More Than One

Reminiscent of the nine lives that cats claim to have, I claim to have more than one life. In fact, I have more than two too! [get it...TUTU...ha...I'm a dork]. I have my spiritual life, my family life, my lame joke life, my church life, my work life, my exercise life, my hobby life, my you-name-it life. They are all there, present and accounted for! Each doing it's own thing!

As if it is against the rules to start over on, say, March 3rd or December 16th, the new year certainly encourages us to start over, to begin again, and to resolve to do this or that with my food life, weight life, or work life. If you are hitting reset this year, let me offer a thought that may take some pressure off your shoulders.

My thought: my plethora of lives are more fused to be one than I think!

I have recently been on a journey to clean out my office to get it in order! Thoughts may circle around in some people's brain about how Chris is finally getting his work life organized! These thoughts, if they actually happened, would be accurate. My work life IS getting more organized and more manageable!

At the same time, a funny surprise continues to unfold in front of me. As my office is getting more organized, my financial life is getting more organized, my spiritual life is getting more attention, and my time with family is being managed better! This is cool! Work on one and get four! To be a math nerd for a second, maybe one times one CAN equal four! Awesome!

Um...no! Epic fail, Chris!

The reality is that one times one equals...wait for it...one! We have one life. Work to enhance it even in small things, and your life improves. Your one, God-breathed life--every aspect of it--responds and adjusts to every small, seemingly-insignificant tweak. It is as if we are hard-wired in the image of God to be a whole and complete living being! Nice.

So, go for it all this year with a bang as you hit reset and work on your life again! My excitement and anticipation grows as I wonder what will be affected this year as I work to get organized at work. What about you?

Moving the Bridge

I just got back from a great weekend with a bunch of campus ministers in Oxford, Mississippi. Dan Kimball spoke, did a great job, and (as always) raised some good questions especially for us in campus ministry.

In his first session, he showed us a picture that blew my mind. Well, I guess it was the thought associated with it that blew my mind. This picture shown to the right here is a picture of the Choluteca bridge in Honduras taken after hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The power of the hurricane was so great that the river actually moved! I'd never even heard of something like this happening before, except for a river becoming wider or gradually changing the flow as time goes on. I've never seen a river move to a completely different place so suddenly like what is pictured.

When Dan related this picture to our culture moving, I knew exactly where he was going! As the church tries to "fish for people" they must change and adapt to the shifting river. Sometimes the shift is small, but other times the shift is enormous! And that makes people nervous.

So often our churches are content with using the same strategies and tools for fishing when doing so looks completely ridiculous. A fisherman who insisted on fishing off the middle of Choluteca bridge "because that's where we've caught fish for years," would not only be a bad fisherman but also might be considered insane.

Yet, as culture has completely moved, we oftentimes insist on fishing with the same strategies and tools. I can't tell you how many times a well-intended person comes up to me and tells me that "we" (meaning the campus ministry) need to start doing "X" because we did that 20 years ago and it worked great! While you won't hear me say "X" will not work merely because it is old (the Bible is old too), the assumption that implementing something again just because it worked back then is flawed reasoning. The river might have moved from under the bridge! The river might have moved four miles down the road!

As a campus minister living on the edge of the our rapidly changing culture, I would rather get out the waders to walk, changing/tweaking my strategy regularly with small nuances in order to be a better fisherman. I like the change, mainly because I am also part of this ever-changing cultural shift we are experiencing.

But here is the challenge. Our churches have spent a lot of money building the bridge. Just because a campus minister wants to hop off the bridge to wade in the water, doesn't mean that our churches think that is the best thing. That might mean admitting that our assets are no longer useful; we don't like to confess that they might have depreciated to below zero. I understand that it takes time to come to terms with antiquated strategies for evangelism, to cut losses, and to build another bridge, but maybe we don't even need bridges anymore...I'm not sure.

All I know is that culture is shifting fast and our churches are VERY slow in catching up. We need to have courage to move forward, not just to change because everyone around us is. We shift all kinds of things because we want the saving message of Jesus Christ to be lived out among all those who are changing. If we refuse to change our strategies for evangelism, we've resigned ourselves to fishing off a bridge for nothing but rocks.

Lord, may your unchanging message of life in Jesus Christ spur us on toward living out Jesus' life in a particular, changing context. Give us the courage to try new methods for spreading your message. Help us to admit our selfish and prideful tendencies. Don't leave us as orphans, swept away in the cultural rapids, but weigh us down with your compassion for the lost. Open our eyes to see what the Spirit says. Amen.

