I would die for it

Amazing story of faith. Three pastors beheaded this week. They would not recant their faith or give Allah glory. Zip, crack, headless. Swift and over. Not mega church pastors or famous authors, but poor, Nigerian Christians, doing their faith, obedient, sold out.

What are you willing to die for? Bill Hybels said, he’d die for his grandson, as he held him in his arms. His thoughts immediately went to the starving children around the world. He had a Jesus moment.

15,000,000 (fifteen million. 15 million, that’s Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, San Diego, Philadelphia and Houston combined) children will die of starvation this year! Could the financial world give up their millions of bonus dollars for them? Could I just give up $1,000.00? What could I do? (More world hunger stats)

Football season is almost here. Can you sponsor a football party to end world hunger? Can you invite the guys and their wives over raise money for World Vision, Bread for the World, your local food bank, etc.? Your obedience to Jesus the Lord and Christ will shine through!

How much can we do? How much do we need to spend on ourselves?

Check out this story on www.kiva.org. A naive 20 something woman started a micro-lending machine, not impersonal, but you get the story, the reality, the need and the joy of nearly a 0% default rate! Millions of dollars to change lives. Her commitment to Christ shines through.

Good African Coffee. 50% of proceeds go back to the Ugandan farmers. Farmers need trade not just aid. The founder’s faith in the Lord Jesus shines through!

Who are we to think we deserve so much? Because “…he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
2 Corinthians 8:8-10

Why So Much Spiritual Deadness in Our Church

Tim Keller at Willow Creek Leadership Conference 09

I have the key to Spiritual renewal…I’m a sucker for people who say that.

What shocks us as ministers is the spiritual deadness in our congregations. A tiny number do all the work. Much spiritual indifference, backbiting, the critical spirit, pride, etc. we are so desperate to get a good idea. Lack of spiritual vitality is still the main problem. We don’t have the problem who can’t or won’t do it. I’m going to give you at my best shot of my diagnosis of what that deadness exists of that is not too vague. It’s too programmatic or organizational development.

Parable of prodigal son: prodigal = recklessly extravagant, prodigious. Spurgeon called it Prodigal love for the Prodigal Son. The parable is not for younger brother types. In Luke 15 at the beginning, the religious people and the sinners surround Jesus. The Pharisees notice that Jesus is hanging out with sinners. Then, Jesus told three parables to them, the Pharisees and religious people. Inside you have two figures, the sinner and the religious people. The last part of the parable is about the older brother to address us in the church, moral people, not the irreligious or immoral.

2. Main point in the parable is shocking in that both are alienated from the father, who represents God. Both are alienated from the father’s heart, lost and need an invitation in. they younger brother just wants the fathers money. He lives any way he wants, but by the end of the parable, the elder brother doesn’t love the father, even on the greatest day of the father’s life, because he is upset over how the money is spent! Both love the Father’s things but not the Father. Younger gets money by being bad. Elder tries to get money by staying home and being compliant and good. He says, “I’ve never disobeyed you!” Two ways of trying to control you own life: bad or moralistic. God has to answer my prayers, respect me and take me to heaven. Jesus might be his inspiration or example, or helper, but not his savior. He is his own savior. Two ways of being your own savior and reject God. The other brother claims he is with God. I stayed home and am doing everything you want. Underneath is no difference. The shocking ending is that the good brother does not come into the feast. The bad boy is saved and the good boy is lost, not in spite of his goodness but because of his goodness. The reason he rejects the father is because he has never disobeyed the father. I am so mad and licentiate because he has been so good and you are not doing what I want you to do.

The gospel is not morality or immorality.

Religion operates on the principle of obey and get acceptance. Gospel operates on accepting what Jesus has done for me therefore I obey. Motive. Spirit. Different results. Obey to get things. God is a means to an end. OR God gives us a righteous record and then I live for him. Everything a rational being could ever want is yours at the moment you believe. Granted eternal life and the knowledge of his delight in you, the only one in the whole universe that matters. Gospel people obey to get more of God, not his thins. Want to resemble God and delight in God to get more of him.

The source of spiritual deadness. Elder brothers through their efforts to obey and do good, want leverage over god and have self-righteousness over others and insecure inside of themselves, and functionally with God they are basing their relationship on performance. Self-centeredness, pride, backbiting. No growth in the fruit of the spirit. The fault of our heart is religion and we don’t really believe the gospel. The marks of spiritual deadness are that they get incredibly angry when their life doesn’t go well. Discouragement, yes. Sadness, yes, but they believe god owes them so anger at God. My leverage over him did not work. You don’t really believe the gospel so there is a spiritual deadness in your life.

How do you respond to criticism? Either counters attack because reputation is being a good person so very foundation of your life is at stake so we melt down or melt someone else down. You don’t believe you are sinner saved by grace.

Prayer: elder brothers pray, a lot. But are petitionary prayers. When things are going bad we do a lot, but one thing almost never do is just enjoy God, not much contemplation, adoration, meditation. It is impossible for elder brothers to not loathe other people. You have to despise other people who are lazy. If your self-image is based on the right doctrine, not on right doctrine is about, hard working, you will loathe people who disagree with you. Elder brothers are filled with loathing

Elder brothers can’t forgive. Anger is right normal and natural. But you can’t stay angry with someone unless you feel superior. Bitterness is a sign of power looking down on others who can’t see your goodness so you condemn others.

