I always hate blogging about stuff where I have to talk about what I am doing, but sometimes I can’t help it. My wife, whom I love dearly, was given a diet for a thyroid condition and it is really good for her. One of the things it does is keep your weight in check, and if you need to lose some pounds it does that well and quickly. The only problem is that it requires her and I to be on two different menus, and that gets expensive and not practical all the time. After talking about it and me encouraging her to get back on it because of the health benefits, I told her to make it easier I would eat the same stuff too. So for the last month we have been faithful to follow this thing and I have lost 12 pounds already. She has lost about the same, but I did not think she needed it cause she is so fine, but I guess everyone if given the option can be happy with dropping a few pounds.
Our church tries to provide a variety of activities for the members and guests, including exercise programs. The latest to start was P90X for the men. Because I was losing this weight, I thought that it would be a good time to start exercising again. For many years I was a gym rat. I even went through the training to become a personal trainer at one time. I love to workout and enjoy the sweat, but for the last five years I have had chronic back pain that limits my ability to exercise like I want too. But I am giving this a try.
P90X is an advanced workout routine for freaks. If you have never seen it advertised you should Google it and check out this torture. I am not a wimp and even though my back limits me, I am not in bad shape. Not in good shape, but I can hang in there with most people. Considering the fact that I am 50 now, I think I am doing okay with it. My only problem is that I can’t feel my arms from the workout 2 days ago and my legs are hurting from last nights workout. There are a handful of us trying to do this, a couple of youth and a couple of younger adults. I am trying not to hate the guy who started this, but my body says that I need to.
I know that if I stick with it I will overcome the soreness and my desire to hate the guy who started it. I know that I will increase my stamina and my muscle tone. But sticking with it hurts. I don’t know if you are aware of this or not, but I am allergic to pain. It makes me hurt and walk funny.
As I was thinking about this I realized how similar Christianity is to a good diet and exercise. The Bible tells us to exercise our faith and to walk by faith. The problem is that most people are lazy and would rather cut back on eating than exercise. Starving yourself physically will lose weight but you only become weaker. Same is true with our faith. Walking by faith and exercising our faith often hurts. At best it is uncomfortable and takes dedication. Like I want to hate the guy who started the P90X, many want to hate the preacher who tells them to do what the Bible says instead of sitting around doing nothing. But I know that in a few weeks I will thank him for this; maybe.
Most of why we do or don’t do things is because we don’t have a change of heart and change of mind. That desire to do what is right is often overridden by the easiness of doing nothing. This diet that we started is a healthier diet than my burger and fries diet that I love. But it too means changing my heart and mind. Sure I could have bought bigger clothes, but I can’t buy another body. We can’t change the fact that God has one way of salvation and once we are saved He desires the best for us. He knows that a steady diet of His word mixed with exercising our faith makes us strong and less vulnerable to spiritual attacks. Healthy Christians are far more likely to get the praise of God when we all stand before him. Sure He will give us a robe that fits us, but I want to look good in mine, not cover up an out of shape faith that I never did anything with.
We can work out and eat better to change our physical health. We can eat better spiritually, but in the end, it is better if we get our faith in shape and work it out too. Change your heart and mind and eat the good stuff and exercise what God gives you.

After reading the Old testament book of Daniel I got to thinking about priorities. Does the church today have their priorities in order? Do I? I know that a lot of people think of the book of Daniel and get caught up in the prophesies, and they are interesting, no doubt. But from the beginning of the book you see 4 guys who know God and have their priorities in order.
The last time I was interviewed for a job as pastor, I was asked what my priorities were. I was quick to say, God, family, church. That sounds like a good answer and I try to keep that in mind, but lets face it, God is not always on the top of that list. Perhaps after reading this I will no longer be welcome to stay as pastor of my current church. Everyone knows that pastors are super Christians and never get their priorities out of whack, but I like to be a rebel. Okay, I don’t like it when this is what makes me a rebel, but it is true. So, I know if a pastor can get priorities messed up, the regular folk certainly can.
