QUOTE FOR TODAY: "The Lord of the Rings is a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. It was my desire to stay theologically orthodox that led me to avoid being too specific, despite the biblical parallels in the creation story...That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion,' to cults or practices, in the imaginary world...For the religious element is absorbed into the story and into the symbolism." J.R.R. Tolkien, in a 1953 letter to friend, Father Robert Murray, just before book one was published, cited on one of the coolest web sites around, www.thunderstruck.com.
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
The Ten Commandments Controversy
[This is my most recent column, written for the Community Press newspapers of suburban Cincinnati]
Recently, news outlets have been full of controversy over the removal of a monument commemorating the Ten Commandments at an Alabama court house. Some Christians, exercised over this event, went to Alabama to protest. They seem to have thought that in doing so, they were being witnesses for their faith in Christ, helping others to know and follow Him. If that was their aim, I believe that they missed their target completely.
In fact, I believe that by their protest, they gave more harm to the cause of Jesus than help.
Those of us who follow Jesus Christ believe that He was not simply a man; Jesus was also God, the same God Who gave the Ten Commandments. And nowhere in the New Testament, which records Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, can you find a place where Jesus demanded that the government under which He lived erect a monument to His particular religious beliefs.
Jesus never used the levers of governmental power to gain followers. Coercing others into acquiescence to Him just wasn't His way. Once, Jesus and His closest followers came upon a town whose residents refused to let them in. They didn't like Jesus at all. Jesus' followers had just returned from successful mission trips in which the power of God had worked in their favor. The times after such successes can be spiritually dangerous periods for Christians. That's because we're often prone to thinking that the good we accomplish comes from us rather than from God. That was apparently the problem of two of Jesus' followers, James and John, who had an idea. They asked Jesus, "How'd you like us to call fire down from heaven on this town?" Jesus rejected their offer.
Jesus was too busy loving, preaching, teaching, praying, giving, worshiping, healing, and serving to get caught up in needless controversies or to force Himself on others. He knew that you can't win people's allegiances or their hearts by forcing them to acknowledge your religion. He knew that people can only be truly won to His cause through the power of God's tough and tender love.
Jesus has given all His followers a simple mission. We're to help others come to trust Him with their lives so that through faith in Jesus, they can live forever with God. If a Christian's aim is to fulfill that mission, then forcing our fellow citizens to erect and maintain monuments to our faith is not the way to go.
We only win others to Christ in the same way Jesus won us over. Confident in God's powerful love, we rely on God to use our collective loving, preaching, teaching, praying, giving, worshiping, healing, and serving to work the miracle of faith in people's hearts. Such gentle strategies may not be as flashy as carrying placards or spouting self-righteous slogans that put us on the nightly news.
But in the end, it's those strategies that change hearts, change minds, change lives, and change where people spend eternity.
[This is my most recent column, written for the Community Press newspapers of suburban Cincinnati]
Recently, news outlets have been full of controversy over the removal of a monument commemorating the Ten Commandments at an Alabama court house. Some Christians, exercised over this event, went to Alabama to protest. They seem to have thought that in doing so, they were being witnesses for their faith in Christ, helping others to know and follow Him. If that was their aim, I believe that they missed their target completely.
In fact, I believe that by their protest, they gave more harm to the cause of Jesus than help.
Those of us who follow Jesus Christ believe that He was not simply a man; Jesus was also God, the same God Who gave the Ten Commandments. And nowhere in the New Testament, which records Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, can you find a place where Jesus demanded that the government under which He lived erect a monument to His particular religious beliefs.
Jesus never used the levers of governmental power to gain followers. Coercing others into acquiescence to Him just wasn't His way. Once, Jesus and His closest followers came upon a town whose residents refused to let them in. They didn't like Jesus at all. Jesus' followers had just returned from successful mission trips in which the power of God had worked in their favor. The times after such successes can be spiritually dangerous periods for Christians. That's because we're often prone to thinking that the good we accomplish comes from us rather than from God. That was apparently the problem of two of Jesus' followers, James and John, who had an idea. They asked Jesus, "How'd you like us to call fire down from heaven on this town?" Jesus rejected their offer.
Jesus was too busy loving, preaching, teaching, praying, giving, worshiping, healing, and serving to get caught up in needless controversies or to force Himself on others. He knew that you can't win people's allegiances or their hearts by forcing them to acknowledge your religion. He knew that people can only be truly won to His cause through the power of God's tough and tender love.
Jesus has given all His followers a simple mission. We're to help others come to trust Him with their lives so that through faith in Jesus, they can live forever with God. If a Christian's aim is to fulfill that mission, then forcing our fellow citizens to erect and maintain monuments to our faith is not the way to go.
We only win others to Christ in the same way Jesus won us over. Confident in God's powerful love, we rely on God to use our collective loving, preaching, teaching, praying, giving, worshiping, healing, and serving to work the miracle of faith in people's hearts. Such gentle strategies may not be as flashy as carrying placards or spouting self-righteous slogans that put us on the nightly news.
But in the end, it's those strategies that change hearts, change minds, change lives, and change where people spend eternity.
Sunday, September 28, 2003
Purpose Driven Living:
Sanctification, Growing Up to Be Like Christ
Ephesians 4:22-24
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 28, 2003)
Our son Philip will be graduating from college this coming spring. Because of that, he’s confronted with the same question all of us have faced on the brink of graduation: Now that I have this education, what’s next? So, Phil has decided to be proactive. He’s taking advantage of the free career counseling services offered by his college. In a real sense, he’s decided to take the next step in the process of growing as a human being.
All followers of Jesus Christ confront a similar issue in their lives. Through Jesus Christ, God has given us new lives. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead so that all who surrender their lives and wills to Jesus can have forgiveness of sin, unshakeable joy, and everlasting life with God. But Jesus followers need to ask ourselves this question: Now that I have this salvation, what’s next?
The answer to that question in the New Testament is answered in many places, in many different phrases. But the New Testament book of Ephesians says that we’re to “grow up in every way into [Christ]” [Ephesians 4:15].
Right now at Friendship, we’re looking at God’s purpose for us as human beings.
The first purpose for all of us to worship God with our whole lives.
The second is to live and grow in loving relationships with our fellow Jesus followers.
The third purpose for us is to submit to the process the Bible calls sanctification. That means to become holy, to be more like Jesus.
Our purpose and our call from God is to keep growing up with Jesus as our model for living.
Sometimes though, I have the feeling that most church folks want just enough of Jesus to avoid going to hell, but not so much of Jesus that it actually changes anything in their lives. These folks seem to view Jesus as eternal fire insurance. What I have learned though, is that followers of Jesus are like diapers: if they don’t get changed regularly, they start to stink. If we’re to fulfill our purpose for living and know the joy that goes with a vital relationship with Christ, we need to grow up.
Growing up in any area of our lives can be a painful, demanding process. So much so that often, people decide that they just will not grow up. I know a man about my age who grew up in a household in which his parents did everything for him. I mean everything. When he got married, he hitched up with a woman who doesn’t mind telling him exactly what he should do and when. She micromanages his calendar, decides what jobs he’ll take, tells him where they’re going to live, has him on a money allowance. At one level, you could say that this guy is doing okay. He and his wife have a decent house. He eats three meals a day. But at nearly age fifty, he is a baby. And this all happened because in some way and at some level of personal consciousness, he made a decision long ago. He decided not to grow up. It was just easier.
The same can be true for us as followers of Christ. We can choose not to grow up. It's easier to make that choice. That's because it’s a daunting thing to say, "With God’s help, I will grow to be more like Jesus."
But today, I want to encourage you not to be afraid of making that commitment! You won’t succeed 100% on this side of your grave. But the struggle to become more like Jesus, to serve Jesus, to move in Jesus’ direction, and according to Jesus’ will is a much better way of living than just going through the motions of life.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third volume in C.S. Lewis' wonderful Chronicles of Narnia. The whole series is a metaphorical telling of God's salvation of the human race. A lion named Aslan is a Christ-figure who dies for the sins of the people who inhabit an alternative place called Narnia. He's the "son of the Emperor Over the Sea," the emperor being a representation of God the Father.
In this third book, a particularly loathesome boy named Eustace accompanies two of his cousins, who have been to Narnia before, in traveling to that magic land. For many weeks after his arrival, Eustace is selfish and hurtful and petulant. At one point, he goes off by himself and ends up in the seemingly-abandoned lair of a dragon. There, he covetously ogles jewelry and other treasures. He puts one bracelet on his arm and he is turned into a dragon. In this form, he's lonely and miserable and he begins to realize how horrible he has been toward others. In this state of regret, the lion Aslan comes to him and urges Eustace to rid himself of his dragon skin. Eustace takes off several layers. But he doesn't make much progress, representing the futility of our own efforts to improve ourselves on our own steam. Finally, Eustace submits to allowing the lion to tear away his dragon skin, representing our submission to letting Christ take away our sin. It's painful for Eustace at first. But in the end, he is freed to become his new and better self, precisely the process of forgiveness and growth God wants all of us to undergo through Jesus! When we allow Jesus to help us become more like him, our lives are better.
But there’s another good reason you and I should decide to grow up as followers of Jesus. You’ve heard the story before of the man who came upon a construction site and stuck around to watch some brick masons do their job. He called out to one and asked, “What are you doing?” This guy, nose in the mortar, grunted, “I’m laying this row of bricks.” The man asked the next brick mason the same question, “What are you doing?” This second guy looked up and with a smile on his face, “I’m helping to build a great cathedral! Just think of it, for as long as God wants it to be here, this will be a place where people will come to worship and praise God, get His comfort, enjoy being with other believers, commit their marriages to Christ. It’s so neat!” When we decide to become more like Jesus, you and I are doing more than just laying bricks, we’re building for the future! We’re getting ourselves ready for whatever exciting assignments God may have for us in eternity.
So, what exactly does it mean to grow up into Christ? Our Bible lesson for today seems to say that it consists primarily of three things. First, we’re to put away our old sinful ways. We’re to daily turn away from sin and embrace living God’s way. Second, we’re to let Christ renew our minds, our ways of thinking. We need to change our priorities, moving from our me-centered universe to a Christ-centered life. Third, we’re to clothe ourselves in the new identities God gives to followers of Jesus. We’re to let the forgiveness and morality of Jesus cover every part of our lives.
Fine, we might think. But how do I do all that? Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Life reminds us that there are three ways God routinely helps those who have decided to grow up as Christians to do just that.
First: God uses His Word, the Bible. Last Sunday afternoon, I went to spend some time with my Aunt Betty and cousin Susie, who are living in Cincinnati for a few months. Susie is a very intelligent person. She’s a neonatal intensive care nurse certified in twenty-eight states and she contracts to work in various hospitals for several months at a time. But in the course of our conversation, she told me that she had just bought a new VCR-DVD combo and couldn’t figure out how to install it. As we pulled out the box, I asked her, “Did you read the instructions?” She laughed and said, “Of course not!” I told her that may have been her first mistake.
God has given us an instruction manual for life. Everything we need to know for living our lives at their optimal levels can be found in the Bible. Let me say this bluntly. If you aren’t taking the time to read God’s Word each and every day, there is no way you will ever grow up as a follower of Jesus. There is no way you’ll be able to rightly interpret the challenges you confront in life. Temptations and tragedies will blindside you.
You may say, “I don’t have the time.” I sometimes say the same thing myself. But you know what that is? It’s an excuse. A young mother in our congregation who also works has a demanding schedule. But she takes the time she has–in the parking lot of her place of employment fifteen minutes before everyone else arrives–to read what God has to say to her that day. God wants to bless you through the Bible and we need to make the time for that to happen!
Second: God uses people to help us grow. Sometimes they confront. Sometimes they comfort. Sometimes they do both. One night in my seminary days, I was really angry at a group of people who I felt had taken advantage of me. My mentor, Pastor Schein, happened to see me in this mood. When he asked me what was wrong, I was at first going to say nothing. But he wouldn’t put up with my evasiveness. “Are you going to let that stuff stay inside you and poison you?” he asked. He pushed me to deal with the issue, to speak with the people who had offended me and hold them accountable, and then to forgive them. God used Pastor Schein to help me grow up as a Christian.
Third: God uses circumstances to help us become more like Jesus. In his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, author Jerry Bridges talks about moving to a new community. While doing his taxes at the end of the year he moved, he discovered that he had neglected to pay the taxes he’d owed in his former community. For a second, he was tempted to just forget about that tax liability. He was sure that the people in his former community wouldn’t find out. But he realized that he had to do the right thing. Christ had always paid his taxes, even though the government of his time was oppressive and dictatorial. So, Bridges calculated what he owed in the old community, wrote a check, and dropped it in the mail. The New Testament book of James reminds us that God is not a monster...God will never tempt us to sin. But God will use the circumstances of our lives to build our characters, to help us become more like Christ.
Every time we read God’s Word, have a perplexing or enjoyable encounter with people, or confront circumstances that demand decisions of us, Rick Warren reminds us that we need to ask some simple questions: What is God trying to teach me here? How is God challenging me to grow? And then, ask God to give you the faith and the character to pursue God’s third purpose for you and me: to grow to become more like Jesus!
Sanctification, Growing Up to Be Like Christ
Ephesians 4:22-24
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 28, 2003)
Our son Philip will be graduating from college this coming spring. Because of that, he’s confronted with the same question all of us have faced on the brink of graduation: Now that I have this education, what’s next? So, Phil has decided to be proactive. He’s taking advantage of the free career counseling services offered by his college. In a real sense, he’s decided to take the next step in the process of growing as a human being.
All followers of Jesus Christ confront a similar issue in their lives. Through Jesus Christ, God has given us new lives. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead so that all who surrender their lives and wills to Jesus can have forgiveness of sin, unshakeable joy, and everlasting life with God. But Jesus followers need to ask ourselves this question: Now that I have this salvation, what’s next?
The answer to that question in the New Testament is answered in many places, in many different phrases. But the New Testament book of Ephesians says that we’re to “grow up in every way into [Christ]” [Ephesians 4:15].
Right now at Friendship, we’re looking at God’s purpose for us as human beings.
The first purpose for all of us to worship God with our whole lives.
The second is to live and grow in loving relationships with our fellow Jesus followers.
The third purpose for us is to submit to the process the Bible calls sanctification. That means to become holy, to be more like Jesus.
Our purpose and our call from God is to keep growing up with Jesus as our model for living.
Sometimes though, I have the feeling that most church folks want just enough of Jesus to avoid going to hell, but not so much of Jesus that it actually changes anything in their lives. These folks seem to view Jesus as eternal fire insurance. What I have learned though, is that followers of Jesus are like diapers: if they don’t get changed regularly, they start to stink. If we’re to fulfill our purpose for living and know the joy that goes with a vital relationship with Christ, we need to grow up.
Growing up in any area of our lives can be a painful, demanding process. So much so that often, people decide that they just will not grow up. I know a man about my age who grew up in a household in which his parents did everything for him. I mean everything. When he got married, he hitched up with a woman who doesn’t mind telling him exactly what he should do and when. She micromanages his calendar, decides what jobs he’ll take, tells him where they’re going to live, has him on a money allowance. At one level, you could say that this guy is doing okay. He and his wife have a decent house. He eats three meals a day. But at nearly age fifty, he is a baby. And this all happened because in some way and at some level of personal consciousness, he made a decision long ago. He decided not to grow up. It was just easier.
The same can be true for us as followers of Christ. We can choose not to grow up. It's easier to make that choice. That's because it’s a daunting thing to say, "With God’s help, I will grow to be more like Jesus."
But today, I want to encourage you not to be afraid of making that commitment! You won’t succeed 100% on this side of your grave. But the struggle to become more like Jesus, to serve Jesus, to move in Jesus’ direction, and according to Jesus’ will is a much better way of living than just going through the motions of life.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third volume in C.S. Lewis' wonderful Chronicles of Narnia. The whole series is a metaphorical telling of God's salvation of the human race. A lion named Aslan is a Christ-figure who dies for the sins of the people who inhabit an alternative place called Narnia. He's the "son of the Emperor Over the Sea," the emperor being a representation of God the Father.
In this third book, a particularly loathesome boy named Eustace accompanies two of his cousins, who have been to Narnia before, in traveling to that magic land. For many weeks after his arrival, Eustace is selfish and hurtful and petulant. At one point, he goes off by himself and ends up in the seemingly-abandoned lair of a dragon. There, he covetously ogles jewelry and other treasures. He puts one bracelet on his arm and he is turned into a dragon. In this form, he's lonely and miserable and he begins to realize how horrible he has been toward others. In this state of regret, the lion Aslan comes to him and urges Eustace to rid himself of his dragon skin. Eustace takes off several layers. But he doesn't make much progress, representing the futility of our own efforts to improve ourselves on our own steam. Finally, Eustace submits to allowing the lion to tear away his dragon skin, representing our submission to letting Christ take away our sin. It's painful for Eustace at first. But in the end, he is freed to become his new and better self, precisely the process of forgiveness and growth God wants all of us to undergo through Jesus! When we allow Jesus to help us become more like him, our lives are better.
