Month: April 2012

Which Jesus do you Serve?

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The Mormons call him the polygamist half-brother of lucifer… The Jehovah Witnesses call him the created arch angel Michael… The Metropolitan Tabernacle Churches claim that he endorses homosexuality and is somewhat of that tendency… The New Spirituality contents that he is part of the Christ consciousness and the cosmic divinity… Islam insist that he is not God… The Jesus I believe in is: one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; being of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made; Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from the Heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man; And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; And ascended into the Heavens, and sits at the right hand of the Father; And shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the …

Motivate your Favorite 17-year old to Greatness with Poetry

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Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. He is the author of several books of poetry, including Nine Horses (Random House, 2002); Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001); Picnic, Lightning (1998); The Art of Drowning (1995), which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Questions About Angels (1991), which was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series; The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988); Video Poems (1980); and Pokerface (1977). This Poem is one of his recent works. Take a listen: In this poem he is scornfully and cynically mocking the lack of achievement of, I guess, his 17-year-old daughter, comparing the achievements of historically very accomplished youths like  Jane Grey, Judy Garland and Joan of Arc to the 17 year old’s strong inclination to playing with her food and her hair. I found this to be a very gentle and humorous way to challenge under achieving teenagers. Instead of having those uncalled for screaming matches. You can listen to this with your teenager and just let …

Critical Thinking Deflates Faith?

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In the study, published Friday in the journal Science, researchers from Canada’s University of British Columbia used subtle stimuli to encourage analytical thinking. Results from the study found that analytical thinking could decrease religious belief. What do you think? Picture: via cnn

EGO – The Final Episode

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The story and book of Jonah closes with a question that actually is left unanswered. I believe that is was left unanswered for one reason – for readers to answer the question. What is the question? And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle? Let’s put the question in perspective. After Jonah preaches to Nineveh and the city repents, Jonah is mad.  Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the …

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Originally posted on Walter Bright:
 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” (Jonah 1:9 ESV) This is one of the most awkward verses in the book of Jonah. a vivid example of how sometimes our talk really doesn’t match our walk. Jonah is claiming to be a God fearing person at the same time living in rebellion. I know the sailors were going awhhh, Mr., this is weird – why are you running from Him? Related articles EGO – Edging God Out (waltbrite.wordpress.com) Edging God Out – Episode Four (waltbrite.wordpress.com) Edging God Out – The main thing! (waltbrite.wordpress.com) Edging God out – Second Episode (waltbrite.wordpress.com)

Edging God Out – Episode Four

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Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Ephesians 5:14 Today we are going to talk about the fourth lesson in the story of a prophet going down. Jonah not only refuses to share his faith, cultivate intimacy with God in his presence, care deeply for the welfare of others, but today we see him edging God out of his prayer life. The bible tells us that Jonah was asleep at the bottom of the ship. Someone may say well, hold it right there, Jonah prays in the belly of the fish.. That’s prayer! You are right, that is prayer – but that is not a prayer life. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, the only time they pray is when they are in trouble or when they want God to do something for them. They seem to have no use for God or no relationship with him when things are going great. Prayer is more than just coming to God for something – it is …

Edging God Out – The main thing!

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Good morning everyone! This morning I feel compelled to set my outline aside and share a very important message in Jonah. I know it all seems like Jonah is on the way down, but the beauty of God is his amazing grace, his unfailing love and his longsuffering. Here are a few statements I think you will find uplifting: Even in their rebellion, God is still working in our lives of unbelievers… See verse 15, 16 of chapter 1 Even in our rebellion, God still deals graciously with us… He doesn’t punish us according to our sin… See verse 17 of chapter 1 He still listens to us… As deep as we can be in our rebellion, when we turn to him in faith and repentance he hears us… See chapter 2 verse 1 He always gives us a second chance to make things right… See chapter 2 verse 10 and chapter 3 verse 1 were he hears the voice of the Lord again and is re-commissioned Like Jonah, some may  say to you today, …

Edging God Out – Silly and Senseless

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As we try to understand Jonah there is only but one place to look to give us a glimpse of who exactly this guy is and why is he behaving in such erratic way. His name: Jonah means “dove,” a symbol for Israel as silly and senseless (Hos. 7:11) In this book he is acting without sense. The word dove means – easily deceived. Like a bird fluttering about, confused and without direction. He thinks he can escape God by running to another nation. Here is the problem: The problem with  doves is that they do not lament the loss of their young taken from them, but will make their nest again in the same place leaving it expose to danger… 1. Doves doesn’t learn from their mistakes… just like doves, we return to our own vomit… making the same bad choices, bad decisions, abusive relationships, foolish spending etc…  Don’t be silly and senseless – learn from your mistakes. The second problem is that the dove is easily enticed they have no heart, no understanding, as many other fowls do, Proverbs 1:17; Proverbs 7:23. 2.  Doves lack the ability to discern danger… just like doves, …

Edging God Out – Third Episode

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But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 1 John 3:17 If there is anything that will take you down faster than anything else in life, it will be to withhold compassion and generosity from people around you. Here is yet another reason why we don’t want to be like Jonah. We’ve said that egoism is “inordinate concern for One’s welfare and interest.” And Jonah was a man completely devoted to his own interest. His thinking, feeling and acting were all driven by and devoted to himself. A lifestyle the bible counsels against. When the sailors were worried about their lives and when they were face to face with death, this guy, Jonah, was sound asleep, worried free… He demanded that God takes his life when the lives of 120,000 souls hung in the balance. Here is lesson #3:  Do not look only to your own interest! We are called to loose the bounds of wickedness We are …

Edging God out – Second Episode

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Ego part 2 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. Jonah 1:3 In our last post we said that usually an egotistic person will have no room for God, he readily, easily edges Him out. This couldn’t be more clearer in Jonah’s attitude toward to presence of the Lord. The #2 lesson we learn here in the book of Jonah is – that God desires intimacy with you all the time… In good times, bad times and ugly times. That we need to value his presence in our lives all the time. The mistakes we make over and over is to take the Holy Spirit or presence of God for granted. He is in us, with us and for us – not sometimes – but  all the time. We long for him, ask for him to …