...On the Word, Life, and Leadership

2011-02-11T16:09:00.005-05:00

‎My cousin recently placed this quote as her status on her Facebook page: “A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” – Albert Einstein

Boy that sounds reaallllly smart. And it’s Einstein for goodness sake. There must be something to it right? Not necessarily. Einstein also said “I want to know the mind of God, the rest is just details”, so I wouldn’t develop a philosophy of eternity based solely on the theological musings of a physicist. Einstein missed the point entirely, and trivializes both the “punishment” and “reward”. Both concepts have to do with our capacity, in eternity, to experience, or to be separated from, intimacy with the what the believer recognizes as the Source of our ethical and moral tendencies. I love my neighbor, not because I fear a divine spanking, or seek after some divine candy bar, but because I fear that by rejecting the Divine call to love on this earth, that mindset of rejection will only increase, and become absolute in me. If however, I embrace the Divine call to love, on the basis of my becoming aware of a revelation of a superior code of ethics and a greater love than was previously known to us humans (the life and teachings of Christ), I believe that such a mindset of affiliation will only increase, and be embraced by the Source of that love. As C.S. Lewis wrote “A thing becomes more of what it already is”.

If there is no God, then the universe did – on its own – develop consciousness and morality. We are the proof of that. The question is not whether there is some supreme manifestation of consciousness and morality in the universe, that is beyond question. The question is whether we are it. Choosing to believe that there is a higher, perfect (or perfected as some might argue) level of power, awareness, and morality may seem like so much naiveté, but it is also pretty likely. If one could argue that the level of power and morality the universe has arrived at, in the form of humanity, could be achieved solely through natural biological and geological processes, then I would have to assume that since current science teaches that the universe has been around for double the length of time the earth has (14 billion vs. 7 billion years), that it would be highly improbable that there would not be a level of consciousness and morality so much higher than ours that we would have no ability to see it as anything other than God. That is obviously not my own personal theology, but is far more likely than the narcissistic idea that we are the best there is in the universe, or that whatever other life that might be out there would be so much like us that we would recognize it and be able to either subdue it, or communicate with it. However, when one believes that there is a God, and that He is certainly no less aware (and self-aware) than we are, one then might naturally desire to emulate the superior ethics and morals of that Being. Even a grudging acceptance of human justice would have to affirm that it is far more likely that a person would be embraced (rewarded) by the Source for desiring to live in that higher ethical plane, and that a person would be distanced (punished) for choosing to reject such an obviously superior revelation of ethics, morals, and love.

It ain’t rocket science after all!

Pax Christi…

David

P.S. – You gotta read my brother Rob’s response. It’s in the comments section below!

2011-01-17T21:12:00.009-05:00

Are you an innie, or an outie? No, I’m not talking belly buttons here. What I’m wondering is what direction your Christianity faces? If that seems like an odd question (and I imagine it does!), perhaps it’s only because it’s one we should be asking ourselves more, but fail to do so.

When I survey the offerings in most local Christian bookstores on developing one’s walk with Christ, they seem to overwhelmingly be about the self – “What do I need to change in me to draw nearer to Jesus?”. And while no one who knows me would suggest that I’m saying that we should neglect inward change, I’m becoming more and more convinced that such change is only half – if even that – of the story.

We can get so wrapped up in what we need to do, and in what’s deficient in us, that we overlook perhaps the greatest tool of transformation in God’s toolbox – the element of obedient service unto the Lord. Jesus’ greatest call was for us to go into the world and make disciples (Matt. 28:19,20), and He said “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me” (John 4:34). Yet there is a curious excess of church folk who pray, worship, read the Word, give, etc., and yet do not regularly experience the joy and contentment of the Lord. Why? Because their discipleship focus in on themselves and not on others. Certainly it would be unwise to abandon the aforementioned essentials, but if we are engaging in them for ourselves and our own relationship with Christ alone, we’re kinda missing the point of being in Christ!

One of the truths I’m convinced of is that none of us will ever be the Holy Spirit, nor can we ever do His job successfully. If my focus is on myself, then I will be ignoring the call of Christ and am, ironically, cutting myself off from the transformational work of the Spirit. But if my focus is outward, then not only am I allowing myself to be a vessel to touch others, I put myself in the place where God CAN transform me.

Truly there is a time when it is necessary that our focus be inward – that’s called spiritual infancy and spiritual childhood. But Hebrews reminds us that there comes a time when we should move from being discipled, to being used by God to make disciples (Heb. 5:12). No one who has been called by the Spirit unto Christ is not called to spiritual maturity (Eph. 4:13); and spiritual maturity means getting our eyes off of our own spiritual needs and looking unto the fields, which are white unto harvest (John 4:35).

If you’re doing “all the right things” but still can’t seem to flow in the peace and joy of the Lord, then might I suggest that a simple change in focus may be exactly what you’re missing? Spend more time giving – not to reap a hundredfold increase – but with a sincere desire to see others reached for Christ. Spend more time praying for the lost than for your own house, knowing that as we focus on building His house, He will build ours (Haggai 1:9). Worship not just to bless your own life, but as one standing in the gap for those outside of salvation (Ezek. 22:30). And walk in repentance not just to increase your own blessedness, but with the idea that you will be a more useful tool in the Master’s hands (2Tim. 2:20,21).

Jesus told us that as we seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, that he would take care of our needs (Matt. 6:33). That’s not some beautiful verse that’s in the Bible for us to learn and recite, but to live. If we’ll commit that truth not just to memory, but to practice, we’ll see just how tangible and effective those words really are.

So… are you an innie or an outie?

Pax Christi!

Dave

2010-12-25T14:37:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! This is not just a time to be looking back in time, but forward. If the Bible was accurate about all those prophecies that predicted Jesus' birth, how much moreso can we rely on it now, about His return? I'm looking back today, to look forward tomorrow!

Pax Christi!

Dave

2010-11-29T22:14:00.006-05:00

Buffalo Bills receiver Steve Johnson may have won the award for the dumbest tweet of the year (after dropping a game-winning touchdown pass in the Bills’ overtime loss to the Steelers on Sunday), but he did the Church a great favor in bringing to light a very common attitude among Christians. He wrote (caps his!) I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS? HOW?!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…. This is some pretty staggering arrogance, but I’m seeing it more and more in the modern church – the idea that we all deserve God’s blessings and that all we have to do to receive them is to “jump on the bandwagon”, engage in some basic Christian exercises, and then begin to roll in God’s favor. There’s only one slight problem – it’s not true. Many a Christian has become frustrated watching Christian personalities preach this message (in place of the historical gospel I might add), and find themselves still on the outs in their mind, and NOT experiencing what they think God is required to do for them.

Stevie, you may have a hard time hearing this from an avowed Dolphins fan, but the truth is that God is not under any obligation, no matter what, to do what you think He ought to. The second is this – just because you “praise Him 24/7” (which you obviously don’t), doesn’t make you God’s intimate friend. Jesus made it abundantly clear that it was not the one who spoke of obedience, but the one who actually engaged in it, that walked in the favor of God (Matt. 21:28-32). If you want to get to such a place of spiritual intimacy, it’s attainable, but not by our standards. Salvation may be a free gift; intimacy is another story – that’s costly.

But the greater problem isn’t the theology of the ignorant. The greater problem is the foundational assumption that we are worthy and deserving to receive God’s favor in the first place. When what we want doesn’t happen, we feel empowered to shake our fists at heaven and blame God. As soon as we employ the attitude of deservedness, we kill off gratitude, for His favor becomes a matter of our inherent worthiness, and not (as scripture teaches) the natural result of our habitually walking in obedience.

So is that in you? Here’s a little self-test to bring it out of the realm of the theological and into the world we live in: While you’re judging someone for being “holier-than-thou”, have you ever considered that they may very well be? When someone accuses me of being so, my response is to ask them “What in the world would make you assume that I WASN’T holier than you are?”. That may sound arrogant, but I say it to illustrate a truth. Not because I know myself to be more holy than they are, but because the very idea that I’m “of course” not, is absurd and unbiblical.

For those who are having a tough time with that last paragraph, I’d like you to ask yourself these questions: “Why would Jesus speak of greater and lesser rewards?” (Matt. 16:27), “Why would Jesus speak of some receiving harsher and lighter judgments? (Luke 12:47,48)”, “Why would Paul speak of some receiving great reward and others barely making it into Heaven as if ‘escaping through the flames’? (1Cor. 3)”, “Why would Jesus say that John was the ‘greatest man born of woman’? (Luke 7:28)”, or that greater and lesser places of honor in Heaven have been assigned by the Father? (Matt. 20:23). The idea that every human being is on an equal spiritual level with the next guy is modern, western theology, but has little in common with historical Christianity. Paul differentiates even between people in the church when he says “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature” (1Cor. 2:6).

There is a difference between saying “God is no respecter of persons” (which is absolutely true), and extrapolating that because God is no respecter of persons, we all possess the same spiritual empowerment and intimacy. Why? Because God IS a God that respects and responds to applied understanding. The unmerited favor of God is what allows us all equal access to intimacy – it does NOT guarantee that we are all, or will all end up at, the same spiritual plane – either in this world or the next. This is why Jesus commended the woman with the issue of blood, and the centurion, and the woman who washed His feet with her tears. The reality is that there are things each of us don’t know, that if we were to learn, would allow us greater intimacy with the Father; there are actions of obedience that if I engage in, will bring me nearer to the Father’s heart. I desire to grasp the things I’m not yet understanding, so that I can more regularly and powerfully experience God’s manifest presence in and through me. That’s our choice – to either come to grips with that truth and pursue God in greater and greater measure, or to delude ourselves into believing that we have all we can get. Jesus said it clearly that the one who is faithful with what he is given will be given even more (Matt. 25). That couldn’t be possible if I already have all I can attain. Oh, I could pretend I’m some great spiritual giant, but far better to simply acknowledge that I still have a long way to go.

So how do we get there? Well for starters we need to get around people who ARE powerful in the Lord, and who ARE intimate with Christ. To watch them, learn from them, and imitate them. The Bible says that “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” (Prov. 13:20). It tells us that “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Prov. 27:17). And it also tells us that “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1Cor. 15:33). Who we surround ourselves with will make all the difference in terms of our spiritual maturity, attitude, and habits of obedience which produce the fruit of spiritual intimacy.

A man once said to me “But Pastor – when you make people think they need to be more like someone else, they create a goal of being like that person, but they leave God behind!” That’s simply not true. Throughout scripture we’re encouraged to pursue the qualities of individuals in scripture. We understand that this does not mean leaving God behind at all, for in fact those qualities were given by God in the first place, for “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17). I have no problem whatsoever looking to people like Elijah (whom James commends), or David, or Moses, Mary, and so on, and desiring to imitate the qualities they possessed that allowed them to experience intimacy with God on a greater level and with more frequency than I’ve experienced. Jesus Himself said “If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the things Abraham did” (John 8:39). Paul says in 1Thes. 1:6 “You became imitators of us AND of the Lord”, and in 1Cor. 11:1 he says “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

So Mr. Johnson, you need to understand two things; One, that God is not your own cosmic vending machine. You can’t praise Him, then fault Him for your own lack of concentration. Kick the Coke machine if you must when it doesn’t give you what you paid for, but your praise is not the currency that forces God to do what you want Him to do. Secondly, if you want the kind of intimacy with God that you apparently see as your birthright, then you need to understand what it takes to get there. It’s attainable, but it’ll cost you plenty. Some are willing to pay that price, and some aren’t. But I have a feeling that if you pay it, and get there, you probably won’t see dropping passes as life or death issues, and you certainly wouldn’t see them as license to shake your fist at the One who created that fist in the first place. I hope that becomes true of God’s Church as a whole.

Pax Christi,

Dave

2010-10-29T23:10:00.004-04:00

People always think that their reasons for gossip and division are justified. First of all, the Bible never differentiates between someone who thinks they have a case for division and someone who does not. Seriously – as if someone is going to come along saying “I’m just here to cause division with no justification whatsoever!”. Obviously not. Everyone who brings division into the Body wraps him or herself in the mantle of a “just cause”. But what does the Bible say?

Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. (Titus 3:10,11)

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

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Heb. 13:17)

Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father (1Tim. 5:1a)

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you... (1Cor. 11:17,18)

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19-21)

It is written: “Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people”. (Acts 25:5b)

Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm. (1Chron. 16:22)

I urge you, brothers, to mark those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. (Romans 16:17)

There are a whole bunch more, but you get the point. When we bring division into the church, we are making the statement that God isn’t in control, and that it’s up to man to play Holy Spirit. We’re saying that unless we bend or break the very clear directives of scripture, that the Church can’t function, when God never said that either perfection was necessary for us to serve Him, or that we were to take responsibility for forcing change in others. In fact, when we take that approach, we are opposing God Himself. It is God who sets the Church in order, and God who takes responsibility for it. Even in the Old Testament, David would not raise his hand against Saul, even though Saul had left the Lord, was bent on murder, and even involved himself in witchcraft. Why did David feel this way? He understood that God was on His throne and that only God was qualified to judge. David told his followers (who were urging him to attack Saul) “As surely as the LORD lives,” he said, “the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.” (1Sam. 26:10,11)

Proverbs asks us a question – “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” The answer – “No”. Even if you “mean well”, when you do what the Word of God tells you not to do, you will be negatively affected. Even if you’re sincere, to engage in division, gossip, or slander, separates you from a Holy God who forbids it in His house. When you play with that stuff, there will be consequences in your life. At the very least, you will suffer discouragement. At the worst, separation from the favor of God, and even your very relationship with Him (look back at Gal. 5:19-21). It is not a trivial thing, but one of the most grievous sins possible, for you are beating again against the very Body of Christ. Hasn’t he suffered enough for us?

