Back to the basics

I wanted to share some thoughts this morning on the complicated, convoluted, over thought, exhaustively annotated, and hopelessly expanded version of Christianity that we have today.
It's not.

Let me show you what I mean:

I love research, I love discussion, I enjoy study Bibles and commentaries, and thoroughly enjoy a good debate (a debate - not a fight).  However, none of those things are possible until we have the basics down, and I fear that we are too often times taking new Christians and throwing them from grace 101 straight into hermeneutics (which are wonderful and awesome) and by doing so, casting them into a pit of details that will drown them.

Spiritual gifts, spiritual disciplines, philosophies, and denominational doctrine are irrelevant until/unless you understand the GOSPEL.  Gospel simply means "Good News!"  Taking someone who says they feel the tug of the creator of the universe on their heart and handing them 30 books and papers by Marx and Nietzsche is not the best way to foster a reciprocal love with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hear this: Tells

Luke 15:11-32
Tells the story of the prodigal (or lost) son.  Where the son is us and the father is God.
There are lots of points and lessons to be gleaned from this text, but what's the real (and basic) principal here - the son demands his inheritance.  He takes said inheritance, heads to Vegas, and blows it all, every last penny of it, on all the things that one might suspect a newly rich young man with no inhibitions to spend his money on in Vegas.  After he's been gone, disgraced his name, disgraced his father's name, blew all of his money (which was not really his money to begin with - it was his father's money), and could not get any lower, he returned home.  How does the story end?  What happens when he gets home?  Before he can even get to the house, his father Runs out to meet him, weeping with joy at the sight of him returning home, throws new clothes on him (his clothes), puts a ring on his finger (his ring), and throws a huge celebratory party (the biggest and best they have).  Who met the son as he came crawling back home?  Daddy.




John 3:16-17
Arguable the most well known, most quickly recited verse (often times to its detriment) in the Bible.
Here's what matters, this is the most basic principle, this is what everyone needs to know:  God sent His Son, His own Son, His only Son, His own "flesh and blood", from glory on high to a gutter below to give the world a chance at salvation.  God sent His Son to die, not so He could then force everyone to worship Him and follow Him, but He allowed His Son to die just for the chance, the possibility of spending eternity with you.

Romans 5:8

Here's the homerun.  While we were still sinners, while we not only didn't know God, we didn't care of his existence and hated and cursed the idea of his existence, while we were in the gutter, Christ chose to die for us.  God knew we hated him, God knew that even if He saved us many of us would spit in His face, He knew that even those of us who chose to follow him would continue to sin, to fall, and to fail the rest of our days - God Knew our value, He Knew our worth, and He Chose to buy us anyway.

The Bible is history book, but the important part is not the history of the world, it's the history of God; of who God is.  Verse after verse, line after line, we see who God is, how He feels about us, and the lengths that He will go to just for the slightest chance of spending time with us.  The "Good News" isn't a complicated convoluted mess, that's what the people already had, the Gospel is that it isN'T like that anymore - it's simple.  It's God loves you and sent His Son to die in your place so that He could have a chance to spend eternity with you.  It's faith not works.  It's forgiveness.  It's that God is love.  It's Grace.

Tim Tebow:

Tim Tebow.  Regardless whether you watch football or not (or even whether you like football or not), you have probably heard a lot about Tim Tebow.


Tebow is taking a lot of flak (huge, enormous, insane amounts) for his ridiculous antics, showy self, flashy attitude, and all around circus.  And by that, I mean, for his decision to pray at every football game, bow on one knee on the sideline of every game, and give all credit to Jesus Christ every single time he gets in front of a TV camera or a microphone.  

The world will persecute you, we know this.  Tebow has received shocking and hateful scorning from the media, opposing players, and seemingly every play-by-play commentator and sports show host in the country.  But what's most shocking is the fact that a lot of his criticism is coming from other Christians.


When in the world would fellow Christians hate on Tebow in such a way ("He's just doing too much", "he needs to drop the Jesus routine", "he needs to do like the rest of the Christians in the league and point up when he scores a touchdown and let that be it", etc. etc. etc.)?


If you've read Francis Chan's book called Crazy Love, I would point you to chapters 8 and 9 (and somewhat chapter 4).  


You see, I believe I know why Christians are so irate over Tebows PDF (Public Display of Faith).  


When we, as Christians, see another Christian doing something huge for the Kingdom of God (living in Africa, selling their home to give to the poor, adopting a house full of impoverished children, quitting their job in order to serve in a homeless shelter, etc) we label them, and their actions, as "radical".  When in truth, 'all' they are doing is exactly what God commands us all to do.  But there lies the problem.  We aren't all doing those things.  So, in order to exist comfortably in our own ______ (fill in the blank:  fear, apathy, hiding, ) we must label what they are doing as radical so that we have an excuse for not doing the same things.


If what they are doing is radical, then they themselves must be fringe radical people.  Crazy people.  Extremists.  Weirdos.  People.... not like us.


