Mental Musings

Valentine's Devotional

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:52:00 +0000

Every fall we have a Bible presentation for children. At these, each minister gets to sign their name and put down our favorite scripture passage in the Bibles that are presented to our new first graders. Each year I write down “Romans 12:9.” Romans chapter 12 is an excellent summation of how we as Christians are to live our lives. And I believe that Romans 12:9 is the pivotal verse which encapsulates the entire message of that chapter.

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Romans 12:9 (NIV)

I thought that this would be a good verse to share the day before Valentine’s Day. The first instruction here is that we are to love. To do this, you need to first be a Christian. Why? Because according to 1 John 4, our love comes from God:

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4: 7-10, 19 (NIV)

Secondly, our love must be sincere.

“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:20-21 (NIV)

Mark 3:35 tells is that “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister.” So we are told that we must love His church, our fellow believers in Christ.

The next section is something that people are often afraid to discuss: “Hate what is evil.” The world tries to tell us that God should only be a God of love and mercy. The “h” word is just too harsh sounding and it doesn’t fit into our politically correct society of multiculturalism and acceptance of anything and everything.

Let’s first look at what was not said. This verse did not say to hate people who do evil things. God’s Word clearly shows us that we are to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. But at the same time, the Bible just as clearly shows us that we are to run from, and, yes, even hate evil. Contrary to Eastern teachings, good and evil do not mix; we do not all have an equal amount of good and evil in us, a Yin and a Yang. Before Christ we were without love and evil. But when we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, that evil was washed away by His blood, His sacrifice, and we were filled with the holiness and love of God through the Spirit.

It is very easy to turn hatred for evil into something just as sinful. Look at groups such as Westboro Baptist Church. They hate evil so much that their message has been turned into hatred of people as well. Or what about Islam, which claims to be ridding the world of infidels or those who are evil in their eyes because we do not believe the same as they do.

So how do we “hate” evil without sinning ourselves? We must focus on the first command that was given: our love must be sincere. It is not wrong for us to hate the evil things of this world. It is not wrong for Christians who are also American citizens to protest against ungodly laws, but we must do it out of love first. Romans 12:19-21 teaches us that we are not to take vengeance against our enemies, but rather that we should do nice things for them, which will drive them crazy as they try to figure out why we would continue to be nice when they are being so mean. We are cautioned in verse 21 not to be “overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.”

And lastly, we are to cling to what is good. Luke 18:19 says, “No one is good—except God alone.” If we want to discover what is truly good we need to get to know God more. And how do we do that? Through prayer, through Bible study, and through our experiences with God.

What Is Your Focus?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:02:00 +0000

Recently a friend suggested that I purchase the book Now, Discover Your Strengths so that I could get a code to take the Gallup's Strength's Finder profile survey. This is also available from the book Strength's Finder 2.0. I found the survey and the results extraordinary. I could not believe that they were able to understand the real me so much.

The main emphasis of the Strength's Finder surveys is that we need to focus more on our strengths because those are the areas in which we do our best and enjoy ourselves more. They do not trying to de-emphasize building up your areas of weakness, but try to explain that you will always feel frustrated if you are not allowed to work in areas that utilize your strengths.

My personal strengths turned out to be:

Strategic - I can sort through the clutter and find the best route
Responsibility - I take psychological ownership for anything I commit to do
Self-Assurance - I have faith in my strengths and my judgment
Input - I am inquisitive and collect information for use at the right time
Achiever - I am driven to complete goals and must achieve something tangible each day to feel good about myself

I have also taken other similar profile surveys. One that I taught to several small groups was the Uniquely You's Discover Your Giftedness which helps you to understand your personality profile (using the DISC behavior survey) as well as spiritual gifts. The emphasis of the Uniquely You survey is that we need to learn not only about our personalities, but about those of others so that we can better understand and work with other unique individuals.

Through that study I learned that I am in this order for the DISC:

C type - competent, passive task-oriented person
D type - Decisive, active task-oriented person
I type - Influencing, active people-oriented person
S type - Sensitive, passive people-oriented

Jesus would have been all four types with all positive aspects from each and none of the negatives.

My spiritual gifts are almost always the same:

Discernment - I know the right thing to do and can detect evil in things and people
Administrative - I am organized
Prophecy/Teaching - usually close to each other and both deal with sharing the truth
Faith - Solid trust in God and what He expects me to do

Earlier in my life I had to take personalities tests for Seminary enrollment, the Foreign Mission Board, and even as part of pre-marital counseling. And just today I was required to take the Birkman survey as a requirement for some future training that we will be doing among our staff. I do not have the results yet, but this survey usually just comes back with a result of what you are in terms of a career. For example, a music ministry friend discovered he was an "artist" as a result of the Birkman survey. Imagine that.

So what is the point of these surveys, tests and questionnaires? They help you to focus on using your strengths, skills, gifts, etc. and possibly show you areas that you need to improve. To date I believe that I learned more about myself through the Strength's Finder survey, but that is only because I have known my personality type and spiritual gifts for many years.

If you do not know your spiritual gifts, I would recommend starting there. After that, I would definitely recommend you learn the DISC personality types because it has greatly helped me in learning how to work with other unique people. And I would strongly recommend the Strength's Finder survey because it will help you to really understand why you enjoy the things that you do and dread certain types of work.

