Greg’s Blog

iFaith?

America has never been more spiritual, yet so immoral at the same time.

A 2009 poll found that Americans are more interested in “faith and spirituality” than they are in Christianity. One expert said, “Americans increasingly want to shape their own faith experience,” what he calls “concoct[ing] a uniquely personal brand of faith.”

“What they’ve done is they have put together a whole series of beliefs and a series of religious practices and a series of relationships and connections – all of that that makes sense to them and helps them to feel good about themselves,” he said.

iFaith

Why not? In the age of the iPod, iPhone, iMac, and now the iPad, we have “iFaith” and “iGod.”

With iFaith and iGod, you control the home screen. You can write my own programs or apps. You can customize it to my own liking.

You can leave the parts you like, such as love, forgiveness, and heaven. You can take out the parts you don’t like, such as hell, judgment, and righteousness–just highlight them, and hit the “delete” key.

Moral Relativism

We, as a nation, no longer accept certain truths that our Founding Fathers held. Instead, what we have instead is moral relativism.

What is moral relativism? It is the belief that there are no absolutes. In other words, there is no right or wrong.

Now, to some, this may sound fine in theory, but if you play it out, it is madness!

If you were to go out in the middle of the night and remove all the traffic lights, all the lane markers, and all the signs, you would have chaos.

And for many, that is what their life is: chaos. They have no moral compass to guide them. There is no set of absolutes, just their opinions.

If there is a God in moral relativism, it is a God of our own making. What you really have is people “making God into their own image.”

As it’s been said, “God made us in His own image and we returned the favor.” Instead of us becoming like God, we want God to become like us.

It’s time to get back the other way around again.

A Christian Worldview

This Sunday at Harvest, I am beginning a new series of messages I am calling Worldview: Learning to Think and Live Biblically.

Why is a Christian worldview important? Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer said, “As Christians, we are not to only to know the right worldview, the worldview that that tells us the Truth of what is, but consciously, to act upon that worldview so as to influence society in all its parts and facets across the whole spectrum of life, as much as can to the extent of our individual and collective ability.”

What kind of worldview do you have?

We all have a worldview, or way in which we view life. It is formed by our culture, our upbringing, our education. It is formed by the books we read, and the media we take in.

So, the question is not whether you have a worldview, but what kind do you have?

It is important to remember that a worldview is comprehensive. It affects every area of life, from morality to money; from politics to art.

But what specifically would a Christian worldview be?

A Christian worldview defined

In his book, Think Biblically!, John MacArthur writes:

(A Christian worldview) is based on two major presuppositions. The first will be the eternal existence of the personal, transcendent, Triune, Creator God. Second, the God of Scripture has revealed His character, purposes, and will in the infallible and inerrant pages of His special revelation, the Bible, which is superior to any other source of revelation or human reason alone.

To sum it all up, a Christian worldview is the belief that there is a living God and He has revealed Himself in Scripture.

So what kind of worldview do you have? Join me this Sunday at Harvest as I start this series with a look at the foundation for our beliefs as Christians that’s based on the Ten Commandments. The title of this Sunday’s message is “Absolute Truth.”

Our services will be at 7:45 .M., 9:45 A.M., and 11:45 A.M. It will also be webcast live at Harvest.org.

New time for our live service on KWVE

If you listen to our Sunday morning service live on KWVE (107.9 FM) here on in Southern California, please be advised that we are on now at a new time, starting this Sunday.

You can hear our first service, in its entirety, starting at 8:00 A.M. on KWVE.

Tweet and Text Me Your Questions!

I am speaking tonight at our Orange County Bible study, starting a new series called Worldview. I will begin this series with a look at the Ten Commandments and a message titled “Absolute Truth.”

Immediately following the study, I am going to answer questions once again from those of you who text or tweet me between 7:00 P.M.-8:00 P.M., Pacific Time. I won’t be able to answer all your questions, but I will get to as many of them as I can.

We’ll also capture it on video and post it this weekend at harvest.org.

Please do not send these questions to this blog or my Facebook page. If you want to send in a question, you can do one of the following:

• Tweet your question to my Twitter account here.
• Send it via text message to (949) 464-7340.
• Leave your question on voicemail at that number.
• E-mail your question to oc@harvest.org.

We did this question-and-answer format recently, and I was joined by my friend Don McClure. To see that, click here.

It’s Our 36th Wedding Anniversary Today!

It was 36 years ago today that Catherine Martin walked down the aisle and became my wife.

I thank God for her every day, and give thanks to God for 36 years of marriage!

God Works the Night Shift

It’s 3:00 A.M., the house is quiet, your family members are asleep, it is warm, it is dark, and you should be asleep . . . but your mind is racing, your heart is pounding, and worries overwhelm you.

You might be thinking about the pressing needs of a tomorrow that will find you unprepared, or it may be an area of concern—financial, relational, or employment. You may even find yourself continually in a place where you are out of hope and out of peace. A place that points to a spiritual separation from God that leaves you vulnerable and open to attacks of anxiety and the enemy.

There is something about this part of the night that seems to magnify all of these problems, and I am not sure exactly why that is. Maybe that is why the psalmist said “He guards us from the flaming arrows at night.”

Pray, and let God worry

I am convinced that we need God’s help, not only when we are alert and awake but even when we are sleeping. I think that it’s a great thing to end the day in prayer, as you get ready to go to sleep. I know that I do. It has been said that God works the nightshift, and it is so true.

But the best place to start is back at the beginning of each new day. Start your day in prayer, committing your decisions, your challenges, whatever you are going to face that day to the Lord. And then, as I suggested, end your day with prayer too. In each instance, our prayer should be, “Lord, here it is. I commit it to You.”

It reminds me of a quote from Martin Luther, “Pray and let God worry.” I like that. Not that God worries, but the idea is that you should pray about it, rather than worry about it.

Is something troubling you right now?

Let me ask you right now, is there something troubling you? Is there something eating at you? Bothering you? Irritating you? Causing you to be afraid?

Pray about it, right now. Just say, “Lord, I can’t handle it.” Philippians says, “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. And the peace of God that passes all human understanding will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”

So don’t worry. Pray. You will sleep, and live, much better.