PROVIDENTIAL

There is an Explanation, Mr. Congressman

2011-06-06T19:37:00.010-04:00

It was awkward and painful listening to a US Congressman twist and squirm in a tense press conference in Washington DC, this afternoon. After more than a week of lying and stonewalling, NY Representative Anthony Weiner finally confessed what most people have suspected for days. He had lied about his Twitter Account being hacked, and had personally sent a lewd photo of his crotch to a young woman he had apparently never met. He had betrayed the trust of his wife, his family and his constituents. He had lied to any number of journalists and reporters on a daily basis. And he had falsely accused one particular conservative muckraker of setting him up and being dishonest.

We've known for days this press conference was coming. We knew it when the congressman announced his Twitter account had been hacked for an embarrassing prank, but did not summon investigators. We knew it every time he made one more sophomoric joke about his name, the awkward situation, or parts of the human anatomy. He should have realized this day was coming as well, but that's the strange thing about the human heart. It can be so callous and stony.

When reporters continued to batter him with questions like, "What were you thinking, anyway," the humilitated politician endlessly repeated phrases like "I sincerely apologize," and "It was a stupid mistake." Finally, in one fleeting moment of clarity, he said something like this: "If you're looking for a rationale explanation or a purpose, there's not one. I can't tell you why I did it."

Without even a whiff of rancor or condescension, I could have explained to the reporters why Rep. Weiner did what he did. The Apostle Paul described it this way: "For the good that I will do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, it is that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." (Romans 7: 19-20)

Followers of Jesus Christ don't delight in sin. Neither do most of us enjoy heaping scorn on human beings who fall victim to the seductive spell of wickedness. Mankind is uniquely susceptible. We can't help it. In our natural state, the will to defy authority and indulge the self is hard-wired into our system. I suspect it is intertwined with the survival instinct. The sinful impulse can be absolutely overwhelming, causing a man or woman to defy logic and rush towards destruction.

James put it this way: "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." (James 1: 14-15)

Like most Americans, Rep. Weiner lives in a very secular world where the idea of sin has been abandoned, and where personal freedom trumps every remaining virtue. In our self-esteem generation, we have been brainwashed with the false assurance that anything we want is natural and normal, and therefore every desire must be fulfilled. Decades ago, our public schools swapped the ideas of responsibility and character for the illusions of self-esteem and and emotion. We spend our days wandering around a virtual reality theme park in which every one is his own god and there are no consequences. My avatar can even fly!

As it happens, that virtual reality theme park is grounded in a real world where secrets get out, photos are leaked, people go to the press, scandals sell newspapers, and crimes are punished. Like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, our sins eventually bring us crashing to earth in a society where wives feel betrayed, where sons and daughters are humiliated, where employers are scandalized, and where clients bail out of contracts.

This real world is the one where Sin is so insidious, so seductive, so overpowering. The problem with secular societies like ours, is that frail humans begin to believe their press releases and feel free to defy the Laws of the Creator. One of those laws makes a promise: "As a man sows, so shall he reap." This is why grace is not an option. We have to have it. People need the Lord for real-world reasons! Christ died on the cross for sinners, of whom I am chief.

The congressman's most tragic lie was the one he told himself long ago. It's the lie he was probably told as a young man. It's the falsehood that is perpetrated endlessly by the media who have now taken such delight in Mr. Weiner's pathetic pornography. That fatal falsehood promises, "Intelligent people don't need Jesus Christ." Wrong again.

In Love & War

2011-05-31T21:22:00.006-04:00

Jihad is a literal concept in Islam, but spiritual warfare is simply a metaphor for followers of Jesus Christ. Do we truly understand that? I suspect we do and yet we don't.

In these treacherous times, it has become apparent that there are occasions when it is valid, even prescribed, for a devotee of Mohammed to slay his enemy. I've read the Koran a couple of times, so I know that holy war is what befalls some infidels. By contrast, the Bible uses images like sword of the spirit or shield of righteousness, and encourages disciples to armor themselves with these spiritual tools, but everybody knows the fellow who wrote that, Paul, never carried either. He actually wrote on another occasion that the weapons of warfare are not carnal, but they are powerful. (2 Cor 10:4)

I think it's fair to say that followers of Christ are not permitted to have enemies. Granted, the Lord mentions our enemies on a couple of occasions, but his command to is love them; to bless those who attempt to persecute us. In other words, when human beings attempt to create enmity with us, we short-circuit their efforts with godly love. We love them and seek to bless them.

So when we speak of the culture war, we have to remember that there's only one enemy: Satan. Everyone else on the cultural battle field is simply a prisoner of war we hope to rescue.

When we refer to the battle for souls, we have to remember that the foe is Satan. The human beings who have been seduced and enslaved by the forces of darkness are not our enemies. They are neighbors we want to love and rescue.

And when we talk about the Defense of Marriage, it's important to remember that the conflict is spiritual, not political. Satan knows what's at stake. The gay men and women involved in that struggle are working in opposition to us, but only because they are slaves to sin.

Of course, there are some who suggest that some of the doctines we uphold risk making the church irrelevant. Secular people don't accept the idea of original sin. Young people overwhelmingly approve of homosexuals and even civil unions. Having cherished ideas like these challenged and even dismissed can create anxiety, embarassment and even resentment. But facing our fears, overcoming our shame, and putting away our resentment are part of the spiritual warfare Paul had in mind.

The people who oppose us, condemn us and attempt to dismiss us are not our enemies. They are our mission. Once we realize that they are enslaved by the forces of evil, we are reminded again that we must overcome evil with love. This is, after all, what is engraved in the Sword of the Spirit.

Selah.

Invisible People

2011-05-16T16:03:00.010-04:00

I don't believe in ghosts or poltergeists or even zombies, but I do believe in invisible people. In fact I've seen some! That sounds quirky, doesn't it?

Do you remember the story about the demoniac who came rushing down the hillside to meet Jesus when Christ's boat docked at Gadara? Here was a man in desperate need to compassion and care. The poor guy was so tormented by the demons that controlled his mind and his body that he went running naked through graveyards at night. The neighbors had tried to restrain him with heavy ropes and chains, but poor Legion had always managed to break free to run howling through the hills at midnight. (Luke 8:26 - 39)

Over time he lost some of his shock value and was downgraded to a nuisance. Then one day, his appearances became so routine and unremarkable that Legion became invisible. Nobody could see him anymore. Sure, they could see him, but not really. They couldn't see his pain. They couldn't see his fear. They could no longer see his humanity or his profound physical and spiritual needs. Until Jesus refused to turn away and actually looked this poor man in the eye, the neighbors were no longer angry or even ashamed. They were just indifferent. Because he had become one of those invisible people we don't want to look at.

I'll bet there are invisible people in your life. I'm talking about that painful person who is so galling to you that you'd rather not face him. Why is he so irritating? Are there spiritual needs in his life other people have chosen to overlook? Then there are those ever afflicted men and women whose problems never seem to go away, and you finally get tired of dealing with them. It's a drain and even an embarassment! You know what I mean? And what about all those faceless people behind the counters at grocery stores, drug stores and coffee shops when you're in such a hurry? Sigh! Sometimes we don't even see those stressed out human beings because we are so busy glancing impatiently at our smart phones and watches. "Good grief! How long does it take to make a stupid cup of coffee, anyway?"

Once in a while, I find myself trying to rush grimly past some clerk or a barista or teller. "Could we just get it done and get me outa here?" It's usually pretty easy, because other people feel overscheduled, over-worked, and unfriendly as well. But once in a while, as I'm glancing at my watch, a service person will glance across the counter with a big smile and inquire, "What do you do for a living, Mr. Floyd?"

OMG do I have to say "I am a Pastor.........?" Then there's the question, "Oh, wow! Where is your church?" There is no escape! I have to slow down, and smile "warmly," and say "Providence Baptist Church in McLean. Have you ever visited us?" (If everyone there is an impersonal jerk like me, why should she?)

Until she smiled and asked about my profession, that teller was just one of those invisible people. I couldn't see her because I was too busy.

The world is full of lost people who think they don't know any Christians. And the church is full of busy Christians who think they have never encountered an invisible person. Both groups are wrong.

Slow down and smile this week. Before leaving home, program a good word onto your tongue and a chorus into your heart. Don't leave home until you're ready to minister grace. How quickly you will discover that you really can see all those faces that never showed up on your radar before! Start warming them up today and- who knows!- in a few days you might be able to talk about your life with Christ or recommend a good book... or a good church.

Selah!

Why are the Lights Blinking? Part 3

2011-05-05T20:09:00.003-04:00

Great Falls, VA – A couple of weeks ago, I spent a week-end afternoon with a small group of twenty-somethings. I raised this whole question of what it takes to reach a generation of pagan Americans. Once you recognize that most Americans have no spiritual moorings, you realize the “Come & See” strategies of most churches are not going to work. The multitudes of the pagan majority aren’t coming. They can’t imagine why anyone would waste a great Sunday morning on something as antiquated and irrelevant as a “worship service.” So what are we to do?

Someone immediately waved the red flag of fanaticism. “Well, we certainly can’t go out there with the good news that they’re going to Hell. We can’t run down the list of all the things they can and can’t do in order to be a Christian!”

I could only sigh. Can we all agree that, in all honesty, that old cliché’ is just a straw man? In my long years of working with local churches and outreach strategies, I can recall only three individuals who might have conceivably fit that worn out stereotype. Sure, maybe one in a thousand Christians might assault an unbeliever with the threat of Hell and a list of spiritual do’s and don’ts! But if I’m right, most secular Americans have never met a Christian who behaves that way! to the contrary, far more American Christians are guilty of a different offense: never bringing up the Gospel at all. If only 30% of people here in the very secular DC area are actually Christians, that still means that 1 of every 3 people a bureaucrat meets here is a Christian. At least in my urban area, most people actually know quite a few Christians, but I would daresay many, many secular men and women in this area doubt that they know any Christians at all.

So please understand that I’m not even slightly worried about launching a vast tide of Christian evangelists who angrily warn neighbors they’re facing damnation and unfurl the flag of “Thou shalt nots.” No, it wouldn’t work, but it’s not going to happen. What I’m proposing is a generation of Christians who talk about their own personal lives the way other friends and co-workers talk about theirs. You don’t have to summon the fires of Hell and the demands of the Ten Commandments to share one detail from your spiritual life with an acquaintance or class mate.

For instance, smile and nod as your acquaintance talks about a riotous Friday evening of getting drunk and watching some gross-out movie about randy single people. Then mention that you played tennis or went fishing on Saturday, but the best thing that happened was in worship on Sunday. Then share something wonderful that happened at your church.

Ask questions about the plot when your friend summarizes what has happened so far in the best-selling novel she’s reading. After talking about that book for a while, mention that the most interesting thing you’ve read in the last few days is a particular section in the Bible. Then take a few moments to share something interesting from God’s Word.

Listen with interest as your co-worker shares the details of living with her boyfriend without the benefit of marriage. If it’s good news, you smile and nod. If it’s bad news, you sympathize. Then you confess with a slight smile, I thank God for my husband every day. I’m so glad I got him to say “I do,” because now I know he can’t get away!”

If lost people are not inclined to visit churches, then followers of Jesus will have to win them first and invite them later. But herein lies yet another problem of this pagan age: a vast and shocking number of Christians aren’t reading their Bibles. Hence, when opportunities come up to talk about what Christ is doing in our lives, quite often we have nothing to say. We haven’t thought about our faith. We haven’t read anything. We haven’t given God a chance to speak. So the great spiritual battlefields across the USA are littered with pagans who don’t know Jesus and saints who don’t know the Word of God.

We have to get the people of God back into the Word of God. Imagine a division of Marines rushing onto a battlefield with weapons they’ve never fired or even trained with. Of course, that would never happen. The Marines are better than that. So why are the people of God landing on battlefields with untried Bibles? We have to do better. Whether we want to admit it or not, the USS America is going down. Too often, the Church is still busy reorganizing deck chairs.

Selah!

Why Are the Lights Blinking? Part 2

2011-04-26T15:19:00.001-04:00

On the fateful night when the RMS Titanic hit the iceberg that would sink her, the first warnings must have gone nearly unnoticed. Although the trembling chandelier over the ballroom floor gave little clue to the rushing tide that was already filling chambers below the waterline, the ship was doomed and the clock was ticking. Last week, I suggested that in the history of the USS America, the trembling of the proverbial light fixture must have come in 1962 when the US Supreme Court threw prayer out of the public schools. Even then, a surging tide of anti-Christian court decisions and two generations of godless popular culture were preparing to flood the USS America and erase every hint of our Christian foundation.

As a result, most Americans under the age of forty have no vocabulary for discussing spiritual realities; no framework for arriving at spiritual conclusions. On those moments when some young American might possibly sense a vast, growing emptiness within, the movies and internet offer an endless list of kinky suggestions (i.e. more sex) and narcissistic notions (i.e. create a new self) he or she can pursue. And contrary to the illusion that largely dominates the ranks of church leaders, pagan Americans are not waiting for the right invitation to join in some church activity. From their secular perspective, churches are historical relics of an ignorant world where science and computers were not available to answer every question.

So what does a Christian do when you realize your pagan neighbors are not looking for spiritual answers or waiting for you to invite them to a special church event? It seems that you and I suddenly find ourselves with a lot in common with Patrick of Ireland. Kidnapped from his comfortable home in Britain and carried away to slavery in Celtic Ireland, he was suddenly immersed in a pagan culture in which his identity, his customs, his convictions, even his language were useless and held in contempt. When he finally escaped after years of neglect, he realized he could not take refuge in the comforts of home and privilege back in England. Rather, he prepared himself to be a missionary and returned to pagan Ireland.

It goes without saying that he would often be unappreciated and would frequently be misunderstood. But he relied upon the supernatural power of God. And he worked tirelessly to inject the distinctive ideas of Jesus Christ and the Gospel into an alien environment where violence was a form of recreation; where coarseness trumped sophistication every time; and where the most twisted forms of sexual behavior were woven into routine life.

Patrick surely realized there was no quick fix for this pagan land. He was prepared to commit his entire life to the venture, and that is what it would require. But God was able to anoint one man with so much heavenly fire that his lifetime of ministry would indeed spark a spiritual rebirth. A heavenly tide would eventually cleanse the vile land and replace paganism with a lively and distinctive Christian faith.

In pondering a strategy for unleashing the Gospel across pagan America, Patrick would be a good place for us to start. I challenge you to read his story and ask God to call up an army of Patricks here in 21st Century America.

More next week.

Welcome to the Desert.

WHY ARE THE LIGHTS BLINKING? PART 1

2011-04-11T14:12:00.020-04:00

In the motion picture Titanic, one of the most telling scenes depicts the moment when the "unsinkable" ocean liner strikes the submerged portion of an iceberg, leaving a deadly gash in the bow. Upstairs in the ballroom, a large crystal light fixture trembles as if it has been kissed by a gentle breeze, offering the only visible clue of what has happened far below. Dancers and diners will continue to celebrate for at least another hour. In fact, because the generator will survive to keep the lights burning until the very end, many passengers will be reluctant to leave the "security" of the ship in order face the cold biting sea in lifeboats. But at the moment when the crystal chandelier trembles, the great ship is doomed.

A book recently reminded me of that momentous scene in the movie. Immediately, I thought about the tragic state of affairs in my homeland, the United States of America. We have been crippled by an economic disaster rooted in our addiction to spending more than we have. The family is dying, as schools, governments and daycare centers take greater and greater responsibility for children. Our children and teen-agers are jaded, saturated in an over-sexualized culture, and largely disinterested in anything except Facebook and movies. And a growing majority of Americans are beginning to believe that Christianity is a sad, old dragon which has been finished off by the advances of science and technology. At least dinosaurs were real at one time. Christianity is dismissed as mythology.

It seems apparent that the U.S.S. America is taking on water. All that remains is the tragic day when the ship rises up on one end and makes one last dive into darkness. There was a time when we supposed that it was not too late for a political solution. Watching the recent budget debate in Washington over a few billion dollars in cuts even as we are piling on trillions of dollars in debt,it became apparent to many of us that this is beyond the reach of politicians. For nearly a week, I have asked myself, "When was the moment when we should have instantly known our fate was sealed?" When did that crystal light fixture in the ballroom of U.S.culture tremble because a fatal wound had been inflicted at the belly of our nation? I believe I know the answer.

In 1962, the United States Supreme Court ruled that prayer in public schools was unconstitutional and, therefore, illegal. Many Christians actually celebrated that decision as an enlightened advance in the separation of church and state. Not surprisingly, once the camel had his nose in the tent, other rulings followed at national and state levels. Within a very short time, schools were forbidden to tolerate the name of Jesus Christ- not only in class, but even in ceremonial prayers at graduations and footballs games.

Half a century later, we find ourselves in a moment unlike any other we have seen in our history. A large share of Americans has grown up in secularized schools where the name of Jesus Christ was never uttered. One of the lessons they learned is still with them. Children understand that public schools are structured to teach things that adults believe are important. So our children have been convinced that math and science are important. Spelling is also important. Safe sex is taught in most public schools, so it must be very important. Likewise, saving the rain forests is extremely important. But worship, prayer and faith in Jesus Christ are clearly unimportant and unrelated to real life. When you tell kids they can't even say "Christmas Holidays," the message is crystal clear.

It is no accident that jaded boys and girls in the US have trouble wrapping their minds around spiritual ideas about faith, character and sacrifice. It is not by chance that children have difficulty in mentally processing moral and ethical decisions. This was never about atheists or unreligious children being offended. There were never that many atheists or Jews in most US public schools, and they were never compelled to convert, or even to pray. As a child in the South, I sometimes read or doodled mindlessly during the daily prayer, and I was never penalized. The whole debate was designed to generate new atheists and agnostics.

Fifty years later, we in the church have experienced a rude awakening. For the first time in history, American young people are abandoning the religious faith of their parents in record numbers. We finally recognize that this was about more than poison politics. It was about poisoned education. But we look around at our jaded, secularized children whose eyes roll at the mention of spiritual things, and we wonder, is it too late? Can you right a sinking ship or would you only be rearranging deck chairs while everything goes down?

The answers are hard ones. Let's talk about them next week.

Selah.

The Rape of Agape, Part 3

2011-04-04T09:26:00.008-04:00

This blog is the 11th in a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors." The leading question commonly sounds like this: "How could a loving God condemn to Hell men and women he has created?"

Two weeks ago, we concluded that 21st Century Americans are in no position to challenge the quality of God's love. Ours is a culture where children are neglected or abandoned to the care of strangers, where marriage is considered too demanding, and where Christians change churches frequently because they can't work through conflict with friends. We are clearly not qualified to make judgment calls about the quality of anyone's love, particularly the love of God.

Last week, we considered the importance of someone's decision to follow Christ. In the mind of God, that is obviously the most important decision in all of life. God sacrificed his only begotten Son to offer men and women an escape from judgment, and an avenue to life with Him. But in this generation, we have devalued that all important decision. For present day Americans, a decision about religion ranks all the way down there with other mundane choices about deodorant, shave cream, toilet tissue and dog food. We argue that everyone has a right to make his own decisions and even God should not challenge my civil right to make choices for myself. "How dare God send someone to Hell because of a personal decision?" We demand tolerance from everyone, even God! Of course, the God of Creation isn't really subject to our demands. Best-selling authors and ambitious pastor-marketers may care about the whims and fantasies of consumers. But those passing fads have no standing in the courtroom of God. And here is what the Lord of Salvation says about the unpopular subject of Hell:

Mark 9:42-48; Christ insists you should get rid of anything in your life that might cause you to reject God and be sentenced to Hell. Better to live a limited life on the earth, than allow earthly comforts to take you to Hell "where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out."

Matthew 8:46; The Master explains that some people will continue to enjoy life in eternity, while others will depart the earth for eternal punishment.

The Son of God says more about Hell than any other person in the Bible. We'd be wise to take his words literally. But even is you interpret them in some symbolic fashion, Christ's point is still clear. The consequences for neglecting the grace of God are lasting, serious, and agonizing. Knowing that, how could a loving person fail to warn a friend or relative about the consequences that we believe are waiting beyond the grave?

I love my family, friends and neighbors so much that I want to inform them all about the principles of faith and eternal life. Yes, this is the 21st Century and we are living in America. Sure, everybody has the right to choose. All I'm saying is that people should make informed choices. And I have discovered that the information found in God's Word is vastly superior to the trivia and celebrity gossip that are constantly on the airwaves of the world.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever should believe on him might not perish, but have eternal life."

Selah.

The Rape of Agape, Part 2

2011-03-26T16:37:00.012-04:00

This blog is the tenth in a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors." Over the last year or two, these have been the queries which have most frequently made their way to my desk in one form or another.

Top Question #2: "How can a loving God justify sending people he created to Hell?" Last week, we mentioned that whenever God seems unloving by our standards, our standards are likely the problem. On the topic of genuine love, for example,people in our generation are not experts. To the contrary, our "highly evolved" concept of love allows us to neglect our children, break our marriage vows, treat our spouses as inferiors, avoid commitment, and leave churches when we can't get along with other Christians we love. As I mentioned last time, we're not only ignorant about the love of God, but we're ignorant about the Word of God as well.

Then there's another problem with our conclusion that the God of the Bible is "unloving." Our objections to the concept of Hell vividly illustrate how we have completely discounted the significance of the decision to worship Jesus Christ and follow him. The commitment to repent and trust Christ has been devalued from the ultimate choice in all of life to a private, consumer preference which has no connection to absolute truth or the teachings of Scripture. Rather like my choice to purchase Charmin bathroom tissue over Scott, my spiritual inclinations are made and practiced in private.

Last week, I read that the Marine Corps will institute "gay sensitivity"training to prepare their recruits for the new policy permitting gays to serve openly in the military. The report indicated that the training will explain how individuals must respond to situations like seeing two male Marines kissing at the mall. It occurred to me that only twenty years ago, homosexuality was discouraged and restricted to private behavior while Christianity was encouraged and practiced publicly. Two decades later, homosexuality is encouraged and practiced publicly while Christianity is discouraged and restricted to private behavior. What happened?

If choosing or rejecting Jesus Christ is merely a private lifestyle preference, it must surely seem cruel to send anyone to Hell on the basis of that! Why would anyone with a brain, much less a heart, condemn someone else to an eternity in darkness and fire for choosing Coke Zero over Pepsi, or Charmin over Scott Tissue, or NBC News over the Fox News Channel? This is America and we are accustomed to consumer decisions in a free market! Once again, the problem here is "according to our standards."

In fact, God has never discounted the urgency of living by faith. In his mind, the decision to trust his Son as Lord and Savior is the only decision in life that ultimately matters. What's more, the decision to reject Jesus is not a mere indiscretion: it requires a lifetime of saying "No" to the Son of God again and again and again. Dying without Jesus Christ is not a freak accident. Rather, it involves fifty to eighty years of rejecting the Gospel, ignoring the evidence, shutting out the truth, and defying the Creator of the Universe.

Skeptics point to the "multitudes" who have never heard. Must people face judgment when they never got to hear the Gospel? Read Romans 1:18-20. Whenever an isolated Hindu or Buddhist or agnostic anywhere on the planet recognizes the magnificence of the Creation and concludes, "I want to worship the God who made this," God is on the hook. He has obligated himself to send a missionary or a New Testament or a Gospel tract or a shipwrecked Christian who can tell that seeking soul about Jesus Christ. If they take the first step, God has committed himself to provide them with the means to confess Christ.

That's because the Gospel is ultimate truth of greatest importance. And deciding to repent and follow the Prince of Peace is the ultimate decision in all of life. If you devote your life to your own selfish whims and manage to shut out Christ entirely, you are accountable. Somebody died for you, but you were busy worshiping yourself. Next week, we'll wrap this up with what the New Testament actually teaches about Hell. Leave your comments below.

Selah.

The Rape of Agape

2011-03-24T16:58:00.011-04:00

This blog in ninth in a series entitled "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors." Over the last year or two, these are the queries which have most frequently reached my desk in one form or another.

The 3rd most frequent question is this: "How can a loving God justify sending people he created to a place like Hell?" This hot topic has become particulary searing over the last two decades as Americans have become so averse to discomfort that even animals like pigeons and mice are commonly granted civil rights status. In his recent book Love Wins, emergent author Rob Bell acknowledges the tension and, tragically, manages to abandon biblical truth and completely surrender to 21st Century emotionalism and prejudice.

Nevertheless, even serious Christians who affirm everything in the Bible will admit this is a prickly subject. At first blush, sending men and women to a place of eternal suffering doesn't sound very loving by our standards, does it? And therein lies the rub: by our standards.

Although Christians have understood the doctrine of eternal judgment for 2,000 years, it has only been in recent memory that the notion has become so abhorrent. In fact, judgment does not seem to mesh with the idea of "love" for us because we have oversimplified the ideal of love to something Scripture does not recognize. According to the standards of 21st Century love, loving parents cannot discipline their children. Love can coddle boys and girls, indulge them, spoil them, leave them unattended, or entrust their care and upbringing to strangers, but love cannot cause a child to suffer discomfort, experience frustration, or eat spinach! Modern day love cannot compel a child to do his homework, but it can call his teacher irresponsible and lazy.

Likewise, this generation has a different notion of marital love. Married love can make all kinds of demands, but married love cannot be expected to endure discomfort, undergo sacrifice, surrender personal rights, or offer unconditional commitment. Love wants everything to be smooth and easy, and when things become rough and demanding, 21st Century love wants out. In all honesty, what passes for love today doesn't actually want to get "in" in the first place unless we are talking about somebody else's bed for a couple of hours. "In love" is not the compelling concept it once was.

In religious life, contemporary love is such a flimsy ideal that people have trouble staying in churches where people they love don't share the same opinions. We find it almost impossible to tolerate people we love when they are immature or insensitive to us. We find it exceedingly difficult to forgive Christians we love even when they offend us unintentionally. In fact, we can actually enjoy savaging the reputations of other church members we love as long as we invoke the spiritual exception clause of "Bless her heart,...!"

That's the kind of love we have in mind when we wonder if a God of Love could also be a God of Judgment. On the basis of that highly evolved love, we reject God's concept of personal accountability. But in his eternal wisdom and truth, God rejects now and forever the rotting corpse we call love. In fact, not only God but most of the saints throughout the history of his church rise to denounce the form of self indulgence that we have recently labeled "love." Like the people of Laodecea who thought they were rich when they were in fact poor, our blind generation has failed to recognize that we know little about love; that we have confused "agape" with "apathy."

It's sad but true that most church people in our age are not qualified to take a position on Hell. Not only have we abandoned that biblical ideal, the Love of God. We are mostly ignorant of the Word of God as well.

My time is up for this week. Let's continue this discussion next week.

Selah!

Going Under

2011-03-15T15:38:00.021-04:00

This blog is the 8th in a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors." Over the last year or two, these have been the queries that have most frequently reached my desk in one way or another.

The 4th most frequently asked question is this: "Why should I be baptized by immersion if I have already been christened as a child in a Christian church?" Last week, I shared the biblical basis for believer's baptism. This week, allow me to respond to the question, "Fine, but why must I be immersed? Isn't sprinkling acceptable?"

Surely most people know by now that our English word baptism comes from the Greek term baptidzo which literally means "to immerse" or "to submerge." Nevertheless, skeptics occasionally point to Acts 3: 41, "So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 were added to them." I've actually read calculations of how many people Peter would needed to have dunked every minute to achieve this number. "It's physically impossible," deniers insist. "It couldn't have been done!"

I always laugh. A few years ago in Africa, another team leader and I baptized over 200 people in a slippery, slimy elephant watering hole. Even with all the difficulties of slipping and sliding on the banks of the pond, we accomplished the feat in only one hour. This would suggest that 12 apostles could immerse 1200 new believers in one hour. Three thousand new converts would have required slightly less than three hours. And for all we know, other church leaders were baptizing as well. What's more, just because 3,000 were added to the church in one day does not require that all of them were baptized in one day. Perhaps they were baptized in the Jordan River over several days. When you know what the word baptism literally means, it seems rather lame to appeal to strange calculations based on details that aren't recorded.

The biblical priority of immersion is also reflected in texts like these:

Romans 6:4 compares baptism to being buried; dying to the old life and being raised to walk in a new life. Being buried and then raised indicates that Paul had immersion- not sprinkling- in his mind as he wrote.
Acts 8:38 describes the baptism of a eunuch from Ethiopia by Philip. "Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him."
Matthew 3:16 describes the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist. "And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water..."
John 3:23 explains that John the Baptist tended to baptize in an area named Aenon, because there was lots of water there. Had sprinkling been the custom, the amount of water would never have been a consideration.

Churches that practice baptism by sprinkling commonly equate the symbol with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Hence, they suggest, sprinkling is more fitting. It's a nice thought, but the New Testament actually has a specific word for sprinkling. That word, rhantizo, is never employed in relationship to the Spirit. Think about it: we are filled with the Spirit, saturated with the Spirit, inhabited by the Spirit. No doubt, that's why the word for immersion is used to explain how the Spirit comes into our lives- baptidzo. On Pentecost, the believers were baptized in the Spirit!

In a church and a culture where so much has changed over the last 2,000 years, I find it especially meaningful when we can do something exactly like the apostles did it. Our preaching looks and sounds different. Our singing is accompanied by instruments that did not exist in the first century. Our Bibles aren't scrolls any longer; they are produced in the codex form. And at least in my church, our language is English rather than Greek or Aramaic. But when it comes to baptism, it thrills me to do it just like the apostles did it. We are buried with Christ in baptism that we may be raised to walk in newness of life.

Selah.

Don't Mess up My Hair!

2011-03-12T09:44:00.005-05:00

This blog is the 7th in a series "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors." Over the last year or two, these have been the questions that most frequently make their way to my office.

It is often said that people here in the Northeast are much too private to publicly identify with a personal religious tradition. In fact, that's simply not true. Every week during football season, vast numbers of my friends and neighbors wear color combinations they would never wear under any other circumstances in order to carry the cross of the Washington Redskins. And it is a cross! The Skins have enjoyed only one winning season in the last decade or so. Our team has elevated defeat to an art. Nevertheless, Redskins bumper stickers, jerseys, workout clothing, caps, mailboxes, etc., etc., are everywhere.

We're not ashamed to announce our allegiance to the Redskins or the Packers or the Crimson Tide or the Longhorns. And we're not ashamed to identify with Gucci or Christian Dior or the Outer Banks or a leading political candidate. Why does privacy become such a priority when it comes to Jesus Christ?

