The Road We Travel

A Book A Month In 2012

2012-01-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

The new year is a good time to make a commitment to personal growth and one of the best way to accomplish this I have found is to welcome good mentors into your life. A good mentor is someone you respect who you can meet with on a regular basis both in person and in print. Some of my most important mentors through the years have been Christian leaders who have impacted my life through their writings. Why not make a commitment to read a different book at least once a month this year? Here are some recommendations for you (in no particular order):

The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright

This book is considered by many Christian scholars to be the most complete work on the theology of the resurrection of Christ. In my opinion it is a book that should be read every few years.

Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott

This is another one of the Christian classics that should be in every families library in my opinion. It is a concise and beautifully written summary of the meaning of the Christian life.

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

In this book Sproul does a masterful job of describing the incredible riches of the glory of God and how our awareness of His beauty and goodness changes how we see life and see ourselves.

Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson

I put this book in the "Oldie but Goodie" category as it was written in the 1980s but the terrific logic and insights brought to bear in this book are just as current today as they were back then. Johnson is a terrific writer who does an excellent job at equipping believers in the defense of their faith against the biases of darwinian evolutionist belief so prevalent in current culture.

Londonistan by Melanie Phillips

A fascinating explanation of the sociological changes that are taking place in London and in other parts of Europe as a result of the loss of a traditional Western Christian world view in lieu of the new dominant religion secularism and the resulting dominating values of political correctness and equality.

Turning Points by Mark A. Noll

Mark Noll is one of my favorite writers and in this book he does a terrific job explaining the most important historical events in Christian history.

The Story of Christianity Part One by Justo L. Gonzalez

Widely believed to be the most complete work of Christian history from the time of Christ to the reformation.

The Story of Christianity Part Two by Justo L. Gonzalez

This year I'm beginning a new Wednesday night tradition called "Coffee and Theology". These two books will be heavily relied upon as we study Christian history together.

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

The classic allegory of heaven and hell written by C.S. Lewis is a Christian classic.

The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

Francis Collins is the brilliant scientist who was largely responsible for the discovery of the human genome. He is also a devoted Christian and sees no conflict between his Christian beliefs and his practice and application of science. This book is his explanation of that.

Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas

This book is not only a Christian classic, it is also seen as one of the most important books in philosophy and Western thought.

Uncharted Path by Lee Myong-Bak

In this autobiography of the president of South Korea Bak gives an account of his rise from terrible poverty after WW2 to become head of Hyunai, mayor of Seol and eventually the presidency. Bak gives his mother credit for raising him in a strong Christian environment.

Is God a Broncos Fan?

2011-12-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Tim Tebow, the son of former SBC missionaries and devout Christian NFL quarterback, led the Denver Broncos to another miraculous finish over the Chicago Bears thus sparking more speculation that God must be looking over their turnaround season.

Tebows accomplishments this year have raised a lot of eyebrows around the NFL:

He's now 7-1 after becoming the starting quarterback for Denver.
The team was 1-4 before Tebow and most thought their season was over before he took the reigns.
They now lead their division with an 8-5 record and are favored to make the playoffs.
Despite a very low passer rating and one of the worst completion ratios in the league, Tebow seems to always find a way to win.
Tebow has led his team to come from behind wins in dramatic fashion in the final minutes of the last four games.
It's not just that he wins games, it's HOW he wins games that makes people think God must be on his side. For instance, last Sunday all the Bears had to do was run out the clock but their star running back Marion Barber inexplicably ran out of bounds and gave Tebow and the Broncos time to tie the game. In overtime, Barber fumbled the ball when his team was in field goal range to ice the game. Tebow responded by leading his team down the field for a winning field goal.
In all of his interviews, Tebow gives credit to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the victory.

I'm a Tebow fan. I love how he stands up for his faith and how he uses his platform as an athlete to talk about what's most important in his life. His boldness for the gospel is getting mixed reviews however. Even the New York Times has pointed out that the opposition to Tebow seems a little inflated when one considers the other cast of characters around the league:

"The intensity of the derision strikes me as unwarranted, in that it outdoes anything directed at, say, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, accused repeatedly of sexual assault, or other players actually convicted of burglary, gun possession and other crimes. In a league full of blithe felons, Tebow and his oppressive piety don’t seem like such horrendous affronts at all. (Frank Bruni, New York Times, December 10, 2011)

Two questions come to mind regarding the Tebow craze:

First, Is it right for Tebow to talk about his faith in such a public way?

Why would it not be? As Christians we believe that all other truth fades under the glare of that one brilliant truth that God loves us and died on the cross for our sin. So if a person has truly bought into the truth of the gospel, they have no choice but to center their entire being on the reality of what Christ has accomplished on their behalf. So in this regard Tebow is only doing what comes natural for any follower of Christ.

Because we believe in the truth of the gospel, we believe that Christianity cannot be moderately important. It is either of ultimate importance or it is a lie and a hoax. There is no middle ground for us. It would be hypocritical and dishonest of us not to talk about our faith.

And for those who criticize him for expressing his passion, I would ask "what's wrong with passion?"

People are passionate about all kinds of things whether it's fashion, art, politics, music, sports, money, sex, or self-aggrandizement (the passion of choice for most sports celebrities).

Tebow lives in a world of superstar athletes who continually vie for public attention to promote their own particular brand for personal gain. It's the sad nature of professional sports today. This is just one of the things that makes Tebow stand out as an NFL player. He is a guy of superstar status who regularly makes the headlines but continually deflects the glory away from himself.

For example, after the win last Sunday he told the press, "My teammates make me look better than I am".

How often do you hear that coming from a marquee athlete after a game?

Kyle Grant is an ESPN blogger who points out that Tebow is probably the most decorated college athlete in history who exhibits all the qualities every coach dreams about such as unselfishness, leadership, determination, team mentality and work ethic and yet is also the most hated in memory.

There are numerous twitter and facebook accounts dedicated to the dislike and even hatred of Tebow. A comedian on the Daily Show has a video that has gone viral describing how he hates Tebow as much as he hates Osama Bin Laden.

So why does Tebow make so many people crazy? Why is he described as one of the most polarizing players in sports today? The answer seems to be that people don't like the fact that his particular evangelical Christianity seems so intolerant and exclusive. One recent poll showed that nearly 70% of respondents said they believe that Tebows evangelicalism is "too polarizing" for the NFL.

So in other words the hatred of Tebow stems from a particular worldview that is in play in popular culture. This belief reflects the ethos of Western European secularism which says that everyones version of the truth is equally true and important. Therefore those who ascribe to absolute truth such as what is taught in evangelicalism are therefore thought of as "intolerant."

As I have pointed out many times on this blog, that belief in and of itself is also narrow and intolerant. Ironically, the tolerance motif is especially intolerant of intolerance.

Everyone has belief that is narrow and exclusive whether they want to admit to it or not. The person who says "I don't believe in absolute truth" is in fact articulating an absolute truth. The person who says "I don't think a person should push his or her beliefs off on other people" is pushing his belief off on other people. As C.S. Lewis points out,

“You can’t go on “seeing through” things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. To “see through” all things is the same as not to see.”

So to the question "is it right for Tebow to proclaim his belief?" I would answer that of course it is! Anyone who says his belief is too exclusive and narrow is being hypocritical about their own exclusivity and narrowness.

A second question relates to the nature of God and His particular grace. Does God care about football games? The words "divine intervention" are being used by sports writers describing Broncos wins these days. Could this be true? Is God pouring down his special blessing on the Broncos football team in order to show favor on one of his choicest servants?

The simple answer to this is of course not. The BIble teaches that God does not play favorites, that His ways are not our ways and that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike (Matthew 5:44). To say that God has special interest in a football game is a ridiculous proposition. Tebow himself has made this clear in interviews.

The question itself reveals a simplistic understanding in Christianity that points to a bigger issue. That is the belief among many people that if one just prays hard enough and believes the right way and does the right things, God will rain down his blessings.

This is the belief that "if I do my part God will do his part" that is so destructive in some circles of American Christianity. It is man-centered works based religion that flies in the face of conventional biblical doctrine.

Scripture teaches us that God is sovereign and that He sees our life from the perspective of eternity and that His will and ways are not dependent upon our whims and wishes. God does not plan His day around our concerns. In fact, God exists in eternity and is not bound by time and space and the limitations we experience in this life. He sees our life's beginning and ending all at once.

There is actually a direct answer in scripture to the question of whether God chooses sides. In Joshua 5:13-20 we have an account of Joshua asking the commander of the Lord's host "are you for us or against us?" as he was preparing for a battle with the army of Jericho. It was a great question that all of us naturally have as we go into any battle: "Whose side are you on anyway God?" Maybe you've asked that questions a few times yourself? "God, are you for me or against me?" is a question most people ask at some point in their life.

The answer he was given was "neither."

I have always found that to be a fascinating answer. God does not pick sides in the battles we fight in this life. He is only interested in seeing His will carried out in our lives no matter what the circumstance. One of the most important life lessons any of us can ever learn is that God is not as interested in our circumstances as He is interested in our character. Look at what the Bible teaches in James 1:2:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

God uses our circumstances to forge something greater in us than what we can see or understand in this life. Sometimes losing the game accomplishes a greater eternal reward.

So in other words Christian doctrine teaches us that it would have been just as appropriate for Marion Barber to give God the glory for His game losing fumble as it was for Tebow to give God glory for the game winning drive last Sunday. Sometimes life's fumbles teach us more than life's game winning drives. I know that has certainly been true of my life!

So let's applaud Tebow for his strong stand and bold faith as a genuine follower of Jesus, but let's do it in a way that does not mislead people into believing that we think that somehow God is a Broncos fan.

When Good Men Do Nothing

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

Joe Paterno is the winningest coach in division one college football. He has won more bowl games than any other coach and is the only coach to have won all four of the major BCS bowls. He has been coach of the year over 20 times and is considered to be a living legend.

But because of one decision he made about 10 years ago his good reputation has now forever been altered. For all of the wonderful decisions he has made in his life and all of the good he has done he will be remembered forever for one fateful choice. It was the choice of what not to do. It was a decision of indecision.

Joe Paterno was fired by the Board of Directors at Penn State University this week because of a choice he didn't make. When he learned that the sexual abuse of a child was happening under his watch he chose not to call the police and report it. Instead, he passed it off to someone else.

The horrifying stories of apparent systemic child abuse in the Penn State University football program invoke some strong reminders about what is most important to us.

First and foremost on all of our minds is that a good, just and moral society protects the most vulnerable and powerless. In a society influenced by the laws of God children are protected and nurtured. Scripture demands it (Matthew 18:1-6) and human nature understands it instinctively.

A second and profoundly important truth that should be taken away from this is that this tragedy became even worse because good men were not assertive and aggressive in dealing with it.

This is a reminder to us that one of the biggest problems in our society is passivity.

The original sin in the garden was not just that Eve gave in to temptation but also that Adam was passive. And that pattern of passivity causes profound dysfunction in our culture. People are asking this week, "how could this happen?" The answer is that it happens because people choose passivity.

The abuse itself is bad enough, but the culture of passivity that enables the abuse is just as bad. It was the English philosopher Edmond Burke who once wrote,

"All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."

So as we unpack our emotions of anger and disgust in hearing these terrible stories coming out of Happy Valley Pennsylvania, let us be reminded of the nature of our sin. Our sin is not just that we give in to temptation. Our sin is that we bring idols into our heart. We idolize our desires, our hopes and dreams and careers and football coaches and football programs. We idolize ourselves. But one of our biggest problems is that like Adam, in our sin we choose passivity.

May we all be reminded that every single day we are constantly making the choice between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of me. The kingdom of me is all about protecting self, protecting jobs, careers, programs paychecks and reputations. The kingdom of God on the other hand rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously and longs for the applause of heaven more than the applause of man.

Finding LIfe

2011-11-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a day of incredible worship and celebration. Many have told me it was the best worship experience they've had in a long time. It was a day that included 22 baptisms, great stories of missions around the world, terrific music and the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

In our staff meeting on Tuesday as we reflected on the great day, our youngest staff member Michael McAfee made the observation that perhaps the reason our worship was so over the top was that such a large percentage of our body was out serving in the community during the week in our "Loving Our City" events. His idea is that our hearts were filled with joy because we had focused on others all week long.

I think he's on to something.

After all, the more we give our lives away, the more we find it. This principle found in Matthew 10:39 is not just true of our individual lives, but also true of our lives together. A congregation that is on mission together in loving and serving their community for the sake of the gospel is a dynamic joy-filled congregation. And that joy is manifested in worship.

Our intention is that every person who is a part of our church will be a part of a group and that every group will be on mission serving in the community in some way.

This is one of the reasons our oneness weeks in the future will be so important to our overall strategy. And it is why I believe we will find the more we participate together in these events the more life comes into our worship.

Reversing the Curse

2011-10-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

This past week our church has been involved in many different "loving our city" events across the Oklahoma City metroplex. These activities highlight ongoing ministries our church supports all year long. One of the benefits of us doing this together several times a year is that it creates a kind of synergy that is crucial for our success. Our hope is that more and more of our church family will get actively involved in one or more or these important ministries.

This is all a part of our dynamic mission to "love all people to Christ". Why is this so important to us? The simple answer is that redemption is the work of Jesus and when a group of people are passionate about doing His work, redemptive activity is the natural result.

To understand the deeper meaning of Christ's redemptive work it is important to think about what happened at the fall. When Adam rebelled against God the result was not just a separation between Adam and God, but also a decaying affect on his relationships, his emotions and of the physical creation around him. The curse brought death and the deterioration in all aspects of Gods' creation. So what did Christ's work on the cross accomplish? Not just redemption of our relationship with God that results from our salvation through His blood sacrifice, but also a reversal of the curse in all of His creation that will finally culminate some day with His coming at the end of the age when His kingdom is finally and completely restored.

The word "savior" in the Greek language is a word that can also mean "healer". That is what Christ does- He heals the wounds brought about by the devastating impact of the fall. This is why what we are doing this week and all year long in our community is so important. It is the gospel lived out for the redemption of our community. We are not just passionate about bringing people to Christ, we are also passionate about healing the wounds we see around us in our homes, our schools, our streets and our relationships.

The practical implications of this biblical teaching is that we as His church are to continually be about His redemptive work until the day He receives His bride. Until then the bride of Christ is His primary agent for bringing about this redemptive work as His kingdom advances. So in a very real sense, Oneness Week for us is not just solitary acts of kindness and giving, but they are all about curse reversal.

Death Is Life's Change Agent

2011-10-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

There are few people in my lifetime who have had as much influence as Steve Jobs. When I heard of his death today I thought of the amazing changes that have been brought about as a result of this one man. In fact just about every part of my life has been impacted by his creativity and chances are the same is true for you as well.

His Iphone and Ipad inventions sparked a revolution in mobile technology that have forever changed the way we communicate to one another and receive and dispense information. What is remarkable about these changes is not just the immensity of their impact, but the speed with which they occur. Subsequent inventions occur in such rapid succession it seems like technological advance is no longer measured in decades but in months and weeks. He didn't just bring about new ideas, he unleashed a connectivity that greatly accelerates new invention and so has made change a way of life.

And yet Jobs himself made the observation a few years ago that one of the most important and helpful tools he had received in his life was not something he could hold in his hand or read on a screen- but an emotional and psychological awareness of his own mortality. Here is an excerpt from his Stanford University commencement address in 2005:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was.

The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Although Jobs religious perspective was apparently quite different from my own biblical worldview, there are some things in his observations that ring true for the believer. For instance, Paul the Apostle wrote this:

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. (2 Corinthians 5:1-3)

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

As Christians we believe that our knowledge and understanding of how this life will end only enhances and invigorates how we embrace life in the right now. So tonight as I pray for the family of Steve Jobs and think about what this amazing change agent has brought to my life, I am reminded that no matter how great that influence has been, it does not even begin to compare to the One whose life and death has brought about ultimate change. And although I could indeed go a lifetime without any one of his amazing inventions, I could not go a day without the hope and knowledge of the One who transforms earthly tents into heavenly dwellings. In this sense I agree with his fascinating perspective on death. It has become for me a knowledge and an awareness that is more important than all of life's inventions.

One Solitary Life

2011-09-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

Over the next several weeks we will be dealing with the question "Who is Jesus?" in our Sunday morning BIble studies. As I said last Sunday I believe that every thinking person has to decide at some point in their life what they think about Jesus. Jesus' life as documented in the gosepls was so compelling and His claims so over the top they can't be ignored. They are in this sense "demanding a verdict" as Josh McDowell has famously said. If what Jesus said about Himself was true then those claims are not moderately important- they are of ultimate importance and have to be explored carefully.

I think we should start more conversations about Jesus.

The question, "Tell me what you think about Jesus" can be amazingly interesting and productive. Even people who are somewhat antagonistic to Christianity tend to be keenly interested in this subject once it is engaged. And with this question we can normally begin to challenge long held assumptions about the nature of Christ. Jesus was not just a "good man" or a "good religious leader" or a "good teacher". Jesus claimed to be God and challenged His disciples to spread the word and make disicples of all nations based on His redemptive work on the cross. Good men or good teachers don't make these kinds of claims if they are not true.

No one said it better than C.S. Lewis:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -‑ on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg ‑- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse."

Engaging people with the gospel begins with simple questions that challenge conventional belief. Let's find ways to help people answer these important questions and do it in a way that projects gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). After all, the most powerful aspect of the message of the gospel is the life of Jesus Himself. I love this statement by Dr. James Allen Francis written in 1926:

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

As Christians, how are we to see 9-11?

2011-09-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

This Sunday's new series providentially begins on the ten year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. An event so thoroughly lodged into our collective consciousness that it is now remembered simply by three numbers and whose connotation carries significant weight for every American. It was a few moments in time that is now forever embedded in our language, our history and our culture. It was also an event that poses many philosophical challenges to our society.

I believe that one of the reasons 9-11 has been a philosophical challenge to our government is that historically America has not had to posture itself up against other religious paradigms. It has taken our political leaders a long time to grasp the significance of this and I think that in many ways our leadership still has not grasped it. After all this was not an attack of one sovereign nation against another as it was at Pearl Harbor. This was an attack of a religious ideology against what was perceived as symbols of an opposing ideology. The battle is as much a ideological battle as it is a military battle. In this sense we are not fighting flesh and blood as much as we re principalities and powers of this dark age. So how are we as Christians to look at the events of 9-11 and what should be our response?

1, First and foremost we are to see events in the world from the perspective of His kingdom work. Christ has called us to the nations to spread the gospel and to bring fame to His name and so events like 9-11 should give us a sense of urgency to be about His work. When we see evil and darkness in the world it should invigorate us as believers to the purpose Christ called us to. As His church we are to push back darkness in a way that is so effective the gates of hell cannot prevail against us.

Last February Teri and I were visiting with some missionaries in a Middle Eastern Muslim dominated country when one of them said to me, "When I see our military guys over here I walk right up to them and apologize to them. I say, 'if we were more effective at doing our job you wouldn't have to be over here risking your life.'" I looked at him smiling waiting for him to smile back but he said to me, "I'm dead serious. What every Muslim terrorist needs is Jesus man. If these people just had Jesus they wouldn't want to strap bombs to themselves. So we've got to do a better job of spreading the gospel!" I like that attitude.

2. Second, as we reflect on the events of 9-11 we are to see the terrible danger of religious idolatry. Few things in this life are as destructive as religion. Religion is the tool of Satan to disguise the dynamic work of the Spirit that comes about as a result of a transformational relationship with Jesus Christ. Religion feeds the horrible beast of self centered idolatry. It is evil, destructive and life taking. Islam is a religion that puts people and cultures into bondage and wherever it flourishes the human spirit is crushed. But all religion is this way to a certain degree.

New York City pastor Tim Keller was once asked to be a part of a panel that was to discuss the subject, "Religion is the biggest problem facing the world today." The organizers obviously meant it to be a cynical slant against American Christianity as it lumped it in with all world religions and wanted Keller along for a compelling thoughtful counter argument. Keller said at first he was offended by the thesis, but the more he thought about it, the more he agreed with it. Imagine how dumbfounded the organizers were when Keller announced, "I completely agree, religion is biggest problem in the world today. That is why as a Christian I despise religion."

3. Finally, we are to take on the attitude of Jesus. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to pray for those who despitefully use us. Jesus taught us that we are not to carry anger in our heart but that we are to forgive as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven us. Phillp Yancey put it well in a recent article in "Christianity Today":

"As Christians, we believe in a counterforce of grace. Lewis Smedes and others have identified three stages of forgiveness: first, recognize the worth of the person you are forgiving; second, surrender the right to get even; third, put yourself on the same side as the one who wronged you. Increasingly, I'm convinced that we need more of this attitude toward those who seek to harm us.

In 1999, Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines was burned to death by a Hindu mob in Orissa, India. In 2007, German missionary Tilman Geske was tortured and murdered by five Turkish fanatics. The widows of both men made sensational headlines in those countries by repeating the words of Jesus: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

This is why I say it is providential that we are beginning the series "Who is Jesus" on the Sunday we commemorate 9-11. As Christians we recognize that the real problem in the universe can only be resolved by the redemptive work of the One who completed the demise of ultimate evil by His sacrificial work on the cross.

Calvin Who?

2011-07-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

I've just finished my third day of teaching 60 Honduran church leaders 2,000 years of church history. It was amazing to me that many of them had never heard the stories before. My last day of class I asked how many had heard of John Calvin and not a single person raised their hand. I asked again just to make sure they were hearing me right- but no, not a single person! I thought to myself, "It's (pre)destined to be a long class today! My translator tells me that for most of these students Christian history is a blank slate. For many of them the experience has been transformative.

One of the students told the class that after hearing about churhc history he can now see that his approach to ministry has been all wrong. One of the beneifis of learning about past mistakes is that you learn not to repeat them.

The lessons of our Christian heritage teach us that men and women have died for important belieffs and that many of the beliefs that we now take for granted came with an incridble price. They teach us that the truths we have and even the Bible we hold in our hands have been passed down to us because precious blood has been spilt and heavy costs have been paid. When we know our history we learn to better appreciate that truth.

I come away from this experience with a great impression of what Global Action is doing in their pastor training probram. The students I have taught this week are mostly lower class with very little education and from a wide array of backgrounds. And yet what they have in common is a passion for the gospel. Many of them have started churches and God is using those churches to reach the lost. THese classes are like gold to them. They come early eager to learn with a kind of joy that is infectuous. I have heard many inspiring stories.

Like the man who works in a Honduran prison for gang members. Because of his relationship with Jesus he now sees his work as a mission . He has started a church for these former gang members who have been convicted of drug dealing and murder and violent crimes and now has several hundred members. Or like the woman in the class who is a former prostitute and who once owned her own brothel. He life has been so radically transformed by the gospel that she is now a dynamic leader in her church. The woman has an amazing charisma and glow about her. She would often shout "hallelujah" when some story in hisoty inspired her throwing her arms in the air as if signalling a touchdown and shout "yes!!" (You don't get that often in history classes in the states!)

I am more convinced than ever that if we truly want to change the world and advance the Kingdom of God we must equip and truin the hundreds of thousands of house pastors that God i sraising up around the world. These are people who do not have the means or the backgournd to attend theological seminaries or Bible colleges. And yet they need the equipping and the accountability. Global Action has provided the means for this and is putting together the structure to accomplish this great task around the world in Africa, India, China and South America.

Post Rapture Reflections

2011-05-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

"I thought our attendance was really great Sunday considering the rapture occurred on Saturday, didn't you?"

This was the joke at a lot of church staff meetings today- a reference to the now infamous prediction of Harold Camping, the Christian broadcaster who told his followers to expect the rapture last Saturday night at 6:00 P.M.

What are we to make of these kinds of sideshows in the sometimes three ring circus of American Christian culture? We should keep in mind that fascination with the day and hour of Christ's return has been a part of Christianity since the early church. So when we occasionally read stories like this we should remember that clear biblical teaching is that we are to be engaged with Christ's mission and work as if He were coming any day on the one hand (2 Peter 3), but on the other we are taught to be about that work with joy and steadfastness without our eyes fixated on the clouds as if we have nothing better to do(Acts 1:11).

Al Mohler recently published a response to Camping, which I think has some good points:

First, Christ specifically admonished his disciples not to claim such knowledge. In Acts 1:7, Jesus said,

“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” In Matthew 24:36, Christ taught similarly: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

To state the case plainly, these two verses explicitly forbid Christians to claim the knowledge of such dates and times. Jesus clearly taught that the Father has not revealed such dates and timing, but has reserved that knowledge for himself. It is an act of incredible presumptuousness to claim that a human knows such a date, or has determined God’s timing by any means.

Second, the Bible does not contain hidden codes that we are to find and decipher. The Bible has been given to us in order that we might know the truth, and the truth is clearly revealed in its pages. We are not to look for hidden patterns of words, numbers, dates, or anything else. The Bible’s message is plain and requires no mathematical computation for its understanding. The claim that one has found a hidden code or system in the Bible is an insult to the Bible as the Word of God.

Third, Christians are indeed to be looking for Christ to return and seeking to be found faithful when Christ comes. We are not to draw a line in history and set a date, but we are to be about the Father’s business, sharing the Gospel and living faithful Christian lives. We are not to sit on rooftops like the Millerites, waiting for Christ’s return. We are to be busy doing what Christ has commanded us to do.

In Hebrews 9:28, we are taught that Christ will come a second time “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

That is the faithful Christian response to the New Testament teachings about Christ’s coming. The church is not to be arrogantly setting dates, but instead to be eagerly waiting for him. Of that we can be truly certain.

Seeing Recent Events Through The Lens Of The Gospel

2011-05-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

What a few weeks we've had.

A royal wedding was followed by one of the most dramatic military operations in U.S. history. Someone famously tweeted,

"The girl married her prince. The bad guy was killed. It's been a real disney weekend here on planet earth."

In addition to those dramatic events, we've had tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, floods, wildfires and what will go down in history as the "Arab Spring" because of the popular uprisings that have toppled governments in the Middle East.

What is the Christian perspective on these things? Aside from the inevitable prediction that this is surely the end of the world (Jesus made it clear that when you think it's obvious- it's not), I've been thinking lately about how we as Christians should distill down the dramatic events we see around us.

There are many obvious points to make, but I want to focus not so much on what we see, but on what we should see through.

As Christians we are to see all of life through the lens of the gospel- that we are all dreadfully sinful and yet incredibly loved. The gospel gives us our context for reality and is the central truth of our life. Paul said, "I resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). The truth we learn in the gospel is the lens through which we understand everything else in life.

The gospel keeps us grounded and balanced in our understanding of everything that happens in life. It is through that lens that we as Christians are to see all of the world events. This context brings balance to all that we experience- no matter how dramatic those events may seem.

So when we hear about a world terrorist coming to justice in a violent death our response should be measured somewhat by the overwhelming reality of the gospel. On the one hand we delight in justice accomplished, but on the other we can see that it is only by His grace and mercy that we ourselves have been rescued from the consequences of our own sin.

The gospel does not allow us to categorize sin. The Christian understands the incredible potential for evil that resides in every human heart and is able to say of the evil we see around us, "There except by the grace of God go I!" In this sense it is important that when events like this take place that we not measure ourselves against the sins of others and rank human evil in a kind of hierarchy of severity (2 Corinthians 10:12).

