Thinking About Thinking About God

Thursday is sermon day, and I am hard at work writing my Sunday sermon (so nobody call me, OK?) . I wasn’t even going to think about writing on the blog; in fact, I hadn’t even thought about not thinking about it. Then my inbox pinged and I had an email from my friend Alan Smith and his TFTD (Thought for the Day). I thought this was right on target, so I decided to share it. Alan won’t mind; he borrowed it from Richard Fairchild’s Not Far From the Kingdom of God. As easy as it was not to think about the blog, it is sometimes very hard to think only about God. Enjoy.

In the days of the circuit riders a minister was out riding one afternoon and came upon a man out working in his field. "Fine day, isn't it?" the minister called out.

"It's fine for you", the man replied, "All you have to do is ride around on that horse thinking about God all day long, while I have to sweat here in this field and then walk home afterward. I don't think it is right you should have things so easy while I have to work so hard."

"On the contrary", the minister answered, "thinking about God is one of the most difficult things you can do. And to prove it, I'll give you this horse if you can think about God and nothing else for one minute."

"You're on," said the man and immediately he sat down in silence. Thirty seconds later he looked up at the minister, and said, "Does that include the saddle?"

I would agree that thinking about God and nothing else is a very difficult thing to do. I would also add, though, that it is just as hard for ministers as it is anyone else! Paul wrote, "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2).

But our mind is filled nearly every minute of the day with things on this earth -- concerns about things that have happened, concerns about things that will (or might) happen, concerns about what we have (or don't have), concerns about how to get what we don't have, concerns about people that have done us wrong, concerns about what we want others to do for us.

And our mind is so crowded with the things of this world, that there's just not much room left for God. It's hard to think about God and God alone, for there is so much competing for our attention.

Allow me to give you this challenge -- think about God and nothing else for one minute. If you can achieve that goal, strive for five minutes. May thoughts of God increasingly fill your mind so that you can eventually say with the Psalmist all day long, "I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works." (Psalm 145:15)

Truth in Advertising

I ran across a report from DailyIndia.com that told of a group of about 6,000 Christians in India that went through a public ceremony to reconvert back to Hinduism. The story told about organized Hindu opposition to Christian missionary work, though that is not the part that is most disturbing. It seems that that Christian missionaries had promised these people that if they converted to Christ, God would given them fancy houses, cars and other material blessings that simply did not materialize (pun intended). One reconverted Hindu said, “I don't have any problem. But they (the Christian missionaries) tempted us. They promised us houses. We stayed with them for two years.”

Back in June, I posted a YouTube video of John Piper (“Is God Enough”) pointing to “Health-and-Wealth” missionaries promising people that God would bless them with, well, health and wealth if they converted to Christianity. God wants his people to prosper, to be healed of all diseases, and to be blessed materially—the same “name-it-and-claim-it” rot taught on religious programming and in many churches in our country. The people in India bought this line, but when God didn’t deliver on His “end of the bargain,” they bolted back to Hinduism. Struggle and persecution wasn’t what they signed up for—they were in it for the house, car and plasma TV. I’m sure their missionary teachers would say that they didn’t have enough faith to “name it and claim it.” Maybe they never really had faith in the Christ of the cross; they just wanted the good life.

We need to be careful about our "truth in advertising." The gospel does not offer a solution to all our financial and relational problems. Paul was successful and prosperous UNTIL be became a Christian. Paul has a lot of friends and admirers UNTIL he became a Christian. Jesus promised that for some, faith would bring a sword, not peace, in their personal relationships (Matt 10:34-39). The problem for which Jesus is the solution is the problem of sin and eternal damnation. Sometimes the only prosperity that Jesus offers in this life is the prosperity of knowing that “heaven will surely be worth it all” (see Rom 8:18-25). What Christ offers is not financial or social prosperity; what Jesus offers is a cross. There are many benefits in this life of living as a Christian, but health and wealth aren't always among them. What God offers those who seek Him is that they will find Him; the greatest blessed God gives us is Himself.

On Translation, Zingers and Grace

On one of our trips to Ukraine, Cindy Byrd and I were invited to meet the family of a teen who had been attending our campaign meetings. We thought that her family had some questions about God and the Bible, and as it turned out, they did. It seems her family had friends who lived in the same tenement building who were Jehovah Witnesses, and they had been studying just long enough to become really confused. They wanted us to come and discuss the Bible with their Jehovah’s Witness friends. I remember thinking that it was a bit ironic that we traveled halfway around the world to get into an argument with some Jehovah’s Witnesses; we could have stayed home and waited for them to come to our door!

The thing we could not have done is discussed the Bible with very argumentative and indoctrinated people (and these folks were both and then some) through a translator. Our hostess was the only person present who spoke both English and Russian, so all the discussion had to go through her. Our JW friends would make impassioned (as in veins bulging in their necks and smoke coming from their nostrils) argument, but then they would have to sit and wait for their words to be translated from Russian into English, then for Cindy or I to respond and then for our words to be translated back into Russian for them. That took a long time… and it let them calm down a bit and kept things on a calmer keel would have been the case if we could have spoken directly. I remember thinking that all theological discussion needs to take place through a translator!

