A Pastor's Thoughts

From the first time pastor schools, or seminaries, came into existence, the plan was to train saved, dedicated, ministry oriented people in the business of being a pastor.  Most, if not all seminaries and Bible colleges in America required a statement of faith.  These schools wanted to know the salvation story, or testimony of their students, mostly to confirm they are saved. Over the past several years, seminaries have stopped requiring this statement.  It has been explained to me two ways.  First, many seminaries now teach counseling and social work.  These occupations are not people who preach the word, so the thought was that these people need not be saved.  Second, attendance and enrollment in seminaries were decreasing.  There are many factors to account for this, but to keep enrollment up, these schools reduced the entrance requirements, which included a statement of faith. The result is that seminaries and Bible schools are graduating people for the purpose of being pastors

Education is a big business in America.  It has been reported that the largest debt  of people under 25 is student loans.   President Bill Clinton opened the way for anyone to get a guaranteed loan and a chance to go to college.  Others have supported the idea because education is big business. Some occupations need a certain level of education.  A medical doctor needs to go through various stages of education and training before they can be called a doctor.  The assumption, when we go to a doctor, is that they have completed the required steps of education, and that they know something.  I was told by a doctor, some time ago, that someone needs to be at the bottom of the class in medical school.  Yet, they were still in school. Pastors are also a profession that requires a certain level of education.  Pastor’s education is not as official as medical education because there is no state license for a pastor.  Yet, it is important for a pastor to be education for several reasons. T

I am still fighting the county.  Every since 2010, every year, they claim we are no longer a non-profit and we must send cooperation documents, tax-free applications and many other forms.  Our two renting churches must also do that every year.  There is no way to perpetually call us a church and when we change, I will notify them.  No, they must demand forms and claim they don’t get them and just send us bills and penalties. Today I called the county again.  All forms were sent into their office back in October.  I received a return receipt on October 10.  They still have not opened their mail or even looked to see if they have my forms.  When I call, they say that they are busy and they will get around to it when they feel like it.  When I consider the private companies I deal with, if one of them put a $9,000 charge on my credit card and were lax and not interested in fixing it, I would immediately stop doing business with them and call the credit card company to fight this for me.

Everyone has bad days.  A bad day is usually seen as a day when all the planned things do not work right or take too much time or just don’t happen.  Bad days can occur when something unexpected or unwanted comes in to disrupt everything.  Bad days come to everyone, and thankfully they do not come every day, I have been pondering the idea of being grateful.   Rabbi Daniel Lapin says that gratefulness is the key to happiness.  If someone wants to be happy and optimistic, he says, then start each day by writing three things they are grateful for.  Each days list has to be different than the previous day, no repeats.  So I have been thinking about this since I tend to not be a very optimistic person. Then today happened.  I ran several errands and got the wrong things and went to the wrong stores.  Once thing that had to get done today was to cover the vent hole that leads to the crawlspace under our house.  On Sunday night a young skunk got under there and let loose. We know it was

“Hope is on the way” was the biggest pile of manure that any politician could say.  This is because politicians and government cannot bring hope, direct people to hope or even explain hope to the masses.  A good way to think of hope is to think of it as a favorable view of the future.  Someone who has hope has a positive outlook on the future, while the hopeless have a negative outlook on the future.  So when politicians promote hope, people gobble it up because they have not been hopeful for a very long time.  People lose all hope when the political landscape promises the moon and never delivers anything.  Trust is eroded and hope is lost. When people promise hope, they will always fail.  This is because people, governments, institutions and systems cannot predict the future or even control the future.  Therefore they cannot plan for the outcome of things.  God is the only one who can promise hope and make sure that promise is never broken. Jesus was born into an oppressive, capri

