They Say I'm Supposed to be Branded

The Olympic Plazas and Futility

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:51:00 -0600

I have been reading the book of Ecclesiastes lately about the futility of everything we do under the sun without Christ and this article reminded me of that.

There are millions of people who love the Olympics. Some train their whole lives to get there. Then years pass and what is left? Not much.

What good (in the long term) is a godless life?

http://io9.com/after-the-games-photographs-of-decaying-olympic-sites-503372635

Gatsby on the Big Screen

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:53:07 -0600

Anyone else confused about what to think about the new Gatsby movie? I’m a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing for sure. Can the movie top a book as well written as that?

Also, I’ve been considering the themes of the novel lately. Can I really go out and support a film that’s about a man trying to steal another man’s wife?

I know it’s not healthy to watch movies that have excessive sex and violence in them, but what about amazing works of fiction that focus on things that I wouldn’t normally condone?

Last night I saw an excellent stage production of Crime and Punishment, based on the amazingly well written book. They did a great job keeping the blood and gore down. But I wonder what good it does me (as an audience member) to take in all of those dark themes…

Not to sound dogmatic about this stuff, but it’s interesting, isn’t it?

I’d love to get your thoughts on how you censor yourself.

Nahum and Advance Warning

Thu, 02 May 2013 20:50:00 -0600

Don’t you just love the book of Nahum?

Chances are that if you’ve ever heard of Nahum, you don’t know anything about it. If you do remember a few nuggets, they’re probably not anything good. Nahum is the book that contains gems like:

“There is no relief for your breakdown, your wound is incurable.” (3:19)

“And I will lift up your skirts over your face, and show to the nations your nakedness.” (3:5)

Wowzers! Who could love a book like this?

I can, and maybe you can too once we take a look at God’s relationship with Nineveh.

Nahum is a prophesy delivered against Nineveh, which was the capitol of Assyria. Does the name Assyria ring a bell? They were the people who took the Northern Kingdom of Israel captive in 722 BC. They tried the same thing with Judah (the Southern Kingdom of Israel) in 701 BC. If you were a Hebrew back in the day, the Assyrians were not people you were particularly fond of.

As justice for the horrors that Assyria committed against Israel, God sent this prophet to tell them that their case was pretty much hopeless.

Okay, so why love a book that foretells the destruction of a people group?

Because it’s so easily coupled with the book of Jonah.

Remember the story of Jonah? The guy who is sent to give a message to a people he hates that they should repent before God gets angry at them? You’ve seen the animated film, the Sunday school drawings, etc. But do you know who Jonah was going to warn?

Nineveh. That’s right, Jonah was going to warn the capitol of Assyria. The very same people that God was going to send to take over Israel less than a century later. Here is the chain of events, for those of you who get confused:

God tells the people of Israel to shape up.
They don’t.
God sends Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh (capitol of Assyria) to repent of their sins.
They do.
God sends the Assyrians to take over Israel.
They do (at least, the Northern Kingdom).
The Assyrians are a nasty people and don’t treat their captives well.
God tells Nahum to proclaim the destruction of Assyria.

There, my friends, embedded in that numbered list, are several examples of crazy grace from God. This God, the same one of the New Testament, calls His people, and the enemies of His people, to repent. He urges us to be righteous. He warns us before something lousy happens.

And He stands behind His word.

That is why I love Nahum, and all of the prophets. They detail for us the patience of God, and they reveal that He means business.

We often shy away from hard truths in our lives. But so often we learn reality from those hard truths. Books like Nahum stick a mirror in front of us and ask us to take a good look. Will you?

Take a peek at Nahum and post here or on the Facebook page with your thoughts.

Biblical vs. The Bible

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:13:05 -0600

There is an interesting term floating around out there: “biblical”. Have you heard it? I hear it all of the time in sermons and read it in books. It’s a buzz word right now, and it’s used to justify a lot of stuff.

Listen for it in conversations with your Christian friends, or on radio talk shows. You’ll hear it.

So, what’s my beef with it?

Glad you asked.

