What Is Hanukkah?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Johnathan Hernandez and Garry Schick.

Garry Schick
So good to be together and here we are in the midst of Advent, and today is actually the first day of Hanukkah, which as Christians, we've all heard of it. We know it's a Jewish holiday. And I came up with this question because today is the first day of it. I thought, what I bet a lot of people wonder, "what is Hanukkah, and why don't I find it in my Bible?" I mean, at least in the Old Testament. And so Jonathan, you want to get us started on that, and does it have any significance for Christians?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so I think my extent of Hanukkah was what you said. I knew that it was a Jewish holiday and that was really a lot of it. And so we look at the word, Hanukkah, it's a Hebrew word for dedication. And so this was the Festival of Lights I think, is what it's also known as. So Hanukkah is an eight day Jewish holiday celebrating the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem that happened in the second century BC. And so they had this candle that they had lit, but they only had, this was during the rebuilding or whatever of the temple, and they only had enough oil for one day. And so they light the candle and the miracle of it was that the candle lasted the eight days. And so we see that that's kind of where we see the eight days of Hanukkah or the different significance in there. And so I guess we don't really see it in the Bible. If you look into the Bible, you're not going to see something about Hanukkah. But if you were to look in the book of Maccabee's, I believe it was, that you can see some of the things that had happened here. And, you know, how can we as believers, how is Hanukkah celebrated in light of being believers in Christ? And so we can look at Hanukkah as a testament of God's faithfulness to the Jewish people by preserving them through war and persecution. His faithfulness and fulfilling his promises that He produces the Messiah through the line of David. And so there's a lot of things that, if we look at all of these different things and what's celebrated during Hanukkah, we can see where as Christians, we can celebrate some of those things also. So I mean, I think that's a lot of things. We can look at it and celebrate with the Jewish people through some of those things too, and encourage them through their time of celebration. It's not a time for us to just kind of sit back and, "oh, I don't understand," or things like that. I know when I was in high school, I had a friend that would celebrate it and I would just kind of, "oh, that's cool." I didn't understand it. I also wasn't a believer at that time either. But how can we help them celebrate it? Also through just encouraging them and being part of that. One of the other things is that, Hanukkah reminds us of God's faithfulness. Like I said, past, present, and future to His church. What is He doing? What has He done? And what is He going to do? Those are some exciting things through that. So yeah.

Garry Schick
Exactly. So for our listeners, the Protestant Bible, I guess we could say it that way, which is exactly the same as the Jewish Bible by the way. We have the same books and our Old Testament as, okay, so the Jewish Bible doesn't have the New Testament, but Protestant and Jews have the exact same 39 books in the Old Testament of which were originally written in Hebrew and a little bit in Arabic. So that Old Testament ends 400 years before Christ. And so there's what we call the silent years, except that they weren't really completely silent. It's true, God wasn't conveying to the Jewish people revelation during that time, but there was still history happening. Now, if you look at the Roman Catholic Bible, they have a few more books and you mentioned one of them. There's 1st, 2nd, I think there's four books of Maccabees, and the Maccabee books in particular are history and they're accurate history of just what was happening in the Jewish nation in the time period leading up to Christ. Now, during that time, some horrific things happened. They were under terrible persecution from the Greeks. I think it was Antiochus Epiphanies who went into the temple, slaughtered a pig on the altar, which was just a horrific thing to do, outlawed the reading of the Torah punishable by death to read the law of God, to study it, to practice Judaism. I mean, basically he was forcibly going to turn the Jews into pagans and Greeks. And he didn't offer a pig on the Jewish alter to God. He offered it to, I think, Zeus. So, I mean, in every way it was a desecration. And then the Maccabees came in, and this is what this history tells. They had a revolt and they pushed the Greeks out. They basically were a bunch of freedom fighters who, they did, they pushed them out. And so in 2 Maccabees chapter 10, it tells the story of how when they rededicated the temple, they did, they had this 10 day celebration. And then it's not in Maccabees, it's actually in the Babylonian Talmud. So Maccabees, it's in Roman Catholic scripture. They have taken these books that we call the Apocrypha and considered them as part of scripture. But the Talmud, it's not part of anybody's scripture, but it's basically a tradition of Jewish teachings and stories. And that is where you actually get the story of, and when they dedicated the temple, there was just one day's worth of oil and it took a week to make the correct oil. And so they decided, "well, we're just going to burn one day's worth according to what the law tells us." And as it turns out, miraculously, it lasted eight days. That actually is a little bit, it seems to me, since it's not even part of their history, kind of a fable, like at Christmas. I don't want to get too far into this, but there are certain fables that everybody loves around Christmas time that a lot of people say, "I don't really know about that, but it's still a whole lot of fun." And yet then there's also the core thing. So the core thing in Hanukkah is that it is, and you mentioned, dedication. In fact, it is called the Feast of Dedication. And with that, did you know Hanukkah actually does appear in the Bible? Not in the Old Testament, but in John 20:22, it says, "then came the Feast of Dedication." My Bible footnote says, that is Hanukkah. Now in Jerusalem, it was winter, right about this time of year today actually. And Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's colonnade. The Jews gathered around him saying, "how long will you keep us in suspense if you are the Christ or the Messiah? Tell us plainly." And Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you did not believe the miracles I do in my father's name speak for me. But you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand." What a beautiful thing, a feast that the Jews, to this day, called Feast of Dedication or also the Feast of Lights. Jesus is the light of the world, and when we are secure in him. We have the light of Christ. You'll see, and of course the menorah with that, with, what is it, the seven? Is it like seven candlestick on it? It's from the temple. That's a symbol of that. But in a kind of an interesting thing, there's actually nine candles associated with Hanukkah, one for each day. And then a center one called, the Servant candle, that lights the rest. We often find this in Jewish traditions. I find it in some things regarding their Passover too. There are things that just seem to symbolize Christ, and who is that servant candle that gives light to all the rest? It's Jesus, friends. And so we wish you Jesus today. And if you know some Jewish people say, "Hey, did you know that your Hanukkah shows up in my New Testament?" Jesus celebrated it, and He is the light of the world.

How Can We See People The Way God Does?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Johnathan Hernandez and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Well, here's a question, actually, it's one that came to you, Jonathan. Which, I just think you've come up with some really great questions and our people have too. This has just been a fun fall, I think, in terms of some of the questions we've had.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, I have a friend that I rely on sometimes to get some questions to me if I can't think of things.

Gary Schick
Really? Well, I don't know who this friend is, but keep the questions coming. They're good ones. So here's the question, "but the Lord said to Samuel, 'do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him.' The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart, 1 Samuel 16:7 NIV. How can we see people the way God does?" Great question!

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, that could be a very tough one, right? In our flesh, we'd like to see people the way we think they're acting, or that we think that they're doing something. And so we want to look at them that way. "Oh, these people are evil. These people are mean. That person's amazing, that person's great." So sometimes we want to see people in the light of our carnal mindset. And I think for us to be able to see people the way that God does, it comes with us being in a relationship with God. I am not going to see people the way God does if I have no relationship with God. I want to see them the way that my mindset sees them or how I see them, or how the world sees people. And so I think the first step for us would be, Hey, we need to be in relationship with God. We need to be in that relationship with God to have that mindset that he has towards people and how he sees people. And that all comes through our devotion life. If we don't have our devotion life in place, that's reading the Bible, praying, those type of disciplines. If we don't have those in place, we're not going to see people the way that God does. And so that's the first thing, is we have to make sure that we have that relationship with God. And then I'm not going to see people the way God sees them either if I'm not willing to be in relationship with them. I can have my own mindset towards somebody, but until I've interacted with them, until I've been active in their life, then I can see through the things that I think the world is saying of them. So those things are important to have, but it all comes down to how is God seeing them? If my identity is wrapped up in the world, I'm going to see everybody else's identity wrapped up in that. Gosh, we just need to get back to being people of the word. Getting back to that, my mind can't pull that scripture into my head. But we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, right? Ephesians, "we don't wrestle against flesh and blood." That's not what we're wrestling against. We're wrestling against the principalities, the powers of this dark world. And so when I see somebody and I don't see them the way that God does, I need to check myself and say, "okay, is my devotional life in place?" And if it is, then "okay, God, how are you seeing this person? Because you see this person as your son, as your daughter. You see this person as loved and as cherished." And so if my thought process of that person has anything other than that, then it's like, "Ooh, I need to get myself back in order." I need to line myself back with Christ. And a lot of us in our different workplaces, we deal with a lot of different people. And if we see these people as useless or worthless, then how are we ever going to help serve? I mean, gosh, Jesus was here and he served. He didn't come and say, "oh, well, this, this, worship me." He didn't force things; he served. And that was an example for us. How can I serve other people? And if I see them as useless or me above them, I'll never be able to be humble enough to serve them. And so my mindset wherever I go, "how can I worship God in what I'm doing now? How can I worship God in serving other people? How can I see these people as priceless? As sons and daughters of Christ?