Let me go back to Daniel and those 4 and what these guys faced. Basically Israel was once again being rebellious against God and God allowed them to be over taken by hostile people. But Daniel and his 3 friends had found favor with the king because, like me, they were smart and good-looking. (Stop laughing) They were told to do things that were against God’s word and refused. Rather than get their priorities out of whack, they decided to trust God and God honored them. Not only did he protect them from death, but God continued to give them favor with a hostile people.
Today we, the church, have decided to make it known that we don’t care about God as much as we care about self. We would rather have a program that keeps us happy over a mission trip that make us sleep without AC or heat. We would rather the band play the songs we know than to worship God as if He was who we know. We would rather the preacher keep it short so that we don’t miss the football game instead of missing the football game because we asked the preacher if he would spend a couple of extra hours teaching us the Bible. We would rather argue the politics of welfare than to take a cooler of sandwich meat and drinks into the homeless hangouts of our town and feed and eat with them as we share the gospel.
In a class last night we discussed how if we spent 15 minutes a day reading the Bible that we could read it in a year. My wife can read a novel a day on vacation. Most people I know, including myself, can do it in a few days. We remember every name of every character in a series like Twilight or Harry Potter, but can’t name the disciples. We know every player on our favorite team and know their schedule and even have time for fantasy football, but don’t know how to lead someone to Jesus. We can learn every change on Facebook even though we complain about it and add friends about every day, but we don’t bring anyone to our church all year.
Today I was stood up twice by people who wanted to meet with me to get help with their spiritual life. I saw both of them on Facebook as I was waiting on them to show up. A couple that wanted help with their marriage was supposed to meet with me today, but they had something come up. Sure, these can probably be explained, but it does make you wonder about our priorities. The Bible says to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all else will be added to it. Somehow we think that we need to get everything else in order and then find time for God.
All I know is that God has been dogging me out about keeping my priorities in order. I hope that other Christians will understand that unless we put God first, those who don’t believe will have no need to put God anywhere in their priority list. We have been given a command to follow Jesus. To follow anyone, they must be put in front of us or we are not following at all.

Without saying that I am a Republican or Democrat, I am saying that I am sick of politicians promising everything to everyone and saying that it is free. The latest argument that insurance companies should give away contraceptives to people who are poor is another of the many “free” things the government promises. The latest vote on the Hill is to continue giving unemployment to those who are still without work. They are “giving” us about $40 extra in our paychecks by not taking more of our money. The sacrifice that no one is talking about is that this gift is coming from our future Social Security. I can probably do without it now more than I can do without it when it is my retirement plan.
Who pays for anything that the government “gives” us? Where does the government get “their” money? Its call our taxes. Its called taking our money and using it as if it was theirs. I won’t argue about who should pay more. Rich or poor, we should all pay our share because we must fund the basics of what makes our country function, but welfare and handouts don’t make anyone more productive and those things are not free. The only people who do not pay for these things are those who are making it their lifestyle of taking and never giving.
I ran a business a couple of times in my life. Nothing was free. Every factor of business was accounted for and was figured into the pricing of our products and services. If I incurred a cost such as a raise in rent, power bill, payroll, or made to give something away, I passed the cost on to the customer. Don’t gasp in disbelief, because every business does it. Otherwise we can’t stay in business. So when the government, who has no money of its own, tells any business that they must pass on a service or a product to those who can’t pay and make it “free”, someone will have to pay for it and that someone is the paying customers.
Freedom is not free. There is always a price for something valuable. Those who get things for free continually have no value in what they get and someone else is paying for them. They become dependent and often feel as if they are owed the hand out. The right to have property comes from the privilege of having a job or a way to produce a product that has value to someone else who is willing to pay for it. A home given to someone who has no desire to work and no concern of losing it is often a just a building that eventually has no worth to anyone. A check that is given for doing nothing but walking to the mailbox only makes one want to walk to the mailbox. Sure we pay for unemployment insurance, but that has its limits. Congress extending those benefits for what is now years, are not spending the big pile of free money that they make, but rather they are taking money from my paycheck that I earn and giving it to someone who now, may not be willing to work anymore.