That brings us to my 4th most frequently asked question. "Why should I be immersed as an adult if I've already been christened as a child in some other Christian church?" Apparently, I'm not the only pastor who gets that question a lot. Studies show that baptism is declining all across the USA as people are more reluctant to experience immersion and churches are more reluctant to require it. Are Christians really the most private of all private citizens?

When I explain that baptism is not essential for salvation, but is simply a very important symbol, I am sometimes challenged: "If it's just a symbol, why is it so important?" In fact, the flag of the United States is nothing more than a symbol, but large numbers of men and women die defending that symbol. And while burning a flag in public is quite legal, it can also get you pummeled and kicked to the dirt pretty quickly in America. The wedding ring is nothing more than a symbol of marital faith and fidelity, but don't tell millions of married men and women that ring isn't important.

In 1 Peter 3:21,22 scripture teaches that the floodwater in the story of Noah "symbolizes baptism which now saves you also, not by the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God." Neither buoyant water nor floating boat actually saved Noah and his family. God saved them all. But the the boat and the water were tools in his hands. Likewise, baptism is a tool in the hands of Almighty God. It expresses our allegiance to his kingdom based on the mystery of faith. Like a wedding band, it doesn't make me a Christian but it does reflect the truth that I am one. So why are most football fans willing to look ridiculous for hours on end, while many Christians are not willing to look wet for a moment?

Of course, someone will ask, "But I don't object to baptism. I object to being baptized by immersion! Why must I be soaked in front of a crowd? Why do you insist that I be immersed?" I'll answer that next week with three texts from scripture that make it perfectly clear.

Selah!

Losing It!

2011-02-24T15:50:00.002-05:00

This blog is the sixth in a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors."

Of all the questions asked of me this year, this one must surely be #5 in frequency. "Aren't there verses in the Bible that suggest a believer can actually lose his salvation?"

There is at least one verse that might suggest that, but only if you take it out of context. In fact, most people who raise this question are thinking of Hebrews 6: 4 - 6. "For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened- those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the power of the age to come- and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance for by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once agains and holding him up to public shame."

The problem is that the author of Hebrews is not describing Christians who fall from grace. In every first century church there were Jews and even Gentiles who met with the church on a regular basis, seeking Christ. In many cases, those seekers actually became convinced that Jesus Christ was real and faith was important. But because of fiery persecution by Jewish neighbors and the resentment of their own Jewish families, many retreated from the church and chose to delay their decision until a time when it would be safe to do so. By sharing in worship with true believers, they tasted the goodness of the Word of God and experienced the Holy Spirit working in people all around them. That is, they felt the Word of God resonate with their own hearts, and they saw the power of the Spirit working in the lives of others.

But when they dropped out of worship to escape persecution, they didn't lose their faith. They had never made a commitment. Rather, they were simply rejecting Jesus Christ and refusing to deal with him while he was dealing with them. "Seek the Lord while he may be found," Isaiah 55:6 counsels us all. "Call upon him while he is near." In other words, we are not guaranteed that God's Holy Spirit will continue to deal with us year after year while we delay and postpone. God is obligated to extend his grace to us once, but not forever!

In the verses that follow Hebrews 6: 4 - 6, the writer compares the people who fell away to land which is fertilized and watered but finally brings forth only thorns and thistles rather than fruit. He adds that they are worthless. Bearing fruit is always the New Testament analogy for people who receive salvation and are changed by it. People who don't bear fruit have not experienced salvation. (See Luke 8: 4 - 21.)

So there is one verse which, taken out of context, can suggest falling from grace. By contrast, there are numerous very clear verses which, taken in context, clearly affirm eternal security for believers. In John 6:38-40, for example, Jesus says, "For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is the Father's will that all who see his Son and believer I him should have eternal life. I will raise them up on the last day."

Another personal favorite of mine is Ephesians 1: 14, "The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised us." The Greek text literally says we are sealed with the spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance." The term sealed refers to the Law of the Medes and Persians which required that once a king sealed a law, he could not change it even if he wanted to. For instance, after the Babylonian king sealed the law requiring the execution of anyone praying to another god, he was forced to carry it out even when he learned the offender was his trusted friend Daniel!

So the Bible does not gurantee us that God will deal with any lost person forever. No wise person should ever presume that just because God is dealing with him, this will always be an option for him. But we are promised that once we come to Christ, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and kept by the saving power of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Selah.

Together in Worship

2011-02-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

This blog is part of a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors." These may not be the top ten all time questions, but they are the ones I've fielded most commonly over the last year.

The sixth most common question for pastors is this: "How can I persuade my spouse to attend church with me?" This is a particularly thorny question because people tend to make marriage decisions when they're young and fairly immature. When you're single and twenty-something, the features you might find most appealing in a prospective date would probably be good looks, a sense of humor, good taste in clothes, and a bubbly personality. Only ten years later and thinking about children, the qualities that matter most in a relationship will likely shift all the way across the spectrum to stability, willingness to work, a mature worldview, and- yes! -a faith similar to yours.

And herein lies the problem! You wake up one day and you're a thirty year old parent of two children. You want to give your kids every possible benefit to grow up healthy, follow Jesus Christ, and become a healthy disciple. But that person who used to be so fun at movies and football games has no interest in Jesus Christ or putting the kids first. Now what? Now you have a spouse who doesn't share your faith.

That's why churches, spiritual leaders and parents should be so consistent in what they teach kids about dating. Bottom line: don't date people who aren't believers. Don't be unequally yoked, as Paul wrote the Corinthians. Don't attempt missionary dating. You may not convert that cute boy or girl who has such a winning personality, but you may fall in love anyway.

But let's get back to the original question. You're married and your husband or wife has no interest in church or worship or fellowship. Is there anything you can do to motivate your spouse to show up at church at your side? No doubt, this is a tough assignment. But now that we agree it's difficult, allow me to offer some basic suggestions.

1. Make worship and Bible Study one of your highest priorities. Don't act self-righteous. Don't be critical or walk out in a huff. Don't start arguments and walk out with your Bible, slamming the door behind you. But lovingly, consistently, eagerly get dressed and participate in worship and Bible Study. If you have children, get them up and dressed without complaining and teach them the value of time with God.

I've known many church members who decided to stay home and wait until a husband or wife is finally willing to make it a family experience. Almost 100% of the time, the unbelieving spouse drags the religious spouse down. You rarely if ever see those families again. Waiting for your unbelieving spouse to cultivate an appetite for worship may take longer than you think- like eternity!

2. Live like your husband's life (or your wife's) depends on your faith. Don't let down your guard at home. Don't complain and gossip about other people at church. Don't let other religious people come to your home and behave that way around your spouse. Don't fly off the handle and curse when things go wrong. Don't criticize your spouse- and especially don't criticize his or her lack of faith. Apologize when your use poor judgment or say harsh things. Include your husband or wife in your disciplines at home; pray for your spouse or, if possible, with your spouse. Invite your loved one to sit with you when you're reading your Bible. Read it aloud some time.

3. Let your spouse see the real benefits of your faith. If you're a man, let your wife see that your are determined to love her like Christ loved the church because that's how Jesus tells you to love her. If you're a woman, be sure your husband knows that one reason you respect him so much is because Christ commands you to submit to your husband. Be generous with your spouse. Be patient. Love unconditionally because that's how followers of Jesus Christ love others.

4. Ask some of your closest Christian friends to pray regularly for your spouse's salvation. Don't talk about it publicly. Ask them not to mention it publicly. But assemble a network of loving, godly people who are praying for your spouse's salvation and looking for opportunities to plant seeds of faith.

5. Don't ever give up. Years ago I came across a riveting remark by an atheist. He argued that he didn't believe in Chritianity and he didn't believe in Hell. But then he added that if he really were a Christian and really did believe in Hell, he would crawl across England on broken glass if he could keep one person from going to a place so dreadful! If you really are a Christian and you really do believe in Hell, don't you think there's a price you should be willing to pay if you could just get your spouse in the gates as well? So you have to endure some inconvenience and live a rigorous, disciplined life at home. So you have to put up with some second guessing. If you have pledged your life and your love to this person of the opposite sex and have perhaps even had a child or two with this person, isn't this person's salvation worth some sacrifice?

Stay the course and live for Christ in season and out. I can't promise you that your spouse will ever wake up and get saved. But someday you'll stand before God and you'll be aware of every occasion in your life when you failed to realize your spiritual potential. Be sure that when you one day enter eternity, you depart having made your witness to your spouse one of your highest priorities.

Selah.

How Old is Old Enough?

2011-02-07T15:44:00.000-05:00

This blog is the fifth in a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors."

Top Question #7: How can I know if my child is old enough to be baptized?

I always approach this question with a bit of personal bias. I became a follower of Jesus Christ when I was five years old. I was actually called into ministry at age six. And over all those years when other boys fantasized about being cowboys or astronauts or Marines, my sense of calling never wavered. As it happened, however, my parents had this conviction that a person should not be baptized until he was older and underwent some kind of 'emotional experience.' So I was compelled to wait for baptism until I was fifteen years old when an understanding pastor finally took time to talk with my mom.

As a result, there are some cautions I always set forth whenever parents ask when a child who loves Jesus should be baptized.

1. You should ensure that your child is old enough to remember this event. There is a phase in every child's life, somewhere in the range of 4-6 years of age, when vivid recent memories are suddenly dumped into the irretrievable memory file. One day the lad remembers all the details of the trip to Disney World at three. A few weeks later, memories like that are all gone. As a parent should be sure your child has already undergone that development before baptism.

2. Children are very susceptible to peer pressure. If a sibling or close friend has recently been baptized, your child may very likely be swept along in the desire not to be left out of something fun. Mom and Dad should ensure that a child is being immersed because of his own convictions, not merely the decision of a friend or sibling.

3. Before being baptized, a boy or girl should be capable of going through a month-long study with Mom or Dad to explore the basics of the Christian faith: Jesus Christ, prayer, worship, etc. There are numerous books and resources which are age appropriate and excellent for this kind of study. Here at Providence, we recommend Now that I'm a Christian by William Young, or I'm a Christian Now by Capps and Shaw.

4. Finally, there are some core concepts a child should understand. Of course these things will be understood with more clarity and sophistication later in life, but they're so important that they should be in a boy or girl's mind in some form from the beginning.

What is sin? Does your child understand why he or she is a sinner?

Why did Jesus die? Does your child understand that Christ exchanged his perfect life for our sinful ones?

What is baptism? Can your child grasp that baptism is a symbol for dying to a life of sin and self, and being raised to life a godly life by faith?

Experience teaches us that most boys and girls are able to think in terms like this somewhere beyond the age of nine or ten years old. When a younger child first surfaces the idea of baptism, you'll often find it will pass if simply deferred for a couple of months. For the purposes of memory and understanding, slightly older is better. But if your seven year old son or daughter persists in talking about faith in Christ and the importance of baptism, give it some thought and prayer. You might even want to talk with your pastor or a ministerial staff member. But whatever you do, don't make it a point of anger of frustration.

Selah.

Tithing: The Rest of the Story

2011-01-31T19:52:00.000-05:00

This blog is the 4th in a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors."

The 8th most common question asked of Pastors involves money. "If tithing is never mentioned in the New Testament, why do we still teach it?" This query is is rooted in the thought that tithing is a complicated practice from the Old Covenant, and that it ceased with the end of the Old Testament. Indeed, if tithing were simply a requirement of Old Testament Law like the sacrifice of goats, we should not impose it on followers of Jesus Christ. However, that is not the case.

God delivers the Law as a gift to his chosen people, beginning in Exodus 20. First, Moses explains the crux of the Law- the Ten Commandments. Then over the course of the months that follow, he fleshes out the sacrificial system and all the other rituals that are integral to Old Testament faith. The Law has now been fulfilled in Christ. But the tithe is an integral part of worship and devotion in redemptive history long before the coming of the Law. In fact, tithing dates all the way back to Genesis, cropping up in one of the earliest chapters.

In Genesis 14:20, Abram recognizes that a mysterious figure named Melchizedek is a priest of the Most High God. In reverence and gratitude, he offers the priest a tenth of the treasure he has just won in battle.

Genesis 28:22 records this promise made by Jacob to God: "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you."

For generations before the Law was established by God, people of faith worshiped the One True God in a fairly unstructured way. But returning a tenth reflected the prevailing assumption of faith that God owns everything and human beings are simply allowed to manage a share. One part in ten denotes it all belongs to Him, and we are returning a token of that underlying truth. Returning the tenth to the Lord reflects that my heart is in sync with his divine authority.

In the New Testament, Jesus never suggests that New Covenant faith is designed to make our lives more convenient or less rigorous. To the contrary, Christ doesn't lessen the commandment about murder. He raises the standard, teaching that we must not even tolerate hatred of our fellow man. Rather than diminishing God's command that we must not commit adultery, Jesus actually raises the bar: don't even look upon a woman with lust in your heart! In fact, one of the highest compliments Jesus offers anyone in the New Testament goes out to the widow who gives her last two coins in an offering at the Temple.

The claim that the tithe does not belong in the New Testament may sound appealing, even rational at first glance. But the claim should be followed by a question- "If that's true, do you plan to give more than a tithe to God's kingdom- or less?" Paul writes in Romans 14:23 that "Whatever is not from faith is sin." I always want to be sure than the prevailing choices of my life are based on faith, not fear.

Selah.

Adam's In-laws

2011-01-24T15:32:00.000-05:00

This is the third in a series of blogs, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors."

Top Question #9 is, Where did Cain and Abel get find their wives?" In Genesis 4:17, Cain and his wife give birth to a son. Just a few verses later in 4:26, brother Seth and his wife have a son. The text concludes, "At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord."

"So who were all those people who began to call on the name of the Lord?" skeptics ask. Did God make them after he made Adam? Or were they already in existence on the Earth when God specially crafted Adam and Eve? I find that some people are just curious about what Genesis really means, while others are looking for ways to fit the accounts of Genesis and the theory of Darwinism neatly together. So where did Cain find the woman he married?

Answer: Cain married either his sister or a niece. If his bride was a niece, it means that one or more of his other brothers married sisters. Here in the Twenty-first Century, it's normal for us to cringe at the idea of intermarriage. It's more than a legal matter. There are genetic liabilities inherent in close relatives marrying. But in fact, consider this:

The first two chapter of Genesis narrate an exceptional period when the Earth is brand new, the human bloodline is pure and uncorrupted by the physical wear and tear of sin, and there are only two people available for filling the planet.

According to Genesis 5:5, Adam lived 930 years. I wonder how many sons and daughters he finally had over that length of time? It makes sense that there would have been plenty of generations for the necessary intermarriage so that human beings could begin to fill the Earth.

We know for a fact that Abram married his half-sister not that many generations later (Genesis 20:12.) Nobody had a problem with that. That's because the Law,which forbade sexual intimacy among siblings, came hundreds of years later.

There is a theological reason why this is important. Adam's sin did not simply influence or motivate all other human beings to sin. Rather, his sin nature was passed along to all the rest of us as his descendants. For this reason, Psalm 51:5 indicates we are sinful from the time our parents conceive us. For this same reason, Jesus explains to Nicodemus (John 3:5) that no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven unles he is born again. Everyone born of Adam is born into sin and spiritual death.

If there were originally multitudes of other specially created people who were not descended from Adam, they would surely have ancestors today not genetically stamped with the curse of sin. There are no people like that today, nor have their ever been. For this reason, God sent his own son into the world to rescue us from the curse of Adam, and offer us the gift of a new life.

This is why it is clear that Cain's wife was either a sister or a niece.

Selah.

Question #10: Why Wait?

2011-01-15T21:19:00.000-05:00

This blog is the second in a series "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors." All ten questions are listed in last week's session.

Top Question #10: Why shouldn't a young man and woman move in together if they are already engaged to be married? In the expensive area where I live just outside of Washington, DC, the economic situation is commonly offered up as a good rationale. That is, it would cost a fortune for two young adults to maintain separate residences until the wedding.

Of course, when you begin to base your ethical decisions on financial calculations, you have already lost your footing and are on your way down. Think about it. Why go to all the expense of raising a child when a quick abortion is so much cheaper? Think of all the money a family could save for college by going ahead and letting an aging parent die, rather than allowing her to continue at home for a while. A lot of sick children would never survive if parents failed to get them medical treatment just because hospitals are expensive!

Once you rule out the economic excuse, there's only one other rationale for two Christians shacking up before marriage. That last rationalization would be, "Everybody's doing it." I presume we don't have to explain why holy people refuse to base ethical decisions on public opinion polls. Even if you really are that one couple in 1,000,000 who can remain chaste under those circumstances, you have created the appearance of willful disobedience. God instructs us, "Be holy as I your God am holy."

But in case you're not convinced yet, here are three more scriptural commands that ought to have some bearing on our choices.

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 warns us to "Abtain from every appearance of evil." A few unmarried couples have assured me, "We still plan to wait until we're married to have sex. We will have separate bedrooms in our new apartment." If I'm the average American, I don't believe you for a moment. In fact, even if I'm your pastor, I don't believe that skinny little rationalization. Godly young men should man up and do what the Lord commands.

2. Galatians 5:17 is very clear. "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature, so you cannot do what you want." That's not the Holy Spirit urging you to move in with your fiancee' I can assure you. It's the flesh. And the moment you sign the lease on the apartment you'll share, the flesh has won over the Holy Spirit of God.

3. Romans 13:14 advises us, "But rather, clothe yourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Tyndale even translated the Greek more precisely, "Make no provision the lusts of the flesh to fulfill." Moving into a residence with a member of the opposite sex to whom you aren't married is what we call "making provision for the lusts of the sinful nature." Only a fool would call it "economics."

So what about the young couple who truly has financial constraints? There are many alternatives. Let one partner live with parents for another few months. Perhaps one partner can live with friends for a few months. If all else fails, move up the wedding ceremony and tie the knot earlier. When a tender young woman mentions that she can't fulfill all her wedding fantasies that quickly, I have a simple reply. As a follower of Jesus Christ, which is more important to you: your fantasies of what your wedding should be like, or the Lord's desires about how his servants should live?"

Selah!

Next week, we'll pick up Top Question #9.

The Top Ten Questions

2011-01-04T22:34:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, a friendly teller at my bank asked me what I do for a living. When I replied that I am a pastor, he commented, "That must be a very rewarding profession!" He was right! Sure, there are frustrating and irritating moments in leading a church, but I'm sure that even professional golfers and Hollywood movie stars have to endure occasional personality clashes and difficult days as well. Beyond annoyances like that, I enjoy preaching and teaching the Word of God; I get a lot of satisfaction offering counsel and encouragement; I love the staff members I've been called to lead; and I even get a kick out of growing people through ministry tasks and committee meetings.

Then there are all those questions! People make appointments to come by the office. On other occasions, they drop in or buy me lunch. Sometimes, Bible Study classes dispatch their teacher to get my take on a major issue. And finally, there are emails, telephone calls, conversations in the corridor, and even notes left in the offering plates.

Over the last year, the questions have ranged from the very practical to the very theological. Some have been rather unique, but many have turned up time and again in one form or another. So as 2011 gets underway, I thought you might enjoy reading the ten most frequent questions from 2010.

10. Why shouldn't a young man and woman move in together if they are engaged and committed to be married?

9. Where did Cain meet his wife?

8. If tithing is not mentioned in the New Testament, why do we still teach it?

7. How can I know when my child is old enough to be baptized?

6. How can I convince my spouse to come to church with me?

5. Don't some Bible verses suggest you can lose your salvation?

4. Why should I be baptized again if I was christened as a child in a Christian church?

3. How can a loving God justify sending innocent people to Hell forever?

2. How can you share your faith with coworkers who may be offended and report you for harassment?

1. Can unbelievers be condemned for rejecting Jesus if they never heard the Gospel in the first place?

Those are the most frequent questions that came my way during the last 12 months. If you'd like to know the answers, check in next week at this space.

Selah.

Boiling Point

2010-12-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

At 211 degrees Fahrenheit, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils.

That simple idea is at the heart of a skinny little book I came across last week. A friend mentioned that 212: The Extra Degree had a real impact on Saints QB Drew Brees. So I ordered it from Amazon and was surprised that it's quite small and only 77 pages long. But it makes a powerful point.

If just 1 degree makes the difference between hot and boiling, I wonder how many other areas life are won or lost, achieved or failed, advanced or set back by one more tiny degree of effort? Author Samuel L. Parker goes on to document all the amazing victories and accomplishments that made a huge difference, and yet were determined by a mere stroke, or one more attempt.

I've taken the book's advice and I'm going to begin asking important questions even during Christmas. Who are the people who could use one extra 15 minutes of encouragement? What are the issues that could benefit from an extra 10 minutes of prayer? What are the victories that might well be won with one more dollar, one more kind word, one more act of kindness, one more determined nudge?

If you're hoping for a White Christmas, I hope you get one. As for me, I'm hoping for a Christmas that cooks: boiling hot. Selah.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'll be offline for two weeks to recharge and renew. I will return on January 5 with "The Top 10 Questions People Ask Pastors." Hint: "Why do bad things happen to good people," is not in the top ten. I hope the Big Questions and the useful answers will be helpful in 2011.

Oh, Christmas Tree! The Backstory

2010-12-10T15:57:00.000-05:00

Everybody knows that the Christmas tree can be traced back to the Druids* in Great Britain, right? The Druids used mistletoe and holly to celebrate their Winter Solstice, and the faithful evergreen seemed to hint of eternity to them. Even more discerning people may recall that evergreen branches were object lessons of eternal life as long ago as the Pharaohs.

But do you know how the Christmas tree tradition crossed the Atlantic from Europe to arrive in the American Colonies? Some say Hessian soldiers brought the custom with them from Germany when they came over to fight in the American Revolution. It is suggested that Christmas trees became popular in Germany through the example of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation! But as America became established as a nation, many Christians resented all the tawdry drinking games and bawdy revelry associated with Christmas, so the holiday was banned in many places in these United States! That's right: Christmas was banned by Christian churches!

Anyway, historians say that Christmas trees never really took off here in America until just before the War Between the States. President Franklin Pierce set up a tree in the White House in 1856. In 1861 a farmer named Mark Carr brought two sled loads of evergreens into New York City. They sold like hotcakes! And so, the tradition of Christmas and evergreens began to spread across the land. The Christmas tree industry estimates that by 1900, one in five Americans had a Christmas tree. Twenty years later, they were nearly universal in the USA.

Of course, Christmas trees have no place in the story of Christ's birth. Some would suggest the form of a tree is reminiscent of the cross of Jesus Christ, but the silver, tinsel and bright lights would make that something of a stretch. Perhaps the most theological meaning we can assign to our Christmas trees today is that they remind of the Tree of Life that once stood in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve sinned, the tree was removed to protect them from having to live forever in a miserable, sinful condition.

Ministry Opportunity: bring up the history of the Christmas tree while you're visiting with friends and relatives around tables laden with holiday food. Ask them if they would agree that decorated evergreens might be reminiscent of the Tree of Life in Eden. Ask if they know why that tree was removed from the Garden.

If they're stumped, you have a wonderful opportunity to talk about how baby Jesus grew up to be the Messiah who died for our sins.

Selah.

*The Druids were sorcerors who lived in Britain and, apparently, opposed the coming of Christianity into the area we now call Ireland.

Defining Love without a Greek Dictionary

2010-12-04T11:57:00.000-05:00

Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel. Sometimes we are. No, we'd never deny that we believe in Jesus or argue that the cross is not enough. But when skeptical friends and co-workers question the love of God because of one tragic crisis or another, sometimes we just let their questions slide. We nod sympathetically as though the answer is indeed hard to find. But it's not.

I John 3:16 instructs us, "This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us." When God decided to act out his love and make a course correction in mankind's mindless rush to destruction, he intervened by sending his son to die on the cross. That was the ultimate expression of love and was, in addition, the only divine adjustment that would be required. The power of the cross is still working its way through the Earth, one life at a time.

After Hurricane Katrina reduced the Gulf Coast to third world status, some rolled their eyes and asked "Where is God?" God must have been many places saving lives in a cataclysm that destroyed so many and yet killed so very few. But he was surely evident in the tens of thousands of Christians, churches and agencies that engulfed the area for years to come, cleaning up rubble, rebuilding houses, encouraging men and women. And he is surely ministering now through all the new churches springing up in the area, led by prophets and pastors who have relocated from more comfortable regions to lift up the cross in New Orleans.

Saints Quarterback Drew Brees has been a huge source of inspiration to people working hard to reassemble their lives along the Gulf Coast. I would even venture to say that God is evident in that. In his new book, Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity, Brees writes that God called him and his wife to that area for this very time. Think about it.

We sometimes pray as though God is obligated to prove his love every few minutes by rescuing us from our sinful choices, our difficult days, every unpleasant shadow that falls across your pathway or mine. Think again. Sometimes God's love is made evident by the good things that result in our lives from the hardships we overcome through faith.

Let's be careful not to suggest an attitude towards God, "Thanks for the cross. But what have you done for me lately?" The cross is still doing great things. And let's not forget the rest of that statement from 1 John 3:16. "And we must in turn give ours lives for our fellow Christians." Whenever I find myself wondering what love requires, I don't need to look for a dictionary- not even a Greek lexicon. Love is Jesus dying on the cross, and the rest of us doing the same for our friends.

Selah.

Beware of Mr. Beck

2010-11-17T17:14:00.000-05:00

Glenn Beck stands for patriotism, the US Constitution, smaller government, and traditional American values. Those concepts are precious to me as well, so I hate to be be suspicious. But whenever I encounter the familiar Fox News celebrity while flipping channels, I am always troubled. Sure, we always see images of Washington and Lincoln. And graphs warn us about the path from "progressive" to "socialist." It's what you can't see that bothers me.

A few months ago, Beck attracted several hundred thousand Americans to a rally near the steps of the Lincoln Monument. The speeches and atmosphere had all the markings of a religious revival except there was no specific religion being recommended. Beck is a devout Mormon. Some of the other speakers were Christians. There was a lot of talk about character and choosing to live differently, along with a litany of platitudes and cliches. But this was not about Jesus Christ or even Joseph Smith for that matter. It was about Glenn Beck's vision for America.

Yesterday Glenn interviewed a rabbi about the Genesis 11 account of the Tower of Babel. This instantly caught my attention so I paused on Fox News for a few moments. The rabbi taught Fox News fans that King Nimrod ordered his people to build bricks and then to construct a tower to the heavens. The rabbi and the host went on to explain that "bricks" denote people being forced into uniformity while "stones" always suggest someone unique and created by God. Dictators and tyrants want to make us all into bricks, while God wants us to be individuals as He designed us. The "mortar" used to unite the bricks into a wall is actually materialism. (The Rabbi commented: Notice how "mortar" sounds similar to "matter" or "materialism.") The interview ended with the revelation that God didn't really punish the people of Babel but, rather, divided them for their own good. Their intentions were actually okay, but the king's motives were evil!

Nobody is more opposed to socialism, communism, tyrants, or 21st Century "Newspeak" than I am, but the host and the rabbi were broadcasting absolute hogwash! Even skeptics who regard the account as a myth must understand the people of Babel united to build a tower in order to resist God's command to "go and fill the earth." It's one thing to draw insights out of the passage, but it's completely unacceptable to read ideas into the text that were not intended. The king's name was never given, the metaphor is not supported anywhere else in Scripture, and the Hebrew word for "mortar" is rooted in the word "to boil." It is not related to the Hebrew term for "material."

I continued to watch only because I knew I would likely be asked about this broadcast within a few days. Soon I was astonished when one segment of the interview segued into a montage of scenes from the Beck rally at the Lincoln Monument. Viewers were treated to one clip after another of dewy eyed young adults speaking reverentially that this Glenn Beck moment had changed their lives forever. In other words, this was not just a political rally. This was a religious event!

I hope American Christians are not being seduced by the slick image being cultivated and projected by this appealing stranger who celebrates conservative values. Patriotism is a wonderful thing, but there's a reason we have that old adage that heralds "patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." Many of us were somewhat irritated by so many messianic references to candidate Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. Clearly, President Obama is just a politician. Likewise, Glenn Beck is only a talk show host. Let's be careful. Be very careful.

Selah.

At the End of the World

2010-11-06T10:27:00.000-04:00

Peter gazes into the future and sees the heavens evaporate with a roar. The stars and planets burst into flame. The evil of the Planet Earth is exposed once and for all. Then the apostle cautions us, "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" (2 Peter:3:11, NIV)

A vivid answer to that New Testament question can be found in the Old Testament pages of Isaiah. The prophet devotes several chapters to his vision of God's final judgment raining down upon the earth. "The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a hut. Earth's rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again." (Isaiah 24:20, HCSB) Like ancient Egypt tottering and reeling in the face of the plagues of Moses, the whole world is suddenly a fortress of barbarians reduced to rubble.

But in the midst of all this devastation, Isaiah 24:14,15 interrupts with two of the most unlikely verses. "They lift up their voices. They sing for joy. Over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. Therefore in the east, give glory to the Lord. In the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel."

Who are these strange people celebrating God's goodness among the ruins of civilization? Those people are us, the holy people of God, taking hope in the certainty of God's promises and the reality of his justice. They have always known these things had to happen because God's Word is true and his authority is final. They are vindicated in their faith. What's more, they realize the joy that is yet to come.

In our generation, we have become quite attached to this evil world. The bright lights have become too seductive for us, and the earthly delights taste succulent indeed. We love the night life because we belong to the city. When we gaze into the store windows, we see fond reflections of ourselves, draped in high fashion and lounging on designer sofas. We do not see the expiration date stamped on every item.

Knowing these baubles will be destroyed by fire, what sort of people should we be? Peter exhorts us to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the Day of the Lord, and hope it will come speedily. Something within us will have to change before we can be those visionary souls who rejoice at the end of the world. We will need to break off our affair with the world. We must detach. We must disengage. Alright, that sounds much too new age and trendy. Let's be prophetic. We must repent and rediscover Matthew 6:33.

Selah!

Dark Side of the Moon

2010-10-27T16:30:00.000-04:00

A good friend of mine has endured a hellish six months. What began with a health crisis continued to snowball with a month by month list of personal grief and painful surprises. News of her most recent blow reached me while I was wrestling with a sermon on pain and suffering in the life of faith. She was on the road, so we visited by cell phone before I returned to my desk.

