Sermon for Sunday May, 23

CHURCH OF THE OPEN DOOR

Scripture

⁷ "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write,
'These things says He who is holy, He who is true, "He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, andshuts and no one opens":^{[ c]
8} "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it;^{[ d]} for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. ⁹ Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. ¹¹ Behold,^[e] I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. ¹² He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
¹³ "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'Sermon

There are some things in life that you know are important. Things like food and shelter. Blessings like friends and family.

Then there are those things that you have and use every day that you take for granted that are also important. One of those things that are important that we often dismiss is a door.

Each of you has a picture of a threshold. By a threshold I mean a gate or a doorway or something like that. I want to look at the pictures. Some of you will look at your picture and it will just make you shrug. Others of you will see a beautiful picture that touches you and you don't know why. A lot of times doors speak to us for a number of different reasons. If your picture of a door speaks to you for any reason, I encourage you to keep you picture, look at it during the sermon, take it with you to remind you about what we learned today. If you don't care, just set the picture on the back table when you leave.

In ancient thought, thresholds like doors and gates had great spiritual significance. When you look at the design of the temple and the tabernacle in ancient Israel, it is designed with a series of thresholds as you go further into the structure. Each one only allowed certain people in it at certain times. By the time you get to the holy of holies, one priest was able to enter the room once a year.

When you walked through a door or a gate, you in many ways walked from one reality to another. There was a reason that the Lord commanded ancient Jews to post Scriptures on their doorposts as they went in and went out of their homes. They wanted them to take the Word of God and the presence of God with them as they moved through every passageway—into each new world and each new place that they entered.

Think about it. When a couple leaves their parent's homes or their individual homes and moves into their own homes, the husband often traditionally carries his spouse across the threshold. That is because the life they had before has changed forever once they walk through that door together.

You stand in a doorway from the outside, and you really never know what is going on from the other side of the door. A door, a gate, a passageway is a boundary that can keep secrets, hold power, provide safety, and insight fear in people.

Sometimes we talk about things we should do "behind closed doors" because what we talk about in those moments is not for everyone to hear. We talk about encountering a closed door that we cannot get through. We talk about opportunities that we missed or are unavailable to us as closed doors.

Jesus talked a lot about doors, gates, and thresholds. He commands his followers to ask, seek and KNOCK, as in knocking on a door. He tells stories of widows knocking at the door of a judge until the judge give the woman the justice that she deserves. Jesus encourages us to pursue what we want in prayer with the same kind of urgency.

At one point Jesus refers to Himself as a gate. He says that if people want to find salvation and get to the Heavenly Father, they need to go through him.

Similarly, when we get to the church in Philadelphia, Jesus says that he is the one that has the keys to the kingdom. What he locks, nobody can open. What he opens, nobody can shut. Then he says something rather amazing to the people at that church. He says that he has set before the church in Philadelphia an open door. And that open door nobody could shut.

Whereas the church we discussed last week had no good thing, no encouraging word said to it, the church in Philadelphia had no word of condemnation delivered to it.

The church in Philadelphia has been faithful. They have endured. They have kept God's Word. They have not denied his name. Even in the face of persecution. Even when they have been beaten down to the point where they only have a little strength left, they have remained true to their faith. Jesus promises to remain true to this church.

Philadelphia is a small town compared to the others. It is most likely a small church. A struggling church. Yet, at this time and in this moment, Jesus promises an open door that nobody can shut is set before them.

What does it mean to have an open door set before you? How does that speak to you to have an open door in front of you?

Have you ever known someone who had an open door policy, or whose home was always an open door? When we hear about someone having an open door we think about someone who is friendly, honest, and transparent. We think about someone who is honest and true. With someone who is hospitable. Who is willing to talk and willing to listen. Certainly this is true of Jesus. The beginning of the letter talks about Jesus being true, doesn't it? So when we hear Jesus offering us an open door, we should think about the accessibility we have to him. But when he says, "I set before you an open door" Jesus is saying much, much more than that.

Three times in his epistles the apostle Paul uses the phrase of a "door being opened". Each time is speaks of an opportunity that Paul has that Paul either wants to take advantage of or is in the process of taking advantage of. We know this about open doors, don't we?

Have you ever been in a situation where you are seeking God's will, and you ask God to open doors of opportunity to show you what to do or where to go next? I have. When I seek to discern whether God calls me to go somewhere I ask God to open doors that I know that I must walk through.

Have you ever had a moment that you had an opportunity that you did not expect, and you knew that the opportunity was a God thing, a divine appointment? Maybe it was a moment when you received a special blessing. Maybe it was when you accepted Christ. Or perhaps it was when you walked through the doors of this church. And you knew…you just knew…God had put a chance in front of you that you could not resist. An open door.

Specifically, when the apostle Paul talks about having an open door before him he is talking about having an opportunity to do some sort of ministry, especially the kind of ministry that reaches people for Christ. I don't know about you, but when I pray for the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life for Christ and in his kingdom I pray for open doors in their heart. I pray for opportunities to reach them and share with them.

Jesus says that the church in Philadelphia has an open door that it set before them. A big part of what he is saying is that this church has an opportunity or opportunities were set before them as a church. The church in Philadelphia may have been a small church that was struggling to keep going in their small community, but they still had an open door before them. They still had opportunities for ministry. They had opportunities to reach their community where the church was planted. They may not feel like they have a lot of strength left, but they stood on the verge of something new. Jesus was giving them an opportunity to walk through another door. And once they claimed that opportunity, their reality would be different and unexpected blessings would follow.

Many of you have an open door set before you in your life. You have not chosen to accept Christ. You have heard about Him, but you have ignored him and pushed him away. Today you have an open door before you. Will you walk through it?

Others of you have an open door before you to be baptized and join our church. You have thought…maybe tomorrow. Maybe next month. Maybe next year. Today you have an open door set before you.

As a church we have opportunities set before us as well. We have an open door to be THE open door that points others to Jesus. There are folks that are scared to ever set foot in a church like ours, scared that it might fall in on itself if they set foot inside our building.

We have chosen in our last church business meeting to find ways to open our doors wider to those who need to experience the love and the power of Jesus in their lives. We have chosen to focus on finding ways make our church feel more homey to those who are members, as well as those we have yet to get to know. We have chosen to focus on extending our welcome by focusing more on hospitality to strangers, community service, family ministries in the next couple of years. We see the open door to new life that Jesus offers. We want to point others to the hope that we have found.

Certainly this is a big part of what Jesus means when he says, "I set before you an open door." But it is not all. Jesus is saying all this plus something even more exciting.

When Jesus says he sets an open door before us he is inviting us into his home and his presence. When we get to the end of the book of Revelation we see that there is a gate to God's heavenly kingdom that nobody can shut. He sets an open door before us. He invites us into his land and into his home. Into his eternal kingdom. Even more though, we are invited into his eternal presence.

When Jesus invites us to walk through the open door, he is inviting us to come home. To come home to God. To come in and sit on his couch, be in his presence. To share our lives with him. Our hopes and our fears. Our worries and concerns. To walk through that open door and know that whatever may happen, that we can always come through that open door. He will keep us safe. He will bind up our wounds. He give us nourishment, joy and laughter. And whatever we have done, we can come home to him and know we are treasured and loved. He sets an open door before us.

