I’m beginning a brand new series tomorrow called “Who Are You?” I believe one of the biggest problems for many Christ followers is not knowing who they are in Christ. So, they don’t really no how they should live or what they should be doing.

So, we’re going to come out of the gate in 2012 by looking at some key realities that are a part of the identity of every person who follows Jesus. We are going to kick the series off by looking at what it means that we are chosen out of the world by God (John 15:16-19) to be His ambassadors.

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat sent to represent one country to another. The diplomat’s home is in the country he represents, but he lives in the country to which he was sent. The same is true for Christ followers. The Bible tells us this planet is not our home. We’re aliens or strangers here. Our real home is in heaven but we’re chosen out of the world to represent God in this world. If we can begin to understand that we’re ambassadors for Jesus, then we would live and act different. Our sense of self-worth, value and confidence would sky rocket as we begin to understand that we weren’t elected by the people, but we were chosen by God for this important task. So, I hope you join us tomorrow as we begin learning who we are in Christ.

First, we’ve celebrated the birth of our Savior for years on two different weekends each December. The first is a Christmas celebration produced by our Worship Arts Ministry. This year, our Christmas celebration is different than anything we’ve done in years. We’re calling this celebration “Christmas at LifePoint.”

We have scheduled four opportunities for you to help someone take another step in their faith journey by inviting them to celebrate Christmas with you at this wonderful program. Christmas at LifePoint will be this Sunday morning at 9:30 am & 11:00 am and at 7:00 pm on both Sunday & Monday evenings. (Remember, no 8:15 service this Sunday). I hope you take advantage of this opportunity to invite your friends to celebrate Christmas with you.

We also have another opportunity to leverage the season to bring your friends & family to church. We have scheduled four Christmas Eve Communion Services, two at the Smyrna campus & two at the Stewarts Creek Campus at 3:30 pm & 5:00 pm. These communion services have served as our traditional Christmas services each year as we sing Christmas carols, present the Christmas message in a creative way & remember that Jesus was born to die by celebrating communion together. Again, this is a great opportunity to invite people to join you as you celebrate the real meaning of Christmas.

Studies reveal that most people will attend church if invited by a friend. I believe the probability of a positive response to an invitation to church increases exponentially at Christmas. So, please don’t miss these wonderful opportunities to leverage this season to help someone take another step in their faith journey by inviting to celebrate Christmas with you at one of these events over the next two weekends.

So, the first reason we decided not to have worship services on Christmas morning is because we put a lot of energy, time & money into these two Christmas celebrations two weeks leading up to Christmas, ending with our four Christmas Eve Communion services.

It takes an incredible amount of people to make a service happen at LifePoint. Because of the season and the demographic of our church, we’re generally left with a skeleton crew during the Christmas weekend as most people travel to celebrate Christmas with their family. So, to have a Christmas morning service would require many people to give up most of their Christmas Eve & then, a few hours later, arrive early on Christmas morning and not get back home until later that afternoon. We really didn’t feel we could ask our people to give up celebrating Christmas with their families on both Christmas Eve & Christmas morning in order to do basically the same thing on Christmas morning that we did on Christmas. So, thank you for valuing those who sacrifice much time & use their gifts so we can have amazing worship experiences each week of the year here at LifePoint.

The second reason we’re not having worship services on Christmas morning is because we wanted to leverage this time to help families have a family worship experience on this special morning. Our desire is to lead families to have family worship times together throughout the year. We know this can be intimidating for a dad or mom who has never led a devotional. Many think they aren’t gifted enough or not qualified to teach their children the Bible. So, we wanted to use this opportunity to help people realize how easy it is to read scripture & pray with your family.

We think Christmas will provide a higher motivation to gather family together & read the Christmas story & pray. If we can get a dad or single mom to do this & realize how easy it is to read & say a short prayer, maybe that will help them realize they can do this once a week throughout the year. If so, that’s better & more productive than any service we could have on Christmas morning.

We’re not leaving you alone to figure out what to do in your family worship time on Christmas morning. I’ve recorded a video that will be online & our next gen ministry staff has created some documents that will walk you step by step through this Christmas family worship time. You can pick them up in our next gen area or get them online at our website.