2010-08-28T13:21:00.011-04:00

Had someone ask me a really great question about a controversial subject. He asked what Paul meant in 1Cor. 14:34 about a woman being silent. A co-worker (guess which gender) had told him that this means just what it says and that women are not to speak at all in church. Is that really what the Bible is saying?

Short answer – “NO”. As I like to say, “a text out of context is a pretext”. The first obvious problem is how to define where the church starts. As a friend recently remind me, at the time Paul was writing his letters, we don’t know of any churches who had yet purchased buildings specifically as places of worship, or ministry centers, so church doesn’t start at the building. Is Paul telling women that “When two or three are gathered together there you must shut your mouths?” That would be an interesting paraphrase of Matt. 18:20 for sure. In 1Cor. 11, Paul is telling women HOW to prophecy. Why then would he tell women to be completely silent a few chapters later? Especially since in 1Cor. 14:22 Paul has just made the statement that prophecy is given FOR the church. In Acts 2, the Bible says “Your sons and daughters shall prophecy” – how would someone suggest women use that God-given gift, since it’s given for use in the church? We know that Philip the evangelist had 4 daughters who were prophetesses (Acts 21:9), that Priscilla taught Apollos (Acts 18:26), and that Phoebe was deaconess at Cencrea (Rom. 16:1). I wonder how they were able to do all that without speaking a word!

Quite simply the guy is taking scripture out of context. The context of 1Cor. 14:34 is speaking about judging prophecies and prophets. That call to “silence” only applies in that specific area, and is saying that a woman should not do so in the midst of the full congregation, as a means of displaying submission. Think of it this way: if you see a child authoritatively correcting his parents in public, do you think “Wow, what a wonderful open-minded family?” No, you think those parents are whack! Likewise, if you see a woman repeatedly browbeating her husband on the street, do you think “Gee, what a strong woman!”? or “What a sensitive, liberated guy”? No (be honest now!), you think the guy’s a wimp don’t you? There is a divine order to nature that even unbelievers recognize, and Paul is simply reminding a church (that had gotten out of control in several areas), to think about their witness. Their witness was getting killed by drunkenness (1Cor. 11:21), by putting up with adulterous incest (1Cor. 5:1), lawsuits among believers (1Cor. 6:1), unrestraint in their services (1Cor 14), division (1Cor. 1:11,12), and several other areas.

I’m sure the guy means well (I hope!), but his understanding of the context of the letter would go a long way in helping him understand what was being taught there. Otherwise, 1Cor. 14:34 is just some random comment, out of nowhere, telling women to zip it. Placed in the context of what Paul was addressing, it is not nearly as offensive as it seems. Read it again and you’ll see what I mean – the context (and the entire chapter actually) is about judging prophetic speech, and the proper use of spiritual gifts, not about offensive women.

There are women who initially thought Paul was a sexist, who, once they understood what he was actually teaching, came to see that Paul’s writings probably did at least as much (if not more) to further women’s rights than any other significant historical figure – at least of that era. Paul was someone who commended women to various areas of leadership ministry (Romans 16:1), taught spiritual equality (Gal. 3:38), taught men to serve their wives as Christ served the church (Eph. 5) and taught the radical idea that women were full sexual equals in the marriage bed (1Cor. 7). That sure didn’t come out of first-century Jewish thought, ancient Roman thought, or Asian religious thought, and it definitely didn’t come out of Islam centuries later. Yes, Paul affirmed that there were still assigned roles for men and women due to creation (I can’t breastfeed no matter how hard I might try!) and due to our fallenness (for example, there was no requirement towards submission before Adam and Eve sinned), but the Bible is clear that those roles are temporary, and do not determine our permanent, eternal designations. Just as I am to submit to those over me in the Lord – but that does not mean they will be known as greater in eternity – so women are called to the role of gracious submission, to display certain aspects of the nature of God, and men are called to servant leadership within the home, to display other aspects, that neither could display on their own (Gen. 1:27). Paul is simply reminding the church what that order would look like, when put in practice in a particular situation in the church.

This is such a tough subject because (just bein’ real guys) we men have often contorted the Word to substantiate our positional authority, while simultaneously neglecting the development of authentic spiritual authority, which is what God is truly after in us. Positional authority is given in an instant, and has no bearing on how Christlike we are. But spiritual authority is developed through faithfulness over time, and through willingly surrendering our “rights” to become like Jesus.

So a little reminder to that co-worker. Yes, we’re called to different areas of surrender and sacrifice, but in order for them to glorify God, they must be voluntary offerings to Him. Forcing a woman to walk in submission no more causes Jesus to be reflected in her life than putting a gun to a man’s head and saying “Sacrificially serve your wife or I’ll blow your brains out” would. Compulsory submission, service, or sacrifice, does nothing to reflect the heart of God. But when we, as women and men, choose to walk in agreement to the call of Christ on our lives, and voluntarily lay down our rights to reflect Him, He is seen in us. Remember, Jesus said “When I am lifted up..., I will draw all to myself.” Not “When I’m forcibly displayed...”. As a father of a daughter who’s about to be married, if she came home one night and said “My fiancé told me that I have to shut up and do what he says. He’s always insulting me and looking down on me”, how would that make me feel as her father? There’s no way he could act like that and not harm his relationship with me. As the great prophet Rich Mullins once said “It’s not that Catholics revere Mary too much, it’s that we revere each other too little”. Definitely some truth there.

Good to be home...

Dave

2010-08-06T22:44:00.002-04:00

I’ve come to the conclusion that “Judge not lest ye be judged”, can only ever be applied to oneself, or as something to be taught generally. As soon as I decide that a particular individual needs to hear it, I’ve violated the meaning of it, and disqualified myself from communicating it. Likewise, if I accuse someone of needing to “Take the plank out of their own eye”, before I’ve dislodged whatever is in my own, I’m in worse shape than they are.

At the same time, Jesus never said “Correct not lest Ye be corrected”, for God assumes a desire on the part of His people to BE corrected. When I judge someone, my intention is to exclude them and “cut them off”, from righteousness; I’m stating not only that they’re wrong, but that they have moved beyond the pale of being right. In so doing I’m establishing a moral hierarchy, where I as the “judger” stand above the “judgee”. Correction, on the other hand recognizes the weakness of both parties, is undertaken out of compassion, and places both parties on equal ground before God. Galatians 6:1 says “If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” There is a tacit understanding then that 1. the person in sin should not remain in that state, 2. that God has called those who are intimate with Him to serve as agents of restoration, and 3. the one doing the restoring is not inherently superior, and must, in humility, recognize their own capacity to fall into sin as well.

I know in this day and age it is commonplace for people outside of grace (and sadly even in the church) to attempt to use scripture verses to shield them from the need to change and grow, but our avoiding correction was never Jesus’ intent. The Bible says in 1John 3:8 that “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the work of the devil”. As hard as it might be to admit, each of us carries some of that work in us, and we must submit to God’s processes of growth, even when they destroy things that we’ve grown accustomed to their being in our lives. Christians should be those who model movement towards anything that helps us to conform to the image of Christ; not those who run away from it because it might sting to accept it.

Apply liberally to affected area…

Dave

2010-07-31T14:16:00.008-04:00

Got into a really good conversation on marital submission on Facebook. Great comments and some honest penetrating questions. I know that when we get into such discussions, the conversation can get a little testy, and the inclination is often to gravitate towards being “nice”, to ameliorate the tone. But I’m not at all convinced that nice is always helpful when we’re dealing with subjects that only exist because of our hard-heartedness in the first place. So with that in mind, allow me to give some blunt news for both sexes. Ladies first!

Wives, submission to your husband is only necessary because of Eve’s sin; it was never required of humanity to submit to other humans before sin entered the picture, nor do requirements of this type seem to apply to societal or governmental leadership (Judges 4:4), spiritual giftedness (Acts 2), or spiritual effectiveness, but because of the nature OF that sin, it does exist within the marriage relationship. Since leadership in the Church is an outgrowth of one’s leadership in the home (1Tim. 3:5), it also affects us there too. In 1Tim. 2:11-15 (a very difficult passage to swallow I know), Paul twice refers back to Gen. 3 regarding both the order of creation, as well as Eve’s submission as a consequence of her sin. It is then, of course, only natural that women should want to be free from that consequence, but here’s the problem – what would a woman say (even in the age of grace) about a man who didn’t want to work because it was Adam’s punishment for sin, and since we’re under Christ now, he shouldn’t have to? We recognize that sin is defeated, but not disposed of (Romans 8:23), and as we humble ourselves under the Word of God, even when it’s difficult, we declare our trust in Christ that He will bring all things to perfection, just as He said He would, and that we don’t have to make it happen by our own efforts. Another difficult passage (1Cor. 7:1), where Paul seems to say that men are better off without a woman, is difficult to receive because we’re viewing it through a 21st century lens. But it’s much easier to understand when you recognize that Christians were facing daily persecution (as Paul refers to in v. 26), which would have placed their wives in grave danger regularly. Having to be concerned for a wife (think Peter watching his wife being crucified!) certainly makes following Christ more difficult. On the other hand place yourself in the mid 1st century and recognize how radical it was that Paul was suggesting that men and women are sexual equals in marriage, and that the “husband’s body belongs to his wife”, as he states just a few verses later. Paul was no misogynist, but he didn’t allow (as was often the case) the difficulty of what he was teaching to dictate whether he would teach it or not. Let me speak a little tough truth here. Peter later would refer to Paul’s teachings as being distorted by “ignorant and unstable” people (2Peter 3:16), and that’s no different now. Many would get around the tough pills of scripture by dismissing or labeling the writer. But what does that say about the inspiration of scripture? Are we really ready to say that God allowed error into the Word, or that He made a poor choice in selecting Paul as an author? Let’s be honest, people who do that are simply trying to blame God, but with plausible deniability (“I’m not mad at YOU God”, it’s that idiot Paul!”). Just be careful, because what if God really meant what He said? See what happens? It brings us right back to the old “Did God really say” temptation, which is precisely what got us into this mess in the first place. We know that strategy worked well with Eve – do you think Satan hung it up after that incident? Look, we know in Heaven there will be no gender issues, but let’s not commit the sin of Abram (Gen. 16) and try to help God do what He already said He would do. It’s our own problem and our own fault that there are such problems here on earth (not Paul’s and not God’s), but persevering under them in faith is a sign of our trust in Christ. It’s not about what we get on earth (see my last blog entry), it’s about what God’s doing to prepare us for eternity, and submission is a part of that process.

Men… time to put on your big boy undies and admit that the sin problem exists because we abdicated our positional role in the first place. Adam was not “covering” his wife and protecting her, nor was he standing between her and the devil, as he should have been. Not much has changed to be perfectly honest. We men still want the benefits of the position, without the spiritual responsibility and accountability that goes along with it. I have never met a woman, no matter how “liberated”, or “feminist”, who has ever said to me, “My husband wakes the family up for church on Sundays, prays with and for his children, sacrifices and models submission in his home, never yells at me or demands his own way; and I can’t stand it!”. In reality men fall back on positional authority because we’re afraid of being exposed as not having developed true spiritual authority. We’ll bellyache and complain that our wives won’t submit, but it’s generally because we’re being lousy, lazy leaders, who want a wife who will perfectly model Eph. 5:22,23, while we as men conveniently ignore the verse that precedes the instructions to BOTH husbands and wives – “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21); to say nothing of that whole loving our wives sacrificially thing. Oh, and while I’m at it, the next guy who whines that his wife won’t submit to him while he’s playing games with impurity in his own life gets my “Dork of the Year” award. Eph. 5:26,27 says that husbands are to love their wives in such a way that he is “cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her…, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” If we’re not modeling purity and righteousness as men in our homes and lives, knowing and living the Word, loving sacrificially, and teaching submission by modeling it first, we’re almost certainly bringing the problem on ourselves. If you’ve been married any length of time, your spouse is to a large degree a product of the person she’s married to. No man, in any position, should ever require someone to follow, before they’ve clearly modeled requirements of the position for them. That’s true in the military, the workplace, and certainly in the home. If you want to lead, then truly lead, but don’t disqualify yourself from being a leader, and then object that you’re not being followed.

O.k., am I right or off base here? How do you see it? Please no knee-jerk “You don’t know my situation” responses. If the truth has been distorted, let me know where – just not why you’re the exception to it.

Dave

2010-07-17T17:05:00.012-04:00

I seem to be getting into an awful lot of discussions regarding relationships recently. Primarily, “Does God really create one person for each of us for our whole lives?”

The simple answer is that if a person is created to be married, then of course God knows who is the best “match” for that individual, and who would best help him or her accomplish God’s unique purposes for their lives. So as a basic answer to the question, I’d have to say “Yes”. But I’m also convinced there’s a darker reason we ask such questions:

If I believe that God designed me for one other human being (assuming I’m not called to remain single), then what about when things seem to be such a disaster? Many would convince themselves that God DOES create us for one person (meaning someone they should have married!), to give them an “out” when things seem to be going badly. When life seems to be crashing around them, often believers tell themselves “This must not be God’s will for my life” or “I must have gotten out of God’s will when I got married”, and in so doing “spiritualize” either their own selfishness, laziness, or disobedience, and rationalize a decision that they know God speaks clearly against, time and time again in His Word.

My best friend growing up was a girl who ended up getting married at the ripe age of 15. We have stayed in touch through the years, and one day she called me to say that her marriage was falling apart. Although not a Christian, she used a variant of the aforementioned rationalization, to excuse her seeking a divorce. What I told her was that it might NOT have been God’s will for her to get married, but it was certainly God’s will for her to stay married.

Marriage isn’t a living arrangement, a contract, or an agreement. It may be fashionable to view it as a partnership, but in reality, it’s a covenant. And covenants are different from every other relationship. First and foremost, because it is what mostly closely represents the relationship we have with Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:32). It is the only arrangement between human beings strong enough to house something as powerful as the very reflection of Christ and His Church. Secondly in marriage, we are brought into a relationship that will most powerfully help to shape us as individuals in the image of Christ.