Two-Minute Warning

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:20:00 +0000

While the politicos argue about the Obama allies making an extremely Democrat-friendly television ad that was aired during this year's Super Bowl, the Obama regime continues to attack the very core of our nation in their relentless attempts to eradicate the Christian heritage of our country and strip away religious freedoms. Not all of this is done at the behest of Barack Obama, but as the leader of the free world Obama has made it clear through certain actions, and inactions, that he is at war with Christianity in America.

The latest news to come out from around our country does not look good for the future of religious freedoms. Here is just a sampling of things that have been reported.

United States Army censors what chaplains are allowed to preach. First restrict the chaplains from sharing a weekly homilie from the Catholic church and later rescind that by removing the sections with which they disagreed. [Read article]
In what appears to be a direct attack at the Catholic Church, Obama announced this week that religious institutions and charities will be required under Obama Care to pay for contraceptions and abortions for any employee that wants to receive these. The Southern Baptist Convention stands up for the Catholic Church and religious freedom as they warn that under Obama Care religious leaders would be put in jail for refusal to comply with these laws that are in direct violation of their religious beliefs. [Read article] Meanwhile a Pennsylvania college begins distributing the highly controversial morning after abortion pill through a vending machine. [Read article]
Maryland's Governor is pushing for a Same-Sex marriage bill while his wife is out telling people that anybody opposed to it is a coward. She also is claiming that religion should never play a part in the laws of the state. [Read article]
Washington State announces that they will also push for a Same-Sex marriage bill. See how the dominoes begin to topple.

Forget about the "Halftime in America" ad, we are way past halftime people. We are in the final two-minutes and religious freedom is way behind in this all important game. I realize that our country has existed for many years with the comfort of knowing that we can always change things during the next election, but at the speed with which the Obama regime is stripping away our religious freedoms and their continual lust for stripping away constitutional guidelines that guarantee a balance of power in our nation, we may not have until November.

It is time for Christians in America to realize that we either stand up now for our freedoms or we can make our stand from our prison cells in the coming years.

The Killer, The Cure

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:22:00 +0000

This is a completely different style of poetry for me. I had a rap song going through my head when I started it, so I thought I would continue in that style.

The Killer, The Cure
(c) 2012 Steve Poole

Pain is crashing down like bricks upon my chest
Pushing and crushing
Taking peace, stealing freedom
Mental exhaustion begging me for rest
Searching and lurching
Questions here, can you hear them?

Barking at my heels the people circle ‘round
Snapping and yapping
Idle chat as they tinker
Dragging me down those upon the ground
Dragging and grabbing
Hooking me, line and sinker

Stressed beyond reason striking out in anger
Staring and daring
Don’t try me, you’ll regret it
In walks the babe that rocked the manger
Holding and molding
Think I’m out? Don’t ya bet it

Stress it tries to kill me but I got a secret
Dunking and dying
This life’s already gone
I gave my life away I really couldn’t keep it
Rising and breathing
Died to self and now I won

Sin’s the double killer but Christ gave me new life
Raising and Praising
I was lost, now I’m found
No more pain or sorrow no crying no more strife
Lifting and shouting
Hell behind, heaven bound

With All My...?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:58:00 +0000

We had a very interesting conversation on the way home from church today. During our pastor's sermon he mentioned that we should "Sing with Our Heart" and "Fill Our Heart with the Spirit." I mentioned that in biblical times they believed that the seat of our emotion was not the heart and that we translated the word that was used to heart because Western culture believed the seat of our emotion is the heart. That started a long conversation on how things would be different if we used the original biblical idea which would have been closer to "gut" or "bowels".

These were some of the examples that came to mind:

Sing with your bowels unto the Lord
Fill my bowels with the Holy Spirit
I love you with the love of my bowels
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my bowels
Open the eyes of my bowels, Lord
Instead of "i [heart] you," it would be "I [large intestine] you" (sorry, I do not have the symbol for a large intestine, so I spelled these out)

I am sure that my wife was thoroughly enjoying the "boy" humor in all of this. She did tell us that we needed to be careful not to be sacrilegious in our joking around.

Heavy Hearts

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:47:00 +0000

I noticed that the vast majority of the new choral anthems that have been composed recently are what I would call pastural songs. By that I mean that they are not the big, energetic, fast, exciting songs with the big choral ending. Instead they have a beautiful, lyrical, and melodic flow with deep, rich harmonies that allow the listener the freedom to sit back and soak in the overpowering message that accompanies the song.

As I was speaking with my Ministry Assistant today, I commented that perhaps they understand the overwhelming stress of our nation with difficult economic news everyday, depressing prospects about the future of our country's safety and security, and an endless tirade of sub-par politicians telling us what we should care about or, worse, lecturing us about how our country, the greatest and best country ever to exist, is not good enough and needs to become like the failed countries of the world in order to be liked by others. As Christians we can also look around us and see the depravity of the world. Everyday we are faced with another uphill battle against Satan as he attempts to force immorality on the overarching culture of America.

I believe that composers not only see this, but also feel it in their own lives, churches, and communities, and perhaps that is why they have turned to these much needed songs of comfort and cheer. And maybe I am just seeing and hearing the things that I need to hear...because the Holy Spirit is just that way. "When I am down, He picks me up. When I am dry, He fills my cup." God is my all in all, my everything, and sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

If your heart is heavy, if your life is filled with stress, if you are at the end of your rope and you have no strength left to hold on or climb back to safety, let the Holy Spirit be your comforter, your companion, your caretaker. God does not expect us to always be happy. Jesus experienced sorry and sadness. Jesus cried at the loss of a dear friend. Jesus cried out to God with a heavy heart when he was facing the cross. God longs for us to come to Him even when we are desperate so that we can share with others how He got us through the difficulties of life.

