Do you weep?

When He (Jesus) saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd.-Matthew 9:36

Five times in the Gospels we are told that when Jesus saw the crowds He felt compassion for them. Jesus in His humanity is moved to tears over the sinfulness of mankind. In the verses proceeding 9:36, the reader sees Jesus cleansing a leper, healing a woman with a fever, Jesus healing the blind, and driving out demons. Jesus is doing a lot of physical healing, however, the spiritual plight of individuals is what brings Him to tears. Jesus in His humanity is overcome with the lostness of the people. Jesus is moved to literal tears overs the plight of sinners. 

• When was the last time YOU were moved to literal tears over the plight of sinners?
• When was the last time YOU talked with a loved one who does not know Christ and you were crying because of their lostness?
• When was the last time YOU went to the grocery story and were moved to tears because of all the people who did not know Christ and would end up in Hell if they died today?
• When was the last time YOU looked at the nations and wept for those who had never heard?

Friends, we need more weeping. Please pray this prayer with me:

Dear God, I am sorry. I am sorry for my lack of compassion for the lost. I confess that I have become jaded in my view of the lost. Please forgive me. I beg you to open my eyes to the spiritual plight of individuals whom I interact with on a daily basis. Please give me a heart for the lost and a boldness to share my faith. In Jesus name, Amen.

Noah: An Elect Man

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.-Genesis 6:5-9

It is easy to misread this passage and come to the conclusion that Noah was a good guy who earned God's favor through his good works. Tragically, today I was reading to a child in the nursery and the story went like this: "In the days of Noah, all the people were wicked except for Noah, a righteous man who earned God's favor. Therefore, God saved him from judgment in the flood." This false teaching about Noah goes against the rest of Scripture and simply not what Genesis 6:5-9 says.

First, Genesis 6:5-7 depicts the total depravity of everyone on earth with one of the most negative declarations about human sin in all of Scripture. We are told that God saw that every person was only evil all the time. God was grieved that he had made mankind because they filled his heart with pain. This statement does include Noah.

Second, Genesis 6:8 does not say that Noah worked hard to merit God's favor. Noah did not begin as a righteous man. Rather he began as a sinner among sinners. His status with God was God's gracious gift, not a result of Noah's religious works. It is beautiful that the word "favor" in this passage is the Hebrew word for grace, which appears here for the first time in the Bible and is echoed repeatedly throughout the Bible in the teaching that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Throughout Scripture people are saved through the undeserving work of God. Because everyone was a sinner in Noah's day-just like everyone is a sinner in our day-no one earned God's favor. God's favor is a free gift. So God worked, as he always has, by saving an ill-deserved sinner by grace alone, through faith alone, thereby enabling him to live a righteous life. Genesis 6:9 then explains the effects of God's grace to Noah: "These generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God."

Indeed, Noah was a blameless and righteous man who, like Enoch, walked with God. But Noah was only this sort of man because God saved him by grace and empowered him to live a new life of obedience to God by that same grace.

For more info. check out Mark Driscoll's book, "Doctrine."

The Reason

The reason why we go.

World's Greatest

This week a picture surfaced on Facebook of my fifth grade class. (Go ahead and have a good laugh. I am in the top right corner.) I know, I too am blown away with how bad the style was in the mid-nineties. However, let us not forget my generation is the generation which gave us Jnco Jeans, the country music group Alabama, the great song "Barbie Girl" and the world's greatest TV show "Boy Meets World."

Perhaps it is fitting that this Sunday is Mothers Day because as I was looking at this picture I began to think about my Elementary School Days and every memory had my mom in it. I began to remember all that she had done for me over the years...

• I remembered that my mom was the one who made my lunch every morning from Kindergarten until I entered High School.
• My mom was up early in the morning in order to see me off to school and my mom was there when I came home in the afternoon and always had an afternoon snack waiting.
• My mom helped me with school projects, learning lines for plays, and flipped Spanish note-cards for hours on end.
• My mom was the one who would sneak food up to my room after my dad had sent me to bed without supper for misbehaving. (If my parents were the Bible, my dad would be OT: law and my mom would be NT: grace.)
• My mom was the one I could always convince to let me off early from my punishment.
• My mom came to all of my plays, track meets, and every school function. 
• My mom taught me how to love and serve others.
• My mom told me to never give my heart away and just have fun with girls.
• My mom was always there when I did give my heart away and a girl broke it.
• My mom was the one, who, when another kid stole my Nintendo game, she marched over to his house and chewed him out and got the game back.
• My mom was always trusting me, even though, I would let her down time and time again.
• My mom is the kindest, gentlest, Godliest woman I know.
• However, the greatest thing my mom did and does for me is that she prays(ed) for me. I would not be the man I am today if she had not given all of that time in prayer.

Mom, this post is for you. I love you! You are the world's greatest mom. I know I was not the easiest kid to raise, however, you never gave up on me and always loved me no matter what. Thank you! I would not be the man I am today if it were not for you and your love. Happy Mothers Day. I love you!

We Pray for Children

We Pray for Children . . .
Ina J. Hughs

We pray for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray, for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes,"
who are born in places where we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at
and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children
who want to be carried and for those who must,
for those we never give up on
and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother . . .
and for those who will grab the hand of anybody
kind enough to offer it.

Thankful for every teacher who prays and impacts the lives of children.