Like a lot of trendy words out there now, biblical has started to lose its meaning. It should signify something from the Bible. For an example, the story of Noah is biblical. “Thou shalt not kill” is biblical. Jerusalem is a biblical city, etc. But we’ve started applying it to concepts that are not directly stated in the Bible.

Think about church membership. I recently posted about how many churches like to have an official membership class where they can talk about their doctrine, processes, and walk you through the gospel. All good things. But in the last few weeks I’ve heard people describe church membership as “biblical”. Well it doesn’t talk about church membership in the Bible. It’s a good concept, but certainly not in the actual book.

Another example is the courtship/dating debate. You’ll hear folks fervently defend courtship as the “biblical” model, but the Bible has little to say about the steps before marriage. In other words, neither dating nor courtship is explicitly preferred. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There are some good principles in the Good Book about it, but there are no really direct commands.

Do you see the difference? You can hear the word dropped in debates ranging from gambling to tax reform, cremation to homeschooling. We’re confusing the good with the commanded.

But why bring this up?

Glad you asked.

The seeds of legalism are spread when mankind starts adopting good things as “must-haves”. When we require that which God does not, we become the judge of morality. Worse yet, when these rules pile up it embitters us and creates factions in the church.

Just ask the folks at my church whether or not I should tuck in my shirt on Sunday mornings. I do tuck it in, so as to keep them from stumbling, but God doesn’t require it. Something that small really has caused tension.

What do you think? Are there examples of “biblical” logic that you can think of?

Also, for a future post, I’d like to hear how you have coped with being hurt by another Christian or church. How do you bounce back from that?

livelymorgue: Jan. 3, 1937: Firefighter recruits in training...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:22:12 -0600

livelymorgue:

Jan. 3, 1937: Firefighter recruits in training maneuvers, explained in a caption that includes a 68-word sentence that would surely not pass muster from a copy editor today: “Some of the most breath-taking exploits, Chief Oliver explains, are used ‘just to take the fear out of the men,’ but the future firemen must learn to be careful at the same time that they learn to be fearless, so that they can move about nimbly on high places, with the aid of ropes and ladders, and never make the mistake — almost certain to be fatal — of falling.” Photo: Wiiliam Eckenberg/The New York Times

How is the modern church taking risks, for better or worse?

What is the Purpose of Church Membership?

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:37:27 -0600

I am not a “member” of my church.

I teach Sunday school, help at AWANA, and attend every week. I regularly pray for our pastors, the staff, and people who come to our Bible study.

But I am not a member.

The topic has been coming up a lot lately, so I have been polling friends to find out if they are members of their churches and why. Here is what Ron wrote on my Facebook page when I asked if membership was necessary:

Initially, my reaction was no. But I got to thinking that you should have some form of “quality control” in your education system. A church should provide a consistent theology in their teaching, but that could be done with teacher training and such. Plus, weeding out pedophiles. In that regard, many churches now have background check requirements for teachers and leaders. So I guess I don’t feel membership is necessary to build into a church “society”.

Ron has some good points. Others in favor of membership said that it shows a commitment level to a local church body.

Goodness knows that our society is deeply lacking in the commitment department.

But there are some who disagree that church membership is absolutely necessary. For one, taking a class does not mean that I am going to stick around. Who shows more commitment to a church: the guy who signs a piece of paper, or the gal who shows up to prayer group every week?

Another objection is that a consistent theology (as mentioned in Ron’s post) can sometimes stifle the spiritual maturity of a church. If nobody is allowed to disagree, we will never learn how to disagree without getting angry. Also, if the leaders in the church are followed without question, accountability can be weakened. There are many issues in the Bible that are not clear. Many popular theologies are not based in scripture, but pastoral conjecture (ask your church leaders what they think about healing and speaking in tongues and you’ll probably find some). If we cannot respectfully disagree, we’ll follow blindly or leave all together.

Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad, but this could be why we have so many personality cults in our churches. We worship the leaders and not the Savior. What happens when the leader leaves the church or falls? He takes the church with him.