Fight the Good Fight

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:02:00 +0000

Timothy was a young minister who must have dealt with many problems in his ministry. You might wonder what makes me think that, but I think it is only obvious based on the letters that his mentor Paul wrote to him. After all, Paul felt it necessary to encourage Timothy as well as give him some instructions for his own survival. I believe that this is something that every one needs, but perhaps ministers even more so.

Most people need that daily dose of the well-dones or way-to-goes, but for the most part the average person is able to get away from their job and spend some time with friends or family who can help them blow of some steam by sharing about their frustrations at work. Ministers typically live far from family and rarely have friends outside of their church. So when something at work is extremely frustrating they have nobody close to them that they can turn to for council and advice.

That is why it is important for ministers to find ministry mentors and build relationships with their peers in the ministry. I meet with a group of worship pastors 2-3 times per year. We have shared our joys and failures, plans for the future, our fears and more. We have even had a counselor from our convention meet with us to provide insight that we might have overlooked. It is a wonderful time filled with lots of laughs. A great stress relief for us all. And we leave feeling closer to those who probably understand what we go through more than anyone besides our spouses.

Read through 1st and 2nd Timothy to see how Paul served as Timothy's mentor and encourager:

1 Timothy 1:18
Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight. (Paul knew the spiritual battles Timothy would face and wanted to encourage him to press on through the hard times.)

1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (Paul reminds Timothy whose he is so that he would keep his focus on God.)

1 Timothy 4:12
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. (Shows that Paul had reason to believe that people did not respect Timothy as their pastor because of his age. This happens often when senior adults believe they know more about their church than that young pastor.)

1 Timothy 5:23
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. (Shows that Paul cared about Timothy's health.)

If you are serving in the ministry and do not have a good network of ministry peers and/or a ministry mentor, I encourage you to set aside time from the many good things you are doing for your church and spend time building these vitally important relationships. This is important for non-ministry Christians as well. Many people do not have Christian co-workers, friends or family members to help them through those frustrating times of life. God uses fellow Christians to lift us up, encourage us and compel us to fight the good fight.

Email Etiquette

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:11:00 +0000

In an ever increasingly busy world, we often fail to take the time to actually read things in their entirety. I know that I am guilty of this. I often peruse through most things. Something I learned very well when taking a full load of college courses while working 40+ hours per week to pay for college. Perusing materials may work well if the writer was kind enough to use headings, subheadings and the occasional bolded comment. Some things are not perusable: the bible for instance, although in this case I am going to use business email as my example.

It seems that more and more often I am receiving emails that have been forwarded to me three or four different times from people who were either included in the original email or received it from someone else. More times than not, my email address is clearly shown as one of those who originally received the email. However, the forwarder is not taking the time to read the original list of email receivers before simply forwarding to everyone they think should know about the aforementioned email.

There are some important things that people need to learn or at the very least be reminded about when it comes to email:

Very few people read forwarded emails. If the email is important enough that you want them to actually read it, take the time to remove the FW: from the email subject line and make sure you do not include those annoying forward options in your chosen email program (indentation of forwarded text, solid line down the forwarded text, "begin forwarded text" notification just above the forwarded text, etc.).
Before you forward, check to see who originally received the email. If a persons name or email address is on the original email, do not forward to them.
Blind Carbon Copy options hide who was originally included in the email. It is possible that others have received this email, so consider if it is really important enough to send.
Cute, sappy, funny, tear-jerking, etc. stories are best shared with a few people at once...not your entire email contacts.
If you forward a video or file, say something about it in the subject line or body of the email so that the receiver knows it is valid and not a virus. I never open attachments from email addresses I do not recognize and rarely from those I do recognize unless they clearly explain that they have attached a file for me to view and what the file concerns.
Know your intended audience. Most people will not read long emails without a specific reason. When I need to send a long email, I preface it with the information that it is long, but very important. If at all possible, I will use bullet points for the major information and then share more detail later.
Send only to those who need to read. I cannot tell you how many emails I receive that have nothing to do with me and no explanation as to why I received it. If you included somebody just so they would have background information about something for a later date, mention that in the email.
It is virtually impossible to read tone in an email, but if you use ALL CAPS people will think you are YELLING! I will always assume that when I see ALL CAPS. Never use all caps. Use bold if you want them to pay attention to something. If you are mad enough to yell, don't use email. Pick up the phone and talk to the person. It is possible that you are confused about something or that they have information that could help diffuse your anger.

Focus Please

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:06:00 +0000

Today I had to wonderful experience of finding new eyeglasses. This is something I hate because your frames can make you look like a dork or make you look like a superstar. Well, maybe not a superstar, but at least not a dork. I always bring my wife along to help me choose because one of the problems with shopping for glasses is that you must take off your frames to try on others...and without my own glasses on I cannot actually see the new frames.

This process reminds me of some basics taught in skills training courses as well as knowledge I just gained from a book I read last week, Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. That may seem like a stretch, but think of it this way...

