Original Thoughts?

Wow! Has it really been almost a month and a half since I last blogged? I apologize to the three or four people who really look forward to reading what I write. I guess I haven’t written lately because I have been working so much that I haven’t had time to have an original thought. Most of my thoughts aren’t original anyway but, as NBC used to say about their re-runs, “It’s new to you.”

Speaking of original thoughts, I want to write a little bit about something going around that proves the lack thereof. It seems an age old lie is making the rounds again stronger than ever. People are buying into it thinking that it is an original thought but it is as old as sin (literally). It is the lie that says “if it feels good, do it.” It also goes around in wiser sounding wrapping like, “I can only do what I feel is right” or “I have to be me…” All of it is an excuse for doing what we feel like doing and praying there are no consequences. It is driving me crazy to watch another generation buy into these lies. But it seems they are not just buying into it, the are enthralled by it. They act as if this is the deepest, newest wisdom ever.

The problem is that it is not new or original. It goes back to the book of Genesis. Sin is defined as doing what we think is right instead of what God says is right. I am particularly frustrated to see the ’60s version of this lie re-circulating. What they do not realize is that the philosophers of the ’60s who taught this stuff either overdosed or became responsible, people who do not just follow their feelings or “who they are.” They realized that who they are needed to change because it doesn’t work to go through life completely self absorbed. The hippies became the yuppies and now their kids are saying, “you don’t understand…” We understand. We ALREADY tried and rejected it. We know it does not work.

At the core that is exactly what this philosophy is, selfishness. The world is all about what I feel like, or who I am… Here is a good way to measure your philosophy, does it work for everyone? If your philosophy only works for you, it can’t be true. Here is what I mean: what if EVERYONE did what they felt like or what they thought was right? Suddenly they would be trampling your right to do what you feel like. Then who decides who is right? If it feels good to me to steal your money, who are you to tell me not to steal it. If it seems like hitting you is the right thing to do, who are you to tell me not to hit you? If “who I am” is a selfish jerk who treats you like garbage, who are you to tell me not to do so? What if I want to take the rent money and gamble it away? What if I want to abandon my wife and children? Society would fall apart and the world would be even worse than it is today. This philosophy cannot work for everyone at the same time and therefore is illogical, false, and must be rejected.

Another really funny thing about this kind of thinking is that it only “works” when you are surrounded by people who reject the philosophy who will support you. Who FEELS like going to work everyday to support their family? Those who FEEL like doing nothing, resist that feeling and go to work to support those who do what they feel like… Those who just follow their feelings are extremely grateful for the police, who do their duty instead of what they FEEL like, when someone else feels like ripping them off! The world would fall apart if everyone just accepted who they were instead of working to improve themselves.

Ok, I am not just ranting out of frustration. Anyone can criticize. You must have a better idea if you want to criticize. I do have a better idea and it isn’t original either, just not as popular. As a matter of fact, it is as old as the other philosophy… Submit yourself and your feelings to God and let HIM tell you what is right. He knows how we were made and what fulfills us. We must trust HIM. Usually the right thing to do is the opposite of what we feel like doing. Jesus also gave us a pretty good philosophy that works for everyone at the same time. He said DO to others what you would have them do to you. Imagine if we all did that. All the problems on this planet would be solved. I guess that makes it a true philosophy.

Angry at the Wrong People

A couple nights ago I was working at the hotel and I met a lady from Florida. She was out in the courtyard smoking a cigarette and had had a little too much to drink. She began asking me about Savannah and we were having a nice conversation until I mentioned that I was a pastor when I wasn’t securing hotels in the middle of the night. She began apologizing and put out her cigarette. Our conversation came to a screeching halt. The more I thought about it, the more it grieved my spirit that mentioning being a Jesus follower made her so uncomfortable. Why is it like this? Why are so many people who do not follow Jesus so uncomfortable with those of us who do (and we around them)?

I think the answer is found in Matthew 23. In this chapter we see the only time that Jesus got angry and “judgmental” with people. And who are the people He yelled at? The religious leaders of His day! The only people Jesus got upset with were people who claimed to follow God but didn’t show love for other people. Specifically, they did not show love for “sinners.” Jesus loved “sinners” and yelled at religious hypocrites. The church (myself included) seems to coddle hypocrites and yell at “sinners.” Why do we act the opposite of our Lord? Do we think we know better than He does? We need to turn this thing around. Love the “sinners” and those outside our fellowship and confront the judgmental amongst ourselves.

