Born-Again or Bored Again

The following cartoon makes me as myself, am I born-again or bored again?  Has my relationship with Jesus Christ created a new life within and for me?  Or…am I just pretending, going through the motions, doing the right things but failing to be a different person? 

Paul spoke of becoming a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5).  Do I want to be new, different, transformed?  Do I want my old life back?

Such questions force me to draw closer to Christ.  If I am bored again with my walk with Christ, then how close am I to the One who left the presence of the heavenly Father to become an embryo in the womb of a virgin?  How immersed am I in the love of one who knew no sin but became my sin, my failures, my hurt,  and my pain in order to suffer the consequences of my life?  If Jesus is the reason for the season, then how did I lose my passion for Him and the life He offers?  Have I lost sight of His passion for me?

Am I Born-Again or Bored Again?  A journey to the manger, to a birth, to the gift of a child will help me find my answers.  Let me invite you to join me and rediscover the gift of God.  Join me and find a new life.  Join me and remember:  Bored or Passionate – He loves me…forgives me…saves me.

A Consequence Free Zone

Read the paper, listen to radio, or watch TV lately?  The Governor of Illinois wants to sell the vacant Senate seat of President-elect Obama to the highest bidder.  And yet after he is arrested he wishes to stay in office.  Auto-workers and auto executives want to continue to make unrealistic salaries while building a product fewer and fewer Americans want to buy.  NFL players violate league policy on banned substances and go to court to remove the prescribed penalties for their violation.

When did America become a “Consequence Free Zone?”  A CFZ might be paraphased as, “Let me do whatever I want but you make sure I don’t suffer any consequences”.  The Governor refuses to resign even thought he has been arrested.  Auto workers and executives want a federal bail out so they can continue to reap money while operating a failing business.  The auto workers this week refused to accept any concessions in compensation and we won’t even mention private plane rides to Washington D.C. to ask for handouts.  Football players admit their violations but refuse to accept the consequences. 

Don’t get me started on people who bought homes they couldn’t afford…I already wrote on that one.  When did America become do whatever feels good, works for you, fulfills your dreams and don’t worry…America is “A Consequence Free Zone.”  As one commentator wrote, “Profit is Private, and Loss is now Public.”  Did I miss a referendum, a vote on this?

As a pastor I am very familiar with sinners wanting to be exempt from the consequences of their sin.  Many people suffer as a result of sinful decisions in their lives and question why God has not spared them the consequences of that decision.  I myself am not immune to this desire.  Nevertheless, the truth of God’s Word is sin has consequences.  Our first parents in Eden learned this lesson painfully.   They literally chose to eat themselves out of house and home.

 Ezekiel 18:4 speaks of death as the consequence of sin.  God has no understanding of a consequence free zone.  When you and I die, and we will, then there is the proof of my last statement.

What is God doing about all this? He loves us and He acted.  God chose to accept our consequences as His own.  He loves us so much as to to die our death, to suffer our consequence.  That is the beauty of the Gospel story.   Our actions are not consequence free.  Instead, our hope is of a consequence transfer…from me to Him.

If He has taken my consequences upon Himself, then how ought I live now?  I can live making the same wrong decisions, try to avoid the consequences, and complain when I cannot.  Or I can instead live a life of gratitude, a life of better choices and decisions.   I can live a life which demonstrates my love for such a gracious God.  This is my choice.

How about you?  What is your response to a consequence transfered life?

When the Horse Dies…Dismount

I cannot remember where I first heard the phrase, “When the horse dies…dismount”.  However, it has always struck me both as funny and as incredibly self-evident…until I became a parish pastor.

Congregations can be passionately resistant to change.  Even when membership, worship attendance,  and offerings are declining, average age of members is increasing, and Sunday classes are diminished if not dead…still they seek to stay the course.  Tradition  becomes a bondage from which they cannot escape.  The “Status Quo” is known, comfortable, and reassuring.  It has taken on a sense of divine mandate.  To depart from the known is to sin against God. And yet change is all around …with all its fear and discomfort.

Another old saying reminds us that to continue to do the same things the same way and expect different results is the definition of insanity.  Perhaps it is insane to stay mounted on a dead horse and yet expect to make progress.

How many parishes continue to ride a dead horse to nowhere?  Inertia has long ago replaced the cool breeze that blows through the hair of the rider.    The journey to nowhere seems preferable to changing horses.  Laughable or Tragic?

While it is easy to criticize those who remain mounted on the dead horse, what of ourselves?   Where might God be seeking to replace old wine skins with new ones.  

Remember, when you tire of drinking sour vinegar and desire new wine, it is not only a matter of changing your liquid refreshment, but also your container. (see Matthew 9)  New wine will burst an old wineskin.  One change leads to another…and so on and so on. 