All that said, church membership can increase the ownership people take in their local body. The membership class is often an evangelistic opportunity. It gives the pastors an idea of who is ”in” for the long run. Sometimes it pulls folks from dashing out after the service to solid involvement.

If we aren’t members of a church it can become a stumbling block to our brothers and sisters who believe it is important. We aren’t supposed to cause others to trip in their faith, right? But lately I have been getting some negative responses from churchgoers in town who don’t like the idea that I am not a member of my local body, despite all of the ways I am involved. I’ve been attending this same place the entire time I’ve been in town. Why the fuss?

After all, church membership is an extra-biblical thing. It’s not mentioned in the Bible, and is certainly not a requirement for salvation. It’s a human construct, pure and simple. Requiring it would be (in my ready-for-a-fight mind) the definition of Pharisee-ism, and an obvious cult-like move.

But! But. But…

In not taking the class I am causing my brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble.

Is it really worth that?

No. No it’s not.

What do you think?

What is the Purpose of Church Membership?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:52:41 -0600

I’d love to know what you all think about membership in the modern Church. By church membership I am referring to the class, meeting with the elders, etc that many churches use with people new to the congregation. Is the process necessary? Why does it exist? Are you a member of your local church?

What do you think?

Life Is Messy: Steps to Make Ministry Easier

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 08:23:21 -0600

Ministry is messy. It often means getting involved in the lives of others. And it doesn’t take too long to realize that most people out there have real problems.

We love to relate the fact that Jesus spent a lot of time with sinners, but do we do it ourselves?

Some of my recent experiences have disrupted my “perfect world”. God may open the doors for you to speak into someone’s life, but it might be through plexiglass at the county jail. Or maybe it’ll be taking someone to drug treatment programs in order to provide support. Ministry means going to places that are meant for “other people” and helping to pull them out.

If we don’t, others will.

By that I’m not just talking about people from other religions, but also other wounded people. Our montras sometimes get stuck in their heads. “Some day you’ll be able to use this experience to help other people.” That’s true! One of the great blessings in life is that we often learn from our mistakes and get to help keep others from making them. But what we don’t realize is that people who have not been fully healed can sometimes get caught in unhealthy loops, so caught up in helping others that they don’t ever heal themselves.

So, if you have worked through your hang ups, are a person of prayer, and have a desire to see the Kingdom furthered, here are my challanges.

Get healthy: Comb through your past and deal with any unresolved issues, sins, hangups, and gripes.
Seek Mentorship: You’re going to need accountability from others when you engage in serious ministry.
Find People to Pray With: Last night I called one of my best friends so we could pray for some upcoming opportunities. There is great union in praying for ministry. Don’t be shy!
Know When to Say “No”: People in need can sometimes take advantage of you. Know your limitations beforehand. Don’t be an enabler.
Set A Schedule: This goes for you and the people you work with. Make sure to set aside time for your family, husband/wife, church, work, etc. Your family has to come first. Once you have that together, it often helps to set up a regular meeting or Bible study with the people you are going to mentor.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Won’t you join us?

What do you think? Are there other steps you recommend?

livelymorgue: March 5, 1935: Ed Newell, chairman of the...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:39:45 -0600

livelymorgue:

March 5, 1935: Ed Newell, chairman of the National Ski Club and the Olympic tryout committee, demonstrating a stunt on the slopes at Mount Rainier, in Washington State. “It’s just too bad for all concerned if he doesn’t make it.” Photo: The New York Times

Market to Me: What Marketing Says About Christians

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:00:53 -0600

I just saw an advertisement for the American Bible Challenge. If you haven’t seen the program, it’s a gameshow where contestants are asked questions from the Bible. It’s a fun, though somewhat slow, program. It’s actually kind of interesting to quiz yourself and see how much you know.

What caught my eye is that the advertisement sold the show as being the best “feel-good” gameshow out there. That may very well be, but I wonder what it says about us Christians as a people. What does it mean that we make “feel-good” materials a priority?

There are other common phrases used in Christian advertising. Here are some:

Inspiring
Family-Friendly
Safe

A lot of it seems to revolve around ideas of comfort and sanitation. The trouble is that real ministry (and real life) is messy. The Bible itself isn’t family-friendly. But that makes us feel uncomfortable.

