March 2009 Entries
Comparing Lincoln and Obama
 

As Mr. Obama likes to compare himself to Mr. Abraham Lincoln he might want to read up a little more…

  Very Wise Words

During this political season lets be reminded of these wise words:

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
 

--Abraham Lincoln

 
posted @ Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:25 AM | Feedback (0) | Tags: Barack Obama
Don't You Just Love Old people!

My sister -- known as "Gussie" -- just turned 60 last week.  It is a major milestone and means that i will be 50 this summer. Reading funny jokes about old people are becoming more meaningful. Gussie sent this to me this week....

HOW TO CALL THE POLICE WHEN YOU ARE  OLD AND DON'T MOVE SO FAST ANYMORE!
 
 
 
George Phillips , an elderly man, from Meridian, Mississippi, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.
He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?"
He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me.
 
Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available."
George said, "Okay."
He hung up the phone and counted to 30.
Then he phoned the police again.

"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.
One of the Policemen said to George, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!" George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"
(True Story) I LOVE IT!
Don't mess with old people
Live well, laugh often, love much!!!
posted @ Thursday, March 26, 2009 4:32 AM | Feedback (0) | Tags: Family
What We Need to Win 8 - Reclaiming the Arts
The holding back of creative expression of faith in the arts
 
One of the great theologians who impacted my life through his writings was Francis Schaeffer. In the 70-80's Schaeffer was a force in evangelical Christians and his challenge was unique. He called for Christians to put away their ideas (false ones) that there is a division in the world of secular and sacred. The fact is all things on this earth can be used for evil and to do harm - to promote sin....but conversely -- all things can be used to promote righteousness, to proclaim God's power and grace -- share the gospel. No job or profession is more sacred then another...no activity is more holy then the next.
One of the areas of life he was passionate about was the arts and music. He used to say that the Arts used to be used for worship, to communicate the creative majesty of God and to declare the beauty of God's holiness. It has been hijacked and corrupted by the evil one. It is time we reclaim the arts for the glory of God. If you look in our world today, you have to notice that the world is no longer “black and white” – it is vivid with colors. Things are not shaped square or round – angles, shapes, designs… The world is filled with technologies and gadgets!  I think one of the reasons that evangelical Christianity has lost its place at the table of world discussions and lost our influence is because we huddled in churches and did not engage in the creative expression of faith through the arts.
When I say ARTS I mean drawing, painting, music, dance, sculpture, poetry, graphic design, etc… Demographically, the arts are flooded with young people, probably 20-36 years dominate this venue and thus it’s a “twofer” – when you can touch a discipline and demographic if Christians and especially churches would get involved with the arts. Without question it is risky. They paint NUDES! You have to deal with some of moral issues but it is not impossible. Schaeffer made a great case that Paul had to go around some seedy, erotic venues in places like Corinth, Ephesus and Thessalonica to get the gospel to those who were in those places.
Christians feel very uncomfortable around artists because they are always living in the abstract and the dreams. Yet the fact is as Christians we promote FAITH. Is there anything more abstract than that. Yet we can move the abstract to the concrete because there is TRUTH. I believe many artists end up finding God or moving towards spirituality (very broad) because ultimately they want to find truth.
Next week – the Christian church will acknowledge the most holy nights in traditional Christian circles - Good Friday. Our church is using the arts to point people's hearts and minds to the person of Christ. Our church will be transformed into a walking art gallery. Talented artists in the community have been used to create pieces of work to tell the story of the Savior. The culmination of the night will end in the sanctuary for communion. What an evening – and amazingly there will be unbelieving artists who will be seeking truth. I do not believe we can win the war of today without a serious look at the arts and how we can bring our influence to bear on it. As Schaeffer desired the arts would be reclaimed for the glory of God!
 
posted @ Thursday, March 26, 2009 3:56 AM | Feedback (0) | Tags: Gospel Life Lessons Cultural Conflicts
Shack Flack!

I have been asked more than a dozen times by many in our church what I thought about "The Shack." So I bought it...began reading and stopped a third of the wathrough because i couldn't take the drivel. But to be fair i wentout looking for a critque by someone who read the book. Below is a good one.  All i will say is that ....again, evangelicals have been sucked into the emotional pitch of post modern novel which wows us to think -- "this author has found the answer!"  I only wish that Christians would read the Bible as much as they read this junk. And then allow the Bible to affect their hearts and minds as much as they have allowed this heresy to impact them!