Prostitutes and sinners were comfortable hanging out with Jesus. They loved being around Him. Why do they hate being around us? Why am I so uncomfortable around people who smoke, drink, and curse? Could it simply be that I don’t want to be like Jesus badly enough to be uncomfortable? Are we so insecure in our beliefs that we fear being around “sinners” will ruin us?

I am again struck by how far we, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, have strayed from following Jesus. I know that is a very generalized, blanket statement but before you close this window, realize I am including myself in this group and admitting that many times I do the same thing. I am not pointing a finger at all of you from my perch of self righteousness. I am asking what is wrong with me and many of “us”?

I am challenging myself to spend more time with those who are not already following Jesus. I am not there yet. I admit I am uncomfortable. I think it is a good sign though that I am now more uncomfortable when someone feels uncomfortable around me. At least I am recognizing the problem. That’s the first step to recovery, right?

Keep Plowing

Last week I had the privelige of being invited to speak at a spiritual retreat at a school for troubled teens in the Dominican Republic. There are about 40 high school students there who have been sent by their parents to go through a Bible based, boot camp type school to deal with a wide variety of issues. For a week, they suspended classes and I was the speaker every morning and evening.

Most of these students are very much hardened to the world and to the Lord. It was a challenge to say the least. I was astonished when the two oldest boys, who had been in the program for years and were the leading “atheists” on campus each went to counselors after the service the first night and said, “I am tired of fighting God. It is too hard to not believe.” The next night one of them got up and read an essay he had written about stepping out to trust God. It sent shock waves through the students. By the end of the week, a third to half of the students had given their lives to the Lord. I ended up spending four days doing back to back counseling with students. There was no hype, it was just an awesome, spontaneous move of God!

One day I got to speak to just the staff. I stressed to them that, by no means was I under the illusion that what was going on had anything to do with me. I was just some guy passing through and getting to do some harvesting. None of it would have been possible if they had not been there day after day, month after month, year after year planting and watering the seeds of God’s word and love. Some of these people had gone round and round with these young men for up to four years, then suddenly, everything broke loose. I would describe myself as a migrant farm working coming through for the harvest season. The teachers, counselors, and house parents are the farmers. They have loved, prayed, and shed tears over the students. They have sacrificed by living in the Dominican Republic (a beautiful place but without the comforts of home like reliable electricity and water). They are the true heroes!

The problem is that there aren’t too many of us who want to be the planter or the waterers. It is great fun to be the harvester. It was an incredible experience. But it isn’t always so much fun being the one to love on kids who reject you and your Lord. I run a youth center and after school program that doesn’t always seem to be bearing fruit. But I am called to plow up the ground. I may never be the harvester in these kids’ lives. I may never even get to see the harvest. Am I still willing to plow and plant and water? Many times I get frustrated and want to quit. But there is no harvest without the guys doing the dirty work all year long. So keep plowing and thank God for the times you get to swoop in and harvest where someone else has been faithful to prepare the ground for you!

Go Out Among Them AND Be Ye Separate

There seems to be an eternal struggle among followers of Jesus. I know there are many disagreements and theological arguments but there is one big behavioral diving line. That line seems to be between those who feel we should “come out from among them (sinners) and be ye separate” and those who believe we should be “in the world but not of it.” Which of these verses resonate with us in the strongest way, determines how we live out our faith.

If the first verse resonates with our spirits, we want to be holy and so we pull away from everyone who does not follow Jesus (not to mention those who do not follow Jesus the way we do). We form Christian alteratives to everything and pretty soon don’t know anyone who is not already a follower. Evangelism becomes going out on the streets and telling the sinners what is wrong with them.

The problem is that the first verse is Old Testament. Of course it is still inspired scripture but Jesus came to fulfill the OT. That means all of the Old Testament must be filtered through His words. It was Jesus who prayed that we would be in the world but not of it. He did not want us to physically separate from those who do not yet follow Him. He wanted us to engage them. To work with them, befriend them, love them. Evangelism is doing life with people who don’t know Jesus and explaining to them why He makes a difference in our lives along the way. Of course we keep our hearts pure in the process. But remember holiness is being set aside for a purpose, not just being set apart. The purpose is to change the world. We can’t do that from the commune.