Jesus sets an open door before us. An open door of access to Him. An open door of opportunity for blessing. An open door of opportunity for mission and growth. An open door to offer the world around us. But most of all, we have an open door to walk through that is the open door to our rightful home with our friend and savior Jesus, and our Heavenly Father. Will we walk through that open door set before us. I hope we will. I hope you will. I hope I will. God bless us in our steps across the threshold of grace and love. Amen.

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Reflections on Got Style: Gross v. Net evangelism effectiveness

I recieved a complimentary book from my denomination's publisher (Judson Press) on evangelism entitled Got Style: Personality Based Evangelism.

When I recieved the book, and read the introduction, I was not sure I would like reading the book too much. Part of the reason is that the book seemed like a rip-off of the Contagious Christian materials from Willow Creek Community Church and ministries. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised. Got Style comes from the same school of thought as Contagious Christian but it is not the same material, and it is a little more descriptive than Contagious Christian about how personalities mesh with evangelism styles.

I am now through chapter two, and have had some time to think through what Johnson calls the Assertive Style. The assertive style is the kind of style of sharing the good news of Jesus that is direct, forthright, and does not beat around the bush.

Johnson shares that the Assertive Style is often the kind of evangelism that "closes the deal" with people who are on the journey to accepting Christ. Thus, Johnson argues, the gifts of the assertive evangelist are essential in bringing people to Christ.

Johnson points out that the danger is that people who are overly aggressive in the assertive style of evangelism can often push people away from the gospel as much as they draw people to Christ. This is especially true if the assertive evangelism persons lack strong people skills. Like every style, Johnson says, assertive evangelists need to hone their evangelistic gifts for the greatest effectiveness.

In part of this chapter, Johnson adds in statistics about the effectiveness of various types of assertive evangelists. I find these statistics objectify people (which is a story for another day), and I find that they are inherently misleading. Every statistical study on evangelism that I have seen overestimates conversion rates. They do this by double counting converts (of the 100 people accepting Christ at camp this year, Susie counted for five of those conversions by coming forward at the altar call each day of the week), estimating large groups of people praying a sinner's prayer simultanously, and by offering extra food to men who come forward during the altar call at the gospel mission for example.

The other way that statistics can be skewed when studying evangelism is by grading the effectiveness of an evangelism technique on the "gross" numbers instead of the "net" statistics. Let me explain. A man I know is especially skilled at confrontational evangelism. Yet, in his evangelistic fervor his confidence in his intelligence and his belief in his ability to be correct about every issue, he often pushes people away from Christ uneccesarily. People like this tend to gain a lot of decisions for Christ, but the self-centered, insensitive way they share can make people run from Christ uneccessarily. Thus, to gage their effectiveness as evangelists, if you really want to track their "score" or their "stats" you need to also figure in how many people have been lost to Christ and the church due the way they share their faith. I think you will find, if you do this, that an assertive evangelist is a less effective evangelist than they advertise to their churches, friends, and family.

Just something I am thinking about. What do you think?

Sermon on May 16—The Seven Churches of Revelation--Sardis

ZOMBIE CHRISTIANS

Scripture

¹ "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,
'These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. ² Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.^{[ a]
3} Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. ⁴ You^[b] have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. ⁵ He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
⁶ "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

Sermon

Fred Craddock, probably one of the most influential preaching teachers in the United States, tells a story of when he started out early in his ministry. He went to this church in Eastern Tennessee. The community was having an energy plant being built nearby. This was maybe 50 years ago. The church in that community had a beautiful building. It was all built out of a giant poplar tree, and the church and the building were about one hundred and twenty years old at the time.

Now, like I said, there was this power plant being built outside of town. There was not enough housing in town to hold all the workers. So the workers and their families lived in makeshift trailer parks, campers, and tents. They would be there for a year or two at most while the plant was being constructed.

Pastor Fred decided to approach the church leadership about trying to reach the people in those trailer parks and camps. He talked to them about starting an invitational and calling plan to visit with the people in these areas and invite them to church.

One of the more vocal leaders said, "Oh no, I don't think we will do that. Those people won't be here very long. They're construction workers. They're just temporary. They will be leaving pretty soon."

Pastor Fred, "Well, we should invite them while they are here. Make them feel at home."

The leadership of the churched argued and debated on the issue. The next week was a business meeting of the church. The first motion was that anyone who was going to be a member of the church had to own land in the community. There was a little debate. And the motion passed.

Pastor Fred, who was a young pastor at the time, moved on to another church, then to his teaching and preaching activities with seminaries, then toward the end of his career back in the Southern part of the country. He went back to see that church with his wife, who he had married after that first pastorate.

He had a hard time finding it at first, but then, bit by bit as he searched for it he found that church out in the woods. It was the same building. It was glimmering white in the distance. There were all sorts of cars around it. Motorcycles and trucks too. On the front of that building there was a big sign that said "Barbeque, ALL THAT YOU CAN EAT".

It is a restaurant now you see. All the pews were pushed to the side of the building. There was all sorts of tables in the middle. The kerosene lights were replaced by electric ones.

Pastor Fred sat down. It was getting late after their looking around. It was time to eat. As he dug into the barbequed pork and chicken and ribs he said, "It is a good thing this is not still a church building, otherwise these people couldn't be in here".

When I was in Colorado Springs, and we were looking at starting this new outreach-driven worship service, I was trying to do something to communicate the importance of the task we were embarking on. One day I had an idea, and I went to take pictures of all of the church buildings in the downtown Colorado Springs area that were now housing something other than a church. Within a few blocks I found a hip-hop night club, an alternative, progressive newspaper, a photography studio, and among other things. It was kind of sad really. It has had an impact on me ever sense.

It is, in some ways, an image of what Jesus is telling us through John about the church in Sardis. The Church in Sardis, Jesus says, was the church of the living dead. It was a church full of Zombie Christians, that is Christians that appear alive on the outside, but are really dead. The Christians of Sardis walk around, live their lives, and appear to be upstanding citizens. But from God's point of view they were appearing to be alive but spiritually dead.

This must have come as quite a shock to the people there in Sardis. Sardis was the kind of church that everyone appreciated and respected. This is why verse 1 says that the church "has a name that they are alive, but they are dead".

The Sardis church was a church that everyone wanted to be like. It was a nice place to be. It was a comfortable place to be. People that had good reputations in town were a part of that church family. A good number of people were showing up. There was no record of the church being persecuted by the Jews. There was no record of the church being persecuted by the townspeople or the local government. It appears to have a good financial campaign. Yet for some reason in God's eyes, it was a horrific church. A church that walked around like it was alive, yet was rotting and decomposing and a stinking mess at the same time. It was…a zombie church.

So a letter comes from Jesus as written by John to them. They are not told that their church is being told that their church has bad doctrine. It has not been infiltrated by some heretical group. From the sounds of it the folks have just become lethargic about their faith. They had become apathetic.

Apathy was not unusual for the people of Sardis. Spiritual apathy or any other kind of apathy. The history of Sardis was that it was destroyed over and over again due to a lack of vigilance.

Sardis was a city that was built up upon a hill. Behind it was a mountain. On the three other sides of the city were steep drop-offs, which were then built upon with a series of large pillars called a Parthenon. The drop off to the ground below the main part of the city was 1500 feet down. They felt like their home was inpenetratable. They were arrogant about it. Twice the city was humbled by a sneak attack. First by the Persians. Then 400 years later by the Greeks. Then, a few decades earlier, they were forced to rebuild the community due to a massive earthquake. They were always expecting the easy life, and then getting surprised when bad things happen to them up in their little perch of a city.

