Between Sundays

Turning from idols

2012-01-26T09:12:00.001-08:00

This Sunday, we’ll finish up our three week series on turning away from the idols in our lives and back to God. The basic truth of each sermon is this: when we trade the worship of the one true God for the worship of idols, we find ourselves open to behavior that we once wouldn’t have even thought possible. When we take the gifts of God and turn them into little "g" gods, we basically find ourselves in charge, and history has shown we make absolutely horrendous masters. Pastor and author Tim Keller gives several examples of how this happens in his book, The Reason for God (see pages 275-276). I’ve listed a few of his examples below, a couple of which I've expanded upon.

If you center your life and identity on pleasure, you’ll find yourself addicted to the very pleasures you seek. You’ll ignore the fact that you are destroying your family and hurting your church in the process or the fact that you perpetuate a system of indulgence in our world that makes sex slaves out of the most vulnerable among us.
If you center your life on making money, you’ll be a workaholic with no deep relationships, you’ll be boring and shallow. You'll be willing to do unethical things to maintain your lifestyle, which will eventually blow up your life. You’ll kill the joy and life of your family all in order to “make a living.”
If you center your life and identity on your family and children, you will try to live your life through your children until they resent you or have no self of their own. At worst, you may abuse them when they displease you. Meanwhile, you’ll insult and injure others who dare forget that your family comes first.
If you center your life and identity on relationships and approval, you will be constantly overly hurt by criticism and thus always losing friends. You will fear confronting others and therefore will be a useless friend.
If you center your life and identity on a "noble cause," like being a Republican or being a Democrat, or even simply being an American, you will divide the world into "good" and "bad" and demonize your opponents. Ironically, you will be controlled by your enemies. Without them, you have no purpose. You’ll adopt a win at all cost mentality.
If you center your life and identity on religion and morality, you will, if you are living up to your moral standards, be proud, self-righteous, and cruel. If you don't live up to your moral standards, your guilt will be utterly devastating and you’ll take it out on everyone around you.

When we make gods of God’s gifts, we lose touch with the fact that the ends do not justify the means – and we’ll be willing to do almost anything in this life – or let others do such evil deeds for us. But, if we’ll make sure to keep the one true God, as the only God in our lives, we’ll constantly be aware that in order to worship a God of mercy and justice, we must practice those things as well. In other words, if we’ll make sure we’re being obedient to commandment number one, the other nine, will quickly fall into place. Jesus put it this way, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you.”

Stained Glass (a short film)

2012-01-25T13:26:00.001-08:00

Church can be an awkward place. We're, no doubt, awkward people. But God is shaping us into his glorious image.

Wait, wait. I'm not ready for Christmas.

2011-12-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

This morning I had to convince my overly eager children that there were still three days left until Christmas. Sophie saw no need to count one of those days claiming there were only two days left. “Depends on how you count,” she said.

It’s easy to tell, my kids are ready for Christmas. I am not.

All I can think of is how much I have left to do. I have to finish up a couple of sermons. Fine tune a couple of gifts. I have to double check all my lists and make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. I find myself pleading with the calendar, “Could you slow down just a bit? I’m not quite ready for Christmas.” Maybe you feel the same way.

Ready or not, though, Christmas is on the way. It will show up regardless of whether or not my to-do lists are complete. Surprisingly, Christmas’ stubborn refusal to delay is a form of grace. For who can ever be ready for Christmas, really. Not just the day, mind you, but the Christ who came and still comes on Christmas day. How does one get ready for the coming of one’s King?

Sure there’s the repentance and the straightening up of one’s soul. Both good and proper things, no doubt. But after one has done all the cleaning up of one’s heart, a quick look around our lives reminds us that our meager souls are still pretty poor quarters for the Lord of all creation. The closer he gets the more we find ourselves saying, “Wait, wait. Things are not ready. I am not ready.”

And yet, Christ comes anyway for his coming is not about our worthiness, but his mercy. Not about our togetherness, but his care. Not about our worthiness, but his love.

Maybe that’s why kids are always ready for Christmas and adults are not. Children are always ready to receive a gift, even a gift they could never earn. We adults on the other hand, have trouble just standing there with open hands, especially with boxes on our to-do lists unchecked.

But Christmas is coming whether we’re ready or not. Thank the Lord.

What do you have that you did not receive? – 1 Corinthians 4:7

Get the Thank You Notes Ready

2011-12-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

This post was originally published in December of 2009.

What do you think you’ll be getting for Christmas year? Do you already know? Have you already received it? Did you say thank you? Life is full of gifts. It goes to reason that life should then be full of thanks. But sometimes its easy to think what we receive isn’t a gift, but something we’re owed. We’ve worked hard this year, we tell ourselves, so we deserve this. We’ve been good and now it’s time to reward ourselves. That’s fine to a point. However, my guess is that the numbers of things in this life we deserve are far fewer than we imagine. Our lives abound in unmerited gifts.

A friend posted a G. K. Chesterton quote on his Facebook page this morning that made me smile: "When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?" I don’t know that I’ve ever called what are on my feet stockings, but I get the point. Chesterton said in another place, “The great saint may be said to mix all his thoughts with thanks. All goods look better when they look like gifts.”

Oh to have hearts of humility and eyes of gratefulness! Life would indeed look so much better. Let’s start today. What are some of the unmerited gifts in your life for which you would like to give thanks?

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Longing for More (Revisited)

2011-12-16T07:01:00.001-08:00

This post was originally published in December of 2009. I've added several coffee mugs to my own collection since then.

Recently, I sat down in a local coffee shop in the hopes of getting some sermon work done. Alas, there was another person in the place intent on bringing the rest of us along on his own personal quest for the perfect gift. In his thick New England accent, he loudly perused the gift table next to where I was sitting. Carefully he picked up each potential gift and then extolled its many benefits to no one in particular. After what seemed like half an hour (but was probably closer to five minutes), he settled upon some Christmas mugs – on sale no less – for $3.99. He checked with one of the sales clerks, “$3.99? Really? These are great. I have some white ones like them but these Christmas ones are spectacular. They’ll look great with my Christmas dishes. . . .” And on and on and on.

Then an interesting thing happened. When Mr. Boston finally made his purchase and left the store, I breathed deeply and turned my attention back to my work. I expected others to do the same. But they didn’t. Instead, several other patrons left their tables and came over to look at those Christmas mugs. There wasn’t any shoving or pushing, but there was certainly some angling for position. Within minutes every last one of those previously ignored mugs had been sold! I laughed in slight amazement. I wondered to myself if Mr. Boston had been planted by the store to push those mugs.

Plant or not, he exposed something of human nature that day. Most of us live with a realization that there is more to life than we’re currently experiencing. We live with a fear that we’re missing out on something that other people have found. We rush to fill up that empty place with all sorts of things – something as silly as Christmas mugs – or as the recent fall of one of my favorite golfers reveals – something as tragic as a relationship with someone other than one’s spouse. But all these pursuits prove to be in vain. Next Christmas, next year, next time our significant other lets us down, without having learned a thing, we’ll be making the exact same searches for new gifts or new people that will momentarily tickle our souls.

But what if we’re taking the wrong approach altogether? What if the longing in our hearts wasn’t something to be fixed at all? What if the uneasiness that there’s something more to this life might instead be a gift from God himself? What if that longing is a gift that’s meant to keep us from settling for cheap imitations of the Kingdom of God? What if, instead of deadening our longings with the narcotic of instant gratification, we are meant to nurture those desires into holy anticipation? The practice of Advent is meant to lead us in just that direction. If we'll take time to embrace the empty places in our lives this season, if we'll resist the urge to fill them up with the first thing we find, we might be able to replace the fleeting desires for cheap ceramics and illicit affairs with a deeper longing for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. Oh Lord, teach us to long for deeper things.

I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me – Micah 7:7.

Learning to Appreciate our Gifts

2011-12-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

Shoppers are beginning to get that look of desperation in their eyes. They scramble to and fro on these last days before Christmas, searching now, not for that perfect gift for the ones they love, but simply for a gift so that the tree will not be bare. I’m doing the same. I still lack a couple of gifts before my gift buying is complete. In all the stress and trouble, I wonder: do we even remember the gifts we gave last year? Do we remember the gifts we received? If you’re like me, it takes some effort. If I can’t even remember those gifts, can I really be said to appreciate them?

G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.” Part of the problem is that appreciating things takes time. We rarely get off the treadmill of consumption long enough to recognize the beauty and the value of the gifts we already possess.

Sometime this Christmas, either before or after you unwrap the packages, pause and do some appreciating. Take time to give thanks for the greatest gifts in your life. My guess is that they won’t be things but people. And the things that matter most, will be the things that are most intimately connected to the people. I think of my grandfather’s watch. It’s not an expensive watch, nor is it a style I’d buy for myself. But it was his, and now it’s mine. And of all my various possessions, it’s probably one of the few I appreciate the most. Which reminds me, the perfect gift is not so much about the one who receives it (his likes, her tastes, their desires), but about the one who gave it (her love, his care, their kindness). At least for me, remembering that truth replaces much of the stress of this season with the joy of gratitude.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son . . .” – John 3:16

God as a Toddler (Revisited)

2011-12-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

My little boy turns five this week. With its nearness to Christmas, his birthday is always a time when I find myself reflecting upon the meaning of the incarnation. Here's a blog post from 2008 in which I pondered what it must have been like for God Almighty to turn two.

He so loved us that, for our sake,
He was made man in time,
although through him all times were made.
He was made man, who made man.
He was created of a mother whom he created.
He was carried by hands that he formed.
He cried in the manger in wordless infancy,
he the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.
— St. Augustine

My youngest will turn two tomorrow. Two is already proving to be a tough age. For the last couple of weeks our once happy-go-lucky baby has increasingly become a frustrated and upset toddler. I think the reason is plain enough. His doing and thinking are progressing faster than his speaking (or at least faster than his parents’ ability to interpret his speaking). On numerous occasions John Curtis will say something which makes perfect sense to him but to my adult ears sounds something like “blah-blah” (think a reversal of Charlie Brown’s teacher here).

I’ll ask, “Do you want a drink?”

He’ll respond, “No” – a word he articulates clearly – and then say again “more ‘blah-blah.’”

I’ll try something else, “A snack?”

“No. More ‘blah-blah.’”

“To sit with Daddy?”

“No! More ‘blah-blah.’”

“To go back to bed?”

“NO! MORE ‘BLAH-BLAH!’”

I can understand why the boy gets frustrated. I get frustrated for him (and in weaker moments with him). I’d like to comfort him with the thought that he’ll soon outgrow this particular limitation. He will, but the truth is, there will be others. So goes the constraints of our humanity.

As I pause this Advent season and think once more of the incarnation I wonder what it was like for God Almighty to be God-the-toddler. Was it frustrating for the God who spoke the universe into being to be forced to learn to use lips and tongue to form the most basic of requests? Did he get frustrated when Mary and Joseph looked down at him in their own frustration, not having a clue what he was talking about? Like any two year old (but unlike any of them, as well), I’m sure he did. Why did God submit himself to such troubles and many more? St. Augustine put it well, because he loved us.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us – John 1:14.

Frustration

2011-12-11T04:57:00.000-08:00

Alyson and I were talking the other day about the way things were when we were a kid (a sure sign we’re getting older). We were remembering life before cell phones and e-mail and instant messaging. We remembered with some nostalgia back when you didn’t even have cordless phones in your house. Both of us can remember as children, talking on the kitchen phone wondering around the kitchen stretching that long, curly and often kinked cord to its full length (which was quite long). With such limited telecommunication tools available, you couldn’t talk to anyone at anytime. Sometimes you had to wait.

We’ve come along way. Information flows at the speed of light. Life seems speed by at the same rate. Just this week, I marveled at the speed with which certain college football programs fire and hire head coaches. Sometimes the transition took only hours. In one case, I’m pretty sure the previous coach hadn’t even cleared out his office yet. Obviously, the speed with which we talk to one another has had unintended consequences.

As a society we have become an impatient people. And yet those who long to encounter the miraculous must be a patient people. Just think of Mary hearing the angel’s words, “Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.” The thing with the miraculous (not to mention the thing with being pregnant) is it can’t be rushed. It happens according to a heavenly schedule that can’t be hurried or fast forwarded.

So we patiently wait for God to move. What unexpectedly happens for the patient person is they discover God not just in the moving but also in the waiting. Henri Nouwen put it this way, “The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us. Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere. The moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there.”

Let us be a people who have the guts to stay where we are and seek God there.

“Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:30-31.

It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas

2011-12-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

For most of us, family traditions surrounding the holidays are what make the season feel like Christmas. There’s just something about us humans that loves doing things the way we’ve done them before. And for what it’s worth there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Putting the decorations in the same places every year, eating the same foods, seeing the same folks can all serve as a wonderful way to knit a family together and emphasize their collective values. At our house, we know it's Christmas when the advent wreath shows up on the coffee table. The kids enjoy the lighting of the candles and the reading of a Christmas devotional. Actually, what they enjoy is blowing out the candle each night! Alyson and I trust the truth of the stories is sinking deep into their hearts even if their immediate focus is elsewhere.

But, traditions alone do not make Christmas. For one thing, the very best of our traditions can be undone by life’s circumstances. Alyson’s sister likes to tell the story of how my coming into their family’s life thoroughly messed up their Christmas. Growing up, after all the festivities of Christmas Eve, Alyson and Lindsey would crawl into bed together and read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work now that Alyson and I were married. They tried reading it to one another over the phone, but like every family who’s ever had to adjust one of their cherished traditions, they lamented, “It’s just not the same.”

Truth be told, no tradition lasts forever. This year, families in our church are having to change treasured traditions because of job loss, illness, kids growing up and moving away, divorce, death, and more. Perhaps, your family is one of them. You have my prayers. A word of encouragement, though, don’t give up on Christmas. Christmas is more than our feelings about the season. Christmas is primarily God sending a light into our darkness. Henri Nouwen puts it this way, “Songs, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying yes to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine.” Nouwen has hit it on the head. Christmas is so much bigger than our family traditions, Christmas is about the salvation of the world. So, when our traditions fall apart, and the world around us darkens once more, that’s we need Christmas more than ever.

The Semantics of the Season (aka. "The War on Christmas")

2011-12-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

“The War on Christmas” has made quite a few headlines over the last few years. This battle, according to those doing the reporting, pits secular humanists against religious zealots in an all out fight over the semantics of the season. “Happy Holidays” vs “Merry Christmas” dominates the Christmas e-mail rounds among other things so that one almost feels like a heathen if one’s Christmas card happens to use the wrong phrase.

My two cents for what it’s worth. I understand that most good Christian folks in this fight have good intentions. They want people to know the true reason we as Christians celebrate Christmas. Nevertheless, the whole fight seems a little silly to me. If we are truly going to have a battle for Christmas shouldn’t it be a little more substantive than this? The words we use are important, but only if they reflect our true values and our actual actions. It’s one thing to say “Merry Christmas,” it’s a whole other thing to allow the Christ of Christmas to reign in one’s heart and home.

The true battle for Christmas has to be in our own hearts and souls as we try to determine which call we will respond to, the call of Christ or the call of the shopping mall. I just don’t think that a fight over the words we use for a holiday greeting are going to bring a lot of folks to the true meaning of Christmas. Second, in light of the way Christ came, doesn’t the whole concept of a “battle” for Christmas seem a little odd? A battle is exactly what the Jews of Jesus’ day were expecting - a messiah who would come and wipe the Romans off the face of the earth. Instead, God sent a baby in a manger. Hardly, a leader ready for war.

The late Madeleine L’Engle put it this way in her poem about Christ’s birth, “Like Every Newborn.”

Girded for war, humility his mighty dress,

He moves into the battle wholly weaponless.

If you’re really concerned about the state of Christmas this year, follow the example of Christ. Humble yourself, discard your possessions, and give of yourself to others without regard for how they will respond or what words they will say. Against all expectations, it worked for Jesus as his gospel took hold and changed the world. Such unlikely methods would probably work for us as well.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” – Philippians 2:5-8.

Finding God this Christmas

2011-12-08T08:34:00.001-08:00

Every eveningin December, as lie down to sleep, I notice that I am more exhausted than thenight before. School programs, extra servicesat church, family get-togethers, the shopping: these are all good things, butthey take their toll. Fatigue sets inand then frustration. The simplest oftroubles cause you to start to lose your cool. What’s supposed to be a season of reflection and joy passes by at such afrenzied pace that we find ourselves like the people of Bethlehem – close toChrist, but ignorant of his presence in our midst.

We dotrust that Christ is near, even if we are unaware. That is the message of the season. But how dowe tune our hearts so that we might be sensitive to his presence in our lives? Three suggestions for finding Jesus this year:

Schedulea day of peace – We scheduledays for parties and for shopping and for family. Schedule a day of reflection (or even half aday). When others invite you to dosomething on that day, politely respond, “I’m sorry, I already have plans forthat day.” Unplug the TV, turn off the computer and the cell phone (all of youremails and texts will be there the next day). Spendthe day reading a good book (include The Good Book), listening to your favoriteChristmas music, and resting in God’s presence.
Lookfor God in the busyness – I know,this sounds weird, but hang with me. Yes,God is often found in the quiet moments of our lives, but he’s also there atthe parties, family get-togethers, and church services (Lord, we pray!). We just need to be on the lookout forhim. One thing I’ve gotten in thepractice of doing before I go into any setting with other people is to pray, “Lord,help me find your presence among the person/people I am about to interact with.” It’s amazing how that simple prayer changestasks on my to-do list into opportunities for experiencing God’s presence in mylife.
Dosomething for someone else – I don’tmean just give money to someone in need. That’s one thing we can do forother people. Giving money is a good thing, but there are many others. Take time to visit someone in nursing homewho doesn’t get many visitors. Invite someonewho can’t go home to see their family to enjoy your family’s Christmascelebration. Write a letter to someoneletting them know what they mean to you. As you do things, remember that Jesus said, “Whatever you did for theleast of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

AtChristmas, we celebrate God with us. Trusting he is here, let’s not forget to be onthe lookout for his presence in our lives.

“So roll up your sleeves, put yourmind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesusarrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just whatyou feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedientchildren, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, alife energetic and blazing with holiness” – 1 Peter 1:13-16, The Message

Go Stick Your Head Under a Tree (Again!)

2011-12-07T12:50:00.001-08:00

I realized this year that I've been doing Christmas devotionals for enough years now to have one for almost every day until Christmas. Mainly for own enjoyment, I'm going to re-post several again. Hopefully, they'll be a blessing to you, as well.

The following was first blogged in December of 2008.

The other day I walked into the living room and chuckled. Out from beneath the newly decorated Christmas tree stuck two little bodies. The heads of those two little bodies were tucked deep underneath the evergreen branches. My children, Sophie and John Curtis, looked up mesmerized at all that glittering, sparkling Christmas glory. Laying aside my to-do list, I joined them for a little Christmas tree gazing. It had been a long time since I’d stuck my head under a Christmas tree just to enjoy the view.

Aided by the eyes of my children, the tree was as beautiful as I remembered my own childhood tree. After all, my brother and I used to do the same thing when we were little. We’d stare into the depths of our tree for hours finding an ornament we’d never seen before or one we’d long forgotten about. Every day the tree seemed to reveal some new view. It didn’t matter that we stared at that tree for twenty-five straight days, it never got boring. It had more beauty than could be exhausted during the month of December.

The scriptures that tell the Christmas story capture my attention in much the same way. At first, as I pull these passages out for another look, I think to myself, “I’ve seen these before. We read them last year and the year before that.” But as I stick my head beneath the branches of these stories of fearful young teens comforted by heavenly host, of a tyrant of a king and some wily star gazers, of patient old prophets and a baby who is God-With-Us, inevitably I see something I hadn’t seen before or something I’d long forgotten. God speaks to my heart once more and it is beautiful.

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” Matthew 1:21.

Getting ready for what?

2011-12-01T07:44:00.001-08:00

It’s Advent again. Advent literally means arrival. It is the season in which we remember Christ Jesus’ first arrival and anticipate his second. The church has historically used this as a time for preparing our hearts for Christ’s arrival. But which arrival are we preparing for? I was amused by the response of our youth minister’s son Evan, who upon having Advent explained to him once more by his father, replied, “Wasn’t Jesus born last year?” It can be confusing. In the season of advent, we practice waiting, but what is it we wait for? Jesus to be born once more in the manger? No. We do await the celebration of his birth, but our waiting is for so much more than the coming of a holiday. We wait for Christ to come again.

Why do we tend to emphasize the first advent over the second? Simply put, waiting for Christmas is fun. There are the decorations, the lights, the presents and the fun, the family in from out-of-town. There is the story of the infant Jesus who has come to save from our sins. Good news delivered via the least intimidating way possible – a newborn baby. Waiting for Christ’s return is not so much fun (at least not in the way we usually think of fun). In the second coming, the old creed tells us that Jesus comes to judge the quick and the dead. Not quite as warm and fuzzy as the nativity story (which wasn’t as warm and fuzzy as we make it out to be!).

