This morning (8/20) I gave a devotional at our men’s prayer breakfast. I know it was practical in my life and wanted to share it here as well.

Hebrews 4:16

“Let Us” – Prayer is not one person praying, while everyone else is thinking about everything else in life. When one person leads in prayer we need to all be praying with them, they are “leading” in prayer, not praying on behalf.We need to pray individually. Prayer is not just a collective event, but is something that each one of us need to be doing individually as well. Last under this phrase, prayer is something that we need to teach our families, and to those around us. It is an us factor, therefore we should help others to be part of the us, and not just someone who listens to others pray.

“therefore come boldly” – We do not have to fear God. I am not saying that we don’t reverence God, I am saying that we don’t come timidly. “Boldly” means “openly” or “confidently” we are joint heirs with Christ, we don’t have to be timid before God. It is not “proudly” though, there is still a reverence.

“unto the throne” - We come before the King of kings. He is not just another man. He is not one of many gods, he is the supreme being of all the universe. He has no equal. We don’t have to wonder if he can do it, we don’t have to wonder if he has the authority. He is on the throne!

“of grace” - The character of the one sitting on the throne. He is graceful to us. He sent his son to die for us on the cross, what more grace is there than that. Who in this world would sacrifice their son for you. Some may be willing to sacrifice themselves for someone who loved them, but who would be willing to sacrifice themself for one who hated them, and was in outright rebellion against them? Yet this is what God did for us. Grace!

“that we may obtain mercy” - Not getting what we deserve. How often does this happen to you on a daily basis? You have done something wrong that deserves punishment, and you pray to God and in his mercy he doesn’t give you the punishment that you deserve? When he died on the cross he provided a way to obtain mercy and not face the death that we deserve for being a sinful people.

“and find grace to help in time of need” - Getting what we do not deserve. Does this not also happen on a daily basis? I can think of countless times when God has given me many things that I do not deserve. The greatest of these was salvation. We do not deserve the salvation that he provided for us, but because of his grace, we have that which we don’t deserve. I think one of the most interesting things about this phrase is “in time of need”. Those good things that happen to us daily that we don’t deserve, often happen when we need them to. There are times that God is just gracious and does something for us out of the blue, but often it is in our time of need that we see him giving us what we do not deserve to get.

So remember first of all that it is our individual privilege/duty to pray. That we come before the King of kings who has the power and the authority to do what we ask. We are joint heirs with Christ and therefore we come before God as sons and daughters. His character is one of grace, and from him we can find deliverance from what we deserve and be given what we don’t deserve.

~ Nate

James 1:22 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

I have been in a class the last week or so, dealing with the Divided monarchy of Israel (Israel and Judah). It is interesting to look at the prophets ministry during that time period. They were continually warning the kingdoms of their impending doom if they did not get right with God. For the most part the kings didn’t heed their warnings and there were many judgments because of that. The times when the kings did listen to God, when they trusted and obeyed him there was miraculous provision and protection. Yet, even after they had seen the hand of God working for them, they would still turn back to their idols and forsake God.

(There is MUCH more that can be studied with Israel and the prophets, but this is enough for what we are considering today.)

I want to ask you a simple question: Are you heeding the prophets in your life? By this I mean, when you read the Bible and it tells you that you need to stop doing something in your life, or you need to start doing something, do you do it? When your teacher, pastor, parents, Bible study leader, points something out from the Bible and you see that you need to change, do you do it? Looking at our verse in James, are you a “hearer” or “a hearer and a doer”? Do you do it?

~ Nate

I once read a quote that really made me think, pretty sure I know who wrote it, but for the sake of not making a mistake I will only say here that it is not my own.

“We are slowed more by a grain of sand in our shoe, than by the mountain we climb.”

What a thought provoking statement. It is so true of many of our lives, I know for sure that I let this happen to me all the time! There are many things in life that happen to us day to day, some things are big, and some things are small.

What slows you down?
- Someone does something different than you would do it?
- Someone is annoying?
- You spilt the milk?
- You are out of your favorite cereal?
- Maybe it is finances?
- You mean I actually have to work at memorizing scripture?
- Maybe you don’t like the color?
- They didn’t use your idea?
- You mean I might have to give up something I really like so that I can become more like Christ?
- People might make fun of me?
- They might call me a goody-two-shoes?
- Ten Percent?!?!?
- You want me to give up my Saturday to help a fellow Christian?
- If I read my Bible I will have to get up 30 minutes earlier!
- and the list goes on and on and on….