Jesus seeks to call them out of their apathy by shouting a number of warnings: WAKE UP! STRENGTHEN WHAT REMAINS! REMEMBER! OBEY! REPENT! IWILL COME UPON YOU LIKE A THEIF! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HOUR I'M COMING.

Last night we had a tornado warning. If the tornado would have come through town a siren would have gone off. Many of us would have been running for basements or bathtubs or door awnings. The warning of Jesus is like a tornado warning in a spiritual sense. Wake up. Pay attention. Be ready. You have been apathetic and lazy in your faith and it has corrupted you, he says to the church in Sardis.

Jesus was teaching the church not to live by faith in the attendance numbers, the bank account, or the vague belief that everything will work out in the end.

Sardis teaches us that we can be very religious, look very Christian, and even have a growing church and be spiritually dead. Sardis was. And it serves as a warning to us.

I have spent many years as a youth pastor taking youth to water parks in the summer. In the middle of most of the water parks is a thing called the lazy river. A lazy river is a flow of water where you can just get on the inner tube, float along, get some sun, and stay cool in the water. Without hardly any effort, you can go round and round in this little river. I like that I can get somewhere without much intention or effort.

Being a Christian is nothing like being on a lazy river. Being a healthy church is nothing like being on a lazy river either.

Being a Christian is about consistent, continual growth in the grace of God. Think about the metaphors for the Christian life. Growing in Christ. A Faith Journey. A Spiritual Walk. Maturing from Childhood to Adulthood. Nothing about a healthy spiritual life speaks about floating along, sitting back on our easy chair, doing nothing. Never is lethargy or apathy condoned in Scripture in relationship to our life with Jesus.

Trying to just coast in your spiritual journey is like trying to take your foot off the gas in the middle of rush hour traffic in Denver, putting a blindfold on, and waiting for something good to happen. It won't. And with that approach, it won't be long before at the least you get a ticket, and at worse you make a wreck for yourself and everyone around you.

Jesus speaks this word to Sardis, but Sardis is a warning, even a parable if you will, to people like you and I. Even more, it is a warning to us as a church.

No church can rest on its history and previous accomplishments and expect God to bless it. Every church needs to be vigilant about opportunities for ministry. Each church needs to be vigilant to be faithful. To be standing for Christ. Each church is only as strong as it cares for each other today, as it reaches the lost for Christ today, as it studies the word day to day, as it prays day to day. There is no such thing as retirement in the kingdom of God. God is not impressed with our plans for the future as a church, or our history as a church. He looks at who we are right now. He asks us are we growing? Are we taking steps in the journey?

Neither can we rest on past accomplishments in our personal lives. We are who we are right now. Are we growing in Christlikeness? Can people see the fruit of Spirit in our lives? Or are we just hoping to float along in our spiritual journey, like the lazy river?

You are who you are in relationship with Jesus right now. Have you accepted Christ? Are you growing? Or is the spirit calling out to you like it did the church in Sardis saying WAKE UP! GET READY! You know what God is saying to you. And, you know how to respond. As the book of Revelation says, "Here what the Spirit is saying to the churches."

Book Review: The Sacred Journey by Charles Foster

I just finished reading a book by Charles Foster. It is a book called THE SACRED JOURNEY, and it is all about the practice of pilgrimage. It is the final installment in The Ancient Practices Series from Thomas Nelson Publishers.

This book on pilgrimage is not just a book by an academic that has studied pilgrimages, it is by a man who has practiced the discipline of pilgrimages for what seems to be decades. The author shares authentic insight as he talks about his highs and lows on journeys to Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago, and Canterbury.

The first portion of the book lobbies persuasively for the importance of pilgrimage for spiritual development. It also makes the argument that God made humanity to be nomadic. The author clearly goes through Biblical history to make the point that "God is on the side of the wanderer".

The next portion of the book tends to the practical aspects of going on a pilgrim journey. In this section, Foster attempts to answer some basic questions about how to go on a pilgrimages, some of the things you need to do as you go, and some of the attitudes you need to have or avoid as a pilgrim.

The final portion of the book attempts to answer some criticism of pilgrimages. Those critics include those who have physical limitations that prohibit pilgrimage, as well as the arguments of most of the reformers who saw theological and financial abuses of pilgrimage sites.

I loved this book. I had to read it slow, and take it all in a little bit at a time. The Sacred Journey makes a persuasive argument for all believers to go on some sort of pilgrimage if they are physically able. It made me think about the journey I would like to make, and whether it would be somewhere traditional or something I would want to go that is unique to me.

What I loved more than the concept of going on the pilgrimage was the Biblical foundation for being a wanderer. As a minister, it made me think a lot. On one hand, there are a lot of pastors and church leaders out there that lobby strongly for settling in one place for 10-20 years in ministry. Many also believe that this is healthy for people, this physical commitment of being "grounded" in one place.

I have always felt like more of a wanderer. Having moved several times as a child, and moved around a little bit in my adult years, I have at times felt judged for not staying in the same place. I have also felt the loss of being "from somewhere" and feeling like I could "go home". Yet, Foster makes the argument for being nomadic, and how this was true of Jesus, Abraham, Moses, and others. I felt comforted.

I recommend you read this book. Be ready to be challenged. Be ready to see things from a different point of view. If you do see things from a different viewpoint, you have taken the first step toward a new journey.

*This book was given to me in exchange for reviewing it by booksneeze.com and Thomas Nelson publishers. I was free to review the book as I saw fit, and a favorable review was not requested or required.

I think that Steven Curtis Chapman and McGyver look a little alike. Do you?

Baccalaureate Manuscript

The Undeniable Love of God

I have a confession I have to make. I have always dreamed of doing a Baclaureate message. Ever since I became a pastor, and spend my first years of ministries in smaller towns and inner city neighborhoods, I have thought about what I would say if I ever got the chance to speak at a graduation or a high school graduation or even an eighth grade graduation.

You see I used to be a youth pastor. Since our group was a decent size, especially when I was in Montana, it meant that I would have to go to these events for the school in our town, the Christian school, the town to the east and the west of us when I started in youth ministry. This meant I generally attended at least 6 graduation ceremonies in May. Sometimes it also meant attending home school graduation ceremonies in people's homes as well.

The good thing about all these graduations was if I played my cards right I could go from graduation party to graduation party for about two weeks and never have to cook.

The difficult thing about all these graduations is that each baccalaureate and graduation seemed to have about the same speech. Go for the gusto! Commencement is not an end point but the beginning point! Right now is the time to take the world by storm! You can change the world!

Somehow, to heighten the drama of baccalaureate or graduation, the speaker would talk about how essential it is that you choose TO BE A WINNER. That you choose to DO THE RIGHT THING. That your generation was the LAST HOPE FOR AMERICA. That as you turned 18, your next two years determined the rest of your life, and that we are all depending on you to REACH YOUR FULL POTENTIAL.

I graduated from high school 19 years ago. Back when girls elevated their height from 5'6 to 6'0 with long bangs and hair spray that made those bangs stand straight up like a big wall. Back in the days before DVDs and laptop computers.

Some things change. Some things say the same year to year.\

The year I was graduating I really had not chosen where I was attending college in the fall by the time I had graduated. I did not know what I wanted to study when I graduated. I just knew I wanted to play football at a Christian college, and go on an adventure to some place I had never been before.

That didn't keep people from asking me a few questions every day. What are you planning on doing after graduation? What do you plan on majoring in? What can you do with that?

