Out of the Mouths of Babes

We had a Super Bowl party last night with a big group of folks from our church at a church member's home. There must have been 40-50 people in the house (it was a big house). In the midst of the chaos and mayhem of a group of adults yelling and watching the game upstairs and a group of kids yelling and playing downstairs, I was taught a valuable lesson. Before I share that lesson, I need to fill you in on some background.

Two months ago my wife and I picked up the newest addition to our family from an orphanage in Bulgaria. His name is Viktor and he's 6-years old. Vikki, as we call him, is still learning English and there are many things about his new life that he hasn't figured out. The rest of the family (along with my wife and I, our 12-year old son and 9-year old daughter) spends a lot of time correcting him and trying in our broken Bulgarian and his broken English to explain things to him. One thing that he didn't understand when we picked him was the concept of church.

For the first couple of weeks that he was home, we didn't take him to church. He was still new and we were trying to ease him into his new life and we were afraid he would be overwhelmed with all the new people and things at church. As the pastor, I couldn't miss, so mom stayed home with Vikki and I tried to tell where I was going when I left. I always used the Bulgarian word for church but he thought I was saying food (in Bulgarian the words for church and food are very similar). After a few times I realized, he doesn't know what church is. In fact he may have never even been to church, after all he had lived his entire life in a state-run orphanage so his never having been in church wasn't impossible.

After a few weeks we finally took Vikki to church and he really enjoyed it and did well. As a 6-year old in the nursery, what's not to love about church? New toys, new friends, new places. He quickly decided  that he really liked going to church. But his understanding of church was different than mine and at the Super Bowl party he reminded me of something I had forgotten.

In America, we forget that the church isn't a building or a weekly event. We forget that the church is a people. At the party Viktor kept calling what we were doing "church". The rest of us kept telling him, "No, this isn't church," when all of a sudden I realized, "Wait! He's right! This is church!" This is a group of people who love each other, are committed to each other and have decided to share life together. This little orphan boy from Bulgaria who had never experienced church before has figured out in only about a month that church is people! It's not a building, it's not an event, it's people.

I think many of us need to see the church through fresh eyes again. The old saying is true, "Familiarity breeds contempt." Many of us have lost sight of the fact that the church is people and if we keep that our priority we do much better in how we treat visitors, in our passion to reach the lost, and in our desire to see people grow in maturity as they follow Christ. I'm sure my little boy didn't understand all that he was saying, but God used his innocent confusion to help remind me of a very important truth. The church is people!

Love and Hate

I read a passage from Bonhoeffer's Discipleship and I was struck by the timeliness of his words. He was commenting on Matthew 5:43-48 from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus told His disciples to love their enemies.

Instead of trying to summarize his thoughts, I thought it would be best to simply quote the passage at length.

The prayers of neighborly love and of non-revenge will be especially important in the struggle fought by God toward which we are moving and in which to some extent we have already been engaged for years. On one side, hatred is fighting, and on the other, love. Every Christian soul must seriously prepare for this. The time is coming in which everyone who confesses the living God will become, for the sake of that confession, not only an object of hatred and fury. Indeed, already we are nearly that far along now. The time is coming when Christians, for the sake of their confession, will be excluded from 'human society,' as it is called, hounded from place to place, subjected to physical attack, abused, and under some circumstances killed. The time of widespread persecution of Christians is coming, and that is actually the real meaning of all the movements and struggles of our time. Those opponents intent upon destroying the Christian church and Christian faith cannot live together with us, because they see in all our words and all of our actions that their own words and deeds are condemned, even if ours are not directed against them. And they are not wrong in seeing this and feeling that we are indifferent to their condemnation of us. They have to admit that their condemnation is completely powerless and negligible. They sense that we do not relate to them at all, as would be quite all right with them, on the basis of mutual blaming and quarreling. And how are we supposed to fight this fight? The time is approaching when we - no longer as isolated individuals, but together as congregations, as the church - shall lift our hands in prayer. The time is coming when we - as crowds of people, even if they are relatively small crowds among the many thousands-times-thousands of people who have fallen away - will loudly confess and praise the crucified and resurrected Lord, and his coming again. And what prayer, what confession, what song of praise is this? It is a prayer of most intimate love for those who are lost, who stand around us and glare at us with eyes rolling with hatred, some of whom have already even conspired to kill us. It is a prayer for peace for these distraught and shaken, disturbed and destroyed souls, a prayer for the same love and peace that we ourselves enjoy. It is a prayer which will penetrate deeply into their souls and will tug at their hearts with a much stronger grip than they can manage to tug at our hearts, despite their strongest efforts to hate. Yes, the church which is truly waiting for its Lord, which really grasps the signs of the time of final separation, such a church must fling itself into this prayer of love, using all the powers of its soul and the total powers of its holy life.

Bonhoeffer wrote of the situation of the church in Germany under the Nazis. He could have just as well been describing the situation of the church in 21st century America. These words are timely and need to be heard. Persecution is coming, but our response to hate must be love, because love is our greatest weapon.

Grace and Drudgery

I read something this morning from Oswald Chambers that got me thinking.

BTW if you're not a reader (first of all you're probably not reading this) but if you're not a reader you should be. Through reading we can access the wisdom and counsel of a multitude of men and women both living and dead who can assist us in our pursuit of Jesus.

Sorry about the mini-rant, now we can move on. What was I saying? Oh right, I read something this morning from Oswald Chambers that got me thinking. He made the following observation:

Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different... We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises - human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus.

I read those words and thought, "Wow! He's right." When we experience crises we instinctively turn to God because we recognize that we cannot handle the situation. As the old saying goes, "There are no atheists in foxholes." Crises, dangers, and emergencies heighten our awareness of our need for God. But no one lives in a constant state of crisis or emergency. By their very nature these situations are exceptional.

So what happens to us when we are not in the midst of crisis. Let's take a look at scripture. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses told the people of Israel to be on their guard once they entered and conquered the land of Canaan and were at peace (Deuteronomy 6:10-12). He warned them that once the crisis of the conquest of the land had passed and they settled comfortably into their new life in Canaan that they would be susceptible to forgetting God. Crisis heightens our awareness of our need for God. Routine dulls that same awareness.