So you see, we as Christians villianize Time Tebow for his passionate love for Christ because we feel guilty for not portraying the same passion, for not being as vocal, for not "doing too much".


Tim Tebow IS radical.  Just as we are all called to be.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As an aside, for all the media attention you hear about no one caring about Tebow, the ratings for Sunday’s game, where Tebow led the Broncos’ to a 29-23 overtime win over the Steelers, was the most watched TV program of any kind since last February’s Super Bowl.

Merry Christmas everyone.

This video was shared with me and it is amazingly simple... and extremely powerful.  I humbly request you take the next 2 1/2 minutes and watch this video, then share your thoughts (with yourself, your family, your friends, your church, or here in the comments).

My thoughts and an 'unpacking' of the video to follow:

Temptation

I often get the burdensome privilege (yes) to speak to people, young and old, about things they are struggling with.  Temptation to act in a way that they believe to be wrong - which, by definition, means it is wrong... but that's for another day.  I am qualified to speak to people about such things only because I too am tempted constantly; as Paul said, "I'm the biggest sinner of them all"

The most common temptation for males of any age, any weight, any profession, any family life, any ____, any anything, is lust.  It can be severe lust that manifests itself in extramarital or premarital sexual affairs, it can haunt through pornography, it can force eyes to wander, or it can control ones thoughts just inside their own head.
I once was counseling a young man about his troubles with lust while assisted by an older and much wiser gentlemen.  When the young man asked when the temptation would go away, the other gentleman who was with me simply said "it wont."  He went on to add "I am tempted everyday.  Sometimes in a big way, sometimes simply in my own head, but the temptation is always there.  It's a constant battle, a constant struggle"

Our advice to the young man (and our advice to each other and to ourselves) was to avoid, deflect, and be resolved before hand - though being resolved beforehand is essential, it is also rarely enough.

What do you struggle with?  If we're honest, the lists are long.  Thankfully we serve a God who loves unconditionally.  A God who knew us intimately and bought us anyway.  A God who doesn't sit on a throne unsympathetically looking down with judgement, but one who has experienced temptation himself and who knows our struggles and knows our faults, failures, and short comings and calls us "saints" and "holy".  We serve a God who showers grace through the blood of his own son, his son who fully know us.


We must remember a few key things about temptation, of any kind:
Jesus Was tempted.  Not that Jesus scoffed off the absurdity of it, but that he (his human nature) was tempted.  That's number 1.
Number 2 is that Jesus did not act on his temptation - though he was tempted, Jesus did not "follow through", so-to-speak.
3:  Jesus was tempted (see number 1) And Jesus never sinned (I believe this to be 100% literal and emphatically true), ergo temptation, on its own, is not sin (/sigh of relief).
4.  Jesus 'defeated' his temptation and his tempter (the same temptations and same tempter that we have) not by using (even his) his own words, not by rationalization or attempting clever logic, not by asking for clarification on the particulars or classification on the "how bad" scale, no, he responded with Scripture.  God's Holy word, and scripture only.


Temptation is a part of life.  It simply is, and anyone who tells you it's not just gave in to the temptation to lie....

Build one another up.  Support one another.  Pray for one another.

"Preacher Perfect"?

This past weekend a group of us went up to VA to camp out for a couple of nights and bike the Virginia Creeper trail.  My great uncle Hunter grew up in Abingdon, and I can always remember this because he would tell everyone that he was born at the place "where Paul was struck blind"... on the road to Damascus.  We humored him ;)

Numbers wise, all agree it was a huge success... weather wise... it depends on who you ask.  It was cold.  Really cold.  On top of the cold, it rained the entire time we were there except for the moments when it would break up the monotony of rain with sleet or snow (breathtakingly beautiful snow at over 6,000 ft - although somewhat diminished when you're riding down hill into it on a bicycle).

Everyone truly did have a great time:  the kids played on God's playground like it was the greatest thing in the world; Emily cried one time the entire trip, and that was when we were packing up to leave and she wanted to stay and camp "for a long time".

There are tons of things that make this a great trip every year:  beautiful scenery, camping out a couple of nights, biking the creeper (I cringe every time I call it "biking" seen as how for 75% of the 17 miles you don't even need pedals just brakes), roasting s'mores over the campfire, and (a personal favorite) zero cell phone coverage for 3 days.  However, none of those things truly "make" the trip.  The trip is made by the people that go.  I found myself surrounded by family every where I looked - true friends, true family, brothers and sisters in Christ who are all there just because we all love spending time together; it really wouldn't matter where or how we were doing it.

And that's what struck me.  See, this whole "preacher" thing is kind of new to me, so I don't always know the 'rules'.  One of the things I was a bit surprised (somewhat sadly understanding) to find out is that many ministers avoid such get togethers, trips, and "non-sanctioned/non-structured" Church activities out of fear of people seeing their humanity.  They have anxiety over people seeing their faults, seeing them "mess up", hearing them speak casually -- finding out they are human.