Despite our preferences, the true preparation of the Advent season, in fact the true preparation of the entire Christian’s life, is for Christ’s second coming. Evan was right. Jesus has already been born. That truth has changed our lives in countless ways. But one of the ways is by transforming our concept of history from being a story that goes on and on forever without any ending, to a story that is headed towards a definite conclusion, Christ’s return. But how do we prepare for that Advent? What does it mean to wait for that day? It means keeping our attention on the kingdom of God and it’s values as it breaks forth into the kingdom of this world.

Keeping our attention fixed upon God’s kingdom come, changes our waiting in this life from self-centered, passive twiddling of the thumbs to a waiting that’s an active, God-focused time of preparation. First, there is the inward preparation of introspection, confession, and repentance. We allow the Spirit to search our own hearts and determine what in our lives is incompatible with the kingdom Jesus is bringing to fore. Second, there is also the outward preparation of sowing mercy and justice, kindness and compassion, generosity and forgiveness to those we encounter. More than Christmas trees, more than garland on the mantel, and lights on the house, it’s these kinds of preparations that helps us to be ready for the day our king arrives, again.

“Men of Galilee,” the angels said, “why do you you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” – Acts 1:11.

Gratitude has gone viral.

2011-11-17T07:09:00.001-08:00

Taking the time to be silly and to give thanks.

Gratitudehas gone viral. If you’re a Facebookuser, perhaps you’ve noticed that your newsfeed has become a much happier placeover the last few weeks as many people have begun using their status updates asan opportunity to give thanks. Peoplehave offered up thanks for family, friends, jobs, churches, and health - justto name a few. These offerings of thankshave pushed to the edges the usual status updates that tend to complain about,well, family, friends, jobs, churches, and health – just to name a few.

What’smade the difference? Have people’s livesdramatically changed over the last few weeks? Probably not. My guess is thatthe difference is primarily found in the fact that people, prompted by the Thanksgivingholiday, have become more intentional in looking for reasons to bethankful. In other words, they’ve justtaken the time to look beyond the surface of things (most of the reasons wecomplain are found on the surface of things!) to the deeper realities oflife. There, in those moments ofreflection, people almost always find a reason to be grateful. To our great surprise, these reasons forthanks often lie just below the very things we so often complain about (ie.family, friends, church, jobs).

We know itdoesn’t take a holiday to live this way – or at least it shouldn’t take aholiday to live this way. It does takethe discipline of reflection and the time to see the deeper truths oflife. That requires a slowing down inour living. When our lives are crowded,even with good things, we tend to only notice the irritations. But when we slow down, when we give ourselvestime to think about the people and things in our lives we leave room for thesurprise of discovering gifts where we previously thought only frustrationscould be found.

Take timetoday, to pause, reflect, and give thanks.

I will give thanks to the LORD because of hisrighteousness;

I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High – Psalm 7:17

This is Life with a capital L

2011-11-17T06:17:00.001-08:00

Lastevening in prayer meeting, we read aloud from Jesus’ prayer in John 17:3 “Nowthis is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and JesusChrist, whom you have sent.” We werereminded once again that while eternal life does have a quantitative component(it goes on and on, forever and ever), eternal life is first and foremost abouta relationship. Knowing God is life. Notice Jesus doesn’t say that knowing Godbrings life, as if that life is somehow secondary to the relationship, no, therelationship is life. This is good newsfor it means that our lives with God are not in some kind of holding patternuntil we die. We can experience eternal,abundant life today through a relationship with God.

But ifknowing God is life – why do so many Christians seem so lifeless? I think the reason lies in a simple mistakewe often make. Knowing God is not thesame thing as knowing about God. A lotof people know about God, but knowing about God isn’t life, knowing himis. J. I. Packer in his classic text Knowing God explains it this way, “Weare perhaps, orthodox evangelicals. Wecan state the gospel clearly; we can smell unsound doctrine a mile away. If asked how one may come to know God, we canat once produce the right formula: that we come to know God through JesusChrist the Lord, in virtue of his cross and mediation, on the basis of his wordof promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, via a personal exercise offaith. Yet the gaiety, goodness, andunfetteredness of spirit which are the marks of those who have known God arerare among us – rarer, perhaps, that they are in some other Christian circleswhere, by comparison, evangelical truth is less clearly and fully known. Here, too, it would seem that the last mayprove to be first, and the first, last. A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledgeabout him.” He’ll later go on to say,“You can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in yourheart the realities to which they refer.”

Thescriptures invite us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” It’s the difference between knowing therecipe for your favorite dish, an actually tasting your favorite dish. It’s the difference between knowing aboutsomeone you’ve never met or knowing your best friend. Think about it. Best friends are life giving. If you’re fortunate enough to have a spouseas a best friend, then all the better. Knowing Alyson provides me with life. Not the information of knowing her – like when her birthday is, or whereshe grew up, or what her favorite flower is – I know those things – but whatgives me life is knowing her. It’s ourinteractions, it’s her smile, it’s sharing in her joy when she’s had a good dayat school, it’s the feeling her comforting embrace after a tough day. It’s the relationship, not the informationthat gives my life value.

If this istrue for a friendship with one who is equally sinful, how much more life-givingis a relationship with God.

“This is the testimony: God hasgiven us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the has life” – 1 John 5:11-12

Good news from Amarillo

2011-10-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

Tim and I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week in Amarillo, TX at the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. For those of you unfamiliar with Baptist life, the BGCT is the place where Baptist churches from all over the state gather to set the budget and agenda for our cooperative mission endeavors next year. This work includes Texas Baptist universities, children’s homes, chaplaincy programs, collegiate ministries on state campuses, and much more.

Beyond the business meeting side of it, the annual meeting always a good time for ministers to see old friends from around the state. I enjoyed catching up with seminary classmates who now serve in churches in almost every corner of Texas. I was glad to hear from the dean of Truett Seminary that theological education in Texas continues to thrive and grow. Nationally, seminary attendance dropped 2% last year. Truett’s attendance increased by 10%. Two of those new Truett students have Southland connections – Isa Torres and Jeremy Boucher.

Another highlight of the meeting included the Christian Life Commission’s Hunger Luncheon. The Christian Life Commission is the arm of the BGCT that manages the Texas Baptist World Hunger Offering that we collect each time we observe the Lord’s Supper. My heart was moved by testimonies from ministers who receive those funds to feed the hungry. One such testimony came from a pastor in the Houston area whose church feeds over 100 children every day after school. Many of these children are from immigrant families who are hearing about Jesus for the very first time. Another testimony came from missionaries to a country in North Africa who use a grant from the hunger offering to feed girls who have been abandoned by their families. In doing so, they are also spreading the good news of Jesus Christ in that predominantly Muslim country.

All in all, I left Amarillo encouraged by the work that’s being done through Texas Baptist ministries here in our great state and across the globe. You should be encouraged that every time you place money in the offering plate a portion of it goes beyond the walls of our church to support the various ministries of the BGCT, ministries that are doing good work for the kingdom of God.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20

What makes your heart sing?

2011-10-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

Having just finished up a sermon series on music, I’m reminded of a delightful question my former pastor used to inquire of those in her care. “What makes your heart sing?” she’d ask. And then she’d listen. It was a way of getting to the heart of the matter. Inevitably, a blank look would come over the person’s face as they began to search their brain, unprepared for this moment of introspection. You always knew the moment they’d found what they were looking for because the blank stare would give way to a broad smile. The very thought of this thing that makes them sing created an involuntary light upon their face.

The answers would vary: family, making music, teaching, one guy loved classic cars. In the two years I attended that church, I never once heard someone reply, “Making money.” Apparently, we all had enough sense to know that wasn’t the correct answer for church. And yet, I wonder, if money doesn’t make many of our hearts sing? It certainly can make us most of smile when we have it and frown when we don’t. Of course, the second part of that sentence may be a key reason why nobody ever mentioned money as a something that makes their heart sing. As often as money makes us smile, it can also make us want to curse.

Jesus said that where a person’s treasure is, there will be that person’s heart. In fact, what we treasure tends to dictate how we spend our lives (and not just our cash). Some treasures prove better investments than others. Some treasures fill us with songs of joy, while others leave us constantly singing the blues. The wise person learns to treasure that which cannot be lost to the whims of the market or the current status of the job market.

This leaves us all with the question, “What makes your heart sing?”

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Luke 12:33-34

You keep funeral files on people?! Yep. I do.

2011-10-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

This morning a friend of mine stopped me and said, “This may be weird, but I want you to know that if I die, I have a slip of paper in the front of my Bible that has all the songs I want sung at my funeral. I thought you might want to know since you’d be the one doing my service.” I told her that wasn’t weird at all. In fact, it was really good idea. If she wanted to, she could e-mail me the list because I keep file of that sort of thing for folks and I’d be glad to make a file with her name on it. She thought that was weird! “You keep funeral files on people?!” Yep. It may be weird, but it goes with the job. Actually, it goes with life.

If the Lord doesn’t return in our lifetime, all of us will die. It’s one of the most basic truths about life, and yet, a truth we ignore. One time, I was sitting in a hearse with a funeral director and he admitted “My life is funerals and yet I don’t ever think about what I’d like done at mine.” We might wonder how that could be for someone who works with dead people every day, but it doesn’t surprise me at all. As humans, we have this logic defying ability to look at reality and say, “Yeah, but it won’t happen to me.” Just drive by the hospital and look at how many doctors and nurses are outside smoking! Denying death doesn’t mean it won’t happen. We will all die.

A wise person will seek to be prepared. On a very practical level, we can think about what we would like to happen at our own funeral. Making a list of your favorite songs and passages of scripture for use in your service can be a big help to the loved ones you leave behind. On a deeper level, facing one’s mortality helps you to be prepared to meet your Maker. If I were to die soon, what things would be left undone? Would there be sins that needed to be confessed? Relationships left unreconciled? Words left unsaid? Taking care of those things today not only helps you be prepared for your death somewhere in the future, it also helps you to be the person God wants you to be today.

“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days;

let me know how fleeting is my life.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

the span of my years is as nothing before you.

Each man’s life is but a breath.

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:

He bustles about, but only in vain;

he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

Psalm 39:4-7

Singing for Fun

2011-09-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

Section 8 having some fun playing music at Southland for the Birthday Bash.

I love to sing. So do my kids. In fact, we don’t just like to sing, we like to make up songs. Usually, these are silly songs that play with my kid’s names or what we’re eating for breakfast. I make up songs so often that when singing, my four-year-old son will often interrupt and ask, “Dad, did you make that song up?” My daughter, who’s older, can already tell which songs I’ve made up and which songs have been composed by more skillful hands (my songs lack a certain level of quality, to say the least). But she likes my songs anyway and now has picked up my habit by making up her own impromptu tunes. My wife looks at us all like we are a little crazy. I think we’re perfectly sane – for nothing is more natural than having fun while making music.

Having fun with music is something we haven’t talked about in this sermon series on the gift of music; that’s a shame. One of the preacher’s great struggles is that there is always more to say. So let it be said here: the delight that music can bring to the soul is a gift from God. Even the seemingly silly can honor God if offered up with a pure heart and at the right time. What did the writer of Ecclesiastes say? Oh yes, “There’s a time for everything.” Certainly, that includes the fun that comes through singing.

We know the fun we can have singing in our cars or in the shower or with friends through a karaoke machine. But some of the best fun can be had singing with the saints. I remember as a child listening to the men singing the bass part to many a hymn and thinking – that’s fun. There was one man in our church growing up who sounded just like Elvis. When he’d sing a song, I’d close my eyes and imagine we had the King of Rock ‘n Roll singing to the King of Kings that day in worship! That was fun. And to this day, on Easter, when we sing plaintively, “Low in the grave he lay, Jesus, my Savior! Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!” my heart fills not only with hope but also with a childish giddiness waiting for the boisterous interruption, “Up from the grave he arose! With a mighty triumph o’er his foes . . .” That’s not just the gospel truth, it’s also a lot of fun. I think it’s ok to admit that. For fun, in its best forms, is a foretaste of that very joyful morning when Christ returns and we all lay life’s burdens down so that we may sing and dance like a kid who’s having the time of her life.

“Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world” – Jesus in John 16:33.

Favorite Hymns

2011-09-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks in worship at Southland, we’ve listened as friends have shared with us some of their favorite songs. I’ve been blessed by each testimony and look forward to hearing another one in worship this week. All this testifying has me wondering, what’s my favorite song?An easy candidate would be that classic hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Barely old enough to read the words from my hymnal, I remember singing those words, “Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!” and giving my heart to the Lord. It’s been well over two decades since that moment and the first few notes of that song take me right back to my first conscious encounter with the Almighty.

Still another would have to be “Come Thou Fount.” For one, it’s one of the few songs I can sing all the way through. I’ve never been good at remembering the words to songs (just ask Alyson). I’ve always enjoyed the tune and the words. I may be a preacher, but my heart has been just as prone to wandering as any other (see verse 3). The song’s message of grace has always filled me with hope. For whatever reason, this is the song I most often sang over my children when they were infants. On many a dark night, I’ve raised my Ebenezer in an attempt to get a crying baby back to sleep. I’ve sung that song so often to the two of them that whenever they hear it now, they recognize it, smile, and say, “That’s Daddy’s song.”

And so it is.

Come, Though Fount of ev’ry blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise:

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above;

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

Mount of Thy redeeming love;

His mercy truly does call for songs of loudest praise. May we, his people, never stop singing.

Patty Griffin on ACL

2011-09-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is the show I made reference to in this morning's service. Enjoy!

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.

Mere worship

2011-09-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

This week in worship, we will continue our series on the ways God blesses our lives through music. We’ve talked before about how people were actually made to praise. We know this, in part, because we take to praising so easily. This is likely because, our enjoyment of an activity, a work of art, or even a person, doesn’t find completion until we’ve offered our praise. After a meal or perhaps an exciting sporting event, we continue the enjoyment with praise. “Mmm…that was good!” “What a game! Did you see that play?” In praise, the enjoyment of something continues and finds completion.

The praise we give to God in church, is in part, our attempts “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We sinners, of course, still do this only poorly. And our efforts at praising God in church often fall well short of our expectations of what that event ought to be like. I’ve known many people terrified by the idea that heaven involves the perpetual praise of God because their experience of worship at church has been so disappointing. Worship seems like it should be easy, but it’s not. It’s hard work to pay attention and to keep one’s focus on God. While there are moments in which our praise of God leaves us in a state of bliss, more often we’re left wondering what went wrong.

In his book, Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis reminds us that “Our ‘services’ both in their conduct and in our power to participate, are merely attempts at worship; never fully successful, often 99.9 per cent failures, sometimes total failures. We are not riders but pupils in the riding school; for most of us the falls and bruises, the aching muscles and the severity of the exercise, far outweigh those few moments in which we were, to our own astonishment, actually galloping without terror and without disaster.”

I’ve come to love Lewis’s image. I’m certainly no horseman. The few times I’ve been on a horse, it has been a near disaster. While most of my riding has been awkward (for me and the horse) there was that brief moment when we did gallop and the horse and I were in the same rhythm, and I thought, “Yes!” I understood why people love riding so much. Of course, afterwards, I was sorer than I think I have ever been. Riding is glorious, but it isn’t easy.

The worship of God is much the same way. When it’s right, it’s glorious, but it’s never easy. Which is why we practice every week. And why, when it doesn’t work because we were distracted, or worried, or somehow out of rhythm with the rhythms of God, we don’t give up, but give it a go again the next time God’s people get together to give God praise.

Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together – Psalm 34:3.

Hurricanes, the Waffle House, and your Spiritual Health

2011-09-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

People are always trying to figure out what’s going on in the world around them. Because none of us can posses or digest all the data that exists in the world we turn to what are called indicators. Indicators are single bits of data that give us a glimpse into the larger reality of what’s going on in the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Index would be a market indicator. The GDP would be a national economic indicator. That vein on your father’s forehead, that’s a mood indicator. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal this morning, there is the “Waffle House Index” which indicates the severity of natural disasters.

Apparently, a person can judge the severity of a hurricane or other natural disaster by how quickly the local Waffle House gets back open for business. Waffle Houses don’t tend to advertise much. Their entire marketing strategy revolves around being open when others aren’t. This means that if your local Waffle House is closed, the storm was really bad. If it’s open, you can trust things will get back to normal pretty soon. This indicator works because the fact of whether or not the Waffle House is open is connected to a whole host of other issues like supply lines, electricity, safety, etc. It’s these factors that really tell the story of how bad a storm was. But since these issues determine whether or not the Waffle House is open or not, the Waffle House becomes a solid indicator for how bad or good everything else is, as well.

What makes for good spiritual indicators? We all have them. Not all of them are good at predicting spiritual health. Think of the Pharisees. The assumed that if they avoided sinners, said their prayers before mealtime, and followed proper religious protocol down at the synagogue, then they could be assured of their spiritual health. And yet, Jesus said, such things were pretty useless in helping a person determine whether or not they were close to God because such procedural issues did not connect with the heart of the matter (which was the heart of the person).

Instead, Jesus explained, we can now if we love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, mainly by looking at how well we are loving our neighbor – by which he meant almost any soul we come in contact with whether they be a nobody or even an enemy! Too often, we’re like the Pharisees. We have our church attendance index, or our alcohol consumption barometer, or our denominational affiliation indicator. We think these alone can tell us all we need to know about our spiritual health. But what we really need, according to Jesus, is our own version of the Waffle House index. For how you love and care for the people you meet at the Waffle House (or anywhere else) may be a far better indicator of your spiritual health than anything you do at church.

Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:37-40.

Don't like change? Don't follow Christ.

2011-08-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

This week marked the beginning of the school year for a majority of the children in San Angelo. Some have had a better start than others. Most of the kids I talked had some measure of nervousness about the new school year. Almost all the parents I spoke with did. One of the basic truths of life is that people generally prefer what they know over what they don’t know. This is as true for adults as it is for our children. This tendency holds even when what we know isn’t that good. Time and time again, we’ll prefer the misery we know over an alternative that is uncertain.

This common human tendency to prefer the known over the unknown works against our relationship with Jesus, whose first and most frequent word to us is, “Follow me.” Follow me in serving others. Follow me in praying for your enemies. Follow me into a deeper relationship with God. Follow me to the cross.

Instinctively, I think we know that a relationship with Christ means change, which is why we church people prefer religion over relationship (and nobody loves predictability at church more than preachers!). Religion helps us keep God at arm’s length. We’re able to consistently check off the boxes of what we’re supposed to believe and do (and not do) in such a way that we never hear Christ’s voice to step out into the unknown.

Religion kept Jonah away from Ninevah and the possibility of an enemy’s repentance. Religion had the potential of keeping Peter away from Cornelius’ house and a stranger’s salvation. Religion threatened to keep Paul fighting against a new work of God, all because his religion had convinced him that God didn’t do anything new. Only a word from God (and a giant fish) convinced these guys otherwise.

I’ve become convinced that if God hasn’t recently challenged our preconceived notions about life, other people, morality, even God's will, then we might not actually know God, not the God revealed to us in that rabble-rouser Jesus Christ. No, if our god is constantly confirming our suspicions about other people and our fears about this life and our vision of how the world should work, there’s a good chance the god we worship is only an idol created in our image. That god might be safe and predictable, but he’s not a god that saves.

Only Jesus saves, and he is constantly calling us to leave what we know so that we might follow him into the unknown, unpredictable, but ultimately incomparable kingdom of God.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known – 1 Corinthians 13:12.

Help! I've lost control!

2011-08-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

The drought. Riots in London. The Warren Jeff’s trial. The Economy. The gridlock in Washington. I don’t know about you, but I’ve about given up on watching the news. It’s too depressing. The world seems like it’s coming off its hinges. Sometimes I prefer to live uninformed, so that I can keep up the façade that everything is ok in this life.

But even if I build a wall around my house and cancel my cable and internet connections, I can’t totally escape bad things from happening. Illness, conflict, and troubles of all sorts wreak their havoc in the most personal ways as often as they make global headlines. As much as I’d like to control everything in this life, I can’t.

I’m reminded of a word from Barbara Brown Taylor: "’I've lost control!’ That is what good people say when bad things happen to them. ‘I've lost control of my life!’ I have said it myself, but it is not true. Human beings do not lose control of their lives. What we lose is the illusion that we were ever in control of our lives in the first place, and it is a hard, hard lesson to learn.”

Is it ever. I, along with lots of other people, buy in to the myth that if I just do things correctly, my life will be orderly and safe. I also buy into the collective version of that myth, if we just do things correctly, if we legislate correctly, if we defend ourselves correctly, if we worship correctly, life will be orderly and safe. We will manage to keep things under control.