What is slowing you down in life? What is slowing down your spiritual life? I will be the first to admit that there are grains of sand in my shoe: I like things to be done my way, everyone knows that being in Seminary is not a get rich quick scheme, and there are others, but I have to work on a daily basis to get those grains of sand out of my shoe, and focus on the bigger picture. I want to live a life that serves and magnifies God, and there are other things that are far more important for me to be worrying about, like living a holy life, than the sand in my shoe.

God takes care of everything, so don’t let the little things slow you down!

~ Nate

Acts 17:6 “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.”

The goal of this post it to cause me and you to evaluate our lives, and challenge us to do more! When you read about the lives of first century Christians this verse would be a great summary verse. They were spreading Christianity to everyone and every nation. Not only that they were changing their world!!!

Today, I want to focus more on ourselves, than on the world. So often we evaluate the need of the world to the neglect of evaluating ourselves!

I have a question that we need to ask ourselves, then evaluate ourselves based on what we find: Are you turning your world upside down?

Our goal is to win the lost to Christ, and this is a great goal, but often we forget that there is so much more that we are to be doing! Think of the example of Christ, and answer me this: Did Christ only provide help to Christians? When Christ saw someone in need did he condemn them to hell on the spot, or did he first meet their need then tell them to follow him?

I am not downplaying evangelism, not at all, I am trying to show us that evangelism is more than just telling someone that there is a heaven and a hell, and that they need to get saved! Evangelism is living a life that shows them there is a reason to trust Christ, and that Christ does care about them!

It is easy not to help people by making excuses; “They are probably faking being homeless.” “They are not fellow Christians.” “They will probably use my help for/to facilitate more sin.” “They don’t need help, they need salvation!”

It is not our job to evaluate the heart and motives of others! It is not our job to regulate the morality of this world! How will they see Christ unless they see him through you? If you think that changing your world, your community, is not evangelism, then think again. Jesus won the lost by showing them he cared for them!

Having trouble evangelizing? Maybe it is because you only ask people if they are going to heaven or hell, and forget to show them that you care about them, and where they are going!

How will they see Christ unless they see him through you?

~ Nate

Have you ever considered the way in which you celebrate Christmas? Think of it like this: It’s your birthday, and you’re excited! You find out that the party is at someone else’s house. When you get there the door is locked and you can’t get in. This is weird, so you go to the window an look in, and this is what you see! Everyone you know is there, their singing birthday songs, eating birthday cake. They all have gifts, even though it is not their birthday. They are exchanging gifts, and opening them having a grand ole time. They don’t even notice that you are not there, come to find out they didn’t even invite you!!!

It is sad to say that this is how many of us treat Christ on the day that we celebrate his birthday, Christmas! We have forgotten that Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s coming to earth to die for us! To us it is just a day to get that item that you have been wanting for a whole year, and won’t want any more tomorrow.  I’m not saying that we shouldn’t exchange gifts, but we need to remember that that is not the focal point of Christmas, it is only a remembrance of the greatest gift that was given to us!

One of the greatest things you can do to help keep the focus of your Christmas on Christ is to begin the day with the story of Christ. Read Luke 2, maybe even have a family devotional in Luke 2. Don’t rush through it, take your time, enjoy remembering what Christ did for us! Then when it comes time open gifts, don’t let it be a free-for-all. Sit around as a family, have one person open a gift, everybody oohhh and aaahhh, thank the person who gave it, then move to the next person. Repeat this process over and over until all the gifts are give. This will make everyone appreciate the gifts so much more, and in so doing help them to appreciate the GIFT that was given them, as they may actually take some time to consider that gift as they have considered everyone else’s.

Remember, Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

~ Nate

Last night Pastor Cooley at Burgess Road Baptist Church preached a sermon on being judgmental. It was very thought provoking, so I wanted to give some of his ideas and a few comments of my own!

James 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

The issue of being judgmental is a hot topic. Most often people who are doing wrong like to quote the phrase “judge not that ye be not judged” thinking that that means Christian should not tell unbeliever or fellow Christians they are sinning. Yet, this is not what is being said. I want us to consider two things: When can we judge, and When can’t we judge!

