Genesis 2:2-3 "On the seventh day, having finished his task, God rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from his work of creation."
The Sabbath, is the most holy of days. So holy in fact, it is the only day mentioned in God's Ten Commandments to us (Exodus 20:8-11). God took time to rest and soak in all that he had accomplished. He desires for us to do the same thing. We spend so much of our waking hours running around like chickens with our heads cut off. God's original design for our lives was for us to take some time off and explore all the wonderful things he has done for us through all he created.
Jesus respected the Sabbath as a time to benefit God's people. On one Sabbath day Jesus and his followers were walking through some grain fields when his followers started breaking off the heads of the wheat. The religious leaders of the day saw what they were doing and used this infraction of the law as a chance to attack Jesus ministry. Jesus replies "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!" (Mark 2:23-28) Jesus also healed on the Sabbath which some would consider work as well. When challenged about this he responded, "If you had one sheep and it fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you get to work and pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, it is right to do good on the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:1-14) The disciples picked the grain to survive, just like you would need to rescue a sheep for food. God asked for the Sabbath to be kept holy, by us stopping the work for others and concentrate on his works. What is godlier then taking care of yourself (God's greatest creation) by eating or helping others? Both of these scenarios keep the focus on God and that is what he is looking for us to do on our Sabbath day.
So when is this Sabbath day? Biblically this day runs from sunset on Friday evening to sunset on Saturday evening. To the Jews, sunset was literally the end of the day. Being Jews themselves, Jesus and his followers observed this time period as the Sabbath. It wasn't until after Jesus rose form the grave on Easter Sunday, was there any kind of celebration on Sunday. To the Apostles and the first Century Church Sunday morning gatherings were considered to be "The Lord's Day". (Acts 20:7-12) To them this was not a replacement of the Sabbath. It was a festival to gather and celebrate the Lords Supper. They still held to the law and observed the Sabbath as God's holy day.
It wasn't until fifth and sixth centuries that the Roman and Anglican churches called for they're to be no work done on Sundays. In 690 A.D., Ina, King of Saxons, made it illegal for any one to work on Sundays. If a freeman was caught working on Sundays they could lose their right to freedom. It wasn't until well into the tenth century that the Eastern and Western churches even began calling this day "the Sabbath".
There is nothing sacred and biblical about Sunday mornings. I believe it is very important for us the big "C" church, not the little "c" church I attend, to gather for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. When we do that and how frequently is up to us as body. There is no biblical mandate accept that we do it.
In a twenty-four hour a day society how can we hold in honor the Sabbath as the Lord asks us to do? There needs to be, for each of us, a time when we put all other things aside and concentrate on God. He deserves that much from us when you consider everything he has done. There are people that work weekends and then there is always that weekend sports event you are involved in. I think the key is to be able to keep your schedule during the Sabbath, but as you are participating in something others may consider to be work, that you focus on God through that activity. Do everything you do as you are doing it for the Lord.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Monday, January 26, 2004
The big story!
What’s the famous bumper sticker/church sign say? “Wise men still follow Him!” Sure they do, but not in threes. One of my biggest pet peeves in Christian culture is how badly Jesus birth is depicted in Nativity sets. A barn, with animals and three kings from the east. I deal with the barn and animals thing in an earlier post, so check out the archives for that one. But what I want to deal with today is these “three” wise guys. Let us just put this into context: They wouldn’t have been so “wise” if it was just the three of them traveling from the Far East! There is a certain wow factor that can be gained from this story, even if you believe it was just three guys that came to see the little baby. That would be impressive in it’s self. But for their own survival they would have had to travel in a large caravan. If the little statues are correct, it would have been easy for robbers and thieves to recognize the fact these guys were loaded. If it had been just three guys they would have been easy pickens for one or two robbers. The journey they took was long and treacherous. There weren’t exits and road stops every three miles like are on our highways. They may have gone days with out seeing anyone else on their route. Besides the journey being dangerous, let’s talk about their encounter with Herod. This was a bad King. The dude was ruthless to say the least. He would have made Saddam look like Mickey Mouse. In my opinion they had to be traveling in a large group, because for some reason Herod seems intimidated by their presence. Not just because these guys were foreigners who knew nothing of the Hebrew scripture but where looking for the Jewish king, but because I’m sure they had plenty of slaves, servants, priest and guards of their own traveling with them. It was a large group of people coming through town and everyone in Jerusalem had heard about them. Herod could have offed three guys with out many people knowing it, but to try and kill a large group of maybe seventy to a hundred people, would have been a hard thing to cover up. The people of Jerusalem know why these guys where in town and if Herod had killed their whole party, it would have been obvious to the people he was afraid of the news these wise men were bringing. So why are there just three “wise” men. Well it of course has to do with the fact that only three gifts were mentioned as being brought to Jesus (gold, frankincense and myrrh.) I don’t know the validity of this story, but someone once told me that it was Martin Luther who made the first nativity set, as a way to share the story with little children. So he must have simplified the story so there weren’t as many pieces. This would help him tell the story quicker and be easier to carry around. Can you imagine your nativity set on the mantel of your fireplace with an additional ten Sheppard’s, a large seventy-piece caravan and a couple hundred (a host) angles? The mantel would fall off the wall. My problem with the nativity set is it takes away from the awe and majesty of what was truly taking place at the time of Jesus birth. This was definitely a huge event. I’m sure if Martin Luther were around today the nativity would look more like a 570 piece Lego set. Ugh, I hate putting those things together! So lets read this chapter of Jesus story and try not minimulize the grandeur of what was happening.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
All I really need to know I learned from Toby Keith
(This is my birthday post, it's my birthday, YEAHHH!!)