The End of Christian America

Someone passed this article entitled "The End of Christian America" on to me. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Holiness Again

While we recognize that our holiness came about as a result of what God accomplished in Christ (see yesterday's post), Paul also wants us to live up to what we've been given.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:2, "to the church of God of God in Corinth, who have been made holy in Christ Jesus and who are called to be holy together with all those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place..."

While we have been given holiness, we must also live holy lives. It is not enough to just sit back and let God do all the work. We must live and practice the holiness that we have received. Indeed, that is what Paul calls the Corinthians back to constantly throughout this letter. We must live as Jesus lived.

This is the challenge that faces Christians today. Those who don't understand our received holiness, don't understand what it means to live holy lives. That is why we Christians get criticized so harshly at times: "They don't practice what they preach." In reality, they are telling us something we know, but don't communicate enough.

We need to tell everyone readily that we are not holy by our actions; we are made holy. But we strive to live this holiness now because we want to reflect the holy God who made us. I hope I am making sense here.

"Don't Waste Your Life"

I just finished this book written by John Piper. Great book that I suggest be read. He spends a good amount of time challenging me to consider the opportunities I have before me all the time. When I don't take advantage of these, I waste my life.

I really like the chapter that challenged the kind of lifestyle that prevents wasted lives. My use of money and my attitude toward possessions needed some focus. He uses a wartime type of mindset to advocate living for Jesus. The stories he tells of people from various wars in history brought me to tears! Kids becoming war heroes who did not consider their own lives worth saving. I can't possibly recount all the stories, but this remains in my head: how many of our teenagers would really consider giving up their life for a greater cause? Not many that I know of. I'm not absolutely positive that I would either.

Anyway...good book. I'll let you borrow it if you come by my office sometime. Worth the read.

Living Anew with God

Below is the sermon I preached yesterday. I know that it is a long post, but for those interested...there you go.

Title: Living Anew with God

Text: 2 Kings 22:1-23:3

Focus Statement: God continues to work newness into life

Function Statement: To foster a sense of renewal in our lives

Introduction

Painting by Thomas Hart Benton in the Dallas Museum of Art. Key parts: late afternoon sun, man looking at old shack, roof about to cave in, suitcase held together by two ropes, cow skeleton, man’s hands on beard wondering something. Its name is ‘The Prodigal Son.’ In Thomas Benton’s telling of the prodigal son, we learn that the son waited too long. You’re too late! A welcoming family does not tend the house with servants, the fatted calf is now dry bones, and there is no reconciliation between father and son. The story is anything but the one I know!

Transition: But, this picture is exactly the picture I see when I look at the story of Josiah at the end of the book in 2 Kings 22. Go ahead and turn there.

Rejected Property

The book of Kings is a long series of stories about leaders…kings…“who did evil in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 11:6; 15:25; 16:25, 30). Time and time again a king is described as one who “forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord” (i.e. 2 Kings 21:22). It is as if we see all over again the sin that gets worse and worse at the beginning of Genesis, which led to the flood where God totally destroyed the world.

Then, in the chapter just before we begin to read about Josiah, God makes his pronouncement: “I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle” (21:12). Even after the story of Josiah we see the lord rejecting his people: (23:27) “So the Lord said, ‘I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, “There shall my Name be.”’”

All of this was part of the covenant God established with Israel so many years ago. Keep my commands and you will be blessed; reject my commands and you will be cursed. So…because Israel rejected God’s commands…it is set…Jerusalem will fall…there is nothing you can do about it! No amount of repentance will change my mind. You can hear the distant voices saying …you are too late…just like Thomas Hart Benton’s rendition of ‘The Prodigal Son’…you waited too long…you kings of Israel.

Transition: But, you can’t just let these distance voices convince us that there is no hope…that we should just resign ourselves to inescapable destruction as rejected property! There is more in our text this morning that compels us to keep listening. The story of Josiah is filled with hope…with renewal. Let’s move in a little closer to hear the story.

Business as Usual

As the story of the Kings comes to a close (at the very end of the book), we see this story of Josiah. He is the one we have been looking for as far as walking with the Lord. “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left” (22:2). “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with the law of Moses” (23:25).

