Time Travel

If you could change something about yourself, what would it be?

Your hair?

Your weight?

Your occupation?

I’m sure there is a list as long as your arm of things you would like to change.

What about your past?

How many times have we laid in bed at night and thought about a mistake we made when we were younger or the thoughtless, hurtful thing we said to a person that we don’t talk to anymore. Unless a man in a blue Police Box shows up and offers us to travel through time, the things that are in our past will remain there. The memories will not change. The consequences will remain. So what can we do?

I take solace in the words Paul wrote, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13, 14

Talk about someone that would like to change his past, Paul is the perfect candidate! This is the same man that consented to the murder of Stephen (Acts 8:1) and made havoc of the church, putting men and women in prison to eventually be executed (Acts 8:3). He had every reason to want to change his past, to forget the screams of those that died for their faith in Jesus, the faith that he now shares. The only thing Paul could do WAS to press forward!

Heaven is real. God has prepared for us a place, a “goal for the prize” as Paul stated, that will be far beyond anything thing we’ve been through on this earth. As a matter of fact, Heaven is a place without pain, sorrow or tears (Revelation 21:4)! Who wouldn’t want to be there?

I can’t change my past, but I can change my present to affect my future! Let’s press toward the goal and forget those things in the past!

A Letter From Us

To our future daughter-in-law and sons-in-law,

First off, Kristina and I have been praying for you long before we ever meet you. We pray that God will bring the right young lady into Ben’s life and the right young men into Jenny and Hannah’s life. We will continue to pray for you and our child as you begin your lives together.

With that in mind, we will pray that you will be the person that will help our children and future grandchildren to heaven. Kristina and I are doing all we can to secure our salvation and instill this confidence in our kids. They will be an encouragement to you and we want you to encourage them. There will be no greater joy that Kristina and I could have then to see you, our kids, and our grandkids in heaven.

We pray that you will be the type of person that truly loves the Lord, His word, and His church. So many people claim to serve the Lord, but He is not the first priority in their lives. We don’t want this for you or our kids. We pray that worship services will be something you look forward to and take time to study the Bible at home.

We pray that you will be committed to your spouse. Kristina and I fully understand that you two are “leaving and cleaving” and we don’t want either one of you running from the vows you make when things get tough. And life will get tough. If you ever need advice, we are here to help. If you ever need to run away from dealing with issues, our home and your parent’s home is not the place. Commit to love, honor, and cherish one another till death do you part.

We pray that you will remember to have fun as a family. We don’t know what kind of home life you have but we always have fun and laugh together. We don’t want that laughter to end when they marry you. Us Odom’s can be sarcastic at times, but we always love. We pray that you will love being around us as much as your own family. We know that our kids will love yours.

We pray that you will have an understanding of 1 Peter 3:1-7; Ephesians 5:22-33; and Colossians 3:18-25.

Let me conclude by saying this, we know that you may not be all these things when they meet you. We understand because we weren’t all these things when we met. But we grew together and you will too. Strive to be the best spouse that our son and daughters deserve, you will have our support.

We love you and look forward to meeting you,

Justin & Kristina

P.S. We hope that you like Walt Disney World. We plan to take you and the grandkids someday.

Joshua, Judges, and Ruth

With the conclusion of the first five books of the Old Testament, the nation of Israel stands on the banks of the east side of the Jordan River, ready to inherit the land promised to them by God. The fulfillment of the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 has taken over 400 years to accomplish. While there is a strong connection to their past, Israel is about to start a new era under the leadership of Joshua.

The book of Joshua serves as a bridge from the sinful generation that died in the wilderness to the faithful generation that will possess Canaan. As the successor to Moses, Joshua is chosen by God to lead the people across the Jordan. His leadership will be the constant that sustains the fight of the nation. Even when sins do arise, as in the case of Achan, the humility and decisive action Joshua exhibits will be long remembered so when the two and a half tribes that will settle on the east side of the Jordan return erect an altar before returning home, the rest of the nation remembers the sad and punishing story of Achan. The book of Joshua also reminds us to obey the Lord in all that we do and not fail in any point. Our failures will only lead to greater disaster, as evidenced in the book of Judges.