1. When Can We Judge? The answer is simple, NEVER! I know I have most everyone’s attention now, either you’re saying “yeah, give it to them”, or you’re saying “you heretic, we don’t just over look sin!” Well sorry to both parties, but I doubt either of you will be completely happy with my answer. We are not to judge, that is not our responsibility, the Law is to judge, that is it’s responsibility! We are only to point out what the Bible has to say on issues and the Bible is our standard, not what we THINK/WANT the Bible to mean/say! The Bible is the authority on right and wrong, it decides we don’t!

2. When Can’t We Judge? Now you’re thinking this sounds a bit repetitive, but with this point my goal is to look at areas where we are often judgmental and should not be. We often find ourselves judging the spiritual level/condition of a person by the external: what they wear, what they listen to, where they go, etc. Though there are some guidelines in the Bible, often these areas are not spelled out, and guess what?!?! it is not our job to spell them out for everyone, we are not the lawgiver. Another area that we often judge is people’s intentions: “this is what they really meant,” “they only did that for attention, ” I know why they did that,” etc. Though at times we may be able to guess someone’s intentions, often we’re wrong, and it is not our responsibility to know if the intentions were right or not. To go along with the last point, sometime we judge people’s actions as wring when their intention might have been good (I’m not talking about sinning with a “good intention”). I think of times when I have tried to help someone, but in reality I only made it worse. When this happens we need to be careful on to judge. On a larger scale we need to be careful about judging other ministries! Often when a person does something new in a ministry, those that don’t agree label them as comprises. Now we must be careful not to compromise with the world, but there are many times where new things are not compromise just different. If we are going to “judge” them as compromised, we must make sure that what we think is wrong, is said to be wrong according to what the Bible says (not what we THINK/WANT it to mean/say).

I hope this gives you food for thought! Be careful about judging people by standards that are not Biblical, because if you do you will be judged by those same standards, “judge not, that ye be not judged.”

~ Nate

Recently a friend of mine wrote a post on his blog concerning Bible Reading. It is an area that many Christians struggle with including myself. His post brought it to the forefront of my mind once again and challenged me. One thing that he said is a key to the importance of daily Bible reading; that is that through daily Bible reading we are able to get the “big picture” of scripture.

Let us discuss this subject a bit. God gave us His word so that we could learn about Him, so that we could have a relationship with God. A thought comes to mind when I think about the importance of Bible reading: Often when we buy a new electronic or some type of equipment we receive a user’s manual with it. Some people will read the manual before they even turn on their new possession, some will read it when they can’t figure something out, and other will never read it just hoping that they can figure everything out on their own. I think that I can say that I have taken my turn in each of those scenarios. Have you ever been in either of the second two, you think that you are getting along fine, then someone comes along and says “hey did you know that that can do this?!?!” I’ve been there, and I have asked the question “how did you know that” to which they reply “I read the manual!” This is often how we treat God, though the Bible is not a “manual” on God, is does allow us to get to know and begin to understand things about God. Yet often times we find ourselves in the place where we don’t know much about God, we see other Christians who seem to be getting everything and are super happy, yet we don’t understand how they do it. My friend the answer is simple; they have read and are reading the “manual”.

Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

If we want to have a right relationship with God we must read the Bible. If we want to have a right relationship with others we must read the Bible. If we want to have a right relationship with our family we must read the Bible. If we want to have a proper outlook on life we must read the Bible.

2 Timothy 3:16,17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: ¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

There are different ways to read through the Bible, Jeremy has a couple ideas on his blog and there are many that you can find by searching the web, or asking your pastor. A few interesting ones that I have run across are: Reading Chronologically, Some have it arranged so that you can read every day from the OT, NT, Proverbs, and Psalms, and there are some that will read from the different divisions as well. If you have read through the Bible many times and are looking for a way to change things up for awhile there are some other methods as well; there are some reading plans that may have you read all the words of Christ. Others may deal with specific doctrines, and others focus on certain books. One of my favorites is not designed to get you through the Bible in a year, but to get founded strongly on scripture: Read a small book every day for a month, you will be surprised what you learn and how well you know the book by the end of the month, this can also be adapted for longer books.

I hope this has been encouraging and will motivate us to a stronger Bible reading life. I also recommend going and reading Jeremy’s post.

~ Nate

Rom 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

So, I drive school bus for Pensacola Christian Academy and thoroughly love my job! This is my fourth year driving. My first year I was a sub driver, and got to learn a lot about the surrounding area in which we live, and many things about the buses. Then, for the last two years I drove a full-time route, which I truly enjoyed, especially the kids. This year I’m back to sub driving in order to help my Transportation Director. It seems that I have a knack for picking up routes rather quickly which makes me useful for sub driving. All this background is what brings us to our topic today.