But we’re not in control. I’m not in control. None of us ever were. God is, even if it doesn’t always seem like it. Part of the problem, I think is this. If I was in control, we’d all be safe and secure. But God’s concern doesn't seem to be that we are safe, but that we are being saved. There is a difference.

Being safe involves my present circumstances. Being saved involves the state of my soul. Being safe means keeping evil at bay. Being saved means overcoming evil with good. Being safe necessitates looking out for me and mine. Being saved calls on us to trust the only One who cares for all. Being safe means trying to control my life. Being saved means giving my life over to the One who will one day, maybe not today, but one day, make all things new.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” – Romans 8:18.

What's in your box?

2011-08-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

The other day, my four-year-old son, John Curtis came into my room with arms wrapped around a cardboard box that he uses to tote small toys around the house. He joyfully declared, “Dad, look what’s in my box.” Fully expecting to see a pile of his favorite toys or, because it’s John Curtis, a bug or two, I was completely caught off guard when I looked into his box and saw cash – lots of cash. John Curtis, looked up at me with a smile, and said proudly “I’ve been good at finding money today.”

“John Curtis, where did you get this money?!” I asked. It was way more money than he had in his piggy bank. I was sure of that.

The tone of my voice must have clued him in that I was not happy. His smile disappeared, his head lowered, and his will to speak disappeared.

“John Curtis, I have to know where you got this money, so that we can put it back. We can’t go around taking other people’s money.”

John Curtis admitted that some of it had come from his piggy bank, but not all of it. Some he reluctantly confessed had come from his sister’s bank. “O.K.,” I said, “and where did the rest come from?” Like I said, there was a lot of cash in that box. Minutes passed. Finally, he walked over to where my wife keeps her extra cash and held a finger out indicating the final victim of his crime spree.

After returning all the money to its rightful owners, we had a long talk about what it means to respect each other’s property and about the honest ways we can “find money” each day.

I was recounting this story to a friend, when she wisely noted, “At least he came and showed you the box. Sounds to me like he was looking for some kind of indication about whether or not this was a good thing to do.”

Her comment got me thinking, how often do I bring my box to my heavenly Father for review. “Hey God, look what I did today. Look what’s in my box.” How often do I bring before him what I think is a good thing I’ve done, just to make sure?

“Look how good I was at defending my honor today.”

“Look how good I was at getting revenge.”

“Look how good I was at getting what’s mine.”

“Look how good I was at playing it safe.”

If I’m honest, I don’t do that very often. Mainly, because I’ve got a few years on John Curtis, and I know that often what I think is good God does not. God looks in my box and says, “You were very good at that today. Unfortunately, that’s not something we want to be good at.” Who, really, wants to have those kinds of conversations? John Curtis didn’t enjoy the correction he received. But, how else can we learn God’s ways? We aren’t perfect, but God has promised to make us so. The only way for that to happen is for some correction to happen along the way. The good news is that we can trust that God’s correction will be full of the grace and compassion of a loving Father as he points us in the direction of true life.

I want John Curtis to keep trusting me enough to be willing to show me what’s in his box. If that’s the case, I’ll need to model the way by trusting God enough to keep showing him what is in mine.

“God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” – Hebrews 12:10-11

New video from the Preemptive Love Coalition

2011-08-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

My friends over at the Preemptive Love Coalition know how to make cool videos (see below). But what they do day to day in bringing about reconciliation through healing - that's infinitely cooler than even their videos.

Reconciliation Through Healing from Preemptive Love on Vimeo.

If violence 'unmakes' the world, healing rebuilds it.

Generations of 'unmaking' resulted in a backlog of children born with heart defects, but a $670 lifesaving heart surgery can change everything for a child and their family. It can provide the healing that leads to wholeness.

http://PreemptiveLove.org

http://facebook.com/PreemptiveLove

Learning new questions to ask.

2011-07-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a friend of mine posted this quote on his blog:

“To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell” (Thomas Merton in No Man is an Island).

Ouch! I have to admit, I hang out on that doorstep way too often. When I meet a new person, when someone proposes a new idea, when the temperature stays above 100 degrees for far too many days in a row, my natural response is to contemplate only how I am affected. The questions that normally run through my head focus on . . . well . . . me:

What is this going to cost me?

How much of my time is this wasting?

What is this keeping me from doing that I want to be doing?

How different such thoughts are from the way of Christ who considered people and situations only in light of his mission of reconciliation. Paul, contemplating Christ’s willingness to pay any price for us, writes, “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view” (1 Cor 5:15-16). That is, we view no one (and we might add, no situation) solely in the light of their effect upon us. We no longer live for ourselves, but for Christ. He is to be the filter through which we view the people and the circumstances in our lives.

To live this way, we need new questions as we approach each new circumstance in our lives:

How can I live for Christ in this situation?

How might God be redeeming this moment for his glory?

How does God view the person in front of me? How then should I?

If you’ve lived on the doorstep of self-absorption as long as I have, it’s difficult to imagine another way of living. But it is possible to change. Not on our own, granted, but God is at work in us. The Bible promises: “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (1 Cor 5:17-18).

On birthdays...both biological and spiritual

2011-07-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, my daughter, Sophie, will turn seven years old. Five years ago to the day, Alyson, Sophie, and I stood before our current church in view of a call (That's the Baptist version of an interview Sunday). My son, John Curtis was on the way but had not yet arrived. Day to day, you don’t notice your children growing, but growing they are. How different Sophie is today than the little toddler she was just five years ago. Then, she needed her mom and me for almost everything. Today, she still needs us, but she also has her own interest, her own books, and her own opinions. She is also, Lord willing, developing her own faith.

It was twenty-six Julys ago that I gave my young heart to the Lord as a seven-year-old boy. I don’t remember much about that day. I couldn’t tell you what the sermon was about or what the weather was like. I do remember singing the treasured hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!” I also remember vividly the experience of being awakened to God’s presence for the very first time. No doubt, God had been with me since he knit me together in my mother’s womb, but on that Sunday, for the first time, I became aware that he was there. The God of my biological parents, the God of my spiritual forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, became the God of Taylor Sandlin.

Since that day, I have not always been as aware of the Lord’s presence as I was in that moment. Every now and then I get a glimpse of his workings, but mostly, I have to trust that like a seed in the ground or yeast in the dough, his kingdom is at work in me even if that work is difficult to discern. Jesus encourages us, that’s just the way of the kingdom. It’s small, hidden, at times, irrelevant to the world, but it’s accomplishing its purposes in you and me and all who believe, nonetheless. Someday, at the Father’s choosing, the seeds of the gospel that have taken root in this world will bear much fruit. On that day, we’ll no doubt be surprised at how much we each have grown.

And what shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough – Luke 13:20-21

Leader or follower?

2011-06-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

It’s been almost a month since I typed out one of these Thoughts-for-Thursdays. It’s not that I’ve had no thoughts. But most of my thoughts have been aimed in other directions – namely a doctoral seminar and then recovering from a doctoral seminar. The seminar was on leadership. Thankfully, the seminar was not one of those overly pragmatic looks at the topic. You know the kind I’m talking about, those that tell you if you’ll follow these three easy steps you’ll be a great leader. Seminars and books like that don’t sit well with me. Life is never that easy.

This seminar pointed us in a different direction altogether. Namely, the readings and discussion reminded us that if any of us want to learn to be leaders in the Christian sense of the word, we must first become followers. The calling of every Christian (not just of pastors) is first and foremost Christ’s invitation to “Come, follow me.” It’s funny, for all the emphasis we Christians put on being biblical, when is the last time you heard about a seminar or conference on “Followership”? And yet, followers are what we are called to be.

Where does following Christ take us? If the words of Christ are any indication, following Jesus will usually take us in the opposite directions of our instincts: we are to love enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, and to return evil with good. We are to care for those who are different than us and to give to others without expectation of anything in return. I don’t know about you, but for me, none of those things come naturally, which makes it all the more important for us to work on our followership skills even more than we work on our leadership skills.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me – John 10:27

New TX BSM website for college freshmen

2011-06-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

Alyson and I love Texas Baptist's BSMs (Baptist Student Ministry). We met each other at the Aggie BSM. And through the ministries there, also discovered much about God's calling in our lives. I'm glad to say that BSMs are still making a huge difference in the lives of students. Whereas 70% of students stop going to church when they head off to college, 80% of students who attend the BSM on their campus continue being active in a local church in and beyond their college years.

Are you a recent high school grad heading off to college? Or do you know someone who is? Texas Baptist Student Ministries has a great new website www.texasfreshmen.com. There students can find out where and when the BSM meets on their local campus. The best thing about the sight? It features testimonies by two folks we know and love at Southland - Jeremiah Banks and Isa Torres. Check out their videos below.

The most difficult place to be a Christian

2011-06-02T07:20:00.001-07:00

Daniel Vestal, executive director of the Cooperative Baptist Convention, tells of a time, several years ago, when he attended a conference where former Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield spoke. After his speech, there was a period of discussion. Someone asked the senator, "What is the greatest challenge you have as a Christian?"

Vestal remembers Hatfield’s response, “I was intrigued and surprised by his answer. Here is a man who served in the United States Senate with great power and prestige and made decisions that affected millions of people. He responded quickly, ‘My greatest challenge as a Christian is in my home.’”

In other words, Vestal comments, “If you want to know what kind of Christian I am, don't evaluate me on the platform, ask my wife, ask my children and ask my mother-in-law. The first place we build community is in our homes.”

Both Vestal and Hatfield are on to something. Our world is full of communities that require very little of us. We come in and out of people’s lives so quickly that we never have to give too much or sacrifice too deeply. At home, however, where these handful of people keep showing up over and over again, Christ’s commands become more daunting. Forgiving as often as is necessary, giving without expecting in return, and turning the other cheek can feel impossible with the people we are supposedly closest to. And yet, if Christ’s words don’t apply there, where do they apply?

Maybe our prayer everyday should begin with the simple plea, “Lord, help me the Christian you want me to be right here at home.”

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God – Ephesians 5:1.

Character is more than who you are when you're all alone. It's also knowing when you shouldn't be alone.

2011-05-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

This week at Southland, we will continue our series on Living Virtuously in a Virtual World. Such a series would be incomplete if it did not include a discussion about how Christians should respond to the proliferation of pornography on the Web. Pornography is nothing new. My guess is that as soon as human beings figured out how to draw pictures, they started drawing dirty pictures. What’s new is the volume of dirty pictures that are now available with just the click of a button.

While statistics on pornography prove to vary wildly depending upon the source, many estimates put the number of pornographic websites in the millions. One article in Christianity Today noted that 60% of the sites on the Internet are sexual in nature. That same article noted that the danger is not just for men. The numbers of women addicted to pornography is on the rise. I have no idea of knowing the accuracy of these statements, I do know from my experience as a minister and from interactions with other ministers that pornography is wreaking havoc on our marriages, our families, and our souls.

How can Christians be faithful to Christ’s call to honor God with our bodies? We’ll explore that topic more broadly on Sunday, but a simple word to start the discussion today. We don’t do it alone. God gives us his Spirit, who both forgives our sins and empowers us to new life. And God gives us one another. I always heard that character is who you are when no one is looking. While there is some truth to that statement, I’ve come to think there is a needed corollary. Character can also involve knowing when you shouldn’t be alone. Think about it. When an alcoholic says, “I need help in staying sober,” that person has shown character. He or she isn’t weak but wise.

As we’ll talk about on Sunday, God made us with strong sexual desires. Often, if left to ourselves, we will seek to satisfy those desires in ways that pervert God’s intentions. We need help. We need people who can help us stay accountable to one another and to God’s ways. As far as the internet goes, one of the ways we can do that is through internet accountability programs. Programs like Covenant Eyes or Safe Eyes, don’t filter internet use so much as they bring it into the light. You install the program on your computer and then put in a trusted friend’s e-mail knowing that they will get a log of every sight you visit. It’s like having someone constantly look over your shoulder which is what some of us need.

Again, such a move isn’t a sign of weakness, but of wisdom that says a God kind of life happens best when lived via the community of faith.

There's always more to say - another thought on sarcasm

2011-05-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

In last Sunday's (5/8/11) sermon, I spoke about practicing kindness in a world that favors snarkiness. One area of our language that I took particular aim at was sarcasm. This wasn’t the only form of unkindness we spoke of, but rather just one example of our culture’s propensity to elevate oneself by putting others down. This week proved that the topic of sarcasm in our culture probably can’t be covered in a forth of a sermon. As is the case with every sermon ever preached, there is more to say, more to think about.

One, this week confirmed that sarcasm is everywhere. Before the day was even over on Sunday, Alyson had caught me in several acts of sarcasm. Throughout this week, in staff meeting and in conversations with others, it’s been noted time and time again how sarcastic we all are.

Two, this week proved that not every bit of sarcasm feels the same. Some of our sarcasm fits exactly what I was talking about on Sunday – it’s mean spirited; it has a victim; it is meant to elevate oneself above another. Thanks to God’s grace, I’ve caught myself this week before I uttered a phrase like this. I feel better, no mark that, I am a better person for having bit my tongue. But not all sarcasm fits that category. Sometimes what we call sarcasm is just a light hearted comment about a light hearted topic. I’m not sure such comments even deserve the title sarcasm and aren’t what I’m worried about. Such levity can be joyful part of life.

How can we tell the difference between that which tears down and that which lightens the mood? How do we know what kinds of sarcasm to avoid? There’s probably no hard and fast rule, but the actual definition of sarcasm helps – “Harsh or bitter derision or irony; a sharply ironical taunt; a sneering or cutting remark.” In the Latin it means to rend the flesh of something or someone. Compare that to 1 Peter 3:8-9 and I think with a little help from the Spirit, we can know exactly when to speak and when to hold our tongues: “Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing” (from The Message).

For an fair and thorough look at the topic of irony and the Christian, read Brett McCracken’s “The Importance of Being Earnest for an Irony-Obsessed Generation”

Love never delights in evil

2011-05-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

In a world of technological advances, it is easy to fall into the temptation of forgetting that the greatest wisdom often comes with age. While it’s true that if you need help figuring out how to send a text on your newest cell phone you should probably ask someone under the age of 15, it’s equally true that in regards to the deeper truths of life, age can often give us a perspective of deep wisdom.

Take for instance the preacher Haddon Robinson’s thoughts on what fuels so many websites’ popularity. The 80 year-old recently noted in a sermon, “We often take consolation in someone else’s failure. Doing that is not loving; it is the essence of selfishness. But we live in a culture that tempts us to do that, a culture that majors in looking at other people’s failures. Survey the blog world. You’ll discover that most blogs focus on what a politician or a celebrity or a preacher has done wrong. They’d soon go out of business if they only talked about what other people did well.”

I don’t know how much pastor Robinson knows about computers, but he knows an awful lot about the people who use those computers. He knows how often we, because of envy or insecurities, delight in other’s troubles. He’s, no doubt, been watching people do that for decades. Robinson also knows his Bible well. He knows that love never delights in evil, but rejoices with the truth. If we want to love like God loves, then we won’t delight when other people crash and burn, even if those people are our enemies. Instead, we will be a people who long for goodness and mercy and the love of God to prevail in every person’s life.

Why walk when you can fly - Mary Chapin Carpenter

2011-05-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Living the Resurrection

2011-04-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

Eugene Peterson begins his book Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life by recounting Billy Sunday's ideal Christian life: "Hit the sawdust trail, fall on your knees, and receive Christ as Savior. Then walk out of this tent into the street, get hit by a Mack truck, and go straight to heaven." Peterson notes the appealing nature of the old-time evangelist's formula. "No time to backslide, no temptations to bother with, no doubts to wrestle with, no spouse to have to honor no kids to put up with, no enemies to love, no more sorrow, no more tears. Instant eternity."

Of course, just because something is appealing doesn't mean it's advisable. And if we believe the testimony of the scriptures, even profitable. Sunday's philosophy certainly doesn't seem to be par for the course when it comes to God's will for most of our lives. God could have, at the resurrection, ended it all, I suppose. He could have in that great act brought history to a close and carried his people away to an eternity with him. But God seemed to have other purposes with this post-resurrection world, purposes that involved more than whisking away his people to the sweet-by-and-by.

When we read the testimony of the book of Acts and the letters of Paul, God seems to be intent upon getting the sweet-by-and-by inserted into the lives of his people in the hear-and-now. After all, didn't Jesus teach us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"? That seems a far cry from Billy Sunday's ideal Christian life. As believers we are confident that Mack trucks can't separate us from the God's presence. If and when we die we will be with God. But we are equally confident that neither can the ordinary stuff of life separate us from his presence. We can, through the power of God's Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, experience eternal life today in the carpool and at the grocery store, in the staff meeting and while having supper with the in-laws. Thanks to the resurrection life at work in us, we need not wait for our deaths to experience eternity's fruit.

See What a Morning

2011-04-24T04:50:00.000-07:00

Learning to live from a dying man.

2011-04-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Over the last six weeks, we have spent Sunday mornings studying the first half of John’s gospel. This Sunday we will skip ahead to John 20. In between, chapters 13-17, the action in John’s gospel slows to a snail’s pace as Jesus takes one last chance to teach, encourage, and pray for his disciples. Lesslie Newbigin, the great missionary to India, a man familiar with journeys, once wrote of these chapters, “When a man is going on a long journey, he will find time on the eve of his departure for a quiet talk with his family, and – if he is a man of God – will end by commending to God not only himself and his journey, but also the family he leaves behind. Very surely will this be so if his journey is the last journey.” Newbigin’s evaluation of the scene is an accurate one. This is the eve of Jesus’ departure, the shadow of the cross falls across this intimate gathering. This is a quiet talk with those closest to the Savior. His disciples gather together for one last meal, for a farewell address, and finally in chapter 17, a farewell prayer.

Such a moment, those final moments before death, can seem overly gloomy to a culture infatuated with the appearance of life – I don’t mean real life – Jesus will talk about that in his prayer – but rather the appearance of life – the facade of life. We are a culture that so idolizes youthfulness that we inject poison in our faces to remove wrinkles and submit to dangerous surgeries in a vain attempt to hold onto younger bodies. We push the suffering into hospitals and the aging into nursing homes. And we avoid at all cost the discussion of when our lives must end. That’s too bad, recognizing we are on a journey to the grave is the first step into learning how to live. Robert M. Herhold says in his book, Learning to Die – Learning to Live, “It is too bad that dying is the last thing we do. Because it could teach us so much about living.”

Fortunately for us, Jesus spoke frankly about his death and ours. He’d been clear about his impending, painful death many times and now admits bluntly, “The hour has come.” It’s in this moment before death, with the seriousness of a man that is embarking upon his last journey, Jesus gives the clearest indication of what it means to really live. “Now this is eternal life,” Jesus prayed, “That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” That’s the secret to life – knowing God. Notice Jesus doesn’t say that knowing God brings life, as if that life is somehow secondary to the relationship; no, the relationship is life. To be with God is to be alive! And how do we know God? How do we enter into his presence? Through his Son, who gave himself for us, so that in our living or in our dying we might enjoy true relationship with our Maker today and forevermore.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” – Romans 8:38-39.

Easter is coming.

2011-04-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

A well done video on the difference Easter makes from Workingpreacher.org.

An Extravagant Gift

2011-04-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

Have you ever struggled to know what to give someone for their birthday or for Christmas or for some other event? I find this especially difficult when I’m attempting to give a gift to someone I’ve never given a gift to before. Often this happens with a new friend, or with someone who might be a potential friend. Their birthday shows up before yours and you worry about what to get them – you don’t want to get them something too cheap and insult them; but you don’t want to get them something too expensive on the off chance that they don’t really think of the relationship in the same way as you. Gift giving is never easy for we know that gifts send messages.

In John 12, Mary, Martha, and the recently raised Lazarus present Jesus with a gift – a great banquet. This party is an act of thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for them in raising Lazarus from the dead. The banquet, with Jesus at the head of the table, strikes most of the people present as an appropriate gift for such a miracle. But Mary, Lazarus’ sister wants to do more. So right there in the middle of that party, Mary takes out a jar of very expensive perfume, probably one of her family’s most precious possessions, and anoints Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair.

The onlookers are not so sure this is an appropriate gift. First, for a peasant family, you couldn’t really get more extravagant than this. This was a prized possession, something you save for burying your own parents, not something you pour onto the ground just to clean a friend’s feet. Second, Mary’s act embarrassed the crowd because of the incredible level of intimacy involved. Women did not let their hair down in public. They especially didn’t wipe a man’s feet with their hair either. We don’t mind seeing women’s hair in public today, but I’m guessing most of us would still be disturbed if some lady at Olive Garden started washing a man’s feet with her hair!