Judges shows us the total depravity that people will fall to when God is replaced with a life of ease and idolatry. As Joshua was the one constant for the people during his life, God will now be the saving factor when the nation of Israel is oppressed. The cycle of sin in the book of Judges has been widely discussed and examined. The life of ease leads to sin, sin leads to oppression from foreign nations, the oppression leads to repentance, and the repentance leads to God sending a deliverer, a judge, to relive the people. Through the book of Judges, the love of God never fails, even when his people, and sometime the judges themselves, do. Of particular interest in the book are the last couple of chapters dealing with the brutal rape and murder of the Levites concubine and the wickedness of Micah and his priest. While these stories may be offensive to some, they serve as an example of the wickedness man will engage in when God is forgotten. In spite of the sadness we may read about in the book of Judges, the book of Ruth, the events of which took place in the time of the Judges, examines the heartwarming story of love and devotion in the life of Ruth.

Even though Israel has slid into idolatry, Ruth stands as the shining light in what appears to be a hopeless future in the plan of God to bring about a Redeemer. While Israel has sinned, Ruth becomes a major figure in the linage of our Lord. Her devotion first to her mother-in-law Naomi, and then later to her future husband Boaz, are great lessons to learn. The book also shows us that God has not abandoned His plans to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham. The lesson of the kinsman-redeemer in the book of Ruth is not lost on the student of the Bible. When we contact the blood of Christ through baptism, we are redeemed by our Brother, Jesus Christ.

The place of these three great books in the canon cannot be underestimated. The transition of time between Moses and Saul show us how a nation, chosen by God, could fall so far from Him that they desire to be like the nations around them. While they make for a great study, they cannot be dismissed as a warning to any nation that forsakes the law of God. Punishment and destruction will be reserved for and person or people that desire to do what is right in their own eyes, while blessing and deliverance will belong to those that remain faithful to the Almighty God.

Worshiping With Children

One of the great joys of being a Christian is to worship with our church family on the first day of every week. The opportunity to spend a couple hours with some of the greatest people is priceless! The diversity of the people in the audience only adds to the experience. From the youngest to the oldest, a congregation worshipping together is beautiful.

So why have we changed it?

At some point in the service, usually before the sermon, the kids are dismissed from the auditorium to attend their own special “church” in a classroom. Why? Perhaps it’s because adults do not want to hear a child in the auditorium. Having stood in front of a group of people that include children, I can speak from first hand knowledge that sometimes I’ve got to be louder than a crying baby… but is that a good reason to exclude them from the sermon?

I’m not sure where or when this practice started. Dr. Ken Matto has an interesting observation:

“Children’s Church is normally for those between the ages of 5-13, which are the most critical years of spiritual formation. When we take a child out of the worship service just before God’s Word is preached and put them in a classroom to draw pictures of Noah’s Ark or David and Goliath and others, we eliminate our children’s defenses against the world. They are never exposed to different teachings of the Bible on a decent spiritual level. They remain spiritual dwarfs as all they learn about are the narratives like Samson, David and Goliath but never get into the spiritual and practical lessons behind these stories.

So what happens when you pluck a child from the worship service? While that child’s spiritual learning is cut off or greatly diminished, simultaneously in the public schools they are being bombarded with all kinds of secular and satanic trash. They are soaking up the secular garbage, because they have no spiritual roots or foundations to defend against these teachings, they will eventually fall prey to them. Then when a young girl comes home pregnant or a boy comes home and says “I got a girl pregnant,” we wonder how can this happen in an evangelical family? Very simple, your children were given nothing to combat these teachings except Children’s church cartoon videos or flannelgraphs. Their whole spiritual training was relegated to the crayon instead of the Bible where it belongs. The sermon is what should be the catalyst for spiritual discussions at home. God is the one who gives understanding in spiritual matters. Where did we ever get the ridiculous notion that children can’t understand spiritual things? Have you ever seen some children with computers? There are some who can program at 8 years old. Children are much smarter than we give them credit for. They are a sponge, will we allow them to soak up the world’s filth or the Word of God to combat those teachings? After all, how can they put on the Full Armor of God? The Full armor is not found in Focus on the Family Videos!

Then when a child hits their teens and wants to leave church because they are bored with it, we throw our hands up in the air and ask why? Here’s why!! Because for almost 10 years you trained that child that the worship service is not for them and now they are only doing what you trained them to do. TO LEAVE THE SERVICE!!” (http://www.scionofzion.com/childchurch.htm).

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6).

This goes both ways, what are we training our children to do?