Thus Chambers' admonition that it requires the supernatural grace of God to live "an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus." We all understand that in the times of trial our devotion to Christ will be tested, but we must also see that a routine life of every day drudgery is often just as a big a test our faith as the times of crisis.

Most Christians will not have a life story that would make it into Foxe's Book of Martyrs or even warrant an article in The Voice of the Martyrs, but every Christian will experience the monotony of routine, every day life. Understand that it requires God's supernatural grace both to "walk on water" and to walk the every day paths of ordinary life.

Is It Wrong to Ask to Be Spared from Persecution?

As Americans, we are unfamiliar with most kinds of persecution, especially religious persecution. One of the driving motivations in the founding of our nation was the flight from religious persecution in the Old World. And the fact that Americans took possession of an "uninhabited" continent (conveniently ignoring the American Indians already here) meant that any time a group ran into religious persecution they could always pack up and move into the wilderness where they could practice their beliefs unmolested. This all adds up to a history of a people whose fight-or-flight reaction to religious persecution has always been flight.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this is as a weakness of American Christianity. Because Americans had never been forced to stay put when religious persecution arose (they had always had the option to flee), they had never developed a theology of persecution. This was not the case in Germany and other parts of the world where Christians could not simply flee from persecution but had to stay, endure, and develop an understanding of how persecution related to being a follower of Christ. This in turn had led to the development of a dangerous belief among American Christians, namely, that Christians weren't supposed to endure persecution.

This belief flies in the face of centuries of Christian experience. In fact, the American Christian experience is the exception in regards to persecution, not the rule. The rule throughout the rest of the history of the church is that those who earnestly seek to follow Christ will invite the hostility and persecution of those opposed to God, and these individuals are usually in positions of worldly power. Furthermore, the American Christian experience runs counter to the teachings of scripture which consistently declare that commitment to the cause of Christ will invite opposition and persecution.

But a new day is dawning in America. Two unavoidable facts of history are going to dramatically change the American Christian experience. The first is, there is nowhere left to run. There are no "empty" places left in America (or anywhere else on the planet for that matter, unless you want to live in the uninhabitable polar regions) for Christians to flee to in order to avoid persecution. The days of fleeing instead and staying and facing persecution are over.

The second fact is, the culture is turning against Christianity. Although America hasn't been nearly as Christian as some would like to argue or believe, there is no denying that few nations in history have been as open and friendly to Christianity as America. That is changing. Christianity is losing its favored position in America and is increasingly being viewed with hostility and opposition by those in power.

The net result of these two historical truths? The American church is going to be forced to develop an understanding of persecution, whether it wants to or not. The American Christian experience will change into the common Christian experience throughout history in regards to persecution. In other words, persecution will become the norm for American Christians just like most other Christians around the globe.

I think most of us in America understand this, but what we don't seem to understand or want to accept is that God's hand is in this. Our reaction is to circle the wagons, petition the government, change the laws, and win elections to bring back the America of Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower. The reality is, that's not going to happen.

Now I'm not saying we should meekly submit to having our freedoms taken away. I believe we have a responsibility to ourselves and more importantly to our children and grandchildren to defend our freedoms, but the American church must see that the ultimate guarantor of our freedom is not the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights. No the ultimate guarantor of our freedom is Jesus Christ. And our ultimate freedom is not religious freedom or freedom of speech.  Our ultimate freedom is freedom from sin, self, and death. We must learn to put our hope not in a 200+ year old, man-made document, but in a 2000+ year old, God-made cross.

This then raises a question, "Should we pray to be spared from persecution or for persecution to stop?" I think it's always a good idea when we have a question to look to scripture. What did the early church do when it came under persecution? How did they pray? The first record that we have of persecution against the church is found in Acts 4. Peter and John had healed a crippled man in the name of Jesus and then had the Jewish leadership command them to no longer speak or teach in Jesus' name under threats of punishment if they did.

When these words were reported back to the church they immediately went into prayer. Here is what they prayed, "Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness" (Acts 4:29). They did not pray to be spared from persecution. They did not pray for the persecution to stop. No, they prayed for God to grant them boldness to continue in the face of persecution. They understood that persecution came with the territory, that it was unavoidable. They knew that they needed strength to endure.

Nik Ripken in his book, The Insanity of God, writes,

We seem to forget that Jesus Himself promised that the world would reject and mistreat His faithful followers just as it rejected Him. Could it be that the only way that Almighty God could actually answer prayers asking Him to end the persecution of believers... would be to stop people from accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior... persecution would end immediately. That would be the only way to completely end persecution.

It sounds like a ridiculous question, but should we really be asking God for the end of persecution? By doing that, we might unknowingly be asking that people not come to faith in Christ!

Ruth and I have seldom encountered a mature believer living in persecution who asked us to pray that their persecution would cease. We have never heard that request. Rather, believers in persecution ask us to pray that "they would be faithful and obedient through their persecution and suffering."

That is a radically different prayer.

American Christians need to stop praying to be shielded from persecution, that's the wrong prayer. We need to start praying that the millions of lost in our country would come to faith in Jesus, even at the cost of our freedom, our wealth, and our very lives. We need to start praying that rather than being spared from persecution, we would have the strength and courage to endure and to remain faithful in the midst of persecution.

We can no longer ignore the truth that persecution is coming. We must accept it and cry out to God to help us endure. We cannot pray for persecution to end AND for people to be saved. They are mutually exclusive. So the question for the American church is, "What's more important to you? The salvation of the lost, or the salvation of your freedom and comfort?" The first is the way of the cross, the second is the way of apostasy. 

Don't Pray! Just Do It!

My wife, Tamara, and I are in the process of adopting a little boy from Eastern Europe. The government of the country he's in requires us to travel there twice as a apart of the adoption process. We've already been there once, last month, and are hoping to return as soon as possible so we can bring him home for good. The story of how our lives intersected with his can only be described as divine intervention, because we weren't really looking to adopt when all of this started.