making a list is a good thing * go for a little walk *
look up an old lost friend * give your girl a little kiss *
don’t break your back for a million bucks you can’t
take to the grave * raise a little hell * put an extra
five in the plate at church this week *
you can’t compete with super stars (why would you
want to try) * money wont make you happy * aint nothing in the
world like youngens (getcha some) * you should always
seek justice * have a band of brothers * buy at least
one round for your men * and two for your horses *
sometimes you have to draw hard lines *
find a place to gather where every one feels accepted *
even if its in a bar (cause it won’t be in the church) *
revenge is sweet (sometimes) * don’t mess with the U S of A *
thank people that serve in our military * never smoke
weed with Willy * listening to others is good *
but it’s alright to talk about “me” (occasionally) *
you shouldn’t kiss like this, if you don’t mean it like that *
sometimes you need a little less talk *
and a lot more action *
Jesus had long hair * He liked to have a good time *
His friends where poor * He hung around with
non-religious people * the people that crucified Him had
something to hide * when He comes back He is
brining amazing grace * He laid His life down for us *
He’ll forgive you and adore you while He’s hanging
on your cross *
making a list is a good thing * go for a little walk *
look up an old lost friend * give your girl a little kiss *
don’t break your back for a million bucks you can’t
take to the grave * raise a little hell * put an extra
five in the plate at church this week *
you can’t compete with super stars (why would you
want to try) * money wont make you happy * aint nothing in the
world like youngens (getcha some) * you should always
seek justice * have a band of brothers * buy at least
one round for your men * and two for your horses *
sometimes you have to draw hard lines *
find a place to gather where every one feels accepted *
even if its in a bar (cause it won’t be in the church) *
revenge is sweet (sometimes) * don’t mess with the U S of A *
thank people that serve in our military * never smoke
weed with Willy * listening to others is good *
but it’s alright to talk about “me” (occasionally) *
you shouldn’t kiss like this, if you don’t mean it like that *
sometimes you need a little less talk *
and a lot more action *
Jesus had long hair * He liked to have a good time *
His friends where poor * He hung around with
non-religious people * the people that crucified Him had
something to hide * when He comes back He is
brining amazing grace * He laid His life down for us *
He’ll forgive you and adore you while He’s hanging
on your cross *
Thursday, January 22, 2004
The War on Terrorism: Get the “F” out of our church (Editorial)
(I wrote this about a year ago in the midst of a flurry of attacks on our ministry and my character. I still stand behind what I wrote. I need it published some where, because I never sent it to the terrorists that needed to read it.)
Terror Alert: High. What color is it these days? Orange? Red? Puce? Over the past months the Terror Alert system our country uses has become the fodder for late night talk show hosts and quips on family sit-coms. Certainly our nation is not gripped in fear. Or is it? I wish I had bought stock in 3M six months ago. Duct tape flies off the shelves at Wal*Mart quicker then the swim suit issue of Sports Illustrated. Honestly, are those saw horse barriers put up in front of the local oil company in my small town truly going to stop any kind of terrorist attack? On September 20th, 2001, just nine days after the most gruesome terrorist attacks the world has ever seen, President Bush addressed our nation during a joint session of Congress. In that address the president said this about how terrorist operate, “These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends.” The chief weapon of a terrorist is not a car bomb or a suicide plane it is fear.
Terrorism is defined by Webster as, “The state of being terrorized or the act of terrorizing; the use of intimidation to attain one’s goals or to advance one’s cause.” The terrorist succeeds not when the plane levels a skyscraper but when thousands are afraid to use our commercial airline system to travel. The terrorist wins when the people of this nation buy duct tape and sheets of plastic, when they certainly provide little, if any protection from a chemical attack. The terrorist rejoices when we trick ourselves into thinking that wooden saw horses are a suitable barrier against his car bomb. Secrecy is the gun that propels the bullet of fear. We live in fear because we neither know who the terrorists are or when and where they will attack next. Americans are accustom to fighting wars head on. Political parties and agendas aside, this country is winning its war on terror. There has not been another attack on our nation’s soil since 9/11. We are winning in part because President Bush in that address to the nation identified al Queda and Osama bin Laden as our enemy. In giving our enemy a face he reinsured our resolve as a nation to confront our fears and fight this war.