The gospel teaches me that my sin was bad enough to put God on the cross. It doesn't get worse than that.

My daughter asked me the day after Bin Laden was killed, "Dad, what do you think of all the celebrating going on for the death of this man?" I said to her, "I understand it, but to see Americans celebrating a man's death feels a little weird to me." She said, "Me too."

We talked about how to understand what we were seeing and what we were feeling about it. I made the observation that the celebrations we see should remind us that although there is rejoicing today about the end of a type of evil, that one day there will be great and lasting joy about the end of ultimate evil (Revelation 20:2). To put the celebrations in context in this way is helpful.

People long for the death of ultimate evil because it rings true. That is what our future is moving toward. We can rejoice in that.

Am I pleased that this man will no longer have the capability of terrorizing the lives of millions of people? Absolutely. Am I impressed with the faithfulness and sacrifice our military men and women who put their lives on the line every day for us? You bet I am!

But do I rejoice in his death? Of course not. I do not rejoice in the death of a single human being who goes into eternity without Christ. Ezekiel 18:23-32 teaches us that God does not rejoice in the death of the wicked. The Spirit of Christ in me does not reconcile an emotion that runs contrary to the heart of God.

To see events through the lens of the gospel is also to understand how nuanced our own limited perspectives can seem. The gospel is universal in scope and therefore as a believer I am to think locally and globally at the same time.

As Christians we are to understand our calling to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20). It is helpful therefore at a time like this to remember that there are believers in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iraq and Jordan who are holding up the gospel to Muslims and praying for their salvation.

An Egyptian Christian woman whose posts have been extremely popular during the Egyptian uprising tweeted the day after Bin Laden was killed,

"Americans you are really freaking me out right now..."

Because the world is now a vast social network via the internet, American Christians now more than ever have to be aware of their global witness. As Christians in America we have lived with the grief and sorrow of the events of 9-11 and have been immersed in the shadow of Islamic terrorism ever since. So it is understandable that we all felt a sense of relief at the news of Bin Laden's death. But at the same time we should make sure that our response to this kind of news is pleasing to Christ.

I am convinced we are individually accountable for how we bear His name to a lost world- even to parts of the world that insult our patriotic sensibilities- where unruly crowds shout "death to America" and burn American flags. These are places of darkness where the gospel has not penetrated and those are people who Christ gave His life to save. Indeed, these are the "outermost parts of the earth" Jesus was talking about.

So through the lens of the gospel I see things differently than my own limited perspective.

It is through that lens that I can see a true perspective on the meaning of the death of ultimate evil.

And this perspective helps me put all the other dramatic events of the past few weeks into proper context as well. Through the lens of the gospel I understand the fascination with the beauty of a royal wedding broadcast to billions around the world because I know that there there will be a day when the true and better Groom will receive His bride and all creation will rejoice (Revelation 19).

Through the lens of the gospel I understand that all creation is convulsing in labor pains until His redeeming work is consummated at the end of the age (Romans 8). I can see that these things that captivate us, as fascinating as they are, are not ultimate things. They are only shadows of things to come.

The gospel therefore as my ultimate reality teaches me to see through them to what is most important.

To see that He by His redemptive work on the cross has defeated ultimate evil and suffering and will one day completely bring it to an end and that on that day the true Prince of Peace will invite us to His wedding feast.

That will be a day that even Disney couldn't imagine.

Love Wins Because Jesus Died For Sin

2011-03-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago I read Rob Bell's new book, "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived." If you've not been paying attention to the Christian blogosphere you may not realize that this book has created an enormous amount of attention and has been roundly condemned by evangelical scholars like Al Mohler and John Piper.

The controversy surrounds Bell's contention in the book that he does not believe a loving God will send billions of people to a place called hell. He believes that given enough time in eternity that every single person who has ever lived will eventually have their heart melted by the love of God and will choose to spend eternity with Him. In the end, Bell argues, love wins.

Of course the controversy is that this belief, that everyone gets to heaven no matter what they believe in this life, is known in theology as "universalism", a heresy that has been condemned by Christian orthodoxy since the fourth century.

This kind of argument has wide appeal. In fact, I would say that there are many Christians in conservative churches who buy into some form of universal theology. The complaint that a loving God surely would not send good people to hell is not a new one with Rob Bell. So what's the problem? Why all the uproar from Christian scholars and conservative pastors?

The problem is that although the idea that in the end everybody wins has a lot of appeal, in order for a person to buy into this logic you would have to ignore or deny some very significant biblical teachings about the nature of man, God's grace and the blood atonement of Jesus. In order for us to embrace the idea that everyone eventually goes to heaven without their hearts turning toward Christ in this life, we would have to believe that man is basically good, Christ's death on the cross was unnecessary and that man's natural tendency toward sin and rebellion is not as bad as we might think or the Bible says.

But of course, the Bible teaches that we were all born in sin and rebellion against God (Romans 3:23) and that our situation is so dire we can't even know the depths of our wickedness and deceit (Jeremiah 17:9) and that the only remedy to our idolatrous heart is the substitutionary death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Bell gets past all of this by speculating that surely after death a loving God will give all of us a second chance at redemption. The problem of course is that the Bible teaches we all get one death and then the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). But remarkably the entire premise of the book rests on this one bit of speculation on his part. He puts it like this:

“And then there are others who ask, if you get another chance after you die, why limit that chance to one-off immediately after death? And so they expand the possibilities, trusting that there will be endless opportunities in an endless amount of time for people to say yes to God. As long as it takes, in other words.” (p.55)

Again, this logic, though appealing, runs contrary to the plain teaching of scripture. An example is found in the teaching of Jesus himself. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus taught a parable about a man named Lazarus and a rich man who were both existing in a kind of eternal state of awareness after death. Lazarus was in heaven and the rich man was in hell. Remarkably, the rich man begged Abraham to allow Lazarus to go back to earth and tell his brothers of their need for repentance. Abraham's answer was that if his brothers would not listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not listen to a man who came back from the dead (v. 31). In this fascinating parable, Jesus reveals to us that the human heart is in such rebellion against God that not even appeals in the afterlife would be able to budge it.

This is not a new controversy. In fact it seems like every generation has examples of this kind of thing. One of my Dad's favorite biblical scholars when I was growing up was William Barclay. Barclay was a prolific writer and theologian and his commentaries were a must in every conservative pastor's library. Late in his career, Barclay caused a similar controversy when he announced that he was a convinced universalist.

The reason this particular event has become such a big deal is that Bell, like Barclay in my father's generation, has been extremely influential. He is a very gifted communicator, whose Nooma videos have been played and replayed for years in worship services and youth ministry events in countless evangelical churches. There is a lot to like about Rob Bell. He is extremely creative and really a genius when it comes to communicating in popular media. One of the best sermons I ever heard in fact from the book of Leviticus was preached by Rob Bell. It was one of those sermons on the atonement I will never forget.

In fact there were parts of the book I enjoyed. I thought his treatment of heaven on earth in chapter two was masterful. But in chapter three his theology started going off a cliff and it never recovered. As a friend of mine remarked, the parts of the book that were good were really good but the parts of it that were bad were terrible.

To be fair the book was obviously not written as a book of theology. He is not making arguments for biblical scholars and theologians to pour over so they can develop counter arguments. He is pithy and sarcastic and bombastic in his approach to conventional Christian belief. Reading the book is like watching one of his Nooma videos. For the most part, Rob Bell paints pictures, he doesn't develop scholarly arguments.

My sense is that he probably doesn't care what conservative scholars think anyway or else he wouldn't have written such a provocative book. Instead he is appealing to a large audience of unbelievers and others who are offended by the traditional teaching of the church. Believe me that is a BIG audience. There will be many who no doubt will be attracted to this spin on the gospel.

Sadly, it's not the gospel of scripture and so it's not the gospel that transforms lives and changes hearts.

It's another gospel.

Which is to say, it's no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-8)

In his promotion video, Bell raises lots of questions about conservative biblical teaching regarding the atonement. Denny Burke does a good job in answering those questions:

In the video Bell begins with an anecdote about a person who once suggested that Ghandi is in hell. Bell is astonished that someone would make such a pronouncement, and it leads him to pose a litany of questions--questions that he apparently intends to answer more fully in the book. I thought it would be worthwhile to take a crack at answering each of his questions here from a biblical point of view. So here are my answers to Bell's queries.

Bell: Ghandi's in hell? He is? And someone knows this for sure?

Answer: The Bible teaches that there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). The Bible also teaches any person who does not believe in Jesus falls under the judgment of God (John 3:18). Anyone (including Ghandi) who refuses to trust Christ alone for salvation will die in their sin and will not be able to follow Jesus into eternal life (John 8:21).

Bell: Will only a few select people make it to heaven?

Answer: Yes, that is true. Jesus taught that a select number of people would make it to eternal life. Most people will choose the broad way that leads to destruction, but a few will choose the narrow way to life (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-28). Nevertheless, the Bible also teaches that there will be a great multitude which no one will be able to count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).

Bell: And will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell?

Answer: I don't know if anyone knows what the exact number will be, but the Bible teaches that at the end of the age there will only be two groups of people: those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life and those whose are not. All those whose names are not written in the book will be thrown into the lake of fire. This will no doubt be a countless throng of people (Revelation 20:10-15).

Bell: And if that's the case, how do you become one of the few? Is it what you believe? Or what you say? Or what you do? Or who you know? Or something that happens in your heart? Or do you need to be initiated or baptized or take a class or be converted or be born again? How does one become one of these few?

Answer: There is nothing that any person can do to be counted among the saved. Salvation from the penalty of sin is all of grace. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God offers us His Son, and the only way to receive Him is by faith. Jesus said it this way, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29). If you want to become one of the few, then you have to trust in Jesus alone for your salvation.

Bell: And then there is the question behind the questions. The real question: What is God like? Because millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message, the center of the gospel of Jesus, is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus. So what gets subtly sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that that we would need to be rescued from this God?

Answer: What is God like? This is the ultimate question and how one answers this question will determine how all the others get answered. God is holy. He loves righteousness, and He hates sin. He is the most valuable, precious being in the universe. He is worthy of all our worship, devotion, and obedience. All people fall short of their obligation to love and worship God, and this falling short is called sin (Romans 3:23). Through our sin, we all have earned God's just sentence of death (Romans 6:23). In fact, God says that He is angry with those who do not repent of their sin. The Bible says that God is storing up His anger for impenitent sinners (Romans 2:5) and that it will be a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of an angry God at the judgment (Hebrews 10:27, 31). The Bible teaches that God is both the treasure of heaven and the terror of hell. God will punish His enemies.

Bell: How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news?

Answer: You are asking how can God be good if He sentences sinners to eternal damnation, but I think you have the question backwards. The real question is how can God be good if He doesn't send sinners to judgment. In other words, how can God be good while forgiving sinners? This is the question Paul wrestled with in Romans 3, and he concluded that God set forth His son Jesus as a propitiation for sin. That means that all of the wrath and anguish that would have taken us an eternity in hell to endure, God poured out on His Son in the moment of the cross. God is good because He settles our sin debt in the cross of Jesus Christ, our substitute. This is good news because God clears away guilt through the cross and offers eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus. Anyone who believes in Jesus in this way can have forgiveness and eternal life. This is more than good news; it's the best of news.

Bell: This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the Christian faith. They see it has an endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies, and they say, "Why would I ever want to be a part of that?"

Answer: Sin will always appears as a trifle to those whose view of God is small. If you were to discover a little boy pulling the legs off of a grasshopper, you would think it strange and perhaps a little bizarre. If the same little boy were pulling the legs off of a frog, that would be a bit more disturbing. If it were a bird, you would probably scold him and inform his parents. If it were a puppy, that would be too shocking to tolerate. You would intervene. If it were a little baby, it would be so reprehensible and tragic that you would risk you own life to protect the baby. What's the difference in each of these scenarios? The sin is the same (pulling the limbs off). The only difference is the one sinned against (from a grasshopper to a baby). The more noble and valuable the creature, the more heinous and reprehensible the sin. And so it is with God.

If God were a grasshopper, then to sin against Him wouldn't be such a big deal and eternal punishment wouldn't be necessary. But God isn't a grasshopper, He's the most precious, valuable, beautiful being in the universe. His glory and worth are infinite and eternal. Thus to sin against an infinitely glorious being is an infinitely heinous offense that is worthy of an infinitely heinous punishment.

We don't take sin seriously because we don't take God seriously. We have so imbibed of the banality of our God-belittling spirit of the age that our sins hardly trouble us at all. Our sin seems small because we regard God as small. And thus the penalty of hell--eternal conscious suffering under the wrath of God--always seems like an overreaction on God's part. If we knew God better, we wouldn't think like that.

Bell: [You] see, what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about who God is and what God is like.

Answer: You couldn't be more right. But I question whether the god that you are describing is the same One I am describing.

The Real Saint Patrick and Nine Other Things

2011-03-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

1. Yesterday was Saint Patricks Day. I asked my son if he knew who Patrick was? "Was he an alcoholic?" was his answer. So on the day after St. Pats day I thought I would post a good synopsis of the actual story which is much better than the myth. If you've not read the history of Patrick before, you may be shocked that the way the world celebrates one of the most effective evangelists in Christian history is by getting plastered on green beer.

2. I have been receiving emails from Christian friends in Japan who are asking for Christians around the world to pray specifically for the wind direction in Japan to remain low and eastward. One article that explains the importance of this can be found here.

3. The most effective way for us to give to the need in Japan is through the IMBs emergency fund. We have people already on the ground assessing the needs and allocating the resources in effective ways that accomplishes both the short term and long term objectives for Japan. You can allocate your offering through the church or you can give online here.

4. Fellow Oklahoman Tom Eliff has been named the new president of the International Mission Board. I believe Tom will do a terrific job as the new leader of our missions organization. He is a proven leader who has experience not just as a pastor but as a missionary on the field. He is widely respected and loved and brings much needed confidence and competence to the IMB. Tom will face many challenges in the months ahead but I believe his most daunting challenge will be to simplify the organizational structure so that it is more effective at accomplishing it's mission. If I were to summarize the biggest problem with the IMB right now I would say we are entirely too top heavy.

5. I am excited about Eliff's new vision for the IMB to challenge local churches to partner with the board to reach unengaged and unreached people groups around the world. I know there will be many challenges to pull this off, but it is a worthy vision at the right time in our history. In many ways, CRBC is already well positioned for this strategy, as our church has already partnered with the IMB in several different regions around the world. I would like to see us ramp up our efforts in the days ahead however, especially now that we are out of debt and are positioned to allocate more of our resources toward missions.

6. It's time for us to fix the roof over our heads. For many years now our worship center roof has leaked like a sieve. This problem needs to rectified before we can make any further improvements to our worship space. The reason the problem hasn't been addressed sooner is the projected cost of the project has been so astronomical it was impractical. We have recently received a much more favorable bid however and so we will soon be bringing a recommendation to the church for finally resolving the problem.

7. This is a time of terrific transition and opportunity in the MIddle East and North Africa. I believe there is tremendous opportunity in the uprisings we are reading and hearing about. We need to pray that the new governments that emerge will be intent on every kind of freedom for their populations, including freedom of religion. One thing we know for certain, wherever there is turmoil and change, there is opportunity for the gospel.

8. This past week a famous evangelical pastor released a book in which he challenged the longstanding Christian doctrine of hell. The news about Rob Bell was disappointing but not all that surprising to me. Bell has been moving down the neo-liberal theology road for a few years now. I will write a more comprehensive blog on this subject later but to summarize my thoughts to you I believe Bell has not just stepped outside of biblical doctrine with this book, but has removed an important lynch pin in Christ's teaching on salvation. After all, Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven. There was a reason for that. Read Al Mohler's thoughts on this subject here.

9. There is nothing funny to me about what is happening to Charlie Sheen. Watching the video of Sheen's drug induced rant is a poignant illustration of the depth of human depravity residing within every human heart. The fact people are so interested in watching his self destruction is also instructive. I believe cultures obsessive fascination with the Charlie Sheen's of the world is evidence of our collective depravity.

10. This Sunday I will be teaching again on Colossians 3:1-11. The money point of this entire series is that our understanding of our need for personal righteousness is what drives our motives, ambitions and our most important decisions in life. Conversely, an understanding of how we find His solution is what brings us ultimate meaning, peace and lasting joy. In a world that seems so upside down and changing rapidly, this is an immensely important truth.

Boasting Only In The Cross

2011-03-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Today begins what I believe is the most important time of the year for Christians around the world - the season of Lent. It is the forty days of the Spring season that we focus on the most important truth of our lives- that Jesus Christ gave His life for us as a substitutionary atonement on the cross. Although this is certainly the case for us every day of our lives all year long, I truly believe there is great value in taking roughly a tithe of the year leading up to Easter Sunday to bring this truth into greater clarity. It is a time of fasting, reflecting and meditation on the meaning of the gospel.

Here is an excellent quote from John Piper that I think nails the point:

Only boast in the cross of Jesus Christ.

It is a single idea. A single goal. A single passion. Only boast in the cross. The word can be translated “exult in” or “rejoice in.” Only exult in the cross of Christ. Only rejoice in the cross of Christ. Paul says let this be your single passion, your single boast and joy and exultation…

All exultation in anything else should be exultation in the cross. If you exult in the hope of glory you should be exulting in the cross of Christ. If you exult in tribulation because tribulation works hope, you should be exulting in the cross of Christ. If you exult in your weaknesses, or in the people of God, you should be exulting in the cross of Christ.

Why is this the case? For this reason: for redeemed sinners, every good thing – indeed every bad thing that God turns for good – was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment. Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore everything that you enjoy in Christ – as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ – is owing to the death of Christ. And all your rejoicing in all things should therefore be a rejoicing in the cross where all your blessings were purchased for you at the cost of the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Don't forget our Ash Wednesday worship is tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Worship Center. Mark Clifford will be leading worship.

Breaking Down Islam's Barriers

2011-03-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

Teri and I have had many incredible experiences on this trip. We have traveled from Europe to the Middle East visiting with IMB personnel. We have fellowshipped with dozens of Muslim and Jewish background believers and have made many new friends. We've participated in Bible distribution in Marseille France and street evangelism in Paris. We have prayer walked in Madrid and interviewed Iraqi and Palestinian refugees in Jordan. We went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee with Messianic believers and spent a few hours in Jerusalem visiting Palestinian friends. One of our most unique experiences however was lunch at the largest mosque in Europe. Before going in we took turns praying that God would break down the barriers of Islam that have such a strangle hold on such large population groups in this part of the world. The rest of our time here gave us many examples of how this is beginning to happen.

Three nights ago I was in the home of an Iraqi family that lives in a slum neighborhood in Amman. The family has no furniture, no beds and lives on four hundred dollars a month they get from the UN. Because they have been given refugee protection status, they qualify for a small compensation for living away from their war torn homeland. Unfortunately, in this country they are discriminated against and have little chance of finding work. Four hundred dollars doesn't go far where they now live when you have ten kids and one on the way. Our friends that work in this country have been helping as much as they can. They're hope is to get permission to come to America.

Hassan, the father, is particularly upset today because he just came from the UN office where he learned that because of a computer glitch they won't be receiving compensation this month. "I want to take my ten kids and pregnant wife to their office and ask them how they think I will take care of them this month!" He says to us in Arabic in a kind of fit of agitation.

On the way to Hassan's house, our friends explain to us that this entire family has now declared they want to convert to Christianity. They have seen such horrible abuse and violence in Iraq that their perspective on the Islamic religion completely changed. One day a couple of years ago Hassan snapped and questioned everything he had always believed. So he announced to the family he was no longer Muslim.

His suffering began in 1994 when his father was killed by Saddam Hussein.

At that time they lived in Basra after the first war. When the US forces pulled out of this area Saddam's thugs moved in and started randomly killing men in the community as a way of regaining control and spreading terror.

Hassan walks over to the only picture hanging on the wall- a picture of his beloved father and takes it down and holds it out to us. When we are finished looking it at it he holds to the picture to his chest as if to demonstrate the depth of his loss.

After his three best friends and one brother were killed in the same manner after the second Iraq war, Hassan was done with Islam and the hate and violence it brought to his life. He had seen enough Muslims killing Muslims to convince him that this was not a religion he wanted anything to do with.

"After you've lived in this land very long you learn that most everyone's a Muslim and most Muslims carry a degree of hatred and anger in their hearts..." one of my friends who has been in a North African country for close to fifty years told me a few days ago. "They say they are all one but when you barely scratch the surface you find out that's not true" he continued. "If a Sunni Muslim finds out someone is a Shia they will say 'he's not a real Muslim!'

"Most violence around here is Muslim on Muslim." He says to me.

Our friends in Amman come to the Iraqi families house weekly to teach them some scripture. They are thrilled the family wants to become Christian but know that simply saying you are no longer a Muslim and want to be a Christian does not necessarily translate to genuine faith in Christ. They have developed a close relationship with this family the past few months and are encouraged that they are now going to a house church and have genuine interest in learning scripture. It is apparent to all of us that this entire family will one day call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

Our friends assure Hassan that they will make sure he is taken care of this month and that they are there for him. As we get up to leave he tells us he is sorry his home is so small and that he has nothing to offer us. We tell him that he has honored us with his hospitality and will be praying for him.

It is examples like this that have convinced me that Islam's strangle hold on this area is is beginning to loosen ever so slightly. Hassan and his family are but one example of the many who are coming to Christ by unusual means in Muslim controlled lands. We have talked to scores of Muslim background believers who tell stories of dreams, visions and other somewhat dramatic events that precipitate their introduction into Christianity. In a place in which it is difficult to find the Word of God the Spirit of God is moving in ways not seen in the States or in other parts of the world.

But once a Muslim background believer (MBB) comes to Christ it is incredibly important that there are means of discipleship available to them. So it important not just that the gospel be proclaimed, but that along with that proclamation a dynamic functioning church emerge where new believers can find fellowship, Bible teaching and accountability.

So it is not surprising that along side the movement of the gospel, God is also raising up young leaders who fill the void of sound Bible teaching and discipleship. One interesting example of this is the Tunisian couple we met for dinner one night. Both of them came from very traditional Muslim families in small villages in Tunisia, but left their Islamic past behind after deeply questioning the things they had learned in the Koran.

So much of what they read in the holy book made no logical sense to them. With the help of a radio ministry that broadcast Bible teaching into Tunisia they converted to Christianity. Both of them were summarily kicked out of their homes and ostracized from their families.

Muslims who come to Christ face immediate persecution from family and tribal leaders. One of our friends from Tunisia told us that many Islamic governments gives support to religious freedom with one side of their mouths but with the other side give support to tribal leaders and family heads who carry out honor killings of family members who become Christians. It is a convenient way to seem modern and tolerant while simultaneously maintaining the archaic sharia law and it's brutal 7th century type violence.

"Islam is a terrible religion." My friend says to me. "Before Islam came to this part of the world mostly what you had was isolated tribal violence. But now what you have as a result of Islam is ingrained and universal hatred, violence and family abuse.

"Wherever Islam takes over, it destroys. That's why it's so vitally important we have a presence here."

On more than one occasion while we were in Europe and the Middle East, we walked around mosques and prayed against them, asking God to neutralize and destroy their effect on this land. Our friends here passionately pray against the demonic influence of this abusive and debilitating religion. More than most Christians I meet in America, they see themselves as being on the front lines of a desperate spiritual battle.

The young Tunisian couple who came to Christ told us that after becoming Christians they moved to Lebanon and attended seminary where they earned their masters degree in Biblical studies. Today they host a popular television program that is broadcast via satellite throughout the Middle East. As a result, their family, most of whom are still Muslim, is constantly harassed and persecuted because of their bold television ministry. The speak of their families suffering with obvious pain.

The more I heard this young couples story the more I was amazed at their incredible courage and keen intellect. We met them at a restaurant in a European port city where they are trying to lay low during the Tunisian revolution. They live under constant threat for their lives. But they live this way with such obvious joy and happiness. As the dinner winds into the night I realize that I am in the presence of true greatness. Here is a couple who has forsaken all for the sake of the gospel.

I leave this part of the world with a fresh sense of how to pray, but more than that I now have faces to put to those prayers. They are faces, young and old of brothers and sisters in Christ who are living out their faith in ways many of us in the States may never understand or appreciate. And yet with all the hardships and often terrible injustices they face, I somehow find myself longing for what they have. I find myself feeling a sense of jealousy for their boundless joy, courageous faith and hope in Christ.

Perhaps of all we have brought back with us this trip, these lessons are most important. And of all we have tried to bring to our friends in these parts of the world with our encouragement and prayers, what they have given to us in return is exponentially greater.

The Time is Now

2011-03-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

On this trip we have worked hands on with many of our missionary friends as a way of identifying with their strategy and mission. We have participated in street evangelism, Bible distribution and have sat in on various training sessions. Much of what our teams do here involves a lot of hard work with very little tangible (earthly) reward. Our team in one of the French port cities, for example, will often work 14 hour days with only 2 days off a week. They talk to a lot of people who spit on them, insult them and throw things at them. But they are passionate about what they do and tell us they wouldn't want to be anywhere else or do anything else.

I agree with John Piper who says the missionary is the ultimate Christian hedonist. The more one gives his or her life away, the more joy flows from them. This is certainly true of the amazing group of young missionaries we have met here. And for all the rejection and insults, occasionally something miraculous happens that reminds them their work is Kingdom work.

Like the story we heard of the Tunisian who came to Christ after reading a New Testament he was given at the border and then sought out believers in a town near his hometown. Today he is a pastor who has planted many churches. When I asked his friend who told us the story how many Christians there are today in this part of Tunisia, the man thought about it a minute and said with a smile, "Too many to count."

"Too many to count" is a significant answer for a part of the world where a few short years ago you could count the number of evangelical Christians on one hand. But today the churches are multiplying exponentially. The reason for their rapid growth is that these are not just random examples of a few people here and there coming to Christ, these are full fledge house church movements. House churches are planting house churches. Because of the way they are multiplying they are not confined to church buildings. "The governments are helping us out by not allowing them to build churches and by persecuting believers, this keeps the movement alive." John Brady tells us.

Our friends in this part of the world are involved heavily in leadership training to encourage church planting movements. They tell us that there are three basic objectives to the discipleship in these churches; 1. Bible teaching 2. Practice or application of what is learned and 3. Accountability through prayer. They have learned through the years that when these three things are in place in the discipleship of the house church, not only will the people grow in Christ, but they will plant other churches. This is how the church is spreading like wild fire all over Asia and is now beginning to take hold in the Middle East in some of the most surprising places.

We watch the news and are amazed at the cataclysmic changes taking place in North Africa. Our friends here have a completely different perspective- one that is purely spiritual in nature. They see it as the work of the Spirit to evoke changes on the political landscape so that His Kingdom work can be accomplished more readily. They believe the leaders of these countries were getting in the way of the work of gospel, and so God took them out.

I've thought about that a lot the past few days and am intrigued not just by the enthusiasm and worldview of our missionaries, but also the sense of urgency they feel as they see world event change and the cracks of opportunity open up. "We don't have five years, we don't have several months, the time is now!" John Brady passionately told the trustees yesterday. "If Baptist people will give us the opportunity now to reach the Arab world, our people on the ground will shed their blood if necessary to get it done!"