We have two biological children already, Zach is 12 and Hannah is 8. Zach has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and his life has been difficult. I could share the details of all that this little trooper has endured but that's not the point I want to make in this post. Just know, Zach has been through a lot with this disease and it's not been easy. We know how difficult it is to deal with muscular dystrophy.

Our family is very active in the DMD community and as a part of this Tamara is on several group pages on Facebook for parents of boys with DMD (Duchenne muscular dystrophy primarily affects boys). On one of these pages last year she noticed a post about a little boy who was an orphan in Eastern Europe who had been diagnosed with MD. The person who posted his info wondered if anyone in the DMD community might be interested in adopting him.

Tamara saw the post and asked me about. We knew what to expect with DMD, we had the resources to take care of this little boy, and we knew how hard dealing with DMD could be. The clincher that broke our hearts was the thought that this little guy was going to have to endure all of this without a mommy and a daddy. Our only excuse for not doing it was that it would make our lives, which were already complicated, a little more complicated. In the end we felt that was a poor excuse.

Long story short, within two weeks of seeing the post we had legal papers filed in court in the country where he lives and the adoption ball was rolling. Tamara asked me, "Do you feel bad that we didn't really pray about this?" In a rare moment of spiritual clarity I realized that sometimes you don't have to pray about things when you know that God has clearly called you to do something. In fact, sometimes we can use prayer as a stall tactic to delay doing something we know God has told us to do.

There are certain things in the Christian life that we never have to pray about. Should I share my faith? Should I be a part of a community of believers? Should I honor God with part of my earnings? Should I be compassionate to those in need? Should I eat chocolate? You get the picture. Some truths God has made so self-evidently clear in scripture that we don't have to pray about whether we should do them or not.

Now I'm not saying we should pray less. We live in church culture in America that is painfully bereft of spiritual vitality due to a drought of prayer. I once heard of a Korean pastor who had traveled across America and visited a number of churches. At the end of his trip someone asked him what he thought about the church in America. He responded by saying, "It is amazing what the American churches have done... without the Holy Spirit." Ouch!

Prayer is important and prayer is desperately needed, but don't use prayer as a cover for disobedience. If you know that you are supposed to do something, don't delay by using the pseudo-spiritual excuse of, "Well, I need to pray about." No you don't, just do it!

The Myth of Discipling Children

Parents are clearly commanded in Scripture to instruct their children in the ways of the Lord. "...these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children" (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Parents are to be the primary spiritual instructors of their children. However, we've created a church culture that I believe has unintentionally told parents that the church can instruct their children for them. In the past 40 years we've seen an exponential increase in the number of paid youth and children's pastors in our churches. We've also seen a precipitous decline in the number of baptisms of children and youth. Is there a one-to-one corollary between these two phenomenon. I don't think so, but I do believe they are related.

There is a scene in the movie Top Gun that talks about why the US Navy created the Fighter Weapons School (aka Top Gun) in the late 1960's. The reason was that pilots in Vietnam had become overly dependent upon their technology and had lost their air combat skills, also called "dogfighting". Missiles had lured them into a false sense of security and they had forgotten the basics of being a fighter pilot. Top Gun was designed to help them recover those skills. I mention that because I believe "professional" youth and children's ministry has done the same thing to parents as missiles did to pilots in Vietnam. Parents have become overly dependent upon a youth pastor and a children's pastor to provide spiritual instruction to their children and they've lost the ability to do it themselves.

Now I'm not saying get rid of youth ministry or children's ministry. The US Navy didn't get rid of missiles just because their pilots had become overly dependent on them. They simply reinforced the idea that pilots also need to develop their air combat skills alongside the use of missiles. Similarly, we need to help parents take responsibility for the instruction of their children themselves, and to view the ministry of the youth/children's pastor as a supplement to what they are doing already in the home.

I don't believe that parents are ultimately to blame for the situation in which many of them find themselves vis-a-vis youth/children's ministry. I believe the church must take the lion's share of the blame. With the rise of youth/children's ministry we've sent a subtle, unintentional but powerful message to parents, "Don't try this at home! Leave it to the professionals!" Unknowingly we've communicated to parents that if they will get their kids to church, get them in children's ministry events, get them in youth ministry events, that their kids will be discipled. There are a couple of problems with this approach.

1. It's not biblical: God commanded parents to take responsibility for the spiritual instruction of their children, not abdicate that responsibility to someone else. A parent is not passing on their faith to their children if the only source of spiritual instruction that the child gets is from their youth/children's pastor. The faith that is being passed along is the youth/children's pastor's faith not the parent's.
2. It ignores parental influence: Many parents feeling like they have little or no influence in the lives of their children, especially if they're teens. As a result they think someone else can do a better job of instructing their children because they have more influence with them. This is simply untrue. Parents (regardless of whether their kids will admit it) are the single biggest influences on their children. A youth/children's pastor may spend 3-4 hours a week with a child, whereas that child will spend 30-40 waking hours with their parents in a week. A youth/children's pastor may spend 4-6 years with a child, whereas their parents will be their parents for a lifetime. From personal experience of over a decade in student ministry, no matter how close or influential I became in a student's life, I never overtook the influence of their parents regardless of whether that influence was good, bad, or indifferent.
3. It stokes the myth of the "hired gun": A study was done for a PhD project to determine who could better teach spiritual material to students, parents or youth pastors. Now, conventional wisdom would tell us that the youth pastors (i.e the "professionals") would have the advantage over the parents. Presumably they have had some sort of theological training (i.e. Bible college, seminary, etc.) whereas the parents likely have not. The teaching materials were distributed, the lessons taught, and after a few weeks the students were tested to see who learned the material better. Well shock of all shocks it was not the students who had been taught by the "professional" youth pastors who learned the material better, it was those who'd been taught by their parents. There is power in a parent instructing their children in truths that are important to them personally.
4. The statistics tell a different story: Latest stats tells us that 7 out of 10 students who are actively involved in church as juniors in high school (meaning they attend at least twice a month) will not still be active in church after their sophomore year in college. The empirical data simply does not support the argument that the best way to train children is to let the church do what God has called parents to do. The church cannot pray for church members who will not pray, it cannot read the Bible for church members who will not read, nor can it disciple the children of church members who will not disciple (at least not as effectively as it should be done). When parents do not take an active role in the discipleship of their children they are sending a subtle but unmistakable message to their children that spiritual instruction is not important. Remember, actions speak louder than words.