Josiah comes on the scene as an eight-year old boy (22:1). Ten years pass by without any mention of his activity. Nothing stands out as noteworthy to the narrator of 2 Kings. The years went on like usual. A young king doing what young kings are supposed to do…I guess. Business as usual for king Josiah. Even after ten years of being king we see business continuing as usual in 22:3. The kings of Israel regularly sponsored repairs and renovations on the temple. That is what you were supposed to do…repair and renovate the temple…and so…Josiah does this.

He sends the secretary, Shaphan, with this message. (22:4) “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. (5) Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the Lord—(6) the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple.”

Business continues as we continue reading, but there is something new in the story…its something powerful, but not important at first. Hilkiah the high priest found a book in the temple during the course of business. He (oddly enough as a priest) doesn’t know what to do with this book, so he gives it to the secretary, Shaphan. It, apparently, isn’t too important to Shaphan either. He almost forgot to mention it to the king when he was reporting back to him about business. (vs.9) “Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: ‘Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.’” Business as usual… money… workers doing their job…normal stuff here. Oh yeah! (vs.10) “Then Shaphan…informed the king, ‘Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.’ And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.”

Transition: At this point in the story, business as usual is over! Life changes. Josiah’s response is unprecedented. Even though we don’t know what the contents of the book are until later, it must be powerful to make such a dramatic change in a person.

Josiah’s Initial Response

Josiah rips his clothes. He orders three other people (more people are involved now) to go with Hilkiah and Shaphan to inquire of the Lord through a prophetess (Huldah) to see if these things are true. It seems like Josiah fears that something bad might happen soon because of the disobedience of his predecessors. She affirms his suspicions (vs.16): “This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.”

At this point, I still don’t see anything good about this story. Nothing has changed! Destruction is still coming. There is something about the words of the Lord “my anger…will not be quenched” that doesn’t give me hope. I see the image of Thomas Benton’s prodigal son. Those voices comes around again, “Its too late.” “You can’t change anything.” “Don’t even try.” You know Josiah was probably thinking that when he received the news from the prophetess…wasn’t he? Let’s see.

Josiah’s Complete Response

2 Kings 23:1-3. What does Josiah do? He tells as many people as possible. More people need to know what is written in this book. We learn here that he is reading from the Book of the Covenant. There are many ideas of exactly what is contained in this book that Josiah read. It could be the laws of Exodus 20-23. It could be pieces of Deuteronomy. It could be the whole Pentateuch, the first five books of the OT. Whatever it is…it contains the idea of blessings and curses predominant in Deuteronomy. Meaning…those who keep the commands of God will be blessed, while those who reject the commands of God will be cursed. Josiah needs to tell everyone the contents of this book.

Beyond just telling people about the book, Josiah did something else. He also renewed the old covenant between Israel and God. He is interested in following the Lord despite the circumstances (despite the fact that God is about to destroy Israel), Josiah decides to renew the covenant in the presence of the Lord.

Taking things even further than verbally renewing the covenant, Josiah completely reforms the entire kingdom (23:4ff). He tears down idols in the temple set up to Baal and Asherah. He does away with all the pagan priests, mediums, and spiritists. He tears down the houses of prostitution. He breaks down shrines, burns other altars, scatters the ashes, and desecrates the so-called “holy places” throughout the land. He takes bones from tombs, puts them on altars, and burns them…total desecration. He slaughters all the priests of Samaria’s high places on their altars and burned human bones…again desecrating them.

On a slightly more positive note, Josiah commands all the people of the land to celebrate the Passover. The narrator says the Passover had not been celebrated since the time of the judges. They again participate in an event that defined them as a people…God showing his favor to Israel when he passed over them when he killed Egypt’s first born. They celebrate the Passover!

Overall, when you read about “Josiah’s reforms” (as they are called), you can’t help but say that it was complete reformation. Josiah truly had a heart that was responsive and humble just like the prophetess said (22:18-20). And you could tell this by the way he behaved. The narrator says (and I read it again) “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with the law of Moses” (23:25).

Transition: I can’t help but ask (when I hear the story of Josiah), “Why? … Why does Josiah respond this way? Why doesn’t he just resign to his fate and carry on business as usual? No harm in that right?”