So many people!!

Two things must be done: a new level of repentance and a new level of rejoicing.

Pharisees were sorry and repented, but they were still Pharisees. They were even more pharisaical because they would say, “look how much I’ve repented!” it’s not repenting for your wrong doing but repenting for your right doing. You are trying to get control over other, your own life, leverage over god, feeling superior over others. Unless you can’t repent for your right doing there will not be renewal. You cannot get right with God because of your damnable good works. You think you are doing God a favor by following him. You must get down to that deeper level of repentance to break through to a new level of rejoicing and renewal.

Prodigal son typical moral is to repent and god receives you back. But you know that is just one more thing for us to do! We need to be moved by what it cost to bring the young man home! The cost to the father was huge. His estate was half gone. Every robe and ring, fatted calf and party belonged to the elder brother. So he brought him back at the expense of the elder brother. Elder brother didn’t want to do it. Oldest son’s job was to keep the family together. If he were a true older brother he would have gone out to get the younger brother like the good shepherd. The young man didn’t have an older brother but a Pharisee. But you do!

The father can only bring us back at the expense of the older brother. Who is that? The elder brother must save us not just by money but also with his life. He can clothe us with his robe because he gave it up on the cross. He can give us the cup of joy because Jesus drank the cup of wrath. When you are moved to the depths to see what it cost to bring you home you are cleansed of your self righteousness, and gives you a security that you do not need to do anything for God’s favor.

Practical: 50% of your elder brother needs to be squeezed out right now. Deeper repenting and deeper rejoicing to destroy the spiritual deadness. Showing people that gospel is not religion or irreligion, morality or immorality but a third way.

Young people are so demoralized by the gospel because it is not just living the way they want nor is it legalism but a third way. When you ask people to ask Jesus into your heart they think you are asking them to live like Jesus. Unless you thread the needle like I’ve described you cannot get spiritual renewal.

1. The leader must get this in my heart myself. Why am I trying so hard to help people? For me. We need to show that through faith alone! Don’t go into the ministry to save your soul. Now, I know. That’s what I do because I live and die by my attendance. My self-regard is bound up in numbers and overwork. Why criticism kills you. It’s not going after your ministry but your salvation. Experience personal yourself.

2. If you are a preacher or a teacher, when you communicate move beyond biblical principles to the gospel. We don’t give our money, as we should because we don’t see we have spiritual riches so money will stop becoming our salvation or our sign of righteousness. We need to give to take people to the gospel. We believe the gospel more deeply today so we can give our money away. God leads me beside still waters and green pastures. Go and trust him like that???? I have trouble trusting him like that. So, never end the teaching without talking about the one who thirsted or wasn’t allowed to lie down in green pastures but was killed on a cross. He was forsaken! He was tortured so you can see that your sins are always covered, and we bring the gospel to the heart rather than pounding the will.

3. Leaders together and take them through the Prodigal God and DVD. Do not treat it like a class.

4. Work it in your congregation the slow way, with your leaders taking it to the people in your congregation or you can do the whole church at once. If you do all that you will see these differences. You will have gracious disagreements. Most people would leave. We have gracious differences, and we are still happy on our own. Religious people come and say that they weren’t really Christians. Pray for this. John Newton: Thou art coming as a king…Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.

–Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare: by John Newton

Porn Again

Real guys have huge sex drives. Unfortunately, we Christians don’t like to talk about it, thus, no practical advice, and many, many frustrated men and women men have hurt. The church has become an institution for the effeminate (see the book, “Why Men Hate Going to Church“) denying the facts we all know are so true about men’s libido’s, which, by the way, are part of God’s creation, in his image (now there’s a thought to explore in Rob Bell’s book, “The Sex God“) So, thanks to Mark Driscoll, a free book is available. Men beware! It’s not soft on us, but there’s hope. We need practical advice. Download it! Pass it out. An army Chaplain friend has given it to forty of his men.

Make Sense Out of Life

In one Cell group this week we studied 1 Corinthian 7 and in another the little letter to the slave owner, Philemon. Both studies revealed the practical nature of grace. In 1 Corinthians 7, sex is the issue. In Philemon, forgiving a major theft and violation of criminal law is at issue. Sex and forgiveness. I’ll bet we never see a TV show by that title! Paul was helping new believers make sense out of life.

After watching “Everything is Spiritual” last Sunday night, I realized how easy it is to forget that everything is spiritual. We create grace waves that swim through our networks, or we perpetuate offenses and crap. When Obama invited a couple of dueling personalities, the cop and the Harvard prof, for a couple of beers, he admitted that some things didn’t make sense except around a casual, friendly conversation.

Madonna has run to Kaballah. It made sense out of everything, she said. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. George Harrison, of the Beatles, said the same about music,  “I’ll give up this sort of touring madness certainly, but music-everything is based on music. No, I’ll never stop my music.”