This all jumped out at me recently when I was studying about Paul planting the church in Corinth. Corinth was the sin city of it’s day. It was THE commercial and business center of ancient Greek. It was the center of worship of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. They had a temple there with 1,000 temple prostitutes. Going to church consisted of sleeping with one of them (talk about a user friendly church). There was a saying at the time, “not every man can afford a trip to Corinth.” When Greeks did a play and wanted to bring in a character from Corinth, the actor always had to act drunk. It was the kind of city that made any God fearing person sick. But when Paul arrived, he did not run away. He stayed a year and a half. He wrote letters, he kept coming back. In other words, he engaged the culture. Instead of opening a church door and saying, “come in when you are ready to behave” he lived among the people and built relationships with them before they were ready to change.

If we avoid all the “sinners” out there, who will reach them? It won’t be the guy on the street. Overwhelmingly people start following Jesus because of other Jesus followers they know, not because of strangers.
They reason most people think Christians are judgmental gay bashers is that they don’t personally know any Christians. Who will change that perception? Who will go out among them AND be separate?

DO Good

How have we come to the point where the world identifies Christians by what they are against? The number one thing non-church goers think of when they think of us is that we are anti-gay. As I read 3 John I was once again reminded that YOU called us to be FOR something, not against stuff.

Verse 11 says “…do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God…” YOU didn’t tell us to protest, picket, scream at, judge, or kill evil. YOU just said, don’t imitate it. Our job is simply to imitate good: to do good. YOU taught us to DO to others would we would have them do to us (Mt. 7:12). We are supposed to be proactive in living and doing good.

The evil in this world will not change because we attack it and complain about it. If we would just go out and live YOUR love, then the world will change. Evil will not be defeated by being attacked. It will be defeated because the virtue of good will outshine it. You can’t change darkness by attacking it, you just turn on the light and it goes away. LORD, help me to live FOR YOU not against everything else!

What Are YOU Waiting For?

It is funny to read in 2 Peter that people were already questioning YOUR return to earth way back then. They were saying, “where is the promise of HIS coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were before from the beginning of creation…” (3:4). If the first generation of the church was asking what was taking so long, how much more those of us waiting 2,000 years later! The interesting thing is that YOU answered the question all the way back then. We spend so much time trying to prove that such and such prophesy has to be fulfilled before YOU can return but in this passage, YOU told us what YOU are waiting for.

Peter writes that (YOU are) not slow in keeping (YOUR) promises as some count slowness, but (are) patient toward (us). Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (9). YOUR patience and mercy are holding YOU back from returning before more people have the chance to know YOU. It is not about prophesy and history. It is all about YOUR wanting to see less people spend their eternity apart from YOU.

That means that if I want to move things along, I need to lead more people toward YOU. There is nothing I can do about the mark of the beast or the antichrist. But I can help bring about the culmination of history by partnering with YOU to help people know YOU.

Effective and Fruitful

For many years I have taught that there are two reasons for our existence. More specifically, there is a reason for our existence and a reason that we continue to live on this earth. We exist to know and love YOU, LORD. But we are still here on earth to lead others toward knowing YOU. If the only purpose was to know YOU, why don’t we immediately go to be with YOU when we get saved? Why leave us here? As I was reading 2 Pet 1:8 today, I saw these two parts or purposes clearly. Peter tells us, “If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter is saying that there is still a reason for us to be here once we know YOU. While we are still here, we are expected to be effective and fruitful.

So what kind of fruit are we to bear? Is Peter talking about spiritual fruit? No, he just listed the qualities we normally associate with spiritual fruit (Vv. 5-7) and told us that those qualities are to keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful. So this fruit must be leading more people toward YOU. Once we come to know YOU, it is no longer just about YOU and us. It is about YOU, us, and everyone else.

Of course to lead others toward knowing YOU, we must develop the qualities that Peter listed. We need faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love (Vv. 5-7). If we focus on knowing You. Your Holy Spirit will produce these qualities in us. And the natural outgrowth of knowing You and growing in these qualities is bearing fruit, leading others toward YOU. Lord, I want to fulfill both my purposes. I want to be effective and fruitful.

Serving is the Point

A couple weeks ago I did a talk on how Jesus connected to the world. I believe the Lord would have all HIS followers follow him in connecting to the world the same way HE did. So how did HE do it? He connected by serving the world and according to Paul, we all need an attitude adjustment to learn to serve the way Jesus did.