And yet Jesus wasn’t. He said bluntly to the party-goers, “Leave her alone.” For he knew that while it was possible to give inappropriately expensive and inappropriately intimate gifts in this life, Mary was not guilty of that crime. For a gift is inappropriate only when it misreads the status of the relationship, but Mary had read the status of her relationship with Jesus well. He wasn’t just a friend, or a powerful teacher, or even miracle worker. He was the Giver of life! And there’s not a gift we can give that’s a too extravagant or too intimate a response to that.

Learning to Receive (A Lenten Homily)

2011-04-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

This was delivered to the gathered community of saints last Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at the First United Methodist Church of San Angelo during their community Lenten worship service. As always, it was a joy to worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ at FUMC.

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 • Romans 5:12-19

My wife’s birthday is next week. That means I’ve got to get her a gift, which is a good thing, I enjoy giving her gifts. Plus, she likes receiving them. So it works well for us. Most of us like getting gifts from people we have a relationship with, people we know, people we like. But what about when you get a gift from someone you don’t like? Or perhaps someone you don’t know? What if the gift is from a stranger, and right out of the blue, for no apparent reason at all? And what if it’s a really nice gift, something you didn’t even know you wanted and certainly didn’t ask for, but now here it is, a absolutely wonderful gift from someone you really don’t know at all? Most of us, if we are honest, don’t like receiving gifts like that at all.

Why not? Well, for one, such gifts make us feel indebted to the person, which is fine if that person is our spouse, but not fine if that person is a stranger or worse yet, an enemy. Think about it, when you get surprised with a gift from some unknown person what is the first thing we do in response? If we can’t outright refuse the gift, we try to figure out a gift to give in return, not out of gratitude or friendship, but because we don’t want to feel guilty. We don’t want to be indebted to this person. The good Methodist bishop Will Willimon explains, “It may well be, as Jesus says, more blessed to give than receive. But it is more difficult to receive. Watch how people blush when given a compliment. Watch what you do when your teenage son comes home with a very expensive Christmas present from a girl he has dated only twice. ‘Now you take that expensive sweater right back and tell her that your parents won’t allow you to accept it. Every gift comes with a claim and you’re not ready for her claim upon you.”

Maybe that was Adam and Eve’s problem in the garden so long ago. They weren’t ready for the claim such an extravagant gift as creation would make upon their lives. Think about it. We get embarrassed when someone gives us a really expensive gift that we think we don’t deserve. God gave that first couple the world. He even set them up with a vocation in that world, government jobs taking care of the royal Gardens. That’s really the image that Eden is supposed to evoke. Eden wasn’t a garden like we think of garden. It wasn’t rows of vegetables. No, this was a garden like those that sit next to the King’s palace, like the gardens of Versailles, with its manicured lawns, exotic plants, flowing fountains, and reflecting pools.

Adam and Eve were given a royal estate, not simply to take care of but to fully enjoy. “You are free to eat to eat from any tree in the Garden,” God said, giving them almost free reign. I know, I know, God also gave them one tree they couldn’t eat from. But our solidarity with Adam and Eve reveals itself in the fact that we only want to talk about that tree – the prohibition. We, too, miss the vastness of God’s gift to them . . . Along with the gift of vocation they were given the gift of permission, of freedom. Eat from all these trees. Play in the fields. Swim in the canal. Sure, invite your friends over. God has given humanity an amazing gift – the gift of great freedom.

All we had to do was receive it. But here’s the thing with receiving – it has to be on the giver’s terms. Every gift, whether explicit or not, comes with prohibitions. When Alyson gave me her hand in marriage, that gift came with great permissions, but it also came with the explicit prohibition that I would take no other hand as long as we both shall live. And if I was to receive the permissions, I had to also receive the prohibitions.

We don’t exactly know what the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents. We don’t even know if God’s prohibition was for forever or just a matter of timing. One commentator notes that God may have simply been waiting for Adam and Eve to grow up a little before he let them taste of that tree. Doesn’t really matter, the point is, if Adam and Eve were going to receive this greatest of gifts, life with purpose, life with joy, they were also going to have to receive life with limitations. They could not have one without the other. God’s gift, like every gift, if received would make a claim on their lives.

We know the story. It was a claim they could not live underneath. They found it difficult to just receive. And so they took. They took the fruit, yes. But more than that, they took their lives into their own hands. They’d be in debt to know one, not even God. They soon found out that taking was not all it was cracked up to be. Adam learned that it would require the sweat of his brow to take food from the ground. Eve discovered that their children would quickly follow in their footsteps and take it right out of their parents. And the pattern was set. Cain took Able’s life. Jacob took Esau’s birthright and his blessing. David took Uriah’s wife. And on and on and on, right up until this day.

Taking what’s not ours is a part of who we are. A part of our birthright as children of Adam. St. Augustine, in his autobiography, Confessions, tells a story that we can probably all relate to. As a boy, he and some friends where walking down the road, when they came upon a neighbor’s pear tree. Now, he says, there was nothing particularly appealing about this tree. The fruit was no better than that of their own orchards. And yet, he says, he and his friends almost could not help but “shake and rob” this tree. They carried off a large load of pears, most of which they either threw at each other or fed to the hogs. At the time, he admits of his thievery, “It was foul, and I loved it. . . I did not desire to enjoy what I stole, but only the theft and the sin itself.” There was an excitement in it, a rush, a sense of power and freedom.

He pondered, later in life, why such sins were so enjoyable. Why he could not simply receive the gift of life and insisted upon taking that which he neither needed nor even especially wanted. He concludes, that in rebelling against God’s prohibitions, even in the face of God’s permissions, he sought “by gesture, to rebel against [God’s] law, even though I had no power to do so actually – so that even as a captive, I might produce a sort of counterfeit liberty. . . [and] a deluded sense of omnipotence.”

That is what every form of taking is – an attempt, even if only through gesture, through symbol, to declare our own omnipotence, to assert our own God likeness. When we take through force or simply glances (remember Jesus said these were the same) women or men who are not our spouses, or resources that were meant for others, we ignore the vastness of God’s gifts towards us. We take instead of simply receive. Just like Adam and Eve. But just like Adam and Eve, we realize, too lately, that our insistence on taking instead of receiving is our undoing. In the classic western movie Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart stars as Charlie Anderson, a Virginian farmer trying to keep his family out of the Civil War. With his children gathered at the supper table and one empty place set for his dead wife, Charlie begins a litany the children have obviously have heard before: "Now your mother wanted all of you raised as good Christians, and I might not be able to do that thorny job as well as she could, but I can do a little something about your manners."

He gestures that they all should bow their heads and continues: "Lord, we cleared this land, we plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. We wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be eatin', if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for the food we're about to eat. Amen."

Through the course of the movie, we see one tragedy after another strike the Anderson clan: the youngest son is mistaken for a soldier and captured, another son and his wife are murdered, and a third son is shot by an over-zealous sentry. When we next see Mr. Anderson at the supper table, there are four more empty places as he begins his ritual prayer. But this time we hear his voice quiver and break as the awful realization comes upon him that he is not in control, that he is not the master of his own destiny. His voice trails off as he finishes the words "if we hadn't done it all ourselves." He stops, gets up, and walks away, a proud man, broken and stripped of his pride, knowing that he needs to turn to the Lord, but not yet ready to fall on his knees and ask for God's help.

It’s difficult to receive, not only God’s blessings, but also his forgiveness. We’ve so messed up the world with all our taking, we half expect God to take it out on us. We expect him to take us to task, or take us behind the shed for our trespasses. But Paul gives us an amazing word in the book of Romans, “15But the gift is not like the trespass. . . 17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

For all our taking, and taking, and taking, God is still in the giving business. And where our taking leads to there never being enough – the gift of God is not like the trespass of Adam - in God's graciousness there is always plenty. For the gift is the abundant provision of God’s grace in Jesus Christ – and for all who receive it, yes, receive with open hearts and hands, they shall be given righteousness and life. But this gift of salvation, of new creation, is like the first creation– it makes its claim on us. Christ’s claim, that we are no longer our own, but that we belong to him. Many, many cannot accept such a claim, but for those who receive him, for those who call on his name, he gives the right to be called, the children of God.

We think we see better than we do

2011-03-31T06:16:00.000-07:00

Sight. It’s a funny thing. We so often think we see better than we do, a lesson reinforced in my life a few weeks ago when I put on glasses for the first time. I thought my eyes were fine. I was functioning in life. I could read. I was getting lots of headaches, but hey, that goes with being a dad and a pastor, doesn’t it? Apparently, it doesn’t always. Two weeks with glasses and no headaches. That’s been nice.

It’s also been nice to see people’s faces while I preach. Faces all the way in the back row. Technically, I knew that I couldn’t see people’s faces in the back of the church when I preached, but I just assumed, nobody could see that far, especially while doing something like preaching. People would ask me if I had noticed so-in-so in church. Usually, I hadn’t. I assumed it was because I was busy preaching. Apparently, it was because I just couldn’t see their face. Now, I can, and I’m thrilled.

I’ve heard stories like mine a hundred times from other people who went from blurred vision to focused sight just by putting on a pair of glasses. “The leaves on the trees . . . the mortar between the bricks . . . street signs – I never knew I wasn’t seeing them,” they’d say. I’d laugh and thank God that I wasn’t like those folks, thank him that unlike them I could see. Only I couldn’t see – not everything, at least.

I’d say most of the stories in the gospels are about people who not only have trouble seeing but are in denial about the quality of their own vision: A man who thinks his overflowing barns are a security against death; a rich young man who’s convinced that his wealth is a sign of God’s approval; a Pharisee who’s confident in his own righteousness and thankful that he wasn’t like that poor, rotten sinner praying next to him in Temple. Sight. It is a funny thing. We so often think we see better than we do.

Monday morning prayer

2011-03-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

Almighty God,
maker of heaven and earth,
maker of Mondays.

Remind me that today is as sacred as
yesterday . . . maybe more so.
After all, once upon a time, Sunday
was the first day of the work week.

So let me work.
For you.
For others.
With joy and grace, and
all the goodness of your kingdom come.

May my work bear fruit.
May my work relationships be honorable.
May my rest tonight be without regret.
Amen.

Of Missiles, Missionaries, Mesquites and Mustard Seeds

2011-03-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

I've lived in west Texas for almost five years now. I have come to love the people tremendously. I've learned to treasure the sunsets and the starry nights that remind me of the grandeur of God's creation and the smallness of my place within it. I've even grown accustomed to the low humidity to the point that the air from I-35 east feels as if it's suffocating me. The one thing I have not come to appreciate are the mesquite trees. That is, until today.

Prior to today, I considered mesquites nothing better than weeds, overgrown shrubs that don't really deserved to be called trees. But this morning I headed out to Paint Rock, Texas, and huddled beneath the twisted branches of these stubborn plants and found something I wasn’t expecting . . . a sanctuary. I eavesdropped as eight men and women listened to my dear brother in the faith, Terry Waller, go over the final instructions of how to dig, and teach others to dig, low-cost water wells for the poor. Details. Technicalities. Tips. And then . . . prayer. A prayer for grace and blessing and courage and ultimately God’s kingdom to come here on earth as it is in heaven. The most sacred of prayers right there in a sanctuary of mesquites.

In a word of catastrophes whose costs run into the billions (not to mention the cost in human lives, as well) and of wars where battleships fire off missiles at the price of a million dollars apiece (not to mention the cost in human lives, as well) it’s difficult to imagine that teaching eight missionaries how to dig $100 water wells is going to make much a difference in this rough and tumble world of ours. And yet there beneath those scraggly trees I couldn’t help but be filled with hope remembering Jesus’ words, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-32). Personally, I’ve never seen a mustard tree, but my guess is, it’s got nothing on a mesquite, a tree, that despite the odds can grow in the least likely of places. In that way, it’s as beautiful image of the kingdom of God as any other I’ve ever seen.

The ever surprising, unpredictable Christ

2011-03-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

During Lent, I make it a practice to read through one of the gospels. This year, I'm reading through John's account of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. No matter how many times I do this, Jesus always catches me off guard. I'm always subconsciously making him easier to follow than he actually is. Jesus is never as polite or nice as I expect him to be. He talks to his mother harshly. He makes a mess of the Temple. Nor is he as articulate as I'd hope. He rarely answers a question directly. Just when I think he should come out and declare himself Lord of lords and King of kings, he slips away into the night. Such declarations must wait until after the cross.

The cross. I know it's there, an integral part of his story. Its presence in the narrative doesn't catch me off guard, so much as I'm caught off guard by my place in this narrative of the cross.

"Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be [even if that's on a cross!]" (John 12:25-26)

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first . . . A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me" (John 15:18, 20-21).

It's no wonder John 6 reports that "many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." And yet, I can't turn away. I'm compelled to stay with this story that defies my expectations at the very same moment that it exposes the truth of my own heart.

"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asks (John 6:67).

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69) . . . even if you constantly surprise us, offend us, and keep us on our toes.

Giving up something for Lent

2011-03-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend I read a short little work by the late Henri Nouwen entitled In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. Nouwen uses the temptation of Christ to explore three temptations that all leaders face: the temptation to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful. In each instance, he suggests giving up the pursuit of these things for something far more difficult, the pursuit of Christ.

He puts it best in the section on power: "Power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. it seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, 'Do you love me?' We ask, 'Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in the Kingdom?' (Matthew 20:21)."

We often speak of giving something up for Lent, a practice that has a rich tradition in the greater Christian community. But let us never forget, we give something up not just to give something up, but for the distinct purpose of taking an even more difficult something up - the pursuit of Christ and his way of love.

If you give something up this Lent, let it be something that strikes to the heart of our self-centered pursuits of relevancy, fame, and power, that you may more freely seek Christ.

A Sunday Prayer

2011-03-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

Almighty Father, maker of heaven and earth,
To you we owe our very lives.

Remind us that we are but the dust of the earth,
Dead as dirt without the breath of your Spirit.

Remind us that we are dead in our sins,
Without the redeeming power of your grace.

Breathe on us, breathe on us, that we may live once more.

In the name of the Feather who made us,
In the name of the Son who saved us,
In the name of the Spirit who guides us still,

Amen.

Get Low: A Lenten Review

2011-03-11T06:12:00.000-08:00

OK. So this isn't really a review. I'll leave that to other people. It is a recommendation. Make watching Get Low a part of your Lenten practice this year before Easter arrives. The list of actors involved in this movie are a reason enough to rent/download/even buy this movie. Robert Duvall, Bill Muray, and Sissy Spacek are in top form. I also enjoyed Lucas Black as Buddy. But the actors, as good actors always do, give way to the story.

This is a story of a recluse who decides it's time for him to "Get low," time to die, and he decides to not only organize but actually have his funeral before he dies. Recruiting the rather unorthodox funeral director (Murray) and his assistant (Black) to help him gather a crowd, this at times humorous story turns quite profound. The themes of sin, mortality, forgiveness, alienation/community, and ultimately redemption resonate with one another in the most beautiful way.

By the end of the movie I was left pondering the state of one's own soul. Am I ready to Get Low?

Seasons

2011-03-10T12:55:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, the pear blossoms caught me off guard. I wasn’t ready for them. I’d seen the buds a few days early, but I wasn’t prepared for their wide open petals drinking in the sun. Not for the hum of the bees that danced among the flowers sounding like a choir warming up their voices for some great anthem. “Spring has arrived!” they seem poised to sing. Shouldn’t it still be winter? Isn’t it still winter? I know the fickleness of a Texas spring. We may, yet, have snow on Easter. But the signs have arrived. If winter makes any more appearances it will be as a last gasp. The seasons have changed.

Yesterday, the calendar caught me off guard. I wasn’t ready for it – Ash Wednesday. As certain as buds on the fruit trees, the arrival of this day marks a changing of seasons. While our church doesn’t officially mark the beginning of Lent with any special services, I have at least for the last decade of my life observed these forty days leading up to Easter as a special season of introspection, meditation, and commitment. As often as I feel unprepared for Spring with its cleanings and its preparations, I fell ill prepared for Lent. Who’s ever ready to lay bare their soul before the Spirit’s eye? Who’s ever ready to walk with Christ once more through his sufferings knowing it was for my sins that he died?

And yet, whether I’m ready or not, the seasons change. My yard and my house and most definitely my soul are in need of some care. So, I’ll take stock of the land, place it under the master’s scrutiny. There will be sweeping and pruning and tilling. It won’t all be fun or easy or pain free. But through it all I’ll keep trusting that just beyond the work will be the greatest surprise of all - new life!

A Thought and Prayer for Ash Wednesday

2011-03-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. While more and more Baptist churches are learning the benefits of observing the season of Lent, some still wonder if this isn't too Catholic for we Protestants to bother with. "You know, pastor" a concerned church member will say, "I can't find Lent or Ash Wednesday anywhere in the Bible." I always find such objections a little weak. In my tradition we gladly celebrate Mothers Day, the Forth of July, and a number of other secular holidays with out batting an eye or caring that they aren't in the Bible. But we've had objections to observing a holy day that had 1500 years or so of church history behind it. That just doesn't seem right.

Whether we officially observe Ash Wednesday or not, the themes of this day are essential to any person's life of faith. "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." That exact phrase is not in the Bible, but it is thoroughly biblical. Job, in the midst of his suffering laments, "I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more." We are mortals - though we spend a life time trying to forget that fact. As a preacher, I've attended more funerals than most, and yet, I admit, it takes a conscious effort to remember as I leave a cemetery, "One day they'll lower me down in this ground, too."

Remembering one's mortality is important for a couple of reasons. First, it keeps things in proper perspective. On those rare moments when my mortality sneaks up and slaps me in the face, like after the death of a friend, I find myself taking better stock of life. What matters? What am I after? Who do I love? Do they know I love them? Stuff and stats cease to be as important. Also, facing one's mortality sharpens the realization that one needs a Savior. I can do lots of things. I can't escape death. I've lived long enough to realize, I can't even get ready for death without some major intervention. My sins are too great, my will too weak. I need a Savior. And there it is. That's why I need days like Ash Wednesday. Because too often, I forget that I'm going to die (one thing I am good at is self deception!). When I forget that, I forget almost everthing that matters.

Dear God of life and love,
Remind me of who I am -

a man of dust and doubt and
deceit - of others and myself.
a man of sin in my core
and in my deeds.
a man of limited days.
a man who'll die.
a man who's dying.

Dear God of life and love,
Remind me of who I am -

a man who's been found, forgiven, and
restored - to you and to others.
a man who's been bathed in grace
and raised to life.
life with you, today,
and forevermore.
a man who, yes, will die.
but also a man who will live!
a man who lives!

Praise-telling the truth about God; Confession-telling the truth about ourselves

2011-02-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

We’ve all heard it said that it’s important to tell the truth. Jesus reminds us that this applies to our worship as well, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” In worship, we tell the truth in a couple of different ways. The first is easy. In praise, we tell the truth about God, who is and what he has done for us. We call this praise. For the most part, praise comes naturally. It’s similar to what we do after watching an exceptional movie or witnessing a memorable football game. We simply tell the truth about what we’ve experienced. The Bible, especially the Psalms, is full of this kind of truth telling.

“The LORD watches over the way of the righteous” (1:6)
“Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (8:1)
“The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it” (24:1)
“The LORD is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?” (27:1)
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18)

But praise is not the only opportunity for truth telling in worship. Not only must we tell the truth about God in praise, we must also tell the truth about ourselves. We call this confession. For fairly obvious reasons, that type of truth telling is much more difficult to do, but it is no less important for our souls. We are so good at deceiving, not only others but ourselves as well. But it is only in coming clean that we can be made clean. Ultimately, it’s not our sins that undo us, Christ has made a way for them to be forgiven, but our failure to tell the truth about who we are and what we need: A God who can make us clean.

Be encouraged today by the words of C.S. Lewis: I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptation. It is not serious, provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience, etc., don’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the very sign of His presence.

Andrew Peterson's "Dancing in the Minefields"

2011-02-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is coming up. Not my favorite holiday for any number of reasons, primarily the unrealistic understandings of love so often promoted on this day. For a more nuanced and mature look at love, check out Andrew Peterson's wonderful song "Dancing in the Minefields" below. This is what married love can and should look like. Enjoy.

Watch for ice

2011-02-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

In case you’ve been unaware this week, it’s been cold here in Texas. Actually, it’s been cold almost everywhere thanks to a cold front that’s produced one of the worst winter storms in the last forty years according to some weather experts. For as much as I’ve disliked the cold we have here in San Angelo, it’s been nothing compared to some other places. Just a few hours northeast of us in Oklahoma City, they experienced near blizzard conditions with over ten inches of snow falling in a twenty-four hour period. Watching the video of the storm on the weather channel you could easily have thought you were looking at Chicago or Buffalo or some other northern city that regularly experiences such storms.