I hope this post has communicated two things. First, I hope you know & understand why we’re not doing a worship service on Christmas morning at LifePoint. Second, I hope you don’t miss the opportunity to leverage this season to invite your friends to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with you in one our Christmas celebrations over the next two weekends here at LifePoint.

Feliz Navidad

One God, One Vision, One Day to change the word. To say that missions is important to LifePoint is like saying a quarterback is important to football. We exist to Point people to a Christ centered life. Missions is at the heart of why we exist.

Christmas is the time that Christians celebrate the fact that God sent His Son to live among people in another culture & speak their language in order to bring redemption. Christmas is all about missions. That’s why we take up a Christmas missions offering every year to help us tell people the good news of redemption found in Jesus. That’s what our One Day Offering is all about.

We have many LifePoint missionaries living on the field in Bangkok & Brussels. They’re able to live in a different culture among a different people to share the gospel because of the monthly financial support given by friends & family. If you give monthly support to one of these missionaries, then you’re partnering with them in the gospel. They could not pay their bills or buy their groceries without your support. So, please continue to support them & even give them a little “Christmas Bonus” if possible. If you don’t currently support one of these missionaries but would like too, please email me & I’ll tell you how you can become a giving partner.

For the last two years, many LifePointer’s have also given monthly to the Sending Church campaign, which provides the ministry budget for each of our strategic mission cities. Going forward, rather than having you give monthly to the Sending Church Campaign in addition to our missionaries, we’re going to collect four One Day offerings to be used to provide ministry budget for our international campuses as well as many mission projects in Middle Tennessee.

It’s called One Day offering because, each quater, we’re asking you to give One Day’s salary, above & beyond your tithe, to missions. If you have a two income family, then that would be One Day salary from both incomes. We started collecting our Christmas One Day offering this morning. If you didn’t come prepared to give today or were out of town, you can still give to this offering throughout the month of December.

Maybe you live in a different state and really want to partner with us making God famous among the nations. You can also take part by giving online at www.lifepointchurch.org. Go to the give button & click on the One Day designation.

Let me close with these words from Paul in Philippians 1:3-5. “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

ONE GOD…ONE VISION…ONE DAY TO CHANGE THE WORLD!

It doesn’t surprise me when I see racism from people who don’t love or follow Christ. Sin separates! It separates people from God & people from people. We see this truth in the opening pages of the Bible. Sin caused spiritual death that separated Adam & Eve from God. It also separated them from each other by destroying the unhindered intimacy they had experienced in their pre-sin existence. So, it really doesn’t surprise me to see the pathetically ignorant sin of racism exhibited in those who are separated from the one who reconciles. But, to see the sickening sin of racism from a group of people who claim to know Jesus is mind boggling, inconsistent, shameful, sinful just plain ignorant.

The church is made up of the redeemed, people who’ve been saved & transformed by the blood of Christ to reflect the glory of God to the lost world. Therefore, the church should be the place that shows the world what redeemed relationships look like between people of all races. If not here, then where?

Very few things could testify to the transforming power of the gospel more than people from multiple cultures & races worshipping together and serving & loving God & each other. This is why I don’t like segregated churches…black churches & white churches & Asian churches, etc. I know there are a few acceptable reasons why a specific ethnic group should group together for worship…like language. If wouldn’t be effective or wise for Chinese to worship in an English speaking church if they cannot speak English & there is no method of interpretation available. But, in my opinion, the excuses are few. The reasons for segregation are, if truth be told, more sinful than legitimate.

Several years ago, Amy told me she thought we needed to pray about adopting a little girl from China. I couldn’t have said “No” quicker if someone would’ve asked me if I was an Alabama fan. I not only told her we were not going to adopt; I told her I wouldn’t even pray about it. So, she went above my head & began praying. You know what happened…I now not only have a beautiful little girl from China named Jadyn, I also have an incredible little boy from China named Isaiah & a gorgeous little girl from Ethiopia named Ally Kate.

When God opened my heart to pray about adoption, I thought it was about Amy. God said, “No. It’s not about Amy.” I then thought it was about a little orphan girl who didn’t have a mommy or daddy to care for her or love her or provide for her basic needs. Again, God said, “No. It’s not about an orphan girl.” God said, “It’s about Me. It’s about what I want to teach your church & the world about My heart & My Kingdom. I want to your family to be multicultural because my Kingdom is full of people from every culture on the planet.