With that backdrop of grief freshly brought to mind, I couldn't move beyond one idea in 1 Peter 4:13. We've just been encouraged not to complain when trials erupt in our lives. We must not behave as though something alien or unnatural has interrupted our lives. Then Peter adds, "But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed." I have worked through that text many times before, but this time, the ground deep inside my heart began to shift painfully, like seismic plates along a fault line.

"I can understand suffering for a cause," I complained to my Father, "But this is too much. This kind of affliction goes too far! Lord, it almost makes the God of amazing grace appear to be cruel and insensitive!" Face it, you can't be much more critical here in 2010 than to say someone is insensitive! But that's what I was thinking. I can easily relate to Christ when the world rejects me and people abuse me, as long as the Author of Life is working on my behalf. It's me and God against the world. It's okay!

But I wondered what in the world I might learn about Jesus when it seems that God has turned his back on me. How can I possibly relate to Christ in the face of divine rejection? I had barely put those words into a sentence when this image came creeping into my mind. It was a vision of a man dying on a cross, wracked with pain and absorbing all the scorn some cruel bystanders could heap upon him. I could see his cracked, parched lips moving slowly, finally uttering those familiar words, "My God! My God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from my deliverance?"

Insight came slowly. But the light finally came on.

I don't believe God ever turned his back on his dying Son. I happen to believe that Christ was reciting Psalm 22, lyrics beloved by the Jews in times of profound distress. But Christ prayed that psalm because that's surely how it felt. His life was painfully slipping away and the world was blanketed in ominous darkness. Heaven was silent. But praying a psalm when it feels like God isn't watching is a simple way of confirming, "Of course my Father is nearby!" Otherwise, why not simply cry out with a curse? Why not denounce all those insufficient ideas you ever believed and wait for death? Why use God's Word unless you still believe it works? A psalm is one way to identify with God even when you can't explain him.

I realized that is what we learn about Christ when life feels intentionally brutal. And that's what we can learn about ourselves. My convictions about God have grown so deep and my experience with him is so fully realized that even when it feels he has turned his back, I know in my heart he is still standing close by. I believe my life is never beyond his gentle touch and his powerful love, no matter how it may feel at one moment or another. And that's not just what I believe; it's what I have experienced in my life.

So I took some time and prayed for my friend in her unfolding grief. To us it all seems like too much sorrow piled high, as hard and black as a mound of coal. But that's just how it appears for the moment. History confirms our Eternal God can turn it all to diamonds.

Selah.

Angry Saints

2010-10-18T13:45:00.000-04:00

Sunday's sermon was about angry Christians. (10-17-10: "Blessed are the Angry?") I applied the words of Christ to the bad reputation churches have for anger and division. And at the end of the service, I challenged everyone to examine their attitudes and let their anger go. In fact, I asked members of the congregation to bow their heads and turn the palms of their hands up toward Heaven, asking God to take hidden, deep seated anger away.

Afterwards, a woman came by to ask if she could speak with me for a moment. She indicated that her son and daughter-in-law had been angry at her for over a year. They'd been offended by some innocent decision related to a crisis in the larger family. As a result, they hadn't spoken to her for months. She shared that she has occasionally tried to offer an olive branch, but that she has always been rebuffed.

Finally, she confessed, "I never thought I was angry. I always thought I was perfectly fine and willing to be at peace with them. So today when you asked us to turn up the palms of our hands to God and release our anger, I thought, 'I don't need to do that.' Then I thought, 'I'm not going to do that. That's silly!' Then the Holy Spirit just turned my hands over, and I realized I've been extremely angry and have just been trying to hide it."

That dear lady is not alone. It's very common for church people to deny that we're angry. We try and conceal the rage with more polite phrases like "I'm just concerned," or "I'm hurt," or "I'm merely offended." We are unwilling to confess that we're still angry because we know it's wrong.

And when we're not in denial, we rationalize. We cleverly concede that ongoing anger is generally wrong, but this case is the exception. We try to make it all right by suggesting this is a spiritual matter or a biblical matter of it's something we've prayed about. But deep down in our hearts, we know we're not behaving like Jesus. We're acting like the Pharisees who were angry at him for three whole years!

You can't help it when anger suddenly rises up in your life without warning. That's what emotions do, and that first rush of rage is beyond your control. You're not accountable for that. But you and I are accountable to God for what we do with our anger- or rather, what we allow our anger to do to us and the people around us when we allow it to simmer for days or weeks.

Paul warns us, "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." (Ephesians 4:26) The truth is, if I've been angry at someone for more than the last hour or so, there is no excuse. Anger is like a raging cancer. We want it treated and removed as quickly as possible.

Selah.

The Shrinking Dollar

2010-10-12T19:18:00.000-04:00

Jesus never ordered his disciples to sell everything they owned and give it to the poor. In fact, he only gave that directive to one deluded young man. On a different occasion, a typically corrupt tax collector named Zaccheus was celebrated when his new-found faith prompted him to sell half of his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. So the early monks and friars were mistaken when they assumed that poverty is innately virtuous. There must be at least as many corrupt poor people as there are corrupt rich folks.

Francis of Assisi was so committed to poverty and so fearful of the corrupting powers of money that he would not allow his followers even to touch coins. When a brother inadvertently touched some small change in moving it to a window ledge, an apology was not nearly enough. Francis forced him to get down on all fours, pick up each coin with his mouth, crawl across the yard to the livestock pens, and deposit the money onto a heap of donkey dung!

But Jesus Christ never told us not to touch money, or own it, or spend it. We know that the Lord himself and his followers carried money around with them. Otherwise they would not have required a Treasurer, and Judas would have had nothing to steal! It's acceptable for people of faith to earn money and even enjoy some of the benefits of the money we've earned. Rather, Christ teaches us that we must not treasure it, we must not allow it to rule our lives, and we must seek God's Kingdom first! (Matthew 6: 19,24,33)

Living Kingdom-First makes two demands on our lives in regard to money and wealth. I'd express those requirements this way: Live more simply and give more away.

It's no wonder these ideas are part of what I call the Lost Gospel. To make your home in the United States is to live and breathe in an environment of unrelenting materialism. Television commercials, radio jingles, magazine ads, roadside billboards and even signs on buses urge us to buy, to acquire, to taste, to experience, to accumulate, to spend! Reclaiming the Gospel truths about money will require a lot of faith and diligence for saints in the 21st Century marketplace.

So we decided to begin our Boot Camp at Providence during the run-up to Christmas. We're going to be intentional about spending less and giving more; refusing to chase after the World in their lust to buy the largest possible number of presents for friends who don't really need anything! We've resolved to give presents that are more simple, more spiritual, more eternal. We are committed to shop less but share more. It's not a battle we will win in three months- far from it! But it's a lifetime discipline we will begin to learn.

Someone has quipped, "We live by the golden rule: those who have the gold make the rules." The Bible says it differently- He who makes the gold rules. And that's why some of us have lost our religion. We have walked away from the god of the world's largest religion: Mammon. We have picked up a cross and taken the narrow path to the vastly bigger God of Heaven. And we have no regrets. So this Christmas, let's be sure we worship the real God, not the more popular one.

Selah.

Just Call Me a Tool

2010-10-04T16:06:00.000-04:00

"Why is American culture so friendly to Islam?" friends often ask me. "The icons of US society are utterly and completely offended by Christianity! So why does Islam always get a pass?"

Here's my answer: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." American elites consider Christianity the Archenemy. They resent us because we talk too much about self-control, purity, chastity, and eternity, and it hasn't escaped their notice that Islam resents us as well. So just like the Pharisees and the Herodians who united to oppose Jesus Christ, Hollywood and NYC are more than happy to elevate the Muslim religion at the expense of the Christian faith. If they can just get rid of Jesus, they figure Mohammed will be a piece of cake later on.

Nowhere is the clash of cultures between the World and the Church more evident than in the topic of authority. Rock legends and TV celebrities use the airways to champion the simple ethic of "Do your own thing!" There's a basic reason why motion pictures routinely make heroines out of prostitutes and strippers, and why TV talk shows headline the most sordid and excessive forms of behavior: nothing is normal. In a world that celebrates the civil right to express yourself and find your personal groove, there is no such thing as a norm.

And there is no such thing as a Lord! This is where Jesus Christ comes in, of course. As much as Americans would like to chill with someone of such notoriety, Jesus calls us to surrender and confess him!

In John 14:15 he directs us, "If you love me, keep my commandments."
In Matthew 11:28 he invites world weary men and women to submit to his yoke, using imagery that suggests oxen laboring for their master.
In Luke 6:46 he asks "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord' when you don't do what I say?"

Don't miss the irony here! The more Americans reject authority and insist on absolute personal liberty, the more powerless we feel. We allow callous, governments to assume more and more control over our lives, because existence is so compicated. We feel less able to maintain a healthy marriage, to train up our children, to face our problems, to find true satisfaction. We demand more and more options and alternatives because it feels as though nothing is really working!

I love that gospel account of the respected Roman centurion who asks Christ to heal a trusted servant who is extremely ill. When the Lord offers to follow the man to his house, the centurion replies, "Oh no, Lord. I'm not worthy to have you under my roof. Just speak the word and my servant will be healed." Then he goes on to explain that he is also a man under authority. Because he is under the authority of more powerful people, he can order his subordinates to go and they must go- not because he's so strong, but because of the authority of Rome. (See Matthew 8.) Jesus marvels at the insight reflected in that confession: the centurion realizes that Christ has power because he, too, is under the authority of Heaven.

The icons of evolution take pride in the idea that we humans are merely advanced flotsam and jetsam adrift in a random universe. Why should microscopic space dust like us aspire to meaning? But the Bible counters that we are precision tools custom fitted to a master craftsman's hands; organs perfectly designed for the Body of Christ. Only when we are connected, coordinated, and in sync with his divine mind do we finally understand why people need the Lord.

Selah!

The Lost Gospel

2010-09-27T18:11:00.000-04:00

When the US Marines advertise for recruits, they don't apologize for the mission. Their television commercials are full of grit and dust, explosions, warriors and weapons. They climax with the image of an alert man of war- highly disciplined, precisely uniformed, at ease with a gleaming sword. Then you see their slogan: "The few. The proud. The Marines."

The USMC is just looking for a few good men. And year after year, they attract young people who can be trained and equipped according to that vision. When bad comes to worse, they are prepared to be the point of the spear.

Then there's the American Church! My buddy Charles recently commented with a wry smile, "If we advertised that Christianity is about sacrifice, suffering and dying on a cross, nobody would want to do it!" So churches advertise with images of happy, wholesome young families and with words like acceptance and community. And when happy, young families show up at the highly publicized Community Church, they are greeted with a message that encourages them, "never settle for less than the best!" Some stay, while others wander away thinking, "I missed the US Open on HDTV for this?"

When I titled this blog the Lost Gospel, I wasn't thinking of the so-called gospel of Judas or Mary Magdalene. Those documents are not lost; they are rejected. They were set aside by the Church many centuries ago as too recent, incompatible with holy Scripture, and lacking in substance.

No, what's truly been lost in our own generation are key elements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that don't mesh with the spirit of the age or appeal to affluent consumers. Unlike the the US Marines, US Christians have not signed up for warfare, spiritual or otherwise. Apparently, we're mostly here to be motivated for Success, to meet some other chill individuals with whom we can drink a latte, and to check off the box for "faith" in our to do list for achieving a balanced life. The happy people crammed into our mega church theater seats match the stock photo faces in our advertising- attractive and very successful. So it seems we got exactly what we were looking for: cute consumers who enjoy crowds! But is that really what the Heavenly Father was looking for? The Bible begs to differ.

The Book of Ecclesiastes assures us that every human being ultimately grows weary of this seasonal, short-term world and homesick for an Eternity that has been coded into our hearts. The First Epistle of John reminds us that we must not fall in love with the Culture, because it crowds out the love of God in our hearts, and it won't last anyhow. The Gospel of Matthew urges us to deny ourselves, pick up a cross and follow Jesus. Then there's the New York Times which makes it clear that sophisticated Americans are much more interested in chic relationships than religious authority.

I've just gotta say, something tells me that churches who live by the New York Times will die with the New York Times. But visionary churches that dare to preach the Gospel boldly will continue to find there are always men and women who hunger for something bigger and more timeless than themselves. Granted, the broad interstate turnpike to New York City will always be vastly more crowded than the road to life. But we were never called to draw a crowd. We have been commissioned to be The Army of Light: The few. The powerful. The bold.

Selah.

Visit our sermon page for the new series, The Lost Gospel.
Learn more about Pastor's new book at www.TreasureintheSand.org.

What do you Say to an Angry Muslim?

2010-09-20T14:05:00.000-04:00

The culture is abuzz with conversations about angry Muslims. I live just outside Washington, DC and I've traveled to other nations, but I've never met one of those guys. Sure, I realize that the hijackers who brought down our planes on 9-11 were Muslims, like many other terrorists who have made headlines in this decade. I've watched news broadcasts from Turkey and Afghanistan that featured mobs of raging people calling out to Allah. And I am confident that US troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq have seen their share of angry admirers of Mohammed.

But I think it's useful for us in the Church to draw a distinction between what is happening at large and what's happening at home. I live and work in a region of the country where I frequently encounter men and women who look like they might be from the Middle East. Some of them are actually from parts of Africa, as it turns out. Some of them are Muslims who were born right here in America. And quite a few of the people I meet are former Muslims who are now followers of Jesus Christ. Some of those guys are among my best friends: loyal, supportive people who would give their lives for me.

Even when I meet Muslims from the Middle East who are now living in America, I find that many of them are not devout. Quite a few of them are searching, in transition, watching from a safe distance and trying to make their way in America. They often speak English with a distinct accent, but if you make the effort to listen and reach across the language barrier, they are deeply appreciative. (I refuse to smirk about their accents since English is the only language I have mastered, and the Brits find my accent strange as well.)

Here's what I have observed about people from the Middle East who live in America: they respond to kindness. Maybe it's because Muslim cultures tend to be harsh and intolerant of individuals, particularly women. Or maybe it's because they have been assured that Americans are arrogant and self-centered. Or perhaps it is simply because they've heard sensationalized tales of bloodbaths inflicted by Christians during the Crusades. But I have found that whenever I encounter people from Iran or Iraq, for example, they are deeply appreciative when they are treated with kindness and respect.

I often have the opportunity to intervene in the lives of people and families from Middle Eastern nations. Every time, I have observed profound, undying gratitude and- more often that not- a willingness to consider a meaningful alternative to Islam. I have baptized former Muslims into the Kingdom of God in our church. They are the real thing!

So when I am asked how Christians should combat the Muslim assault on American values, I have mixed emotions. Certainly our government should be strong and straightforward in dealing with the tyrants who rule many Islamic nations. And there is good reason for paying the price to ensure that our borders are secure. But when it finally comes down to the individual level where most of us live, the people of Christ should recall that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty."

It happened again today. I received an note from a young woman whose family emigrated here from Iran more than a decade ago. Our church had recently intervened in a personal issue to offer assistance. I had hoped for an opportunity to share my faith in Christ with the family. But it all happened during an unusually hectic time, and before I knew it, the window of opportunity had closed. In her note, she expressed her gratitude not only for our assistance, but for the kindness and respect she received from everyone she encountered here. She said she hoped to see us again. I thought, "I wish I had done more."

Then she called later in the day to ask if she could visit our worship service on Sunday. She'll be bringing her mom. I look forward to meeting her mother.

Overseas the war on terror is fought with tanks and rifles and mortars and counter insurgency strategies. But in my hometown, the spiritual warfare is waged with love, kindness, and amazing grace and Good News. So I pray for our soldiers abroad and keep trying to love my neighbors as myself.

Selah!

Learn more about Tim's new book Treasure in the Sand

at www.TreasureintheSand.org

The Bonfire of False Religion

2010-09-09T22:18:00.000-04:00

Well, it's over! The angry little church in Jacksonville, Florida will not burn copies of the Koran on Saturday as they had promised. Yes, they have enjoyed free worldwide publicity. But they were denounced by nearly everyone on the globe from one of our most respected US generals to former presidents to the Pope! The FBI paid a personal visit to the pastor. The church website was dropped by the web provider. Their hometown threatened to bill them for additional hours by the police force. The Associated Press vowed not to cover the book burning in print or images! Death threats came in from all around the world. Perhaps this shocking assault on world peace is behind us once and for all.

Of course, I'm pleased this misguided little church in Florida has changed their plans. In a nation where burning the US flag is a civil right protected by the US Constitution, this was never a question of civil rights. As controversial columnist Ann Coulter explained, it's a question of kindness. It's not kind to burn a book that is sacred to some of your neighbors. So I always objected to this hostile publicity stunt, and always considered it not very Christ-like.

But did anyone notice the universal outrage? Generals were appalled! Religious leaders were horrified! Politicians rushed to go on the record! In fact, if the truth be told, most Christians across the land were deeply offended by the idea of a Christian Church burning the Koran- even though most of us agree the book is demonic. (All false religions are, of course.)

Truth is, just about everyone realized this was not what followers of Christ should be doing. We all instinctively acknowledged that Christians stand for love, kindness and compassion- not burning books treasured by our neighbors. Even irreligious Americans know this about the church of Jesus Christ. We don't respect the Koran, but if we disrespect people of the Islamic religion, we will never be able to build bridges of relationship to bring some of them to Christ. So we don't burn their misguided holy books. We wouldn't want them to burn copies of the Bible, so let's abide by the Golden Rule.

Meanwhile, around the globe, Muslims demonstrated violently. Signs called for death to all Americans. Political and military leaders here and abroad insisted that burning the Koran would lead to attacks on US troops, bombings of US properties, and the execution of American citizens around the world. Muslims around the world would be so outraged that the level of death and destruction would be incalculable! Muslims who have not been involved in terrorism before would be driven to jihad by one insignificant little congregation in the USA burning copies of the Koran which they had purchased with their own money.

This has been the most shocking act of violence threatened by a US Church in more than a decade- burning a few copies of the Koran. We have been assured it would prompt Muslims to go rioting and killing and burning all around the world. Okay, let's accept that as a fact. So why are Christians in the US called fanatics and narrow minded zealots? And why is Islam constantly heralded as a "religion of peace?" Why are US Christians most commonly labeled as "angry people who cling to guns and religion" by American intellectuals, while followers of Mohammed are protected as a noble religion with a history of enlightenment?

Don't miss the point here! I am not suggesting that Muslims are evil and that we should despise them or burn their sacred books. To the contrary, I urge you to love your Muslim neighbors, build compassionate relationships with them and pray for Christ to reveal Himself to them. I am simply reminding you that the World is two-faced and hypocritical. Unbelievers in the US and around the world know they have absolutely nothing to fear from Christians. They simply resent us because we remind them of something they would rather forget: one day they will die and stand before God.

Never be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Islam has never been a religion of peace, but Jesus Christ continues to reign as the Prince of Peace. Let's stop cowering in the corner.

Selah.

Learn more about Tim's new book Treasure in the Sand
at www.TreasureintheSand.org

Praying with Your Eyes Wide Open

2010-09-04T14:29:00.000-04:00

Paul didn't close his eyes when he prayed. I have a hunch he didn't kneel all the time either. Perhaps you're wondering how I know this. If you'd assumed the New Testament never describes Paul's body language in prayer, you'd be right. But in his own letters, Paul writes that he prayed all the time, night and day, at all times and on all occasions, endlessly, continually, etc. What's more, he instructed you and me to pray without ceasing. Yet Acts makes it clear that Paul was on the road or out and about ministering most of the time. When he wasn't on the road, he was writing half the New Testament. So it stands to reason that many of Paul's prayers were offered while walking, riding, standing amid crowds in the temple, or locked hand and foot in stocks at one prison or another.

I suspect one reason prayer is difficult for many Christians is because our definition is so restrictive. We assume one must kneel, bow his head, and work through a lengthy written list of requests. In fact, the Bible mentions godly people who pray while standing, kneeling, prostrate on the ground, waiting by a highway, lying on their beds, under water, and hanging from a cross. Apparently, you can talk to God the way you talk to other people you love and respect- while walking, riding, standing in line, or wandering around in a wilderness area. In fact, if we don't learn to pray in all those ways plus others as well, we will never fulfill Paul's directive to pray without ceasing, will we?

I find that my prayer life cycles through four distinct phases:

The Dynamic phase is when my spiritual life is clicking on all six cylinders, my prayers come easy and often, and I find myself constantly thanking God for all his blessings.
Then comes the Difficult phase. I still make time to pray throughout the day, but it's more challenging. Life has become hectic and over scheduled, so that I feel like I'm on a treadmill just trying to keep up and manage God's blessings.
Before long it's clear that I am Distracted. My schedule is so crammed and irregular that I find I'm interceding less and less. In every part of my life, things appear to be out of sync and winding down.
One day I wake up and realize I'm Defeated. Whole days have gone by without a single meaningful conversation with God. Obstacles loom on every side and life begins to feel depressing. Minor problems feel more serious than they really are because I am spiritually drained. Sooner or later I repent, fall on my knees in desperation, cry out to God and feel his hand on my shoulder. My heavenly Father graciously ushers me back to the dynamic mode.

We can safely assume that most of us can't remain in the Dynamic Phase for fifty-two weeks a year. Life changes, situations beckon, emergencies arise. Sooner or later, most of us will find we've become distracted. And for many of us things will get worse. One day the alarm bells will ring and the Holy Spirit will alert us that we are distracted. That unpleasant season will probably come again for many of us.

But here's my question: Who really wants to be defeated? I certainly don't! That means the first time I notice one of the warning signs that my prayer life is heading south, I need to take it seriously. I will treat it like one of the warning signs for cancer. I should respond with the same urgency I would give to a fire alarm or a storm warning. I want to drop everything and take stock of my spiritual life. I must stop, drop and pray. (If ever there was a great time for kneeling, this would be it. I need to get my mind in the right attitude.)

How frequently church people confess, "I know my prayer life is not what it should be." That's even sadder than it sounds! If you're saying that just to be modest, you're encouraging less mature believers to be slackers, too. And if you really know your prayer life is insufficient and disrespectful to the Father, what are you doing about it? Don't wait until you're beaten.

Selah.

Learn more about Tim's new book, Treasure in the Sand,
at www.TreasureintheSand.org

Dirty, Bearded & Barefoot

2010-08-29T22:39:00.000-04:00

I almost named my new book Take Off Your Shoes! It seemed like an insightful reference to God’s quirky command when he first appeared to Moses in that burning bush. What a great, snappy call to worship! But I relented after people I trust insisted that kind of title would turn buyers off. Church people in America don’t want to take off their shoes in our posh, richly carpeted, color coordinated, air-conditioned, high-tech worship arenas. When was the last time your church celebrated foot-washing?

Sometimes I wonder if 21st Century believers are working hard to accomplish some of the very things Moses crossed a blistering desert to escape. I mean, Egypt had splendor, sophistication and technology. But Moses sacrificed it all to become a dirty, bearded, barefoot prophet for a God who wanted to live in a tent! Something tells me that Moses wouldn’t have the first idea about what to do at one of our Arts & Worship Conferences.

In a world where even the term modern seems archaic to people who call themselves postmodern, what are we to make of those bearded, barefoot guys from the Stone Age who wrote our Bible? In 1500 BC, high-tech was all about carving granite artistically. Not only did God forbid being represented by some artistic graven image, but he even warned his people not to use tools to decorate their altars. [EX 20:26] Moses was so astute, he didn’t even argue that everybody back in Egypt built their altars with dressed stones. Selah.

Of course we understand why Old Testament prophets appear out of step with our sophisticated world of I-Phones and high fashion, but we tend to forget they looked painfully unsophisticated to their uncivilized neighbors, too. I think people were shocked when Isaiah walked down the street stripped down to his underwear. The nerve! And we know for a fact that David’s emissaries were so humiliated when a foreign king shaved off half their beards that they were allowed to remain in hiding until their beards grew back. So how foolish do you suppose Ezekiel looked when God ordered him to shave his hair and his beard?

The holy men who wrote our Bible needed to have their feet washed before they could eat with friends because both animals and people went to the bathroom alongside every road and highway they traversed. And they were lucky to enjoy a bath even once a week.

It should remind us that there is such a thing as trying too hard. Sometimes we try much too hard for sophistication in a ministry that has often been advanced by men who looked like fools. Sure, Paul complimented the Greeks at Mars Hill on their diverse religiosity, but only a few sentences later he reminded them they were all accountable to the One True God. It really didn’t go that well!

I remind myself that God has seldom valued virtues like polish and chic sophistication. He has always worked to cultivate things like durable faith and visible integrity. And when I recall that some of the holiest men who ever lived had matted beards and smelly feet, I remember that God cherishes humility as well.

Welcome to the Desert!

Learn more about Tim's new book, Treasure in the Sand at www.TreasureintheSand.org.

Aim for the Heart

2010-08-24T19:15:00.000-04:00

Some friends and I spent the morning at a NRA firing range a few weeks ago. We were accompanied by a gun enthusiast who opened the trunk of his automobile and unpacked the most amazing arsenal of dangerous toys and ammo! We fired a Smith & Wesson 500, the most powerful handgun in the world. With the right cartridge, it will stop a charging elephant! We had a Kel-Tech SU 22 rifle which was so deadly accurate that even I racked up 4 bulls eyes in 6 shots! We laughed and blasted away at paper targets for three hours.

The guys and I are part of a Life Group that meets in my home every other Friday night. There are couples and singles from a range of ages and ethnic backgrounds. Some have kids and others are retired. We always spend an hour in lively discussion of one passage in the Bible or another. Otherwise, we talk and laugh and eat; and the last person usually leaves somewhere around 11:00 - 11:30 PM! One night we actually got everyone outside by 11:00 but then they all stood around talking and admiring the stars until after midnight!

In the Bible, deep friendships among the people of God can be found in almost every chapter. But it can be a lot more difficult to find those kinds of friendships in American churches today. Too often we find that Christians have "church friends" and then they have real friends, but the two groups don't overlap. A real friend is someone you could call with a problem at 2:00 AM. Most of us wouldn't dream of disturbing our church friends at that hour. What would they think of me?

I suspect that last question is very revealing: "what would they think of me?" It makes sense that some people might not want friends at church. Maybe I'm afraid that my life won't pass inspection. So I mingle in the parking lot and chit chat with my church friends, but then I meet my real friends on the golf course where I can lighten up and be myself. It's hard acting like a saint while you're trying to hit that unpredictable little white ball with demonic dimples!

I once heard a preacher argue that we'd all be better off if God would just write our sins on our foreheads so that everyone could see them. Then there would be no point in trying to conceal them or pretend I'm perfect or sinless or nearly beatified. I could just be myself- a guy who needs Christ because I'm not so together. It would be okay to act that way if everybody already knew the truth, wouldn't it?

I've told our folks at Providence that "church friends" are a rip-off and a cheap substitute. We should settle for nothing less than real friends. True friendship is one of the most satisfying and essential blessings the Christian faith offers. Sure, it's work. It requires making allowance for the sins and peculiarities of others, even as you recognize that you're not The Finished Product either. It requires dealing with that constantly nagging fear of rejection. What if they don't like me? What if I'm not good enough?

Remember those lyrical words from 1 John 4:18? "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

John isn't describing what perfect love will be like in Heaven. He's talking about what the love of Christ makes possible for you and me on the Earth today. Even in a world of dissension and distrust, we can experience a kind of love that is alien to this planet. We can experience the unconditional commitment of other forgiven sinners who can understand my struggles because they have been there.

Guns are one form of security, but they don't really cast out fear. Even people holding loaded weapons experience fear from time to time. But love is more powerful than guns. When I love someone, I am suddenly able to set aside my fears and act in faith. I'm not afraid of being rejected. I'm not afraid of failing to measure up. I'm not afraid of looking like a sinner; I already do. I set my fears aside and walk in faith with other people who love Jesus.

If this sounds too good to be true, take a few minutes and read 1 John 4. Authentic friendship is the most overlooked topic in 1 John, and it's the best kept secret in the Church. We can really love each other because Jesus first loved us.

Selah.

The Most Surprising Thing Jesus Never Said

2010-08-16T21:12:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine mocks people who wear WWJD bracelets. Sure, their motives are good. But no one can ever say, "I know exactly what Jesus would do." Even Christ's buds in the 1st Century couldn't predict what he would do or say next. His astonishing words and deeds constantly took the people around him by surprise.

For instance, think of all the mystifying miracles the Lord performed just because someone asked. He resuscitated a dead boy, a dead girl and a dead friend. He healed lepers, brought sight to people born blind, and commanded a man to walk despite the fact he'd been paralyzed most of his life! He calmed a storm just because his disciples were having a panic attack. Take a moment to review just some of the outrageous things Jesus did and said to repair the problems of his fellow human beings.

Then recall what happens in Luke 12:13 when a nice guy in a crowd asks Jesus for some help with a family problem. "Hey Jesus," he calls out, "Could you please tell my brother to share my father's estate with me?" Think about it: you and I can completely relate to this man. His dad has passed away. His older brother inherited everything. And now some time has passed and the older sibling refuses to share any of the estate with one of the rightful heirs.

If Jesus can transform a leper back to health or repair eyes that have never seen the light of day, imagine how easily he can remedy this family problem. It won't even require a miracle. All he has to do is just say, "Hey friend, share the estate with your brother. You know your father would want this, and it will strengthen your ties with your family. Don't ever be afraid to share!"

You'd say something like that if you were Jesus. So would I. But if you're familiar with Luke 12: 13-21, you know that Jesus absolutely refuses! Instead, he replies to the guy in the crowd, "Friend, who has authorized me to judge between you and your brother?" If you're really paying attention, you'll understand this must seem outrageous! Christ is always talking about loving, sharing, giving of yourself. And now, when it would make such a difference in one life, he refuses to tell a selfish brother to share his father's estate?

Let's ask God for a teachable spirit here. Instead of ordering the other man to share, Christ tosses out two powerful statements. First, he tells the man in the crowd to be careful and beware of every kind of covetousness. Second, he reminds him that life is not measured by how much stuff you own.

Christ warns the man in the crowd, "Don't ever, ever let greed or covetousness take root in your life- even when you have a right to something." Think about that. Greed is so insidious and so cancerous that it can spread through my system and fill me with sin, even if it's the justifiable kind; even if I have a right to something that has been withheld from me. Followers of Christ must never tolerate covetous desires in our lives, even when we can rationalize them. It's too dangerous.