Gary Schick
And I think it goes back, really, to a question you brought us a couple of weeks ago as we were approaching Thanksgiving, "how can we be the hands and feet of Jesus?" It starts with having the eyes and the heart of Jesus. And really it kind of reminds me in terms of that little tension between the way we see others and the way Jesus does of what happened the day that Jesus fed the 5,000. It's getting to be supper time, and the disciples are like, "Lord, send them away. Send them to the surrounding countryside in the villages so they can get some food." But what does it say? Jesus' response was, even when he first saw the crowd. It said that Jesus, when he saw the crowd waiting, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And the Greek word for compassion there, basically it's translated in the old King James, "bowels of mercy." He felt it in the gut. And so it really does. It brings us back to that question that you had. Well, how do we get the eyes and the heart of Jesus? The other thing that reminds me of is back when I was in my first pastorate, a little Catholic hospital was nearby St. Mary's Hospital in Sparta, Wisconsin. Shout out to Sparta. And it was just a teeny hospital. Really, all the serious work got done down at St. Francis down in La Crosse, Wisconsin or Gunderson Lutheran. Those are the two big hospitals. Excellent places. But anyway, one of the reputations that they had was just such tremendous care, and there's nuns working there. And so somebody asked one of the nuns, "well, what's different about the way you, why do you treat the patients the way you do?" And they said, "well, we are taught right from the beginning of our becoming people who are---women who are dedicated to Christ as nuns, to treat everyone that we see and to care for everyone as if we were caring for Jesus." And part of me would go, "oh, that is so cool that they do that." Then I got to thinking, wait a minute. This isn't just something for Catholic monks and nuns. This is actually pretty biblical. Remember Jesus in Matthew when he's separating the sheep from the goats? He says, "you know what? I was hungry. You fed me. I was thirsty. You gave me a drink. I was a stranger. You took me in. I was sick. You visited me. Wait a minute. When did we see you, Lord? When did we do these things for you? Well, when you did it to the least of these...and then the goats, you're out of here. I was hungry. You didn't give me anything to eat. I was thirsty. You didn't give me anything to drink. I was sick. You didn't visit me. I was naked. You didn't give me clothes. Well, Lord, when did we neglect you? Well, when you neglected the least of these, you were doing it to me." So very biblical. And for all Christians, it starts with seeing others not only as Christ would, but as Christ himself. And so I just kind of want to wrap up with three things here. Three keys. I think number one: love. Let's remind ourselves as we, and I know people are honking at you as you're going down the road or whatever it is. It's so easy to get frustrated, especially in the chaos of this month leading up to Christmas. But love, remember whoever they are, however annoying or whatever the issue is. This is someone Christ died for, just like they died for you in your sin, in your less pretty moments. Respect. This is somebody that was made in God's image. Every human being was made in God's image. Now, that image has been distorted by sin. It's a fallen nature. But, the imago dei, the original image of God, it's still in there. He's got his fingerprints all over, each special creation, each person. Hope. Hope is important. We don't give up on people. That's something that our kids have watched in us over the years. We don't give up on each other. We don't even give up on our pets. Your story isn't written yet. And by the way, neither is the person across the table or across the room or down the hall. Their story isn't complete. No, this may not be a great chapter, but the story's not done. The ink isn't dry. If God can take an apostle Paul who's out there hunting down and persecuting and dragging off Christians, be stoned to death and thrown in jail, then He can turn around that person. What did it take for God to turn you around? And then faith. God is big enough to conquer any soul, but what a beautiful thing. He uses you and me and the process. Just as we wrap up, 1 Corinthians 13:13 comes to mind, "but these three remain faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these, of course, is love." But those are words not only to memorize and to ponder, but to live by and live out toward others.

What Is Christianity's Greatest Need Today?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastor Michael Clement

Michael Clement
Some years ago, a pastor friend of mine in another city went through a difficult situation where he had had an assistant pastor and things didn't work out. And after it was all over, he shared with me some thoughts on needs within the Christian community. And he took those thoughts and developed them into a message with three points, and we're going to break up those three points that have three programs. One on each of those points. So the question is, what is Christianity's greatest need today? And I'd like to suggest that the first one is: a need for committed Christians. Let me read from Ecclesiastes 9:10. It says, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Friends, God has given us not only this life, but He has given us things to do. And in this life, is the only chance we have to do those things. The Bible tells us very little about what we're going to do in eternity and very little about what heaven's going to be like. We have some things in scripture, but not very much. And I think in part, that's because God wants us to be focused on here and now. And one of the things that I see is a need for Christians who are committed. There's generally a need for commitment in American culture today, but what is a problem for our culture is deadly for the church? A lack of commitment. Let me define that a little bit. For instance, we need believers who are first of all, committed to the Lord. You've heard what Jesus said, "if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." And that's not only in one of the gospel accounts. It's in Matthew 16:24, it's in Mark 8:34, and it's in Luke 9:23. God has included that statement of Jesus three times in His word. So what does it mean? Well, to deny yourself and to take up your cross and follow Him is the idea that we come to the Lord. Not just for salvation, not just so that we can have our sins forgiven; not just so that one day we get to go to heaven, but it's a commitment to live for Him. One of the great things that I enjoy doing is reading Christian biographies. Most of them are about missionaries, but some are about others that weren't missionaries, that served in some other way. And what I like to see and hear are Christians who take their Christianity home with them on Sunday. They live it in their homes with their family and they take it to work with them, and they live it in the workplace. And then they even take it when they're involved in entertainment and recreation and Christianity influences their whole life. That's a real joy to me as a pastor, and I believe it's a joy to the Father as well. Some years ago, I heard of a young man whose father was a minister. He was a teenager and he had just gotten a job working with a number of men who were not Christians. He came home one day, kind of discouraged, and his father asked him what the problem was. He said, "well," he said, "at lunchtime the guys always go to a bar, and they invited me and I said, 'no thank you,' but I didn't really give a good answer." He said, "I mumbled something about, 'my parents we're Christians and my church and so forth.' Dad, how can I be a better witness in a situation like that?" Well, his father prayed with him and gave him some advice, and one of the things his father said was, "maybe the next time something like that comes up, you can say, 'I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ as my savior and my Lord, and I just don't think that's something he wants me to do." Well, the next day when the boy came home from work, he was all excited and he said, "Dad, I need to tell you what happened." He said, "same thing as before: at noon they all drove to this bar and they asked me to come in and I said what you told me to say, 'that I've given my life to Jesus Christ, my savior and Lord, and that's not something that I thought he would want me to do." And he said, "there's an older fellow there, and he looked at me and he kind of gave me a look of disgust." He said, "Dad, I just knew that guy had been around lazy Christians." He said, "so the rest of the day I worked twice as hard as anybody else." He said, "I really threw myself into it, and frankly, it almost killed me. But at the end of the day, that gentleman came up to me, put his arm around my shoulder and said, 'kid, you are all right."

Michael Clement
I love that story. Obeying the Lord should be my first priority. Oftentimes, I hear people say to me, "well, we moved but we couldn't find a church to go to and now we're struggling." And frankly, I think that if at all possible, that should have been a part of the decision whether or not to move. Some years ago, a family called me and they were living in another state and they started asking me questions about our church. What was it like? What did we teach? And after the guy got done talking to me and questioning me, he told me what was happening. He said he was, like, a foreman working in his company and the owner of the company had wanted him to find a place where they could buy another business like the one that they had there, and they wanted it closer to Kansas. And so he began calling around. He called different churches in different places, and he told me what he wanted to do was first find a church that he thought their family could go to, and then start looking to see if there was a business for sale, and that's what they did. I love that kind of thing. Find the church first. It also means that we need believers who are committed to their family. In 1 Timothy 5:8, it says this, "but if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." In recent years, we've had some fairly well-known Christians who have not just walked away from Christianity, they have publicly declared that they're no longer believers in Jesus Christ and that they're no longer participating in Christianity. And that was tragic. Many of you may know that in recent years there's been just a deluge of Christian young people who have gone to secular schools and then ended up, not just leaving one church and going to another one, leaving Christianity entirely and not going back at all. If somebody was to do that, we'd say, "well, that's just terrible." But this verse says that if somebody doesn't provide for their own families, then they're just like that person that walked away from the Christian faith. In fact, it says they're worse than an infidel or an unbeliever. We need Christians who are committed to their families. That are, first of all, they're concerned for the spiritual wellbeing of their family. They don't just send them to church, they take them to the church. And those kids get an opportunity to watch a mom and a dad who are committed to the Lord Jesus and showing them how to live. And then third, we need believers who are committed to their church. In Hebrews 10:25, it says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as a manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as you see the day approaching." The fact is today, that there are many who don't think a whole lot about the importance of the local church. Now, I believe in what's called the church universal. The church universal is comprised of all the believers who have ever received Jesus as their savior from the day of Pentecost until the rapture of the church. But that church hasn't had a single meeting. There's one planned. The first one is in the air when Jesus comes again for the church. But people that oftentimes will neglect the local church will likewise neglect prayer, they neglect Bible reading. They don't have somebody to encourage them to do what they're supposed to be doing. And so they need to be in church. Now, it's not so that it won't be empty. It's not so that the offerings would be bigger. And it's not so that visitors would be impressed. First of all, it's to meet your needs. People need a local church. Christians need a local church. And then it's for them to find a place to fulfill their duties and their responsibilities. And then finally, it's also to not be a stumbling block to other people. And I might add, it's also an act of obedience. In Matthew 18:6, Jesus said, but whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Oftentimes, Christians don't think about how their behavior, how their decisions, and how their lifestyle is affecting other people. But it does. We all need others. And that was said by God in the book of Genesis when he said, "it's not good for a man to be alone," and that then He created a woman to be with him. We need other people to encourage us and to keep us doing what we should be doing. And then also, we need believers who are committed to their calling. In Nehemiah 6:3, when Nehemiah was asked if he would go and talk to some of his critics and some of his enemies, he said, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?" Some could have said, "well, Nehemiah could have been a witness. He could have shared who Jehovah (God) was with these people." But that would involve him walking away from his first priority. And his first priority was to do what God is calling him. Building a wall is more important than witnessing to the lost. Well, not really, but doing the will of God is more important than anything. There's a song that is oftentimes sung in church. It's Blessed Be The Tie That Binds. And the story behind that was, there was a pastor who had been a pastor for a very long time in a very small church. And he finally was noticed by a bigger church in another city and they invited him to be their pastor. Well, he was planning on leaving and the church got together for a farewell. And when they did that, people one after another stood up and said what that pastor had meant to them and how he had been a blessing to them until finally the pastor said, "how can I leave? You people are breaking my heart." And he sent a message to the larger church and said, "I'm sorry. I can't come. This is where God wants me to be." We need Christians who are totally committed to the Lord in every facet of their work, and I pray that's you. May God bless you.

