Author: Frank

Armistice

Frank

Today is Veterans’ Day, where we honor and remember those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces. My wife asked why this holiday falls on November 11? At 11:00 on November 11, 1918, (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month) armistice (or truce) was signed between the Western Allies and Germany ending hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. World War I was called “The War to End All Wars”. We know how that turned out. But the holiday remained and is still celebrated throughout Europe as well as here in the United States.

Pause and think of that for a moment- The War to End All Wars. How we wish that were true. So we honor those who serve in battles across the globe while we enjoy the comfort of our home, hoping that the next battle will be the last.

Now think about Jesus. His sacrifice was The Sacrifice to End All Sacrifices so to speak (ref: Hebrews 10). He fought our sins for us so that we wouldn’t have to fight on our own, and ultimately someday to never have to fight again. But like The War to End All Wars, it was not the end and battles continue. So we honor Christ, who fought and still fights for us, while we enjoy the comfort of our own lives.

While we remember the physical conflicts our Armed Forces are engaged in worldwide, let us not forget the spiritual conflicts that continue in our own lives and the soldier, Christ, who fights alongside us.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:10-17)

Covenant

Frank

I mentioned yesterday that I sat in on a class on Abraham’s Covenant with God. Actually it was a video, and I encourage you to watch the whole thing (40 minutes-ish with really poor audio to start, but gets better a couple minutes in). A disclaimer up front: I’m a naturally heady guy. I’m left-brained and I have to challenge myself during my Bible study that it is about becoming more Christ-like and building a deeper relationship with God than it is about finding something new. But when I learn something new, my wheels won’t stop turning. So this post may not be your cup of tea, but bear with me. I’ll try not to go a whole 40 minutes!

What was first pointed out was how this covenant, found in Genesis 15, followed the same format of common covenant/treaties at the time: the suzerain (sovereign)/vassal (servant) covenant. First, the sovereign is introduced (v 1, 7), then the servant (this actually is skipped and I’ll explain why in a second), then the conditions of the covenant (v 5) with blessings and curses (v 13-16), then an animal is sacrificed and split in two (v 9-10). Next, the sovereign and servant pass between the animal carcases to seal the covenant with an oath by saying something along the lines of, “if I do not uphold this covenant, may what happened to this animal happen to me.” Of course this happens in front of witnesses. But here’s where Abraham’s story diverges. Abraham falls into a deep sleep (v 12) and it is God himself who passes between the sacrificed animals (v 17) and Abraham was the witness. In other words, it is God’s responsibility to uphold his covenant with Abraham, not Abraham’s. Also, these treaties were recorded and referenced every year or so to remind everyone of their duties. Here, the recording and reminder shows up in Genesis 17 in circumcision. Instead of being written down and read as a reminder, this covenant left a physical mark so that the reminder was constant. I speculate the reason for circumcision is that the covenant is specifically related to Abraham’s seed and therefore for all future generations.

Ok, so that’s nice. But what does this have to do with the theme of this blog carnival? Well, we see the same structure in the New Covenant with Jesus. Jesus made this covenant with his disciples at the Last Supper. There wasn’t a need for introductions and the disciples themselves were the witnesses. Blood was spilled (Luke 22:20) as Jesus himself was the sacrifice. But where is the circumcision? In Colossians 2, Paul writes, “In [Christ] you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” (v 11-12) And like with Abraham, this New Covenant is for “you and your children and for all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39). As for the reminder, we go back to the Lord’s Supper: “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19)

Like I said, stuff like this gets my wheels turning. In this case, I’m in awe of how complete and consistent God’s word is. I’m also challenged by the common Christian practice of downplaying either the Lord’s Supper or baptism, when both are necessary parts of our New Covenant with Jesus. Hope you learned something, I sure did (and watch the video and you’ll learn even more!).

Rabbi, who sinned…

Frank

…this man or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:1-2)

I grew up with this personal theology. If I tripped and fell in the playground, it must’ve been because of the white lie I told my parents to get out of cleaning my room. If my knee was skinned really bad, then it must have been a sin much worse. This theology led to a religious paranoia and paints God as the cosmic puppet-master instead of the loving Father that he is.

But this theology is also applied to prop up one’s personal politics and biases. I sat in on a class on Abraham’s Covenant with God yesterday and I was reminded that there is no covenant between God and my country. Despite what some may preach, the United States is owed no special favor by God. Likewise, God owes us no special punishment for violating the terms of his covenant. Tell that to the talking heads after Hurricane Katrina or 9/11. Some were quick to assign motive to these tragedies while justifying their personal theology.

