20 December 2010
15 December 2010
Christmas Away From Home
The Christmas of 2002 was a memorable one for me. I had just turned 30 (quite a milestone) and was now celebrating Christmas in one of the southern provinces of Afghanistan. It was a humble affair involving a couple of small gifts shipped in from Heather and the kids and a few exotically flavored tootsie rolls that had been provided to us from morale packages sent from the states. Of course, I would rather have been home with my wife and kids, but there were people in need of help in Afghanistan. The distress of that country required many of us to be away from our own homes and present with the Afghani people. In order to help them, we had to be where they were and experience many of the same conditions they experienced.
This is the way Jesus spent the first Christmas: away from home. The book of Galatians tells us that, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law.” (v. 4.4) It is remarkable that Jesus should be born under the law, because in His native land there was no need for such laws. He came from a land profoundly at peace and free from conflict and strife. Satan had no claim to heaven, no servants in heaven, and no influence over the hearts and minds of its citizens. What use could heaven have for laws meant to impress men’s hearts with the fact of their tragic separation from God? There is no such separation in glory. In a place of absolute perfection and virtue, what need would there be for sacrifices meant to remove sin and its effects? It is a corrupt and broken world which needs laws in order to restrain the darker impulses of it inhabitants. This is the type of world into which the only begotten Son of God was born. The distress of our home required Christ to be away from His home so that He could be present with us. We needed Him to come to our land and engage the enemy that we were powerless to dethrone. Jesus is “God with us”. He came to be with us in our country and to fight to liberate us from our accuser, our curse and ourselves. We do well to realize that Christmas is the celebration of the deployment of God’s liberation army in the form of a little baby.
As we are at home with friends and family this year many of us will remember loved ones, relatives and acquaintances in the military who will spend this Christmas far from home. It is appropriate that we do so, but let us not forget our Savior who was deployed to a distant war torn land to engage in a war that would ultimately claim His life so that He could, “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb. 215) He left His home on Christmas so that we might be at home with Him forevermore. That is a gift worth celebrating.
14 December 2010
22 November 2010
17 November 2010
10 November 2010
Hopes & Dreams For Gilead - A Door Opening?
First of all, I would like to apologize to all of you who had to endure the frosty conditions at Sunday morning’s worship gathering. I appreciate your faithfulness and assure you that the heat will be in working order by this Sunday. Additionally, I want to thank those who have labored over our heating and cooling system, both this last Sunday and at other times. It is often a thankless job, but I appreciate the effort and concern that go into it.
26 October 2010
12 October 2010
04 October 2010
20 September 2010
13 September 2010
06 September 2010
31 August 2010
23 August 2010
17 August 2010
10 August 2010
05 August 2010
03 August 2010
Knowing When To Give Something Away
Last week our family returned home from a week of vacation. I went out to the garden to see how it had fared after a week of neglect and upon inspecting the zucchini plant I found the monster squash pictured on the left. Pulling it off of the plant required care because it could easily have taken the whole plant with it. Pastors have a hard time doing anything, even picking squash, without trying to find some spiritual message in it. The “parable of the zucchini”, however, was fairly obvious to me. It had spent too much time attached to the plant and had gotten too big to be of much use. By the time a zucchini has gotten as big as this one (almost 6 pounds) it is extremely seedy and often has a bitter taste. It served as a simple reminder to me of the importance of being used at the right time. Sometimes we fail to “pick fruit” at its proper time. We can hold on to an asset or an ability at a time when we should be “picking” it and serving it up for the greater glory of God and for the benefit of others.
Perhaps there is a person that you have been meaning to encourage, but you keep putting it off. Perhaps there is a ministry that you have been meaning to support or a prayer that you have been burdened to pray. As I reflect upon all of this I am prompted to pray that God will help us to be people who have a good sense of timing. As people scan the landscape of our spiritual garden may they not see any “big zucchinis”.
