Have You?

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luk 14:26-33)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Col 3:1-5)

Jesus talks about the importance of it.

Paul repeats the same thing.

Abraham had to learn to do it.

Have you?

Have you fully surrendered your life to God?

• “I go to church.” – That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I pray.” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I am a member of _________ Church” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I am a Christian.” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?
• “I was baptized.” - That’s not what I asked. Have you FULLY surrendered YOUR life to God?

One more passage, “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” (1Th 1:9).

So, have you FULLY SURRENDERED YOUR life to God?

- Scott

The Problem of Crime and Violence

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,” This passage from Rom 1:24-30 sounds as if it could be from today’s headline or lead news story.

• Entitlement
• Gun Violence
• Violence in general
• Crime
• Disrespect for Law (Law Enforcement)
• Hateful attitudes
• Unwed parenting
• Sexual Immorality
• and the list goes on . . .

How do we put a stop to all these things?  At the very least, how can we slow down the number of occurrences? Are more laws the answer? Maybe or maybe not.  Are tougher penalties the answer? Possibly or possibly not.

The answer begins at home.  We must get our homes back to what they should be.  We must train our children at home – hands on.  This starts when they are born and continues even when they are in school (home-schooled, private school, or public school).  Parents, we NEVER stop being our children’s firt and primary teacher.  This is God’s plan all along: Deut 6:3-9, “Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

To do this means we will do more that tell our children what to do and how to behave.  We will model it.  We will live as God’s person and live with God every second of every minute of every hour of every day so that our children not only hear but also see how to live.

- Scott

Five Dangers Teens and College Students Need to be Aware of

This is for pre-teens, teens, college students, young adults, and anyone else this might apply to:

Five Dangers of Premarital Sex.

1. Counterfeit love – it will not last. We will not grow together intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually
2. Emotional Consequences. Studies are showing many emotional problems of young adults and adolescence.
3. Physical Consequences.  Five in curable venereal diseases (std’s) cause by sexual immorality.  There is no safe sex outside of monogamous marriage.
4. Marital Consequences.  Bringing extra baggage and emotional scars into an already difficult relationship. How can each spouse know the other will be true.
5. Spiritual Consequences.  God will forgive, but there are still consequences.

How Do You Stay Pure?

1. Protect your mind both the eye gate and the ear gate are important.  Pornography and explicit literature are gateway drugs.
2. Decide in advance a predetermined decision to stay pure!
3. Don’t date anyone that does not follow the same decision.

Too late?! – “Go . . . and sin no more.”

Keep Christ in . . .

One of the most sarcastic songs of this season is “So This is Christmas, War is Over” originally by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  If you pay attention to the underlying tone, they are saying “Who cares if this is Christmas, what are you doing the rest of the year to help the less fortunate.”  If they were coming from a Christian perspective, I might think they were trying to get Christians to put charity as a part of their daily lives (cf. Jas 1:27).  However, looking at the life that John and Yoko lived and the words to anti-Christian songs like “Imagine” I think I can rightly conclude that they consider Christians ignorant for believing in the Messiah and at the very least hypocritical for not following His compassion.

In reality they have a point.  Consider that signs all over town, all around say Keep Christ in Christmas.  Excuse me while I take liberty with that idea and say “Let’s keep Christ in Life.  After all the apostle Paul tells Christians in Col 3:3-4, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (emphasis mine – BSMc).

How can we do this?

1. Remember Christ’s Coming Daily: His coming at birth.  Such was Prophesied: Isa 7:14 – God with us, such was Promised – Matt 1:18-21 (Name means – salvation), and such was Proclaimed – Luke 2:8-12 (Savior & Lord) Remember He is Coming again: 2 Pet 3:9-12.  We remember his coming when we live worthy of His name.
2. Remember Christ’s Gifts Daily.  The gift of all spiritual blessings in Him through His blood – Eph 1:3-9. When we focus on all that God gives us we become better neighbors, friends, spouses, parents, children, co-workers, employers, employees, etc.
3. Remember Christ’s Love Daily.  Love sent Him to us not to condemn but to save – Jn 3:16-17. Remembering God’s love motivates us to obedience
4. Remember to Return that Love Daily: Matt 22:36-40, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” When we live this love we proclaim His coming until He returns.

Peter, Paul, and Mary ask the question in their version of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas:” Why Can’t We Have Christmas the Whole Year Through?

Well, Peter, Paul, and Mary – We can! We can when we Keep Christ in Life the whole year through.

Happy Holidays, from the McCown Family.

As Stubborn as an Ol’ Mule

A farmer claimed that he taught his ol’ mule to respond to gentle commands. Townsfolk and neighbors thought this was a stretch but they knew the farmer to be an honest man. They also knew that mules were stubborn, cantankerous, hard to train, but hard workers once you got them moving. Most of the time their mules needed coercion and a lot of tugging, pulling, and pushing to get them started, stopped, or to turn. The farmer insisted his was different, so everyone in town agreed to see this mule in action.