He pauses for a moment to gather himself before continuing, "I've buried seven missionaries in this land the past few years and I don't want to cheapen their sacrifice by not giving it my best."

East Meets West

2011-02-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

This past week Teri and I have been traveling with IMB trustees to visit missionary teams at work on the field. With the reorganization of the International Mission Board from a regional emphasis to "people group clusters", the North Africa Middle East (NAME) target became a world wide objective. Some of the highest concentrations of this cluster are found in Europe. So on this trip the trustees who are responsible for this group `are going not only to the areas of the MIddle East that one would expect, but also to areas around Europe where the biggest concentrations of MIddle Eastern immigrants exist.

So the first stop was Paris France.

There has been much discussion in Europe about the affects of a growing population of North Africans, East Asians and Middle Easterners that are greatly outpacing the population growth of traditional European societies. "Southern blacks would sing 'We Shall Overcome!" for civil rights, but this group sings, 'We Shall Overwhelm!' my friend John Brady, the regional leader for NAME jokingly tells me. There are many sociologists here in Europe who believe that if the current trend plays out to it's natural conclusion, the Muslim population in Europe could be the majority within 20 years. The ferries that carry North African immigrants into European ports in southern France have been given names commemorating famous Muslims like Tariq Ibn Ziyad, the Muslim invader of Europe in the 7th century. A not so subtle reminder to all of Europe that a population bomb is on it's way.

The strategy for our missionaries is cut and dry. In muslim dominated Middle Eastern countries, it is very difficult to plant churches and to formally evangelize; but in European countries there are no laws prohibiting it. So our teams are actively targeting these clusters with the gospel knowing that many of them will be moving back into their home countries. Our prayer is that the affect of this will be the gospel spreading in reverse as immigrant families go back into their homelands.

On our first day here we heard from several team leaders who had gathered from countries throughout Europe and the Middle East to meet us. They briefed us on the dynamic situation playing out in countries like Ethiopia, Yemin, Samaria, Oman, Egypt, Israel, France and Spain. It is clear that there is a movement of the Spirit taking place all across this part of the world.

I am continually amazed at the boldness of our friends in this part of the world. They took us to the largest, most active and notorious Mosque in France. Worshippers here routinely block off the streets of Paris during their Friday prayers. Walking toward the mosque, one gets the distinct feeling of being not in Paris France, the one time seat of Medieval Christianity, but of walking down a normal street in Tunis, Amman or Damascus. Gradually the sights, sounds, smells and language changes from distinctively French to traditional Arab or North African. Increasingly we stand out as Westerners. And yet we are not in the Middle East or North Africa, instead we are within the shadow of one of the most enduring symbols of Western culture, the Eiffel Tower.

A few days ago some of our friends began a conversation with some of the members of the Mosque. The conversation got especially heated when the Imam came out and entered the dialogue. The long bearded man commanded a lot of respect in the community and his arrival drew a lot of attention. A large crowd gathered and our friends asked the Imam, an expert in the Koran, "Isn't it true the Koran teaches that Jesus was the Christ?"

"Yes, of course", was his response.

"And does it not teach that Mary conceived Him as a virgin?"

"Yes", was his response, admitting to the passage in Surah 3 and growing increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation.

"And yet you say that Jesus was not the Son of God. Then who was His Father?"

The Imam mumbled something about them not understanding the Arabic of the Koran and waved them off and left.

As they were leaving one of the men standing nearby grabbed the arm of one of our friends and said, "I know who you are."

"Who is that?" My friend asked?

"You are the Christians."

"Yes, that's right." Was the response.

"Do you know what Jesus is going to do to you when he comes back?" He asked.

"What's that?"

"He is going to kill you."

Their brief encounter at the mosque was a reminder to them that this work here is more than just proclaiming the teachings of Jesus in the scripture. It also involves a great deal of unpacking the complex and twisted distortions that are taught about Jesus in the Koran.

So the proclamation of the gospel around the world begins with meeting people where they are. That is just as true of where they are spiritually as it is where they are physically. Our friends here are committed to engaging this largely unreached people group in both places, whatever the cost.

God in the Furnace

2011-02-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

The book of Daniel is one of the those books in the Old Testament that is rich with dramatic images and story lines. Some of our favorite lessons for preschoolers and grade-schoolers comes out of these visuals. From this one book we get giant statues, fiery furnaces, hands writing on walls and lions dens. These are images that are imprinted indelibly on the hearts and minds of any kid whose grown up going to Sunday School.

But more than just great kids stories- the book of Daniel provides post modern believers with enduring principles to live by.

For instance, this week we are focused on the story of the three sons of Israel who were thrown into the fiery furnace for not bowing to Nebuchadnezzars statue. Here are some principles I see that are helpful to twenty first century believers:

1. To have biblical faith means to be uncompromising in what we know to be true in a way that demonstrates love and respect. I think a remarkable side issue to the Daniel 3 story is the quiet steadfast faith of the three sons of Israel. They were set up, accused and brought before Nebuchadnezzar and threatened with a terrifying sentence, and yet through it all they showed poise and respect without ever backing down from their core belief. When the Bible says to be prepared to defend your faith with gentleness and respect we should understand that those are not two disconnected ideas. The reason a person is gentle and respectful while talking about what they believe is precisely because they are confident in that belief and can talk about it intelligently and logically.

The word "intelligence" in fact comes from two root words, "inter" which means "between" and "legere" which means "choose". The intelligent person is one who knows both sides of an argument and makes an informed choice. Christian discernment is the result of thinking through beliefs and giving all sides of an argument equal footing before coming to a conclusion. The Christian operates under the assumption that all truth is God's truth and therefore seeking truth is God's work. The three sons of Israel showed this kind of discernment when they faced the king when they gave their explanation for their position:

¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

Their answer shows a solid theology. It demonstrates that they grasp both the goodness and greatness of God. God CAN deliver them if He chooses. But for reasons they may not yet know, God might not choose to deliver them. But regardless of what might happen they trust the character and sovereignty of God and can therefore confidently embrace their future.

2. A second principle here is that to have biblical faith means we know that even tragedy has a purpose. The world we live in is sometimes very painful and often horribly unjust. As a pastor for over 25 years I have seen and experienced great tragedy with people. Sometimes bad things happen to very good people. Life is often very difficult and unfair.

What are we to make of the problem of pain and suffering in our world? There is only one answer that makes any sense to me. I am convinced that it is only in Christianity that one finds purpose in suffering and that is because the central theme of Christianity is that the most tragic event of human history was also the greatest event of human history.

Jesus Christ was brutally and unjustly murdered as an atoning and redemptive sacrifice for our sins. My sin was so bad God had to die but God's love was so great He was willing to die. It is the one grand theme of scripture to which all other stories point. In the dramatic story in Daniel 3 the sons of Israel are thrown into the furnace and yet they are not overcome. The key to understanding the meaning of this story is that there is a fourth person in the furnace with them. Most scholars agree that this mysterious figure is the pre-incarnate second person of the trinity- it is Jesus Christ Himself. What an incredibly poignant foreshadowing picture this is for us.

The story points us to THE story. It says to us that He is in every furnace and that He is walking with us through all of life injustices. In Christianity we know that God is not just an uninterested creator- but instead He loves us with a God-like love that caused Him to get into the furnace with us. Suffering would make no sense without this knowledge. To paraphrase Romans 5:8:

"God demonstrated His love for us in this, while we were still sinners, God got into the furnace with us and paid the price for us."

That is the overarching principle that drives our lives and the one overwhelming truth that overcomes all other truth.

Relevant Daniel

2011-02-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

This coming Sunday we will begin a new series for the next four weeks on the book of Daniel. The thing that makes this book interesting to me and I think exceptionally relevant to modern Christians is that Daniel is "exilic" literature. Meaning it was written during the time of the Israelites exile into Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem. Daniel and many others were forcefully relocated to a foreign land and were taught a new way of life and forced to adopt a different standard of values and livelihood. It is an account of God's people struggling with their biblical faith in a place that was antagonistic to that faith. It is in many ways a parallel to 21st century America.

Last week I had a conversation with one of our college students who told me the story of a professor at OU who opened class a few weeks ago with this question, "Are any of you in this classroom Christians?"

She was the only one who raised her hand.

He then looked at her and made a sarcastic remark about the narrowness of Christianity and told her she would certainly be insulted by what she saw and heard in his class. Besides thinking what a jerk this guy was, I couldn't help but think of the irony of a professor demonstrating subtle if not coercive bigotry and narrowness to one singled out student while accosting her for having a "narrow" religion.

I know this is nothing new. A university professor bashing Christianity and Christian conservatives is as common in our society as Oklahoma wind. What surprised me and also amazed her was that she was the only one who raised her hand. Do you think her account of her first day of class at OU was an anomaly? I don't think so. My sense is that this kind of pressure on traditional Christianity is increasing.

In a recent article in Christianity Today, Drew Dyck made the following observations about twenty somethings who are walking away from their faith:

Recent studies have brought the trend to light. Among the findings released in 2009 from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), one stood out. The percentage of Americans claiming "no religion" almost doubled in about two decades, climbing from 8.1 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008. The trend wasn't confined to one region. Those marking "no religion," called the "Nones," made up the only group to have grown in every state, from the secular Northeast to the conservative Bible Belt. The Nones were most numerous among the young: a whopping 22 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds claimed no religion, up from 11 percent in 1990. The study also found that 73 percent of Nones came from religious homes; 66 percent were described by the study as "de-converts." (The Leavers: Young Doubters Leave The Church, Christianity Today 11-19-2010)

This is what makes the book of Daniel as relevant to us today as it was to adherents of biblical faith in the fifth century B.C. Although none of us will likely ever face anything like Babylonian religious cleansing, a culture that increasingly sees itself as post-Christian brings new challenges to the modern believer. Here are some of the major themes I will hit on in the coming weeks:

1. We need to get out of the salt shaker and into the world. It is clear from scripture that as Christians we are to engage culture, not separate from it. God instructed the Israelites to move into Babylon and to become a blessing to the city. We are to redeem culture and influence it for the good- not isolate and insulate ourselves from it's influence. Jesus said we are to be "salt and light". Salt is a preservative and light penetrates darkness. He prayed that His disicples would be "in the world but not of the world". That's the principle we live by as Christians.

2. It is important to know our faith. When your worldview is being constantly challenged, it is extremely important to know not just WHAT you believe, but WHY you believe it. If you only know what you believe but not why you believe it, then when your faith is challenged you will tend to feel frustrated and overwhelmed by doubt. The Bible says we are to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks the reason for the hope you have, but do so with gentleness and respect." (1 Peter 3:15). The only way to do this is to eagerly learn and get equipped. It's a theme we hit on constantly, it is extremely important in a world that is increasingly skeptical of biblical faith that we have a strong epistemology.

3. Remember God has a reason even for our exile. Never forget that God is in control. It is apparant from the exilic literature that it was Gods' design that the people of Israel go into exile. This can only mean that God saw an eternal purpose in their faith being severely challenged in this way. I think there is a lot to learn from this truth. There have been many times in my life that my faith has been challenged and I felt somewhat overwhelmed by questioning and skepticism. But I wouldn't trade any of it for what I have learned through the process of questioning. Good questions have always caused me to dig deeper for answers.

I remember at one season of my life I had a long conversation with my father about the struggle I was having with people who were challenging my perspective of truth. He said to me, "Never forget Rick that all truth is God's truth. When the dust settles on all your questioning, the truth will stand on it's own."

Those words were so helpful to me as a college student. God knows what He's doing. We should never forget that God has a purpose for all of our struggle. Even when it looks as if we are facing overwhelming odds, God plus one always equals a huge majority and His truth prevails through all of life's fiery furnaces and lions dens.

Loving Each Other With Our Real Selves

2011-01-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

I'm excited about a new year and some of the things God has been teaching me. A new year always brings in a sense of starting over and beginning new habits and dreaming new dreams. As a church I think we have some great opportunities in the new year to do all of that.

I really love where we are as a church right now. It's great to be debt free and to be unencumbered financially for the first time in a long time- especially in the tough economic times we are in. Our missions offering this year has also greatly exceeded our expectations! I believe with all my heart we are postured to accomplish some incredible things for His glory in the days ahead. We will be stepping up our ministries to the poor and marginalized in our community this year and gearing up for more intentional missions objectives overseas as well. I sense real enthusiasm in all levels of our various ministries right now. Our budget giving fell a little short in the last couple of weeks of the year so we need to transfer the excitement we felt toward paying off the CUBE into giving toward our budget- which is the primary ministry resource for all of our ministry objectives.

Last Sunday I taught the first in a series of sermons about our mission as a church and focused on our calling into covenant community. Though we couldn't have anticipated it, I thought it was a striking and somewhat providential topic given the tragic news from this week.

We were all shocked by the horrible murders and attempted assassination of U.S. Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. The man who attempted her assassination is said to be disturbed and emotionally unstable by friends and classmates who know him. The one characteristic that stood out to me in the many offered about Jared Loughner was that he was "increasingly isolated". it is a description we hear a lot for someone who is suffering from mental illness. In fact most of what we characterize as mental illness begins with isolation and aloneness. In truth isolation is extremely destabilizing to the human condition.

"It is not good for man to be alone" God said in the creation account in Genesis. It is a reminder to all of us that God has designed us for life together. We were created for relationship and when we live in aloneness we become less of what God has created us to be.

In one of the first articles that came out about the Loughner family a neighbor who lived across the street from them said he didn't know the last name of the family until the news story broke out. They had been neighbors for 17 years and yet he didn't really know them. I couldn't help but think of how an internet driven society often depersonalizes relationships. Many people in our culture are living shockingly isolated lives within close proximity of other people. Have you noticed that people seem to be more into virtual relationships today than they are real relationships?

And yet virtual relationships are not contemplated in scripture.

One of the central tenants of our theology is that God came to us. The essential point of the incarnation is that God came to us in the flesh. God came to man and looked him in the eye and touched him and felt what man felt and saw life from man's perspective. He took on human flesh so that He could relate to us in this way. The implications are many but one of the most important for moderns like us who are challenged by the values of a media culture is that we are called to each other in physical presence as well.

One of our lead pastors tells a story about his daughter that makes this point. He came home from a long day at work and plopped in his favorite chair and stuck his head into a newspaper as if to hide from the world around him. She danced around the living room in front of him imploring him to look at her new dress and dance moves. He mumbled his approval from behind his newspaper- not paying much attention.

Finally she crawled in his lap. He saw her little fingers grab the top of the paper and then pulling it down in front of him she stuck her little face into his and said, "Daddy, I want you to listen to me with your face."

I think that's an awesome picture of the kind of community we need to value in an increasingly virtual world. We need to listen to each other with our real faces and love each other with our real hearts.

The Incarnation is not Moderately Important

2010-12-09T05:33:00.000-08:00

In these weeks of Christmas we are studying together the doctrine of incarnation and it's implications on how we live and how we see life. I can't emphasize strongly enough how important it is for us to nail this. It is important for us to have it clearly in our hearts and as parents to get this right with our kids. In the face of so much cultural pressure to secularize the holiday, it is left to us, the church and parents, to bring to bear the most important elements of the season. We could look at it as some do as a big negative and rail about the "santaizing" of Jesus' birth. But I choose to see it as a positive and a fantastic opportunity. But we have to get it right.

So for the Sundays of advent we will be all over this doctrine. This coming Sunday I will deal with the aspect of the incarnation that has to do with the assault of Jesus on a world that finds it hard to receive Him. Jesus birth was surrounded in controversy and trouble. I think this is emblematic of how Christianity comes into the world. C.S. Lewis has said that the one thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important. People did not have a casual view of Jesus. They either ran from Him, wanted to kill Him or bowed down before Him. People who truly knew who He was did not think of Him in a casual way. This was true of His birth and it is just as true of those who honestly analyze their views of Him. In other words, the fact of His incarnation will inevitably evoke a passionate response. People who think of this doctrine in a casual, cavalier way just flat out don't get it.

The word "incarnation" means "embodied in the flesh". It is the teaching that Jesus is the embodiment of God Himself. This is one of the most controversial, hardest to swallow teachings in the Christian faith. It is also one of the most crucial to embrace. It is why the most important image our children should get at Christmas is not Rudolf or Santa but that the tiny baby in the manger is God Himself. God in the flesh.

I remember years ago a lively discussion I had with an Imam in a Middle Eastern village over this very issue. For him this was the most important stumbling block for Christianity- the belief that God Himself could become a man. I asked him the question, "Do you believe God can do anything? That God is all powerful and nothing is beyond His ability?" Of course his answer was yes. I said "That's exactly what we Christians believe and therefore we believe that not only could God do this, but that it is the most important truth of our existence and the central fact of scripture."

I was struck not just by his disagreement with this but how he was insulted by it. It was another reminder to me that when we truly embrace the doctrines, they are not just subtle truths we live with as we go on our merry way, they are truths that evoke controversy and resistance and inevitably radically impact the meaning of our lives. They are not moderately important- they are of ultimate importance!

The One Whom Jesus Loves

2010-11-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

This morning in my quiet time I was reading the familiar passage in John 13 in which Jesus reveals to his disciples at the Last Supper that one of them will betray Him. I've read the passage thousands of times but today these words affected me like never before,

"... one of them, the one whom Jesus loved..."

Of course this was the way John identified himself in the story without actually saying his own name. But what struck me today as I meditated on this passage was that John's habit of identifying himself this way was more than just literary subtlety, it also displays a kind of profound spiritual discipline. One of the most important lessons of the gospel is that Christ's love for us profoundly changes the way we live and even the way we see ourselves. So John's identifier was much more than literary style, it was a kind of self awareness that all of us as Christ followers should possess. Having embraced the gospel, we should all write ourselves into the story as "the one whom Jesus loved".

When I look into my own heart I can see that the biggest issues I struggle with are the result of not seeing and understanding His love properly. When I embrace the reality of His grace I no longer have to prove myself. When I see His love in this way all of my worry and despair becomes unreasonable. It is the awareness of His love that answers all my insecurities. When I see that the God of the universe was willing to die for me I am made aware of my worth in ways that affect me profoundly. He is the treasure I look for in all other treasure. He is the joy I seek in all other joys. He is the love the heart longs for in all other loves. So when I am able to see myself in the story as "the one whom Jesus loves" it doesn't matter what else is written in the script- whether it be suffering, sadness, frustration or betrayal- because ultimately I know I am loved with an eternal love. I am the one whom Jesus loves.

Called Out

2010-11-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

This week I've been at our IMB meeting in Greensboro NC and wanted to share some thoughts I've had in reflecting on the call to missions:

1. We say it so much it's become a cliche- but we are all called. The longer I'm a Christian the more I'm convinced the call of God goes out to all of us- and the closer we are to the heart of God the more we are impacted by that incessant, persistent infinitely important call. In my 5 years on the IMB board I've heard hundreds of testimonies from young men and women who have responded to the call to missions. What they all have in common it seems to me is that the bigger God became to their hearts, the more they believe Him for big things. God's call is on all of us, and the closer we get to His purposes, the more we feel the weight of that call, no matter where it might lead.

2. To be at the center of His will is not necessarily the safest place to be. I hear people say it all the time- "the safest place you can be is at the center of His will." Where does one find that in scripture? Was that true of Moses? Of Abraham? Of David? Of Peter? Of Paul? Of Steven? Of Jesus? God hasn't called us to live safe lives, He has called us to live obedient lives. Sometimes to obey Him is to go to places and serve in ways that are way outside our comfort zones. When our trustees at the IMB meet with our new missionaries before they are sent out on the field, we ask them how we can pray. Inevitably some of the biggest prayer needs revolve around parents and family members who are struggling with their decision to go on the field. It isn't just the fact that so many of these young families are going out of the country away from families and friends, it is more often where they are going and the fact that they are in many cases living in places that are breathtakingly unstable and even dangerous.

3. In my experience the people who are fully engaged with the call of God on their lives are the most joyful and fulfilled in spite of whatever perceived hardship they experience along the way. I'm not saying there are no unhappy missionaries- as there are many who are miserable. I am not saying that God's work is always happy work and God's servants are always happy people. I'm saying that in my years of experience in ministry I have noticed that the people who give their lives away are the happiest people I know. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying all Christians are living the dream. Admittedly there are many pretenders who are miserable. There are many people who are living unsustainably incongruent and unhappy lives within the Christian orbit. But the people I know who are truly committed to His will and are letting go of their idols and are focused on His grace and goodness are on the whole much happier people. It is not that they don't suffer or are not living in hardship- but I agree with John Piper who says that the missionary is the ultimate Christian hedonist. There are many more happy givers than there are happy getters.

4. The call is manifested differently on people's lives. To some it means they will give their lives to go to a place where the gospel has not yet penetrated. Yesterday I met a guy in his 20s who has spent the past few years on the mission field in South America. He asked the board to reassign him some place else because he thought there were already too many Christians where he was serving. He wanted to go some place where there was more darkness. So the board is sending him to a place that is beyond the ends of the earth. He is going to a place where once you get to the ends of the earth you have to keep going! He sees his call as hard core trail blazing kingdom building. There are many who are called to that kind of Kingdom work. But others are called to serve where they are in compelling ways for the gospel. Like the business guy in our church who has a vision for sending people into the field with the profits from his business. Like the CEO in our church whose company has a vision for distributing Bibles around the world. Like the couple in our church that is starting a ministry to troubled teens. Like the retired school principle in our church who has started a homeless ministry. They are all called. The calling looks different for each of us but the closer we get to the heart of God the more we are compelled to do big things for His glory!

The Breath of God

2010-10-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday in both of our worship services archaeologist Scott Carroll gave us a glimpse of some of the most significant artifacts found within in the Green Collection, arguably the largest private collection of biblical artifacts in the world.

What an incredible blessing to be able to see up close and personal such significant biblical history. Not many people in the world will ever have an opportunity to come face to face with seven thousand years of history including one of the oldest biblical manuscripts as we had last Sunday. What a gift the Green Collection is to the Christian community. I am praying that God will bless the efforts of Scott Carroll and Steve Green beyond measure as they move forward with their plans to make these artifacts available in a biblical museum some day.

While I was listening to Scott's exposition of 2 Timothy and his explanation of the words "God breathed" I remembered a story I heard recently at one of our IMB board meetings.

In many Muslim dominated countries in North Africa it is against the law to give someone a Bible. But there is a crossing from Europe into North Africa in the south of Spain that provides a great opportunity for Christians to get the Word of God into these countries legally. There is a narrow passage in the straight of Gibraltar in which ferries operate all day long taking cars from Europe across a twelve mile stretch into Morocco. It is at these docking stations that thousands of Christians have gathered over the past few years to walk from car to car handing out New Testaments to people who are waiting in their cars to get onto the ferries to cross over into Muslim dominated North Africa. It may be illegal to distribute Bibles in Morocco, but it is perfectly legal in Spain.

The story my missionary friend told me was of a young man who accepted one of those New Testaments as he was waiting for a ferry in Gibraltar Spain. His car was packed full of European goods to bring back to his large family in a small village in Algiers. What he did not know was that back home in that village one of his young cousins had been praying that God would show her the truth. A few nights earlier she had a dream in which God said to her that one day soon He would reveal Himself to her and she would finally know the truth about God.

She had the same dream every night until the day her older cousin arrived in her village with his car packed full of European goodies.

When he came into the village honking his horn the entire family excitedly ran to the car and helped him unpack. Every bit of space inside and outside and on top of the car was packed full of things he had purchased. It took the family a long time to unload his car.

When all the unpacking was finally done and all the gifts distributed, the young man reached into his car and pulled out the Bible he had been given at the border and said, "Oh yeah, and there's this that some fanatic at the border gave to me!" He took the Bible and threw it over his head as far as he could as if to throw away a piece of trash.

The package flew like a missile hundreds of feet behind the car bounced a few times and literally landed in the lap of his young cousin who was sitting in front of her house minding her own business. The girl was amazed that the book had just miraculously landed in her lap. And to think that this was a book about the revelation of God! The girl knew in an instant that this was the answer to her prayers and fulfillment of her dreams. The New Testament was written in her native Arabic language and easy to understand. She carried it into her house, went into her room by herself and began reading. Several weeks later that girl came to Christ and is today one of the key leaders within the underground house church movement in Algiers.

What we all saw at the front of our church last Sunday was a physical demonstration of the miracle of how God's word has been passed down through the generations. What we also need to all understand is that the miracle is not just in the formation of the Bible, but also in what happens every time someone reads it.

It is the very breath of God!

This Is What Biblical Community Looks Like

2010-09-23T12:57:00.001-07:00

Occasionally I receive an email that I think our entire church family should read. Last week I got one of those emails from a member who reflected on her experience of biblical community. When I finished reading it, I thought to myself, "that's what it's suppose to look like!" It is stories like this one that make the point for me how incredibly important it is for all of us to be in life with each other- in the kind of fellowship and biblical community Christ calls us into. The New Testament uses the words "one another" about 52 different times- one for each week of the year! That's a subtle reminder to all of us that we should continually make the effort to develop friendships within the context of church community:

As you taught about biblical community last Sunday it brought to mind how blessed my husband and I have been since moving to Oklahoma and attending Council Road. Last year I had to undergo a rigid chemo treatment for the Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma that the doctors had discovered right after moving to OK in Dec.,2006. For my treatments I had to be in the hospital for about 5 days at a time. And because my immune system was so weak I hardly ventured away from home between hospital stays.

After four times in the hospital I went into remission due to much prayer because my oncologist thought it would take six times ! At this point in the treatment my oncologist sent me to OU Medical Center for another round of intense chemo followed by a stem cell transplant. This consisted of a 3 week hospital stay.

During these months our connection class and our small study group were incredible. They stayed in constant prayer for me. They visited me in the hospital and at home. They brought food when a son & daughter in law came so we wouldn't have to bother with fixing food. They mowed our lawn---because in the middle of my treatments my husband had to have a hip replacement. They sent many cards of encouragement, and they called.

One night they rushed me to ICU because I was throwing up blood. Unbeknownst to me a group of ten showed up, went into a room and started praying. The bleeding stopped!

When the doctors could not find out where or what caused the bleeding we told the oncologist about our friends & family praying and that he had just witnessed a miracle.

Health issues were not the reason we felt God was moving us to Oklahoma in 2006 but we have not only been surprised by the quality of medical care available here but most of all the support we have received from our connection class and small group. And we are continuing to keep them on their knees as my husband is now going through treatment for cancer. I can not even put into words how blessed we feel because of the love and care these groups have shown us.

Who Is My Neighbor?

2010-08-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered: " '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.

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (Matthew 10:25-28)

I"ve been thinking lately about how easy it is for us to go about our lives without really paying much attention to the substantive needs around us. Jesus famously told the story of the Good Samaritan to press this point. We all like to think of ourselves as good Samaritans, but occasionally may be shocked to see that we are as guilty as the Levite who callously walked past.

That happened to me recently.

Last week News 9 did a story about hunger at Putnam City West High School. Not just about poverty or declining enrollment or diminishing parent participation, but HUNGER.

P.C. West is my alma mater. It is a school in the shadow of our church. It is the school that many of our students attend and many of our church members either attended, had children who attended or are currently teaching or coaching there. Many of us would say that PC West is OUR school.