Everything has a cost and some has to pay. Usually those who pay the highest cost are those who have the biggest heart. Government has no heart. They are not giving out of love and concern, but rather the desire to stay in office. If they want it to be free, give it from their paycheck and leave mine alone.
I give to church and other charities. I help those in need and do it because of the motivation of knowing Jesus as my Savior. But never forget that Jesus worked. He told people to work and give and even to pay taxes. But paying taxes was never to take care of those who want something for free. His command was for Christians to personally take care of the family and people they knew who were in need and the church to take care of the poor that had no family…not the government.
Stop believing when people say. Its free!

Did you know that the Bible tells people to eat bread made with human excrement? If you believe what the makers of Ezekiel Bread say, you may have even tried it. They actually make bread that uses human dung. The problem is that the Bible does not teach that the bread should be made with human excrement but would be cooked over it, and if you read the full details, it was not meant for anyone other than the prophet. And, God told him that he could substitute cow dung for the fuel for cooking this bread. I will explain the implications in a minute.
This was asked of me in a Bible study that involved several people who were unchurched, but became interested in a conversation that I was involved in. We were talking about weird food trends and I mentioned Vegans, because I know a few. They know I think that they are weird, but most of all, they know I love them and kid with them a lot. Some in the vegan culture believe that God wants us to be vegetable eaters and never eat meat. This is not biblical and from the time Noah got off the ark, God gave the okay to eat meat. Personally I just don’t think that there are enough vegetables that I could find that I would be able to sustain myself. I have never been much of a veggie eater. We mentioned a few other weird foods and that was when I was asked what I thought about Ezekiel bread.
This is a great example of how the Bible can be used to “prove” anything. If you do not read it all and you look for a few lines, you can make a case that the Bible says a lot of stupid stuff. But that is wrong and yes, stupid. There is no other book on earth that is used so out of context to prove so many points. I love it because even those who do not believe in the God of the Bible want to use the Bible, that is God’s Word, to prove their points to those who do believe.
Ezekiel is a book of prophesy to Israel warning them of impending judgement of God. God often used his prophets to give very vivid and visual examples of their sins. The law of Moses was very clear about the things that Israel could eat, and use in food preparations. They were given great details of things that they could not even come near or touch and human excrement is one of those things. So when God told Ezekiel to make this bread, it was made from basically weeds, to show the spiritual famine as well as the physical famine that God sent. Ezekiel was told to bind himself up and have this bread mixture prepared to eat in front of Israel and to cook it over his own dung in order to show His disgust toward Israel’s sinful ways. Ezekiel pleaded with God that he had not committed these sins and had always followed the food laws of Mose, so God said, okay, you can use cow dung. FYI, cow dung is a common fuel used by people in areas where resources are limited. This recipe and way of preparation was not given because it was healthy or pleasing to God, but rather because God was angry with the sins of the people and wanted them to see a visual image of how disgusting it was to Him.
My advice for people who want to follow a fad diets is that you check with your physician first. Many fad diets are not good for you and are derived from poor information that people get from places like the Bible in an attempt to give them validity. God is not as concerned with what you eat as He is with what you believe. He has given us the okay to eat a large variety of what He created. There are some things that we are allowed to eat that may not be as healthy as some may think, but remember this; God wants our souls healthy first and foremost. Even those who have the best of diets and exercise habits eventually die. If they have the perfect body but have never received forgiveness of their sins, when they die, all the healthy diets in world will not save them from judgement.
If you want to eat the bread that will save your soul, you must eat the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. And that is not literal eating, it is for sure, spiritual.

A famous musician dies. Everyone knows her and knows her troubled past. She made bad decision after bad decision and fell prey to those in the industry who prey on her type. The music world is saddened. The news media is excited. They have something that the whole world will listen to them talk about in hopes of finding the truth. Weeks go by and by the time the truth is learned, our lives are filled with the next tragedy that is bound to happen. At the height of it all, the question that never seems to get answered is, who’s to blame?
Sure there are doctors, like with Michael Jackson, who get convicted of crimes. Sure there are family members who are rejected from funerals. Sure there are those on the inside that should have seen it coming and did nothing about it. But still, who is to blame?