Our churches are also in a “War on Terrorism”. As leaders we hear the “chatter” of these small pockets of people that have been sewing seeds of discontent throughout our church body. Some of these pockets have chosen the “hit and run” method of terrorism by delivering emotional suicide bombs and then choosing to worship elsewhere. Although those attacks wound our church, the terrorists that have remained behind are doing far greater damage to the body. They do not attend Sunday worship but show up at committee meetings, use prayer cards in a hateful manner, have stopped giving to the general fund and do little to fulfill the “Great Commission” through our church. Their implements of terrorism include: snide, underhanded remarks at committee meetings, unsigned letters with ministry job postings elsewhere sent to staff members and slanderous gossip disguised in the name of “problem solving.” President Bush’s description of the terrorist he is fighting provided an eerie reflection of what we face in our bodies. He said, “We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.” The terrorists we fight have shown disrespect towards God’s word by their loveless actions against their brothers and sisters in Christ in an attempt to gain perceived power.
Our ability to over come the fear of terrorism can only be derived from a sense of Christ centered confidence. The kind of confidence Jesus instilled in his disciples the day he first sent them out on their own to do His ministry. Jesus’ pep talk to them out of Peterson’s The Message reads like this, “Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now. Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life--body and soul--in his hands.” It’s time we get the “F”, fear, out of our churches. We must not be afraid to identify these people for what they are and put them on notice that their behavior against Gods people will not be tolerated anymore. We can no longer function in God’s will as paralyzed servants, in fear of what others may think or say about the decisions we make to advance Gods Kingdom. We can no longer enable these people to build the walls around their Christian ghetto even higher. As leaders desiring God’s will to move His church forward we must embrace faith, hope and love. Embrace them with a Christ centered confidence and a healthy fear of God.
Terror Alert: High. What color is it these days? Orange? Red? Puce? Over the past months the Terror Alert system our country uses has become the fodder for late night talk show hosts and quips on family sit-coms. Certainly our nation is not gripped in fear. Or is it? I wish I had bought stock in 3M six months ago. Duct tape flies off the shelves at Wal*Mart quicker then the swim suit issue of Sports Illustrated. Honestly, are those saw horse barriers put up in front of the local oil company in my small town truly going to stop any kind of terrorist attack? On September 20th, 2001, just nine days after the most gruesome terrorist attacks the world has ever seen, President Bush addressed our nation during a joint session of Congress. In that address the president said this about how terrorist operate, “These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends.” The chief weapon of a terrorist is not a car bomb or a suicide plane it is fear.
Terrorism is defined by Webster as, “The state of being terrorized or the act of terrorizing; the use of intimidation to attain one’s goals or to advance one’s cause.” The terrorist succeeds not when the plane levels a skyscraper but when thousands are afraid to use our commercial airline system to travel. The terrorist wins when the people of this nation buy duct tape and sheets of plastic, when they certainly provide little, if any protection from a chemical attack. The terrorist rejoices when we trick ourselves into thinking that wooden saw horses are a suitable barrier against his car bomb. Secrecy is the gun that propels the bullet of fear. We live in fear because we neither know who the terrorists are or when and where they will attack next. Americans are accustom to fighting wars head on. Political parties and agendas aside, this country is winning its war on terror. There has not been another attack on our nation’s soil since 9/11. We are winning in part because President Bush in that address to the nation identified al Queda and Osama bin Laden as our enemy. In giving our enemy a face he reinsured our resolve as a nation to confront our fears and fight this war.
Our churches are also in a “War on Terrorism”. As leaders we hear the “chatter” of these small pockets of people that have been sewing seeds of discontent throughout our church body. Some of these pockets have chosen the “hit and run” method of terrorism by delivering emotional suicide bombs and then choosing to worship elsewhere. Although those attacks wound our church, the terrorists that have remained behind are doing far greater damage to the body. They do not attend Sunday worship but show up at committee meetings, use prayer cards in a hateful manner, have stopped giving to the general fund and do little to fulfill the “Great Commission” through our church. Their implements of terrorism include: snide, underhanded remarks at committee meetings, unsigned letters with ministry job postings elsewhere sent to staff members and slanderous gossip disguised in the name of “problem solving.” President Bush’s description of the terrorist he is fighting provided an eerie reflection of what we face in our bodies. He said, “We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.” The terrorists we fight have shown disrespect towards God’s word by their loveless actions against their brothers and sisters in Christ in an attempt to gain perceived power.