If I chose to go it alone to pick out my glasses, I would never be able to see the frames.
If I took along an entire team of people, we would waste a lot of time choosing frames.
If I took the wrong person with me, I could be talked into glasses that fit their fashion rather than mine.
If I took along an enemy, I would most likely be wearing goofy looking glasses for the next couple of years.
If I tried to determine my own prescription rather than take advice from the professionals, I could miss some important information on the health of my eyes and most likely I will not get the right prescription.
If I try to make my own lenses rather than using a pro, I would have coke-shaped lenses that still do not work properly.
If I... there are probably many more.

You must learn to use our skills and focus on your strengths as well as put people around you that have skills and strengths that are needed for your ministry, job, etc. Keep your focus on the right things (and the right person) and you will be much better able to complete the tasks in front of you.

Powerful Name

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:38:00 +0000

There are certain events in the Bible which inspire, amaze, astound, intrique and some even confuse. One of the events that seems to do all of these is the betrayal of Christ by Judas, one of His closest friends and companions during the final three years of His life.

I believe that the story of the betrayal is culminated in John 18:6, "As soon as he has said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground." (KJV)

Here we have Judas, Roman soldiers, Temple guards, and members of the chief priests and Pharisees all banding together to come and arrest Jesus of Nazareth. They left town and traveled to the garden with the knowledge of what they intended to do. They came with armed soldiers to help carry out their plan. They knew that they were approaching a small group of what they considered to be radicals. Therefore, we must assume that they were prepared for some necessary use of force. And the actions by Peter showed that they had reason to expect this.

So with a prepared, armed, and well planned group of men, they suddenly find themselves in a very awkward position. Scripture tells us that as soon as Jesus said, "I am he," they fell to the ground. What is important about this event is the exact Hebrew word that Jesus used to announce Himself. The New Testament was written in Greek, but it is obvious from the experience that Jesus used the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh. And the very power of that name knocked down to the ground not only the Jews who would have understood the significance of it, but also the Romans soldiers.

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary puts it this way:

"As soon then as he said unto them, I am He, they went backward-recoiled and fell to the ground-struck down by a power such as that which smote Saul of Tarsus and his companions to the earth (Ac 26:14). It was the glorious effulgence of the majesty of Christ which overpowered them. "This, occurring before His surrender, would show His power over His enemies, and so the freedom with which He gave Himself up" [Meyer]."

Jesus had the ultimate Power Name. And in using the name that He had given to the Israelites through Moses, Jesus showed that He had all authority over everything that was about to happen to Him. They had no power, regardless of what authority had sent them, to arrest, try and eventually crucify their God. And further, there was no power in heaven or earth that could keep Him in His grave. What a powerful name.

Advice From a Worship Pastor

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:32:00 +0000

After six hours of listening to new music, I have some advice to give:

I won't even finish listening to the first verse if the lyrics are corny, unless it was meant to be a joke;
a tired and listless, over-driven, overly repetitive, and/or old-fashioned accompaniment can ruin wonderful lyrics;
hokey is never good, not even for the Hokey Pokey;
noise for the sake of noise is useless, but creative and interesting instrumental parts can be exciting, even when loud or using distortion; and
please take the time to put the music in the same order that they are found on the CD because I cannot thoroughly listen to the music while I am searching for the correct anthem.

Just saying.

Worship Planning 101

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:28:00 +0000

I would like to know what my fellow worship pastors have to say about worship planning. Let's get the conversation started by sharing your answers to the following questions:

How do you discover new music for use in your worship service? (radio, CDs, clubs, etc.)

What worship planning tools do you use? (software, books, websites, etc.)

What style of worship services do you plan? (contemporary, traditional, blended, etc.)

What elements are commonly used in your worship services? (music, drama, communion, baptism, etc.)

What have you planned that has really worked well in worship?

What have you planned that has really gone bad during worship?

What needs to happen to allow you to really worship yourself as you lead worship?

Share this with other worship pastors in your circle and together we can get a nice sampling with which to start some great discussions on worship planning.

Christmas Hymn

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:19:00 +0000

I decided to write a Christmas hymn tonight. My wife read it and suggested that I needed a bridge and a tag (to give it the modern form of VCVCBCT), so I added those as well.

Christmas Hymn
by Steve Poole, 2011

Mary, Joseph traveled far
to reach the chosen place
Wise men followed a blazing star
With gifts for Christ to grace
Angels came from heaven on high
Proclaiming the newborn King
Shepherds came from fields nearby
Then left with songs to sing

Gifts of love we each can bring
Christ has come, now let us sing
Let your praises ever ring
Glory to the newborn King

Now we often travel home
Nearing Christmas Day
Yet, wise men share with those who roam
Of love and hope, I pray
For angels shout to hear them call
For help from all their strife
Christ lying in a manger stall
Was born to bring new life

Gifts of love we each can bring
Christ has come, now let us sing
Let your praises ever ring
Glory to the newborn King

Glorious day, rejoice and sing
Come to Christ, your praises bring
Let the Christmas carols ring
Glory to the newborn King

Gifts of love we each can bring
Christ has come, now let us sing
Let your praises ever ring
Glory to the newborn King

Let your praises ever ring
Glory to the newborn King

Dealing with Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:06:00 +0000

There are certain things that you hear in your life that you may never forget. It can be as simple as just another way of looking at something or perhaps a completely new thought or idea that had never occurred to you prior. I don't think I will ever forget a statement that was made in my Practice of Church Music class: "Anytime a church has a large number of policies, you can tell that they have had many problems in their past."