Why Would The Israelites Build A Pillar To Remember What God Did?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Johnathan Hernandez and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Hey, so here's a question that apparently came to you, and I think it's a great one. It says---a question a friend sent to you---"in the Old Testament, whenever God did something or led people somewhere, they would build a pillar to remind them of what God had done. Why don't we still do that?"

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, that's a pretty good question, isn't it?

Gary Schick
Yeah, there you go. So what do you think?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so just like the question asked, when we look and read through the Old Testament, we see where something amazing happens or something big happens, and the people were to build an altar to the Lord. And a lot of times, we would see that they would name that place a certain thing. We see in Genesis 35:1-7, this is where Jacob, he names the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. So we see some of these places; God does something big or leads somebody through something and then they were to name that place, whatever it may be, like here. And you know, I think, okay, so why aren't we doing that currently now? And I think in some instances, we do. Not to the level of what we see in the Old Testament. But when something big happens in our lives, a lot of times we see people will write that down in a journal. This is a place of remembrance that God did something amazing. And here it is, I think a big one for us, that I think sometimes we look over, is what we call our testimony. God did something amazing in our lives, and so now we have this testimony of what God has done. And I hope that we're going around telling people about our testimony, not just holding that into ourselves. But it's a place of remembrance. "What did God do for us? Well, God delivered me from, whatever it may be." Another great thing is salvation. The day that we gave our lives to the Lord is a huge moment in our lives.

Gary Schick
Yup

Jonathan Hernandez
That's a huge testimony. That's a part of our testimony that we can tell people, "God did this for me." You know, for me and my life, when I really allowed God to speak into my life, the Holy Spirit just really helped lead me to the front of the church, to give my life to Christ. That was a big place in my life, and I remember that. I can drive by the church and say, "in that church is where God really took ahold of me, and I was able to actually start listening to Him." You know before, I was just like, "meh, I don't know. No, I don't know." And so, what has God done in our lives? And we can see that and say, okay, here's an altar in that sense; what God has done for us. I guess we don't see us building something miraculous and then naming it, at least not in my life. I haven't done that. But I mean, we could look at a few different things. The church as an alter. This is a place, if we think about the alters, there's places in the Old Testament where they---Moses led the people through the Red Sea, and at the end they sung praises. They had that whole song that they sang, and this is what they're doing. They're really singing to the Lord, worshiping Him for what He just did in their lives. In church, we sing songs of worship in places of remembrance of what God has done, and we pour our hearts out to Him. And like I said in the earlier one, it would've been more of a personal altar, something that God has done personally for us or has led us out of a situation or through a situation. And the same thing, we would sing phrases to Him or we would give thanksgiving to Him. And you know, those are amazing places where we can just really reflect on what God has done. Communion would be another one. A place of remembrance, right? Of what He's done for us. Yeah, that's kind of that place of worship. And that's another one we could say, that's kind of an altar type of thing that we go back and remember what He's done and then we worship Him through that. So I say, we kind of still do some of it, maybe not to that level that we see in the Old Testament, I guess.

Gary Schick
And it's really not commanded in scripture, it's just something they did. They built an altar, at the point of Bethel, poured some oil over a stone. Said this is Beth El, which means House of God, because God appeared. And they also did it to some degree as a nation. And by the way, we do it too. We put up statues and commemorative monuments all over the place as historical markers. Where battles have been fought and won, where different things have happened; where 9/11 happened. I mean, we mark places as a nation, that's just something people do. But in terms of spiritual markers and pillars, I guess when I read that question, immediately what came to mind, it's kind of an older book now, but I think it's just as relevant as ever. So if people are not familiar with it, I would really like to kind of point you in the direction of the book called, "Experiencing God." I don't know if they even have copies over at our local Christian bookstore or not. I know at one point, it was all over the place. You know, it's funny how as a culture we kind of, "oh, this is the book like The Prayer of Jabez," which was a great book. And then after a while, "oh okay, we did that and it's gone." Well no, if there was truth there, then maybe we need to take note of some of those things. So anyway, Blackaby wrote this great book called, Experiencing God. And in it he talks about how we can discern God's will in our lives through what God says in His word. Through moments in prayer, through the encouragement and guidances of others. And he has a chapter in there talking about how God uses our circumstances and our life experiences. And in that chapter, he talks about physical markers of spiritual encounters. And actually, I just want to read a little paragraph out of that. He writes, "when Israel crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, God gave Joshua the following instructions: Choose 12 men from the people, one man from each tribe and command them. Take 12 stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priest's feet are standing. Carry them with you and set them down at the place where you spend the night, Joshua 4:2-3. These stones were to serve as a monument to the Israelites. Joshua explains, 'this will be a sign among you in the future. When your children ask you, 'what do these stones mean to you?' You should tell them, 'the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the Ark of the Lord's covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan's waters were cut off. Therefore, these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites,' Joshua 4:6-7." And then Blackaby goes on and says, "the stones were to be a visible reminder of God's mighty act in providing for His people in Old Testament times. Others also built altars or set up stones as significant encounters with God." And he notes Noah in Genesis 6-8, Abraham in Genesis 12 & 13, Isaac in Genesis 26, Jacob---as we are pointing out---in Genesis 28 & 35, Moses in Exodus 17 & 24, Joshua in Joshua 3-4, Gideon in Judges 6, Samuel in 1 Samuel 7. Places like Bethel, which you talked about (House of God). Rehoboth, which means room, because God made room for His people. These became reminders of God's activity in the midst of His people. Blackaby writes, "Moses named an altar, The Lord is my Banner. And Samuel named a stone Ebenezer saying, 'thus far the Lord has helped us.' 1 Samuel 7:12; then Blackaby notes, "These altars and stones were physical markers of great spiritual encounters with God. They provided opportunities for parents to teach their children about God's activity on behalf of His people." So notice, these are all in the Old Testament. So it seems to stop there, but I'll tell you what: there's one final marker in the Bible. It's the cross of Calvary. There is one final marker where God meets with mankind in the ultimate way and pays the price for our sin. The last, the final altar is Jesus on that cross and then coming out of the empty tomb. So those are markers for us. And then I love how you pointed out; our conversion is a point. And Blackaby goes on and talks about these in our own lives as points of transition, decision, or direction where we clearly see God guiding us. And so listeners, maybe we're not building a pillar, so to speak, or a monument, but this can be, I think, a healthy exercise in looking at how God works in your life. So take a look back. What are the moments when those crossroad moments, like when Jacob was at Bethel or when you encountered Christ at his cross, where he saved you? Where He's directed you, where He's provided for you, where He's guided you. Maybe you're at a crossroads right now, and looking back at how God has worked before. It can both encourage you, and you know what? God met me at that crossroad in the past and guided me forward. And maybe you'll even see a pattern there in terms of helping you to discern. Blackaby talks about in his own life, there were three different ways he could go, all good, but which one seemed to fit the way that God would move him forward into the next step in his life? And that can sometimes be a help to us in terms of seeing, not only God at work in the past, but God's hand pointing in the present on into the future that He has for us. And I just kind of thought about this: a well-used Bible is a well-marked Bible. And as you were talking about that, I thought, you know, I have at different points, underlined scriptures because they stood out in some way. And some of those scriptures, I've gone back to again and again, and they have become, those very words of God speaking into my life, have become markers in my life that God has used over and over again. And so listeners, if you've got one of those well-marked Bibles at a point of discouragement or crossroads, maybe it's time to go back and look at some of the things that you've underlined and how God has spoken to you before and what he might be saying to you from those passages again. And if your Bible is not well-marked, well get her open. And as God uses a scripture in your life at different points, make sure to highlight it. Maybe put some stars around it. Maybe even make note of a day, the date, and maybe even a reason why that was pertinent in your life at that moment. Because God's word not only tells us the things God has done in the past, but it speaks to us in our present and guides us into our future. To His praise; to Him be the glory both now and forever!

What Led Lucifer To Sin?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Johnathan Hernandez and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Hey, I've got a kind of interesting question today. "What led Lucifer to sin?" You know, in the light of all the evil in the world, I mean, with what's going on in Israel and Ukraine and just the condition of our own country. Sometimes I think we forget, we tend to look at all the problems in the world and we think of all the people involved. And to be sure, human beings really don't need any help to make a mess. But what does the scripture tell us? Ephesians 6:12, "for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm." Sometimes I think we forget there is such a thing as evil out there. In fact, it's what led the human race to sin. It was Satan who came along and tempted Adam and Eve and he's still doing what he does. So Jonathan, what are some things you were able to dig up on the subject of Lucifer and his fall?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so just looking at some scripture we see in Ezekiel 28:14,15, it says, "you were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you." So here we see them talking about Lucifer. And then if we look at Isaiah 14:12--15, we see here it says, "how you are fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations. For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mountain of the congregation of the furthest side of the north. I will send above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high." Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit." So we think about what led Lucifer to sin, and it was really that place of pride. He wanted to be who everybody worshiped. And that's not the case. We were not created to worship Satan. Right? That's furthest from the truth.

Gary Schick
There are people that do though, apparently in the world.