Yet, even knowing everything is spiritual, one cannot make total sense of this world. Harrison retreated into a world of drugs and alcohol his entire life. Madonna is rich and famous, but her problems are still with her. In “Everything is Spiritual,” Rob Bell pointed out the fights between different theological camps as examples, and God looks at both and says, “Yep!”  As Christians we can only make sense out of life when we see a Jesus, who is Savior and Lord. Donald Miller writes in “Searching for God Knows What,” “It wasn’t until I read the gospels that Christianity made sense. As surprising as it sounds, Jesus saved my faith!” Today, find some sense.

Christian String Theory

The vows I took as a husband to Rhonda 24 years ago on Aug. 24, 1985 seemed doable. For some reason, we memorized the vows. Seemed repeating them after Pastor Sherwin was a little too much of him and not enough of the romance, our eyes locked romantically, lips moving, hearts burning with joy at those binding words. The rub? I bumbled my vows and left out “for richer, for poorer.” Does that mean I am exempt on that one?

The last four weeks, Rhonda’s been sick, coughing so hard her neck is sore and she has a strained rib. She’s slept in another room for a week so that I could sleep without her barking next to me thinking Armegeddon was close. Our second trip to the doctor proved she had pneumonia, a little spot of crackling in one of her lower right lobes. She starts antibiotics today. If they work, which they will, she’s cough free this week! If they don’t…

Our story is small. Take Mary and Charles, friends, elders, fellow Journeyites. Mary has nursed Charles back to health over the last five weeks. It was touch and go for a while from his infection. He’s been weak. She has trouble sleeping. They were in church for the first time in four Sundays last night. They’ve been married 28 years. They brim with love and thankfulness together. A beaming, emotional, Charles stood last night to thank everyone for praying, and especially the Wednesday night Cell Group for spending an evening with them at their home. “O the bliss that fills my soul!”

Our friends Marge and Eddie, in Florida, have suffered through Marge’s marriage-long hip injury and wheelchair dependency. Eddie dutifully, and usually, joyfully, moves the wheelchair in and out of the car, up and down curbs and bends his will to hers to get stuff for her. They’ve been married at least thirty years. Duty and love, serving and sickness.

Scott and Linda, in Muskegon, MI, old High School friends, keep us posted on her cancer treatment and various repercussions. The pain and anxiety plow through the optical fibers to friends on Facebook, garnishing typed words of encouragement and prayer for all to see.

Some marriages don’t survive these sicknesses. In these sicknesses, pressure for intimacy and the carefree romantic life, tiptoeing through the tulips, drives people insane for normalcy. The stress destroys frivolity…and possibly fidelity.

On the other hand, something else emerges, something grand and deep. A power creeps in, seeps in, overpowers in the night, or after day seven, or in the middle of an emergency room visit. That power isn’t a hope that intimacy will be met or a resolution is near. The emerging power is like a sweeping mist overtaking the surface of a deep, clear lake. Soon, the lover is in an envelope of mist, a power from outside, a shortening of sight to what is close at hand. A job must be done. A person is in need. Focus. Care. Help. Serve. Listen. The options are cut. The romantic notion of friendship dies. Now, thin misty threads of true love form, spidery strings, sticky and strong, powerful, to buckle down, to save the one closest to you.

I’ve seen it. I’ve tasted it. That mist is sweet. The bonds are stronger. The vows held, “in sickness and in health,” and we are ready to face the onslaught to our other vows, but together, strength in numbers, two can chase a hundred, where in sickness, one is bound in deep, misty love to lonely serving.

Praise God, Mary and Charles! Hang on Scott and Linda! Be strong, Dale and Joann! Stay the course, Shelby and Dave! Focus, Tom and Rhonda!

“Finally, these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love!” 1 Cor. 13

“Christ’s love compels us.” 2 Cor. 5:14

Big Chicken Witnessing

Why did the rooster cross the road? Because he wasn’t chicken.

What do we say when we witness? Three times this week in our cell groups this topic was discussed. I’m going to try to flesh out what happens in witnessing.

In a word, witnessing is discernment. Some people don’t want to talk to us about religious things so we must be discerning and gracious. We don’t know what another person believes so we have to ask and ask and ask. Many Christians can’t articulate what the gospel is, and all of us must continually probe the depths of all that the gospel brings. Thus, the gospel must be discerned.
Discernment also takes place during the conversation. Unfortunately, most of us are more concerned with being heard! Most Christian witnessing tools emphasize what we must say. Thus, Christians are afraid to witness because “I don’t know very much!” What we are afraid of is the fact that other people might find holes in our beliefs or knowledge, but don’t we want to get stronger in faith? Don’t we want our holes to be filled? Don’t we want more of the power of the gospel at work in our lives?
Most people are not good discerners or listeners in conversation! We match story for story, belief for belief, and sickness for sickness. More excitingly and more satisfying is the listening and asking questions approach. Unfortunately, we have to suspend our own stories and beliefs, deny our egocentrism and our need to be loved and heard. People have so many interesting life events and faith histories when I actually listen for them. I’m fascinated by the assumptions people make about Christianity so I ask people how they came to these assumptions.

Some atheists are believers and don’t know it! They speak more about God than some believers. They know what God isn’t like because they believe that their God wouldn’t act in certain ways or make them do certain things. Some atheists know more about the Bible and the gospel than church people. I’m almost always amazed at how much thought and study some of my unbelieving friends have put into their beliefs.

