Man Card

Okay, it is confession time: I watched “Mamma Mia!” yesterday!! Take my man card. Rip it to shreds; pass it to someone who can actually use a power tool or simply hold on to it. I had two thoughts after watching this movie: 1) I need to confess this immediately, and 2) whoever thought Pierce Brosnan could sing needs to be slapped in a bad way!!!

Here are the gory details: it was a rainy Sunday afternoon. I had already watched Tom Watson gack up the British Open and there was not one single baseball game on. This is that time of year where we really need to jump to football season.

My wife had rented the movie because she wanted to see it. She had already declared that she knew no one else wanted to watch it, but I felt the desire to simply share the experience with her. She didn’t ask or expect me to watch, but I thought if nothing else I will earn some “Good Husband Credits.”

I watched this movie and was torn between feelings of shame and feelings of being wrapped into this story of a young woman trying to figure out who her father really is. On so many levels the story is tragic because there is a young woman without a true identity. The hormones of her mother’s youth and the consequences that are reaped twenty years later paint a backdrop that is far too realistic for many people in our society today.

I know this is a critically acclaimed musical and the movie is some great feat of theater, but the tragedy of a life spent in desperation and wonder is an episode that does not promote good theater to me. I found the ending to bring neither hope nor fulfillment.

I’m not trying to turn this into some Siskel and Ebert moment, but worldviews are reflected in art and culture today in such a way that values and mores of societies are stamped in the conscience. On one level, it is simply a movie experience that filled the gap of a rainy afternoon. On another level it is a social commentary that leaves me empty and frustrated. If you enjoyed the movie or the musical, I have no problem with your point of view. For me, the fact that the movie was a “chick flick” was the least of my real concerns. It left me grateful to know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and who knows me inside and out.

I think I am going to rent a good John Wayne flick tonight!!!

Love Story

I have an 8-year-old daughter who is in love with the idea of being a princess, having a prince come for her, romance and the fairy tale. She is a true romantic in every sense of the word. Fortunately she is an innocent romantic. I am constantly reminded that some day she will grow up and her romantic dreams and fairy tale stories may give way to broken hearts and strained understandings of love. But for now, she is her Daddy’s princess.

She has a new favorite song and I am responsible for her interest. I showed her the music video for Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story” not too long ago because I knew she would love it. The song is about a young romantic “Juliet” who is being kept away from her “Romeo” by her father. It plays out the drama and angst of young love derailed. Of course the song ends with the father giving Romeo permission to marry his little girl and all ends well. But the true story of Romeo and Juliet is not nearly as romantic in its ending.

If you recall Romeo and Juliet are from warring families. Their young love is forbidden and plots are hatched for an escape from the repressive parent’s control. Of course, in the end Romeo and Juliet both die. I have never been able to understand what was so romantic about that. But, I’m a man and I guess I am doomed to not understand such things.

Here’s my problem: I don’t want my two “princesses” or my “prince” to grow up with a warped view of love. I don’t want them to think that the prince on the white horse or the damsel in distress is what true love is all about. True love is so much deeper. True love is not about dying for one another, but about helping one another to live.

God created us as his sons and daughters. In romantic terms his princes and princesses. But we sought our own desires and our own fulfillment. And death occurred. The kingdom heirs were banished from the eternal presence of the king. So Jesus came to restore the throne. He came to allow us back into the palace. He played out the ultimate love story.

In our human views of romance and desire we all dream of some fantasy to be played out in our lives. It is human nature to dream and desire. But how do we make sure our dreams and desires don’t lead us down the road to death and destruction? How do we protect ourselves from the nightmares that are the flip side of the fantasy?

I believe it is in seeing ourselves the way the king sees us. We are a prince or a princess because of who the king is in relation to us. As we see him more clearly, we see ourselves more accurately.

I don’t ever want to crush the dreams of my children. I want them to dream big dreams, push hard to make their dreams become reality and live life to the fullest extent of God’s design for them. I also want them to know that no matter what, they are heirs to the true king. They are significant not because of the romance, but because of the Risen King.

Now that’s a Love Story!

Spiritual Fitness

Since the first of this year I have been engaged in a conflict directly out of World War II: the Battle of the Bulge! I have been focusing on simply trying to lose a few pounds, get fit so that I can actually run up and down a basketball court, and if I can, look a little better when I go to the beach. Of course, on the latter part there is only so much I can do!!