There is a disciple-making crisis throughout the church. Collectively we've lost the ability to make disciples and the understanding that this is Christ's intended raison d'etre for the church. I suspect that part of the reason that we've lost our focus on disciple-making is that we've stopped doing it at the most basic level, with our children. If the church is going to regain its God ordained mission to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20) then I believe it must begin in the home. Parents let's stop relying solely on the professionals and start using them properly (as supplements), and obey God's call to instruct our children ourselves.

A great resource for learning how to disciple your children at home is Voddie Baucham's book "Family Driven Faith". I don't agree with everything in this book, but it has helped our family tremendously. You can find it on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Family-Driven-Faith

Don't Listen to Godly Counsel, Always

You shouldn't always listen to godly counsel. When I say that I'm not saying you should instead listen to ungodly counsel. What I am saying is that even godly counsel, from spiritually mature people in your life, still comes from a human source and must be treated as such. I read something in Acts this morning that really jumped out at me. This is from Acts 21:4, "And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there [Tyre] for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem."

I found this verse odd because here we have people who are giving godly, spiritual counsel that Paul is going to face trouble in Jerusalem. They are faithfully sharing the words that the Spirit has shown them to Paul, however, their interpretation of the meaning of those words is wrong. Paul knows that he must go to Jerusalem, regardless of the trouble that is awaiting him there. The Spirit had given these brothers insight into the trouble that Paul would encounter, but not into what He had commanded Paul to do.

Scripture doesn't say so, but it may be that these brothers had exceeded the instruction that the Spirit had given them. Yes, they had been shown that Paul would encounter trials and they were to share this with Paul, but they had not been told to keep him from going. Their genuine concern for Paul was at odds with the plans and purposes of the Spirit. We must remember that even godly counsel does not always have a complete picture of what God is up to because it comes from a limited source, that is another human.

Their counsel was helpful in that it prepared and steeled Paul for what was ahead. However, it was unhelpful because it sought to derail the purpose that the Spirit had for Paul going to Jerusalem. Whenever we encounter godly counsel that is at odds with a word or an instruction that we've received from God we must remember that ultimately we must obey God and not man. Paul could have used this counsel to avoid going to Jerusalem and no one would have faulted him for it. He could have justifiably claimed that he was listening to godly counsel. However, in his own conscience he would have known that he had simply used that counsel as an excuse to disobey God. We must guard ourselves from the deception of using godly, though incomplete, counsel to set aside a clear word from God in our lives. In such cases we must ignore godly counsel and listen to God Himself.

It Is Time

This excerpt is from Charles Spurgeon's devotional book Morning & Evening. This is the entry for April 1:

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. - Hosea 10:7

The month of April is said to derive its name from the Latin verb aperio, which means to open, because all the buds and blossoms are now opening, and we have arrived at the gates of the flowery season.

Reader, if you are not yet saved, may your heart, in keeping with the universal awakening of nature, be opened to receive the Lord. Every blossoming flower warns you that it is time to seek the Lord; do not be out of tune with nature, but let your heart bud and bloom with holy desires. If you tell me that the warm blood of youth leaps in your veins, then I entreat you, give your vigor to the Lord. It was my unspeakable happiness to be called in early youth, and I am thankful to the Lord every day for that. Salvation is priceless, let it come when it may, but oh, an early salvation has a double value in it.

Young men and women, since you may die before you reach your prime, "It is the time to seek the Lord." You who feel the first signs of decay, quicken your pace: That chest pain, that biopsy report, are warnings that you must not trifle with; with you it is definitely time to seek the Lord. Did I observe a little gray, a little thinning in your hair? Years are flying by, and death is drawing nearer by the day; let each return of spring arouse you to set your house in order.

Dear reader, if you are now advanced in years, let me entreat and implore you to delay no longer. There is a day of grace for you now—be thankful for that—but it is a limited season and grows shorter every time the clock ticks. Here in the silence of your room, on this first night of another month, I speak to you as best I can by paper and ink, and from my inmost soul, as God's servant, I lay before you this warning, "It is the time to seek the Lord." Do not make light of this; it may be your last call from destruction, the final syllable from the lip of grace.

WARNING: Offensive Content

Last week Yahoo! ran a story that had been picked up by other news outlets of a video that had found it's way on to the internet showing Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Robertson clan of Duck Dynasty fame, speaking out against abortion. Some liberal news sources made a stink about it but the thing that I found most disturbing was something subtle, easily over-looked that appeared with this story on Yahoo!

Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Robertson family, from A&E's Duck Dynasty

Just above the link for the video showing Phil speaking out against abortion was the following disclaimer, "Warning: Language might be offensive." After viewing the video I was left wondering, "What offensive language we're they talking about?" Phil did not use any profanity, course or suggestive language. He wasn't gross or hateful. He simply and honestly defended the right to life for the unborn. Then it hit me. Yahoo! had labeled his view that abortion was wrong as offensive.

It is now "offensive" to voice opinions that the culture does not want to hear. What's the best way to shut someone up? Label what they are saying as offensive and then censor it. Only a crude, crass, uneducated, knuckle-dragging Neanderthal would voice the opinions that Phil Robertson espoused, therefore they are offensive and can be dismissed and ignored. What we are seeing is traditional Christian views being put into the category of the lunatic ravings of the KKK, Al-Quaida, Neo-Nazis, etc., which makes it easier for the culture to ignore and overlook.

This shouldn't really surprise us though. This is exactly how the dominant culture in Paul's day treated the Gospel message. In fact Paul wrote of Christ being a "rock of offense" (Romans 9:33), and the gospel being "the offense of the cross" (Galatians 5:11). The gospel has always been offensive to those who are opposed to God. I believe that we will increasingly see the gospel and those who voice support for the gospel painted as "offensive" in our culture and pushed into the category of the lunatic fringe. However, we know that however much a culture tries to suppress the "offensiveness" of the gospel it is the power of salvation unto those who believe and not even the gates of Hell can prevail against it.