But there’s another good reason you and I should decide to grow up as followers of Jesus. You’ve heard the story before of the man who came upon a construction site and stuck around to watch some brick masons do their job. He called out to one and asked, “What are you doing?” This guy, nose in the mortar, grunted, “I’m laying this row of bricks.” The man asked the next brick mason the same question, “What are you doing?” This second guy looked up and with a smile on his face, “I’m helping to build a great cathedral! Just think of it, for as long as God wants it to be here, this will be a place where people will come to worship and praise God, get His comfort, enjoy being with other believers, commit their marriages to Christ. It’s so neat!” When we decide to become more like Jesus, you and I are doing more than just laying bricks, we’re building for the future! We’re getting ourselves ready for whatever exciting assignments God may have for us in eternity.
So, what exactly does it mean to grow up into Christ? Our Bible lesson for today seems to say that it consists primarily of three things. First, we’re to put away our old sinful ways. We’re to daily turn away from sin and embrace living God’s way. Second, we’re to let Christ renew our minds, our ways of thinking. We need to change our priorities, moving from our me-centered universe to a Christ-centered life. Third, we’re to clothe ourselves in the new identities God gives to followers of Jesus. We’re to let the forgiveness and morality of Jesus cover every part of our lives.
Fine, we might think. But how do I do all that? Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Life reminds us that there are three ways God routinely helps those who have decided to grow up as Christians to do just that.
First: God uses His Word, the Bible. Last Sunday afternoon, I went to spend some time with my Aunt Betty and cousin Susie, who are living in Cincinnati for a few months. Susie is a very intelligent person. She’s a neonatal intensive care nurse certified in twenty-eight states and she contracts to work in various hospitals for several months at a time. But in the course of our conversation, she told me that she had just bought a new VCR-DVD combo and couldn’t figure out how to install it. As we pulled out the box, I asked her, “Did you read the instructions?” She laughed and said, “Of course not!” I told her that may have been her first mistake.
God has given us an instruction manual for life. Everything we need to know for living our lives at their optimal levels can be found in the Bible. Let me say this bluntly. If you aren’t taking the time to read God’s Word each and every day, there is no way you will ever grow up as a follower of Jesus. There is no way you’ll be able to rightly interpret the challenges you confront in life. Temptations and tragedies will blindside you.
You may say, “I don’t have the time.” I sometimes say the same thing myself. But you know what that is? It’s an excuse. A young mother in our congregation who also works has a demanding schedule. But she takes the time she has–in the parking lot of her place of employment fifteen minutes before everyone else arrives–to read what God has to say to her that day. God wants to bless you through the Bible and we need to make the time for that to happen!
Second: God uses people to help us grow. Sometimes they confront. Sometimes they comfort. Sometimes they do both. One night in my seminary days, I was really angry at a group of people who I felt had taken advantage of me. My mentor, Pastor Schein, happened to see me in this mood. When he asked me what was wrong, I was at first going to say nothing. But he wouldn’t put up with my evasiveness. “Are you going to let that stuff stay inside you and poison you?” he asked. He pushed me to deal with the issue, to speak with the people who had offended me and hold them accountable, and then to forgive them. God used Pastor Schein to help me grow up as a Christian.
Third: God uses circumstances to help us become more like Jesus. In his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, author Jerry Bridges talks about moving to a new community. While doing his taxes at the end of the year he moved, he discovered that he had neglected to pay the taxes he’d owed in his former community. For a second, he was tempted to just forget about that tax liability. He was sure that the people in his former community wouldn’t find out. But he realized that he had to do the right thing. Christ had always paid his taxes, even though the government of his time was oppressive and dictatorial. So, Bridges calculated what he owed in the old community, wrote a check, and dropped it in the mail. The New Testament book of James reminds us that God is not a monster...God will never tempt us to sin. But God will use the circumstances of our lives to build our characters, to help us become more like Christ.
Every time we read God’s Word, have a perplexing or enjoyable encounter with people, or confront circumstances that demand decisions of us, Rick Warren reminds us that we need to ask some simple questions: What is God trying to teach me here? How is God challenging me to grow? And then, ask God to give you the faith and the character to pursue God’s third purpose for you and me: to grow to become more like Jesus!
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
QUOTE FOR TODAY (and an accompanying Bible passage): "The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer."(Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari)
"But be doers of [God's] word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in the mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing." (James 1:22-25)
"But be doers of [God's] word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in the mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing." (James 1:22-25)
Looking for an inspiring speaker who tackles many life issues in a compelling, down-to-earth style? Looking for a motivator who can challenge your organization to be its best? Looking for an evangelist to cap your ministry group's outreach efforts? Consider inviting Mark Daniels to fill one of these roles for you. Contact Mark at FriendCh@aol.com.
Here are some prayer requests and reminders that I've just shared with the people of our congregation...and now I'll share them with the rest of the web...
(1) Diane is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant procedure, beginning October 1. Pray for Diane's complete healing. Pray that God will encourage both her and her family during this time of great challenge.
(2) Continue to pray for Isaac, asking God to give him healing and to grant peace and guidance to his parents, Sheila and Matt, and their family as they deal with his situation. (By the way, Isaac is in kindergarten and loving it!)
(3) Pray for the people in Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., who are still without electrical power in the wake of Hurricane Isabel. Ask God to grant peace and the hope of Jesus' resurrection to all who mourn their losses following this hurricane. Ask God also to help people to rebuild their lives, doing so on the strong foundation of Jesus Christ, in the wake of Isabel.
(4) Remember this coming Friday's 3N Party, happening at Friendship's church building, 1300 White Oak Road, Amelia, Ohio, from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. We'll welcome Christian rock band, Star E11even (featuring our own Andrew Wood on guitar) and my brother, the comedian, Marty Daniels. (By the way, Marty is also now doing morning news reports for several radio stations nationwide, including one in Chicago.) Everybody is invited...bring your friends, especially those who don't usually go to church...they'll see Christ and the Church in a completely different light!
(5) We'll have another of our Wednesday night discussions of The Purpose Driven Life tonight, from 7:00 to 8:30 P.M. It happens at the church building, 1300 White Oak Road, Amelia, Ohio. These have been great, meaningful, and for me anyway, helpful discussions!
(6) Update: So far, we've received $2500.00 in pledges from other congregations toward hiring a part-time youth director (Tim Vogel) and a part-time music director (Kathy Luccasen) for Friendship in 2004. This represents 12.5% of the $20,000.00 to make this happen next year. I am really excited about that...and you can be too! We also recently received a $1500.00 Mission Festival offering from the congregation I formerly served in northwestern Ohio and I am going to recommend that Church Council designate this money for hiring a youth director and a music director next year. Continue to pray that God will incite the congregations we've approached to provide us with help in this effort. I firmly believe that filling these two positions will help jumpstart our outreach efforts in this community.
I want to thank the people of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Cincinnati and of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, near Okolona, Ohio, for their support of this new venture of faith!
(7) A number of people have expressed interest in becoming members of Friendship. We'll have a new members class on October 22, 29, and November 5, from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. at the church building. If you'd like to be part of it, let me know. You'll get an overview of our basic beliefs and some information about the vision and mission of Friendship. So, long-time members might find it interesting too!
(1) Diane is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant procedure, beginning October 1. Pray for Diane's complete healing. Pray that God will encourage both her and her family during this time of great challenge.
(2) Continue to pray for Isaac, asking God to give him healing and to grant peace and guidance to his parents, Sheila and Matt, and their family as they deal with his situation. (By the way, Isaac is in kindergarten and loving it!)
(3) Pray for the people in Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., who are still without electrical power in the wake of Hurricane Isabel. Ask God to grant peace and the hope of Jesus' resurrection to all who mourn their losses following this hurricane. Ask God also to help people to rebuild their lives, doing so on the strong foundation of Jesus Christ, in the wake of Isabel.
(4) Remember this coming Friday's 3N Party, happening at Friendship's church building, 1300 White Oak Road, Amelia, Ohio, from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. We'll welcome Christian rock band, Star E11even (featuring our own Andrew Wood on guitar) and my brother, the comedian, Marty Daniels. (By the way, Marty is also now doing morning news reports for several radio stations nationwide, including one in Chicago.) Everybody is invited...bring your friends, especially those who don't usually go to church...they'll see Christ and the Church in a completely different light!
(5) We'll have another of our Wednesday night discussions of The Purpose Driven Life tonight, from 7:00 to 8:30 P.M. It happens at the church building, 1300 White Oak Road, Amelia, Ohio. These have been great, meaningful, and for me anyway, helpful discussions!
(6) Update: So far, we've received $2500.00 in pledges from other congregations toward hiring a part-time youth director (Tim Vogel) and a part-time music director (Kathy Luccasen) for Friendship in 2004. This represents 12.5% of the $20,000.00 to make this happen next year. I am really excited about that...and you can be too! We also recently received a $1500.00 Mission Festival offering from the congregation I formerly served in northwestern Ohio and I am going to recommend that Church Council designate this money for hiring a youth director and a music director next year. Continue to pray that God will incite the congregations we've approached to provide us with help in this effort. I firmly believe that filling these two positions will help jumpstart our outreach efforts in this community.
I want to thank the people of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Cincinnati and of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, near Okolona, Ohio, for their support of this new venture of faith!
(7) A number of people have expressed interest in becoming members of Friendship. We'll have a new members class on October 22, 29, and November 5, from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. at the church building. If you'd like to be part of it, let me know. You'll get an overview of our basic beliefs and some information about the vision and mission of Friendship. So, long-time members might find it interesting too!
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Looking for an inspiring speaker who tackles many life issues in a compelling, down-to-earth style? Looking for a motivator who can challenge your organization to be its best? Looking for an evangelist to cap your ministry group's outreach efforts? Consider inviting Mark Daniels to fill one of these roles for you. Contact Mark at FriendCh@aol.com.
Monday, September 22, 2003
Purpose Driven Living:
Fellowship, Loving Other Followers of Jesus
Romans 12:5
Matthew 12:46-50
[shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 21, 2003]
Not long ago, a woman named Adelina Dominguez died in San Diego. At the time of her death, she was thought to be the oldest living American, 114 years of age. Shortly before she died, she was asked by the Associated Press why she had lived so long. She said that it was all because of God. "I knew God had a purpose for my life," she said. No matter how long we may exist, we only truly live when we have a purpose.
Right now at Friendship, we’re exploring Purpose Driven Living, using Rick Warren’s wonderful book, The Purpose Driven Life as the framework for our worship, Sunday messages, and Wednesday evening discussion group. If you haven’t picked up your copy of the book, I encourage you to do so. Last week, we talked about God’s first purpose for our lives: to love and get to know God better. The simple word we use to describe this is worship. Today, we move onto God’s second purpose for us.
Back in the community where I served as pastor before coming here to start Friendship, a family–a mom and a dad and three teenage children, who were from another community far from us–received a sizable inheritance. With it, they bought a long-abandoned property in our area and there, began to manufacture and sell furniture. They lived close-by us for a long time before I met them. Still, I picked up snippets of information about them. When members of our congregation invited them to attend worship with us, they were politely and firmly rebuffed. I got reports of how the husband would sometimes impolitely lecture people on their spiritual inadequacies. When asked where he went to church, he replied that he didn’t need any church.
Finally, a few months later, one of the teenage family members stopped by my office for some reason and we talked. I learned that the family attended church in their living room each Sunday, with dad as worship leader and preacher. “We don’t need any other church. All the churches are corrupt. So, we have our own church and stay pure,” the boy told me. I asked a few questions and he warmed to his subject. “For example,” he asked me, “when you say the Lord’s Prayer, do you say ‘in earth as it is in heaven’ or do you say, ‘on earth as it is in heaven’?” When I told him that we said “on earth as it is in heaven,” he said, “That proves you’re corrupt too. The Greek in the New Testament says ‘in earth.’” I explained to him that I had taken Greek and that the preposition to which he was referring–en in Greek–like many prepositions, could be translated in or on or several other ways. Besides, I asked, wasn’t he getting hung up on a minor point? “No,” he thundered, “that’s very important!” I tried again by pointing out that what the Bible says is of “first importance” is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, turning from our sins and receiving Him as God and Lord of our lives. But I got nowhere with the kid.
That encounter underscored something important. While it may be theoretically possible to be a solo follower of Jesus or for family groups to pursue their own independent way, it doesn’t seem to work in practice. Too often, when people decide to be their own church, something gets out of whack.
Jesus calls us not only to love God, but also to love our neighbor with the same intensity, passion, and commitment with which we love ourselves. By neighbor, Jesus means every other human being.
But if we never learn to love the neighbors who are part of our church, how in the world will we ever love those who don’t share Christ with us? The church is God's learning lab in which He teaches His followers how to follow Him, including how to love others.
This leads to God’s second purpose for us all: to love our fellow believers in Jesus. This is what the Bible calls fellowship.
Jesus gives us some notion of what our fellowship is to be like in one of our Bible lessons today. As the lesson opens, hostility and hatred toward Jesus is rising. The good church-going religious folks of first-century Judea are sharpening their knives, looking for a way to kill Jesus off. It must have frightened Jesus’ earthly family, His mother and His brothers. They’d heard the reports about His ministry and about the plots on His life. One day, they show up in the community where Jesus was preaching, teaching, and healing. Perhaps hoping to “talk some sense” into Jesus or maybe wanting to grab Him and cart Him off to a safe place, they stand aloof from where He speaks with His followers– His disciples–and a crowd of other listeners
Somebody in the crowd tells Jesus that His family is waiting to talk with Him. Our Bible lesson tells us:
"But to the one who had told Him this, Jesus replied, 'Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?' And pointing to His disciples, He said, 'Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.'"
You see, when Jesus calls us to be in relationship with Him, He calls us also to be in relationship with His Church.
There’s a good reason for this. A Scottish pastor was concerned because a once-active participant in the life of His congregation hadn’t worshiped or been involved in any ministry of the congregation for some time. So, he rode out to the man’s farmhouse one evening. The man invited the pastor in and they sat down in the living room before a cozy fire. They talked about anything and everything. In the midst of their conversation, the pastor stood up, grabbed some tongs, pulled out an ember, bright yellow, and then set the ember down on the brick in front of the fireplace. Then he just sat down and proceeded to talk with the man.
As the conversation wore on, the once-hot ember lost its spark and faded to grey. The man saw this and looked at the pastor. “All right, pastor. I’ll see you on Sunday.” In the Church, there will be times when we rub each other the wrong way. That’s to be expected. As someone said, “If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.” But we need the support, inspiration, encouragement, and even the correction and the confrontation that we encounter when we dare to get up close and personal with other believers in Jesus.
I found that when I was growing up, there was nobody who aggravated me more than my brother and sisters. But there was also nobody I loved more. Jesus puts us with a family of brothers and sisters so that through the challenge of committed relationships, we learn to love Him and others.
In his book, Rick Warren identifies four elements of fellowship with other believers: (1) There’s membership. That means we belong to one another. That’s what Paul is talking about in our other Bible lesson for today. We are, he says, members of one another. We’re one body, Christ’s body the Bible says, and He wants to use each one of us to encourage each other and to help each of us become all that God made us to be. There’s friendship in which we make a commitment to love, no matter what. Another passage in the New Testament says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.” There’s partnership. This is when we make a commitment to serve one another and to serve the world together. The result of partnership, the Bible says, is that the “whole body”–the Church–is “healthy and growing and full of love.” Finally, there’s kinship. That’s devotion to one another.
To fulfill God’s second purpose for our lives–fellowship, we need to be committed to more than just showing up on Sunday mornings or to pleasant chit chat over coffee and cookies.
Fellowship entails investing ourselves in the lives of other members of our congregation. Friendship Church, though certainly far from megachurch status, is already too big for us to enjoy intense fellowship with every other member. But the next time there’s a small group Bible study or a group getting together to do something else that Jesus calls us to do, promise yourself that no matter what the personal investment, you’ll get involved and be committed to knowing and caring about the other group members. That’s how God helps us grow as believers who depend on Him and grow as lovers of God and neighbor.
In the movie, The Lord of the Rings, there’s a scene in which the main character, Frodo, decides that he must proceed on his quest without his friends. The loyal Sam discovers Frodo already launched out in a boat. “Frodo, no!,” he cries, “Frodo! Mr. Frodo!” “Go back, Sam,” Frodo replies, “I’m going to Mordor alone.” “Of course you are,” Sam says, “and I’m coming with you.” At this, with Frodo still paddling away from shore, Sam begins wading toward Frodo. Frodo is appalled; he knows that Sam can’t swim. When Sam’s head goes below water, Frodo cries out for his loyal friend. He gets to where Sam went underwater and pulls him out. Choking from the water in his lungs, Sam tells Frodo, “I made a promise Mr. Frodo. A promise. Don’t you leave him, Samwise Gamgee. And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.”
Jesus has promised all who believe in Him that He will never leave us. One of the ways in which He fulfills that promise is by placing ever Jesus-follower in a church in which we can care for each other, listen to one another, encourage one another, and challenge one another in the Name of Jesus Christ. God’s second purpose for every human life is to be part of His family, the Church, and to live in deep, committed fellowship with them. Let’s commit ourselves to doing just that!
