Through His Eyes

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.Rom.12:2 (MSG) Then you can see things through His eyes.

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Location: Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, United States

I have the best job in the world. I am the Pastor and Church planter of Life Connection Church. I am married to Lisa for 27 years and have two adult children, Brooke 23, Nick 21 that have been and still are an incredible blessing to my life. Brooke is a graduate of UTA and is in the corporate world and Nick is a business major at Texas Christian University.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Consumer Christian


Quote from The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, pg. 342

Consumer Christian: "One who utilizes the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions, but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts, feelings, and intentions over to the Kingdom of the Heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it."

"Because this is so, they remain not just "imperfect," for all of us remain imperfect, but routinely and seriously unable and unwilling to do the good they know to do, as Paul so accurately describes.

Don't you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval. Rom 6:16

The consumer Christians' lives "are dominated by fear, greed, impatience, egotism, bodily desires, and the like, and they continue to make provisions for them."

Nutritional or Not, It's Still a Happy Meal


From ABC News

"CHICAGO Oct 25, 2005 — Make it a burger, fries and nutritional information to go. Seeking to counter charges that its food is unhealthy and contributes to obesity, McDonald's Corp. announced Tuesday that it will display nutrition facts on the packaging for most of its menu items next year.

Patrons of the world's largest restaurant company will be able to learn the amount of calories and fat, among other information, in a McDonald's product by looking at the wrapper instead of having to go to its Web site or ask for it at the counter. "

This may be a "whatever" response from Mickey D's. Who decides the family is visiting the golden arches anyway? Not the parents. McDonald's is such a marketing genius they could put, "Eat and you'll die" on their packages and kids would still cry till mommy took them for a Happy Meal.

Just a thought
Royal

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Classic TV that Is a Positive Influence

There are not many programs on TV today that you can sit with your whole family, young and old, and laugh, cry, and discuss the moral lesson that was presented in such an entertaining and beautiful way.

Johnny (The man in black) and June Carter Cash guest starred on last nights TV Land episode of Little House on the Prairie. Mr. Cash played a con- man who saw an opportunity to get rich off of the misfortunes of a town that had burned down due to a prairie fire. He misrepresented himself as a preacher and went to Walnut Grove to collect money, food, and supplies to help the people of the burned down town.

As he went about doing righteous work, even though he was doing it with the wrong motives, he was slowly changed by the love and trust shown by the people of Walnut Grove. He was changed as he saw poor people give generously to others who were in need.

On Sunday morning the church gathered to send off Johnny and have Him bless the supplies they were giving away and thank him for his hard work. They thanked him for teaching them to give and forget about their own problems as he gave them an opportunity to bless others.

Minutes before stealing the goods and heading out of town, the man in black realized that the town's people (God's people) had been used to change his heart. Even the people who had figured out his con did not let on and blessed him instead.

As Lisa and I watched with tears in or eyes, I wished my kids had been home so we could have shared and talked about the lesson learned together.

Why don't they make TV shows like that any more? Jesus said, the light came into the world and people chose to stay in the dark. People of the dark stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. (John 3:18-21)

I know there are a lot of people in the dark who are making movies and TV shows. If you are a person of the light, a Christ-follower, I hope you are careful what you watch. Your children learn from watching you and the more dark you bring in through your eyes the more you will naturally stay away from the light.

Here is a tip for staying away from the dark. The closer you get to the light, the more obvious and easier it will be for you to recognize and stay away from the dark.

Serving as an apprentice of Christ
Royal

Thursday, October 20, 2005

What's Up With Liberal Christianity? # 4 - An Atheist's Response to Liberal Christianity

Quotes from my own previous post:

By definition of liberalism alone, a person is saying he or she is under no guiding authority and is free to decide what is right and what is wrong.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, "You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. John 8:31

Here are parts of a post written by atheist and maker of the film, "The God Who Wasn't There", Briane Flemming on his weblog.

Flemming: "Tuesday at the Christianity in Question event in Louisville, it was a fairly full house (and another added screening, but this one because one of the local papers had listed the screening as starting at the wrong time). The audience was a bit different, though--a mix of conservative Christians, liberal Christians and freethinkers."