When I was graduating, and the summer before I went to college, my mother decided it was time for a crash course in reviewing everything she ever taught me, and everything she had forgotten to teach me before I left to college.

My evenings that summer were filled with pop quizzes on how to launder clothes and properly sort clothes for the wash, cooking some meals with her peeking over my shoulder to make sure I was doing it right, reminders on proper driving skills (that actually has not ended yet), and reminders on proper posture, how dress and groom myself so as to not bring shame on the family name. Little did she know that most of my friends went to their morning classes without showering , and chose their clothes by sniffing their way through a dirty clothes pile to see which dirty clothes could be repurposed to wear again that day. Or maybe she did……

My grandmother got in the act as well. I remember driving with my grandma and sis up to the handicapped entrance to the school to get my grandmother in the building. And my grandma telling me I had a blemish. Then, she promptly put some cover up make-up on my face to cover my pimple. My sister was about to die laughing in the back of the car. I just kept walking up the entrance in shock asking myself under my breathe if my grandmother really did just try to get me to wear make-up, and trying not to laugh myself.

Anyway….the point is this. I could give you a to-do list of what you should do to be a great success. I could give you lots of pithy quotes. I could urge you to memorize verses between now and Sunday and guarantee that they will change your life. I could try and inspire you to conquer the world. But if many of you are like me, you are trying to figure out why mom is crying more than usual, why grandma is trying to put makeup on you, how much money you are going to get for all those graduation invitations you sent out, and what is going to happen at the after-graduation party. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am right. I have a belief some things don't change that much over time. I think I am right.

In light of all I have said, I want to say this. We at the ministerial alliance are here because we love you. Your family is with you because they love you. And if you learn anything from us today, I hope you remember that the God that created you loves you more than you ever know, and accepts you as you are and for who you are.

Does that mean God isn't going to want you to grow? No.

But I want you to know that God treasures you for the unique you that you are. And I want you to know that God is always longing to reach out to you, to love you, to guide you in the way of life and hope and goodness.

You see, we as humans love you so much that we want to save you from all problems, show you ways to avoid the ways that we have failed, and inspire you to live up to all the hope that we see in you. So we try and stuff all of this advice and inspiration into the graduation season with the hope that some of it will stick.

God loves you more than any of us could though. And I want you to know he loves you for the unique, crazy, sometime quirky ways that are uniquely you.

The Bible says that God knows us so well that he has the numbers of hairs on our head counted. (Matthew 10:30). That means God knows you and loves you more than you could even know or love yourself.

The Bible says that God knit you together in your mother's womb, that you were woven together by God, that you are wonderfully made (Psalm 139).

The Bible says that there is nothing you can do to escape God's love, especially if you have chosen to accept him as your Lord and Savior.

I know it is the fashion these days to talk less about the passionate love of God for each and every one of you, and to talk more about how tough God is and about how tough he wants us to be. But you cannot read the Scripture, you cannot look around you, and miss God's compassion, God's love, God's grace, and God's forgiveness.

The Bible says while we were still sinners, still running away from God, still telling him to leave us alone, that he was at that time and in that moment dying for us. Showing us the ultimate love by laying down his life for us.

So as you celebrate your graduation, as you greet all your friends and relatives, as you eat lots of cake and go to lots of barbeques. I hope you will take time to notice that God is delighting in you, not because you got a diploma or are now legally an adult, but simply because he loves you….the you that he created you to be.

And that love doesn't end when you are a child.

If you are like many of us, you are going to leave this building, the school you are attending, and get on with the rest of your life.

Some of you will start your working life right away. Others of you will choose to attend a college or university.

Some of you will graduate from college when you are 20. Others of you will graduate with your degree or certificate when you are 35 or 40 after having a few adventures.

Some of you will start your family when you are 20. Some of you will wait

Some of you will return to Fowler. Some of you will never leave Fowler. Others of you will settle in places around the state and around the world.

Many of you will go on to do some wonderful things. Some of you will be farmers or ranchers. Some of you will be single for years. Others will find someone to marry and settle down with. Some of you will be stay at home moms and dads. Some of you will be professionals and businessmen. Others of you will choose to teach or do childcare. Of course I hope some of you gals and guys will chose to be pastors. I can hardly wait to see what happens in each of your lives.

However, many of you are going to have struggles as well. You may get married and think it is going to last forever, and find that your marriage fails. You may think you are going to be wealthy, and wake up at one moment and find a bunch of bills that you don't have the money to pay. You may set out to have a little fun and make a lot of friends, and then struggle with an addiction to booze that leads you to feel lonely and hopeless.

And in those moments you may feel lost.

Remember that even in those moments, God loves you. He sees the good in you. He is longing for you. Remember in those moments that you are still his baby and still his treasure. He still knows how many hairs are on your head. Remember that he is still the one that knit you together in your mother's womb.

The Bible tells a story of a young man who ran away from home, and took a lot of his father's wealth with him. He spent his money on wild living. And when he ran out of money he lost his friends. And he had to work crawling around in pig slop, and eat the food that he gave the pigs to survive.

And something in him decided that he should go home. So he did. And he wondered how his father would respond.

He was surprised when his father ran to him, hugged him, threw him a party, gave him a job.

If you remember anything from baccalaureate, I hope you remember that whether you move to the other end of town or the other end of the country, that you can always come home.

When you go far away from what you hoped and dreamed, you have a family of churches here that have open arms and are ready to care for you, guide you, and love you more than you know.

You have friends here in Fowler that accept you for who you are, warts and all. You have family here that loves you more than you can say.

More than that though, you have a God that no matter how far away you go, is always waiting for you to come home to Him as well.

You have a God who loves you so much that he wants to throw a party for you, even when you have made a mess of things. You have a God who delights in you, not only today, but always. A God who will seek you out, who will never leave you or forsake you. A God offers you the gift of hope and a new life today. Yes today. But who continues to be your forgiveness and hope and life from this day forward.

You may forget many things from this graduation week. I hope you remember this. I hope you remember how deeply, how powerfully, and how eternally God loves you. And loves you just for the you he made you to be. Amen.

Judges and Media and Liberals and Diversity

The president nominated Elena Kagan to be a Supreme Court Justice today. This is disappointing to me on a number of levels. I do not mind justices serving the court who have not had any experience as judges. I do not like it that a judge gets nominated to the Supreme Court because of her abilities as a politcal activist. Kagan's nomination seems a lot like Bush's nomination of Hariet Miers. Of all the issues I agree or disagree with President Obama on, I disagree with him most when it comes down to Supreme Court Nominations.

What bothers me the most about Kagan's nomination it reflects the monocultural focus of the liberal power elite. Most specifically, I believe that most of the recent nominations of Supreme Court justices reflect a narrow bias toward progressives located on the Eastern Seaboard.

Sonia Sotmayor--born in the Bronx in New York City. Lives in New York City.
Elena Kagan--born in New York City. Also served in Boston and Washington DC
Former Justice David Souter--Born Melrose, Mass. Served in New Hampshire and DC.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg--born in Brooklyn, NY. Also served in DC Circuit court
Samuel Alito--Born Trenton NJ. Served NJ courts
Antonin Scalia--Born Trenton NJ. Raised Queens in NYC, Served VA courts
Steven Breyer--serving in Massachussets at time of Nomination

Exceptions:
Soon to be former justice Stephens: Born and served in Chicago.
Justice Clarence Thomas: Born in Georgia (in south but still eastern seaboard), DC Circuit
Kennedy--California

The greatest exceptions to the rule were during the Reagan era, when O'Connor was nominated and Renquist promoted.