[The first reference I found to the true story of Adelina Dominguez appears in a sermon by Pastor Ken Albright of Damascus Friends Church in Damascus, Ohio. However, I also ran into it in several other sermons explicating this second purpose God has for us. So, I surmise their source is material created by Pastor Rick Warren and Saddleback Valley Church.]
Fellowship, Loving Other Followers of Jesus
Romans 12:5
Matthew 12:46-50
[shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 21, 2003]
Not long ago, a woman named Adelina Dominguez died in San Diego. At the time of her death, she was thought to be the oldest living American, 114 years of age. Shortly before she died, she was asked by the Associated Press why she had lived so long. She said that it was all because of God. "I knew God had a purpose for my life," she said. No matter how long we may exist, we only truly live when we have a purpose.
Right now at Friendship, we’re exploring Purpose Driven Living, using Rick Warren’s wonderful book, The Purpose Driven Life as the framework for our worship, Sunday messages, and Wednesday evening discussion group. If you haven’t picked up your copy of the book, I encourage you to do so. Last week, we talked about God’s first purpose for our lives: to love and get to know God better. The simple word we use to describe this is worship. Today, we move onto God’s second purpose for us.
Back in the community where I served as pastor before coming here to start Friendship, a family–a mom and a dad and three teenage children, who were from another community far from us–received a sizable inheritance. With it, they bought a long-abandoned property in our area and there, began to manufacture and sell furniture. They lived close-by us for a long time before I met them. Still, I picked up snippets of information about them. When members of our congregation invited them to attend worship with us, they were politely and firmly rebuffed. I got reports of how the husband would sometimes impolitely lecture people on their spiritual inadequacies. When asked where he went to church, he replied that he didn’t need any church.
Finally, a few months later, one of the teenage family members stopped by my office for some reason and we talked. I learned that the family attended church in their living room each Sunday, with dad as worship leader and preacher. “We don’t need any other church. All the churches are corrupt. So, we have our own church and stay pure,” the boy told me. I asked a few questions and he warmed to his subject. “For example,” he asked me, “when you say the Lord’s Prayer, do you say ‘in earth as it is in heaven’ or do you say, ‘on earth as it is in heaven’?” When I told him that we said “on earth as it is in heaven,” he said, “That proves you’re corrupt too. The Greek in the New Testament says ‘in earth.’” I explained to him that I had taken Greek and that the preposition to which he was referring–en in Greek–like many prepositions, could be translated in or on or several other ways. Besides, I asked, wasn’t he getting hung up on a minor point? “No,” he thundered, “that’s very important!” I tried again by pointing out that what the Bible says is of “first importance” is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, turning from our sins and receiving Him as God and Lord of our lives. But I got nowhere with the kid.
That encounter underscored something important. While it may be theoretically possible to be a solo follower of Jesus or for family groups to pursue their own independent way, it doesn’t seem to work in practice. Too often, when people decide to be their own church, something gets out of whack.
Jesus calls us not only to love God, but also to love our neighbor with the same intensity, passion, and commitment with which we love ourselves. By neighbor, Jesus means every other human being.
But if we never learn to love the neighbors who are part of our church, how in the world will we ever love those who don’t share Christ with us? The church is God's learning lab in which He teaches His followers how to follow Him, including how to love others.
This leads to God’s second purpose for us all: to love our fellow believers in Jesus. This is what the Bible calls fellowship.
Jesus gives us some notion of what our fellowship is to be like in one of our Bible lessons today. As the lesson opens, hostility and hatred toward Jesus is rising. The good church-going religious folks of first-century Judea are sharpening their knives, looking for a way to kill Jesus off. It must have frightened Jesus’ earthly family, His mother and His brothers. They’d heard the reports about His ministry and about the plots on His life. One day, they show up in the community where Jesus was preaching, teaching, and healing. Perhaps hoping to “talk some sense” into Jesus or maybe wanting to grab Him and cart Him off to a safe place, they stand aloof from where He speaks with His followers– His disciples–and a crowd of other listeners
Somebody in the crowd tells Jesus that His family is waiting to talk with Him. Our Bible lesson tells us:
"But to the one who had told Him this, Jesus replied, 'Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?' And pointing to His disciples, He said, 'Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.'"
You see, when Jesus calls us to be in relationship with Him, He calls us also to be in relationship with His Church.
There’s a good reason for this. A Scottish pastor was concerned because a once-active participant in the life of His congregation hadn’t worshiped or been involved in any ministry of the congregation for some time. So, he rode out to the man’s farmhouse one evening. The man invited the pastor in and they sat down in the living room before a cozy fire. They talked about anything and everything. In the midst of their conversation, the pastor stood up, grabbed some tongs, pulled out an ember, bright yellow, and then set the ember down on the brick in front of the fireplace. Then he just sat down and proceeded to talk with the man.
As the conversation wore on, the once-hot ember lost its spark and faded to grey. The man saw this and looked at the pastor. “All right, pastor. I’ll see you on Sunday.” In the Church, there will be times when we rub each other the wrong way. That’s to be expected. As someone said, “If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.” But we need the support, inspiration, encouragement, and even the correction and the confrontation that we encounter when we dare to get up close and personal with other believers in Jesus.
I found that when I was growing up, there was nobody who aggravated me more than my brother and sisters. But there was also nobody I loved more. Jesus puts us with a family of brothers and sisters so that through the challenge of committed relationships, we learn to love Him and others.
In his book, Rick Warren identifies four elements of fellowship with other believers: (1) There’s membership. That means we belong to one another. That’s what Paul is talking about in our other Bible lesson for today. We are, he says, members of one another. We’re one body, Christ’s body the Bible says, and He wants to use each one of us to encourage each other and to help each of us become all that God made us to be. There’s friendship in which we make a commitment to love, no matter what. Another passage in the New Testament says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.” There’s partnership. This is when we make a commitment to serve one another and to serve the world together. The result of partnership, the Bible says, is that the “whole body”–the Church–is “healthy and growing and full of love.” Finally, there’s kinship. That’s devotion to one another.
To fulfill God’s second purpose for our lives–fellowship, we need to be committed to more than just showing up on Sunday mornings or to pleasant chit chat over coffee and cookies.
Fellowship entails investing ourselves in the lives of other members of our congregation. Friendship Church, though certainly far from megachurch status, is already too big for us to enjoy intense fellowship with every other member. But the next time there’s a small group Bible study or a group getting together to do something else that Jesus calls us to do, promise yourself that no matter what the personal investment, you’ll get involved and be committed to knowing and caring about the other group members. That’s how God helps us grow as believers who depend on Him and grow as lovers of God and neighbor.
In the movie, The Lord of the Rings, there’s a scene in which the main character, Frodo, decides that he must proceed on his quest without his friends. The loyal Sam discovers Frodo already launched out in a boat. “Frodo, no!,” he cries, “Frodo! Mr. Frodo!” “Go back, Sam,” Frodo replies, “I’m going to Mordor alone.” “Of course you are,” Sam says, “and I’m coming with you.” At this, with Frodo still paddling away from shore, Sam begins wading toward Frodo. Frodo is appalled; he knows that Sam can’t swim. When Sam’s head goes below water, Frodo cries out for his loyal friend. He gets to where Sam went underwater and pulls him out. Choking from the water in his lungs, Sam tells Frodo, “I made a promise Mr. Frodo. A promise. Don’t you leave him, Samwise Gamgee. And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.”
Jesus has promised all who believe in Him that He will never leave us. One of the ways in which He fulfills that promise is by placing ever Jesus-follower in a church in which we can care for each other, listen to one another, encourage one another, and challenge one another in the Name of Jesus Christ. God’s second purpose for every human life is to be part of His family, the Church, and to live in deep, committed fellowship with them. Let’s commit ourselves to doing just that!
[The first reference I found to the true story of Adelina Dominguez appears in a sermon by Pastor Ken Albright of Damascus Friends Church in Damascus, Ohio. However, I also ran into it in several other sermons explicating this second purpose God has for us. So, I surmise their source is material created by Pastor Rick Warren and Saddleback Valley Church.]
Monday, September 15, 2003
Purpose Driven Living:
Worshiping God with Our Whole Lives
Romans 12:1-2
[shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 14, 2003]
Albert Einstein, the great mathematician and theorist of physics, considered by many to be the most brilliant person ever, was getting ready to board a train one day. But he couldn’t find his ticket. A conductor, seeing Einstein making his frantic search, asked if there were something wrong. Einstein explained that he’d lost his ticket. “That’s okay. I know who you are, Dr. Einstein. You can get onboard.” Einstein climbed onto the train. Some time later though, the conductor found the great man still rummaging through pockets and satchels, looking for that missing ticket. The conductor said, “Dr. Einstein, I told you: I know who you are.” Einstein replied, “I know who I am, too. I just don’t know where I’m going.”
Millions of people attend churches each week around the world. They really believe in Jesus Christ. But there is a disconnect between their faith and their lives. They have no idea where they’re going. They don’t know what their life’s purposes are. And truth to tell, we all wrestle with this question.
Rick Warren, a pastor from southern California, noticed that people struggle with this issue of what their lives are for and in response, wrote a book called, The Purpose Driven Life. Many of you began doing short daily readings from it on September 2. You know that Warren looked at Jesus’ Great Commandment and Great Commission and from these important words, identified five major purposes for every human life. Today, we’re going to talk about the first purpose of life.
You've heard me speak of when I fell in love with Ann. What really amazed me about falling in love with her was the very thing that Warren speaks of when talking about falling in love with his wife: I wanted to be with Ann all the time. We had a word that we would say to each other when we had to say goodbye: goofy. It seemed so goofy, so ridiculous, and so stupid, for us to be away from each other. Once I knew that I loved Ann, I wanted to spend as much time as possible just getting to know her better and better. Some weeks after she and I decided to get married, Ann went to Florida for a long-planned trip with her college roommate. A few days after she left, I got a post card from her that said where she was and how much she loved me. At the very bottom she wrote two words, underlined: very goofy.
When you love someone, you want to be with them, to spend time with them, to hear their voice, and to do what is best for them. Any other way seems goofy.
Jesus once was asked what the greatest commandment was. He gave a two-part answer. In the first part, He said that we are to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. Giving love to God is the appropriate response for us to make to the God Who loves us completely and Who accepts us in spite of all our faults and flaws.
Loving God is really nothing other than what the Bible calls worship. Worship, as the Bible understands it, is to happen not just on one morning of one day of the week. Worship is meant to be our life style. God loves us. He wants to spend every moment of every day with us. And He is desperate for us to spend time getting to know Him better and better. For the follower of Jesus, knowing that Jesus is the only source for life and genuine hope, anything less than a life of worship, lives spent loving God, would be just goofy!
This then, is the first purpose of every human life: to completely love and offer our whole selves in worship to the God Who completely loves us and Who, through Jesus Christ, has already given Himself completely to us!
How do we do that? The first century preacher and evangelist, Paul, tells us how in our Bible lesson for this morning, taken from the New Testament book of Romans. Paul writes:
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God–what is good and acceptable and perfect."
In these few words, Paul shows us how to love God completely and to cultivate the intimacy with God that God craves to have with us.
First: We need to remind ourselves often of how much God loves us. When we remember that, we’ll want to love and please God and be with Him all the time. Paul appeals to us to pay heed to the words he writes to the Romans because of “the mercies of God.”
Sometimes we forget how much God loves us, that God became a human being, died on a cross, and rose from the dead all because of His deep and unswerving devotion to us!
Yesterday morning, I attended a funeral at Ann’s and my home church. The funeral was for a man named George. George was one of those great believers in Jesus who influenced me to follow Christ because he lived with Christ in his everyday life. One of the preachers at the funeral, Larry Baker, is a hospice chaplain who knew George very well. He talked about how George and his family had aroused the concern of the hospice team that worked with them. Team members said to Larry, “They seem so happy. Do you think that they understand what’s happening? Does George know that he's dying? Does his family understand that George is dying?” I think that Larry had to stifle a laugh. “Of course, they understand.” he told the other hospice team members, “But their faith in Jesus is so strong that they’re not afraid.” The reason for George's family's joy and serenity in the face of death is simple: Every day of their lives through prayer and Bible reading and also through regular worship attendance, they were reminded that God loves and has given His whole self to us! We will want to worship God with our whole lives when we remember how much He loves us!
I have to confess that it's difficult for me to remain faithful in following Jesus or to remember God’s love for me. To do so, I need to spend time with God each and every day. I agree with Martin Luther, the founder of the Christian movement of which Friendship is a part, when he says that being born again isn’t something that happens to us just once. Each day, we need to turn to God, handing God our sins, seeking forgiveness in Jesus’ Name, and letting God renew our lives and our faith. We need to remember God’s love for us regularly.
Next, we’ll love God completely and cultivate intimacy with Him when we offer our bodies to God as our living sacrifices to God. We offer our bodies because, as Warren points out in his book, if we offer our bodies to God, everything else--our minds, our spirits, our wills--wil come along for the ride.
Living sacrifices don’t hold anything back from God. I once heard a man named Robert Coleman, a professor at Wheaton College in Illinois, tell the story of a little boy whose twin brother was very sick. Without a transfusion, the brother would die. The situation was explained to the little guy and he readily volunteered to have his blood drawn. Laying on a hospital bed some moments after the IV had been put in his arm, the boy turned to the doctor and asked softly, “Doctor, how much longer before I die?” It was then that the doctor realized that the boy thought that giving life to his twin brother would cause his own death. The doctor asked the boy, “If you thought that you were going to die, why did you say it was okay for us to draw your blood?” The boy said, “Because he’s my brother and I love him.”
Jesus Christ gave His blood–and His body–to give us life. He did it because He loves us. And in the face of such overwhelming, sacrificial love, it’s fitting that we should make ourselves living sacrifices to Him.
We’ll also be loving God completely and cultivating intimacy with Him when we refuse to be conformed to this world and let Christ renew our minds. We need to let the God we know through Jesus Christ step into our minds and change the way we think. You know, what we dwell on tends to come true. Psychologist Denis Waitley once told about a woman who used to tell friends that she and her family always came down with colds in the summer. And sure enough, as if on command, they always did. Research once indicated that obsessive thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies.
And that isn't only true with our physical ailments. Robert S. McGee, in his book, The Search for Significance, tells about a married man who developed a powerful attraction to another man’s wife. Over a period of many months, the man fantasized about and flirted with the woman until one day, the two of them were in a hotel room together. Afterward, the man was almost in a state of shock, wondering how it had happened. He probably shouldn’t have been so surprised.
On the other hand, when we allow ourselves to spend time with God and think about the things God calls us to think about, we’re prepared to meet the challenges of this life and face the future with hope. In another place in the New Testament, Paul writes:
"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things!"
I’m compiling a list of Bible passages for a friend of mine who needs encouragement. These Bible passages will remind him of God’s love for him, of what God promises to those who follow Jesus, of how God says that He is always with those who believe in Him. I suggest that you make a similar list. Read two or three chapters of the Bible each day and as you do, jot down the passages that help you understand Who God is and how much God loves you, not in an abstract way, but how He loves you as an individual person, faults and all! Then, go back over that list once a week and remind yourself of how wonderful God is, how loved you are, how empowered you are for a God-blessed life.
The first purpose of every life is to love and give intimate worship the God Who made us and gives us new life through Christ. We can do that when we remind ourselves of how much God loves us; offer our lives as sacrifices to God; and let God’s love fill our minds with thoughts of just how great and wonderful He really is! Promise yourself this morning that you won’t be goofy when it comes to God. You’re number one in God’s life. So, make Him number one in your life and spend time with Him every single day!
[The story about Albert Einstein was told in a sermon by Gerald Mann. Denis Waitley told the story of the family who caught summer colds in his classic, The Psychology of Winning. All other quotes are cited in the message itself.]
Worshiping God with Our Whole Lives
Romans 12:1-2
[shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 14, 2003]
Albert Einstein, the great mathematician and theorist of physics, considered by many to be the most brilliant person ever, was getting ready to board a train one day. But he couldn’t find his ticket. A conductor, seeing Einstein making his frantic search, asked if there were something wrong. Einstein explained that he’d lost his ticket. “That’s okay. I know who you are, Dr. Einstein. You can get onboard.” Einstein climbed onto the train. Some time later though, the conductor found the great man still rummaging through pockets and satchels, looking for that missing ticket. The conductor said, “Dr. Einstein, I told you: I know who you are.” Einstein replied, “I know who I am, too. I just don’t know where I’m going.”
Millions of people attend churches each week around the world. They really believe in Jesus Christ. But there is a disconnect between their faith and their lives. They have no idea where they’re going. They don’t know what their life’s purposes are. And truth to tell, we all wrestle with this question.
Rick Warren, a pastor from southern California, noticed that people struggle with this issue of what their lives are for and in response, wrote a book called, The Purpose Driven Life. Many of you began doing short daily readings from it on September 2. You know that Warren looked at Jesus’ Great Commandment and Great Commission and from these important words, identified five major purposes for every human life. Today, we’re going to talk about the first purpose of life.