Maybe that is a lesson for us in our marriages, families and church relationships. Maybe rather than responding immediately to what people say to us, we need to wait for the translation. Maybe we need to wait long enough for the words of the flesh (what we want to say) to be translated into the words of the Spirit (what we should say). Paul expects us to translate our “unwholesome talk” (literally “rotten words”) into speech that is helpful and which builds up.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

In Colossians 4:6, Paul uses the imagery of seasoning our words with grace, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Often, in disagreements, we end up saying what makes us feel better rather than saying what is best for the other person. We need to let the Holy Spirit in us translate our words into what the other person really needs to hear. To do that, we need to slow down a bit. That’s hard for me to do… especially when I have a great zinger on the tip of my tongue. But it is that "zinger" that is often the “rotten words” that come from the flesh. We need to let the Spirit translate those into words that are beneficial and build up those who listen.

Matching Our Songs and Our Lives

We sang an interesting mix of songs yesterday— we had traditional hymns (“To God Be the Glory,” “Lord, We Come Before Thee Now”), Stamps-Baxter-type Gospel songs (“Glory-land Way,” “Sing and Be Happy”), and contemporary praise songs (“My God Reigns,” “How Great is Our God”). What tied them altogether was the word “rejoice.” (Our worship theme was "Rejoice in the Lord Always"). God has called his people in every generation to rejoice, so it makes sense that we sang songs from several generations. (OK, we didn’t have any Gregorian chants; maybe next week.) Because all of these songs were “rejoice” songs, they were uptempo and upbeat. They were written in different styles, but they moved… and those songs always move me.

I wonder-- can our happy-clappy “rejoice in the Lord” worship sometimes come across as rather... well, artificial? Sometimes we drag ourselves to church, weighed down with all kinds of issues in our families, finances, jobs, health, etc. We don't feel particularly happy-clappy, but we do feel the pressure to act like everything is "just fine." Is worship putting on a happy face for an hour? Is praise something we plug for an extra buzz of joy? Like this video?

Plug into our HGHD (Holy Ghost Hard Drive) for an extra jolt of joy? Is that what worship is—an artificial infusion of joy? Are we supposed to deny our struggles and hardships for an hour (OK, an hour and twenty minutes) so that we can worship acceptably? I remember an old prayer phrase used a lot in church prayers, “May we leave our worldly cares and concerns behind as we come to worship Thee.” Really? No. We don’t leave our cares behind—we bring them to God!

Jesus said that as long as we’re in the world, we will have troubles (John 16:33). But the rest of the verse is "But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Church isn’t the place where we act like we have no issues so that we can worship God. Church is where we go to be reminded that Jesus has indeed overcome the world and that we will overcome through Him. No, our lives don’t always match up to our songs NOW, but we sing them because one day they WILL match up!

Why, When I Was Your Age

I remember Jeff Walling complaining about the lack of good stories that our generation has to pass down to the next generation. Our folks from “the greatest generation” had lots of great stories— like walking 5 miles to school in the snow barefoot, uphill… both ways. My Dad tells of “chopping cotton” all day so that he could go see a Hopalong Cassidy double feature on Saturday. Mom tells about getting a battery operated radio from somewhere and rummaging around at the dump trying to find batteries to run it. Both talk about the rationing during the war (that would be World War II). But Dad does admit that he had plenty to eat during the depression; he knows that because every time he asked for food, he was told, “No, you’ve had plenty.” Great stories.

My generation just doesn't have stories with the same punch. “Why, when I was your age, we didn’t have remote control’ we had to get up off the couch and walk across the room to change the channels.” In fact, we had to change the channel with a pair of pliers because the TV channel selection knob on our ancient black-n-white TV was broken for years. Somehow that just doesn’t stack up with my Dad’s stories.

Or Paul. Paul’s gives a description of his “good old days” in preaching the gospel. To the folks at Corinth, some of whom has doubted his authority as an apostle, he recounts what he went through “back in the day” in order to preach the gospel—

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:24-28)

I really don’t have stories like that. My great-grandfather would ride the train to Texas to preach a meeting and then didn't get paid enough for a return ticket home. I don't have stories like that. Last Sunday, I had a huge canker sore (or “mouth ulcer”) on my tongue, and it literally hurt me to talk as I preached Sunday. Not much of a story. I once had someone tell me after a Sunday sermon, "You are a terrible preacher and I would never come to church here!" I wanted to say, "Good!" But that's even not much of a story.

I wonder if preaching and living the gospel has gotten a bit too easy for us (or for me) in this land of freedom and prosperity. I wonder if we have all gotten a bit spoiled and maybe a little entitled in our expectations of faith. Ultimately, the real problem is not that the stories that we pass down to the next generation are a little weak; the problem is that maybe the faith we pass on may be a little weak as well.