Our ability to over come the fear of terrorism can only be derived from a sense of Christ centered confidence. The kind of confidence Jesus instilled in his disciples the day he first sent them out on their own to do His ministry. Jesus’ pep talk to them out of Peterson’s The Message reads like this, “Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now. Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life--body and soul--in his hands.” It’s time we get the “F”, fear, out of our churches. We must not be afraid to identify these people for what they are and put them on notice that their behavior against Gods people will not be tolerated anymore. We can no longer function in God’s will as paralyzed servants, in fear of what others may think or say about the decisions we make to advance Gods Kingdom. We can no longer enable these people to build the walls around their Christian ghetto even higher. As leaders desiring God’s will to move His church forward we must embrace faith, hope and love. Embrace them with a Christ centered confidence and a healthy fear of God.
Christmas E-mail '03
This past year the world of youth ministry lost one of its greatest warriors. On October 30th Mike Yaconelli, co-founder and owner of Youth Specialties (publisher of thousands of youth ministry resources) died at the age of 61 in car crash. If you are unfamiliar with whom Mike is you wouldn't have been able to tell him apart from the person that served you your double latte caramel macchiato at Starbucks this morning. Mike would have liked that. For those of us that have heard the calling to invest our lives into young people, Mike was a profound source of encouragement. Because of his bluntness with the truth, passion for reaching teenagers for Jesus with a “whatever the cost attitude” and with the ability to encourage others in that same direction; for Senior Pastors all over the world, Mike could be a profound pain in the backside.
I had the honor of speaking with Mike two years ago at the National Youth Workers Convention in Dallas. During our forty-minute conversation I found him to be both lovingly humble and confidently strong. These are the same characteristics I see in Jesus. But unlike Jesus, Mike wasn't perfect. The fact that he would be the first to admit this is what I admired about Mike the most. In a speech to youth workers Mike once said, "I hope you realize when Jesus comes, he comes to people like you and me. Who make mistakes. Who don't do it right. Who screw up. Who do the stuff that maybe other people wouldn't do who had more sense."
That's me. I mess up. I miss opportunities to empower the volunteers in my ministry so that they can be all God longs for them. I push people out of my life because I have a tendency to hold others in contempt. I snap at my children when trying to rush them out of the house because I'm late. I don't turn my socks right side out before I put them in the laundry basket. Worst of all I consistently fail to show my wife that she is the love of my life.
I can hear some of your thoughts now, "Thanks for sending me such a joy filled holiday email.”, “I guess Roger is having a blue Christmas.”, or “Do me a favor and take me off the list for next year." In Mike Yaconelli’s book Messy Spirituality, Mike makes a great point that our messes are God’s opportunities. So what better time of the year then Christmas to remind ourselves of the hope that can be found in our messiness?
Let’s break down the messy Christmas story found in Luke 2. To start, there was no Red Roof in Bethlehem. More than likely, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem for the Roman census only to find every aunt, uncle and fourth cousin occupying all the rooms of Joseph’s ancestral home. The original manuscripts of the New Testament were written mostly in Greek. The English word “inn” found in scripture today was translated from the Greek word kataluma. Like most ancient languages, words had multiple meanings. The only other place we find this word used in scripture is in the descriptions of the Last Supper (Luke 22:11 and Mark 14:14). In both of these accounts, the word kataluma is used to describe a large “guest room” found in someone’s personal home. So, in Mary’s condition, why didn’t they make a place for her in the guest room? I’m sure if you have a pregnant relative come visit with you this holiday that your family will openly show concern for that mother to be. She will be given the most comfortable seat in the house and will be waited on hand and foot. Not so 2000 years ago. Mary was a woman. A very young woman. Even though she was pregnant and about ready to give birth, Mary did not hold any priority over the older men in the family to earn her a place in the kataluma.
So this is when they got sent to the stable? Not exactly. The word stable or barn is never mentioned in scripture. We would expect to find a manger in a barn or stable these days, but in the ancient world small amounts of flock animals were kept inside the home. They didn’t have refrigerators or freezers so the meat was kept fresh by keeping the animals alive until it was mealtime. By storing the animals in one of the ground floor rooms it protected them from the elements and theft. Also the heat produced by the animal dung would rise up through the floor to heat the second level living quarters. So, after traveling four or five days in the sun and having to stay in the nastiest place in the house, Mary finds herself getting ready to give birth to the savior of the world.
Just when Mary was thinking how this could get any worse some shepherds show up. These ragamuffins claimed they had been given the good news of the Kings’ birth by a host of angels. During this time shepherds were a marginalized people. Think of a job, the worst job you can possibly imagine doing for a living and that’s how people looked at the task of shepherding.
How do you think Mary was feeling at this point? Her relatives treated her like junk, she had to give birth to her baby in substandard conditions and now a bunch of Shepherds were hanging around gawking at her baby. One might feel bitter, angry and frustrated, but not Mary. Luke 2:19 describes her reaction like this, “. . . but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.” Engulfed in so much mess, all this young girl could think to do was to be humble.