You've heard me speak of when I fell in love with Ann. What really amazed me about falling in love with her was the very thing that Warren speaks of when talking about falling in love with his wife: I wanted to be with Ann all the time. We had a word that we would say to each other when we had to say goodbye: goofy. It seemed so goofy, so ridiculous, and so stupid, for us to be away from each other. Once I knew that I loved Ann, I wanted to spend as much time as possible just getting to know her better and better. Some weeks after she and I decided to get married, Ann went to Florida for a long-planned trip with her college roommate. A few days after she left, I got a post card from her that said where she was and how much she loved me. At the very bottom she wrote two words, underlined: very goofy.
When you love someone, you want to be with them, to spend time with them, to hear their voice, and to do what is best for them. Any other way seems goofy.
Jesus once was asked what the greatest commandment was. He gave a two-part answer. In the first part, He said that we are to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. Giving love to God is the appropriate response for us to make to the God Who loves us completely and Who accepts us in spite of all our faults and flaws.
Loving God is really nothing other than what the Bible calls worship. Worship, as the Bible understands it, is to happen not just on one morning of one day of the week. Worship is meant to be our life style. God loves us. He wants to spend every moment of every day with us. And He is desperate for us to spend time getting to know Him better and better. For the follower of Jesus, knowing that Jesus is the only source for life and genuine hope, anything less than a life of worship, lives spent loving God, would be just goofy!
This then, is the first purpose of every human life: to completely love and offer our whole selves in worship to the God Who completely loves us and Who, through Jesus Christ, has already given Himself completely to us!
How do we do that? The first century preacher and evangelist, Paul, tells us how in our Bible lesson for this morning, taken from the New Testament book of Romans. Paul writes:
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God–what is good and acceptable and perfect."
In these few words, Paul shows us how to love God completely and to cultivate the intimacy with God that God craves to have with us.
First: We need to remind ourselves often of how much God loves us. When we remember that, we’ll want to love and please God and be with Him all the time. Paul appeals to us to pay heed to the words he writes to the Romans because of “the mercies of God.”
Sometimes we forget how much God loves us, that God became a human being, died on a cross, and rose from the dead all because of His deep and unswerving devotion to us!
Yesterday morning, I attended a funeral at Ann’s and my home church. The funeral was for a man named George. George was one of those great believers in Jesus who influenced me to follow Christ because he lived with Christ in his everyday life. One of the preachers at the funeral, Larry Baker, is a hospice chaplain who knew George very well. He talked about how George and his family had aroused the concern of the hospice team that worked with them. Team members said to Larry, “They seem so happy. Do you think that they understand what’s happening? Does George know that he's dying? Does his family understand that George is dying?” I think that Larry had to stifle a laugh. “Of course, they understand.” he told the other hospice team members, “But their faith in Jesus is so strong that they’re not afraid.” The reason for George's family's joy and serenity in the face of death is simple: Every day of their lives through prayer and Bible reading and also through regular worship attendance, they were reminded that God loves and has given His whole self to us! We will want to worship God with our whole lives when we remember how much He loves us!
I have to confess that it's difficult for me to remain faithful in following Jesus or to remember God’s love for me. To do so, I need to spend time with God each and every day. I agree with Martin Luther, the founder of the Christian movement of which Friendship is a part, when he says that being born again isn’t something that happens to us just once. Each day, we need to turn to God, handing God our sins, seeking forgiveness in Jesus’ Name, and letting God renew our lives and our faith. We need to remember God’s love for us regularly.
Next, we’ll love God completely and cultivate intimacy with Him when we offer our bodies to God as our living sacrifices to God. We offer our bodies because, as Warren points out in his book, if we offer our bodies to God, everything else--our minds, our spirits, our wills--wil come along for the ride.
Living sacrifices don’t hold anything back from God. I once heard a man named Robert Coleman, a professor at Wheaton College in Illinois, tell the story of a little boy whose twin brother was very sick. Without a transfusion, the brother would die. The situation was explained to the little guy and he readily volunteered to have his blood drawn. Laying on a hospital bed some moments after the IV had been put in his arm, the boy turned to the doctor and asked softly, “Doctor, how much longer before I die?” It was then that the doctor realized that the boy thought that giving life to his twin brother would cause his own death. The doctor asked the boy, “If you thought that you were going to die, why did you say it was okay for us to draw your blood?” The boy said, “Because he’s my brother and I love him.”
Jesus Christ gave His blood–and His body–to give us life. He did it because He loves us. And in the face of such overwhelming, sacrificial love, it’s fitting that we should make ourselves living sacrifices to Him.
We’ll also be loving God completely and cultivating intimacy with Him when we refuse to be conformed to this world and let Christ renew our minds. We need to let the God we know through Jesus Christ step into our minds and change the way we think. You know, what we dwell on tends to come true. Psychologist Denis Waitley once told about a woman who used to tell friends that she and her family always came down with colds in the summer. And sure enough, as if on command, they always did. Research once indicated that obsessive thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies.
And that isn't only true with our physical ailments. Robert S. McGee, in his book, The Search for Significance, tells about a married man who developed a powerful attraction to another man’s wife. Over a period of many months, the man fantasized about and flirted with the woman until one day, the two of them were in a hotel room together. Afterward, the man was almost in a state of shock, wondering how it had happened. He probably shouldn’t have been so surprised.
On the other hand, when we allow ourselves to spend time with God and think about the things God calls us to think about, we’re prepared to meet the challenges of this life and face the future with hope. In another place in the New Testament, Paul writes:
"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things!"
I’m compiling a list of Bible passages for a friend of mine who needs encouragement. These Bible passages will remind him of God’s love for him, of what God promises to those who follow Jesus, of how God says that He is always with those who believe in Him. I suggest that you make a similar list. Read two or three chapters of the Bible each day and as you do, jot down the passages that help you understand Who God is and how much God loves you, not in an abstract way, but how He loves you as an individual person, faults and all! Then, go back over that list once a week and remind yourself of how wonderful God is, how loved you are, how empowered you are for a God-blessed life.
The first purpose of every life is to love and give intimate worship the God Who made us and gives us new life through Christ. We can do that when we remind ourselves of how much God loves us; offer our lives as sacrifices to God; and let God’s love fill our minds with thoughts of just how great and wonderful He really is! Promise yourself this morning that you won’t be goofy when it comes to God. You’re number one in God’s life. So, make Him number one in your life and spend time with Him every single day!
[The story about Albert Einstein was told in a sermon by Gerald Mann. Denis Waitley told the story of the family who caught summer colds in his classic, The Psychology of Winning. All other quotes are cited in the message itself.]
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Septeber 11 Remembrance
On this sober anniversary of the most deadly attack ever on American soil, we will be remembering September 11, 2001 in different ways.
It's certainly appropriate for us to remember the many who lost their lives and to work and pray to insure that such horrors don't happen again.
It's appropriate also that we remember 9/11 by devoting ourselves and praying for those who are working to bring terrorists to justice.
A healthy patriotism, a deep appreciation for the uniqueness of America, where most of our citizens enjoy freedom and opportunity and where the constant theme of our history has been the struggle to expand freedom and opportunity to all people, is another way to memorialize this day, I think.
But I want to suggest two other ways in which we can remember 9/11.
America and Americans were never so compelling to other people in the world as we were on that horrible September day two years ago. Accustomed to seeing America as a colossus bestriding the world, enjoying untold material benefits, the heart of the world was pulled to America when it saw us attacked, saw a President who was strong enough to cry while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, and witnessed the care and compassion we displayed toward one another and the appreciation with which we accepted the prayers and the help of other peoples. Seeing that we too were vulnerable human beings capable of suffering, the rest of the world wanted to help.
In the time since 9/11 however, old resentments against America and Americans have reappeared. Some of them may be unjustified. But some may be understandable. I fear that we have allowed our patriotism to harden into arrogance, into an angry striving for vengeance.
America is a miracle and a sacred trust. Each generation of Americans, with our different racial and national backgrounds, must take care to pass it on.
But we must be clear about what we mean when speak of passing America on to the next generation. America is more than a swath of geography spread across the Western Hemisphere and it is more than the sum of all our material possessions, technological achievements, or military power. America is an idea and an ideal. Both the idea and the ideal can be summed up in one word: freedom.
I believe that freedom came to America not because we were or are smarter, or better, or stronger, or richer than other peoples. When the thirteen colonies originally declared their independence from Mother England in 1776, there was little reason to think that they could win that independence from the world's greatest power. Nor, with the institution of slavery and our mistreatment of Native Americans, along with all the other sins common to the human race which existed in the fledgling country, could one argue that America was more virtuous or worthy than other nations or peoples. But God blessed and has blessed America for His own mysterious reasons.
In ancient Biblical times, God chose a group of people descended from an imperfect, sinful, and sometimes scheming group of patriarchs--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--to create a nation that would act as a light to other nations and to give birth to the Light and Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Over and over again, God's Word, the Bible, affirms that God chose Israel not because of any special qualities or virtues its people possessed. God chose them simply because God chose them. That should have evoked humility and a commitment to living life God's way--loving God and loving neighbor--from ancient Israel. Israel experienced God's grace, His undeserved favor, after all. But often, God's blessings caused Israel to be arrogant and forgetful of God, always to their detriment or destruction.
I don't equate America with ancient Israel. I don't even equate modern Israel with ancient Israel. The Bible's New Testament in fact, describes the Church as the new Israel.
But what I do say is this. For His own inscrutable reasons God chooses to bless people and nations--the just and the unjust alike, according to Jesus. In fact, each nation of the world has received blessings of all kinds.
God's call on the lives of those He blesses and His call on us as Americans, I believe, is twofold:
First: We need to humbly acknowledge all of our blessings.
Second: We need to humbly share our blessings with others.
The New Testament book of James says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. The gifts of America and our freedom come from God. I believe that on this September 11, we need to tell God we know that He has blessed us and thank God for it.
We also need to look for ways in our every day lives to be blessings to others, which is just another of way of saying, "Be a good neighbor."
My wife commented last night about driving home from work on 9/11. She noted something that many observed in the days following that horrible time. Drivers were incredibly courteous to one another.
It seemed to me that people were solicitous of each other in supermarket check-out lines and in the mall. People seemed to call and check up on each other with greater frequency. Volunteerism increased dramatically (only to shrink even more dramatically). Donations to food banks and blood banks went up. We got more interested in the world around us. I think that out of gratitude, we became good neighbors.
Jesus once told a story we've come to call The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). You know it well. A man was robbed and beaten badly and left for dead. Two different men, each blessed by God, each with special responsibilities in the spiritual life of ancient Israel, saw the man in his need and even though they could have been blessings to him, went on their ways. A third man came along, a member of the ethnic group most hated by Jesus' fellow Judeans--he was a Samaritan. The Samaritan approached the dying man, poured oil on his wounds, bandaged him, put the man on his animal, carried the man to a nearby inn, paid for his accommodations and care, and said that he would be back to check on things later. Jesus said that the person who cares for others like that Samaritan is a neighbor.
Of course, the ultimate Good Samaritan is Jesus. God saw us alienated from Him, facing the certainty of death and being separated from Him for all time, and went into action. He sent His Son Jesus into our world. When Jesus came to us, He went even further than the Good Samaritan. Jesus didn't just bind up the wounds caused by our sin, selfishness, and death. He was wounded Himself, taking the punishment we deserve for our sins, dying on a cross. He then rose from the dead as a sign that all who dare to turn away from sin and who humbly surrender their lives to Him, will live forever with God.
If we who are Americans follow Jesus Christ, however imperfectly (and I know that I am a most imperfect follower of Jesus), we have two reasons to humbly acknowledge our blessings and to humbly share our blessings with others. For one thing, we're blessed to live in America. Second and more importantly, we're blessed to belong to the God Who will never let us go.
Humility before the blessings of God may be the best way for us to commemorate September 11.
On this sober anniversary of the most deadly attack ever on American soil, we will be remembering September 11, 2001 in different ways.
It's certainly appropriate for us to remember the many who lost their lives and to work and pray to insure that such horrors don't happen again.
It's appropriate also that we remember 9/11 by devoting ourselves and praying for those who are working to bring terrorists to justice.
A healthy patriotism, a deep appreciation for the uniqueness of America, where most of our citizens enjoy freedom and opportunity and where the constant theme of our history has been the struggle to expand freedom and opportunity to all people, is another way to memorialize this day, I think.
But I want to suggest two other ways in which we can remember 9/11.
America and Americans were never so compelling to other people in the world as we were on that horrible September day two years ago. Accustomed to seeing America as a colossus bestriding the world, enjoying untold material benefits, the heart of the world was pulled to America when it saw us attacked, saw a President who was strong enough to cry while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, and witnessed the care and compassion we displayed toward one another and the appreciation with which we accepted the prayers and the help of other peoples. Seeing that we too were vulnerable human beings capable of suffering, the rest of the world wanted to help.
In the time since 9/11 however, old resentments against America and Americans have reappeared. Some of them may be unjustified. But some may be understandable. I fear that we have allowed our patriotism to harden into arrogance, into an angry striving for vengeance.
America is a miracle and a sacred trust. Each generation of Americans, with our different racial and national backgrounds, must take care to pass it on.
But we must be clear about what we mean when speak of passing America on to the next generation. America is more than a swath of geography spread across the Western Hemisphere and it is more than the sum of all our material possessions, technological achievements, or military power. America is an idea and an ideal. Both the idea and the ideal can be summed up in one word: freedom.
I believe that freedom came to America not because we were or are smarter, or better, or stronger, or richer than other peoples. When the thirteen colonies originally declared their independence from Mother England in 1776, there was little reason to think that they could win that independence from the world's greatest power. Nor, with the institution of slavery and our mistreatment of Native Americans, along with all the other sins common to the human race which existed in the fledgling country, could one argue that America was more virtuous or worthy than other nations or peoples. But God blessed and has blessed America for His own mysterious reasons.
In ancient Biblical times, God chose a group of people descended from an imperfect, sinful, and sometimes scheming group of patriarchs--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--to create a nation that would act as a light to other nations and to give birth to the Light and Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Over and over again, God's Word, the Bible, affirms that God chose Israel not because of any special qualities or virtues its people possessed. God chose them simply because God chose them. That should have evoked humility and a commitment to living life God's way--loving God and loving neighbor--from ancient Israel. Israel experienced God's grace, His undeserved favor, after all. But often, God's blessings caused Israel to be arrogant and forgetful of God, always to their detriment or destruction.
I don't equate America with ancient Israel. I don't even equate modern Israel with ancient Israel. The Bible's New Testament in fact, describes the Church as the new Israel.
But what I do say is this. For His own inscrutable reasons God chooses to bless people and nations--the just and the unjust alike, according to Jesus. In fact, each nation of the world has received blessings of all kinds.
God's call on the lives of those He blesses and His call on us as Americans, I believe, is twofold:
First: We need to humbly acknowledge all of our blessings.
Second: We need to humbly share our blessings with others.
The New Testament book of James says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. The gifts of America and our freedom come from God. I believe that on this September 11, we need to tell God we know that He has blessed us and thank God for it.
We also need to look for ways in our every day lives to be blessings to others, which is just another of way of saying, "Be a good neighbor."
My wife commented last night about driving home from work on 9/11. She noted something that many observed in the days following that horrible time. Drivers were incredibly courteous to one another.
It seemed to me that people were solicitous of each other in supermarket check-out lines and in the mall. People seemed to call and check up on each other with greater frequency. Volunteerism increased dramatically (only to shrink even more dramatically). Donations to food banks and blood banks went up. We got more interested in the world around us. I think that out of gratitude, we became good neighbors.
Jesus once told a story we've come to call The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). You know it well. A man was robbed and beaten badly and left for dead. Two different men, each blessed by God, each with special responsibilities in the spiritual life of ancient Israel, saw the man in his need and even though they could have been blessings to him, went on their ways. A third man came along, a member of the ethnic group most hated by Jesus' fellow Judeans--he was a Samaritan. The Samaritan approached the dying man, poured oil on his wounds, bandaged him, put the man on his animal, carried the man to a nearby inn, paid for his accommodations and care, and said that he would be back to check on things later. Jesus said that the person who cares for others like that Samaritan is a neighbor.
Of course, the ultimate Good Samaritan is Jesus. God saw us alienated from Him, facing the certainty of death and being separated from Him for all time, and went into action. He sent His Son Jesus into our world. When Jesus came to us, He went even further than the Good Samaritan. Jesus didn't just bind up the wounds caused by our sin, selfishness, and death. He was wounded Himself, taking the punishment we deserve for our sins, dying on a cross. He then rose from the dead as a sign that all who dare to turn away from sin and who humbly surrender their lives to Him, will live forever with God.
If we who are Americans follow Jesus Christ, however imperfectly (and I know that I am a most imperfect follower of Jesus), we have two reasons to humbly acknowledge our blessings and to humbly share our blessings with others. For one thing, we're blessed to live in America. Second and more importantly, we're blessed to belong to the God Who will never let us go.