Also there is a considerable lack of religious diversity on the Supreme Court. The greatest number of Americans are Protestants, and Baptists have the largest denominational share of membership. Yet, the court does not reflect the religious mosaic of America. Instead it reflects a narrow group of Roman Catholics and people of the Jewish faith:

Roman Catholic--Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor, Kennedy
Jewish--Ginsberg, Breyer, Kagan (nominated)
Protestant--Stephens (retiring)

No Protestants adjudicating law in a nation that is at least half Protestant? Does that reflect the diversity of our country? Does 0 justices nominated in the last 20 years that lived West of the Mississippi truly reflect America?

You can also see this lack of diversity in the cable news racket. East Coast folks and California raised people find their way to be news folks. Others dont. Also, I could not find one person on cable news that affiliates with any Protestant Christian group.

See this example:

FOX
Hannity--born NY. Roman Catholic
O'Reilly--born NY. Roman Catholic


MSNBC--
Chris Matthews--born Philly. Roman Catholic
David Gregory--born LA. Jewish.
Keith Olbermann--born NYC. Unitarian.
Ed Shultz--born Norfolk Virginia
Rachel Maddow--born near San Jose, CA. raised Roman Catholic.
Tim Russert (deceased)--New York State. Roman Catholic.

CNN
Anderson Cooper--born NYC.
Wolf Blitzer--raised in Buffalo, NY. Jewish.
Larry King--born NYC. raised Jewish.

EXCEPTIONS
Greta Van Sustren--from Wisconsin. Scientologist
Glenn Beack--from Seattle suburbs. Mormon.

Is there anything wrong with having either Roman Catholics or Jews in journalism? Of course not! But I think a quick survey of our leaders on the Supreme Court and in the media shows something important.

What this shows is that our ideas of diversity are very narrow. Espcially when it comes to industry and power held by an east coast elite. American law and media is being shaped by a very insulated group of folks shaped more by their geographic identity and religious identification than by a reflection of America as a whole.

Sermon on Mother’s Day

My Two Families

At our last deacon meeting, when I asked for some feedback on my preaching, one of the deacons suggested that it would be nice to have sermons to fit the occasion on days like Mothers and Fathers Day. I thought this was a reasonable suggestion, and probably a wise one.

We are sharing about Mother's Day this morning, but there are several holidays we will not be celebrating that also take place on May 8 and 9^th. For instance, did you know that today is National Tear Your Tag of the Mattress Day? Or that it is also Peter Pan day? Ahhhhhhh. The things the internet can teach you.

Anyway, our first Scripture for this sermon Pete already read for us at the beginning of the service. It is the famous passage from Proverbs 31 about the faithful woman. The other is this passage, which talks about a different kind of mother and a different kind of family.

Before that, I would like to share a little joke with you:

Scripture

⁴⁶ While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. ⁴⁷ Then one said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You."
⁴⁸ But He answered and said to the one who told Him, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" ⁴⁹ And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."

Sermon

I am blessed with a good mother. A mother that far and above the call of duty to love me and my sister to care for us. She had limited resources to work with. Although we went without some of the toys we wanted, mom always worked and scrounged and struggled to make sure we were never without what we needed. She often did what she did for us as a single-parent, and yet there was often more love and joy in our home than in any traditional family.

One of the things I have admired most about my mother is her ability to balance relationships and task. Something I do not do nearly as well as she does. My mom still keeps in touch with people from her life from grade school. I can name three or four people from my elementary years, and half of them are people I got in fist fights with. Another third of them are relatives.

My mother lost her job as a office manager in a doctor's office in a recession much like the one we are experiencing now. She scrambled to get any work she could find. Eventually, she decided to go back to school to become an elementary teacher. It just so happens that around the school there was more work than there was in the town we had lived in before.

My mother went to school, worked long hours with her job, coached my sister's softball team, and still found time to make heart –shaped pancakes for us on Valentine's Day mornings with M&Ms in them before we went to school.

When she first began in school she tried to do her homework for her classes while we were still awake. She found herself being short-tempered and frustrated with us kids for interrupting her schoolwork. Then she made a decision. No homework until the kids were asleep. Once we were in bed, then she could begin her study time for her full-time load of classes. That way she could do the work she needed to do, and still offer the love to her children that they needed.

So, you will have to pardon me, if when I read the passage on the Virtuous Woman of Proverbs 31, I think that is my time to speak up and tell you about the blessing my mother is, my time to rise up and call my mother blessed. I am sure if you were in my position this morning, you might do the same thing.

There are a lot of things that remind me of my mother when I read Proverbs 31. The law of kindness is on her lips. She works late into the night. She is wise.

Yet, there are things in Proverbs 31 that are not descriptive of my mother. In particular, as a single parent, all the stuff about the wifey kind of things are not true of her. I am sure with your wife, your children, your grandparents, you can find things in Proverbs 31 that fit your special loved ones.

Proverbs 31, though is a description of a perfect woman. A perfect woman that a wise father wants his son to marry. It is, in essence, a position description of the ideal wife and mother. Nobody fits it completely. Nobody measures up to this standard perfectly.

Proverbs 31 is important because it shows us the character of a kind of woman that is a blessing to her husband and her children. Hard working. Industrious. Kind. Wise. Compassionate. Strong. Decisive.

The kind of mother I had. The kind of wife that I married as well.

It is important that we honor these kinds of parents, friends, mothers, and wives in our lives. Not only on Mother's Day, but throughout our lives.

We should not wait until a death bed or a funeral to rise up and bless those selfless, loving people in our lives. The Scripture says that her husband and children will rise up and call the virtuous woman a blessing. To them. To others. To their community and the world.

So often we fail as children, as spouses, as friends, to let people know how we admire them and how much they matter to us. Don't do that. Bless your mothers and your wives. Not just this day, but every day. Let them know how much they matter to you. Let them know that you see them, and the good that they have done.

Be thankful for the family you were born into biologically. Obey the Scripture and honor your father and mother. It is one of the Ten Commandments after all.

Then there is this other passage that I just read. It is a passage about Jesus, his biological family, and his faith family.

Jesus' family was standing outside of a place where he was teaching and leading. He was getting started in his ministry. In the process he was making a few enemies. His teaching was considered liberating by some, crazy by others, and dangerous by many.

Someone had gotten in touch with Jesus family while he was on the road healing, teaching about the kingdom of God standing against the powers of this world. He was saying he was the Lord of the Sabbath. He was saying that the prophecies of old about the Son of Man were about Him. The Pharisees thought they would kill him. Someone had convinced Jesus' family that he was a little unstable. He needed a little time out. A little rehab.

They told Jesus his family wanted to spend some time with Him. They wanted him to suspend his mission and his teaching for some time out with mom and the brothers.

Jesus said, "Who are my mothers, and sisters, and brothers. They that do the will of the father are my mother, my sister, and my brothers."

It was at that moment of crisis and opportunity that Jesus began to teach us a truth that is developed throughout the New Testament. We not only have a biological family, we have a faith family. We have brothers and sisters, and yes even mothers in our churches. People that come along side us and nurture us and guide us, grow us and sometime scold us, and help us to mature in our faith and in our relationships in God's family.

It is important that we honor those women as well. The women whose relation to us in through the church and the Holy Spirit, who live and serve and demonstrate the power of the family of God among us.