Is God trying to bring something new, something refreshing, some sweet into your life?  Is God trying to get you somewhere beautiful and blessed?  Do you need to dismount from dead ways and find something new, powerful, and moving?

Think about it…

Has the atmosphere become stagnant, smelly and fly infested?

People not wanting to stick around?

Life seemingly going nowhere?

Time to dismount?

Heart Transplant

I had a discussion this week with a member of our congregation who recently received a heart transplant.  She is doing well.  While her body adjusts to the anti-rejection drugs she must avoid contact with the general public for fear of catching a virus or other disease.  The anti-rejection drugs suppress her immune system which seeks to reject the new heart as an invader to her system.  So most her interaction with people right now is technological in nature.

She is a living miracle.  100 years ago her surgery was a fantasy, the dreams of fools and visionaries.  She is another sign of God’s incredible grace and power.  He blesses all of us with men and women (doctors) who are granted such incredible wisdom to understand the healing reality.

All this helps me understand God’s promise in Ezekiel 36:26 to grant us a new heart.  Our old sinful heart cannot be healed.  It has to be removed and a brand new heart put in its place.  Our remaining sinful nature will continue to threaten this new heart.  Our sinful desires will threaten to reject this new life.  How many of us live as if God is an invader, usurper, a foreign influence that must be held in check?  He seeks to impose His will.  Well, what of mine?  Don’t any of my ideas matter?  What of my wishes and desires?  Can’t we share a heart, a life?  Am I possibly the only person on the planet with these struggles? 

I need a new heart.  Each day.  A heart that submits to Him.  A heart that realizes the influences of the world are a deadly virus waiting to destroy this new heart, this new life.  Contact with such a world must be under controlled circumstances, controlled by the Holy Spirit in order to keep me immune from the world’s influence.

I am, of course, using this analogy to make a point.  But in my real personal life I am a recipient of donated human body parts- aortic valve and aorta.  Someone died and donated parts of their body to someone they did not know…so that unknown person might live.  Would he have donated this to me if he knew me?  The real me? 

Jesus Christ knows me…the real me…the sinful disobedient me…and yet He died for me…to give me a new heart…a new life.  I pray He keeps that heart beating in my life for all eternity.

How about you?  Need a transplant?  Tired of the spiritual equivalent of congestive heart failure?  Jesus is your answer.  If you don’t know Him, let’s chat.

Election 2008

Many white suburbanites in the North Dallas area are confused and frustrated today as they contemplate the next four years under President Obama.  Why the confusion and frustration?  Are we racists?  Are we selfish greedy capitalists?  Do we lack compassion for the less fortunate?  Are we right-wing Bible thumping ultra-conservative Christians?  Are we the remnants of modernity struggling to adapt to a postmodern world?  Some of us – yes.  Others of us – no.

If the answer to the above questions is no, then why are we confused and frustrated after Tuesday’s election?  Let me suggest we have failed to remember Daniel 4.  The prophet Daniel reminded the great King Nebuchadnezzar that “the Most HIgh is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes.”  (Daniel 4:25)

God reigns over our nation and all nations.  He, and He alone, is sovereign.  He raises up one kingdom and tears down another as He desires.  Do we trust in HIm or over time we have come to trust in our military and economic might to keep us safe and powerful?  Do our hearts turn to Him or have we worshipped at the altar of self-reliance and self-preservation?  All we have and all we are is God’s gift to us.  We need to return to trusting in Him, honoring HIm, worshipping HIm, and submitting to HIm.

Democrats are not the answer to America’s problems.  Neither are Republicans.  It isn’t about tax rates, free trade, NAFTA, the war in Iraq, sharing the wealth, black or white, conservative or liberal.  It is about God.  The greatness of America has been found in her submission to the sovereignty of the Most High God.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its water roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging.” Psalm 46:1-3

Banks close.  Mortgages fail and foreclosures rise.  Jobs are lost.  War rages on.  Worries increase.  Fear grows.  Frustration boils over.  How can President elect Obama face such overwhelming issues?  Perhaps he and all of us need to remember HIm who stands in the midst of the storm and says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Don’t be confused:  turn to God.  He is our answer.  Don’t be frustrated:  God is still sovereign…He is still gracious.

Voter Fraud or Freedom’s Expansion

As I write this over 35 Congressman are petitioning the Attorney General of the United States to investigate ACORN for systemic voter fraud.  Republicans charge the organization with intentional illegal voter fraud and trying to steal an election.  Democrats do not defend the exposed and obvious fraud, but do defend the effort to increase voter registration and participation.