Comfort, feeling good, in a lot of ways, is our enemy. When the gospel first gets ahold of a person, it is vital that they be faced with their sin before a Holy God. Without that burning, confrontational truth making us uncomfortable, we can’t see our need for a God.

Comfort is what keeps people coming on Sundays but not getting involved in their local church.

Comfort is what keeps us reading only the passages of the Bible that don’t talk about wrath.

Comfort is what keeps us creating theology to trick ourselves into believing that we are above others, above sickness, and above poverty.

Comfort is what makes us believe that we’re all the same when we’ve got different gifts.

Comfort makes us rally around people who talk well even if their theology stinks.

What do you think? What does our advertisement say about us?

What a Week on Your Back Will Get You

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 17:58:46 -0600

Well… I’m getting old.

I’ve been laying on my back for the last 5 days because my back went out. No good. I went right from a job interview to the library to prepare for the new job. While I was there the pain crept in and I almost couldn’t walk home.

Then the walking stopped entirely.

But the good news is that I am well rested and have gotten to know my chiropractor pretty well.

And I’ve finally gotten to download Amanda Luedeke’s e-book “The Extroverted Writer”. This is good for two reasons:

1) You’ll (maybe) get a higher quality experience from my posts and
2) She is one of the top agents that I want to represent my writing. Hopefully this will give me the “scoop” on how to build a platform that agents will like.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with my heating pad and an e-book.

Prayer Meeting Recap

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:26:50 -0700

Last night was one of the top events of the year.

Here’s the order of events:

15 minutes: Discussion about how we can prepare ourselves for revival. The answer: repentance.

45 minutes: Prayer as a group

45 minutes: Prayer as individuals (we had a bunch of rooms open so people could be alone)

15 minutes: Discussion

45 minutes: Prayer in groups of 2-3

45 minutes: Prayer walk

The most common response was surprise. We couldn’t believe how easy it was to pray that long, especially in our alone time. Praise God.

Have you ever prayed that long? What was the response?

Prayer Group Meeting Tonight

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:04:02 -0700

In my last post I talked about how revival is going to cost us something.

And it will.

And it has.

Tonight we’re praying. We’ve organized a rag-tag group of people from as many churches as I know of in town and we’re going to pray for revival, first in ourselves, then in our town and nation.

It’s a big step. Our church has a weekly prayer meeting, but it meets just as most of us are on our way to work. Now we’re asking for people to give up a whole night just to pray. 4 hours.

Won’t you join us? I hope to report back that it went well. One of my goals for this year is to stop expecting failure and to look for success in everything. Even if only one person comes, we’re going to pray. I need to keep that perspective. It’s not about numbers, but about doing what is right.

When was the last time you did a prayer meeting? Tell us about it! How did it go? How was it structured?

Revival Will Cost Me Something

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:16:00 -0700

2 Samuel 24:18 is an amazing story that I’ll bet you’ve never heard before, but it’s one of my favorites. For reasons that we don’t have time to get into, King David wants to acquire a plot of land to dedicate it to The Lord. The man who owns the land wants to give it to David for free, but David refuses. He could take it. He is the king! But David says one of my favorite lines in the whole Bible instead: “I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing.

Interesting.

For the last week or so I have been planning a prayer meeting that we are organizing at my local church. It may be important to say that we do already have a prayer group, a great one. The trouble is that it consists mostly of people over 50. The young people in our church do not attend.

So, in an effort to get the under-50 crowd out, we are hosting a prayer event. But not just any event. I’m talking a 4-hour prayer event. And, as you can imagine, I am having a dickens of a time getting my friends to sign up. Some do have legit band practice for the worship team and stuff like that. But others are not so interested. It’s too long. Too hard. I don’t like to pray in public, etc. Can I just come for part of it?