Sermons: Good, Bad and Ugly

I thought my Sunday sermon was going to a pretty good one. Things just fit together particularly well in the preparation, and I thought it was to be one of my better efforts. I was about two-thirds of the way through preaching it when I decided that maybe it wasn’t nearly as good as I thought. Not only did people seem to be tuning me out, but I noticed that they were tuning me out. When I’m really into preaching, a bomb could go off in the auditorium and I wouldn’t notice it. But that Sunday I noticed every yawn and puzzled look. Evidently what I thought was going to be a good sermon (at least on paper) wasn’t such a good sermon.

Yesterday was the other side of the coin. I really didn’t think the sermon yesterday was very good. It was one of those that changed directions in the middle of preparation, and I didn’t think it was crafted very well at all. I seemed to confirm that suspicion when I dozed off while reading over it early Sunday morning! Come on, when you fall asleep during your own sermon, that just can’t be a very good sign, right? But it actually came across pretty well in the delivery, and several people had good things to saw about much they appreciated the message and how badly they needed to hear it. Go figure!

This happens far too often to be a coincidence. I am open to the possibility that everyone realized how bad the sermon was and said all those nice things because they knew that I needed cheering up. It’s also possible that the listeners were more ready/open/needful yesterday and so the seed found more fertile soil. And it is further possible that I am just not a very good judge as to what makes a good sermon.

God uses things in His own way and His time. We don’t have to hit the ball out of the park for Him to do so! Was Paul talking about his preaching prowess when he said, “When I am weak, then am I strong?” So maybe I need more weak sermons for God to use in His own time? Of course, my church probably thinks that’s been my strategy all along. God doesn’t need our service to be the greatest; He only wants it to be faithful. He’ll supply what we lack in power, ability, imagination and all the rest. That is not an excuse for mediocrity in our service, but it is freedom from the feeling that everything is always up to us.

Satanic Bibles?

I have heard of a lot of silly things done in the name of being Biblical. Like the church that insisted that the cup used in communion had to have a handle on it (like a coffee mug) because a cup without a handle wasn’t a cup but a glass. Or the one brother who objected to another brother being an elder because he had gone out on strike with the Teamsters and the Bible says an elder can’t be a striker (1 Tim 3:3, KJV). But I have to admit that this story took me by surprise. One Baptist church in Canton, NC is going to use this Halloween to burn Satanic bibles… Satanic meaning any Bible that isn’t a KJV.

The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C. will celebrate Halloween by burning Bibles that aren’t the King James Version, as well as music and books and anything else Pastor Marc Grizzard says is a satanic influence.

Among the authors whose books Grizzard plans to burn are well known ministers Rick Warren and Billy Graham because he says they have occasionally used Bibles other than the King James Version, which is the sole biblical source he considers infallible. (Just in case you think I'm making this up.)

Pastor Grizzard goes on to list some additional authors whose books will fuel their bonfire-- Bill Hybels, John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll, John Piper, Chuck Colson, and Mother Teresa. Just to show us that he’s as hip as the next guy, Grizzard also mentions guys like Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning and William Young. I’m a little bummed that Max Lucado didn’t make the list; what’s a good book burning without some Max Lucado?

Just to show you that good folks at Amazing Grace (that’s ironic, isn’t it?) Baptist Church do have their priorities straight, they will serve barbecued chicken fried chicken and all the sides during the book burning. I’m not sure if they are going to barbecue the chicken over the book-burning bonfire.

Why is it again that so many non-Christians in our postmodern, secular world have such a hard time taking Christianity seriously as a belief system?

East to West

In A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World, Ron Lee Davis tells the story of a priest in the Philippines. He was a respected man of God, but he carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had repented, but he still had no peace or sense of God's forgiveness.

In his parish, there was this woman who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ. The priest, naturally, was a bit skeptical. But she insisted, and so he told her, "The next time you speak with Christ, ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary." The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked her, "Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams?" "Yes, he did," she replied. "So did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?" "Yes." "Well, what did he say?" "He said, 'I don't remember'"

The old saying tells us, “When God forgives, He forgets.” Of course, he doesn’t really forget; God knows everything, and for him to really forget something, he would have to remember what it was that He had to forget! What God does is to decide not to hold our sin against us and to treat us as if we were not sinners. Psalm 103:9-13 says this--

9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or
repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

That is the mercy and grace of our God. And that is our only hope for holiness and for heaven. Praise be to God for His glorious grace!

Now, it’s our turn. We need to learn the fine art of forgetfulness too. The church will never be the spiritual family that God wants us to become until we get a lot better at forgiving one another and a whole lot worse at holding grudges. Paul says things like, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Col 3:13) and “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph 4:32). He should hold grudges with each other only as long as we want God to hold one against us. But if we want to be forgiven, then we had better be forgiving.