Recently my family and I gathered around the TV to watch Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause 2. While watching this movie it struck me how incredibly lucky we all are that there is no Santa Claus and we aren’t relying on him to bring us presents. You see, the bad toy Santa was right, we have all been naughty and all deserve coal. None of us can make the “nice list” because at some point during the past year we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Mike Yaconelli said, “What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed-up people could be godly! What drove Jesus’ enemies crazy were his criticisms of the “perfect” religious people and his acceptance of the imperfect nonreligious people. The shocking implication of Jesus’ ministry is that anyone can be spiritual.” God’s gift to each of us is a department store gift wrappers worst nightmare. The truth about Jesus is not perfectly packaged in gold lame paper with a pretty red bow. The present of Jesus’ unconditional, forgiving love for us is wrapped in the most common, messy birth of a little boy and delivered to us through His brutal death on a cross. And the Good News is no matter how messy or broken we think we are; this present is available for us to open all year round.
Have a Messy Christmas and a Broken New Year!
I had the honor of speaking with Mike two years ago at the National Youth Workers Convention in Dallas. During our forty-minute conversation I found him to be both lovingly humble and confidently strong. These are the same characteristics I see in Jesus. But unlike Jesus, Mike wasn't perfect. The fact that he would be the first to admit this is what I admired about Mike the most. In a speech to youth workers Mike once said, "I hope you realize when Jesus comes, he comes to people like you and me. Who make mistakes. Who don't do it right. Who screw up. Who do the stuff that maybe other people wouldn't do who had more sense."
That's me. I mess up. I miss opportunities to empower the volunteers in my ministry so that they can be all God longs for them. I push people out of my life because I have a tendency to hold others in contempt. I snap at my children when trying to rush them out of the house because I'm late. I don't turn my socks right side out before I put them in the laundry basket. Worst of all I consistently fail to show my wife that she is the love of my life.
I can hear some of your thoughts now, "Thanks for sending me such a joy filled holiday email.”, “I guess Roger is having a blue Christmas.”, or “Do me a favor and take me off the list for next year." In Mike Yaconelli’s book Messy Spirituality, Mike makes a great point that our messes are God’s opportunities. So what better time of the year then Christmas to remind ourselves of the hope that can be found in our messiness?
Let’s break down the messy Christmas story found in Luke 2. To start, there was no Red Roof in Bethlehem. More than likely, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem for the Roman census only to find every aunt, uncle and fourth cousin occupying all the rooms of Joseph’s ancestral home. The original manuscripts of the New Testament were written mostly in Greek. The English word “inn” found in scripture today was translated from the Greek word kataluma. Like most ancient languages, words had multiple meanings. The only other place we find this word used in scripture is in the descriptions of the Last Supper (Luke 22:11 and Mark 14:14). In both of these accounts, the word kataluma is used to describe a large “guest room” found in someone’s personal home. So, in Mary’s condition, why didn’t they make a place for her in the guest room? I’m sure if you have a pregnant relative come visit with you this holiday that your family will openly show concern for that mother to be. She will be given the most comfortable seat in the house and will be waited on hand and foot. Not so 2000 years ago. Mary was a woman. A very young woman. Even though she was pregnant and about ready to give birth, Mary did not hold any priority over the older men in the family to earn her a place in the kataluma.
So this is when they got sent to the stable? Not exactly. The word stable or barn is never mentioned in scripture. We would expect to find a manger in a barn or stable these days, but in the ancient world small amounts of flock animals were kept inside the home. They didn’t have refrigerators or freezers so the meat was kept fresh by keeping the animals alive until it was mealtime. By storing the animals in one of the ground floor rooms it protected them from the elements and theft. Also the heat produced by the animal dung would rise up through the floor to heat the second level living quarters. So, after traveling four or five days in the sun and having to stay in the nastiest place in the house, Mary finds herself getting ready to give birth to the savior of the world.
Just when Mary was thinking how this could get any worse some shepherds show up. These ragamuffins claimed they had been given the good news of the Kings’ birth by a host of angels. During this time shepherds were a marginalized people. Think of a job, the worst job you can possibly imagine doing for a living and that’s how people looked at the task of shepherding.
How do you think Mary was feeling at this point? Her relatives treated her like junk, she had to give birth to her baby in substandard conditions and now a bunch of Shepherds were hanging around gawking at her baby. One might feel bitter, angry and frustrated, but not Mary. Luke 2:19 describes her reaction like this, “. . . but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.” Engulfed in so much mess, all this young girl could think to do was to be humble.
Recently my family and I gathered around the TV to watch Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause 2. While watching this movie it struck me how incredibly lucky we all are that there is no Santa Claus and we aren’t relying on him to bring us presents. You see, the bad toy Santa was right, we have all been naughty and all deserve coal. None of us can make the “nice list” because at some point during the past year we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Mike Yaconelli said, “What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed-up people could be godly! What drove Jesus’ enemies crazy were his criticisms of the “perfect” religious people and his acceptance of the imperfect nonreligious people. The shocking implication of Jesus’ ministry is that anyone can be spiritual.” God’s gift to each of us is a department store gift wrappers worst nightmare. The truth about Jesus is not perfectly packaged in gold lame paper with a pretty red bow. The present of Jesus’ unconditional, forgiving love for us is wrapped in the most common, messy birth of a little boy and delivered to us through His brutal death on a cross. And the Good News is no matter how messy or broken we think we are; this present is available for us to open all year round.
