Many people assume that pastors are experts when it comes to marriage. Well, I must confess that I am not an expert! Sure, I can tell you what the Bible says about marriage. I can preach a good message on how to make a marriage last. The Bible explains all of this and I have a pretty good knowledge of the Bible. Let me confess again, though, I am not an expert!

It is simple really. Having all the knowledge in the world is useless if you don't have the wisdom to know how to use that knowledge. Let me explain. My wife and have been married 17 years and God willing will be married 18 years on Oct. 13, 2008. On Sunday, March 29 I will be preaching a sermon that deals with marriage. Preparing for this message was not that hard. I have preached on the topic of marriage several times, as I am very passionate about marriage. The Bible did not surprise me with what it had to say about marriage. But here is where I realized that I am not an expert. Having known what the Bible says about marriage, I am amazed how often I forget to practice what I am about to preach. Arghhh! As you might tell, I am not happy with myself.

So, having confessed my lack of being an expert. I think I will go spend some time with God and then prepare myself to apologize to my wife for not applying what I am going to preach tomorrow. I hate it when that happens. And BTW, if you want to learn more about how to make your marriage work, visit our website at www.rockspringschurch.com. In a few days, tomorrow's sermon will be online. Keep in mind though, I am not an expert...But the Bible is!

If you think being a parent is tough, wait until you become a grandparent. My youngest granddaughter fell and busted her lip tonight. Now, when I say busted I mean busted. We had to take her to the ER and she received three stitches on the inside of her lip and three on the outside. Yes, she bit all the way through under her bottom lip. Fortunately, her teeth are all in tact. Papa and Nana, on the other hand, were not so in tact. Watching our grandbaby cry, and I mean cry, and watching our son and his wife being parents and watching them hurt for her too, well it was just too much. With all that being said, I am left here thanking God for His continuous care over my family. I try to always pray that God will protect my family. He always answers, even though I don't always thank Him. Tonight, in a very real way however, I was reminded of His care over my family and you can bet that I am thanking God! Once again, thank You God for Your care over my family.

In short, this is the message of 1 Corinthians--to contend and to contextualize the gospel of Jesus Christ. We contend for the gospel by protecting it from false teachings. We contextualize it to win as many possible to faith in Jesus Christ. So, this begs a question: Are you, personally, contending and contextualizing the gospel?

Too often, in our society, we do neither. We have learned to be tolerant of other teachings and kept quiet in fear of offending someone. This tolerance has taught us to also remain silent when it comes to contextualizing the gospel. Instead, all too often we become of the culture instead of in the culture. We are of the world instead of in the world. You may wonder what the difference is. It is simple. As a Christian, we are to influence our society for Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet" (Matthew 5:13).

Are you giving your circle of influence the flavor of Jesus Christ? Jesus asked the question, "how shall its saltiness be restored?" The answer is to start being salt again. So, start today. Start contending for the gospel and contextualizing it and let's give our community the flavor of Jesus Christ!

Okay, typically I don't use big religious words, but it is what it is for this post. For those that might not know, progressive sanctification is the progressive work of God by which the Holy Spirit is causing you to become more like Christ everyday--that is if you are a Christian.

Now that you know the definition, let me ask you a question: Do you trust God? Do you trust His work in the life of those you love? Of course you do! Having said that, it is easier said than done, isn't it? Often when someone I loves does something wrong or makes an unwise choice, I want to fly off the handle, find out the exact reasons as to why this wrong thing happened, and then punish/throw grace out the window/pass judgement. (All those things). I don't recommend handling things in this manner.

Here is my point. We all make mistakes. We all sin and let me clear here, God hates sin! Reality is though that none of us are going to live sinless lives and we, therefore, have to allow the ones we love to make mistakes sometimes. Thank God for grace! My expectations are high. Guess what, the Pharisees had high expectations too. I thank God that I can deal with the mistakes today, but trust that God is progressively working in the lives of those I love.

Do I trust God? Yes, but it is hard sometimes in day to day life, especially when it is trusting God for the lives of others.

Jesus simply went up to strangers and said, "Follow me." Pretty simply, huh? Yet, in our world of "so much to talk about" we find it hard to talk to people about Jesus. Why? The most simple and, probably, most realistic answer is because Jesus is confrontational. Think about this, though: After all that Jesus has done for you is it too much to ask that you confront people with Jesus? The obvious answer is "no!", but we make it hard because the last thing we want to do is offend someone. Why? Why are we so concerned about offending someone? We don't mind offending the waitress or waiter when our food comes out too late, or when the food is cold, or when their attitude is bad. We don't offending the person on the interstate that just cut us off. We don't might offending the stranger that just knocked on our door. I think you get the point.

Here is what I believe the real answer is: we have bought into our "be tolerant" society and allowed that train our minds into shying away from talking to anyone about something that is religious because we, of course, want to be tolerant of others. Hear me clearly on this, our responsibility, as Christians, is to not go out and spiritually mug people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to share the good news and allow the Holy Spirit to do the rest. We must confront people with the gospel no matter what their religion. Being tolerant might be socially acceptable, but according to God's own word He will not be tolerant of other gods. Jesus is the only way to heaven!

So my challenge to you is simple. A matter of fact, it is not complicated at all. Simply Invite! Simply invite people to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to do the rest. Again, it is not complicated--simply invite!

It is interesting to me that when someone becomes a Christ follower they immediately become passionate about their unchurched friend, coworkers, neighbors and family members. I was reminded of that this past week when one of our new Christ followers and members of RSC immediately spoke of needing to share Christ with his unchurch coworkers. Why did he make mention of this? I did not say anything for him to make such a comment. So, why? I will tell you why--it is the passion of the converted. When someone says yes to Christ, not only do they experience new life (2 Cor. 5:17), but they also immediately want those around to experience Him too.

Too often, we allow this passion to die within us. For me, I was reminded once again that our task is to reach unchurched people. So I ask you, when is the last time you shared the passion of Christ with one of your unchurched friends?