I love the Casting Crowns song "East to West" that is taken from the theme of Psalm 103. The songwriter asks Jesus to remind how far away his sin as been removed so that he won’t continue to struggle with his guilt and doubt. But we need to be reminded how far the east is from the west so that we can release our grudges and feelings of resentment to that same place. To be forgiven, we must forgive—

Jesus, can You show me just how far the east is from the west
'Cause I can't bear to see the man I've been come rising up in me again
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest
'Cause You know just how far the east is from the west
From one scarred hand to the other

Protecting Family Values

Lisa Miller wrote an interesting piece in Newsweek entitled “Marriage is Hard.” This caught my attention because it goes along with something we've been talking about in our Sunday class

Miller points to yet another “family values” politician who has a hard time applying his platform to his personal life. This time it is Senator John Ensign of Nevada. He voted to impeach President Clinton following Monica-gate and he supported a constitutional amendment to defend marriage. Sadly, he wasn’t doing much to defend his own marriage. Even as he wrapped himself in the mantle of family values, he was having an affair with one of his interns. Miller holds up Ensign as simply the “latest example of what so many see as the failure of the right to retain any credibility on the marriage question.”

We do have that credibility problem, don’t we? We mentioned before studies that indicate that evangelicals are more likely to become divorced than groups like Catholics, Muslims, Jews, or even atheists. It is hard to be taken seriously as having the answers for families when we aren’t practicing what we preach. Miller writes—

But when evangelicals are leading the charge in the marriage movement (and now, the anti-gay-marriage movement) arguing that sacred unions between one man and one woman are good for society because they're good for children, one would hope that they'd have worked out the kinks a little better than the rest of us.

Ouch! This is an accusation of the worst kind… a true one. If we really want to make a difference in protecting the sanctity of marriage, then we have to do better in our lives, not in our rhetoric. Now if the culture pointed at conservative Christians and said, “Hey, wait a minute—those people don’t ever get divorced…” Then we would have some credibility in talking about family values. Marriage is never going to be protected by presidential fiat or congressional constitutional amendments. It is protected when we live our lives so that it is apparent to all around us that God’s way works.

Miller begins her article by holding up Billy Graham’s policy of never allowing himself to be alone with a woman who was not his wife. He instructed his staffers to help him make sure this policy was followed. Miller writes, “Aware of the significance of his reputation and convinced of the moral value of the Gospel message, he took precautions to guard against his own human weakness.” Now that is how one protects traditional family values!

There's a Royal Banner Given for Display

We’ve all been to high school football games where the team comes out on the field and runs through a banner held by the cheerleaders with some school-spirited slogan written on it. Both my girls were cheerleaders at Denbigh High, and the slogan was usually something like “Maintain Dignity” or “We’re #9!” But ever since September 11, the cheerleaders at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High in Fort Oglethorpe, GA have been holding up banners printed with Bible verses. The banners said things like “Surely I am with you always to the end of the age,” “Commit to the Lord, whatever you do, and your plans will succeed,” and “If you have the faith of a mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible to you”— complete with the corresponding Bible reference. Coming up with a different Bible verse each week was a challenge for the girls, and the banners were something in which they took great pride. (At Denbigh High, the verse would have been “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”)

Last week, word came from the school superintendent that the Bible verses had to go. There had been a complaint raise, and it was decided that the practice violated the separation of church and state. The cheerleaders can put up the banners outside the stadium if they want, but the football team now runs through a banner that says “This is Big Red Country.”

It’s not surprising that this happened. In our multicultural, post-Christian world, people are going to be offended by any expression of religion. All it took was one person who called the school superintendent to complain for this practice to be banned. Just the threat of lawsuits and the ACLU can be quite daunting.

What happened next is the story in this story (for me). The community was galvanized by this ruling. Hundreds attended a rally this week supporting the banners. Many of the students attended classes on Friday wearing shirts with Bible verses, and some even had "Warriors for Christ" painted on their cars. The entire football team stopped to pray right after they ran through the new generic banner. At the game there were dozens of signs all over the place in the stands. There were even some young men walking around shirtless with Bible verses painted on their chests (a practice that likely won’t continue into November, one would think).

I think this is a somewhat exaggerated illustration of something that has always been true. The power of the Christian faith has to do with the willingness of individual believers living lives that reflect their commitment to Christ. The state recognizing the power of religion is not nearly as important as you and me living out our faith in such a way that people see the difference that God makes in our lives. 1 Peter 3:15-16 says,

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

OK that may be a little too long to fit on a verse to run through before the game. But we need to make it something that we live by every day.

The Patience of a Spider

There is this little spider that is really complicating my life. He has decided that the best place for him to setup his bug-catching operation is in the corner of my garage door. He ingeniously builds the web so the garage door can go up and down without causing him any problems. And he is right on the flight path of all those bugs who rush into the garage heading for the house, so his little business is booming.

The problem is that his web is also in my flight path (and about face high) when I take out trash or let the dog out in the backyard. Not being one who learns easily, I walking out of the garage right into his web-- I’ve done that a 3-4 times now, and it's getting old. You know that little dance you do when you walk through a spider web and your swinging your hands around trying to get it off? I’m sure that looks pretty goofy to the neighbors who can’t see the web but can see you! The whole problem is made worse by the fact that my little friend is so successful catching bugs that not only do I have a spider web all over me, but it is interspersed with the carcasses of the dearly departed.