In Matthew 8:11-12, Jesus said, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Heaven will be full of people from every culture & color & language & ethnicity. If that’s what heaven will be like, then surely the church should give us a small reflection of heaven. If all colors will be in living in perfect harmony in heaven, then why would we segregate here on earth. What could be more beautiful or more powerful or testify more effectively to the transforming power of the gospel than people from multiple cultures & backgrounds genuinely loving God and each other?

One of the most exciting things God is doing at LifePoint Church is bringing the cultures together. We are fast becoming a multi-cultural & multi-ethnic church. We are definitely red & yellow, black & white & we are all precious in His sight. It’s my prayer that our congregation become a literal melting pot of all every culture represented in Middle Tennessee. I think nothing could reveal the transforming power of the gospel more.

By the way, LifePoint also has many interracial marriages. We have Asian/white marriages, black/white, Hispanic/white, Caribbean/white and more combinations than I can write. We even have Tennesseans married to Kentuckians, all to the glory of God.

Many people erroneously interpret God forbidding the Israelites from intermarrying with the Canaanites to mean that He forbids interracial marriage. Nothing could be further from the truth or pervert scripture more. In the Old Testament, God forbade the Israelites from marrying the Canaanites because they worshipped other gods. It had absolutely nothing to do skin color or culture and everything to with faith. It wasn’t about race; it was about religion. God restricted the Israelites from marrying the Canaanites because he didn’t want their hearts & devotion to turn from Him to false gods & worthless idols. This command is restated in the New Testament where Christians are commanded not to marry non-christians in 1 Corinthians 7:39 and 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

The Bible has many examples of the heros of our faith marrying women from other cultures & color. Genesis 41:50 tells us that Joseph married an Egyptian woman. Numbers 12:1 tells us that Moses was married to a Cushite woman. So, the Bible doesn’t forbid interracial marriages; it celebrates interracial marriages.

Remember, marriage is a picture of the relationship that exists between Jesus & His bride, the church. Therefore, interracial marriage brings much glory to God because it is a beautiful picture of the grace of God that saves both Jews & Gentiles, people from every culture, color & ethnicity on the planet.

My oldest son married to the most beautiful Thai girl on the planet. This brings much happiness to Amy & me &, more importantly, much glory to God. I have 4 other children, one white, two Chinese & one Ethiopian. They can marry someone of the opposite sex from any culture or color on the planet…as long as they love Jesus. It’s not the color of their skin that matters; it’s the condition of their heart.

By the way, Jesus wasn’t a white American with blond hair & blue eyes. He was a Jew with olive colored skin. If you wouldn’t want you daughter to marry Jesus or someone that looks like Him, then maybe you don’t know Him…

I want to state up front, I have absolutely no problem with churches who do an invitation or Altar Call each week. It was during such an altar call in Vacation Bible School that I surrendered my life to the Lordship of King Jesus. There are many pastors, missionaries & devoted Christian men & women today who were saved during such an altar call. So, please don’t misunderstand or misquote me as saying altar calls are bad.

The problem is, church members usually do a good job confusing someone’s good idea with Biblical mandates. When a church does something for a long period of time, it’s easy for people to begin associate it as Biblical mandate & anyone who doesn’t do it is liberal or even heretical. So, let me give you a little history of the “Old Fashion” altar call so you can have a better grasp of where it came from and just how “Old Fashion” it really is.

Most people don’t realize that, in the context of church history, the altar call is a relatively new concept. As a matter of fact, no one had ever heard of or seen an altar call for the first 1900 years of Christianity. Evangelistic giants like Jonathan Edwards (one of my heros) & John Wesley never used invitations. Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest thinkers and pastors in the last century, wouldn’t even consider giving a come forward invitation.

The altar call or invitation was the brain child of Charles Finney in 1830. Finney became known as the father of modern revivalism. He implemented the altar call in order to get results by forcing people to “make a decision” for Christ. It’s important to note that Finney rejected the doctrine of Sola Fide, the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He rejected the idea that Christ imputed HIs righteousness to those who believe in Him and taught that sinners must reform their own hearts in order to be acceptable to God.