It’s a shame these recognized representatives of American christianity (TM) are not Ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor 5:20, Eph 6:20) instead because Jesus addressed this very issue in Luke, chapter 13: “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them- do you think they were more guilty than all the to others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.‘” (Luke 13:1-5)

These two tragedies, the Galileans whom Pilate killed and those who died in Siloam could be justified by the religious at the time because of their political ties. The Galileans were likely leading in a revolt against Roman authorities while the tower in Siloam was part of the aqueduct Pilate was constructing so those who died were in the employ of these same authorities. Jesus’ reply was much like the traps the Pharisees and teachers of the law would try and catch Jesus in by trying to force him to take a side. But much like his replies to these traps, his reply here emphasised that which side doesn’t matter. We should be concerned about our the condition of our own souls.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t preach against sin (despite the common strawman: judge not, lest ye be judged). But we should be preaching the Gospel of salvation, not the religion of condemnation. And we should never assign motive to what God chooses to do or not to do. I could close by saying something about why we shouldn’t assume. But you know how the rest of that goes.

(more on Abraham’s Covenant in tomorrow’s blog carnival)

K.I.S.S.

Frank

Keep It Simple, Stupid. It’s a sound principle in management, but it’s also worth applying to our own Christianity (though maybe leave the ‘stupid’ part out).

I’ve had a serious bout of writer’s block over the last week, so I’ll leave it to others to make my point for me. The bottom line is that we don’t need gimmicks or flash to live out our faith and spread the Gospel.

What we don’t need: christian products that rip off popular culture or a hip approach to Christianity.

What we do need: humble ministry.

What we really need: The Gospel of Jesus, period.

Hand Up or Handout?

Frank

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27

I recently brought up my involvement in an addiction recovery ministry. I thank all of you for your encouraging comments. Truth is, I wouldn’t be involved in that ministry if I didn’t need it myself. Besides my character, I have learned much about the human condition and those things that drive us to our drugs of choice. I’ve also learned that in order to overcome our addictions and surrender our will to God, we need to “hit bottom”. This means we’ve reached our lowest point and that realization motivates us to change. Recovery “raises” that bottom, so our motivation for sobriety moves from being afraid of the worst that could happen to desiring the best that God has in store for us. The temptation for many is to prevent a loved one from reaching their bottom. We don’t want to see them suffer. We want to save them. But suffering is exactly what they need to find the desire for recovery.

This creates a paradox to the Christian. There is no sin so horrible that God can’t forgive. “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear” (Isaiah 59:1) And we are commanded to “forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13b) Likewise we are commanded to “carry each other’s burdens” because “in this way you will fulfill the Law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)

It’s easy to forgive an addict without enabling him. But where do you draw the line when carrying his burdens? On one hand, he needs to suffer the consequences of his decisions. But that does not mean we cannot help. Picking him up from the bar at 2:00 AM because he can’t drive home is not carrying his burdens. But “sponsoring” him at a meeting is.

With addiction, that line is more clear than when dealing with other sins. What about a single teenage mother? Is offering to babysit while she searches for a job enabling, or sharing her burden? This is something my wife and I are currently battling. There are a couple of single moms that we’ve been reaching out to and opening our home to. When we bring them to church, the stares we get say, “why would you help her? It’s her fault she’s in the situation she’s in.” Are we preventing them from hitting their bottom? I’d like to think instead we’re offering a safe environment in which they can work out their issues. Much like a recovery meeting.

Sadly, this perspective doesn’t seem to be shared. To some, we are offering a handout instead of a hand up. I am moved to pray the lyrics to Brandon Heath’s song, Give Me Your Eyes,

“All those people going somewhere,
Why have I never cared?

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see”

I can then follow up with Leeland and Brandon Heath’s Follow You,

“Faith without works is dead
On the cross your blood was shed
So how could we not give it away so freely?”

I only pray others may see the world in the same way.

Won’t Somebody Think of the Children, Again!

Frank

I’ve been down this road before regarding ‘Octomom’ and touched on it with the Gosselins, but there is a steep price to pay by our children in the pursuit of our own celebrity. This scripture bears repeating:

It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. -Luke 17:2

In the past week you were probably glued to your TV when you heard about “balloon boy”. As a parent, my heart ached thinking of a 6 year-old 7000 feet in the air, all alone. In case you’ve been living under a rock, it turns out the whole thing was a hoax. Sadly, the 6 year-old is caught in the middle of it all, spilling the beans (literally and figuratively) on the whole thing on national TV. You know you’re putting your kid under too much pressure when he throws up on camera. Sadly, kids are put through the ringer all the time for the sake of ‘reality TV’. Jon and Kate, I’m looking at you.