I think they are both right.  Fraud is wrong and should be punished.  We are (or pretend to be) a nation of laws.  Greater voter participation is essential for democracy to work.  So how did we get to this point?

I am beginning to understand more and more every day there are legitimately two Americas.  IF not in reality, then certainly in concept.  Socialism vs. Capitalism.   Rights vs. Opportunities.    Main St. vs. Wall St.     Rich vs. Poor    Red State vs. Blue State.    Modernism vs. Postmodernism

I can easily understand how one side views ACORN as a fraudulent evil.  The other side as a crusader for the downtrodden.  I can see that because I have come to understand how these two Americas approach abortion.  One side passionately defends the rights of the unborn.  The other side passionately defends the right of the woman to choose.  These are not bipolar opposite issues.  It is not black versus white.  It is Orange vs. Monkey.  On the one hand the unborn should be protected.  If someone other than the mother injures the unborn the state prosecutes.  On the other hand we do not want the government to make private decisions for us.  Do we want to become China and have the government decide if we can have children and how many?  What we cannot decide in America is does Orange trump Monkey or visa versa?

How did we get here?  I believe the answer is as simple and as complex as saying we lost our moral focus.  There is no longer a consensus in America on what to base moral decisions.  In the past there was a greater consensus that the Word of God would direct our laws and decisions.  That consensus is gone.  Without consensus we cannot come together and find agreement.  Oranges believe Monkeys are immoral.  Monkeys feel the same about Oranges.  But how do we resolve this important debate?

Voter fraud may not be wrong if more people vote for me.  After all, my leadership is essential to the country.  Voter fraud may be wrong if more people vote for him.  After all, my leadership is essential to the country.  Without a moral compass that we can all agree to, how can we come together?

When I grew up and there were disagreements in the family, the final word, the authority was my father.  Why?  Because he was bigger, stronger, wiser or more determined?  NO.  He was head of the family.  That was a given.  When we decide once again God is the head of our nation, sovereign over us, then we will allow His Word to settle our disagreements.  Daniel 4-6 reminds us how God humbles great nations who forget this sovereignty.  Is today’s financial crisis just such a humbling moment?  When the stock market collapses and fortunes are lost, will He regain our attention.  I don’t know.  But if this doesn’t work, what will He do next?  I for one am listening now.  Are you?  Are we?

Frustration

Last night (Thursday, Oct. 2) I was watching the Chicago Cubs lose again to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first round of the NLCS.  I have been a Cub fan for 52 years.  In my lifetime they have never won a World Series.  They have never even gone to the World Series in my lifetime.  At the end of each season, we end a loser.

This year was going to be different.  (After all, it has been 100 years since we last won a World Series.)  New and improved pitching staff…a superstar from Japan…Rooke of the Year candidate behind the plate…everyone healthy for the playoff run.  We might still win.  But last night I was so frustrated I had to turn the Cubs off and go for a walk with my youngest son and my dog Kryp.  ( I know…odd name for a dog….another day’s blog maybe). 

Taking a walk enabled me to regain perspective.  Why am I so upset?  Its a game!  If I cannot enjoy it, why get involved?  Is anyone in my family seriously ill?  Have I lost my job?   Can I enjoy this time in the cool of the evening with son and my dog?  Can I enjoy the stars?  The conversation?  Can I put such trivial matters as a professional baseball game back into perspective?  Yes, with God’s help I did.

Last night gave me opportunity to evaluate other realities in my life.  Have I lost perspective and begun to major in minors?  Do I fail to see the blessings that fill my life because I am focused on some trivial problem?  Maybe the Cubs losing last night was a blessing for me.  God was helping me regain perspective.  The walk ended with a much calmer and more grateful me.

Frustrated?  Lost Perspective?  Need time with God, family, friends to put perspective back together again?  Want to borrow Kryp?  What is stopping you from grabbing someone and going for that walk?  Do it now.  Life is too short and too wonderful to miss a moment frustrated with the unimportant.

If we lose this series…again!  If you hear ranting and raving coming from my house…grab a leash…take me by the hand….and let’s go.  I need you.  Maybe you need me.  We both need God…He will walk alongside us both.  

Truth vs. Fact

They were scientific facts:  the world is flat and the sun revolves around the earth.  Those who challenged these facts were considered ignorant, misguided, and even religious heretics.  Today we no longer accept those statements as scientific fact.  They have been proven wrong.  Facts change.  The principles they support also change.  Without stability how can we build our lives on such information?

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World.  Is that a fact?  Can it be proven by some scientific experiment?  Is it verifiable?  Someday – Yes.  Today?