Jonathan Hernandez
Oh yeah. And so we look at that, and I think as believers also, we need to realize Satan and God are on the same level, not opposites. Satan and Jesus, they're not opposites. Lucifer isn't God, He wasn't a God. He never will be a God. He was an angel. And so if we're looking for someone that would be in the sense of an opposite I guess of him, we would think of Gabriel or Michael or another angel. And so I think as believers, we need to make sure we have that right. Also, that when we're thinking of God, we're not saying, "Satan's the opposite," because then I think we start getting into some crazy theology and different things that start going in opposite directions. And so, man, Lucifer had such a heart to be worshiped. He wanted to worshiped, he wanted to be 'that.' You know what I mean? We just read that he wanted to be the high of the high. He wanted all of heaven to exalt him and worship him and be like, "okay God. You go somewhere else. Because here, I am the master, I am above everything." And obviously, we see that he got put in his place, right? It didn't last very long. So if we think of what led him to that, to sin, it would be that place of pride, him being so prideful. And I mean, we see this throughout scripture. If we're walking in pride, guess what? We're going to be put down pretty quick, in a sense. Pride comes before destruction, right? We see this and we know this. And so there's times I have to say, "okay John, is there a place in my heart that I have pride rising up?" And if I do, "okay Holy Spirit, highlight this for me so I can deal with it." I can give it to God and say, "okay, I'm dealing with pride. I don't want to walk in this anymore." And so, gosh, if we could realize, hey, we have this place of pride in our hearts, let's try to get this out. I know in my life there's been some places I've been pretty prideful,

Gary Schick
All of us have.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah. And so for me, that's where my answer goes straight to, is pride led Lucifer to really take that dive of fall.

Gary Schick
I think that's good. And I kind of like where you started with that about God and Satan are not equal opposites. That's kind of an Eastern idea. The light and the dark; the yin and the yang. The balance of the good and the bad. And probably, that idea again, comes from Satan himself because he wants that. I think the real key to that passage in Isaiah, I'll come back to it in a minute, is where he says, "I will be like God." The very thing that he tempts Adam and Eve with. And so this idea of equal polar opposites; the positive and the negative forces in the universe may not be all he wants. But he's pretty content with the idea of being raised to that level. I think where we kind of need to begin is a biblical worldview. Do we have a biblical worldview? You know, I just got a little bit of this in seminary, but this is probably the least studied part of scripture, is what they call Angelology, the study of angels. And basically a secularist has a very monochromatic worldview. Just, there's man and the creation and that's it. Western Christians are a little bit better. We see man and creation, and we see God above; kind of two realms. You go among primitive people, and they also see two realms, although they're slightly different. They see man and the creation and they see the world of good and evil spirits, what the Bible would refer to as angels. But actually, a biblical worldview is actually that there are three realms of being. There is God who is a creator of all and rules overall. There is the realm of the spiritual, the good and the bad. You know, Revelation 12 actually kind of alludes to the fall of Satan. Where a third of the stars, or another reference to angels there, fall with him. And so only a third of the angels, but still significant number. And even in their rebellion, nevertheless, God rules and He sets the boundaries for Satan and evil. And then there is the realm of humankind.

Gary Schick
So really, kind of a three tier system. As we look at him in scripture, and we've kind of used all of his names, the devil and Satan,these are words that mean adversary and accuser. And he certainly is our adversary, and he certainly is the accuser of the saints. Lucifer's kind of an interesting one. And that is actually the one referred to in Isaiah, the light bearer. Lucifer is actually a Latin translation of that. Jesus is called the Bright and Morningstar. And again, Satan wants to take that. And in the, what is it, 2 Corinthians? It's in Corinthians where it says, "that we should be aware of him, because he can still masquerade as an angel of light." But in terms of his fall and what led to it, it is the same thing that he used to lead our forebearers to fall. "I will be like God," what did he tell Eve? "You will be like God." And what is it that gets us into trouble when we decide we're going to take the position of God? And really, you think about it, pride, that's one that's not really hard for people to admit. They're going to hesitate on some of what we would consider the bigger issues. The sexual things or the anger things or whatever. But underneath it all is P-R-I-D-E. That sense that, "I can get by with this. I can do this. God may say no, but who's going to know?" Well, scripture has a warning, pride comes before a fall. And people do ask the question, "is it legit to go to the very passage that he went to?" Ezekiel is actually addressed to the king of Tyre. Isaiah, that broader passage I addressed, to the king of Babylon. But again, going back to what you mentioned about Michael and a little bit of angelology in Daniel. Michael is sent in response to one of Daniel's prayers and he basically says, "sorry it took me so long. I was battling on behalf of your people, Israel, against the spiritual forces over the nations around you." We see battles like what's going on in Israel and what's going on in Ukraine. And what's even going on with some of the division in our own government. It's just a human strife. And it is that, but there is also a spiritual component. And one of the things we learn as we look at scripture and what it says about angels, they seem right from the beginning to have been put over different aspects of the natural world. And even they have turf that they kind of defend and battle for. And so, okay, here's Ezekiel addressing the king of Tyre, but talking about him as a cherub who was in the Garden of Eden. Well, that physical king was never an angel in Eden, but the spiritual power behind him, Lucifer, certainly was. The king of Babylon doesn't quite fit the description there, but the power, the spiritual force there,Lucifer. So, can we say legitimately these passages apply to Satan, Lucifer? Absolutely. Because there is the physical evil empire, so to speak---to quote Ronald Reagan as he was talking about the Russians. But the evil is not the people. As Paul says, "our struggle is not against the flesh and the blood." It's the spiritual forces of evil, the heavenly realms that are motivating humans in those horrific directions. And praise God! In Christ, we have the victory. Jesus said, "in this world you'll have trouble, but take courage. I have overcome the world." Satan wants us either to be obsessed with him or to just, no, that's a bunch of Halloween nonsense. No, no, he's real enough. But the power in us, Christ, has already overcome. So take courage listeners, in that. Jonathan, you want to wrap us up with some final thoughts?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so just a final thought I was just thinking about. I think one of Satan's tricks, I guess, is that he always tries to get is for us to not realize our identity. He did that with Eve, right? "If you eat this, you'll become like God," trying to get her to question who she is and question identity. He does the same thing when Jesus was baptized and God said, "you are my son whom I'm well pleased." And then later on Satan goes, "well, if you are the Son of God." So he tries to question that and he does that same thing to us. He tries to get us to question who we are, and we need to realize that our identity is found in Christ. In Christ alone, nothing else. So yeah, I'll leave it with that.

Gary Schick
I'm so appreciative that you brought out that last part about our identity, because, you know, it's a funny thing. When we're walking in pride, "I will be like God," we're never less like him, but when we humble ourselves and receive what we need to forgive our sins, Christ is our savior. What is the promise of scripture? And we will be like him when we stop claiming what's not our ground. But humble ourselves and say, "I will be who you made me to be in Christ." That is actually what raises us up to a very special place in the universe; in Christ. And so listeners, there's kind of two ways people go, either pride, "I don't need God," or another subtler form of pride. "Well, I need to clean up my life first." No, no, no. As one of my parishioners, one of the people in our church said to me, "the fisherman goes out and he catches the fish and then he cleans it. God gets ahold of us in Christ and then he cleans our life." Yeah, this is something we can do for ourselves. So listeners, if you haven't already, turned your life over to Jesus, that is where true life begins.

If I'm Not A Missionary how do I Contribute To The Great Commission?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Johnathan Hernandez and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Well, this one actually, somebody asked you, right? So I'm going to read it and then I'll let you see what you think about this. This is a great question. Jonathan writes, "I had someone ask me the other day, 'if I can't go overseas to be a missionary, what part, if any, do I have in missions or the great commission?" So Jonathan, what was your response?

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah well, I mean, I guess first off, I just want to say thank you to all of our U.S. missionaries, and all of our worldly missionaries that just go out and are obedient to Christ's calling. And so just thank you to all of our missionaries. So when I talked to this person, I was telling her, "if you truly have a heart and you feel like God is calling you to missions, then you definitely need to follow up with that. If it's missions work, then what can you do to get to that?" Obviously, you need to start going through ministry classes and things like that in order to step into that field. But if you feel like you're not called to mission's work, in that sense of being a career missionary, there's many things God has called us to; to the Great Commission. I mean, I guess we can back that up just a minute. Make sure we've supported our missionaries. We can do that financially, but we can also do that definitely through prayer, making sure that we're praying for our missionaries on a daily basis. But if we jump into scripture, we see the great commission being given to us. We see that in Matthew. We also see that in the Book of Mark, and so I'll read those both real quick. So Mark 16:15 says, "and then he said to them, go into all the world, preach the good news to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. And then these miraculous signs will accompany those who believe. They'll cast out demons in my name. They'll speak in new tongues or new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety and they'll be able to drink anything poisonous and it won't hurt them and they will be able to place their hands on the sick and they will be healed." And so this is that commissioning, that we should go into all the world and preach the good news, right? To all creation. And then Matthew 28, it's a lot of the same thing. And it says, "Jesus told his disciples, 'I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Spirit; teaching these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure that of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And I guess I was getting a little tongue tied, because I'm used to reading it out of the New King James version. So we see these two scriptures that really have that command to go into all the world. And it doesn't say, just the pastors go into all the world, just the missionaries go into all the world. But it's telling us, as believers, that we need to go and preach the good news. My friend who's a missionary, a US missionary here in the United States, he goes, "I always say, 'to Jesus there was no local or foreign missions field. There was just the lost who needed a savior?" And man, that hits so good. People need to know who Christ is. It's the only hope, right? That's our hope. And how can we, and it doesn't matter, like I said, it doesn't matter if we're a pastor or a missionary or someone that's in the church. It's a commission for all of us to go preach the good news. But I think there's a piece that we miss a lot of times. You know, I think we've become really good at making converts or helping people come to Christ. But we don't follow that up, because in Matthew 28, it tells us to teach the new disciples everything that God has given us or has shown us. And so I think the important aspect of discipleship is something that we need to make sure that is strong within our local body. How are we discipling that next person? If we're wanting to see that next person reached and saved for Christ, we also need to back that up with discipleship and help them process through. Because man, I remember when I came to Christ, I had a lot of questions, and I think a lot of people do. We have all these questions and it's so new. But to have someone that mentors us through those questions and helps, that discipleship process is amazing. And so that'd be my encouragement, is that not only are we reaching the lost, but we're discipling them. And man, it's an amazing role that we get as believers to help that next person learn about Christ and grow in Christ. And so for me, I think that's it. If our role in the Great Commission is just that, is to make sure that we're seeing it and obeying it and reaching the lost and then discipling lost, and then we get the opportunity to baptize them. Those are all amazing things, that we get to just be a part of someone's life and watching them just grow in Christ, is an amazing thing. At least it has been for me, is just to watch people grow in their relationship with Christ and then watch them get excited and say, "you know what? I was able to lead my dad--or my brother or my friend or my coworker--to Christ and just see just how excited they are. It's an amazing thing. And I hope that each of us look at this great commission and say, you know what? This is a commission for me to step into.