Some of you have taught Sunday School to our children for years, being a non-resident and non-related mother to handfuls of people for years. We rise up and call you blessed.

Some of you have made us casseroles when we were sick and nursed us back to health when our family had passed away and was far away. We rise up and call you blessed.

Some of you have spent time with us when we were lonely. We wondered if we mattered to anyone. We learned we mattered to you and to God. We rise up and call you blessed as well.

Some of you have prayed for us late at night, woke up worrying about us early in the morning, hoping that in some way or somehow something would reach us with God's love and his grace. You have no idea how much of a difference you have made for us. You are a blessing.

I don't know about you, but today I feel rich. I have a mother with me that I have not spent mother's day with for over 20 years. And I know that I am blessed. Then I look out and see sisters and mothers in Christ, who have also been more of a blessing to myself, my wife, and my yet to be born baby girl than I could ever begin to imagine or expect. And I know that I am blessed.

The thing is, I look around, and I know that you are blessed too. Let those mothers and wives, as well as those mothers in faith know how much you appreciate them today. It is what the family of the virtuous woman did in Proverbs. It is what you have the opportunity to do today. Seize the day. Amen.

Layaway Payments for Baby Karis?

Today my wife and I recieved a call from the hospital we are planning on having our child born in. They have what they call the Pampers Plan. It is basically a pre-registration plan for your birthing experience so that all the details are taken care of when you arrive.

Part of what they discover through this pre-registration plan is your plan for financing your birthing process. They research your insurance coverage. They ask you to make a plan for your financial liability. This is so, when you are ready to go home with your baby, you do not first have to visit the billing office before heading out. Throughout this process, I thought they were a little bit shady in sneaking this into a meeting that was advertized to be about something else. But I was ok with it. A lot easier than trying to get paperwork done when your wife is in labor.

The call today took things a step further. They were calling to encourage us to make a payment toward our potential deductable of $250-1000. They referred to this payment as a "good-faith payment" toward our childbirth expenses at Parkview Hospital. Thankfully, my wife was able to explain that with the other financial challenges we will be facing, we will not be making a pre-payment to the hospital. She got off the phone and took a deep breathe. When I started thinking about what happened I just got frustrated. A number of thoughts went through my head.

• What kind of country have we come to where we have to pre-pay for our children's safe entry to the world like we have to pre-pay for gasoline? Can we put kids on layaway like we can for merchandise at Kmart? Will they refuse to serve us if we don't pay ahead?

• Why do we need to offer "good faith" loyalty to a hospital? What if Jennifer was in Colorado Springs and had to have an emergency delivery? Would we get our money back?

• If we don't pay our bill, are they going to repo our child? Is our health care system such that we do not really own our children until we pay their lein off?

A cappella

Last night our church put on a banquet for people in our community in order to raise funds for youth camp. We provided entertainment, which turned out to be a wonderful and kind woman who sang songs a capella.

I love it in worship when someone intersperses accompanied singing with some a cappella singing. I love it when I catch someone singing without accompaniment when they know nobody is around. However, when someone sings a cappella in a performance it is almost too much for me.

When someone has an a cappella performance, I have a very difficult time watching them. I almost always have to close my eyes. At times, despite my best efforts, I cringe. It is not that I do not like this kind of singing. I do. The particular singer performing this Sunday had a beautiful voice.

I think at times I have a hard time listening to a cappella singing because it is too intimate. It is like someone is exposing themselves with their voice. Often it is beautiful. Somtimes it also like someone is a "soul flasher" when they bare themselves through a cappella singing.

But maybe I am just a little odd.

Our Life

This is a picture of Jennifer driving the handicapped grocery cart at Walmart. She has been on bedrest for about a month now. Last time we went after an appointment, we ate lunch and she worked on thank you cards in the Walmart Subway. The doctor has banned her from walking around shopping at Walmart. I told her it would only be ok to shop around if she was in the "cripple cart", and she finally got desparate enough to drive.

Bedrest has been a long road for Jenny. She is a take charge person, and an active person. She can hardly stand being forced to sit still and lay down so much. Yet, with my nagging and her determiniation, she has continued to keep the baby healthy by resting. Strangely, she has been losing weight with her lack of exercise. She has only gained a net of 8 pounds and is in her third trimester.

I am so impressed with how strong she has been. She has been super faithful about eating healthy, watching her blood sugar and her blood pressure, and doing all the things you are supposed to do. She hasn't even had a coffee or a caffeinated pop since she has been pregnant.

Karis is blessed to have such a loving and hard-working momma.

A funny pic

We saw this at Hollywood Video in Pueblo. Who knew, in addition to renting videos, they were giving away children? Could adoption be so inexpensive and simple? Surely not! There must be a catch

Book Review

My latest book review for the book review site I write for is HERE

Rough Draft of Last Sunday’s Sermon

FIRST LOVE

Scripture

 ¹ "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: ² "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; ³ and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. ⁴ Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. ⁶ But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
⁷ "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."

 

Sermon

Revelation is probably the most controversial books in the Bible. It is a prophetic book in many ways. Now often times we get caught up with the futuristic parts of prophecy. This is understandable, especially in the Book of Revelation. After all, the book of Revelation ends at the end of time.

 

Prophecy, though, through Scripture is as much about forth-telling as it is about mysteriously foretelling future events. In other words, most of prophecy in the Old and New Testament, whether talking about the present, the near future, or the way-ahead far in the future, is really telling us about what is going to happen so that it will change our hearts, our attitudes, and even our behavior in the present time and the present moment.

 

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Book of Revelation. Before we get to the four horsemen of the apocalypse or the seven trumpets or the seven bowls of judgment, we hear about seven churches. Why do we hear about the seven churches first? Because the book of Revelation is written to the churches about how the churches are living their lives together and their lives as believers. Everything that follows is designed to challenge and comfort the church. But first, Jesus speaks directly to his Church through seven local congregations.

 

There are seven congregations, and in Apocalyptic prophecy numbers mean everything. Seven is a number of wholeness, completeness, and perfection. These seven congregations that Jesus talks to are seven real, historical congregations. They also represent the churches as a whole throughout time and throughout history.

 

So when we read Revelation we should not just be thinking about what happens at the end of time. Instead as we read the book we should be asking what that is saying to me and to you, and to us as a local church. We should be asking about what God is doing in our churches, how God is blessing and encouraging us, how he is challenging us, and how we should respond to his call as we move into the future.

 

So, for the next several weeks we are going to be looking at the different churches in Revelation, and thus hear what Christ has to say to ALL the churches.

The first church that Jesus addresses in these letters to the churches is the church in Ephesus. The Ephesian church is a fascinating church. My mother actually visited Ephesus last year. Before Christianity, Ephesus was a center of the pagan worship of the goddess Artemis. When Paul first started doing his work there, they got so angry with his evangelistic effort that they stoned him until they thought he was dead. He was possibly imprisoned there at times. The ministry went on. The apostle John is reputed to have moved to Ephesus with Jesus' mother Mary, Priscilla and her husband Acquila helped to plant the church there in Ephesus, and eventually were pastors of the young church. Eventually, Timothy came to be the leader of the church in Ephesus as well.

 

The church in Ephesus was a prominent church, but it was not the most prominent church of the early church. It wasn't in the governmental center in Rome. It wasn't the Jerusalem church centered in the Holy Land. It was in the back woods of Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey. It had a history, but it was an average church in an average place in the Mediterreanean world.