And according to the News 9 report, there are young people who come to class and go to after school activities every day who have gone without food and are seriously malnourished. The problem is so bad that several players on the football team suffered broken bones last year not because of hard hitting, but because their under nourished bodies couldn't take the contact.

How could I have walked past this?

It's hard for me to describe the emotion I've felt since watching this news report. It is somewhere between sadness and shame and then finally determination. I am sad that this kind of thing is happening in our community. I am ashamed it is so close to us and I've not paid enough attention. I am determined that we do something about it.

Apparently many of you feel the same way. Since the report aired hundreds of people from around the community have responded. Many of our church members have been networking and calling and working together. Alumni have formed facebook groups and have organized and are beginning to mobilize. Connection Classes are responding.

We have church members who are already heavily involved, like Coach John and Tammy Jensen and Corey Tennell who were highlighted in the news story. There is also our Bridge Ministry leadership including Corey, Amy Milner, Chris Allen and Beth Dempsey and our High School and Middle School pastors Michael Butler and Micah White. We have people in place who can make a difference and who are making a difference. The challenge for us is to determine what can be done and how it can be done most effectively. We are working as a staff to find solutions (some examples here). We are asking the administration at West what we can do to help. We will bring many of those answers to the congregation in the weeks ahead. Our intention is to work toward long term solutions, not just the quick fixes we may be tempted to gravitate toward when our emotions are running high.

But the first step for all of us is to see the situation in our community in the way Christ sees it and the way the Bible teaches. When Jesus used the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the meaning of "our neighbor", He raised the bar on the conventional understanding of community responsibility. He was saying in affect, "the desperate needs of the least of these in the community are the responsibility of everyone who is a part of me." (Matthew 25:40)

In his book Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning told a compelling story about the famous former mayor of New York City Forello La Guardia that I think illustrates this point in an unforgettable way. La Guardia is a legendary giant of New York City history who is now memorialized by the international airport. Back during the depression La Guardia would barge into municipal courts and take the gavel from the presiding judge and hold court in order to make examples of petty criminals. It was his way of keeping the order and sending a message during the desperate, dark days of the depression.

He was such a force of personality that simple courtroom rulings would often turn into front page news. According to Manning, on a cold night in 1935 a grandmother was brought before La Guardias makeshift court in one of New York City's poorest districts. She was charged with stealing bread. The desperate elderly woman pled with Mayor La Guardia that she had no other way of feeding her grandchildren than to steal the bread. The grocery store owner was not willing to drop the charges, explaining to the Mayor that it was a very rough neighborhood and he couldn't afford to back down.

La Guardia looked at the woman and said, "I have no other choice, the law must be upheld, ten dollars or ten days in jail." But even as he was saying it he reached into his pocket and extracted a ten dollar bill and threw it in his famous black derby hat and then called out to the courtroom, "Here is the ten dollar fine I now remit; and furthermore I fine everyone in this courtroom 10 cents for living in a city where a woman has to steal bread in order to feed her grandchildren!"

We should not forget that the pertinent question answered by the parable of The Good Samaritan is "Who is my neighbor?' It was as if Jesus were saying, "Your neighbor is that person in need. The one over there on the side of the road you have been ignoring. The one you wish you hadn't seen. The one you have chosen not to look at- the one who desperately needs your attention! Yes, that one, the one who is going hungry- that is your neighbor. And loving him is what I mean by loving your neighbor as you love yourself."

In many ways I think this News 9 report was for us church family. It was God's way of saying to us, "Look over there, on the other side of the road, look at your neighbor."

A Defining Moment

2010-07-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

My heart attack came on me suddenly and without warning. I had no symptoms leading up to it. Teri and I exercise together faithfully and I eat well, so not only did I not have physical warning signs, I was psychologically unprepared. "I'm way too young and too healthy", I could easily rationalize.

But when the attack came, it was manifested in all the classic signs. I had a severe pain in my chest that shot up my left arm. My neck and jaws hurt and I had shortness of breath. The most difficult of all the symptoms to deal with was an overwhelming sense of anxiety. It is amazing how the body will tell you you are in trouble. My body was screaming at me. Emotionally I was in a kind of denial. "It can't be happening", I told myself. "Surely this isn't what I think it is!" But my body was telling me with emphatic clarity what I did not want to believe to be true.

It turns out the left ventricle to my heart, the artery they call "the widow maker", was completely blocked. My cardiologist told me later that likely I had a small blockage that broke free and caused the total blockage.

I was outside working in the yard when it happened. I made my way to the house, told Teri I was not feeling well and took a cold shower. The shower revived me somewhat but the symptoms quickly returned. "We've got to go to the hospital", I told Teri.

After a quick conversation with our doctor friend, Matt Britt, who told us to get to the heart hospital as quickly as possible, we jumped in the car and Teri wasted no time getting me to the emergency room (our apologies to anyone we might have offended in that 7 minute flight).

I can't say enough about the professionalism of the nurses, doctors and specialists at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital. Within mere minutes I was in a cath lab and they performed a balloon procedure utilizing a stent that liberated my stressed heart. I have no doubt their quick work saved my life.

A friend asked me this week how my heart attack has changed me? Of course only time will tell, but already I can see a perspective I only had in part before but now I have in full. I would summarize them like this:

1. I notice I don't worry as much about the small stuff. If it's not worth carrying into eternity, why should it matter? This is a truth that has been an important biblical concept to me that has taken on new meaning post heart attack.

2. The big stuff seems to matter more. I now see that every second I have with family and friends is a precious gift. My wife's smile has never been so important to me. My daughters silly jokes are more funny. Every conversation with my son takes on new importance. I find myself wanting to squeeze every ounce of life from each second I have with the people I love. I have noticed that I notice more. I notice how much my friends mean to me. I notice how much my church means to me and what incredible love exists in the fellowship of God's people. I notice the things I used to take for granted- things like children's laughter, a beautiful sunrise or a worship song that strikes a chord. Life seems more full and has greater clarity.

3. I feel a greater sense of purpose for what God put me on this planet to accomplish. My calling to proclaim and live the gospel has never been more important to me. I have had so many people pray for me the past few weeks that I truly believe that whatever good might come from my life from this day forward- however many people may come to know Christ because of my ministry- will be the direct result of those prayers. I have heard the expression "God isn't finished with me yet" thousands of times in my life. It is more than just a cliche for me now.

More than at any time in my life I am excited to be on the journey we are on together. Because of what God has brought me through in that defining moment three weeks ago, I am more determined than ever to see it through with purpose and joy.

The Learning Community

2010-06-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

This past Monday I spent the day interviewing various church members about the lessons God has taught them through the years on various subjects. The result of these interviews will be several videos we are having produced to show at various times throughout our Words of Wisdom series through the book of Proverbs.

Listening to their amazing stories and the accumulated wisdom of their many years of walking with Christ reinforced my conviction that one of the most compelling reasons for our regular gathering is that when we come together we draw from a deep well of experience, knowledge and wisdom that exists within the church family. We regularly gather because that's what the Bible instructs us to do. But more than that we gather because we are strengthened by one another and because we learn from one another.

I have my own experience to draw from her. In a very real sense, I was not only raised in the church, but was raised BY the church. By that I mean the relationships I developed by attending church with my family reinforced the biblical principles I was taught in the home. Not only did I learn the Bible didactically within the church but also experientially by the way people lived around me.

This is what we mean when we say biblical community is an important discipline of the faith. The community of grace is an environment of dynamic learning from cradle to grave.

But you cannot be passive in the process, you have to dedicate yourself to involvement. The growth process is enhanced as we go to church habitually, and when we serve and actively pursue relationships with other believers. One of the great benefits of being a part of a large body of believers is the eclectic variety of influences and accumulated wisdom around you and your family.

I believe this is one of the most important reasons that Jesus gave us the church and that God called us into faith community. To further reinforce this point, take just a minute to watch this slice of the interview John Ortberg did with Christian scholar, philosopher and head of the University of Southern California School of Philosophy Dallas Willard recently at Menlo Park Church in San Francisco California:

John Ortberg and Dallas Willard from MPPC on Vimeo.

How To Forgive An Umpire

2010-06-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Umpire Jim Joyce blew the call. It was made painfully obvious with each replay on Detroit's Comerica Park's Jumbo Tron. It was one of those moments umpires would give anything to get back- like a scene from the Southwest Airlines commercial, "Wanna get away?"

Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga had been nursing a perfect game against divisional rival Cleveland and this was his last pitch.

The crowd was practically apoplectic in anticipation of only the 21st such game in Major League Baseballs illustrious history. They were on their feet cheering wildly as Jason Donald hit a weak grounder between first and second and the routine play was easily made to first base. Donald was out by a full step and everyone knew it. Everyone that is except umpire Jim Joyce who emphatically and enthusiastically made the wrong call.

One second he was just another major league umpire, the next he is eternally and notoriously enshrined in baseball trivia.

He didn't know it for certain until after the game when he watched the play on a monitor in his dressing room. He was so upset by what he saw that he couldn't shower. He felt sick at his stomach. And in a rare admission for a big league umpire he made his way to the Detroit locker room and asked Tiger's manager Dave Dombrowski if he could apologize to Galarraga.

He gave the pitcher a hug and told him he wished he had it back. "He felt really bad" Galarraga said.

Every now and then something emerges in popular culture that serves as a striking example of a deep truth of biblical teaching. One such example occurred the next afternoon when the two teams faced each other again and umpire Joyce was at the plate.

Dombrowski sent Galaraga out to sign the lineup card and to shake Joyce's hand to begin the game. With cameras rolling the two men met, and in a terrific display of maturity and grace Galaraga patted the shamed umpire on the shoulder as a way of saying "all is forgiven." Dombrowski wiped tears from his eyes in accepting the remarkable gesture of forgiveness.

Galarraga may never get another chance to throw a perfect game. But what he did on that home plate the day after the blown call that robbed him of it will go down as something almost as perfect and noteworthy. In a culture where hating umpires is a religious rite and blaming others for every little thing that goes wrong is an art form, what the world saw at home plate stood as a shining example of civility and class.

Would to God that little league parents across America were paying attention.

It reminded me of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 about the inevitable injustices we all face from time to time:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."

The Bible teaches that as Christians we are to be good forgivers because we are all partakers of the ultimate forgiveness that God offers through His atoning work on the cross:

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Col. 3:13

As Christians we are set free from our anger and bitterness by a lifestyle of forgiveness. In other words, because of what Jesus did, we can all "shake it off" and move on. We live with these two realities:

Unfair things will happen. The wrong calls will be made and injustice will adversely affect our hard work. The world is fallen and as a result rain falls on those who deserve it and on those who don't. Until Christ comes to make things right, life will always be unfair.
When we bear a grudge we destroy ourselves. The Bible says "Be angry and sin not." Anger about injustice is normal, but to live in perpetual anger is sinful and destructive.

So the forgiveness prominently displayed at Comerica stadium last week is a shining example of this important biblical principle- that we are not just to occasionally and begrudgingly forgive, but that we are to live our lives in a perpetual state of forgiving. I know it seems hard to pull off in an unjust world with blown calls and blind umpires. But when we consider how truly undeserving we are of His grace, how could we live any other way?

Hats off to Jim Joyce for being man enough to admit he blew it. And hats off to Galarraga for giving us a great picture of how a real man forgives.

What To Make of Lost

2010-05-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Last nights last episode of "Lost", one of the most popular television shows in the U.S. and around the world, has provoked some substantive questions about the ultimate meaning of life. When people are asking these kinds ofl questions, I think it's good to have some answers.

Maybe your not a fan of Lost and therefore have nothing really to contribute to the discussion. But for those of you who, like me, have been following this series from the beginning, I want to pitch in a few of my thoughts.

The show ended with all the main characters gathered in a church building that was adorned with stained glass windows reflecting all the major world religions. In this climactic final scene, the viewers learn that all the people in the show are now actually dead and that the "parallel reality" they had been in was in fact a kind of purgatory in which they hung in an immortal suspension while awaiting a form of redemption from their past lives. Upon entering the church building they are filled with joy, peace and contentment as they are lead by "Christian Shepherd" toward a bright light at the back of the church.

Intriguing stuff indeed. And really great fodder to invoke discussion about the meaning of eternity and man's need for redemption.

My take:

1. The show was not meant to answer theological questions- it was meant to entertain. In that regard I believe the script and production has been masterful. All good art form seeks to ask questions more than answer them, and so the writers of the show, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof are to be congratulated. It has been perhaps one of the most compelling storylines ever written for television.

2. With that said, it is obvious to me that Abrams and Lindelof are admirers of Buddhist Taoism and through their storytelling sought to converge Eastern and Western religious expressions . This is an increasingly mainstream philosophy.

The final episode reveals a lot to us about current American culture in my opinion. We must now admit that most people in America do not accept the Bible's teaching about the exclusivity of the gospel. Most Americans believe that there are many roads to heaven and that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Very few people today even in the Bible Belt have a comprehensive Biblical worldview. When that belief is occasionally expressed in popular culture, it is seen as narrow and intolerant.

For example, in a recent article in the Washington Post, Kathleen Parker criticized Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham and head of Samaritans Purse for his belief that Islam is a false and evil religion. Parker's point was that Graham's view is out of step with American culture, even some in Christian evangelical culture:

Graham isn’t alone in his views. A survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, conducted by an evangelical polling firm, found that 47 percent agree that Islam is “a very evil and a very wicked religion.” But such opinions may be confined mostly to an older generation. Evangelicals under 30 believe that there are many ways to God, not just through Jesus.

Kathleen Parker was making the point that it won't be long before the old fashioined belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven will die out. She then cites research by David Campbell of Notre Dame and Robert Putman of Harvard indicating that “nearly two-thirds of evangelicals under 35 believe non-Christians can go to heaven, vs. 39 percent of those over 65.”

As I was watching the final scene of Lost last night and saw all the different world religious expressions represented in the stained glass of the church, it occurred to me that far from being unorthodox, the stained glass actually represents the way most people in America view religious truth.

It dawned on me that we who hold to a Biblical perspective are on the outside looking in at this argument. So when people hear us say that our belief is that there is only one truth and there can't be more than one version of that truth (or any truth for that matter), we are the ones who sound unorthodox and unconventional.

3. I think it is important for Christians to be engaged with culture and to be willing to have the discussions. Instead of complaining about what we see in popular art forms, we need to have substantive conversations about what they mean to us. I believe one of the most important approaches we can take in conversations like this is to simply challenge people to think through what they believe.

My suspicion is that a lot of people watch a show like the final episode of Lost and think something like, "Yeah, that's what I believe..." but never really think through the implications of believing that all religions are basically the same. They're not. And they can't all be true at the same time. It would be logically impossible to believe that if you really thought through what each religion teaches.

All the religions cannot be true at the same time because every religion makes absolute truth claims that directly contradict the absolute truth claims of every other religion. Since two or more contradicting truth claims cannot all be true at the same time, reasonable people cannot say that they believe in the truth of all of them.

Lets take Buddhism in contrast to Christianity for instance.

There is no God in Buddhism. Christianity, however, presents a living, personal, holy and almighty God who created the world from nothingness.

In Buddhism, the world and human self are nothing but an illusion;   Contrast this with the Bible that teaches the physical reality of Jesus Christ, mankind and God’s creation.

There are many more contradictions such as the Christian teaching of sin, suffering and the reality of a physical heaven, all of which are directly contradicted in the teaching of Buddhism.

And these are just the contradictions between Buddhism and Christianity. There are many more contradictions between Christianity and every other religion and as Christians we have to point out that there can only be one truth.   To the complaint that Christianity is too narrow we say "All truth is narrow." Any person who makes a truth claim (such as Christianity is too narrow for instance) is being narrow in holding to that truth claim.

4. I think the biggest point to make to people is that Lost was enormously entertaining and that it provokes incredibly important questions. The most important of which is "how does a person find ultimate reality?"

The Bible teaches that we were all created by God for an ultimate purpose that can only be realized when we give up on our tendency to find our own way and live for ourselves and see that Jesus Christ did all the necessary redemptive work on the cross so that we could be brought in and accepted by His grace. If we follow our own natural inclination toward self idolatry, God will give us over to our choices resulting in eternal misery.

Every other religion teaches that salvation is up to the individual and has to be earned, therefore there is no guarantee or assurance of what eternity brings.

And that's an ending none of us would want or enjoy.

For His Glory

2010-05-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

Every now and then someone asks me what kinds of ministries we have in our church. Usually they want to know about the reach of our on-site ministries, the relevance and activeness of our youth ministry, the strength of our children's and worship ministries and so on.

But I always like to remind people that while these ministries are top notch, they are just a part of the picture. While it is true that many of the great ministries of our church are centered and driven from the church campus, the real truth is that the most significant ministries that come out of CRBC are away from the church building on 30th and Council.

The reason for this is that our church members are continually engaged in all kinds of ministry in the homes, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces all throughout our community. We have church members who are engaged in Bible studies, prison ministry, sports ministry, recovery ministry and home, school, and work place discipeship that are never seen by or reported to the church family.

I was reminded again of this fact this week when I attended a breakfast that was put together by a couple of businessmen in our church for the purpose of raising funds for a new clinic at the orphanage in Motipur India our church is helping to build. By the time the day was over these men had helped to raise over 70,000 dollars toward the 107,000 dollar project.

Because of their passion and hard work, thousands of people in this part of India will have access to medical care for the first time and the name of Christ will be glorified in one of the darkest corners of the planet. So in these and countless other ways we don't even know about, the missional ministries of Council Road are advancing the Kingdom of God.

And it is all for His glory, not ours!

Live Sent

2010-04-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

The missional church is a church that understands the Great Commission is not just for those who are called to cross-cultural ministry in a foreign country- but that every single one of us is a part of the cause- that we have all been "sent". As Kyle Pewitt likes to say, "the missional church is one that lives sent".

I have seen this mindset acted out in some awesome ways lately in our church family:

Like the seven people who came to Christ last weekend because friends brought them to worship.

Like the host of volunteers who help each week at the ROC clinic to care for the working poor in our community.

Like the forty plus Middle Schoolers who spent their spring break caring for our homebound members.

Like the testimony I heard a few weeks ago in Celebrate Recovery from a woman in our church who came to Christ in prison and told the group that when she walked down the dark cold corridor of concrete and steel afterward she felt more free than at any time in her life. God is now using her to help set others free.

Like the many children and pre-school workers who have stepped forward over the past few weeks to volunteer to help us during a transition in our Sunday morming minsitry and in our upcoming VBS.

Or like the terrific way God is using our teenagers. Here is an email I got from one of our church members who was an organizer of the annual Memorial Marathan and wanted me to know how great our teenagers were at the event:

Thank you sooo much for all of your help with getting the teens out to the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon! I know our Council Road kids are amazing, but it was still so much fun to watch them do their thing! They lined up along Classen, built human pyramids, cheered, hi-fived, and encouraged THOUSANDS of marathon runners yesterday. They danced, they sang, they hopped a lot!! They shivered, they jumped in and helped with different tasks in our area, they were a huge blessing! I watched runners pull out their earbuds so they could hear our kids. I even saw runners pull out their phones to take pictures of our group WHILE they were running the marathon. Those teens were a huge inspiration! We could physically see runners get their second wind as they came past us. And the kids did all of this for a solid 4 hours! Our teens are awesome!!!

One thing they did in particular at the end - there was an older, out of shape woman who was running all alone. Everyone else had already run past. She was very tired, but she was pushing through the pain just the same. A large group of our kids ran down the road and joined her. A huge smile came over her face when she saw the teens running to her. They ran with her and encouraged her all the way to the checkpoint. I was so proud to say that those were our Council Road Kids!!

Our area was a huge success because of each and every one of those kids that got involved.

Opportunity in Haiti

2010-04-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I've had several people ask me about opportunities to help in Haiti. There is actually a short window of opportunity for anyone who wants to make the trip this summer. Here are the details:

WHERE? HAITI

WHAT? Thousands of Haitians are homeless and displaced due to the earthquake. Refugee camps, tent cities and newly created villages are growing along the Haitian border with Dominican Republic as people flee chaotic and violent Port-au-Prince. Student teams will be involved in community development including developing 'Kid Zones" to bring a sense of normalcy to the lives of Haitian children in refugee camps, orphanages, children's homes, schools, and villages. Flexibility is a must. Ministry may include recreation, sports, music, English and math tutoring, art therapy, manual labor, and more. These activities will pave the way for missionaries to work in these villages and schools in the future.

WHO? Christian students are needed to do the work. College students and young adults are encouraged to apply. Participants must have completed their junior year in high school in order to serve. We prefer students to come with teams (large or small) with an adult leader.

WHEN? 2 week assignments -- Saturday to Saturday, beginning May 15, 2010 Teams of 25 (maximum) will be deployed each week (beginning May 15)

May 15 -- May 29
May 22 - Jun 5
May 29 - Jun 12
Jun 5 - Jun 19
Jun 12 - Jun 26
Jun 19 - Jul 3
Jun 26 - Jul 10
Jul 3 - Jul 17
Jul 17 -- Jul 31

HOW MUCH? $975 plus airfare (approx $400-700) and insurance ($28)
Field cost includes food, housing, local transportation and border crossing costs.

A $100 deposit per person is required in order to hold spaces.

Your spot is not confirmed without payment. Deposits are Non-Refundable and Non-Transferable. For May/June weeks the balance of $875 is due May 1st. For project in July/August a partial payment of $475 is due May 1st and the remaining balance of $400 is due June 1st. Any balance that is not paid by 15 days following the due date will be canceled and will forfeit your deposit. Travel from Santo Domingo to base camp provided and included in cost.

HOW MANY? Maximum of 25 students/adult leaders per week. A team from a college, church or BCM could be 5 students, or 12, or 15, or you could fill the entire 25.

HOW LONG? 2 week assignment. Saturday arrival, Saturday departure. (local travel challenges make it impossible to grant exceptions)

TRAVEL? Valid passport required. Must be valid for 6+ months beyond the date you return from Haiti For coordination of team arrivals and departures, all students and teams will use designated travel agent. Airfare (approx $400-$700) and insurance ($28) are not included in $975 cost.
Travel to daily ministry site in Haiti provided and included in cost.

HOUSING? Students will be housed in a secure, fenced compound in the Dominican Republic on the border with Haiti. Girls will stay in the house (electricity, running water). Guys will be housed in large tents on the grounds surrounding the house.

FOOD? Three meals a day will be provided for all participants.

HEALTH? No inoculations are required for entry into DR or Haiti but CDC recommends several. See the CDC website for travel health and immunization information.

SCHEDULE? Arrive in Santo Domingo, DR on Saturday - travel 3-4 hours to compound on Haiti border

Sunday - orientation, training and preparation
Monday-Friday -- spend each day working in Haiti (teams of 8-10)
Return to DR each night for sharing, worship, prayer, study, preparation
Saturday - Sunday -- refresh, relax, restore, refuel, retool...
Monday - Friday -- spend each day working in Haiti (teams of 8-10)
Return to DR each night for sharing, worship, prayer, study, preparation
Saturday - travel back to Santo Domingo. Leave for home.

TO REGISTER AND FOR MORE INFO VISIT gohaiti.org or Call (888) 421-4408
Please note: Register early for a guaranteed spot!

Two Very Big Reasons Easter is Important

2010-04-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

This coming Sunday is the one of the most siginicant days of the year for every Christian for a couple of really good reasons.

1. The most obvious reason of course is that Easter Sunday is that day on the Christian calendar that we all celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. The fact that billions of Christians around the world will be celebrating the occasion all at the same time I see as a powerful demonstration of the global dimensions of our faith. Since the beginnings of the Christian church in the first century the resurrection event has been celebrated this time of year as the central most important fact of human history. In fact in the early church tradition Easter Sunday was often the day that large numbers of converts were baptized and became a part of the church.

After the resurrection of Christ, the church began the tradition of meeting on the first day of the week instead of the seventh (sabbath) day as a way of celebrating His resurrection (Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:1-2) So it is perhaps the most important date on the Christian calendar for all those reasons- because of the global nature of the celebration, the incredible history of Easter and because His death and resurrection are of ultimate importance to us.

2. A second less obvious reason it is so important is that it is a great opportunity for witness. People who don't otherwise have an interest in Christianity will have an interest this weekend just because of the holiday. I hope you are inviting everyone you meet to come to church this Sunday. One of the most natural and powerful ways for us to share our faith is to simply invite people to come to church. To love people to Christ is to open up your life and welcome others into your community. Most people come to Christ because they have been welcomed in by the infectious love of Christ experienced within biblical community. As Charles Spurgeon once said "Most people come to Christ not because of a push, but because of a pull."

A couple of weeks ago I read the incredible story of Mosab Hassan Yousef in the book "Son of Hamas". Mosab is the son of the spiritual leader of the terrorist group Hamas in the West Bank of Israel in Palestine. The story is how this radical Muslim converted to Christianity after meeting a group of Christians in Jerusalem. This community of believers opened up the scriptures to him, befriended him and prayed for him, answered his questions and literally loved him to Christ over the course of several years.

It was another reminder to me that the Christian church has always grown in this way. People are not argued into Christianity. They are not bullied into Christianity. People are loved into Christianity by the incredible grace of God through His gospel. It is life on life- one person sharing his or her life with another and bringing people to the best news they could ever hear- that the God of the universe has given His life as a ransom for sin.

The gospel spreads as we love people to Christ. A great picture of Christian witness is one blind beggar showing another blind beggar where to find the bread.

A fact that is especially true this weekend.

Worth The Trip

2010-03-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today it rained all day in Matamores so our team made the best of it and did what they could in the two neighborhoods targeted for canvasing and backyard Bible Clubs.   All is not lost, however, because yesterday was a virtually perfect day- cool and breezy with clouds mercifully hiding the hot sun so that the swarms of children that live in these neighborhoods happily participated in all the activities.

The 40+ teenagers who have come on this mission trip poured out of our church buses and like an army of pied pipers drew the kids out of their pastel colored homes. The children here enthusiastically participated in the crafts, the games, the skits but mostly the boys here like to play soccer. One gets the feeling that if you only have four cones for goals and a soccer ball you could entertain them for hours. Many of our kids are seasoned soccer players so their skill with the ball quickly broke down the cultural and language barrier.

There is no question that our presence here is having an impact on these neighborhoods around the church plants. The benefit of this kind of trip is that the local pastors here are able to create excitement about the new churches that are emerging. It gives them an opportunity to reach out to the community and establish relationships that are cultivated long after we leave.

But the benefit goes both ways. It is on trips like this that our teenagers get a taste of missions and cross-cultural ministry. It is fun to watch and to be a part of it. A few of our Hispanic church members are with us and we are enjoying working together in this setting. We are learning together the value of giving to others and the joy of sharing the gospel in a place where the evangelical church is growing, yet still very small compared to the total population.

I am so proud of our group. While many of their friends have chosen to go to the beaches or the slopes to enjoy their break from school, they have chosen to travel these 17 hours in an uncomfortable bus so that they can help proclaim the gospel and make new friends in some of the poorer sections of this border city.

This kind of giving and serving has created a kind of joy here that is contagious.   A joy not dampened by a long bus ride to get here, long stops at the border crossing each day, or even a few hours of rain.

Not Why but How?

2010-03-03T10:17:00.000-08:00

One of the questions I get asked a lot goes something like this:

"Why did God have to pay such a high price for my sin? I know I am sinful, but does it really require that Jesus die on a cross to forgive? Why couldn't God just say 'I forgive you' and that be the end of it?"

