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?