Flemming: I think that fundies (Christ-followers) believe crazy things, but I acknowledge that once you step into their fantasy world where a hateful, disturbed god wrote a book called the Holy Bible, the hateful, disturbed conclusions of Christian fundamentalists do make some kind of internal sense.

Royal Comment: It is perfectly normal for a pre-believer to not only misunderstand, but to think Christians are crazy. It takes faith and listening to the Holy Spirit to understand the secrets of God that were and are reveiled through Christ.

Matt. 13:11-12 Then (Jesus) explained to them, "You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others have not. 12To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them.

Flemming: Liberal Christianity, despite being non-hateful and on many issues even ethical, is hopelessly incoherent, however. Liberal Christianity says a perfect God wrote a perfect book--but he made mistakes. Or, alternately, liberal Christianity says the book is an extremely flawed and even disgusting work written by men--but special attention should still be paid to it. Liberal Christianity says religion shouldn't stand in the way of science--but a dead man did really rise from the dead. Probably. Or, at least, it's not unreasonable to believe that he did (or that he turned water into wine and walked on water). Liberal Christianity says the love of Jesus is the only way to Heaven--but if some people don't believe that, it's fine to let their deluded souls go off to Hell without even trying to stop them. Or maybe Heaven and Hell don't exist at all--but it's still very, very important to praise this figure called "God." For some reason.

Liberal Christianity wants to drink the Kool-Aid but pretend there's no cyanide in it. And nothing pisses off liberal Christians more than having the incoherence of their beliefs laid bare.

Rev. Joseph Phelps, a liberal Christian (who does, by the way, believe Jesus actually rose from the dead and is capable of saying so in as casual a manner as this parenthetical), dealt with my critique of his brand of Christianity in the easiest--and most empty--manner: by accusing me of being a "fundamentalist" atheist. I'm getting so tired of this line that I usually just ignore it, hoping the audience will simply see through it. But sometime I suppose I'll have to come up with a pithy way of explaining that a person who believes that 1 plus 1 equals 2 is not embracing "fundamentalist" math. He's simply rejected 1 + 1 = 3 as flawed

Royal Comment: Liberal Christians like being Christians because of the consumer benefits that come with Christianity, like going to Heaven and being forgiven for their sins. They want to believe it is OK to be liberal because it cuts way back the list of sins, and the list shortens daily. Being liberal and tolerant makes them more pupular. (So they hope)

But as Mr. Flemming I believe concurs, they lose the respect of the people they are trying to please. I believe they also lose respects for their own "powerless" beliefs and in themselves.

Atheists are not the only ones that call Liberal Christians foolish. Jesus said, "But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. " (Matt. 7:26)

Training as an apprentice of Jesus
Royal

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Weblog Written by an American Soldier in Iraq


Here is a blog I thought you might find interesting. He calls it "They Call Us, "Doc".

He writes it is "A blog inspired by my experiences from serving as a US Army Combat Medic with the 278th RCT in Iraq. (I may throw in some other stuff for good measure!)"


It is written by an American Soldier in Iraq, Sgt. Ron Long from Tennessee. He has a couple of interesting posts on the interview the soldiers recently had with President Bush...

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Living for Heaven


Jonathan Edwards wrote, "It becomes us to spend this life only as a journey toward heaven...to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end and true happiness?"

One of Edward's life resolutions was to endeavor to obtain for himself as much happiness, in the other world, as he possibly could.

Randy Alcorn wrote in Heaven, "Satan need not convince us that Heaven does not exist. He need only convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existance. If we believe that lie, we'll be robbed of our joy and anticipation, we'll set our minds on this life and not the next, and we won't be motivated to share our faith.

Think about it
Royal

Monday, October 10, 2005

What's Up With Liberal Christianity? # 3


I read several blogs yesterday written by people who call themselves liberal Christians and were trying to convince themselves they were quite proud of being liberal.