One of my good buddies and I have been talking revival. How can we, as two single guys, help prepare our church for revival? Prayer, for sure. But here is one of the tough truths that has been hitting me in the face: Revival is going to cost us something. Maybe a lot. It’s going to disrupt our church, change the plans. Some people may not like it. There may be drug addicts who start seeking God, people with alcohol problems. Hip young people may be coming in, or street thugs with their pants around their ankles. My church is unique in that the people most willing to see this ARE the old folks. It’s us young punks that are, spiritually, not ready for this.

It’s going to cost us because it means there will be so many needs that we’ll need lots of workers to harvest the crops. But that means giving up TV time, going to the movies, sleeping in, naps, game nights, shutting myself in the house with my boyfriend/girlfriend/ spouse,and my workaholic lifestyle.

Are we willing to do that?

To prepare for all of this awesome outpouring of the Spirit, are we okay with fasting, maybe for several days? Will we get to the place where we see prayer as a priority and not just an obligation? I have been asleep for way too long. Just being honest here. What is it going to take to wake us up? I have been giving God all of the stuff that cost me nothing. When am I going to start making sacrifices to see His kingdom come?

I hope it’s soon.

Genesis Contest

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:48:07 -0700

I just entered my first novel into the ACFW Genesis contest. If all goes well it will get in front of some very important eyes. Lord, bless this manuscript…

Where are the Wounded?

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:05:23 -0700

I went on a mens retreat this last weekend and one of the speakers posed and interesting question: where are the wounded in our churches?

You see, we try so hard to look all clean and tidy at church and we forget that Christ called us to die to ourselves. Not cover up our sins, not be “holier than thou”, but to die to ourselves. Since we do such a good job of looking good, we often drive away the people who know their need for a Savior.

Where are our addicted? Where are the angry? Where are the alcoholics, the frightened, the petty? They may be staying away from church because it’s full of “perfect” people (ie, people who act like they don’t need a savior).

How do we fix this? Confession. Dying to ourselves and living like people who are saved from something and not saved on our own merit. It may mean hearing testimonies in church OR confessing sins to others.

What do you think?

Moral Dilemmas

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:27:08 -0700

I tell you this to to toot my own horn, but to illustrate a point:

Today I had two different confrontations with the truth. At one moment I had to decide between helping a friend or costing my employer. At the other I was being asked to go against my standards because someone was nice to me (for two weeks out of a year of trouble).

Here is the rub, gang. Are we going to do what is right all of the time, or just when it benefits us? Are we really this shallow?

Yesterday a friend asked me to pirate software for him. It would have made me look pretty cool to this guy who I think is a lot of fun to be around.

Yes, even as an adult we get peer pressure.

Here is how it played out:

I did not allow my friend to cheat my employer
I did not lower my standards after 2 weeks of niceness (though it would have brought me temporary relief, it would have brought with it long term bitterness)
I did not illegally copy the software

Yet I am the one who can’t sleep tonight.

That is the way these things play out sometimes, I am afraid. But if we as a people are going to get anywhere, if we are going to advance the gospel, we have to be faithful with the small things. We have to say no to piracy. We have to, as a group, be willing to do the right thing even when it is unpopular. Even when it upsets some of the closest people to us.

Finally, for goodness sake, don’t put your friends in moral binds. Nobody wins when you do that.

Big Questions: The Slide

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:11 -0700

I asked my readers what you think the most pressing issues are in Christianity and Alice responded. Her post boils down to two questions:

1) What can we do to slow the slide towards accepting sins in the church?
2) Do we need to change the way we preach from the pulpit by using cuss words, etc?

Lets answer the first question by way of another: will we change the Bible to fit our views, or will we let the Bible change us? It’s a personal choice. We have to jump on board with one or the other. If we presume that the Bible is open to interpretation, then we will naturally drift towards a looser lifestyle. It just makes sense. Believe me, there are lots of times I would like to let something slide (loving my neighbors is not always easy, nor is being honest in a lowe paying job when I could easily take advantage of people). But if we accept that the Bible is unchanging then we will stand apart from our culture. And the culture will tell us we’re wrong. That’s a hard pill to swallow.