Have a Messy Christmas and a Broken New Year!
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Give it away, give it away, give it away now!
Matthew 20:26,27 "But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave." (NLT)
There is a great quote form the movie Braveheart as William Wallace is trying to get Robert the Bruce to step up and become the leader he was destined to be. Wallace, desperately trying to motivate the Bruce to action, says, "Men don't follow titles, they follow courage." It takes little courage to sit behind a name plate these days. Most leadership positions people assume have a perceived entitlement to leadership. "I've earned this position and now you must submit to me because of my title." This leadership philosophy is widely used throughout the corporate world, the military world, the education community and sadly also in the arena of ministry as well. People tend to demand authority because they were either elected, nominated or given a title.
Jesus fully grasped how the world worked as shone in Matthew 20:25, "So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads." (The Message) Who are our rulers today? Your boss? Your principal? Your Pastor? Your parents? We don't serve at the pleasure of kings anymore, but we do have a multitude of people we answer to. Jesus could see how in a position where a title was given there is a great chance for the abuse of power. Do the people that have "earthly" rule over you treat you well or do they "throw their weight around"? If you are in a position of authority over others, do love them or do you leverage them?
To be great leaders in the eyes of Heaven we must stop trying to use our positions of authority to leverage people or force them into doing what we want. We must become a slave to those we lead. A slave is completely subservient to their owner. Jesus wasn't talking about "prid pro quo" here. This form of leadership isn't calling us to do something for others, so that they will do something for us. Being a slave to someone else is doing what ever they need, whenever they need it. I have a tendency not to be a slave to my family like I should be. If my goal is to be the spiritual leader of my house then I should be a slave to their schedule, instead of them being slaves to mine. It really does pain me when Noah asks me to play with him, but I have something else that needs to be done at that exact moment he asks me. I tend to only read to Emily out of "The BFG" when there is nothing on TV I need to watch. Jamie still has a fish tank we bought her for Christmas, sitting in the box in her room. And my need to "decompress" from my day always supersedes Renee's need for intimacy with me.
We need to stop worrying what we "get" out of serving others and do it out of a love for a mighty God. Jesus himself said in Matthew 22:37-40, that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything you have and that a close second is to love others. My daughter Jamie says it best, "God first, others second and yourself last." She learned the phrase at camp, but I pray she sees it lived out in her home. The more we focus on God and others, the better leaders the Lord will allow us to be. Men don't follow titles, they follow courage. There is nothing more courages, in our times, then abdicating your position of power to become someone else's slave. Do we have the courage?
There is a great quote form the movie Braveheart as William Wallace is trying to get Robert the Bruce to step up and become the leader he was destined to be. Wallace, desperately trying to motivate the Bruce to action, says, "Men don't follow titles, they follow courage." It takes little courage to sit behind a name plate these days. Most leadership positions people assume have a perceived entitlement to leadership. "I've earned this position and now you must submit to me because of my title." This leadership philosophy is widely used throughout the corporate world, the military world, the education community and sadly also in the arena of ministry as well. People tend to demand authority because they were either elected, nominated or given a title.
Jesus fully grasped how the world worked as shone in Matthew 20:25, "So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads." (The Message) Who are our rulers today? Your boss? Your principal? Your Pastor? Your parents? We don't serve at the pleasure of kings anymore, but we do have a multitude of people we answer to. Jesus could see how in a position where a title was given there is a great chance for the abuse of power. Do the people that have "earthly" rule over you treat you well or do they "throw their weight around"? If you are in a position of authority over others, do love them or do you leverage them?
To be great leaders in the eyes of Heaven we must stop trying to use our positions of authority to leverage people or force them into doing what we want. We must become a slave to those we lead. A slave is completely subservient to their owner. Jesus wasn't talking about "prid pro quo" here. This form of leadership isn't calling us to do something for others, so that they will do something for us. Being a slave to someone else is doing what ever they need, whenever they need it. I have a tendency not to be a slave to my family like I should be. If my goal is to be the spiritual leader of my house then I should be a slave to their schedule, instead of them being slaves to mine. It really does pain me when Noah asks me to play with him, but I have something else that needs to be done at that exact moment he asks me. I tend to only read to Emily out of "The BFG" when there is nothing on TV I need to watch. Jamie still has a fish tank we bought her for Christmas, sitting in the box in her room. And my need to "decompress" from my day always supersedes Renee's need for intimacy with me.