Genesis 2:18 tells us that Eve was created as Adam’s “help-meet”. You ever wonder what a “help-meet” is? Think about it – after God created each thing He declared it good, but when looking at Adam’s aloneness, for the first time, He said something was “not good”. The very last being created, the “icing on the cake” of creation, was woman. And she was brought in – not to be Adam’s help-meet around the house, or to bring in a second paycheck – but (of course!) to enable Adam to accomplish God’s very purpose for creating him. Adam had been given a call that was too great for him to accomplish alone, and that was “not good”. Eve, by joining her life to Adam’s, entered into that call and in so doing discovered the definitive purpose for her life.

When a couple in Christ marries, they must first and foremost recognize that those dynamics have not changed. I will not marry a couple unless they can tell me with certainty that God has called them to such a relationship. I warn them that there will be times when that conviction may be the only thing that enables them to hold on – to know that the person they are marrying is their “assignment” from God; the one that He has brought into their life to enable them to fulfill their ultimate purpose. One example I use is to tell them that if they were always envying someone with a bigger house, they would do what they could to get such a house for themselves. But if God had said to them “This is the only house you will ever live in”, their natural inclination would then be to fix up that house as grandly as they possibly could afford to. It is the same with our marriage relationships. If we are constantly “looking over the fence” at what we don’t have, we will grow ever more envious and disappointed, and at some point will likely convince ourselves that the strong (fleshly) desire for something “better” means that we must be out of God’s will. But if we look at our spouses with the confidence that this person is God’s assigned emissary to my life – that without him or her I cannot hope to fulfill the purpose for which I was created – my natural tendency will be to invest greatly in that relationship; making it the very best I can make it.

What makes marriage so difficult is that it requires that two people choose to serve the other for no other reason except that God has ordained it (read that last line again… I’ll wait). When a man says to himself “No matter what, I will love and serve this woman because this is what God requires of me”, and when a wife says the same of her husband, you will have an awesome marriage. It may take time, but you’ll get there. But as soon as selfishness enters in – as soon as it becomes about serving for what I get, or about keeping score – the foundation that enables God’s blessing and favor begins to crumble. That’s why the Bible doesn’t say “Husband, make sure that your wife respects you (read Eph. 5:22… notice that it’s addressed to the wife?), and it doesn’t say “Wives, make sure your husband loves you sacrificially”; God’s command to me as a husband remains, irrespective of the actions of my wife; and hers remains regardless of what I do or do not do for her.

Yes, I see the inherent danger. We’re flawed human beings. We’re prone to selfishness and in probably almost every case, someone is going to get “the short end of the stick” (between us guys, it’s usually our wives!). I’ve counseled too many people who have been used and abused to not know it can happen. The question is; “What do I do with the problem?”. Do I “fight fire with fire?”, dig in, and show this person that I can be every bit as demanding of my own way as he or she can? If so then I’ve completely missed the point. The point never is about what I end up with in this life, but whether I’m prepared for the next. If you’re married, God is both your Heavenly Father and your Heavenly Father-in-Law. Meditate on that and see if it doesn’t bring change to your marriage. I’m certain that regardless of who comes out ahead, or who gets what in this world, that if Ruth and I surrender to the fact that she and I have been brought together for one goal, one vision, and one purpose, and if we serve each other in order to accomplish that goal, that Christ will work in our marriage covenant and accomplish His will in us. He will use each of us to help prepare the other for eternity. And I’m convinced that he wants to do the same in your marriage as well.

Hope that induces some labor!

Dave

2010-07-04T21:43:00.002-04:00

Happy 4th of July everyone! May your independence be far more than what was won from the British. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36).

2010-06-17T16:54:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone,

Had someone ask me a really good question that I thought would benefit more than just the person who asked. The question was: “I’ve heard you teach that faith is believing that what God has already said will come to pass. Hebrews 11:2 says ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for’. To me this sounds like faith is not only believing that the things God says will come to pass but also the things we hope for. Can you please clarify?”

Yes, I believe that the most biblical definition of faith I can see is that faith is man’s response to God’s command, revelation, or promise. I reference Hebrews 11 often in a support of that premise. We have seen, in this generation, the danger of defining faith as believing for what we want to happen, instead of as a response to God. People say they are “believing” for this, that or the other, and it never comes to pass. But never once in the Bible is there an example of someone believing God and it not occurring. Why? Because in every instance in scripture, where faith is activated, it comes in reponse to God’s direction. God says “I will heal”, and He does. The example I use is that if you were to say “I’m believing for Pastor Dave to come over and cut my grass”, it would get pretty long my friend. But if I told you I would be there to cut it, and you waited for me and did not cut it yourself, it would be an expression of your faith in me to do what I had promised to do.

We have to be careful not to divorce that one verse from its greater context, or to use a common, rather than a biblical, definition of the word hope. Heb. 11 is known as the “Heroes Hall of Fame”, and the context of that entire chapter is man’s response to God’s leading and promise. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, David, etc. – each are great examples of how God spoke either promise, revelation, or command to them, and how faith was then proven (substantiated) by the subsequent actions of the individuals. In every instance mentioned in Heb. 11, there was some type of revelation from God, and faith was afterwards reckoned by man’s proper response to that revelation. There is not a single example there of someone simply hoping for something, apart from what God had revealed. Also, look at how the author is using the word “hope” throughout the book (Hebrews 3:6; 6:11; 6:18,19; 7:18,19; 10:23. The author establishes, before chapter 11, that he is speaking of God imparted hope, not simply our desires for what we want to see. He then “fleshes out” that hope, much the same way Paul, in 1Cor. 13, demonstrates that love must be added to faith and hope to establish their efficacy.

In 1Cor. 13 the Bible tells us that hope is not an ingredient of faith, but a separate entity. For instance, I would not have the hope of Heaven without God revealing and promising it to me, so I rightly hope for Heaven. I hope for reunion with those who have gone before, I hope for a eternity with no sickness, no separation, and so on. But hope alone would be insufficient (and is often carnal), so Heb. 11 is telling us we need the next quality – faith. Hope is an internal quality – faith is the external demonstration (by faith Noah built... by faith Abraham offered, by faith Isaac blessed... Moses’ parents hid, etc.), that’s why it is called the “substance” – it substantiates, or makes evident, our internal, unseen hope etc. Heb. 11:17-19 is maybe the best example of how they are different qualities – sometimes even at odds with each other – but yet working together. Abraham hoped to receive Isaac back from the dead (because of God’s revelation that “through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned”), but still “offered” him because “God tested him”. The Bible uses the words “even though” to illustrate the tension between his hope of the fulfillment of God’s promised blessing, and the obedience that was necessary to “substantiate” faith.

One might hope that they win the lottery, but try and place that in Heb. 11:1 and watch what happens… “Faith is the substantiation of my hope of winning the lottery”. Doesn’t work does it? But when you place God’s revelation in, it does “Faith is the substantiation of my hope that I will win souls in response to God’s call on my life”. That works. To go further with the Heb. 11 illustration (and at the risk of appearing to elevate myself to these great individuals of the Bible!) I could say “By faith Dave Gregg, when called by God to preach the gospel, left the music business, went into prisons, the inner city, went back to school, accepted the pastorate of the Lighthouse”, etc. But that could not be said apart from that initial call. If there were no initial call, and I simply presumed to serve God for my own reasons, it would not be faith at all. Faith, in order to be faith, must be preceded by a command, promise, or revelation from God. Otherwise, what is it faith in?

You might want to look at Romans 4:18, Romans 5:1,2, Romans 15:4, 2Cor. 9:14, Galatians 5:5, Eph. 1:18, Eph. 2:11,12, Eph. 4:4, Col. 1:22,23, 27, 1Thes. 4:13, 1Thes. 5:8, and Titus 2:12,13, for further illustration of the difference between self-generated desire and God imparted hope. It’s always important to get the biblical definition of the word before attempting to activate it practically. Just as “love” in the Bible is a usually a verb (not a noun as in the world), and as there is godly grief compared to worldly, or godly jealousy vs. carnal, etc., the hope Hebrews is speaking of is that quality that accompanies the reception of the promises of God, not simply what we wish might happen.

Remember – “A text out of context is a pretext”.

Hope (no pun intended) that helps!

Dave

2010-06-04T20:54:00.015-04:00

Hi everyone,

Recently I was exposed to another example of what I call “Bumper Sticker Philosophy”, in the form of several old friends from high school who “liked” a facebook page called “Homosexuality isn’t a choice; homophobia is”. Sounds o.k. on the surface right? After all, if someone is born a particular way, that isn’t their fault, but the way I respond to them is – am I wrong?

Here’s the problem. Our culture is being conditioned to accept or reject truth on the basis of whether it sounds good as a slogan. Anyone remember “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit”? We live in the era of the sound bite, where truth is now processed through the axiom of “Whoever can sound right the fastest wins”. But that hardly ever gets us to the truth. It simply justifies intellectual laziness.

Let’s take for a moment that first example. First of all, is there any definitive evidence that homosexual behavior is inborn? None that I’m aware of. Anecdotal evidence perhaps, but certainly not definitive. I can think of several examples right off the bat, of well known individuals who have chosen to change their sexual behaviors after many years of practicing a completely different one – Anne Heche, Meredith Baxter, and Jon Moss (of Culture Club) come to mind. Two of the three changed from homosexual to completely heterosexual behavior, without any religious influence whatsoever, affecting their decision. They simply decided they wanted to engage in different sexual behavior, and to do so exclusively. Yet I’ve never heard of someone deciding to change their race, or height, or blood type, and successfully doing so. If homosexuality had been proven to be genetically predetermined, it would have been the biggest story of the year. Unless I missed that major news event, it has simply been accepted as truth even in the absence of definitive proof. Why? Because we have settled for the gradual acceptance of the slogan, not the testing and proving of the theory. Secondly, when did the opposition to a sexual behavior become a phobia? I am personally against adultery – am I adultephobic? I’m against bestiality – am I bestiphobic? Beyond that, if it IS a phobia, then by definition one did not choose it. Who chooses to be afraid of heights, or flying, or enclosed spaces? I’ve never in my life met someone who chose a phobia, so if anything, should we not be showing sympathy for those who have them – in any form?

Finally, the question needs to be asked – “Even if someone is born a particular way, does that mean society must accept the behavior?” It would be a far easier argument to make that people are born pedophiles – after all, who would ever choose to be attracted to children? – and yet society does not condone that behavior. Yes, I’m aware of the difference between the two behaviors, and I understand that one involves consenting adults where the other does not. But that argument misses the point entirely. If we must bow at the altar of evolution, which determined that some have different sexual desires and practices, how can we then conclude that pedophilia is wrong? Is it not tyranny for the majority to prohibit a practice, simply because they do not desire to participate in it? If there is no God, and evolution programmed us as a species, then we must allow all sexual practices, and accept them as beneficial. If on the other hand the argument is religion-based (“If God made me this way, then it can’t be wrong”), then pedophilia must be embraced and celebrated as well, because again, since no one would choose the behavior, it must be innate, and God-intended, and if so cannot be prohibited. Anyone want to accept that “truth”? Didn’t think so.

Christianity on the other hand does not deny the reality that apart from Christ we are incapable of living up to God’s standards, yet still states clearly that the failure to do so will result in eternal punishment. Eph. 2:3 explicitly says that “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” The Bible does not teach that human beings, apart from Christ, can walk according to God’s standards. It teaches that apart from the born again experience, our nature dictates that we will engage in practices that are perverse according to the perfect standards of God. It declares that the imperfections we so clearly display (which includes our sexual sin), demonstrate that we are in need of redemption and transformation. It is therefore our acceptance or rejection of God’s providence, through the cross of Christ, which becomes the basis for where we spend eternity.

The reality is that the entire argument demonstrates two things: One, that we’re creatures who are capable of making moral judgments, and two, that the easiest way to win the argument is no longer to engage in superior logic and reasoning, but to demonize those who do not agree with you. Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” The pattern of this world is to take the path of least resistance; to accept bumper sticker philosophy and sound bite logic. The call to the Christian is to test and approve what is right.

You know what? It took 951 more words for me to make this point than it took to make that facebook title. Don’t settle for easy.

Munch much…

Dave

2010-05-14T18:04:00.010-04:00

I was having lunch with a good friend when the subject of Christian accountability came up. Namely, how much we talk about the subject as believers, and how little we actually participate and engage in it.

I mentioned recently in a message how rare (if not nonexistent) genuine accountability is in the church today. In most churches, accountability is a prerequisite for membership, but try and exercise it and watch what happens. Even as the pastor of a local church, I seldom if ever see someone graciously accept correction, even when their sin is manifestly evident, and even though my very job description says that I am to “correct, rebuke and encourage” (2Tim. 4:2). Scripture declares that it is given for “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2Tim. 3:16) yet many Christians are tacitly asking their leaders, and brothers and sisters in Christ, to walk in disobedience to the call of Christ on their lives, so they won’t be inconvenienced by all that annoying transformational stuff.

So in that spirit may I submit my “Top 10 Responses When Being Confronted with Personal Sin” list:

10. “Who are YOU to talk?” (I’m a Christian brother, the very vessel God’s Word says he chooses to bring correction through)

9. “My sin isn’t as bad as so and so’s.” (yeah, let’s take that to its natural conclusion)

8. “Like you’ve never made a mistake!” (intentional sins aren’t mistakes, just sayin’)

7. “You need to take the plank out of your eye before you go after the speck in mine.” (personal fave BTW)

6. “Look at Mr. Perfect over here!” (i.e. “Let’s move the focus from me to you”)

5. “I’m struggling with that area.” (i.e. “I’ve been sinning like that for years!”)