The video made me say a quick prayer for a good friend who is an orthopedic surgeon in Oklahoma City. I figured this meant he was working overtime dealing with the results of car wrecks and people slipping on the ice. Touching base with him later, he said that my fears were misplaced. There had been wrecks for sure. But this storm had been so bad that most people stayed home and those that did get out could only drive more than a few miles per hour. As a result, most wrecks resulted in nothing more than a dented fender and an embarrassed driver. I realized that while the weather conditions were far worse in Oklahoma City, the roads might actually be more dangerous here in San Angelo. Here, we could still drive fairly fast before we started to slide off the road. In the end, it’s the speed that kills.

I’m reminded once more how poorly we humans tend to evaluate danger. Something like a blizzard can be extremely dangerous, but usually, it is so threatening, we’re smart enough to hunker down and stay inside. A little ice, on the other hand, can be deceptively dangerous because we think it’s no big deal, until it is. In much the same way, it’s not usually the biggest sins that undo us, but the ones we didn’t consider dangerous to begin with. We think, oh, I’d never have an affair, but what harm does a little flirting do? We’re confident we’d never kill anyone, but we keep picking at an old grudge until hate fills our thoughts for another made in God’s image. We’d never steal something from a store, but we tolerate a covetness in our hearts that stifles our generosity. We keep speeding down the road unaware of the smallest patches of ice that are just waiting to send us spinning out of control.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus made such a big deal out of lust, and hate, and greed. These sins of the heart aren’t as visible as so many other “big” sins which is precisely why they prove to be so deadly to our souls. We keep speeding by them thinking they will do us no harm until they do leading our lives in directions we never meant to go. We need to slow down and think. We need to pause and pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). The life you save may be your own.

Remembering our place

2011-01-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

here was an evening a little over a week ago when it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. Some late nights studying combined with some early mornings had left me fatigued and frustrated. I had more to get done than I had energy to do. Ever been there? Playing on the floor with the children I actually fell asleep on the wood floor! I realized that I was going to have to rest. So I put the children to bed, left the to-do list for later, and went to bed hours before my normal bed-time. And you know what? The world didn't end.

In the Bible, God commands us to rest. No command seems more needed for us modern workaholics. We need a rest from our work. We need a rest from our computers. We need a rest from our cell-phones. We need a rest from our self-importance. We've come to mistake busyness for righteousness, crammed day-planners for full-souls.

We are called to work, yes, but to work and rest. Rest keeps us from turning our work or our place in our work into an idol. That is why we need Sabbath. Sabbath, after all, isn't just to rest our bodies, but for the reorientation of our souls. It is only in stopping and not doing that we remember this world doesn't spin on our efforts but upon God's grace. We are creatures, he is the creator. We are important . . . but we're not that important. God gives us jobs to do, yes, but he doesn't ask us to do everything. Resting, sleeping, practicing Sabbath remind us that his work is bigger than ours even if our work does find its proper place in him.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work - Exodus 20:9-10.

Curiosity as Compassion

2011-01-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

In the gospels, Jesus shows a remarkable interest in other people: a foreign women at a well, a blind beggar behind the crowd, a short tax collector up in the tree. In each and every case he dignifies a person with his attention. What must that attention have felt like for people who usually received only sneers and even more often were simply passed over without being noticed at all? What does it feel like to you when someone notices you? Remembers your name, or your birthday, or some tidbit of information that you volunteered about yourself the last time you were together? Or how did it feel the last time someone asked you a good question and then stuck around long enough to truly hear your answer?

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre in her book Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies (yes, that's the book I quoted last week. It's a really good book!) makes the claim that curiosity is a form of compassion. It shows up in her chapter on being a good conversationalist. She argues that showing interest in another person, asking them, "What is it like to be you?" is an act of love. And so it is. There is nothing more encouraging, more soul enriching, than for another person to take a genuine interest in you. Nothing more insulting than being ignored.

One of the great promises of the gospel is that God has not ignored us. He knows our names. He knows the hairs on our head. He knows our fears and our desires and, yes, even our sins. And he loves us just the same. God pays attention to us. What an act of compassion. And what a challenge. If we are to love others as Christ has loved us, we must practice paying attention to them. We must put down our phones. We must slow down our days. We must give the beggar our conversations above and beyond giving him our change. We must recognize that quantity of time is quality time with our children. We must be curious as to who people are behind our labels - clerk, waitress, employee, boss, policeman, politician, etc. We must be willing to ask and learn, "What is it like to be you?"

What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor - Psalm 8:4-5

You can't handle the truth! Probably. But we sure do need it.

2011-01-06T07:51:00.000-08:00

I’ve begun the New Year reading an excellent book, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre which speaks of the importance of loving language. There are all sorts of reasons to love words, but one of the primary reasons is that words and conversations help us discern the truth. We of course know, and McEtyre points out, words can equally be used to cover up the truth. After all, hearing the truth about ourselves, about our world, is never an easy thing. She quotes the philosopher, Pascal, “We hate the truth, and people hide it from us; we want to be flattered, and people flatter us; we like being deceived and we are deceived” and then adds her own commentary, “The deceptions we particularly seem to want are those that comfort, insulate, legitimate, and provide ready excuses for inaction.”

We know things are not well with our marriage or our family, but we let our spouses or children convince us otherwise. We know that what the politician says probably isn’t true, but we vote for him anyway. We know that our own promises to do better or drink less or save more are completely empty, but we voice them nevertheless. We do so, because deceptions bring us a temporary peace. Voicing and believing lies proves easier than hearing the truth that shall set us free.

Our culture is so full of such lies (and we tell so many), it’s difficult for us to even begin to commit ourselves to telling and hearing the truth, even if it’s God who speaks such truth. And yet, salvation won’t be found in those who declare “Peace, peace” where there is no peace (Jeremiah 8:11). No, only with the One who can both accurately diagnose our disease and then provide the cure will redeem us from our sins. But how do we open ourselves up to hearing his word? McEntyre provides some penetrating questions that might just bring us closer to the truth, “What today am I avoiding knowing? Why? What point of view am I protecting? Why?” David put it slightly differently but equally effective, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

Be more materialistic

2010-12-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

I think we should all be a bit more materialistic this Christmas. No really. We so often talk about finding the spirit of Christmas, but the actual Christmas story is about the Spirit finding flesh and blood. John described the incarnation this way, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” God, who is completely other, transcendent, became one of us at Christmas. In doing so, he declared once and for all that matter matters (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Now, obviously, the incarnation isn’t saying that only the material aspect of this world is important. No one has ever relied more on the spiritual side of life than Jesus Christ. But Jesus also made plain that the spiritual and the physical are anything but enemies of one another. He fed the hungry; he gave sight to the blind; he touched the leper. In every instance, the physical not only gave testimony to the spiritual, but was tied up with it. Physical healing served as the evidence of God’s kingdom come. Even at his departure, Jesus left his church with the most physical reminders of his presence: the cold, wet waters of baptism, the warm, delicious taste of the bread, the deep, crimson color of the wine. The physical and spiritual inseparably tied up together.

So, this Christmas, some of us need to be a little more materialistic. That is we need to value the matter we find around us. No, I don’t mean all the gadgets and gizmos we find for sale in the market, but the salespeople we meet, the beggars we pass, the neighbor we greet, the family we welcome home. Each and every one of them a soul, yes, but a soul that enlivens flesh and blood. Matter that matters enough to God for him to become one of us. May they be important to us, as well.

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? – James 2:15-16.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

2010-12-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

Secrets. They’ve dominated the news over the last few weeks with the release of thousands of secret State Department cables by the website WikiLeaks. There has been plenty of embarrassment for the U.S., and certainly some damage to foreign policy, but maybe not nearly as much as what was first feared. Why? An article by Time’s Fareed Zakaria explains, “The WikiLeaks documents . . . show Washington pursuing privately pretty much the policies it has articulated publicly.” That is, the State Department’s secrets don’t contain too many secrets. Their private words match up quite well to their public words. Kudos to the State Department.

All of this has me wondering about other kinds of secrets, namely, our secrets. A recent study by the University of Michigan revealed that many of us lie about how often we go to church. The research revealed not so much that we intentionally deceive pollsters about our church attendance so much as we have a tendency to deceive ourselves. We consider ourselves more faithful than we really are. Our words match our perception of ourselves but not our actual church-skipping selves. My guess is that church attendance isn’t the only area of life in which we inflate our sense of righteousness. Jeremiah explained that our hearts are “deceitful above all things.” To put it another way, every heart carries around its fair share of secrets.

At first, we might take some consolation in the truth that WikiLeaks has no access to the chambers of our hearts. But that does mean our soul’s thoughts belong to us alone? No. Jesus once told the crowds, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs” (Luke 12:2-3). God certainly knows whether or not the words of our mouth match the conditions of our hearts. At face value, that’s terrifying news, that God knows our deeds (just read through Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 for an example).

The good news? God knows who we are better than we know ourselves, and loves us anyway. God’s coming, his revealing (of both himself and our hearts) isn’t meant to embarrass us (though it might very well do that) but to bring us salvation. His Truth, if received, sets us free from the need to keep secrets even from ourselves. I mean, if God loves me even though I am a sinner – is there any need to pretend that I am something else? If God loves me despite my faults, why the pretense of perfection? The only person we fool in such instances is ourselves. Better to come clean and be free.

Only three things we must do

2010-12-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

Came across this quote while reading a delightful little book, Letters to Children by C.S. Lewis. The book is, as the title indicates, a collection of various letters Lewis wrote to children.

In one of those notes, he writes to a God-daughter this advice:

Oh - I'd nearly forgotten - I have one other piece of advice. Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do (2) Things we've got to do (3) Things we like doing. I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books they don't like because other people read them. Things you ought to do are things like doing one's school work or being nice to people. Things one has got to do are things like dressing and undressing, or household shopping. Things one likes doing - but of course I don't know what you like. Perhaps you'll write and tell me one day.

At face value, this strikes me as an ingenious way of looking at one's daily activities - there are things we do out of obedience (to God, to our promises to others, etc); there are things we do out of necessity (like eating, breathing, etc.), and then there are things we do because we enjoy them. Each category has it's own pleasures and obviously they can overlap. I ought to love my kids, and very often I enjoy loving them. I need to eat and very often delight in the process (maybe too often!).

But the categories remind us that we do not always like the things we need or ought to do. I don't like to discipline/correct my children, but I ought to, for their own good. The opposite is also true, I am, in God's good grace, allowed to do some things for the pure enjoyment of them (so long as they do not violate God's will). My guess is that art and music and all manner of fun fall into this category.

Most importantly, the three categories appear to describe those things that are necessary for a well formed/lived life. Each category, in it's own way, contributes to a life well lived. This gets to the heart of Lewis' advice - if something doesn't fit one of these categories - toss it. As we might say, "Life's too short."

I wonder, what things do you do because you ought to (even if you don't like to do them)? What things do you like to do purely for the joy of it? What might you need to stop doing for the simple fact that you need not do it, you are under no obligation to do it, nor do you enjoy doing it? How might your life be different if you gave this activity up?

Waiting Together

2010-12-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love – Ephesians 4:2.

It’s only December 2nd, and yet, many of us may already be tired of waiting for Christmas to arrive. For some of us, especially the little ones among us, it’s difficult to wait for the presents to arrive. For others, our struggles with waiting take an entirely different form. We’re trying to wait out Christmas, get it over with, get past it, so we can get back to our routine, get back to normal. Perhaps, Christmas with its gatherings and celebrations paints too stark of a contrast to our own loneliness and grief. We can’t wait to be done with it. But we must, for neither in joy or sorrow can we speed up the clock.

What makes waiting easier? Company. Not any company mind you. There are some people who only increase our pain, but there are others who are able to encourage our faith and deepen our hope and who help us to wait. Mary and Elizabeth were both waiting for a tremendous promise to be fulfilled. These promises were not without their costs. To receive these gifts would alter their lives tremendously. Plans had to change. Friends would be lost. Family would turn their backs on them. Without one another, they would have been all alone. But even God seems to understand that waiting alone is a struggle almost too great to bear.

So God gives us each other - that we may hold one another’s hands, sit by each other’s side, and voice one another’s prayers. After all, prayer, as Henri Nouwen put it, is “coming together around a promise.” Such were the prayers of Elizabeth and Mary. Such can be our prayers as well, so long as we’ll learn to pray for and with one another.

Father, today, we your people confess that it is often difficult to wait on you. But we do wait, trusting that the God who has come shall come again. Until that day, we wait together, believing that this life together is an important part of your plan. Amen.

Until that day

2010-11-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 88

Read: Revelation 18:1-22:21

Verse that stood out: Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book - Revelation 22:7

Yesterday we entertained the possibility that the book of Revelation is not intended to answer the question "Are we there yet?" Instead, its main purpose is to help us answer a different question, "What are we here for, until we get there?" John answers that question way back in his introduction to the seven churches of Asia Minor, “Grace and peace.” Yes, that’s right – the purpose of this book is to bring us grace and peace for today. Notice, he doesn’t say, “Grace and peace when Jesus comes back.” No, the implication is that through this revelation of Jesus Christ, grace and peace can be yours today.

How can we have grace and peace today? Well, for one thing, the book of Revelation assures us that God has not and will not give up on the world. New Testament scholar Mitchell Reddish put it this way, “The book of Revelation does not present a picture of a God who has given up on the world and is ready to discard it. The message of Revelation is that God is the creator of the world. This world is God’s ‘baby,’ God’s creation. Rather than discard it, God seeks to save it, to rid it of its beasts and its monstrous evils, to drive out its dragons, to purge it of its impurities.” So if God, in his grace, hasn’t given up on the world (and us in it!), then we can live in peace today no matter our circumstances.

Not only can we have peace, but we can persevere. If God hasn't given up on us then we can keep holding fast to him. No matter our trials, no matter our troubles, we keep living towards Christ's return trusting that "our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). How do we live towards Christ's return? How do we keep from giving up on God? By extending God's grace to others. By refusing to give up on each other.

We live out the kingdom come's values when we refuse to give on the kid who’s hooked on drugs. After all, there will be no beasts of addiction in God's future kingdom. We live our the kingdom come's values when we refuse to accept poverty or hunger as simply the way things are. After all, when the Lord comes we'll all dine in abundance at the Lord's great banqueting table. We refuse to give up on God when we refuse to give up on our attempts to live in unity here on earth. After all, the holy city is not a segregated city (not racially, not denominationally, not economically!) Think of the Christian you like the least. He or she’s going to be right there next to you singing God’s praises! So to be faithful to God's vision, keep doing your best to live it out here in anticipation of there.

While we can do anything to usher in God's kingdom come, we can certainly be its ambassadors until it does.

"Are we there yet?"

2010-11-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 87

Read: Jude; Revelation 1:1-17:18

Verse that stood out: Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near - Revelation 1:3

The year was 1988, I was in the fifth grade, and the hot topic of the day on the playground was whether or not we thought Jesus would be coming back before we died. I don’t even remember who brought it up (I sure didn’t – my church didn’t spend a lot of time on the issue), but I do remember the general consensus – yes, Jesus was coming back before we died. Maybe someone in my class had gotten a hold of one of the hot books that year, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988 by Edgar C. Whisenant, a retired NASA rocket engineer living in Little Rock at the time. Over six million copies were either sold or handed out leading up to that year. I don’t know how many people it convinced, but the filter down affect had many in my class convinced that we wouldn’t make it out of the fifth grade. It had something to do with the Russians.

Needless to say, I was a little concerned. I personally was not ready for Jesus to come back. Don’t get me wrong. I was a believer. I was glad to have Jesus in my heart – I just wasn’t ready to see Him in the clouds. What I was ready for (or at least thought I was) was for a girlfriend. My guess was, there was no kissing in heaven, and I was pretty sure I wanted to try that out before I got there. Fortunately, Jesus didn’t come back in 1988, or 1989, or 1990, or well – it took me a while to get that first kiss. Let’s just say I’m glad we have a patient God.

While I may have eventually gotten that first kiss, there was a casualty of 1988. And I don’t mean Edgar C. Whisenant. Apparently, he was undaunted by Jesus failure to return, made a few adjustments to his calculations and released a new version – you guessed it, 89 Reasons Why the Rapture will Be in 89. I don’t think it sold as well. I sure wasn’t buying. For the casualty of 1988 was my interest in the book of Revelation. From about that time period onward I just didn’t pay any attention to prophesies or predictions. And I didn’t ever open my Bible to the book of Revelation. “Why bother?” I thought. It’s like asking “Are we there yet?” on a long trip only to have your dad yell back at you, “We’ll get there when we get there.”

I’ll be honest with you, that was pretty much my attitude until just a few years ago when thanks to Dr. David Garland, my New Testament professor at Truett challenged me and my classmates to question our basic assumptions about the basic purpose of the book. What if Revelation wasn’t meant to answer the question, “Are we there yet?” Most of us didn’t think that was a question that could be answered in the first place. Jesus, himself had said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). So, my professor asked, “What’s Revelation there for? Why’s it in the Bible? Is God just trying to confuse us?” I certainly didn’t think that. I remembered a saying of Elisabeth Elliot’s that went something like, “Don’t you believe the shepherd wants to get the sheep where they need to go even more than the sheep want to get there?” God loves us. He’s not trying to trick us.

Now, Revelation obviously speaks something of the future. It speaks repeatedly of the second coming of Christ, of the coming of a new heaven and a new earth – all future events. But if the purpose isn’t to ask “Are we there yet?,” what’s all that future talk there for? Just maybe, like all of the prophets of the Old Testament, John’s prophecy is meant to be less of a fortune telling and more of a forth telling. Yes the prophets give glimpses of God’s future plans, but they do so that they might give a relevant word for today. John tells us about Christ’s return, not so we can mark it on our calendars, but so that we might live more faithfully today. Maybe the question Revelation seeks to give an answer to is, “What are we here for, till we get there?”

More tomorrow . . .

More important than your facebook status

2010-11-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 86

Read: James 3:13-5:20; 1 & 2 Peter; 1, 2, & 3 John;

Verse that stood out: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! - 1 John 3:1

God’s love is so different from most of the pseudo-loves we encounter in this world that the very idea of it leaves many people doubting whether or not they could really be considered God’s children. "No one could love me like that," we think. The apostle John seems prepared for our objections: “You say it isn’t so? That God couldn’t love us to the point of making sinful humans his own children? We’ll frankly, it doesn’t matter what you think. For God calls us his children and that is what we are!” I like his phrasing. Sometimes we can get far too wrapped up in what we think about things. Self-expression seems to be both the blessing and the curse of our generation. All around us people are constantly telling us what they are thinking. We are no longer a world that values expert testimony. We want to know what the common man thinks about things.

Take Facebook for example. This social networking site has exploded in just a couple of years. Why? Pretty simple really. Facebook lets you almost constantly keep your several hundred closest friends updated as to what you are thinking. That primarily takes the form of status updates – short little blurbs about what you are doing or thinking.

Taylor is playing with his kids.

Alyson is reading a book.

Matt is thinking he’ll go to Double Dave's for lunch.

Fascinating stuff isn’t it? For awhile, those status updates started including a lost of top five lists. John’s top five movies. Carey's top five cereals. One time, I even had this one come across my screen: Michael’s top five people he’d like to punch in the face.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong in any of this (OK, maybe there is with that last one). Mostly, these sights are just a way to keep of with friends and have a little fun. But the subtle danger is that we can mistakenly come to believe that what’s most important in this world is what we think about something – that our thoughts somehow define reality. This can be especially true when it comes to what we believe about God. I mean it sounds correct to say, the most important thing in the world is what you think about God. It might sound good, but it’s wrong.

Here’s the thing, we think a lot of different things about God. Some of us think of God as an authoritative judge out to get those who do wrong. Others think of God as a hippie dude in the sky just out to help everyone have a good time. Still others imagine God as an absentee father who God this whole world started but has since checked out. Sometimes one individual may think all these things jumbled up together. Yes, people have lots of different views of God, but that doesn’t really change who God is. We can be wrong about God. Our feelings about God can certainly come and go, but ultimately what we need to know, what matters most is what does God thinks of us.

C. S. Lewis, in his classic address, “The Weight of Glory,” put it this way:

How God thinks of us is not only more important [than how we think of him], but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how He thinks of us. It is written that we shall ‘stand before’ Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God . . . to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness. . . to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son – it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But it is so.

Whether or not we fully understand it, whether or not we feel it, it is so. God loves us and has made us his children. God doesn’t pity us. He delights in us. We are a very real ingredient in the divine happiness. It may be too much for us to grasp, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Our people

2010-11-15T18:23:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 85

Read: Hebrews; James 1:1-3:12

Verse that stood out: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us - Hebrews 12:1

I read somewhere recently about the increasing irrelevance of last names. Once upon a time, one's surname connected a person to his or her family. The mention of someone's surname carried with it not simply that person's identity, but that of their parents, grand-parents, great-great grandparents, as well. This was especially true if your family had lived in the same place for a long time. For good or for ill, your last name meant something.