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the traditional time our church decorates for Christmas. We put up garland and ribbon and banners and a large tree in the corner.  I love how our church looks during Christmas time.  It is bright and cheerful and it celebrates the glorious gift of love that God gave to his people.  People from our church all come and the team sets up everything.  It is a great time of celebration and fellowship during the setup.  We love to do that. Some Christians do not like Christmas trees and would never put one in their church.  They say that it is a pagan symbol and that December 25 is not Jesus’ real birthday anyway.  I say, “lighten up.”  No one but God, Mary and Joseph know exactly when Jesus was born.  This was for satay reasons, mostly.  Because of that we don’t know exactly when Jesus was born, but I want to celebrate the birthday of my Lord and Savior.  So do many others, so someone made up the date of December 25 and it has been on the books for close

We live in a world of comparisons, put-downs and bullying.  Instead of striving for excellence and doing their best, people find and comment on what is wrong with everyone else.  Perhaps this is how they feel superior in the world.  This has created a very negative and complaint centered world. Recently I heard someone say, Gratitude is the proper seat of happiness .  I heard this on Thanksgiving day, 2017.  This idea here is that if you want to be happy, show some gratitude.  Be grateful and express it and happiness will come to you.  This is because negative and critical speech causes our brains to focus on that way of thinking.  It is a downward spiral and can lead to a very grumpy and negative day. Being grateful is simple.  Pause for a moment and think of things or people you like, then either speak about it to someone or write it down.  There is a practice of writing five things that you are grateful for every night before bed.  This puts the mind in a state of gratefulness.

"There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American."  O. Henry Ronald Reagan’s Thanksgiving Proclamation,  September 15, 1983 Since the Pilgrims observed the initial Thanksgiving holiday in 1621, this occasion has served as a singular expression of the transcending spiritual values that played an instrumental part in the founding of our country. One hundred and twenty years ago, in the midst of a great and terrible civil conflict, President Lincoln formally proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to remind those "insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God" of this Nation's bounty and greatness. Several days after the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield, the United States celebrated its first national Thanksgiving. Every year since then, our Nation has faithfully continued this tradition. The time has come once again to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, an occasion for Americans to express gratitude to

There are two types of people in the world.  Those who are saved and being saved and those who are lost.  Those who are lost are living in rebellion to the righteous and holy God who created them.  They hold themselves as their own god and do what is right in their own eyes.  They are futile in their thinking.  This means that they do not think straight.  When we see someone shoot up a Las Vegas concert and wonder why or what motivated him, we have to understand that his thinking was futile.  This does not mean that he was mentally ill in the classic sense, but just evil and totally depraved in the moral and spiritual sense. Every day new people are brought forward and being accused of sexual immorality.  They are accused by people who sleep around, watch porn and lust.  The perpetrators and the accusers are futile in their thinking.  They are coming at life with futile thinking.  Most cannot tell the difference between righteousness and evil.  Most only fear one thing:  getting caug

There are two basic views on the origin on morals.  One view is that morals are autonomous.  This view is held by evolutionists.  They believe that morals evolved as people and society evolved.  Morals are a way, they say for people to get along and behave in groups.  Morals, therefore, change as society changes.  People can also propose changes to morals and campaign for those changes.  Entertainment and writings can push the envelope of morals and, over time, change them.  Morals are not based on anything, so they are flexible. The other view is that morals are revealed.  The biblical view is that God, the creator of everything, has a proposal on how the created order should behave.  For humans, God gave the law.  The law is a set of rules that govern people’s behavior.  For the first people, there was one rule or one law.  Adam and Eve failed and sin entered the world.  God wants to limit our sin, so he gave rules, called the law.  From the law, moral and ethical behavior emerged.