But don’t be intimidated. Ask more questions. We might be afraid of looking foolish because we don’t know what the other person knows, but that’s a little like not going to the doctor because he might give us bad news. Witnessing is going to help us to know what we are supposed to know. Witnessing helps us discern what we know and what we don’t. Thank people for their honesty, their study and thought and their discussion. You’ve been helped by it.

Discernment about the gospel means we must discern and believe in our deepest self that the evidence is true. The gospel must be discerned in a nutshell. What are we believing and asking people to believe? Paul does a nutshell presentation for the Corinthians (and for us!) in 1 Cor. 15:1-7. The core of the good news (the gospel) is that “Christ died according to the scripture, he was buried and he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures.” Every word of that phrase has to be unpacked. All the projections into life must be discerned. Before we can so boldly say religious sounding phrases to people, we must have discerned the power of this core message of the gospel. Paul is so sure of this he says, “This is the gospel!” We must know and say this to people! Several pastors in my life in the last few months have confirmed that without an excitement about this gospel there is no witnessing. It’s simple isn’t it? the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus? That’s it. That’s the gospel. This is what we believe or reject!

Discernment means we move from the known to the unknown to know, i.e. to discern. Witnessing is starting where we are, jumping into unknown territory so that because we are on a mission of discernment, we have more confirmation of what we have believed. Paul says to Philemon, “I want you to be active in sharing your faith so that you may know every good thing you have in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus, Born in the Land of Adultery

Reading and studying Hosea with our Tuesday night group, I realized at the end of the study that the visual illustration God wanted the people to see extended into the future to Jesus. In Hosea 1, God asks Hosea to marry an adulterous woman (prostitute). They have three children together named, “Scattered,” “Not Loved,” and “Not My People.” The people of the Northern ten tribes, Israel, are told that God no longer loves them nor wants them. He is no longer their God. The three children visually demonstrate God’s severing of ties with Israel. Everytime Hosea, Gomer, his wife, and all within earshot, heard the names of the children being called to supper were reminded that God was done and finished with loving these adulterous people.

But in verse 10 he switches gears to give some hope! “One day you will be united with Judah as one people. and one leader will come from you and will raise you up from the land!” After the Assyrians, Babylonians, Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great and finally the Romans terrorized and raped the land of Israel in succession, our GREAT GOD fulfilled his pledge to Israel, his bastard child of adultery. (I know this sounds so ungodly and strong, but get the picture God is painting for his people, ok?) Jesus came to earth, born in Bethlehem of Judea, the southern kingdom, but Jesus  lived in Nazareth of Galilee, part of the Northern ten tribes of Israel (part of Naphtali or Manasseh?)! What the people destroyed and divided because of their adultery with idols God reunited by sending his son. There’s more.

Hosea again predicts the miraculous coming of Christ by saying, “In the place where it was said to them,  ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” Jesus, born in the “land of adultery” did more than reunify north and south. He “gave them the right to be called ‘children of God’,  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13 It was said in those days that nothing good could come out of Galilee. The stench of their curse lingered through the centuries. But God prophetically spoke into existence the power to be called, once again, sons and daughters of the living God, through Jesus!

Hosea concludes the opening prophecy with this powerful resolution: Hos. 2:1    “Say of your brothers,  ‘My people,’ and of your sisters,  ‘My loved one.’ Such is the power of God to reach into something he himself cast away as evil and redeem it for himself. There is hope for all of us!

Leadership Pepper

Winston Churchill and his only bodyguard, Walter Thompson

You made ‘em giddy up, Joe. How you got thirty folks to follow you to Or-gun with only a horse, side arm and a rifle makes me think you was a great leader, Joe!

Naw, not really, Hoss. I just did my job to get them folks a new home in Or-gun.

Joe, not many of us followed you, but you got us all there safe and sound. We will be forever grateful to you for leading the wagon train. We did have a few scares, like that one over the Missou-rah River. Lost two wagons and six oxen, but you kept us goin’.

The way I remember it, Hoss, you doused me with some peppery words ‘‘bout keepin’’ on and ‘don’t let the folks down now by quittin’’. I don’t think I could have rode another mile without that pepper shakin’ you give me.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ah, leadership. Some mysterious mix of qualities that can smack of arrogance and self adulation, but comes off as confidence and charisma. The good leaders just do a job and some folks come along to help. Great leaders need pepperin’ once in a while.
Winston Churchill’s body guard, Walter Thompson, guarded the British bulldog for 38 years. He knew more state secrets than anyone other than Churchill, but he also knew the depressions and insecurities of that great leader. He gave countless pepperings of encouragement to keep going, to get out of bed and even to get dressed. Who would have known that such a relationship was such a huge asset to such a great world leader?

And the amazing thing is that the great Winston Churchill listened to his “lowly” bodyguard!

Leaders never go the distance alone. Great leaders have great leaders around them. Great leaders help others to be great leaders. The best organizations have people willing to pepper their boss and keep on going themselves. What may look like confidence and charisma covers an anxious load of self doubt and insecurity. Ask anyone who has ever lead anything!

Demonstration of the Spirit’s Power

Paul said to the Corinthians, “I did not come with persuasive words or eloquence, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” Oh, how we need to know what he meant! How we need to see the demonstration in transformations and wonders explained only by the Spirit’s and gospel’s power!