It really is a perplexing question if we don't think through our understanding of the nature of God. We all have a tendency to place human-like qualities onto God to help us embrace our understanding of Him. But this is not possible when trying to understand a Holy eternal creator God. God is so much greater than us, so much "other than we are" that to try to describe His qualities is a little like an ant at a picnic trying to ascertain human philosophy.

In our world people forgive all the time. If someone offends me and comes to me and says "I'm sorry, will you forgive me?" It is very easy for me to say "Of course- you are forgiven!"

But I am not God.

To just "let sin go" would make Him less than a Holy and Just God. And if we really thought about it and admitted to it, we would all have to say that none of us wants any less than a purely Holy and Righteous God who is not like us.

Last week I reread the book "Why I am Christian" by John R.W. Stott and found this great passage that explains this truth much better than I could:

The cross of Christ is the only basis on which God can forgive sins. By why, an impatient critic will immediately object, should our forgiveness depend on Christ's death? Why does God not simply forgive us, without the necessity of the cross? "God will pardon me" Heinrich Heine protested, "that is His metier (specialty). After all, the objecter might continue, if we sin against each other, we are required to forgive one another. So why should God not practice what He preaches? Why should He not be as generous as He expects us to be? (The answer) was given by Anselm, the arch bishop of Canterbury at the end of the eleventh century. He wrote in his magnificent book, Why God Became Man, "You have not yet considered the majesty of God". To draw an analogy of our forgiveness of each other and God's forgiveness of us is very superficial. We are not God but private individuals, while He is the maker of the heavens and the earth, creator of the very laws we break. Our sins are not merely personal injuries but a willful rebellion against Him. It is when we begin to see the gravity of sin and the majesty of God that our questions change. No longer do we ask why God finds it difficult to forgive sins but how He finds it possible. As one writer has put it, "forgiveness is to man the plainest of duties; to God it is the profoundest of problems."

Can Buddha Forgive Tiger?

2010-02-20T09:58:00.000-08:00

On Friday Tiger Woods gave a tearful apology to his fans, family and friends for his numerous affairs and unfaithfulness in his marriage. He accepted full responsibility for his “wrongs” and asked forgiveness somewhere around 20 times in his written statement.

The apology, watched by millions across the country was heartfelt, contrite and I believe a necessary step toward his recovery.   Woods apology contained all of necessary elements of this process. He accepted full responsibility not just for his actions but also for a part of the root cause of his actions. “I thought the rules didn’t apply to me”, he rightly admitted. “It is hard for me to admit that I need help, but I do.”

Curiously, his speech contained many of the words familiar to Christian repentance such as “atone”, “grace” and “forgiveness”. And although he never used the word “sin”, he clearly admitted that in his case rules had been broken.   The reason I find this last point curious is that he framed his entire apology in light of his Buddhism.

And yet Buddhism has none of these concepts. In Buddhism there is no fully formed concept of atonement because there is no concept of sin.   In Buddhism as in most Eastern religions atonement centers not on forgiveness but on “release from delusion and suffering through meditative insight into the nature of reality.”* Buddhism is not a theistic religion and so there is no God to sin against. So when Tiger says that he “broke the rules” and he is not talking about civil law, then one has to ask, “what rule?” There are no such “rules” in Buddhism. If he is talking about his rules for marriage, then why would any one besides his wife be offended if there was no greater authoritative moral law at play? As Karma Lekshe Tsomo, a leading teacher in Tibetan Buddhism has put it:

"There are no moral absolutes in Buddhism and it is recognized that ethical decision-making involves a complex nexus of causes and conditions. 'Buddhism' encompasses a wide spectrum of beliefs and practices, and the canonical scriptures leave room for a range of interpretations. All of these are grounded in a theory of intentionality, and individuals are encouraged to analyze issues carefully for themselves. ... When making moral choices, individuals are advised to examine their motivation--whether aversion, attachment, ignorance, wisdom, or compassion--and to weigh the consequences of their actions in light of the Buddha's teachings." (Karma Lekshe Tsomo, a professor of theology and a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in an essay entitled, PROLIFE, PROCHOICE: BUDDHISM AND REPRODUCTIVE ETHICS)

It is interesting to me that Tiger framed his problem from a distinctively Christian world-view and yet called on his Buddhism to get him through it.   My contention is that you can have one or the other but not both at the same time.

Buddhism and Christianity are not the same thing. They are two completely different and mutually exclusive worldviews.

In Christianity we learn that it is only in coming to a knowledge of a holy and righteous God and His revealed Word that we come to understand there is a “moral law” or “covenant” that applies to us. And in this law we find the basis of our relationship with God.   It is only in that understanding that we see that we have sin that must be atoned for. And it is only in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, that we are able to find that atonement.

In Christianity we learn that we are completely powerless without His grace- to know our sin, to call on His mercy, to ask for His forgiveness and to find true repentance.

Perhaps it was because Tiger’s father was raised a Christian that he was able to articulate those qualities that one finds in Christian repentance and atonement. Or perhaps he expressed these sentiments because they are a natural outcry of the human heart in the midst of brokenness and shame. But to take these expressions all the way through to there most important conclusion one must turn not to his own meditation or sense of enlightenment- but to the One who has been sinned against and who by His grace was willing to atone for that sin.

To Tiger I would say your sin is no delusion. It is real and horribly destructive with eternal consequences. Your solution will not be found in the enlightenment of Buddhas teaching, but in the sacrificial death of the Son of God, whose work of atonement we celebrate during this Lent season is the most important reality of all of our lives.

*Joseph S. O'Leary, Forgiveness and Buddhism

Make Easter a Season

2010-02-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

We are one of those rare conservative evangelical churches that actually observes the Lent season so every year at this time I give my annual explanation of why.

There is one simple answer: "We are all about the cross." It is our magnificent obsession. We seek to be a cross centered church.

There is nothing more important to us than our daily habit of focusing on the cross and the intricate meaning of the gospel. We find it a very good discipline to focus our hearts and minds for an entire season on the central issue of our existence- that our sin is so wretched and devastating that our lives are being pulled into a Christless eternity except for the incredible unimaginable grace of a Holy and loving God who was willing to give His life as a sacrifice for our sins. And the more we focus on that reality the more our lives and hearts are changed.

We believe the Lent season is an excellent way to teach our kids the meaning of the cross and to help bring their lives in alignment with the priorities of scripture. All of scripture points to the cross, from Genesis to Revelation. Every story of the Bible is a reflection of THE story- the story of our redemption.

In a similar way, our lives should point to that one overarching truth- that our sin was so bad that God had to die to pay the price but at the same time His love for us was so incredible that He was willing to die. On the cross we have both bad news and the best news. The bad news is that our sin has a terrible price. But the good news is that God's grace is greater than we could ever dream.

At the cross we see an intersection of God's justice and God's mercy. Jesus satisfied the sense of wrath and justice of a Holy God and at the same time demonstrated the incredible compassion and grace of a loving God.

It is a season to focus, to meditate, to fast and to prioritize our lives around the meaning of the cross. In our worship songs, prayers, scripture reading and preaching we focus our attention on the meaning of the cross. We encourage all of our families to go through a daily devotional around the meaning of the cross each day of the forty days of Lent. In other words, we are not just celebrating Easter over one weekend, we are creating the space to celebrate it for an entire season. We see this as especially important in a culture that is becoming increasingly secular humanist and materialistic.

One of the young couples in our church has written an excellent daily devotional for the Lent season for their kids they are calling "The Easter Tree". They have graciously given me permission to make it available to all of our families.

You can download the devotionals each day for the next forty days of lent here on Heathers blog.

I encourage everyone to come to our Ash Wednesday worship tomorrow night and begin preparing your heart to celebrate the meaning of Easter not just for one brief weekend in April but for an entire season.

The Impact of Life on Life

2010-02-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an awsome day of celebration for me. Most significantly, it was a day that Teri and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary. Teri has been the love of my life for close to 25 years now- for more than half my life she has been at my side- it is hard for me to imagine what life was like before I met her. Teri has been my best friend, my lover, my steadfast supporter, and prayer partner for all of these years. How wonderful to celebrate the blessing God has given us in our marriage!

It was also a day that I baptized one of my high school buddies for whom I have been praying for close to thirty five years. I don't have space to blog about the significance of my "old" friend coming to Christ and being baptized yesterday- suffice it to say that one should never give up praying for a friend who needs to know the Lord. The gospel teaches us that God's love for us is tenacious and long suffering and that He doggedly pursues us. That point was never more poignantly brought home to me than when I baptized Rick.

Finally, it was a day of tremendous worship for our church family as we celebrated how our faith is passed down from generation to generation. What made the worship meaningful to me was that we focused on that element of discipleship within the church that is universally understood but rarely celebrated- the incredible impact of "life on life".

What I mean is this - I believe all of us as believers know intuitively both the WHY and WAY of spiritual growth. We know that it is the instruction of His word and the guidance of His Holy Spirit that is the WHY of growth. And we know that it is because we have relationships with other Christians who know the word and live the word in front of us that is the WAY of growth.

But because the dynamics of that growth are so intuitive and understood, they are easy to take for granted and therefore overlook. What made yesterday's worship so special was that we took the time to purposefully celebrate that dynamic. It is Biblical community, life on life, and the dedicated influence of Christian love and grace that is most impactful in discipleship. It is how we grow, how we serve, and how God uses us in each others lives.

And for families, it is how children are raised within the dynamic context of Biblical community. God wants us to live life together in this way so that we both receive His instruction AND we live out His word in way that exponentially increases the impact of what we hear.

This is why the Bible says in Hebrews 10:23-25:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Super Bowl Predictions

2010-02-05T06:08:00.000-08:00

I have three predictions for the Super Bowl on Sunday:

1. The Saints fans will yell louder than the Colts fans.
2. Payton Manning will lead the Colts to victory in the 4th quarter.
3. When people see the Tim Tebow pro-life commercial they will ask "So what's the controversy?"

Reports from people who have actually seen the commercial say it is a very positive, pro-family feel good kind of message couched in a great story.

The story is how Tim's parents, Bob and Pam Tebow, moved to the Philippines in 1985 to begin their work as Baptist missionaries. While pregnant with Tim, Pam became very sick with amoebic dysentery through contaminated drinking water. Her doctor told her that the medications she needed to recover would result in irreversible damage to the child she was carrying. She was advised to have an abortion. In the doctors opinion, carrying the baby full term was not worth the risk.

Pam made the decision to keep her baby. It was a courageous choice that was made without hesitation. Our Christian faith teaches us that God is the author of life and that the central issue of our lives is that Christ sacrificed his life so that we could live. The truth is every single one of us has life because someone made incredible sacrifices in order to bring us that life. A woman carrying a baby literally gives a part of her self to that baby. Every family makes sacrifices in order to raise a child. Sacrifice is central to life. If sacrificial love is not worth celebrating, nothing is worth celebrating.

Tim was born healthy and robust in 1987. His mother described him as "skinny, but rather long." Today he is a six-foot-three 235 pound Heisman trophy winner who many say may be the most successful college football player of all time. There is no doubt that Tim Tebow has been a terrific witness for his faith. In his acceptance speech for the Heisman, he made this statement:

"I just (want) to first start off by thanking my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave me the ability to play football, gave me a great family and support group and great coaches and everything around me."

My prediction is that when people see the commercial they will wonder why celebrating such an inspiring story has created a controversy in the first place. The answer is that the polarizing forces that have turned a great story like this into a controversy are driven by a humanist ideology that makes it virtually impossible to see that that God is the source of love and life. To know God is to know love and love always involves risk and sacrifice, and unselfish sacrificial choices get to the core of what it means to be fully human.

The Decline of Atheism

2010-02-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

Last week the top five movies at the box office were:

1. Avatar
2. Book of Eli
3. Legion
4. The Tooth Fairy
5. Lovely Bones

I find it interesting that four of the top five movies last week all have significant religious overtones. These box office hits say something very interesting about the decline of atheism. Each of these movies flagrantly tap into deeply spiritual themes that drives the script- reflecting I believe the patently religious nature of the modern audience.

Ironically, popular atheists like Richard Dawkins keep insisting that interest in religion will die out within the next century. A prediction that is inconveniently contradicted by the unprecedented growth of religion and especially Christianity world wide. As Dinesh D'souza so aptly put it:

The world is witnessing a huge explosion of religious conversion and growth, and Christianity is growing faster than any other religion. Neitzsches proclamation that "God is dead" is now proven false. Nietzsche is dead. The ranks of unbelievers is shrinkiing as a proportion of the world's population…[this growth] has not gone unnoticed by leading atheists. Some of these nonbelievers, most of them Darwinists, express candid puzzlement at religion’s enduring vitality. (Dinesh D'Souza, What's So Great About Christianity)

Hollywood knows something Dawkins won't admit- the world is becoming more religious, not less. A hundred years ago during the rise of secularism it seemed people were arguing over the question of the existence of God. But today there is a heightened interest in everything "spiritual". People are more inclined toward religion and accepting of religious concepts and supernaturalism. But this movement toward the acceptance of religion also brings challenges to modern believers. Though more people are inclined to believe in the concept of God, they also seem to be somewhat confused about exact nature of that belief.

This is why we as Christians must "be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks to give the reason for the hope (we) have." (1 Peter 3:15). It is extremely important that we be able to effectively distinguish our belief from the multi-religious cutlure we interact with.

It is here that men like C.S. Lewis can be a big help. Lewis contemplated Christianity in contrast to every other religious world view and wrote extensively about his process of belief. The writings that resulted from that exercise are a wonderful gift to the thoughtful Christian.

Last week I made the point that one of the key issues for C.S. Lewis' conversion was that he found in Christianity something he could not see in other religions- that Jesus Christ was a historical figure and that the account of his life was not written as legend or myth, but that it was an obvious historical account. Here is the exact quote I cited:

I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this. Of this text there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage– Or else, some unknown writer in the second century, without known predecessors, or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern, novelistic, realistic narrative. If it is untrue, it must be narrative of that kind. The reader who doesn’t see this has simply not learned to read. (C. S. Lewis, “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism”)

I don't think this issue can be overstated. Lewis, as a leading authority of ancient literary style, could see clearly that the claims of Christianity were so patently different from other religions, that they could not be easily dismissed. And that the historicity of Christ turned comparitive religion "to dust".

When you have a clear picture of the dynamic doctrine of Christianity, as Lewis did, in contrast to all the other religions you encounter, it is much easier to talk to your friends about the difference between Christianity and the other popular trend religions found in Hollywood scripts. The good news about religious interest is that people want to talk about it. So as believers it is essential that we clearly identify our underlying belief. In this way we can contend with culture with the love of Christ and avoid getting sucked into the vortex of competing religious perspectives that may make interesting movies but have nothing to do with spiritual reality. By this I mean that it is important for modern believers to be both compassionate and thoughtful.

Because after all the box office is teaching us that people are interested.

I would encourage you to take the time to watch the video below for a better picture of how C.S. Lewis went from atheism to theism to Christianity:

For further reading on this topic, I recommend the following books:

What So Great About Christianity
God in the Dock
Mere Christianity

Living a Gospel Lifestyle

2010-01-27T06:30:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I enjoy reading is fellow pastor J.D. Greer from Summit Church in Durham North Carolina. His latest blog on how to share your faith was so spot on I wanted to share it with you:

How do you initiate Gospel conversations with people you interact with on a daily basis (waitresses, etc)?

Here are a few things I practice.

I frequent the same places. People in our society don't respond well to strangers, so I try to eat, drink coffee, buy gas, get my car worked on, and shop, etc at the same places. Relationship is not essential for evangelism, but it sure helps. At most of those places I mentioned people know me by name. Inevitably a chance comes up to pray for them, ask about their lives, invite them to church, etc. For example, several of the people from my local coffee shop have started to come to our church, and a few have become believers and gotten baptized. My mechanic has recently attended our church.
Where relevant, I leave BIG tips. Especially if I know someone is having a bad day. I'll jot a little note and tell them I'm praying for them.
I ask people, sometimes, how I can pray for them. Most people don't mind to be prayed for, and if they don't want to talk, they answer shortly and I let it drop.
I invite them to church. Over and over.
When in a conversation, I use an acrostic I learned years ago to help guide the conversation. F- Family; I- interests; R- Religion; E - Evangelism. Yes, that can seem wooden, I know... but it can also help you move a conversation along. Sometimes in talking about religion I'll say, "Do you feel like you have a relationship with God?" I get the most interesting responses back to that question. And usually, it provides me a chance to tell them my story... how I grew up in church but came to know God personally later. As I talk about how I came to know Christ, I make sure to give the Gospel along the way. People don't like to be preached to, but they do like to be asked their opinions, and they do like to hear your story.
Bill Hybels has written 2 great books on this subject called Contagious Christian and Just Walk Across the Room. Highly recommended.

How do you share Christ with someone who is an agnostic, and their life seems to be going well, and they seem perfectly happy without God?

Yeah, that's a tough one. What you must first recognize is that nobody can come to God until God draws them (John 6:44). The Greek word used for "draw" in that verse conveys the idea of hunger, as in how a starving man is drawn to food. In order to come to God, we must first be taught by the Holy Spirit to hunger for God... to see in our hearts who God is and who we are, how fragile life is, etc. As the old hymn Amazing Grace says, "Tis grace that taught my heart (first!) to fear, and then grace my fears relieved."

That means your first and primary recourse is prayer. There is simply no substitute.

Don't underestimate the power of a consistently kind and joyful life before somebody. Everybody puts up a front, and everybody has moments of self-doubt. Your consistent walk with Christ will probably come into their minds at a time you don't don't even realize--in one of those moments of self-doubt, or in a tough time... maybe even years later. The way you live before them and the things you tell them are like a seed that may not harvest until much later.

Finally, Gospel people are to be people of extraordinary generosity, extraordinary answers to prayer, and extraordinary joy. Look for ways to really put the generosity of Christ on display, because laying down your life can really get someone's attention; look for places to ask God for miracles; and thank God for chances to suffer before your friends, because only in suffering can you put on display that you have a joy that is better than anything life can give and that death cannot take away.

People Without Conviction Are Boring

2010-01-21T15:35:00.000-08:00

One of the things we are working on within our staff is a systematic method for teaching our children the basic principles of our faith. Our goal is that all of our kids will benefit from a comprehensive approach to teaching doctrine. We want it to be interesting, fun, engaging, but most importantly - effective.

Our desire is that from the time a child enters our Preschool to the time they leave our High School that they will have developed over time a strong understanding of the most important tenants of Christianity. And that they will be able to articulate not just what they believe but the reasons for that belief.

We really don't see that anything we do is any more important than passing down our faith to the next generation.

This is why we are so big on drilling down on our "24 Essentials"- those 24 basic beliefs that we see as being central to Christian life and doctrine.

Why is this so important? The simple answer to this is that we believe that one of the biggest problems people have in an increasingly secular humanist and multi-cultural society is that they don't know how to distinguish their belief from competing world views and don't know why they believe what they believe. In other words, they don't have a strong "epistemology"- the study of knowledge.

To not have this kind of foundation in faith can be devastating to a young person who goes off to college and enters an environment in which all of his or her core beliefs are challenged relentlessly and without shame. Many young people who were raised in good solid Christian homes nevertheless leave those homes ill prepared for the epistemological warfare they will engage in within the academic jungle of higher learning.

We see it as our role to join in with parents to help equip our kids with not just knowledge but with a good ability to look beneath the surface of belief and to answer questions like, "What are the core reasons for my belief?", or "Why do I believe the Bible is true?", or "Why do I believe there is only one way to heaven?"

We don't just want to be good at dispensing knowledge in other words, but also in teaching the philosophy of knowledge. Because after all, if the question of why I believe is never contemplated and if there is not a solid basis laying beneath my core belief, then the human heart is dangerously exposed to what the Bible calls "wavering doubt".

But there is another compelling reason for a person to have a good epistemology- and that is that people who don't have conviction about things are just plain boring.

This is humorously illustrated in the video below:

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Why Does God Allow Tragedy?

2010-01-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

One of the questions people ask whenever there is a terrible tragedy such as this weeks Haitian earthquake is "Why would a good God allow bad things to happen?" The argument that one often hears from skeptics at a time like this goes something like this, "God cannot be both good and all-powerful."

If he is all powerful and allows evil then he is not good but if he is good and allows evil then he must be powerless to stop it. Since there is evil in the world it must mean that he is either all powerful and evil or good but not all powerful but he cannot be both."

It is the question that has confounded philosophers and scholars for generations.   "How can a good God allow evil and tragedy in this world?" Many are asking today as they see the unbelievable misery and suffering in Haiti, "Where was God in this tragedy?"

The answers are not easy, but I do think it is helpful for us to remind ourselves of a few important truths whenever people are asking the question.

1. First of all, we should all remember that Christianity teaches that we are all limited in our understanding and that there is no way that any one of us can have a clear picture of reality on this side of eternity. What we see in this life as human tragedy has to be measured against the full scope of eternity.

Paul the apostle pointed out that "...we see but a poor 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).

It is easy for us to make broad assumptions about what we see as God's powerlessness in evil and suffering but none of us truly see things as they are from the perspective of eternity.   C.S. Lewis has said that he believes the first thing we will all say in heaven are the words, "Ah hah!"

Only God sees true reality. The rest of us here only sees a part of that reality and because of our weakness and limited understanding none of us can fully know what God knows from His perspective.

Evil and suffering in this world is not evidence that God does not exist nor is it evidence that God is evil or merely good but not omnipotent.   This is not a complete argument regarding the character of God for one simple reason: Just because you and I cannot see a good reason for what happens in the world does not mean that God is not in control and does not have reasons. Just because I don't understand something doesn't mean there is no explanation. Our reality is not the only reality and it is certainly not the complete reality.

For a person to say "Because I can't understand the reason that God allows suffering in the world it must mean that there are no reasons" is an amazingly presumptuous and self serving statement. When you think about it, it takes a tremendous leap of faith to believe in yourself in this way. It is like saying "I don't really think that can be real because I don't see or understand the reality of it."

We do not employ this kind of logic to other parts of life. We may not know how electricity works and yet that doesn't mean we don't believe it's real. We may not see the tiny insect that is biting us but that doesn't prove it doesn't exist.

Just because we don't understand fully and see clearly the purposes of God in human tragedy does not mean they do not exist. So as Christians we have to first of all understand that God's ways are not like our ways and that He is the only one who has the complete, eternal perspective on this life (Isaiah 55:8).

2. The very fact that we know something is evil and tragic is evidence that there is a loving and just God in the universe.   When you think of the tragedy in Haiti keep in mind that you and I would not even know that this was tragic unless we first knew that there was such a thing as tragedy. There is something within our spirit that cries out at the injustice of suffering. What is that? It certainly is not the result of evolutionary impulse.

Darwinian Evolution teaches that the human species is inscripted by millions of years of "survival of the fittest" type impulses. If that is true then wouldn't the human species cry out in delight that thousands of potentially competitive predators and foragers have been eliminated? And yet that is not what we feel. We feel a sense of horror and sadness welling up from our inmost being. The only logical explanation for this impulse is that it was put there by a loving and just creator who teaches us through our very senses that our hearts cry out for His mercy and love.

Have you ever noticed that when tragedies like this occur it is the churches and religious charitable organizations that flood into the area to offer assistance? I remember years ago when our church sent a tsunami relief team to help with the clean up in Sri Lanka how amazed the people there were at the numbers of Christians from around the world who had come to their aid. By contrast I don't remember seeing or hearing about a single atheist organization that sent help. I may have missed it, but there weren't scores of atheist organizations who set up tents and trailors and work groups in Indonesia, Pakastan or New Orleans in the aftermath of those disasters either.

There is a simple reason: the atheist has no answer for human tragedy. C.S. Lewis, once an atheist himself, made this observation in Mere Christianity:

My argument against God was that the world seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of "just" and "unjust"? What was I comparing this universe to when I called it unjust? Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by sayng it was a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too- for the argument depended on saying that the world really was unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies... consequently atheism turns out too simple.

3. As Christians we are to see that all of life's suffering is answered by the redeeming work of Christ on the cross. Christianity, unlike any other religion, teaches that God Himself suffered on the cross and that by taking that suffering onto Himself accomplished the redemption of all creation. The extent of His suffering was not just physical, for there are many people who have suffered more physically than Jesus suffered on the cross. But none have suffered to the extent that Jesus suffered the rejection of the Father and the incredible consequences of our sin when He took all of that on Himself. No one person has ever suffered the way Jesus suffered.

And yet it was through His suffering that the earth is being redeemed and will be redeemed. It was through His suffering that I find my salvation and everyone who calls on Him finds salvation.

We know from scripture that Jesus carries the scars from His crucifixion with Him even in His glorified state. This can only mean that every scar we recieve in this life will only make the next life better.    Everything we suffer in this life will be undone in the next. So the more we lose and suffer in this life the more we experience joy and celebration in the next.

Every Christian can cry out, "Bring it on death! Bring it on suffering! The lower you lay me the higher He'll raise me!"

I love this quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov

"I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened."

If you are interested in reading more on this subject, here are some books I recommend:

The Reason for God by Tim Keller
What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza
Disappointment With God by Phillip Yancey

Why Pat Robertson was Wrong

2010-01-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday on his CBN network, televangelist Pat Robertson made the embarrassing argument that Tuesday's 7.3 magnitude earthquake near Port Au Prince should be blamed on the Haitians' "pact with the devil" two centuries ago while seeking liberation from the French.

Robertson's comments should be condemned by Bible believing Christians for many reasons, but here are a few of the most obvious:

1. While the Bible teaches that natural disasters are the result of our fallen nature that impacts all of creation (Genesis 1-3), and while it is true that our decisions have consequences and we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7-8), it is a huge theological leap to say that God singles out a group of people for His special punishment just because of some decision their ancestors made.

2. The concept that if you always make good choices God will reward you and if you do bad things God will punish you is antithetical to the gospel. This view is more akin to other religions such as Islam or Buddhism (Fate or Karma as examples) than it is to Christianity. The Bible teaches that the rain falls on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45), that ALL things work together for the good (Romans 8) and we are to count it joy when we face trials of many kinds (James 1). The most prominent example of this teaching of course is that the most evil, unjust and terrible thing that ever happened in history was the crucifixion of Jesus. And yet it was that event that brought about the redemption of humanity.

3. Pat Robertson should know better. He should know that his words would be hurtful at a time like this. It is incredulous that a minister of the gospel who has such a wide audience would have anything but incredible sympathy for the unbelievable misery and suffering of the people of Haiti, who live in one of the poorest countries on the planet. As we all know, Jesus was drawn to the poor, loved and cared for the poor and taught us to take care of those who were hungry, thirsty, naked and sick. Jesus taught that when we care for the poor we are doing His work. (Matthew 25).

I agree with Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Church, who in an inerview with the Chicago Tribune said this about Robertson's statement:

"At this time we should be offering the people of Haiti God’s forgiveness and mercy rather than condemning them for some decision made by their ancestors, It is much better for us to ask a different question: what can we do to help those who have been victimized by this terrible trauma, rather than to speak judgment upon them on behalf of God."

For those who are interested in helping with the relief effort, click here.