So no offense, but I choose to be offensive!

Here's the video in question.

God On Trial

We've all been moved by the images of what happened in Moore, Oklahoma, last Monday, and I've read more than a few comments asking, "Why God would allow something like this to happen?" The death and destruction seem so random and something in us cries out for justice. But I think a better question to ask is, "Why does God allow any of us to live?" The very fact that we are alive is a testament to God's mercy and grace. When people demand justice from God, I would warn them to proceed with extreme caution.

All that remains of the house we lived in for 8 years. The house was
located only a block from Plaza Towers Elementary.

If God was a truly just God, humanity would have and should have been wiped out generations ago. We are a sinful, wretched race that has continuously, consistently, and unceasingly defied the laws of God. Our rebellion against God should have brought total destruction upon us but God did not visit us with destruction. Instead He visited us with mercy in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Part of our problem is that we have too high a view of man and too low a view of God. In our minds, the greatest injustice that could ever take place is an "innocent" human being killed. When in reality the greatest injustice is the dishonor given to a holy, infinite God by a sinful and rebellious humanity. If all of humanity were weighed against God, He still would have the greater value. He is God. He is eternal, infinite, holy, majestic. Man is not! When man is the center of the universe, then God must answer "Why did You allow this disaster to occur?" But when God is the center of the universe man must answer, "Why have you disobeyed my law?"

This is not to downplay the devastation that has taken place in Oklahoma. I am especially heartbroken because this was my hometown. Many places that were dear to my childhood (my old house, my grade school, my middle school) were destroyed in this tornado. I have many friends who either lost everything they own or they know someone who did. This is not an academic exercise for me, but something I feel in my gut. But I have to view things biblically and truth demands that we view the world from a God-centered perspective and not a man-centered one. Therefore when we ask, "Why did God allow this happen?" we are asking the wrong question. The better question is, "Why does God show mercy to any of us?" In the end, it is not God who will be on trial, but us!

Gone in Sixty Seconds

Once again this week I was reminded that so much that we take for granted and assume will always be there, may not necessarily be as permanent as we think. As we all know a massive tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, this week. We were all shocked by the images of school children being plucked from leveled school buildings.

Rescue workers pulling a child from the rubble of what had been
Plaza Towers Elementary, the grade school I attended from K - 6.

But the images were especially poignant for me because you see Moore is my hometown and one of those schools that was leveled was where I attended grade school for 7 years. The house we lived in for 8 years was a block from the school, you could literally see it out the back door. As of Monday night, we don't know for sure, it is almost certain that that house and the entire neighborhood around Plaza Towers are gone. Two things that represented permanence and stability for me as a child (my house and my school) were literally blown away Monday afternoon. In an instant they were gone.

So much of what we build our lives on are just like my old house at 828 SW 10th Street or my old elementary school, Plaza Towers Elementary. They appear permanent and stable but in an instant they can be gone forever. Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." The only thing in this life that will never go away are the words of Jesus. So, what is your life built on? Are you banking on the permanence and security of things that will pass away or are have you placed your trust in the one thing that will never go away, Jesus Christ?

Everybody Needs a Hero

Everyone needs spiritual heroes. If you don't have one, you need one. "Why?" you may ask. The reason we need heroes is because we need standards to aspire to, people who have  gone before us and left us a model to follow. Spiritual heroes help us take the ideals of the Christian faith and put skin and bones on them. They help us "flesh out" what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Our ultimate hero is Jesus, but I also think it's helpful to have heroes who were just as human as us. Sometimes we dismiss Jesus' example by reasoning, "Well He was God in the flesh, of course, I could never live like that." However, when we have everyday men and women as spiritual heroes it demolishes that argument and helps us see that ordinary humans can live extraordinary lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I want to share the story of two of my spiritual heroes: Jim Elliot and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

 JIM ELLIOT

 "He is no fool who gives what he cannot

keep to gain what he cannot lose."



Jim Elliot served as a missionary in Ecuador. When Nate Saint, a fellow missionary, made contact with a group called the Auca (a much feared and avoided tribe) Jim, Nate and three other missionaries  felt compelled to attempt to take the gospel to them. After months of planning they landed on a sandy river beach close to the Auca and made peaceful contact with three Aucas. But a few days later the entire tribe returned and speared Jim and the others to death.

But that's not the end of the story. Jim's wife Elisabeth and Nate's sister made contact with the Auca and eventually moved into the village of the people who had killed the men they loved. They began sharing the gospel with them and in time won the tribe to Jesus, all because Jim, Nate and the others "did not love their lives even unto death" (Revelation 12:11). As Jim wrote in his journal while still in college, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Jim inspires me because he willingly laid down his life for the cause of Christ. Jim knew the risks of going to the Auca, but he considered those risks worth taking if only he could preach Christ to a people who were destined for hell apart from the saving grace of the gospel. I pray that I will prize the glory of Christ higher than I prize my own life.

Jim's life story is told in Shadow of the Almighty written by his widow, Elisabeth Elliot.

The story of Operation Auca is told in Through Gates of Splendor, also written by Elisabeth Elliot.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER



"When Christ calls a man, He bids

him come and die."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian. He worked tirelessly to try to open the eyes of Christians in Germany to the dangers of Hitler. He understood that if the church did not stand up to Hitler and the Nazi's evil ideology (even at the expense of its own blood) that Christianity was through in Germany and in Europe. Unfortunately, Bonhoeffer was largely ignored because most Christians were too intimidated by the Nazis to take a stand and his predictions came to pass.

