February 5th, 2010
How often do you hear from someone that they wished they hadn’t done that? It happens to all of us from time to time and should get less frequent as we get older and wiser.
Most of the time when we regret something it is because we acted on an impulse and did not take the time to think, read, pray, or act on our own. Take Facebook for instance. I really enjoy the social network because it gives me a place to study this whole “I don’t think first” generation. What amazes me is this generation ranges from 13 to 50 or so.
People say some really cute things on Facebook. I have seen many people use it as a prayer chain and others as a way of encouragement. I see the whiners who tell you an hourly update of how miserable their life is and then others who are too happy to not be medicated. Some post quotes from people who say wise things and others post things written by someone with names like @ru~puffy*.
Here is what I see far too often though. Someone posts a paragraph that someone else posted and tells them to copy and paste, or post and link, or something like that. The problem is most people don’t read these things and if they do, what are they thinking when they repost it?
As a pastor I struggle with folks calling Christians hypocrites. That is, someone who says and acts one way and contradicts those words or actions with more words or actions. Unfortunately, Facebook brings out the fact that if you are a Christian and you are posting some of the things that I see from “Christians” that I know, then we are hypocrites in the worst way.
Here is a list of stuff that I have seen posted by more than 5 “Christians” in the same day: Horoscopes, Karma, links to vulgar and profane sites, unjust condemnations , and profanity. These are not occasional goof ups that can happen to anyone, but regular occurrences by professing Christians.
Often I take the time to comment, sometimes subtly, other times very directly, and many times people will remove a post or change the tone. I hope that there is some regret in what is said, but most of all, I hope that we will take a minute to realize how powerful the tool of internet social networking is and use it to share how awesome God is and the positive difference that He has made in our lives, and quit showing the world that they are right to call us hypocrites.
Live your Christian life with no regrets.
Tim Fowler
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January 25th, 2010
To those of us who believe that God is who He says He is, I want to challenge you to examine your walk. As Christians we are told to walk by faith and not by sight. This is not about walking around blindly with no direction. It certainly isn’t about a literal walk without sight. It is about taking what we know and putting it in to the test.
Often in my sermons I use the example of sitting in the chairs of our church as an example of real faith. Some of you are thinking right now, ‘hmm, it doesn’t take much faith to sit in a chair.’ But, I disagree with you. I contend that it is a wonderful example of faith in action, something that most Christians lack.
Why do we sit in a chair and not worry about it holding our weight? Do you ever stand at your seat in the church and worry over your safety if you were to sit in it or not? Do you watch others sit in chairs over and over again before you decide to try it? Of course not; and the reason behind that is, we believe the chair will hold us and we act like it. We have complete faith in the chair. Over and over again the chair has proven to be reliable. We trust the manufacturers of chairs and we trust the integrity of the chairs and therefore we have faith: Faith enough to walk, or in this case sit.
I have seen bad chairs before. I have seen people sit down and they just keep going. The chair either was old or broken or the person was too heavy for the chair that they were sitting in. This should be enough reason for me to not trust chairs, but I still do. Time and time again I act as if nothing can go wrong if I decide to sit in a chair, and time and time again my faith is rewarded with exactly what I expect from a chair.
Do we Christians act the same way with God? He has never failed us like some chairs have failed us. Do we trust Him more than we trust a chair? If God is who we claim He is, are we acting like it? Is your Christianity tied up in going to church and reading your Bible? Shouldn’t it be about doing what the Bible tells us to do?
Very little of the Bible tells us to go to church, yet most Christians use going to church as the measurement of their faith. Do we trust the way that God tells us to give enough to give with as much faith as we sit in a chair? Do we trust the way that God tells us to forgive enough to forgive with as much faith as we sit in a chair? Do we trust the way that God tells us to love others enough to love others the way we sit in a chair? Are we walking in faith or are we by sight, making sure we trust God just enough to sit down in the chairs of our churches and be entertained.
I challenge you to use your sight to see if you have real faith, the kind it takes to sit in a chair, and see if you have faith in God enough to walk when, where and how, He says to without thinks twice about out.
If we could only have the faith to walk like we have the faith to sit, we could do so much to change the world. Next time you sit down, ask God to help walk with that much faith.
Tags: christians, faith, God, love, Pastor Tim Fowler
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January 18th, 2010
I start this out by saying that sadly this person is not one of my heroes. Not because he does not deserve it, but because I know little about this man, other that hearing his famous speech and then only portions of it, I have little knowledge of him. I know that he was a man that believed in equal rights for mankind. That race, was something that should never be used to determine a person’s worth nor their rights. He dreamed of equality of mankind and believed that civil disobedience was a way to effectively get this message out. I have been blessed with the fact that I have never been one who cares about a person’s race. Being raised in the south, I believe that is a rarity. Sadly, there are many today who use race as the only reasoning for hating another human being. God loves us all equally and desires that we do the same. I would love nothing more that to see a world void of racism, but I don’t think that it will happen in my lifetime. As much as racism tends to be focused on how white people and black people differ, it goes much farther than that. Jews and Arabs, Catholic and Protestant, Greek and Roman, to name a few, have been battled and argued about who is superior. It is the effect of sin in humans that is truly at the root of things. That being said, God is the only living being that is not a racist in any way. It is only through His love and mercy that we can even hope to defeat this evil. The Bible tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and to think about others needs ahead of our own. This means that we must make the dream of Martin Luther King Jr., equality, a concerted effort to reach the heights servants and to begin to serve each other in the interest of our fellow man above our own interests. While I am always thankful to have an extra day off, I hate that Dr. King had to die for that to happen. I know that he dreamed a big dream and that it is worthy of a holiday. Maybe we should all sing and remember the old children’s song. Jesus Loves the Little Children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they’re all precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. (In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.)
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