A Great Sermon by my Pastor

Check out www.ridgewaybaptist.com and go to the sermons link and listen to Scott's message from this past Sunday, February 26 on "Renewal and the Highest Cost of Leaving". It's talking about the Christian's judgement and whether it is Gold, Silver, Precious Jewels, or Wood, Stubble or Hay.

Swimming Against the World Culture and Church Culture

"Do not treat my holy name as common and ordinary. I must be treated as holy...." Leviticus 22:32

This Scripture sure combats the Jesus is My Homeboy cultural phenomenon that we have seen as of late. What would it mean for me(us) to treat God has holy? What would that look like? I would appreciate your thoughts.
Not only in our culture have we made Jesus our Homeboy, but to a degree we have made Jesus our Homeboy in the church in North America-we are more interested in fearing man than fearing God, more interested in bringing in people rather than bringing out God, more interested in food than fasting, more interested in reaching people rather than evangelizing, more interested in us becoming more famous rather than God.
Pardon my rant, but these are thoughts that I am trying to put action towards and I'm wrestling with this whole relevance issue....I guess the question I have is through trying to make everything relevant are we missing out on treating God as holy and fearing him? Sometimes as a pastor, as much as I don't want to be, I feel like I am in a box...one that I have made for myself and in my very own ranting, I feel as though I have at many times contributed to the above paragraph. I condemn myself.
More later..............

Protecting our Churches from Sexual Abuse

This is an excerpt from Sarah's site, but these are my sentiments exactly as well:

I praise God for the people in my church. How thankful I am for them. This weekend we had a conference at our church. The topic was a toughy--sexual abuse in the church. That's a topic that no one wants to hear about or deal with. Who would give up their Saturday for that? I'll tell you who! Well over 100 people went to it-- youth workers, children's workers, volunteers and paid workers alike. How thankful I am for that. I felt like these people have stood up and said to me," I care about your children and I want to protect them." I'm sure it just wasn't for my four children they all came, but I feel like it. Realizing that the church is the most unprotected institute for sexual predators, I'm so grateful my church took action. According to Church Mutual, there is at least one sexual misconduct complaints each day in religious institutions and at least ten a week in just the churches that Church Mutual does business with? I'm thankful for all the things my church is doing to fight it.

Noah: Boy Genius

Yesterday was Noah's Birthday. I can't believe he is getting so big. We celebrated on Sunday with some of his friends coming over--we had a Star Wars party!
Last night, Noah and I went to the mall so he could spend his birthday money as well as get him some clothes. After the mall we went to Mardel to look for a Bible man Video. Before we left, Noah had to go the restroom. Well, on our way out of the restroom, they had an incredible book sale....for me it was jackpot.....for Noah it was pure torture as I looked through the bargain books.
There were probably three or four other people around when Noah in a calm manner blurts out, "I've got snot and I just tooted!" I'm like...now that's the way to redirect Dad's attention....I wish I were that smart at six years old when I would have to wait around when my dad was looking at things in a store. Of course, immediately we went to the bathroom and gave him the talk about what to say in public and what not to say---anyway, it was quite hilarious.

The Fear of the LORD

I am currently listening to Passion Hymns...Charlie Hall has a great rendition of How Great Thou Art! "When Christ shall come...with shouts of acclamation...and take me home... what joy shall fill my heart..then I shall bow... in humble adoriation...and there proclaim...MY GOD HOW GREAT YOU ARE!" I can't wait for Christ's return!!!!
Today, I read Leviticus 10 and here's what it says:

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over it. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him a different kind of fire than he commanded. So fire blazed forth from the Lord's presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD.

Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD meant what he said, 'I will show myself holy among those who are near me. I will be glorified before all people.'" And Aaron was silent.

For a while now I have been wrestling with this phrase...the fear of the Lord. At one time in my life, I would have taken this as a negative way of viewing God, but as I have read more and more, it is a phrase of reverence. Throughout this passage, I wondered if Nadab and Abihu thought that God was just joking when he was so specific when he told how to go about the sacrifices. They had a different kind of fire than he commanded it says. Honestly, I probably would have overlooked something like that and Nadab and Abihu probably thought--let's be creative and do something different--their "creativity" became disobedience.

What happened to Nadab and Abihu?...they were consumed with fire and they died before the LORD. This passage is a BIG reminder that God means what he says and even the smallest things in which we think we can get by with....matters to God.

What would have happened if God overlooked their disobedience? They would have taken more freedom in the way to do the sacrifice.

Oh, how I have erred in many and countless ways in the small things that I think God would overlook! This passage today gives me an incredible look at what it means to fear God. Obedience is key in the small things.....my delight should be in pleasing God, not in others.