I saw the power at summer camp. Singing around the campfire, slapping mosquitos, looking intently at the dancing flames, faces glowing, the darkness looming behind, no one strong enough to look at each other. We waited for the spirit to move, someone to stand, someone to break into tears, convicted, wanting to follow Jesus. Just a few minutes before campfire we were kicking and stomping each other, but the Spirit moved, we all knew campfire was life or death. God massaged our teenage hearts and we all vowed undying love and devotion to Him. 12 year old boys stood, stammered out, “I’m going to go home and talk to my mom about Jesus,” break into tears, and fall back to his seat, with the other boys and a counselor patting his back, and the rest of us clapping and cheering. We sang with moxie, “I have Decided to Follow Jesus….No turning back, no turning back.”

I stood, too. I meant it. I knew I was so imperfect, a sinner, and I still know that! I committed myself to serving Christ, and I meant it! I still do, but in those days of the Viet Nam war, and missionary slide shows, I saw myself in a jungle with a machete, leeches sucking on my thighs and a Bible hanging by my side. “No turning back!” The Spirit’s power demonstrated!

At Apostle Johnny Washington’s tent meeting in Jamaica, Brooklyn in 1978, I saw the Spirit move. Shaking and jivin’, stuttering in tongues, twirling, falling over, money flowing to the front, the Spirit’s power came all over everyone but  two white boys in the front row. This 20 year old white boy didn’t feel the demonstration of the Spirit’s power, but I saw it. My inner city friends lived it, and loved me, changed me!

I preached to the seagulls on the shores of Lake Huron once while in college. I preached through the book of Philippians. I was in tears I was so in the Spirit.

I stuck myself in the quietest, most lonely place near campus during college, the local cemetery, just so I could get a demonstration of the Holy Spirit. Reading Colossians 1 and 2 out loud in the dark by a family’s crypt just about gave me a heart attack of the good kind as the Spirit washed over me, reminding me of the God who was Jesus whose death on the cross ridiculed the powers that stood against me. I was a changed man! I was full of the Spirit, full of life, running as fast as I could, studying Biology and all the sciences, but the joy of the Spirit’s power slaughtered any notion anything else in life was close to equal.

About ten years ago, I was in our small Presbyterian church in Canada near our cottage. A guest preacher, about 110 years old was speaking. I expected nothing great, but he was full of the Spirit. He loved God and it showed. As he spoke the Spirit’s power washed over me. I knew God’s love, his power, and full of life, I began to weep–NOT in a Presbyterian church! He spoke with quiet passion about a personal God who was my God, and I knew that God’s power was changing, transforming 40 year old me.

The Corinthians were enamored by the pompous rhetoric of its philosophers and religious logicians. They were enamored by all the glory of the temple beauty and, bluntly, sexual liberties. The polished preachers and the sexual libertarians were winning the hearts of the Corinthian Christians. Ecstasy washed away the message of the resurrection. Paul reminded them the source of life and power was in Christ, in His Spirit.

We Americans are enamored by the glitter of gold, sex and the trappings of success, but the Spirit’s power is where? As my good friend Charles always says, “every pastor must have a button on his ego labeled “build”.” Churches buy into the American way in order to get more people, but where is the demonstration of the Spirit’s power?

Jim Cymbala, pastor of The Brooklyn Tabernacle and author of “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” asked an interviewer if he could state the number one sin the church in America. He went on to say that most people would say something like internet pornography or the divorce rate being the same as the secular world or several other things. But the number one problem Cymbala said is that its pastors and leaders are not on their knees crying out to God, ‘Bring us the drug-addicted, bring us the prostitutes, bring us the destitute, bring us the gang leaders, bring us those with AIDS, bring us the people nobody else wants, whom only you can heal, and let us love them in your name until they are whole.’”

Bible Study Tool

The picture is a screen shot of how I’ve been doing Bible Study in my Quiet Time. The program is a Mac specific study tool called Accordance. I’ve had Accordance

Accordance screen shot of highlight tool.

for seven or eight years, and had a precursor program prior to that called Mac Bible. I’ve had to slow my reading each morning to do the color highlighting. Now that I am reading through four very long narrative passages in Jeremiah, Judges, Acts and Mark, my reading is taking close to an hour each day. My study notes take more time. At this stage of life, so much of the truth of God and  work in history is shining through the text in more vivid detail. I highly recommend the M’Cheyne Bible reading guide to get through the Bible in a year, and see so much of the vivid details and faith strengthening truths he wants you to see each day.

What’s good about this method is that I was losing my desire to read through the Bible in a year. I was becoming lethargic and did only cursory readings. I discovered this highlighting tool on vacation when my girls accidentally took my Bible with them back to Johnson City when we were leaving for Canada.

Now, if only someone could tell me where there is an electronic prayer tool!

The List God vs The Relational God

Anyone who worships the List God will vehemently deny it. Their List God is absolute, unquestionable and provable by a plethora of verses. I’ve been working my whole life to destroy my belief in the List God. I used to have a stronger belief in List God, but today, thanks to some severe encounters with the Loving God, my false assurances are waning.

