarred in the ministry, join the club. Jesus and Paul show us by example that is par for the course.
4. I will telling another friend from Bible college today, that ministry can be just incredibly painful, but there are times that totally make it worth it.
a. friends coming to Christ
b. when the prodigal comes home
c. when those struggling in their faith let you know that somehow you are making a difference in their lives.
I served as the youth pastor in a Korean Church for two years and that brought about a lot of healing from some of the garbage that I had gone through previously. I think that I might still be a healing cycle right now, but I want to thank all of you for allowing me to minister to you and encourage you with our blogs and podcasts.
I was thinking today again about ministry and maybe I ought to write a book on “ministry outside the box” just to encourage men everywhere that there are many ways to minister. Maybe it would help light a fire under guys, and they would be blown away by how God wants to use them.
There are all sorts of guys out there who need (and I mean NEED) the gospel, who may not have found their way into a church for decades. Maybe the frontlines of ministry are out there and not inside the church like the frontlines in a battle is not inside the Pentagon. Church has its place of encouragement and I try to make it every Sunday. Sometime ministry takes place in a phone call, at taco bell, or in a garage.
My favorite verse is John 10:10 and I am sure that you will hear me referring to it from time to time. It maybe my favorite when I was working for a ministry called “The National Youth Crisis Hot-Line 1-800-HIT-HOME”.
The verse says “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, I (Jesus) came that they may have life and that abundantly”
You don’t have to look too hard to see how the thief, the devil is out there in the midst of our culture, stealing, killing and destroying lives. But the mission of Jesus, of saving lives, still is going on. That is what I want to be about. Brothers, let’s continue to be part of that.
More than anything, I just want to be used by God. The place, title, whatever is just not that important.

This is the follow up to last weeks episode from Daniel Chapter 7.  The events of Daniel Chapter 8 actually occurred prior to the events written in Chapter 7.  Rich and I also welcome our special in-studio guest Graham, Rich’s son.  Graham is our biggest fan and faithfully prays for the podcast to be effective and far reaching.  Thanks Graham.

Return of Prophecy [ 21:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4)

This weeks episode is brought to you by PressCats.com.  You’ll find affordable printing for all your needs at PressCats.com as well as top notch graphic design.  You can get an instant quote on any of the products offered there and the prices seem really competitive.  If you’re a graphic designer who needs to get the things you design printed for your clients you should check out PressCats.com.