On the given morning the townsfolk gathered at the farmers fields. He came out of the barn to welcome them and proceeded to the side of the barn to gather the harness and other tools for the morning’s work. As the farmer walked to the side of the barn, he not only selected the harness but also picked up a 3 foot long 2×4.

With harness and 2×4 in hand he walked to the mule, said, “good mornin’,” set down the harness and with both hands on the 2×4 he whacked the mule upside the head. The mule fell to the ground obviously dazed. The farmer harnessed the mule while he was down. When the mule stood up with his legs steady, the farmer said a few kind and gentle words to the mule and they started plowing.

The crowed jeered! A heckler shouted, “A 2×4?! You said he followed gentle words!”

“He does,” replied the farmer. “I just have to get his attention first!”

Hmmmm . . . . . I wonder if God feels the same way about me sometimes.

-Scott

Too Proud or Not Proud Enough?

“My Precious”

Years ago I heard a Hip-Hop (Rap) artist being interviewed about what some call “The Seven Deadly Sins.”  When the discussion came to pride, his reply was “Pride?  I don’t think that is really a sin.  We have to have pride.”

Elizabeth Bennett replies to Miss Charlotte Lucas about Mr. Darcy, ” . . . and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.” (italics sic.)

I once had an elderly gentleman tell me that it was a sin to be proud of your children.

Pride.  Is pride a sin?  Or as some might suggest, is a lack of pride a sin?

Maybe this discussion all boils down to our working definition of pride.  If by pride we are talking about self-worth (healthy self-esteem) then maybe pride is not completely bad.  However if we are using pride as a synonym for conceit and elevated self-importance then maybe pride is out of order.

When God’s word calls pride sinful God is using pride in the sense of looking down on others, refusing to see your own shortcomings, and ultimately elevating self to the level of (if not above) God himself.

• Psa 10:8, “ In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
• Pro 29:23, “One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.”
• 1Jn 2:16, “For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions–is not from the Father but is from the world. “

Yet not every mention of pride in God’s word condemns pride.  There seems to be a “healthy pride.”

• Isa 4:2, “In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.”
• 2Co 7:4 “I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.”

Maybe Elizabeth’s sister Mary was approaching the right idea when she joins the conversation, “Pride . . . is a very common failing, I believe . . . . that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other . . . . Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously.  A person my be proud with being vain.”

What do I gain from this?

1. When my self attitude (pride) causes me to look down on others that pride is sinful.
2. When my self attitude (pride) refuses to allow me to see my own sin (much less confess it) then that pride is sinful.
3. When my self-attitude (pride) looks at my accomplishments as my own then that pride is sinful.
4. When my self-attitude (pride) see my sin and wants to better myself in Christ through Christ, then that pride leads me to improvement.
5. When my self-attitude (pride) leads me to see my accomplishments through Christ (Paul’s view of the Christians in Corinth) then that pride leads me to praise.

What are your thoughts on pride?

note: quotes from Elizabeth and Mary Bennett are from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

You are Not Your Own

Billy Joel sang, “I don’t care what you say anymore this is my life, Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone.” Western society screams, “It is my body, I can do with it what I want!” We then begin to sacrifice our bodies to the gods of: Pre-marital sexual relations, Extra-marital sexual relations, and Homosexual relations. The first two of these attribute to an number of Abortions in our society with those seeking abortions claiming that the growing human life that is inside of them is a parasite on their body in an attempt to justify the termination of that life.

We use the excuse of “it is my body” to rationalize and justify: Abuse of Tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs as well as the abuse of food and of fitness.  We believe after all that “It is ALL about me!” – whatever “it” is.  We are concerned only with what makes me happy or makes me comfortable.  Something must be good if it will satisfy my convenience.  I have MY RIGHTS after-all!  It is all about me!

Or is it? Cf. 1Co 6:13-7:5.  The Apostle Paul says, “you are NOT your own.”

1. Husbands and Wives, you do not belong to you.  You belong to each other. You are the property of your spouse. Cf. 1Co 7:4.
2. Christians: We are Purchased, both body and spirit (1Co 6:19-20) by the blood of Christ (1Pe 1:18-19). You do not belong to you and I do not belong to me.
3. We are now the home God’s Spirit, (1Co 6:19-20). Given as earnest for our future at the moment we obeyed the Gospel (cf. Act 2:38; Eph 1:13-14). This realization should impact the way we live.
4. We are to glorify God in our bodies (1Co 6:20).  Since we are members of Christ and He of us (1Co 6:13-15).  We are to use our body for the Lord and NOT for ourselves.  We are the people of his possession zealous for good works (Tit 2:14).

May we each seek to be a living sacrifice for God and not for self.