Humility before the blessings of God may be the best way for us to commemorate September 11.
QUOTE FOR TODAY AND A BIBLE PASSAGE TO GO WITH IT: "The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself." (Mark Caine)
"Beloved [here, followers of Christ in first century Asia Minor are being addressed, but the words are for all Christians, whose true home is with God], I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when He comes to judge." (First Peter 2:11-12)
"Beloved [here, followers of Christ in first century Asia Minor are being addressed, but the words are for all Christians, whose true home is with God], I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when He comes to judge." (First Peter 2:11-12)
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
The Obsession Continues
In my last column, I mentioned two recent CD releases to which I've been obsessively--and enjoyably--listening: "More Than You Think You Are" by Matchbox Twenty and "The Beautiful Letdown" by Switchfoot. Today, I want to mention two other CDs that I highly recommend.
(1) "The Light of Things Hoped For..." is the second release from Brave Saint Saturn, a four-man group made up of members from the soon-to-be-defunct ska band, Five Iron Frenzy.
This release is a pleasant surprise, as the quartet's first CD was unimpressive. Reese Roper, who serves as part-time assistant pastor of the wonderfully-named Scum of the Earth Church in Denver, handles most of the composing and lead singing duties, as he did in his other band.
Many of the tracks seem to deal with the after-effects of a relational break-up. This helps to make "The Light of Things Hoped For..." the most emotionally poignant album I have heard since Bob Dylan's 1974 release, "Blood on the Tracks."
Roper has an interesting voice. His lyrics run the gamut from an irony reminiscent of Steve Taylor or They Might Be Giants to a tenderness that can evoke tears. Musically, this is a rock band that can occasionally break into ballads.
(2) Two members of the OC Supertones, calling themselves Grand Incredible, use overdubbing to sound like a traditional rock foursome on "G.I.gantic." While containing many thoughtful tracks, this is a fun release which is at times musically reminiscent of Elvis Costello or the J. Geils Band.
Like Switchfoot and Brave Saint Saturn, these Christian musicians produce more than praise music, although it should be remembered that according to the Bible, everything we do well and with the right intent can glorify God. The Bible says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (First Corinthians 10:31). Martin Luther once said, "A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God." Today he might also say that a rock musician can do the same thing plunking his or her bass guitar.
Conversely, Christians should feel free to enjoy the work of non-Christian bands like Matchbox Twenty because, "every perfect gift" (one surmises that this includes the gift of musical talent) comes from God (James 1:17).
Whenever musicians use their talents to build up, strengthen, encourage, incite thought, give expression to our common emotions, or just positively entertain us, God is glorified.
Luther also said, "Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise." I believe that.
In my last column, I mentioned two recent CD releases to which I've been obsessively--and enjoyably--listening: "More Than You Think You Are" by Matchbox Twenty and "The Beautiful Letdown" by Switchfoot. Today, I want to mention two other CDs that I highly recommend.
(1) "The Light of Things Hoped For..." is the second release from Brave Saint Saturn, a four-man group made up of members from the soon-to-be-defunct ska band, Five Iron Frenzy.
This release is a pleasant surprise, as the quartet's first CD was unimpressive. Reese Roper, who serves as part-time assistant pastor of the wonderfully-named Scum of the Earth Church in Denver, handles most of the composing and lead singing duties, as he did in his other band.
Many of the tracks seem to deal with the after-effects of a relational break-up. This helps to make "The Light of Things Hoped For..." the most emotionally poignant album I have heard since Bob Dylan's 1974 release, "Blood on the Tracks."
Roper has an interesting voice. His lyrics run the gamut from an irony reminiscent of Steve Taylor or They Might Be Giants to a tenderness that can evoke tears. Musically, this is a rock band that can occasionally break into ballads.
(2) Two members of the OC Supertones, calling themselves Grand Incredible, use overdubbing to sound like a traditional rock foursome on "G.I.gantic." While containing many thoughtful tracks, this is a fun release which is at times musically reminiscent of Elvis Costello or the J. Geils Band.
Like Switchfoot and Brave Saint Saturn, these Christian musicians produce more than praise music, although it should be remembered that according to the Bible, everything we do well and with the right intent can glorify God. The Bible says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (First Corinthians 10:31). Martin Luther once said, "A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God." Today he might also say that a rock musician can do the same thing plunking his or her bass guitar.
Conversely, Christians should feel free to enjoy the work of non-Christian bands like Matchbox Twenty because, "every perfect gift" (one surmises that this includes the gift of musical talent) comes from God (James 1:17).
Whenever musicians use their talents to build up, strengthen, encourage, incite thought, give expression to our common emotions, or just positively entertain us, God is glorified.
Luther also said, "Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise." I believe that.
CDs to Obsess On
[I write a regular column for the Community Press newspapers in the Cincinnati area. This is the first of two columns I've just submitted dealing with four newer CDs I find myself listening to a lot these days.]
Music has always been important to me and I tend to obsessively listen to several new CDs for weeks or months on end before moving onto the next obsessions. Right now, my attention is on four recent releases, all of which I highly recommend. In this column, I'll review two of them and in the next, I'll look at the other two.
(1) Matchbox Twenty occupies a place in the contemporary pop-rock pantheon just one step below bands like U2 or the Rolling Stones. Security from their niche in the music world may explain the lyrical and musical confidence that is evident on each track of "More Than You Think You Are."
Although Matchbox Twenty is often derivative in their melodies and arrangements, the tunes–from rollicking rockers to ballads–are always satisfying. Lead singer and composer Rob Thomas pens wonderful lyrics; memorable lines abound on this CD.
(2) "The Beautiful Letdown" comes from Switchfoot, whose music off of previous releases added so much power and beauty to the movie, "A Walk to Remember." One word describes "The Beautiful Letdown": passion. But not the cheap version of that rich and important word that is often trotted out on prime time TV and in movies. Composer and lead singer Jon Foreman oozes with a passionate desire to live life to its fullest, refusing to take a single moment for granted.
Switchfoot isn't so much a Christian band as they are a band made up of Christians. The result of that twist on their identity is that Foreman and mates avoid the cliches of much Christian music today. There are no praise tracks here. Foreman is unapologetic about that. He said in a recent interview with "Guideposts for Teens" that not every building designed by a Christian architect is going to be a cathedral, so we shouldn't expect a Christian musician to only produce worship music.
But in Foreman's case, what you can expect are haunting melodies, engaging arrangements, sparse and insightful lyrics, and authentic wrestling with the real gut issues of life. Dim echoes of Sting and the Police can be heard in Switchfoot's work. But they really use their influences as launching pads for creating truly unique music. This is my favorite CD of the past year.
To be continued...
[I write a regular column for the Community Press newspapers in the Cincinnati area. This is the first of two columns I've just submitted dealing with four newer CDs I find myself listening to a lot these days.]
Music has always been important to me and I tend to obsessively listen to several new CDs for weeks or months on end before moving onto the next obsessions. Right now, my attention is on four recent releases, all of which I highly recommend. In this column, I'll review two of them and in the next, I'll look at the other two.
(1) Matchbox Twenty occupies a place in the contemporary pop-rock pantheon just one step below bands like U2 or the Rolling Stones. Security from their niche in the music world may explain the lyrical and musical confidence that is evident on each track of "More Than You Think You Are."
Although Matchbox Twenty is often derivative in their melodies and arrangements, the tunes–from rollicking rockers to ballads–are always satisfying. Lead singer and composer Rob Thomas pens wonderful lyrics; memorable lines abound on this CD.
(2) "The Beautiful Letdown" comes from Switchfoot, whose music off of previous releases added so much power and beauty to the movie, "A Walk to Remember." One word describes "The Beautiful Letdown": passion. But not the cheap version of that rich and important word that is often trotted out on prime time TV and in movies. Composer and lead singer Jon Foreman oozes with a passionate desire to live life to its fullest, refusing to take a single moment for granted.
Switchfoot isn't so much a Christian band as they are a band made up of Christians. The result of that twist on their identity is that Foreman and mates avoid the cliches of much Christian music today. There are no praise tracks here. Foreman is unapologetic about that. He said in a recent interview with "Guideposts for Teens" that not every building designed by a Christian architect is going to be a cathedral, so we shouldn't expect a Christian musician to only produce worship music.
But in Foreman's case, what you can expect are haunting melodies, engaging arrangements, sparse and insightful lyrics, and authentic wrestling with the real gut issues of life. Dim echoes of Sting and the Police can be heard in Switchfoot's work. But they really use their influences as launching pads for creating truly unique music. This is my favorite CD of the past year.
To be continued...
Sunday, September 07, 2003
Purpose Driven Living:
What's Life About?
Matthew 25:14-30
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 7, 2003)
An elderly woman approached me one day. "Mark," she said, "there's something that I've been meaning to ask you. Why exactly are we alive? I just can't figure out what life is all about." This an important question which everybody asks at least once in their lives, I think.
There are all sorts of answers that people give about the purpose of life. Author and business consultant Steven Covey once conducted a thorough study of all the self-improvement literature produced in America from Revolutionary times through the bicentennial year, 1976. Each of the books Covey surveyed tried to help people live "on purpose," to answer the question that woman posed to me: What exactly is my time on this earth supposed to be about? In his survey, Covey noticed something curious. For roughly the first 150-years he surveyed, the primary theme of all this literature was character, how to make oneself useful to God and neighbor. The underlying assumption would seem to have been that life's purpose is found in service to God and others. But then, this self-improvement literature took a major turn. Most of the books for the next fifty years, Covey observed, said that life was about getting: more money, more financial security, more power, more prominence. Twenty-seven years later, that's probably still true.
Back in the Stone Ages when I was growing up, the phrase American Dreamwas used of universal human desire to be free--free to worship, free to think, free to speak, free to live where we wanted, free to marry who we wanted, free to be our best selves. Now, it seems that the American Dream is about one thing: show me the money. The result is a deep seated unhappiness of the kind that prompted that woman to ask her question of me.
Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life, begins with a truly subversive assertion for this day and age. He writes simply, "It's not about you." I don't know about you, but I find that a little hard to swallow. One of the reasons I so love the classic movie, It's a Wonderful Life, is that I identify with its main character, George Bailey. Any average two year old and everybody else on this planet has probably said or at least thought the words that George spoke to Mary that night he finally realized he was in love with her: "I want to do what I want to do!" So, if it's not about me, what is life about?
Our Bible lesson for this morning contains a famous story, or parable, that Jesus told during His time on earth. A wealthy man goes away for a time and leaves three employees in charge of talents. A talent was a unit of money. The boss doesn't leave the same amount of talents with each guy. He parcels them out according to their ability levels. One guy got five, another two, and the last guy got one talent. But you shouldn't feel sorry for the third guy. One talent was equivalent to about sixteen years of pay for the average wage earner in first century Judea. In today's money, the first worker was told to manage $2,080,000, the second $832,000, and the third guy $416,000, astronomical sums of money.
After doing this, Jesus tells us, the boss went away for an indefinite period of time. He didn't say when he was coming back exactly. The great nineteenth century devotional writer Andrew Murray, in his book God's Plans for You, points out that this is exactly what Jesus has done with us. After Jesus died and rose and spent forty more days with His followers, He ascended back into heaven and He said that He would come back one day, although none of us can know precisely when. Before He left though, Jesus entrusted incredible riches to us. To all followers of Jesus, He gave something called the Great Commission. He said that you and I are to be in the disciple-making business, helping others to turn from sin and death to instead, follow Jesus and receive everlasting life with God. Jesus also entrusted another treasure to all of us who call ourselves His followers: the Great Commandment. In it, He tells us to spend our lives loving and serving God and loving and serving our neighbor. On top of all that, the God we know through Jesus also gives to each of us our own custom-made cluster of blessings: our minds, our bodies, our talents, our passions, our interests. The value of all these treasures dwarfs anything the boss in Jesus' story gave to those three employees.
Jesus continued His story. The boss came back and called the three men together to give an accounting of what they had done with the talents with which he'd entrusted them. The first guy reported that he had been able to double the boss' money. The second had done the same. Because of their faithful pursuit of the boss' purposes, their portfolio was doubled. The more willingly you and I step out in faith, using the blessings of God to love God and love neighbor, the more God blesses us, sometimes in ways we don't see or fully appreciate.
The third guy stepped forward. Timidly, he told the boss that he knew the boss to be a demanding character. He hadn't wanted to lose anything that he'd been given. "So," he says, "I buried the talent that you gave me. Here it is; I'm giving it back." This poor old dufus probably thought he was doing a good thing. Instead, the boss takes away the talent, gives it to the first guy, the one who had taken the bigger risks, and threw the third guy into what Jesus calls "the outer darkness." Jesus explains:
"...to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away."
The late humorist Erma Bombeck once wrote about a recurring dream she had:
"[In it]...I am asked to give an accounting of my...life to a higher court, it [goes] like this: 'So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfulfilled?
Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven't spread around?
"And I will answer, 'I've nothing to return. I spent everything you gave me. I'm as naked as the day I was born.'"
You and I will never find our purpose in life by dedicating our lives to getting. Nor will we find our purpose by holding back, hoarding all of God's gifts to us. We find our purpose in life when we commit ourselves to giving ourselves, our time, our talent, and our treasures in service to God and neighbor.
From Jesus' Great Commission and His Great Commandment, we know that life is really about five basic things: loving God with our whole lives; being active participants in God's family, the Church; letting God hammer at and mold us into becoming more like Jesus Christ; willingly serving God and other people; and telling others about how Jesus changes us from God's enemies to being God's friends.
Living life that way isn't always easy, for sure. But I firmly believe that until we begin to live our lives for God's purposes, we won't be living. Life--real life--can only be found when we start to live it in accordance with the specifications invented by the One Who gave us life in the first place!
When we yield control of our lives and let Jesus Christ take control, using whatever gifts God has given to us, for God's purposes, then we will find the meaning and purpose for our lives. It begins with a simple act of surrender to Jesus Christ. That's what I want to invite you to do right now and everyday of your life.
[This series of messages is built around the book, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, which the people of Friendship Church began reading together on Tuesday, September 2. While I don't agree with everything Warren writes in this book, it really is tremendous and I recommend it to everyone! Rick is a Baptist pastor who founded and serves the progressive Saddleback Valley Community Church in southern California.
[The Covey survey of self-improvement literature can be found in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The interpretation of what he found is my own.
[The Erma Bombeck anecdote, taken from a column she wrote in 1987, appeared in an e-mailed inspiration by Methodist pastor Steve Goidier. Steve is a phenomenally insightful and helpful writer and I recommend that everybody with access to e-mail receive his Life Support mailings. You can e-mail Steve at: LifeSupport-owner@yahoogroups.com. In addition to being a gifted writer and speaker, Steve is pastor of a congregation in Utah.]
What's Life About?
Matthew 25:14-30
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, September 7, 2003)
An elderly woman approached me one day. "Mark," she said, "there's something that I've been meaning to ask you. Why exactly are we alive? I just can't figure out what life is all about." This an important question which everybody asks at least once in their lives, I think.
There are all sorts of answers that people give about the purpose of life. Author and business consultant Steven Covey once conducted a thorough study of all the self-improvement literature produced in America from Revolutionary times through the bicentennial year, 1976. Each of the books Covey surveyed tried to help people live "on purpose," to answer the question that woman posed to me: What exactly is my time on this earth supposed to be about? In his survey, Covey noticed something curious. For roughly the first 150-years he surveyed, the primary theme of all this literature was character, how to make oneself useful to God and neighbor. The underlying assumption would seem to have been that life's purpose is found in service to God and others. But then, this self-improvement literature took a major turn. Most of the books for the next fifty years, Covey observed, said that life was about getting: more money, more financial security, more power, more prominence. Twenty-seven years later, that's probably still true.
Back in the Stone Ages when I was growing up, the phrase American Dreamwas used of universal human desire to be free--free to worship, free to think, free to speak, free to live where we wanted, free to marry who we wanted, free to be our best selves. Now, it seems that the American Dream is about one thing: show me the money. The result is a deep seated unhappiness of the kind that prompted that woman to ask her question of me.
Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life, begins with a truly subversive assertion for this day and age. He writes simply, "It's not about you." I don't know about you, but I find that a little hard to swallow. One of the reasons I so love the classic movie, It's a Wonderful Life, is that I identify with its main character, George Bailey. Any average two year old and everybody else on this planet has probably said or at least thought the words that George spoke to Mary that night he finally realized he was in love with her: "I want to do what I want to do!" So, if it's not about me, what is life about?
Our Bible lesson for this morning contains a famous story, or parable, that Jesus told during His time on earth. A wealthy man goes away for a time and leaves three employees in charge of talents. A talent was a unit of money. The boss doesn't leave the same amount of talents with each guy. He parcels them out according to their ability levels. One guy got five, another two, and the last guy got one talent. But you shouldn't feel sorry for the third guy. One talent was equivalent to about sixteen years of pay for the average wage earner in first century Judea. In today's money, the first worker was told to manage $2,080,000, the second $832,000, and the third guy $416,000, astronomical sums of money.
