KennyB
glorifying & growing

The purpose of John’s Gospel was to quash an errant belief that Jesus was not fully man and fully God.  It is important to understand this when reading John.

John 12.44-50

Before this passage Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the pharisees planned Jesus and Lazarus’ murders, and Jesus spoke of  the people’s unbelief and His own glorification.  Understanding this, let’s look at what Jesus says in these few verses.

In seven verses Jesus says,

1. Belief in Jesus is belief in God the Father.
2. Seeing Jesus is seeing God the Father. (1)
3. Hearing Jesus is hearing God the Father.

Many people believe may different things about Jesus.  And many people a wrong, because there can be only one correct answer.  For example, Jesus can not be both a created being and the source of all that was created.

Jesus himself says, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.” (John 12:44 ESV); “And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.” (John 12:45 ESV); “What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”” (John 12:50 ESV).

I believe in the one true God that is triune:  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  I do not completely understand the trinity, but I know the Bible speaks of the trinity.

I will not bend biblical theology to my own understanding, as some have done.

God bless,

ken

(1) “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9 ESV)

John 12.1-8 is the account of Jesus visiting with friends at Simon’s house.  In attendance were his disciples, Simon’s household, Lazarus (post-resurrection), Martha, Mary and Jesus.

Must have been a good day.  A day of hanging out with friends and family, eating, drinking and fellowship.  You can imagine that they talked about Lazarus being raised from the dead.  Maybe someone whined about his tired, achy, stinky feet and Lazarus steps up and says, ‘yep that is bad, but I was dead for four days.’  Maybe they all laughed and asked Jesus about this sign; this awesome miracle with a message.

In the middle of this time of awe and fun Mary leaves, gathers her spices and begins to pour anointing oil made of Nard over Jesus’ feet.  This must have been a show stopper.  Everyone must have been intently watching Mary as she performed this amazing humble sacrifice.  This sacrifice cost Mary almost a years’ wages, three hundred denarii.  They gazed on as she dried Jesus’ feet with her own hair.  Mary left nothing in reserve as she gave her all in worship of this amazing God-Man, Jesus the Christ.

Breaking the silence was Judas Iscariot.  With selfish indignation, Judas protested the use of such an expensive oil on Jesus’ feet.  He shrouded his remarks with the lie that he could have fed the poor with this wasted oil.  Judas was a thief and soon would be a traitor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We, believers, talk about Judas with self-absorbed contempt.  Judas is a liar, a thief, a traitor.  We would never do the things he did right?  Think about Mary’s sacrifice to Jesus as an offering.  Now think of the offering plate of the congregation of believers you have banded with in membership.  Why is it empty as it comes to you, then leaves your own hands in the same condition as you pass it on yourself?

We fail to sacrifice financially to our congregation because we are able to think of so many other good things we can do with “our money”.  I need to pay bills, buy a new widget thingy, or take my wife out on a date night.  All of which are okay and good.  As Judas was a thief, we are too when our tithe becomes gas for the four-wheeler, or a trip to Disneyland.  

We are called to be in the world and not of the world.  We are called by and to a great and mighty Savior.  We are called to familial relationship with other believers.  We are called to love and care for our local church with our time, talents, and tithe.

Why is it so hard to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ this way?  I face this same challenge too.  As I write the check, I think of all the other things I could do with this money, as Judas also did.  Sometimes I have victory and sometimes I fail my Lord and church family.

We must strive to be like Mary and not like Judas as we worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in our financial blessings.  Lord help us be like Mary to worship and love Jesus as we ought and forgive us when we sin like Judas.

God bless my friends.

Do you feel like you are living in a perpetual storm that tosses your life about like a rag doll? Do you feel like the sun will never come out?

In John 6, Jesus’ disciples were in a boat out in the middle of the Galilean Sea. The storm was raging and their lives were in peril. At the perfect moment, Jesus showed up walking on the water towards the frightened disciples. When they accepted who he was, he entered the boat and the seas calmed.

Jesus can give you peace in the midst of your storm. Understand that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. Believe that Jesus is that perfect Savior who paid for our sins and commit your life to following Him.

We may be in the midst of the storm, but we have Jesus (the calmer of all storms) with us at all times.