Gary Schick
And I think you're right. It is a commission to the whole world. Mark, "preach the gospel to all creation," Matthew, "therefore go make disciples of all nations." But where does that begin? It begins where we are. The passage you didn't touch on, that I also love is Acts 1, which really is kind of the table of contents for the book of Acts, but also it's God's game plan. Jesus says there, he says, "but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." So, a couple of things there: 1. Where does the power and the wisdom and the words come from? It's not you or me, it's the Holy Spirit. We are just faithful with what we have to bear witness to the truth, Christ, and let the spirit take it from there. And then 2. where do we begin? You say, "well, Jerusalem, that's a long way away." Well, it wasn't when Jesus was talking to them. They were in Jerusalem, basically. He was saying, "start here and then branching out from there to Judea." Well, Jerusalem was in Judea, so he's saying, "look, start here in the city, proclaim the gospel, take it from there." And that's in the book of Acts. This is the progression we see. The gospel starts being proclaimed on Pentecost with the whole power of the Spirit in Jerusalem. And then we see the disciples branching out beyond the city into Judea, and then Samaria, which was right next door, sort of the next stop along the road to Galilee, which was where most of Jesus' ministry had been; and then to the ends of the earth. And that's exactly how it happens in Acts. First you see it in Jerusalem. The gospel proclaimed, and then it branches out into Judea, and then the disciples are kind of persecuted and they kind of spill out beyond that. And so the gospel goes from there into Samaria. And then finally, with both Peter and Paul, and then really primarily Paul, for the rest of the Book of Acts; taking the gospel even further and further out in the first missionary journeys. But you hear that people say, "well, boy, I'm not a missionary, so therefore, what's my place?" Your place is to start where you are. I mean, all these places that are far away aren't far away to the people that live there. Jerusalem is a long way to us, but it's home to the people who live there. And it was home to the first Christians, actually, where we are here in the United States, think about where the gospel started. To Jerusalem, we're almost as far away as you can get. I mean, we are literally on the other side of the world. So we are the farthest foreign mission field from where the gospel began. And so what does God ask us to do? He asks us to be faithful, to rely on the Spirit, to proclaim the good news, invite people to church. Invite people to Christ. Tell your story of how you came to Christ. A couple of resources. Maybe you're not part of the Gideons, but the Gideons even have Bibles that they will allow people to hand out that aren't marked official. Gideon Bibles, something I've always been impressed by, the P.T.L. (the Pocket Testament League). They give out the gospel of John with some, just beautiful covers. And I mean, I've handed those out with my tip at a restaurant or wherever. I mean, our church has handed out a bunch of those. So you can physically give people a gospel. You could share what Jesus has done in your life, be in prayer for those around you who don't know Christ. But really we are, I had a missionary talk about something that sticks in your head. Many years ago, he came to our church to share, and he had a great little song. I'm not going to sing it, but I bet I can remember every word of it. It went like this: "Be a missionary every day. Tell the world that Jesus is the way. In the city or the country or the busy avenue. Africa or Asia, the choice is up to you. So be a missionary, be a missionary. Be a missionary every day." So, I've been to Africa. Many years ago, when I was a seminary student, spent eight weeks in Kenya. I've been to, I guess Asia in a sense. Well, I don't know, it's the Middle East. I've been to Jerusalem, so is that the Middle East? I don't know if that's Asia. Maybe I still need to go to Asia. I'd love to go to Asia. I'd love to go to the farthest corners of the world. I'd love to see new places and to meet people. But I'll tell you what, when I'm there, here's what I always discover. People are people wherever you go. Some know Jesus. Some have never heard of him. Some are just somewhere along the road. We are right here in the USA, the mission field today. Actually, you pointed out, you mentioned somebody who was a missionary within the United States. There are countries that we have sent missionaries to, that are sending them back to us, sending missionaries here. Now, and actually, I'm just going to close with this. There was many years ago, I read a book by somebody named Al Lung called The World At Your Doorstep, talking about how God is bringing the world to us. I mean, if you go to our local college right here, our local community college, there are people from every country. They come here to study for a couple of years, they need to be befriended. I mean, they're people and they represent an opportunity. You want to go to Africa or South America or wherever? You can't get there? That's okay. Just go share Jesus with somebody who's from there, who's in our community right now, and you have an opportunity when they go home. Then they can take that gospel with them. The world is at our doorstep and what are we doing? And this is a challenge to me. What am I doing to leverage that opportunity for Christ and His kingdom? Because the day is coming, Jesus will be returning, and we want to be found faithful when he comes.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, you kind of hit what I was going to say too. Is just, you never know what that ripple effect will be. Never know even when you lead, get the opportunity to plant that seed or water that seed, or even see them fully submit to Christ. We don't know what that will look like. They may be the next Billy Graham or something along those lines. And so, just be obedient when you feel like God is tugging, the Holy Spirit's tugging on your heart to speak to someone. It can be scary. But when we learn how to be obedient to those tugs, amazing things can happen. So amen.

Gary Schick
I just want to finish with what you mentioned there at the beginning. We are called to be witnesses. They bear witness to what they know. They stand up in the court and they share, "this is what I saw. This is what I heard. This is what I experienced." It's not their job to convince the jury. Let the facts do that, or in our case, let the Holy Spirit do that. We don't have to be the world leading expert on how to convince people of anything. We just bear witness to the truth that has been made known to us, and let God take it from there. I think we make this too hard for ourselves. We make it like, "I need to___," no, you don't need to do anything other than just be faithful and share what you have. And if somebody's hungry for it, they'll take some.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah. We're not the one that saves them.

Gary Schick
No, no. And until they're hungry for it, they're not going to want it. But it's God's work to create that hunger in a heart. But then you might be that connect point. You might see them come to the Lord, or you might just be the first itching in that direction, or you may be somewhere in the middle. Just play your role and let God bring the fruit when it comes. We wanted all of it to happen now. Where we share it and they hear it and they receive it and done. That's not the way crops are produced. You plant a seed, it takes time, harvest comes. You and I are just workers in the field. Maybe we're there for the harvest, maybe we're there for the planning, maybe we're there in the middle. But it's God's planning, God's harvest, God's work along the way, and we just need to be faithful while we're there.

What Are Your Thoughts On Fasting?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastor Johnathan Hernandez.

Jonathan Hernandez
This morning I have received a question, and the question was this: It says, "what are your thoughts on fasting? Does it have to be strictly food or can other things be considered fasting, like the electronics or social media?" So yeah, as we dig into this, what are my thoughts on fasting and what do we see in scripture? And so, if we look at the word, "fasting," if we look at it, the original word, we see it through the Hebrew and then also through the Greek. The word itself means: to abstain from food. So if we think of fasting and we we look at it, "well then, it means to abstain from food." The Greek is, like, "abstained from food or drink," and so would we say, "does it have to be food?" If we look at this, that's kind of what it's showing. I know as a church, this has continued to go on, we've seen where we've fasted electronics, or you have a 40 day fast and we're going to give up "this" for different things. You'll see some churches that give things up for Lent. You have these different seasons, like those things, that were to happen. My thoughts are, if you're giving up something and you're saying, "this is fasting," then the purpose of that would be for you to give something up. And as you're giving that up, you're spending more time in the word, in prayer, and building that relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what fasting, that's what the whole purpose of it is. Is to grow closer to God. And so, if I'm just fasting and if I'm just giving something up, but I'm not turning to God and spending that time with Him; then if I'm giving up food, but I'm not replacing that with the word, well, then all I'm doing is going on a diet. I'm not actually trying to get closer to God. I'm just, like I said, just basically going on a diet. So we need to make sure that if we're fasting, that we're giving something up, but we're replacing that with being with Christ. Whether it be: in the word, prayer, both of them together, meditating on the word, memorizing scripture. Just developing and deepening that devotional life that you have with Him. So, if we look at the law, God would require people to fast annually on the day of atonement, when offerings were made by the high priests for the sins that he and the people had committed in arrogance. And we see this Leviticus, and this was the only time that God kind of expected that fasting process, or that to happen. Now we're no longer bound by the law, because Christ fulfilled it. But we do see that, though it may not be a requirement so to say, like we'd seen in the law, we still see it happening throughout the New Testament. So like in the Old Testament, we see it happen in grief, right? When King Saul was killed and buried, his men fasted for seven days. We see this for Samuel. We see that when Bathsheba's first son was dying, David fasted and pleaded with God for his life. We see this in 2 Samuel. We see people fasting as a place of repentance, as a repenting for whatever's going on. We see this in the book of Jonah. We see that they're fasting. We see these take place even today. You see people fasting as a place of repentance. We see it happen to seek favor, blessing, or the will of God. Moses fasted for 40 days in preparation for receiving the 10 Commandments; we see this in Exodus 34:28. Daniel fasted before God and God gave him a vision; Daniel 10:2-6. We see Elijah fasted before he spoke with God; 1 Kings 19:8. Jesus fasted for 40 days before his public ministry began as Matthew 4:1-11 says. You also see it in Luke 4:1-13. We see that the apostles fasted and prayed; that we see in Acts 13:2. And so the question would come down to, how do we see it happening today? How do we fast today? What's the purpose of us fasting today? Should we be fasting today? That's where the questions, I think, would go. From, once we see that scripturally, they fasted in The Old Testament, and we see that they fasted in the New Testament. We see that the disciples, we see that the followers of Christ fasted, they prayed. So we see that it's a practice that was put into place. So how do we see it today? Should you fast? Right? And I would say the answer to that is, yes. Fasting may not be the easiest discipline of Christ to do. A lot of people love their food, right? It's hard to give up our food. But also, there's great benefits in us spending more time with God. Abstaining from something and saying, "you know what? We're going to dedicate this time to Christ." I've had friends that fasted every Tuesday morning, they'd fast their breakfast and they wouldn't eat until, 'whenever,' and they'd spend that whole time in prayer.