After doing this, Jesus tells us, the boss went away for an indefinite period of time. He didn't say when he was coming back exactly. The great nineteenth century devotional writer Andrew Murray, in his book God's Plans for You, points out that this is exactly what Jesus has done with us. After Jesus died and rose and spent forty more days with His followers, He ascended back into heaven and He said that He would come back one day, although none of us can know precisely when. Before He left though, Jesus entrusted incredible riches to us. To all followers of Jesus, He gave something called the Great Commission. He said that you and I are to be in the disciple-making business, helping others to turn from sin and death to instead, follow Jesus and receive everlasting life with God. Jesus also entrusted another treasure to all of us who call ourselves His followers: the Great Commandment. In it, He tells us to spend our lives loving and serving God and loving and serving our neighbor. On top of all that, the God we know through Jesus also gives to each of us our own custom-made cluster of blessings: our minds, our bodies, our talents, our passions, our interests. The value of all these treasures dwarfs anything the boss in Jesus' story gave to those three employees.
Jesus continued His story. The boss came back and called the three men together to give an accounting of what they had done with the talents with which he'd entrusted them. The first guy reported that he had been able to double the boss' money. The second had done the same. Because of their faithful pursuit of the boss' purposes, their portfolio was doubled. The more willingly you and I step out in faith, using the blessings of God to love God and love neighbor, the more God blesses us, sometimes in ways we don't see or fully appreciate.
The third guy stepped forward. Timidly, he told the boss that he knew the boss to be a demanding character. He hadn't wanted to lose anything that he'd been given. "So," he says, "I buried the talent that you gave me. Here it is; I'm giving it back." This poor old dufus probably thought he was doing a good thing. Instead, the boss takes away the talent, gives it to the first guy, the one who had taken the bigger risks, and threw the third guy into what Jesus calls "the outer darkness." Jesus explains:
"...to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away."
The late humorist Erma Bombeck once wrote about a recurring dream she had:
"[In it]...I am asked to give an accounting of my...life to a higher court, it [goes] like this: 'So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfulfilled?
Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven't spread around?
"And I will answer, 'I've nothing to return. I spent everything you gave me. I'm as naked as the day I was born.'"
You and I will never find our purpose in life by dedicating our lives to getting. Nor will we find our purpose by holding back, hoarding all of God's gifts to us. We find our purpose in life when we commit ourselves to giving ourselves, our time, our talent, and our treasures in service to God and neighbor.
From Jesus' Great Commission and His Great Commandment, we know that life is really about five basic things: loving God with our whole lives; being active participants in God's family, the Church; letting God hammer at and mold us into becoming more like Jesus Christ; willingly serving God and other people; and telling others about how Jesus changes us from God's enemies to being God's friends.
Living life that way isn't always easy, for sure. But I firmly believe that until we begin to live our lives for God's purposes, we won't be living. Life--real life--can only be found when we start to live it in accordance with the specifications invented by the One Who gave us life in the first place!
When we yield control of our lives and let Jesus Christ take control, using whatever gifts God has given to us, for God's purposes, then we will find the meaning and purpose for our lives. It begins with a simple act of surrender to Jesus Christ. That's what I want to invite you to do right now and everyday of your life.
[This series of messages is built around the book, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, which the people of Friendship Church began reading together on Tuesday, September 2. While I don't agree with everything Warren writes in this book, it really is tremendous and I recommend it to everyone! Rick is a Baptist pastor who founded and serves the progressive Saddleback Valley Community Church in southern California.
[The Covey survey of self-improvement literature can be found in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The interpretation of what he found is my own.
[The Erma Bombeck anecdote, taken from a column she wrote in 1987, appeared in an e-mailed inspiration by Methodist pastor Steve Goidier. Steve is a phenomenally insightful and helpful writer and I recommend that everybody with access to e-mail receive his Life Support mailings. You can e-mail Steve at: LifeSupport-owner@yahoogroups.com. In addition to being a gifted writer and speaker, Steve is pastor of a congregation in Utah.]
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Changing Your World: Through Service in Jesus' Name
James 1:17-27
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, August 31, 2003)
In a recent letter to supporters of his ministry, evangelist Ron Hutchcraft shared the true story of an event that happened in a remote village in Cambodia. In 1999, a Cambodian pastor came to that village to share the good news that all who trust Jesus Christ as their God and Savior have everlasting life. The pastor was amazed to find that the people of the village were, almost without needing to be convinced, excited and ready to turn from sin and death and to receive Jesus into their lives. One woman knelt down before this pastor, kissed his hand, and said, “We’ve been waiting for you for twenty years!” That pastor was obviously interested in learning what she meant.
Some of you will remember that several decades ago, Cambodia suffered under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. For the Khmer Rouge, it was a matter of policy to kill en masse. To this day, mass graves from that awful time are being found throughout the countryside. In 1979, Cambodian soldiers entered this particular remote village. They told everybody to leave their huts and to dig a huge pit. The villagers all knew that they were digging their own mass grave.
Desperate, the people began crying out to all the gods or spirits they could remember ever hearing about. While this was happening, one woman remembered hearing her long-dead grandmother mention a Supreme Being. Filled with anguish, she began to cry out to the One Who might best understand her suffering at that moment. Help us, she cried, God Who hung on a cross!
When those terrified people finished digging the giant hole, they noticed that quiet had settled over the whole village. One man finally gathered enough courage to look over his shoulder and was amazed by what he saw. More accurately, he was amazed by what he didn’t see: the soldiers had disappeared into the jungle.
From that moment forward, the people of that village waited for someone to come to them and let them know the God Who hung on a cross, Jesus the Christ.
In spite of all the superficial indicators to the contrary, I believe that there are thousands of people among our neighbors who, just like the people of that Cambodian village, want to know the God Who hung on a cross. They want to meet an actual Christian who is actually following Jesus with a servant’s heart, a heart like that of Jesus.
Instead, we Christians get hung up on superficial, unimportant things.
This past week, the cable news networks have been full of the controversy over the removal of a monument commemorating the ten commandments at an Alabama court house.
Let’s think about this for a second, folks. Where in the New Testament can you find a place where Jesus demanded that the Roman government erect a monument to His particular religious beliefs? The answer is nowhere.
Jesus was too busy loving, preaching, teaching, praying, giving, worshiping, healing, and serving to get caught up in needless controversies. Jesus never tried to force Himself down people’s throats; He loved them into relationship with Him!
In fact, this Ten Commandment monument controversy bothers me for several reasons.
First of all, I’d be willing to bet that 90% of the people who are so hot to trot for this monument couldn’t name all ten commandments if they had to.
And secondly, if people expended one-scintilla of the energy they’re using to protest and complain and petition and lament the sorry spiritual state of our nation and instead, loved and served their neighbor in Jesus’ Name, the sorry spiritual state of our nation and our community would change for the better.
If you want to know why our country is in such a sorry mess spiritually and relationally and psychologically, the answer is simple: Christians have either turned their faith into a spectator sport or they’re engaged in unnecessary arguments that keep them from doing what Jesus Christ has called us to do.
Our Bible lesson for this morning, written by James, one of Jesus’ earthly brothers and a leader of the early Church, reminds us of our calling as followers of Jesus:
"...be doers of the Word [of God], and not merely hearers...Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
To change the sorry state of our nation and world, we must change the way we live. We need to serve others in the Name and in the manner of the One Who hung on a cross.
One night, New Yorker Flo Wheatley and her son, who was undergoing chemotherapy treatment in Manhattan, left the hospital in order to board the subway for Queens. As they awaited the train, Flo tried to help her son keep standing while people hurried by.
A “rough-looking stranger” offered to help. He slung the suitcase Flo was carrying over his shoulders and cleared the way for Flo and her son through the crowd. Later, he helped them change trains and to get a cab. Flo learned that the man was homeless. But when she tried to hand him a five dollar bill, he refused it. He simply closed the cab door and said, “Don’t abandon me.”
That became the inspiration for Flo to take on a ministry of service in Jesus’ Name. With winter coming on, she gathered scraps of fabric and created quilts and sleeping bags for homeless people. She and her kids sewed eight sleeping bags that year, each of which Flo’s husband took into the city and gave to people on the streets.
Eventually, Flo was joined by others inspired by her example to form My Brother’s Keeper, providing many sleeping bags and blankets for homeless people each year.
Jesus once said that when we serve those in need, we really serve Him. You and I meet people every day who have all sorts of needs. Some simply need to be listened to. Others may need a ride to the doctor’s office or help with school work. You and I can’t do everything, that’s true. But the fact that we can’t do everything shouldn’t prevent us from doing some act of service in the Name of the God Who hung on a cross.
Let me suggest three things we can do as servants Jesus has deputized to change the world.
First: We need to listen to others with servants’ ears. When Flo Wheatley heard that homeless man’s words–“Don’t abandon me”–she heard them with a servant’s ears. She set out to find a way to fulfill that man’s request.
Installing servant's ears on our selfish skulls can be difficult. There are times, for example, when I get so caught up in my own agenda that I fail even to hear the things my wife says to me. Just this past week, Ann asked me if I had taken care of something which she had spoken with me about twice...and that I completely forgot about! I didn't even remember her talking with me about it.
When we listen with servants' ears, of course, we need to also be listening for needs that God has peculiarly designed us to fill. Ever since I was a little boy, I've taken an interest in politics, government, and public affairs. I ran a congressional campaign when I was twenty-two years old, for years.
In spite of that interest though, until a few years ago, I had been uninvolved in anything political since becoming a pastor. But a few years back, when our local school district was desperate for funds and had levy and bond issues on the ballot, I volunteered to participate in the campaign. I ended up helping put together the strategy and advertising for the campaign...and we won.
A few years later, the school superintendent asked me to chair the levy renewal campaign. After some heavy-duty praying and hard work, we ended up getting 72% of the vote.
Now, I'm getting involved in the levy campaign for the local Mental Retardation-Developmentally Disabled agency.
I've decided that just as I ask the people of this congregation to serve God and neighbor apart from what they do at work or in their home lives, I need to be willing to use my talents as a campaigner in a volunteer capacity.
Each of us who follows Jesus needs to find the ways of serving others that fit our personalities and God-given talents. Not everyone of us can sew like Flo Wheatley. I can't, for example. That's why I volunteer my services as a campaigner.
Second: We need to find ways to use every event that comes to us in life as occasions for service. After the wedding Ann and I attended a few weekends ago up in northwestern Ohio, we went to the reception and noticed that on each table, there was a small, discrete note that said: “In gratitude to God for all His blessings, Beau and Susan have made a donation to the Filling Memorial Home of Mercy.” The Filling Home, as some of you know, is a home for the severely mentally and physically handicapped, run by the Lutheran Church, up in Napoleon, Ohio. As I read those cards at Susan's and Beau's wedding, I thought, “Wow! What a great idea!” This couple militated against the self-absorption that often goes with wedding days by giving to others. And in doing that, they prompted all of us to think of how we could serve our neighbor.
Third: We need to consider how we can serve in organized service ministries. Carol Barrett has lots of great ideas for fun and meaningful ways we can serve our neighbors as part of Friendship's outreach for Christ. You can volunteer to get involved in those ministries of service with her.
I also hope that you’re continuing to pray with me about where in the world we might go on a short-term mission trip in 2004. Since I last discussed this with you, I’ve been in contact with a Christian ministry called Short-Term Evangelical Missions. In a few weeks, I hope that I can report to you about the possibilities for you and me to go on a servant trip.
You’ve probably heard the story of the young teacher who was working in an inner city school. He had a nice new car and was driving home one afternoon when he stopped at a traffic light. One of his students saw the teacher and his wheels and approached close enough to talk with the teacher while he waited for the light to change. “Where’d you get the car?” the boy asked. “Well, my brother gave it to me,” the teacher said. What the boy said stunned the young teacher. “I wish,” he said, “that I...could be a brother like that!”
Fact is, no matter what our means, we can all be brothers and sisters like that. Grateful for the love of God given to us through Jesus, we can give of ourselves, we can serve in Jesus’ Name, we can help the world know the God Who hung on a cross, and when we do, we can change the world for the better.
[I appreciate the inspiration for this series provided by the pastors and staff of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church of Burnsville, Minnesota through their Thematic Programming publication.]
James 1:17-27
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, August 31, 2003)
In a recent letter to supporters of his ministry, evangelist Ron Hutchcraft shared the true story of an event that happened in a remote village in Cambodia. In 1999, a Cambodian pastor came to that village to share the good news that all who trust Jesus Christ as their God and Savior have everlasting life. The pastor was amazed to find that the people of the village were, almost without needing to be convinced, excited and ready to turn from sin and death and to receive Jesus into their lives. One woman knelt down before this pastor, kissed his hand, and said, “We’ve been waiting for you for twenty years!” That pastor was obviously interested in learning what she meant.
Some of you will remember that several decades ago, Cambodia suffered under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. For the Khmer Rouge, it was a matter of policy to kill en masse. To this day, mass graves from that awful time are being found throughout the countryside. In 1979, Cambodian soldiers entered this particular remote village. They told everybody to leave their huts and to dig a huge pit. The villagers all knew that they were digging their own mass grave.
Desperate, the people began crying out to all the gods or spirits they could remember ever hearing about. While this was happening, one woman remembered hearing her long-dead grandmother mention a Supreme Being. Filled with anguish, she began to cry out to the One Who might best understand her suffering at that moment. Help us, she cried, God Who hung on a cross!
When those terrified people finished digging the giant hole, they noticed that quiet had settled over the whole village. One man finally gathered enough courage to look over his shoulder and was amazed by what he saw. More accurately, he was amazed by what he didn’t see: the soldiers had disappeared into the jungle.
From that moment forward, the people of that village waited for someone to come to them and let them know the God Who hung on a cross, Jesus the Christ.
In spite of all the superficial indicators to the contrary, I believe that there are thousands of people among our neighbors who, just like the people of that Cambodian village, want to know the God Who hung on a cross. They want to meet an actual Christian who is actually following Jesus with a servant’s heart, a heart like that of Jesus.
Instead, we Christians get hung up on superficial, unimportant things.
This past week, the cable news networks have been full of the controversy over the removal of a monument commemorating the ten commandments at an Alabama court house.
Let’s think about this for a second, folks. Where in the New Testament can you find a place where Jesus demanded that the Roman government erect a monument to His particular religious beliefs? The answer is nowhere.
Jesus was too busy loving, preaching, teaching, praying, giving, worshiping, healing, and serving to get caught up in needless controversies. Jesus never tried to force Himself down people’s throats; He loved them into relationship with Him!
In fact, this Ten Commandment monument controversy bothers me for several reasons.
First of all, I’d be willing to bet that 90% of the people who are so hot to trot for this monument couldn’t name all ten commandments if they had to.
And secondly, if people expended one-scintilla of the energy they’re using to protest and complain and petition and lament the sorry spiritual state of our nation and instead, loved and served their neighbor in Jesus’ Name, the sorry spiritual state of our nation and our community would change for the better.
If you want to know why our country is in such a sorry mess spiritually and relationally and psychologically, the answer is simple: Christians have either turned their faith into a spectator sport or they’re engaged in unnecessary arguments that keep them from doing what Jesus Christ has called us to do.
Our Bible lesson for this morning, written by James, one of Jesus’ earthly brothers and a leader of the early Church, reminds us of our calling as followers of Jesus:
"...be doers of the Word [of God], and not merely hearers...Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
To change the sorry state of our nation and world, we must change the way we live. We need to serve others in the Name and in the manner of the One Who hung on a cross.
One night, New Yorker Flo Wheatley and her son, who was undergoing chemotherapy treatment in Manhattan, left the hospital in order to board the subway for Queens. As they awaited the train, Flo tried to help her son keep standing while people hurried by.
A “rough-looking stranger” offered to help. He slung the suitcase Flo was carrying over his shoulders and cleared the way for Flo and her son through the crowd. Later, he helped them change trains and to get a cab. Flo learned that the man was homeless. But when she tried to hand him a five dollar bill, he refused it. He simply closed the cab door and said, “Don’t abandon me.”
That became the inspiration for Flo to take on a ministry of service in Jesus’ Name. With winter coming on, she gathered scraps of fabric and created quilts and sleeping bags for homeless people. She and her kids sewed eight sleeping bags that year, each of which Flo’s husband took into the city and gave to people on the streets.
Eventually, Flo was joined by others inspired by her example to form My Brother’s Keeper, providing many sleeping bags and blankets for homeless people each year.
Jesus once said that when we serve those in need, we really serve Him. You and I meet people every day who have all sorts of needs. Some simply need to be listened to. Others may need a ride to the doctor’s office or help with school work. You and I can’t do everything, that’s true. But the fact that we can’t do everything shouldn’t prevent us from doing some act of service in the Name of the God Who hung on a cross.
Let me suggest three things we can do as servants Jesus has deputized to change the world.
First: We need to listen to others with servants’ ears. When Flo Wheatley heard that homeless man’s words–“Don’t abandon me”–she heard them with a servant’s ears. She set out to find a way to fulfill that man’s request.