The List God wants us to check off  a variety of ways to worship him:

Using correct language: Bishop vs pastor, spirit filled vs just born again, wine vs grape juice

Correct Church: women in leadership vs not, elders vs deacons, traditional vs everything else, women wear headcoverings or not

Correct doctrine: predestination vs free will, pre or post tribulation, 144,000 Jewish evangelists vs symbolism

Correct Lifestyle: alchohol, abortion, swearing, the death sentence

The List God won’t let the Love God operate freely. Too much is at stake. People might not have the right thoughts or actions. Satan is so deceptive. The List God loves to make people feel better about themselves: check, check, check. I did that and that and that. Whew! I’m OK! Thank you List God for your blessings!

But that’s not the Loving God Jesus showed us. He died at the hands of those who worshipped the List God. He seemed too liberal, too easy on sin, too wishy washy. Paul, too, said only one thing matter: you are a new creation. Circumcision (the leading indicator of those of worship Mr. List God) didn’t matter one bit! Just be a believer in what Jesus did. Bingo! The Loving God steps out of the darkness. No list in hand or red lettered in his Bible. He says, “Follow Me!” Not much of a list!

The good news is that lists don’t count! Woo Hoo! His holiness is my holiness! The blind who follow the List God seem so sure and confident that perfection is possible while following the List God. Truth is stranger than fiction. Lists don’t count! Jesus, the anti-List God, revealed a greater power to change people, the power of the grace and love of the Loving God. Follow Him!

2Tim. 1:8   So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,  9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,  10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Have You Ever Thought About the Incarnation?

Can we wrap up the Incarnation in a nutshell: God became man. There. Done. Christians like everything wrapped up in tidy packages so we can feel better, have more confidence. My goal today is to ask you to take a question about the Incarnation to someone you know and to someone you don’t know. I want you to ask two people the question: Can you explain the Incarnation? See what happens. Try it!

It might help to know what the incarnation means. It means, in a nutshell, God becomes a man, literally, embodied by flesh. And we are not the only people who believe in incarnation. Hindu’s believe in the incarnation of Vishnu. He is an avatar. Buddhist’s believe that the Dali Lama is the incarnation of the Buddha. Rastafarians believe that Hallie Salasi, the Emperor of Ethiopia, is an incarnation.

God inhabiting a human body presents some problems, however. How do we fit God into such a small package? Or is he the watered down God?

Lately, I’ve not got into a huge debate over the Incarnation. It seems that most people today have backed up further to whether or not God exists. People are skeptical of our superstitions. The church has sold out for money and power again, thus, in some people’s minds, invalidating our basic beliefs, even that God exists. This week I heard, again, the term, “practical atheist” of which many so-called Christians could be called. Practical Atheists means that a person walks through a day without the mystery of God or his power, grace, presence experienced. God doesn’t matter, really. My job, my kids, my cleaning, my trip matter.

So, why bother talking about the incarnation? What’s the power in it?

About the first time I debated with someone about the incarnation, I was a college sophomore. My new roommate was a Muslim. He violently rejected that God could be a man, and backed up his evidence that Allah was only one God. He said the death of Jesus proved he was not God. God cannot die! God is infinite.

That conversation sent me on a crash course to discover truth. I read the Bible, of course. I began to examine creeds and confessions. I read church history. I was on the sixth floor of the Grad Library studying Chemistry when I found four hundred year old Catechisms and read through so many wanting to hear their truth. (Chemistry was far inferior to Incarnation!) I wanted to know the truth, and ever since then, that powerful search has fueled my wonder and amazement in worship, in raising my kids, in ministry. I can say that the mystery is as real today as back then, but my circle has been drawn ever wider. The Muslim friend’s circle is still the same size. His fear of mystery shrunk his world. My love for mystery opened up a new world.

Every time we meet someone who is a non-seeker or a Muslim or a Jehovah’s witness, Mormon, Jew, practical atheist, they have chosen to not believe in the Incarnation. They have chosen a smaller circle. We Christians are the odd ducks, really. We open ourselves to disappointment or to doubt. Incarnation is one of the central beliefs we carry around in our suitcase of beliefs, and it’s not easy to believe! It’s easier to believe that moles can become the size of elephants or sunflowers in Kansas grow taller than skyscrapers. The fact that God was wriggling around in poopy diapers is harder to believe than Christopher Columbus’ belief that the world was round! But the mystery of Jesus being both God and man, wrapped up together, with no boundaries or as separate beings, blows our minds, and puts us places we couldn’t go otherwise.

The incarnation is proof that God is in our world. Jesus becoming flesh proves God loves His world. Jesus becoming a human being destroys the belief that this is all there is. Jesus and God together in one person is anti-materialistic, anti-fatalistic, and anti-Marxist, Nietzsche, Spong, Freud, Shaw, Dawkins or Hitchens. The incarnation of God is opposed to my Christian/Buddists, who want to hold both religions as nice philosophies. The Incarnation is not “nice.” It’s “in your face” and changes the way a person thinks about all of life! The incarnation tells us that not all is lost or evil. That God can do anything and will. However, not many people are all that interested in thinking about the Incarnation these days, let alone believing in God.

Go ahead and ask a couple of people. See if you can set off a few ticking bombs of truth to change a life or two!

God Does Not Judge External Appearance

God does not judge by external appearance. Gal. 2:6

The marks of an apostle were obvious.

