I have a new hero- Joel Hunter 08/22/2010
Last night, Beth and I decided to attend Northland Church again (for the second week in a row). I'm really glad that we did. It was inspiring to say the least. At the beginning of his sermon, Joel Hunter (the senior pastor), ascended the stage and revealed that it had been a very difficult week. His granddaughter has been in hospital due to brain cancer. He was noticeably shaken as he related the story to the congregation. Two things really struck me about what he said. He began by telling us that he's been praying for his church all week because of the situation. "Although our family is under a lot of stress," he said, "we're confident that our God is a God who heals. He may wish to heal her physically here on earth, or he may choose to heal her completely by bringing her into His presence. But either way, we're confident that God will do what's best for our family." If that weren't enough, he continued... "Our family is under stress, but we are not shaken. But that doesn't mean that everyone who goes through something like this isn't. In fact, I know that Satan would like nothing better than to use something like what's going on in my family to shake you to the core and cause you to question God's goodness and mercy. And so I've been praying for you this week. I've been praying that your faith will be strengthened whether you're dealing with your own personal pain or if you're seeing pain in the life of a friend or a pastor." And that's about when the tears began to creep into the corners of my eyes and my throat got that feeling... you know, the one where you're on the verge of sobbing. Why was I suddenly about to burst out crying? Well, I was in the presence of a man who is so in tune with the church he shepherds, that even his own very personal pain is a cause to pray for and encourage his flock. Instead of being more self-focused, he became more other-focused. That said, I think we've decided to put some roots down at Northland. Mainly because we bo I want to learn from a man like that. And I want to be like that, too. A God Worth Having 04/05/2010
When you murder a man and he comes back to life a few days later and interposes the following: "I still love you and I'll be patiently waiting for you to open yourself up to a relationship with me." I believe that's a God worth having. OK, I haven’t been keeping up with my promise to blog about this every day, but I am reading through this every day and talking about it with my good friend Brad on a weekly basis. Last night, we talked through day nine in Piper’s book which talks about how Christ’s Death allows for our forgiveness. Usually one defines forgiveness as something that’s all about grace from the perspective of the one recieving it rather than the one giving it- if my mortgage were forgiven it would mean that I wasn’t required to pay any longer (self-centered). In the case of Christ’s Death, we’re talking about ultimate forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness means that we don’t have to worry about the eternal consequences of sin (self-centered). But we rarely think about what forgiveness COSTS the person giving it. When we teach our children to forgive others, we tend to leave out the part about how much it costs the person doing the forgiving. We focus on letting the other person off the hook instead of on the person forgiving and on the incrimental costs associated with when a real debt is forgiven. If my mortgage were forgiven it means that I don’t have to pay it back, sure, but it also means that the bank has to give up the right to collect money from me. Money that they shelled out in the first place. They lose out. It costs something. It costs something when God forgives sin, too. He’s got to figure out a way to punish sin because that’s the cost that sin requires. Pouring out that cost on His son was the only way for Him to truly enact grace to us. On a more personal note, I’m beginning to realize that if I tell someone that I forgive them, it’s gotta cost me something. I can’t just blow it off when someone truly lets me down. In order to forgive, I have to truly give up the right to feel angry at them or stew about it. Otherwise, it’s not actually true forgiveness, is it? Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” Galatians 3:13 God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. Romans 3:25 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10 * * * I’ve often noted that there seems to be a lot of “God’s Wrath” in the Old Testament and then this seemingly different God who wants to be friends with us in the New Testament. It’s a contradiction that doesn’t go unnoticed and is often debated among my friends- even if it’s not something that’s debated in the upper echelons of theology buffs. What I’ve decided recently is that the writers of the Old Testament knew that they were under the law. They knew that there was a set of rules or a moral code that must be followed in order to be considered righteous before God. They also knew how incredibly impossible it was to adhere to the standard set before them. Even the best of them was required to provide blood offerings yearly to atone for their shortcomings. They knew that once the rules were broken, someone had to pay. But the writers of the New Testament lived in a different reality. They were writing