As many people began responding to Finney’s pleas to walk the aisle & receive salvation, it became a standard practice during the crusade era used by many evangelists and pastors to get large numbers of people to pray a prayer. It became such a standard practice in evangelical churches that it became as sacred as Communion or Baptism. It was almost like came to think that, after preaching from the King James Version of the Bible, Peter would plead with people to make a decision for Christ while John and the rest of the disciple choir sang 42 stanzas of Just as I am. Finally, Peter would exclaim, “We’re going to sing one more verse & if no one comes forward, we’ll close.”

The fact is, the altar call or come forward invitation wasn’t founded in the church or practiced by Jesus or the discipels. Now, again, don’t misunderstand, Jesus & His disciples after Him definitely called people to commitment. They drew a line in the sand. They called people to repent & be saved, just never by means of a come forward altar call.

As I said above, I don’t believe it’s wrong to do an altar call. But, I do believe there is just as much potential, if not more, for the altar call to do more harm than good. As stated by Jonathan Leeman, “The altar call relies on the powers of emotion, rhetorical persuasion and social pressure to induce people to make a hasty & premature decision.” In short, the altar call is focused on calling people to a decision based salvation rather than a disciple based salvation.

The number of baptism in the Southern Baptist Convention have been in decline and many of the baptisms we count are re-baptisms of people who thought they “made a decision” for Christ earlier but realized nothing changed. Churches are full of nominal Christians…if there is such a thing. We can’t blame it all on the emotional pleas of an altar call, but surely we would agree that it led many people to “make a decision” out of guilt, peer pressure or emotion. As a result, how many people think they’re on the road to heaven because they prayed a prayer when, in fact, they’re on the road to hell because they never repented of sin & surrendered their life to the Lordship of King Jesus? This is why we don’t normally do a typical “come forward” invitation or altar call at LifePoint. But, this doesn’t mean we don’t give an invitation or call people to repent & believe.

I’m always amazed at how someone could sit through one of our services and ask why we don’t give an invitation. I know what they’re really asking. Because of the lens they look through, they only see an invitation if people are asked to walk the aisle and pray a payer. We don’t normally ask people to come down front, but we always invite or challenge people to respond to the revelation given in God’s Word.

For the last three weeks, I’ve been preaching a stewardship series called Sweet Spot. At the end of each message, I’ve told people that know Jesus to forget about money. God wants your heart. If He has your heart; He will get everything else. So, your first step is to repent of your sin & surrender to the Lordship of King Jesus. Please, come back to The Pastor’s Connection after the service and allow us to talk to you about how you can surrender your life to Jesus. If this isn’t invitation, I don’t what is. But, rather than calling people forward to pray a prayer, I asked them to go back to a place where they can be introduced to an encourager who will take as long as required to answer questions, explain the gospel & help them understand what it means to truly follow Jesus.

Sometimes, people say, “Yeah, but they need to do it publicly.” I totally agree that a public profession is necessary, that’s why Jesus instituted baptism. Baptism isn’t essential to salvation. Jesus took care of that on the cross by dying as my substitute. So, baptism isn’t essential to salvation, but it is essential to obedience because it was commanded by Jesus.

When someone surrenders to Jesus, we ask them to record a video to be played at their baptism testifying that they have surrendered their life to the Lordship of King Jesus and are being baptized as an act of obedience to show the world they are now a new creation. This is their public profession of faith.

So, in closing, I don’t think people who give altar calls are wrong, but I also don’t think the altar call is a biblical issue. Like choir robes, steeples & pulpit furniture, it was someone’s good idea to achieve a goal that became sacred. We do give invitations at LifePoint. We call people to repent & respond to the gospel & then publicly profess that commitment through baptism. We don’t ask them to walk forward & pray a prayer because we want to make sure they’re not making an emotionally charged decision based on music or persuasive words or peer pressure or their interest in a special member of the opposite sex. We challenge them to respond and give them the next step to take in surrendering their life to Christ because our passion is to see people surrender to a disciple based salvation, not a decision based salvation.