Though it is sad to think about, and somewhat shocking at first blush, when you really become honest with the reality of the situation, you sadly have to see their point, even if you don't agree (as I do not).  People want their preachers to be perfect, they want their ministers to speak in iambic pentameter, they want them to never say anything they shouldn't, never get frustrated, never have to discipline a child, never be... real.
Too often, people want their ministers to be honest about themselves, but not too honest, and when the first date goggles wear off, there's often trouble in paradise.
To me, I would go on these trips no matter what - I've always gone on them and I love them.  But now, in thinking about it that way, I want to always make a conscientious decision to go so that I guarantee people will get to see me mess up (it doesn't take long, certainly doesn't take a whole trip, in fact, if you have 30 minutes for lunch we could probably settle it there).  Seriously - I don't ever want to become so removed that people forget that I'm human, that I'm a sinner, that I'm a wholly imperfect being created by the only perfect being so knows me, sees my faults, forgave me, forgives me, and graciously loves me unconditionally.

Do you expect Christians to be perfect?
Are you afraid, as a Christina, that people will see you not being perfect?

Malachi

A couple of Sunday's ago I was fortunate to be able to preach for a very unfortunate Dr. Curtis McClane who had fallen very ill to the Tennessee Fall cocktail of allergies/bronchitis/pneumonia... thing

The sermon came from what many (myself included) would see as an odd source... Malachi.

Malachi is a very short book, but it has a lot of great lessons and its place holds great historical (and spiritual) significance; the last book of the Old Testament.  You see, for years and years (centuries), God had communicated with His people verbally - through the words of His prophets.  Additionally, God had also used dreams, visions, pillars of fire, hands on the wall, a burning bush, etc.

Then, after a long period of silence, in stepped Malachi.  Malachi, right out of the gate, cold turkey, began to call the post-exile Israelites out on all their short comings, misgivings, and blatant misuse of God's temple (that they had finally rebuilt).  Then, with a few moments of hope and reminders of promises made, God goes into a divine silence.  400 years of it.  For 400 years, God leaves us with the words of Malachi and allows them to "sink in" over 400 years of divine silent treatment.  What's the significance of this silence?  Why would God do that?  What were His last words that He left us with?

My sermon focused on Malachi 1:6-2:9, Mostly all focused on what I believe to be the most important lines of Malachi (and what God wanted us to consider during those 400 years):  Malachi 1:8-10

The sermon may be seen below:

http://highlandviewchurch.org/zVideo/_sermon.htm

Faith in who?

As more and more we hear of church splits, people "losing their faith", groups folding and falling apart, and teenagers walking away from 'church', I find myself asking - what is our faith in?

Think about marriage for a minute.  What's your faith in, in regards to your spouse?  Is it in that person, their soul, their very being, who history tells you they really are, or is your faith propped up on who they are treating you in this instant?  If it's the latter, then you should already be perusing the yellow pages for a good divorce lawyer.  If you are married, you know that marriage is not now, has not been, will not ever be, Can Not ever be based on "feelings" and present emotion.  If we only stayed married when it felt good, none of us would make it past the first year.

Transition that same line of thought to the church (the CHURCH - not that brick building with crosses that you go into on Sunday mornings - the PEOPLE the body of believers who are joined together by the 1 overlying all consuming truth that Jesus Christ is LORD, the Son of God, the Savior of the world).  What's your faith in there?  Is it, like marriage should be, based on the promises of your bride/groom (through better or worse, richer or poorer, till death), which is Christ himself, is it held up upon what history tells you about God and his enduring faithfulness as proven and repeated line after line of the 66 books in our Bible?  

Or... is it based on the faith of the failing marriages?  The faith in the present, the emotion, the "feeling"?  

If your "faith" is held up by the assurance that your preacher will never preach a sermon that you will disagree with or that will stomp on your toes, you're in trouble (as an aside - if your preacher never preaches a sermon that stomps on your toes then you need to find a new preacher because they're not doing their job).  If your faith is propped up on that building, it will crumble, if it's supported solely by your Edlers then it will fall, if it's held up solely on the premise of your ministers never faltering moral compass, then you will be disappointed,  if your faith is based only on me, then you will be devastated.  

True "faith" can be grounded ONLY on The Rock, God, the Great I AM, He who was, is, and forever will be, and HIS promises.  Not your preacher's promises, not your pastor's promises, not your steering committee's promises, not your elder's promises, Certainly not my promises - Only God's promises.

And if your faith is held up on Christ alone, then when your preacher fails you, when your church abandons you, when I fall flat, when your Elder's crumble, then you stand.  You stand firm on the Rock which you were planted on, because that Rock didn't crumble, though others around you may have (and they will).

People are devastated, churches split, people walk away, faith is lost only when that faith was propped up on the wrong thing - anything or anyone other than Christ the King.