Yesterday I preached John 21:24-25, the last two verses of the Gospel of John.  I spent over 5 years preaching though 21 chapters and over 800 verses.  This is the first Gospel I have preached in my 12 years at Cornerstone Fellowship. The Gospel of John is not considered to be like Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Those other three are considered more biographical.  Critics say that John’s Gospel is out of order and fantastical in its presentation.  It is, in fact, different than the other three, but it is not out of order and nothing in that book is fantasy, although it may be fantastic. John begins with Jesus in eternity.  The other Gospels start with Jesus in a manger.  They contain stories of shepherds and Wise Men and visits by angels and other things  most would associate with the “Christmas Story.”  In verse 1 of chapter 1, John declares that Jesus is God and eternal.  He then takes us into John the Baptist and into the life of Jesus. John wrote a different Gospel than Luke becaus

The Bible is God’s revelation to his people and the world.  The Bible is timeless, which means it is new and applicable in 2000 BC and 2017 AD.  The Bible is universal, meaning that it can speak to any culture, any people group or tribe, nation or language and it is timeless meaning that its message works in any age. That being the case, how is it for a Christian to live today.  There are Christians in all manner of situations today from opulence to inject poverty, from acceptance by the culture to being hunted and persecuted.  I shall restrict my comment to life in America and specifically the San Francisco Bay Area.  Famous church planters like Rick Warren and Bill Hybils have come to the San Francisco Bay Area and tried to plant churches and failed.  Their conclusion was that the Bay Area is the modern day Babylon, a culture that is completely anti-God.   I read an article once that said they shook the dust off their feet and went back home.  My experience living in this area is tha

Some have said that this is the worst time to be a believer in Jesus Christ because of the oppression and persecution.  Those calls are coming from Americans.  My thoughts are that we know nothing of oppression and persecution in America. In the time of Jesus, the world government was Roman.  They were sexually immoral, arbitrary in taxation and all it took was the word of an official and you would be killed.  As Christianity spread, Nero, among others, made it national policy that Christians were to be hunted and killed.  We all know the stories of Christians being thrown to wild beasts for sport.  Nero would dip Christians in tallow and set them on fire to light his garden parties.  The history of the post-cross world has not been favorable.  Even when Constantine became a “believer” the governments brand of Christianity was not the most pure. People came to America first, to escape religious persecution.  The church of England, a government based church, did not like free thinke

“Timing is everything.”  This is such a truism, such a universal thought that finding who said it first is impossible.  A quick internet search on the source of this quote yields over 200 people who have said it in song, print, interviews and the like, in just the last 50 years. Timing is the difference between something that works right and something that just happens.  Memorable events are timed perfectly.  Every person who can tell a joke has timing.  I have known a few people throughout my life who simply could not tell joke.  Their problem is that they have no timing.  Every actor that is well paid has timing.  Every preacher that has people listen to the has timing.  My best sermons are one's where my timing is great. Successful politicians are masters of timing.  Releasing reports at just the right time to be ignored or featured on the evening news.  Announcing accusations only work when they are stated at the right time.  Too early or too late and no one will care. Go

There is a movement that has been around since the 1950s or before.  They call themselves Christian and call their meeting places churches.  That is where the similarity ends.  Prosperity preachers are all about getting rich while following Christ.   Ken Hagen and Ken Copeland were the kings of this type of teaching.  They claim that the only reason Christ died on the cross is so that you can have a really nice car and a really big house.  They are very rich and have a very public showing of riches to prove that what they preach is correct.  If a person does not have unspeakable wealth, then that person lacks faith or is not praying the right prayers or is not sending enough money into the prosperity preacher.  Prosperity preaching places a burden on believers because it simply does not work and is unbiblical. Christ died on the cross to save people from the wrath of God.  People are sinful, evil and totally depraved.  Christ took our punishment so that we have eternal life with hi

There are benefits to a moral life.  If a person is living a moral life, there is nothing to discover and nothing to bring to the press.  This is important today because of all the accusations, some recent, some very old.  The difficulty of living a lifelong moral life is that it takes time and sometimes it just isn’t fun. Judge Moore is accused of unethical, not illegal, behavior 40 years ago.  Immoral and unethical behavior can mess up an election, even when the accusations are 4 decades old.  Of course, even the most ethical person can be falsely accused if they allow their life to be exposed in politics.  However, never sleeping around would reduce the chances of being accused of sleeping around. President Trump is famous for telling each of his children, every morning, “no smoking, no drinking, no drugs.”  Every day of their life they were told this, and it looks like it worked.  The Trump children do not drink, take drugs or smoke and never have. President Trump’s example i