I have found this to be true in most any organization that I have encountered. Why is that? I believe it is because we would rather make new policies than actually deal with the problem. Example: somebody in your Homeowner's Association puts up a really ugly shed and at the next meeting they vote to create a policy about what type of shed is acceptable for your association. Why not just deal with the problem in a loving and caring way? If the ugly shed really concerns people because it could detract from their property values, then simply explain the concern to the owner. Perhaps people could help find a means to beautify the existing shed.

But we don't usually do this. After all, this the United States of America where the majority rules. So, if most of us think it should not be allowed we can just regulate it through policies and procedures. And, sadly, we have carried this into the local church as well. Believe it or not, many people think that each member in the church has a right to make decisions about what the church does and how it functions. However, we should all know that the church is supposed to be a Theocracy (God rules) not a Democracy (majority rules). The church members are tasked with discovering what God wants and then uniting together to see that His work is carried out.

So, does your church deal with the problems or simply make more policies? If your church has hundreds or thousands of little policies, it is possible that your church does not know how to deal with problems. But God gave us biblical instructions for dealing with problems...and not just in the famous Matthew 18:15-17 passage, although it is a great place to start.

I am a problem solver. When someone comes to me with a problem, I look for the answer to fix the problem, not just a solution around the problem. However, modern philosophy teaches men that when a woman shares her problems she doesn't want an answer, she just wants us to listen. Perhaps that is the reason we have so many de-masculinized organizations and churches. We no longer have people willing to work toward fixing problems. We are afraid of conflict because that word denotes negative actions. Conflict makes us think of war, or men fist fighting in a western bar, or boys giving each other a black eye.

Conflict is a result of any problem and is something that we will always have as long as this world exists. How we deal with conflict is important to the resolution of a problem. Policy making, however, rarely solves a problem. Next time your church wants to create a new policy, ask them if they have actually worked to solve the problem first.

Christmas Time War

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:53:00 +0000

I have a problem with people who force their religious beliefs on others, be it Christians, Muslims, Atheists or Secularists. "Wait a minute," you say, "what do you mean by secularist?" Secularism or Secular Humanism is a religion because it is a belief system that supersedes and/or replaces God. It includes people of many beliefs, including Christians sadly, but the fundamentals of secular humanism override all other belief systems. It is a religion that has spread throughout our higher education, political system and judicial system, spurred on by the mainstream media.

The one area that Secular Humanists have been most successful is in teaching the young people of our nation to believe that there is good in all people and that, regardless of their individual beliefs, society can work together to bring an end to war, pestilence, famine, poverty, hatred, and bigotry. How? Through scientific enlightenment and communal values. This is beamed into the mentality of our citizens from grade school through grad school and from the playground to the boardroom.

Why is Secular Humanism so appealing? Because it takes away our guilt. When we no longer have a core moral fiber, we can compare ourselves to others around us and say, "Hey, at least we are better and more moral than those criminals." Problem is that nobody is exempt from judgment by the Secular Humanist Moralists. That is why the United States is constantly being put down by the elitists of our own country. Because they compare us to China and see how wonderful it is that their government takes away all of the money of the wealthy businessmen and gives it to the poor college students who don't want to work while trying to study.

Christianity has been one of the primary targets of the Secular Humanists. After all, Christians are the ones who teach that there is only one way to get to heaven. Oh, wait a minute, it was actually Christ who taught that. So they are really out to get Christ. And this time of year is a prime example of that. You see, they were successful in getting Christ out of schools, then they took him out of the government, and now there is a cultural war to take Christ out of Christmas.

Christians are guilty of abbreviating the Christ Mass down to Christmas, but not all Christian religions held a Mass on Christ's birth. Anyway, this variation has been used for hundreds of years. Then in the mid 1900s they tried to abbreviate it to Xmas. After a major uproar, somebody pointed out that the X is simply the Greek letter Chi which would have been used in the name of Christ. Since that didn't work, the cultural elite have decided to reduce Christ even further by trying to force the 95% of Americans that believe in Christmas to accept the alternative Happy Holidays so that we do not "offend" anyone. Never mind that holiday is simply an abbreviation of Holy Day. Problem is that they offend Christians by not allowing them to proclaim one of their holiest holidays. Imagine the uproar if the humanists were to attempt to rub out Ramadan or Eid Al Fitr. I am sure that the Muslim religion will soon face the same attacks, but for now it is too convenient as the Muslim religion allows them to paint Christians as religious bigots for not showing some concern for non-Christians during these Holy Days.

Guess I would just have to be fired if I worked for one of the many secular business that refuse to allow their employees to wish somebody a Merry Christmas. I refuse to allow the Secular Humanistic culture of our society decide what is moral. I serve the risen Lord. What other religion can claim that? I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and I will make sure that others around me know that this December 25th is the day that Christians have set aside as a celebration of His birth. You don't have to celebrate my Savior's birth, but you have no right to keep me from proclaiming it. So, happy birthday, Jesus. Merry Christmas everyone, and may you all have a happy Holy Day celebration.

Christmas Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:20:00 +0000

My Winter Holiday
by Steve Poole, 2011

Putting up the holiday tree,
Mailing holiday greetings with glee,
Buying presents for others from me,
Why am I still so empty?