02 August 2010
25 July 2010
24 July 2010
16 July 2010
Atheists Tell Us How To Sell Christianity
In a recent USA Today article, Jim Henderson, a Portland pastor with a flair for the dramatic, recounts when he told his church that they were no longer required to “witness” to unbelievers: "I told the people in my church, 'I don't like evangelizing, and I know you hate it, so I've decided that I'm formally resigning from witnessing. You're all free to do so the same’, I said, 'I love Jesus, you love Jesus, and we all want to connect people with Jesus. But we're gonna have to figure out new ways to do it.' "*
Henderson’s new way was to go out and solicit the advice of atheists for how Church’s might better engage the unconvinced. And he got it. As a result he has coauthored a book with an atheist called Jim And Casper Go To Church and has launched a website with the same atheist friend called churchrater.com. The objective is to attempt to engage non-believers in a dialogue rather than in an argument in the hope that Christians can learn something from outsiders, and outsiders might give believers a hearing for the gospel.
Henderson was motivated to take this radical step because he felt like a used car salesman who was always trying to manipulate non-Christians into a “useful” conversation that might end up in a conversion. He also sensed that the old “sales pitch” of gospel tracts and declarations of absolute truth were just not that effective any more. He observed that more often than not that approach ended in sharp disagreements or cold indifference. I agree with Henderson that the way that the church has approached evangelism in my lifetime has been lacking and that the church has lost credibility with those outside of its walls. I have to take exception, however, to the notion that the solution to our evangelistic malaise is simply to engage in mutually edifying exchanges with skeptics where everyone comes away richer.
The fact is that powerless evangelism flows from a powerless life more than it does from a feckless method. Henderson, and many pastors like him, are right to see that Jesus is not simply a product to be sold or marketed, but neither is He simply a concept to be dialogued about. My fear for Henderson (and admittedly I do not know him personally) is that he may be trading one powerless misrepresentation of Christ for another. Jesus is Lord. The proclamation and sharing of the gospel flows naturally (both through word and demonstration) from the life of a person who is living under the Lordship of Christ. The question of our witness is not ultimately a question of method but of the governing principals and realities of our life. Is Jesus Lord of my money? Is Jesus Lord of my marriage? Is Jesus Lord of my work? Is Jesus Lord of my entertainment? These questions and many more like them have a direct impact on the power of our witness. Non-believers are not so much turned off by what we say and how we say it, they are turned off by the appearance that what we say seems to have had so little transformative impact upon our lives. It’s like a bald man extolling the virtues of hair tonic. He can use a hard sell or he can have a polite dialogue but whatever approach he uses his hearers are likely to question whether he really knows what he’s talking about.
When our hearts are glowing with love for the One whom we treasure above all things then our words, our dialogue and our lives will be redolent with the fragrance of God. May it be a pleasing aroma to the Lord and a cause for attraction to those who do not yet know Him.
*You can read the complete article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-06-28-column28_ST_N.htm?csp=usat.me
19 March 2010
What God Is Building In Your Life [Psalm 48]
This is a meditation on the last 3 verses of Psalm 48. It challenges us to think about what kind of monument God wants to make of our lives for the next generation. It has special application for parents.
08 January 2010
Prayer For The New Year
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CONTINUE IN PRAYER
"Continue in prayer." (Colossians 4.2)
It is interesting to remark how large a portion of sacred writ is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord" (Genesis 4.26); and just as we are about to close the volume, the "Amen" of an earnest supplication meets our ear. (Revelation 22.20-21) Instances are plentiful.
Here we find a wrestling Jacob—there a Daniel who prayed three times a day—and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elijah; in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands and myriads of promises.
What does this teach us, but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer? We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities, that until we are in Heaven we must not cease to pray. Do you want nothing? Then, I fear you do not know your poverty. Have you no mercy to ask of God? Then, may the Lord's mercy show you your misery!
A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honor of a Christian. If you are a child of God, you will seek your Father's face, and live in your Father's love. Pray that this year you may be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting house of His love. Pray that you may be an example and a blessing unto others, and that you may live more to the glory of your Master.
The motto for this year must be, "Continue in prayer."
My hope is that the Lord will powerfully indwell our prayers this year and show Himself mighty to save, preserve, and prosper His people as we seek to bring honor to His Son. May we look back on this year as one in which God answered more prayers that we had ever seen before.
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