In John 19:18-23 we have the story of Jesus telling Peter how he is going to die.  Jesus prophecies that Peter will die by crucifixion.  I know many people who have told me they wish someone would prophecy over their lives.  I think most of them would be disappointed if someone told them they would be tortured and killed for the cause of Christ.  Yet, that is what Jesus told Peter. Peter’s instant response is to point to the apostle John and say, “What about him?”  Peter was doing what everyone does today, he was getting the attention off himself and onto another person.  We live in a culture where people say they are taking full responsibility.  Yet what they actually means is “stop looking at me, I am taking no responsibility.”  We live where people blame, distract, deflect and compare. I had a brother growing up.  That was great because if I did something, I could blame him and not so great because if he did something he could blame me.  It took some time, but we learned to be

God communicates with his creation, specifically humans.  This is proved, theologically accurate and true.  For thousands of years people have known what God has wanted from them.  There have been true prophets who actually spoke for God.  Some of their works are in our Bible.  There have also been false prophets who spoke their own words or the words of a deceiving spirit.  Some of their stories are also in the Bible.  King Ahab, for example, was lured to his death in battle by a group of false prophets. Today God is not silent.  There are four specific ways God can communicate with people today and they are: 1. Voice :  God has a voice.  From time to time he will speak so that people can hear it.  He does this sparingly with large spaces of silence between them.  The last time God the Father’s voice was heard in the Bible (not counting Revelation) was at the Transfiguration.  Some have said that God has not spoken in an audible voice for 2,000 years.  Yet God can.  God can also s

I started giving blood when I was in the military.  There would be regular calls for blood donation to help wounded soldiers.  When I got out of the military I continued the practice.  I was told by the Red Cross that they needed my blood type and my blood flowed quickly. In the 1990s I was asked if I wanted to donate platelets.  Platelets are the broken blood cells that allow our blood to clot.  They are the main reason we do not bleed to death from a paper cut.  Chemo-therapy destroys platelets.  Especially in children who are being treated for cancer with Chemo-Therapy, there is a danger of bleeding from the slightest injury.  Therefore, platelets, donated by others,  are given to such people during the Chemo-Therapy.  Platelets must match the blood type of the recipient, like whole blood.  Donating whole blood takes about 15 minutes.  Donating platelets takes 2.5-3 hours.  The process is called aphaeresis.  They take the whole blood out of one arm and centrifuge out the platelets

Note:  This is not an attempt at virtue signaling or humble bragging or holier than thou thoughts.  Just my thoughts on games.  Take them for what they are. I do not watch any sports.  I watch no football or basketball or baseball.  If I am somewhere and a game is on the TV, I have no problem walking past it.  I know people who are into everything sports has to offer, and I know people who watch a random game or two.  If I were to follow something, anything, I would need to know players and stats and everything and track the game.  If I followed basketball, I would have to do a bracket.  This is how I follow things.  I am all on or all out, so I choose to not follow any professional sports.  One exception:  when Olympic curling comes on, I will watch it, not because I follow it, but because it is a fascinating game. Over three years ago for a New Years resolution, I chose to remove all the games from my computer and phone for one year.  At the end of the year, I could think of no g

Prayer is communication with God.  I have written that, preached that and taught that for decades.  Yet prayer is also a tutor.  Prayer teaches people about the sovereignty of God.  We can pray our heart’s desire and when things do not change or things happen badly, we can either throw up our hands and say that prayer is useless or we can stand, marveling at God’s sovereignty. This post comes after the horrific shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX.  The people that were murdered were praying Christians.  My guess is that they did not pray that government background checks would work and that no one would shoot up their church.  That is understandable.  But the truth is, God allowed a murderous, evil man to kill praying, believing Christians. Various commentators in TV have actually said that this is proof that prayer does not work.  This is an insane notion.  If prayer worked the way Don Lemon says it needs to work, then God would be a gum ball machine.  Prayers go in and perfect saf