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World.  This is Truth.  Truth is not proven or verified by some experiment.  Truth is believed.  Faith is not by definition something that can be verified or proven.  Is is a matter of trust, a matter of the heart and not the head.  Truth is revealed and not discerned.

Jesus said, “the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)  Facts, reason, verified data, proven theories will not set us free from that which holds us in bondage.  They will not set us free from sin, temptation, or death.  The testimony of Jesus made it clear:  only the truth will set us free.   

The jailer in Philippi asked Paul, what must I do to be saved?”  Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:30-31).  Belief in the Truth is essential for salvation.  Jesus said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6)  Jesus is Truth.  He is not fact.  He is not proven.  He is not verified or verifiable.  He is Truth.  He is trusted.  He is believed.

Facts are important to life.  But they are not greater than Truth.  There was a day when our society understood the priority of Truth over fact.  Has science trumped religion?  Has the classroom or the lab overwhelmed the sanctuary?  Has the textbook replaced the Bible?  Each of us must answer that question for our individual lives.  That answer does not change the reality that only the Truth will set us free.    While we pursue knowledge and information, let us pursue Truth with a greater zeal.  The former shape life here and now.  The latter leads to eternal life.

Politics 2008

Jesus taught us to love our enemies.  He understood the enemies of the Church would be violent, cruel, deadly, intentional, and determined.  From Rome to Tehran governments have called for the extermination of Christianity.  And yet in light of such determined persecution and murder, Jesus taught us to love our enemies. 

Even from the cross Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  The very Roman soldiers who had ridiculed, mocked, flogged, and crucified Him, Jesus asked for them to be forgiven.  There was no feeling of or demand for revenge within His heart.  He loved even those who abused Him.

All the participants in the presidential campaign of 2008 claim to be Christian.  Most of the political commentators on radio and television, as well as editors in the newspapers claim to be Christian.  Why can’t they treat each other and those on the other side of an issue with respect and kindness.  Politics has always been a “dirty business”.  Negative campaigns are not new.  They are effective.  Negativity can be a winning strategy.  But is it Christian? 

When did we lose the ability to passionately disagree with someone and not make it personal?  Where did we lose sight of Christ’s command to love those who are on the other side of the issue?  Much of the world views America as a “Christian nation.” Is this the best witness to Christ we can give them?

It might be easy to see the speck in the eye of Democratic and Republican hopefuls.  It might be easy to see the speck in the eye of the media pundits.  Perhaps we all ought to stare into a mirror and see if any of the ugliness and hatred of our current political culture isn’t within our own hearts.  Before we call a nation to repentance, let us each examine our own hearts and repent before God.  Have we truly loved our neighbor as ourselves…even if they belong to another political persuasion?

Adoption

Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter one:

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will— to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.”

Adoption is on my mind recently.  A colleague of mine and his wife are in the process of adoption.  A member of my congregation and friend recently shared a powerful story of his own life as an adopted son.  My congregation is creating a ministry ( “Embrace”) to encourage support for foster children and to promote adoption.  Adoption is on my mind.

I was raised by my biological parents.  They had little choice in the matter of what their son looked like, his Intelligence Quotient, his personality strengths and weaknesses, etc.  By God’s great grace they loved me and did a wonderful job raising a difficult, sometimes strong willed, son.

It seems to me adoptive parents have options.  They can make choices not offered to biological parents.  Not being adopted, I wonder if that deepens and enriches the bond between parent and child.  The adoptive child knows he or she was chosen.  There was an option to say, “no thanks”.  There were other choices that could have been made.  You were not only loved.  You were chosen.  You were picked out!!

Paul reminds us the heavenly Father chose us to be His adopted children.  He knew what a rebellious, angry, hurtful, selfish, and uncaring son I was capable of being.  He knew beforehand I would live up to that potential far too many times.  He knew all my bad habits and yet, despite knowing all this, He chose to adopt me….and you.  Talk about feeling special…Talk about a love that goes beyond comprehension…God’s love is beyond awesome!

He chose us to be “holy” and “blameless”.  Holy means to be different, special, unique.  He chose us to be different from those not part of the family.  He chose to be different from the world and its values.  He chose us to know Himself and to become more and more like Himself. 

He chose us to be blameless.  Through the death of His “begotten” Son Jesus Christ I am washed clean.  I am forgiven in His blood.  Washed clean and forgiven I am now “blameless” in His sight.  Did I do “it”?  Yes, I did.  But it is washed away and I am blameless in His sight.  He cannot see me for what I am at times or what I do at times.  He sees a “clean” son, blameless and loved.

Wow!  Adoption is a powerful reality.  It is an act of love.  It reaches out to children in need.  God is our example.  Some of us will be called to follow His example.  OSL and Embrace stand ready to help you.  God bless all the adopted children.