But that’s not the only forum where children are the victims of their parent’s pride and selfishness. Unfaithfulness not only tears marriages apart, but tears the children apart also. This is no more evident than the recent case of ESPN’s Steve Phillips. His affair with an “assistant” led her to confront his wife and his son via Facebook in what the media is comparing to “Fatal Attraction”. In Phillips’ statement to the police he said, “I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself.” If he cared so much for his kids, he should’ve kept it in his pants. Sorry to be so blunt, but this is his second known affair. The first cost him his job as GM of the Mets. This one is going to cost him his wife. I don’t know what will happen with his kids after the divorce, but one thing to be sure of, there will be cameras rolling when that decision is made.

Leap of Faith

Frank

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. -Hebrews 11:1

I know the theme of this blog carnival is ‘trust’, but I can’t think of trust without thinking about faith. Faith is more than just believing ‘in’, it also includes believing ‘on’ (or unto, for you King James fans). The former is intellectual, the second results in action. It’s like believing in Santa Claus- you may believe he lives at the North Pole and keeps a list (and is checking it twice!), but you trust that if you’re good he’ll bring you lots of presents.

Unfortunately, for many our faith in God is like our children’s faith in Santa Claus. We behave a certain way ‘trusting’ that we’ll get something good in return. Even though “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), what is ‘good’ for God isn’t necessarily good for us. After all, Jesus still suffered and died, but we insist that was good.

So we have to trust when whatever we’re going through, God is in control. Easier said than done.

“As they were walking along the road, a man said to [Jesus], ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’

Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’

He said to another man, ‘Follow me.‘

But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’

Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’

Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’

Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.‘” (Luke 9:57-62)

Interestingly, right after this passage in Matthew 8, we are told the story of Jesus’ disciples being afraid while caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. What was Jesus doing at the time? Sleeping. After they woke him up, his response was simple, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26)

Nowhere is trust and faith more evident than in the addiction ministry in which I serve. The biggest challenge for any addict is to resign control and trust in God. (In AA, the first 3 steps are based on this truth.) Recently we told one young man that he needed to make a very specific, and challenging, lifestyle change. He balked at the suggestion. Instead of beating him over his head with ‘why’, we simply encouraged him to go home and pray about it. Reminding him that God knows what he needs better than he does or we do.

The brother who leads that ministry likes to use his own personal example. Before he became a disciple of Jesus and committed to carrying his cross daily, he was afraid of the implications of such trust. (In fact, this was when he was struggling with the third step in AA.) He thought, “If I commit to God, he’ll send me someplace like China and I don’t want to go to China.” A few years later, he was in China to adopt his daughter. He says, “not only did I want to go, I was praying to get there sooner!”

Who knows where our next step will take us? Who knows what God has in store? But that’s trust. Stepping out on trust requires a leap of faith.

Harassed and Helpless

Frank

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-36)

Harassed and helpless is how the Gospel of Matthew describes the crowds, and thus describes us the same. You could replace that with going to ‘Hell in a hand basket’ for another alliteration that describes us pretty well. No doubt the news is depressing. Maybe it’s becoming more so, or the instant access to information that the Internet and 24-hour news brings more of the worst to light. But as has been true for two thousand years, our world acts as sheep without a shepherd.

There’s been a string of tragedies that show just how helpless we are without Jesus. You’ve no doubt heard about the student at Yale who was killed by a ‘control freak’, or the honor student in Chicago that was killed for only being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But those headlines were followed by a case at UCLA similar to that at Yale, and a group lighting a teen on fire because he stopped some other kids from stealing his dad’s bike. Fortunately in the last two cases, the victim survived.

I wrote before about ‘hate crimes’ and how really any crime can be a hate crime, regardless of race or sexual orientation. In context of Jesus’ teachings, hate and anger equate to murder, even if that act isn’t carried out. It’s easy to look at the above crimes as hate-filled, but that won’t qualify them as ‘hate crimes’.

Maybe we’re wrong to focus on hate. I’ve heard this before, but Chrystie’s post in response to Peter’s blog carnival reminded me that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. The way I remember hearing it before is that the opposite of love is apathy. Maybe there should be ‘apathy crimes’ legislation?

