"180" Film about Abortion and the Holocaust

This is an Awesome worship video with a clear creative presentation of the gospel through the spoken word.  Pass it on!!!

Fearless: Samuel

Fearless: Samuel

Young Samuel became a fearless man because he practiced three habits in his early life

1. He was available
     "Speak Lord for your servant is listening"
Does anybody remember the Y2K scare?  There actually was a scare even high level pentagon officials were saying they were not quite ready if embedded chips do not function properly anymore.  was a scare and so my family stockpiled just to make sure we had everything available that we would need.  It might have been a bit excessive, but we had a five car garage full of supplies that just now are all being used up ten years later.  Like I said it was a five car garage full of supplies.  That is pretty funny and you laugh, I do to now, but say something had happened?  We would have been ready, and we would have had stuff available for our needs.  Samuel had that same readiness and availability to serve God and he shows it in his first encounter with God where he says, "Speak Lord for your servant is listening".  Are you available for what the Lord would have you do?

2. He listened to the Lord
     "Your servant is Listening"
"So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli." (1 Samuel 3:15 NASB).  This was a difficult message that God gave Samuel to deliver, but he listened and lay down in the temple until morning just in case God might give him some other message.  We go on a Houseboat Camp every year with our youth ministry and toward the end of the week we are able to have a 3 hour alone time with God.  I love this because it gives me a chance to listen to God during three hour solo time.  I hardly ever get that chance just to listen to God for an extended period of time.  What is God saying to you and are you listening?  Maybe you need to turn some stuff off and be quiet and just listen to God.

3. He delivered a dangerous message (even though it was a message of judgement)
If God called me to go to the Pope and deliver a message that he was disobedient to God and his children are scoundrels and they are going to die, and the Pope will eventually die after seeing his children die and he will fall backwards and land on his head and die! Wow I don't know if I could deliver a message like that if God asked me to.  Can you deliver a dangerous message?  1 Corinthians 1:23 says, "but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness."  Our message is not safe you have to stumble over Christ or you may not have received Christ at all.  If you have not stumbled or dealt with the foolishness of our message you may only have received moralism.  "Be good and God will like you".  That is NOT the gospel!  Jesus is good for you! receive His goodness and righteousness! 

Close: "Thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail. All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord." (1 Samuel 3:19-20 NASB)  Will you as a young person grow in fearlessness or will you strive to be liked and accepted?  If you are available, if you listen to God, and if you are willing to deliver a dangerous message you will grow as Samuel did and God will "be with you and, let none of your words fail".

Fearless: Ruth

Fearless: Ruth
Ruth was fearless because she made decisions to love three people in her life. You can have a look at the video about love in the video I have posted.  I have to admit I love Veggie Tales and especially silly songs with Larry.  The video is called "endangered love".  After watching that video I want to ask the question what do you love? We love some pretty silly stuff, like manatees, but I want to propose that what you love will make you fearless. And on the other hand what you don't love can also make you a coward. Ruth, a character in the Bible became fearless because she loved the right things.  Let's look at her story

Ruth was a foreigner married to an Israelite, but her husband dies which is one of the worst positions a woman could be in in that culture.  She then travels to Moab with her mother in law Naomi.  she has to work the fields just to put food on the table.  So she goes to work and she collects a ephah of grain the first day she works which is like a bushel or about 36 liters. Leviticus 19:33 shows how Israel was supposed to treat foreigners, and Ruth was a foreigner so the people treated her well. "'When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.  The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the lord your God."  Ruth shows her fearlessness in her love.

1. She loves her mother (in law)
Her mother (Naomi) was a little bit bitter. She said let my life be called Mara (which means bitter) I like giving nicknames but this one sucks as a nickname.  Nicknames can be awesome for people, but Naomi is content with 'bitterness' as her nickname.  
Ruth1:16-17
But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me." Naomi needed Ruth more than Ruth needed Naomi and Ruth saw that and listened to that need.

2. She loves her mothers people
"Your people will be my people"
Simone my wife is German and I have made her people my people, and her culture my culture. This has become a great joy to me to be included in her family and culture.  I have even learned a language in the process.  I can now say "I love the German people!  All of Naomi's people's customs became Ruth's customs. Gleaning, kinsman-redeemer, laying at the feet of a prospective husband, all the laws of Israel became her culture. She took on all 600 and something laws as her own.  She loved her mother's people.

3. She loves her mother's God
"and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me."  What do you love? How do you know what you love? What do you spend your money, time, effort, energy, and thought on? That is what you love. Do you love the Lord in this way?

Chris Tomlin wrote a song about the covenant that Ruth makes with Naomi.  Check out the video below and cry to God like Ruth did "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God".  Let us say it like Ruth did, "I will follow you". 

