Stopping the trend...

Can you look at your family history and see a trend? I can. And others can as well. Studies show that if your Grandpa was bald, and your dad was bald, the chances of you being bald are pretty good! Which is why I have started using this.

Studies also show that if your grandpa was an alcoholic, and your dad was an alcoholic, the chances of you becoming an alcoholic sky rocket! Same goes with college, divorce, abuse, and other various trends.

This past Sunday at CrossTalk we saw how a young King named Josiah broke a trend that haunted his past. Josiah's dad was one of the worst kings in Israel's history, promoting so many pagan gods that child sacrifices started to be the norm. This was a trend that was started way back in Solomon's day...400 years before! God ended Josiah's Dad's reign abruptly, and Josiah took over at the age of 8. Not very old to be king, but we see in his story (2 Kings 22-23) that he rose to the occasion. When Josiah was 26, he decided to clean up the temple of God, which had fallen into disrepair because no one was using it. When the high priest at the time reported that they found a book, Josiah read it. That book was the book of the Law that Moses had written 900 years earlier! It was just in the corner with junk piling up on it. That is how bad it had gotten with religion and Israel!

What happens next is really cool! Josiah reads the book, and it changed his life! He gathers all of the people together and they all read it together. The whole nation repents and renews the covenant with God. They tear down the temples to other Gods that have been built in the mountains, and start new with their relationship with the one true God.

Josiah couldn't have stopped the trend with out God's help. This is true in our lives as well. My parents are divorced. My wife's parents are divorced. My wife and I have decided that we want to honor God in our marriage by not getting a divorce. We can't do that on our own, we need His help.

If you have a family history that you want to stop...then decide today to commit your life to Christ and His way. With out Him, you will end up continuing the trend. With Him, you start a new trend for generations to come.

much Love,
Johnny

Sunday ReCap

It has been a great Easter/Spring Break/vacation for Brooke and me (johnny), which is why I haven't blogged much. But I am back in full swing, we are back on our regularly scheduled programs (wed/sun meetings) and are working hard to finish the series we started a long time ago!

So, in our Crosstalk Sunday school we are in the midst of our "Bible Jesus Read" series, where we are looking at the Old Testament book by book. Last Sunday we were in the book of Job, where we over viewed the whole book, looked at what the main point was, and then asked what the heck we can learn from a book thousands of years old. There was much fun had by all.

The book of Job is poetry. We lumped it in with our "wisdom" literature section where we have looked at the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclessiastes. Job is a great book. The first couple chapters set up the heartbreak and questioning of God. Because of what happens to him (Job) he starts to as the tough questions in life; Why do bad things happen? Why did you do this to me God?

We jumped over a lot of the dialogue between him and his friends (pretty much the bulk of it) and skipped to the end. This is where God speaks for himself and answers Job (a pretty gracious act in itself) and we see why God is doing it. Actually, we see in God's answer that He is God, and we are not.

Essentially what we learned on Sunday is that we need to remember what it is like to fear the Lord. The main question we can ask ourselves is this: HOW DO I HUMBLE MY SELF BEFORE THE LORD?

We discussed this, and we asked another question: DID JESUS COMING TO EARTH MAKE US FEAR GOD LESS?

I think it did a little. What are your thoughts? And how do we humble ourselves before the almighty God?

much Love,
johnny

Sunday's Challenge, revisited

In Sunday School a few weeks ago we talked about David and his biggest fall (2 Samuel 11 and 12). We saw how he repented from his sin and sought God's forgiveness. Some of you took me up on the challenge of writing your own psalm of repentance, in view of David's psalm 51.

Well, today we looked at the book of Psalms at a glance. The p in psalms is psilent by the way. We saw today the different kinds of psalms (lament, rejoice, wisdom, messianic, trust) and how they can enrich our prayer life incredibly! Today there is another challenge out there. After hearing the couple of people's psalms of repentance, some of you want to write your own psalm! But it can be any genre, joyful, trusting, repentance, crying out to him. Anything at all.

To write your own psalm and post in anonymously, go down to the comment section just below this post. Click on the comments, write your comment, "verify" the word they ask you to (to ensure that you are not a robot), and post your psalm. It is a great encouragement to us all!

much Love,
johnny