So, giving an altar call isn’t the issue; the issue is challenging people to truly surrender everything to the Lordship of King Jesus. If you do this, it doesn’t matter whether you call them to come forward, go to the back or get on the roof.

I’ve known since the day we hired David that he’d one day serve as a pastor. With each passing year, I’ve seen this desire grow in David along with his preaching skill. I knew he was getting restless as he waited for his opportunity to move to this next step of leadership in his life. So, I called David at camp & asked him if he’d consider praying about going to Bangkok to be the Campus Pastor for LP Bangkok. I didn’t know it at the time, but David & Jennifer had already decided to come & talk with me when they returned from camp about the next step in his dynamic calling. Obviously, we were beginning to see God’s sovereign plan unfold. After spending a few weeks in prayer & discussion, David & Jennifer felt it was God’s plan for them to take this next step to bring glory to God.

David & Jennifer’s obedience to the call of God on their lives will cost them proximity to their family & friends as they move to the other side of the world. It will cost them comfort as they will definitely move out of their comfort zone to raise money & move to a new culture and learn a different language. It will cost them money as they will take a cut in pay. Their obedience will cost their families time with their grandson. It will cost our church as we will lose a great Student Pastor.

Make no mistake, obedience always comes with a high price. That’s why, in Luke14:26, Jesus said “If anyone comes to me & does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” That’s why Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Obedience cost everything, even our life.

But, there’s another side to the obedience coin. Obedience is costly but the cost doesn’t even begin to compare the rewards it guarantees. Surrendering my life to Christ cost me the right to make my own decisions & chart my own course, but it opened the door to living the great adventure of God’s plan & future. Moving to seminary cost me proximity to family & friends, but the rewards of getting to know & serve the great people of LifePoint Church have been mid blowing. Making the changes we’ve made at LifePoint has cost me the color of my hair & many sleepless nights & many good friends, but the rewards of seeing Jesus literally change the eternal destinies of scores or people & save hundreds of marriages & celebrating as multiple people sell out to move to the other side of the world so people can get saved & God can get glory & celebrating tas multiple numbers of people surrender to preach & serve as student ministers and on and on and on are immeasurable. Obedience is costly, but the rewards are far greater than any cost you could every pay. Obedience is costly, but the cost of disobedience is devastating.

David & Jennifer’s obedience will cost both them & us but the reward both they & we will receive for their obedience will be immeasurable. I hope their obedience & the obedience of so many others in our church inspires you & gives you the courage to take the next step of obedience, no matter the cost. Yes, it might cost you something now but, believe me, you don’t want to pay the price for disobedience.

I fear too many preachers think their words are far more powerful than they really are. Now, many preachers have an amazing command of the language, a gift to dazzle with words. Some can compete with champion storyteller. Some can stir hearts & emotions to take action. Some can even motive football players to run through a brick wall…without a helmet. Some are good enough to change people’s minds. But, our words, no matter how good they are, don’t have the power to change what really matter & what really lasts, the heart. But, when you combine prepared words with the power of The Word, supernatural things happen.

Scripture says God’s Word is powerful. It’s like a double edged sword that cuts through the bone to the deepest marrow (Hebrews 4:12). It’s absolute truth without any hint of error. It’s perfect & always reliable because it’s always true for every person in every age in every culture in every circumstance. It’s the literal words of the living God. That’s why preaching The Word is the most important task on any preachers job description because The Word is God’s revelation of Himself & revelation demands a response.

Imagine the president of the United States revealing his heart to you about a subject & then asking you to respond by doing something about it, but you simply turn & walk away without responding…actually, that would be a response, a response of apathy & lack of respect for authority.

This same scenario happens on a grand cosmic scale each week when we read God’s Word & lead worshippers lead us to sing God’s Word & preachers preach God’s Word & we simply get up & walk out without a response. Actually, that is a response…apathy & disrespect of God’s authority.

Now, I’m not saying we need to respond each week by giving away everything we have or committing to move to a remote place where they don’t even have the NFL Season Ticket on Directv. But, every time we hear God’s Word or sing God’s Word or read God’s Word, we should be compelled to respond in some way. Surely when the creator of all life speaks, we should think about what He says, write down an immediate application, pray for strength to do what it says, maybe confess some sin God has revealed to our spirit, maybe fall on our knees in overwhelming gratitude for the grace & mercy & goodness of God, maybe partake in communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus & proclaim it until He returns, maybe do something really supernaturally miraculous & give more than we intend to give or just give period…BUT WE MUST RESPOND!