God Bless

[If you want to know more about Jesus and the salvation He freely gives, please contact me!]

One of the coolest techy things that we bought for Eliana was a baby monitor.  Yes they had monitors 17 years ago, but not at the tech level as they do now.  I could not wait to get it out of the box and start playing with it.

But the most important off all my discoveries is that I do not have to miss a second of my Pittsburg Steelers’ football game, if I have to run to the toilet. Hahahahaha.

Too much information?  Hey, you are the one reading this, I did not make you!

Let me know if you can think of any more uses for a baby monitor.  Oh, and keep it clean.

God bless you, ken

“Nonprofits work to get people to embrace change.

But the irony is they are usually the most resistant to accepting organizational change”

Chris Forbes (Twitter Feed)

Chris Forbes is a marketing guy and speaker in Oklahoma. I think when Chris speaks of non-profits we can apply that to churches as well. Think about how we get people to worship or Bible study, if we are trying at all.

We speak to, let’s say, Bob and tell him that God loves him. We talk about how man is sinful (deserving hell) and God is holy. We truthfully speak about how man cannot earn his way into heaven, God’s home. We then ask Bob to completely give up on his own striving for righteousness and to trust in the work of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son.

Bob must stop trusting in his own work and begin trusting the perfect sacrificial work of Jesus. That is a huge jump. A jump so big that God Himself gifts Bob with grace and faith to believe in His Son (Ephesians 2.8-9).

When Bob trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord, he is a baby believer needing a more mature believer to guide him through the difficulties from secular to churchy culture.

Bob needs to learn to think differently, speak differently, sing differently and that is just the beginning.  We change from doing these things for our glory to doing these things for the glory of God.

When Bob is unluckily enough to go to a “business meeting” at his home church, he hears “that’s not the way we have done it in the past!” 1950s building, preaching, singing, and casseroles. Casseroles never go out of style.

Not all churches are stuck in the fifties, but most do struggle with change. We need to learn to change as Bob has had to learn to change. Not theologically of course, but methodologically. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. People change and so must the way we engage them for Christ.

As a church planter, I live in a tornado of change. The plans I make the night before are changed in the morning when I wake up. But, there will be a time when I will get to a place where change is harder. I pray that I will have the trust in God to leap out in faith and change in order to minister to an ever-changing culture.

Godbless, kb

I have been messing around with WordPress, Joomla and Drupal on my personal site in order to better administer the church’s website. I have messed with the background and tried my hand at photo editing. I have improved a little, but any tips would be greatly appreciated.
In today’s techno-savy, MTV, microwave culture, of which I am a card carrying member, many times I look for the whizz-bang. Meaning, the look and feel of a site plays a huge role in my determination whether to visit that church. This is not the best means of choosing a place of worship. However, with the many good evangelical churches out there, I find that the organizations which utilize tech appropriately tend to get my vote.
What does this mean for churches and their websites? Maybe it simply means, at least for me, that tech is an important tool to be utilized for the glory of God. When we throw up dumpy church websites, what are we saying about our understanding of God, our commitment to Christ or our willingness to do everything short of sin to win the lost.

IDK, just the ramblings of an untalented tech geek.

God Bless,

I recently received an iPhone as a gift from my wife. Understanding that “there is an app for that”,I searched out a WordPress app for posting to my blog. Confirming the above app declaration, there is an app for posting to WordPress blog from my iPhone. . Now I will be able to post as life runs before my eyes.

Have a great day and God bless.

Had an interesting conversation this morning.  We spoke about the sliver in your brothers eye and the plank in your own.  We spoke about the mature and the immature Christian.  Then somehow we got onto the topic of pastoral/Christian church attire.

That makes me think…. hum?  What does a pastor look like, or for that matter, what does a Christian look like?  Does he/she even have a look?  Traditionally in the United States, quite possibly still the majority belief, a pastor looks like a businessman.  A businessman wears a suit and tie.  He wears nice shinny shoes and maybe a tie pin.  I am a church planter who does not like to wear suits, ties, and tie pins.  Does that make me less of a church planter/pastor or Christian?