Britt Hume was Right

2010-01-09T17:15:00.000-08:00

Last week on Fox News Sunday, news anchor Britt Hume rocked the secular media when he made the observation, when asked his opinion, that Tiger Woods should seek redemption and forgiveness in Christianity. This was his exact quote:

“Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it’s a tragic situation for him. I think he’s lost his family, it’s not clear to me if he’ll be able to have a relationship with his children, but the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal — the extent to which he can recover — seems to me to depend on his faith. He’s said to be a Buddhist; I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

The resulting guffaws from the secular press were predictable. Media critic Tom Shales called him a "sanctimonious busybody". Andrew Sullivan accused him of destroying the distinction between religious and secular discourse. MSNBC anchor David Shuster declard his comment as "truly embarrising" and fellow anchor Keith Olbermann compared Hume's advice for Tiger to Islamic terrorism!

So what was it that Hume did that was so over the top? How did he cross the line? The answer is that he expressed his actual belief- and the belief of every true Christian- that the only answer to the problem of sin is the one who has paid the price for that sin. Here's a news flash for Olbermann, Shuster et al: True Christians believe what they say they believe.

True Christianity is not apathetic or ambivalent. As C.S. Lewis has said "One thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important." If Christianity is true and Jesus really did die for our sin then that is a truth that must be expressed. N.T. Wright put it this way:

"How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human? That the fire has become flesh? That Life itself has walked into our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality in the world, or its a sham, a total nonsense. Most people, unable to cope with saying either of those two things are condemned to live in the shallow world in between."

Hume was correct in his assesment of both Buddhism and Christianity. There is no redemption or forgiveness in Buddhism because there is no concept of sin.

There is only one belief system that truly gets to the heart of the issue of the human soul- and that is the belief in Christianity that if we follow the sin of the human heart to it's natural conclusion we will meet with utter destruction and the only solution to that problem is the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It is only in our acceptance of Him as our savior that we find true redemption and forgiveness because it was His work on the cross that utterly satisfied God's sense of perfect justice. That is the truth that sets us free. No matter how many times we may have failed. There is no other religious belief system that teaches anything like this. As Christians we look at Tiger Woods and say "There except for the grace of God go I!"

In an interview with Laura Ingram on Thursday Hume made the observation that he believes the disdain for his opinion was centered mostly in his Christianity. I think this is probably true. If he had said, "My advice to Tiger is to turn to Atheism", I doubt there would be much of a ripple.

But I think the true irony of criticism of Hume is that the intoleration of his expression of belief comes from a secular world view that looks down on intoleration. It is almost as if the secularism we find in popular culture says something like "We are so much better than people who think they are so much better!"

Michael Gerson of the Washington Post put it very succinctly:

Hume's critics hold a strange view of pluralism. For religion to be tolerated, it must be privatized -- not, apparently, just in governmental settings but also on television networks. We must have not only a secular state but also a secular public discourse. And so tolerance, conveniently, is defined as shutting up people with whom secularists disagree. Many commentators have been offering Woods advice in his travails. But religious advice, apparently and uniquely, should be forbidden. In a discussion of sex, morality and betrayed vows, wouldn't religious issues naturally arise? How is our public discourse improved by narrowing it -- removing references to the most essential element in countless lives? True tolerance consists in engaging deep disagreements respectfully -through persuasion -not in banning certain categories of argument and belief from public debate.

Shuster and Olbermann and a host of others in the popular media have strong beliefs that they express regularly that flow from a secular humanist world view. No one can blame them for their steadfast belief. But they should not be so intellectually dishonest as to think that they are the only ones who have the right to express them.

A Book A Month In 2010

2010-01-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

Studies show that people who read are generally more happy and do better in life. This is definately true of the walk of faith. We should never forget that God reveals Himself to us through His written word. The word "disciple" means "learner". To be a follower of Christ means that we seek truth and pursue it- that we love wisdom and that we live our lives with understanding and do what is wise. It is a basic characteristic of the Christian life to desire to grow in our faith by growing in our understanding of His truth. Of course this is brought about primarily through the daily study of His word, but I have found that a good reading regiment is like having a host of mentors in my life as I study scripture. So with that in mind, here is my annual recommendation for reading a book a month in the coming year:

1. The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney

2. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

3. The Death of Death by John Owen

4. Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott

5. The Jesus I Never Knew by Phillip Yancey

6. Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

7. Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan

8. Humility by C.J. Mahaney

9. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

10. Abraham Lincoln by James McPherson

11. Life Together by Dietrick Bonhoeffer

12. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

This reading list has a pretty good mix of topics- and a few classics. It will be a great challenge to read some of these books in just one month- but it is a worthy goal nonetheless. Part of the reason I put the Rings trilogy and Narnia on the same list this year is because I went to see the movie "Avatar" over the Christmas break and came away from that movie mesmarized by the incredible special affects but really disturbed by the in your face New Age philosophy it espoused. It left me longing for a modern day Lewis or Tolkein who can help reclaim a Christian worldview in story telling.

I remember many years ago, when I was a youth pastor in South Carolina, I heard Jay Kessler give a lecture in which he made the observation that in the future "the East and West will pass in the night". At the time I thought it sounded impossible. But this year I visited pastors and churches in India who tell stories of incredible growth and I can see that the major church growth movements are taking place not in North America or Europe but in Asia and Africa. At the same time it is not lost on me that the most expensive American movie ever made and by far the biggest box office hit is a movie that is named after a Buddhist god incarnate. Looking back now about 20 years later it seems to me that Kessler's prophecy is coming true.

All the more reason for us to read and learn and to "always be prepared to give a reason for the hope" that we have.

New Year

2009-12-31T06:58:00.000-08:00

The new year is a great time for new habits and fresh starts. I am a big fan of new years resolutions because there have been so many times in my own life that a new surge of determination resulted in positive change. As C.S. Lewis has said, "You are never too old to set new goals or to dream new dreams."

But the truth is most of us who attempt to turn over a new leaf don't quite get the page turned. Of a 100 people who make a determination that they will break a bad habit or begin a new one, only about 17 will succeed according to Richard Wiseman, a psychologist with Britain's University of Hertfordshire who tracked the resolution-making instincts of 1,800 Britons and 1,200 Americans back in 2007.

But I still say that if you success rate is only about 17%- that is a good enough percentage to take advantage of the fresh start the new year brings.

Next week I will publish my annual recommendation for reading a book a month in the coming year. I think a commitment to reading is extremely beneficial to the Christian life. The fact that you are reading this blog right now tells me that you likely are the kind of person who enjoys reading Why not commit to at least one book a month in 2010?

I also want to encourage everyone in our church family to commit to read the Bible through in 2010. Over the past few years I have used a pattern of reading from different sections of the Bible each day. It is a simple pattern of reading through the different genres of the Bible so that you always maintain a well balanced approach to scripture study.

If you click on this link you can find a great example of this approach. I like this method because it builds in a mechanism for making up for lost time.

A Church That Gets It

2009-12-29T09:52:00.001-08:00

Our last Sunday of 2009 was a great experience of family worship. I thought Tim and the band did a terrific job in leading worship and it was great to have all our kids up on the stage helping them. Chris Wall did his usual great job in taking us through the last in our series on the genealogy of Jesus- I especially liked his story about the guy who dropped his wife and kids off and then did a few spins on the ice covered CUBE parking lot. I don't know who the guy was but I know a lot of likely suspects!

As I sat through worship Sunday I thought how blessed I am to be a part of such an awesome church. I Thank God every day for the privilege of being the pastor of CRBC. I thought about all the terrific discipleship ministries we have for Preschool through High School. I thought about all of our fantastic connection classes and their many community groups we have in place. Watching the kids on the stage sing the songs they had learned in Third Floor Live was a great reminder of our ongoing ministries to children. Hearing the testimony of one of our High School students of how she was reaching out in ministry to her friends at school through the CUBE was also a great picture of what God is doing within our body. I thought about all the great ministries we have going in our community and around the world about which our church is becoming increasingly passionate.

Last week I rushed to the hospital when I heard about one of our members beings sent to the Emergency Room. When I walked in the entire hallway was packed with his community group. They were there, surrounding and praying for the family and doing what they could to meet their needs. I thought, "this is the way church is supposed to work!"

I got a letter in the mail last week from a woman in our community who had received a Thanksgiving meal through our Families Loving Families. It is typical of the kinds of letters I get from people in the community from time to time:

"I want to thank you and your church for the wonderful meal. What a blessing it was to my whole family. It was the first meal in 28 years that someone else had cooked for me. It was so delicious...."

After one of our worship services a few weeks ago, I had three different church members approach me to tell me what God was doing in their lives. One had just completed the purchase of land to begin a ministry to help abused teenage girls, the other was excited about a new ministry he was a part of that has a desire to reach into every prison in Oklahoma and the third was a guy who has recently started a ministry for inner city kids utilizing martial arts. I told Teri on the way home, "How great to be a part of a church that gets it!"

I will go into greater detail later, but it seems to me that God is continuing to move our congregation towards three primary objectives that I want to highlight in 2010:

1. A heart for worship
2. A hunger for His word
3. A compassion for the poor
4. A passion for the lost

I believe these are the four values that encompass what God has called us to as we strive together to love all people to Christ and help them on their journey with God and others.

Please continue to pray for our budget needs as we close out the year. The administration office will be open until 5:00 p.m. New Years Eve.

For All The People

2009-12-22T05:08:00.001-08:00

Today I've been thinking about our theme for this advent season, "For All the People". Of course, this is an emphasis on the angels proclamation to the shepherds "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people..." The significance of these words to us is seen in the inclusiveness of the gospel. The angels were making it clear to the world that the gospel was not just for the Jew - that the God of Israel was bringing salvation to all the nations- every tribe and tongue.

The covenant first proclaimed to Abraham was that a Redeemer would come and bless the nations through the Abrahamic seed- that the coming of Christ was the culmination of God's providential plan to bring His kingdom to every corner of the earth.

The gospel has no color barriers, no economic barriers, no language barriers. It is not just for the well connected, the powerful, the privileged and well educated- Jesus was born to a poor Nazareth family in a borrowed animal trough in Bethlehem. It is not an accident that Israel was the backwater of the Roman Empire, that Galilee was the backwater of Israel and that Nazareth was the backwater of Galilee. It not an accident that the first gospel message went out to the shepherds in the field and not heralded to the royal courts in Rome or Athens.

I do think it is a profound point to make that from the very first time the gospel was proclaimed that first Christmas day we were made to understand that the initiative of our mission is to break down every barrier and to embrace every culture.

It is at the heart of the gospel and should always be the passion of our church!

Don't miss the Christmas Eve service this Friday- we have a dynamic worship planned that will emphasize the meaning of the first Christmas proclamation, "for all the people!"

Keeping The Faith

2009-12-14T08:07:00.001-08:00

A few months ago a 7 year old Plain City Utah boy took off in his parents car because he didn't want to go to church. He took the car down the block, turned into a local school parking lot, went for a spin a few times, then headed back home with the police in tow. No arrests were made but I'm sure a couple of commandments were broken.

The father was quoted as saying, "most kids just act like their sick..." The story made national news and video footage of the police chase was viewed on YouTube over 100,000 times.

Who can't relate to a 7 year old who doesn't want to go to church? And what parent can't relate to these parents- although I will say this kid has a little more spunk than most!

But here's to the parents who put their foot down (so to speak).

According to the latest Barna Research Group's research on the longevity of faith, the importance of parents getting their kids in church cannot be overstated. One of the most interesting aspects of the study to me was the link between childhood and teenage church attendance to how that person maintains their walk with Christ later on in life.

The study found that persons who were actively involved in church when they were younger were much more likely to stick it out later in life and to continue to embrace their faith tradition. Those who were less active were much more likely to radically change their beliefs.

I have a couple of thoughts about this study:

First of all, it really does confirm the age old wisdom that if you want to instill values that last a lifetime you must start early. The earlier a child develops a a clear value system and those values are reinforced by other adult influences besides parents, the more grounded that person will become in their faith.

Secondly, I think this study blows the idea that we shouldn't "force" our kids to come to church out of the water. If a parent ascribes to the logic of "My parents made me go to church and I hated it and therefore I'm not going to force that on my kids" they are just assuring that there is a much greater chance that their kids will walk away from their faith.

I like to tell men in premarital counseling, "If your kids have to ask you someday on a Saturday night IF they are going to church the next day, your not being the spiritual leader."

It turns out that the mom and dad who insisted on their kids going to church whether the kids wanted to or not were right all along. After all, we don't apply that same logic to other important issues. You never hear anyone say, "my parents made me brush my teethe therefore I'm not forcing my kids..." Or "my parents insisted that I go to school and I hated it therefore I'm not going to make my kids do it..."

Of course we "force" our kids to do those things that we know are going to be important to them later in life- if we don't we're not doing our job as parents.

No matter what lengths to which they may go to avoid the inevitable!

Making gods Of Ourselves

2009-12-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

The dominant news stories over the past couple of months should remind us of core spiritual issues. The sad headlines points to the overpowering tendency toward self-absorption flowing from our idolatrous hearts.

What do "octo-mom", the weather balloon family in Colorado, the State Dinner crashers in Washington D.C. and the Tiger Woods drama all have in common? They are all just the latest examples of how miserable life can become when one follows selfishness to it's natural conclusion. For anyone who doubts the reality of hell, all you have to do is look closely at the personal hell we take ourselves to if we pursue the idolatry of self all the way through.

Does anyone doubt that Tiger Woods, arguably the most successful and popular athlete in the world a couple of weeks ago knows a little something about where your sinful heart can lead you and what a hell you can create? Follow that path on out into eternity without the presence of even His general grace and the human mind cannot even conceive the misery that results from that depravity.

But when we read stories like we have over the past few weeks, our hearts should cry out, "There, except for the grace of God, go I!" The capacity for all kinds of evil resides in every human heart. It is the flesh that all of us struggle with. And at the heart of it is "overdesire". The tendency to make idols or gods out of those things that can never give us life is at the root of all of our fallenness. It is so pervasive and so much a part of the fabric of our lives we don't even notice it. I know I don't!

Peter Kreeft has said that hell is not just a place of eternal punishment, but something much worse, a place where there is eternal dying- a place where one makes an "eternal ash of himself". It is a place where we indulge our idolatrous hearts - to a miserable, hateful, self indulged infatuation with our own selfish wants and desires. Contrary to what we might think, the opposite of love is not hate, but selfishness.

Adolphe Tanquerey writes, “The enemy of the love of God, of charity, is the love of self. Pride is an inordinate love of self, which causes us to consider ourselves, explicitly or implicitly, as our first beginning and last end. It is a species of idolatry, for we make gods of ourselves….”

Heaven is a place where people are giving themselves away- offering their lives in praise and cointinually taking the focus off of self- and that is where we find heaven in our own lives today. Jesus taught us that to find life we must lose it- to find true joy our lives should be given away. If one does not know giving he does not know love. Charles Swindoll once said, "I have never met a happy getter. I have met a lot of happy givers, but never a happy getter".

So as we come now to the third week of advent we are reminded that the most important and meaningful things that have come into our lives have come as a result of sacrifice and giving. And conversely we are reminded that the more we are drawn into our own selfish desires, the more miserable life becomes.

Thankfulness

2009-11-25T05:47:00.000-08:00

As we've approached the holiday, I've been thinking lately about the necessity of the spiritual quality of thanksgiving. I see this holiday as distinctively Christian in nature because it is rooted in one of the most central spiritual outcomes of the life of grace and was born out of a Christian world view.

Of course I look forward to the holiday for all the obvious reasons- some needed time off and some time with family I haven't seen in a while. It's great to have Taylor home from college for a few days and I always look forward to the annual Thompson football classic.

But this Thanksgiving I am committed to driving home the point to my family that the Christian virtue of thanksgiving is to be so central to the way we live that a holiday celebrating it should be more than just an event- it should be a true celebration of a spiritual outcome that is uniquely brought about by the gospel.

Here's what I mean- I don't really see that one can truly exist in a state of thankfulness unless He has embraced the reality of the cross. To be thankful FOR something we have to have someone to be thankful TO. The Bible says in Romans 1:18-23ff that a person without Christ exists in a state of rebellion against God not just because He has seen the reality of God's existence and denied that reality but that He has seen His grace and has rejected it and is therefore ungrateful.

So when I say that one cannot truly live a life of thankfulness without embracing the gospel I don't mean that a lost person does not feel thankful at times, but that he or she cannot truly know the life of thankfulness without truly knowing and understanding and embracing the ultimate truth of their existence- that Jesus Christ has paid the price for their sin and has become a ransom turning back the wrath of God and giving the regenerated sinner all the glorious benefits and blessing he enjoys.

I know this scriptural truth at the very core of my being. It was not until I embraced the reality of the cross that I was truly set free. Since embracing the reality of the cross every day for me has been a day of perpetual thanksgiving and praise. I can now see that no matter what life might hand me, because I know the ultimate and sustaining love of the Father as demonstrated on the cross, His love is the love I have looked for in every other love and His joy is the joy I have looked for in every other joy and His beauty is the beauty I have looked for in every other beauty. So even in hardship my eternal standing has not changed. I can drop my idols and give up on self righteous ways. The worst things that happen to me he will use for good, the truly good things can't be taken away and the very best is yet to come! Therfore I can say like the Psalmist, "This is the day the Lord has made, we WILL rejoice and be glad in it!" (Psalm 118:24) Thankfulness is an act of the will in response to the overwhelming and sustaining grace of God.

My lack of thankfulness are the result of my idolotary. As John Calvin put it, “Our hearts are perpetual idol factories.” That is precisely what Paul says in Romans 1. Rather than giving thanks, the unbeliever exchanges the glory of God for the glory of corruptible idols. Therefore in my most base idolatrous and fallen state, what I perceive as thankfulness is simply a rehearsing of my desire for things to fill my heart that will never satisfy. Thanksgiving for a lot of people is merely raising a toast to all the idols that are keeping them in bondage.

So I don't truly know thankfulness until I have truly known His grace. Until I know I have been created by Him, given life by Him, sustained in that life by Him, pursued by His grace to find salvation in Him and that the very fact that I know and understand what it is I am thankful for I cannot truly know the meaning of it.

Someone has said that "an atheist is someone who when he feels really thankful, has no one to thank."

This is why when one reads scripture it becomes clear that thankfulness is a central outcome of the life of grace. The Bible says to "always give thanks" (Eph. 5:20), "whatever you do in word or deed, always give thanks..." (Col 3:17). Over and over again the Bible teaches us that the heart of the redeemed believer is characterizd by perpetual thankfulness and joy.

I remember as a young pastor how blown away I was by the words "I am so thankful..." at so many hospital rooms and deathbeds. I have sat with many people who even in the midst of great tragedy were able to say "blessed be the name of the Lord!" I can see now after many years as a pastor that this is what happens as one embraces the cross of Christ. This attitude comes from waht we understand in the gospel in the cross of Christ. As Christians we can see that the worst thing that ever happened was also the best thing that ever happened. Gratitude is one of the purest characteristics of a life that has been captivated by His grace.

I have seen true thankfulness up close and personal in some very surprising places lately. I am a man who has been truly blessed. I have known sorrow but for the most part my life has been comfortable. Teri and I have known what it was like to live without much money but we have never known true poverty. My family is blessed with good health for the most part. We have always had good medical care available to us, a nice roof over our head and food on the table. But I have met people recently who often have none of these things and yet have a joy of the Lord that is beautiful and contageous.

I have met people recently whose lives are characterized by thankfulness and joy in spite of the fact that they are living in the midst of terrible poverty and disease and even at times persecution for their faith. Like the pastors I met in Orissa India who minister in a place where Christians are sometimes killed for proclaiming the gospel and yet they couldn't wait to tell me about what God was doing in their lives. Or like the Christians I met in the Middle East who have seen family members shot dead on their way to a Christian school and yet have chosen to forgive and to love their enemies and pray for them and continually give thanks to God for His grace. Or like the elderly woman I stayed with in Slivia Bulgaria who had been arrested by the Communist government many years ago for illegally practicing her faith and had lost her job and everything she owned and yet possessed the incredible countenance of a woman who loved Jesus with all her heart. Or like the family who has chosen to live in a Delhi slum so they can take care of children and teach them about the incredible riches of God's grace.

This is why I say that for the Christian, thanksgiving is much more than just an event celebrated once a year, it is the dynamic outcome of understanding what Christ has done for us. And that is a reality we celebrate every moment of our lives.

Caleb's Story

2009-11-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

We have many missionary friends around the world who have come out of our church and with whom we have an ongoing partnership. The following email just arrived from one of friends who is working in a large country in Asia. I think it is a story we all need to hear. I have purposely left out the identities of names and places for their protection.

Hello Everyone,

I want to tell you a short story that may turn into a long story. Around twelve days ago, on Nov. 4, in the countryside near where we live, a baby boy was born to a poor village family. He was delivered safely but the family soon realized that he had a birth defect that is very common to this area: he was born without an anus. Many children particularly in this prefecture of our province suffer from this condition. The baby’s stomach becomes distended and bloated and typically the baby dies within a few days of birth.

The family did what most villagers in our area do with unwanted or deformed babies: they abandoned the boy outside in a desolate area to die of exposure and starvation. It sounds very cruel to us, and certainly it was a very wicked thing to do, but imagine yourself in their situation. I don’t want to justify what they did. I want only to illustrate the injustice in our world that left them with so few options.

My wife and I were talking about what if we were living back in Oklahoma or California and had this baby how different his situation would be. He first of all would have been born in a warm and dry hospital where literally dozens of qualified doctors and nurses could have immediately diagnosed his situation and taken the necessary steps to repair his defect. We would have medical insurance that would cover his expensive bills, and we could probably count on the generous support of our church (whether it be FBC, CRBC, or SFMBC) to visit and encourage us in the hospital, pray for us, cook meals for us, and even help us with any other expenses incurred in the process.

Caleb by contrast was probably born in a freezing cold concrete or dirt floor bedroom with no medically trained personnel of any kind. His parents have no insurance, probably subsist on less than 300 USD a year, live hours away from any hospital (and it’s probably the kind of hospital most of us from the western world wouldn’t even want to think about going into even if we were very ill). The government here only allows them one child which means most crippled or deformed babies are abandoned in the hopes of having a healthy one next time. His parents have no Christian brothers and sisters to speak truth and hope into their lives. In short they were hopeless and desperate people, so they left their son outside to die.

As it sometimes happens in these awful situations, God intervened for Caleb, much in the same he did for the girl child (Israel) of Ezekiel 16. It so happened that an anonymous farmer was ambling by on his way to cut wood or tend livestock when he heard a baby crying. He found Caleb lying on the ground freezing and starving to death and for some reason his heart was moved with pity. So he gathered him up and brought him to our city to the orphanage hoping that at least Caleb could die with a roof over his head. The orphanage here is not a nice, bright, well-funded operation like we’re used to in the U.S. It’s a small grim place where only a few kindly women work. When they took a look at Caleb, they knew in their hearts that his case was hopeless. To feed and nurture him would only make the pain caused by the blockage of his bowels increase. They decided to put him in a small room in the back on a counter away from the other children and wait for him to die in few days.

As near as we can tell that’s the story of how Caleb’s life begun and was supposed to end. We don’t know who his parents are, where they live, or even who the nice farmer was who brought him to the orphanage. Much of what is in this story concerning his parents is guesswork based on the social circumstances and customs of this place. What we do know is that a farmer found this deformed baby abandoned in the field and brought him to the orphanage. The orphanage workers will tell you that most of the children who come to them, come to them via someone like the nice farmer finding them unwanted in the open country. From this point though his story becomes much more clear.

Again left for dead and written off as hopeless by the orphanage workers God rescued Caleb again. There are two European girls here who are also involved in the same kind of work we are but with a different organization. They’re both single in their late twenties, and were crazy enough to follow God to the other side of the world rather than lead a life of comfortable ease like most of their peers at home. Anyways, these girls are in the habit of visiting the orphanage and playing with the children there every Saturday. In fact my wife and I were over at their house this last Friday, the 13th, for dinner and briefly talked with them about their plans to go to the orphan house the next day.

When they got to the orphanage the next day, they were surprised to hear the sounds of a baby crying coming from the back since all the children at this orphanage are big kids, not babies. The ladies tried to keep our friends from finding the starving baby in the back, but they wouldn’t be denied and when they discovered him and began to feel the terrible hopelessness of his situation, they refused to believe it. Their reasoning was if God had sustained this child thus far when he’s been twice cast aside maybe He will work some more miracles for him. After much pleading and haranguing, the girls managed to convince the orphanage to sign the baby over into their foster care.

Once in charge of the babies the girls flew into action. They quickly named they boy Caleb and rushed him to the capital city in our province, bought airline tickets and were hoping to fly the baby to a bigger more modern city where the baby could receive better treatment than is available in our somewhat backwater province. However, as one of the girls was preparing to board the plane with Caleb, airline officials came and notified her that she would not be allowed to take the baby because: 1) they did not want the baby to die on their plane and 2) they were afraid despite the orphanage’s paperwork that perhaps Caleb was being kidnapped. This meant that Caleb would have to take his chances with the local hospital in our capitol city.

Yesterday, Caleb underwent an emergency surgery. The doctors told our exhausted friend, who had stayed up all night with Caleb, that his chances for survival were almost nil. For one thing, the operation is very invasive, and to complicate matters, Caleb’s blood pressure had already dropped dreadfully low. In fact, it was so low that the doctor said he would not even consider the operation if he didn’t know for sure that Caleb would die without it. In our local Sunday morning group we all spent considerable time in prayer, but one of the girls told me that there was not a lot of hope…we should have known better.

Guess what? Today we heard that Caleb had, despite the doctors predictions and our own fears, been brought through by God’s hand again. The doctor successfully created a colostomy for Caleb and another opening for him. He remains in very critical condition, and he certainly isn’t out of the woods yet, but every hour he survives is a victory and he is one step closer to making it.

Is our God amazing? Isn’t He a father to the fatherless? Is He not a God who defies our descriptions and expectations? Can anyone save like Him? Who brings hope to the hopeless if not He? Should God in his providence continue to uphold Caleb don’t you really believe that his life will be one miraculous praise song to God? I want to ask all of you to pray for Caleb right now and every day for the rest of his life. In his short life, he has walked closer to death than most of us ever have, and I am so curious to see what becomes of him. The best case scenario is that he pulls through this and his follow-up surgeries and, in a year or two, someone adopts him, maybe even somebody reading this e-mail.

I also should mention that my two friends who are taking care of him aren’t exactly swimming in cash and have undertaken this attempt to save his life with no idea how they are going to get the money to cover all his medical bills and other expenses. Please no pressure at all, and they would much rather have your prayers than your money, but if anyone does feel the Spirit’s leading to give, you can contact us and I’ll try to find how we can connect some of your generosity to the girls’ needs in looking after Caleb.

For information on how to help, email info@councilroad.org.

lessons from India

2009-11-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

What if I were to tell you that in India there are over 400 million who have not even heard the gospel? What if I were to tell you that in the Middle East, there are over 175 million unreached unengaged people? Do those numbers surprise you?

They do me.