Singing holiday carols ‘til three,
Then watching holiday shows on TV,
While sipping a cup of holiday tea,
Why am I still so empty?

Then reading the card you sent to me,
“Not presents nor cards nor even the tree,
Are reasons we celebrate this day, you see”
Now I don’t feel so empty.

You shared about Christ and His nativity,
The star, the angels, the shepherds, Mary,
The birth of the One who died for me,
Now I don’t feel so empty.

Now looking at my holiday tree,
The cards and carols and presents for me,
I know the reason for all of the glee,
And I am no longer empty.

For Christ was born and died for me,
I want my friends and family to see,
That Christ is the reason for all of my glee,
And I am no longer empty.

Merry Christmas

Blog Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:43:00 +0000

Looking back on the past five and a half years that I have been blogging, I realized that I have many posts which have had virtually no views. But then I also have a few that have had thousands of views. So I thought I would share some of the posts that I think deserve a second look. Hope you enjoy some of these.

WORSHIP

WRITING

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Comparing Apples to Androids

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:40:00 +0000

I have had the opportunity recently to use the iPhone 4s in home rather than drooling over it at the Apple Store. Since I have been using the Android platform with my HTC Evo for the past year, I thought I would write a short comparison. But I must admit up front that I have been an Apple entusiast for many years. I would have purchased an iPhone for my own use before even considering the Android, but I was limited to using the Sprint network due to our churches contract. Now that the iPhone is available on Sprint, I can guarantee that my next phone will be an iPhone.

Since I have had the Evo for over a year, I will list what I do not like about this particular phone and the Android OS and compare that to the iPhone and Apple OS.

Single Hand Use - FAIL. Maryland restricts holding a phone while driving, so I am limited to one hand usage while in the car if I am going to obey the law. This phone is virtually impossible to answer, dial, or put into sleep mode with one hand. I have had no problem using a single hand for the iPhone and Siri makes this even more possible.

Battery Life - FAIL. Seriously. I can use my phone for nothing but making and receiving a few phone calls and the battery dies in less than 6 hours. This is probably the result of multitasking within Android. There is no easy method for closing or controlling apps that open in the background without wasting a lot of my time. Yes, there are apps that will allow you to kill tasks in order to preserve battery, but those actually use more battery then just letting the apps run. My boys have played games, texted, surfed the internet and played around with Siri for hours on the iPhone and still have plenty of battery life left. This is because it is very easy to double click the homescreen and then choose the apps you want to close.

Secure Apps - FAIL. I was actually told on the first day that I got the phone, "While the Android has more apps than then iPhone, you need to read reviews on anything before you download it. There are many fake apps in the Market that are actually viruses." I know that many people complain about the strict requirements to get apps included in iTunes, but I don't want to waste my time searching through hundreds of comments to find the ones that warn me that an app is actually a virus. iTunes beats Android Market hands down.

Screen Lock - FAIL. I miss many calls because I cannot get the screen lock to function. It seems like a simple enough act to swipe down on the touch screen to unlock the screen. I do something similar with the iPod Touch and iPad that I own, but they actually work. The Evo screen lock often gets stuck partway. The only fix that I have found is to press down on the Power switch at the top, but that automatically ignores the call and sends it straight to voicemail. This is an extremely frustrating feature. The iPhone follows in line with my iPod Touch and iPad so it far exceeds the Evo in this area.

Power Save - Passable. Often when I click on the Power button so that I can force my phone into Power Save feature to save my precious, all too short battery life, the phone opens the camera. Not sure what I do wrong, but this actually does the opposite of what I intend to do...save power. Not a problem on the iPhone.

Recharge - Passable. I personally hate the little mini-USB plug. I can never seem to get it turned the correct way to plug it in. It takes me numerous attempts each time and that is an annoyance. The iPhone cable is much easier to plug in correctly due to the printed symbol on the frontside of the plug. I guess in the dark it would be equally difficult to plug in either phone to charge.

Legibility - Passable. The Evo screen is larger than the iPhone 4s, so there is more room to display stunning graphics. However, I have noticed that text is rather pixilated. If I do a lot of reading on my Evo I get eyestrain. I have not used the iPhone long enough to really compare this feature. I personally could not read much on my iPod Touch (1st gen) for the same reason. I do not have that problem on my iPad2. I will say that the screen display seems much brighter and easier to see for most functions on the iPhone. Angry Birds looks the same to me on both platforms.

Behind the Scenes

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:00 +0000

I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes and happenings from behind the scenes of The Christmas Post musical being performed at our church this Christmas season. The names have been withheld to protect the guilty.

From a teenage boy: "I need help putting on my makeup!"
From a preteen boy: "Do I really need makeup? Aren't I pretty enough already?"
"Does she look old enough?"
From a male cast member to another male cast member: "That shade of makeup suits you."
"Don't you need to put some makeup on your head, too?"
"I am so sick of donuts."
From a male non-cast member to a male cast member after he left the makeup area: "You look sweet."
"Can you text me that picture?"
From a male cast member: "I am going in here. I don't want someone taking a picture of me putting on makeup."
"Does this make me look fat?" Yes, even in the theatre you get this question.
On opening night just before the program starts: "I don't remember my first line!"
"Do you have to talk like that?" "Oh, aye. I need to stay in character."
A little girl to two teen cast members: "Is she your girlfriend?"
"I don't think I am ready for today." And many other quotes from the play.
From a mother to her son: "Don't you dare ding onstage" as he mutes his phone.