In addition to the times I've walked through the web, twice I have gotten out the broom and carefully dismantled his whole operation. But the next day my little friend is back with a whole new engineering marvel. This arachnid simply will not give up. He was there again this morning, but I did finally remember to step around him.I also decided that I needed to learn from him.

• Matthew 10:22- But he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
  
  
• 1 Corinthians 13:7- It [love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
  
  
• 2 Timothy 2:12- if we endure, we will also reign with him.
  
  
• Hebrews 10:32- Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.
  
  
• Romans 12:12- Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
  
  
• James 1:12- Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

The same Greek word (hupŏmĕnō) is used in all of these texts and is translated variously by “stand firm,” “persevere,” “stood your ground,” and “patient.” It means to “stand firm by holding one’s ground.” It is one of the characteristics that allows faith to be maintained despite the difficulties and hardships that people of faith will suffer. Things will not always go well for us, but God expects us always to endure.

Sometimes when we use the word "patient" when what we really have in mind is “stoicism.” The patient person will wait without complaint or question-- at least that’s what we want out kids to do! The patience the Bible describes is more like my little spider who keeps on coming back despite the dummy who walks through his web. Sometimes faith means that we keep showing up.

That's the Way It Was and Is

I remember reading an article on youth ministry back in the 80’s (not long after I “retired” as a youth minister). The author told about as a youth minister (again, in the early 80’s), he mad a reference at a youth group devo about the break-up of the Beatles. One of his students asked him, “Who are the Beatles?” He then observed that often the things that youth ministers think are important to students are really things that are important to youth ministers. The world changes so quickly; it really is hard to stay current. I’m glad that I am old and no longer expected to even try!

Each August since 1998, Beloit College (in Wisconsin) has released as list called the “Beloit College Mindset List.” This list reminds us old people of how much the world that has shaped the lives of incoming college freshman differs from the world that shaped the classes that went on before them.

Most of this year’s freshman class was born in 1991. Interestingly, the headlines in ’91 railed about government bailouts, bad loans, and unemployment. The Tonight Show had just changed hosts, and people were wondering if the war in Iraq was worth it… so maybe things haven’t change so much. Sure they have. Notice the following (abbreviated) list of the “rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.” For the rising class of 2013…

1. Pan Am, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
2. Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.
3. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
4. Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
5. Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.
6. They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
7. Rap music has always been main stream.
8. The KGB has never officially existed.
9. Text has always been hyper.
10. Babies have always had a Social Security Number.
11. They have never had to “shake down” a thermometer.
12. McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
13. Christopher Columbus has always had a bad rap.
14. Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
15. There has always been a Cartoon Network.
16. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
17. Belarus, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
18. There have always been flat screen televisions.
19. The Today Show has always been seen on weekends.
20. There has always been blue Jell-O.

The message of Jesus Christ is timeless; it is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. But a lot of the cultural baggage we bring to it hasn’t been relevant for a long time. Flannelgraphs and Kool-Aid-n-cookies were helpful at one times. So was the KJV, Stamps-Baxter songs and week long gospel meetings. All of those things may be still helpful to some people today, but not to most people. The world has changed, and the way the church relates to it must change as well. I don’t like it. To me, Conan O’Brian is an idiot and Johnny Carson should still be doing the Tonight Show (I go to be by 9:30 now anyway). The world has changed.

Wishing things were the way they were never makes them so. We need to understand how the world is so that we can better know how to tell the old, old story to a new generation of people who need it just as badly as bid their parents and grandparents before them.

On Rewinding and Fast-Forwarding

If you haven't discovered the Stuff Christians Like blog by Jonathan Acuff, then you are missing a treat. A collection of these are coming out soon in book form, but you can read "Prodigal John's" ramblings for free each day on the blog. Today's post hit me as a father of girls, so I thought I would share it. That and because I haven't had any interesting thoughts of my own today. (Some wonder whether I've had any interesting thoughts since Carter administration).
Here's a portion of his blog entitled "Raising Dorks."

I've got nothing against the particular pop star my daughter suddenly became fascinated with but the transition from “I love the Wiggles” to “the Wiggles are for babies” was ridiculously fast. (In her defense, that Captain Feathersword who the Wiggles run with, scares me to death.) Up until that point I really hoped my daughter would grow up to be a cool kid. I wanted her to be part of the popular crowd at school and be considered hip. But when she started sweating pop stars and other little girls in our area started getting into teenage television shows, I had to pause.

Those things weren't created for a 5 year old. The entertainment she wanted to watch was not written for a girl two years out of diapers. It's got boyfriends and girlfriends and topics that are way out of her understanding as a little kid. And she might love it. She might sing all the songs and have a blast doing it and fit right in with all her friends. But if I encourage her to do that, if I push her toward that, I fast forward her through childhood. I speed her up from a 5 year to a 10 year old. And although I make about 47 dad mistakes a day, I have learned one secret about childhood:

You can fast forward childhood, but you can’t rewind it.

I wish I could but I can't. Childhood only goes one direction and I want her to stay a little kid for as long as she can. There will be plenty of time later for her to think boys are cute and interesting. (Right now I’m pushing for “smelly and cootie laden.”)