"And if they do cry out and God does not answer, it is because of their pride.
Job 35:12

By definition of liberalism alone, a person is saying he or she is under no guiding authority and is free to decide what is right and what is wrong. There is a major problem with this belief. Only God is in the position to see and know everything, so only God can know what is right and wrong. By claiming to be liberal, one is claiming to be God, or at least on the same level as God. That has been tried before and the guy was banished from heaven and forced to wear a red suit with horns and carry a pitch fork for eternity.

One guy said he worked his way into being a liberal Christian by starting out as a conservative Christian. The comments that followed were by people who were happy that he could be so open about his faith, (or lack of it) and it made them proud to know that he was a liberal Christian also.

There is only one way to go from a Christ-following Christian to liberalism, disobedience.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, "You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. John 8:31

Training as an apprentice of Jesus
Royal

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Ancient Spiritual Wisdom to Heal Our Troubled Modern Souls - Henri Nouwen


The Way of the Heart, by Henri Nouwen
Connecting With God through Prayer, Wisdom, and Silence

Solitude - "the place of purification and transformation, the place of the great struggle and the great encounter...the place of our salvation."

Silence - "First, silence makes us pilgrims. Secondly, silence guards the fire within. Thirdly, silence teaches us to speak.

Prayer - The prayer of the heart opens the eyes of our soul to the truth of ourselves as well as to the truth of God. The prayer of the heart challenges us to hide absolutely nothing."

Nouwen wrote this book inspired by the ancient teachings of St. Anthony and the desert fathers. In a very busy world where we are constantly surrounded by noise and busyness, it is important as apprentices of Christ that we slow down and deliberately get still and quiet and know that God is God.

This book is a great challenge to reevaluate and refocus on Jesus by developing the spiritual diciplines that will help you grow in Christ. It is a little book with a strong message.

an apprentice of Jesus growing to see thing through His eyes
Royal

Thursday, October 06, 2005

What's Up With Liberal Christianity? #2


A Liberal Christian is someone who is trying to serve two masters. He is trying to live in two worlds, straddle the fence and receive the consumer benefits of both. The problem is, one can't serve two masters. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters, you will end up being devoted to one and despise the other." As a human being, who naturally leans toward the flesh side, which side do you think wins when we try to worship both?

The apostle Paul writes that there is this old sinful nature within me that wants to do wrong, and it wins most of the time. He says the only way to keep the sinful nature at bay, is to stay in the Spirit. Because of the sinful nature that is within all of us, the more we are in the world, the more we become like the world, sinful. Our sinful nature is always hostile towards God. If we stay in the Spirit of God, we will do things that are pleasing to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:1-15) The more we are in the world, the more we will be worldly. That is not the goal of a true Christ-follower.

Thomas Merton wrote in the introduction to his The Wisdom of the Desert: "Society...was regarded (by the Desert Fathers) as a shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life...These were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster."


The devil spends all of his time working to separate us from God. The Bible calls separation death. His goal, according to Jesus, is to destroy us, kill us. Jesus said, "You are truly my disciples if you obey my teachings." Jesus is our authority as Christians and this black and white statement by Jesus makes Christian Theology very narrow, although extremely generous due the sacrifice Jesus made to pay our way.

The definition of liberal is: not literal or strict; broadminded; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms; lacking moral restraint.

Liberal, by definition, cannot be used to describe a Christian (disciple of Christ) as defined by Jesus Christ.

I think, if you were to ask most people who call themselves liberal Christians if Jesus was Lord they would most likely say, "Of course, I am a Christian."

And Jesus would ask, "So why do you call me `Lord,' when you won't obey me?" Luke 6:46

An apprentice of Jesus
Royal

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

What's Up With Liberal Christianity? #1


How does one become a liberal Christian?

Would liberal Christian be an Oxymoron or is it possible for someone to even be a liberal-Christian?

Think about it. In the next posts I will be dealing with this subject. Your input will be greatly appreciated. I will be quoting an atheist and what he says about Christian Liberals and I will be quoting and commenting on Dallas Willard's Divine Conspiracy among others.

What does someone who professes to be a liberal-Christian who belives in a liberal Christian Theology do for or against the great commission?

Can a liberal-Christian be a disciple of Christ or an apprentice to Jesus?

Please be respectful of others in your response.

Training to be a Jesus-apprentice
Royal