Secondly, Christ reminds the man that even if his brother should share the estate, it won't add measurably to his life. He would have more things, but not every thing that was possible. If the only limit on your desires if what you cannot afford, your desires will always change with your circumstances and you may never be happy. Christ reminds the wronged sibling to find a more accurate way to measure his life. (In 12:13 he will encourage him to seek a rich relationship with God. That's the measure of life.)

I taught this lesson at our church last Wednesday night. Afterward a man came up to me and commented, "You were really talking to me tonight, Pastor." I've heard that before so I wasn't surprised. The parable of the rich fool speaks to all of us. So I nodded and smiled, but he continued. He explained that when his father died a few years ago, the entire estate went to his mom and should have left her comfortable for life. But a year or two later, he learned that one of his siblings had secretly gone to his tenderhearted mom and conned her into giving up a huge chunk of the inheritance. The man said, "I've been angry and bitter ever since. I realize tonight I have to forgive and let it go." I assured him that he does. And so do we all.

I understand this flies in the face of everything you've been taught as an American consumer. (It offended people in Christ's world, too. They killed him. Duh!) Labor unions train us never to settle for less. Attorneys advise us to hold out for everything we deserve. Madison Avenue whips us up into a feeding frenzy over the newest laptop, the next edition of the I-Phone, the skinnier version of the I-Pad, the bigger, thinner HD-TV screen. That's what shopping is all about: looking and lusting.

Christ says, "The thing you should never settle for is a greedy, covetous heart." You will never get everything you want on the Earth. And you'll completely miss the things you need." Life is measured by how much we trust God.

Gold Plated Religion & 14 Kt Faith

2010-08-11T13:20:00.000-04:00

Here in the USA, 2010 has brought us to a curious and surprising moment: giving to the needy has become a fashion statement! I'm not joking! Back in June, billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates hosted a posh dinner affair for some of America's Top 2%, and challenged them to give away half their wealth to charity! Although it hasn't become a tidal wave yet, the list of CEO's issuing press releases with plans to share 50% is beginning to grow. Already some are suggesting this is just too public and too exclusive. "Sure you can afford to drive a Bugati and spend your weekends on a yacht with beautiful people from Hollywood, but are you wealthy enough to give half your fortune away?" But let's wish these folks well.

You might be more impressed by another story that surfaced last week. We learned that the estate of the late Johnny Carson has just given $167 million to a whole list of charitable organizations. Mr. Carson was apparently quite generous throughout his famed career, but we never knew the rest of the story until last week. He died 5 years ago, so he clearly didn't do it for publicity.

This all came to mind as I've been thinking about the commands of Christ. On one occasion he told a wealthy young man to sell his vast holdings, give the money to the poor, and follow him. On another occasion, he warned a would be follower that the Son of God owned no house where he could lay his head. And then there's that pesky story of the poor widow whom the Lord commended when she gave her last two pennies to charity at the Temple.

Some have asked, "But surely she wasn't giving her last money in the world! Jesus wouldn't want her to starve to death, would he?" Those are interesting questions, but they miss the point. Perhaps she had a garden at home where she could pick some tomatoes and beans. Maybe she had a caring cousin who dropped by most Fridays to deliver some stew. But the point remains the same: she gave the only money she had because she was sure her Heavenly Father would provide for her no matter what. Money was only one of her resources, and the easiest to give away!

Before you and I speak too harshly about the motives of mostly non-Christian billionaires who may be obsessed with good PR, we should probably give more thought to the motives of 21st Century "disciples" like us who who seem obsessed with the Good Life. Most of us aren't giving away anything close to 50% for the right motives or the wrong ones. And we certainly haven't sacrificed our last nickel for the more profound needs of others.

Jesus told us, "Life is not measured by how much you own," but we still check the value of our houses every couple of months. And when his apostles reminded him, "Lord we have given up our houses, our lands- everything to follow you," he didn't say "You'll have it all back in a year or two." Rather, he said "You'll get it all back a hundred times over in Heaven."

For hundreds of years, the most celebrated figures in the Church were compassionate leaders who embraced poverty for the Kingdom of God; Patrick of Ireland, Francis of Assisi, Brother Charles of Jesus, the list goes on and on. Today we prefer heroes who have made it big and have some bling to show for it. Something tells me we are missing something important. Something tells me it's a cross.

What do you think?

Disappointed with Church

2010-08-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

A famous novelist made news last week when she announced she was quitting Christianity. Anne Rice was already well-known for her seductive vampire novels, like Interview with a Vampire, when she announced in 1998 that she was returning to her childhood faith, Catholicism. She began to write novelized accounts of New Testament stories as a way of reflecting her new found faith.

Recently, a friend apparently called her attention to the hateful rants of some angry online preacher in Minnesota. He hates gays and despises Muslims, and tried to find some lesson in the fact that Muslims hate homosexuals too. Ms. Rice was so offended that she wrote about how hard it is to belong to a church that's so full of contempt for groups of people. A day or two later on Facebook, she announced she would continue to admire Jesus, but that she was done with His Church for good.

I can sympathize with Anne Rice. I am often offended by the comments of some of the fringe people who say they are followers of Christ. Most Americans are now aware that those cruel, scowling hate mongers who protest at US military funerals not only profess to be Christians, but Baptists as well! Frankly, those strident zealots have nothing in common with me except that live in America.

But when people write off the Church because of the behavior of a few, they are revealing a lot more than they intend. I am ashamed of some of the things my fellow Americans say and do, but I would never renounce America and move away because a few head cases make outrageous remarks. Sometimes I even disagree with comments made by our Presidents, but people in America are free like that. If I should ever discover that large numbers of Americans were organizing to harm one population group or another, I would fight that conspiracy until my dying breath. But nobody can stop their fellow countrymen from expressing their ideas- even stupid ones!

That's also true of the Church. In order to guarantee freedom of religion for all, no one has federal authority to say which group is really a Christian church, and which group is simply a fringe, hate group. Even within most churches and denominations, no one has the authority to go around expelling counterfeits, hypocrites, and evil members of the Visible Church! Jesus made it clear that there will always be tares (weeds) growing up alongside the true believers in the Church. They won't be separated until the End. We would probably never uproot them all, and we'd become suspicious and hateful by trying so hard.

Jesus tells us to be discerning. "You will know them by their fruits," he counsels us. In other words, before I assume someone is actually a part of the Church of Jesus Christ, I should examine the results of his life and words. If someone's life and words are not Christlike, he is not a reflection of Christ or His Church. I don't need to leave the church to get away from him. He doesn't belong!

I'm sorry Anne Rice has hit this stumbling block in her search. I wish her well and I hope she'll keep looking to Jesus. It probably feels purifying and cleansing to make dramatic public statements about evil people who hate in the name of religion. But if Ms. Rice will keep looking, she will eventually find a group of New Testament believers who love Christ with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves. She will find a true welcome there, and that bond of community will feel even more satisfying and wholesome than all those verbal hand grenades she was lobbing at the Church last week.

Surprise Ending

2010-07-26T11:20:00.000-04:00

Sunday was "Signing Day" at Providence. Copies of Treasure in the Sand were stacked on a table in front of me. My friends could either buy a copy or bring one they had recently purchased online. I signed them all and, along the way, I was reminded of another book signing years ago in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It was my first book back in 1986. I was seated at a table in a Christian Bookstore five miles from the beach. I looked up to greet a sharp looking guy, probably in his forties. He had a big smile on his face as he handed me a copy of my book. Then he asked, "Do you remember me, Tim?"

I looked again. I didn't really recognize him- not the smile, not the haircut. But there was something vaguely familiar about his eyes. I was about to ask, "Who are you," until I suddenly remembered. Then I thought, "No, this can't be right!"

Two years earlier, I had been actively involved at First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale. The church had a booming evangelism training ministry which sent dozens of teams out all over town to share their faith every Tuesday night. Over several semesters, all those teams had always departed through the rear parking lot, driving right past the home of an unhappy family living just across the street from the church complex. Sometimes the poor man who lived there could be seen sitting on his porch, very drunk. I'm sure some had tried to interact with the people who lived there over the years, but it had apparently never worked. Then one Tuesday night, events took a different direction.

A team had managed to get into the home to meet this addicted man named Rocky along with his wife and kids. I can't remember all the details but, by the end of the evening, the unpleasant man who had lived across the street for years made a shocking decision. He prayed to confess Jesus Christ as Lord- prayed with tears in his eyes. Afterwards he actually accompanied the team back to the Fellowship Hall to share his experience during the report back session.

The very next Sunday Rocky showed up for worship; and the next, and the next. Soon he was baptized. With his deeply creased face reflecting the hard mileage he had endured, he would lead his wife and kids down the aisle to the front pew every Sunday. He didn't look like most of the other upper class professionals who mostly comprised the downtown church, but he never seemed to be aware of all the differences. He was aware of God's grace.

Shortly after Rocky had become a part of FBC, my family and I had been called to serve on staff at another area church. A year or more had passed. My new book had come out. And there I was sitting behind a stack of books signing copies. I took another look at the smiling face across the table, and after a long pause, I asked, "Rocky? Rocky, is it you, buddy?"

Tears welled up in those familiar eyes. Rocky nodded and grinned. The creases and hard edges had melted from his face along with quite a few years. He looked younger and incredibly happy. I learned he was working now, and was involved in the outreach program that had reached him. It had only been a year, but what a year! I gave him a long, joyful hug. I don't really like signing books but I was incredibly happy to sign Rocky's copy!

He was an old friend but a new man. By the grace of God in Christ, the old was gone and the new had come. My name was written in his book, but far, far more importantly, his name was written in Christ's Book of Life. It made all the difference in the world.

LOL at the Movies

2010-07-19T10:07:00.000-04:00

I was hurriedly flipping through a copy of Entertainment Weekly this weekend, when one particular caption reached out and grabbed me! In his column, “The Final Cut,” Mark Harris had written, “Hollywood loves weddings, but ignores marriage.”

“Wow!” I thought, “I couldn’t agree more. Wouldn't it be refreshing and satisfying to catch a movie that treats marriage with respect and admiration?” So I continued to read, and found nuggets like these:

“I couldn’t remember the last time I saw such a good film about being married- a condition that 110 million Americans experience firsthand every day, but almost never at the movies.”

“As I tried to recall films about marriage, I was startled to realize that the best ones that occurred to me... were all about divorce and at least 30 years old.”

I had begun to speculate that Mr. Harris might be some kind of closet Hollywood conservative. I was eager to learn more about this revolutionary movie so pro-marriage in tone that the writer calls it a godsend. Then I came to this confession: “The breakthrough here isn’t simply that the couple in question is gay...”

Sometimes there’s nothing to do but laugh! In Hollywood, only gay marriages or dying ones are interesting.

For most of us, traditional marriage is one of the most practical, beneficial elements of life. It is an endless source of affirmation, partnership, community, joy, and- yes- stability. Most of us don’t really desire that our lives be more theatrical or dramatic. But if you’ve ever been a parent, you know how welcome a little stability can be.

Marriage is so fascinating to God that he opens the Bible with it. Okay, the first chapter is actually about creation, but it builds toward the second chapter which is about marriage. Matrimony is the first institution ordained by God because it is so central to life and so essential for healthy communities and nations. Every child needs the diversity and the personal buy-in of a father who affords wings and a mother who nurtures roots.

Our popular culture insists that money and sex appeal can acquire anything a person really needs. The fact that Hollywood has been unable to describe the blessings and the magic of healthy marriage for more than three decades now only shows you what they’re missing.

Excitement Was Never Enough

2010-07-12T11:40:00.000-04:00

Today's churches are addicted to excitement. Schedules are chock full of events that are exciting, out of the ordinary, new and improved or easy to advertise. Exclamation points dot our home pages and worship sheet covers. The unspoken rationale is that American Christians in 2010 need frequent booster shots of adrenalin to keep their faith functioning.

I pondered that whole idea recently after a revealing study in John 6. In that text, Christ has just fed 5,000 men and their families, starting with only a small basket of loaves and fishes. By the time everyone has been fed, there are 12 giant agricultural baskets of bread left over! Only hours later, Jesus walks across a storm tossed Sea of Galilee about 3 AM, enables one of his disciples to walk on the water as well, and then joins them all in the boat!

You can't get much more exciting or invigorating than that. But less than 24 hours later, Christ sees a large number of his disciples turn their backs and walk away. By their own admission, the reason for their departure is "a hard teaching" which they have trouble accepting (John 6:60.)

Christ may be saddened to see them walk away, but the Scripture emphasizes that he is not surprised by this outcome. He had always known their hearts, and had realized from the beginning that they had not been enabled by God. Christ explains to those who remain that no one can come to him unless "it is granted to them by the Father." If the personality of Jesus Christ and the astonishing miracles of John 6 could not sustain Adrenalin Seekers in the First Century, what makes anyone think our high tech wizardry and video can sustain them in the 21st Century?

Jesus Christ still requires that his disciples embrace hard teachings. We are told to live simple lives in an extravagant culture; to talk about our faith in office places where people are easily offended; to reject certain popular lifestyles because they defy God's Word, despite the fact that the whole world has gone after them. Christ calls for moral purity in a society that celebrates personal abandon. Our friends and neighbors are prone to argue, "These are hard teachings! Who can keep them?"

Sometimes our current day outreach strategies seem to suggest that we can keep these secular people if we can just get them into a routine. Far from another routine, our postmodern neighbors need guidance getting into a relationship- particularly a relationship with Jesus Christ. When people finally get real with Jesus, getting a rush from religion becomes far less significant.

Is anybody else thinking what I'm thinking?

Missions: When Love is Blind

2010-07-03T13:57:00.000-04:00

Friday the Wall Street Journal featured a column entitled "How the Missionaries Lost their Chariots of Fire." ("Houses of Worship;" July 2, 2010.) Columnist Brad Greenberg documents that even as more Christians are traveling to international locations for the purpose of "missions," evangelism has been quickly demoted to the back of the plane. Comparing the zeal of missionaries a generation ago to the attitudes of the church today, he quotes a seminary dean at a recent missions conference: "[They] thought they were going to take over the world, and now many of our students wonder if they should even try."

American Christians still do mission trips- probably more than ever- but instead of proclaiming the Good news, they now prefer fighting poverty, working against human trafficking, doing things in the interest of "justice" rather than "redemption." But when it comes to choosing between evangelization and social ministry, Greenberg leaves no doubt about his priorities: "The reality is the church should be doing both."

I know that tension that is experienced by so many postmodern missionaries. You arrive on some distant mission field fully determined to teach and preach the Gospel, but you are quickly distracted by the hunger, the hopeless economy, the broken families, the squalid living conditions. And while you're leading a Bible Study, you realize that in a place this desperate, even the money you spend on coffee back home could make a real difference here.

Seeing the elation that spills over the face of a man in Africa when you buy him a cold orange soda, it's easy to fantasize about the change your American dollars and bright ideas could engender in a tragic land. But it's a seduction, not a vision: the biggest change wrought by easy money is the dependency it quickly fosters in the hearts of desperate people who will treat you like a Hollywood star if it seems you might have a few more dollars tomorrow!

Most of us simply aren't smart enough to fight human trafficking, except by giving some money to a reputable ministry that does. And we don't really need to travel to Bangkok to see it happening: we can pray from home and give the money we would have wasted on airfare to that ministry as well.

Our church has carried on a relationship with Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for seven years. Zimbabwe is one of the three most desperate nations in the world, and conditions seem to worsen every year. So our work there has been multifaceted. We have done AIDS education and women's conferences. We have distributed truck loads of food, and have fitted hundreds of locals with reading glasses. But every trip requires that we work 24/7. Because in addition to showing the love of Jesus, it's our priority to preach it and teach it as well.

We have organized and grown circles of small group Bible Studies. We preach and teach in churches. Our disciples actually launched a brand new church three years ago, and it's still growing and thriving. We teach Bible Studies in a crowded curio market, and see the spiritual atmosphere improve every year.

Brad Greenberg quotes one group that explains their missionaries believe in Christ, "But do NOT want to limit themselves in any way." But frankly, doing social work alone is an extremely limited approach to ministry. We emphasize the Gospel for a better reason- we do NOT want to limit God in any way.

A Giant Arrives in Heaven

2010-06-27T17:30:00.000-04:00

Last week, a man named Manute Bol passed away at age 47. He will be remembered by people in our area for his career with the Washington Bullets (now Wizards.) At 7’7” he was a force to be reckoned with on the court. He never scored lots of points, but at defense he was amazing. He was at least 6" taller than anyone else on the court, and he had long arms.

I saw him at the gym a year or two ago: it was impossible not to stare at him. Everyone in the gym watched him constantly. His head nearly touched the ceiling. He moved with a certain grace, despite his awkward frame.

Bol was well known among area people for his faith. A Christian who came here as an immigrant from Sudan, he made a fortune in the NBA but he never forgot his roots. In 2004 he told Sports Illustrated, “God guided me to America and gave me a good job, but he also gave me a heart so I would look back."

He saw his life as a gift from God to be invested here. After retiring from basketball, he made various celebrity appearances to continue to capitalize on his basketball fame. But he never lived a celebrity lifestyle.

The fact is, Bol gave most of his fortune, estimated at more than $6 million, to the Sudan. He earned more money only to send it home as well. He made frequent trips to assist and inspire the desperate folks back home. On one relief trip, he contracted a skin disease which ultimately contributed to his death last week.

I obviously don’t know what happened when he arrived in Heaven last week, but I have an idea. I suspect Manute Bol walked into the gates and was given a standing ovation- the kind that can only be given in Heaven. No, I don’t mean that all the saints stood and cheered him with one voice, although perhaps they did.

Rather, I suspect that Jesus Christ, the son of God, stood in his honor; and that Christ walked over to say, “Well done, faithful servant. Welcome Home. Come now and receive an inheritance prepared for you since before the world began.”

Manute Bol spent his career in the USA looking back to his desperate countrymen in the Sudan. And in doing so, he taught us all a powerful lesson. Live every moment for Christ. Do whatever you can while it is still called today. And someday, you'll be able to celebrate in Heaven with no looking back.

Interview with an Unborn

2010-06-21T15:57:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning's sermon was all about the coming resurrection. In
1 Corinthians 15: 35-48, Paul explains that resurrection is not some distant fantasy. We see a simple form of resurrection every time we bury a seed, allow it to die, and then watch a squash or a tomato or a watermelon grow and ripen. The seed has to die in order to create new life. And when the new life comes, it's larger and more wonderful than the seed was! (Listen to the sermon: "Resurrection & Reality.")

It's a difficult concept not because we are so scientifically oriented, but simply because it's hard to imagine. I tried to imagine an interview a journalist might have with an unborn child, snuggled safely inside the womb:

Reporter: So are you excited about what happens after you leave the womb?
Baby: Leaving? Who's leaving? I'm not going anywhere. Why would I want to leave?

Reporter: But being born is the whole purpose behind your existence! Have you ever thought about how wonderful it will be to walk around and smell the flowers, breathe the fresh air of spring time or enjoy a juicy steak?
Baby: What do you mean 'breathe?' What's a steak? Do you know how flaky you sound right now?

Reporter: Don't you ever want to fall in love and enjoy some romance?
Baby: I have my mommy. What's romance, anyway?

Reporter: Think of all the amazing sights you'll see once you open your eyes!
Baby: What are eyes?

If you could interview an unborn baby, you'd probably find a little person tucked safely away in the womb who has no desire to leave all that instant gratification. Floating safely inside the body of his mom, he would be utterly unable to imagine the joys and freedom of walking on land, riding horseback, dining at a restaurant or seeing the Grand Canyon. All the uncertainty of life after birth would be more terrifying than appealing.

And so it is with life after death. It's hard to imagine exactly how it works, but the Bible says it's the point of our current existence. One day, all these problems and limitations will pass away, and we will enjoy even more freedom and more astonishment in a world unlike anything we can imagine here. We have the Holy Spirit transmitting God's Word into our hearts here, but there we will see the Father face to face. We will worship him in person with no intermediary, no veil of mystery in between.

Granted, it's hard to imagine what you've never experienced. But an unborn baby has the same problem. There is indeed life after birth, even though he can't imagine it. God says there is also life after death. It's hard to believe, but if you've ever eaten a watermelon, you know what I mean.

One for the Record Books

2010-06-15T16:21:00.000-04:00

Columnist Thomas Sowell said it best when he asked, "How long has it been since anyone has done anything that called for the word grace?" We've all seen plenty of victimhood and outrage. In public settings, arrogance and insults have are all too familiar. But what a wonderful thing it was last week to behold something as rare and truly refreshing as Grace!

Everyone knows the story: seasoned umpire Jim Joyce cost Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga an historic perfect game. On the last play of a hitless nine innings, Joyce called a runner safe on first when video would confirm he was out by a mile. Minutes later, the remorseful ump took off his cap and confessed that his mistake had cost a young man his place in the record books. He apologized to the pitcher. He apologized to the fans. Then Armando Galarraga did something amazing: he graciously accepted the apology of this man who had wronged him. A few days later, finding himself in another game with Joyce as ump, Galarraga made it a point to greet the official and treat him with great respect.

We all experienced a bit of grace on the part of Joyce and Galarraga. The public continued to debate whether the Commissioner should intervene and right the wrong. But the recriminations and public anger were instantly dissipated.

Compare that with what happened in South Africa only a few days after Sowell's column was published. In a hard fought World Cup battle between the US Soccer Team and the Brits, England's goalkeeper expertly fielded a hard driven kick headed straight for the net. Then strangely, the ball rebounded from his glove and gently rolled around his knees, sauntering into the net for a quirky US score!

Goalkeeper Robert Green toppled onto the turf in bitter humiliation. The US went on to retain the tie against a superior team. Fans of England were crushed and outraged! Commentators unleashed scorching analysis suggesting even high school players would never make such a pathetic mistake. Green remains a goat and the butt of jokes. Days later, we have still heard nothing from the unfortunate goalie or his team mates. The rancor hangs heavy in the air. Insults and second guesses continue to rise like smoke from a burned-out crater.

We sing that familiar old hymn about grace, never pondering the reasons why that asset, that divine virtue, is truly so astonishing- so remarkable. Yes, grace is certainly amazing because it must be offered by someone who has been wronged, and offered to someone undeserving. But grace is also breathtaking because of what it makes possible: it instantly removes hostility and restores relationships which seemed dead and buried only moments before.

Grace resurrects things we had thought were gone forever. That's why only the power of God can generate amazing grace.

Paul & The Silence of Women

2010-06-04T17:34:00.000-04:00

There’s quite a bit of controversy surrounding 1 Corinthians 14:34 – 40. This is the passage in which Paul explains “The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission.” Many insist this is sexist and discriminatory. Others argue that Paul is simply speaking to women who are uneducated and have not been taught how to read. Still others teach that these cannot be the actual words of Paul because he has permitted women to speak on other occasions.

Because this topic is so charged with emotion in today’s cultural setting, you can read 10 different commentaries on this text and find 10 different slants on what the language actually means. With all that controversy and complexity in mind, allow me to make a few observations that should be obvious.

First, the context of this passage is very narrow. 1 Corinthians 14 teaches that the gift of prophecy, applying God’s Word to life, is more helpful in a local church setting than the gift of tongues. “Tongues” in 1 Corinthians refers to the gift of speaking a human language one has never learned. In a local church setting, people are instructed and inspired only when leaders speak in the native tongue which they all understand.

It is within this context of teaching God’s Word publicly in the local church that Paul directs women to be silent. This dovetails with his comments in 1 Timothy 2:12 that he does not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. These texts comprise part of the reason why most Baptist churches do not call women as pastors or “overseers.” We understand that women can be gifted speakers and can make powerful applications from God’s words. (Acts teaches that Philip had four daughters who were prophets.) Rather, we simply believe it is important to follow the teachings of God’s Word in season and out, even when it collides with conventional wisdom.

Secondly, this is rather discriminatory, but God reserves that authority for himself. Indeed, he exercises it frequently. It is discriminatory, for example, that men cannot give birth to sons and daughters or breast feed them after they are born. In Scripture, God practiced discrimination when he favored Jacob over Isaac; when he elevated Moses over older siblings Aaron and Miriam; when he selected the Jews as his chosen people out of all the nations of the earth. While human discrimination is evil whenever it is based on selfishness and ignorance, the same is never true of what God does. Divine discrimination is based on purpose and eternal wisdom.

Finally, it is baseless and hypocritical to suggest that the Bible continues to oppress women just as the world has done throughout history. Around the planet today, the nations where women are treated best are those where the Bible has advanced, and where the Gospel has prevailed. Historically, whenever Christian missionaries have penetrated pioneer areas, one of their first priorities has been building schools and introducing education that includes girls, who have historically been neglected. Wherever the church has gone, polygamy has been discouraged in favor of sacred, one man-one women matrimony. God's Word has not reflected the unjust culture: it has challenged it.

The advances of women in the West today have been fueled largely by the momentum created by the Word of God over the centuries. One need only visit any Muslim nation to observe the sort cultural bias which the Christian Faith has tirelessly resisted since the earliest days of the movement when Jesus encouraged his friend Mary to sit with his disciples as he taught them. Sister Martha indignantly continued to putter around in the kitchen, fulfilling her duties assigned by the culture. Jesus corrected Martha for her proud spirit, and explained that she should leave the kitchen and join the men at his feet as well.

In our church as in most churches today, the vast majority of ministry slots are available to leaders of both sexes. Indeed, many of the most powerful, life-changing ministries are conducted by strong, tireless women. Unlike Eve, these unnumbered heroines of the faith have refused to obsess on one forbidden tree. To the contrary, they have surveyed all the boundless opportunities crying out for attention on every side. And they have responded, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” So should we all.

That Quiet Voice from Eternity

2010-05-30T17:33:00.000-04:00

Skeptics insist that Christian worship is just so much voodoo for hillbillies! They are convinced that worship services survive into the 21st Century only because bored, superstitious conformists in 'Flyover Country' need a place where we can feel safe and secure. If we hadn't grown accustomed to such rituals through years of repetition and reinforcement, this dry, sanctified blather would be appear as bankrupt of meaning as it truly is.

Of course, critics like Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens have never experienced my vantage point. As a pastor, I step up behind the pulpit every week and look into the faces of educated men and women, row after row, waiting to hear something that matters. I'm not a scientist or a sports commentator; just a simple theologian with a sacred book in my hand. I have never believed that my thoughts and opinions are particularly profound or even novel. But the book I hold in my hand each week is more than profound; I have come to realize it is supernatural.

As I arrive on campus this morning, I wonder how my church family will relate to the text. We're working our way through 1 Corinthians. Last week was the celebrated "Love chapter." Next week, we consider the mystery and wonder of the resurrection. But today's sermon is based on 1 Corinthians 14: tongues and prophecy. In this disastrous economy with world crises looming at every turn, I wonder how many of today's worshipers have been wondering about glossalalia and prophecy this week? Probably not very many, I suspect.

Speaking in tongues hasn't been a hot topic in most churches for a generation. Some people do it. Others don't. We all go to different churches. As I recall, that debate lost it's appeal and finally died out nearly forty years ago. And when it comes to prophecy: I'm not the kind of prophet who can forecast when the economy will turn around or even when the Gulf Oil Spill will be resolved. My calling has always been more "forth telling" than foretelling. So I open the Holy Bible and begin to teach.

As I speak, I notice the faces of those men, women and teenagers seated out there in the pews. There are people who grew up in Southern Baptist churches deep in the Bible Belt. I recognize others who can honestly say they had never gone to a church anywhere until they came to ours as adults just years or months ago. I notice numbers of sophisticated, well-versed professionals with positions of influence in DC. Some of these have been in worship with us for mere weeks. Quite a few of them grew up Catholic, which is like a different planet in the same solar system.

Many are leaning forward intently while others nod in agreement. Nobody rattles papers or randomly flips pages. And as usual, some have tears in their eyes. Why are these people so moved by a sermon on tongues and prophecy? There are no emotional stories- no tear jerkers- in this message. We are talking about hearing the Word of God and using it to build up the church. There is nothing here about conducting a relationship rescue or dealing with abuse from childhood.

These phenomena happen every week, but I pay particular notice this morning because of one verse in our text. Paul describes what happens when a person hears the Word of God being taught: "The secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you.'" (14:25) As I unpack God's prophetic truths, minds are being unlocked and secrets of the heart are indeed laid bare.

One woman has arrived to worship with us for the very first time. She comes quietly into the room and takes the first seat she can find- a pew on the very back row. As worship unfolds, her eyes become moist. Soon tears well up. By the end of the service, she is weeping quietly as she jots down notes on a small sheet of paper. People check on her near the end of the service. She is fine. God is good. She hasn't been in a worship service in a long, long time. She remains there in her seat for 10 minutes after worship concludes, dealing with secrets suddenly exposed inside her heart.

Like most people, our critics get angry when they realize their arguments are weak. Meanwhile, the worship of Jesus Christ advances in the 21st Century for the very same reason the Bible remains the most potent and talked about book in the world. These are the very words of God. Humor can alter my mood for a few moments, and pop psychology can soothe for a time, but the Bible is the voice of God. Men and women who listen carefully can hear an affirmation that reaches all the way from Eternity. It is the wisdom of their Heavenly Father probing secrets long buried in their hearts. They had thought no one else knew; that nobody really cares. They had supposed there is no other way. Hearing the very words of God, they discover they were wrong.

Self Important Saints

2010-05-24T20:34:00.000-04:00

Some days I feel pretty spiritual. Other days, I have a better grip on reality, and I feel more like those church people in Laodicea who made God want to throw up. You remember, Christ warned those proud worshipers, "You're neither hot nor cold- just room temperature, pretty much like a corpse. And, pardon the expression, but I think I'm going to vomit!" Okay, so that was my personal translation of the Greek.

I belong to this generation of self-important saints. I don't know, but maybe you belong to that same generation. We are the people who made Anna Nicole Smith a star... and Lindsay Lohan... and all those people on The Hills. We belong to the multitudes who empowered Twitter to become a global phenom. We can be motivated to spend money by a phrase as banal as "Whazzup?" And with achievements as grandiose as those, we have this tendency to talk about ourselves as though our restless lives are jammed with activities that are really important! Even in the church, we tend to self-inflate. We talk only about the truly significant issues- things like:

Engaging the culture: This is not happening, unless it means that we are asking the culture to marry us so we can be more intimate.
Standing for Justice: Sympathizing with the plight of child sex slaves in Sri Lanka while consuming a $5 cup of coffee and a $4 pastry, and idly pondering a mission trip to Chile may be classified as sitting for something, but not standing for anything, least of all justice.
Making the Gospel Relevant: When most Americans admire Jesus but think church people are out of touch, unhappy and deluded, perhaps it's not the Gospel that needs a makeover.