So, we’re going to change up the order of our service a bit at LifePoint. We’ve always given people a chance to respond after our time of worship by asking them to make their way back to the Pastor’s Connection for prayer & counsel. But, we’re going to up the stakes. We’re going to sing a couple of songs proclaiming God’s Word & then preach God’s Word & then we’re going to sing a couple more songs to give you an opportunity to respond to God’s revelation. Some will respond by partaking of communion. Some will respond by going to the Pastor’s Connection for prayer & counseling. Some will respond by bowing in prayer of raising their hands in total surrender. Hopefully, all will respond by giving their tithes & offerings. But, in whatever way, we’re going to challenge people to respond in the way the spirit leads.

Revelation demands a response…

Seth is now 24 years old, married & serving God as a missionary in Bangkok, Thailand. His doctrinal integrity & biblical insight is amazing for a 24 year old. His passion for the glory of God among the nations is inspiring. And, his love of his wife & the Thai people make a dad’s heart proud. Amy & I have been blessed to watch God grow him up in so many ways.

Zac is now an 18 years old graduate headed to college on a partial football scholarship with the thoughts of majoring in pre-med to possibly do medical missions. Obviously, he got his intelligence from his mom. We’ve seen this baby grow into a boy & now into a young man…in every sense of the term at 6’2″ 240.

God has given Zac a heart that hurts for people who are far from Him. I’ve seen him invite every kid he knows to church. There are probably 25-30 students in the youth ministry at LifePoint as a direct result of his influence. People have told how he has boldly shared his faith with many students, especially exchange students from other countries. And, I’ve seen his heart break while watching people bow down & worship false gods in Buddhist temples in Thailand.

God has given zac a passion to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. I’ve seen his eyes well up with tears while visiting orphanages in other countries. When he was in the seventh grade, he received $20.00 for some occasion. He took it to school…without him mom or I knowing. The dad of one of his classmates had suddenly & tragically died. So, the school took up on offering. Zac took the $20.00 out of his pocket & gave it to the boy. I asked him why he gave all his money away. He said, “Dad, he needed it worse than I did.” I was so proud I wanted to double his money on the spot. He taught me a valuable lesson that day. I learned the Biblical principle of how our heavenly Father wants to bless those who are generous with what He has entrusted to them.

God has also given Zac an incredible ability to lead. I will never forget how proud I was when Zac was voted by his teammates to be captain of the football when he was a sophomore. Ever since he was born, I’ve said, “Zac will change the world…for good or bad I don’t know…but he will change the world.” Now, I know he’s going to be used by God to bring many people into His kingdom.

Words cannot express how proud I am of this young man. Words also cannot express the gratitude Amy & I have for those who have partnered with us in molding Zac into the man God has created him to be. We’re thankful for the teachers, faculty, staff & coached at Lancaster Christian Academy for the role they’ve played in Zac’s development. We’re grateful for the small group leaders & youth pastors who’ve worked hard to preach & create an environment that calls students to have heads full of knowledge of God & hearts full of passion for His global glory. We’re grateful for all the friends who’ve told him the same thing we’ve told him. We’re grateful for all his family who’ve loved him & taught him many life lessons. I’m grateful for his mom who’s loved & nurtured him & held him when he was sick & hurt & stayed strong when he would forget who was in charge. But, most importantly, I’m grateful for our amazing God who created Zac & wired him exactly as he wanted him to be to bring glory to His name.

Zac, I’m proud of the man you’re becoming. I love you & I’m blessed to be your dad. But, don’t ever forget, no matter how big or old you get, I can still take you down in the blink of an eye.

I’m also glad that thousands of moms who’ve lost sons & thousands of wives who’ve lost husbands at the hands of OBL now at least have the opportunity to have some sense of closure.