Eventually, Bonhoeffer joined one of the resistance groups opposed to Hitler. He was already in prison for helping a Jewish family escape to Switzerland when an attempt was made to kill Hitler. Thousands were arrested after the assassination attempt and eventually the names of Bonhoeffer and one of his brothers and a brother-in-law were connected to the plot. All three were hanged by the Nazis only a few weeks before WWII ended. Bonhoeffer wrote in his  book Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

Bonhoeffer inspires me because he remained faithful to the truth of the gospel in the midst of a culture that was hostile to Christianity and exerted tremendous pressure on everyone to conform. The pressure to accept the Nazi's racial theories as compatible with Christian faith is similar to the pressure in our day to accept homosexuality as compatible with the Christian faith. I hope that I am able to stand firm, even at the risk of my life, and not compromise the truth for cultural acceptance.

The best recent biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.

Bonhoeffer wrote several books but the most read are Discipleship (sometimes called The Cost of Discipleship) and Life Together.



We Are Ashamed of Jesus

I like people to like me. I want people to think I'm a good guy. I try not to offend people or be rude to people (at least outside my family, but that's for another day). I'm not sure I would have said this about myself a few years ago, but the truth is, I'm a people pleaser. If you don't like me and you tell me, it really bothers me.

Being a people pleaser isn't all bad. But a negative thing I've noticed in relationship to my people pleasing ways is that it affects the way I approach people when talking to them about Jesus. Being afraid to offend people, people pleasers like me (and I know there are more of you out there) we get apologetic when we start talking to people about Christ.

We don't need to apologize or worry about being offensive when talking to them about Christ. We are bringing them the only hope for eternal salvation, not sharing our flu germs with them. Why do we get so worried about upsetting people when it comes to evangelizing? The reality is that too often we're more concerned with the good opinion of man than we are with God's opinion. We are ashamed of Jesus.

I have realized that I need to be asking God for boldness and stop worrying about offending people. If I saw a guy drowning I wouldn't be worried about offending him before jumping in to save him. If I saw a house on fire I wouldn't meekly knock on the front door, afraid I would upset anyone to let them know that their house is burning down. So why are we worried when we are bringing people the eternal, saving truth of the gospel. I think it's because we don't fear hell as much as we fear death. We don't believe in the horrors of hell as much as we do in the horrors of being burned alive or drowning. We need a holy reordering of our priorities.

God Needs to Lighten Up!

Ever been reading in the Old Testament and come across a story that made you question God's mercy? Stories like these:

• 2 Samuel 6 - A poor sap named Uzzah (what a handle!) is struck dead by God for inadvertently touching the ark of the covenant
• Genesis 19 - Lot's wife looks back to see Sodom & Gomorrah being destroyed and is turned into a pillar of salt
• Numbers 15 - Some schlub is stoned to death for innocently gathering sticks on the Sabbath
• Leviticus 10 - Two of Aaron's sons are struck down by God because they used the wrong type of fire before The Lord in the Tabernacle

Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt.

We read these and think, "Well, that seems a bit harsh, maybe God should lighten up!" The problem as David Platt explains in his book Follow Me is that our perspective on sin is incorrect. "We naturally view sin through man-centered eyes." Instead of seeing this as an offenses against an infinitely holy and eternal God, we see them as innocent mistakes by people just like us. Our real problem is that we value humanity, code for ourselves, much higher than we value God.

The penalty for any transgression is not determined so much by the nature of the act as much as who the act is committed against. Platt writes, "If you sin against a log, you are not very guilty. On the other hand, if you sin against a man or a woman, then you are absolutely guilty. And ultimately, if you sin against an infinitely holy and eternal God, you are infinitely guilty and worthy of eternal punishment."

So the issue isn't God needing to lighten up, the real issue is us needing to take sin and God's holiness much more seriously than we do. We don't need to apologize for God defending His holiness. We need to apologize for defending our sinfulness.

Here's a link to purchase a copy of Follow Me by David Platt.

http://www.amazon.com/Follow-Me-Call-Die-Live/dp/1414373287/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367947760&sr=1-1&keywords=follow+me

I'm A Momma's Boy



My mom, Jan, and I at my wedding.
This is P.B. (pre-beard), for me, not my mom.

I once heard pastor and author Calvin Miller say that most preachers are momma's boys. I don't remember the exact percentage, but the overwhelming majority of pastors in the US claim that their mother was the primary spiritual influence on their lives. Well, count me in. Abraham Lincoln once said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." I would have to concur.

As we look forward to celebrating our mothers this Sunday, I think back on the influence that my mom had on me. In our home, my dad was not the spiritual leader. It was my mom who made sure that my brother and I went to church and modeled being a follower of Christ for the two of us. So many moms are raising the children on their own, even in homes where dad is there physically but he's absent spiritually (like the home I was raised in). I want to encourage moms to not grow weary in doing good.

Here are a few things I'd like them to remember:

1. You Are the Greatest Influencer in Your Child's Life I meet so many parents, especially moms, who downplay the influence they have over their children. No, you may not be the hippest, or the coolest, or the greatest mom in the world, but you are still the only mother your children will ever have. Never discount how great your impact is on your children.

2. You Don't Have to Be Perfect Looking back now, I realize my mom wasn't perfect, but I didn't know it at the time, and, more importantly, I don't care now. She did the best she could in a hard situation with a spiritually uninvolved husband. Yeah, she may have made some mistakes, but remember, "love covers a multitude of sins." Families need to be laboratories where we learn to extend grace and forgiveness, and to get along with others.

3. You Never Know the Impact that You'll Have Your job is to be faithful to do what God has called you to do, and leave the results up to Him. You may feel like what you're saying is simply going in one ear and out the other, but they are hearing and eventually it will take root. Now, if you're not being faithful to train your children the way God has commanded you to, you should be worried about the results and I encourage you to make some changes. But in the end, the results of your efforts will not come to fruition for years maybe even decades. "Train up a child in the way that he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). There's a promise there, if you train a child correctly, even when they're old, they won't depart from your teaching.

God bless mothers, "for the hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world." Be faithful, perservere, never doubt the influence you have on your children and God will bless your efforts.

Quality Time with Oswald: The Idol of Inspiration

If you are not familiar with the devotional journal My Utmost for His Highest you should be! I can honestly say that few books have impacted my walk with Christ like this book has. My Utmost is a collection of the thoughts and teachings of the Scotsman Oswald Chambers that his wife put together after his untimely death at age 43. Even though Chambers lived a century ago, you'd never know it because his insights are so dead-on.