One might say, ‘if you truly desire the things of God and desire to fully respect God’s Word as you teach it to others, you will dress appropriately– like a businessman.  Well, what about missionaries (church planters) among various people groups around the world, such as pastors in Africa or Arab nations?  Are they any less a pastor, or any less respectful of God’s Word if they do not dress businesslike?

Here in the US, I have heard that only 25% of the men in the US even have a suit parked in their closet, let alone take it out for a spin.  Are pastors/believers less respectful, less Christian if they do not look “the part”?  Should pastors/believers be forced to conform to a church culture that demands business attire in worship?  I say church culture, because the unchurched culture does not wear business attire most, if not all the time.

Regardless of what your beliefs on the subject – suit, or no suit, there is nothing wrong with wearing a suit.  They are sharp and they do promote a serious, businesslike, no messing around aura.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I have a suit, but I doubt it fits anymore and I can’t afford to buy another.  (That is not a plea for a  free suit.)

What does this appropriate attire debate tell people?  What does it tell people who can’t afford a suit – like me?  Does it say, ‘aaaah how cute you want to be a church planter/pastor, come back when you can afford a suit,’ or ‘new Christian the first thing you need to do is buy appropriate clothing (a suit)’?  Is true Christianity symbolized by the “clean cut” man wearing a suit?  Are non-suit wearers not welcome?  Are they any less a minister, or any less a sincere believer in Jesus Christ, as perfect all sufficient sacrifice for salvation, if you do not wear a suit?

So what is the answer?  Suit or no suit?  I think it is up to you.  If you want to wear a suit to church, go for it.  If you do not want to wear one, go for it.  But please, wear something.  The one thing to remember though is salvation is not contingent upon what we wear, which makes me very glad, because if it were we would all be wearing robes.  I don’t look good in robes.  The big and tall store just stocks fluffy robes. Yuck!!!  Harley Davidson does not make a robe…i think.

Thank you Jesus that it is not anything I can do to gain or earn your favor for salvation, but what you have done for me (despite me).  Thank you LORD that it is all you and not me.

God Bless, kennyb

I get so sick of Christmas even before it arrives. I see stores slapping a cross or Jesus on something and selling it to believers. You can find pens, pen holders, coffee cups, letter openers, and clocks “sanctified” by a cross or Jesus because the believers will buy anything with Jesus on it. Christian commercialism drives me nuts and I let it ruin my Christmas season for many years.

I heard this same thing expressed from a gentleman the other day and it made me think. Why do I let this seasonal commercialism ruin my praise for a glorious God who invaded creation? Why should I think people would act otherwise when they are unaware of the “Reason for the Season” (thanks Stryper––great song).

So what is it that I will do? I will live for Christ and celebrate His miraculous virgin birth. I will not let the world dictate my praise for my Savior. I will do my best to unveil the mystery of the season.

What is this mystery? The mystery is… That baby that was born to a virgin, grew up and was a man who did everything God desired of Him. He was called and actually was the Son of the Living God. He came with the purpose of bringing reconciliation to man with God. He died a miserable death so that man would not have to die a second death, due to sin. He brought love to the unlovely, forgiveness to the unforgiving, faith to the faithless, and salvation to sinners.

The most incredible thing about this whole story is that He did this without requiring payment from us. God paid for it with His Son. His Son paid for it with His life.

Jesus, this Son, didn’t stay in the grave, but is alive and reigning in Heaven. Today is the day of salvation, given freely from a Great God and Savior.

God bless,
kennyb

What an awesome movie. I love God and football. The story of Michael Oherr is incredible. From lost, without a place to live, to safe in the home of a loving family.

What a great picture of what God has done for us. We are all born lost and warring against God. Without the ability to desire God at all and deserving punishment, God sent His Son into His own creation to pay the price for our rebellion.

When you realized that there is nothing you can do to earn God’s rescue and rely on Him only for that rescue, you are adopted into His family. He takes you, cleans you up, gives you free reign of His home in heaven and an inheritance. I know…what a gift right?

Well it is free for all who ask for His rescue.
-Understand you are a sinner (we have battled against God)
-Understand you deserve punishment.
-Ask for forgiveness
-Welcome to the family.

God Bless,

kennyb