In today's transient world, last names are still family names, but families are no longer connected. It may be important to me that my name connects me with my parents, but since I know longer live near them, my surname doesn't carry with it any of my parents' reputation. It doesn't give anyone in my current community a "heads up" about where or from whom I've come.

This new world is neither good nor bad (some people are glad to escape their family's reputation!) bad, except for the reality that people are communal people. We want to belong. We want to have people that are our people. It doesn't so much matter if they're related by blood as much as it matters that there is some genuine connection. In a world that's more and more disconnected from familial ties, what identifier will take the place of a surname?

Before the use of surnames, genealogies played the role of identifying us with our people. That's why genealogies show up so often in the Bible. For Israel, who was often in exile, remembering who their people were, was of utmost importance. But who could the church look to as their people? They were a hodge-podge of ethnicity's and people, most without any kind of pedigree. Who could be their people? The book of Hebrews gives them a list, all those who in the past have lived by faith. These were and continue to be the church's people. This rag-tag group of believers were now forever connected to a great cloud of witness. So now, no matter where this life takes them, they are a people of faith.

So close! I drop the ball on day 83

2010-11-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 84 (& 83!)

Read: Galatians 3:26-6:18; Ephesians; Colossians; 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon

Verse that stood out: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me - Philippians 3:12

I don't know what happened yesterday. I got up. I actually read the day's reading. Then got going with kids and football games and never made it back to blog. Never even thought about it really. Eighty-two days of doing something. You'd think it would be quite the habit - and then I just forgot. Oh, well. The blogging everyday has been a good discipline, but it's been more difficult than I thought. Weekend posts have definitely been a little weak, anyway. I may have to do an extra post to make up for the missed one later in the week. The readings end on Thursday, so I have a few extra days before the final sermon in this series.

As to today's reading (actually yesterday's), I've always loved Paul's deep sense of purpose in the book of Philippians. All that forgetting what's behind, pressing on towards what's ahead. His words remind me that as Christians, we are to be a forward looking people (not just looking forward to finishing with our reading the Bible through!). We're to have our eyes pointed forward towards God's kingdom come, always on the lookout for the places and ways God's kingdom is breaking into the world and our lives today.

We believe his coming is a sure thing, so we can go ahead and live full out attempting to lay hold of that for which Christ has already laid hold of us. Think of anytime a special family member has been on their way to visit. How much effort we put forth getting things ready for their coming! Their visit is a grace, a gift. We don't deserve their coming, but their furture arrival inspires us to prepare for their future presence. We don't do this so that we can earn their visit, but so that we may honor their coming. When we are especially excited by a future visit, say in the ancipation of a newborn's arrival, our preparations are a kind of reaching forward into the future in an attempt to lay hold of their visit which is to come.

In much the same way we live today in joyful anticipation of Christ's return. Through our lives and our worship we prepare our hearts and this world for his coming. Through our faithfulness we reach into the future to lay hold of that moment when he once and for all, lays hold of us.

Overflowing with thanksgiving

2010-11-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 82

Read: 1 Corinthians 15:1-16:24; 2 Corinthians; Galatians 1:1-3:25

Verse that stood out: This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God - 1 Corinthians 9:12

I've always found Paul's instructions to the Corinthians concerning generosity encouraging. There's a little arm twisting, but not much. Mainly, there is an open invitation to give generously as a way towards joy. You aren't to give until it hurts so much as you are to give until it results in true joy, yours and everyone else's. Paul concludes the section by encouraging that Corinthians that as a result of their gifts, others are praising God. Anyone whose ever been a part of a project that brings much needed resources to a people in need knows what this is like. To see people rejoice over the simplest of gifts, a shoebox filled with toys, a water well, a hot meal, it reminds us that far from being an obligation, giving is a privilege.

You are not your own

2010-11-11T07:46:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 81

Read: Romans 15:1-1 Corinthians 14:40

Verse that stood out: You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

According to advertisers and rock stars, the great goal of the modern-Western project is to be one's own man or woman. Never mind that reality confirms that none of us are where we are all on our own. In our culture, a person is deemed valuable, successful if they are self-made, self-aware, self-actualized. Be your own man. Be your own woman. Don't let anyone tell you what to do. You gotta do what makes you happy. To be owned is to be shamed, played, degraded by another.

And yet, right in the middle of the New Testament are these words, "You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body." It doesn’t get more counter cultural than that – you aren’t your own person, you are owned by another, so act like it. The paradox of the gospel is that being owned is the only way to true life. Remember, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables?

There, the story is told of a Jean Valjean, a criminal, who is released from a life of hard labor into the world to fend for himself. A law breaker, he is unable to find work or even lodging. He can do what he wants, but doing what he wants doesn’t get him very far. He is dead in his supposed freedom. He’s taken in by a humble bishop. The bishop feeds Valjean supper and gives him a place to sleep. Life in prison, however, has made Valjean a hardened man. He knows no gratefulness. During the night he sneaks through the house, steals the silver and makes out into the darkness.

Soon, however, Valjean is apprehended by the police who drag him back to the bishop’s house. Before the police can get out much of an explanation for their arrival the Bishop interrupts:

“Ah, there you are,” said he, looking towards Jean Valjean, “I am glad to see you. But! I gave you the candlesticks also, which are silver like the rest, and would bring two hundred francs. Why did you not take them along with your plates?” Hugo writes that “Jean Valjean opened his eyes and looked at the Bishop with an expression which no human tongue could describe.”

Well, there is some back and forth between the police and the bishop, but ultimately, without the Bishop’s cooperation the police have no case – so they let Valjean go. Hugo continues the story:

Jean Valjean felt like a man who is just about to faint. The Bishop approached him, and said, in a low voice: ‘Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.’

Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of this promise, stood confounded. The Bishop had laid much stress upon these words as he uttered them. He continued solemnly: ‘Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying or you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!”

While the story takes a while to unfold, we eventually come to realize that Jean Valjean had indeed been transformed by mercy, and he would therefore, from that day forth live his life in view of another’s mercy. Valjean was no longer his own man. He was owned by another.

As a Christian, we are not our own. We can't just do whatever we want, even if doing so makes us happy. We are not self-made people. We have been saved, rescued, bought by Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Therefore, we must do what God wants us to do. In the context of 1 Corinthians, we can't just do whatever makes us feel good sexually, we must honor God with our bodies. In the context of the rest of the New Testament, every aspect of our lives are included. No longer can we simply think about our own interests, we must spend our lives focused upon the glory of God and the well-being of others.

We don't always have to have a word

2010-11-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 80

Read: Acts 28:17-Romans 14:23

Verse that stood out: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God - Romans 8:26-27

Reading the Bible through in 90 days hasn't been the easiest thing I've ever attempted. Blogging about the journey certainly hasn't. I don't always have something to say. That doesn't mean the Bible doesn't have something to say. Or more specifically, that God doesn't have anything to say through the scriptures. He does. But there is always a distance between "Thus saith the Lord" and my words. Sometimes more than others.

Romans is a spectacular book of the Bible. Its words have shaped some of Christianity's brightest thinkers - Luther, Barth, etc. There is a lot to write on in this book. And yet when you read it in a day, it's difficult to narrow in on anything. I find comfort in Paul admitting that often we don't know what to say, or what to pray for. On the one hand, often the world's struggles leave us at a loss for words. On the other, God's majesty and mercy and sheer otherness leave us searching for any word that could capture God.

Our hopes, our fears, God's greatness, God's love, they each defy description at times. Paul assures us, we don't always have to have a word in order to be faithful. Thank God.

It's not always easy to tell what about today we'll remember tomorrow

2010-11-09T06:58:00.001-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 79

Read: Acts 16:38-28:16

Verse that stood out: When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive - Acts 25:18-19

This week Alyson asked me to pull some of her old children's books down from the attic for our daughter whose beginning to read with gusto. Among the eight boxes of books that I hoisted down from the attic happened to be one that contained all of my childhood yearbooks. It had been years since I'd looked through them. Slowly I flipped through the pages laughing at the inscriptions made by friends - comments about girls, and grades, and all manner of things that occupied our childhood minds. How such comments seemed to be what life was all about in those days! Now, I can hardly remember anything they reference.

No doubt at the same time as we were signing those yearbooks, significant things were happening in the world around us. History making things like the fall communism or world altering advances like the creation of the Internet. For the most part, such events go unmentioned. We were either unaware or unconcerned. Even those unmentioned historical events are probably not as significant in our personal lives as a myriad of other events that went unreported - the divorce of parents, the death of a friend, a simple conversation that opened up glorious new possibilities.

I'm reminded that the things we often think are most important in life, turn out to be not so monumental. The side stories, the overlooked moments, the unmentioned occasions, these can in turn become the most significant moments of all. As the book of Acts unfolds, the reader witnesses the birth of the church, really the birth of Christianity, a movement that would alter the world as we know it. At the time, however, it was a side story in the culture at large. Just a blip on the radar screen, really, in the lives of most, including the lives of the Roman officials like Felix, Festus, and Agrippa.

These three leaders make appearances in the book of Acts. In each case, they show about as much interest in the early Christians as we do in an evening TV show. They pay attention, briefly, but then they go to bed and forget what it is they just watched. In fact, by the next week, they probably won't remember it all, their memory of the encounter drowned out by a myriad of other more "important" events. While most of the other events that drew their attention have faded from history's collective memory, this side story of a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive? That story continues on.

As good as a miracle

2010-11-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 78

Read: Acts 6:8-16:37

Verse that stood out: In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. . . when [Peter] arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them - Acts 9:36, 39

The story of Tabitha is remarkable primarily because she is brought back to life from the dead. The Bible tells us that many believed in the Lord after learning of this great miracle. Apparently, hearing about the gospel from a person who used to be dead but now is alive is a powerful experience.

A close reading of the story, however, reminds us that our lives can have that kind of effect on folks even without the miracles. After all, Tabitha's spectacular come-back-to-life story was preceded by the most ordinary of actions: a woman using her God given talents with a needle and thread to bless those around her. These clothes, these tangible expressions of love, were making a mark in her community long before the extraordinary story of her resuscitation. So much so, that when Tabitha died, the whole community was deeply moved because she had lived so well, "always doing good and helping the poor." They brought the clothes Tabitha had made for them and laid them at the apostles' feet, a memorial to Tabitha's love.

This story reminds me of two things. First, God does sometimes does move in miraculous ways. That's his prerogative. Second, God more often moves in the most ordinary of ways - through the faithful deeds of his people. That's our responsibility. Tabitha made clothes for Jesus. What are you doing for him?

The whole message of this Life

2010-11-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 77

read John 15:18-Acts 6:7

Verse that stood out: "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life" - Acts 5:20

My calling into the ministry was not a spectacular one. No vision from heaven like many of the prophets we've been reading about. Just a nagging sense that if I believed what I read in the pages of the scripture, I couldn't give my life to anything else. I don't even remember any one moment when I decided to be a minister. I do remember this verse resonating with me as a teenager: "Go stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life" (from the NASB).

A lot has changed since those days. I have fewer answers for life's troubles. I'm certain about far less than I once was. Many of the doctrines I once held dear I now consider secondary at best. But, I do still believe this story of Jesus, the one we call the Christ, is the whole message of this life. That when we proclaim the story of of his death, the story of his resurrection, the hope of his return, we proclaim the very essence of what life is all about. In some ways, even though I understand less than ever, I find myself believing all the more.

Abide. Remain. Be Still.

2010-11-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 76

Read: John 6:1-John 15:17

Verse that stood out: I am the vine; you are the branches. If a person remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing - John 15:5.

One of the most difficult things to do in life is just be. Have you ever noticed that? To wait. To continue on with the slow deliberate prodding that bring success. We want things now and in a hurry. Diet and Exercise take too long to reduce the inches; we want pills or surgeries that give instant results. We don’t want to work and save; we’d rather win the lottery. Just look at the poor careers of coaches and CEO’s. I’ve decided I never want to be either of those professions. A coach is given one, maybe two years to turn around a program that hasn’t seen a win in a decade. A CEO’s success is not measured even in years anymore, but in quarters. We want success and we want it now.

This desire for quick results bleeds over into our spiritual lives. We want things easy and we want them quick. We want the three spiritual laws to happiness. Just implement these three things today and by this afternoon you’ll be a spiritual giant. We think a weekend conference or that new paper back book that can be read in a couple of afternoons will bring about instant Christian maturity. We want the feeling of maturity, without the work to achieve it. Preachers jump on the bandwagon with the 10 keys to success at everything. I’m not trying to be critical, I’m sure much of what they say is good and applicable and helpful, but to me it just gives the wrong impression. Can spiritual maturity really come about in 10 easy steps?

Jesus seems to take a different angle. In several agonizing chapters in the gospel of John, he leaves his disciples with some last instructions on what it means to be a disciple. He promises them the guiding of the Holy Spirit. He talks a good long while about obedience. He talks about his own impending persecution and death and then also about the disciples’ similar fates. Nothing sounds easy, nothing sounds quick. Right in the middle of this last discourse we find these words “If a [person] remains in me and I in him . . . If you remain in me and my words remain in you . . . remain in my love . . . remain in the [Father’s] love.” I like the NASB and the KJV, “Abide in me.” Abide isn't a word we use very much. It means the same as remain, it just sounds slower, more permanent. Maybe because so many of us don’t remain anywhere for very long. Ours is a culture on the go. We want to rush to the promise, “Ask whatever you wish and it will be given you . . . you will bear much fruit . . . your joy may be complete.” We want the result without the stipulation. Abide. Remain. Be still.

Be careful who you mock

2010-11-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 75

Read: Luke 20:20-John 5:47

Verse that stood out: The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” And they said many other insulting things to him - Luke 22:63-65

Mocking someone else is one of the easiest ways to feel better about oneself. Put another person down and for some odd reason, you feel lifted up. Who knows what our thought process is? "I may be sorry, but I'm not as sorry as you?" is that what we think? What pitiful judges of character we are. We mock the very Son of God. It wasn't just the soldiers, after all, who belittled the Messiah. We do, too, everytime we mock one made in his image.

We have to do more than read well

2010-11-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 74

Read: Luke 10:1-20:19

Verse that stood out: "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied, "Do this and you will live?" - Luke 10:28

In Luke 10, an expert in the law approaches Jesus. In keeping with his professional training as a lawyer, he approaches asking questions. Good questions. He begins with the question of all questions, in fact, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus, as any good teacher might, answers with a question of his own. “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The young man jumps at the opportunity to showcase his learning and answers with words consistent with Jewish teachings of the day, and surprisingly, words close to Jesus’ own teachings, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

I’m sure the young man bit his lip to conceal a smile as Jesus confirmed that he had read well. But I wonder if the smile faded when Jesus made clear that reading well wasn’t the key to participating in the Kingdom of God? One must also do what one has read in order to truly live. That is after all what the young man asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus had caught him in his own words.

The sharp, young lawyer quickly picked up on Jesus’ prodding, and asks a second question, “Who is my neighbor?” The question “Who is my neighbor?” is really the question of who they’re not. The young man basically wanted to know “Where does my neighborhood end? Where is that line that separates us from them? What distinguishes those for whom I am responsible from those for whom I am not?” For if someone isn’t my neighbor then they’re pretty much a stranger. And we all know that strangers aren’t that far removed from being enemies. And no one would be expected to love their enemies, would they?

At this point Jesus continues the conversation by telling a story. What initially looks like an answer to the man’s question ends up being an extended opening to another question. Jesus wants to move the conversation from asking, “Who is my neighbor?” or “Where does my neighborhood end?” to the far more important inquiry “Am I a part of God’s neighborhood? Am I a resident of the coming Kingdom of God?” Jesus does this by first exposing the unhelpfulness of “Who is my neighbor?” kinds of questions with the story of a man who became a victim of the notoriously dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Robbed of even his clothes, beaten, and left for dead we find ourselves with a man who has no identity other than his need. Is he a neighbor, someone I know, or a foreigner? It’s hard to tell with all the bruises on his face. Is he a Jew or a Gentile? A respectable man or an outlaw, himself? Without clothes or other cultural markers one can’t be sure. It reminds us that the vast majority of the ways we divide one another up are pretty artificial. Naked and in need we’re all more alike than we care to admit. We’re all potential neighbors, even if we were once (or still remain) so called enemies.

As the story unfolds, Jesus continues to challenge assumptions by warning that just as it’s not always easy to recognize our neighbors, it is equally difficult to pick out those who are the neighbors of God. The two obvious residents of God’s subdivision, a priest and a Levite (perhaps coworkers of the young lawyer) each take turns happening upon the wounded man and each for reasons unknown, pass by on the other side without rendering aid. Did their hearts struggle with the decision to stop or not? Were they just cowards? Jesus doesn’t say and his silence indicates that their motivations for refusing to show compassion were irrelevant . . . whether ill or well intentioned, the outcome was the same.

In contrast to the Priest and the Levite Jesus introduces a Samaritan. For the original listeners, the Samaritan was a clear outsider, a religious heretic, one whose countrymen have already shown themselves hostile to Jesus and his disciples just the chapter before. But this Samaritan acts against type and actually does something good. He does much good. Having compassion on the man, he tends to his wounds, places him on his own donkey, and takes him to an inn where he cares for him all night long and then gives two full days worth of wages to the inn keeper with the promise of more.

Who is a neighbor in God’s kingdom? Remarkably, not the ones with the best theology. Not the ones with the best answers. Not even the ones who’ve read the Bible through in 90 days. No, the one who shared the same zip code as the Almighty according to Jesus was the one who shared in the Lord’s compassion for the wounded man. Even the lawyer could see that. The question remains though, did he go and do likewise? I wonder, will we?

He's willing

2010-11-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 73

Read: Luke 2:1-9:62

Verse that stood out: Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him - Luke 5:13

Luke's gospel spends a lot of time on people who lived on the fringes of society, like the man with leprosy in Luke 5. The word leprosy was used for a variety of skin diseases in Jesus day. Any one of them would have exiled this man to life outside of his community. His request to Jesus, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean" hints at an isolated life. A life in which few were willing to do much of anything for or with him. The law even required him to shout out "Unclean" anytime he approached another soul.

How remarkable the words of Christ, "I am willing." How significant the Savior's touch. How restorative his command, "Be clean!" Not only did it bring healing to the man's skin, it brought reconciliation, allowing the man to return to community life. He would be unclean no more.

We've all felt isolated, lonely, unclean before. Many of still do. Often we're unable to find someone who is willing to enter into our exiled lives. Christ is willing. His presence can make us clean.

Two invited, only one followed

2010-11-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 72

Read: Mark 9:14-Luke 1:80

Verse that stood out: So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus - Mark 10:49.

Jesus invites two people to follow him in Mark 10. One followed. One did not. One had riches he could not let go of. The other owned only a cloak and he gladly tossed to the ground. One went off in sorrow. The other followed Jesus with joy. Prior to these encounters with Jesus, all would have preferred the life of the rich young man over that of the blind Bartimaeus. After? Well, at least for one chapter, the last become first, and the first last.

When normal is frightening

2010-11-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 71

Read: Matthew 26:57-Mark 9:13

Verse that stood out: When [the townspeople] came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid - Mark 5:15

What makes something frightening? Lots of children found my costume frightening last night, even though all I had on was one of those dollar store disguises. You know, the ones with the glasses, big nose, and mustache. I thought I looked pretty tame compared to the vampires and werewolves all around me. But what do I know. I wouldn't think a man sitting calmly and "in his right mind" would be all that frightening either. But according to Mark 9, this man, this normal man struck fear in the hearts of ordinary townsfolk. Why? Well, just that morning he'd been anything but normal. For years, he'd lived in the graveyard up in the hill a menace to himself and all who drew near. He'd been demon possessed. Now . . . now he sat like a man in complete control of himself. He was a man at peace. And he was scaring the living daylights out of his neighbors more now than ever before.

It's not that we like the brokenness and the evil of this world. It's just, we've grown so accustomed to it. We've learned to live in the midst of evil, even if doing so means banishing those who are the most broken to the hills. We've learned to expect sorrow. We've learned to tolerate pain. We've had to in order to survive. In the process we've so organized our lives around the brokenness of this world, that when the power of God shows up we're left terrified, not by evil, but by the good. Remember, the first reaction to the resurrection wasn't joy but fear.

I don't guess it can be any other way for us, so long as we remain in a world where normal is really abnormal. God's breaking in is going to terrify us, just like any kind of surprising interruption does. The real issue isn't whether or not the moves of God scare us (they will!), but rather, what we do after the initial fright passes by? Do we like the townspeople in Mark 9, ask Jesus to leave, preferring the normalcy of evil over the unpredictability of the good? Or, or do we take a leap of faith and ask to frightened all over again?