-          Scott

Seen on FaceBook: http://www.joyfultoons.com

Upward Righteousness

Last night was our third lesson in our Summer Series on Uplifting Messages from the Sermon on the Mount. Ted Burleson from the Hamilton Church of Christ spoke to us about Upward Righteousness. Below are the notes I took on my iPad as he spoke. Pay special attention to the seven questions at the end. They are what we are typically more concerned about than we are our righteousness.

1. To have upward righteousness, we must hunger and thirst to live lives pleasing to God. Mat 5:6

2. We must be willing to be persecuted because we live for God. Mat 5:10

3. We must obey God which will allow us to enter heaven. Mat 5:20
Rom 10:3
Phil 3:9

4. Our primary daily concern is to live for God and His Kingdom (church). Mat 6:33
How do I look?
How do my clothes fit?
How does my car look?
How does my career compare with others?
Do I feel sexually attractive?
Am I happy?
What does my future look l like?

Teaching with Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

via backgrounds.crossmap.com

Col 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Eph 5:19, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,”

What we sing says much about what we believe.  What we sing teaches, encourages , and motivates those around us as we assemble in worship (Heb 10:14-15).

What follows are twenty-five songs that we sing that mean so much to me and put me in a great frame of mind as I focus on God.  I limited myself to twenty-five, I have a list of nearly 200.  Please feel free to share some songs of worship and praise that are important to your focus.

1. Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah.
2. How Great is our God.
3. I Sing the Mighty Power of God.
4. Hear Me When I Call.
5. Glorify Thy Name.
6. Lamb of God.
7. Wonderful Story of Love.
8. You are the Words and the Music.
9. Worthy art Thou.
10. Majesty.
11. You are Exalted, Lord, Above All Else.
12. We Place You on the Highest Place.
13. Lord, I Want to Love You More.
14. Wonderful Merciful Savior.
15. All the Way My Savior Leads Me.
16. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.
17. And Can it Be.
18. Come Share the Lord.
19. My God and I.
20. Peace, Perfect Peace.
21. It Is Well With My Soul.
22. Nearer, Still Nearer.
23. Purer in Heart O God.
24. My Jesus, I Love Thee.
25. There’s a Fountain Free.

Keep Singing!

- Scott

Characteristics of Great Faith

What follows is an outline a recently preached at a small congregation in Fayette County, Alabama. Feel free to adapt it and use it to the glory of God.

– Scott

Jesus reproved His disciples for “little faith.”
Sermon on Mount in general to all for worrying about daily needs
Fearfulness during a storm on Galilee
Peter when he sunk after walking on water
When “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” sailed over their heads.
Yet Jesus complimented a Roman Centurion, “I have not found such a great faith, even in Israel!”

What about our faith?
If the Lord’s work is to be done in our generation it will be by men and women of great faith.
Little faith people do little, great faith people do much more.
What is “GREAT FAITH”?
2Timothy 1:3-18

Great Faith is Sincere – 2Ti 1:3-5
“Un-hypocritical” or unfeigned – not a “put-on”
Paul was grateful to God for Timothy’s faith

Desired to be with Timothy because of Timothy’s faith
Heb 10:23-24

Faith was Timothy’s own yet learned from previous generations.
Not “good enough for Mom, good enough for me.”

Great Faith is Stirred Up – 2Ti 1:6-7
“stirring embers so that they blaze into flames again.”
Great faith cannot remain inactive – Jam 2:20, 26
Great faith uses our individual abilities.

Timothy’s gift may be miraculous such as prophecy or knowledge
Coincided (given with) the elders laying their hands on him – 1Ti 4:14

Our gifts are not “miraculous” like his, “Never-the-less” stir them up.
Everybody can do something.
Unless you stir up your abilities the fire will go out.

Body Hill CoC.
Whenever there was a job to do, Everybody, thought Anybody could do it
and that Somebody would.
Somebody thought Everybody should help.
Invariably Nobody did it.
On the Day of Judgment, guess who went to heaven:
Nobody did.

Stirred up not scared!
“God did not give us a spirit of fear.” – cowardice
What if I make a mistake? What will ____ think?
“What if beggars were wishers and wishers were thieves?”

Power – God
Love – because of His love
Sound Mind – self-discipline

Great Faith is Shameless 2Ti 1:8
Not ashamed of the Lord
Rom 1:16

Shame (embarrassment) produces inactivity
Not ashamed to suffer with Him
Heb 11:25

2Ti 2:9-12 – sees and knows God and Christ

Great Faith is Steafast 2Ti 1:13-14
Parallelism
Pattern of sound words = good thing committed to you
Hold fast = keep

Eph 4:14-15
In faith and love
Not “straight” as a gun barrel and just as cold, hard and empty.

Conclusion:
How great is your faith?
Sincere, Stirred-up, Shameless, and Steadfast?

Salvation begins with faith – Gal 3:26-27
Eternal joy results from continued faith – Rev 2:10