Our man Paul never considered himself important. To the contrary, he often compared his own accomplishments to filthy rags or even dung, and he labeled himself the chief of sinners. If he had ever once deceived himself into thinking that the salvation of the world depended on his ability to engage the culture, he would have done a 180 and gone home to pray for a better plan.

I get convicted when I read the things Paul talked about. Writing to his friends in Ephesus, he rambled on for whole paragraphs, elaborating on the magnificence and boundless generosity of God. Read Ephesians 1 before you go to bed tonight. God has blessed us; chosen us; adopted us, predestined us, enlightened us, loved us, united us, forgiven us, etc., etc. God has enriched us, lavished good things upon us, revealed things to us, and offered us an inheritance. Paul simply could not get over all the supernatural splendor God had already invested in his life and his destiny.

You and I think nothing of suggesting God should find us a parking place in a crowded mall, as though a shopping trip is momentous; as though the Mind & Voice behind the universe can be reduced to the status of parking valet by my amazing faith! An honest, clear thinking person would call that self-importance.

I gotta confess: I'm not smart enough to engage the culture. And I'm not so special that God should find me a parking place at Starbuck's in the morning. And I wish I weren't so depraved that my flesh can still seduce me with delusions like that after all these years. On my best day, all I am is an unworthy servant of the Most High God. That's not false modesty: just honesty.

I'll never be very important, but God doesn't need important people- or famous ones. So I pray to God again today and ask him for the wisdom to bow my knee to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us! To him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Lord, help me elevate my thoughts, crucify my flesh, and set my affections on Christ.

Watching through the Window of Eternity

2010-05-17T20:29:00.000-04:00

Once in a while, I try and explain the amazing perspective God must have on our world. People ask about election- "How can God know who's going to trust him before they actually choose?" Or they ask about prayer, "Why do we pray when we know that God has already made up his mind?" And I explain, "Because God knows that you are going to pray about this one day, even as he is deciding in the beginning of time!"

This evening, I had one of those "Eureka" moments. I'm reading a book called Mission to the Headhunters. In 2002, retired missionaries Frank and Marie Drown published a book about their mission work in Ecuador in the 1950's. Not married that long, and already pregnant with their first child, they were called by God to reach a violent tribe of headhunters, the Atshuara, who shrunk heads and committed mayhem in the rain forests somewhere beyond Quito.

I find myself gasping in astonishment at least once or twice in every chapter. They live in a hovel and must grow nearly everything they eat in a garden they must cultivate and plant. They walk for miles, endure dreadful tropical illnesses, and help Indians erect buildings and construct landing strips in jungles. Their lives are in danger, their motives are misunderstood, and living among these vengeful tribesmen is like being exiled to another planet. The Atshuara routinely murder whole families, fashion their cracked skulls into good luck charms, and celebrate with their children in violent, drunken orgies.

This evening I'm reading about one particularly violent crisis the missionaries worked through. And the date strikes me- 1955. I was a tiny baby back in the United States even as the Drowns' children were growing up amid swarming mosquitoes, suffocating humidity, and ominous strangers armed with knives and deadly weapons. I don't even know these people, and yet from this time and distance I am moved by their faith. I deeply respect these people, and yet I've never met them.

I turn the page and a bush pilot lands with a cargo of life-saving medicine. He's risking his scalp to land his craft on a barely finished, primitive air strip that has never been tried before. There is nothing he won't do to advance the Gospel or rescue a lost soul. I read his name, Nate Saint. I know this man! Well, I don't know him, and yet I do. I know about his family, and that his small plane is yellow. Long before I had ever heard of Frank and Marie Drown, I had been moved and inspired by the lives of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and their fellow missionaries. They, too, did pioneer missions in Ecuador in the 1950's. They took their wives and children into a world so primitive that most of us cannot even imagine it.

Here's the strange part: I don't know what's going to happen to Frank and Marie Drown. But I know precisely what will happen to Nate Saint and several of his fellow missionaries. I've known the story for years: in January, 1956, Elliot and Saint, and three other missionaries will attempt to reach another violent group of tribesmen known as the Waorani. They will be speared to death beside their plane, in spite of the fact there are guns inside the cockpit which could be used to fend off their attackers and save their own lives. The five men will meet death bravely, refusing to kill people who aren't saved.

I haven't come to that fateful year in the Drown's book yet. It's only 1955 in a story being written in 2001 by a missionary who began his work there in 1945. I'm reading it in 2010, and being moved to tears. And coming across the name Nate Saint, I know what the future holds for him, even before it's written, long after it happened.

I love this guy who shows up in 1955, even though I've never met him- because I know the stand he will take in just one year... and maybe another 45 pages!

I wonder if that's what it's like for God watching from the window of Eternity? In his mind, the story is already finished. He knows the ending, yet it's still unfolding on the Earth. He loves the saints, knowing what they've done, knowing what they're going to do in chapters not yet written, and yet already familiar to him. He knows the price they will pay, the reward they will receive.

Jesus knew it all when he went to the cross. He knew that he was rewiring the future. And he knew it was settled forever, even though the centuries would yet unfold. "It is finished, " he breathed those words with his final breath. And yet, it was only beginning. Earlier, he mystified some Jewish critics when he explained, "Before Abraham was, I am." Two thousand years later, he still is.

God created time, and now he lives above it. My future is all history to him. Much of his history is still future to me. I cannot begin to understand him. That's why grace is such an amazing asset. God arranged it for us while we were yet sinners, centuries before we were born, knowing what we'd need long before we were present to realize it.

Scripture teaches, "Whom he foreknew, he predestined." Long before Nate Saint was born, the Father knew when he would be born again. God foresaw how Nate would live, how he would die, and when he would arrive in Heaven. And long before Nate was born, his Father made sure that on the day he confessed Christ as Lord, he would be sealed and made safe forever. Sin could never snatch him away, and spears could never finish him off. His destiny is much too great for that. And his God is much too strong.

A Pool Hall Prophet

2010-05-10T10:49:00.000-04:00

Sports Illustrated featured a very frank cover story on QB Ben Roethlisberger this week. Apparently, his "repulsive behavior" and his track record of "athletic entitlement run amok" have earned him a six game suspension and a shaky job status for the upcoming season. It all came to a head recently when his drunken, out of control antics at a small-town bar crossed the line from outrageous to illegal. Now Pittsburgh fans believe that in spite of his recent public apologies, he is "embarrassing the franchise."

One disgusted fan at an area pool hall told an SI reporter, "They should make him go to church every Sunday. How else is he going to change? Otherwise, the only thing he'll be changing are nightclubs." In a predictable article designed to create buzz and attract readers, here was an insight to raise eyebrows! "How else is he going to change?"

Because the Christian Faith is a big target, we catch lots of arrows- a few of them deservedly. But here's the dirty little secret of which secular types are all too aware: adult character transformation seldom happens, and when it does, Jesus Christ is most commonly the cause! Overcoming destructive habits and addictions is exceedingly hard. Teary-eyed promises and warnings from employers notwithstanding, willpower can fade as quickly as a 149 pound defensive lineman trying to drop a powerful, 250 pound tackle lunging toward the quarterback! Good intentions just aren't enough.

For more than 25 years, the forces of American literature and entertainment have been leading us all on a joyride to freedom. The slogans and catch phrases constantly change,but they always boil down to a simple prescription: "more sex, less God." We've been told endlessly that half the problems in our land can be traced back to our Victorian morality and the secrecy surrounding sex! And the other half of the nation's problems are due to narrow minded Christians. But with our pagan, anything-goes culture now enduring more sexual assaults, failing families, pregnant teens, hopeless high schools, depraved public figures and sexual predators than ever before, I wonder if it's still premature to ask , "Hey, how's that more sex/less God thing working out?"

What does a guy do when he has to look himself in the eye and say, "I've almost thrown it all away?" One of the most terrifying moments in life must surely be the one in which a failed sinner confronts the beast who prowls deep within him, realizing that family, career, reputation, and even happiness are all on the line. First come the public promises: "I'll never do this again." Then comes the cold sweat: "I have never been able to control this maniac inside for long- ever." Where does a guy like that turn for even a glimmer of hope? Is all the news bad news?

That one is easy. The good news can still be found at the cross of Jesus Christ, and in the lives of his followers. That notorious QB in Pittsburgh doesn't need a high priced lawyer, a famous therapist, or a better publicist: he needs the good news of Jesus Christ. To quote a fan down at the pool hall, "How else is he going to change?"

How else is anybody going to change?

If My Sins are Erased, Why's the Devil on My Case?

2010-05-04T20:34:00.000-04:00

We don't talk enough about saints in Protestant churches, do we? No, I don't mean the legendary ones who got elected by the Pope years after their departure. I'm talking about the New Testament variety; the category that includes every man, woman and child who comes to Christ and walks away with a personal cross. Saints like that may go on to perform a few miracles, but they'll never stop sinning- not down here. That's not how real sainthood works.

I watched a sweet old motion picture from 1983 last night. In Tender Mercies, Robert Duvall is portrays a burned-out, liquor whipped, ex-country singer named Mac Sledge. He eventually finds redemption through the love of a simple country girl who sings in the church choir and prays every night. There's a wonderful moment where Mac is baptized along with his nine year old stepson. Driving home in the pick up truck afterwards, the boy laughs, "They told me I'd feel different. I don't feel no different! Do you, Mac?" Duvall wistfully replies, "Not yet."

I wonder how many new Christians are tempted to ask that question a few days or weeks after they are baptized? They were promised everything would change after they prayed. They were assured the old would pass away and the new would come. They were encouraged to seek the power in the blood. A few weeks later when routine life sets in, surely some must wonder, "If all that was true, why do I still want to go out and get__________ tonight?" (Take your pick and fill in the blank creatively.)

I guess we're pretty good about telling new believers that they need to read the Bible, cultivate a prayer life, and learn the art of corporate worship. We're probably less likely to tell them about the Flesh. It's not as inspiring as talking about new life and radical change, but it's pretty important.

The Bible is clear that when Jesus Christ extends his grace to me, he gives me a new inheritance, a new destiny, and a new nature: the Holy Spirit. But even as my sins are all erased in heaven, the personal part of me that craves sin is still a factor in my life. Scripture talks about the Flesh: it's no longer dominant, but it's certainly not dead and gone! In fact, it can sneak up and push you over the edge into temptation at moments when you least expect it. And it's wired into your survival instinct, so it can be persuasive.

Galatians 5:16 is one of my favorite NT verses. Paul explains, "But walk in the spirit and you won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh." In that three way battle between the Spirit, the conscience, and the flesh, I want the Spirit to win every time. I want to renew my mind with the truth of God, so that it can be more attuned to the Spirit. I must limit the activities of my body, so that I avoid places where my flesh could get the upper hand.

The flesh is like that creepy guy who gets killed in Halloween: The Movie, but keeps coming back in Halloween 2, and Halloween 3, and Halloween 13! Yes, I crucified the flesh yesterday, but I'll need to do it again today and again tomorrow.

Once in a while, I don't feel very different. But most days, I know the change is well underway.

If He Isn't God, We Aren't Saved

2010-04-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

Twice last week I had conversations with people who believe that Jesus was a great man, but that he wasn't divine. "Why do you believe he was God?" one person asked. "If God can do anything he wants, why can't God just send a powerful messenger?" I replied, "God can certainly do anything he wants. And in the 1st Century, the thing he wanted most was to become flesh and live among human beings on the Earth for a few years. So he did."

Some people assume this is a popular new idea; the notion that Jesus was a great man, but that he wasn't really God. Perhaps it is popular, but it's not new. When the Council of Nicea summoned church leaders from all over the world in 325 AD, one major purpose was to address that new idea. This charismatic teacher named Arius had created quite a buzz with his doctrine that Jesus was wonderful, but not divine. Some 300 church leaders opened up their Bibles and searched the scriptures to find the truth. In the end, all of them but two voted against Arianism.

It's an appealing thought for some that Jesus might only be a messenger. If he was simply a messenger, maybe his message was for a specific place and time- not for all people and all time. If he was only a spokesman for God, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if a few of his ideas were slightly wrong. And if he was indeed only a prophet, he'd be right there in the company of Mohammed, Brigham Young, and a host of other more recent religious celebrities. But for those of us who value truth more than comfort, the Bible speaks clearly about the identity of Christ.

Early in the first year of his ministry, Jesus observed the faith of a man who was paralyzed, and promised him, "Your sins are forgiven." Needless to say, this was offensive to some scribes who witnessed the event. They shouted that only God can forgive sins. Christ then healed the man and directed him to pick up his bed and walk. The purpose of the miracle was to prove that Christ could not only heal sickness, but could forgive sins. He was presenting himself as divine. (Luke 5:24.)
John's Gospel begins by describing the creation of the universe through the power of The Word; a force that was with God and was God. John 1:14 continues, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory- the glory of the only begotten son of the father, full of grace and truth."
In explaining the virgin birth, the Angel Gabriel explains to the virgin Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy- the Son of God." Christ's mother was a human being, but his father was God. (Luke 1:35)

Of course, an ordinary prophet could have delivered the Gospel Message. But Christ had much more than a message; he had a mission. His chief function was to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Had he simply been a perfect man, he could have exchanged his life for one sinful life. He could have exchanged his life for Peter, and died for Peter's sins. Or he could have exchanged a perfect life for Joseph of Arimathea, and died for Joseph's sins. But only God could offset the sins and treachery of the entire human race. Only God could swap his eternal righteousness for the overwhelming unrighteousness of the race of man. And that is why God did more than send a prophet. He sent Moses to deliver Israel. He sent Paul to evangelize the Gentiles. But when it came to blotting out the sins of the world, God came in person and took care of it himself.

An Unbeliever Drops by to Chat

2010-04-19T12:40:00.000-04:00

I was just about to write this week's blog when a kindly gentlemen asked my Administrative Assistant if the Pastor was in. He had some questions about our faith that he was hoping I might answer. As is our custom when anyone has spiritual questions, I dropped everything, and he was ushered into my office.

After polite greetings, he asked if I could explain the difference between all the various Christian churches in the world. Learning that his background was Bahai, I told him my answer would be extremely broad and very simplistic. Catholics draw their authority from the Bible plus centuries of rulings, decrees and bulls issued by various popes. Protestants insist that the Bible alone is authoritative as the Word of God. I went on to explain that among Protestants, we all worship the same savior and teach the same Bible, but that each denomination tends to emphasize one set of biblical ideas over another. For example, Baptists place a high priority on immersion while Presbyterians baptize in a different way. Some denominations organize around a hierarchy while Baptist churches do not. That was pretty succinct, wouldn't you agree?

He suggested this is a problem- that so many differences must lead to division and resentment. I smiled as I explained that I had attended an interdenominational conference just a week earlier. There were 7,000 pastors there from all kinds of churches: Baptist, Presbyterian charismatic, non-denominational and independent. We all worshiped Jesus Christ and studied the Bible together for 3 days without division, anger or competition. Indeed, we prayed together and encouraged each other. Sure, we have small differences, but it's not divisive.

He tried to elaborate with a metaphor: a mighty river loses its power when it is divided time and again over the miles. He asked if I agreed that so many denominations drain the church of its power. I explained that a mighty river becomes even more influential when it has many branches and tributaries. That's because it tends to transport water to larger areas and greater populations. I insisted that I don't believe it's bad for a river to have tributaries- or for the church to have denominations.

By now, it was apparent that my guest was not here to ask innocent questions. Rather, he had been well rehearsed and ready to argue that the Christian faith is weak and hopelessly divided. But now, he quickly changed the subject and asked a choice theological question. Wouldn't I agree that historically speaking, Jesus was not really divine, but that he was simply a spokesman for God? After all, he noted, God can only be one person: he can't really be more than one person.

I replied that the Bible teaches that we worship one God who expresses himself in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. "Aha!" he pounced. "Where does the Bible indicate that God manifests himself in three persons? Show me the verse!" He apparently assumed I could not.

So I picked up a Bible and read John 14: 8-21 to him. In this passage, Christ mentions the Father and the Holy Spirit, and refers to himself as the Son. My guest seemed a bit frustrated. He asked me about a passage in John 16. I handed him a Bible and suggested that he find it and read it to me. He fumbled around, read a few verses, and then insisted this was the wrong translation. I handed him two different translations. By now he was flipping through an ESV, an NLT, and the NIV! He demanded that I give him the King James Version.

Gently but firmly, I explained to my visitor that everything I believe about Jesus Christ and virtually everything I teach can be found in any translation of the Bible. I concluded, "If you require a KJV to make your point, it's because your idea is not based on the Bible: it's based on an English word. You're arguing about semantics, not the ideas of God's Word."

My guest suddenly became flustered, and seemed at loss for words. He had arrived at my office absolutely certain that his charges could not be refuted. But quite suddenly, he found there was no wind in his sails. Rather quickly, he made his way out of my office, leaving me to wonder what he might have learned. Indeed, what had I learned?

The lessons here are simple, I suppose. The next time someone tosses out some broad, popular criticism of the church, don't take the bait. Think again. And whenever someone tries to discourage you with all the problems in the Bible, don't let him get away with it. Hand him a copy of the Bible, and ask him to show you the problem verses. You may not be a Bible scholar, but if you're a disciple, you know the Bible better than he does.

The Church is the beloved bride of Christ, and I'm supposed to say she's a loser? Jesus launched his ministry on the idea that he is God. And I'm going to challenge him? Selah.

I Can't Believe You Said That!

2010-04-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

It was tough getting out of bed this morning. I knew I could expect the usual challenges: jammed highways where cars never move, rush hour road repair crews, pollen at the levels of a ticker tape parade, breaking bad news on the radio. But thanks to the Wall Street Journal, I realized I would face a new challenge at the office: Oversharing! I can't take another workplace crisis!

"Oversharing?" you ask. Yes, according to columnist Elizabeth Bernstein (04-06-10), the most recent health hazard in the US workplace is indiscreet co-workers. You could call it the TMI Syndrome, for "too much information!" Symptoms include red faces, raised eyebrows and gasps of "I can't believe you said that!" The columnist included a litany of complaints from personnel who don't want to get personal:

One employee confided to a work acquaintance that he keeps a tambourine in his bed side drawer for "special performances."
A doctor was embarrassed when a nurse casually injected that she uses sex as a bribe to get her husband to accompany her to church.
A working woman was left with haunting images in her mind after a co-worker confided to a dozen fellow staffers that whenever he enters cycling competitions, he shaves his entire body to reduce aerodynamic drag. The details were unforgettable.

Some would suggest this is just more evidence that our culture is loathsome and that most people are uncivilized. Maybe. But I have a hunch this just indicates how isolated and lonely many ordinary Americans feel. We sense that we need to be more personal in order to establish rapport and develop friendships. We have more opportunities at work than when we're alone at home watching "The Office." And we confuse "private" with "personal."

Private includes details like how much of my body I shave, where my children were conceived, and what happens in my bedroom when the lights are off. When something is private, that means we don't go there in public.
Personal denotes my hopes for the future, experiences in life which have been instructive, my opinions about a range of issues, what I did for recreation last week. Personal details are for people whom I trust, with whom I already have rapport.

On popular reality TV shows, the people who get ahead are often the ones who take the bait to bare their souls for the amusement of strangers. In that unique arena, it's essential that contestants must be entertaining. But outside the studios of NYC and the glamorized set for "The Apprentice," human beings should not feel obligated to be entertaining.

The starting point for office relationships should probably be "courteous" and "professional." And when I finally begin to connect with a few people scattered among the cubicles, I can experiment with "personal." But the best way to accomplish "personal," is to ask polite questions and then listen as other people answer. On the one hand, that will offer clues about how personal other people want to be. And on the other hand, it gives me valuable experience in respecting other people and allowing them to feel valued and appreciated. We'd all agree that the best conversationalists just happen to be those people who listen to us with apparent interest.

And finally, no healthy office is complete without an extra serving of "grace." The best way to train people in courteous, respectful behavior is to tolerate them when they fail, and continue to role model "acceptance."

The Outrage of the Week

2010-04-05T09:23:00.000-04:00

Last month, Tiger Woods was the most hated man in America. This month, the target has moved. Jesse James, biker and celebrated husband of actress Sandra Bullock, has been awarded the title. Both men have been outed as callous adulterers. Both have endured the outrage of fans and the media. And both have been lampooned for their shocking- shocking, I say!- behavior.

I've gotta confess that I wasn't shocked to learn these men have been unfaithful to their wives. In fact, on several occasions when the topic has come up in conversations, I've asked "So what's wrong with that? Why shouldn't wealthy celebrities have affairs?"

Granted, I know the answer to that question. Adultery is a violation of God's Law. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I believe in moral absolutes. I realize that some behavior is always wrong because it offends God and hurts other human beings.

But most people in the USA don't have a valid reason to object to the misadventures of guys like Mr. Woods and "Mr. Bullock." Research indicates that most Americans don't believe in moral absolutes. Worse yet, the same research reveals that even most Christians don't believe in absolutes- that some things are always right and others are always wrong. "Who are you to judge another person?" is the guiding principle of this tolerant generation.

But you cannot dismiss the existence of absolutes and then say it's wrong for Tiger to cheat on Elin because he's famous and she's nice. It's irrational to argue for the freedom to choose for ourselves, and then slam Jesse for choosing to sneak around on Sandra. Either marriage is an exclusive relationship between a man and a woman or it's not. If it's not a universal law, then don't try to impose it on public figures without applying it to yourself and your co-workers. But once you agree it's always wrong to commit adultery, there must surely be other universal truths as well. So what's your source of authority, anyway?

The media have financial reasons for their outrage. Yes, the same pillars or respectability who produce and popularize TV shows like Sex in the City and Desperate Housewives are shocked- shocked, I say!- by the idea of celebrities doing indecent things. They are protesting all the way to the bank. Sleazy comedies boost ratings, but so do lurid headlines!

Of course, you and I know that sin is the predominant problem in our culture. And we recognize that adultery is only one arena where people are dishonoring God and injuring one another. If we can't convince people to stop (and we can't,) we should at least cause them to think. So whenever some secular friend at work or school beats up on the Celebrity Adulterer of the Week, don't gleefully join their little parade. Instead, look your friend in the eye and exclaim, "Really! What's wrong with that?" It could lead to a redemptive conversation.

Forget the Narration

2010-03-30T12:43:00.000-04:00

Jonnel and I were guests at the Easter musical of a thriving, well-known church in another city last week-end. The actors, vocalists, and orchestra were absolutely superb. The story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection were so powerfully portrayed that I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I watched. I was absolutely transfixed by the power of the events being depicted on the stage.

Then there was the narrator. She was so distracting that it was almost irritating! And it wasn't her fault. She was dressed in black, and she always remained on the outer edges of the action. She had a nice voice and she read her lines with authority. But every time she appeared, I found myself thinking, "Please, go away."

Nevertheless, the musical drama was a jolting, convicting experience. Like most people who were there, I went away grateful, awe struck, and motivated to be more surrendered to the Captain of our Salvation.

It was only after returning home to Northern Virginia, that I asked myself why I was so bothered by the narration. The answer came almost instantly: words can't really capture the impact of that event! Granted, when words are all you have, one has to make do. We can elaborate on the brutality of the crucifixion. Or we can give the mathematical odds against the probability of resurrection. And all those things are adequate when nothing else is available. But when you sense the actual power of the cross and the empty tomb portrayed in live action just a few feet away, words are just a pale shadow- or a cheap substitute.

It occurs to me that when we think about sharing the Gospel, we think almost entirely in terms of words: repentance, faith, confession, surrender. And when words are all you have, one has to make do. But how much more affecting is a witness when it comes in power and spirit, rather than words. It's easy for people to discount theological words, but it's more difficult to dispense with powerful deeds.

I'll confess that I've become quite allergic to the expression, "I witness with my life." The people who use that phrase quite often mean that they don't want to offend lost people, so they hope it's obvious that faith has made them moral people who go to church. Brother, if that's all you've got to show for your faith, you will definitely need some narration to get your point across. By contrast, in a life that embodies the cross and the empty tomb, there is an extra dimension. There is the impact of seeing sacrificial love offered up in diverse circumstances by another human being who obviously responds to life quite differently than you do. There is genuine sacrifice and love that shouts, "There is even more here than meets the eye!" When evangelism becomes that vivid and that moving, words are almost a distraction.

The watching world is not impressed by my avoidance of stimulants or my frequency in worship. Heavenly Father, give me a life that nakedly displays the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

What's Love Got to Do with It?

2010-03-21T23:00:00.000-04:00

Back in the 1970's Southern Baptists launched an evangelistic campaign that generated interest with a simple slogan: "Good News, America! God loves you!" At the time, many Americans found the idea surprising. Most Americans still believed they were guilty of something called sin. And the vast majority believed in a God of justice who ruled according to absolute truth. So it was a welcome relief for most Americans to learn that God actually loved them.

Not any more! After four decades of having our self esteem cultivated, massaged, enhanced and affirmed by schools, TV shows and popular books, most Americans expect God to love us all. Why shouldn't he? We're all unique and very special. And God is too cool to get uptight about something as personal as lifestyle choices!

These days just about everybody is convinced that God is loving. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have so warped and corrupted the meaning of "love," that a god who really loves us can no longer be holy!

A loving god cannot have absolute, inflexible truths by which he judges the Earth. According to the New Age Gospel, he must allow us to choose our own way.
A loving god cannot tell us that some behaviors are wrong, immoral, or sinful. Anything we really want to do must be natural, which means it's perfectly okay.
A loving god cannot allow those he cares about to suffer. We no longer believe that parents can spank their children. We certainly don't believe a loving God could discipline us or allow us to suffer to refine our character.

In 1999, D.A. Carson wrote a book entitled, The Difficult Doctrine of a Loving God. He pointed out that in the name of "love," God has been stripped of any qualities we postmodern Americans find objectionable or even retro. Carson continued, "The love of God cannot long survive at the forefront of our thinking if it is abstracted from the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the providence of God, or the personhood of God- to mention only a few non-negotiable elements of basic Christianity."

The man was a prophet. Tell Americans that God loves them, and they'll just shrug. "Duh!" They've known that for years, but they couldn't care less.

For more than a generation now, we've reminded our world that God is Love, and Grace is amazing! But they're not looking for love: they've settled for Twitter. And they're not interested in Grace unless she's a finalist on American Idol.

Today our fellow Americans are looking for meaning. Youth doesn't last. Money can't buy satisfaction. And sex is so yesterday. The malls and bars are populated with attractive twenty-somethings who have already owned expensive cars, lived in lavish homes, eaten at the finest restaurants, traveled abroad, gone to bed with multiple partners of both sexes, and are already pondering cosmetic surgery. And they wonder, "Is this really all there is?"

These jaded young people are our mission field, but they aren't looking for "faith, family and friends." I suspect there's not much that can be done until these desperate, pressurized, over-sexed rebels finally crash to the ground. When they fall back to Earth, some will welcome that old, old invitation: "Come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." When you're flat on your face in the dirt, it's easier to look up and see the feet at the bottom of the cross.

Breaking News: The Missing Girls Are All Dead

2010-03-13T15:30:00.000-05:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when my copy of The Economist came in the mail last week! The cover of the left-leaning, European magazine featured a tiny pair of pink baby shoes on a stark black background with this bold headline: "Gendercide: What happened to 100 million baby girls?" Was this prominent, liberal magazine about to question the morality of abortion?

The cover story expresses grave concern that in nations like China and northern India, it is common for pregnant women to abort little girls. The authors cite three forces which have created the perfect storm for unborn baby girls: a) an ancient preference for boys; b) the desire for smaller families; and c) medical technologies which inexpensively identify the sex of an unborn child. For this reason, in places like China and India, only 100 girls are born for every 120 boys. The result is a growing epidemic of young men who resort to crime and bad behavior when they are unable to find wives and settle down. Meanwhile, women in those nations suffer from kidnapping and female trafficking, and even elevated suicide rates.

The editors confess their own bias in favor of abortion ("..safe, legal and rare.") But later they make this astonishing statement: "It is no exaggeration to call this gendercide." Any time a word ends with those four letters, it generally denotes murder. There's homicide, suicide, genocide, etc. etc. So is this well known, left leaning publication finally coming around to support the sanctity of life? Of course, not. Abortion is the holy grail of liberals in Europe and America. They could never cry out that we must stop this madness.

Instead they suggest attitude changes and better education. "All countries need to raise the value of girls," they opine. "The world needs to do more to prevent gendercide," they conclude.

In the Church, we abhor the destruction of all unborn human beings. This had been our unchanging position since the first century when followers of Jesus Christ became the first to denounce the abandonment and murder of unwanted infants- most commonly little girls. We have never felt inclined to elevate something as vague as "choice" above something as sacred as "human life." We have always known:

It's irrational to use the term "gendercide" while insisting it's not really murder.
It's hypocritical to argue that aborting unborn girls is unethical, while aborting unborn boys is perfectly acceptable.
One of the most powerful steps any nation could take to "raise the value of girls" would be to treasure the unique role of women in bringing forth and nurturing human life. Any young adult can get a job or train for athletics, but only women can literally carry the next generation.

Those of us who follow Jesus Christ teach that men and women are different by design. Each sex has unique and extremely important contributions to make to our world. Our friends on the left insist that all people are just alike; that gender differences are the result of bias rather than birth. But the epidemic abortion rate against unborn girls tells us that most people know that's a lie. They cannot train little girls to be like little boys. It's tragic that they wish they could.

Little girls will never be safe in this evil world until nations re-learn two ancient truths. First, we must recognize that abortion is criminal because it destroys human life. And secondly, we must once again celebrate the ultimate value of the qualities most unique to women. Little girls are not valuable because they can be trained to compete with little boys. Even when they are not in the job market, they retain their most unique and empowering gift: birthing and nurturing the next generation.

Homicide and "gendercide" are what happens when we destroy unborn babies. And suicide is what happens when a nation values the workplace over the home.