their epistles with a different view of the law and the payment for breaking it. They had the Cross. They had a visual picture of the Wrath of God poured out on the Son of Man and so they knew that the price had been paid. So although they understood the importance of the law, they also knew that it was a law that would bring freedom rather than guilt for the price of breaking that law had already been paid. * * * I'm spending 50 days thinking about The Cross in Preparation for Christmas. If you want to join me you can head hear each day for discussions. If you really want to dig in, you can read John Piper's book The Passion of Christ at the following link: http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_pojc/bpojc_all.pdf I’m looking forward to the conversations! Reconciling the Cross and the Beatitudes 10/29/2009
In preparation for the upcoming Christmas season, I decided that I needed to focus on the cross a bit more. I know, I know, this seems a little strange that in preparation for the celebration of Life and Light I would be focusing on Death, but as you know, I’ve never been one to do things the “right way.” One reason I’m doing this is because of the emphasis that’s been placed on Matthew 5-6 as Gospel rather than the entire picture that’s painted in the four epistles that tell the story of Christ. This isn’t to say that that focusing only on the cross is Gospel either, but since my attention has been so deeply rooted on some of the Brian McLaren’s and others of this generation, I think it’s best to give credence to the reformed side again as a counterweight that will keep me balanced rather than crashing into either extremely liberal or conservative theology. The postmoderns have argued that by focusing on the Cross too much, we’ve missed what Jesus says and we’ve missed how Jesus lived. They’ve shifted the attention to the teachings and the behaviors of Jesus while he was living. They’ve used statements like “The Kingdom of Heaven is here…” to show us that we, too, can live differently and invite Heaven into earth. While this is well and good, a downfall to this line of thinking is that it begs the question: if all we need to do is behave according to the Beatitudes and other teachings of Christ, then why did Jesus need to die? Couldn’t he have taught these things and then mentored His disciples into the kind of people who would cause these behaviors to flourish among the human race? If Christ’s life and teaching that (as Rob Bell says), “You Don’t Have to Live This Way” are the end-all-be-all of Gospel, then we’re no different than any other religion out there with a set of appropriate behaviors to follow in order to attain heaven. And I think this is why I see a lot of my friends in this generation looking at other religions with interest. Since they’ve come to believe that the Beatitudes are the only Gospel, they don’t see any need to follow “Christianity” since they firmly believe that Christ’s teachings are better practiced in Buddhism, Islam, or Humanism. But here’s the thing: Death is the distinction between Christianity and the other major religions out there. And forgetting the Cross is the most dangerous thing that we can do to our faith. I’m going to be honest, I haven’t spent much time thinking about the Cross lately. I’ve been wrapped up in being a father to my son and a husband to my wife. I’ve been trying to live out the teachings of Christ in my family. This has been an honorable pursuit which has stretched me and made me give up a lot of the things that I held near and dear to my heart- but it’s also made me lose focus of Christ’s Death. It’s made me forget that the only reason I’m able to live the way I do is because the “old way” has been put to Death with Christ. So I’ve decided to spend my time prior to Christmas working through a book by John Piper. It’s called The Passion of Jesus Christ: 50 Reasons Why He Came to Die. I figure that spending a bit of time each day thinking about Christ’s death will help me put the Cross back into perspective during a time when we’ll be celebrating Christ’s birth. I’ll post thoughts here during the week and I’d love to have a conversation with anyone who’s reading along. In fact, I’d love to have you join me for this exploration of Christ’s Suffering and Death. Even if you don’t like John Piper or don’t agree with Christianity, it might be an interesting way to think through the next few weeks. So if you want to read along with me, you can download the book in .pdf form by clicking on the link below or pasting it into your browser: http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_pojc/bpojc_all.pdf I’m looking forward to the conversations! I'm a very strong advocate for limited government (as anyone reading this blog should know by now), but that doesn't mean that I'm not compassionate or that I care only about myself. In fact, I've been learning more and more about selflessness since having a baby and I'm fairly confident that I care about the needs of other people to the point where I'm willing to donate time/money to making sure other people are doing life well (whatever that means for them). As a Christian, I believe that we should look out for the poor, the needy, the downtrodden- but when I say "we" I don't mean the government. I mean you and I. Yes, whoever you are reading this right now, I mean that you