2 Corinthians12:12 The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance.

But Satan, also can masquerade as an angel of light and do counterfeit miracles.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders.

When we who believe in God’s grace through the gospel (i.e. the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and all that historic event means!) the question of “Who are you?” or implied “Are you legitimate?” rises in people. Why should someone listen? What makes us legitimate?

Jesus used the analogy of a shepherd in John 10. The hired hand runs away when trouble comes. The good shepherd lies down in front of the gate and gives up his life. To Jesus, legitimacy was serving, sacrifice and perseverance. (See the parable of the four soils in Luke 8:15)

The Corinthian church was dismissing Paul’s legitimacy. Paul uses evidence that puts many of us Christians to shame to show his legitimacy.

1 Cor. 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power….23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…

He told them the fact of gospel history over and over again.

1Cor. 2:1   When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,  5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

He knows there is only one foundation to build on to promote legitimacy.

1 Cor. 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Paul knew that the Corinthian church people were distancing themselves from him because he seemed so simple. He said that they were saying he was a fool (i.e. simpleton) and that his words were not wise (Gk: sophia from which we get the word sophisticated)

1 Cor. 4:10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

1 Cor. 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

External appearances can be deceiving. What we consider successful or sophisticated includes large monuments, big buildings, beautiful steeples, respectful peers, large crowds and the spectacular “excellence” in worship. The external signs of a successful ministry can masquerade around for years and dupe people as Satan does. It can make people think they are making a difference in the world, but are really just “hired hands.”

Throughout his ministry, Paul was perplexed by what is a legitimate church. His final comments from his final letter in prison at the end of his life goes like this:

Phil. 1:15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.  18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

The goal wasn’t external success. If that was the case, he failed. Success is Christ and the gospel, plain and simple. Preach Christ. Tell the gospel (his death, burial and resurrection). Preach Jesus. Unpack the way, the truth and the life. Knowing the truth sets us free. His death proves his love and grace can be unharnessed in our lives. Knowing the truth, that is, a belief in the historical facts of Christ’s death and resurrection is the greatest mark of the church. Separate this from The Journey or any church and we are duped and de-legit!

The Interior Voice of the Spirit

by Francis Fenelon (Chapter 21 in Christian Classics, Fenelon, Talking with God, by Francois Fenelon. Modern English Version by Hal M. Helms. Paraclete Press, Brewster, Massachusetts, 1997.)

Our God is not Flat Stanley. Have you ever wondered why your God seems so blah? Read on and practice the presence of God in the inner sanctuary! Wow!

The Interior Voice of the Spirit

It is certain from the Holy Scriptures that the Spirit of God dwells within us. There he acts, there he prays without ceasing, groans, desires, and asks for us what we do not know how to ask for ourselves. The Spirit urges us on, animates us, speaks to us when we are silent, suggests to us all truth, and so unites us to him that we become one spirit. (1 Cor. 6:17)

That is the teaching of faith, and even those teachers farthest removed from the interior life cannot avoid acknowledging it to be so. To be sure, there are some who strive to maintain that in practice, we are illuminated by external law, or by the light of learning and reason, and that then our understanding acts of itself from that instruction. They do not rely sufficiently on upon the interior Teacher, the Holy Spirit, who does everything within us. We could not form a thought or desire without him. Alas, what blindness is ours! We suppose ourselves alone in the inner sanctuary, when God is more intimately present there than we are ourselves.

You may say, “What then! Are we all inspired?”

After Preaching

I found myself resonating with this poem of George MacDonald’s because of how I feel after most Sunday preaching/teaching. Do any of you preachers/teachers feel the same thing?

O Lord, I have been
talking to the people;

Thought’s wheels have
round me whirled a
fiery zone,

And the recoil of my
words’ airy ripple

My heart unheedful
has puffed up and
blown.

Therefore I cast myself
before Thee prone;

Lay cool hands on my
burning brain, and
press

From my weak heart
the swelling emptiness.

George MacDonald was a nineteenth-century poet, novelist, and preacher.

Jesus is Coming: Be Ready Video

So many people think Jesus is a fictional character, even Christians. Their footing is due to laziness or willful disobedience. The facts are clearly laid out in the gospels. He’s amazing. The stories may seem irregular or incongruent to a modern, TV watching, busy-0-phile. No one can read the gospels and say something like, “Ah, shucks…Jesus is just like my Uncle Jeb. He’s so cheap, why he walked on water just last week trying to get his lure off a deadhead log.” Most Christians can’t explain a lick about why Jesus is so amazing.

And can anyone you know today, in politics or glitzywood, claim to want to die for you? Sure, we’ll spend millions getting you to watch us or vote for us, but die? Silly goose!

Cool, funny video called “Be Ready! Men’s Egos

After preaching Sunday on Luke 17, I realize how incredible Jesus’ teaching was to the disciples. He explained that the end would come quickly and gave two short examples: the days of Noah and the days of Lot. If the end happened quickly once or twice before, surely it could happen again! Jesus left out the parts about the Exile or Exodus or Elijah and several other judgments that happened quickly.