Another reason we have a hard time following Jesus as He made HIMself a slave to others is that we think service is just a minor point. There is only one (BIG) problem; when we read Jesus’ words, we find that service is THE point. The goal is to become a slave to others. We read in Matthew 20:25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave– 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” James & John’s mother had just asked Jesus if they could be 2nd & 3rd in command. They wanted to most important positions in the kingdom that were left since “God” was already taken. Jesus explains that the point is to become a servant/ slave, not to work your way into being the boss. This is not minor, it is important.

We sometimes think that serving is just something we did early on in our walk with Jesus but now we have “paid our dues.” We would not say it but we think we are too important to serve others any more. I once served as the “Minister of Helps” in a church. That meant I painted the ten rental houses the church owned. Then I became the Youth Pastor of the same church. They paid me $100/month and I paid them $350/ month to live in one of the rental houses that they owned free and clear. That pastor believed that everyone should pay their dues in ministry. But that was just something you did until you got important enough to be served by some other kids paying his dues. The danger in this thinking is not about paying a pastor, it is the thought that there comes a time when you stop being a servant. When did Jesus stop being a servant? If HE didn’t stop until HE went back to heaven, should I stop before I go to heaven? When I think I am too important to do a certain job, I am missing the mark of the high calling of God for my life! When I do just enough to get by in any area of my life, I am falling short of HIS abundant life for me. Servanthood is the high calling; it is abundant life; it is the point.

Keep My Eye on the Ball

As a kid I played baseball in Little league and High School. Because I was big, everyone would back up when I came to the plate. They didn’t realize that I really couldn’t hit. I just never developed the skill. The coaches would always tell me, “keep your eye on the ball.” I always pretended that I understood and appreciated their advise but it never helped because I couldn’t really see the ball and even if I did, I just don’t have that kind of hand-eye coordination. I would just close my eyes and swing the bat blindly.

As I was reading 1 Timothy 1:3-7 this morning I was reminded of those words about keeping my eye on the ball. In this passage, Paul tells Timothy to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrines, nor devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation…” He goes on to say that “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith…” Then he goes back and says that “Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussions…” Sounds like Paul is telling Timothy, and me, to keep our eye on the ball.

In this case the “ball” seems to be LOVE. Paul is saying focus on love, not geneologies, theological contoversies, and hidden truths. Not only am I to focus on love, that love is to issue from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. How much time have I wasted in every kind of theological dead end and vain discussion? Paul is saying, don’t get into all that stuff. Just work on love. Once I think I have love down, I have to start working on making sure that it comes from a clean heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. That should pretty much take the rest of my life. The truth is that I am more comfortable arguing about the end times and eternal security than dealing with the fact that love rarely flows from my life and when it does it is usually from a junk-filled heart, a seared and suppressed conscience, and selfish faith (if I give, I will get). The things Paul wants me to focus on are too hard. They will take too long, like the rest of my life… Maybe that is the point. YOU want me to focus on love until I get it right by which time I shouldn’t care anymore about trying to prove who is right and wrong or to impress people with my theological prowess.

Lord, help me keep my eye on the ball. Help me focus on love even when I get bored and think I need to focus on other things. Help me spend the rest of my life on one theological principle, love.

Community is God’s Plan to Change the World

A week ago I did a talk on how fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The last reason I want to talk about is that God’s whole plan to change this world is based in community. In John 13:35 Jesus said, “By this will all men know that you are My disciples, that you love one another…” In other words, our community is supposed to be our witness to the world. We have so many ways of trying to let people know we are followers of Jesus. We wear Christian Tshirts, put Christian bumper sticker on our cars, listen to Christian music, etc… Not that there is anything wrong with all of this but Jesus said they would know who we are by how we love each other. This world is crying out for true community and if they see it in us, they will come running.

My dad has been a biker for 20 plus years. The reason he is a biker is because they love one another. They fight for each other. They help each other. In other words, his biker gang is exactly what the church is supposed to be. The reason people keep going to bars is that they find community there. Maybe the church should be more like a bar… If we truly live in Godly community, we will not need huge evangelistic events. If we live out true community, we will not be able to handle all the people trying to get in our buildings.

Lord, help me show my commitment to You by being committed to Your people. Help me to see that my acts of love and service to someone who aggravates me is really an act of service to You. Help me be as concerned about living in community as I am about knowing how to explain the Romans road. After all, the Romans road is supposed to lead them to You and to Your community.