Until then though, she's not going to be hip. I'm going to raise a dork. Which is different from naïve, don't misunderstand, she's going to be like Matthew 10:16, shrewd as a snake and innocent as a dove. And if you're making different decisions with your kids, please don't hear this as an attack. I'm new to being a dad, am by no means a pro, don't have all the answers and am really only writing about the two kids with my last name. Who will be dorks.

I hope I don't help create one of these sheltered Christian girls that just goes insane when they get to college, but I promise you that I'm going to do everything I can to keep my kids young, out of the loop as far as the world goes and maybe even dorky. And when my oldest daughter yells at me when she's 13 because she can't go to a party with a bunch of boys, who I know are going to try to kiss her, I'll show her this post. And she's going to yell some more, but at least I'll kind of look like I predicted the future, which is fun.

"You can fast forward childhood, but you can’t rewind it." That quote struck me. My girls are now 28 and 22. Somehow someone leaned on the fast-forward button of our lives and it blurred by fast. If I had to give some starting-out-Dad some advice (and I do from time to time, whether they want it our not), it would be something like what Jonathan suggests in his post.

A Place for Sinners

Warren Wiersbe, in his book Be Free, says this, “Nothing reveals the wickedness of legalism better than the way the legalists treat those who have sinned.” Think for a second about how the Pharisees treated sinners—

• Think of the contempt for the tax collector that is expressed in the Pharisee’s prayer, “Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men, or like this tax collector.” (Luke 18:11).
  
  
• Think of the Pharisees dismissal of Jesus as well as sinners in the expression, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2)
  
  
• Think of the arrogance of dragging an adulterous woman (John 8) before Jesus to use as a test cause to see how easy Jesus would be on sinners?

The Pharisees were absolutely convinced that they were righteous because they were right, so they had little use for people who were neither righteous nor right.

On my first trip to Ukraine, I was surprised to learn that a city Metro driver made more money than a physician. In the Soviet Union, doctors were seen as tradesman. Why? The explanation given to me was that sick people were of no use to the Soviet state, so the doctors who cared for them weren’t valued either. Could it be that the struggling and the sinful are dismissed because they are seen as having little value to the church?

Why did sinners so often flock to Jesus? Oh, sometimes they came for the free food (John 6:26). But the sinful and struggling made up the crowds who pressed around Jesus. Why? Jesus was accepted by the sinful and the struggling because Jesus accepted them. He spoke to multi-married Samaritan woman of John 4. He spent time with the tax-cheat Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, so the lost came seeking Him as well!

The church needs to do better at being a place that receives the riff-raff (ultimately, that’s what we all are, right?). We need to do better at welcoming people who struggle, rather than being willing to receive them once they get themselves straight. If we are really Christ-followers, the sinful and strugglers who find themselves in our midst will feel that they came to the right place!

Don't Call Me; I'll Annoy You

I had one of those calls today. You know the kind—the salesperson has just the product that you need even though you don’t know you need it. My usual response is to interrupt them and say, “I’m not interested and please take me off your call list.” But this time, it was different; at least, I felt like it needed to be different. This solicitation call was at the church building, and it was a product to help with our church outreach. I just couldn’t be rude and hang up—I am the preacher for crying out loud. I couldn’t even say that I wasn’t interested; what church isn’t interested in outreach.

What I said was, “If you will fax me or email me information, I will take a look at it; I just don’t take phone solicitation here.” The salesperson said, “I understand perfectly, but our product…,” and she went over the exact same sales pitch she had given before. I repeated two more times that I wasn’t interested in talking about it at the moment but that I would look at any information she would sent me. Two more times, she cheerily said, “I understand perfectly, but our product…” What I wanted to say was, “Do you really intend to annoy me until I buy your product?” What I said was, “If you don’t want to send me information, then this call is over; please take us off your list.” Then I hung up and I was really miffed for awhile. I don’t know why pushy, artificially familiar and annoyingly persistent sales pitches annoy me so much, but they do.

And then I remember some of the ways I have talked with people about Jesus. I took some training once in a one particular evangelism method, and we were taught some of the exact foot-in-the door retorts my good friend and best buddy was using on me this afternoon. I remember sitting down with people and literally arguing over baptism, as if I were going to annoy them into the baptistery. I heard a salesman say (jokingly) onetime that “the key to sales was sincerity; one you learn how to fake that, you have it made.”

Now, if a friend would have shared with me information about a great new product and arranged for me to sit down with them and this salesperson to discuss it, then I would have been willing to listen— especially if they would have bought lunch. Maybe there is a lesson in there somewhere about sharing faith in relationships as opposed to seeing evangelism as a sales gimmick.

Or maybe this is just a chance to let me vent about that annoying call!

Orphan Sunday

I received an email yesterday informing me that November 15 is the "Annual Church of Christ Orphan Sunday" and that we are again invited to participate. The email also said that someone would call me soon to let me know exactly how we could get involved. No one has called yet, but I’m sure they will. I am always leery of emails that use 4-5 different type-styles and sizes (I don’t know why, but I always am). I’m also leery of emails that tell me that someone will call (why don’t they just call). I’m also leery of annual Church of Christ events that I have never heard of, but then I don’t get out much.

