05/31/05: GRADUATING

This week my schedule is filled with attending graduation commencement parties. Graduation is such a decisive moment...how many long, boring, monotonous days of getting up while its dark, sitting through interminable classes, goofing off with friends at lunch, racing home to do homework, studying for and taking finals, day after day, semester after semester until one day...it's all over.

Kinda like life. We fall into the day-to-day rut, get up, go to work, come home, do it all again...and we forget that one day we will all graduate this life.

Lots of things are changing for some seniors this week. All the political maneuvering to be the most popular, avoid being "uncool", live up to your friend's expectations...all of that is, boom, over.

Now, no one cares who you were in high school, who you knew, or what crowd you hung with.

All that matters is what you learned, what kind of person you are, and that you have a diploma.

One day you and I will graduate this life; he who dies with the most toys, still dies. Power, popularity, and pleasure all fade into irrelevance. 

All that matters is: what good did you accomplish in other people's lives, what kind of person did you grow to become, and, most importantly, do you have a diploma? Not one earned, but one granted by Our Heavenly Principal because His Son earned a passing grade for us.

For those that receive that diploma by faith in Him, our "schooling" will be done, and we will finally experience the Commencement of real life!

~Pastor Brian

May 29, 2005: Family Day thoughts …

Did you know that family was the very first thing God did for Man, and that God’s first command to Man was about family?

Picture Adam in the Garden of Eden on Day 6. God has finished (almost) making everything, and has pronounced it all good. Paradise. Perfection. Then, for the first time in history, God says, “It is not good.” We take note ... what isn’t good? “For the Man to be alone.”

Adam had all the animals at his command, but he was still alone; God could have made a good friend for Adam, or a bunch of friends, or given him a harem of wives, but God knew the one cure for Adam ... "I will make a helper suitable for him." One helper. One wife. And God made a Woman for the Man. Then God gave a command to the two of them, “Be fruitful and multiply” ... i.e., have kids!
Then and only then did God pronounce everything He had made very good, before taking a day off!

Sociologists and others today try to tell us that “family” is just something started by us for our convenience, and that we should feel free to fundamentally change it, or even do away with it. In today’s thinking, a family can be two men or two women, one man and ten women, or a man and a woman who refuse to care for children.

But God’s definition of family is: one man, one woman, for as long as they both live, who are willing to give of themselves to bless children. Sometimes, a couple may choose to bless other children, even though they can’t have their own, or care for an “unrelated” widow or widower who has no one else, or “adopt” a single person who needs a family’s warmth, and so from the core family we have a bigger extended family that shares in God’s blessing.

We often take family for granted. Today, let’s celebrate this wonderful gift!

~Pastor Brian

05/23/05: Lessons from the Sith

In case you've been living in a cave, you know that the number one film at the box office is Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith.

While the Star Wars Saga definitely does not portray a "Christian" view of the universe (God is not an impersonal force), one reason these films continue to resonate with us is their moral lessons that match real life, and, incidentally, principles that are taught in the Bible.

In Sith, (skip this if you don't want to spoil the movie), the very talented Anakin Skywalker is seduced by Darth Sidious and turns from the good side to become Darth Vader.

The movie warns us that, even in someone as likeable as Anakin, there is potential for great evil...echoing the Biblical warning that "there is none good, no not one". We all have sinned, and have the potential to things we never thought or intended to do, just as Anakin never intended to become an agent of evil.

Anakin fell because of his pride, which is the sin that leads to all other sins. Throughout the Star Wars movies, young Anakin repeatedly showed a disregard for rules, making himself his own authority.

How often we do the same: "Its my life...I'm my own boss...It's my body...It's my choice..." and all of these lead us to our own "dark side".

Are you making prideful choices right now? Flaunting a rule or command because you think you're better than the God who made that rule?

Thankfully, we serve a forgiving God who always stands ready to turn us "back to the good side." But we should remember, like Anakin discovered, that even if we return to the path of right, some of the consequences of our sins can never be undone...better to submit to God's authority now and avoid the hurtful consequences of living life as a rebel.

May the LORD be with you!

~Pastor Brian

Weblog Archives of Pastor Brian Tibbs of Charlestown Independent Church
Return to the main weblog

If you have any questions or comments for the pastor, please visit the Ask the Pastor section of this site.