I want to share the entry for April 25 from My Utmost in its entirety because Chambers simply puts it better than I can and there is no need to try to reproduce what he has already stated so compellingly:

"Be ready in season and out of season" (2 Timothy 4:2)

Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.

I have to confess that far too often I do not give God my very best because I don't feel "inspired" at that moment. Lord, help me to give my best work to You regardless of how I feel, knowing that if my work is based on whether or not I feel inspired, then I've made an idol out of inspiration.

For more information on Oswald Chambers or My Utmost for His Highest go to http://utmost.org/.

He Isn't Safe, but He Is Good, He' the King!

The other morning in my devotions I read the following from Psalm 130;

But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared. - Psalm 130:4

 

The wording of this verse jumped out at me because of the psalmist stating that God should be feared because He offers forgiveness. I thought, "What a strange idea! Why would I fear someone who has forgiven me?" This caused me to do a little research. What is the psalmist trying to say here?

 

Most of us don't live with a sense of sin because we don't live with a sense of God in our lives. Where there is no realization of God's presence, there will be no realization of sin's presence. However, when we truly come face-to-face with God and His presence in our life overwhelms us, we cannot help but notice our sin, and it strikes terror in our hearts, just as it did to Isaiah when he saw God in the temple (Isaiah 6).  Why? When we see God's holiness we will be gripped by a holy fear because we realize that the only just response of God to our sin is to destroy us, "Woe is me! For I am lost" (Isaiah 6:5).

 

However, in His mercy God has chosen not to destroy sinful man but to forgive. Through Jesus we have forgiveness of sin. That unimaginable act of mercy, when fully understood by the sinner, creates a sense of holy fear in their life. The inclination is to think that if one has been forgiven, the natural response would be gratitude or relief, but Scripture consistently teaches that the biblical response is fear! Why? When one has truly been forgiven, they have been accepted by God and He fully invades one's life. The closer we get to God, the closer we get to ultimate holiness, the greater our awareness of our sin grows. As our awareness of our sin grows in the presence of holiness we will be gripped by fear. Not a fear that paralyzes and disheartens, but a fear that motivates us to never fall back into the sin we have just been released from. One way to discern if salvation has come is to determine if you live with a growing awareness of your sinfulness and a fear, dread, and disgust of it.

 

Healthy fear is not a bad thing, because it causes us to avoid things that are dangerous. It is wise to have a healthy fear of fire, electricity, predators, poisonous snakes, radiation, etc. Our fear of them doesn't paralyze us, keep us from living life, but we are careful around them because they can destroy us. We should have the same fear of sin.

 

In the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy and Susan ask Mr. Beaver about Aslan. When the girls hear that Aslan isn't a man but a lion, they become scared and ask Mr. Beaver, "Then he isn't safe?" Mr. Beaver replies, "Safe? ... Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King". We must realize that our God isn't safe, but He is good. He's the King and we must approach Him with a holy, respectful fear.

 

 

 

He has forgiven us that we might fear Him, because fear of sin leads to life!

 

(Every year I use a different plan for reading through the Bible. This year I'm using a chronological plan for the Bible. This plan arranges the Bible so that you read passages in the order they were written historically, just a small variation from reading the Bible straight through. If you need a reading plan, LifeChurch has created a free app called YouVersion with literally dozens of plans to help you out. Check it out at www.youversion.com)

The Butterfly Effect

The term "Butterfly Effect" refers to the effects of a seemingly insignificant event in one place (i.e. a butterfly flapping its tiny wings) that results in a major, unexpected event somewhere very distant (i.e. a tsunami on the other side of the world). It is connected to some sort of theory that some guy much smarter than I came up with that I don't fully understand, but we can all appreciate how seemingly insignificant acts can have major, unintended results down the road.

This weekend I was at a student ministry conference listening to Scott Kindig, a pastor from Georgia whom I respect very much. He was talking about disciple-making and he said we often will make an impact 4, 5, or 6 generations away that we are never aware of. When he said that I immediately thought, "butterfly effect".

Christ has invited us to join Him in impacting our world. Sometimes we wonder how we could possibly impact the world, but the reality is that most "big" things start very, very small. Jesus turned the Roman world upside down not through military, or economic, or political means  but by investing into the lives of 12 guys (one of whom betrayed Him). When Jesus left the earth around A.D. 30 He had these 11 guys He'd prepared for leadership of about 120 people, and that was it. From a human perspective His mission was a failure. However, by the year A.D. 325 half the Roman world was Christian. How was such a remarkable change brought about? Jesus had made disciples (the 12), whom He told to make disciples (Mt. 28:19-20), who then made disciples whom they told to repeat the process (2 Tim. 2:2), until half the Roman Empire were disciples of Christ. This is the greatest "butterfly effect" of all time.

The thing that we have to understand is that every one of us who is a follower of Christ are connected in a chain that stretches two millennia from Jesus, through the Apostles all the way down to us. The commands that Jesus left His disciples to "Go into all the world and make disciples" still applies to us today. The question then is, "Are you making any disciples?" If not why?

Maybe you'd say, "I don't know how!" Fair enough. Disciple-making is a lost art in the North American church, but it is something that you can be trained to do very easily and very quickly. So that's not an excuse. If you don't know how, find someone who can teach you how and then take what they teach you and turn around and teach it to others who will teach it to others. In our church all of us pastors are discipling a group of guys with the expectation that they will be able to turn around and disciple someone else. Talk to your pastor and if he blows you off contact me and I'll help you find someone to disciple you.

You never know the impact that your simple obedience to Jesus' command to make disciples will have. If you want to make a difference, if you want to impact your world, if you want to change the course of history then start making disciples. Jesus only had 12 and changed history. Let's join in His mission and change our world!

Catch a Wave!

"Catch a wave and your settin' on top of the world!" - The Beach Boys

While reading My Utmost for His Highest the other morning, I read the following, "Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A person ready never needs to get ready - he is ready." Oswald Chambers was discussing the need for readiness in the life of a follower of Jesus. So often we fail to see God move in our lives because we have not readied ourselves for His movement.