A lot of folks are going toward an open interpretation of the Bible. That sometimes makes folks like myself who take the Bible literally look a little hard-nosed. But at heart I am trying to keep the most open mind of all: allowing for the fact that my desires may be wrong. If the Bible says something is a sin, I think its good to be open to having to change my lifestyle. That frightens us a lot. Surrender is usually not considered a good thing. But surrender to God’s Word is actually very freeing.

How do we slow the trend towards “open interpretation” theology? Good preaching, and prayer. Also, it means that folks like myself can’t afford to sound crazy. We have to stop pointing fingers and yelling and start making logical arguments. We may also need to explore church discipline (ouch… that’s another post).

And question #2. Do we need to pepper our sermons with cuss words and the like?

I think it’s pretty simple. We are told not to cause other people to stumble. We know that cussing in church causes others to stumble, so we should stop. In our church, the older folks think that men should have their shirts tucked in. So what do I do? Out of love for them, I tuck my shirt in. It costs me nothing, and it allows my friends to focus on the sermon.

Also, it may be helpful to keep in mind Ephesians 4:29:

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

Cuss words don’t build others up, they tear down. So why would we bother with them from the pulpit?

Now let’s be honest: a lot of preachers are super boring. Which sometimes means that we look for entertaining ones, even if their theology is wrong. That doesn’t make things right either.

Thankfully, our church recently got a new pastor. I could listen to him all day. What makes the difference? It’s not his stories (he sometimes doesn’t tell any) or his antics (he doesn’t use those much either), but his sheer enthusiasm. This man believes the Word. This man trusts the Word. He loves his job. He loves the congregation. And that makes all of the difference. And he doesn’t speak to us like children, endlessly repeating himself. He understands that great principle that any information in the world can be absorbed by the average person if presented right. He doesn’t shy away from the Old Testament and he’s not afraid to say, “we don’t really know what that means”.

What do you think? How can we as individuals help our local churches?

livelymorgue: March 21, 1935: New recruits at the barracks of...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:19:26 -0700

livelymorgue:

March 21, 1935: New recruits at the barracks of the 7th Queen’s Own Hussars, a British cavalry outfit that dated to the 17th century, learned balance on wooden horses. Photo: The New York Times

This was too good not to repost….

Big Questions: The "Little" Things We Ignore

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:51:58 -0700

I recently asked for your thoughts on big questions facing Christianity. While I wait for the emails to flood in, I’ll offer one of my own:

In what ways are we ignoring God’s blessings by turning a blind eye to “small” things in His Word?

For example: The Bible says that it is a gift to be single. But we push marriage hard in the church. I have been to churches where they all but said it was a sin to be a single man. Part of this stems from ideologies like Nation Building (we’ll cover that eventually). The other is that our churches contain a lot of boys pretending to be men. In an effort to get these dirtbags to grow up, we encourage them to get hitched. But how has this robbed the church? Are there missionaries the we’ve lost to do peer pressure? Great Sunday school teachers?

Another “small” thing: If God told us that it was harder for a rich person to enter the eye of a needle than to get to heaven, why do we push prosperity so much? The Bible makes it pretty clear that it is a blessing to live a humble life. Why do we feel the need to amass riches?

Finally: Why do we promote people to superstar status? The majority of the real work done on the ground is by small churches, not megachurches. Celebrity pastors basically self-destruct. One of the reasons I hesitated to start a blog (I only did it because the agents I talked to required it) is that I don’t have all of the answers. None of us do. I don’t want to be a celebrity. I want my work to get out there, yes, but leave me out of it.

And we push this in our churches, too. Everyone has to be a rockstar. Everyone has to have a life-goal. Nobody can be content to “just” be a parent/ provider. Again, the reason for this is that we (the congregation) are mostly dirtbags. We don’t want to step up, so pastors have to give us rah-rah speeches which over-stress those who are already active and do little to motivate the dirtbags. So we invent these classes and seminars to get the dirtbags off their butts. But the dark twist is that all of this pressure creates superstars. We start envying the missionaries or lifting them up to be something they are not. The people in the worship band get too cool for school.

Reading over this post I realized how much we do to try and motivate dirtbags…