We need to stop worrying what we "get" out of serving others and do it out of a love for a mighty God. Jesus himself said in Matthew 22:37-40, that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything you have and that a close second is to love others. My daughter Jamie says it best, "God first, others second and yourself last." She learned the phrase at camp, but I pray she sees it lived out in her home. The more we focus on God and others, the better leaders the Lord will allow us to be. Men don't follow titles, they follow courage. There is nothing more courages, in our times, then abdicating your position of power to become someone else's slave. Do we have the courage?
Saturday, January 10, 2004
The house God built.
After my last post I could hear it coming. “But, your body is a temple.” Okay, if our bodies are temples why are we the most overweight nation in the world? Why has it taken over two hundred years of American legislators to finally do something about the tobacco industry? Why are so many teenagers so stressed out that they have to take prescription drugs to cope with the world around them? And why is the church virtually ignoring the AIDS crisis in Africa that has gone beyond epidemic and is now being called “pandemic”?
Isn’t it a good and healthy thing when we take care of the body God has given us? Yes! Is this what Paul was talking about in I Corinthians 6:12-20? No!
Paul wrote these specific words to the church in Corinth because before he had come there with the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Corinthians liked to have sex. A lot of sex. In those days there was a widely held belief called Gnosticism. This is a belief that your body and your mind are separate. What you do to one doesn’t affect the other and vice a versa. We can relate this belief to a bumper sticker that reads, “If it feels good do it.” Before becoming Christians many Corinthians practiced the worship of Aphrodite. To worship this goddess, what you basically had to do was visit her temple and pay to have sex with one of the temple prostitutes. The reason Paul wrote these words was because after accepting Christ as their rescuer and leader the people in Corinth were still visiting the temple prostitutes. Because of this widely held Gnostic belief, having sex (the body) didn’t interfere with their spiritual life (the mind). Paul was letting these folks know that since they had a relationship with Jesus and now that the Holy Spirit had come to them, they had a new temple. And they were to treat it with love and respect.
The society in Corinth sounds a lot like ours. “Just do it.” “If it makes you happy.” It seemed when I was growing up as a teenager that guys where the “Gnostic” thinkers. The media portrayed guys in my generation of not caring about the emotional outcome of having pre-marital sex. We saw this in the TV shows and movies we watched or in the lyrics of classic music like Meat Loafs, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”. Something has dramatically changed over the past fifteen or so years. As I study pop-culture it has become more evident that the young woman of our society are thinking more like the Gnostics of old than ever before. The girls in our culture are much more sexually aggressive then in the past couple of decades. And I’m not just talking about making the first move with a guy by calling him on the phone or asking him out. It goes much deeper than that. Proof? I got three words for ya, “Girls Gone Wild.”
And don’t think for a minute this Gnostic attitude only applies to Spring Breakers and college students in the Greek system. It’s taking hold in our churches as well. Just last year my wife and I had a young engaged Christian couple in our home for dinner. In our small community this couple is looked up to and lauded over as the perfect Christian couple. The young ladies father was a prominent member of the pastoral community in our town. While we were getting to know the couple over dinner, I could see they did not have strong accountability in their lives and I asked them how they were doing with the “purity” issue in their relationship. After several moments of awkward silence they both spoke up about how they had been sexually active together for most of their relationship. My wife and I shared our brokenness about some things in our marriage and graciously offered to council them. A couple of weeks later, a relationship with my wife and I was soundly rejected by this couple. Did this couple wind up getting married? Yes. Will they have a long happy marriage? Heck, I don’t know. But just because you had the perfect wedding day doesn’t mean you will have a perfect marriage. I can say from personal experience that this young couple has taken scars into their marriage that will take years even decades to heal.
Paul was talking about sex. He was talking about the connection between the body and the mind. There are more and more studies being done about the emotional scars left on a women after she gets an abortion. And I’m sure that after the alcohol wears off and those girls see the videotape of themselves flashing for beads, that something inside them is going to feel a little less dignified. The misuse of your body sexually has an emotional price tag. It’s a price not worth paying.
(P.S. Just like we honor the Lords temple by putting up banners and making beautiful stained glass murals, I tattoo my body with things that will please the Lord.)
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Tattoo U
Leviticus 19:28 “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourself. I am the Lord.” (NIV)
In honor of my most recent body modification I will start out this blog with the scripture most Spiritual McCarthyites (those that shame and belittle others for having different theological beliefs then the mainstream evangelical western church) take way out of context when dealing with those whom have chosen to adorn their bodies with art.
Leviticus 19 is a call from God for his people of Israel to be holy. He asks this not as a favor but out of a sense of duty one would have of a King or ruler. (Lev. 19:2) Because God is holy, he asks the people that represent him to the entire world, to be the same. It’s like when you were young and your parents expected you to have good manors while you ate out for dinner. As a parent I can tell you, that request is all about me. I don’t want people thinking I am a bad parent because I haven’t taught my children how to behave. So I command my children to sit up straight, not talk with their mouths full and use their quite voice while at the dinner table.
