Labor Day

I remember when I served as a youth pastor in a "Right to Work" state. That is a state where the laws prevent any business from requiring union membership to work there. It was an idea that I strongly supported prior to ministering in that state. But while I was there I learned something that I remember on Labor day: in our society we sometimes tend to undervalue labor. In that state, I met people who had been working the same job, which required skilled labor, for 10 years or more, and who were still making minimum wage. That just didn't seem right. I know that such an anecdote does not prove the value or lack there of for "right to work" vs. union organization. But what it did do was show me that the honest labor of a working man or woman could be unappreciated. So on this day when we remind ourselves of the value of an honest day's work: thank you to all who tirelessly (or sometimes tiredly) work day in and day out in jobs that may not be glamourous, but without which we all would be poorer! God bless you!

Pastor Ken

Real Christianity

Take a look at this and ask yourself - Could I be this way? I would hope that I could - but am not sure I would. God bless! Paste this in your browser: http://www.socalag.org/video/player/beaten_ag_pastor_speaks_out/ I promise to learn how to embed soon!

Pastor Ken

WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?

Quite often I will be asked what we believe. There are a lot of different ways to say it. We have a statement of faith on the back of our bulletin that summarizes our beliefs. The Assemblies of God has an extended and detailed statement called "The 16 fundamental truths." But why is this even important? I mean, "can't we all just get along?" That concept is one with a long history and a great attraction. There are so many things that divide us. Why can't we all just get along? And certainly there are places where this is a valid question. It implies that we can all just "agree to disagree." And that works fine in areas of taste, like food, movies, books, etc. But it can't work in areas of truth. If you want to believe that you can fly, should I let you believe that? I remember when my youngest asked her mommy, "Mommy, when are you going to let me fly off of the balcony?" as if all that was preventing her was getting our permission! If flying were a matter of taste, then we could have said something like, "Dear, when you are ready to fly, you just go ahead and go." But she couldn't fly and never will be able to! So real love demanded that we explain to her why she couldn't fly, and then keep on eye on her until we knew she understood! If there is a God, and if He has chosen to communicate with us, and if the content of that communication determines not only our quality of life now, but its quality and duration forever, then we must know what is true! So what do we believe? Well, a good start is here: http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/index.cfm Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Pastor Ken

Divert, Withdraw, Abandon

I start my vacation in another 24 hours or so. What a blessing! It reminds me of something that Rick Warren said at our General Council about a month ago: Divert daily, withdraw weekly and abandon annually. It is an extension of God’s command to remember the Sabbath. The Sabbath, of course, was made for man and not man for the Sabbath – that is what Jesus told us. And boy do we need rest! So Warren told us to made sure to divert our attention from our jobs for at least an hour a day if we can. That means doing something that is not remotely connected to your job – garden, read, whatever. Then, we withdraw weekly – we take at least one day per week to get away from it all. This is the fulfillment of the Sabbath and is how God made us. Many have tried to work seven days a week, but inevitably you are less efficient – and you cannot ever focus on our God and what he has done for us! I honestly believe that everyone would be better off if they took at least one day off a week. And then, we abandon annually – just get away from it all for an extended period of time. In America, this is usually around 2-4 weeks. In many parts of Europe, it can be even longer. But it really allows us to recharge our batteries. So why don’t we all divert daily, withdraw weekly and abandon annually. You will live better if you do!

Pastor Ken

THOUGHTS ON FREEDOM

I just finished meeting with the pastor of our Armenian-Iranian church that meets in Glendale. Technically Pastor George Hovsepian is a staff member of our church who is in charge of the Armenian department. In reality, while I provide some oversight, Pastor George is pastoring an almost separate church where they speak Armenian and Farsi. Pastor George is a former pastor with the Assemblies of God in Iran. His older brother, Haik Hovsepian, was the Superintendent of the Assemblies of God when he was martyred by the Iranian Secret Police over a decade ago. While there he was taken captive by the Secret Police himself and threatened with death if he did not stop telling non-Christians the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