I feel comfortable writing about this because I know what it is like to struggle with drug and alcohol addictions. Although I was not a famous musician or a movie star, the drugs and alcohol did not seem to care. I had plenty of people who played a part in my addictions. My dad was an alcoholic. My brother and sister both did drugs and drank. I listened to rock and roll music which glorified drugs and drinking. I had a dealer who knew that I was an addict and had sober friends and family that knew it too. If only someone was to blame. Then I would have stopped…NOT.
The bottom line of the blame game is you, or in this case her, or in my case me. I chose to make bad decisions that led to more bad decision and I chose to not listen to good advice and the cries of those who knew I was heading in a very dangerous direction. Short of locking me in a room and monitoring my activity 24 hours a day, there was nothing anyone could do to stop me from my self-destructive ways. Even the loving cry of a wife and children were not enough to stop me from opening a bottle or a bag. No one ever poured a drink down my throat or forced a pill or joint or line into my bloodstream. It was all me and short of me changing my decision-making process, nothing was going to stop me.
Who’s to blame is ourselves. We are in control of what sin we chose to make prevalent in our lives. We all sin. We are all powerless to fully overcome sin and God knows this. He is waiting on us to realize it. Once we do, we can then make the choice to call out to Him for help. He and He alone can totally free you from sin. We must be able to replace an addiction with a suitable fix or else the addiction will manifest itself somewhere else. The Bible tell us not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit of God. That is the suitable fix for any addiction and any sin.
It starts with our admitting our sin. Next we ask for forgiveness and by faith accept the new life God wants to give us. He then condemns the sin but saves the sinner and gives us the power to overcome anything this life can throw at us. We can always chose to fall back, but God will never chose to disown you. Your soul is safe, your flesh is weak, but God is the answer and we are who’s to blame.

This weekend is our church’s big annual leadership meeting. We meet informally several times a year in smaller groups, but once a year I like to get everyone together for a pep talk and brainstorming session. Leadership is a not something that comes natural for most people. In our society we have cultivated a mentality of followers where leadership is an idea or an object is the driving force. You see it in the push to accept culturally relative issues like views on marriage and religion. In our political realm we are being lead by class warfare and guilt trips rather than desires that help all.
Churches have fallen into a mode of leadership voids that do not reflect what God intended for us. We have committees and groups that tell the pastors how they should act and popularity contests that elect our deacons and elders. We have lost the God given authority of leaders to a more comfortable group format. An old pastor friend of mine once said this. “In nature, where there is more than one head on a creature, it is a freak. Where there is no head, it is either a worm or dead.” Is it any wonder our churches are looked upon with such low regard by society?
The biblical leadership example given in the Bible for those who would lead God’s people is most always the shepherd. Sure there were kings and dictators, but that was not by God’s design. Even those kings that were most revered by God were those who were first shepherds, like David. Jesus is called the Good Shepherd. We are His sheep. Sheep do not form committees and have power struggles with their shepherd. They do trust the shepherd and submit to his leadership.
A shepherd is the one who is responsible for the well being of the flock. If he fails at his job, the whole flock can be lost. You can sum up the shepherd’s job like this. He is to provide a safe healthy place for the sheep to live and reproduce. The shepherd does not reproduce sheep. Sheep do that. But in many churches the people have somehow gotten the idea that their job is to find someone who will grow the church for them. Meanwhile they can eat and relax inside the comforts of the building and not have to worry.
A shepherd leader knows his sheep. He does not ask them if they want to eat from this pasture or the other. He leads them to the best food. He does not ask them if they want to drink from the stagnate pool or the trickling stream, he takes them to the good water. He does not let sick sheep infect the entire flock. He may have to carry one or even remove one from time to time to save the whole flock. And the shepherd does not have to ask his sheep if they want to reproduce, because healthy sheep like to do that and do it naturally.
The leader that God wants will lead the sheep to where they need to go. Protect them from any dangers. He stays in the field and is always alert for threats that want to sneak in and kill or steal. A shepherd often smells like a sheep and rarely smells like a king. And no king is ever loved by the sheep like the shepherd is loved by the sheep. Sheep trust the shepherd because he is who leads them with their best interest at heart.