4. “I don’t really consider that a sin.” (even though the Word says it is)

3. “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven. (see blog from April 7)

2. “I’m not under law, I’m under grace.” (see Titus 2:11,12)

1. “God knows my heart.” (the problem is that He judges our deeds)

I wish I could say “All kidding aside”, but the reality is that these (and others like them) are the most common responses – not (as one might suppose), gratitude for someone stepping out and risking in order to help a brother or sister to walk in the light. The fact is that Jesus didn’t say “Don’t bother with the speck in your brother’s eye”, He merely taught us to take inventory and make sure that we were not disqualifying ourselves with unrepentant sin, before dealing with the sin in someone else’s life. And here’s what Jesus definitely didn’t say. He didn’t say “If someone would like to help you remove a painful splinter from your eye, first check to see if they have anything in their own eye, and if so, you can merrily walk away, ignoring the splinter that’s still there.”

The truth is that we, as members of the Body of Christ, are people in the midst of transformation. We’re not yet made perfect (Phil 3:12), and yet we’re called to both the process of being perfected, and to be used in that process in the lives of others in the Body (James 5:16-20). Nowhere in scripture does God ever promise that He will only use perfect people to correct us, and nowhere does He hint that the imperfections in the lives of others disqualify them from being used to help mold you in the image and likeness of Christ. Matt. 6 and Luke 3 weren’t written as instructions on how others must behave, but how we as personally must, in obedience to our Lord. And nowhere in either passage is there any implication that we can use these words of Jesus to preclude Him using any vessel He so chooses, to bring us into the light of the truth. Rather, both are calls for personal introspection – not tools to use against the transformative work of the Holy Spirit.

Bottom line – when you reject accountability on the basis of the perceived imperfections of another, you are rejecting the very work of Christ. Their imperfections have nothing to do with whether you are in sin or not. If the greatest and most upright of all human beings told me that I was a mass murderer, his righteousness wouldn’t make it true. But if the vilest sinner on the face of the earth pointed out a sin that I was actually engaging in, his transgressions wouldn’t make me blameless.

Look, I’m not whining here. In truth I don’t know too many authentic Christians who relish the idea of being used as a tool of correction in the life of another, and that includes me. Most of us would rather have piercings done on various body parts with a nail gun. Come to think of it, most men I know would rather submit to a full body, Brazilian wax treatment. And I’ve got enough on my plate dealing with my own junk to worry about someone else’s. All of us do. But that’s not the point. The point is that God IS concerned, and He’s ordained human beings to be His instruments in freeing other human beings from the bondage of sin (Gal. 6:1). For every instance of some judgmental idiot with a 2 by 4 in his eye going about pointing out sin, there are probably 100 damaging slivers being left alone, out of fear of getting labeled one of those fools. And that’s not even counting how many times I’ve gotten to the “pearls before pigs” stage, and concluded that I needed to leave things alone; confident that I’d been simply called to be the messenger, not the judge. But when we stand by and watch people that Christ died to set free, struggle under the weight of their sin, simply because we’re afraid of rejection, or of being labeled, it makes me painfully aware of how far off we are from the biblical command to “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21).

When people challenge you in an area of your life, it IS quite possible that they may be trying to elevate themselves. They might be misinformed. Or they might simply be trying to make you feel bad, thinking it will somehow alleviate their own guilt. But there’s only one question you need to ask – “Is it true?”. If it is, then no vessel, no matter how flawed, is “off limits” to the Lord, to use as a tool to bring you into agreement with His Word, His purposes, and His call. If it’s not true, then they’re accountable before God for their words (Romans 14:12), and you’re not responsible to receive them. My suspicion however is that if they weren’t right, it probably wouldn’t bother you nearly as much anyway.

Somethin’ to gnaw on…

Dave

2010-04-27T17:38:00.010-04:00

Today someone asked me “Tell me how __________ and I can have what you and Ruth have. I don’t mean to be jealous, but I am!”. While I was flattered (in a good way), by the compliment, I sometimes wonder if people really want what they’re asking for, or what they think they’re asking for. I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the individual asking, but it’s been my experience that a lot of people desire the end result, but not what it takes to get there. It’s like someone who wants to be in shape, but not only do they dislike the gym, they want a life where exercise is unnecessary! In reality, some want to enjoy a “maintenance free” Christian marriage – all the blessings without that bothersome Christian discipline and self-denial stuff!

Assuming however that one’s intentions are sincere, the first ingredient is to accept the truth that “My job is to do my job” (Eph. 5:21-29; 33; Col. 3:18,19; Titus 2:2-6; 1Peter 3:1-7). Both sexes, when they really consider these passages, think the other has the easier job. God designed it that way on purpose so that we would grow even as we help our spouses grow. He calls wives to love in a way that is unnatural to them, and husbands in a way that goes against who we are as fallen men. Men tend to naturally show sacrificial love conditionally (for example – “I’ll treat her nice, buy her gifts, take her out to dinner, etc., as long as she ‘puts out’ later”), and women tend to show respect conditionally (“I’ll love him unconditionally, but I can’t respect a man who…”). But when you purpose that “I’m going to fulfill my role in this marriage, regardless of what my spouse does”, you will find that you cannot accomplish that apart from the power of Jesus Christ. People sometimes look at my wife and I and think it comes easy, but like anything else worthwhile, it only comes easy after you’ve done a LOT of hard work (and with a whole lot of dependence on the Holy Spirit!). We’ve prayed together as a family nearly every night for over 20 years, and spent much time on our knees besides that individually. As a younger man, I spent 10 years in the Word, reading it from cover to cover each year, to be able to stand on the Word as a priest to my house. Both my wife and I have had to say “yes” to a lot of stuff we wouldn’t have asked for, because we know that God pours out His favor on those who are obedient to His Word and to His call.

The second foundational ingredient is to see God’s vision for the person He assigned you to. My wife has never (and I mean NEVER even once in 21 years) wavered in her support of me. She’s has always built me up, always put me first, and always defended me before others. She’s an attractive woman, but so obvious is her commitment to her marriage that it’s like she has the words “buzz off” tattooed on her forehead regarding other men, and hasn’t even so much as flirted with the idea of flirting with another man – if you think I’m being naïve then you’ve obviously never met her. During the times when things were especially difficult, she’d likely do something unexpected and special for me (none of your business!), just to let me know that she believed in me and was in my corner. She would always treat me like the man she expected me to become, instead of showing disappointment for the many times I failed to love her as Christ loves the Church.

As a pastor of a fast growing church, people will ask me “Did you see this church becoming what it is now when you first went there?” The answer is “Yes”. I even told my overseer it could be done when I was first assigned here, because vision means seeing what WILL be, not what currently is. Men, if you’re a leader to your house, what does that mean? Lead where? Do you even know where you’re supposed to be leading? Is the journey you’re on a holy, God-directed one, or are you just heading where you want to go, and expecting your family to follow? Women, if you are a “help-meet” (Gen. 2:18), what does that mean to you? A helper for the mundane chores of this life? Or one who is helping to fulfill an awesome and ultimate purpose for your marriage and family? As a pastor, my assignment was to help the Lighthouse Church become what it could be, even though when I got here it was a church of 30-40, was meeting in a building that was falling apart, and was 3 months behind on the mortgage. I could have focused on all the things that were wrong, but instead I chose to focus on what the church would be, and I still do that today. Certainly I may at times have to point out something that’s hazardous, or if we’re headed off track, but you won’t hear me running down the church. Rather I’m more likely to be talking and dreaming out loud about the great things God has in store for us. Husbands and wives need to have a great vision for their homes and commit themselves to accomplishing the purposes for which God brought them together in the first place. It’s been my experience however that when I ask a young couple what their vision is for their home, they'll look at me like I just asked them how many nose hairs the average giraffe has. Truthfully there may never be a more significant question you could ever ask, with regard to bringing God’s blessings on your house.

In order for any marriage to be all that God wants it to be, husbands and wives have to catch the vision for their “assignment” from God. It does not come easily, and it does not come quickly. It took my wife and I several years before we really fell deeply in love with each other (loving is quite different from being in love!). But it’s very worth the effort, and usually someone has to leap into obedience first. But here’s some good news – that hunger, that desire you have for God’s best isn’t from you, it’s from the Lord. And He doesn’t give the desire but that He will give the fulfillment. Some people look at what my wife and I have and actually make fun of us. Some people nitpick – trying to magnify every flaw (believe me, they’re there!). And some people think it’s just an act and that it CAN’T really be that good. People do those things either out of fear, faithlessness, or laziness, to avoid the work that it takes (Aesop’s proverbial sour grapes). But I will tell you absolutely and truthfully that after 21 years and 5 kids together, I not only love my wife more but actually desire and delight in her more, than when we were first married. God’s way is well worth the work! (Matt. 7:13,14).

Peace up houseboys!

David

2010-04-07T14:23:00.009-04:00

Hi all! I know it's been awhile. But there was vacation, the Resurrection season, my own laziness. But I digress...

Hebrews 10:21-24 says “Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may provoke one another toward love and good deeds.

There’s an old saying that “It ain’t bragging if you can really do it”. Well, that’s not true (it’s called lying if you can’t really do it!), but there’s a difference between bragging, which keeps the focus on self, and boasting of what God’s done in us, which brings glory to Him. When we provoke each other out of a sincere desire to demonstrate Christ, we are not acting out of pride, but rather Jesus is interceding for us, even cheering us on, for we are doing the work He desires for us to do.

Paul, speaking of his desire to reach his Jewish brethren, says in Romans 11:11 “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” He speaks of how God brings salvation to the Gentiles not only out of His love for them, but to make the Jewish people jealous, and so bring restoration to them as well.

I know that there is a great emphasis in the Church regarding who we were before we met Jesus, and it’s important not to forget how weak and flawed we are apart from Christ. But it is not the failure of man that makes people hungry for God. To listen to some people, you’d think Christianity was nothing more than God being merciful to a bunch of terrible wretches, rather than God transforming those wretches into something glorious. That bumper sticker that says “Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven” is one of the most theologically spineless sayings we’ve adopted. Just forgiven? That’s all God’s done for you? Nonsense. What about the new birth? What about the power of His Spirit? What about the joy of the Lord? What about making you a partaker in Christ? No Christians aren’t yet perfect, but we are being perfected, and there should be some evidence on display in our lives!

The very next verse in Hebrews 10 says “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.” Did you catch that? I know that when this verse is preached or taught the emphasis is usually on the “You’d better be in church” aspect, but look at what the Bible is saying that church ought to do – encourage you! But is that your experience? When you look out upon the community of believers you worship with on Sunday, do you see people whose lives have been transformed, or a collection of people hoping to muddle through this life and make it into heaven in the next? That’s not the way God intended it at all.

O.k., so rubber meets the road question here. When others look at your life what do they see? It’s really easy to criticize the Church until you remember that you’re the Church. 2Cor. 10: 17 says, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” I think sometimes we convince ourselves that we’re just being humble, when in reality it’s just that we don’t have anything to boast about. We tell ourselves “I don’t want to call attention to myself”, or “I don’t want it to look like I’m bragging”, but could you if you wanted to? If the answer is “No”, then not only are you engaging in false humility, you’re disallowing the work of Christ to be on display in your life. The test is this: to ask oneself “If I were to boast in the Lord, what would I boast about?”, and then, if there are things to boast of, to ask “Why shouldn’t I?”

You’re right – we shouldn’t be trying to bring glory to ourselves. But here’s what I’ve found: Every time I find something to boast about, it not only displays God’s power at work in me, but my own weakness and foolishness as well. It’s impossible to truly boast in the Lord and brag about ourselves at the same time. I got myself into the messes God had to rescue me from, so why shouldn’t I brag on God for all He’s done in my life? There’s someone out there who’s every bit as messed up as I was before I met Jesus, and they’ve tried everything they can think of to fix themselves, and can’t. But when we speak of what God has done in us; the changes He’s made; the joy we’ve received – we offer people hope.

Several years ago, I was preaching on marriage and on God’s desire to transform us so as to reflect Him in our marriage relationships. A man in the congregation approached one of our elders, a good friend of mine, and said to him “I wish the pastor wouldn’t talk so much about the joy he has in his marriage relationship. Some of us don’t have what he has”. My friend turned to him and said “That’s exactly why he’s saying it.” Sadly, like the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, this man went away sorrowful, and eventually divorced. Not because he couldn’t have the joy Jesus had promised, but because he refused to do what was necessary to receive it, namely walk in, and not just intellectually accept, the words of Jesus (John 8:31,32).
Jesus is not pleased with our “humility” if the substance of it is simply that we have nothing to brag about in the first place.

Think about it…

Dave

2010-02-12T23:14:00.004-05:00

O.k., here’s a tough one for me to write… I’ve been wrestling with this because of how easily it could be construed as self-serving, but then realized that to not “get it out there” makes the damage all the more likely.

A close friend recently asked me how to handle someone whom he felt was criticizing the pastor of his church. As a pastor, I understand what it means to live “in the fishbowl”, and how difficult it can be for a pastor’s family to deal with the continual “Monday morning quarterbacking” that can go on, and the way people can pick apart every mistake that he, or his wife, or children makes. But the truth is that a critical spirit does the most damage to the one who’s tongue expresses it (Matt. 12:34). God can and does bless leaders and their houses whether people are following joyfully or reluctantly, but the enemy tries to destroy souls – especially new believers – by tearing down the esteem they have for their leaders. When new Christians lose their ability to see their leaders as men and women of God, Satan can separate them from the growth that God wants to bring into their lives through those leaders (Eph. 4:11-13). Beyond that, those who give license to a critical spirit are bringing curses into their own lives and homes. As I recently told another friend, “I’ve never led anyone into the desert for them to go for days without food and water, but even under those conditions the Lord didn’t allow grumbling!” (Ex. 16).