When one considers that there are more lost people in these parts of the earth than there are actual people in the United States it puts the world's darkness in perspective. This is why I believe it is absolutely essential for a church like ours that is serious about embracing the Great Commission cause to put energy and resources where they are most effective. One part of the answer is to support the missions efforts of the IMB- the largest missions sending organization in the world. The mission of the IMB is to plant churches around the world but especially in the places where the gospel has not yet reached. Another part of the solution is to support other para-church organizations that God is raising up to fill in the gaps that are not a part of the IMB strategy. Global Action, as an example, does not have the same priority of planting churches, but has developed a simple philosophy of connecting resources to national leaders who have ministry ideas but who don't have the means to accomplish them.

It is those kinds of missions objectives that Kyle and I were able to see up close and personal on our trip to India.

Like the ministry in Calcutta that cares for children in the slum near the convent founded by Mother Teresa. This ministry of Global Action not only cares for the physical need of the poorest of the poor in the slum, but they also give these children an education and teach them of the love of Christ. This is a ministry that is truly having an impact on the physical and spiritual needs in this dark and desperate place. You get the sense as you are observing this ministry that these are the places to which Jesus would be drawn.

Or like the evangelical church in which I was privileged to preach that is positioned right smack dab in the middle of the Calcutta slum surrounded by hordes of beggars, trash dumps, card board houses on sidewalks, and scattered Hindu temples and shrines. I was surprised when over 200 people filled the church, enthusiastically worshiped for over 2 hours, shared testimonies and sang with great joy and gave praise to God.

Or like the conference Kyle and I attended for young pastors in Ranji who are proclaiming the gospel in a part of India that has very little Christian presence. We sat with them all day in a small hotel in this city of about 500,000 as they listened intently, took notes and enthusiastically shared what Christ is doing in their churches. One gets the sense that even in the places around the world where there are very few Christians, God is at work. The Spirit is moving. And in those places where He is at work, we want to join with Him.

All of us have a mission. All of us who call upon the name of Christ are missionaries in our mission field. We are all given the responsibility of loving all people to Christ and helping them on their journey with God and others. But in addition to the mission field that we all live and work in every day, we also have an even greater responsibility to take the gospel where it has not yet been proclaimed. To take His commission seriously is to ask ourselves "where has this gospel not yet been proclaimed?" and "Who will proclaim it if we do not take the responsibility?" If we are to "make disciples of all the nations" we must take a decidedly proactive approach. There is no greater joy or greater objective that any of us could commit.

We are to have a local impact AND a global impact. That is the purpose we are all given and it is a purpose worth giving our lives to accomplish. This is just one of the lessons God has taught me in my trips to India and the Middle East.

one simple idea

2009-10-25T00:32:00.000-07:00

The best ideas are the simplest, it seems to me. Most of the things we enjoy in life are the result of someone taking complex ideas and narrowing them down to the simplest solution. They are the result of people asking questions like "I wonder if we could bring light into this room at night without having to light a fire?" or "Wouldn't it be great if we could find a way to communicate to others and actually hear their voice?" Even our modern inventions are simple ideas that are worked through a matrix of complex solutions. "How could we make a device that is a phone, a computer, a camera and connects to the internet?" is an example.

The simple ideas with profoundly accessible solutions are the most brilliant.

This is why I love the work of Global Action in India. The ideas they employ that drive the organization are very simple. The idea is to connect the resources of believers around the world who God has blessed with Christian ministry taking place in the most desperate parts of the earth. The idea is to connect believers that have the ability to give but don't know where, to the beleivers in third world countries who know how to do the work but don't know where to find the resources.

This is how the Motipur Hope Center was started. Lars Dunberg, the founder of Global Action, met Daniel Suban, the Indian pastor who had a dream of taking care of orphaned children from the streets of India in the rural setting of Motipur, far from the horriblly populated slums that exist in every major city here. Dunberg liked the idea, and he could see that Daniel was a good leader and had the passion necessary for the job. So Daniel provided the ability and the passion, and Lars and Global Action provided the resources and organization.

The result just three years later is a church, a soon to be clinic, a school and a Chidren's Home for about 50 beautiful children who have been pulled off the streets of Lucknow, Kalkota and Delhi. The children here are taken care of by house parents who love them with the love of Christ and teach them to read and write and to learn English. The future plan is to teach them a vocational skill and to train them to excell to the degree of one day furthering their education. The newly constructed church is the only Christian comminty for many hundreds of miles among a huge poplutation of Muslims and Hindu.

When Michael Butler and I traveled here two years ago, we both felt that there was a great purpose for us seeing this Hope Center. We knew that God wanted us to spread the message and to encourage our church and other churches to join in with Global Action to accomplish the task. The school was up and running, but to finish the job Western Christians needed to help shoulder the load. Since that time our church and other churches in our area and Christian businessmen and women from Oklahoma City have contributed around $50,000 toward this work. With that investment Global Action has been able to construct 6 homes for the children.

This week new land was purchased to begin construction for a clinic that will provide medical care for hundreds of thousands of people in the region who currently have no access to a hospital or doctor.

One of the most remarkable things our team has witnessed here happened on the second afternoon we were in Motipur. Women from the Muslim village near by came to the Hope Center to express their gratitude to this Christian ministry for building the clinic. They came bearing gifts of flower necklaces. They sat in front of us for several minutes and sang song after song of joy and appreciation. Lars addressed them and told them that we are building this clinic because we love them and Jesus loves them.

The fame of the name of Christ is beginning to penetrate the spiritual bondage of this dark land.

One can see the effectiveness of a simple idea in a single blanket. A couple of years ago, Sheba Suban, the daughter of Pastor Daniel, was in a village near Motipur talking to the children. One of the little girls, who had no clothes to wear other than rags her family had wrapped around her body told Sheba that when she came back she would like her to bring a "suiter".

Sheba wondered what she might have meant by a "suiter", when it occurred to her that she was using the English word "sweater". When the profound meaning of that question dawned on her, it broke her heart. The winters in this part of India, at the base of the Himalaya mountains gets very cold. Over 10,000 people last year in this area alone died of exposure. The girl was asking for something to keep her warm.

To Global Action the solution to this was very simple. Tell Western Chrisitans that for only five bucks, the price of a venti Latte from Starbucks, they could buy a blanket and save a life.

This year Global Action has raised close to 50,000 dollars to send 10,000 blankets to India. Our group was the first group to begin the distribution.

I have had many great experiences here in India. But what I experienced at that distribution stands out as one of the most touching. Our group was welcomed as honored guests to the village. The elder spoke a few words and then Pastor Daniel proclaimed the message of Christ. Our team of Americans sat one side of the circle, and the villagers on the other side. Christians on one side and Muslims on the other. Americans on one side, Indians sitting on the opposite. Two groups from opposite ends of the earth, separated for most of our lives by a seeming insurmountable ethnic, religious, socio-economic and cultural gap. In between were laid the blankets, bought by American Christians for the sake of distributing them out of Christ's love. As Pastor Daniel spoke, the people nodded in approval and appreciation for the expressions of love and the proclamation of the gospel. And then the two groups were brought together as the gifts of the blankets were exchanged. One by one our group came forward and met villagers in the middle and wrapped the blankets around their shoulders and told them that Jesus loved them. They did not hear or comprehend our words but the felt our touch and the warmth of the blanket. They looked in our eyes and expressed their appreciation and joy. In that moment the incredible gulf that had separated us was bridged. We were brought together by a simple 5 dollar blanket. But much more profoundly we were brought together by the love of Christ.

Such a simple idea. A 5 dollar blanket. Five dollars that most of us would spend in a day and not give a second thought to it. A simple blanket much like the stacks of blankets most of us have in our closets at home. But to the people living here that blanket represents survival in the winter.

Such a simple idea. But the simplest ideas are often the ones that change the world.

light in the darkness

2009-10-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

"I've been here four times now" my new friend from Cuba tells me as we are walking away from the Delhi slum, dodging piles of cow refuse, trash and potholes in the dirt alleyways. We have just left one of 8 ministry centers for children that is situated right smack dab in the middle of a glorified garbage dump that is home to hundreds of thousands of India's poorest families in what is referred to as the Delhi slum. If you have seen the movie, you would recognize this as a place of ministry for the "slumdogs". Each day hundreds of children are cared for, prayed over, fed and taught how to read write and speak English- a language that may help them to find a job some day. They are taught these things as they learn the scriptures and as they experience the abundant and joyous love of Christ.

My Cuban friend tells me that everytime she comes to this place she feels the sting. The sting of pain that comes to a mother's heart as she holds little babies who are hungry and have nothing to eat. "I have five children" she says to me with her eyes tearing up, "I breast fed all of them and always fed them many times a day before they even had a chance to cry".

She goes on to explain why it is such an important journey for her.

"I come back here because I believe this is a part of the abundant life too- to come to places like this and to see the poverty and reach out and touch it and to let it sting. I never want to forget that their are little babies in places like this that are hungry and looking for their mommies and they are nowhere to be found."

"I never want for it to not sting- because that would mean my heart has grown cold."

I know what she means. The sting of pain that is felt when one first experiences the overwhelming poverty of this slum is one that I believe comes from the heart of Christ. This certainly is a place that Christ had in mind when he said "if you have not done it to the least of my children you have not done it unto me..."

For any person who would ever doubt the love of Christ and the impact of His work, this place is a shining example of how light penetrates darkness. There is no darkness as dark as this darkness. And there is no love that shines brighter than in this place. It shines brightly in the hearts of the two Indian believers who are leading the ministry. Allen and Vaneta have lived here with their young family for the past 12 years for the sole purpose of taking care of the children of the slum and to reflect the love of Christ.

And they are doing this by literally living in the garbage dump with their small children, raising them alongside the untouchables in a place that most of us would not want to bring our children for more than a few hours at a time for fear of what they might be exposed to.

Their family sleeps and eats in the rooms attached to the ministry center. Their children sleep on cots on the floor without running water or any of the conveniences that most middle class children in India enjoy. Though they are both well educated and speak very good English and could find quality jobs almost anywhere else in the world, they choose to live in the Delhi slum for the sake of the gospel.

Sheeba Subhan, our friend from Global Action tells us that several months ago she told Vaneta that she should move away and drive in every day to take care of the children. "You don't have to live here." She told her. Vaneta said without hesitating, "We want to live here. We would never live anywhere else, this is where our heart is. We want to live among the children."

For most of us this kind of choice seems somewhat counter-intuitive. It makes no sense.

But somehow when you are here and experience all the bright smiles against the sadness and all the suffering alongside the joy and when you feel the sting and sense the boundless love of Christ that comes from a ministry like this, it all makes sense. Somehow you understand. they are doing what comes naturally when one is totally immersed in the gospel.

Our time at the ministry ended with a story from a 17 year old girl who has just started working on the staff. Punim first came to the slum ministry as a little girl living on the street at 5 years old. A few years ago she embraced the gospel and became a Christian. She asked for prayers as she continues to reach out to her Hindu family- many of whom are not pleased that she has left their traditional religion and converted to Christianity. She told us of how important the ministry has become to her and how it is like family. She has decided to devote her life to caring for the children of the slum. What makes Pumim's story so remarkable is that she is presently the youngest student of the Glomas training- a kind of seminary equivelent for Indian students who are interested in fulltime ministry.

As I watch this beautiful young girl, face glowing with the joy of the Lord explain how Christ has changed her life in one of the most desperate places on the planet, it occurs to me that truly the gospel is reaching into every dark corner. The sting of pain and misery and hunger is still here.

But there is a light shining in the darkness.

global action

2009-10-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I went on the Board of Trustees for "Global Action". This is an international missions organization our church is associated with that specializes in partnering with Great Commission Christians to accomplish Kingdom purposes among some of the most marginalized and desperate people groups on the planet. Their objective is not just to help meet physical and economic needs, but also to strengthen the local church in those targeted areas for the proclamation of the gospel. I am a big believer in Global Action because of the their excellent training and sending module and their ability to get resources where they are needed quickly with very little red tape and administrative cost.

Last week some of our Global Action friends were in town to update us on our work in Motipur where we have a home for homeless children called "The Hope Center" and where we are preparing to distribute thousands of blankets before winter sets in. This is a part of the world where people regularly die of exposure and a simple blanket costing only about 5 bucks can literally save a life. As Lars Duberg likes to say, "For the price of a Starbucks coffee you can save a life!"

In two weeks Kyle Pewitt and I will travel to India to tour some of the ministries Global Action has in the cities of Dehli, Lucknow and Calcutta in additoin to our Hope Center in Motipur. We will visit churches and ministries where national believers are giving their lives to help people who literally have nothing to give in return. In addition, we will connect with some of our IMB friends along the way.

Why do we have a minstries in these places? After all, we have lostness and economic and social needs here at home in the states. The simple answer is that these are the places where the worlds lostness is most severe. Christ has called us to proclaim the gospel in every dark corner of the earth. These regions are some of the most unreached areas on the planet. Additionally, these are the places where the poverty and social needs are most desperate and overwhelming. We may not be able to change the whole world, but we can change the world for a few. This is what God calls us to do as long as we have breath and as long as there is at least one person on earth who has not heard the gospel.

For more information on Global Action, click here.

a morning lesson

2009-09-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

This morning I spent a good half hour trying to rescue a hummingbird out of my garage. The crazy bird was literally beating it's head against the wall trying to find an escape. It had mistaken the circle of light reflecting on to the ceiling cast by the garage door light for the dawning sunlight outside. I know it sounds crazy to higher life forms like us- but the creature was so fascinated by the substitute light reflecting on the garage wall that it could not see that a few feet away was true sunlight and freedom!

Crazy, crazy stuff. How I pity these lower life forms.

I mean, seriously... if only this bird could think like humans- then he could clearly see that if you only follow those things that substitute for the true light, you will continually flap your wings and bang your head over and over again against the wall- it will get you nowhere in life. You will be trapped by your meaningless pursuits.

There is no freedom in that. There is only one true light.

What to do?

I considered my options. A net? No good- the tiny bird could easily be permanently injured by the net and thus the rescue itself could do more harm than good. A towel to throw over it? We used to catch bats this way when we lived in Texas. But again- not the way to catch a hummingbird.

I could just leave the creature to it's own demise. After all, the poor foolish bird had chosen it's course. But somehow the more I got involved with the tiny creature's plight, the more I felt the need to show grace- to help it to find it's way. Perhaps because I am constantly aware of how I have been shown grace.

Of course by now you can see that I was identifying with the hummingbird- having been there myself many times. I recognized that crazy struggle it was in- those wings were flapping hard against the wall. The little guy was wearing itself out. Boy do I know what it's like to beat your head against the wall and to work feverishly to no end!

Finally, an idea- turn off all the lights in the garage, open one door and wait for the bird to see that there is only one true light.

Sure enough- this was how the little bird was liberated.

It finally saw the light when it realized that all the other lights had gone out.

It wasn't until all the other lights in the room that had captured it's attention and had caused its many meaningless and fruitless attempts to find freedom had gone away, that the bird was able to focus it's attention on the one true light.

In a flash, the bird was out the door and disappeared into the morning sky.

Such simple creatures, those hummingbirds.

It takes one to know one I guess.

I stood there for a few seconds watching the bird fly away thanking God for this mornings lesson.

This coming Sunday I will be teaching on Matthew 5:27-29- the passage of scripture in which Jesus teaches about the folly of an adulterous life. I want all of our parents to be fairly warned- because of the subject matter, I don't feel it will be appropriate for children 5th grade and under to be in the room for this teaching. This is a Sunday you will want to put your children in our excellent Children's Worship program on the third floor.

over-desire

2009-08-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Galatians 5:16)

This year God has been teaching me about my over-desires.

The word translated "lust" or "sinful nature" in Galatians 5:16 is the word "sarx" in the Greek which has a meaning that is not easily translated into the English language. When we think of "lust" in our language, we think of "sinful desire for evil things", when in fact the word means "over-desire for good things".

So when I walk by the Spirit and not by my "sinful nature" I am living in a way that does not give in to my idolatrous nature. The doctrine of sin teaches us that our problem is that we make idols of good things. As John Piper has said, "All human relational problems—from marriage and family to friendship to neighbors to classmates to colleagues—all of them are rooted in various forms of idolatry, that is, wanting things other than God in wrong ways."

So when I think of "lust of the flesh" I should not just think of sexual sin- I should think of the sin of over-desiring the good things in life.

For example:

A Christian businessman can make his job his idol and over-desire the good things his career can bring. Therefore when things go wrong at work he is condemned by the god he has created.

A parent can have an over-desire for her kids well-being. Not that wanting the best for our kids is a bad thing, but when we make it the meaning and purpose of our lives, putting it in the place of God, then it becomes an idol to us. So if things don't turn out just right- the god of "wanting what's best for my kids" will continually strike us down and condemn us.

A pastor can over-desire good things for his church.

A student can over-desire good grades and success at school.

A husband can over-desire a dream marriage.

A retiree can over-desire good things for his retirement.

Anything that we seek to enjoy in the wrong way can become an idol to us and anything we put in the place of God will end up condemning us. Our problem is not that we have sinful desires for evil things but that we have over-desires for good things.

God is teaching me that this is one of the most important teachings of scripture- it is in fact the core issue of our lives. Our problem is that we are terribly idolatrous and that we desperately need to pull our hearts away from our idols and toward the one thing that will not distort them meaning of our lives.

great commission resurgence

2009-08-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

At last summer's Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary made a motion that the convention respond to a growing sense of purpose and direction that had grown out of a sermon preached by Dr. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary in their chapel service entitled "Axioms for a Great Commission Resurgence". The axioms proposed in that sermon would later become the principles in a more refined document that was embraced by the new president of the convention, Dr. Johnny Hunt and several other leaders of the convention including Thom Rainer, James Merritt, Mark Devers Ed Stetzer, and others.

The motion by Dr. Mohler to form a GCR committee to study structural changes to be made in response was overwhelmingly approved by the convention.

I have just recently studied this document and thought through the ramifications of it both as a local pastor and as a trustee for the International Mission Board. I believe the document is more than mere bureaucratic blather- I believe it is an honest attempt to make necessary changes to set the convention on the right course. The timing is right for change. Many would say it is past time for change. I talk to young pastors on a regular basis who are less than enthusiastic by what they have seen in the convention in recent years.

For this reason I have decided to sign the document and pray for the committee as they prepare to bring a report to next years convention. You can do the same here.

You can read the full document here.

self inflicted wounds

2009-07-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

A good friend came to community group Sunday night with a black eye (I wouldn't want to embarrass him by giving his true identity but if any of you saw Steve Duty at church last Sunday the black eye looked kinda like his), and so we asked for an explanation. He confessed that it was self inflicted. He told us how he had been attacked by wasps in his barn and out of anger tried to take care of the one that was stinging him just below the eye by inexplicably balling up his own fist and giving it a good wack.

He missed the wasp but nearly knocked himself out.

I know it had to hurt- he said he thought he had broken his nose in the process- but the full explanation with physical demonstration was rapturously funny. It took awhile for our group to regain composure.

I've been thinking today about self inflicted wounds.

Not the physical ones but the emotional and spiritual ones. These are the wounds much less obvious and more difficult to heal.

Let's face it- most of the wounds we experience are the ones we bring upon ourselves. The Bible teaches that the core issue we deal with in our fallen condition is the problem of idolatry which is the ultimate self inflicted wound. Idolatry is the act of putting something at the center of my heart that continually strikes me down. If there is anything at the center of my affections other than Christ Himself, that thing will destroy me- it will crush me to the ground.

Today I had a conversation with a young man who told me of a struggle with depression and anxiety- he wondered if his problem was spiritual warfare. "Of course" I told him, "but the core issue is your idolatry."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

I told him that most people misunderstand idolatry as being some benign object of worship- they think of a golden calf or one of the millions of Hindu gods or goddesses- but not of anything related to their own life. But there is a reason the first two commandments deal with the issue of our idolatry and that the other 8 are simply manifestations of the first two. We are all terribly idolatrous and that is our core issue. It is by far our biggest problem. This is way I am constantly telling people "your problem is not really the problem you think it is- it is deeper than you think." We are stung by it every day and are constantly having to fight it's influence over us.

An idol is anything I have placed in my life other than Christ that I believe will give me significance and meaning. It is whatever causes me to say "If I lose everything else, at least I have this..."

Whatever "this" is, is your idol.

It is what you do not believe you can live without it. And if it's not God, it will destroy you.

So if you are feeling depression or anxiety it is most likely because your idol is condemning you.

I once had a conversation with a girl who struggled with doubts about her salvation. She showed all the signs of a committed Christian and yet she felt constantly condemned. After talking through her doubts it became clear that instead of relying on His grace, she was focused on living up to the high standards her parents had set for her.

She was guilty of idolatry.

Her idol was the projection of the person her parents wanted her to be and therefore she was constantly condemned by it. She was not living by His grace, she was stuck in the bondage of religious idolatry and yet she looked to everyone who knew her like a committed believer.

Her wounds were self inflicted.

And so were the young man's who told me today he was feeling depression and wondered if it was spiritual warfare. He wondered what God was trying to tell him through all of this. I told him "God wants you to put away your idols and accept His loving grace and love and serve Him because of His great love for you and stop serving an idol that is constantly condemning you."

Life should hurt at times. At times we should feel a little depressed or a little anxiety. Certainly the wasps will sting- but we should not be struck down by the natural ebb and flow of this life.

If you lose your job it should hurt but if it devastates you it's probably because your career has become an idol.

If you lose a relationship it should be painful but if you fall into a deep depression it is likely because that relationship is what was giving you meaning and purpose and joy in this life. That relationship had become an idol and now your idol is condemning you.

We go through normal emotions in the natural course of this life but when Christ is not at the center we go through idolotrously magnified feelings of depression and anxiety and hopelessness and that is our deepest self inflicted wound.

The Psalmist put it this way:

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

It is a good question. A question I ask myself a lot.

If our hope is in anything else, we are like a guy I know who nearly knocked himself out while trying to swat a wasp- our deepest wounds will be self inflicted.

the first step

2009-07-20T09:12:00.001-07:00

There is great power in a single step of determination. Like the old Chinese proverb says, "A trip of a thousand miles begins with a single step". It really is true that every advance we make along our life's journey begins with a single act of determination.

I remember well the first steps my kids have taken. The first time they balanced on two feet- the first nervous jump into the pool, the first time they pedaled out on their bikes. All of these milestones are celebrated mightily, because we parents know the importance of that very first act of determination- it is the most important step.

Forty years ago today Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, immortalized that moment with these words,

"One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

That was one step that none of us who were alive during that time will ever forget. It was a step that seemed to recalibrate the way we saw the world and saw ourselves. From that point on people around the world would say things like "Well, if we can put a man on the moon, surely we can _______".

There is great power in a single step.

But as important as that event was to human history, it pales in comparison to the first step Jesus took toward Jerusalem recorded in Luke 9:51. In this passage the Bible says that Jesus "set His face toward Jerusalem..." He was, in other words, determined to take that first step toward what He knew would be arrest, trial and crucifixion. It was the first step toward the most important event in any of our lives. From that first step came sacrifice, atonement, resurrection and new life. The most important event in all of our lives began with a first step.

It was truly a small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind.

Yes it is true, any of the good that comes into our lives has been the result of the determination of a first step.

All of this to say that the rest of your life is ahead of you- the journey laid out in front of you , whether it be of a thousand miles or a million or just a mile or two from where you are right now, all begins in the determination of the first step.

God, give us men

2009-07-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

I know that preachers are given to platitudes and gross generalities at times- so at the risk of maintaining that sad stereotype I want to make what may seem to you a sweeping observation about our culture: in my opinion one of the biggest problems we have in modern American culture if not THE biggest problem is the curse of the adolescent male.

And I'm not talking about teenage boys.

I'm talking about grown men who act like teenagers. I'm talking about men who have never grown up- men who are ruled more by their hormones than they are their back bone. I know this is not a new problem, but I do think that it is at least a growing problem.

Consider the headlines of the past few weeks:

* June 21: South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, husband and father of four, leaves the state over Father's Day weekend without telling anyone where he is going. After at first saying he was hiking in the Appalachians, he later admits to flying to Argentina to hook up with a girlfriend.

* July 4: Former Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair is shot four times while in bed with his girlfriend in the apartment he provided for her. Although McNair had a wife and kids at home, it is now known that he had more than one girlfriend. A Minneapolis newspaper has reported, "McNair had been a frequent visitor to a local strip club and had an intimate and extramarital relationship with an exotic dancer for about six years. 'She liked money and athletes,' the former business manager said on condition of anonymity. 'She went out with athletes before. She was one of those girls who said, 'You're married? You have kids? So what?' Lets have fun.'

* July 9: Nevada Senator John Ensign, the only Pentecostal in the U.S. Senate and an active supporter of Promise Keepers, a husband and father of three, admits to an extramarital affair with one of his campaign aids. It is later learned that his father, a casino mogul in Las Vegas, paid his mistresses family 96,000 dollars.

* July 7: Perhaps the most dramatic example of a prominent adult male who never really grew out of his adolescence is Michael Jackson, whose incredible musical career was overshadowed by his sad and terribly tragic personal life, characterized by countless cosmetic surgeries and fixation on Peter Pan. Jackson died in an apparent drug induced Neverland stupor millions of dollars in debt and struggling with bouts of deep depression. His subsequent funeral, paid for by the city of Los Angeles, was more of an extravaganza than a memorial service and cost an estimated 1.4 million dollars.

Some will say that this is not a trend in the making- that these are the kinds of things that have always gone on and that we are living in an information age in which an explosion of scandal is constantly barraging public consciousness that in other times would not have been known or reported. To that I would confess that I am somewhat but not completely naive to human nature and our societies somewhat scandalous history.

But I see other signs that the moral fabric of society is beginning to fray that go beyond these latest and most obvious examples. There are many more prominent examples that are impacting our culture that we can see and feel every day- like the fact that most babies born in Oklahoma county are born into homes needing government assistance and that the large majority of them are single moms. Like the fact that men are marrying late or not marrying at all. Recently, the New York Times reported:

Once, virtually all Americans had married by their mid-40's. Now, many American men without college degrees find themselves still single as they approach middle age. About 18 percent of men ages 40 to 44 with less than four years of college have never married, according to census estimates. That is up from about 6 percent a quarter-century ago. Among similar men ages 35 to 39, the portion jumped to 22 percent from 8 percent in that time. At virtually every level of education, fewer Americans are marrying. But the decline is most pronounced among men with less education. Even marriage rates among female professionals over 40 have stabilized in recent years.

Like the fact that most violent crimes against society are by angry, adolescent men.

Like the fact that the large majority of men in prison were raised by their moms and did not have a father at home and that nearly 100% of men on death row admit to either hating or not knowing their dads.

It may not be an epidemic, but it is at the very least a growing crises. And this is why I say it may very we be THE biggest problem in culture.

All of this leads me to simply say that it seems to me that one of the greatest challenges for the church in the future will be the discipleship of men. We need fathers and men of God who influence young men without fathers to step up and teach what it means to be a real man.

Real men provide for their family.

Real men don't cheat on their wives.

Real men, like my own father and his father before him, love their wives all their lives and care and support their families and sacrifice for them and though not perfect, live responsible and humble lives and pass down their faith to the next generation.

Just because you can play football for a living it doesn't mean your a real man.

Just because you have political power it doesn't mean you are a real man.

Just because you make millions as an entertainer it doesn't mean your a real man.