Second Night Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:09:00 +0000

Our second night of The Christmas Post also went well. And once again the comments left are overwhelmingly supportive. Individuals that spoke to me directly have commented on how professional and realistic everything was. I will list a sampling of the printed comments below.

I look forward to come to your church every year.
Very good performance. You do a great job every year.
Wonderful show with a powerful message. Thanks for portraying what we should remember and keep in our hearts.
Good play, but the soldier can't act - love Ashton (Ashton played the soldier and decided to write a prank comment)
Thank you. What a wonderful ministry. I appreciate Alysson for inviting me.
Excellent, funny, very enjoyable.
Thank you for the beautiful message of Jesus. Absolutely Great!!!
Wonderful, energetic production. We really enjoyed it.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Amazing production.
Excellent production and presentation of the true reason of the season.
Love Oak Grove Baptist Church

However, we did get one negative comment, "Any church can do a play-show. The Living Tree is unique to Oak Grove and more appropriate than a Broadway musical." Of course this was anonymous. I am convinced that some people, sadly, will spend eternity complaining about everything.

The Christmas Post Premiere Review

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:11:00 +0000

Our first presentation of The Christmas Post is complete and the reviews are here. First thing, not one negative comment...which, believe it or not, is a first in the six years and 48 Christmas performances that I have directed at Oak Grove.

The best news is that four (4) people indicated that they accepted Christ as their Savior tonight. There were also seventeen (17) people who indicated that they rededicated their lives tonight.

Here are some of the highlights from the comments left:

Kevin age 8 gave this play ****** out of five
The Christmas Post was super! You [shuld] pay them $10. (I think he meant he would pay $10 to see it)
Wow! Great performance guys. You were so good!
The play had a great meaning and message about faith with humor. Great set and singers.
Wonderful gift to the community. Thank you.
Thank you for the inspiring evening.
A beautiful presentation of the story of faith in Jesus. The message was clearly presented and the performance was well done.
Was a really good performance-good story, great music, etc. Keep up the good work of getting the "word" out there.
Excellent work and worship.
Thank you for teaching me more about Christmas then just gifts.
Good work guys. It gets better and better every year!
Wonderful! Great to see so many kids involved.
The program was lovely and moving-inspirational and spirited.
Fantastic job everyone! Loved every minute! God's message rang through your words.
Great job everyone! The whole play was great, very upbeat and fun.

Happy Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:37:00 +0000

Thanksgiving, a national day set aside to give thanks to God for His blessings on our country, came about because of the true historical accounts of the Pilgrim's celebrative meal shared after their survival as recorded by Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Plantation. I love history, unfortunately most of what they teach in schools today is false or in the least politically motivated.

When I was in elementary school 40 years ago, we were taught that Thanksgiving was a celebration of how the Pilgrims working together were able to survive the harsh winter and successfully plant crops with the help of the Indians (now named Native Americans by the politically correct crowd). In fact, it was stressed that were it not for the collectivism of the Pilgrims and the knowledge of farming that the Indians shared with them, the Pilgrims would have perished.

This might have been a nice, feel-good story, and it may have fit in well with the liberal theology that has been forced upon public education since the 1960s, but it is a lie. Historical documents show that Bradford and the Pilgrims did experiment with collectivism, also known as socialism, but Bradford's own diaries show that they learned quickly that collectivism does not work. It is precisely because of this experiment that they almost perished.

I encourage you to read some true historical facts about the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation by reading The Plymouth Experiment written by Kim Weissman in 1999 at the Thought You Should Know blog. Thanksgiving needs to remain a time to Thank God for providing for all of our needs (Jehovah Jireh). But we should not diminish the important historical facts of how God provided for the Pilgrim's by rewritting history to suit our own political agendas.

Carnegie Hall Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:07:00 +0000

As those who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may know, I recently spent five days in New York City as part of the American Festival Choir's trip to perform in Carnegie Hall. The trip was organized by Phil Barfoot's Celebration Concert Tours (CCT). I would highly recommend them for any concert tours as they did an incredible job organizing every aspect and they desired to make a positive and lasting Christian impact on New York.

The concert included performances by Christian recording artist David Phelps and syndicated radio host and singer Marcia Ware. With 360 singers in the American Festival Choir we were the largest choral group to ever sing in Carnegie Hall. The choir consisted of 145 sopranos, 115 altos, 60 tenors and 40 basses, from thirteen churches from ten states including California, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Maryland, Oklahoma, and New York. The concert was a fund raiser to provide support for after school care program held at a Brooklyn church and for a another Brooklyn church's effort to build a home in India for former child prostitutes. The hall holds 2800 and more than 2000 tickets were purchased for the concert.

My wife has already joked that I had my eight measures of fame because I was able to conduct eight measures of a carol sing-a-long during our program at Carnegie Hall. Each music minister was allowed to conduct some of the concert, based on the number of choir members that they brought with them. Oak Grove Baptist had the smallest group with only four of us total. So that comes to two measures per person. However, there was a nice little write-up about me in the playbill from Carnegie Hall.