Installing servant's ears on our selfish skulls can be difficult. There are times, for example, when I get so caught up in my own agenda that I fail even to hear the things my wife says to me. Just this past week, Ann asked me if I had taken care of something which she had spoken with me about twice...and that I completely forgot about! I didn't even remember her talking with me about it.
When we listen with servants' ears, of course, we need to also be listening for needs that God has peculiarly designed us to fill. Ever since I was a little boy, I've taken an interest in politics, government, and public affairs. I ran a congressional campaign when I was twenty-two years old, for years.
In spite of that interest though, until a few years ago, I had been uninvolved in anything political since becoming a pastor. But a few years back, when our local school district was desperate for funds and had levy and bond issues on the ballot, I volunteered to participate in the campaign. I ended up helping put together the strategy and advertising for the campaign...and we won.
A few years later, the school superintendent asked me to chair the levy renewal campaign. After some heavy-duty praying and hard work, we ended up getting 72% of the vote.
Now, I'm getting involved in the levy campaign for the local Mental Retardation-Developmentally Disabled agency.
I've decided that just as I ask the people of this congregation to serve God and neighbor apart from what they do at work or in their home lives, I need to be willing to use my talents as a campaigner in a volunteer capacity.
Each of us who follows Jesus needs to find the ways of serving others that fit our personalities and God-given talents. Not everyone of us can sew like Flo Wheatley. I can't, for example. That's why I volunteer my services as a campaigner.
Second: We need to find ways to use every event that comes to us in life as occasions for service. After the wedding Ann and I attended a few weekends ago up in northwestern Ohio, we went to the reception and noticed that on each table, there was a small, discrete note that said: “In gratitude to God for all His blessings, Beau and Susan have made a donation to the Filling Memorial Home of Mercy.” The Filling Home, as some of you know, is a home for the severely mentally and physically handicapped, run by the Lutheran Church, up in Napoleon, Ohio. As I read those cards at Susan's and Beau's wedding, I thought, “Wow! What a great idea!” This couple militated against the self-absorption that often goes with wedding days by giving to others. And in doing that, they prompted all of us to think of how we could serve our neighbor.
Third: We need to consider how we can serve in organized service ministries. Carol Barrett has lots of great ideas for fun and meaningful ways we can serve our neighbors as part of Friendship's outreach for Christ. You can volunteer to get involved in those ministries of service with her.
I also hope that you’re continuing to pray with me about where in the world we might go on a short-term mission trip in 2004. Since I last discussed this with you, I’ve been in contact with a Christian ministry called Short-Term Evangelical Missions. In a few weeks, I hope that I can report to you about the possibilities for you and me to go on a servant trip.
You’ve probably heard the story of the young teacher who was working in an inner city school. He had a nice new car and was driving home one afternoon when he stopped at a traffic light. One of his students saw the teacher and his wheels and approached close enough to talk with the teacher while he waited for the light to change. “Where’d you get the car?” the boy asked. “Well, my brother gave it to me,” the teacher said. What the boy said stunned the young teacher. “I wish,” he said, “that I...could be a brother like that!”
Fact is, no matter what our means, we can all be brothers and sisters like that. Grateful for the love of God given to us through Jesus, we can give of ourselves, we can serve in Jesus’ Name, we can help the world know the God Who hung on a cross, and when we do, we can change the world for the better.
[I appreciate the inspiration for this series provided by the pastors and staff of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church of Burnsville, Minnesota through their Thematic Programming publication.]
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Tonight, I attended the first organizational meeting for the Clermont County Mental Retardation/Developmentally Disabled (MRDD) Board levy campaign. Ordinarily, a campaign organization working to pass a levy issue in November would have begun much earlier. But our county commissioners, understandably, wanted to await giving approval to having the ballot issue before the voters this November until after an extensive audit of the Clermont MRDD, done by State Auditor Betty Montgomery, was completed.
That audit, which looked at management and financial practices of the Clermont MRDD, concluded that the agency is soundly operated. The 128-page report also made helpful suggestions for improved operations.
The modest operating levy that the county commissioners enthusiastically approved placing on this November's ballot will allow the Clermont MRDD to continue to provide excellent and necessary services to the county's mentally and developmentally handicapped. To me, this is about as appropriate and defensible a use of my property taxes as I can name and I'm happy to volunteer in helping the campaign on behalf of those who can't really campaign for themselves.
It seems to me that when citizens or public officials are faced with decisions, there are two paramount questions that need to be answered from a Christian perspective: (1) Is it right? (2) Does it make sense? The reason for the first question: God wants us to do right. The reason for the second: God gave us our minds with the obvious hope that we would use them.
I could be wrong in my judgment on the MRDD levy. But I personally believe that it is both right and sensible. I hope that the voters of our county will agree.
That audit, which looked at management and financial practices of the Clermont MRDD, concluded that the agency is soundly operated. The 128-page report also made helpful suggestions for improved operations.
The modest operating levy that the county commissioners enthusiastically approved placing on this November's ballot will allow the Clermont MRDD to continue to provide excellent and necessary services to the county's mentally and developmentally handicapped. To me, this is about as appropriate and defensible a use of my property taxes as I can name and I'm happy to volunteer in helping the campaign on behalf of those who can't really campaign for themselves.
It seems to me that when citizens or public officials are faced with decisions, there are two paramount questions that need to be answered from a Christian perspective: (1) Is it right? (2) Does it make sense? The reason for the first question: God wants us to do right. The reason for the second: God gave us our minds with the obvious hope that we would use them.
I could be wrong in my judgment on the MRDD levy. But I personally believe that it is both right and sensible. I hope that the voters of our county will agree.
Monday, August 25, 2003
REFLECTIONS ON THE PROVERBS (Here, I continue to note and briefly discuss passages from God's book of wisdom that I find especially enlightening.)
PROVERBS 9:10:
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."
Awesome passage! When I try to “figure things out” on my own, I usually end up in a pickle. When I try to put myself and my desires first, it hurts me and it hurts others. These are lessons I have learned the hard way, but I could have learned more easily had I simply listened to God. “There is a way that seems right...” to we human beings, but it’s usually wrong! A wise person builds on the Rock, God! (Fear, as used in Biblical passages like this, doesn't mean terror as much as it means awe and respect for the perfect, ominipotent, omniscient God.)
PROVERBS 10:4:
"A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich."
There is great truth to this so long as it isn’t used to explain away the poverty of those who have been discriminated against and held down. It also shouldn’t be used to justify laziness. There is nothing wrong with wealth, so long as it isn't the focus of one's life. The famously misquoted passage of the New Testament tells us that "the love of money" is the root of evil. Even a perfunctory look at the world will bear the truth of that statement out!
PROVERBS 9:10:
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."
Awesome passage! When I try to “figure things out” on my own, I usually end up in a pickle. When I try to put myself and my desires first, it hurts me and it hurts others. These are lessons I have learned the hard way, but I could have learned more easily had I simply listened to God. “There is a way that seems right...” to we human beings, but it’s usually wrong! A wise person builds on the Rock, God! (Fear, as used in Biblical passages like this, doesn't mean terror as much as it means awe and respect for the perfect, ominipotent, omniscient God.)
PROVERBS 10:4:
"A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich."
There is great truth to this so long as it isn’t used to explain away the poverty of those who have been discriminated against and held down. It also shouldn’t be used to justify laziness. There is nothing wrong with wealth, so long as it isn't the focus of one's life. The famously misquoted passage of the New Testament tells us that "the love of money" is the root of evil. Even a perfunctory look at the world will bear the truth of that statement out!
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Changing Your World: Through Prayer
Ephesians 6:10-20
[shared with the people of Friendship Church, August 24, 2003]
“When we work,” someone has said, “we work. But when we pray, God works.” For several months now, we’ve been talking about how you and I can change the world–and change our own individual worlds–for the better. But the simple fact is that on our own, we can’t change the world for the better. Only the God we meet and know through Jesus Christ can do that. Whatever good we want to see happen in our lives, in the life of our families, communities, school, friends, neighbors, or world will absolutely have to begin in prayer.
Bill Hybels is the pastor of one of the largest and most dynamic churches in the world, Willow Creek Community Church in the Chicago area. Some years ago, his father, who had always been physically active, suddenly died of a heart attack. He wrote movingly about that experience in his book, Too Busy Not to Pray:
"As I drove to my mother’s house in Michigan, I wondered how I would function without the person who believed in me more than anyone else ever has or will.
"That night in bed, I wrestled with God. 'Why did this happen? How can I put it all together in my mind and in my life? Am I going to recover from losing my father? If you really loved me, how could you do this to me?'
"Suddenly, in the middle of the night, everything changed. It was as if I had turned a corner and was now facing a new direction. God simply said, 'I’m able. I’m enough for you. Right now you doubt this, but trust me.'
"[Hybels goes on to reflect] That experience may sound unreal, but its results were unmistakable. After that tear-filled despairing night, I was never again tortured by doubt–either about God’s care for me or my ability to handle life without Dad. Grief, yes–his death wounded me deeply, and I will always miss him. But it did not set me adrift without anchor or compass. In the middle of the bleakest night I have ever known, one overpoweringly intimate moment with God gave me courage, reassurance and hope."
Life can sometimes overwhelm us. That’s because, as our Bible lesson tells us, our enemies in this life aren’t the spouse with whom we disagree or the child who rebels or the co-worker who gets on our nerves. Not even the sins that tempt us or the death that comes to us all, which have after all, already been defeated by Jesus Christ, are our real enemies. Our real enemies, our Bible lesson reminds us, are the spiritual forces of darkness. These are the enemies that pull the human race–and each of us individually–down into the pits of despair, depression, apathy, relational discord, and hollow, shallow, pointless living. We cannot overcome them on our own. We need to call on the only One Who can overcome them. We need to pray to God.
And we need to pray not just for ourselves. We need to pray for others. Lutheran pastor Walt Kallestad tells about a friend of his who was being annoyed by a check-out clerk. The clerk “was slow, fumbling, and couldn’t seem to do anything right for the people she was supposed to be ‘serving.’” Kallestad goes on to write:
"Irritated, my friend grumbled to God, ‘Why does this always happen to me?’ Then [a]...thought struck her, ‘You’re here because you’re the only one in line who will pray for this clerk and treat her with patience and kindness, which she needs right now, instead of angrily rattling her more.”
God isn’t just interested in our prayers of cosmic significance for world peace or an end to terrorism. An old saying tells us that “the devil is in the details.” Satan loves to discourage us in the little, everyday places in which we live, in the details. He knows that if he can trip us up there, there is no way that we’ll ever be free enough to address the bigger issues of life. So, we need to pray for ourselves and we need to pray for others. When we do, we’ll change our worlds.
But how do we go about praying exactly? To tell you the truth, I get bored easily. So, I tend to change my approach to prayer about once every six months. But this morning, if you’re interested in establishing prayer as a regular part of changing your life and changing your world, I’d like to share a simple formula for praying each day that I’ve shared before and which people have told me, they find helpful. It’s not the only good formula on the block. A few weeks ago, I helped Kelsey win a Cub Scout merit badge and we learned a formula for praying called PATH: Praise, Ask, Thank, Help! I like that. Another, which is the basis for the dailywalk devotions for this week is PRAY: Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield. Good stuff. Today, I want to talk about a formula that has worked for me: ACTS. I like that acronym because it reminds me that when I pray, God acts.
Following the ACTS formula for praying, the first thing we do when we pray is adoration. We praise God for Who He is, for His characteristics or personality traits. (The theologians speak of God's attributes.) More often than I care to admit, my prayers are offered in a hurry when I’m facing a challenge or uncertainty. “God,” I might say, “I don’t know what to say to so-and-so, who is dealing with difficulty.” Or, “God, any ideas for my sermon for Sunday?” Or, “Protect my kids.” There’s nothing wrong with bringing our everyday prayers of desperation to God. Like the loving Father He is, God loves to hear from us. But more than anything, God wants to have a relationship with us.
God can really work in the lives of those who hop off of their own agendas long enough to cultivate a relationship with Him. When we begin our prayer time with adoration, praising God for Who He is–a God of infinite power, love, wisdom, grace, mercy, helpfulness, infinite life–we take the focus off of ourselves and open the channels of communication to our soul. Sometimes, when I’m sure that nobody is around, I do this part of my praying by singing a song of praise like, “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” or "I Love You, Lord." When God hears my early-morning yodeling, He may hope that I won’t sing forever. But like the good parent He is, I think that God is pleased even if I am off-key. The point is that when we praise God, we’re ready to take direction from Him.
The C in the ACTS formula for prayer is confession. If adoration opens us up to communicating with God, refusing to confess our sins to God is sure to close off our communication with Him. But we need to be earnest about this business of confession. A few weeks ago, in our Wednesday night discussion group, we were talking about confession in our weekly worship celebrations. We seemed to agree that public confession is necessary, but it’s also dangerous. Public confessions are of necessity, somewhat generalized and vague; they have to be worded so that they speak for all of us as we bring our sins to God for forgiveness. But I know that in my own case, that can set a bad pattern for my personal prayers. I say, “God, forgive me for my sins,” which may not really not be a confession at all. It may only be me mouthing religious-sounding words I’ve heard somewhere else. A good rule for effective praying of whatever kind is: get specific. “God, forgive me for being such a critical, stick-in-the-mud with my family.” “Forgive me for trying always to get my way with such-and-so.” “Forgive me for cutting off that red Volvo on the freeway this morning.” Invite God to forgive and help you change in the specific, little places of your life and then things can really begin to change for the better!
The T in ACTS stands for thanksgiving. You know the famous incident when Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one returned to thank Him? One analyst of this passage has said that you can be sure than all ten were grateful for their healing, but only one expressed that gratitude. Probably most of us in this room today are grateful for the blessings we have in our lives. But when we take the time to thank God for our blessings–like the blessing of being forgiven for being a critical, stick-in-the-mud with our families, for example–we remind ourselves of where our blessings come from and our relationship with God is deepened.
Finally, the S in ACTS is the strangest word of all to our modern ears. It’s supplication, which means humbly asking God for help in our lives. Having adored, thanked, and confessed to God, we now can bring our laundry lists of needs and wants to God. Repeatedly, the Bible confirms that God wants to hear our requests. “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart,” the Old Testament says. (I think that passage is interestingly worded. It really tells us that if we will delight, first of all in God, He will work a transformation in us and change our priorities so that what we want will be exactly what God wants to give.) “Ask,” Jesus tells us in the New Testament, “and you will receive.”
Repeatedly throughout history, the world has been changed by the supplications of those who established strong relationships with God through time spent in adoration, confession, and thanksgiving. Slavery was brought to an end peacefully in England through a movement that began in prayer. (Slavery ended only after a violent Civil War in America and Abraham Linclon said in his second inaugural address as president that the war came precisely because of the spiritual failings of the country.) The Cold War ended, I’m convinced not because of the policies of any government, but because of people who prayed. Alcoholics Anonymous, one of the most important movements of the twentieth century, began with prayer in Jesus’ Name. So did Habitat for Humanity. So did every worthwhile, life-changing endeavor in the history of the human race.
The world we face is full of challenges too big for any of us to handle in our own strength, too big even to be dealt with by a collection of people in their collective strength. We need to remember something: When we work, we work; when we pray, God works...in us, through us, for us. There’s a whole world in need of changing. Let’s pray and see how God works!
[The book by Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray, inspired much in the development of this message. The phrase that serves as the title for Hybels' book was one written by the ever-busy Martin Luther, suggesting that activity is no excuse for prayerlessness; in fact, the more active we are, the more we need to pray. The story about Walt Kallestad's friend comes from Pastor Kallestad's book, Be Your Own Creative Coach.]
Ephesians 6:10-20
[shared with the people of Friendship Church, August 24, 2003]
“When we work,” someone has said, “we work. But when we pray, God works.” For several months now, we’ve been talking about how you and I can change the world–and change our own individual worlds–for the better. But the simple fact is that on our own, we can’t change the world for the better. Only the God we meet and know through Jesus Christ can do that. Whatever good we want to see happen in our lives, in the life of our families, communities, school, friends, neighbors, or world will absolutely have to begin in prayer.
Bill Hybels is the pastor of one of the largest and most dynamic churches in the world, Willow Creek Community Church in the Chicago area. Some years ago, his father, who had always been physically active, suddenly died of a heart attack. He wrote movingly about that experience in his book, Too Busy Not to Pray:
"As I drove to my mother’s house in Michigan, I wondered how I would function without the person who believed in me more than anyone else ever has or will.
"That night in bed, I wrestled with God. 'Why did this happen? How can I put it all together in my mind and in my life? Am I going to recover from losing my father? If you really loved me, how could you do this to me?'
"Suddenly, in the middle of the night, everything changed. It was as if I had turned a corner and was now facing a new direction. God simply said, 'I’m able. I’m enough for you. Right now you doubt this, but trust me.'
"[Hybels goes on to reflect] That experience may sound unreal, but its results were unmistakable. After that tear-filled despairing night, I was never again tortured by doubt–either about God’s care for me or my ability to handle life without Dad. Grief, yes–his death wounded me deeply, and I will always miss him. But it did not set me adrift without anchor or compass. In the middle of the bleakest night I have ever known, one overpoweringly intimate moment with God gave me courage, reassurance and hope."