I love teaching our leaders this philosophy. They seem to get it. Maybe that is why our church is seeing people bring their friends to church and to Jesus. Shepherding is not easy, but is very rewarding. One day the shepherd will meet the King and my prayer is that the humble shepherds will hear the King say, “Well done!”

Last week I was off the blog scope as some of you may have noticed. What stinks is that I had a lot of really awesome and cool stuff to say. Now I forgot it all and I have to blog about why I did not blog all last week; I was sick.
I don’t go to the doctor very often. Before I do, I will try every home remedy possible and use the tried and true method of waiting to get better first. After raising 3 kids I have become pretty good at judging what is a cold or flu and what is just a simple bump or bruise versus the major stuff that needs doctors assistance. I became very good at looking at the back of a throat to see if it was just red or had little white bumps that meant Strep. Through the years I did not miss the call too often and even got to where I could look in the mirror with a flashlight and diagnose myself.
Monday of last week I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and a headache. This lasted a couple of days then just as quickly as is came on me it left. The next morning though I noticed a tingling in my throat that later that day turned to a burning and then later it became difficult to swallow. So I grabbed my flashlight and went to the mirror and took a long look and all I saw was some redness. So I gargled with some salt water and took a few Advil and suffered through it. The next morning I could hardly swallow my own spit. Again I looked in the mirror with my flashlight and only saw red. So I did the last thing any man wants to do and that was call the wife to come have a look. As soon as she looked she said, “Oh yeah. You have strep.”
We argued for a minute about why I did not see the white bumps that she claims were covering my throat but she insisted that I go to the doctor no matter what I saw or didn’t see. The only reason that I agreed with her to go was that I was scheduled to leave the next day for a men’s retreat and we were gonna go snow tubing and I knew that I was not snow tubing with my throat hurting that bad.
Once at the doctor’s office, I told the doctor that I did not see anything that looked like strep, but my wife said she did. I told her that I want to be safe and that I had to travel the next day. She, the doctor, told me that looking for the white spots was not a foolproof way to know if it was strep or not but it was the normal most of the time. So she grabs the wooden stick and crams it down my throat and starts to laugh. “What white spots did you not see? You throat is covered in them.”
How could I miss this? I looked several times. My diagnostic skills had never been questioned like this before. This was devastating.
After the exam and the test came back quickly with a positive, the doctor showed me the stick that she used to test me with. It looked like a pee test strip and she asked me if I saw the three lines. She said normally there is one, maybe two lines that indicate a positive, but this one had three. I looked at the strip and did not see a thing. The doctor then asks, “Do you wear glasses?”
So tomorrow I have my very first eye doctors appointment. Things just didn’t look that bad.

I have a friend who lives in the Philippines and he is someone who starts churches and helps pastor of the churches that he starts. I talk to him regularly on Facebook and occasionally on the phone. We first met about nine years ago when he visited my church while here in the states raising funds for his work. For whatever reason God bonded us in friendship and we have stayed in touch and I feel much closer to him than the distance of being half way around the world from him should allow.
The Philippines is for the most part a poor country, and especially where he is. Many people there do not have running water or sewage. He told me the other day about a 3-year-old who died from complications caused by drinking from the river because they do not have the ability to drill deep wells for safe drinking water. His church had to get the body from the morgue for the family who could not afford it. This family of 6 live in a 3 meter by 3 meter room.
Although my friend is younger than I am, he is not in the best of health. He is a diabetic and has hepatitis. On top of that, he has bad allergies that cause frequent sinus infections. Every time I talk to him I tell him that he needs to take care of his health and he tells me that he stays busy so that he doesn’t have to think about it. The availability of medicines is not the greatest and the doctors and hospitals are nothing like what we have here in the states, so even if money were not an issue, the quality of care can be questionable at best.
This morning I got a Facebook message from his wife telling me that he is in the hospital. I have not heard what is wrong or how serious it is. There is a 13 hour time difference that makes talking a challenge, so I am waiting for a reply. I am asking those who believe in God to pray for him. He is an amazing person who cares for his people with great compassion and with very little concern for his own well-being. His wife and kids are amazing people too and they have supported him and his ministry with uncompromising dedication.