Staying awake

2010-10-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 70

Read: Matthew 16:1-26:56

Verse that stood out: "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" Matthew 26:40-41.

In my office hangs this painting from the Chinese artist He Qi. I like it for a number of reasons. One, it reminds me of my fecklessness. I realize that's a weird thing to want to be reminded of, but we're all so good at self deception. My job makes it easy for me to pretend like I'm focused on the things of the kingdom. When it comes down to it, though, most of my day is spent in a self-centered stupor. I struggle to live out the kingdom's mandates in the simplest of tasks. I have trouble staying awake - to the person next to me, to what God is doing in me, to what God might want from me. I'm asleep more often than I care to admit.

But He Qi's work also reminds me of Christ's faithfulness in the middle of my faithlessness. My inattentiveness stands in contrast to his attentiveness. My selfishness stands in contrast to his selflessness. I want to stay awake but can't, my flesh is so weak. He wants to give up the cup that is his, but won't, his love is so strong.

In the painting, Christ's eyes are focused upon the heavens. His thoughts centered not on his own will, but on the will of the Father. When I finally awake, my eyes find his, and are redirected, off of myself, and once more on the task at hand. I join his prayer, "Not my will, Lord, but thine, be done."

A Saturday Night Sermon

2010-10-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 69

Read: Matthew 5:1-15:39

Verse that stood out: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

OK, this isn't really blogging, but a full day of family fun means I'm out of time to blog. So here's a sermon from my pre-Southland days from Matthew 13. One of my favorites. I realize it's a little long for a blog post. So no hurt feelings on my part if you don't read it.

Believe it or not, one of my favorite shows on all of television is (and this is hard to admit) the Antique Road Show. For those of you who have never heard of this show, because you are obviously cooler than me, let me explain its basic premise. This show sets up shop in convention centers around the nation and invites people to bring their stuff. People show up in droves bringing with them grandma’s old desk or an old lamp they found in the attic. The premise is simple. Appraisers pick out some of the junk and tell us how it’s not really junk at all, but really priceless treasures. Basically, it’s reality TV, antique shop style. Now, in order to redeem my self-image a little, I would never set foot in an antique store, so why in the world would I enjoy this show? I’m rarely interested in the stuff people show up with, but there is this one part in the show that catches me every time. Inevitably, after the appraiser tells us about the piece, he asks the owner, “So, do you have any idea what its worth?” Sometimes they’re brave enough to tell what they paid for it, most of the time they simply shrug their shoulders and say “I have no idea.” It really doesn’t matter, because all of America is waiting to hear, not what the owner thinks about it, but what the appraiser has to say.

For instance, I was watching one time when this couple brought in a rather plain looking blanket. It was large, pretty worn, with broad navy and pink stripes. The appraiser was ecstatic. He was almost in tears as he explained that this was a Navajo chief’s robe. He described the way it was made, the materials that were used, and all sorts of other information that I don’t remember. What I remember is the question, “How much do you think this blanket is worth?” The old couple, well into their 70’s said they thought it was probably worth a couple of thousand dollars. The appraiser smiled as he told them that their blanket, which they used in the winter as an extra layer on their own bed, was worth between $350,000 to $500,000. Furthermore, it was of such quality and rarity that it was indeed a national treasure. At that point, it was the most valuable piece ever shown on the show.

Now, that is captivating television, whether is makes me a nerd or not. I love a good treasure hunt. The idea that an old couple could be sleeping under an old blanket that they don’t even really like but is worth half a million dollars – you just can’t beat that. From movies about pirates’ buried treasure to antique shopping, we love to discover things, especially things of value. Jesus touched on this desire when teaching the disciples privately one day saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Treasure stories have been around along time, and Jesus had his disciples sitting on edge, “Don’t you see, it’s right in front of you – the treasure – the finest pearl – the kingdom is here for the taking.” It’s easy in our busy lives to miss this treasure. Can you remember the last time that God’s kingdom aroused in you the type of nervous anxiousness that comes with a great find? When I watch the Road Show, my pulse picks up as I wait to hear what this civil war commemorative vase might be worth, and yet our bumping into the kingdom all day long draws little or no excitement from our souls. In life’s hectic scurrying, we feel rushed to figure it all out, tired of all the meetings, and bored with the same old routine.

Maybe we aren’t seeing the treasure – it is after all a treasure hidden in a field. It’s an old blanket at the foot of the bed, always there, but rarely noticed. The gospels are full of references to the hiddeness of the kingdom. Jesus came declaring that the Kingdom of God is at hand, but then spent so much of his ministry explaining its hidden nature. The kingdom is to be found with those who mourn, those who are poor, those who are meek, those who are persecuted. The first end up last, and the last, first. The kingdom is hidden in prayers for enemies, cups of water for the thirsty, and visits to prisoners. Treasure is forever linked with poverty, life forever connected with death. Like I said, it’s a hidden kingdom.

Even in his ragtag group of followers, Jesus clearly is trying to explain how his kingdom is not where you would expect to find it. Tax collectors and prostitutes have found it easy to follow him as well as fishermen and not a few gentiles. However, those who would seem to be prime candidates for the kingdom don’t make the cut. Most of the religious leaders never even recognize the treasure in front of them. Those who catch glimpses, find it hard to sell all and take possession. A Pharisee once had an evening encounter with Jesus that must have been amazing, but couldn’t bring himself to go public with his find. A rich young man, full of outward signs of righteousness did seem to see in Jesus something of a treasure, but when it came time to sell all he had in order to gain that treasure, he went away sad. Jesus’ kingdom just didn’t fit their ideas of where treasure would be located. Maybe we lack excitement, or joy thereof, because we are looking for the kingdom in all the wrong places. We keep looking for the kingdom in programs and in projects, in big buildings and even bigger budgets, all the while, the kingdom is there, Jesus says, as we come to know him and make him known.

The apostle Paul, who himself had considered all things loss for the sake of knowing Jesus and making him known, put it this way, “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Knowing Jesus and making him known, that is the treasure we are presented with.

Most of us who’ve been attempting to follow Jesus for a while know that – at least in our heads. Occasionally, as we’ve gone on a mission trip or reached out to a person in need sharing the good news of Jesus, we’ve run across the kingdom occasionally. But what do we do when we find it? Jesus leaves little room for diversity of response. Both the men in our story sell everything they own. These are short parables and hardly give us any details. Did they have to weigh their options, evaluate their gain, before making the decision? It doesn’t appear so. Apparently the treasure and the pearl were so captivating that the response to forsake all for the objects’ sake seemed to follow naturally. The parable of the treasure does hint at a motivation – the NIV says “that in his joy” while the NASB translates it “from joy over it”. Both are accurate and convey the idea that the joy is both inward and outward. It is not only for his own joy, but also for the sheer sake of the treasure, that he becomes possessed. It makes me think once again to the Navajo blanket. The appraiser, recognizing what he had, was beside himself – indeed he gushed, “Imagine the most important thing that exists in a field. This is it. It’s absolutely the Holy Grail of Navajo blankets.” His gushing on and on about this national treasure revealed that his joy was solely for the object – he would receive no financial gain from the blanket. The idea is the same in the parables – yes both men would benefit from their discoveries, but their joy was rooted not in self interest, but in true appreciation of what they had found.

So it is when we discover God’s hidden kingdom. In this world of dog eat dog, we can be overcome by the sheer absurdity, the magnificent beauty of this alternative kingdom where needs are met by the mere asking, where value is placed on the very fact that we bear the image of God regardless of how broken and bruised we now find ourselves. Our discovery ought to prompt us to shout in sheer joy – “We’ve found it.” This happens every time we truly see it. When we see grace offered instead of condemnation, hope instead of despair. We bump into the kingdom in times of true fellowship with other people, a rarity in today’s electronic communities. We think to ourselves, “This is the way it is supposed to be.” The good news that life is more than stuff stirs in us the same anxious feelings of any great find – Can this really be true? Is this the real thing? Is it for the taking? We are almost sure that if we turn our heads for a moment it will be gone – and so it may.

The man in the first story takes no chances and re-hides the treasure. It sounds crazy to us, but the image is a person who has already sold everything. He’s hanging on, he’s cashing in, he’s convinced. This treasure is not just an interesting walk in the field, it can be his, and he has decided to do everything possible to obtain it. The second man also has an immediacy of action. He too departs with all in order to obtain his prize. We look at these stories and shake our heads – surely Jesus is not telling us to sell all we have? We are the young ruler of Matthew 19 who also could not fathom the cost. Our man in the parable cannot fathom the deal – his focus is not on what he has just sold, but rather what he has just gained. I imagine he paid a fair price for the field, I imagine he got quite a deal on the treasure.

When’s the last time you were so enraptured by something that regardless the cost you had to obtain it? For me, I can really only think of one time. It happened ten years ago. I gave up my ability to buy things whenever I wanted, I gave up my right to plan my days activities solely around what I wanted to do, I gave up the ability to do all sorts of things. But ten years ago, I wasn’t thinking at all about what I was giving up, no I was thinking all about, incessantly about, what I was gaining – a beautiful wife, a partner in life. And it is still the same. My single friends have much more flexible lifestyles than I do, they tend to go where they want, when they want, and yet I don’t for a second wish I had what they had, what I have gained far outweighs what I have given up.

That is the crux of the parables – the kingdom is more valuable than anything we could ever give up to obtain it. A missionary who eventually gave his life for the kingdom once wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot loose” (Jim Elliot). It is a crazy idea at first glance. The world’s values are so different than the kingdom’s. The world says that success is measured in the amount of cars you have in the driveway and the number of bedrooms you have under your roof. Worth is determined by how many zeroes are in front of the decimal point and value by how many people know your name. Yet God’s kingdom, this hidden kingdom, says that power comes through service and love, love comes simply from being a part of God’s family.

Who would really trade houses and cars and comfort for the uncertainty, discomfort, and danger of God’s kingdom? Only the person who recognizes that by giving up what the world offers she is gaining the keys to a kingdom that is immeasurably more real, more valuable, more lasting. We ask ourselves so often, “Can’t we give up only part? Do we really have to sell everything?” Our questions betray our lack of trust. It is as if you were reading your Wall Street Journal and you came across a nothing little stock that nevertheless caught your attention. You did a little research only to discover that this company was on the verge of a major breakthrough. You got so excited, not only at the prospect of making a profit, but at the very idea of being a part of history. You truly believed that this was the equivalent of getting in on Coca-cola or Microsoft form the very beginning. You went and against the advice of your stock broker, your family, everyone you sold all you had and bought all the shares that you could. Every one warned you about not having all your eggs in one basket, they told you to diversify your portfolio. “Just sell some of your stuff – Maybe give up only part.” But you would have none of it. Why invest in anything else, this was it – To borrow from our appraiser – this is the Holy Grail of stocks. You only appear the fool until it pays off – then your face is the face on Forbes while everyone else wishes they were you.

So too the kingdom of heaven – To truly grab hold of the kingdom for all its worth, really for what it is worthy of – there can be no other investments. There is no diversifying among kingdoms, no hedging of our bets – it’s one or the other. Will you appear foolish? Of course, but only for a while. We’ve all been there I think – in the field, eyeing the treasure. Our heart races as we anticipate all that it means. Could I really sell all? What if I’m wrong? Then we look again. Is it an old blanket or a national treasure? An unknown stock or the beginning of history? A foolish investment or a path to glory? Maybe you’ve heard the call to the kingdom and are afraid to answer. Could I really travel around the world for the sake of his gospel? Could I really sell all and live a life in stark contrast to my culture? Could I really live in a way that my major investments are in cups of water and prayers for peace instead of stocks and bonds?

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, a blanket, a stock, a call – and for the sheer joy of it, they went and sold all they had and bought it – That my friends, doesn’t just make for captivating television, that makes for a captivating life.

I thought we just finished the OT

2010-10-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 68

Read Zechariah 11:1-14:21; Malachi; Matthew 1:1-4:25

Verse that stood out: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them - Matthew 5:17

Around my church, excitement has been really building for this day, the day our reading moves from the Old Testament into the New Testament. Relief. Joy. A sense of homecoming. All of these and more are probably being experienced today. It's not that most of my church members disliked the OT. They liked it, or at least, respected it. But without a doubt, much of the OT appears bizarre to modern men and women. There are large sections of the prophets or the history books that are so foreign to modern life that they can be difficult to read through, much less find a significant word from the Lord in them. This is mostly our own fault, being so out of practice when it comes to reading these parts of the Bible. Our devotional life tends to focus on only a few of our favorite passages in either Testament.

A fair warning, though. The OT isn't going anywhere even though we're turning our attention to the New. We've just read four chapters of Matthew and already references have been made to Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea. The New Testament doesn't replace the Old, but builds upon it. One cannot fully understand the story of Jesus and the church without understanding the story of Israel. Jesus said as plainly as he could, "I've not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them." The hopes of Israel, the desires of the prophets, the demands of the Law, they are met in Jesus Christ.

His words, when we pay attention to them, sound much more like the prophets than they do of the self-help preaching that so dominates modern, western Christianity. In Jesus' teaching we find no "Three steps to a better life" kind of message. His main sermon? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Tomorrow is a New Day

2010-10-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 67

Read: Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah 1:1-10:12

Verse that stood out: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of another” Zechariah 7:8.

Sixty-seven days. That’s how long we’ve been reading through the Old Testament. Tomorrow, we’ll begin the New. For those of you who are behind, or who never started on this journey, tomorrow may be a great day to begin anew with the stories of Jesus. “Read the Bible through in 90 Days” is about to become “Read the New Testament through in 21 Days.” I realize the math doesn’t add up. The reading plan is actually only eighty-eight days. I guess that didn’t sound as catchy to the editors of the program. Whatever the number, would you consider picking up your copy of the Scripture for the next three weeks and reading the New Testament? It could change your life.

Before we get there, let’s not rush through the final pages of the Old Testament. For all the strangeness in some of the Old Testament books, I’ve noticed that there is plenty of consistency between the messages of the two testaments. What does God want from us? He wants us to worship him alone and he wants us to love others as he loves us. Jesus says the law can be boiled down to these two commands: Love God, Love Others. The first should lead to the second. Just listen to the words of Zechariah given to a people who have proclaimed their love of God, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of another” (7:8). If you love God, love others. Sounds like it could have come from one of the gospels or from the book of James, doesn’t it?

Such words challenge me to ponder not simply my participation in worship each Sunday, but also my participation in the world each week. It’s not enough to just worship God on Sunday and attempt to avoid evil the rest of the week. I do need to worship God on Sunday, but that worship must be followed up with doing good throughout the rest of the week. I must administer justice and show compassion just as much as I must avoid thinking evil thoughts and oppressing others. Too often I settle for less. I settle for neutrality. I don’t do evil. But then again, I don’t do much good either. But if God is alive in me, my life should be a proactive force for his ways in this world. Jesus will say as much in a few pages, “You are the light of the world. . . . so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Why we need judgment

2010-10-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 66

Read: Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum

Verse that stood out: The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished - Nahum 1:3

I'm an underliner when it comes to reading through my Bible. That is, I like to mark the verses that stand out to me. If you were to glance through the pages of the prophets in my Bible, you would see plenty underlined. Usually those few verses of promise or hope that sparkle against the dark background of God's judgment found in the rest of the book.

If I'm not careful, I can begin to think of the Bible only in terms of the underlined verses forgetting that the rest of the words in the book have meaning, as well. This is especially true concerning the words of judgment. We may not like such words, but we need judgment. We need to be judged. It is the only way to know the right. It is the only way to be set right.

The late Richard John Neuhaus illustrated this truth in his book Death on a Friday Afternoon:

"Recall when you were a little child and somebody - maybe you - did something very bad. Maybe a lie was told, some money was stolen or the cookie jar lay shattered on the kitchen floor. The bad thing has been found out, and now something must happen, something must be done about it. The fear of punishment is terrible, but not as terrible as the thought that nothing will happen, that bad things don't matter. if bad things don't matter, then good things don't matter, and then nothing matters and the meaning of everything lies shattered like the cookie jar on the kitchen floor."

Judgment reminds us that what we do matters. Judgment reminds us that we matter. Most important of all, judgment paves the way for forgiveness. Before we can ever bask in Christ's words, "Father, forgive them" we must be aware that we need forgiving. We must be judged.

The (not so) Minor Prophets

2010-10-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 65

Read: Hosea 13:7-Amos 9:10

Verse that stood out: But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24

OK. This is probably cheating on the blog something everyday effort, but I'm posting something I've done before: a guide to the Minor Prophets. Today's reading was in Amos. I could easily have posted something from there, Amos is a powerful book. But Sunday's sermon is from this book and sometimes you have to save the good stuff for later.

Hope this short guide helps as you read through these ancient/modern books. You can click on the image to make it larger.

Mixing your metaphors

2010-10-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 64

Read: Daniel 9:1-Hosea 13:6

Verse that stood out: When God raoars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. "I will settle them in their homes," declares the Lord.

Hosea is a tough book to sort out. The chronology of the book is all messed up. The names of people and countries change about as frequently as the names of streets in San Angelo. The premise is absurd. God commands Hosea, the prophet, to marry a prostitute so he can show the world what it's like to love an unfaithful spouse. This is to serve as a living metaphor of God's love for his people. Add to that, the fact that Hosea loves to mix up his metaphors, and you get a book that's full of imagery and confusion. God gets compared to a hiker, a doctor, a moth, a lion, even dry rot. Israel makes an appearance as a stubborn heifer, as a vein old man, as a half-baked cake, and a foolish, little dove.

For all the confusion, there is one truth that stands out. God loves his people, passionately. Their actions affect God. They cause God to grieve, to become angry, to fret. Like a parent getting ready to discipline a child, God knows Israel needs to be punished for her own good, but he has trouble bringing himself to carry that punishment out (see 11:8-9). He remains faithful to his people even as they are faithless. When their deeds lead to their destruction, he holds out hope for a resurrection and a future season of restoration (see 1:10).

Just like the pleas of a concerned parent or a spurned lover, Hosea doesn't always make complete sense, but it gets its basic message across loud and clear, "I love you; I forgive you; I want you to come home."

When faith gets you into trouble

2010-10-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 63

Read: Ezekiel 47:13-Daniel 8:27

Verse that stood out: then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual - Daniel 3:19

One of my favorite verse in the Bible is Romans 12:18, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." I like it when people get along. I like to build consensus more than I like to win a debate. I think Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity sounds like an excellent idea as I find most political squabbling in our country beyond the pale. All of this is to say, I often need to be reminded that faith doesn't always bring peace with others, sometimes it brings division. It doesn't always appease, sometimes it angers. It doesn't always keep you out of trouble, sometimes faith is the very thing that gets into it. Yes, seek peace always, but don't be surprised if your good will is met with something different in return.

Only God knows

2010-10-23T20:13:00.001-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 62

Read: Ezekiel 36:1-47:12

Verse that stood out: He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know" Ezekiel 37:3

Every life has them – apparent dead ends. Days when doors shut and no proverbial window opens. When we find ourselves in an apparent dead end and someone asks us what comes next and we scratch our heads and wonder, “Who knows?” If they’re spiritual, they’ll baptize their answer a little “Only God knows.” Ever been there? At that place, where the next step isn’t only difficult to take imagine, it’s impossible to even imagine. After the doctor tells you that there’s nothing more he can do, where do you go from there? Only God knows. After the job falls through and the bank accounts bottom out and the creditors are lining up, what do you do next? Only God knows. After the funeral service is over and the guests have all gone home, what does tomorrow hold? Only God knows. After famines hit and children starve, and mothers ask, “where shall we get our next meal?” Only God knows. After peace talks fall apart and the bombs reign down again, where do we turn for peace and protection? Only God knows. After thousands are murdered at a dictator’s whim, where do we find away forward? Only God knows.

Only God knows can be statement of faith, if we are saying it in the sense that we really do believe that God knows. But it can also be simply a polite way of saying, I don’t know and I’m not sure anyone does, including God. It’s difficult to know which way Ezekiel meant it on that day the Lord took him by the hand in the middle of a valley of dry bones. The Bible doesn’t allow us to know the tone of his voice. As we know, there’s as much in how you say something as in what you say.

“Can these bones live?” God asked.

“O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Faith or frustration? Depends on Ezekiel's tone of voice, which the Bible does not supply. Either way, the good news is that Ezekiel's answer is not what's most important. God really does know. He knows even death, itself, is no match for the very breath of God.

Are you facing a dead end today? Can the dry bones of your life get up and live again? You may not think so, but God knows - with his help, they can.

Getting a good look

2010-10-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 61

Read: Ezekiel 23:40-35:15

Verse that stood out: My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice - Ezekiel 33:31-32

It's difficult to believe that people would actually come and listen to the prophet Ezekiel just for fun. It's not like he's the most seeker-sensitive of prophets. I could see people coming to see him in the way people go to see the freak shows at the fair, but I'd hardly describe him as one who "sings love songs with a beautiful voice." Maybe people liked the sermons in which he declared God's judgment on Israel's enemies. That kind of talk always gets plenty of amens.