A man, a real man, leads courageously, accepts responsibility, rejects passivity and expects God's reward, not his own reward. A real man rejects the tendency toward selfishness and irresponsibility as characterized by the first Adam and is called toward the adventure of living like the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

And though the man who strives to live like Christ within Christian community is not always perfect and often falls short, give me that man who is plugging away at work and loving his family and being faithful to his wife and leading and serving in the church EVERY TIME over the spectacular examples of failing male role models we so often have in current culture.

Josiah Gilbert Holland wrote the following the late 1800s.

GOD, give us men! A time like this demands: Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;; Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;: Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue: And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog: In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

What was certainly true then, is even more true today.

don't blink

2009-07-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Kenny Chesney sings a song I like called "Don't Blink". In the song he describes a meeting with a 100 year old man who when asked his advice about life said simply, "Don't blink..."

We were having dinner the other night with some very close friends that I have known since High School when someone in the crowd mentioned they were turning 50 next year. Although I will not reach that milestone for a couple of years, the sound of it in that moment was kind of shocking. Now I know that that age (the one with the 5 followed by the 0) is coming and has been coming, one year at time, for some time now. And I don't really think of myself as being old, but I do distinctively remember my much younger past self thinking that 50 something was way on the other side of over the hill.

Boy... was my much younger past self ever mistaken! I mean, good grief, I'm not even close to being old. I like what Yogi Berra once asked, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?" Old is always about 20 years older than what you are right now, I've learned.

I have learned existentially what I have always only partially known in theory- and that is that life on earth goes quickly. Truly, it is a "vapor of smoke". Chesney is right- we can't blink or we'll miss it.

James Orchard Halliwell wrote in 1842:

Solomon Grundy,

Born on a Monday,

Christened on Tuesday,

Married on Wednesday,

Took ill on Thursday,

Grew worse on Friday,

Died on Saturday,

Buried on Sunday.

This is the end

Of Solomon Grundy

Yep. Life is short.

But it is ordained by God to be that way. In His providence and goodness He has numbered our days on earth. Every single one of us is given as much time, no more and no less, to accomplish His good purposes and it is in those purposes that we find true meaning and joy and happiness.
And so, this being true, it stands to reason that if we complain about the shortness of our days we are in a sense committeing a form of blasphemy- we are telling God He's gotten it wrong. But truly, God knows what He is doing and each of us has been assigned exactly the right number of days for His providential plan.

God has a purpose for my life and He has given me all I need to accomplish it.

There is nothing more important than that. That was true for me at 18 and it is still true at 48.

A few years ago, scientists at John Hopkins University surveyed nearly 8,000 college students at forty-eight universities and asked what they considered “very important” to them. What would you guess was most important? Make a lot of money? Get married? Get a job? Buy a home?

Surprisingly, only 16 percent answered “making a lot of money.”

But a whopping 75 percent said that their first goal was “finding a purpose and meaning to my life".

It just goes to show that most college students today and most people know instinctively what is most important- but it doesn't mean they will actually act on what they know to be true. My experience tells me that most people do not believe they have yet discovered their purpose. The key is to find it, embrace it, and to give your life to it.

But don't blink.

"we can't help but proclaim the good news"

2009-06-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday during our all important Sunday afternoon nap I was shaken out of my slumbering bliss by the rude sound of our doorbell going off- and not just once, but three, four times. It was the trademark inquiry of my little nephew Steven who lives down the street.

I am thinking to myself as I rush toward the front door, "I'm gonna have to teach little Steven about the Sunday afternoon 'no doorbell' rule".

I throw the door open and sure enough there he is in his 7 year old glory, toe-headed and toothy grin flanked by a few of his best neighborhood buddies. They stand there staring at me, rip sticks in hand.

"Hello Boys", I say

"Hello Steven."

Before I can get my prepared speech out of my mouth, Steven says

"Hey Uncle Rick, I brought a few of my friends over so that you could tell them the story of how Jesus came into my life at VBS and how Jesus can come into their life too."

Funny how your perspective changes in a time like that. Sunday afternoon naps will come and go- but this is a moment for the ages.

Later in the day Teri asked me about the doorbell rings during the sacred Sunday afternoon "no fly zone". I told her, "Wait till you here the story..."

"Oh man!" She said- "That's definitely worthy of nap interruption!"

Steven and his entourage swept past me as the erstwhile neighborhood evangelist led them up the stairs to the family room like a mother goose shews her goslings to the grain seed. Once upstairs, he directs them to all sit on the couch -

"Guys- sit here- sit by me- Uncle Rick is going to tell you the story!".

So, there I was, fresh out of my nap, preaching my third sermon of the day- but this to an audience of 7 years old boys who had been redirected from their usual Sunday afternoon neighborhood romp by the missionary to Carlton Lakes.

It was a short sermon to be sure- a story really- a story of how Steven had taken his first precious steps toward Christ a few days earlier made possible by His grace because of the joy and excitement and the beauty of Christian community packed into an event filled week that we call Vacation Bible School.

I'm thanking God today for VBS- and for all those who worked so hard to make it happen.

I'm thanking God for the glorious opportunity to share in Steven's first missionary journey.

I'm thanking Him for interruptions.

And I'm saving that speech for another day.

the high moral ground of right to life

2009-06-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

I just finished listening to the speech that President Obama gave at Cairo University. While I do not agree with some of what our president said, for the most part I was impressed with his delivery and content. I am especially pleased that in his discussion of the plight of the Palestinian people, he included Palestinian Christians as a group that has suffered in recent years as a result of the turmoil in the Middle East. So often, this group is completely left out of the discussion, although the population of Palestinian Christians in Israel especially has dramatically decreased and because they are caught in the middle of the conflict, have suffered the most in terms of percentage loss.

I also would have liked to hear stronger language when it comes to religious freedom in Islamic majority countries. One of the reasons I believe that radical Islamic terrorism takes hold in so many of these countries in the Middle East is because there is an official intoleration to other faith expressions.

I couldn't help but think that in a setting such as this, it was good for the president to claim the moral high ground when it comes to human rights. But moral high ground can only be claimed if one has a moral authority higher than himself to stake the ground. Of course, President Obama has frequently pointed to his own Christian faith and to scripture to make this point and indeed he pointed to his own Christianity in this speech.

As Christians, we respect human life and dignity because these things have been "endowed" by our creator and He has called them "good" and sacred because we were created in His image. Life is sacred and holy because it was given to us by God.

Obama's use of Koranic versus to claim that ground was obviously well received in that context there in Cairo. It was necessary for him to point to the spiritual authority of the audience he was trying to convince. But the theology of the Koran is not the same as the theology of Christianity, and therefore it is not exactly correct to say that we are all "children of Abraham". The same Koran that says "when you kill an innocent person you kill all humanity" also says "Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you." (Koran 9:123) The moral high ground there is pretty shaky.

As Christians we can see that the seed of Abraham was Christ and that the blessing to the nations prophesied in the Abrahamic covenant was that Christ would come, born as a Jew in the city of David from the tribe of Benjamin, and that He would lay down His life as a sheep before His shearers as a ransom and atonement for our sinful condition, becoming the covenant curse so that we could become the covenant blessing. He was torn to pieces in fulfillment of the covenant so that we wouldn't have to be. That is the only way that any of us are truly "children of Abraham".

I also could not help but think that if our president wishes to claim this moral high ground that can only be given to us by a higher authority, then he must be consistent. This was the statement the president issued on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 23:

“On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters."

Last year over 1 million babies were killed in abortions in the United States. That's the equivalent of 350 world trade center bombings every single year.

I cannot say it better than John Piper in this video:

If the president will say out of one side of his mouth that we cannot stand for the murder of innocent men women and children in acts of terrorism and then out of his other side say "we should not intrude on our most private family matters" even if that lack of intrusion involves the murder of innocent babies in the womb, he has forfeited the high moral ground that is so important to the thesis of his argument so masterfully articulated in Cairo today.

freedom from freedom from religion

2009-05-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last week the superintendent of the Putnam City School District, Dr. Paul Hurst, received a letter from an organization called "Freedom From Religion Foundation" out of Madison Wisconsin. The subject of the letter was their objection to the baccalaureates of Putnam City West High School and Putnam City North High Schools respectively. This is a radical left wing Atheist organization (with a staff of only 7 people!) whose mission is to eradicate religion from the public square. The letter threatened a law suit because of the implication that these two events, neither of which were actually sponsored by the schools, were a violation of the principles of "separation of church and state" in the U.S. constitution.

It was somewhat ironic that Chris Wall was the guest speaker at P.C. West and I was the guest speaker at the P.C. North baccalaureate. A further irony was that the subject of my talk that night was the etymology of the word "baccalaureate" in the English language and in Western civilization. Despite what many secular humanists might think, the history and meaning of this event goes back into antiquity- even predating the advent of the most historic educational institutions. It is an old Latin word that means in essence "bequeathing authority to teach".

I am very proud of our school district for not backing down to a very small radical fringe group from Wisconsin that has probably never even stepped foot in Oklahoma City and wouldn't know the difference between Council and Rockwell. Although there was a lot of chatter from the parents, teachers and administration about the letter, the events went on undeterred.

The two primary reasons I believe our community should never stop this very important milestone for high schools seniors are:

1. History. The reason these events have a somewhat religious meaning is that the very first institutions of learning in Western culture were Christian institutions. That is a fact that even the single-minded and passionate "Freedom from Religion" organization cannot deny. For our schools to stop the tradition of baccalaureates would mean that they would end a tradition that goes back not just to the beginning of public school systems in America, but to earliest centuries in Western culture.

In fact, there is a place in scripture in which the implication of this concept is clear. In Acts chapter 4 the disciples were challenged for their very effective and authoritative teaching that had resulted in thousands of conversions. The religious leaders and political authorities were not so much upset by what the disciples were teaching, but by the authority and swagger of their teaching.

"The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. ⁶Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. ⁷They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?""

They were in affect asking about their "baccaulareas"- their authority to teach- they wanted to know their credentials. How dare these uneducated men come into Jerusalem and teach with such authority!

The history of this event goes back much deeper into our culture than the concepts of school systems, school boards, and even democracy and the Bill of Rights. It is a sad day indeed when we as a people begin to deconstruct the very moorings upon which our philosophy of freedom and moral law have been carefully constructed.

2. The fallacy of their argument. A second reason I would object is that there is really no such thing as freedom from religion. Every human being is seeking meaning and purpose in something- whether it be the religion that is found in churches and synagogues and mosques or it is the religion that is found in an office building (ironically, a converted church building) in Madison Wisconsin that says its purpose is to promote Atheism. The issue at the center of the human heart is a need to find meaning and purpose - a person will look for that in God or in some substitute for God. In this case, this organization is passionately promoting their religion as aggressively as any evangelical church. They are not true atheists. Because a true atheist would be completely ambivalent about another persons belief and wouldn't care less whether a person attended a ceremony that just happens to have a tradition centuries old, regardless of the premise of the event. But they are not ambivelent- they are passionate and aggessive and are acting as if their very life (soul?) depends upon it. Thier behavior is the behavior of true religonists and believers. So if we truly seek freedom from religion it would mean that we would seek freedom from the Freedom from Religion Foundation and therefore we should not pay attention to their silly letter.

And that is exactly what I hope Putnam City Schools continues to do.

i'm just sayin

2009-05-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

This morning I found an interesting article on msnbc.com called “Winning at all costs is for losers.”

In it, Bruce Weinstein from Business Week Magazine makes the following observations about good business leadership as he reflects on the current economic crisis:

1. What's good for the gander is good for the goose- If your cutting back on the compensation of your employees, then be prepared to cut back on your own compensation.

2. Know your product- Don’t sell something you don’t really know about- like bundled loans that turned out to be “toxic” investments.

3. Winning at all costs is for losers- It is unethical to try to make profits at the expense of the greater good.

4. Tell the truth.

5. Prevent harm- Don’t do something you know will cause harm no matter how much profit you might get in the short run.

6. Don't exploit- It is unethical and immoral to sell something to someone that will ultimately harm them.

7. Don't make promises you can't keep.

8. Take responsibility for your mistakes.

9. People, not profits- “For the good leader, this means that the ultimate goal in business — and life — is not hoarding riches but making things better for all, especially the neediest.”

10. Be kind, not king- “Yes, good leaders are enthusiastically devoted to accomplishing their mission, but this pursuit cannot be at the expense of the well being of others.”

What I found interesting about this article, coming from a secular website reprinted from a secular business magazine, is how closely these particular principles were related to the teaching of Christ on the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. Look closely, and you will find the teaching of the Ten Commandments as well.

Listed below are just a few of the parallels between the teaching of Christ and what Weinstein sees as important leadership principles:

1. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (5:5)

2. Let your light shine before men that they will see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (5:16)

3. You cannot serve both God and money (6;24)

4. Enter through the narrow gate, for broad is the way that leads to destruction. (7:13)

5. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. (6:19)

6. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles (5:41)

7. Simply let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”; anything beyond this comes from the Evil One. (5:33)

8. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (5:23-24)

9. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. (5:12)

10. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (7:19)

All of this has made me think- could there be a parallel between our current economic crisis and the loss of a biblical worldview in American culture?

Of course it is certainly true that all of the issues we deal with in our lives have some kind of derivative from our fallen nature.

It is something to think about for sure.

After all, if you buy into the secular humanist Western Enlightenment concepts of atheism, existentialism and relativism, from where do you get your moral bearings and final moral authority when making business or employment decisions? Why not exploit the weak and look out for number one and go for the short term gain no matter what the long term cost?

I’m not saying that Christians are not susceptible to the same greed and immorality that many have fallen prey to and that has brought about our current economic crisis, I’m just making the point that a good healthy understanding of biblical content and Christian principles is somewhat indirectly being promoted here by a secular business writer as something that is desperately needed in strong leadership to get us through the perilous economic time we are in.

Maybe the Sermon on the Mount should be taught in business schools.

Maybe the Ten Commandments should be posted on the walls of corporate offices.

I’m just sayin…

He is on His throne

2009-03-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading Iain H. Murray's "Spurgeon V. Hypercalvinism" and found a story I had not heard before about the great English preacher. In October of 1856 during a Sunday morning service in which thousands of people were packed into the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear the eloquant young preacher, someone in the crowd yelled "Fire!" The stampede from one of the balconies resulted in 7 deaths. The commotion was so far from Spurgeon that he continued preaching without knowing what had happened. When he was told later about the tragedy, he collapsed in his office and many feared it might be the end of his preaching ministry.

It was a passage of scripture that finally lifted him out of his depression:

⁹"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."

(Philippians 2:9-11)

The next time he preached, he told his congregation that it was because of these words that he was instantly lifted out of the clouds of his depression and able to go on- it was the knowledge that in spite of what kinds of tragedies we go through in this life- that Christ is still on his throne.

The account reminded me of a story I once heard about Dr. Robert G. Lee, the former pastor of Bellvue Baptist Church in Memphis Tennessee. A family in his church was overcome by the grief of losing a young child in a kind of freak accident at their home. The boy had fallen off their roof on to a picket fence and had been killed instantly. In anquish, the mother asked Lee, "Where was God when my boy fell off that roof?"

Lee comforted her by saying softly, "He was in the same place as He was when they pulled the lifeless body of His Son off that cross- He was on His throne."

There is no greater knowledge in good times or bad than the central truth of our own existence- that God is in control in spite of our circumstances. The greatest tragedy that has ever occurred in human history is also the greatest victory. This means that as Christians we can always see that no matter what our circumstances bring, all things work for His glory.

He is on His throne.

blessings flow from the hard places

2009-03-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."
Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?"

But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." (Exodus 17:2-5)

Last week I was talking to a friend of mine who is a financial adviser and estate planner. He was telling me that these days he spends a good part of his time trying to calm people down. "People need to know that their life isn't destroyed as the stock market goes down", he told me.

My friend could see that the key issue people deal with in a panicked financial environment is essentially a spiritual one. There is a reason that the first commandment was that we are to have no other gods before the Lord God- anything else at the center of our heart will ultimately crush us to the ground. In his greater catechism, Martin Luther observed that all the commandments essentially feed off the first one, and that the reason we struggle with issues of money, sex and power is because we have something else at the center of our lives besides the Lord God.

We learn in the Exodus event that the desert is the place where one comes to the understanding that one has no other resource available other than what is given by the grace and mercy of God.

The wilderness teaches me that until I know that God is all I have I will never know that God is all I need.

The desert is where all the other brooks dry up. But the reality is as long as I am drinking from any other source, I will never taste the sweetness of His fountain.

The desert is where God leads me to the hard places- the places where His abundant blessing flows. And as a believer I know this to be true because I can see that the ultimate hard place was the cross- and that Jesus is the rock struck.

it takes a season

2009-03-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

We are one of those rare Baptist churches that actually celebrates the Lent season- and I know that this fact always raises a few eyebrows and causes more than a few questions from some of the people we encounter in the community. "I thought you were Baptist..." or "I didn't know you were Catholic" are just a few of the responses I've heard people encounter during this season.

I always like to remind people of a few things whenever we talk about this season:

1. The Lenton season predates denominationalism as we know it. It has been a Christian tradition for at least 1,100 years- therefore it does not reside with any particular faith tradition exclusively. In fact, the earliest history of a forty day fast before Easter Sunday actually dates to the first century in the earliest church- there is strong evidence that the earliest believers set aside this time before Easter as a time of training and preparing new believers for baptism. It is a tradition that is now practiced by Christians from all stripes- including conservative evanglelicals. Several years ago when the movie "The Passion of Christ" came out, popular Baptist pastor and theologian John Piper wrote a series of devotions for Lent season focusing on the meaning of the cross.

2. We started the tradition in our church because we have come to see the value of long seasons. Our desire is to take the Christian holidays back from secular culture. Our desire is to turn the holidays into Holy Days again. Secular society has made Christmas about Santa Clause and Easter about the Easter Bunny. We believe that as followers of Christ we have a responsibility to reclaim the holy ground lost over the past 100 years or so in Western culture. There is value in taking a season of time, in this case 40 days of fasting, and focus your heart and attention on the one thing that is most important in your life and to your existence- the cross of Christ and His resurrection.

3. It is a great way for families to help their children understand the importance of the teaching of the cross. Our family has celebrated the Lent season since our children were small. The result is that it has become a very important part of their lives- to take time out in the Spring season, when the days are lengthening and the weather is beginning to turn mild, to focus on the most important issue to human life and existence- the substituionary death of Christ on the cross and the life that that event has brought to us.

The truth of "boast only in the cross' is not something one only thinks of in a passing way. It is a truth to be meditated on, contemplated, chewed up and digested. It is a truth that should become manna and should grow in it's meaning and understanding and eventually become a part of your being and even possess you and take a place of prominence in your heart and thinking.

In order for a person to come to that point of understanding that everything in this life that I have to boast about was brought to me as a result of the cross and purchased by His blood one has to really dig down and think. I mean really think. A person has to think for more than thirty seconds during the commericals or at the stop light- a person has to think about it a long time and over a long period of time.

A person has to come to it every day and make it daily bread. A person can't just look at a diamond like this one time and then put it down. That person has to hold it in his hand for days on end and turn it over and over again and hold it out and really look at it through the light.

That doesn't happen in just a day or an hour.

It takes a season.

And even after many years of seasons you will come to realize if you haven't already that as incredible and beautiful the reality of the gospel really is to you, you have really only begun to scratch the surface of the true meaning of it.

a book a month in 2009

2009-01-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

Last year at this time I made the suggestion that we all commit to reading at least one book a month. In keeping with that tradition, here is the next installment of my suggestions for "a book a month":

1. The Reason for God by Tim Keller. Keller is one of those guys who can explain things in a way that makes you say "I wish I'd thought of that". The book pokes holes in many of the objections people have against the concept of God.

2. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. This past year I dusted off my old copy of this great Christian classic. It reminded me of why Lewis has had such an impact on me through the years.

3. Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan. If you want to know why your world atlas looks the way it does, you have to go back to Paris in 1919. A fascinating look at one of the most important years in modern world history.

4. In My Place Condemned He Stood by J.I. Packer and Mark Dever. A terrific study into the meaning of atonement.

5. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith by Stephen Barr. A physicist takes a skeptical look at the meaning of the universe and to his surprise finds himself on the side of ancient religion.

6. Dying in the Land of Promise by Donald E. Wagner. If you have ever wondered what happened to the descendants of the first century church- this book is part of your answer.

7. A History of Christianity in Asia by Samuel Moffitt. You know how Christianity moved west into Macedonia, Rome and Europe, but do you know how it moved east into Persia, India and China? This book tells the fascinating story of Christianity's eastern advance.

8. Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. In my five years on the personnel committee of the International Mission Board, I have observed that a high percentage of young missionaries going on the field have read and been captivated by this book. Read it if you dare.

9. Sailing the Wine Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill. Most of the framework for Western culture was providentially built upon the foundation of Greek philosophy. This book explains how that happened.

10. St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G.K. Chesterton. A brilliant biography about a brilliant theologian written by a brilliant apologist.

11. Christ and Culture Revisited by Dan Carson. Carson is voice of impeccable reason and intellect in the debate over how Christians should engage culture.

12. Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Bersheers. Driscoll isn't for everyone, but I enjoy his earthy, plain spoken style of teaching and writing.

why i can't be good for goodness sake

2008-12-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago the "American Humanist Association" started a 40,000 dollar ad campaign in Washington D.C. promoting their cause for leaving Christ out of Christmas. "Why believe in God? Just be good for goodness sake" the advertisement says.

A spokesperson for the group said, "we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people's minds."

Here's why I think that seed would never take root if we are thinking rationally or critically:

1. It is irrational to think that a person can believe there is no God and then to say he will be good "for goodness sake". That statement is as much of a faith statement as any religious assumption and does not hold up to critical scrutiny. My question to the AHA would be, "How does one define goodness?" Or maybe an even better question would be, "How does one know that there is such a thing as goodness?"

When a person makes a statement that we should be good for goodness sake he is presupposing that goodness has been defined in some way and is broadly understood and has influence and meaning. To assume goodness is to assume some kind of moral absolute- a kind of higher authority has to be in place to define that goodness. Otherwise, what makes MY assumption of goodness any better than anyone else's? Who says your definition of goodness is really good? By what standard are you defining your goodness?

For instance, what is the moral authority in Atheistic humanism? Isn't it true that Darwinian atheism would have to say that the highest good is that which advances the species? Is it not true that in nature big fish eat little fish and big cells eat small cells? Does it not stand to reason then that if your definition of goodness is "survival of the fittest" that murder and pestilence and rape and racial genocide are all as equally good and acceptable as any expression of love or kindness?

So I have no problem with the atheist who wants to advertise his world view on Washington city buses saying something like "Be good for your own sake but don't push your sense of goodness on me!" or "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die!" and claiming to be rational and consistent in his beliefs in those expressions, but it is intellectually dishonest for him to say "Just be good for goodness sake" when the very philosophical world-view he is trying to promote assumes that "goodness" is an unprovable and even irrelevant concept.

2. A second observation I would make is that it is irrational and not critical thinking for a group that claims to be atheist and therefore does not want a holiday promoting a religious view to then want to promote their own world view. After all, are they not then guilty of the very thing they are criticizing? If a person is trying to make the argument that no truth is absolute and therefore we should live in a world without any faith assumptions, without any religions or expressions of religion (like Christmas) because after all truth is not knowable and so we should live in harmony without having all these faiths pushed upon us, then by virtue of their own argument they should not be trying to promote their view.

The humanist objection to religion is that it is "unscientific" and superstitious. The humanist believes that truth is relative and therefore religious claims on absolute truth are irrational. But to say "Truth is relative" is a statement of truth and therefore should be considered not dependable and irrational. To the person who says "There is no such thing as absolute truth", we should always ask, "Are you absolutely sure about that?" If truth is unknowable then that truth is unknowable and therefore the belief about what is not knowable is by virtue of it's own definition a faith assumption. Make no mistake about it, the American Humanist Association is a faith organization. Their expressions of non-religion are in and of themselves religious views. They are faith assumptions about the meaning of life, being and salvation. "Be good for goodness sake" is as much a religious statement as "Oh come let us adore Him".

3. It is irrational to think that if everyone in America believed like the AMA that somehow the world would be a better place. Nothing could be further from the truth (and I believe that absolutely). Imagine what it would be like if everyone of us relied upon our own version of goodness.

For thousands of years Christian culture has believed that man's sense of morality and goodness came from outside of humanity and is therefore not determined by his feelings, sensitivities or emotions. Morality has always been understood as something that has come to us. In fact, the very celebration of Christmas points to Immanuel- God has come to us. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God..." (John1:1)

The influence of humanism in our culture is increasing. This is seen in a new kind of morality that says that truth is not found in a higher authority, but is found in the personal whims and feelings within the human heart.

Think of how destructive this belief truly is.

Imagine if Western culture had continued in the Greco-Roman ethic of the first century that women were little more than property and that weak, handicapped and female newborn babies could be cast into garbage dumps and that lower castes are destined for exploitation. What if Christianity had not reversed these terrible paganisitc beliefs in the third century?

What would it have been like if Christianity had not taken hold and Western culture bought into the Humanistic idea that we can find goodness in ourselves?

Imagine what our world would be like if it had not been for great men of faith and science like Augustine, Anselm and Ambrose- who were inspired by their reading of scripture and from a desire to know His creation sewed the seeds of scientific method and philosophy.

Imagine our world without hospitals or universities, public education and health care, all the result of Christianity's influence in the Middle Ages.

What if Western cultures had just relied on their own sense of goodness and not begun the exploration of a created universe as a way of better understanding the glory of God?

Imagine if their had been no Luther who held up Scripture and pointed to the injustices of a bloated institution that was operating more out of it's own need for power than it was an understanding of the sacred text.

What if 18th century England had not mandated the end of slavery because of their biblical understanding of the value of all human life?

Imagine if their had been no Puritan movement that dreamed of a society based on the Biblical concepts of community and righteousness and so acted on that belief by sailing to a new world and risking everything to establish the American colonies.

Imagine how terrible the outcome if Atheists and Humanist world views promoted by men like Hitler, Marx, Stalin, Lennon, Mao and Pol Pot had prevailed in the early 20th centuries .

Imagine an America without the Great Awakenings in which social movements, inspired by spiritual renewal and the teaching of scripture such as the abolition of slavery, child labor laws, property rights, and women's right to vote had never been enacted.

Imagine if there had been no Martin Luther King who led a movement across the south for racial equality based on his view that there was a higher moral law that superseded the laws and "feelings" of man.

The AHA is neither rational nor thinking critically in their advertisement and I hope their ideas do not prevail. But they have every right to promote their beliefs and to do what they can to convince others to believe in their religion.

But they only have that right because they are beneficiaries of a society that was established on the biblical concept of soul competency and freedom of the conscience of belief promoted by theologians like Roger Williams, the 17th century Baptist minister who founded Rhode Island and whose beliefs, rooted in scripture, were formalized into law and became the precursor to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

To say that we can simply rely on the goodness of the human heart is not just irrational, it is also terribly naive. If there is no God, there is no moral absolute that defines the meaning of goodness. The lessons of history very clearly teach that man is incapable of finding his own goodness.

That is why I can't be good for goodness sake.

And it is the reason that this is the time of the year we so vigorously celebrate His incarnation by singing songs like "Joy to the World" that have words like this:

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.