Life can sometimes overwhelm us. That’s because, as our Bible lesson tells us, our enemies in this life aren’t the spouse with whom we disagree or the child who rebels or the co-worker who gets on our nerves. Not even the sins that tempt us or the death that comes to us all, which have after all, already been defeated by Jesus Christ, are our real enemies. Our real enemies, our Bible lesson reminds us, are the spiritual forces of darkness. These are the enemies that pull the human race–and each of us individually–down into the pits of despair, depression, apathy, relational discord, and hollow, shallow, pointless living. We cannot overcome them on our own. We need to call on the only One Who can overcome them. We need to pray to God.
And we need to pray not just for ourselves. We need to pray for others. Lutheran pastor Walt Kallestad tells about a friend of his who was being annoyed by a check-out clerk. The clerk “was slow, fumbling, and couldn’t seem to do anything right for the people she was supposed to be ‘serving.’” Kallestad goes on to write:
"Irritated, my friend grumbled to God, ‘Why does this always happen to me?’ Then [a]...thought struck her, ‘You’re here because you’re the only one in line who will pray for this clerk and treat her with patience and kindness, which she needs right now, instead of angrily rattling her more.”
God isn’t just interested in our prayers of cosmic significance for world peace or an end to terrorism. An old saying tells us that “the devil is in the details.” Satan loves to discourage us in the little, everyday places in which we live, in the details. He knows that if he can trip us up there, there is no way that we’ll ever be free enough to address the bigger issues of life. So, we need to pray for ourselves and we need to pray for others. When we do, we’ll change our worlds.
But how do we go about praying exactly? To tell you the truth, I get bored easily. So, I tend to change my approach to prayer about once every six months. But this morning, if you’re interested in establishing prayer as a regular part of changing your life and changing your world, I’d like to share a simple formula for praying each day that I’ve shared before and which people have told me, they find helpful. It’s not the only good formula on the block. A few weeks ago, I helped Kelsey win a Cub Scout merit badge and we learned a formula for praying called PATH: Praise, Ask, Thank, Help! I like that. Another, which is the basis for the dailywalk devotions for this week is PRAY: Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield. Good stuff. Today, I want to talk about a formula that has worked for me: ACTS. I like that acronym because it reminds me that when I pray, God acts.
Following the ACTS formula for praying, the first thing we do when we pray is adoration. We praise God for Who He is, for His characteristics or personality traits. (The theologians speak of God's attributes.) More often than I care to admit, my prayers are offered in a hurry when I’m facing a challenge or uncertainty. “God,” I might say, “I don’t know what to say to so-and-so, who is dealing with difficulty.” Or, “God, any ideas for my sermon for Sunday?” Or, “Protect my kids.” There’s nothing wrong with bringing our everyday prayers of desperation to God. Like the loving Father He is, God loves to hear from us. But more than anything, God wants to have a relationship with us.
God can really work in the lives of those who hop off of their own agendas long enough to cultivate a relationship with Him. When we begin our prayer time with adoration, praising God for Who He is–a God of infinite power, love, wisdom, grace, mercy, helpfulness, infinite life–we take the focus off of ourselves and open the channels of communication to our soul. Sometimes, when I’m sure that nobody is around, I do this part of my praying by singing a song of praise like, “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” or "I Love You, Lord." When God hears my early-morning yodeling, He may hope that I won’t sing forever. But like the good parent He is, I think that God is pleased even if I am off-key. The point is that when we praise God, we’re ready to take direction from Him.
The C in the ACTS formula for prayer is confession. If adoration opens us up to communicating with God, refusing to confess our sins to God is sure to close off our communication with Him. But we need to be earnest about this business of confession. A few weeks ago, in our Wednesday night discussion group, we were talking about confession in our weekly worship celebrations. We seemed to agree that public confession is necessary, but it’s also dangerous. Public confessions are of necessity, somewhat generalized and vague; they have to be worded so that they speak for all of us as we bring our sins to God for forgiveness. But I know that in my own case, that can set a bad pattern for my personal prayers. I say, “God, forgive me for my sins,” which may not really not be a confession at all. It may only be me mouthing religious-sounding words I’ve heard somewhere else. A good rule for effective praying of whatever kind is: get specific. “God, forgive me for being such a critical, stick-in-the-mud with my family.” “Forgive me for trying always to get my way with such-and-so.” “Forgive me for cutting off that red Volvo on the freeway this morning.” Invite God to forgive and help you change in the specific, little places of your life and then things can really begin to change for the better!
The T in ACTS stands for thanksgiving. You know the famous incident when Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one returned to thank Him? One analyst of this passage has said that you can be sure than all ten were grateful for their healing, but only one expressed that gratitude. Probably most of us in this room today are grateful for the blessings we have in our lives. But when we take the time to thank God for our blessings–like the blessing of being forgiven for being a critical, stick-in-the-mud with our families, for example–we remind ourselves of where our blessings come from and our relationship with God is deepened.
Finally, the S in ACTS is the strangest word of all to our modern ears. It’s supplication, which means humbly asking God for help in our lives. Having adored, thanked, and confessed to God, we now can bring our laundry lists of needs and wants to God. Repeatedly, the Bible confirms that God wants to hear our requests. “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart,” the Old Testament says. (I think that passage is interestingly worded. It really tells us that if we will delight, first of all in God, He will work a transformation in us and change our priorities so that what we want will be exactly what God wants to give.) “Ask,” Jesus tells us in the New Testament, “and you will receive.”
Repeatedly throughout history, the world has been changed by the supplications of those who established strong relationships with God through time spent in adoration, confession, and thanksgiving. Slavery was brought to an end peacefully in England through a movement that began in prayer. (Slavery ended only after a violent Civil War in America and Abraham Linclon said in his second inaugural address as president that the war came precisely because of the spiritual failings of the country.) The Cold War ended, I’m convinced not because of the policies of any government, but because of people who prayed. Alcoholics Anonymous, one of the most important movements of the twentieth century, began with prayer in Jesus’ Name. So did Habitat for Humanity. So did every worthwhile, life-changing endeavor in the history of the human race.
The world we face is full of challenges too big for any of us to handle in our own strength, too big even to be dealt with by a collection of people in their collective strength. We need to remember something: When we work, we work; when we pray, God works...in us, through us, for us. There’s a whole world in need of changing. Let’s pray and see how God works!
[The book by Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray, inspired much in the development of this message. The phrase that serves as the title for Hybels' book was one written by the ever-busy Martin Luther, suggesting that activity is no excuse for prayerlessness; in fact, the more active we are, the more we need to pray. The story about Walt Kallestad's friend comes from Pastor Kallestad's book, Be Your Own Creative Coach.]
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Another gem from an e-mailed inspiration of several weeks ago from Pastor Glen VanderKloot. Write to him at pastor@faithlutheran.com to receive his daily e-mailed, OnLine with Faith.
*****************************************************
A Thought for the Day
A whale is as unique as a cactus.
But don't ask a whale to survive Death Valley.
We all have special gifts.
Where we use them and how determines whether we actually complete something.
Max DePree, Leadership Is an Art. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Bible Verse
1 Corinthians 12:4-7
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts,
but they all come from the same Spirit.
There are different ways to serve the same LORD,
and we can each do different things.
Yet the same God works in all of us and helps us in everything we do.
The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others.
Contemporary English Version
Prayer
Lord, thank you for making me special and unique.
Help me to use my gifts to serve you and your people. Amen
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
*****************************************************
A Thought for the Day
A whale is as unique as a cactus.
But don't ask a whale to survive Death Valley.
We all have special gifts.
Where we use them and how determines whether we actually complete something.
Max DePree, Leadership Is an Art. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Bible Verse
1 Corinthians 12:4-7
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts,
but they all come from the same Spirit.
There are different ways to serve the same LORD,
and we can each do different things.
Yet the same God works in all of us and helps us in everything we do.
The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others.
Contemporary English Version
Prayer
Lord, thank you for making me special and unique.
Help me to use my gifts to serve you and your people. Amen
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
WHAT ABOUT CLAPPING IN WORSHIP?
A few months ago, I was asked, "Is it appropriate to clap hands during worship?"
To some who read this column, that may seem a strange question. For them, clapping is as regular a part of worship as sleeping through the pastor's message. But for others, such clapping is a foreign notion.
In Bible times, clapping was used in several different ways. It could be used to express regret for one's sins and their consequences (Ezekiel 6:11). It could convey condemnation. In the Old Testament book of Nahum, a time is foretold when an aggressive empire would fall and relieved celebrants would clap.
But in Bible times, clapping was most often used in worship, to express praise for God. "Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with songs of joy!" (Psalm 47:1).
Today, it seems to me that there are three healthy ways for clapping to occur in our worship celebrations.
First: As part of our praise of God, such as when we're singing worship songs.
Second: To thank those who help us, whether through singing or testimony about God's work in their lives or by their service to God, help us to see God more clearly. One Biblical writer, the New Testament preacher Paul, commended people in this way in the letters he wrote to early churches. One example of this can be found in Colossians 4:7-14. I think Paul would have approved of the words of William Arthur Ward: "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
Third: To acknowledge those who walk closely with God. Paul constantly did this in his letters, written to be read during the early church's worship celebrations. (Check out Romans 16:3)
I think that there are a couple of inappropriate ways to use clapping during worship. One is to drain our applause or clapping with music of all meaning through repetitive overuse. Clapping in worship can be as much a habit as a threadbare liturgy or the hollow recitation of the Lord's Prayer or Apostles' Creed.
A more dangerous misuse of clapping in worship is to do so in response to a "performance," thereby not praising God, but feeding people's egos. While it is true that Christian worship is meant to be a performance of praise and devotion for an audience of one, God, it isn't meant to be a Vegas lounge show we put on for each other. When we applaud in this latter vein, we've taken a wrong turn.
Is the risk of worship-time applause such a danger that it should be completely discouraged by churches and their pastors? No, I don't think so. You can't banish benign practices simply because of the risks involved. If risk were reason enough to banish certain practices, churches would also get rid of preaching and teaching and serving because the appreciation accorded those who do such things might puff some people up. Some people's egos will be fed by our clapping, it's true. But God can also be glorified by it.
(This is the latest installment of a column I enjoy writing for a local chain of suburban newspapers.)
A few months ago, I was asked, "Is it appropriate to clap hands during worship?"
To some who read this column, that may seem a strange question. For them, clapping is as regular a part of worship as sleeping through the pastor's message. But for others, such clapping is a foreign notion.
In Bible times, clapping was used in several different ways. It could be used to express regret for one's sins and their consequences (Ezekiel 6:11). It could convey condemnation. In the Old Testament book of Nahum, a time is foretold when an aggressive empire would fall and relieved celebrants would clap.
But in Bible times, clapping was most often used in worship, to express praise for God. "Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with songs of joy!" (Psalm 47:1).
Today, it seems to me that there are three healthy ways for clapping to occur in our worship celebrations.
First: As part of our praise of God, such as when we're singing worship songs.
Second: To thank those who help us, whether through singing or testimony about God's work in their lives or by their service to God, help us to see God more clearly. One Biblical writer, the New Testament preacher Paul, commended people in this way in the letters he wrote to early churches. One example of this can be found in Colossians 4:7-14. I think Paul would have approved of the words of William Arthur Ward: "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
Third: To acknowledge those who walk closely with God. Paul constantly did this in his letters, written to be read during the early church's worship celebrations. (Check out Romans 16:3)
I think that there are a couple of inappropriate ways to use clapping during worship. One is to drain our applause or clapping with music of all meaning through repetitive overuse. Clapping in worship can be as much a habit as a threadbare liturgy or the hollow recitation of the Lord's Prayer or Apostles' Creed.
A more dangerous misuse of clapping in worship is to do so in response to a "performance," thereby not praising God, but feeding people's egos. While it is true that Christian worship is meant to be a performance of praise and devotion for an audience of one, God, it isn't meant to be a Vegas lounge show we put on for each other. When we applaud in this latter vein, we've taken a wrong turn.
Is the risk of worship-time applause such a danger that it should be completely discouraged by churches and their pastors? No, I don't think so. You can't banish benign practices simply because of the risks involved. If risk were reason enough to banish certain practices, churches would also get rid of preaching and teaching and serving because the appreciation accorded those who do such things might puff some people up. Some people's egos will be fed by our clapping, it's true. But God can also be glorified by it.
(This is the latest installment of a column I enjoy writing for a local chain of suburban newspapers.)
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
This striking vignette, taken from a sermon by Max Lucado, is presented as today's e-mailed inspiration from OnLine with Faith. To subscribe to OnLine with Faith yourself, contact Pastor Glen VanderKloot at pastor@faithlutheran.com.
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A Thought for the Day
Touching Jesus
Some years ago, David Robinson, who plays basketball in San Antonio, visited our church. He's not a member of our church, but he shows up occasionally. You can imagine the stir that occurred when that seven-foot striking fellow walked into the auditorium.
We have two worship services, and he came to the first one. At the end of it, people mobbed him. Kids all wanted his autograph. Dads lined up, allegedly to get things signed for their kids, but we all knew the
truth. The brouhaha finally settled down and David went his way, and we began the second service.
In the second service that day, I was standing to do the announcements when something happened that has never happened since. A homeless person walked in the back of the auditorium, came down the center aisle with his backpack, ratty jeans, torn T-shirt, unshaven face, and distinct odor. He walked down to the front, and he sat down.
The contrast struck me. When David Robinson entered, he was immediately swarmed. People wanted to touch him and be close to him, be next to him. However, I'm sad to say that nobody jumped up to run and sit next to the homeless man.
After two or three awkward minutes during which I was trying to act like
nothing was happening, one of our elders got up from his seat and sat by the man and touched him. I was struck. Wouldn't you have been as well?
The message that I received in my heart that morning was: Which of these men do you think touched Jesus? If you want to touch Jesus, whom do you touch?
Jesus said, "Whatever you've done for the least of these, my brethren, you've done also to me."
[Citation: Max Lucado, "Touch of Christ," Preaching Today No. 197]
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Bible Verse
James 2:2-4
Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes
to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes. You must not give the best seat to the one in
fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or
sit on the floor. That is the same as saying that some people are
better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge.
Contemporary English Version
Prayer
Lord, help me to reach out to others in the name of Jesus. Amen
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*****************************************************
A Thought for the Day
Touching Jesus
Some years ago, David Robinson, who plays basketball in San Antonio, visited our church. He's not a member of our church, but he shows up occasionally. You can imagine the stir that occurred when that seven-foot striking fellow walked into the auditorium.
We have two worship services, and he came to the first one. At the end of it, people mobbed him. Kids all wanted his autograph. Dads lined up, allegedly to get things signed for their kids, but we all knew the
truth. The brouhaha finally settled down and David went his way, and we began the second service.
In the second service that day, I was standing to do the announcements when something happened that has never happened since. A homeless person walked in the back of the auditorium, came down the center aisle with his backpack, ratty jeans, torn T-shirt, unshaven face, and distinct odor. He walked down to the front, and he sat down.
The contrast struck me. When David Robinson entered, he was immediately swarmed. People wanted to touch him and be close to him, be next to him. However, I'm sad to say that nobody jumped up to run and sit next to the homeless man.
After two or three awkward minutes during which I was trying to act like
nothing was happening, one of our elders got up from his seat and sat by the man and touched him. I was struck. Wouldn't you have been as well?
The message that I received in my heart that morning was: Which of these men do you think touched Jesus? If you want to touch Jesus, whom do you touch?
Jesus said, "Whatever you've done for the least of these, my brethren, you've done also to me."
[Citation: Max Lucado, "Touch of Christ," Preaching Today No. 197]
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Bible Verse
James 2:2-4
Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes
to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes. You must not give the best seat to the one in
fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or
sit on the floor. That is the same as saying that some people are
better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge.
Contemporary English Version
Prayer
Lord, help me to reach out to others in the name of Jesus. Amen
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
QUOTE FOR TODAY: "'It's impossible to feel good about yourself when you think you've done something wrong,' says writer and educator Adam Khan. 'So the way to like yourself better is to clean up your integrity.' Fortunately, [the apostle] John goes on to tell us how we can do that: 'If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.' Through our confession and Jesus' cleansing, God creates in us positive, sound feelings. We become more like Christ in thought, word, and deed." (Walt Kallestad, in his wonderful book, Be Your Own Creative Coach: Unlocking the Power of Your Imagination to Revolutionize Your Relationships, Careers, and Future, p.133)
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
QUOTE FOR TODAY: This comes from Zig Ziglar in his latest newsletter: "You will make a lousy anybody else, but you are the best you in existence. You are the only one who can use your ability. It is an awesome responsibility."
A BIBLE PASSAGE THAT GOES WITH THE QUOTE: "...it was You Who formed my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." (Psalm 139:13-14)
A BIBLE PASSAGE THAT GOES WITH THE QUOTE: "...it was You Who formed my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." (Psalm 139:13-14)
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