First, I’ll start with the smaller areas. I think that often times as Christians we know that God takes care of us and does things for us, yet we only seem to notice the big things that he does in our lives, often we overlook the small everyday occurrences of God’s goodness. This is a lesson that I learn/learned almost daily while driving bus. Bus routes have schedules that are setup for when to pick up and drop off the kids, this is for the purpose of consistency and getting the kids to school on time. Often this entire schedule can be skewed by a red light, green light, slow car, etc. Many times as I was driving along it was amazing how the light would just “happen” to be the color I needed to keep me on schedule. Or I’d be coming to a light and be praying it would stay green, and it seemed that the light was green for a long time and I made it. It was through many little things like this God showed me that even in the little day to day matters like the color of a stop light, he was there watching out for me and caring for me. There are many more stories of this type, small things that God did, but I will not share them all here. The point is, that God is Good All the Time, and we need to recognize this, even the small things, and praise God for them!

Another area that God has taught me a lesson through is the area of sub driving again this year. As I mentioned before, I loved my route over the last two year, and I was really looking forward to it again this year. So it came as quite a shock and bummer when I was informed that not only was I not driving the route at all, but I also was not driving full-time either. At first I just smiled and nodded, you know how it is, but slowly God started showing me how he was taking care of me. My wife recently graduated from seminary and has become a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant selling their products. Because of this she often has parties at night. Now if you think about the fact that I would have to go to bed rather early to get up at 5:10 in the morning to drive the bus, and she is having parties till 9 or so at night, we would not get to see each other very much at night. But because of the change most nights we will get to spend some time together after her parties! God is Good All the Time.

You will find in everything that comes into your life, that though sometimes it may not be clear right away, God has something good in everything for us to see and learn from. So we must learn and take to heart the saying: “God is Good All the Time, All the Time God is Good!”

~ Nate

Fiddler on the Roof 1971

Anyone who has watch Fiddler on the Roof knows the raving of Tevye in his song “Tradition”. Nothing should change, nothing should be done any different  than it has been done for generations! As I was writing the last part of my Bio page, I decided to write this post to clarify exactly what I meant and to lay boundaries to be careful of crossing.

This is a cry that we hear so often today, “We must believe/do something because that is the way it has ‘always’ been!” To begin by looking at the positive side of tradition, tradition can be a great help in directing us along our journeys, both spiritually and non. What are parents, grandparents, and great grandparents have done and believed should not be taken lightly. If they so believed, then they were convicted (or under the binds of tradition) enough to hold on to. Especially those traditions that many died for, paying the ultimate sacrifice. Traditions, when it is in line with scripture, helps to keep us grounded, and can act as an anchor when we are being blown to and fro. Many times traditions are right, and are very helpful, but I believe that tradition might be what is stifling many believers today.

This leads to the negative side of tradition, doing/believing things only because someone else did, not because we hold a truth that is from scripture. Many times people look to Proverbs 22:28 to say that the younger generation should not try to change the things that the previous generations have put in place. Pro 22:28 says “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” The idea of removing landmarks is found three other times in the Old Testament (Deut 19:14, Job 24:2, Prov 23:10), each time it is clearly referring to the stealing of another person’s land be changing the boundary markers. If on looks at the context of Pro 22:28 they will see that this idea fits better here than the idea of not changing what your predecessors have done. It is this mentality of doing/believing things because that is what has been done for generations, that is stifling many Christians today. When they study the Bible and they think it says something, then they are told that they are wrong because that is not what the reformers believed. A new Christian joins a church and are given a bunch of standards to follow, when they as for scripture so that they can learn, none is given to them, or some is but it is pulled out of context. We are not to base what we do/believe on tradition, but on scripture alone! Scripture tells us what to do, scripture tells us what to believe, and hopefully tradition aligns itself with scripture.

Now having blasted on tradition, let me make it very clear that I am in no way suggesting that we throw tradition out the door. When you read proverbs, often the writer advises us to listen to the instruction, counsel, and law of those that have gone before, particularly our parents. The preceding generations have been through and dealt with much more then the current generations and their thoughts and teaching should be taken heed to. Traditions is good, but we must remember that we are to base ourselves on the Bible, tradition my help us find our way there.

~ Nate