Living Anew with God

Well…yeah there is if you’re Josiah. [pause] Apparently, if you are going to walk right and “do what is right in the eyes of the Lord,” you are going to do this regardless of the circumstances. Regardless of the fact that Judah is going to be destroyed regardless. Repenting is just the right thing to do. You do what is right, period. Josiah hears the words of the Lord and responds accordingly. He doesn’t say, “If my repentance doesn’t change God’s judgment against Judah, I am not going to repent.” Josiah instead says, “Living anew with God means responding to his words that never change.” So, he stands by the pillar and reads the words of God to everyone! That is bold.

This is the message that confronts us here today: how are we going to live anew with God and respond TODAY to his words? The world around us seems to be telling us (ever so subtly), “It doesn’t matter! If you want to do that to make you feel better…go ahead. But it really doesn’t make the world a better place by doing all these things.” They might whisper in our ears that living with God is just about going to church and saying the right things. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Living anew with God means…living according to his word. His word still speaks to us today…just like it did to Josiah. The words that God has spoken are not hidden away in the basement. Instead, they are accessible. They are alive. They are real. They guide us. They speak to us right now! Where are they? They are in the Bible.

Our job…no…our responsibility…is to stand by the pillar and read them! We must be committed to God’s unchanging word despite our circumstances. All of our circumstances change by the minute, but God’s word never changes. The message he spoke to Josiah is the message he speaks to us today. It is an invitation to life with God. His word needs to be close to our heart. Now is the time to renew yourself to God’s enduring word.

The question I have for us this morning is this: How are you going to get into God’s word this next year? Even more than that…how are you going to live according to his word? You can read the words all you want. You can even praise God for his glorious words that offer life. But it is completely empty if you don’t do anything about it. As James tells us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says….the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22, 25)

As we encounter God’s word again, we need to ask, “What are we going to do to live anew with God?” Reformation needs to happen.

God needs your commitment to him despite how tough times are for you right now. I really do get tired of people saying to me, “I need to do better, I know. But I am about to get this new job. Or I am about to retire. Or I am about to do this or about to do that.” There is always something. But, we can still serve God and live life anew while doing all these things. You don’t have to wait until everything is perfect before you begin. Begin now! I can’t think of a better time of the year.

Perhaps you are going through life thinking things are just business as usual. Life is going along pretty normally…nothing major is happening in my life and I am going to work on keeping it that way. But, if we are to take this passage in 2 Kings seriously, we are to be continually looking for ways to reform our lives according to God’s word in a responsive and humble manner. We want to be ones who DID right in the eyes of the Lord. Not the ones who WILL DO or ARE ABOUT TO DO right in the eyes of the Lord. We don’t want business as usual. We have that chance right in front of us. Right now. What are we going to do?

I want to close by reading the chorus of a song from a Christian band.

Watermark song: All Things New

CHORUS:

Because of who You are and who I am in you

You make all things pure

Because of who You are and who I am in You

You make all things true

You make all things new

It is because of who God is and whom he has made us to be that we can begin anew with life with God. God truly makes all things new. That is his business. He can do it. Let’s respond as a community. It is not too late! Let’s live anew with God.

Discipleship

Reading the Word
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Reflecting on the Word
The path of discipleship is narrow, and it is fatally easy to miss one's way and stray from the path, even after years of discipleship. And it is hard to find. On either side of the narrow path deep chasms yawn. To be called to a life of extraordinary quality, to live up to it, and yet to be unconscious of it is indeed a narrow way. To confess and testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth, his enemies and ours, to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ, is indeed a narrow way. To believe the promise of Jesus that his followers shall possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenseless, preferring to incur injustice rather than to do wrong ourselves, is indeed a narrow way. To see the weakness and wrong in others, and at the same time refrain from judging them; to deliver the gospel message without casting pearls before swine, is indeed a narrow way. The way is unutterably hard, and at every moment we are in danger of straying from it. If we regard this way as one we follow in obedience to an external command, if we are afraid of ourselves all the time, it is indeed an impossible way. But if we behold Jesus Christ going on before step by step, we shall not go astray. But if we worry about the dangers that beset us, if we gaze at the road instead of at him who goes before, we are already straying from the path. For he is himself the way, the narrow way and the strait gate. He, and he alone is our journey's end.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer -The Cost of Discipleship

Responding to the Word
Help me to consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that I might not grow weary and lose heart. Help me keep vivid in my mind the extraordinary life He lived, His calmness with controversy. His storminess with hypocrisy. His authority in teaching. His humility in serving. His quickness with compassion. His slowness with condemnation. His readiness in defending others. His reluctance in defending Himself. His joy at unexpected faith. His sorrow at unbelief. His submission to the Father. His resistance to the Devil. His daring in the way He lived. His dignity in the way He died.
Thank you, O God, for the steps Jesus left behind, so clear and distinct and unswerving. And so impossible...unless my eyes are ever and always only on Him.
Ken Gire

Worship Time

I do find it fascinating the approach to worship that says it happens between the opening prayer and the closing prayer (or benediction). Anything between those two things is considered a part of worship while anything outside those lines is not.