Jonathan Hernandez
I know a lot of pastors fast Sunday mornings until after the sermon or after their service. They just want to make sure that they're in the right place. Making sure that it's God's word that's coming out and not their words. It's what God's wanting to say within that moment, and what He's saying in that time. So as we fast, we can see a few things happen. And so, we see fastening prayer can help us hear from God. So when we're fasting and we're praying, we're giving up something and we're spending more time with God. We're trying to connect to Him and we're going to hear from God. As we're spending that time in prayer, we're spending that time in our word. Fasting and prayer can reveal hidden sins; sometimes, those things that we're hiding and we're continuing to hide that we want to overlook. But then God reveals those times, those things to us when we're fasting and He's saying, "Hey, look John. There's this part in your life that I've been calling you and telling you, and trying to show you that it's not pleasing to me. And that you need to get rid of it." But for whatever reason, we're pushing Him to the side. But here in this time of, in a sense of isolation, we're removing something from us and spending more time with Him. He's going to reveal those things to us and say, "Hey look, here it is. This is what you're doing. Let's get rid of it. Let's repent of it. Let's move forward." Fasting and prayer can strengthen intimacy with God. If you feel like, "you know what? Maybe I haven't really been hearing from God lately. I feel like I'm far away from God right now." Spend a day of fasting and just spend that time with Him and reconnect. He's always been there. He's there already, right? It's us who has drawn away. And so draw back, draw closer to Him and spend that time with Him through prayer, through this time of fasting. Get rid of those distractions and just make sure that you're spending time with Him. Fasting prayer can teach us to pray with the right motives. A lot of times we have have wishlists, and we just rattle off these things instead of just saying, "okay God, what is it that you're wanting? Let me just hear from you. I want to come at you in prayer with the right motives." Not, "I want a million bucks," but "hey, what does it look like for me to be praying for the lost ones in my community? How can I pray for my lost loved ones with these motives?" Fast and prayer can help build our faith. So as we're spending more time with Him, we're seeing things happen. We're seeing how the scriptures just really fulfill those areas. So we just need to make sure that when we're fasting, we're doing it for the right reason. We're not doing it because our pastor said, "Hey, go ahead, you need to be fasting this week." And that's great, and that's motivation to help us, hey, let's step into this. But why are you fasting, right? Not just to lose weight. It's not a diet, but it's a place for us to step into what God has for us. It's an opportunity for us to connect with Him on a higher level. It's an opportunity for us to deepen that relationship, to strengthen our faith, to strengthen that intimacy---like I said---with Him, to hear from Him, to reveal things in us that need to be removed. That chiseling season. So we need to make sure that when we go into this, a season of fasting that, "hey, we've already prayed for it. We feel like this is what God's showing us as we step into this." And then make sure that you're doing the things that you need to do to keep yourself healthy through that too. So would I say that fasting is only food? I know a lot of times we could definitely stay in that route. And I mean, really when we look at scripture, we see that it says, "abstain from food." But also, I think there's an amazing thing that happens when we abstain from social media and all of that distraction. If we can just separate ourselves from all of that extra knowledge and things that we really don't need; separate ourselves from having that phone in our hand twenty four seven. And instead of having that phone in our hand, let's have our Bibles in our hands. Let's have our prayer journals. Let's have those things in our hands, our devotionals, and spending more time with God, and just really see what this season would look like if we would just put down social media for even a couple hours a day. Instead of being on it the whole time that we get home from school, or get home from work, however that looks. But we just make sure that we're spending that time with Him and say, "you know what? I want to separate from social media. I want to separate from whatever it is, electronics. Maybe it's video games. I'm going to separate myself from video games and spend more time with God. And so some of you guys are like, "well, I don't do social media. I don't do video games." What is it? Maybe it's the television, maybe it's whatever it is. Separate yourself from that and spend more time with God, and I think we're going to see some amazing things happening. We're going to see some more spiritual growth happening, and that's really it. We want to grow spiritually and we can't stay infants for all of our whole Christian lives. We need to be able to mature. I think, if we could get into this practice of fasting, I think we'll start seeing ourselves mature on a better level and being able to grow closer to God. And for me, a lot of times, if I feel, like I had just said earlier, but there's times when I feel like I'm not hearing from God. Or I'm not feeling like I've kind of maybe been separating from Him a lot of times, then I'll fast for that day or whatever it may be and say, "okay, I need to make sure that I'm in the right place. I need to make sure that I am hearing from God and I am following Him and all of these things." As a pastor, I've got to make sure that spiritually, I'm healthy, because I want to help other people become spiritually healthy. And so, if I'm not spiritually healthy, then what am I reproducing? And so fasting is a place for me to be able to say, "okay, where am I? Okay God, is there areas in my life that I need to look at? Is there a hidden sin that I'm overlooking? I want to be close to you. So I've got to make sure that if that's my goal, to be close to you, I've got to do the things that we've got to do, right?" If I want to be close to my wife, I've got to spend more time with my wife. We've got to do those type of things. So if I want to be closer to God, I've got to make sure that I'm putting in that effort to say, "Hey, I'm going to get closer to you. I'm going to spend time with you." And that's, a lot of times through fasting. Fasting's an amazing thing for us to practice and to do.

How Should Christian's View Our Cultures Obsession With Justice?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Johnathan Hernandez and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Well, today's question could be what you might call, kind of a hot topic. But I know it's a question that people are asking. So here it is, "We hear a lot about justice these days. Environmental justice, social justice, et cetera. We know God is a just God.' But how should Christians view our culture's obsession with justice?"

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, I guess this is a pretty important question within our society today. And I would say that I guess even in Jesus's time, I guess it would be an important question on this. So we look at this, how there's this focus on this social justice platform, I guess that's been really going on for a while. But really started really sparking a lot for us in what, 2020? Around that time we started seeing a lot of more things, I guess, popping off in that sense, moving forward in that social justice form. And so, if we look at this, if we take the Bible seriously, then justice should be a big deal for us. We see it scripturally, he commands in Jeremiah 22:3, "do justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand the oppressor; him who has been robbed." And so we see these scriptures that God is showing, you know, there is justice and He is a just God. We see in Luke 4:18, and this is quoting Isaiah 61, it says, "Jesus declared his mission proclaimed. The good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are being oppressed." Isaiah 1:17 says to seek justice. So this is a strong call. I guess in that sense, in scripture we have to look at those and take them and say, "okay, if we are seeing this call in scripture, how do we see it lived out in that?" If God's calling us to live this justice out, how do we see this happen? And I think if we can look even in the book of Acts, you know, if we look in the church history in that form, we see this happen in the early church as they proclaim the gospel. We see that there was a racial divide happening back in that time with the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Samaritans. We see this racial divide happening and we see that as the early church was proclaiming the gospel, there was a real sense of community starting to be built. And I think if we can look at that for our time now, there is a racial divide that unfortunately does happen within our society. And if we could just get back and say, "you know what? We're going to start proclaiming the gospel. We're going to start walking it out." Not just saying that we proclaim the gospel, actually walking out the gospel. And doing the things that we see in scripture, and start seeing this real community start happening like we've seen in the early church and start seeing people come to Christ. I think this is how we'll see this social justice, that platform, really say, "you know what? Let's just bring this back to scripture." I think for me, some of the problem with the social justice that we see today is, it really starts pitting people against other people. And this is not the justice that we're wanting to see. We're not wanting to see it divide people more. We're wanting to see it bring people together in unity. And I think we're starting to see, at least this is what I'm seeing, is some of these social justice warriors of our day are really pitting our people groups against people groups. And we're seeing more oppression happening than, you know, we should be seeing people that are oppressed, released and freed from these things. And I think unfortunately, we're seeing it where it's really pushing people more into oppression, not uplifting people like it should be. And so I think that's where I'm seeing it from my side. Gosh, if we're wanting to go after social justice, we should be seeing unity not pitting people against people. And so, yeah.