Counting in Kazillions

2010-03-07T19:14:00.001-05:00

Not that long ago, the number one billion was big enough. There were only four billion people on the Earth at that time. (Even now, there are only 6 billion of us!) In the past, when astronomers wanted to boggle our minds with the number of stars in the sky, writers like Carl Sagan would suggest "billions and billions of heavenly bodies."

So it was a sort of mind numbing experience last year when we began to hear our political leaders talking about trillions of dollars. Suddenly we had started counting at warp speed! One day the entire population of Planet Earth could fit into one digit with nine zeroes! The next day, we were spending $1,000,000,000,000 more than we were bringing in!

I guess a lot of us thought, "Well, that's a lot of money, but it's really only three more zeroes than a billion. What's the big deal? It's just inflation, right?"

A few months ago I came across a magazine article that burst my little bubble of comfort. It has haunted me ever since. The facts are so unfathomable that I cannot get them out of my mind. What's a guy to do? I'll share them with you.

A futurist and researcher named Jack Uldrich explained that a million, a billion, and a trillion are radically different concepts. And the difference is more than just three zeroes. Ponder this:

Q: If I should mention an event that happened 1 million seconds ago, can you guess how long ago that many seconds would be?
A: 12 days ago

Q: Now think in larger terms. How long ago would 1 billion seconds be?
A: 30 years ago

Q: If 1 billion seconds takes us back three decades, how long ago would 1 trillion seconds be?
A: 30,000 BC

What's the difference between one trillion and Eternity? It's simple: God is in charge of Eternity. And, happily, He knows what He's doing. In times like these, we should all listen a lot more to Him, and a lot less to those talking heads on TV. Selah.

More JC: Less PC

2010-02-22T16:27:00.000-05:00

If Jesus had hired a campaign consultant to help him launch his earthly ministry, the PR guy would have walked out the second week! I've been working through the first year of the Lord's ministry, and it has been eye opening- even jarring. The Master never tried to cultivate broader acceptance or take advantage of political influence. From Day One, he was a wild man out to take the world by storm.

I mean, the first thing he did upon arriving in Jerusalem on that first Passover was to kick the merchants out of the temple! Sure, they were charging fifteen times too much for the sacrificial animals, and even demanded a day's wage to make change. But they were legit- officially sanctioned by the city fathers. Jesus insisted the Temple was for holiness- not hype- and he sent the peddlers sailing out of the courtyard! You can imagine how the good old boys at the temple responded to this outrage.

Then he was handed the perfect opportunity to make amends, and schmooze a respected religious leader. Nicodemus came calling by night to get a handle on what Jesus was all about. Did the Lord pat him on the back and say, "Thanks for giving me a shot, bro?" Far from it: he told him that anybody hoping to see God would need to be born again. When Nicodemus asked for a little clarification, Jesus replied, "You're a religious teacher and you don't get this?"

Then on his return home to Nazareth, he ventured into Samaria where he encountered Sychar's equivalent of Desperate Housewives. In a world where a respectable man did not even speak to his own wife in public, Jesus broke through the clutter and chatted with 'the village slut.' She'd given up on marriage after five divorces, and had just nailed her latest boy toy.

Jesus took the time to speak the truth in love. He didn't invite her to come to church. He invited her to come to him. First she realized he was a prophet. Then she discovered he was the Messiah. She confessed her sins and finally rushed off to return with her neighbors. While we can be sure the angels in heaven were celebrating, it's also fairly certain that the priests back in Jerusalem would be incensed when this report drifted south!

Jesus wasn't rude to Nicodemus. And he wasn't tender with the woman in Samaria. He treated them differently because one was religious, and the other was anything but. And yet he respected both of them enough to be firm with them. He didn't waver on the truth in order to come across smooth as butter. Instead he was patient, persistent and clear. He respectfully pointed out the wise man's ignorance and the coy woman's sin. Significantly, they both became his followers and worshipers.

Some times we church people try to be too smooth by half. We try to look loving, but we come across as insincere. We hope to avoid offending people but wind up omitting them. Most of all, we aspire to be lovable. But there's a lesson here: history's most effective Christians rarely attempted to win the affections of skeptics and doubters; they wanted most to win their souls.

Sex & Chocolate

2010-02-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Day is the annual celebration of America's love affair with chocolate. Sure, we'll talk about romance and exchange lovey-dovey greeting cards, but the names that bring smiles to our faces are Hershey, Cadbury and Godiva. Diamonds may be Forever, but Chocolates are Forevermore!

Americans consume more than 3.5 billion pounds of chocolate annually. That's about 12 pounds for every man, woman and child in the country, but I'm fairly sure I eat that much in only a month! Sales increase here every year, and in many European nations, people enjoy chocolate even more than in the USA.

Here's what's ironic: chocolate has changed very little over the years. Yes, there are dark, milk and white varieties. And because this is America, there's something called "premium" chocolates which are more expensive. But it's all pretty much the same- smooth, rich, sweet, velvety, grand! Centuries have come and gone, but basic chocolate continues to satisfy.

Which brings us to that other delicacy we associate with Valentine's Day: sex. In 2010, Americans have achieved a degree of sexual freedom that rivals the excesses of 1st Century Rome. Today the potent forces of Hollywood, contraceptives and American affluence have created the Perfect Storm. Sexually speaking, anything goes, and the term "anything" is redefined every year.

Here's my question: now that Americans are so sexually free, why are many so sexually unfulfilled? You'll notice that while basic chocolates continue to delight everyone, basic sex is not nearly enough for the stars and celebrities of our decadent culture. First they passed from one marriage to another without much success. Then they decided to leap from partner to partner without the benefit of marriage or divorce. Then they spiked their "fun" with all kinds of booze, and drugs, and oddities. Today there are expensive restaurants in New York City where salad bars and sushi bars are arrayed atop naked women lying on display.

Modesty demands that I choose my words carefully here. But you don't have to be a TV addict to realize how far things have devolved today. The popular culture freely encourages bi-sexuality, threesomes, orgies, random hook-ups with strangers in elevators, the Mile High Club, etc, etc. Before long, even the most depraved kinkiness grows stale, and still more bizarre extremes are required.

In stark contrast to all that wretched excess, there is the New Testament principle of moral purity. As followers of Jesus Christ, we believe that sex is a sacred bond between one man and one woman, forever. We believe that celibacy is the most desirable condition for single men and women, smart people who reserve themselves for marriage. The Bible teaches that the human body is a temple- not a playroom. Sex is not only a good thing: it's so good, that it's worth waiting for.

And not surprisingly, most research documents that married people enjoy more frequent sex, and more satisfying sex, than single people. Sex is like chocolate: the traditional variety is still the best. Happy Valentine's Day!

Little Snowflakes of Love

2010-02-04T16:23:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it takes a crisis to persuade busy Americans to lower our defenses and act like fellow travelers in life. The last serious snow storm back in December had that effect. People were sliding off the roads into ditches and stopping dead when they turned right and bogged down in a snow bank. It was almost comical watching cars sliding around on hazardous main roads- unless, of course, one of those vehicles was sliding towards yours.

Everywhere you looked there were neighbors and fellow travelers leaving the safety of sidewalks and automobiles to help stranded strangers. Because I drive a Jeep, I had no trouble navigating snowbound neighborhood roads. But I can't count the number of neighbors who had a lot of trouble. So I found myself constantly pulling up behind other automobiles and using my protected bumpers to give them a boost out of snowbanks. Strangers were laughing and giving each other high fives.

If the snowfall actually approaches 24" or more this week-end, there will be a thousand opportunities for you and me to love God with all our hearts, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

When you see a stranded driver, find a way to assist and get him moving again.
If you have neighbors who limit their driving under normal conditions, you can be sure they won't venture out in these conditions. Drop by to make sure their heat is working. Offer to pick up groceries for them.
If the power fails, find a way to heat up some hot chocolate and invite your neighbors in for some laughter and conversation.
If your neighbors are elderly or disabled, offer to shovel their driveway. And if you've decided to hire a neighborhood kid to clean up your paved areas, add a few bucks to the fee and ask him to shovel your neighbors' sidewalks as well.
Keep a snow shovel visible on your porch in case motorists get bogged down near your house.
If you have an SUV, call a nearby hospital and offer to help transport nurses and medical staff into work.
Be ever on the look out for little opportunities to lend a hand.

It's odd how much priority we place on movies and TV shows which will soon be forgotten. When those things no longer occupy even a corner of your mind, you will fondly remember good deeds done for neighbors, and laughter shared in the snow. What's more, those neighbors are likely to remember as well- the next time you invite them to worship with you, for example.

Don't risk your life on treacherous highways while the blizzard is still in progress. And don't waste golden moments for showing neighbors what the love of Christ is really all about. Make this a weekend to cherish- forever.

Breaking News: Life is Still Messy!

2010-01-30T17:01:00.000-05:00

I've been told that the S-word with three letters is no longer heard in the pulpits of today's most relevant churches. No, I'm not talking about s-e-x. I'm thinking of s-i-n. The Survey says today's yearning masses are not looking for help with sin. This is the Postmodern world. People in this culture are far more interested in sexual positions than theological ones, right? We have read that the love of money is the root of all evil, but we are firmly convinced that the lack of money is the Mother of All Meltdowns. So Today's Church has set aside the discussion of sin in favor of discussing "real human need."

Meanwhile, CNN and Fox are talking about sin 24/7. Everywhere you turn, headlines are answering the question, Do people still need God? You don't have to be a breaking news junkie to know about the famous golfer whose secret life shocked the world; or the VP candidate who was having a torrid affair on the campaign trail while his wife was in treatment for cancer. And don't forget the couple who lied to sneak past White House Security. And what about all those bankers who begged for tax payer assistance and still continued to pay out mega-millions in bonuses while living on the dole! Have you heard the latest on the guy who not only murdered his fourth wife, but apparently poisoned his second wife, as well?

There's an elephant in this room that some people are unwilling to mention. There's a question that our favorite celebrities are are answering, but our favorite churches won't ask. Here it is: "Why do intelligent people do such horrendously destructive things?"

My Life Group meets at my house on Friday nights. This last week-end brought us to Romans 6 where Paul talks about the fact that some people are slaves to sin and others are slaves to righteousness. Some in our group had never thought about the idea that we are literally out of control when we succumb to temptation. But in fact, the victim makes the first choice, and the bondage makes all the subsequent ones. Freedom is usually the first thing to go.

You get the feeling that church people think Sin is like polio: "It used to be deadly, but we conquered it more than a generation ago, so it's time to move on." But TV news tells a different story every morning. Sin involves so much more than a few vices like alcohol or prostitutes or drugs. It is rooted in pride, greed, the lust for things, the resentment of others, the unwillingness to forgive. And it's the true designer drug: it hooks every person in a slightly different, very personal way. It is always evolving. That's why it's so prevalent- so deadly.

Americans still need Jesus Christ because wealth,education and prescription drugs cannot remedy the greatest ill in all of life. A bank can give me a loan. A corporation can offer me a scholarship. And a hospital can give me a pill. But only Jesus Christ can deposit complete, unlimited righteousness into my reeling, bankrupt heart, and give me the power to live a life that satisfies my soul.

Why a Fool Thinks He's Cool

2010-01-25T19:52:00.000-05:00

We were talking about the people Paul met on the isle of Malta. One of my friends commented, "Those people were incredibly superstitious, weren't they?" He provoked a fascinating thought: Yes, they were superstitious, but they weren't stupid. To the contrary, they had cooked up their fabulous ideas to explain some of those vast areas of life which were beyond their senses. Although they weren't well educated, they had grasped that we live in a complex universe and that our bodies can sense or detect only a small part of what's going on out there!

We're so much more advanced than those unsophisticated people, huh? We still cannot forecast earthquakes or tsunamis, and yet ignorant animals can somehow sense what's in store and head for safety 24 hours in advance. We know about frequencies of sound which animals can hear and we cannot. We have concluded there are powerful black holes in space which swallow up planets and stars, and even swallow up light before it can escape. We can't see these mysterious forces, but measurements tell us they must be there. Good grief! Life as we know it abounds with life as we don't know it: molecules and atoms and neutrinos and quarks, some of which even our most powerful microscopes cannot capture.

If we have learned anything today, we have learned that our physical bodies cannot register many of the forces, complexities and mysteries of life. The cosmos is so much bigger than us, and our frame of reference is incredibly narrow.

That's why it's so astonishing that there are people on this planet who consider themselves "intelligent," who have concluded that there is no God, no supernatural elements to life, no eternal realm. They insist that logic supports their denial of God. And they argue this odd opinion with passion, despite the fact that what we don't know about the universe far outweighs the things we know. If "dumb animals" can respond to powerful invisible forces you can't even detect, what would lead you to assume that you are able to detect everything else in life that matters?

God explains it this way, "The fool says in his heart, 'there is no God." Elsewhere, Scripture instructs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.

People like you and me appreciate the weight and texture of the cosmos. It's apparent to thinking people that we can't figure this out on our own. The harder we try, the more superstitious we become. (Ancients believed if they cast salt over their shoulders, they could stay healthy. Post-moderns believe that by paying more for organic veggies, we can stay healthy. Research cannot detect the health dividends of tossing salt or buying organic.) So we have turned to a wisdom that comes from outside ourselves: the timeless Word of God.

It's very easy for fools to get on TV talk shows today. Unbelief is fashionable in our culture, and irreverence is hot. But Scripture and the weight of human experience scoff at such arrogance and ignorance. And simple logic wonders: if these people are so pleased with their godless cosmos, why do they always seem so caustic and angry? If Jesus Christ is just a mythical figure, why is his name so unsettling to them?

Even they worry that they're living in a Fool's Paradise. Let's hope they at least catch some sun before they check out.

Change means You're Alive!

2010-01-13T16:45:00.000-05:00

Growing up, I could see my grandfather's house, and I could make the walk in five minutes. Grandad loved singing gospel music, calling his cattle in at feeding time, driving his tractor across a field. He had livestock I could feed, a knife I could whittle with, and a creek where the gang and I could get soaking wet looking for crawfish.

He was a family man who loved nothing more than getting his grown sons and daughters along with their families together for a big holiday meal. Perhaps that's why I still think of him often at holiday times.

My grandad was famous for his temper. He'd gone to church all his life, but in an occasional moment of fury with his back to the wall, he could say things he could never take back. Well, you can take those kinds of remarks back, but it's painful and embarassing. So the kind old man had a sister who lived half a mile away and attended the same small community church, but he never spoke to her. And he had a daughter who married a young man he had never approved. So she moved to Texas and had two lovely kids, but her father didn't see her again for years- until she came home after being diagnosed with cancer.

My grandfather wasn't happy about all this. The barriers he had erected caused a lot of pain and unhappiness in his life and among his family. But the old man simply had this problem with change: he resisted it. He was like a lot of people I know.

When folks come to my office with a serious problem, they often confess that I'm their last hope and they have nowhere else to turn. They've tried everything, they insist, but nothing has helped. When we talk for a while, I usually discover they haven't really tried everything; typically, they've tried one thing over and over again. I've been told that's the definition of insanity: trying the same thing year after year but expecting different results.

It's what you might expect of a condition called total depravity. But what does Paul mean when he says, "I am a new creation in Christ. The old has gone and the new has come." My experience has shown me that I have the same old tendencies, but I have a new master who has the power to help me be an overcomer. That term, overcomer, is used a lot in the New Testament. And it doesn't simply mean overcoming the behavior of wicked, wicked unbelievers. It also applies to the tendencies and temptations of people who know better.

I knew another man who selfishly pushed people away for years. One day he came to his senses and realized he was a major cause of unhappiness in his own life- and the lives of others. He identified the problem and asked Christ to give him the power to change. He became a different man and experienced joys and delights he had never been able to afford in his sin nature. It would have been a good lesson for my grandfather; a good one for all of us.

Living things are always changing. If you can still change, it means you're still alive.

Love, Lust, & Other Four Letter Words

2010-01-04T14:53:00.000-05:00

Is it love or lust? A manly seaman leans over to the comely young woman seated on the bar stood next to him. He buys her one drink and then another. He takes her by the arm and gently escorts her to a nearby table where he confesses that he loves her deeply and would be willing to die for her. They talk for an hour, and then he asks if she'd like to come over to his place and allow him to express his love- in the bedroom. She responds firmly that she is flattered by the invitation, but that she'd never consider a one-night stand with a stranger. Fifteen minutes later he's back at the bar hitting on another girl. The young lady at the table will never see him again. Love or lust? I think we'd all agree that's not a love story.

So what kind of story is this? A fair-skinned Christian visits a rough inner city neighborhood an encounters a desperate teen-ager who lives there in the hood. The would-be missionary offers the kid a gospel tract and a church business card. He confesses his deep Christian love for this young person and expresses great sympathy for these difficult living conditions. He shares the Plan of Salvation. He looks perplexed when the inner city youth declines to follow Jesus today. Fifteen minutes the Christian is over by the basket ball court professing his love for another prospective disciple. The first kid will never see him again. Is that love or lust?

It can't be lust: it wasn't about sex, was it? No, it wasn't about sex. But it wasn't about love either! What do you call it when you profess to love another person, but it's really just a ploy to help them give you what you really want? Some "lovers" just want sex. Some "lovers" just want to see another person make a spiritual decision. Neither one is interested in a long term friendship.

I hope this doesn't offend you. It's not a personal attack. I've done the same sorts of things over the years. And sometimes I've seen people profess Christ, get saved, and become serious disciples. In many cases, we've remained friends for years, even decades. But most of those professions of love were made to people who never saw me again. I never helped them when they were hungry, jobless, sick or discouraged. I didn't dislike them, but I didn't love them- not really.

The Bible says that love never walks away with a casual, "God bless you! I hope you find some food for your family!" Spiritual Lust does that all the time. Love cares about hearts and stomachs as well as souls.

God is dealing with me about how I have helped widen the gap between the church and the world. I tend to get offended when I learn that secular people believe Christians are hypocritical. The accusation bothers me because I don't secretly get stoned, hire hookers, or participate in other gross immoralities. But in fact, I have misunderstood the issue. Unchurched people don't suspect we're really immoral: they think we're really unloving.

They suspect we are simply lusting after their souls. They insist our professions of true love are insincere and uncommitted. I have stopped asking God to change them. I am asking him to change me.

The Historical Reality Behind Christmas Cheer

2009-12-18T15:58:00.000-05:00

There is an actual historical explanation for the optimism and unprecedented joy Americans feel at Christmas time. And it's not simply because we sing wonderful old songs and eat rich (i.e. fattening) foods in large quanitities. It's a fact that the things we talk about and sing about in December are rooted in wonderful truths of history.

No, Saint Nicholas does not really wear a red suit and leap down chimneys, but he is based on a real figure. Nicholas of Myra lived about 1000 years after Christ. Born into wealth, he lost both of his parents as a young man. But as he became an adult, he took the Christian truths he'd been taught by his parents seriously. He literally gave away his inherited fortune to needy people and desperate souls throughout the land where he lived. (It would correspond to the nation of Turkey today.) Nicholas became so beloved due to his sacrificial generosity that he was ultimately appointed as Bishop of Myra. Eventually he was persecuted for his faith, locked away in prison, beaten and finally released. He died of complications shortly after leaving prison.

Saint Nicholas is not a legend. Neither is Good King Wenceslas. Remember that old carol that you never understood as a child? When he went out one snowy night during the Feast of Stephen, he was celebrating the second day of Christmas just about 900 years after Christ. Wenceslas was the Duke of Bohemia in a region which today corresponds to Czechoslavakia. Like Nicholas, his faith in Christ had given him a heart for the poor. He literally became one of the most beloved royal figures in history due to his generous heart and his ongoing concern for the needy people of his land.

The old carol actually narrates the story of a bitterly cold evening when Wenceslas and a helper went out into the streets to care for a desperate old man. The night was so cold and the snow was so deep that the young aid was unable to continue. But when he placed his feet in the footsteps Wenceslas had left in the snow, the footprints literally warmed him and enabled him to keep walking.

The particular incident is probably just a legend. But there's a reason young Wenceslas became so beloved that legends could be fabricated: because he did amazing things for people who could never repay him.

These amazing figures of history were not just nice guys: they were followers of Christ. And in their desire to love God with all their hearts, they always recalled Christ's observation: "When you do deeds of kindness for the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."

May we all love Christ with that sort of intensity this Christmas.

A Sense of Timing

2009-12-09T14:21:00.000-05:00

John Maxwell says being a leader requires more than the ability to motivate people. Effective leaders must lead other people to the right plan at the right time. Maxwell explains it this way:

The wrong plan at the wrong time creates problems.
The right plan at the wrong time is premature.
The wrong plan at the right time is polarizing.
The right plan at the right time results in progress.

The priority of the right plan at the right moment reminds me of those familiar words from Galatians 4:4. "But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law." The power of the incarnation of Christ was about the birth of a child to a virgin, and yet it was about so much more.

The eternal inventor of biology could have planted an embryo in a virgin at any moment during all the thousands of years when the world was awaiting a savior. It was a miracle for us, not for him. Instead, God waited until the time was full:

The Greeks has spread the Greek language across the known world so that, at the right moment, everyone would be able to read or understand the Gospel in Greek.
The Romans had united much of the world under one emblem so that borders were easily crossed by evangelists.
Roman roads made travel easier for preachers and teachers, and Roman soldiers dispersed around the known world made it safer.
And at the first moment all the advantages were in place, God planted the seed and lighted the match.

And so Jesus was the right idea at the most opportune moment in history. God planned it all and brought it about when time was full.

You and I sometimes confuse the right timing with "my timing." And its' true, a little energy and a bit of ingenuity can make interesting things happen. But when our plans are bathed in prayer and alligned the the eternal purposes of God's heart, they always accomplish more and bring about eternal benefits. The trick is being discerning enough, and patient enough, to seek God's timing for our "big ideas."

David wrote in Psalm 27:14, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord!" Those lyrics are as powerful today as it was when the warrior king first sang them. It's an idea that would make us all more prayerful, more patient, and...yes, more powerful. Wait upon the Lord and look for the moments when the time is full.

We Look Funny, Too

2009-11-24T20:23:00.000-05:00

One of our Bible teachers asked me to help with a question that arisen in class the week before. The topic of voodoo rituals had come up in the discussion, and there had been quite a been of laughter about such superstition. But afterwards, a member of the class wondered if Christians don't look just as strange. If our Bible refers to witches and dragons and other such antiquated novelites, how can we suppose that we are in any way superior to those misguided and ridiculous people?

The question makes an intelligent point: if other religions are to be rejected and mocked whenever they look backwards to the spirit of our age, then Christians deserve to be mocked and rejected as well. That is, the Church has commonly seemed foolish/out of step with the times/superstitious to people in every generation since Jesus came. We have been labeled atheists, arsonists, practioners of incest, and kooks, and have often seemed to support end times predictions which proved to be demonstrably wrong. Perhaps that's why Paul boasted that we must be willing to be fools for Christ.

Granted, the Holy Spirit has convinced you and me that Christ is true and anything outside of Christ is error. However, for people who are trying to discover the truth about religion, it would seem there are some valid, rational tests which can be applied to any religious tradition. Those tests would include:

1. AUTHORITY: Is this based on folk tales and mysterious secrets that can't be tested? Or is it based on objective truth which is presented in some concrete form that can be considered and evaluated? The Christian Faith has stood the test of time because it is based on an ancient text which has accurately recorded history, made correct predictions centuries in advance, and has demonstrated scientific prescience (writers expressing scientific concepts that were not known to their generation.)

2. UNIVERSALITY: Does this religion only appeal to one particular cultural or geographical group, or does it transcend borders and barriers to impact all kinds of men and women in every age? Islam, for example, appeals largely to people of Middle Eastern descent and is growing today primarily on the basis of global immigration, political duress, and heavy birth rates. Christianity is transmitted largely through conversation and has transcended every age, every national boundary, every demographic division.

3. IMPACT: Does this religion positively transform communities and lift people out of despair and hopelessness, or does it promulgate poverty, ignorance and hopelessness? Voodoo and witchcraft around the world and throughout history have encouraged practioners to remain in dark, intolerant, violent, barbaric conditions. Islam literally transports 7th century cruelty, sexism, and bigotry into the 21st Century. In sharp contrast, Christianity has historically fostered education, built schools, and encouraged people to become educated. The Church has led the way in bringing equality to women and racial minorities.

I actually enjoy apologetics and could continue this discussion for several pages, but this is probably sufficient. One should not discount a religion solely because their practices look foolish and superstitious to our 21st Century American perspective, which is a very small window in time. Rather, one should evaluate a religion on the basis of authority, global universality and historical impact. On the basis of objective, rational measures, Christianity shines like a brilliant star in a pitch black sky.

The Last Christian Holiday

2009-11-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

Most US churches will devote the entire month of December to Christmas festivities. It's what we all do in hopes of recapturing the true meaning of Christmas. But I just gotta say this: if we have not been able to rekindle that flickering flame in three centuries of trying, it's probably not going to catch fire in 2009 either! We tend to forget that most congregations in the American colonies banned Christmas more than 300 years ago because it had nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with drunkenness and irreverence.

We will always have the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the fact that the Word became flesh, but we've probably lost 'Winter Holidays' forever. The same is true of Easter. Americans have come to associate that Spring festival with the change of seasons, new Spring fashions, pagan eggs and bunnies, or a week of vacation. People who don't show up for worship on Easter Sunday have no clue they were supposed to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ all along.

The only truly Christian holiday that's left for us is Thanksgiving. It's a national day of gratitude to the God of the Bible. It was He who went to such great lengths to guide Christopher Columbus to these shores when he was trying to find India! It was the Almighty God who enabled the poor, unlearned Pilgrims to survive their first brutal winter after they relocated from England to these hostile shores. The Indians who would have massacred them had died suddenly. The ones who dropped by to visit actually felt sorry for them and taught them to plant corn and trap beavers. Their survival and eventual success led to the original creation of this day of Giving Thanks.

A couple of years ago, I asked some school children what they thought Thanksgiving was all about. Their schools had taught them it was about being thankful to the Indians for helping the Pilgrims grow corn. That's wrong! It's not quite as wrong as the idea that Thanksgiving is about turkey and football, but it's still misguided.

The first Thanksgiving Feast was about giving thanks to the Heavenly Father who had provided for his people in mysterious ways during arduous times. There will be a lot of handwringing this year about where America is headed, and justiably so. But don't forget where America came from. Perhaps if we were more intentional in giving thanks and more deliberate in retelling the true story of Thanksgiving, we might eventually recapture the right stuff that has always made us great: faith in Jesus Christ and character forged by fire.

Don't miss the wonder of Thanksgiving. Start practicing today and you might just be ready when the big day arrives.

Compassionate Atheism?

2009-11-12T08:44:00.000-05:00

Speaking at a Memorial service following the murders at Fort Hood last week, President Obama explained that no religious faith approves of such atrocities. Then he reminded us all that the killer will face justice in this life and the next. It struck me as remarkable to hear a political leader confirm the idea of judgment waiting in Eternity.

The man who murdered 13 Americans and injured many more may not actually get justice here. Sometimes our system works, but on other occasions it fails us miserably. Public trials for terrorists sometimes do more harm than good by providing a platform for bizarre and dangerous behavior. But whatever happens here, most of us believe that God will certainly hold this calculating killer responsible in the world to come.

This idea is timely because atheist groups in this country are continuing to press for respect and legitimacy for their un-religion. For almost a decade, they've been attacking Christianity as evil, bigoted, and superstitious. Now they've adopted a new idea: "You don't have to be religious to be moral. Atheists are moral too."

The newest propaganda explains that unreligious people can treat each other fairly because it's a good thing, even if they don't believe in God. Unreligious people can share their wealth with others because they would want the same treatment in a crisis. Unreligious people can refuse to abuse and exploit other people because they don't want to be abused or exploited. Unreligious people can choose a socialistic form of government in which the income is spread around equally.

In theory, all this is true. But in reality, there are compelling reasons why atheistic attempts at morality never last for long. Quite simply, sinful human beings always discover a way to bend the rules and gain an extra share of the treasure. Someone always discovers that it's possible to work less and still benefit from the kindness of others, even while doing selfish or even dangerous things on the side. And whenever one selfish person takes advantage of the glitch in the software, many others follow. The government can never catch all the offenders, so there's a good chance you may be one of those who gets away.

But you'll never escape the justice of God. That's the concept that separates religious people from atheists who face temptation. Why are there so many unbelievers in American prisons and so very few Christians? The atheist has no one to warn him, "This is absolutely wrong, and you'll never get away with it." Sure, we can cook up intellectual models that suggest atheists are no different than other people. But in fact, they are very different for many reasons. And one of those reasons is that they believe they are not accountable.

Then there's that other nagging reality which confirms that compassionate atheism is more about PR than practice. The next time you see a news story about some catastrophic disaster and the rescue and clean up that follows it, watch the relief trucks arriving. You'll see the Red Cross, the Southern Baptists, Samaritan's Purse, the Salvation Army, and various local church vehicles. Don't wait for the American Atheists relief truck to arrive on the scene. Atheists have manged to produce attack books and publicity campaigns, but they have never dispatched a single relief truck or rescue team to a national crisis. So while there's a great deal of evidence for the existence of God, we'll have to take the compelling compassion of atheism on sheer faith.

2009-10-27T20:10:00.000-04:00

Quite by accident last week, I came across a paperback book which had been misplaced in one of the dark corners of a closet. In the process of returning it to my office, I glanced once again at the closing chapter. In To Own a Dragon, Donald Miller describes what it's like to grow up without a father.

He recalls thinking, "It's so hard to believe God did not abandon us." He describes feeling ambivalent- as though God is a really nice guy, on one hand. But on the other hand, it feels like he's busy with other kids and doesn't have time for us. Having been abandoned by his own dad who had other projects that mattered more, Miller remembers that he could never accept the idea that he was really not a burden to this distant, distracted God.

I revisited that chapter last week. This week it was an article in the Wall Street Journal that reached out and grabbed me. The headline explained, "THIS IS YOUR BRAIN WITHOUT DAD." According to the article, scientists in Germany have found that "growing up without a father actually changes the way your brain develops." The research involved a variety of small rodents in which both male and female parents remain together to raise their offspring. What they found was that the absence of a male parent actually hardwires the brains of the offspring differently. Compared to typical two parent animals, the rodents raised by a single parent are consistently more aggressive and more impulsive. The scientists found that the neurons of one parent rodents were noticeably different from those of two parent animals after only 21 days! It wasn't just a matter of environment leading to attitudes. Their brains had literally developed differently!