Think of it this way. Suppose you were going out of town for a couple of weeks, and you entrusted your children to my care. If you returned and found that your children had been rude, disobedient, and disrespectful towards me, you would not be angry with me for doing what you asked me to do for you – you’d be furious with your children, and would probably punish them severely. You wouldn’t allow your children to say “But he didn’t let me do what I wanted to do!” No, if I had cared for them according to the instructions you left, the blame, and the consequences, would fall on your children. It’s the same with God. God appoints leaders to do His will in the church, and to serve in His absence (Matt. 24:45,46), and gives them authority to do that work. If the children of God grumble and criticize, then God is not angry with the leader, He is angry with the one whom He entrusted to the leader’s care. It’s one thing if the leader is guilty of violating the standard of the Word, and that’s why God gave us the scriptures as that standard. But unless that sin can be clearly identified scripturally and with witnesses, the Word tells us not to even entertain an accusation, let alone make it public (1Tim. 5:19). It’s a biblical truth that is too often either misused as a means of control, or avoided out of fear that it will be perceived in that way. Sadly, the enemy capitalizes on this, and the Body of Christ is often wounded because the principal goes undeclared and unimplemented.

Here’s something else (no extra charge!). Be careful about placing periods where God places commas. Momentary “snapshots” don’t always tell how the rest of the story will play out. I once knew a preacher’s kid who grew up on the mission field, in a Christian home, with praying, godly parents. His father is one of the greatest and most anointed pastors I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, but this young man – as you might expect he would – didn’t come to Christ as a small child, or even as a teenager. No, he didn’t give His life to the Lord until he was in his 20’s. When I met his young man, he was smoking, drinking, sleeping with his girlfriend, and playing guitar in a heavy metal band. I’m sure there had to have been people in the church who would have whispered that something must be wrong in his home for him not to have accepted the Lord, or those who gossiped in the name of “concern”. As a young, unsaved man myself, I paid no attention to such matters, and probably would not have cared at all about the “church politics” that affected his parents. But as a pastor and a father of five, I can only imagine how that father and mother must have wrestled in prayer for their child to surrender his life to Jesus, and how difficult it must have been to minister to other families while watching their own son live a life of rejection of everything that was precious to them. So what happened? Well, eventually this young man did come to Christ, and repent of his sins, and actually led others to the Lord – including the pastor who’s writing this! Both of us are still serving the Lord to this day.

I wonder what ever happened to those grumblers?

Dave

2010-02-03T22:51:00.002-05:00

When future generations look back at this church age, what will define it, and what will our legacy be? I have had the privilege of traveling through Europe on a few occasions, and each time I have been impressed by the soaring cathedrals, the incredible artistry of the paintings and sculpture, and the beautiful stained glass of the Renaissance. Many artists sought to manifest the glory of God through their work, and centuries later, the average “man on the street” of today could identify the works of that time period perhaps more than any other. Art and science both believed that their work could reflect God and help Him to be understood, and to this day the work of the masters of that age continues to awe and inspire us. What we leave behind does indeed define us for future generations, and what we leave behind is simply the remnant of how we lived our lives. There has never been an age that has left behind a legacy that did not indicate what was of value to them.

Today however, we live in a society that is completely abandoned to its own desires. In much of our country, the mere mention that there should be any limits on personal behavior is ridiculed and scorned. Some Christians have given up on the idea of absolute purity, settling for an “improved way of life”. Even in many pulpits, moral relativism has taken over. Where only 20-30 years ago divorce among Christians was a rarity, now we have sadly pulled even with the world. Just a generation ago the idea of a Christian viewing movies or shows filled with gore, violence, or sexual content would have been rejected out of hand; today, in many church circles, you hear of a movie being “not that bad” or of having some (ostensibly) redeeming moral point.

Several years ago, when the movie “Titanic” was breaking records at the box office, a Christian friend of mine (knowing my interest in the history of that ship) suggested that I see the movie, saying it was “Wonderful”. Having heard about the story line, I responded, “You mean the movie where the young man gets another man’s fiancée drunk, paints a portrait of her in the nude for the audience to see, then has premarital sex with her in the back seat of a car in the ship’s cargo hold? That’s the movie you want your pastor to go see?” When put in such stark terms, it quickly became obvious what was wrong with the idea, but in today’s world truth is often (when even expressed) voiced much less directly.

Jesus said in John 3:20,21 that “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” I have challenged myself on many occasions, and the congregation that I pastor, to apply that standard to our video and DVD libraries, iPod’s, the CD’s on our shelves, and the other things that we amuse ourselves with. I’ve asked the question “If you were to die tonight, and your bedroom cleaned out, would there be a hidden ‘box of sin’ tucked away that you thought no one would ever see?”. Intellectually we know that God does see, but intellectual knowledge of the truth has seldom been enough to change our behavior, and certainly not our hearts. Something beyond merely knowing about God is necessary for us to reveal Christ to our world, and that something is for the will of the believer to come into conformity with the will of God. In that place the imitation of Jesus becomes our greatest aim.

The reason that we are in danger of seeing this church age in the Western world defined as the generation of compromise isn’t because we have simply compromised our standards, it is because we have compromised our gospel. Many churches have replaced “Follow me” with “Repeat after me”. We’ve exchanged “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” with “Give up your Sundays and hear about me – at least until noon”. We have seen trends come and go through the church on how to prosper financially, see our marriages blessed, enhance our worship experience, and grow our churches. We’ve even got vegetables to teach our kids. But I’m still waiting for the fad of suffering for Christ to sweep through the Church. It’s not that God doesn’t not want to bless relationships, finances, etc., and I doubt that Jesus would be offended by a talking tomato, but have you ever noticed how nearly every trend that captivates us has to do with making our walk, and our lives, in this world, a bit better?

The Bible however commands something else. Col. 3:1,2 tells us to “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Jesus said in Luke 14:33 that “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Read those words again; Any. “Any” in the Greek means any. Everything. “Everything” in the Greek means everything. And “cannot”? Well, you get the point. There was no ambiguity with Jesus. No “Any – except for those living in the 21st century.” No “Everything – except the things we really like”. His call was clear, the truth He spoke; unadulterated. No opinion polls preceded His preaching, and no rejection of His words altered His message.

If we are to truly bring the light to this generation, we must do more than give lip service to the concept of abandonment to Christ. Repentance wasn’t just about laying down sin, it was about laying down self. Peter, Andrew, James and John didn’t throw their sin down on the beach, they threw down their nets. Matthew didn’t just leave behind his transgression, he left behind his tax collector’s table. Paul said “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7). In the same way, we must return to a gospel that doesn’t just call for the forsaking of the bad things we do -- because nearly every religion does that. If that were sufficient, then Jesus’ life and death was unnecessary. Instead we must acknowledge that God has called us to lay down not only the bad, but the good as well. All of it, everything, given over to Him. Our talents, time, and resources as well as our weakness and sinfulness.

C.S. Lewis, in his book “Mere Christianity” wrote that “People say, ‘The Church ought to give us a lead.’ That is true if they mean it in the right way, but false if the mean it in the wrong way. By the Church they ought to mean the whole body of practicing Christians… But, of course, when they ask for a lead from the Church most people mean they want the clergy to put out a political programme. That is silly. The clergy are those particular people within the whole Church who have been specially trained and set aside to look after what concerns us as creatures who are going to live forever: and we are asking them to do a quite different job for which they have not been trained. The job is really on us… The application of Christian principles, say, to trade unionism and education, must come from Christian trade unionists and Christian schoolmasters; just as Christian literature comes from Christian novelists and dramatists -- not from bishops getting together and trying to write plays and novels in their spare time.”

If this age is going to be affected for eternity by the Church, it will not be because we have exalted a captivating preacher, or because of a trend that the world becomes as enamored with as we are. It will be because the talents, abilities, and intellect that God has placed in the church has been given back to Him as an offering of worship. It will happen when the Body of Christ begins to function as it would if were actually, physically connected to Him, and our will, our desires, become subject to His lordship. Like it or not, we will leave a legacy. There’s no way around it, and every age that has come before has left theirs. Some, like the Church of the 1st century, left behind a legacy or power, commitment, and conviction. Some, like the church of the 19th century, left behind a legacy of revival and of a rediscovered hunger for the power of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus were to return today, I would sadly have to conclude that our legacy would be to have been the generation of compromise. But the Bible says in Heb. 3:13 “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today”. And since this is still today and not yet tomorrow, our legacy has not yet been written.

2009-12-28T10:23:00.006-05:00

Hey all...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

I got into a discussion the other day regarding the effect the “seeker-sensitive” movement has had on the church as a whole. To be sure, some good things have come out of it – a renewed focus on reaching the lost, a challenge to re-think the way church reaches a post-modern culture, and a call to be more aware of those visiting in our midst (I have talked to countless people who have said they visited a church only to be completely ignored!).

But troublingly (is that a word? – must be, my spell check didn’t go nuts!), I have dealt more and more with people who feel that it is o.k. to leave a church, or disregard its teachings, simply because they were confronted with the truth of the Word, and didn’t appreciate someone doing so. There is a dark side to the seeker sensitive and emergent church movements that has enabled people to feel entitled to be comfortable in the presence of the Lord and while sitting under His Word. But this certainly wasn’t the case in the early church. Acts 5:11-13 says that “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.” Did you catch that? The Bible is telling us that there was so much power in the early church’s worship services that people were actually afraid to join them. I can already hear someone saying “That doesn’t make any sense – that would keep people away from God!” But read on. The very next verse says “Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”

Here’s the problem… when we sacrifice God sensitivity to be more sensitive to the wants and desires of sinful man, man becomes more comfortable and God less so, in our midst. We are, at that point, relying on the rational programs and systems of man to win the lost, rather than on the power of God to draw people unto His Son (John 6:44). But also, we have then introduced the dangerous idea that the job of the church is to make someone, who is separated from a holy, absolutely righteous God by their sin, comfortable in His presence! What happens when you then try and confront the very sin that separates them? They become indignant, and often walk away! I have seen this happen more and more in this generation: where I have preached a timeless truth of God’s Word, and someone behaves like I had absolutely no right to do so. One man, several years ago, became upset when I preached that God hates divorce (Mal. 2:16), because his wife had once been divorced. Another questioned my right to offend people with the idea that Jesus is the only way (John 14:6). I have seen couples who were living together outside of marriage, leave the church because sexual immorality was denounced (1Cor. 6:9,10). People in open sin who are removed from ministry ask “Who are you to tell me how to live?” (Heb. 13:17). Well, the truth is I’m nobody. I’m just a messenger and a servant. But the real question is “Who do you think you are, to wear the label of Christian, and yet reject the very Word of God?”

The reality is that we are seeing a shift in our generation. The “old guard”; the pastors, Christian leaders, evangelists, etc., who would preach holiness, repentance, and the need to “Get right with God” are passing off of the scene. They are being replaced with “feel good” leaders, who tell you that coming to Christ is about making you happy, and who cause you to believe that preaching anything else is crossing the line. The pastor of the largest church in the U.S. recently said “You will never hear me preach judgment from my pulpit” (he’ll have to tear out a lot of the teachings of Jesus from the Bible then!). The pastor of perhaps the most well known church in America placed on his website that his church had no problem baptizing couples who were living together (what is baptism but an outward statement of what is supposed to be an inward transformation?). One well known pastor of a mega church wrote that he wanted every Sunday in his church to be a celebration like Easter Sunday. But how much room does that leave the Holy Spirit to call us to mourn, repent, or become broken? On top of that, many televangelists command multi-million dollar salaries, and teach that following Christ is about securing blessing after blessing, and hold themselves up as the model that you should be emulating (there’s no way they could hold up the one who “had no place to lay [his] head”, or His early followers who said “silver and gold have I none”). The truth is that we are seeing a generation that is choosing to either reject the portions of the Word that they do not like, or distort it to where it no longer says what it clearly says.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer tackled this when he dealt with how we distort scripture to conform to our desires. A good example of this is what I call the "altar call scenario". The Holy Spirit convicts us of something during a worship service and says, "Go to the altar", and we say "What God is obviously after is repentance of course, not for me to go to a specific location, so I'll simply do my business with God right here". The problem was that God didn't say "Repent" -- we inferred that from His call. Bonhoeffer's point was that God's will is only achieved through obedience, not by "figuring out God" and then trying to do what we have determined was His intent – something we are not capable of. As Bonhoeffer said "Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes".

How about you? Are you surrendered to the molding process of God? Does it anger you, or does it exicte you, when God's Word "steps on your toes"? Are you hungry and thirsty to become like Jesus, or are you simply looking for someone to tell you how "o.k." you already are?

Have a great new year!

Dave

2009-11-26T10:53:00.000-05:00

Thank You Father. That's all. Just "Thank You".

2009-11-19T16:35:00.004-05:00

Hey all...

I recently got into a battle of words with an atheist friend of mine who wanted to compare the "foolishness" of my having faith and the "intelligence" of his unbelief. It didn't take long before he simply gave up and retreated to name calling, and playing the wounded "victim" of religious intolerance. Sadly, it illustrated to me the great double-standard that believers are faced with nearly every day: When we share the faith and philosophies by which we live, it is called "shoving religion down people's throats"; when the world expresses their beliefs and standards, and causes everyone to be exposed to them (regardless of whether they share them or not), it is considered perfectly acceptable. To cry foul is to be labeled intolerant, closed-minded, or bigoted. But did you ever wonder why that's so? It's simple. While the Christian has the hope of one day seeing his or her faith proven, the unbeliever has no such hope. The Christian waits for the authority of God Himself to validate their faith, while the unbeliever must settle for the consensus of the crowd to validate his.