Gary Schick
I think that's an interesting and a good take on it. This world's attempts to achieve justice don't always achieve it. And I think it's in part because it's us working out of our sinful nature trying to move towards something better. Which the goal is good, but if you use sinful means to get there, you're going to continue tofall short of your objective. And I think also, a part of it is some blind spots, which we are reluctant, all of us, to let go of. Each of us have what we might call our hot topics, things that we want to see, areas of justice achieved. But if we're completely honest with ourselves, there are others that others may be fighting for out there we could care less about. And that doesn't mean that those things aren't important to God's heart. Just that maybe, in fact, even the way this question is worded kind of made me think about that. It says, "we know God is a just God, but how should Christians view our culture's obsession with justice?" As if almost to say, "well obviously culture's in the wrong here by being obsessed with it." You know, throughout the Bible, God is just, "period." And He is obsessed with justice in a way that we could only wish we were. One of the great verses, we used to sing it when I was in youth group many, many years ago, from the book of Micah says, "he has shown me, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee. But to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." And I think part of the human problem is, we don't know how to balance justice and mercy. Justice by itself is very important, but very harsh. Mercy by itself can come across as just sort of sweeping things under the rug. You know, kind of like Jesus. Jesus came filled with grace and truth. Truth and justice go hand in hand. Grace and mercy go hand in hand---and love. In our way of approaching life, sometimes we've got justice on one side, mercy on the other. In Christ they don't fight, they kiss. Justice and mercy come together in Him. But exactly what you were saying, in terms of the way, in our sinful selves, we go at this, these things actually tend to conflict. In Christ they come together and even when we pray the Lord's prayer, what are those three words? "Thy kingdom come." Now in part, we're praying for the return of Christ, but we're praying for the King of Kings to come to reign over His kingdom when the kingdoms of this world give way to His ultimate justice and rule. So we are actually to be ambassadors and signposts of that. I just, oh man, I've got several just little quick thoughts that I just want to kind of pop out to the listeners here. One, bear in mind, God's view of justice is at times very different from what the culture promotes as just. But at other times, if we take the Bible seriously, even what the culture is asking for doesn't go far enough. Really, the question is not whether there should be justice in this area, but what is a biblical view of it? What's God's view of it? And biblically, I think three things need to be said. 1. part of our sinfulness, both in the culture and the churches, I've already mentioned, is blind spots. We need God's word to wake us up to areas of injustice that we have grown complacent about. If we ever recognized them to begin with. And one example would be, a hundred years ago this country was divided Christians on both sides over, in part, I know there were other factors, but a big part of it was the issue of slavery. Today it's very hard for a Christian to look back and say, "how could Christians have ever been on the side of that?" But they were complacent in their culture. They found verses to back up what they wanted to say and just close their eyes hard to others. You've got to take the whole council of God in a sense that civil war should never have happened. Christians should have been able to come together and say, "you know what? This is hard, but God's word says, "and therefore we must," as opposed to going the direction we did. Another thing is to acknowledge, you know, we hear a lot today, a lot of it came, you're right, a lot of it got going in the 2020. It wasn't just covid that hit that year. We hear a lot about culture wars. I heard an interesting take on that recently. Culture wars, the person defined as this, a culture war is a theological war where one side identifies it as theological about what God says, and the other side doesn't see that. But it's still about that. You know, it's very interesting. In the culture wars, the secular liberal left, they are using, I guess I want to say Christian values without calling them Christian. So often in calling us our attention to this and this and this. Whereas Christians are saying, "and God's word says." And so it is. It's a cultural, it's actually somewhat of a theological war, in which one side doesn't acknowledge that God is part of the equation. And so that is part of what creates the conflict there. And then third, while we are not called to fix the culture, we are called as Christians to be a prophetic voice within the culture. And even to live out higher values than the culture, and in all areas, not just one or two. For example, it seems like over the course of my life, there were a time when Christians kind of stood up for many things, and more and more we have, maybe it's kind of a stereotype, but Christians have been sort of stereotyped as one issue. People, it's all about abortion. That's all or nothing, and nothing else matters. Well, obviously abortion does matter. And I'll be honest, that has cast my vote more than once. That issue, right there. But it doesn't mean that other issues don't matter. For example, I think the question brought up the question of the environment. Whether you believe in global warming or not, I mean, the world is kind of hot this summer for whatever reason. Doesn't really change what our answers should be to the question, "did God make this world?" And we do our best to take care of it, whether that scientific theory is true or complete hogwash.

Gary Schick
Should Christians be not only leading the way to say all life is valuable, which we should, but should we also be leading the way to a cleaner, safer, healthier environment in our planet? I mean, do Christians want the oceans filled with plastic? I don't think so. And yet, I have heard Christians say, "well, it's all going to burn up. Who cares?" I mean, that is not a Christian perspective. God said, "here's this world, you take care of it until, basically, until I come back," it is what we're going to pass on to our kids and grandkids. It shouldn't be either or, it should all matter to us. But from a Christian perspective, fourth---actually my three turned into six---fourth, I think it's important that Christians stand for the right things in the right way. Sometimes we become so passionate about our causes that we forget that human souls are often at stake, the people we are arguing with. And that's where there is, I think, what's the most important thing here? The issues are always important. Of course they are, they affect people. But it's the people that matter the most. Jesus died for souls. And sometimes when I get pretty wound up about an issue, whatever it is, I tend to demonize the people on the other side. I think we all do. And no, those are souls that we need to reach for Christ. And so yes, we need to, I think, draw the line and make clear our stand and make clear why we stand there. But I think it's also a good idea for Christians too, and this is my next point, and to look for some common ground. Not every issue does have to be us versus them. Christians can stand the ground and be sowers of peace, not division. The Bible calls us to that. That's part of, "thy kingdom come." It's a kingdom of peace. And then sixth and last, I think we need to bathe everything in prayer. Even as Christians, we've read our Bibles, we know what the Bible says about this, so here we are ready to go to---no. We need to ask God to show us His solution. How do we bridge this gap? Is there some place that we can build together? Is there a way through this that we haven't thought of yet? Even if we agree with the scientists, here's an issue in our world, there's still one thing that we can bring to the table that they can't. "God, give them insight," whether we're talking about cancer or whatever it is, we should be bathing everything in prayer and every conversation in prayer and every relationship in prayer. And then God's picture of justice, I think really will be done. He looks, I believe, for a world where people are in harmony, first with Himself, then one another, and then the environment they live in, until He comes for us. So Jonathan, anything more you want to add?

Jonathan Hernandez
No, I think you had some great points there. Definitely, things for us to really think about in those areas. And so I think the last thing is, for me, a lot of times when we are raising our kids, let's make sure that we're raising them with that biblical view of things. I think that's where we're seeing a lot of things going astray. Are we going to be committed to God or are we going to just show up to church, but we want to live a worldly worldview instead of what God has shown us scripturally.

Gary Schick
And I think news broadcasts or a topic that comes up at school, those can be great conversations at home. Say, "oh, that's interesting. What does the Bible say about this?" And so, sometimes we will get on board with what the secular culture is saying and say, "you know what? They've actually gotten ahold of something that's right here in the Bible," because all truth is God's truth. Other times we're going to say, "You know, isn't it interesting how the world is looking for a just outcome, but how that's contrary to God's word?" And look at where that will, if they got their way, where that would actually take us. And what that would actually result in. And for example, well the two we've brought up, we could say, "oh, there's a person who doesn't know the Lord and yet they're caring an awful lot about the world God created." What are some responses, as Christians, we could add to that? Or take the issue of abortion, say, "well, it's really interesting. They're talking about a woman's rights, which obviously there's some truth there, but aren't they forgetting about the person that woman is carrying in her body and that that child has rights to?" And so if the world gets their way there, what does that lead to? The loss of that child's life. So we just need to keep going back to the Bible and affirm what's there to be affirmed. Call it when it's going too far, and absolutely draw the line when it's going totally counter to God. It may use all the right words, but if it's going in the wrong direction, how do we know? What's our compass? "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Not what I want, not what sounds good to me or feels good to me or is most comfortable to me. But what does God's word say?

Does God Give Us the Desires of Our Heart?

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastor Johnathan Hernandez .

Jonathan Hernandez
So our question this morning is, "Does God give us the desires of our heart?" And we would look at Psalms 37. This is where we would find that scripture where it says, "take delight in the Lord and God will give you the desires of your heart." And I think we've taken this verse and we've just, what do you wanna say? Like, simplified it into just this part of it, not the entire portion of scripture. We've just taken it down to, "let's look at the scripture and take delight in the Lord and God will give you the desires of your heart." And so, I think at times we see this and it's exciting, right? We see it on t-shirts, we see it on posters, memes on Facebook or any of these things. Like, we see this portion of scripture, or just this verse of scripture, and it sounds great. You know, like, if I delight in the Lord, I will have the desires of my heart. And so, I think people get frustrated, because here they are, they feel like they're delighting themselves in the Lord, but yet they still have this desire for say, a million dollars, right? And here we are. We're serving God, we're doing the things that we've, you know, that we see in scripture. And there we don't have the million dollars, right? And so I think when we take these scriptures out of the complete context of what we're seeing, we can get ourselves into a bit of trouble, right? And that's with any scripture, you know, we have to make sure that we're looking at it in the context of the entire portion of scripture. You know, it's not just a vacuum. It's not, you know, we just can't pull a scripture out and, you know, base everything on just that little tiny bit of it, because we have to have the full context. And what is the author saying in this? What is it? What is the whole meaning through this entire part of it? You know? And so we can't, like I said, we can't just take this little bit of the scripture. You know, we have to look at the whole thing. And, you know, in chapter 37 verse one, we started off. Verse four is where we find the, "delight yourself in the Lord." And so we look and it says, "do not fret because of the evil doers; nor be envious of the workers of inequity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell on the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as a light and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." You know, as we continue to go on you guys, like this whole scripture, we're starting to see things come into place. Like I said, we can't just take it out of it. We can't do that with scripture. We can't just pull stuff out of there. And so, how do we look at this? How do we see, okay, God will give you the desires of your heart. Is this really what we're seeing here? "Delight yourself in the Lord." So verse four, it says, "delight in the Lord." And we find this thought process throughout the Bible, right? But it's also one, you know, maybe we don't really, or rarely we hear somebody preach on what does it mean to delight ourselves in the Lord? And we could probably have an entire radio show that's dedicated to just that. So to delight yourself in something is to take pleasure from that thing or person. Commonly, we would delight ourselves in like, our spouse, right? So it could be friends, our children. Maybe, you know, we see people that delight themselves in a prized possession. They have an old car, and that's, you know, the greatest thing on earth. And, you know, they delight themselves in that. Unfortunately, some people delight themselves in sin. And so they're taking pleasure, or committing themselves fully into this thing. And David is telling his readers to delight and commit fully to God, to find our joy in Him before anything else.