Moses had been readying himself for 40 years when God appeared to him in the burning bush. He had spent those years of exile on the backside of nowhere preparing for the role of the leader of God's people. Now granted, he did not realize what God was doing in his life, but none the less, he was readying himself. If Moses had not been ready, he would not have noticed the bush when he walked by.

Now the Bible does not mention this, but using my holy imagination, I wonder if Moses had passed by a burning bush before, but had had not noticed it because he wasn't ready. Maybe he had passed by many burning bushes but not until the day that he was ready did he actually notice, "Hey, that bush is on fire but it isn't burning up!" Then in that moment when Moses' readiness met God's presence history was made.

Now being ready does not insure that God will speak to us, but NOT being ready absolutely insures that God will NOT speak! It's like surfing. I've never surfed but I know that in order to surf you've got to be ready. They way you ready yourself is going to the beach, getting in the water, getting on your board and paddling out to where the waves come in. Now there will be days when you do all your prep and no waves come. But if you are going to catch a wave, you've got to be in the water, on your board and in position. If you wait until you see the wave before you start getting ready, it's too late. By the time you get in the water, get on your board and paddle out the wave is long gone.

I wonder how many waves of the Spirit the Father has sent our direction that we've missed because we've been preoccupied up on the beach when we should have been ready on our board out in the surf. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd really like to be riding waves instead of missing them. So let me encourage you to do whatever you need to do to be ready for the "surprise visits of God".

Surf's up Big Kahuna, grab your board!

Full of Grace & Truth

One of the biggest challenges for Christians living in a sinful and increasingly hostile culture is how do we display both grace and truth. Some may ask, what do you mean "display both grace and truth", or why is it important to "display both grace and truth"? Well, displaying both grace and truth means that we live with the tension of being a people of grace and a people of truth. The tendency for most Christians throughout history has been to tilt toward one extreme or the other.

Fundamentalist Christians tend to emphasize truth over grace, defending biblical truth but in a harsh and unloving manner. Liberal Christians emphasize grace above truth, displaying love for all people but never confronting them with the truth about their sin. If Christ's church is going to live out this tension of being full of grace and full of truth, a good place to look is Jesus Himself. John 1:14 tells us, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus when He came was full of both grace and truth. He did not tilt toward grace over truth, or truth over grace, He displayed both, fully.

An example of Jesus showing grace and truth is found in John 4 where He interacts with a woman at a well. Jesus did several things that took this woman by surprise. First, He, a Jew, spoke to her, a Samaritan. Jesus broke down racial/ethnic barriers that kept her from the love of the Father. Second, He, a man, spoke to her, a woman. Jesus broke down cultural/societal barriers that kept her from the love of the Father. Third, He, a moral "insider", spoke to her, a moral "outsider". Jesus broke down religious/moral barriers that kept her from the love of the Father. Jesus demonstrated incredible grace toward this woman, however, He did not do so at the expense of the truth.

Jesus loved her too much to turn a blind eye to the fact that she was living in sin. She had been married five times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. Jesus did not tiptoe around the issue of her sin, but in grace and truth confronted her and in the process transformed her life. Here is the secret, when grace and truth are fully displayed in tandem, they produce amazing transformation in the lives of those that come into contact with them. How can we change our broken, sinful, hurting and dysfunctional world? By being a people full of grace and truth.

So how can you be a person full of grace AND full of truth?

1. Don't call for a boycott of every company that expresses views that are contrary to Christian values. The world knows what we are against, it's time that they know what we are for. In the book Unchristian, one of the common conceptions of Christians in the world is that we are too political and judgmental. We always seem to be mad at someone or some group. I'm not saying that we have to give up our right to speak out, but maybe we should find a more productive way to do that. It should be obvious to even casual observers that our boycotts haven't really been effective in changing anyone's mind. Instead of calling people out for their sin, let's reach out to them in love and THEN have conversations about truth.

2. Don't tiptoe around sin in the lives of those we know. The opposite extreme is that we often ignore the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. Many of us are in close relationships with people that we care deeply about, and yet we've never talked to them about destructive, sinful behaviors in their lives. We think that we are ignoring their sin because "love is blind" or "love covers a multitude of sins". In reality, we are more concerned with keeping their approval and favor than we are in being truthful with them, because the truth is often uncomfortable. I'm not saying we need to slam people for their sin, but neither can we simply ignore it. If we truly love someone, we will honestly discuss with them the consequences of their sin and not turn a blind eye.

 

3. Develop relationships with people who are far from God. You really want to a person full of grace and truth? Then you must allow God to put you in places where you will have to exercise both, simultaneously. Nowhere will force you to exhibit both in your life better than in developing friendships with people who are far from God. One problem that we have as Christians is that we live in our little Christian enclaves, listening to our Christian music, watching our Christian movies, hanging out with fellow Christians and we have no contact with those outside the faith. How can we impact a lost world if we don't know anyone who's lost? When we start to befriend people who don't know Jesus it will change our perspective. It's one thing to be against "those people" who espouse views we don't agree with, it's something entirely different when it's our friend "Tommy" who espouses views we don't like. It's easy to slam the impersonal "those people", it's not so easy to slam your friend. Grace and truth can only operate in a relationship built on love and concern.

 

4. Be okay with the reality that church becomes a much messier place when we choose to be full of grace and truth. People who have lives that are not all together will be drawn to a church that displays both grace and truth. Life transformation is a messy business and I suspect one reason we don't see very much of it happening in our churches is that most churches aren't willing to put up with the mess. Raising babies is a messy business. They spit up on themselves, and you (especially if you're wearing a clean shirt). They mess their diapers (especially if you're getting ready to leave the house). They throw their peas (especially if you just mopped). We know going into it that they're a lot of work, but we also know the pay off is worth it. Likewise, we need to have a similar perspective when it comes to seeing the lives of those far from God transformed through the power of grace and truth.

The price of being a people full of grace and truth is high for us. The price of NOT being a people full of grace and truth is higher for the world!