Of course, it doesn't require rocket science- or animal science- to observe that fatherlessness creates hazards for boys and girls. Fatherless kids in the inner city are more likely to wind up in violent gangs. Fatherless kids in wealthy suburbs are more likely to engage in dangerous activity involving sex and drugs. Some fathers have physically abandoned their kids. Others have simply departed mentally. Without a doubt, many have been shoved away by self-centered moms who aren't willing to pay the price for family.

The saddest thing of all is that Americans have been seduced by the notion that this is okay. Shouldn't everyone be free to choose? The more choices we have, the more opportunities we can seize- theoretically! But in reality, even animal research shows that some kids don't get as many choices. Children who don't have fathers can never choose certain benefits and assets because their brains have developed quite differently- out of sight and behind the scenes.

In American culture, fatherhood is treated like an option that costs too much in terms of time, energy, and self fulfillment. How blessed is the boy or girl who enjoys the essential benefit of a godly dad. To steal a phrase from a card company, fatherhood is what happens when you care enough to give your child the very best.

The Mystery of the Missing Spirit

2009-10-14T11:16:00.000-04:00

What a difference the Holy Spirit makes! On Sunday morning, our church family and I were exploring the difference between the Natural Life (Self+Flesh+Conscience) and the Spiritual Life (Self+Flesh+Holy Spirit.) Our text in 1 Corinthians 3 had brought us to that old question: "What is a carnal Christian?" I actually employed diagrams to define the differences. This seemed like a very basic concept, and I wanted to make it clear to the most unschooled disciple in the room.

Wow! What a concept! I got so many questions afterward. There were questions from unbelievers who are seeking Christ among us. There were questions from long time Christians whom I respect and admire. My immediate conclusion was obvious: Though I frequently mention the Holy Spirit, I clearly haven't taught my church all the things they need to know. In the future, I am resolved to be more deliberate in presenting the practical truths of spiritual living.

One of my favorite texts is Galatians 5:16 "So I say, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." The Spirit is not some abstract metaphor for enthusiasm. He is a person, a part of the Godhead, a force that guides and empowers believers.

More than two decades ago, Protestant churches looked at the upsurge among Charismatic churches and we asked what they could teach us. We finally concluded that our non-Charismatic worship was not enthusiastic enough, so we've been tweaking and editing our worship styles for a whole generation. Now worship style has been transformed in most Protestant churches, but Charismatic Christianity continues to change the landscape all around the world.

Maybe we learned the wrong lesson. Could it be we failed to recognize that "pentecostal" style churches were worshipping differently because their people were more willing to be influenced by the wind of God's Spirit? Maybe it wasn't our hymns that were out of sync, but our hearts!

This is not to say that Charismatic worship got everything right! In their exuberance, our "spirit-filled" friends have often become distracted and even divided by bizarre gimmicks like laughing revivals, being slain in the spirit, generational demons, etc. etc. But you have to wonder if they didn't get one thing spot on: we must instruct the Church in what it means to live in the Spirit. Walking with Christ = walking in the Spirit. So how is that done?

I love to reflect on all the wonderful truths the Holy Spirit has taught me from Scripture and helped me apply to life. I can fondly recall all the amazing adventures I've enjoyed under His direct leadership. I can recount so many miracles I have experienced as a result of His working. And I look at myself and ask: why didn't you talk about this more often? Why didn't all of us?

Why They Don't Book Prophets on the Tonight Show

2009-10-06T08:52:00.000-04:00

By now everybody knows about David Letterman's recent confession. Almost nothing shocks me anymore, but one aspect of his announcement was jarring: the audience laughed. As Letterman soberly explained what had occurred and how he planned to repair the damage from his bad behavior, most of the audience laughed repeatedly.

Some have suggested the audience members thought this was some kind of sketch. Maybe so, but it wasn't funny. Letterman wasn't smiling or mocking or reading a script. Watching the announcement the next day on YouTube, I could only wonder, "Will these people laugh any anything?" A few days later, a well known New York media critic exclaimed that this was the best moment in television since a popular movie star appeared on a late night show ten years ago to explain his tryst with a prostitute in a taxi cab!

This is what passes for popular entertainment at a time when many in the Church have argued that we must be more in tune with pop culture! Leaders of the Emerging Church not only celebrate the popular culture in their their sermons, but insist that we all must become more "relevant." If people are looking for spiritual truth in racy movies and vulgar TV shows, we need to be familiar with those movies and TV programs. Otherwise, we look out of touch and "irrelevant" to our media savvy generation.

Several years ago, Os Guinness wrote a book with a difficult title: Prophetic Untimeliness. The skinny little volume has a more vivid subtitle: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance. He explains that the measure of relevance in our culture is timeliness- does our truth easily mesh with the perceived values and needs of this moment in history? The idea that Jesus Christ is the only way to God is very offensive to intellectuals who believe all roads lead to God. So in the name of relevance, we should downplay that idea or forget about it entirely. If the Virgin Birth is hard for our generation to swallow, let's just lose it! And if Americans are more interested in saving the environment than saving souls, let's pick up a cross and lead the "Ban CO2" parade.

Guinness explains that the nature of prophetic truth requires that it frequently seems irrelevant to our age. That is, a prophet tells us the things we don't want to hear. He can be absolutely and eternally right, but seem utterly out of sync with our age. If we aren't willing to be out of step with our society, we can't possibly live out the Wisdom of God- or speak it.

In 1 Corinthians 1:17, Paul explains that our presentation of God's truth can become so eloquent, so smoothly crafted, that we empty the Gospel of its power! There are many times when we simply need to allow the Word of God to strike a spiritual blow; to be experienced it all its irrelevant, offensive, timeless glory. Sadly, that doesn't happen very often in the Relevant Churches of 2009, and many in our culture are laughing all the way to the Grave.

Marriage on the Skids

2009-09-28T14:27:00.000-04:00

I'm teaching the principles of healthy marriage on Wednesday nights. Apparently a lot of pastors are, based on feedback I'm getting. The response here has been very strong.

Last week we looked at the divorce rate here in the USA. One source says it's just about 50% for first-time marriages; 67% for second marriages; 74 % for third marriages. Does the problem lie in the attitudes we bring to marriage, or do we simply pick our spouses in the worst possible way?

In India, nearly all marriages are arranged by a young person's parents and family, based on family traditions, education, economics, geographical region, etc. etc. And in sharp contrast to what happens here in America, the divorce rate in India is 1%. That's right! I've confirmed that only 11 of 1,000 marriages end in divorce in India!

A friend commented, "That's true, but many of those marriages are very unhappy!" I can imagine that's very true. But if you look at the rate of divorce for 2nd and 3rd marriages here, you discover that we're not making ourselves happier here as we rebound again and again.

Postponing marriage has become a popular alternative here in the States. Is this making people happier? I haven't see a reliable statistic on that, but anecdotal evidence is not encouraging. Small claims courts are jammed with young people trying to recover financial losses at the hands of people they trusted enough to live with, but didn't trust enough to marry.

I fear this is a national crisis, but not one the President or Congress can fix. Stricter divorce laws are probably not the answer. Giving birth to kids whose parents aren't legally married is not the answer either. Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I have come to believe that God is the only answer here. We need God to share some of his spiritual wisdom and build up our national character.

Of course, they will happen one life at a time. So like many other people, I've just added one more item to my list of "Why we should be praying fervently for a spiritual awakening in the church." Think about it. On second thought, pray about it.

Irreligious America

2009-09-22T10:39:00.000-04:00

This morning as I drove to work, the breaking news on a local radio talk show was all about the decline of Christianity in the USA. One of the hosts was surprised by a new survey which finds 15% of all Americans identify with no church or any religion. Among Americans aged 18 - 28, the number of unaffiliated people rises to 22%.

"If those numbers grow among the next generation, that will be a huge worry," one host commented. The other replied that only religious leaders will worry because most Americans have lost their faith in "organized religion" (that is, the church.)

There's no doubt that agnosticism and bad behavior are fashionable in these United States. And I strongly suspect the percentages in that survey are accurate. But is this the Beginning of the End for Christianity in America? Is the Church of Jesus Christ on its way out?

You might be surprised that on other occasions in American history, the problem has been worse. Dr. J Edwin Orr has documented that just after the Revolutionary War, Christianity was already on the skids in the American states. Bars and taverns dramatically outnumbered churches. Profanity and violence were widespread, drunkenness was epidemic, and women were afraid to go out at night because of the rising level of crime and violence. Pregnancy outside of marriage was a serious problem. And churches were rapidly losing ground. The typical church had seen no young people join in decades. One year they couldn't find a single Christian at Harvard, and only two could be found at Princeton. And both those schools had been established by churches to train Christian pastors!

Not surprisingly, many congregations were shutting their doors, clergymen were finding other jobs, denominations were shrinking. Thomas Paine commented that the church would be gone in thirty years, and many religious leaders agreed.

Things came to a head in 1794 when a Baptist pastor named Isaac Backus sent an urgent appeal to pastors of every denomination, pleading for orchestrated, fervent prayer among the people of God. Many of those pastors must have seen the writing on the wall, because they responded and desperately called their churches to pray for revival. Many congregations set aside the first Monday of every month and began to pray for a mighty wind of the Spirit to sweep American churches.

What finally happened is known today as the Second Great Awakening. It scorched the nation from the coasts to the plains, and New Testament faith was firmly reestablished in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. God breathed his holy breath into the dying embers of faith across the land, and churches caught fire once again.

The Christian Faith has always advanced in cycles. We're in a downturn at the moment, a serious problem. But when enough of us recognize the signs of the times and begin to pray through tears to a God who wants to send a spiritual awakening, He will do just that. Are you praying yet?

Note: Dr. Orr's complete message can be found at http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal1/orr.html

Embracing the Mystery of Life

2009-09-09T08:43:00.000-04:00

I've been spending some of my devotional time in the Book of Job these last few weeks. Like you, I've read this story many times before, but it seems to have taken on a new life this time. Maybe it's just because I'm older and wiser, but it has caused to to think about ideas and insights that I've never before associated with Job.

His three friends are extremely devoted. When they receive news of their neighbor's grave afflictions, they immediately converge on the scene where they spend seven days simply sitting in silence with the hurting man of God. That's a wonderful first step. Then they begin to talk, and in only a few hours, they unravel everything they've accomplished in their first week!

You know this part of the story: Job's friends all assume he is being punished by God. One by one, they insist he has done something terribly wrong. Otherwise, God would not be working against him! When Job insists he has not done anything to defy God, his friends insist even more vehemently that he needs to repent! Of course, everything they say makes a lot of sense.

The only problem is that they are wrong. God is not punishing Job. To the contrary, Satan is buffeting Job precisely because he has been such a towering figure of faith. In his profound despair, the man of God is not merely suffering the slings and arrows that fall on every human being who sins. Rather, he suffers precisely because his faith has been so exemplary. The problems being experienced by Job are not "business as usual."

I think it's easy for you and me to make this same mistake when life becomes painful and complex for our friends. We look at a few superficial facts and we draw some conventional conclusion: there is something you can do to fix this. We assume there is a sin, a flaw, a failure of judgment. We offer precriptions and platitudes. We reduce the situation to the lowest common denominator. We forget that life is full of mystery and that God is beyond our understanding. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what's happening in another person's life even when we know all the facts- and we almost never know all the facts.

Sometimes the best thing a friend can do is sit there in silence and offer the gift of presence. I don't know the reason why this is happening to you. Maybe it's the consequence of a sinful choice. Maybe it's God building character in your life. Maybe it's actually Satan buffeting you because your faith is so strong. Or maybe this is a divine strategy so brilliant and so complex that I will never be able to discern until we look back from the future to see what God has done.

As your brother in Christ, it's not my job to offer you prescriptions and platitudes. It's just my job to be there for you and pray that God will give you strength and insight. Life is not a game. It's a story still being written by God. And sometimes the story is a mystery.

Paul's Secret Strategy

2009-08-24T10:55:00.000-04:00

There's a popular misconception that you cannot bring people to Christ in 2009 using techniques from the 1st Century. We tend to think of First Century evangelism as being much too direct and "in your face" for sophisticated Americans of the Twenty-first Century. Think again.

In Acts 17, we find Paul ministering in Athens. Historians tell us that 1st Century Athens is a cosmopolitan place; people value higher education and consider themselves very hip and well informed. They like nothing better than talking about the latest fads and ideas. And they have absolutely no background in Judaism or anything that might prepare them for the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you're familiar with Paul's ministry style, his approach here is surprising.

Read the text and you find that Paul begins his presentation to intellectuals at Mars Hill with what seems to be a compliment- at least in their minds. He mentions that it's apparent these folks are extremely religious because they have so many idols. Now you and I know (v16) that Paul has been extremely troubled by the pagan idols and icons that are everywhere in Athens. But he doesn't blast the Athenians and warn them they're about to bust Hell wide open!

Paul has learned a lesson that many 21st Century believers have never grasped: you don't have to say everything you know. He begins by building on common ground he shares with these pagans. First, he believes in a Creator God, just like they do. They even have a statue to an unknown God. Second, he agrees with their idea that such a God has clearly invested the universe with design and order. Then he adds a third point they haven't considered: that such a God must have surely done all this creative work for a specific reason- perhaps that men and women everywhere might seek him out and find him. He proposes to introduce them to that purposeful God whose existence is affirmed by their monument to the Great Unknown.

In his first 20 minutes with the Athenians, he tells them who Jesus is without ever mentioning the Lord's name. He begins with shared ideas and then leads them to conclusions they've never drawn before. He understands their culture and actually quotes pagan Greek poets to support the Gospel he is sharing with them. And the result is that several pagans become followers of Jesus Christ that day, and others move forward in a spiritual journey that will require a little more time.

Sometimes we assume that we must share the Gospel "at all costs." That's not really true. If the cost is offending someone so badly that he will never again consider the claims of Christ, that cost is too high. Our priority should be sharing Christ "in the most effective manner." You can share the Gospel without ever mentioning Hell, abortion, gay rights, evolution, the role of women, or the wiles of Satan. Don't misunderstand: you may well have the most accurate biblical position on all those questions, but they still aren't part of the Gospel.

Once a lost co-workers becomes a believer, we can hope he will have years to get all his doctrines right. However, we aren't saved by systematic theology. We are saved by trusting Jesus Christ and relying on His grace. So I never try and "water down" the Gospel. But like Paul, I do attempt to find common ground with lost people, and tailor my presentation to the way my lost friend thinks.

There is no such thing as a magic Gospel outline. The best way to share the Gospel is the way that gets a particular person saved. Think about it.

Creating a God Space

2009-08-20T14:20:00.000-04:00

Imagine chatting with a friend or co-worker who mentions an amazing jazz vocalist you absolutely have to see. You're interested and ask where you could catch the act. Your friend names a club downtown. When you ask "Where is that," he explains it's a gay bar on Wisconsin Avenue. Then he adds, "Why don't you meet me there for the concert Friday night at 8:00?"

Of course you'd smile and continue polite conversation. But your mind would be racing! "I'm not gay! They'll be doing strange things down there! They will try to recruit me! What would other people think if they saw me there?" And although you might politely accept the invitation to meet your friend on Friday evening at that club, by Friday evening you'd have a terrible cold! Or you would have suddenly discovered you sister is coming to town on Saturday and you need to vacuum!

Imagine the way you or I might feel about visiting a gay night club for a jazz performance, and you'll understand how most urban Americans feel about showing up in a church for Sunday worship! They don't think they need it. They fear they won't understand it. They suspect they will be pressured to do something uncomfortable. They are terrified they will feel like a fish out of water. So if you invite 15 people to be your guest in worship sometime, they odds are that at least in big cities, 14 are likely to decline or politely fail to show.

Now this doesn't mean that we shouldn't invite friends and acquaintances to church. Even if one or two show up, we're that much closer to reaching their families as well. But when you realize that most secular prople would not consider visiting a strange church, you understand why we have to be intentional about creating God spaces outside the Church. A God space is a time and place in which you can talk about Jesus Christ and faith in a friendly conversation with unchurched people.

It's interesting that Jesus characterized his mission this way: "I have come to seek and save those who are lost." That passage in Luke 19:10 follows the story of Zaccheus and explains Christ's odd behavior. You remember the story: Zaccheus is a notorious tax collector living in Jericho who wants to see Jesus. On the day Christ arrives in town, the streets are too crowded for a short guy like Zaccheus to find a vantage point. So he climbs a tree and watches Christ's approach.

Christ looks past all the religious people lining the streets to cheer, and spots the little outcast perched in the sycamore tree. He urges Zaccheus to come down and invites himself the the tax collector's house for lunch!

Zaccheus becomes a follower of Christ! His life turns around instantly. He gives back fortunes to people he has wronged. But significantly, the Bible never details what it was Jesus has taught him over lunch! We have no idea whether a parable or a scripture verse became the turning point in Zaccheus' life. All we know is what Jesus did- he took unconventional action to create a God space for an outcast who would never, ever darken the door of a respectable Jewish synagogue.

Jesus not only came to save the lost. He explains he came to seek and save them. And in case you're wondering, he didn't have to look far to find lost people. They were everywhere. Apparently, he was seeking those who were ready to walk away from their old lives and follow him. As people who call ourselves "followers of Christ," that's obvious our job as well- seeking and saving.

We have to be deliberate in creating spaces outside of church in which we can talk about Christ. You can do it by offering to pray for people, and then asking: "Why don't we begin praying now?" You can do it by making an appointment: "Some time I want to tell you what my faith in Jesus Christ has meant to me. Can we sit down over lunch next Tuesday?" You can do it by mentioning a great Christian book you've just read, and offering to pass it along. Books that come to mind are Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis; the Reason for Christ by Tim Keller; Where is God When it Hurts? by Philip Yancey.

Don't be impatient. You may well have to repeat this process 14 times with 14 different people before you see results. So don't think of it as evangelism. Think of it as practice. You are practicing so that when God brings a motivated lost person along, you will be ready to share.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me... Healthcare Reform

2009-08-07T13:01:00.000-04:00

Patrick Henry expressed the deepest convictions of thousands of other American colonists when he spoke those legendary words, "Give me liberty or give me death." For the patriots of 1776, the blessings of liberty were worth any sacrifice. Voting would be a privilege, not a responsibility. The true responsibility of living in a free land would entail defending that freedom- even at the cost of life or health.

American Colonists risked life and limb to purchase our freedoms. Many died in agony on bloodied battlefields. Others died instantly only to be buried in unmarked graves miles from their homes. Still others returned home missing eyes or limbs. But if they survived the war, they went home as free men and women. And if they died, they had secured the blessings of liberty for their children and grand children.

Over the centuries that have followed, tens of thousands of courageous men and women in the US Armed Forces have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Places like Normandy and Iwo Jima come to mind. There are tranquil hillsides in France that are laden with row after row of white crosses marking the tombs of American heroes who gave everything for a free country.

So tell me, when did the idea of healthcare reform become so important that it can trump liberty? If the health of all Americans is our highest ideal, then we should stop asking brave men and women to sacrifice their health and their lives for something as esoteric and old-fashioned as liberty. In a nation obsessed with the right to health, there is no greater evil than dying of a bullet wound on a battlefield. But if liberty is still the driving force in American life, we should never, ever trade it away for something as lame and utterly failed as socialized medicine.

Even now, the politicians who have given us so many expensive bridges to nowhere are debating a radical intrusion of the federal government into our personal lives. The vague language of House bill 3200 allows for government access to all Americans' bank accounts; individual appointments every 5 years with government agents to discuss whether or not you should save the country money by dying; policies that will ultimately cost you your ability to choose your insurance company, your doctor, your method of treatment. The only way the government can offer free healthcare to everyone is through rationing. We are not living in a sort of Heaven where anything is possible, and the government is broke.

As far me, I refuse to drink the poison Kool-Aid. With Patrick Henry and tens of thousands of Americans whose bravery lines the pages of history, I say "Give me liberty or give me death." If keeping me healthy requires the government tresspassing into our God-given liberties, I prefer to be sick. And if keeping me alive requires the sacrifice of our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, please let me die. It is the height of selfishness to demand that patriots and heroes must go to their graves so that I can go to the hospital for free.

So Thick You Can't Cut it With a Knife

2009-08-03T15:34:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning during worship, I noticed that several long distance members were back for the week-end; from places as far flung as Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. Their ages range from twenty-something to sixty-something. They were all beaming with joy. They were all surrounded by old friends who miss them and love them. They all made it a point to find me and express their joy at being back. And I could only think: there is something amazing and wonderful about this church family!

I understand that all churches are "friendly" and it's not so uncommon for any church to have former members return for a visit. The difference here is that most Providence families never become "former" members- they stay in touch, they read the e-letter religiously, they care about what's going on, and they never stop missing Providence! Many of them wish they could return if only jobs and other circumstances would allow!

Friday, my wife and I joined three other couples to drive to to Richmond to visit a family who became long-time members over a year ago. Another family who moved away 5 years ago drove up from Williamsburg to meet us. We talked and laughed for hours. When things at church came up, the two families who live far away and attend other churches could talk intelligently with us because they still keep up with goings on at Providence. When it was time to go, there were tears.

Most churches refer to themselves as "family." But for large numbers of Christians, there are friends, and then there are "church friends." Church friends are nice people you greet in passing a couple of times a week. Real friends are an integral part of your life. And even when they move away, the sense of "family" remains. Friends are the people you could call at 3 AM with a problem. "Church friends" might just check Caller ID and not answer.

One of our new members passed along a thank you note on Sunday after several Providence folks helped move her family out of an unsafe public facility and into their own place last Thursday. Her letter said "You all have taught me what a church family really is...!" She's bringing homemade desserts next Sunday for her new friends.

Don't ever take true friendship for granted. Many churches and many people have little or no idea what that really is. Here at Providence, it's in the air and the water. You don't have to try very hard. The love rubs off on you. There's something supernatural about all this. And for this I thank the Lord God Almighty.

Temptation Wins Again

2009-07-29T10:48:00.000-04:00

President Obama scheduled a press conference last week to talk about "healthcare reform." Along the way a reporter asked about a developing news story involving Police in Cambridge, a professor, and a reported break-in. By now, we've all heard the rest of this story a thousand times.

The President indicated that he didn't know all the details- a comment which made perfect sense. Then strangely, he proceeded to use his presidential platform to condemn the police who "acted stupidly." We know the President deeply regrets those remarks because he's been trying to amend his remarks or take them back for a week now. The story refuses to die.

Reasonable people wonder why a gifted communicator would continue to answer a question that was off-topic after confessing he didn't know all the facts. Obama's press secretary later indicated they had anticipated this question might come up, and had prepared for it. If they had thought about this in advance, why did the President fall into that trap? Nobody can say for sure, but I suspect all of us can make an educated guess based on personal experience.

Temptation can be a powerful force! Sometimes it is powered by lust. On other occasions, it is driven by pride. How frequently Pride convinces me that my opinions are more important, and my judgments are more informed. Even if I don't know all the facts, my impressions surely feel accurate. Why shouldn't I say something? Haven't lots of soldiers died to protect my freedom of speech?

Yes, tens of thousands of American warriors have paid the ultimate price to defend the President's right to say anything he wants to say. And now he will pay another price for abusing that freedom. He had scheduled the press conference to focus attention on his perception that health care in the USA must be radically reformed. He had been losing momentum and needed to get the ball back in his court. But with one misguided statement, he launched a hot, new debate on "police profiling" which immediately diverted attention from his plans for change. Like all sin, this sin felt good for about 15 seconds. But like all sin, it has blown up in the sinner's face.

James 3:7 warns us "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison." Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.

Solomon explains, "When words are many transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent." (Proverbs 10:19) Proverbially, there is a time to speak. And there are many times to be silent.

Missionaries from Hell

2009-07-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

The sermon topic on Sunday was "What about Other Religions?" This Summer I've been looking at what God's Word has to say about popular topics of conversation among Christians. And one of the most popular questions involves "good" people who simply don't know Jesus Christ. Maybe they were born among Hindus in India or animists in some African nation. Will they go to Heaven anyway, despite the fact that they never trusted Jesus Christ?

I based this particular message on John 3. Despite the fact that Nicodemus was a devout Jew, a highly moral Pharisee, and a respected religious leader, Jesus told him he would need to start all over again from scratch in order to inherit eternal life. If Nicodemus wasn't good enough to merit Heaven without Jesus, who would be? I shared Paul's comments from Acts 4:12 that "there is no other name under Heaven given by which men may be saved."

It seemed like a pretty convincing message taken straight from the words of God. Then afterwards, one of our most respected members asked a question which I've heard many others reference over the years. "But I'd always thought that people would not be condemned if they never heard about Christ. In other words, if they never had the chance to say 'no,' are they still excluded?"

I replied with a smile, "Then why have we been sending missionaries all over the world for over a hundred years?" If people who have never heard about Christ are automatically saved, why do we send missionaries to evangelize them? If they reject the Gospel when they hear it, we have just changed their status from "saved in ignorance" to "condemned!"

If people living in spiritual ignorance are automatically saved, we should just call all our missionaries home and pray that people in the Middle East and Asia will forget everything they've heard! We should shut down our Christian TV and radio broadcasts. Every presentation of the Gospel is bringing new people under condemnation- people who were automatically saved just moments before because of their ignorance!

If Jesus believed that people living in ignorance were automatically saved, he should have never issued the Great Commission. Rather than telling us to go and make disciples, he should have said "Stay home and shut up!" Just keep it to yourself.

Of course, that's not what he said because that's not the way it is. There are only two highways in all of life- the broad, highly traveled interstate to destruction, and the small country road that leads to Life. Our job is to get as many men and women as possible to detour from that popular super highway, and walk with Jesus on the narrow road to life. That's why God sent his son- that all who believed might have eternal life. But as John 3 goes on to explain, "All who do not believe in him are condemned already."

It's not compassionate to rationalize why "lost" people might not be lost at all. You'd never take that chance with your own life or your own kids. Compassion requires that I tell as many people as possible the wonderful truth God has revealed to me.

Living in the Dull, Gray Middle

2009-07-01T14:07:00.000-04:00

It was like some grim, futuristic motion picture, except that you realize the people in a movie are just acting. Each morning I stood at the window of my hotel room watching thousands of locals walking to the trains. They moved together almost in step, with very little personal space. They walked grimly, always facing forward. And there was no laughter, no banter, no sarcasm or humorous chatter about last week-end. There was only a brooding silence, interrupted occasionally by the sounds of shuffling feet, a cough, or a subway bell.

Every afternoon, the people of Minsk came home the same way.

I was in Belarus just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It had been more than 2 years since the fall, but the possibilities afforded by freedom had not sunk in. The incumbent president was already maneuvering to realign with Russia. Senior adults were frustrated by the transition to democracy because the bread lines were sometimes less predictable. Before democracy, they had never enjoyed abundance, but the slow trickle of hard, tasteless loaves had been fairly constant.

My Western eyes could not miss the aftermath of a government controlled economy. There was no profound, abject poverty. And there was no over the top affluence. Rather, everyone lived in that gray middle zone uninterrupted by life's extremes. When there is no room for utter failure or paralyzing pain, there is also no possibility of extravagant joy or heroic accomplisment. There is just existence.

The state run apartments that everyone called home were the perfect measure of Soviet life. No, they were not filthy dumps. But neither did even one of them hint of art or elegance. Rather, they all loomed over the gray landscape like forty-year old monuments to surrender- massive and blocky, dim and inconvenient, but available and economical. Nobody lives on the street. But nobody dares aspire for something better.

Today the US government is buying up large shares of what once was private industry. The feds are eagerly seeking control of healthcare and the administrative ability to determine who gets treatment and who has to die without care. There is a full court press to limit greenhouse gases by assuming greater control over energy companies, utilities and their pricing structures. I cannot shake this suffocating sensation of marching together toward the trains of Minsk.

The snowball is rolling, and rapidly gaining momentum. Very soon every American may indeed have some form of goverment sponsored medical care. Take your card and get in line. Before long, there will be no homeless vagrants and no megabucks billionaires. But it won't feel like Heaven. It will seem more like the dull, gray middle where everyone fondly recalls the great risks and daring possibilities of what we once knew as "freedom."

The Sky is Falling: News at Ten

2009-06-23T21:08:00.000-04:00

Has anybody else noticed that national crises are turning up on TV as frequently as Hollywood awards shows? Just in the last six months we have endured the mortgage crisis, the banking crisis, the stock market crisis, the Detroit automotive crisis, and the Swine Flu crisis. Trillions of stimulus dollars and hundreds of broken promises later, all those storms are still swirling, but there’s a new call to arms! Do they still sell Alka Seltzer down at the Rite Aid?

Our leaders hate to be the bearers of bad news, but they are rushing to the microphones to warn us again. Yes, we are suffering from an urgent "Healthcare Crisis" that cannot wait another week.

That term “healthcare crisis” is invoked so often and so ominously that you’d figure most Americans are wringing their hands in utter despair. Surely the warning signs are everywhere. Hospitals are so crowded that long lines of aged heart patients and cancer patients are spilling out clinic doors- stretching for blocks down the streets, right? Medical schools are graduating so few budding interns that there is a doctor shortage, right? And there is such a dearth of effective pharmaceuticals that Americans are dying of common disorders. Right? No. No. No.

This week, The New York Times reported recent polling that indicates broad support for healthcare reform. Some 85% of Americans allegedly believe our healthcare system must be radically or substantially reformed. But that same research found that 77% of Americans are satisfied with their own healthcare. If that’s a national crisis, I’ve got more breaking news:

This country surely suffers from a congressional crisis, because I can guarantee you that 77% of Americans are dissatisfied with Congress. This can’t wait! When can we toss those bloated narcissists out of DC and bring in some ordinary Americans who haven’t traded their souls for campaign cash?
Then there's the urgent education crisis. Seven out of ten Americans are not satisfied with our public schools. If healthcare companies need federal competition to make them improve, why not create competition for our wasteful public schools? If competition works so well, why did the President shut down the voucher system which allowed inner city DC students to attend great private schools?
And finally, almost 77% of Americans support restoring prayer to schools and public places. Wake up, Washington! We have a prayer crisis. Are there any of those stimulus dollars left for getting desperate Americans out of a prayer crisis and into real prayer lives?