Jonathan Hernandez
And I would challenge us, as believers are we fully committed? Are we taking joy before the Lord? Are we seeking after Him with everything that we have? And so I think, you know, if we're looking at these scriptures, we need to make sure that we're delighting ourselves in the Lord. And then the second part of verse four, it says that God will give us the desires of our heart. And I would challenge us as believers that if we're fully committed, fully going after the things of God, I think our desires will align with His desires. You know, it's not gonna be, "I want a million dollars so I can be rich and famous, or whatever." Now it's, "okay, if God gives me a million dollars, where am I investing that into the kingdom? And how am I helping what God wants to see happen? I think a lot of times, you know, I know when I first became a believer, my desires were still in things that wouldn't be God's plan, right? First, when I give my life to Christ I'm starting to learn how to walk the Christian life out. I'm praying, "God, remove these things from my life," you know, whatever it may be. And, you know, sometimes our desires are in things that they shouldn't be. Like maybe revenge, lust, envy, greed, something along those lines. And so, the more time we're spending with God, the more time we're delighting ourselves in the Lord. I think that's where we start seeing our desires being removed from this worldly context into a godly context of, you know, what is God wanting to see? What is He wanting to see happen? Not only in our lives, but within our communities? How often do we encounter different believers that are seeking after things that we see, "okay, God is showing us these things. God is speaking these things." And so, as I continue to push and move forward in Christ, we're gonna start seeing these things happen. And it's exciting to see those things, you know? And so, as I look at the scripture, if I delight myself in the Lord, that means I'm aligning everything with Him completely. I'm aligning my thought process. I'm completely all in for God, right? And so I will receive the desires of my heart. But I believe my desires now have been formed in such a way that they're aligning with God's heart. And my heart now is that, you know, exactly what God is wanting to see happen. And so, "delight yourself in the Lord, and He'll give you the desires of your heart," isn't, "I'm gonna give my life to Christ and He's gonna give me a million bucks." Or, "I'm gonna give my life to Christ, and He's gonna give me that amazing vehicle that I've always wanted." You know? No, that's not how we're seeing this happen and how it operates. You know, how we see this happen. You know, we delight ourselves in the Lord and our heart will be aligned with God's heart, and we'll see what, you know, will align with that completely. And so I would just challenge you guys to continue to, you know, read that entire portion of scripture and allow God to speak to you through that and allow the Holy Spirit just to really lead you.

Parenting and Disciplining Your Children

You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.

This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Kiley Callaway, Tyson Lambertson, John Mulholland and Jon Simpson.

Jon Simpson
So, last time we discussed parenting and specifically discipling your kids. We want to kind of continue in that with that topic. And so we're gonna tackle a passage found in the book of Judges, again in the Old Testament. Pastor John's gonna read for us again from chapter two of the book of Judges.

John Mulholland
Yeah, "After Joshua sent the people away, each of the tribes left to take possession of the land allotted to them, and Israelites served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua. And the leaders who outlived him, those who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. They buried him in the land he had been allocated at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for them. The Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight and served the images of Baal." And then it continues down a really lousy path throughout the rest of the Book of Judges.

Jon Simpson
Just one generation.

Kylie Calloway
That did not acknowledge the Lord.

John Mulholland
Why didn't they acknowledge the Lord?

Tyson Lambertson
Well, first I think we have to give Joshua some credit, because his legacy was substantial and very, very important. Cause he kept Israel on task. He was a father of the nation. He really did a wonderful job. And his kids followed. Then they split up and went and possessed land. And I think a lot of times it's easy to lose focus and we're seeing in our own generation, people walking away from the things of the Lord and being carried into a culture that is full of demonic influence. So it makes sense that it could be one generation away.

Kylie Calloway
We've got something up on our refrigerator and how we acknowledge the Lord. I mean, acknowledging the Lord may be different in each home. But I'll share them with you, cause I don't memorize them. But we call them connecting habits and disconnecting habits. So I think people use them, and I think this is what drives away kids. So the disconnecting habits would be: criticism, blaming, complaining, nagging threatening, punishing, bribing. Basically, all of those are to control. So anytime those go on in our home, we kind of go to the refrigerator and say, "you know, that's not the way we wanna be, because that's not who God is." But we want to be these habits, because these connect us to one another, which is: supporting, encouraging, listening, accepting, trusting, respecting and negotiating differences. And for us, that's birthed out of love of who God is. So when we have those moments together as a family, we feel like in those times we're acknowledging who God would want us to be. So I have to keep going back to that, being, right? Is that we try to teach our kids that it goes deeper than just church attendance and serving in a church. Yes. Prayer is good, studying the Bible is good. But at the essence is: this is who He wants you to be. And so that's our way of acknowledging the Lord. Of course, we acknowledge Him every Sunday in our worship and in our prayer, but further than that. Of our day-to-day life with one another, getting to the core of who we are is acknowledging the Lord for us. And hopefully for our home, that will teach our kids to continue to acknowledge the Lord in their family lifestyle.

John Mulholland
I really like that difference that you explained. What I heard you say was, "there's a difference between being and doing." And we went through Judges several years ago. You know, if we were to read through Judges and we were to read into the rest of the Old Testament, we would see a people who were doing all the right things. You know, all of the things that are taking place here in the book of Judges, in the midst of that, there are people who are still celebrating the Passover. They're still doing all of the right behaviors. But what they've missed is that being and not acknowledging the Lord, not remembering the mighty things that He had done for Israel. So, back to what we talked about last time, just kind of like, that verse 10 is a key text because it tells us; like, when the kids ask their parents, "what is the reason we do these things?"

John Mulholland
They were supposed to say one thing. And my guess is, they made it about the doing, "Well, we go to Temple because we always go to Temple at this time. It's always the Sabbath. It's always the Passover." And they've forgotten the reasons why. And they've forgotten that they were set apart to be a certain kind of people. So I think our challenge is, "what does it look like for us to be a certain kind of people, and then model those behaviors to our kids? And how can we encourage the people and our bodies to do that?

Kylie Calloway
Right. And that's how we're set apart from the world, so to speak. Those disconnecting habits are ways of external control. I can control you with my complaints, but we teach our kids an internal locus of control, that there's something deeper inside of them that they can choose to be other than externally controlling. Cause if I control you, I mean, that's really a form of witchcraft. So, you know, we're not trying to control in those connecting behaviors, which are birthed out of love. It's hard to do with young kids, but the more---I just had to do it yesterday, but the more consistently we do it, we're finding that that's who our kids truly, at the end of the day, want to be. They know who they want to be. It's just our job to kind of guide them towards that direction. And they can choose not to be that too.

Jon Simpson
Yeah. It also seems like, it's interesting that what happened here was that the people were led into the land and they occupied it, right? They got their inheritance. And once they did, they got busy living and taking care of their family and doing the thing that you do. And the mission or the sense of, you know, conquest or accomplishment or purpose, I think it's easy to lose that. And I think of, in my lifetime now, I've been alive long enough to see and hear about, you know, those movements of God, those hay days of either ministry or God moving. And I know I've heard those stories here in this valley, of God. And you know, sometimes there might be some lament about what's happening, or there's nothing. And I'm like, "well, you know, that sense of mission has to continue," and I think every generation has to grab hold of it and move with it and have a sense of, "we've gotta build." Like, why do we have, you know, churches? Why do we do what we do? Certainly in part, it's to raise our own families, but it has to also be to reach the people around me and to, you know, make a difference in the region. And I think that that sense of mission, as I look back, part of the reason for maybe those where something springs up and there's something really incredible going on, people grab a hold of that, you know?

Kylie Calloway
Yeah. As soon as you said, "they got busy living," I heard in me, "but they didn't get busy dying." And I think that's what you have to do, is die to yourself. Right? We do get busy living, but we're not in the business of dying. And we have to die to our flesh and die to ourself to truly show our kids how to truly live the gospel life.

Tyson Lambertson
I think the text lends to the dichotomy of Joshua leaving a legacy. And/Or living your own life. And I wanna live a Joshua legacy for my kids, so it doesn't fail in the next generation, or generations following that. I wanna live that long obedience in the same direction, so that our kids have a good foundation.

John Mulholland
Yeah. So what does that modeling look like? I think last time, Kylie, you said, "we are doing things that our kids are picking up on." So how can we make sure that they're picking up on the right things? One of the pastors I've listened to frequently says, "we are making disciples. We are discipling our children." The question is, what are we discipling and made to?

Tyson Lambertson
I think it's every day. I think, how I respond to certain circumstances, situations. How I talk, how I model, how I love their mom. How I talk about the scripture, how I apply it to my own life. When somebody does something to me, how do I respond? I mean, it's all the time just modeling the weight all the time. Trying to live a godly life in front of them all the time.

John Mulholland
That's an incredible weight that people have on them. And we, I think as pastors, and as the church, have to help people understand that the way around that incredible weight is through, like, Christ bears that weight for us.

Tyson Lambertson
Grace.

John Mulholland
Because I think people can hear this. You gotta be on all the time. Man, for some people that's grounds to not even try. So how can we communicate that their help is in the Lord, not in their own efforts. Other than saying that, that sounds great.