The Bible has a lot to say about our responsibility to help orphans. In the Old Testament, helping orphans was part of what it meant to be the people of God. If God was concerned about the powerless (widow, orphans and aliens), then His people must be concerned for them as well

• Deuteronomy 10:17-18-- For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.
  
  
• Deuteronomy 24:17-- Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
  
  
• Psalm 68:4,5-- Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds— his name is the LORD— and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
  
  
• Psalm 146:9-- The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
• Isaiah 1:17-- Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

In the New Testament, James tells us that caring for widows and orphans is part of a “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless” (James 1:27).

Denbigh has been very involved in the care and feeding of orphans. We regularly support a brother who works with orphans in Ukraine, and many of our trips there since 1993 have focused on working with orphans. We also send significant ongoing help to orphans in Africa (we call the effort “At My Gate”) and have been making trips and sending funds to City of Children orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico.

I didn’t know there was an official annual “Church of Christ Orphan Sunday,” but it sounds like a good idea.

The Strong and the Weak

The play above doesn't look like one that will make SportCenter play of the day, but it was the best play for the weekend. It seems the Benton (MO) Cardinals football were losing 46-0 against Maryville with ten seconds to go. Benton coach Dan McCamy called a timeout and went across the field to confer with Maryville coach David McEnaney. Together they called the play captured on the YouTube video.

The player who scored the touchdown is Matt Ziesel, a freshman at Benton who suits up for every game and cheers on his team from the sidelines. Matt has Down syndrome, a disability that will keep him from ever playing for real. But with this game out of reach, the two coaches conspired to give Matt him moment in the sun. The crowd went wild as Matt went 60 yards for the touchdown, a moment that he will remember for his entire life.

The Spoofhounds gave up their shutout, but Coach McEnaney said it was a small price to pay in comparison to what they got in return, "It was a great opportunity for our kids to kind of realize that while, yes, winning is a big deal, there's bigger life lessons out there." Former Ohio State Woody Hayes once said, "Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get." But sometimes even in football, "It is more blessed to give than receive."

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. (Romans 15:1-2)

On Preaching and Practicing

My sermon yesterday was on “The Joy Paradox.” I started with how the beatitudes describe a blessedness, happiness, joy or fortune that is contrary to what we normally think of in terms of happiness. “Blessed are those who mourn?” Really? “Blessed are the meek?” Are you serious? “Blessed are those who are persecuted?” Jesus is obviously talking about a joy comes from serving God and is different from the happiness in what's happening that we usually focus upon.

Jesus says that we can be his disciple unless we “deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). This follows immediately after Peter’s “good confession” that Jesus is “the Christ of God.” Jesus next explains to the apostles for the first time his coming death and resurrection. So when Jesus tells them that disciples must follow Him and carry His cross, he was talking about the journey toward Jerusalem and death he was getting ready to undertake (see 9:51). Jesus goes on to say “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:24).

It is only when we die to self in following Christ that we can really find true and lasting joy. Our world and our nature lead us to think that we are happiest when we pursue self. Jesus tells us that lasting joy comes in the act of denying self, and we spend some time talking about what that might mean for our lives.

I guess it was a good enough sermon. No one stopped me in the middle and yelled, “Men and brethren, what must we do?” But then no one stood up and yelled, “Oh fooey!” either (that happened to a preacher friend of mine once). So it was a good enough sermon.

So then I went home and helped Lynn with dinner (made dressing for a spinach salad and even opened a can of mandarin oranges) and we ate. Then I sat down in my recliner for my usual Sunday afternoon nap in front of the Redskin game. It’s always each to sleep during a Redskin game; they never do much that would encourage much other than sleep. I wasn’t really aware of what Lynn was doing until she asked me (with a little bit of an edge), “Are you going to watch football all afternoon?” That was an unfair question. I wasn’t really watching; I was dozing. And it wasn’t really football; it was the Redskins.

Apparently Lynn wanted to go for a drive down the Colonial Parkway or do something else fun with her husband on what was a gloriously beautiful Sunday afternoon. But I was too dense to recognize either her desire or the beautiful day because I was focused on dozing in front of the TV. Why? Because that is what I wanted to do. By the time she let me know of her displeasure with my choice of Sunday afternoon activity, it was too late to do anything else (my Sunday night group is at 5:00). We do have a date for NEXT Sunday afternoon

Moral of the Story: Apparently it is easier to preach about unselfishness than it is to live unselfishly. Go figure.

The Right Way to Pray?

I just read an article by a Jewish agnostic writer named Zev Chafets entitled, “The Right Way to Pray?” He decided (as a reporter, not a seeker) to visit different places where prayer happens to see if he could learn what the deal was with prayer. About 75% of Americans report that they pray at least once a week. People seem to put a lot of emphasis on prayer, and Chafets wonders if there was a right way to pray.