I had this conversation recently with one of our elders (who came in behalf of most of the other elders). The presenting issue was that I showed a video during "worship services" on Sunday night last week that had instrumental music in it. I had stepped over (or confused) the line of having instruments in worship, which is something that we do not permit. I don't want to hash out the issue as much as I want to talk about what is considered worship. During my conversation, I found out that the video would have been fine if we had had the closing prayer immediately before showing it.

This speaks volumes as to when we think worship happens and what definition we have of worship. It seems a little legalistic if you ask me. "Here is the line that gives us peace. Say this prayer, then its okay to do anything because it is not technically 'in' worship." Two scripture were given to me as a proof of this line drawing phenomenon: Col 3:16 and Eph 5:19. I do want to consider these briefly and in order.

The Colossians text reads, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." The admonition is definitely toward singing in our hearts, but it says nothing about instrumental music; thus, for most in our heritage, we cannot use instruments. When I look at the text however, the only command I see is that the word of Christ must dwell in our hearts as we teach, admonish, and sing. It doesn't really command no instruments.

Let's say we decide, for argument's sake, that we are not going to have instruments, something I am an advocate for by the way. We might say this is how we let the word of Christ dwell in our hearts. The context of this passage demands a broader understanding of worship than we typically give it, however. The context of this passage is one of regular, everyday life. We are being (see 3:12ff) compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, forgiving, loving, and peaceful as God's people living in the world. The verse right after it (3:17) even says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Reading on we find must talk about household admonitions. Why do we use this text as just a comment on our times of worship on Sundays? It demands a broader application that many in our heritage seem to claim. Are all the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs I sing at any time only a capella? If this is where I want to go, it seems like I need to be consitent in applying it to my life by not singing with instruments ever. This is somewhere that I will not go, so that is why I don't use this text as an explicative of why we sing a capella.

The Ephesians text reads and typically applied in a manner much like the Colossians, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." The only command is found in the previous verse (Eph 5:18b): "be filled with the spirit." All the ideas in our particular text hinge on our being filled with the spirit...as we speak, as we sing and make psalms, and as we give thanks.

Again, I see no command to refrain from instrumental music. If I did, I would need to apply it to my whole life rather than a couple of hours of my week. All of my time should be geared toward being filled with the spirit. I see freedom to allow our hands to express themselves as an overflow of the heart in playing an instrument. Indeed, most times that I experience the moving of the spirit in my life happens to be as I am playing or listening to instrumental music.

In summary, I do not like the complete separation of worship from every other aspect of my life. I do not see this in the pages of scripture at all. My whole life (not just part of it) needs to be geared toward pleasing God. He demands my whole heart, 24-7. Let us encourage one another as long as it is called today toward love and good deeds (in all parts of our life). Amen!

Living Christians

This morning my devotional reading led me to consider how Christians live. Does it matter how I live as a Christian? Those who say no might run to the offers of salvation by grace alone. Those who say yes might run to James' faith without works argument. Sometimes this question comes up in discussions about salvation; does the way I live affect my salvation? I want to shift the focus away from this toward living everyday life.

Does it matter how I live as a Christian? Well, what do you believe about God? Does he want some ceremony or a momentous intellectual ascent to appease him to let you into heaven? Does he need you bombarding him with praises and adoration to help out his lack of self-confidence? Or is he interested in a relationship with you? Is he wanting to transform your life here on earth?

If God is interested in a relationship with me, it follows that I can hurt or strain the relationship with my own actions, even with my own thoughts. God has provided the way through Jesus to enter into relationship with him. As my relationship grows with God, I will look more and more like Jesus in my life. My will is transformed to strive for his perfection. I will be able to find true life in this world; my life will have purpose; all my desires will be to nourish my relationship with God.

It does matter how I live as a Christian.