 

The Ephesian church was an important congregation in the early church, but Ephesus was not the easiest place to have a church. It was a center of idol worship. It was one of those places where every kind of kooky religious philosophy and cult made its way into. It is no surprise then, that Paul's letter to the Ephesians talks a lot about spiritual warfare, and a supernatural, spiritual realm. Christians were viewed with suspicion because idolatry was big business in that community, and the Ephesian church stood against that idolatry. It cost something to be a Christian in Ephesus. It cost a lot to follow Jesus in the community of Ephesus actually.

 

In each letter to the churches Jesus is introduced or identified as the letter starts, but each in a different way, with an emphasis on different characteristics. When Jesus is introduced to the Ephesian church he is introduced as the one who walks among the seven lampstands with seven stars in his hand. He is emphasizing that the church is a light in a very dark place, and that Jesus is walking among them.

 

We can see that they are a light in a dark place from what Jesus says about them. Jesus commends the church for standing against evil. For living right. For having good doctrine.

 

The Ephesian church was a church that had good theology. They stood for what was right. They taught what was right. Their people were moral. Most people would look at them and see a faithful church. They would see a good church. Yet Jesus had a concern for them.

 

Jesus said that they lost their first love. He said that they needed to return to the works that they had at first.

 

Sit and think about that for a second. They had lost their first love. The love that they had at first. They said all the right things. They did all the right things. But somewhere along the way they had lost their passion. They had lost their heart. They had left the love they had at first.

 

Do you remember the first time you fell in love? Remember the crazy things you would do? Stay up all night visiting on the phone, then go to work the next day? You remember how you couldn't hardly wait to spend time with that person again, even though you had just left them five minutes ago? Do you remember the silly things you would do to impress that person you were trying to impress?

 

Do you remember the improvements it made in you when you first fell in love? How you outlook on life was hopeful? How you were more joyful? How people wondered exactly what had happened to you with that goofy smile on your face?

 

Do you remember when you first accepted Christ? Do you remember when you first began to understand what following Jesus was all about? I hope you do. I hope you remember staying up late at night, wondering if your friend had accepted Christ. I hope you remember the joy of reading Scripture and noticing how it seemed every time you opened the Bible it spoke to you and your life right now. Do you remember how nervous and excited you felt that day that you were baptized? Do you remember those moments when you wanted everybody to know about Christ because your faith meant so much to you? Do you still have that kind of love for Jesus that you had at first? Do you still have that passion for the gospel that you knew when you first got close to Jesus? Do you still have that urgency to reach those who don't know Jesus? Do you still have the eagerness to serve that you had when you first started to believe that Christ in you could make a difference in others' lives? Or, God forbid, have you lost your first love?

I want you to notice that Jesus is walking among the lampstands that are present and representative of each church. Jesus is walking among his church, wanting to be close to it. Wanting to be in relationship with His church. Yet when he is in the church, he notices that the church has lost its love for Him. Its love for others. Can you imagine? Jesus coming into the church that meets in his name. And he is wondering….where is the passion? Where is the love?

 

It is a lot like when people first starting sinning in Genesis. Jesus walked among the lamp stands in Revelation. God came to walk with Adam and Eve in the cool in the evening in Genesis. And they were hiding. Where there was once love, there was then fear. Where there is once healthy relationship, there was then broken relationship.

 

The Ephesisan church thought God wanted them to be doctrinally pure. The Ephesian church thought God wanted them to stand against evil. God did. But they forgot that God wanted them to love Him, and love the people he created.

 

God wants them to return to the love that they had at first. He says if they do not, he will remove their lamp stand from them. In other words, if the church does not rediscover their love and their passion for God and his good news, they will cease to be a church of Christ. And God will not bless them. They will cease to be a church if they do not rediscover the love they had at first.

 

Stange thing. There is not a Christian church in Ephesus today. This once prominent church no longer exists. Could it be because they lost their first love?

Could it be that God did remove their lampstand?

 

Could God be saying the same thing to us that he is saying to the Ephesian church?

 

Church, you have been faithful. You have stood for what is right. We have a church full of people who don't have to be here. You have each made a choice to worship in this place, as a part of this church body. You are a kind church. You are a committed church. All of these are good things.

 

 

Yet I wonder, do you have the love for Christ that you had at first? Do you have that passion, that burning heart, that fire in the belly for living Jesus everyday and in every way? Do you have that passion to see God at work in your life? Do you pray for your church? Do you even talk about your church as "us" and "our church" or do you talk and think about your church as "that church" when you talk about it? Are you eager to see what God can do in your church in the next week, month, or year? Are you eagerly seeking to join God in that thing that you see Him doing here at First Baptist? Or are you just ho-humming along, putting in your hour or two once a week, patting yourselves on the back for showing up this Sunday? Have you settled for a Christianity without a heart? I hope not!

 

I hope if I asked you how you are growing in your faith, you could give me an answer about how God is working in your life. I pray that if I asked you what you are most excited about in your relationship with Christ you would have a few words to say, or even a story to tell. Even if you had to swear me to confidentiality to tell me. I pray you have not fallen from the love you had at first.

 

What step of faith is God leading you toward? How is God calling you to return to your first love? Could it be that God is asking you to make a deeper commitment to your faith? Could it be that God is asking you to stop ordering your world around your moods and how you feel from day to day, and start really committing to loving your neighbor, or your spouse, or your kids? Could it be that God is simply calling you to live with joy and passion instead of feeling sorry for yourself or being angry at the world?

 

You see, my friends, when your love for Christ dies, then your love for others dies, and it is not long before you are a heartless, compassionless, bitter shell of a person who tries to do the right things, but never has the right heart. And it not long if we are like that as a church that we are a shell of a church, with no real good news to offer. I don't want that for me. I don't want that for us. I don't want that for you. I hope you don't want that either. I hope you will return to the love you had at first.

 

 

Best Of....

Questions people ARE NOT asking when they come to church

An editorial on gambling and the Civil Rights Movmement by Will Willimon

Easter with triplet infants

Eric's attempt at April Fools' Humor

Don Miller's single, thirty-something take on what women and men want in a relationship.

Calvin and Calvinism: What is the distinction?

Again this is a simplistic summary, given as a part of a request to discuss this issue by Eric Lundy.

John Calvin was one of the key leaders of the Reformation. In many things, Calvin and Luther agreed. In some, especially their theology of the Lord's Supper, they did not agree. Their contributions were different enough that they were each seen as Reformers in their own right, and each had different schools of thought that followed.

It is impossible to underestimate the rediscovery of Classical Language and Classical Writings on the development of the Reformation. Luther, although familiar with the philosophers, is more closely associated with language studies and his work with Scripture. Luther becomes more interested in development of the Protestant Churches in Germany than he does in governmental affairs. Protestants owe their passion for the word of God to Luther. However, Luther is not all that radical of a reformer in church practice.

John Calvin, on the other hand, was better schooled in the classical philosphers and scholars of ancient times. In fact, as one reads Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion it is easy to note not only the reference back to theologians like Augustine, but also philosophers like Cicero. Calvin eventually establishes a church and attempts a "Christian" government in Geneva, Switzerland.

Central to Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, which is Calvin's magnum opus, is the insistence on God's Soveriegnty. God is all powerful. God is all knowing. God is the source of everything. Any goodness in humanity was the result of the goodness of God working in human beings. God knows all that will happen. In short, as a theology professor of mine told me, all of creation is a theatre for the sovieriegnty of God for Calvin. This in turn, elevated the importance of God's grace toward humanity, because the root of evil in the world comes from the human propensity to sin, and the root of all God is from God's good gift.