Or maybe, they liked the twinge of guilt they felt when he blasted Israel's sins. Paul told us that there is a sorrow that leads to repentance which seems to indicate there is also a sorrow that doesn't. Some sorrows only lead to feeling spiritual without compelling us to actually live spiritually. Such a sorrow lets off just enough guilty steam that we can keep on living in sin without being too bothered by our actions.

Or maybe it was just the nostalgia of it all. A prophet, especially an eccentric guy like Ezekiel, reminded them of home. Of course, back home they never actually did what the prophet said so why should life in exile be any different?

Whatever the reason, the result was the same, they came, they listened, they even delighted in God's word, but they did not obey. The book of James says of such folks, they're like people who walked up to a mirror, got a good look at themselves, and then as soon as they turned around forgot what they looked like. Perhaps they assumed the prophet's words were like the mirrors in the house of glass - mirrors that exaggerate and stretch our appearances and need not be taken seriously. God says, it's their self-image that's distorted.

If we're not careful, we do the same thing as the ancient Israelites. For sixty-one days we've been listening to God's word, now. Have you enjoyed it? Many have told me that they have. A better question, perhaps, have you obeyed? Have you changed? Have you put God's word into practice in your life today?

Large and Startling Images

2010-10-21T07:51:00.001-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 60

Read: Ezekiel 12:21-23:39

Verse that stood out: Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live! - Ezekiel 18:31

The Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor once wrote of the challenges a novelist faces when writing to what she called a hostile audience: “When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock — to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the blind you draw large and startling figures." What’s true for the novelist is perhaps doubly true for the prophet.

Startling barely begins to describe the vision experienced by the Prophet Ezekiel. He wrote to a people who, puffed up by the messages of false prophets, assumed that everything in their lives was copacetic. They believed that any dangers they faced from foreign powers would be short lived and that life would return to normal quickly. Ezekiel paints them a picture in the most shocking of colors. Far from being faithful, God’s people have been faithless. They’re like a prostitute. No, worse than a prostitute. Instead of getting paid for their unfaithfulness, they’ve paid others for these illicit pleasures. The prophet warns that their unfaithfulness will result only in their shame. In the end, the very ones to whom they’ve run will consume them. These “lovers” will strip them naked, take all their belongings, and leave them for dead.

So graphic are the prophet’s words (some of them border on an NC-17 rating), we often miss the purpose behind the prophet’s speeches. Ezekiel is attempting to get the people’s attention. He’s attempting to make them aware of true danger in their lives. He’s attempting to turn them towards righteousness. Buried deep in his shouting is this plea from the Almighty, “’But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?’ declares the Sovereign LORD” (18:21-22). The answer, given later in verse thirty-one, is "No, God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked." That’s ultimately what all the strange and startling pictures in the book of Ezekiel are about. A warning, a wake-up call, a wish for God’s people to awaken to their true condition, repent from their sins, and return to their God.

A heart can be broken, but it keeps beating just the same

2010-10-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 59

Read: Lamentations 2:1-Ezekiel 12:20

Verse that stood out: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness - Lamentations 3:22-23.

That the book of Lamentations even makes it into the Bible seems to give credibility to the fact that in God’s loving-kindness, God gives us room to grieve. Just a surface reading of the book lets us know that for God’s children, it’s ok to cry. Mourning the fall of Jerusalem and the death of many loved ones, the poet writes on tear soaked pages, “My eyes overflow with tears” (1:16) . . . “Bitterly [I] weep at night; tears are upon [my] cheeks” (1:2) . . . “My groans are many and my heart is faint.” Grief and pain pour off his pen. The aching is tangible. At one point he wonders of both himself and his fallen city, “Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?” (2:13).

But it’s not just tears we find in this book of lament. In Lamentation's five chapters, the poet goes through the broad range of emotions surrounding grief. He gets angry at others producing a scorching diatribe against their sins. He gets angry with God saying “the Lord is like an enemy.” He expresses doubt, wondering out loud if God has abandoned his people forever. The poet is sure that the “Lord has given full vent to his wrath” and his response is to give full vent to his grief.

Amazingly, God takes it.

God doesn’t take it because he is weak, or incompetent, or absent, but God gives us room to grieve because of his loving-kindness. Far from being afraid of grief and mourning, God invites us into the middle of our pain. He knows (because he made us) that our healing can never come from evading our hurts, but that we must face our pain in the presence of the One who can heal. Isolating our pain only makes things worse, but giving voice to our grief and our sorrow connects us to the one who shares our suffering. Emboldened by the loving-kindness of God, we voice the thing which we once dared not speak and discover, “we are not consumed.”

God’s love gives us room to grieve, because it is only in grieving that we discover God’s love is bigger than the pain. In the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, Jessica Tandy’s character recounts the lesson she learned after having grieved the loss of an older brother, “A heart can be broken, but it keeps beating just the same.” So many people avoid bringing their burdens to God because ultimately they fear their burdens will over take them, that their hearts will stop beating. But it’s only in laying our burdens at the feet of Christ’s love that we keep from being consumed by our burdens. It’s only there, in God’s presence that we discover, our broken hearts can find the strength to continue loving in the midst of our pain.

How do you choose? Part II

2010-10-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 58

Read: Jeremiah 48:1-Lamentations 1:22

Verse that stood out: "See, I am against you, O arrogant one," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty, "for your day has come, the time for you to be punished" - Jeremiah 50:31

OK, to follow up on yesterday's blog. Most people who believe the Bible is inspired by God believe it is important to read all and even memorize parts of the scripture. Now none of us memorize all the Bible. If we're honest, most of us don't read all the Bible, or at least don't read all of it the same way. Some parts we consider more applicable to our lives than others. I'm going to go out on a limb and say, that's ok. But we should be a little bit suspicious of how we go about deciding what parts we emphasize. Do we only emphasize the parts we like? That certainly doesn't seem to be the best way to go about it. Wisdom tells us that we all need to hear some things about ourselves and about the world that we don't necessarily enjoy hearing. How then do we decide?

One, it's ok to be inspired by a verse and want to commit it to memory. But we should always try to keep those verses in context. Try memorizing a section of verses or, for you favorites, go back and reread the context from time to time. This keeps us from just making the Bible say what we want it to. Try focusing on passages that support the overall themes of the Bible rather than obscure verses that support your own particular view of the world.

Two, Keep things in context by consistently reading through all of the Bible. This is important because it keeps our favorite verses in check with all the other verses of the Bible. And it's important because we never know what part of the Bible the Spirit might use in our life at any given moment. That doesn't mean we have to always read through the Bible straight through like we're doing at Southland right now. There are lots of good reading plans out there that allow you to systematically cover the scriptures in a year, two years, three years by alternately reading a little of the Old Testament and little of the New Testament at the time.

Three, when reading sections of the Bible that don't seem to be that relevant to today's life, attempt to read them from a new perspective. Instead of trying to "bring the Bible forward" try to take yourself "backward." Take the book of Jeremiah for instance. What would it be like to hear his words as a person being carted off to Babylon? As one of the "poor" left in Israel because Babylon didn't think you were worth the effort? As a Babylonian? Sometimes by putting yourself into the text you might discover a new truth that is very relevant to life today.

Finally, remember that the Bible is a big book, not everything in it is meant to be relevant to each and every situation we face. Remember, the Bible wasn't even written with verses in mind. Those were added later to help people find passages easier. The Bible was given to us in books, letters, poems, so that we might immerse ourselves in God's story to the point that it becomes our story. Not just in bits and pieces, but in its grand overarching themes. So that when we face each new day we're able to live it in light of not just one or two of our favorite passages, but in light of the overall history of God's people.

How do you choose?

2010-10-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 57

Read: Jeremiah 33:23-47:7

Verse that stood out: "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD! - Jeremiah 44:16

To be honest, today's reading was a little tough. Mostly bad news for the people of Judah. Either surrender to Babylon or be killed. Not the best options. No wonder the people were tempted to just put their fingers in their ears and ignore the bad news (or throw Jeremiah in a pit. You know, whatever worked at the time!). Ignoring bad news is a fairly common human response. Most of the time, we'd rather just be ignorant. Engine light comes on? Ignore it - it's probably just the light that's malfunctioned anyway. Go to the doctor? No way, he might find something that's wrong. Pray? And be convicted of my sins? No thank you.

Jeremiah is full of bad news. Which has me wondering, how are we any different than the people of Jeremiah's day. Most believers, people who say they believe the Bible, couldn't quote anything from this book with perhaps the exception being the ever popular 29:11. Why do they know that verse? Because it's upbeat. Because it's encouraging. But why just apply that verse to our lives today? Why not the other 1366 verses in this ancient book? Are we saying those have no application to our lives simply because they might contain bad news?

Which leads to perhaps a better question - how do we decide what verses are important for us today and which are not? How do we decide which ones speak to us anew and which ones don't? Which ones are worth memorizing and which are not? I want to know, how do you decide?

I guess it was a buyers' market?

2010-10-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 56

Read: Jeremiah 23:9-33:22

Verse that stood out: Once more fields will be bought in this land of which you say, 'It is a desolate waste' - Jeremiah 32:43

Many Christians know Jeremiah 29:11 by heart, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Far fewer know the context. The city of Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians. It was about to fall (despite all the empty promises of false prophets). Jeremiah, having a true word from the Lord had said as much. This great promise of a future found in verse eleven is what Jeremiah assures will happen after seventy years in exile. Far from being a verse to comfort us with the thought of quickly turning fortunes, this is a verse that encourages us to be faithful for the long haul. God's people are to be a people of hope in the midst of tragedy, not because we expect things to change tomorrow, but because we trust that God is ultimately in control.

Jeremiah proves he believes what he preaches by buying a field from a cousin moments before Jerusalem falls. This is perhaps the worst real estate deal in history, certainly in the Bible. Property values are plummeting. Tomorrow they'll be worth even less. But one this purchase was, nonetheless, a bold statement of hope. Jeremiah was saying to all who were watching, "I know things are about to get really, really, bad, but they will be good again. Just you watch. I'm carrying this deed with me to Babylon, sometime, it will be valuable again."

We can learn from Jeremiah. We, too, believe, that no matter how bad things get, nor for how long they stay that way, God has good things in store for those who trust in his name. But what are we doing to put feet to our beliefs? What are we investing in? In the things of Babylon or in the things of God's kingdom? If we truly believe, we'll be buying land in the kingdom come.

Running with Horses

2010-10-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 55

Read: Jeremiah 10:14-23:4

Verse that stood out: If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out,how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? - Jeremiah 12:5

This week a friend gave me Eugene Peterson's book, Running with Horses. I haven't started it yet, but did come across the title's reference in today's reading. Chapter 12 starts off with Jeremiah asking a fairly sensible question about God's idea of justice and timing. God's answer, which begins with verse five, seems a little un-pastoral. God basically says, "Jeremiah, you're already questioning me? We haven't even gotten started yet. Let me tell you something, being a prophet isn't easy. If you're having doubts right now, just wait. You’re going to get thrown in a pit, put in stocks. People, your people, are going to wish you were dead. Why wouldn't they? You have to deliver the worst of news. Yes, ultimately, I'm going to show compassion, but only on the other side of discipline. You’ve got to decide, are you with me or are you not?"

Even if you're not a prophet, following God is rarely easy. Not if you actually follow him. Forgiving others, being generous, turning the other cheek - these things are nearly impossible sometimes. There's a common Christian cliche that tries to assure us that God never gives us more than we can handle. I'm pretty sure that's hogwash. The truth is probably closer to "God doesn't give us any more than he can handle."

Just look at what God said to Jeremiah, "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out,how can you compete with horses?" Jeremiah might rightfully reply, "Um, I can't run with horses. That's impossible." To which God might respond, "True. For you that's impossible. But not for a man on whom my Spirit rests. Remember, Elijah, he outran the chariots of Ahab. The same Spirit that called him, now calls you."

The same Spirit now dwells in all who call on the name of Christ. Are you facing an obstacle that seems insurmountable? Have you grown weary even though you know there's still a long journey ahead? According to the Lord, it may be time to toughen up a little and remember, even though life's journey may be ridiculously tough sometimes, we don't run alone.

Trusting in the blessings more than in the One who blesses

2010-10-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 54

Read: Isaiah 66:19-Jeremiah 10:13

Verse that stood out: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" - Jeremiah 7:4

Jeremiah was a prophet to Judah, the southern half of ancient Israel. The northern half, which kept the name Israel, had already fallen to the Assyrians. Jeremiah spends his time warning that the same fate awaits Judah unless they mend their ways. The problem for Jeremiah (as for most prophets) is that nobody in Judah was listening to him. They assumed that because they had the temple in Jerusalem, nothing bad could happen to them even if they were behaving badly. God, after all, wouldn't let anyone come and knock down his house, would he?

It's easy in life to shift our trust from being a trust in God to being a trust in the things of God. This is perhaps the most dangerous form of idolatry because it is one of the most subtle forms. It's not always easy to tell the difference between a trust in the One who blesses and a trust in the blessings. Do I trust in the One who gives me health or in health itself? Do I trust in the One who has blessed me with a family or have I put my trust in my actual family? Do I trust the One who provides me with a job or do I trust my ability to make money at that job?

One kind of trust leads to presumption - when we begin to identify God with the blessings God gives we begin to assume God will never allow those blessings to be taken from us. Otherwise, the thinking goes, God would be removing his presence from us. This is essentially the mistake that Jews of Jeremiah's day made. The other kind of trust, the trust placed in God alone, is able to say, no matter what comes my way, I trust that God is with me. Jeremiah's contemporaries would learn this truth, but it would come only after losing everything else they held dear.

Let's pray we don't have to learn this lesson in the same way. Take an inventory of your life today. Are you trusting in the blessings or in the One who blesses? What do you think are some ways to keep that distinction clear in your life?

Pointing fingers or a Helping Hand?

2010-10-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 53

Read: Isaiah 52:13-66:18

Verse that stood out: “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday” (58:9-10)

Every Tuesday morning, I get together with a handful of friends to drink coffee, shoot the bull, and generally solve the problems of the world. Well to be honest, we generally only attempt to solve the problems of the sports world. We leave politics to the group of men who sit a few tables away. At our table, we lament that latest loss, critique the coach’s decisions, propose the moves that we would make if we were in charge, and generally sit amazed at the fact that those in charge can’t figure out what is so obvious to us. I’m pretty sure, the conversation at the other table is about the same as ours. You just have to substitute the names of politicians for those of athletes. All in all, both tables have a grand old time.

My guess is sitting around and criticizing others has always been a lot of fun. Ancient leaders probably received as much Monday morning quarterbacking from their followers as ours do (although the Internet has taken all criticisms to a strange new level!). Criticism, or better yet, critics do have a place in every society. None of us want to live in a totalitarian regime in which criticism is forbidden (think North Korea). If the emperor has no clothes on we want to be able to say it out loud. And yet, we have to remember, the role of the critic is always of secondary importance. The one who counts is the one who does.

Theodore Roosevelt, in an address similar to his famous “Man in the Arena” speech, put it this way, “Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.”

Long before that, the prophet Isaiah promised “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday” (58:9-10) In other words, those that will matter most in the Kingdom of God, those whose lives will shine in the darkness, won’t be the ones who most accurately point the finger of blame, but rather those who most consistently keep their hands busy with God’s work. Another prophet put it succinctly, “What does the Lord require of you? Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Day got away from me.

2010-10-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 52

Read: Read 41:19-52:12

Verse that stood out: Those who hope in me will not be disappointed - Isaiah 49:23

I did my reading early this morning but then the day got away from me on the blogging front. Lots of good stuff in these chapters. What I perhaps noticed the most, however, was that when I looked at my Bible, I could definitely tell I'd crossed the half-way point. Seeing fewer pages to the right than to the left felt really good. As with most projects, it's great to be able to see the end (Obviously, I won't stop reading my Bible after these 90 days, I will probably stop reading 12 pages a day!).

In the largest of projects, life itself, we know the end is coming, but we can never be totally sure of when it will come. Some of us can be confident we've crossed the halfway point. All of us can safely assume we are closer to the end today than we were yesterday. As believers, we can trust that while we may not know all the details of how tomorrow will play itself out, we can trust Isaiah's vision. The day is coming when God will usher in his Kingdom of peace and provision and justice once and for all. If we'll put our trust in him, the end of the story will not disappoint.

Like old love letters that are ever new

2010-10-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 51

Read: Isaiah 29:1-41:18

Verse that stood out: "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing - Isaiah 40:25-26

When we read the Bible, God's Spirit speaks to us on many levels. There are the words on the page - what they mean in the context of that particular passage. This is always primary, but it's hardly the only way God speaks to us. Take for instance the connections one passage makes with other parts of the scriptures. One can't read Isaiah without thinking of Christ. He is the son Immanuel, the Light that has dawned, the King that rules in righteousness. We read from one page, but God speaks from the totality of the book.

But sometimes, God speaks from beyond even the book itself. He speaks from our ongoing relationship with his Word. Take for instance Isaiah 40. A great passage that speaks of God's majesty and his mercy. Taken at face value it is a passage that's easy to connect to our own lives of worship and faith. And yet for me, there's added significance. It was one of the first passages I ever preached from. I was probably in the ninth or tenth grade. The short sermon was for the Speakers' Tournament portion of Bible Drill (Some of you Baptists will know what I'm talking about). I don't really remember what I said in the sermon. I do remember that while most of my friends wrote their sermons and moved on - more interested in the trip we got to go on than the actual sermons they'd prepared - I couldn't move on. I'd fallen in love. Not with a girl, but with preaching itself.

Call it a calling. Call it God's hand. Call it what you will, I can't read Isaiah 40 without automatically remembering how God employed this passage in my life in the past. That past informs every new reading of the passage. So that when I question my calling or my effectiveness in ministry or any other number of things that normal people question, I hear words that have spoken before into my life - words of majesty and mercy. Words for Israel. Words for the church. Words for me. Words spoken in the past that still speak today.

I'd love to hear what passages have been meaningful in your life that have resurfaced in new ways?

I'm glad I'm not a prophet

2010-10-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 Days: Day 50

Read: Isaiah 14:1-28:29

Verse that stood out: At that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, "Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet." And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot - Isaiah 20:2

I've heard of imagining your audience in their underwear as a way to ease nerves before speaking to a large crowd. My guess is stripping down naked yourself has the opposite effect. And yet, that's exactly what God asked Isaiah to do as an acted out parable before the Israelites. In the same way that the prophet stripped bare, God would strip the mighty Egyptians bare by the hand of the Assyrians. Crazy stuff, no doubt. And a little difficult to figure out how this passage might apply to us today.

This naked prophet episode reminds us, however, that the prophet's main job was to speak to his day. Yes, his words live on in the pages of the scripture, but his main concern was to speak those words to his contemporaries. We so often think of prophecy as that which tells the future. But prophecy was as much about forthtelling as it was about foretelling. If we only look at the words of Isaiah in light of what he was predicting, we miss most of the message. Most of his words had to do with God's will and purpose for God's people in that day. Only a handful of the verses of this long book spoke of what God was going to do in the future. Even then, Isaiah spoke of the future so that his audience might know how to live today in light of that future time.

The Bible speaks in much the same way to us today. Yes, it tells us much about our futures, but it does so in order that we might live rightly today. We are to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God today, even if doing so gets us into a lot of trouble. We can have the courage to risk such actions not because we know exactly what will happen in the future, but because we trust that in the end, God will have the last say.

Isaiah

2010-10-10T18:03:00.000-07:00

Through the Bible in 90 days: Day 49

Read: Isaiah 1:1-13:22

Verse that stood out: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned - Isaiah 9:2

Isaiah is a pendulum of messages. One moment doom and gloom, the next, the promise of a deliverer. So quickly does it bounce from one to the other it's difficult to keep track with what's going on. It doesn't help with following the plot of Isaiah that the prophet doesn't always seem concerned with chronology or that we tend to pull out texts that we associate with the New Testament and leave the rest. Nevertheless, a few things I did stick out in this reading:

Isaiah's call (chapter 6) is not to mission, as we so often interpret that passage, so much as it is to go and deliver a message of doom (even if it would later be followed by a message of light).
The prophecies we associate with Christ are fully immersed in passages about other things. While I still think they are about Christ, I'd like to learn more about how one should read these ancient texts in a way that just looks for what shows up in the New Testament (Maybe I'll explore this in another post this week).
One of the main points of Isaiah is Yahweh's sovereignty. I was struck by chapter 10, and the prophet's assertion that while Assyria may think that she is in charge, but she's not. Reminds us all that our day to day activities (no matter how powerful we may be) often unwittingly serve the Lord's plans.