Yet, his message wasn’t a “stomp your guilt button with condemnation to get ready for the end” sermon. If you’ve ever heard one, you know what I mean. “Jesus is coming soon, like a thief in the night, so make sure you’re ready. Don’t be caught in a theater or drinking a beer when he comes.” Does anyone wonder what Jesus will think when he catches you in the shower? No condemnation at all in his message. Just a clear explanation that when the end of the period of grace comes, it will happen quickly. No stimulus plan can pull you out of the trouble.

So, how does a person get ready? Only one way. We will never be pure enough as long as we have minds and bodies. Only one way! Believe that this amazing Jesus was crucifed according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. (1 Cor. 15:2-3) So, Be Ready!

Aha! One Cell Group Extravaganza!

Americano pizazz hunters everywhere! Checking out “churches” that have that j’ne sais quois, pizazz, that something that “clicks”. Typical American phenomena: church hopping, hunting, looking for a Sunday morning fling, a one-morning-stand.

I can easily see the disappointment on faces. Checking out churches is HARD WORK. MANY DISAPPOINTMENTS. Pizazz hunters often find it easier to STAY HOME, or go somewhere unrelated to church to escape, and maybe find that fling.

Last night, at the Sunday Night Cell Group, the fling was found! As Charles Kennedy says, “We got to trust the discovery process.” We studied a simple, familiar section of Mark: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” I thought we’d be done in ten minutes. After an hour we got the discovery we all were looking for. We examined the minutae, the gory details. Probing the “Why is this here?” and the “Is Jesus mad or throwing out a bone?” A couple had notes and references to get some more details.

After forty five minutes of digging last night, we were all wondering, “How does this apply?” Was there a political message for us? Is this about tithing? The temple tax? The image of Caesar, “A god,” a graven image carried in Jewish pockets? Do we disagree with our politicians and grumble about paying taxes? We turned to Romans 13:1 and 7 “Submit to your rulers! Pay your taxes!” The Apostle commanded the Romans to obey the evil Emperor, Nero. But there was so much more than this simple application.

As we probed and tried to figure out how the confrontation between the Jewish delegation and Jesus started, we saw an incredible shape take form. I guess you would have had to have been there to catch the amazement, but we were all totally amazed by Jesus. His answer, has layers and layers of meaning. What seems simple is absolutely profound. What looks like easy separation of church and state is difficult theology to understand. Caesar gets a coin. God gets everything. It’s his theme, his mantra, his slogan. Got gets everything! It’s not about money. They had asked about taxes. The real question was about God! Without hesitation or stutter, Jesus dissected the impossible dilemma. He used a coin so that every time they saw that Roman denarious, they could remember a powerful lesson about his amazing response.

The pizazz took time. We trusted each other to ask simple questions and to sit asking the questions that only truth could withstand. The application was so much more than money or taxes. As we have discovered about our journey through the gospels, we discovered the real application is when we are amazed at the incredible Jesus. We keep wondering: How did they miss it? How could they have crucified this perfect one from God? No one could have made these stories so amazing unless they really happened. Now, that’s a kind of extravaganza 99.9% of Sunday mornings can never have!

You see, discovering the REAL Jesus is the application, the pizazz, the j’ne sais quois.

Sunday Afternoon Reflection, Pastor Style

One pastor friend told me he never thinks twice about his sermons after Sunday morning. I’m not one of those. I liked today’s sermon: “Don’t worry!” Luke 12:22-40. We can’t be ready for action if we are always worrying. However, as much as I pointed out a couple of key commands (6) and insights (“or proverbs”) (7), then wrapped it up with a systems-thinking-graph about why worry keeps us from seeing all of God’s options, I have never liked the unfinished aspect of a sermon.

What always remains unfinished? Today, three folks came up and said it was a good corrective to their thinking. This is not what finishes it for me, as much as I like compliments. I always feel like a sermon is unfinished. There is always more. Always something to leave out. Always an illustration that could have been stronger or tighter. However, redoing the sermon a day later or a month later doesn’t finish it.

For me, finishing the sermon cannot be done. It’s the most frustrating aspect of preaching. I like feedback, immediate and spontaneous. I like to know how a sentence is perceived, not a month from now, but right now. I want to know what someone else might add, or what someone else has read on the subject. As much as I read and study, I always leave something out. And this is true when I listen to other pastors preach. Though I am much less critical of late, there remains a fallacious heresy among the pews and folding chairs of Christendom that their pastor preaches “the whole counsel of God” in a sermon or two or fifty two. After twenty-five years of preaching, I know it can’t be done.

A beautiful, breezy, fall day with the temp at 75.

What do I do? After preaching in Luke for ten and a half months, and only arriving at chapter twelve, I can say that by far, this has been the most enjoyable preaching. After leaving this morning, I know there will be at least five groups of listeners who will complete the sermon in their cell groups. They will be studying along with me, some in Mark and some in John, but the picture of Jesus teaching, lambasting and testing their faith (“You of little faith!) will be fresh, will spark greater connections and some will even do a little study of their own.

Amid all the sounds and chores of this world, the little voice of the teacher behind the pulpit can sure get lost. The power of that little voice is in sticking to the Jesus who died a bloody death at the hands of ignorant people, who suffered the wrath of God in his burial and was proven to be the perfect sacrifice for sin in his resurrection. In these, how could anyone lose their way!