The truth is that I would never attempt to "shove my beliefs down someone's throat" in the form of trying to prove God's existence to someone who does not believe, for it is faith that is the "evidence of things not seen". What I can say is this: "I do not have to demonstrate that God's existence is provable, only that it is reasonable". Even the atheist Dr. Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA wrote: "An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going." Yet it is the atheist who is making the absurd and absolute claim that "of course" there is no God, when in fact there is absolutely no evidence to support such an obdurate assertion. It is, paradoxically, a greater act of faith to reject the notion of God than it is to accept it. Of course, Christianity is about far more that simply believing IN God; it is about believing God, and responding to His call, commands, and directives within the context of a personal relationship with Him. That is something that Christians acknowledge cannot be proven, for if it could, it would render faith meaningless. But it is faith that is the first essential ingredient. Whether it is the faith that causes us to say "There must be something greater than myself", or the egomaniacal faith that says "There could be nothing greater than man", both begin by supposing something to be true that cannot be proven. To be sure, the atheist demonstrates much faith (even more than one who is simply a deist) in his or her ability to ignore the evidence of such a great Creator; the problem is that it is not simply faith God seeks to develop - it is the type of faith that causes us to abandon our agendas and approaches to life, and to surrender our will to His. This is not simply a faith of believing something to be true; it is the faith that testifies to that belief by our actions.

The truth is that we all (as the great prophet Tom Petty once said), "take it on faith". George Bernard Shaw is "celebrated" by the world as a free thinker and liberal philosopher. But in his last writings we read, "The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith."

We all long to have our deepest foundational beliefs proven true. The Christian looks to Heaven, or to the return of Christ, as not simply the day when we are free from the bondages of sin and temptation, of loss and suffering, but also as the day when we will be able to say "I told you so!". But the reality is that I do not believe there will be much cause for doing so. For at that point, it is too late for the unbeliever, and I doubt that the genuine Christian would find much joy in gloating over their enemies being proven wrong, when such knowledge will also bring their condemnation. Ironically, it is the unbeliever who would most like to speak those words, for they would validate not a God outside of or over them, but their own "wisdom".

The next time you get into a discussion with an atheist about the existence of God, shake things up a bit and commend them on their faith. I'm not sure my faith in Christ would be as strong as theirs seems were I to have so little evidence to base it on. But also remind them that if they're right, they'll never be able to say "I told you so". I guess old Tom was right when he sang "You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is the hardest part".

Dave

2009-10-02T20:22:00.005-04:00

I have a saying I use that goes "Agnostics are people that live like there's no God. Atheists are people who are mad at Him."

Anger at God is a method by which we attempt to manipulate our destiny. Shout loudly that there's no God, and maybe He'll reveal Himself to us. Shake our fist at God and call Him pitiless, and maybe He'll show mercy. Run away from God, and maybe He'll chase after me. The problem is that such an approach pretty much guarantees that we'll only further distance ourselves from Him. Why? Because God doesn't reward those who attempt to manipulate Him, but "rewards those who earnestly seek Him" (Heb. 11:6).

How often have we praised God when things are good, but hidden ourselves from Him when He's allowed trouble? Maybe we still go to church (even that's not always the case for many), but we use the difficult valley we're going through to justify our avoiding giving, serving, or worshipping like we would in times of blessing. At such moments what we're saying to God is "Bless me, and I'll be the person you want me to be; allow stuff like this, and I won't". But then... who's God in that relationship? God ceases to be God, and becomes one who is still greater than you in power, but not in position; one who can give us what we want (or choose not to), but not the One who is worthy of worship, obedience, and service "in any and every situation" (Phil. 4:12).

After losing four daughters in a terrible accident, Horatio Spaffard wrote these words: "When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul." While in our generation we rail against God if he allows a traffic jam when we're in a hurry.

If ever a culture could be labeled arrogant, immature, spoiled, and "entitled" -- it's ours. Anthony Robinson wrote "We have, it seems, grown fluent in the language of blame, complaint and grievance, while having lost our linguistic capacity when it comes to words such as, 'Please,' 'Thank you,' and 'I'm sorry'... In the end, it's the entitled who, however rich, are truly poor. Instead of knowing life as a gift, life turns into something that's taken for granted -- or worse, begrudged." How true. We simply expect good things as a matter of birthright, and when they seem scarce, we determine that we are then allowed to "punish" God, in whatever manner we beelieve will either convince Him to again dispense the blessings, or will sufficiently communicate our displeaure with His actions.

The problem of course is that in such an atmosphere, there is no room for humility. No place for nobility, valor, or self-control. There are times when God can shape up through His Word alone, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, or even through the hard lessons of others. But there are also times He cannot. When we get to the place where we oversee the molding process, and what circumstances are "allowable", we have taken God off the throne of our lives.

Chew thouroughly before swallowing...

Dave

2009-09-04T10:18:00.006-04:00

I have found that we charismatics have a strange and peculiar cycle we engage in. We say things like “God told me to do this”, or “God’s o.k. with this”, engage in the action, discover it wasn’t God’s will, suffer for it, yet have no doubt the next time we feel “led” to say “This time it really IS God speaking!”, How do I know this? Because frequently, someone who told me that God told them to do such and such, or that they “had a peace about it”, will later approach me and admit they were incorrect. It wasn’t God; they had simply dressed up their own desires in “God clothes”, which obviously will never produce the same results.

Two big problems here: First, you said “Thus saith the Lord” when the Lord had not saithed! At the very least you declared (either verbally or by your actions) that God was “cool” with something He certainly wasn’t! Second, you called either the devil or yourself God, because those are the only other options for the source of the deception.

Not every conversation you have with your conscience is a conversation with God. Your conscience may be a gift from God, but like every other gift, it can be contaminated. God’s word to the people of Israel in Haggai 2 dealt with that very thing – when the pure touches the impure, it doesn’t purify it, but the impure sure can contaminate the pure! If I cheated on my wife, that mistress wouldn’t become pure because she was having an affair with a pastor! Or if I started doing cocaine, the dealer wouldn’t become a saint because I was. Jesus taught Peter that he needed to let Him wash his feet. Why? Because (as Jesus said) “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet”. It is your feet that touch the earth, and Jesus was telling us that as we walk through the contamination of this world, its residue will cling to us, and we need Him to continually cleanse us of that.

The next time you’re tempted to say “The Lord told me”, check to see how clear the channel is between you and Him. Is there any “dirt” that’s contaminating, or blocking off the pipeline? Pride, selfishness, and lust can all seem so right when that channel isn’t flowing as it should. Ask Christians who have thrown away marriages for “forbidden fruit”; pastors who have lost ministries for a moment or season pf pleasure... They will almost universally tell you that at the moment of their failure, what they were doing seemed to make perfect sense. “How could I be so stupid” is the general response after they “have come to their senses” (Luke 15:17).

My rule of thumb is that when “God” tells me to do something I already want to do, I take greater care in confirming it really is His voice speaking. It’s better to “consider the cost”, than to pay the price.

Maranatha!

Dave

2009-08-23T18:47:00.004-04:00

O.k., so here I am in the midst of a grown up version of “He started it”. Defending myself to the One who IS my defense. Justifying my own indignation (as if being right is what’s important). Then God speaks.

Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out. – Prov. 17:14

A man’s wisdom makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. – Prov. 19: 11

It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. – Prov. 20:3

It occurs to me that God never said "drop it", "overlook it", or "avoid it... unless you think you're right". Because we almost always do. It doesn't matter if I'm right. I've read these words many times, and I didn't heed them. I didn't listen to God, so no matter how right I feel, I'm wrong.

Being right isn’t what I want anymore. Being righteous is.

2009-08-12T14:49:00.006-04:00

It's been awhile... busy summer. One daughter graduated high school, took an anniversary trip with my bride of 20 years, went on a family vacation, released a CD with Desire, and have had my hand in too many projects to mention... but I'm still here!

There's an Andrew Peterson song that I love called "Nothing to Say". The lyrics read "And the mountains sing your glory, hallelujah. The canyons echo sweet amazing grace. My spirit sails, the mighty gales are bellowing Your name. And I've got nothin' to say."

Sometimes I feel like that... that anything I could write, or speak about God, would pale in comparison to the great witness He has already placed all around us. I've stood on ships and looked at seas so vast that you're surrounded by ocean for hudreds of miles in every direction; stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon and known simultaneously that while I had to photograph it, any picture I took would seem absurd next to my memory of what I was seeing. Tried to take in the beauty of the Alps and was only able to do so in snippets -- piece by amazing piece. Yet everytime I've come back from a trip I've found myself unable to NOT attempt to describe what I saw. There's just something in us that needs to try and capture and communicate great moments, even when we know that our camera phones, and video or digital cameras, can only jog our memories of them. The essence of the moment -- its smell, feel, atmosphere -- is far beyond the ability of our technology to capture. We can only share so much, and then it's (as we're fond of saying), "I guess you had to be there".

Likewise I've had moments in the presence of the Lord that I knew would defy description, yet I was compelled to share them. My vocabulary and understanding was completely inadequate to communicate the essence of that moment, yet I couldn't help but speak of it. Some would say "Why say anything? You'll never be able to communicate the depth of what God has done for you. There's no way to paint a picture of what Jesus endured on the cross for someone who does not know Him. There's no description of Heaven that will not make us laugh when we think back on it from that vantage point." That's true... but speak we must. You see, it's not our vocabulary, or technology, or anything else we possess that communicates Christ -- it's the Father who draws by His Spirit (John 6:44), and He's up to something when He calls us to open our mouths for Him.

It's humbling to realize that the God who spoke the oceans, and the mountains, and the Grand Canyon into existence; the God who can communicate and reveal Himself so profoundly that He leaves the greatest songwriters and poets struggling for words -- that this God would choose you and I to communicate His most important truth. I wish I had the ability to create a Grand Canyon as a demonstration of the beauty of the Lord; an Alpine mountain as a sermon illustration to declare His majesty -- or a vast ocean to communicate His might to someone who needs strength. But all of those have been done, yet still the world disbelieves. Instead, God does His greatest work through you and I -- the redemption of the world, one life at a time, and tells us to share it with those who have not yet experienced it.

You know what I've found? That talking about the Grand Canyon to people doesn't make them comprehend it; that speaking of the beauty of the ocean isn't the same as being on a cruise in the middle of it, and that showing pictures of the Swiss Alps doesn't make people feel like they've been there. But it just might make them hungry to experience those things.

Think about it... you'll get it.

Dave

2009-06-29T19:38:00.001-04:00

This will be my last blog for a few weeks. Busy time. Stephanie’s graduation and 18th birthday, a summer vacation with my family, a work reunion (my wife’s – don’t you wish you worked somewhere so fun the employees wanted to get together 20 years later to remember it?), and last but not anywhere close to least, me and Ruth’s 20th wedding anniversary! When we return, it’s time for Desire Worship Band’s CD Release Party, so man, it’s coming fast and furious over the next month or so!

Anyway, back to the matters at hand… Have gotten quite a bit of feedback on yesterday’s message. All good actually. But ladies and gentlemen, I think I hit a nerve! See, we don’t give a lot of thought to how good deeds can actually be bad news. But believe it or not, the model for most churches is exactly what keeps them from accomplishing the Great Commission. Follow me here…

We live in a self-centered culture (doubt I’ll get any argument there). So how do you grow a church in the midst of such a culture? Certainly not by pointing out our self-centeredness. No; what you do is become “seeker-sensitive”. Meaning “Church seeker-sensitive”, Not “Christ seeker-sensitive”. There’s a BIG difference. People seek churches for all kinds of reasons. Social reasons, family reasons, status reasons, community reasons, or just to alleviate that nagging sense that “I know I ought to be in church”. But people came to Christ pretty much for ONE reason – they needed a Savior. And the only reason (as Jesus told us) that we know we need a Savior, is that God convicts of our sins and draws us to Him. But you can build a church without ever converting a single individual. Happens all the time. Guilt people, cajole people, entertain people, or (most popularly in our generation) simply tell them that God loves them just as they are (my but doesn’t that sound good!), wants to hang out with them, and promises to bless them if they say “Yes” to His invitation. Does that or does that not sound exactly like what you hear on t.v. all the time? But it kind of puts man in the superior position doesn’t it? As if we’re the popular kid deigning to hang out with the friendless nerd. Not even close to the truth; but it sure sells. And boy does it resonate with the American ego! The real problem though is that the televangelists and Jesus-sellers have done such an effective job redefining the gospel to that unrecognizable level that many churches have gone along – either intentionally or inadvertently, because that just seems to be “the way things are done”. Then the real problems begin.

When you have a church populated with self-centered, rather than Christ-centered people, it becomes pretty much impossible to communicate truths like self-denial, suffering, sacrifice, and God’s call to reject the things we value on earth for the things of Heaven. Pastors do more and more to please their ever-growing flock until invariably, a point of saturation is reached; where a leader or leaders can no longer be all things to all people. But that doesn’t sound anything like 1Corinthians 12, which teaches us that we are all to be involved in the work of the Body. Yet that’s what we see most commonly. A pastor doing the work of the church, and getting patted on the back for it (hey, would you mind if someone mowed your lawn for you week after week? – neither would I!). It’s a great deal – he gets the praise and admiration of the people, the people get someone to do the work for them. Everyone wins – except God of course, and ultimately, you and I.

The longer I’m in ministry, the more I realize how much time I waste on doing “good things” at the expense of the call of Christ. I’ll admit it – it’s easier to say “I’ll just do this one thing” than it is to wait for someone to clean the wax out of their ears and listen to God’s call. It makes for much better relations to tell people how loved and wonderful they are than it does to tell them they need to get off their backsides and kick in. As a man, I’m embarrassed at the idea of not carrying my weight. Pastoring isn't the only job I've done; I've also worked a couple of “manly-man” jobs – in a lumber yard and hanging sheetrock. And even though I’m a smaller guy, I never wanted anyone I worked with to think that I couldn’t hack it. So even though I may have been more tired at the end of the day than my co-workers, I wanted to make sure no one did my job for me, or saw me as a slacker. The problem is that it doesn’t carry the same stigma the other way. Maybe it ought to. Maybe we need more pastors who figure out that they’re not called to be all things to all people to please the church (Paul said in 1Cor. 9:22 that model was to win the lost, not gratify the saved!). What I do know is this. We certainly need more Christians who, when they feel the sense of something being incomplete or deficient in the Body (and those needs ARE real), will go to God and not say “God, tell the pastor to do this”, but will say “Is this something you want me to do?” You’ll be amazed at how often you hear Him say “Yes”.