We stayed in the Crowne Plaza on Times Square, ate at Planet Hollywood every day for breakfast, attended a worship service at Brooklyn Tabernacle where we got to hear the Brooklyn Tabernacle choir perform and an excellent sermon by Jim Cymbala, toured New York via an all pass hop-on hop-off ticket, visited the 9-11 Memorial, took photos of Rockefeller Center decorated for Christmas, and enjoyed an elegant dining experience onboard the Spirit of New York harbor cruise ship.

I also made some new friends from LifeWay Music Services and from among the other music ministers who went on the trip.

Inclusionists Are Exclusive

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:22:00 +0000

Just a quick post to share a concern. It seems that the more the politically correct people of the world preach tolerance and acceptance, the more they become hateful and disrespectful toward opposing views. It amazes me that the very people who say that we must accept others for who they are will not accept conservatives for who they are.

Jan Morgan, a conservative news commentator, recently posted this on her facebook wall in response to a barrage of nasty comments and threats:

I will not tolerate people on my wall disrespecting me by calling me names and I will not allow people to come on my walls and state something as fact when I know the information is erroneous.

This wall is NOT A debate forum.

It is my wall. IT IS TO BE RESPECTED AS IF YOU WERE A GUEST IN MY HOME.. and I retain the right to determine who will be my guests.

I think it is some good advice. Learn to treat others with respect even on facebook. Treat their wall as if it is their home and you are a guest there. Nobody should be bullied on social media even if you do not agree with what they say.

Since when have we become a country that hates people because they have different opinions than our own. America has always been a country based on freedoms. If you do not like what somebody else has to say on facebook about religion, politics, family, etc., you can always choose to unfriend them, leave their group, hide their posts, or simply ignore them.

I do not subscribe to liberal news commentators because I know that I will not agree with their views. If I did, it is not my place to harass them by posting vicious, spiteful, hateful comments about them or their views. Grow up America and stop acting like animals.

Christians and the Old Testament

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Poole) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:25:00 +0000

Many Christians have held to teachings by uneducated pastors or bible study teachers who are just ignorant of God's Word. Think of the many fallacies that have been taught throughout the ages and retaught by others who placed more trust in the teachers than in the actual Word of God.

EXAMPLES (some of which are controversial even in my own religious denomination):

Drinking - many pastors in evangelical churches have taught that drinking is a sin for the past 80-90 years. Why only 90 years? Because prior to Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933), most evangelical churches had no issue with alcohol. The reason was not that they believed it to be a sin, but that they believed as Christians we were to obey the laws of our land. However, some pastors began to preach that drinking was a sin and even found a way to clear Jesus from a perceived sin by teaching that the wine Jesus drank was "new wine" and would have been no stronger than grape juice (which became the preferred drink for use in communion in most evangelical churches). The fact that drinking is not said to be a sin in the Bible, does not take away from legitimate concerns about drinking alcohol which is an addictive drug and has been proven to cause many problems among people who abuse the use of alcohol. Nor does it negate the fact that underage drinking is illegal (and therefore a sin), or drinking alcohol when you join a denomination which pledges not to drink alcohol, or children drinking when their parents have told them not to drink alcohol. The best comment I have heard about drinking is this: there is a difference between having a drink and going drinking.
Dancing - this is another area that has been blurred by prejudice rather than scriptural reasons. Many evangelical groups took a strong stance on dancing as a sin when the modern, popular dance styles started to become sexually suggestive in their movement. But they never explain how dancing could be a sin if God's Word instructs use to dance before the Lord. Many will say that because King David's wife got angry when he danced around the ark proves that dancing is a sin. They never explain that what angered David's wife was that he was out in front of the people in what amounted to his underwear or that she felt he demeaned himself in front of his people. Most theologians would agree that Jesus most likely danced at the wedding feast (the same one where he provided alcohol upon his mother's request and most likely drank it). Again, just because dancing is not a sin does not mean that certain styles of lewd dancing are not a sin. It is what is in the heart of the dancer that matters, and a righteous person is not going to use lewd and sexually suggestive dance moves in order to bring honor to God.
Certain Instruments or behaviors in worship - this is one area that has always amazed me. The same people who complained about the demonic drums and guitars in church were often the same people who traveled to any local church hosting a Gospel group which would either use drums and guitars live or have them on the accompaniment tracks that they used. I guess people just ignored Psalm 150 because it did not fit with their theology of personal preferences in worship styles. And let's not even discuss that sinfully, exuberant behavior of raising hands in church, although God's Word did not back down from discussing such controversial worship behavior in Psalm 63:4 or Psalm 134:2. God's Word teaches that we are to: use all instruments; sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs; shout, dance, kneel, clap and lift our hands before God; and more.

These are just some of the many traditions that were taught in place of truths. And often, if the teacher was stumped as to why the Bible seemed to indicate that certain things were acceptable when everyone knew that they were wrong, they would fall back on this tradition: Christians do not fall under the laws of the Old Testament because Jesus' death created a New Convenant. Well, that does sound like solid Biblical theology, right? Only problem is that it is contrary to what Jesus taught.

In His famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." (Matthew 5:17-18).

So what exactly does this mean? It means that the Old Testament teachings and commands are still in effect. One exception would be in regards to making sacrifices in the Temple because Jesus became our Sacrificial Lamb for all of our past, present and future sins. Therefore, we do not need to travel to Jerusalem and sacrifice a bull, bird, seed, wine, lamb or any other item for forgiveness of sins. But all other laws, teachings and commands are still in effect. You cannot simply CLEP out of the Old Testament.