and I have the responsibility to make a difference in other people's lives. The best healthcare reform I've ever experienced was when my friend Jamie put together a small task force of friends who held a garage sale and donated some of their own money in order to help us pay for some unexpected medical expenses. And likewise, it's when I've been the one who's served a meal to families staying at the Ronald McDonald House, or helped a friend move into a new apartment, or donated some shoes to kid in the Dominican Republic, or shucked corn for a church potluck, that a real difference has been made. Not only in the lives of those whom I've served, but in me, too. I'm better because of giving. Some friends of mine began a ministry called Home Sweet Homeless where they head downtown once or twice a month and share a meal or a movie with the homeless in Orlando. They don't just give them cash or food- they spend time with them and learn about their stories and give them a chance to feel like a cared for human being. These guys (and girls) aren't waiting to send in a government proxy that's going to lend a helping hand to their friends. They aren't just legislating compassion. They're out there BEING compassion. Whatever ends up happening with healthcare and Wall Street and banking and the Federal Reserve- I'd encourage you not to miss out on the personal, individual benefits of serving the community. Government programs don't have the personal touch that a friend coming along side us does. So rather than send in a proxy that will take care of social justice- take the initiative to make social justice happen right now. You don't need Barack Obama, Ron Paul, or Bono in order to do good for those around you. You can be the Change that you've been waiting for. Sin is an Awful Lot Like Ivy 09/15/2009
A few weeks ago, I was out in the backyard pulling some grass and weeds out of the small garden plot I planted and I noticed some tree limbs sticking out of the ten foot bushes that line one of our fences. As it turns out, my fence isn’t lined with ten foot bushes, it’s lined with trees that have been overgrown by ivy to the point where they are unable to continue growing. Left unattended, they’d probably die within a few more years and I’d be stuck with a thicket of brambles. So, this weekend I put on some gloves, got out the hedge trimmers and began to cutting away. Four hours later… I had a stack of debris so deep it’ll take a few weeks before the city will haul it all away, but I can finally see the trees that were underneath. And my backyard looks awful now. I think the trees are going to survive, but they had been sitting under so much ivy that they’re all on the brink of death and look as if they just survived a hurricane. The fence isn’t much better. For a moment, I almost regretted taking it all down. I mean, it didn’t really look too bad to begin with and it’ll be years before these trees rebound back to health again. While I was working, I couldn’t help noting how similar ivy is to sin. You see like ivy, sin also creeps in and takes over, gradually killing whatever is underneath it. At first, it may look good. It may even be planted there on purpose. Plenty of us knowingly and willingly put things into our lives that could get out of control if they aren’t handled properly. We tell ourselves that we’re able to confine it all to one area of our lives, but we’re fooling ourselves. You see, sin never stays put. It reaches out from where it starts and stretches into to other areas of our lives, too. It’s always expanding, always growing, always looking for something or someone else to consume. And sin doesn’t stop with one person, either. Its web of destruction will take down a whole community- just as ivy takes out an entire row of trees. And then there’s the removal process. It turns out that just like ivy, getting rid of sin is back-breaking work that leaves you exhausted, bruised, and beat up. When it’s finally gone (or mostly gone), the landscape of our lives is riddled with the evidence of destruction. Often, we look and feel worse off than when the sin was in full form, which makes us tempted to go back to what we had so that we can escape the prying eyes that see damage and guilt instead of beauty. Removing sin and ivy isn’t fun. It’s definitely not how I’d like to spend my weekend. But I feel like the work I did on the yard and the work I’ve done in my life has been time well spend. You see, I think the future is worth the effort we exert, today. Things will be better then because of the pains I’ve taken to fix things. I bet my yard is going to look a lot better in a few years and I’ll remember with fondness the time I spent to make it that way. I bet my life will look better, too! How Can the Same God be so Angry and Kind? 09/02/2009