Have we as a church overlooked this fear of the LORD? I like what Ray Comfort says in his book, Revival's Golden Key: "The happiness gospel has the laborers tied up in the function of being counselors and propping people up, when these problem people don't need counsel or prop up. They need repentance." I personally believe in churches we are missing this crucial aspect of fearing the Lord. We fear people more than God. We fear their response rather than God's judgement. We fear heaven more than we fear hell!

I say all of this to say that I am as guilty as anyone else....I wonder how many times, because I have been in the shoes of Nadab and Abihu, God would strike me down.

Can you imagine what was going through the mind of Aaron? It just says that he was silent. Through that word silent, I see the fear of the LORD in that word. Aaron finally knew what it meant that God is holy(unfortunately he had to learn it through this way).

If I(we) were to take this and run with it--this aspect of God being holy and fearing God, I believe I(we) would see incredible revival---I pray that for myself, family, and for you--that we would all fear God, revere Him, and be in AWE of Him. Father, forgive me for my lack of reverence! Show me your holiness!

Snow Days

Friday night it started sleeting while at Third Friday. If you've never been to a Third Friday at Ridgeway at 7 p.m., I encourage you to go...it's just a great opportunity to just pray and praise God! It's the third friday of each month!
Saturday we stayed in except our trip to Wal-mart to get some much needed groceries. Noah and I went and we also rented Star Wars III. I would say that Star Wars III has been the best episode. We started with Episode I and are making our way through each movie. Yesterday was one of those lazy days!
Today, I got all ready for church when Scott called and said that the services were canceled. It started sleeting about 8 a.m., so I hurriedly called some people to let them know! I was looking forward to worship, but then again it was great just to stay home with my family. We had church at our house around 11 a.m. after making a fire in the fireplace. Each of the kids picked a story out of their Bible and we read it and talked about each story. Hannah chose the story about when Jesus ascended into heaven. Noah chose the story about Elijah and his challenge against the Baal god. Grace chose the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Elijah chose to play Duck Duck Goose! :) So....we all played Duck Duck Goose after reading from the Word! It was a great day!
In the afternoon we watched the fourth episode of Star Wars and then we played Star Wars. Noah was Darth Vader...Elijah was a young Jedi and I was I don't know who. Noah got a Star Wars Light Saber for Christmas so we had saber fights. Sarah made the best potato soup today...she is a great cook!

Super Bowl Detour

I returned from watching the Super Bowl with our youth at the Rokisky's--my team did not win--to find this detour sign in my driveway!
I was thinking, "What in the World?--awesome--they're going to fix the drainage ditch by my house!", but in actuality it was a prank by Forest and Devon---great job guys! Cool looking I must say!

A Tribute to My Dad

I wish you could have known my dad. His full name is Floyd Dean Lehew. I apologize to all of the Floyd's out there, but why in the world would anyone name their kid, Floyd? Fortunately, my dad went by the name Dean.
My dad passed away in August of 1994. I can remember like it was yesterday when I got the call that my dad passed away. I was saddened, but was also grateful that God chose to send my dad home because he had already suffered enough.
Fortunately, I got a chance to spend two straight weeks with him right before he passed away. I am very grateful for that time....I would stay up with my dad and listen to the Gaither Vocal Band with him and the song that we always played was, I Bowed on My Knees and Cry Holy, which is such an incredible song.
My dad had all sorts of medical issues. At one time he had cancer....in 1988, his first leg was amputated due to diabetes...a few years later, his other leg was amputated. His kidneys were failing so for many years, he had to go through dialysis three times a week. Eventually, he lost the use of one of his arms due to the shunt in his arm and he could barely see.
Sarah got to meet my dad once when we first started dating. That's the thing I miss alot is that he's not here to enjoy his daughter in law or his grandkids, but the time will come...right now he is in a much better place.
One thing I always admired about my dad was that he always had a great attitude regardless of the situation---even in the midst of the pain. He was always there to encourage others and me. He would always make the time to spend with me....he would always go to my ball games or my wrestling matches when I was younger and regardless of how I did, there was always an encouraging word.
One of the greatest times of my life was when I got the chance to work side by side with my dad at the milk processing plant at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch. We would package the milk in cartons. My dad taught me responsibility and allowed me to be independent....he could trust me and I appreciated that about my dad.
I wish my kids got to know my dad. I get a chance every once in a while to remind them of their Grandpa Dean and what a great man he was. I sure do miss him!
This blog is for you to get a glimpse of who my dad was, but for me it's a reminder of how fortunate I was and am to have had an awesome dad! I know there are many that are not has fortunate, so I am incredibly thankful.