He visited a huge evangelical megachurch that stresses prayer in its services by having people stand in groups of three and pray together. He visited an Anglican spiritual director who uses Tibetan prayer bells and candles. He visited a Jewish rabbi who taught prayer through yoga (people in mourning are to say the Kaddish prayer while standing on their heads to acknowledge the upsetting nature of death).

He talked with a seminary professor who taught prayer and once edited a now defunct magazine entitled Pray! Who suggested that there are rules for proper praying—“Keep your prayers brief and clear” [Jesus prayed all night]. “Repeat simple Scripture-based phrases” [Jesus warned about vain repetitions]. “Pray standing up to fight torpor” [Jesus fell with his face to the ground]. “And pray directly facing other” [Jesus said to pray alone in our room]. And finally pray “in a loud, clear voice.” [Remember Hannah’s silent prayer answered spectacularly in the birth of Samuel?]. The problem with coming up with rules for relating to God is that the Bible is always filled with exceptions!

Rabbi Marc Gellman (half of the popular duo “The God Squad”) suggested that prayer is essentially “Gimme! Thanks! Oops! and Wow!” He said, “Wow! are prayers of praise and wonder at the creation. Oops! is asking for forgiveness. Gimme! is a request or a petition. Thanks! is expressing gratitude. That’s the entire Judeo-Christian doxology.”

The last place he visited was an Assembly of God church. He got there early and talkws for awhile with some kids in the children’s choir. When they found out he was writing on prayer, they began to share in childish enthusiasm how prayer had made a difference in their lives-- for the grandmother who broke her leg, the sister who suffered with asthma, the friend who was burned in fire. It was in this child-like faith in God and reliance on Him in prayer at a simple, old-fashioned church that became for Chafets "the right way to pray."

There are some 300,000 churches in America, and I could have picked any one to attend on Easter morning, but I liked being in this one. Especially the kids. They didn’t need Reverend Henderson’s prayer techniques, or the high-tech mantras of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Their prayers weren’t Rabbi Gellman’s suburban Jewish prayers of Thanks! offered to whom it may concern. They didn’t pray to de-center their egos or find transcendence or to set off on a lifelong therapeutic spiritual journey. They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first-name basis, and they believed their prayers gave them power, which they used on behalf of their asthmatic sisters and infirm grandparents and a kid they knew with burns on his body. Sitting in church on Easter morning, I realized that I was probably never going to become a praying man. But if, by some miracle, I ever do, I hope my prayers will be like the prayers of the kids I met at the Love church in Berkeley Springs. Straight-up Gimme! on behalf of people who really need the help.

Of such is the kingdom of heaven!

Party Hardy!

Ever notice that we can get so used to one nuance of a Bible topic that another side sounds like heresy? We are so used to stressing baptism (every sermon ends with a call to baptism, right) that we become suspicious when somebody suggests that we are saved “by grace through faith.” What do they mean by that? Are they denying the place baptism? No, actually they are just quoting Paul! We are so used to hearing one side of a truth that the other sounds like heresy.

We are used to the church being compared to the body of Christ, the kingdom of God, the bride of Christ and the family of God. So sounds like heresy to suggest that the church is also to be a party. In fact, one of the most used metaphors in scripture for the kingdom of God is the party. Jesus often describes, explains and invites us to God’s kingdom by using the example of a feast, a banquet or wedding reception—a party!

• Matthew 8:11-12. Jesus uses the setting of a big party to illustrate that Gentiles were to be included into the kingdom of God.
  
  
• Matthew 22:1-12. God’s kingdom is described as a wedding feast where those invited to come don't, and the master sends his servants to find other guests.
  
  
• Matthew 25:1-13. The necessity of watching for the Lord's return is explained in terms of a wedding party.
  
  
• Luke 15:22-24. The father celebrates the return of the Prodigal Son by throwing a huge party, complete with music and… well, choreography.
  
  
• Revelation 19:9. The celebration to which all are invited and by which all who come are blessed is the wedding feast—party—of the Lamb.

The festive celebration of a party is used over and over to represent the kingdom of God. Remember, God’s people in the Old Testament were a partying bunch. The major religious days—Passover and Pentecost and Tabernacles—were festive parties. Only the Day of Atonement was solemn ritual. Even the sacrifices themselves, those symbols of sin and forgiveness, were often cause for celebration as the priest and the worshiper ate the meat of the sacrifice together.

What's the point? If our experience of relationship with God is primarily one of dourly keeping the rules, humorlessly following patterns and always being so decent-and-in-order that our face would break it we cracked a smile, then we’ve missed something of the kingdom. God is our loving Father and we are to live in his love and reflect that love to others. Life might not to a bed of roses all the time, but we’d better be smelling the roses some of the time. God calls us to a joyful and abundant life, not a slavish, joyless existence. People should be drawn to us because “the joy of the Lord is out strength.” (Neh 8:10).

Yes, the way of the cross is one of denying self (Luke 9:23), but even that becomes a path to joy (see Heb 12:2). Maybe people would take Christianity more seriously if Christians didn’t take the things that really don’t matter so seriously. Paul tells us. “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” (Phil 4:4, NLT).