Something that bothers a lot of Christians (and non-Christians) is the seeming contradiction of God’s character between the Old & New Testament. In the Old Testament, God often seems very angry with people- like a cruel old man seeking vengeance on anyone or anything that doesn’t fall in line with His ways. Then comes the New Testament and suddenly God seems to become a kind and loving father who patiently waits for everyone to come home into His arms. This apparent split personality of God has been one of the most difficult issues for anyone who studies the Bible. Some of my friends think that maybe God's been evolving and adapting, just like we do. But I wonder if it's merely that we're gowing up as a species and our understanding of who God is, is increasing and expanding? * * * Last night, I forcefully removed my son’s hand from the stove control and he screamed at me. His eyes filled up with tears and he had a little meltdown right there in the middle of the kitchen. Now, he’s usually the sweetest little boy in the world, but when he wants something that he’s unable to have, he gets furious. Sometimes he becomes so angry that he can’t function and we literally have to pick up and remove him from wherever he is and hold him close until he calms down. I’m not sure what's going on in that little brain of his when these meltdowns happen, but I wonder if his anger isn’t pointed directly at me and his mom. He still knows that we love him, but since we’re keeping him from his desires- we’re villains, thwarting him at every move. I can only imagine that it’s going to get worse as he gets older. My experience with my own parents was mixed, too. As a child, I had a terrible temper and I got in trouble for all sorts of things. My mom and dad were often viewed as the enemies, always dishing out punishment, making me eat food I didn’t like, forcing me to go to bed when I didn't want to, and giving me rules and restrictions that a lot of my friends didn’t have. It wasn’t until I graduated from High School and was out from under my parent’s constant supervision that we became friendly with each other. Gradually, we developed a different sort of relationship and I began to see how their “restrictions” and “punishment” were actually for my own good. Due to their influence in my life, I had a little more discipline over my own actions and was able to make better choices. I see now that it wasn’t always vengeance or cruelty that drove them to put rules and restrictions in place. It was more often kindness and love. It was merely my own immaturity that made me view them as villians. It was my adolescent and teenage brain that hadn’t grown to the point where I could see the whole picture of what they were trying to accomplish. And I bet my son is going to have the same feelings about me as he grows up. In the middle of the kitchen floor, while Ethan was still crying, it suddenly made sense why God seems to be so mean, angry and jealous in some places and so kind, loving and compassionate it others. It’s because the story of humanity is much like the story of a little boy who's growing up. At some points, God gave rules and then gave grace. At different times, He disciplined and befriended. God is fathering us and just like is for all sons and daughters, His methods don’t always make sense in the moment. There are times when He seems like the villain rather than the protector. There are times when He seems to needlessly keep us from our desires. But as we mature in our ability to know Him and understand this world we live in, we’re able to see more clearly that the whole picture is love- even those rough patches when everthing seems to be out of sync with how we’d expect a loving God to act. A Preview of Coming Events 08/18/2009
I went to see District 9 last weekend and it got me thinking about aliens. And politics. And philosophy. And religion. That’s why I’m dedicating a week to exploring Aliens & Philosophy. This week, I’ve got a couple other thoughts to share about music & marijuana, but I wanted to give you a sneak preview of next week’s agenda… I’m really excited about it and I hope you’ll join in the discussion and conversation. Day One: Is There Anybody Out There? Day Two: Fear & Loathing in South Africa Day Three: Victims and Victimizers Day Four: The Man of Steel and Other Alien Christ Figures Day Five: Aliens & Philosophy- Additional Questions That Need Answers I hope you can join me!  You Make Everything Glorious! 08/11/2009
You know those people who seem to make everything better when they show up? Maybe you're down in the dumps or reeling from one problem or another when this person walks into the room and act like a balm, soothing the wounds or at least distracting you from them long enough to gain some relief from the trials of life. Maybe they do it with a joke or a kind word. Or maybe it's just their presence. They're such a warm, compassionate person that the world seems like a better place because they're in it. I'm wondering it these experiences with other people are shadow plays of a bigger reality that God wants to invite us into? Perhaps, God is SO good that simply being in His presence makes everything- the good, the bad, and the ugly- into wonder and excellence. Perhaps Heaven and Hell aren't all that different, it just depends on who you spend it with (or without). Because in my experience, there are some glorious things that simply aren't worth experiencing alone and there are some trials that seem like joy when spent in the company of those I love. Maybe this is why the writers of scripture spend so much time telling us about the Goodness of God. Perhaps when they say that all things work together for good... they mean that they work together for good when we're in the presence of the right person. Namely, God. And maybe that's why Jesus says that He's only the way to the Father? When you're in the family, you can make exclusive claims like that! |