Ponder that for awhile…

Dave

2009-06-20T11:46:00.006-04:00

We hear so much about the finished work of God. So let me ask you a question... "What about the unfinished work of God?" Maybe you're one who'd say "There's no such thing; it was all finished on the cross", but Col. 1:24 says "I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church."

Strange as it may seem, God purposefully left significant work undone. Not that He was unable to complete it, but so that those who were followers of Christ could be seen as truly being His followers. Think about it -- how could we be seen as imitators of Christ, if nothing of true importance was left to be done? If everything that Jesus has done and is doing is of eternal significance, could we ever be seen by this world as His disciples if all that we did was insignificant?

Now take that a step further... Ask yourself "If I am called to imitate the One whose mission resulted in eternal life for the world, is it possible that my calling is of no importance?" Look again at that passage above. It doesn't say "For the sake of my salvation" (that can only be accomplished by Christ), or "To meet God's unmet needs". No, it says "For the sake of his body, which is the church". The work God left undone was to be completed BY the church, FOR the sake of the church.

The Bible tells us that "this world in its present form is passing away" (1Cor. 7:31). As hard as it is to accept, those outside of Christ will, if that remains unchanged, be separated from Him forever. Apart from the intervening work of the Spirit of God, working through the church that Jesus established, the lost truly are "lost". When "The Day" appears, those outside of Christ, will be cut off from Him, and those in Christ will remain with Him forever. It's an uncomfortable truth, but truth nonetheless; and truth that helps us to wrap our minds around how essential the mission we have been given actually is.

We wrestle with so many things in defining the church: "Who is really saved?", "What does it mean to truly follow Christ?", "What's the difference between what calls itself the church and what really is the church?". All the while it seems like the world around us moves on with such definite purpose. But while the "world in its present form is passing away", the church is "fading in" so to speak. The world that appears so real, so definite, is in fact disappearing, while the church, with all of its apparent problems and vagaries, is each day becoming more and more real and eternal.

The Bible tells us that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". He desires everyone to become a part of what's real. To escape becoming entrapped in that which is vanishing, and step into that which will last forever. That was Jesus' mission in a nutshell, and now it is ours. The enemy wishes to consign us to mediocrity and to the inconsequential; to convince us that all we need to do is simply survive this world and wait for the next. Jesus however says "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).

Jesus did His part. He left ours for us.

Eat well...

Dave

2009-06-08T17:35:00.010-04:00

O.k., I hear you! I guess we need to keep talking about yesterday's message, based on the number of comments I've gotten in relation to it.

It's funny... when I talk about the love of the Father, I get very little feedback; positive or negative. It's just assumed and understood. And when I said, a couple of weeks ago, that the love I feel as a father for my children is a reflection of the love God feels for His children; again, there is little response... we tend to easily accept that as truth. The problem is that such passionate love also dictates the kind of rage and hatred that only a holy God can feel towards sin.

For example... Dads, how would you feel if someone came up to you and said "Would you mind terribly if I offered your daughter money to take off her clothes and simulate a sex act on camera?" If you're even half a man, it would take a great deal of self-control not to jack that boy up right there on the spot - and you're just a sinner yourself! See, God hates the fact that sin wounds, affects, and corrupts His children. The Father is indignant that His children, bought and purified with the blood of Jesus, would be subject to the polluting effects of sin. Jesus said, "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come" (Luke 17:1). The immeasurable love of a perfect, sinless, holy God necessitates a hatred towards sin that we fallen creatures can't even begin to relate to. At best, we feel that aforementioned pale reflection when we see injustice being done, or when our socially sick culture runs headlong into its sin, or (like in the earlier scenario) when someone dares to pollute what we would see kept pure.

The only thing holding back the incomprehensible hatred of God is the incomprehensible love of God. But that won't last forever. The Bible tells us that one day the love of God will, by necessity, give leave to the expression of His anger. Matt. 24:22 says "If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened." In other words, there will come a point in time when the most loving thing God can do will be to pour out His wrath upon the earth, lest sin reach its inevitable, fully destructive conclusion.

What that means to me is that I can't pick and choose. I can't determine to love what God loves but not to hate what He hates. I can't decide to experience only the parts of the character and heart of God that I like, or which don't challenge me to be conformed to the image of Christ, which scripture tells me is my destiny (Romans 8:29).

Someone came up to me the other day and said "I hear what you're saying, but so many would also hear it and go down a path of works-based religion." I guess then we need to be careful about whose works we're doing. Just as we cannot attempt to do the work that only Christ has been ordained to do, we MUST do what we were created to do. Ephesians 2:10 says that we were "created in Christ Jesus to do good works". Just as it is wrong for someone to try and attain salvation through their own works (attempting to do the work of Christ), so is it also wrong to ask Jesus to do for us what He has given us the power to do. Colossians 3:5,6 doesn't tell us to pray about, or seek for God to do these things, but rather commands us to "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming."

One last thought. Dads, if you're still with me... How would you feel, after wanting to jack that guy up in the earlier example, if you found out that your daughter wanted to go along with the plan? Your heart would be broken. And again, that's just a pale reflection of what our Father feels when we fail to put those things to death, or be conformed to the very purpose for which we were created, simply because we love our sin and ourselves more than we trust our God. I can't just hate the sin I want to hate and still be conformed to the nature of Christ; I have to hate all the sin, even my own, that brought about His suffering.

Keep drinking,

Dave

2009-05-26T21:23:00.007-04:00

My brother once said to me that no matter how good he had it, he realized he'd never be content. Some would hear that and say "How selfish". I hear that and say "Right on". We're made for so much more than this existence. Never forget that. Were you to attain billions of dollars, have a gorgeous spouse, perfect health, beautiful home, and every possession you ever dreamed of, it wouldn't even compare to what you were created for. And if you try to pursue all that, you're selling out for so little.

The Bible says we are one day going to be joint heirs with Christ, judge angels, rule and reign with the very Son of God, and more. What could this world ever offer that would compare with that? Jesus said that to pursue life in this world is to lose it, but to pursue the life that is to come is to find it. The problem isn't that we want so much, it's the way we go about trying to fulfill that desire.

Many times we look at the wealthy, or famous, and say "They shouldn't make that much money just to play a game", or "act", or in the case of Paris Hilton... (what does she do anyway?). But maybe the truth is that we're revealing our hearts more than we want to admit. We hear celebrities complain and say to ourselves "They have nothing to complain about". But hold on... are we not then saying that wealth should be enough for them? The truth is, that the difference in riches between you and Bill Gates is infinitesimal compared to Bill Gates and the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Admitting our great desire isn't displeasing to God. It's just that when we go about trying to satisfy those desires with things of this earth, we blow it. We say to God "I know you've promised great things to me, and what will truly saitsify for all eternity, but just in case that doesn't work out, let me have blessings in this life". The problem is that partial trust isn't trust at all. Would you call your spouse faithful to you if they said they were "mostly faithful"?

Ironically the ones who determine not to live for the things of this earth are the ones who somehow seem to be most at peace in it. 1Peter 1:13 says to "Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed." But let's be real -- partially would be a huge step up for many of us. More and more we sell eternity for less and less. And in the process we've become the most dissatisfied generation ever. We change jobs, houses, cars, and even spouses more than any other generation that has come before. All in an age where we are better fed, healthier, and more prosperous than any people that has ever lived. Even Solomon couldn't travel 70 miles an hour on land, fly through the skies, or make his home whatever temperature he wanted it to be! But no matter how much we have, and no matter how much God blesses, it's not enough for us. You know what? It shouldn't be. 'Cause it never will be. The band Extreme once wrote "There's a hole in my heart that can only be filled by you. And this hole in my heart can't be filled with the things I do". They got that right. And the faster we grasp that; maybe, just maybe, the faster we'll stop trying to make the blessings of this world enough, and get back to waiting on the One who can and will fully satisfy.

So many blessings. But it isn't home.

Dave

2009-05-12T15:44:00.008-04:00

Someone recently asked me "In the Bible, it states that if we confess our sins, we will be forgiven, and our sins will not be recalled again. However, there are passages that state that we will be accountable for everything we do, and that what is hidden will be revealed. Is this a double standard?" Great question!

In order to understand how we can both be forgiven, yet still called to account, we have to recognize that there is stuff that has crept into our theology that isn't biblical. The Bible doesn't speak (for example) about our sins being cast into the "Sea of Forgetfulness", yet that has become a very popular idea among modern Christians. The idea of "Once saved always saved" is hotly debated in our generation, but misses an incredibly significant point - that our salvation isn't something that happens at an altar (though it may begin there) - our salvation is a process that isn't complete until we stand in the presence of the Lord (1Cor. 13:12; Phil. 3:12; Matt. 10:22; 1Cor. 1:18). The idea that we simply need to do what it takes to avoid Hell, with no thought of loving Christ enough to want to become like Him, is greatly offensive to God.

There are two areas that we need to focus on: redemption and judgment. Redemption deals with our having been purchased. It is an external act, that readies us for God's internal working in our lives. Jesus forgives us, redeems us, and washes us, because without Him doing so we could not stand in the presence of a holy God. But that does not exclude the idea of our works on this earth playing a part in our position and experience in Heaven. That's the calling to account, or judgment, part of things. Otherwise, if God simply "forgot" all that we did, the passages that speak of our being called to account (Rom. 14:10), our hidden secrets being laid bare (Luke 12:2; Heb. 4:13), having to give an account for even our careless words (Matt. 12:36,37), etc., would make no sense at all and there would be not simply a double standard, but a contradiction.

Think of it this way. If one of my children wrecked my car and asked for forgiveness, I would forgive them (I hope!). His or her transgression, and the fact that it was costly to me, would not mean I would stop loving them, or that I would sever the fellowship between us. But at the same time I would not likely hand that child the car keys the next day!

Jesus spoke definitively of Heaven being different for each of us (nearer at the table, greater treasure, one servant getting 10 cities, one getting 5, etc.), and spoke of Hell in similar terms (beaten with many blows vs. being beaten with few blows). The simplest way to understand is that what we do on earth affects our capacity (increases or decreases) for Heaven. Think about it. God is unchanging, and Heaven is a fixed place. We will not be beings of limited, temporal forms there, nor beings that need any form of currency to survive. We will desire no material possessions, so how could Jesus speak of one having greater rewards? How could He speak of one being nearer to Him at the Lamb's feast?

Here's how. I have a friend with diabetes. We can both eat the exact same meal, but since his taste buds are pretty much shot by the disease, he enjoys it much less than I do. Same meal, different experience. The only difference is each of our ability to taste the food. I know that my salvation is not contingent on my living a perfect life, but I want to be careful to live my life with the awareness that what I do on this earth will have repercussions in eternity. Read all you want, but there is no passage in scripture that negates that truth. But here's an awesome thought - the fact that God sees all my failures, even the ones I haven't yet seen, yet chooses to fellowship with me, in spite of my rebellious, and often stupid, heart, makes me love Him all the more. And that love transforms my actions so that they no longer hinder my being able to grow in that love. It's an upward cycle of Christ calling me to repent of the things that hinder (Heb. 12:1), which allows me to experience His love more, which makes me hungrier for that love, which makes me want to rid myself of everything that hinders, which allows me to experience His love more - and on and on. As Jesus said "Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him" (Matt. 13:12). As C.S. Lewis put it "Everything becomes more of what it already is".

Hope that fires up some brain cells...

Dave

2009-05-07T22:00:00.002-04:00

Several years ago there was a series of television commercials featuring children talking about how they want to grow up and have dead end jobs, not be appreciated, do meaningless tasks all day, and so on. The point was that while we start out with these great ideas of what we're going to be when we grow up, by the time we get there, we often settle for just getting by. Many couples have started their married lives thinking they're going to have the greatest, most romantic marriage ever, yet within a few years they have settled for just being able to co-exist. We know that around 50% of marriages end up in failure, but even worse, a recent study reported that of those who have managed to stay married, a mere 38% describe themselves as actually happy in that state. So why then when I ask couples why they think they will be successful, when most are not, precious few can give an answer. More to the point, I've yet to have someone say "You're right Dave, we're nothing special; we're no better than anyone else, so we probably will fail". What it tells me is that we humans have the capacity to both pridefully believe we inherently have the ability to make what we put our hands to successful, yet are also too accepting of failure when we miss the mark.

The scary thing is how we often carry both those "qualities" into our walks with Jesus. We come to Christ with great dreams. Of incredible intimacy with God; being able to live above temptation, and becoming a world changer. Yet for many, we allow those great dreams to be exchanged for doing enough to make it into heaven, or just not totally blowing it with God. O.k., maybe it was because those dreams were a by-product of a supersized ego, but maybe... just maybe, something else is going on.

God is a God who seems to love servants who dream big. Even when they're not His plans, and even when He has a different path for us to walk (like King David building the Temple), He doesn't seem to get upset when we dream big for Him. And when we saints (just like Moses, Esther, Gideon, etc. did) tell Him, through word or deed, "I'm not cut out for greatness", God reminds us that it is not our ability that makes great things happen, but our availability to allow Him to work through us.

I wonder what would happen if the people of God hit their knees and once again asked God what He wanted to do through them? Does anyone, no matter how jaded, really think God would say "I just want you to go to church, not sin too badly, and hopefully you'll end up in the right place when you die"? I doubt it. I think many of us know the truth but are hiding from it. Like Moses we know the vision God has for us is so overwhelming; we try and escape it. But fortunately for us the story didn't end with Moses' (or Esther's or Gideon's) excuses. And had you have been able to speak with them at the end of their lives, I'm certain they would have said "I wouldn't have done it any other way but God's".