 
A critique ofThe Shack
 
 
By Julie Klassen -- January 4, 2008
 
""This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' did for his. It's that good!"  Eugene Peterson, author of The Message (Front cover endorsement)

I bought and read The Shack a few days ago on the emotional recommendation of a friend who admitted that while he was not an avid reader this book moved him to tears.

The Shack is a book written by William Young that is flying off the store shelves. People are buying a copy, then coming back to buying several more to pass out to family or friends. The emotional reaction triggered by The Shack seems almost unprecedented and the book is enthusiastically endorsed by Christian bookstore staff as THE book to read !

But wait !!

I don’t know if you have read the book yet or not… if not, it is only a matter of time before someone hands you a copy or encourages you to run out and buy your own....

We are called to be discerners of good and evil, of truth and error. We are called to test all things and to be on guard.
“Prove (test , examine) all things.. hold fast that which is good !” (I Thess. 5:21)

And we are warned that we need to be even more on guard as the end approaches when "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables...." ( II Tim. 4:3,4)
 
These are frightening words and should stir us up to be doubly careful and take to heart the admonition following in verse 5.."But you be watchful in all things"!!

Is this book what it is hailed to be? A book on par with John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress -- or is there something dangerously deceptive lurking in its pages?
 
Have you questioned what you read in light of scripture ?

To be honest - I am very troubled by the book…. not because there is nothing good in it …the best deception has the MOST truth in it…. but because the foundation on which the truth is laid is not the same as the foundation we find in the pages of our bibles.

Is God ever pictured to be like a large black woman in an apron swaying to funk music?

No, of course not…and I know the defenders of the book will be quick to say that the author was employing his analogy to break people loose from a false preconceived idea of who God is....
 
So also - to present a God so contrary to the God of our scripture is not setting anyone on a solid rock.

The Papa of the Shack is God stripped of His majesty, His glory, His Holiness. I personally am not attracted to the playful, at times silly god of The Shack, the god that would laughingly feed his child a dish of greens that would make him sick.

The God I know is Holy and Righteous and One to whom I gladly bow my knee… but how I love Him, knowing that He is my Father and I know I can run to Him any time , sit at His feet with my head on His knee and listen to His amazing Words of truth and comfort.
".... and Holy is His name!" (Luke 1:49)

The god of The Shack winks at sin and the consequences of sin, reassuring Mack that there is not one child of her’s that she will send to hell…but all will be brought into relationship with her in the end. And then she shows Mack that his abusive, cruel father who died in a drunken stupor after drinking his poisoned liquor -- is indeed enjoying the delights of heaven.

“Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor DRUNKARDS, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (I Cor. 6:10)

The Shack also takes license to change the Words of scripture. When Mack accuses Papa of deserting Jesus at the cross, Papa reassures Mack that this was not so. She insists that at no point did Papa ever turn away from Jesus on the cross but was there with Him the whole time. Really? What does William Young know that Jesus did not?

“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” is Jesus cry from the cross. (Matt.27:46)

Papa also teaches Mack that she does not require anything of him other than relationship. She has no intentions of turning any one into a Christian. Expectations and responsibilities are only part of a dead relationship …be it between you and God or in a marriage relationship.

Consider, my friend! Think of your best relationship…be it marriage or friendship. Is it free of expectations or responsibilities? Does a wife not expect certain things of her husband? I know I do .. I expect my husband to be faithful to his marriage vows “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health” , I expect him to care for me, I expect him to react in certain ways in certain circumstances .. I expect him to be true to how I know him to be., I expect him to be home for dinner. … And yes , he has responsibilities as well. It is his responsibility to make sure our vehicles are in good repair, his responsibility to fix whatever goes wrong in the house, his responsibility to take out the garbage.

What Young seems to have overlooked is that expectations and responsibilities are not wrong in themselves… they can become bondage only when the LOVE dies in a relationship. Where love is strong, expectations and responsibilities are fulfilled with joy!

