The Land of Ozz

The past two days of reading in Luke from the October Daily Bible Reading schedule offers some great lessons on faith.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Luke 17:5-6 (NIV)

A few verses later Jesus responded to the ten men who had leprosy who had said, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”.

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. Luke 17:14 (NIV)

This is a teaching that I have heard Charles Capps speak on a few times and it speaks volumes to how faith really works. When you break down the sequence of events you realize that the ten men with leprosy had to make a move without having realized the manifestation of healing. They still had leprosy when Jesus told them to go “show yourselves to the priests.” It was the step they took “in faith” that actually healed them. The scripture says, “as they went, they were cleansed.” The healing was there and all they had to do was exercise their faith to see the manifestation of healing in their bodies.

There is a process to get to this level of faith even in today’s age. Healing is available from God. I have heard so many people say that healing miracles ended with the death of the apostles. I have not found that stated anywhere in the Bible. Miracles were prevalent throughout the Bible and I beleive they are alive and well today. Jesus even spoke to how God will grant answers to pleas for his children and Jesus even wonders how many will have faith in this process when he returns.

“…don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who plead with him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?” Luke 18:6-8 (NLT)

Jesus was asking how many of us he would find with faith if he returned today. How do we get this faith? How do we increase it? I believe the first step in answering this question comes from getting yourself into the Word of God as we are told in Romans 10:17. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (KJV)

Faith is critical to the believer, but Faith is much more than just believing. Even Satan believes in the Word of God. That is why he works so hard to deceive us from having faith in what the Word says. Jesus went on to share the importance of faith and having a strong faith like that of a child.

One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch them and bless them, but the disciples told them not to bother him. Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you, anyone who doesn’t have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God.” Luke 18: 15-17 (NLT)

The end of Luke 18 sums up how important it is to increase our faith. Jesus’ own words to the blind man in verse 42 tells what power faith can have when he says, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” This was one of many occasions throughout the ministry of Jesus where acknoledged the person’s faith when healing miracles were delivered. And again, Jesus asked back in verse 8, “…when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?”

How strong is your faith? Do you need to increase your faith?

References from Luke’s gospel can found in the BibleGateway Passage Lookup for Luke 17-18

It should be a busy week over on Caden’s Page. Caden goes in for pre-op on Wednesday, while Riley is getting allergy tested to see if he is clear for egg yet. I will be at MUSC with Caden while Sherry takes Riley to the allergy clinic. Caden is on the schedule for pacemaker troubleshooting and repair on Thursday. Please keep him, and our family in your prayers.

---

There are a couple new things on Tech Land.

---

A great resource for cooking temps and times was added to Grill’n Time this week.

Enjoy!

The folks over at xxxchurch.com claim to be the #1 porn site for Christians, and they should be your #1 porn site if you are a Christian who struggles with pornography. The concept of taking the Good News to folks caught up in the porn industry seemed like a noble and challenging task to me. Today I got a first hand message from J.R. over at xxxchurch.com. Well, it was as first hand as I am going to get in the near future. You see, J.R. came and spoke to me and about 7000 of my closest friends over at Seacoast Church. You can read about J.R.’s Porn Sunday visit to Seacoast over at the X3 Blog.

I have followed the xxxchurch.com ministry from a distance for a while. I have refrained from posting on anything about the xxxchurch.com ministry until today. The main reason I have been so slow to post on this ministry is that I did not want to bring any embarrassment to my church. I have never been asked by my church to tone down on a subject matter on my blog and I have never been asked to add or remove anything. My blog is just that, my blog. BUT, I am a member of Seacoast Church and my words and actions can and often do represent the body of the church. This representation is not in any official capacity. I remember an email that was sent a while back. It came from a lady who wanted to know more about Seacoast. I went through with a pretty long spill to make sure she knew that I was not a staff member of Seacoast and that she should contact the church office for more information. Here is a small part of her response to my disclaimer:

“I may argue that members represent a part of the whole, so that means your view should mirror that of Seacoast- well that’s just my opinion. I want first of all thank you for replying to my query instantly. Your in-depth explanation of what the purpose and intent of the small group meeting entails clearly shows why you host one of these meetings. I am glad you not only reply in a short span of time but also give me an insight to what Seacoast is all about. I will follow your advice and contact the church in Summerville for further assistance.” (some editing for grammar/punctuation)

All that said, I try to make sure that I do not post on a subject that may shed a negative light on Seacoast, or the body of Christ in general. I felt all along that the xxxchurch.com movement was a sound and worthwhile ministry. On the other hand, I have not be a party to conversations with the senior leadership of my church to know whether they would share my opinions on xxxchurch.com. How many of you other Christian bloggers ask yourself if your your church and Jesus is being properly represented before posting. Now I have my answer about xxxchurch.com and you have a link to another awesome ministry.

The message that J.R. and Pastor Greg did is only good for issues related to sin associated with sex and pornography. One of the things that jumped out at me from this message could apply to many other areas of ministry. J.R. contrasted the difference in how xxxchurch.com ministers to the porn industry by going into the porn conventions to share the Word with the participants to lead them to Christ verses how other people and groups will stand outside of porn conventions waving signs and screaming at people as they enter telling them that they are all going to burn in hell. This is just another level of my biggest beef with “Christian” organizations. They think that name calling and criticism will some how change someone or convict them to confess their sins and turn to Jesus Christ. J.R. used this scripture in his talk and I think it is worth repeating:

Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. (Galatians 6:1-3 MSG)

I am downloading the x3watch accountability software from xxxchurch.com. There is a free version and a pro version for $14.95. The X3PRO version allows for more accountability partners of your choice as well as support. My best friend (my wife) will be my first accountability partner. I am looking for two more if you are an x3watch user and are interested in being my accountability partner.

Oh, and parents, the first step in protecting your children against pornography is to protect yourselves. That is my own two cent on the subject.

Listen to the Seacoast message by going to iTunes or you can find the most recent series at Seacoast.org.