I also ask you to pray for that nation. There is a wide variety of beliefs in that country and many are in direct conflict with Christianity. Some even resort to violence against those who don’t believe as they do. There is little help from the government in the form of protection for those who are trying to start the churches. Being a nation of islands, many of the smaller or more remote ones are often ran by those who have little regard for the law. The church in the Philippines is not the powerful force of money and resources as we see in the states. It is much more like the church of the early New Testament, a group of believers who join together to help those in need. Its kind of refreshing when you think about it like that.
There is a need in my friend’s church and ministry for financial help if you were to feel led to do so. I normally would never mention something like this, but I have personal knowledge of the legitimacy of the need. If you are interested in helping out that way, you can contact me via email or message me on Facebook. My email is emanrev@msn.com. I will give you a direct contact source or you can give through our church. But most of all I ask for your prayers for my friend’s health, his ministry, and his country.
Thanks for the prayers and I will update this as soon as I hear about why he is in the hospital or that he is out and all is okay.

To work or not to work? Poverty is a problem world-wide. It always has been and always will be. In Matthew’s gospel, the 26th chapter and 11th verse, Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us and I believe what He says. That does not mean that we should not care about them, the question is how should we care for them? Our country has an ongoing argument about how the poor should be dealt with and I have talked about this before in a few blogs.
The best thing a poor person can do is to get a job. I am not saying that we should not provide for those who can’t work, and I am not saying that it is a simple thing to get a job. I am saying that if you can get a job it is better than living off handouts. In fact the Bible says that if a man will not work, he should not eat. Sadly we have developed a culture of people who believe that they deserve to have the government and anyone else who will, take care of them. I get many calls a week from people who are “professional” beggars that have developed a phone script to ask for handouts from churches. They know the agencies that I try to refer them to before I can even get the list out of my drawer. I ask them if they are willing to come do some work around the church and they almost always say no. FYI, I have never turned someone away who is in true need of food or shelter.
Many people who are poor are going through a difficult period in their life that is due to circumstances beyond their control. Sadly they often become comfortable with having the unemployment checks sent to them and begin to enjoy not having to work for their money. Soon they stop looking for work and become a burden on society. Often the excuse in the beginning is that they can’t find a job making enough money. Many times people are not willing to do a job for less than what the last one paid but are more than willing to take less for doing nothing. I have a problem with that.
Working more than one job can overcome the difference in salaries. I know of multiple places that are hiring right now if you are willing to work for minimum wage. Having two and even three jobs is not a bad thing if it pays the bills. Many of our parents and grandparents worked multiple jobs as a way of life. It is not something to be ashamed of. And before you jump to the conclusion that I don’t know what it is like to work two jobs, I do. I have done it as recently as last year. Why? Because I needed to pay my bills and I was not willing to sit around and sponge off others when I could do something to help myself.
Being on government welfare is too often the hindrance of people who would work, but don’t because of convenience. Unemployment insurance should not be extended automatically to everyone who is accepting it. The money does not come from the government, it comes from the tax payers. Sure, most pay unemployment insurance while they are working, but it is not for indefinite benefits. After the allotted time for those benefits, it becomes other people’s money that pays for it. If the checks stop, people are more likely to look harder and take whatever jobs needed to feed themselves and their families.
The bottom line is not about being compassionate or not. It is about enabling those who are fully capable of working but won’t. People who can’t work and are in need must be helped. It is the right thing to do. One of the commands of the Bible is to help those who are in need. But personal responsibility is also a command of the Bible. Laziness is a sin. Not supplying the needs of your family when you are able, is a sin. The church nor the government, should ever help someone sin. But we better be ready to help those who can’t help themselves. If we don’t, then we sin.
But when someone can work, they should. We do no favors by letting people have handouts when they could find a job. While they are in that difficult spot of in-between jobs, we need to help. We need to assist in food, housing, and the overall well-being of anyone in that position. But we must remember that old proverb that says, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. To work or not to work? WORK!