Sure, we’ve all heard that 40 million figure for uninsured Americans. But I have to wonder if that’s anything like the "documented" number of women reportedly beaten by husbands on Super Bowl Sundays? Hey, if we could pin down a real number for the uninsured, most would be young people who don’t want to spend money on insurance they don’t need; Americans who are between jobs and will be insured when they are rehired; and immigrants who are here illegally.

If that leaves 10 million uninsured Americans, surely there’s a more efficient way to help them than turning the world’s premiere healthcare system over to the same Beltway politicians who waste billions of tax dollars year after year on Bridges to Nowhere and studies on the sex life of killer bees in China.

No doubt, we’d all like to see healthcare costs go down. But if that’s actually what you desire, then you surely can't afford more posh office suites for bureaucrats, more kick-backs for DC politicians, and more federal paperwork for honest doctors. Wake up America: Most of us haven't seen a real crisis yet, but you have some ambitious politicians who are eager to show you one.

Hell is a Four Letter Word

2009-06-15T11:31:00.000-04:00

Funny, it’s been a long time since anyone has told me to go to Hell! The bad news is that there are more graphic four-letter words people can use to insult you these days. The good news is that Hell has been banned.

Actually, I’m pretty sure the place is still there- at least that’s what God promises. But more and more Americans are grossly offended by the idea. They insist that a sentence in Hell would be unjust. Most people aren't that wicked, or so we commonly assume. Hell would be okay for somebody like Hitler, but it’s surely not for mass consumption! Most people just aren’t that bad.

It may sound odd, but I was reading this history book last week and I came across a shocking fact: when Hitler came to power, most people didn’t think he was that bad, either. He was elected by the majority in a nation of nice, moral people. In fact, even when he began to eliminate the Jews, most of his fans and followers thought it would stimulate the economy! What’s wrong with that? Heck, the H-Man still has has tons of fans in the world today. No doubt, they are all nice people as well.

Or try this idea. If most people are basically good, how do you explain the epidemic of child molestation, date rape, mail fraud, identity theft, child pornography, racism, and genocide that dominate the headlines daily? Is a small group of skinheads in Montana responsible for all that evil? When corporations seduce and corrupt children with violent, suicidal, sex-charged music videos in order to rake in megabucks, are the people who run those corporations basically good? And if most earthlings are morally acceptable, which other planet is providing us with our surplus of corrupt politicians, greedy corporate CEO’s, angry terrorists, and self-centered celebrities?

I remember a stunned church member who came to me in shock a few years ago. He had inadvertently discovered that his godly Mom had been part of an adulterous affair when she was younger. He was stunned and couldn’t even imagine how his innocent Mom could have ever been a part of something so unsavory. When the Bible speaks of depravity, it means that none of us are quite as innocent as we'd like to pretend.

If most of us are offended by the "injustice" of Hell, perhaps it’s because we are too comfortable with real-world evil. We don’t know most people in the world, and can’t imagine what they’re really like. And we’re in denial about ourselves.

The good news is that nobody has to go to Hell. Thank God Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Blame the Bearded Guys

2009-06-08T13:04:00.000-04:00

If the Bible seems a bit dull to you- too cut and dried- just blame it on those old, bearded guys. It worked for Dan Brown when he wrote the DaVinci Code, and it seems to be working for other post-modern types who are offended by the Word of God. Apparently, those wicked church fathers, had this secret meeting with the Emperor Constantine. (Okay, it wasn't that secretive. We've all known about it for nearly 1700 years.) In a couple of days, they hand picked and edited the books of the Bible, crushed the competition, shut out the truth about Mary Magdalene, and invented the doctrine of the Trinity.

Then they successfully hid their tracks for all this time until Dan Brown exposed them with his best-selling novel. And today we all know the Fathers of Nicea were sinister control freaks who despised women and plotted to deceive the whole world for thousands of years. Well, that's what their critics say.

But it started me thinking. If those early church fathers were so powerful and so determined, why didn't they take their plot more seriously?

Why didn't they edit the gospels and make one of the Apostles the first witness to the resurrection? Why did they leave Mary Magdalene and the women as the first to arrive and get word to the men? Women were considered absolutely unreliable witnesses in their world! Why didn't they fix this embarassment?
Why didn't they tweak the four Gospels to make them fit together more comfortably? The gospels use different stories and notice different details to show different aspects of Christ's ministry. If these inconsistencies were really a credibility problem, why didn't they scan those manuscripts and do some word processing?
Why did they leave Simon Peter looking like such a loser? He denied Jesus at the worst possible moment! And John's Gospel ends with this pathetic scene where Jesus has to forgive the guy. Incidents like this make our would-be heroes look weak. Why didn't they do a rewrite and let Peter fight boldly for Christ until he was finally knocked unconscious and tossed into a dungeon bound and gagged?
And if they were really trying to rehabilitate Christ's reputation because they knew he had died in vain on the cross, why did they leave in that irritating question: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It would have been a lot smoother if they'd just let Jesus exclaim, "What a rush! This was a great ride, Pop! Back in a sec!"

Something tells me those early church fathers weren't as corrupt and all-powerful as we've been told. The evidence tells me these were ordinary guys who had become convinced that Jesus Christ had actually come back to life after a violent death, rolled away a big stone, and returned from his grave. There can be only one reason they left the New Testament intact with all those "problem passages:" because it's the truth. They weren't trying to polish the truth; just pass it along.

As John wrote in his Gospel account, "But these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name." The Gospel is not based on a foolproof plot. It is based on the Truth.

Sliming the Word of God

2009-06-03T14:15:00.000-04:00

A good friend asked me to read a book he'd purchased and share my thoughts. It was titled, Ten Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can't Because He Needs the Job.) It's one of those skinny, chatty, anecdotal books that assume "hip honesty" is cool and orthodoxy is obsolete. Most pastors can't afford to be honest, right? They have to say certain things in order to stay on the payroll, so somebody has to re-educate ignorant Christians whose number is Legion. Apparently, this author was glad to volunteer.

One light-weight chapter offered a word for all those foolish souls who believe the Bible is "inerrant." In one deft paragraph, this spiritual advisor charges many of his brothers and sisters with "pat answers," copping out, and wasting other people's time. So much for love and gentleness. Then he twists the knife with this statement: "Let's turn to the painfully obvious biblical errors." (Aren't you glad he's a friend, and not an atheist or something?)

Are you ready for the first, and most "painfully obvious" error in your Holy Bible? 1 Kings 7:23 "values pi at 3 instead of 3.14 as we now know it to be. Close but not inerrant." Having never come across the term "pi" in Scripture, I hurried to find the offending text. In fact, the passage simply describes a round object in the Temple which was ten cubits from rim to rim, and thirty cubits in circumference. Dividing the circumference by the diameter should calculate 3.14, so the statement must be erroneous and unreliable.

All I could do was laugh. I thought about the Greek sophists of Paul's day who took pride in being able to argue any point, no matter how irrational or absurd. Since when does a narrative describing the appearance of the Temple have to express every dimension of every structure within two decimal points in ancient Hebrew? This account was written to help us imagine the Temple, not rebuild it to scale! Think about this:

The Bible is full of rounded numbers, and everyone has always known this.
Exodus 12:37 summarizes that the Exodus included 600,000 men, not counting women and children. If we should some day find an ancient Egyptian manuscript that proves 600,023 males actually departed, that would confirm the account, wouldn't it?
1 Samuel 4:2 describes how the Philistines killed 4,000 Israelites in one battle. Perhaps you've noticed that most fatality statistics in Scripture are amazingly round numbers! Would you be shocked or offended to find an ancient historian who counted 3,997 bodies? Most of us would assume this confirmed the biblical estimate.
Matthew 15:38 records a miracle in which Jesus multiplied seven loaves and a fish to feed 4,000 men plus their families. Now if Jesus really multiplied that small amount of food, but only managed to feed 3,987 men plus their families, is Matthew a big fat liar? Is God?

So much for "painfully obvious errors!" However,I have decided the book is right about one thing: if I believed that kind of rubbish, I would lose my job. My people have much more respect for God than that. In fact, if I really approached God's Word with such apprehension, I would resign my job. I would have no supernatural basis for supposing that lives could change, miracles could happen, or people can live forever. I would be as shallow and spiritually empty as many of the books in Christian bookstores.

Dear friends, you never need to worry that God's Word will mislead you. God won't stand for that. But you should beware of laid back authors who describe how well they know God in spite of the Bible's flaws. Misery loves company, and these unhappy souls have invited you into the trap to share their fears and sorrows. Don't take the bait. Trust the Lord.

Big Tent Versus Big T

2009-05-26T15:35:00.000-04:00

You don't have to be a Republican to know that a fist fight is simmering in the GOP. Republicans have been talking about "big tent politics" for years, but after last year's election losses, what was once a suggestion has become a battle cry. Leading voices are demanding that the party must become a Big Tent and make room for more people. Some would-be GOP candidates have recently launched a "Listening Tour" in order hear the voices of America and discover what potential voters really want.

Let's not be so PC for a moment. When it comes to shaping your identity, listening tours are a silly idea. For the most part, people don't really know what they want. Rather, most people know what they like when they see it. Consumers weren't demanding Ipods or until Apple invented one. Then the world beat a path to buy them in five colors and three sizes. Politicians need to be less sensitive and more centered. A group seeking to cast a vision for people ought to begin by drawing a red circle around their moral center. Once folks know what you truly stand for, they can make in intelligent choice about whether it makes sense to them or not. If political ideas don't matter anyway, why bother with politics?

I happen to be a political conservative, but that's not why I find this particular debate so interesting. Rather, I've been fascinated by this movement because it feels so familiar. Perhaps you've realized that this is the same Happy Meal that was sold to the American Church about 20 years ago. Loud voices insisted we were too narrow and too shrill, and that our tent was too small. Trend setters insisted we should listen to the voices of the culture and discover what Americans really wanted. Once we identified what our communities really wanted, we could shape our "ministry" to scratch whatever itches in their lives.

Now after more than two decades of "Big Tent" church, we are shocked to learn that the American church has grown much smaller and the American public is much less Christian. No matter how hard we tried to be edgy, youth-oriented, self-centered, psychology-oriented, sexually frank and non-judgmental, most churches found it didn't work. Apparently, people could get all those things without coming to church. And the ones who really wanted to worship required more than cultural vomit with artificial spiritual sweeteners. The tent got bigger but the American church got smaller.

So it's interesting US Republicans are now salivating over a strategy that has failed miserably for US Christians. Rather than looking for the Big Tent, we should have dug deeply to find the Big T: Truth. What is it that Jesus died for so that we could live for it? What is our biblical center of gravity? How does the Cross of Christ honestly challenge our narcissistic, over-sexed culture?

The people of Athens overwhelmingly wanted idols, but Paul refused to embrace idolatry in his preaching. Rather, he used the Word of God to show Greeks how their idol-mania revealed a deeper hunger they had never addressed- their yearning for the One True Creator behind the universe. The people of America are obsessed with sex, but I doubt Paul would have sat on a bed to preach about hooking up with hotties at work- or with your spouse, for that matter. Rather, he would have used this obvious lust to point us to a deeper yearning- for divine love, consuming purpose and intimacy with God. When it comes to philosophical tents, size doesn't matter. Go for Big Truth. As Jesus taught us,if the Truth is big enough, people of faith will force themselves inside, no matter how small the tent seems: even if they have to cut a whole in the roof to get in.

Just imagine that!

Life Happens!

2009-05-13T13:46:00.000-04:00

Newsweek magazine knows what Americans want to read. Their best-selling issues have always been those with Princess Di, JFK Jr, or the Christian Faith on the cover. Significantly, two of those cover icons are no longer among the living, and many insist the Church is on its way out as well.

So I wasn't surprised when the news mag recently featured a cover story, "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." In fact, the essay found inside was not nearly as grim as the cover, designed to gin up controversy and sell magazines. The resulting debate was colorful, with some Christians agreeing with the thesis and others insisting its not true. One writer for USA Today insisted Christianity is alive and well- just evolving into new forms. Hmm. You mean like self-worship and consumerism? You just made their point.

Like many popular religious discussions in the country, this one comes way too late. Dr. Francis Schaeffer called the US a "post-Christian" society four decades ago! In a 1969 book entitled Death in the City, he tracked the spread of materialism into education, entertainment, and across society. He concluded, "Our generation has nobody home in the universe, nobody at all." That forty year old book is still more accurate and more insightful than the 2009 Newsweek article.

Don't bother asking if we're a post-Christian nation or not. The heart of the Christian Faith in the American colonies was New England. Today that region is the national capital for atheism and unbelief. The cancer has metastasized. In fact, Americans are living in a post-Christian age.

Forget that question, and ask this one: "Are we a post-Christian church?" We follow a Savior who was so counter-cultural that his own nation killed him. But today, our strategy for success is to blend in. "Don't challenge the culture: win them with tolerance."

Houston, we have a problem! Our tolerance and hip refusal to be shocked isn't working. We aren't winning them over, but they are beating us at every turn: courts, schools, the media, even government. And lots of former church-goers are now finding they have gradually evolved into non-church goers because the new church feels so much like the old, familiar culture. Why drive to a church house for the same attitudes and platitudes you can TIVO on Oprah and watch at home in your jammies?

John Lennon is most famous for "Imagine," his melodic hymn to atheism. But I remember him for a different recording. Writing a song to his infant son, he mused "Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans." That's what happened to the church. While we were reaching for a nugget of cheese offered by the culture, something clicked and- out of nowhere- the hammer came slamming down to trap us. Now we find ourselves pinned hopelessly to the mousetrap and wondering "Hey, how did everything go south so quickly? What happened to us?"

Life happened, dudes! When repentance happens, God will smile again on his post-Christian American admirers.

Anything But Socialism!

2009-05-04T10:57:00.000-04:00

"Not only do I believe every word of the Bible is absolutely true, but I even believe the cover is genuine cowhide leather!" We conservatives go to great lengths to emphasize the reliability of the Bible. But if we're truly honest, there are some places in the Bible we wish weren't true!

For example, I think many of us have cringed in discomfort over the years whenever we have come to those two sections in Acts that explain how the early Christians tended to pool all their resources so that everybody had something to eat. Of course we wouldn't have wanted anyone to starve to death, but we're troubled by the politics! You know what I mean: "Are these guys socialists are what?" Everybody knows they would have been better off to find a capitalistic solution to their problem! Really, has anything good ever come out of a commune?

This discomfort with socialism probably explains an interesting phenomenon. Whenever we conservatives come to Acts 2: 42-47 or 4: 32-35, we always leap to the topic of unity. These Christians were united in heart and mind; they were united by shared purpose. But there is a blinding light shining out of these passages that we refuse to see.

Throughout the gospels, Christ uses one particular story format over and over again in his parables. Time again he speaks of a wealthy land owner who goes on a journey, leaving a trusted servant to manage his entire estate. Whenever he finally returns, there is always a time of accounting. There is a simple reason why Christ spins so many story lines around this scenario: he is teaching that everything we have belongs to God, and we have simply been entrusted with the task of managing God's wealth. Christ was teaching his followers to hold their possessions lightly, realizing it was all from God's treasury and for his purposes.

The Christians in Acts represent the first generation of believers challenged with living out this radical worldview. And what do they do? Do they give a tenth to the church and spend everything else they earn on themselves and their families? To the contrary, Acts 4:32 explains, "Not a man among them claimed any of his possessions as his own, but everything was held in common..."

We tend to ask, "What were these people- socialists?" The simple answer is "No, they weren't socialists. They were followers of Jesus." There is a more relevant question that often goes unasked by the capitalistic materialists of today's church: "If those guys were real Christians, what are we?"

The Kids Would Prefer Gitmo

2009-04-29T15:18:00.000-04:00

This week, Kathleen Sibelius was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. While serving as Governor of Kansas, Mrs. Sibelius strongly supported abortion rights and her campaign was funded by abortion providers. Earlier this year, she vetoed the 2009 Late Term and Partial Birth Abortion Regulation Act. The law would have reduced the number of abortions in Kansas and would have eliminated Partial Birth Abortions.

Her nomination to this cabinet position sailed right through with few protests and very little emotional hand wringing. I’ve got to confess, I'm confused. How can late term abortions get a pass from people who are outraged and offended by interrogation techniques used on terrorists?

As I understand it, partial birth abortion is a grotesque and appalling procedure. The doctor removes the infant’s torso from the birth canal leaving only the head inside. A pair of scissors are inserted into the base of the skull, opened and twisted to create a larger opening. Then a suction device is used to remove the infant’s brain. The dead body is then incinerated.

By contrast, the methods of torture which have created such a sensation at Guantanamo include sleep deprivation, loud noises, and being placed in a small space with an insect. As tough as water boarding sounds, it was always about the illusion of being drowned. Scissors and death were never a factor.

I’ve heard many Americans demand that “torture” or “aggressive interrogation” must be banned even if it does save lives. This argument insists that saving thousands of American lives could never outweigh the principle that America is too civilized to torture enemy combatants. Meanwhile, in order to allow one woman to return to work and escape the inconvenience of pregnancy, we permit an unborn infant to be torn apart with scissors and suction devices. Where's the humanity? Does our milk of human kindness nurture only those people who want to kill us?

Just imagine the lives that could be saved if only we could find a way to apply the Geneva Convention to unborn babies! There is no doubt that what happens at Gitmo is far more humane and civilized than what happens in your local abortion clinic. Call it Abu Ghraib for Tots- without the chance of survival. Where's the outrage indeed?

The Sleeping Giant Woke up and Got Saved

2009-04-20T16:11:00.001-04:00

Newsweek's recent cover story, "The Rise and Fall of Christian America," produced quite a bit of handwringing among American Christians. "Can it really be true?" we wondered. "And if it is true, what will become of the rest of the world?"

The bad news is that the Christianity in the USA is truly a pale shadow of its former self. The good news is that Jesus Christ is doing a victory march around the rest of the world! Think about these statistics, for example:

The Christian Church imay be the largest church in China or the world. It's true the Chinese government numbers the church at only 16 million, but that's just the "registered" Christians in state churches. It has been suggested that there are more than 6,000 illegal churches meeting in homes in Beijing alone. People in the know estimate there are between 35 million to 150 million Christians worshipping in house churches across the mainland!
In Africa, Christian churches have become so prevalent and so powerful that it won't be long before they are sending missionaries back to Post-Christian America! In Kampala, Uganda, for instance, Kampala Pentecostal not only draws thousands to worship on Sundays, but cares for hundreds or AIDS/HIV orphans in several locations around the city. Churches like this are legion in Africa.
Across Latin America and South America, revivals are sweeping whole cities. The Pentecostal fire that is burning in these nations is in sharp contrast to the traditional Catholicism which was dominant for so long.

Gone are the days when the USA was the global center for the Christian Faith. That position of influence is rapidly shifting to the African continent. While we were busy making peace with the culture, they were determined to preach the Word in season and out. A generation later, they are enjoying revival. And here in America, atheists now outnumber Episcopalians.

Frankly, the fact that we still think of ourselves as "American" Christians reveals how earth bound and parochial we are. When you and I come to accept the Scriptural truth that we are all citizens of Heaven; when that becomes our highest allegiance; we will realize we are part of the African Church and the Asian Church as well. We all belong to the True Church of Jesus Christ. We are all brothers, sisters and joint heirs!

And when we do finally realize our highest allegiance is to Christ, perhaps we can finally stop worshipping Success and Self. At a moment like that, we might begin to experience True Repentance. And who knows? God might smile and pour out revival on the paralyzed and unconscious part of his family living in America. Selah.

Define Love

2009-04-15T08:34:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday's sermon came from the closing verses of Romans 12. Paul explains that we should love our enemies to the extent that we actually pray for God's blessings on those who persecute us. The idea is central to the Gospel because, as Paul explains elsewhere, Christ died for us while we were still his enemies. To my surprise, this core idea generated quite a bit of debate and discussion after worship.

One of my friends asked, "But how am I supposed to love Al Qaeda?" Another was more precise: "What is intended by the word 'love?' Does God want me to love my enemy the way I love my brother or my wife?" I didn't even have to speculate. The Bible clearly answers that question.

Christ summarized the Ten Commandments of the an Old Covenant into two principles for the New Testament: love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Notice that I am not commanded to love any other human being the way I love my wife or my brother. My love for God must be whole hearted, but I am only required to love my neighbor the way I love myself.

Think about it: I never find myself overcome with affection and emotion when I stand before a mirror to brush my hair or knot my tie. I have never tried to hug myself in appreciation, exulting, "I love me!" That's not the way most of us love ourselves.

I have feelings of warmth and appreciation for my family, my friends, and some relatives.
I experience positive emotions when I am around people who treated me with kindness.
But I'm not that excited about me. Nevertheless, I feed myself, clothe myself and forgive myself even when I have done seriously regrettable things. I pray for myself even when I am not happy with myself- especially when I'm not happy with myself.

That's the way God directs me to love my enemies and people who try to persecute me. I don't have to enjoy them, have affection for them, or tell them they look fabulous. Rather, I must show them kindness, treat them with courtesy, help them if I can, and pray for God to help them. I don't try to harm them anymore than I would try and harm myself. I tolerate myself and make sure my needs are met.

I don't seek revenge because I trust my Heavenly Father to be a righteous judge. He will ultimately balance the scales. He will surely pursue justice. His righteousness and faithfulness allow me enough space to do something supernatural- pray for people who would like to destroy me. Nobody ever said it would be easy.

Finally, An Honest TV Commercial

2009-04-07T20:33:00.000-04:00

Only in TV Land can a plastic bottle of Axe bodywash transform a nerdy adolescent into a chick magnet. There among the klieg lights, computer generated effects and make-up artists, anything can happen. Sugary cereals build muscle for Olympic athletes, and driving a Buick makes an insurance salesman feel like Tiger Woods. Warning kids: Don't try these tricks at home!

No thinking person actually believes the hype in those costly thirty-second messages, but that's not even important. Televised images cut directly to your subconscious where associations are made and deals are settled without your conscious involvement. That's what makes the medium so powerful. And that's what makes those Hulu commercials so sinister.

You know about Hulu- the website that broadcasts network TV shows after they air in prime time. Edgy commercials feature Alec Baldwin boasting that the rumors are true: TV really does rot your brain! It's a plot concocted by aliens who have infiltrated the planet. Their plan is to take over the planet, one gelatinized brain at a time. Everyone laughs and the regularly scheduled program returns.

It's probably not a plot cooked up by body snatching aliens, but the funny message is accurate. Watching television is corrosive- and not only to our brains, but our character. Think about it:

Abe Lincoln forged his character splitting logs, and trained his mind by reading books by the light of a fireplace. Do you really think watching the Simpsons and Dancing with the Stars would accomplish the same results in an Abe Lincoln today?
The typical American can identify Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Simon Cowell. That same average citizen cannot name the Vice President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or his own congressman. Which kind of knowledge is more important?
Fifty years ago, high school students studied maps and passed geography exams. Today's kids never look at a map because they can watch reality TV contestants race around exotic locales. They remember the contestants but recall nothing about the cities, the countries, the locations.
A generation ago, families ate meals together and neighbors got together for social events and friendship building. Today we simply collapse into recliners aimed at giant TV screens, and never see our neighbors. Teen-agers actually get together with their friends to watch DVDs on TV screens.

A large share of Americans confess they get most of their news from monologues by Jay Leno and David Letterman. Never mind that comedians aren't trying to be fair or accurate. Their goal is to cop an attitude and get a laugh. But tens of thousands of Americans are making decisions about politics and policies based on hip attitudes and punch lines.

Television sells image, hedonism, materialism, and immediate gratification. And there's a reason those Super Bowl commercials are so expensive: most of them work. Americans used to value self-control. Today we live for self-indulgence. Granted, the problem is bigger than just TV. Life in America has become an outrageous three ring circus of debauchery. But TV is the ringmaster who tells us what to watch.

We all know we need to do something about this. Unfortunately, this drug piped directly into our homes is also addictive. "I'll think about this later," we resolve, "After Letterman!"

For a Limited Time Only

2009-03-31T16:09:00.000-04:00

Not long ago I noticed an advertisement for a very unusual clock. It doesn't tell you the time. Rather, based on the year of your birth and your age, it tells you how many days you have left on the planet. That number of days is an average of course! Your actual departure might come sooner or later. But the clock reminds us all that our career on Earth is not open ended.

Moses knew that. He wrote, "Teach us, O Lord, to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom." [Psalm 90:12]

It's instructive to recall that Moses lived out most of his days in some pretty brutal settings. Forty years were spent in the brutal Sinai wilderness working as a shepherd. And his final forty years played out in the same region, this time as the leader of a stubborn bunch of nomads! (And you and I complain about having to deal with irritating co-workers in air conditioned offices!)

I mention that fact because many of us are fairly dissatisfied with this particular moment of history where our calendars have been placed. We've been watching this economic cycle grow deeper and more unsettling for nearly a year now. Still there's no end in sight! And there are heated debates raging at the highest levels of government about what must be done.

It's tempting in anxious moments like these to place our lives "on hold." It's hard to maintain a postive attitude. It's hard to think about anything else. It's easy to complain and swap headlines about the latest conundrum facing the world.

But here's what I keep saying to myself: "You're life isn't really on hold." The fact is that my days are numbered in a very real sense, and the pages of the calendar are still turning. Sure, some days are happier than others, but all days are equal in value. What's more, difficult days are generally the most productive ones for ministering to others and helping people in darkness see the light. So you and I don't have time to waste waiting on better news.

We already have the Good News, and that kind of news already has a market. People are more spiritually hungry today than they were even a year ago. And the only way you and I will receive a fresh batch of better days is by trading in the ones we already have. So don't trade them in. Use them. Stop looking for a break, and start looking for broken hearts.

That's what Paul means when he tells us to redeem the time for the days are evil. The idea is that I must be intentional about making the most of every day, especially when the circumstances are bleak.

He's Just Not That Into You: Part 2

2009-03-25T15:25:00.000-04:00

We've been thinking about this peculiar phenomenon that has surfaced in the US Church since we "rediscovered" God is love (and selfishness is spiritual.) It has become a sort of fashion statement to express solidarity with all kinds of sinful human beings. Trendy believers take pride in their ability to love Islamic terrorists; to sympathize with condemned serial killers; to laugh heartily at blasphemous jokes from jaded Hollywood celebrities.

It seems we can supernaturally love anybody in the world except some of our fellow saints in the Church of Jesus Christ. For those who are more conservative than us- or more liberal than us- or less sophisticated than us, it seems we have absolutely no milk of human kindness. This is all the more frustrating when we recall that Christ explained the way the world would know us would be through our love for one another. Loving other Christians- even the ones different from me- is the trademark that proves I belong to Christ.

You know the drill: Jesus loves the whole sinful world, but He's just not that into you. That must be why I am excused from loving you.

We envision reaching the whole world with the amazing love of Christ, but our outreach committee is locked in battle over how to spend the $1,000 advertising budget.
I constantly point to the gentle way Jesus dealt with sinners, but I can't say a kind word about one of our ministers who doesn't share my take on Reformed Theology.
I am convinced that I would gladly be burned at the stake in order to advance the Gospel, but I am completely unwilling to apologize to another church member who was offended by a remark I made in passing.

Just think how much more exciting the Spanish Inquisition could have been had Torquemada been able to use e-mail. Religious rumors, gossip, and out of context comments could have spread faster than the speed of light. And just think how many more fanatics could have been enflamed by Facebook rants! Today we fire off passionate messages via e-mail and press the "Send" button without ever weighing our words or the impact they could have if misunderstood or read with the wrong inflection. I have a feeling that online communication has probably increased anger and division in most churches by 20% or more!

I cringe when I hear concerned church friends begin a sentence with "Bless her heart,..." because it promises to finish with something like "she couldn't shut her mouth if you held her at gunpoint!" The love of Christ takes no delight in heaping scorn on brothers and sisters, even when the insult in framed as a faux-blessing.

You and I can't fix the whole church. But I can work on me. And you can work on you. And when we're together, we can hold each other accountable for living for Christ and loving his peeps. Just a thought...

He's Just Not That Into You

2009-03-17T17:24:00.000-04:00

You would think we are the first generation of Christians to discover that we worship a God of love. We are endlessly reminded that we must not be judgmental. It is forbidden that we should ever think harshly of non-Christian people just because of their sexual habits or their philosophy or the way they dress.

So we receive these constant reminders that we should preach less and love more. God loves abortionists. God loves homosexuals. God loves Hugh Hefner, Hugo Chavez, the Dali Lama, Islamic terrorists, etc., etc., etc.

Of course all that stuff is true. Jesus came to love sinners into the Kingdom of God. If that was His modus operandi, it’s the way we should work as well. But I’m thinking that some of us who have adopted this message are still missing the point. That is, you can love Hugh, Hugo, Charles Manson and Madonna, and still fail the test.

Jesus taught, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples- that you love one another.” He was talking to his closest friends in the budding church. The trademark of the Church is the way we love each other. John later asked, “If you can’t love someone you have seen, how can you be so sure you love someone you’ve never seen?” He was talking about claiming we love God, but it also applies to "the lost world."

If everybody is now enlightened that God is a God love, when are we going to show Him that we are a Church of Love? When are we going to move beyond admiration for the world’s sophisticates and begin to love the world’s unsophisticates- other Christians? You know- the ones with ties too short; the ones who say "Jee-zus;" the ones who spend too much time talking about "sin" and "sin nature." Those guys!

I just finished yet another tender book dedicated to the ideal that God is loving and laid back. Chapter after chapter mentions all the individuals and demographic groups Christians must “get over and start loving.” But when I finally made my way to the last chapter, I discovered the author has absolutely no love for the “fundamentalist extremists” who are hi-jacking the church “like Muslim extremists have taken over Islam!”

That’s not very loving is it? What does it say when I can love everybody on the planet except people in the Church who see the Bible as more demanding than I do? Is it loving- or even accurate- to compare law abiding Christians to suicide bombers and masked men who chop off the heads of innocents? Other Christian critics don't use the term terrorists, but they label conservative Christians as haters, hypocrites, Pharisees and losers. Sure, Jesus criticized the Pharisees, but were they Christians? And their problem: was it the lack of love, or was it the absence of faith? Christ died for them anyway.

This is a problem for more of us than just some fashionable Christian writers who lust for the approval of the world. Rejecting and resenting other Christians is a cancer that has spread through the ranks of the Church. Is this really a biblical response to other believers: Jesus died for the world, but he’s just not that into you?

Out’a space. I’ll finish this next week. Selah.