I preach the Word of God.  The style I use is called expositional exegetical .  I draw the meaning out of the Scripture and explain it.  I believe this is the only approved type of preaching.  To preach events out of the newspaper or the latest psychology fad does nothing to edify the saints or glorify God and certainly it does not contain the power to save. The context for my preaching is that I preach through books of the Bible.  Most recently I have been preaching through the gospel of John.  I started in John 1:1 and last Sunday I preached through John 21:15-17.  Charles Spurgeon preached through the entire Bible, but did not take the verses in order.  He bounced around, and got through the entire Bible. One of the most popular styles of preaching in large churches or churches that want to be large is a style called “topical.”  Traditionally topical preaching takes a topic that is from the news or something that the pastor is reading.  For example, I have known churches that go

No.   There is no such thing.  There are a couple reasons why: 1. Islam is a political ideology.  Their goal is to replace current governments with the government of Islam.  Therefore their attacks are political in nature.  They are one political system against another.  The current war on terror supported by our government is a war on political terror or people, from Islam, who kill people for political ends.  The shooter in Sutherland Springs had no political agenda.  He was not backed by a political machine or ideology.  The driver in New York was. 2. People who believe in the teachings of Islam believe they are earning points with their god Allah by committing violent acts.  The man who drove the truck down the bike path in New York was attempting, with all his might, to gain points with his god.  His belief was that when he died in the middle of this act of killing, he would be ushered to the highest level of reward in heaven for his great work.  Christianity has no such teach

I was going to blather on about the new iPhone or some Government program, but when I got home from church today, the news was all about a shooting at First Baptist church Sutherland Springs, in Sutherland Springs, Texas.  Up to 27 killed, the rest were shot and injured.  The congregation of 50 was removed from their church services by the corner or ambulances.  This is horrific, sad, an abomination and pure evil.  It is evil because it was an attack on the one place in this world where truth still exists.  Jesus Christ setup the organization known as the church as a gathering of believers who come together to pray, sing and preach the word.  The attack today was not just on innocent people, including children, but an attack on Jesus Christ himself since he is the head of the church and the church is his body. The world hates Christians; the world hates Christ.  That is a plain and verifiable fact.  There is more violence against Christians than any other religious group.  Apart fro

There are various religions in the world today.  When politicians talk about the world’s greatest religions, they will usually include Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism. Christianity, in the mind of the secular world, would include protestant and Roman Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons. True Christianity, which is Bible based and sourced in Jesus Christ, is one of the world’s greatest religions, and it is the only true religion.  When I speak of religion, I am not speaking of the ritual or the trappings that come in the practice of the faith.  I am using the old definition of religion which is a person’s relationship with God, or how a person relates to God. When we place the various religions side by side, we can compare origins, practice, theology, teachings and anything else we want.  At their core, however all religions except Christianity are human philosophies.  When a person becomes a Christian, a change occurs.  The believer is immediately forgiven

Today I hear four things being talked about here and there.  First a new iPhone is released today, November 3.  It is the full screen iPhone X.  Some people love it, others don’t see the point.  The price seems to be the main bone of contention at $1,000. Additionally, there is much talk about tomorrow. November 4. ANTIFA promises to overthrow the government.  Primarily they are saying they are going to get rid of President Trump and Vice President Pence.  There are also others who are marching on Sacramento and other state capitals trying to overthrow those governments as well.  I have not seen any response from the government.  It does not look like they will be calling out the FBI or the national guard.  My guess is that Washington DC fears nobody, especially a tiny little gang of thugs from Berkeley. Third, a prophecy group back east is speaking about this weekend.  They first said Jesus would return on September 23, 2017, but missed that date.  Now they are saying that the fir