The Israelites where an earthly reflection of who their mighty God was. So to set those apart as His followers, God gave Moses some rules for the Israelites to live by. One of the many mourning practices of the day was to cut yourself or tattoo a deceased loved ones name on your body. This was an outward sign, pride fully worn by the bearers to show the world they missed their loved one. Through God’s eyes death is an extension of life. Those that believe in Jesus to be their rescuer and leader will spend eternity with their maker. If this is true, why mourn? Why not rejoice? Yes, we physically miss that person and there might be a lot of pain from a close death near us, but God is rejoicing and wants us to as well.
The whole nineteenth chapter is full of does and don’ts for us to be Holy. Here are some of my favorites, see which ones you have failed on doing or not doing this week:
Do not lie. (verse 11)
Always judge your neighbors fairly. (verse 1)
Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. (verse 16)
Keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence toward my sanctuary. (verse 30)
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beards. (verse 27)
Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of fabric. (verse 19)
Even a small tiny lie I tell to protect a friend is a lie. I categorize and pigeon whole people I see walking down the street not knowing a thing about them. Gossip! Eyes roll! When was the last time I kept the Sabbath seeing as how the biblical Sabbath runs from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown? Sunday is biblically not the Sabbath. I don’t know how many times I have gotten funny looks because I haven’t shaved in two or three days. I think every undershirt I own is made of a 50/50 blend. We all fall short of being as holy as God. That is why he is God and we are not.
I didn’t get my tattoos out of mourning the loss of a loved one, so I don’t see how getting a tattoo keeps me from being any more or less holy than a teacher that gossips with her students all day long or the person that has to eat a medium rare hamburger everyday.
What’s that old saying, “When you point a finger at some one you have three pointing back at you?” Leviticus 19 holds guidelines laid down for each of us to strive for while individually trying to become as holy as God. Not rules for us to interpret so we can try to hold others accountable to them. This chapter is just more evidence of how great the body of Christ could be if each of us concentrated on our own spiritual walks instead wasting our time judging others.
In honor of my most recent body modification I will start out this blog with the scripture most Spiritual McCarthyites (those that shame and belittle others for having different theological beliefs then the mainstream evangelical western church) take way out of context when dealing with those whom have chosen to adorn their bodies with art.
Leviticus 19 is a call from God for his people of Israel to be holy. He asks this not as a favor but out of a sense of duty one would have of a King or ruler. (Lev. 19:2) Because God is holy, he asks the people that represent him to the entire world, to be the same. It’s like when you were young and your parents expected you to have good manors while you ate out for dinner. As a parent I can tell you, that request is all about me. I don’t want people thinking I am a bad parent because I haven’t taught my children how to behave. So I command my children to sit up straight, not talk with their mouths full and use their quite voice while at the dinner table.
The Israelites where an earthly reflection of who their mighty God was. So to set those apart as His followers, God gave Moses some rules for the Israelites to live by. One of the many mourning practices of the day was to cut yourself or tattoo a deceased loved ones name on your body. This was an outward sign, pride fully worn by the bearers to show the world they missed their loved one. Through God’s eyes death is an extension of life. Those that believe in Jesus to be their rescuer and leader will spend eternity with their maker. If this is true, why mourn? Why not rejoice? Yes, we physically miss that person and there might be a lot of pain from a close death near us, but God is rejoicing and wants us to as well.
The whole nineteenth chapter is full of does and don’ts for us to be Holy. Here are some of my favorites, see which ones you have failed on doing or not doing this week:
Do not lie. (verse 11)
Always judge your neighbors fairly. (verse 1)
Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. (verse 16)
Keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence toward my sanctuary. (verse 30)
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beards. (verse 27)
Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of fabric. (verse 19)
Even a small tiny lie I tell to protect a friend is a lie. I categorize and pigeon whole people I see walking down the street not knowing a thing about them. Gossip! Eyes roll! When was the last time I kept the Sabbath seeing as how the biblical Sabbath runs from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown? Sunday is biblically not the Sabbath. I don’t know how many times I have gotten funny looks because I haven’t shaved in two or three days. I think every undershirt I own is made of a 50/50 blend. We all fall short of being as holy as God. That is why he is God and we are not.
I didn’t get my tattoos out of mourning the loss of a loved one, so I don’t see how getting a tattoo keeps me from being any more or less holy than a teacher that gossips with her students all day long or the person that has to eat a medium rare hamburger everyday.
What’s that old saying, “When you point a finger at some one you have three pointing back at you?” Leviticus 19 holds guidelines laid down for each of us to strive for while individually trying to become as holy as God. Not rules for us to interpret so we can try to hold others accountable to them. This chapter is just more evidence of how great the body of Christ could be if each of us concentrated on our own spiritual walks instead wasting our time judging others.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)