I understand the feeling of victory experienced by so many who’ve searched, hiked, crawled, bled & went with little food, water or sleep for days in order to bring a mad man murderer to justice.  I’m overwhelmed with pride in our military…those men & women are the best & most valiant warriors on the face of the planet; they’re the pride of the red, white & blue.

But, there are a few things that greatly disturb me about some of the comments, tweets & posts I’ve read.  For one, I can’t understand those who use this as an opportunity to protest & state their opposition to the use of force, any force for any reason…seriously?

Are you telling me that if you looked out your window & saw a child being physically abused you’d close the blinds & watch TV without getting involved?  If your wife was being assaulted, would you stand by & watch because you don’t believe in using force?

Those who protest the use of force would do well to remember the Holocaust.  America, along with many other countries, owes the Jewish people a great moral debt & a too little too late apology because we didn’t get involved as Hitler literally murdered millions of Jews.  We could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives if we would have been less liberal & more moral.

When we know that mad men dictators like Hitler or Suddam Hussein are killing countless thousands of innocent people & burying them like dogs in mass graves, we have a moral obligation to get involved & use what ever force necessary to defend the innocent who cannot defend themselves…not for oil or land or any political interest, but for the sanctity of human life.

I also can’t understand how some can argue that OBL shouldn’t have been killed because that makes us like him.  Some argue against the death penalty, even for those who are 100% guilty of malicious murder and even use the sanctity of human life as their ammunition.  When I hear this argument, I always wonder why they seem not to be too concerned with the sanctity of the human life or lives the murder has taken.

I might as well state here that, obviously, I believe in capital punishment for those who are determined guilty of murder beyond the shadow of a doubt unquestionable evidence & a just court.  Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image.”   The Bible teaches that the sin of murder deserves a punishment that matches the crime.  The justification for such punishment is the sanctity & nobility of human life because it’s made in the image of God.   Romans 13:4 gives the responsibility of carrying out this punishment to the government, not to any individual.  So, I can’t understand why people are crying foul over the death of a mass murderer.

I might could understand the protest if OBL was executed without a trial, but it wasn’t an execution.  During the attempted apprehension, he began shooting real live bullets at our special forces.  These men are the baddest in the world.  If you shoot at them, you’re only going to get one chance…he obviously didn’t make it count.

So, even if OBL would have repented & turned to Christ a year ago & was so transformed that he surrendered, I still believe he deserved the death penalty.  His eternal salvation would’ve been cause for rejoicing because it would’ve removed him from the wrath of God, but it wouldn’t have removed the consequences of his crime.  If you contract a deadly disease from living a sinful lifestyle & then repent & turn to Jesus, He saves your soul, but He doesn’t take away the disease caused by your sinful choices.

But, the thing I really don’t understand & the disturbs me the most is the crazy amount of tweets & posts I’ve read in the last 48 hours celebrating the fact that OBL is literally burning in hell…SERIOUSLY?  This is a really good opportunity to examine our theology because theology determines what we believe & what we believe shapes how we behave.

The Bible teaches that there really is a literal place called hell, (Luke 16:19-31, John 3:36, Matthew 13:49-50).  Scripture defines it as a lake of fire & a place of eternal torment.  We serve an infinite God & those who rebel against Him deserve nothing less than an infinite punishment.

The Bible teaches that God is a just & righteous God.  Many preachers emphasize the grace of God, the mercy of God & the love of God because it sells books & makes the gospel more “palatable” for the culture.

Don’t get me wrong; I love God’s grace, mercy & love because I’m desperate for them.  But, to neglect the righteousness & justice of God is to cheapen salvation by making it more about my need than God’s glory.

God’s justice means that He cannot overlook sin.  He has to punish the sinner or, somehow, atone for their sins.  That’s what the cross is all about.  It was Jesus dying vicariously in my place, taking the punishment that I deserve.  The wrath of God against your sin was either poured out upon Jesus on the cross or it will be poured out upon you for all eternity in a real place called hell.  So, the cross not only reveals the glory of God’s grace & love, it also reveals the glory of His justice because it was His wrath poured out on the sin of all who would repent & believe in Jesus.  But, hell is also the glory of God’s justice because it is also the wrath of God poured out on those who rebel against Him.