Elisha Foundation: Disability Ministry

Here is the Website of the Elisha Foundation for more information

The Elisha Foundation from Moonshine Park on Vimeo.
This is a new friend that I met at a conference.  We became instant friends because of our commonality in the Down Syndrome community, but we also have a deeper connection in Christ, and I love their ministry.  Check this video out and love and pray for their ministry with me.  Here is their Website Elisha Foundation

Fearless: Samson Judges 13-16

Fearless: Samson
Judges 13-16
Samson was altogether a pretty rebellious person. We have started to see some rebellion in our 5 year old daughter Ana.  We have started to count to three.  If you are a parent you have done the same thing.  Just the other day I was asking Ana to come to me she got the idea that I don't want to come to you Daddy.  So I proceeded to count to three.  I said "1...2..." and when I got to three she plopped herself down on the ground and cried out "3" in defiance!  I almost had to laugh, but it was pretty serious rebellion nonetheless. Samson seemed to do the same thing by rebelling against what the Lord had asked him to do, but to his credit he turned to the Lord when it counted.  Samson grew in fearlessness by overcoming three areas of weakness where he learned to lean on the strength of Jesus Christ

Weakness Area #1 Women
First wife was a philistine which was prohibited by God.  He visited  prostitutes, and the worst wife in the bible (maybe besides Job's wife and Jezebel) was Delilah. How could this guy be such a dummy when it came to women? I am a one woman man I don't even look at other women. I have never even had friends who are women that are not also the friends of my wife Simone.  This is the only way to go.  I just make sure that there is no other way.  Not even the opportunity or possibility to be tempted in this area.  This is how I lean on the strength of Christ.  I make my wife my main accountability.   
Judges 14:3-4
Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she looks good to me." However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
God was at work even in Samson's terrible weakness to do His righteous plan. Even though Samson may have never recognized it.

Weakness Area#2 Discretion:
Discretion is the the trait of judging wisely and objectively: this guy had hardly any discretion. He hung out constantly with the enemy. There was a wedding feast where he told them a riddle and told his wife the answer to it. After they figured out the answer to the riddle, by asking his wife, he got so angry that he burned their crops down with three hundred foxes. His biggest failure in discretion was that gave up the secret to his strength after being asked three times.  You would think on the second time being asked he would get the picture that they want to capture him, but no he tells them anyway.  
Judges 14:4
However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
Judges 15:3
Samson then said to them, "This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm."
He was growing in discretion here. He basically says I'm gonna kick major butt and I'm gonna do it with discretion and blamelessness! I'm gonna take care of business this time!

Weakness Area #3 Loss of physical strength
after he killed 1,000 Philistines Judges 15:18 Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord and said, "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"  God Delivered him and gave him something to drink.  After he was blinded and captured Judges 16:28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, "O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes."
In his greatest weaknesses he called on God.  My area of weakness now is patience with my family.  It is becoming so hard to have patience with a two year old and a five year old getting into so much mischief.  Last week my youngest daughter decided to bring the sandbox into our house bucket by bucket and pour each bucket into our easy chairs and onto our carpet.  It is hard to be patient, but I am asking God to turn this area of weakness into an opportunity for an "occasion against the Philistines", or better put an "occasion against my flesh", What is one area of weakness in your life right now? And how can you lean on the power of Jesus in that weakness?

Fearless: Gideon Courage for Wimps

Fearless: Gideon  Courage for Wimps

Do you remember sissy tests growing up?  We used to do the stupidest stuff like rubbing the back of your hand with an eraser until it bleeds, knuckle fighting, hand slaps, shooting bottle rocket fireworks at each other.  As I look back at things it seemed pretty stupid to do those things.  Abe Kuhn even told me about a guy who his mother helped in the hospital that she worked in who was drunk and was dared to put a fire work in his mouth and it exploded adn he lost almost half of his face.  We do some pretty dumb stuff and call them "sissy tests".  In the Bible Gideon a man who God really used started off as a wimpy sissy.  How do I know Gideon this man of God started off as a wimp? The angel of the Lord met him in a winepress where he was sifting wheat. You are supposed to press grapes in a winepress not sift wheat. The bible even says he was hiding from the Midianites Israel's oppressors (Judges 6:11-12)

Gideon the wimp became courageous and fearless by asking God to reveal himself by passing three sissy tests Gideon asked God to pass.  He became courageous not because He was a courageous guy, but because He saw God was a great God!

Sissy test #1:
Is this really you God? (Judges 6:16-17 angel of the Lord burns up an offering, fleece: Judges 6:36-40)

• The angel of the Lord revealed His power to Gideon by burning His sacrifice
•  The Lord showed Gideon it was really him in making the fleece dry and wet
• Gideon's confidence in God started to grow

Sissy test #2
Are you really gonna use me God? (cutting down the Asherah pole at night judges 6:27)

• Gideon was scared to follow God's directions to cut down the Asherah pole so He did it a night
• Later on His father had to come to His defense. Gideon Hardly stood up for Himself

Sissy test #3
Are you sure you only need 300 God?

• God delivering Midian into their hands with rams horns and torches 
• They started out with 32,000 men they went down to 10,000 men and finally down to 300 men
• These seemed like good odds for God 300 men with torches vs. an army as many as a swarm of locusts or as many as the sand on the seashore (Judges7:2)

How is God showing you his greatness and overcoming your fear.  If you are honest you and I are really wimps at heart, and are totally afraid in so many ways.  We need to put God to the test and see how great and big he is, and our fear will slowly disappear.