All of this got me thinking about how much we take for granted both our freedom from persecution and our freedom in Jesus Christ. The freedom from persecution is obvious. The fact is that no one has ever been killed by our government for preaching the gospel here in the US. I do not wonder from week to week if our church services will be broken up by the police. I am not worried for my own personal safety. These are great blessings for which we can thank God. But even more wonderful is the freedom we have in Jesus Christ. This is a freedom that is not dependent on governments. Our freedom from sin is granted by God himself and cannot be taken away by any government. Perhaps that is why average attendance at the main Assemblies of God church went from around 30 in 1978 before the Islamic Revolution to almost 1,000 within less than a year of the Revolution. And, where we have perhaps 1,500 believers in A/G churches in 1978, today, even when so many have fled to the US and other western countries, there are now more than 100,000. Everyone of them is at risk in Iran. And everyone of them has experienced the freedom that comes from God in Christ and cannot be taken away by this world. Praise the Lord!

Pastor Ken

A NEW START

Wow! Flashback! I wrote that and immediately I saw the opening to Star Wars IV – “A New Beginning.” I guess I am dating myself when I say that I remember watching that movie in the theater the first week it came out – so now you know that I am at least 31 years old – and probably much older than that, since remembering anything from when I was newborn isn’t very likely.

Anyway, I guess this is the re-launch of this blog. As you will see from my posts here in the weeks and months to come, I am doing quite a lot right now, from pasturing to finishing my Ph.D. to overseeing two other daughter congregations to trying to get out and golf every once and awhile! Of course, I am probably no more busy than most of you, so I know you understand.

If all goes as planned (and what does?) I will be posting to this blog 5 or 6 times a week. Some of what I post will be my own thoughts. Others will links to interesting things I have run across or things written or produced by people a whole lot smarter than I am that I thought you might be interested in. I know not everything will interest everyone – some of them may not even interest me! But, between them all, I trust that we will learn about each other and especially learn to know more about our God together. So come along for what promises to be quite a ride!

Pastor Ken

The Ten Commandments.  Those three words have been the source of humor, anger, consternation and questions.  Of course, if there is a God, He must have the right to tell us what to do.  But is that what this part of the Bible is really about?  Or could it be that we have misunderstood God’s intent?

The first thing to understand is that a command in most languages, including both English and Hebrew (the original language of the Old Testament), is given in what is called the imperative voice.  In English we usually omit the second person pronoun (you) and put an exclamation point at the end: Don’t do that!  But in the original the ten “sayings” are not in the imperative voice.  Rather, they are in the indicative, the voice of simple statement.  And, they are in the future tense.  What does this mean?  Just that what God is doing here is much more than just giving commands to the human race.  Rather, he is describing what the good life looks like to those who choose to enter into relationship with Him.  You see, God knows that telling people what to do is just a way to make them want to do the opposite.  The Apostle Paul understood this when he said that the law just raised the desire to do what it forbade.  But I believe that what God was really doing in Exodus chapter 20 was telling His people how to live if they wanted all of the blessings that life in relationship with Him brought.

You see, God knows that our natural desires are not always for our benefit.  So He gave to Moses ten areas where people have a particular tendency to mess up, beginning with their relationship with God and continuing with their relationships with each other.  Now, I won’t go over each commandment in this blog, but when you look at it that way, you can see just how important these sayings are.  Let me give just one example.  God begins by telling us that those who enter in relationship with Him do not worship any other Gods.  Why?  Well, for two very basic reasons.  First, because you are in relationship with Him – why would you worship any other God?  Wouldn’t that have a tendency to break relationship with Him?  But much more important than that is the simple fact that there are no other gods!  To spend time trying to relate to a non-existent god is the very definition of a waste of time!  And if you can’t see that, then you don’t know God!  And so you don’t have a relationship with Him.  So, the saying doesn’t apply to you yet – you need to meet the one true God who sent His own Son to live and die for you before you are ready for this or any of the other sayings.

I challenge you, then, with that in mind, to revisit the “ten commandments,” and see if they don’t begin to make a whole lot more sense!

 

Pastor Ken