“You are my friends, IF you do whatsoever I command you !” (John 15:14)
"He that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him." (I John 2:4)

In the writing of The Shack, William Young employs a couple of clever literary tactics.
A foreword of a book is usually written by someone other than the author for the purpose of introducing the author and speaking for his credibility. Young writes his own foreword to introduce and give credibility to the main character of his story, going so far as to explain why he himself is part of the story. Because a foreword is expected to be factual, I know of several people who were convinced that this book was the real experience of a real person....

If this book was meant to be nothing more than a well written piece of fiction with a clever and entertaining plot… then why is it having such a deep spiritual impact on its readers?
What is the power in and behind this book?
Is it the power of the Holy Spirit?
Or is it an example of the ‘winds of doctrine’ we are warned against? (Eph.4:14)
Does this book align itself with scripture or is it presenting another Jesus, another God?
These are questions that must be asked.

Truth is never threatened or offended when questioned.

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free !" (John 8:32)
 
posted @ Friday, March 20, 2009 6:19 AM | Feedback (1) | Tags: Cultural Conflicts
What We Need to Win 7 - Understanding of Non-Moral cultural Issues
"We are uneducated in dealing with non-moral issues...."
We i made that statement - some fellow Christians wanted to fire me as their pastor.  One of the reasons that our voice as Christians is not really considered in the dialogue of cultural issues and world problems is that we have a “two-note song” that the rest of the human race is weary of hearing! Ask an evangelical to debate abortion and gay marriage and they foam at the mouth.   Ask the same Christian to explain principles of free market society and how it aligns with Biblical principles of stewardship – they give you a blank stare.  How about the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in the sub-sahara regions of the world? Where or what is “sub-sahara!” Anyone ever heard of  Dafur? Again it causes the “deer in the head light look!”
 
 We need to be able to intelligently discuss defense, economics, environment, education (tough to do when you are in the Christian school), social security, federal infrastructure, etc. Most Christians are so unversed in that kind of dialogue that anything they want to say about the moral issues are discounted or we are labeled zealous yet unintelligent. The fact is issues like poverty and education for the urban poor is a moral issue in the world. That is why we have lost our voice and standing in the conversation! In some respects they are right.
 
The shame of this is that evangelical Christians give to many organizations that are making an impact inn these types of compassion and mercy ministries! World Vision, Compassion Intl, Feed the Child – all are evangelical based and tremendous examples. The problem is Christians give there mony but don’t fully understand the issues or what their position is on the issues. We also have a hard time separating the sin question and the compassion question. Look the bible is clear homosexuality is a sin and there is NO way that a practicing homosexual can be a believer. But their struggle with this sin does not mean we do not engage with them or show unconditional love. Do you realize that most homosexuals who die from AIDS, usually die alone! How heart breaking but because we struggle to separate the theological truth with a practical position, we miss out on great opportunities.
 
Look I think a start would be for Christians to daily read the newspaper and watch a few news programs and then ask questions. We have to get pass our BIG TWO issues and grow in our understanding and ability to discuss these issues without becoming fighting fundies. Just for historical understanding….when evolution came on the scene; Christians raised their voices, got their vein protruding from their neck and emoted everywhere. The problem is they never read up on the scientific evidence and the evolutionist waxed us. It took some 20 years for us to catch up and now thanks to “Back to Genesis: and Ken Hamm, we have nodal evidence to speak intellectually on the issue.
posted @ Thursday, March 19, 2009 2:21 AM | Feedback (0) | Tags: Gospel Life Lessons Cultural Conflicts
"I am NOT Ashamed!"
The Wonder of the Gospel
 
This morning was extremely exhilarating when it comes to preaching. First I love it when a passage of scripture is “pregnant” when it comes to homiletically points. When each sermon point just jumps out from the text! Second when the text provides a harmony of thought; much like a great song or a concerto of sorts. Then there is a great theological compare and contrast. When through the text you see an aspect of good as well as evil. When you understand God and then compare it to man. For the preacher, these are the things that make our heart jump a beat.
 