You will never have more of your life to give for Jesus than you have right at this moment. You will never have more breaths or more heartbeats to live for Him than you do right now. Maybe that dream you had when you came to Christ wasn't from Him, but I promise you that God's dream isn't smaller than your dream. Hate to burst your bubble, but you just aren't capable of having bigger dreams for your life than God has! With each moment that we delay, we reduce the likelihood that we will leave a legacy of a life of significance. And if we don't leave such a legacy, it wasn't because God didn't have great things planned for us, but because we were too timid, and didn't trust Him enough, to see them fulfilled through us.

God's greatness is not measured by man's standards, and most of us will never stand in the spotlight of the world. But our Father just doesn't do mediocrity. And while each of us need to be willing to be a nobody in the sight of the world to follow Christ, we need a whole lot more Christians who will not tolerate being anything less than raging success stories in the eyes of God.

Let that saturate...

Dave

2009-04-30T14:19:00.001-04:00

O.k., first, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, and not so much to everyone who asked how old I was!

See, that's what people expect me to say. We treat it as almost an insult for people to ask our age. We hesitate for a moment before answering - wondering if our honesty will cost us. We shoot darts out of our eyes and give them the "How dare you ask" look, because our culture disdains getting older. We worship those who seem to hold on to their youth, and pretend we don't recognize the sure signs of plastic surgery, Botox, and liposuction. With every passing year, we try and conceal the reality that time has passed for us - as if we've been immune to it - and so testify that to us as well youth and beauty trump wisdom, experience, and the blessings that only time can produce.

In 2009 I have celebrated or will celebrate being on this earth for 42 years, 20 amazing years of being married to Ruth, being a dad for 19 years, being a Senior Pastor for 15 years, and above all, knowing Christ for 22 years. In every area of life that matters, those years have enriched the person I am. As a husband, father, pastor - I would be incompetent to be the man I am required to be in this season of my life without those years having shaped me for it.

So what do we lose with age? Maybe some outward attractiveness, strength, energy. And sadly, time interrupts relationships with people we love. But those are all things that will be returned to us in spades in eternity. C.S. Lewis said that "The dullest people you know may one day become creatures so glorious that if you saw them now, you would be strongly tempted to worship them." But what do we gain from time? In a word, depth. My relationship with my wife is so much deeper than it was 20 years ago that I look back to when we were newlyweds as the time I loved her least. I watch and have watched my children grow; and while I may miss my oldest three being "little ones", I am filled with a joy and pride in seeing them fulfilling the call and purposes of Christ as young women and a young man who now follow Him without my holding their hands and pointing their feet every step of the way. I celebrate the growth of the Lighthouse Church, but am humbled by the knowledge that only the experience I have gained in 20 years of being a worship leader, teacher, associate pastor, and pastor, has enabled me to not be crushed under by the responsibilities God has entrusted to me in this season of ministry.

I laugh inwardly (and sometimes outwardly!) when people say that they will wait for their deathbed to "get right with God". It reduces God to simply being the doorkeeper of Heaven - to where being right with Him is just the secret handshake that gets us in. As if the time walking with Him on this earth is of no significance - or even worse, as if it is a hindrance to really living! But walking with Christ has touched and deepened every area of my life. It is not a separate entity from the other areas of life, but the wellspring of them all. Only because of Jesus do I have the home I have, the joy I have in my marriage, the friendships that go beyond just having things in commmon, and the fruit I have as I walk out my call. I do not pursue intimacy with God as if it is a separate goal, but pursue intimacy with Him in my marriage, relationships, ministry, an so on. And everything that time seems to take away? That's just being laid up for when I no longer am subject to its effects anymore. If anything, the "negative" effects of time simply remind us that the opportunities we have on this earth are fleeting, and we need to be about the business of accomplishing what God placed us on this earth to accomplish.

We can only live like we have "all the time in the world", when we're finally out of it. Time is doing its work... are you?

Let that marinate...

Dave

2009-04-24T11:02:00.000-04:00

Recently our men's group was talking about the book "Every Man's Battle" and what it would take to rid our lives of impurity. While many good suggestions were made (avoiding places of temptation, getting more into the Word, etc.), I am becoming more and more persuaded that the great reason we no longer see a radical difference between the world and many in the church is that we no longer have a hatred of sin. In churches where there still are "altar calls", they have become more about agreeing with the Word and reflecting a desire for change than about a total commitment to making that change.

God does not empower desire - He empowers committed decision. We sing the song with the words "No turning back, no turning back" with zeal and passion, but too often do exactly the opposite; leave the building and turn back to the life that caused us to head for the altar in the first place. In much of Christianity today, a "decision for Christ" means deciding to agree with the need for change, but expecting God to make the change for us. When He does not, we foolishly assume that "God must not want this out of my life".

Repentance is man's department, not God's. Numbers 23:19 says that "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent". It is not His responsibility to repent for us - especially when He has placed within us the ability to do so; when He has promised to enable us to walk in holiness on the condition that we have made up hearts and minds to do so, and not "half-hearts" wishing it could be done. That is nothing other than doubting God and His ability to refine and perfect us. It is us "hedging our bets" - hoping that God moves, but never truly stepping out in faith and saying to ourselves and to the world "My God will empower me to live a life pleasing in His sight".

Repentance is a 180° turn from our actions and attitudes. Repentance is NOT hearing the voice of God, agreeing with it, and then continuing in the same direction. The first word Jesus preached was "Repent" (Matt. 4:17), the first word John the Baptist preached was "Repent" (Matt. 3:2). When Jesus sent the twelve out to begin their preaching ministry, guess what the first word they preached was? "Repent" (Mark 6). After the coming of the Holy Spirit, at the birth of the church, when Peter was asked by the crowd what they needed to do to get right with God, his first word was "Repent" (Acts 2:38). What the early church understood was that we are not simply creatures one rung up from the animals the world would have us believe we came from, but that we are beings created in the very image of God; with far more power to please Him than we are comfortable admitting. Just as it would be idiotic to ask God to tie our shoes for us, simply because He CAN, so it is absurd to refuse to do the salvific act that He leaves in our power - to hate our sin and turn from it - and then blame Him because He did not do it for us. In the recipe for salvation and holiness only one ingredient is left for us to insert; yet too often we tell God by our actions that we insist that He do that for us.

Many times I have counseled people who I knew in my heart would not turn away from the things that were destroying their homes and causing pain to the people they loved. It wasn't because I doubted God's sufficiency to empower them to walk in holiness, or that they didn't know they needed to change, and it wasn't because they couldn't see the wrongness or the danger in their behavior. It was very simply that they didn't HATE their sin. Jude 1:23 tells us that we are to hate "even the garment polluted by the flesh". Not only are we to hate our sin, but we are to hate the effect that sin has, and its residue in our lives. The memories of past ungodly relationships that affect marriages, the missed opportunities that addiction cost us, the people who were wounded while we selfishly wallowed in dangerous habits and behaviors; all should serve to remind us of the cost that had to be paid by Christ on the cross. Instead, what the enemy has cleverly introduced into the church is a sort of "Pseudo-conviction"; a mindset where we intellectually recognize the need for Jesus' sacrifice, but where we never personalize it. We glibly say "If I were the only one who needed it, Jesus still would have died for me", but never let the horror of that statement penetrate - that my sin was sufficiently evil to cost the very Son of God an excruciating death on the cross.

The next time the Spirit of the Lord convicts you of a need to change, understand that it is not out of disdain for you, but that it is only because He desires you to draw closer to Him. He promises that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1Cor. 10:13), and "to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days" (Luke 1:74,75). Those are promises too awesome to miss out on simply because we allow doubt to creep in.

Pax Christi,

Dave

2009-04-15T16:53:00.000-04:00

Got a good question for the blog. Considering calling myself “The Bible know-it-all” :-)

The question was “What did Jesus draw/write in the sand to disarm/disperse the crowd in the situation with the woman caught in adultery? Why did he write in a primarily verbal society? What sand scribbling could be so disarming for people with stones in their hands? Why do the gospel historians omit the content of his sand-script?” (O.k., a lot more than one question - that's cheating, but I'll let it slide!).

The answer is “We have no idea!!!” – how’s that for a fast response? But, it actually gets better. It’s one place in the Bible where the lack of information actually authenticates the text.

The passage in question is found in John chapter 8. It’s one of two well known passages (the other being the last 12 verses of the gospel of Mark) where scholars are nearly in unanimous agreement, weren’t part of the original manuscript. In Mark’s gospel, those verses have led to much controversy. Even the paraphrase “the Message”, which contains no other footnotes, includes a footnote at the end of Mark 16:9, indicating that it was almost certainly not written by Mark. The fact that it is not found in the earliest manuscripts, and that it is written in a ridiculously different style of Greek from the rest of Mark, cause some to even question why it is still included in the New Testament. Many modern translations have dropped verses (the most famous being 1John 5:8) where we know they were not part of the original manuscript, yet there is little call for the removal of the passage in John 8 – even though it actually appears later than the passages in Mark 16 – what gives?

The fact that we don’t know what Jesus wrote actually has something to do with it. First of all, the story is consistent with the rest of John’s gospel (unlike Mark 16 which actually introduces later ideas). It is supposed that this story was told so often by John during his lifetime that the story itself became associated with John’s ministry. Later, as his disciples were distributing the gospel of John, it was included in the text. If it was in fact a story well associated with John’s ministry, it may help to explain why there was no outcry against it. The fact that it was quickly distributed in later versions of the gospel of John helps to support this idea also.

But what of the handwriting? – what does it have to do with the story? Well, as I said earlier, it actually helps to authenticate it. The fact that Jesus was writing in the sand, but that the writer does not tell us what He was writing, is precisely what we would expect from an eyewitness standing near (but not too close to the guys with rocks!) to the scene.

As for the other questions… “What did Jesus draw/write in the sand to disarm/disperse the crowd in the situation with the woman caught in adultery?” Well, we have no indication that anything He wrote was written to disarm the crowd. Still, many have speculated that he wrote part of the law – the part from Leviticus 20 indicating that the man caught in adultery should be stoned as well – but the truth is, He may just as well have been doodling for all we know! As for why he would write in a primarily verbal society, that’s not exactly the case. I suppose up until the last 20-30 years you could have called us a primarily verbal society, but that didn’t mean the written word was unimportant. Writing was a prerequisite for a first century teacher of the law; so much so that entire scrolls were often discarded if the writer made a single mistake. Jesus often used teaching methods that most powerfully communicated truth to His hearers. Around fishermen, he spoke of nets and being fishers of men; in agricultural settings, He spoke of harvests and seeds. It is therefore not surprising then when surrounded by teachers and biblical scholars, that He would employ writing – perhaps from the Torah or an early form of the Talmud – to greater illustrate the point He was making. Whatever means He employed, it seems to have worked!

Pax Christi!

Dave

2009-04-10T14:16:00.000-04:00

Happy Good Friday everyone!

Someone asked me the other day for some insight on Luke 22:35-38. They asked "If Jesus didn't want his disciples taking up swords then why interject these few verses? Didn't that just confuse the disciples?" Before I get to my answer, it got me thinking (as did a conversation with Dave McCleary)... what about a place where such questions can be anonymously asked? Dave suggested a "Stump the Pastor" forum, and while I don't want to get into how many angels can dance on the head of a pin (I know there are a few who would love to go there!), it did seem to make great sense to have a place where we can keep the dialogue going, when Sunday turns into "the rest of the week".

So here it is. On this blog I'll share some of my deep thoughts, wisdom from heaven (insert eye roll here!), and just share some overall perspective. It's also a place where you can comment. Like something I said? Have questions? Wanna fight? (well, let's not go there either). But here's the place to mix it up a little. Just e-mail me at pastor@lighthousechurch.me and I'll pick questions to answer here once a week or so. Since the biggest problem with church is that it has to end, maybe we can keep it going some during the week right here!

Anyway, my answer to the question was that Jesus was simply telling them that they needed to be prepared for a completely different time and type of ministry than they had previously known. A sword, purse, and sandals would be standard equipment for people traveling in those times. A sword was not simply a weapon of war, but also for protection against wild animals, bandits, or to defend others against such. That the disciples immediately gravitated towards the sword (notice they never mentioned how many purses or sandals they had?) caused Jesus' terse response in v. 38. He simply says "hikanos" or "Enough!". The "That is" or "It is" before that word was not part of the original Greek.

It is another example of the disciples trying to literalize Jesus' teaching to fit their immediate situation (as in Matt. 16). Jesus' rebuke of Peter in the garden (Matt. 26), and his words in John 18:36, are evidence that Jesus was not calling His followers to take up swords as offensive weapons to advance the Kingdom. The problem was that the disciples were looking for a political revolution, while Jesus was trying to prepare them for Kingdom purposes.

How often do we do the same kind of thing? We read something in the Bible, or hear the Word preached, and immediately try to make it fit into the context of our current situation. Our wants, needs, prayers. We hear Jesus' words, but then try to make them fit what we want to be hearing. The trouble with that approach is that we're rejecting what Jesus is trying to do in us, while at the same time confessing that it is His way, and not ours, that transforms us. Jesus was showing us that He speaks to things we've not yet encountered; that not every word from the Spirit is about what you're going through today, and that quite often He's speaking to us to prepare us for the next step in our walk.

As we look back this Resurrection Sunday, let's also make sure to look forward. Jesus is reminding us that as even as we celebrate what has already been done, that He wants us to not be unprepared for what is yet to happen. The greatest revelations, intimacies, and service for God are yet ahead of each of us. Let's let God ready our hearts for them.

Maranatha!