Based on the truth of scripture & what OBL publicly proclaimed that he believed & His public war on King Jesus & those who follow Him, the wrath of God is indeed being poured out upon him & will be for all eternity in a very real place called hell.  But, this truth should break our hearts, not enlarge them with gladness.

We never see Jesus gloat over the eternal damnation of a soul.  As a matter of fact, we see Him look over the city of Jerusalem & literally weep because it was full of hell bound people.

Yes, OBL was an enemy of our country, our freedom and, most importantly, our faith, but Jesus didn’t tell us to hate our enemies & rejoice in their destruction.  Rather, He said love your enemies & pray for those who persecute you.  Jesus even prayed that the Father would forgive His very enemies that brutally tortured Him & nailed Him to the cross.  Paul even said he would gladly trade places with the lost & go to hell if they’d just see the spiritual truth, repent & surrender to Jesus.

Never forget that OBL is not in hell because he killed multiple thousands of people; he’s in hell because he rejected Jesus.  This should break the heart of ever follower of Christ.

Normative self wants people who hurt us to pay.  Normative Christianity is to forgive.  Normative self seeks revenge; normative Christianity seeks justice.  Normative self rejoices when our enemies burn in hell; normative Christianity weeps for those going to hell.

So, do I believe our forces should’ve pursued OBL to the ends of the earth if need be?  YES!  Do I believe he deserved the death penalty?  YES!  Do I believe he is in hell?  YES!  But, am I glad he’s in hell?  NO!  I’m glad justice is served, but I’m never glad when anyone is damned to an eternal torment that I deserve but, thankfully, because of the vicarious death of Jesus, I wont receive.

I hope we really think about our words during this time because they can either be used to tear down walls or build them up.  They can be compelling or repelling…

Seth Skyped us tonight to inform us that he is officially engaged.  He moved to Bangkok in June because he has a passion to make God famous among the Thai people.  Witt Kaminh, who grew up in Thailand, went with Seth, Brett & Susie when they moved & spent about a month in Bangkok helping them get situated & oriented to thier new home.  Witt wanted to visit the small church he attended while living in Bangkok & Seth decided to tag along with him to make some new friends in his new country.  Obviously, he got more than a friend.

Witt introduced Seth & Taam his first Sunday in Thailand.  They immediately connected as friends & began to hang out with each other daily.  Taam took over as Seth's new Thai guide after Witt returned to Smyrna.  After hanging out for about 6 weeks, they realized they wanted to be more than friends. 

This blew them both out of the water because neither was looking for this & it wasn't their intention when they started hanging out.  Seth had just moved to a new city & his objective was to get settled & learn the language so he could communicate the gospel.  So, this new relationship was a total surprise to him. 

I told Seth before he moved away that he was too old to date for fun.  He is 24 & his reason for dating is simply to find a wife.  Most people wait way too long to get married in today's world.  The average age of marriage is 30 for men & 29 for women.  It has become common for couples to live together before marriage or at least be very active sexually.  As the old saying goes, If you're getting the milk free…" So, the average age of marraige going up isn't neccesarily a good thing.

I told Seth, "Son, you need to be dating to find a wife, not to just have fun.  So, if you're dating a young lady & you realize that she's not the one, break it off immediately.  Don't waste her time or yours.  Dating just for fun is what gets even the most committed people in trouble.  On the other hand, when you know she's the one, then be a man & pop the question.  Don't be afraid to commit when you know she's the one God created for you." 

I've also told my sons that I don't believe in long engagements.  Again, waiting a long time to marry the one you know God created just for you gets even the most committed believers in trouble. 

Well, it's good to know that Seth listens to his dad.  He talked to me after hanging out with Taam for almost two months & dating her for about three months & said he knew it was God's will for him to marry this lady.  After asking many questions to both Seth & Taam, there's no doubt in my mind that she indeed the one God created for Him. 

Taam is 26 years old & loves Jesus with all her heart.  She is so excited about making a lifelong vow, not only to Seth but also to give her life to serving along side him as a missionary for the fame of God. 

I'm so proud of Seth & thankful that God placed her in his life at the very moment He ordained  before the world began.  I look forward to seeing them serve God together & bring many people from all nations into God's Kingdom.

So, we really did get a new daughter for Christmas…