Today’s text was Romans 1:16, 17 – “I am no ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, for as it is written “the righteous man will live by faith.”” This is Paul’s defense on why he is not guilty or does he take credit for any part of the redemption found in the gospel. On the contrary, Paul says – “I am NOT guilty of any work that the gospel does – a matter of fact I need what the gospel has to offer. For what it offers, I can not do on my own!!” So why is the gospel – guilt free to Paul:
 
I.                    The Gospel is the work of an omnipotent God to a powerless man.
II.                  The Gospel is the mercy rescue of a helpless man.
III.                The Gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness in a worthless man.
IV.                The Gospel is the ongoing work by faith in a useless man.
 
The fact is we are powerless and we need God’s omnipotent power! We are helpless and we need to be rescued by a merciful God. We are worthless and need the holy, perfect righteousness of God imputed in our lives. We are useless in trying to live the Christian life, we need the on going work of the gospel to sanctify us! When we take a sober view of our spiritual condition and then see what a loving, glorious God we have – we begin to fully understand the glories of the gospel!
posted @ Thursday, March 19, 2009 2:04 AM | Feedback (0) | Tags: Preaching Book of Romans
What We Need to Win 6 - Public School Involvement
Let me remind us why I am writing these entries. Back in January I challenged our church that as we look around the globe and especially our own nation, the foundations are crumbling morally, ethically, spiritually, intellectually, politically, financially and personally. We could just sit and complain OR we can determine what is the problem and attempt to make some positive steps to see change occur in our lifetime. As I worked on my list of failures both nationally and in the evangelical world – I wrote today’s issue and felt a strange burning in my heart. Absolutely we must admit that one of the failures in the last 30 years as Christians has been our absence in the public school. As both teachers…parents….students…coaches…supporter…school board members…PTA supporters!!! Our influence being absence has been felt for a long time and will continue IF we do nothing!
 
Let me explain….about 30 years ago, to be specific, the early 1970’s Christians leaders saw the power of humanism in the educators of public school and decided to provide an alternative. Consider history….prayer and the Bible removed; drugs on the rise; sexual revolution and sex education being taught….oh yeah let’s not forget – BUSSING. Shamefully I have to tell the truth one of the main reasons Christian schools began was the intergration of the school through bussing. Heartbreaking!!!!
 
 I can understand the thinking behind the Christian school movement, but to be honest I think it is an attempt to keep young people away from bad influences was a mistake. But it also caused parents to relinquish their spiritual responsibilities of being parents and lead to many students being less involvement in the local church. All that to be said that Christians pulled out of the public school and left the schools in the hands of humanistic, liberal teachers (for the most part --- and worst in some regions more then others).  Where we should have stayed and fought the fight, still influencing our kids and raising them in the fear and admonish of the Lord. Instead we reacted, pulled the kids out and isolated from the public school thus losing our influence.
 
I think there was a even more heinous sin….the discouraging of committed Christians to go into the public school teaching professions.  I remember hearing well intentioned Christians speak poorly of young people who wanted to teach in the PS. We de-motivated a legion of devoted Christians from going into public school teaching and having a righteous influence with students. Look they can not teach Biblical principles, but they can teach with integrity the whole of our nation’s heritage and discuss the positive influence that Christianity had on the nation. Look our nation is founded on “Judeo-Christian values” – how about having a teacher who extols those values in positive tones then having a teacher despise them and makes their distain known through illustration, tonal inflection and facial expression. More is caught then taught, this is how our public education has negative influenced out children. Thomas Jefferson said one of the things he feared about the separation of church and state was that religious sects/churches would go off and isolate themselves from the rest of society, forming their own schools etc. He understood that what made America great was having a righteous influence woven into our fabric. Not dictating the direction – thus being a theocracy – but influencing.
 
I suggest that if possible (meaning if the school is not so bad that it is more like a war zone0 Christians should SERIOUSLY and prayerfully consider public school for their kids. They should be involved – class mom/dad….go on field trips, join PTO, start a “Mom’s in Touch” Group…. We should be running for school board (I tried…check out my other blog on that) – nevertheless – we should be apart of the leadership of the school. And most definitely – we need committed Christians as public school teachers. A matter of fact, I believe we should have a “Public School Teachers Fellowship” at our churches. Where we can encourage, instruct, support and pray for their unique and powerful ministry.
posted @ Friday, March 13, 2009 2:53 AM | Feedback (0) | Tags: NewSong Life Lessons