I say this because most crimes like those above are completely indifferent to the victim. The motive of the accused range from emotional impulse to territorialism/tribalism. At either extreme is a disregard for the sanctity of human life. Pope John Paul II often preached on overcoming the “Culture of death” with a “Culture of Life”. Often that message was narrowed down to abortion and euthanasia. But it extends further to crimes against our fellow man and acts such as abortion and euthanasia are only symptoms of the culture. Why would we bring a child into this world if we can’t afford him or if she would be an inconvenience? Obviously that shows a lack of value of life. Why shouldn’t I kill this woman because she turned me down or why shouldn’t I light this kid on fire because he kept me from taking what I want? Again, the same attitude in the heart.

So what do we do? We need to view the world through Jesus’ eyes and see all life as being sacred. No possession, emotion, or political issue is worth another’s life. All of us are just sheep. Let’s keep from slaughtering each other.

Where’s the Line?

Frank

So if our obedience to God isn’t about what we do, but why, does that mean I don’t have to do anything as long as I have a good heart? That’s the same attitude as not having conviction about our sin because Christ’s grace covers us. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2)

But it’s those temptations that lead us to “planting a hedge” around our obedience to God. If you’re not familiar with that term (hedging bets, hedge funds, etc) it comes from the practice of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time who believed, for illustration, if the Law said they can’t walk a mile they would have a religious rule that you couldn’t walk a half-mile in order to make sure you were never close enough to be tempted to go the full mile. That’s the “hedge”. In context of today, we may have a conviction that pornography is wrong, but R-rated movies with explicit sex scenes are ok. Or if you’re single, you may have a conviction about premarital sex but that won’t stop you from making out. So we come up with hedges in our own little corners of religion to prevent that: no R-movies of any kind, no kissing while dating, no dancing, no gambling, etc.

Likewise, often our exhortations to do good are based on Godly principles and maybe even Biblical commands, but we take them either too far or in a direction that was never intended.

So what should be our standard then? It’s not the church, I’ll tell you that right now. It should be clear that it’s Jesus. “If you love me, you will obey what I commanded.” (John 14:15) Sounds simple, right? Chrystie at Path From the Head to the Heart, posted just about what I planned this follow-up post to be. But to dig deeper into Godly, Spiritual, Biblical and most of all, personal obedience I encourage you to check out all the posts from Pastor Peter’s “blog carnival” on the word obedience. Some very, very powerful words. What’s beautiful in these posts, is that we all have different denominational and doctrinal backgrounds, yet you can see the Holy Spirit moving powerfully and consistently in each of the posts. Enjoy.

Measuring Obedience

Frank

You know the routine: a new year begins and there’s a big hoorah about your church’s plans for the year. You hear moving testimony, an inspiring lesson, likely about Peter walking on water, and a time for confession and personal revival. On that last point, you might even take a “survey” to “take your spiritual temperature”. Rate yourself on a scale from 1 to 10, how did you do last year in: evangelism, giving, serving, prayer, Bible study? And how would you rate your personal battle against sin: anger, language, lust, pride, selfishness?

But we can’t quantify such things. Of sin, we know that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The illustration goes that if you try and jump the Grand Canyon, even if you fall short by only a foot, you meet the same fate as one who only jumped a foot. But on the spiritual disciplines, we also know that we cannot meet all of the Law. That’s why we needed a perfect sacrifice to make up for our own imperfections. “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4)

So it’s not a matter of some scale, some metric, some quantification of holiness. But that doesn’t stop us from trying: how long was your quiet time, how much do you give weekly, how many visitors have you had out to church, how many different ways are you involved? We might even have some checklist to mark off the things we do that we believe we should. But because holiness cannot be quantified, we cannot rely on some to-do list. Our motives need to be from the heart.

We need to remind ourselves of the anointing of David: “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7b) Consider the example of the early church in Acts 2 and compare with your own checklist.

I read my Bible every day

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…” (v 42)

I go to church every Sunday

“…to the fellowship” (v 42)

I pray every day

“…and to prayer” (v 42)

I spend time with other believers… sometimes

“All the believers were together…” (v 44)

I tithe

“…and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (v 44-45)

Did I mention I go to church every Sunday. Sometimes even Wednesdays!

“Every day they continued to meet together” (v 46)

I door knock at least one Saturday a month

“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

It all starts with that one word at the beginning- being “devoted”. That’s from the heart. So obedience isn’t about what or how much we do as much as how and why we do it.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved… For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:4-5,10)