In my opinion, Calvin states most of this in a positive way in the Institutes. And, the outgrowth of the Institutes was to translate the power of God, in my opinion well stated in the book, into political power. Calvin's Geneva was a city-state that attempted to be a theocracy. For many years it was successful. At times, Calvin's Geneva went overboard in its power and control. But that is another story.



What is known as Calvinism evolved from Calvin, and primarily from his Institutes. After a theologian named Armenius attempted to be both Reformed, and an advocate of free-will, the leaders of the Reformed theology met at the Synod of Dordt. At Dordt, the Reformed (read Calvinist) churches further defined what we know as Calvinist theology.



Specifically, these Dutch Reformers developed a summary of Calvinist belief that has come to be known by the best known of Dutch flowers. That flower is the tulip. TULIP is an acronym for the five Calvinist distinctives. Those distinctives are:

Total Depravity--There is not one person who has any part of their lives that are not somehow stained by sin and selfishness. Nobody on their own can choose God. We are too sin-sodden.

Unconditional Election--There is nothing one can do to earn God's favor. There is no quality that God looks for to choose one person over another. Anyone who is saved is saved by God's mercy alone. Not by any merit they have.

Limited Atonement--Christ did not die for all. Christ died for those he had chosen to save. Those who God has chosen are those who are believers. Those who never believe did not have Christ die for them. Christ's blood paid the price only for those who have been chosen by God before the foundation of the world to be saved.

Irresistable Grace--Because salvation is an act of God's grace, when God chooses us to be his followers we are powerless to resist his saving work in our lives.

Perseverance of the Saints--This is the doctrine of eternal security. Because we are chosen by God, no power in the world, even the power of our own choice, cannot keep us from following Christ and being saved. Those who are saved by God need not fear "losing" their salvation. God saved those who are believers, they did not save themselves. We do not choose God, he chooses us.

Although these beliefs are based loosely upon the Institutes, the Institutes did not delineate TULIP and Calvinism in general as a belief system. Calvinism, rather, is an outgrowth of John Calvin's teachings and belief system over generations.

Old Spiritual Disciplines in a New Networked World

Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent,

and discerning if he holds his tongue.

Proverbs 17:28

I am by nature an opinionated, hot-headed man. In my interpersonal relationships, it took several years to learn how to control my tongue. I still am not always good at it. For instance, I remember a dating relationship I had in college. My girlfriend would often express her opinions about people and in issues in a manner that I thought was judgmental and poorly-thought out. I would ask her if she had thought about the issue from a different particular perspective, or try and express how a person might come to the other point of view. It wasn't long before that relationship ended.

As a pastor, I had to learn quickly how to be diplomatic. Especially in a support staff position, my opinions were not always welcome. And unlike the role of a senior pastor, where support staff and congregation learn to adapt to overcome the leaders poor or often inartful communication, poorly chosen words of support staff often end up with the person being disciplined by both the congregation and the staff leader.

Now in the days of blogging, social networking and microblogging, I have found it is taking more intentionality to restrain myself from responding to statements made by persons that trigger an emotional response. Or, people who trigger a smart-alek response. For some reason I feel a need to rebutt a status update or a poorly informed blog post even more than a stupid statement. I am not sure why this is.

There are reasons why a decision to speak my mind in this way is a bad idea. It causes conflict between myself and others. It is even harder to do away with a written response than it is a verbal one. The real reason why I avoid these discussions though is that it does not relieve my anger, it just makes me angrier. There is little resolution in such discussion. Furthermore, my comments, often well-intentioned and in good humor, are not interpreted as such by the reader without my non-verbal cues.

Furthermore, although several people associated with the ministry I do read my blog, it is a relatively small group of people that I relate to that are regular devotees. When I discuss things on other folks' blogs, or even more on facebook, I end up having a greater number of people I work with that read what I write. Some people I communicate with more on facebook than in person.

So, more and more, I learn to learn about people without responding. I learn to keep my mouth shut. I take a deep breathe. After all, better to be thought a fool, than to open my mouth and be shown to be one.

The Modern Calvinists and Openness Theology--The Contemporary Landscape

The debate between Calvinism and Armenianism is an old one. It acutally predates Calvin by over a 1ooo years. In the early church, people talked about Augustinianism v. Pelagianism. In the enlightenment people debated Armenian v. Calvinist Theology. Later, people have described the debate as Wesleyan v. Reformed. However you label it, the theological debate between predestination vs. free-will is as old as any denomination, and a discussion that every generation of Christians share.

Today, two visible groups of church leaders and theologians stand on opposite sides of the issue. Suprisingly, two of the key leaders of each movement are members of the same denomination. Both Greg Boyd and John Piper belong to the Baptist General Conference, and both of them live in the Twin Cities metro area. Both of them have a history of being highly competent academics. As a matter of fact, they are both most strongly associated with Bethel College and Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN. They are both now pastor-scholars (which in and of itself is a welcome development in evangelical lives. Too often theologians and theological study were divorced from local church ministry. Thank God this has changed). Yet on issues of charasmatic issues, women in ministry, and free-will vs. predestination, they could not disagree more.

Although everything I could say could be defined as "oversimplification", I will attempt to paint a picture between the two camps of Openness Theology and The New Reformed Crowd.

Armenian theology and Openness Theology takes seriously the Scripture passages that focus on choice. They believe that God gives people free will to accept Christ or reject him. They also believe that some of God's decisions are "live" or "open". In other words, God does not have the future completely planned. God leaves room in his continuing creation for both changing his mind, and for human decision to have a real impact on individaul lives and the course of creation as a whole. Boyd, in his books on openness theology, points to Scriptures where people prayed and changed God's mind (Such as Moses talking God into not destroying the whole nation of Israel). For the openness theologians, the calls by God throughout Scripture to choose require that God gives us real options for decisions, and does not predestine us toward a certain decision or even at time foreknow the choices we make. In its extreme Openess Theology and Wesleyan theology more generally can degenerate into Process Theology, which posits that God is still growing, learning, and evolving with us.

Calvinist, or Reformed theology holds most strongly to the sovereignty of God. The most famous book written by Piper, grounded in Reformed Theology, is Desiring God. Desiring God is about Christian Hedonism, namely that the most pleasurable life is a life lived for the pleasure of God. John Piper is the oldest and most established of the New Calvinists. Calvinists believe in the inability of man to do anything good, including choose correctly. without that ability being given by God. Also, a Calvinist believes that everything good, including one's individual faith, is a gift given by God. Many Calvinists believe in God's complete predestination (everything is planned by God that happens) and complete foreknowledge (everything that has ever happened God knew about from the beginning of time). Some Calvinists would posit that the space-time continuum is something invented by God in the first place, and something that God is not constrained by as we are. Nearly all openness theologians would say that God lives within time, instead of over and above it.

This has a number of implications in our ordinary lives. Some of these examples include:

1. Great tragedy. Is it part of God's plan? Is it God's will? OR Is it not something God wanted God planned, or even controlled or knew what was going to happen?


2. A marriage partner. Is that person divnely planned or designed by God for you? OR Is that person one of many people you can choose to marry?


3. Eternal Destiny Does God have a purpose and plan for you since the creation of the world? OR Does God hope that you do the right thing and hope you choose to spend eternity with him?

Again, this is a gross oversimplication, but it is enough to begin a conversation and give a brief overview. What are your thoughts and questions?