Since January I have done pretty well in the consistent exercise department. I am not going crazy by getting up at 4:00 a.m. to workout, and I am not trying to lose a huge number of pounds. I just want to feel a little better. And I have found when I exercise, I generally feel good.

But the last few weeks have been a struggle. I don’t feel motivated to work out, I am making excuses for not being active, and I am not being disciplined about what I am eating. So, my belly has expanded a little and my overall fitness level is, well, let’s just say I won’t be running any fast breaks anytime soon.

As I was reading in scripture today I came across the spiritual equivalent of what I have been going through physically. I 1 Timothy 4:7-8 Paul writes these words:
“train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

Spiritually it is up to us to decide to train ourselves. If we pray, read our bibles, fellowship with other believers is all dependant on our desire to do so and our choosing to do it. God doesn’t just magically make us spiritually fit anymore than he makes us physically fit. It is a matter of our desire and our discipline.

It is very easy to find a reason not to be spiritually disciplined. “I’m tired,” “it’s early,” “it’s late,” “I don’t know where to start” are all reasons that I have used at one time or another to talk myself out of spiritual discipline. The key factor is that we will lonely be as godly in spirit as we put in the time and effort to be disciplined in habit. I am not talking about some legalistic checklist of things we have to do. I am talking about the daily habits that should be a part of our life for our spiritual fitness. If we really desire intimacy with God and clarity of his desire for us and our spiritual lives, we must put in the time and effort to connect with him on our own.

So, today I am challenging you and me to start. Pick up your bible and read. Spend some quiet moments in prayer. Connect with other believers who can encourage you on your walk with Christ. I am choosing to do that today. I am also choosing that I will ride my bike later today and get back into at least some level of physical shape.

Justification and Sanctification

As a pastor there are two questions that I get quite often. Although different in many ways, they are intricately intertwined with one another. The first question is something along the lines of this: “How do I have a relationship with God?” The second question typically goes like this: “How do I live out my relationship with God?”

These are two very distinct aspects of theology, but they go together in the practical day to day living out of our faith. I want to spend a few minutes and give you a quick theology lesson and also a quick application to think about how these areas of your life are played out every day.

The first answer of how to have a relationship with God deals with an area of theology called justification. The simple definition is justification puts us back in right relationship with God. What we must understand is that right relationship with God is only possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Scripture is full of references to this concept. John 3:16, Romans 3:21-26, 1 Corinthians 1:30 all tell us that justification happens through Jesus.

What we need to realize in our lives is justification is only the first step in the life of a follower of Jesus. Justification is our stepping across the line of faith. It is our moment when we surrender our life to Jesus.

The second question has an answer that lies in another theological term called sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being made holy that result in a changed lifestyle. This is the concept that the more we understand about god and his desires for our lives the more it changes our attitudes, actions, thoughts, words, deeds and heart. This is an on-going process for the rest of our lives. Hebrews 12:14 tells us that we should pursue holiness as an on-going growth pattern in our life.

The danger in not fully understanding sanctification is that it can lead to legalism. As humans we have the habit of reducing the passions and desires of God into rules and laws that we use as a checklist for our life. We hold ourselves and others to extra-biblical standards that are not truly the passion of God.

The flip side of this coin is liberalism; not of thought but of action. This is the concept that since God has forgiven me through Christ I can do or say anything I want. A brief reading of Romans 6-8 will show that Paul firmly condemned that view.

So, why do these two ideas demand discussion and such a long blog post? There are two reasons: some people tend to stop in their walk with Christ after they have been justified and some people tend to take their growth in Christ to legalistic and harsh rules.

We need to learn to leave in the blessed middle. God has forgiven us through Jesus, has wiped away all of our sin and shame and has made us his eternal children. That is justification. As a result of what God has done for us we should desire to live our lives to honor him and to hold him as the highest standard of love and grace and honor that is possible. That results in changed lifestyles for us. That is sanctification.

Today I see many Christians, including myself, who are living in the extremes at times. We need to learn to live in justification and sanctification. We need to learn to live in grace and holiness. I see this lived out so often among my ministry peers. Some are so caught at the point of justification that they do not live lives of holiness and therefore fall prey to the enemy of God. Others are so bound by laws and rules that they become Pharisees who impose standards on others not according to the Word of God but according to our own rules.

Several years ago I had breakfast with a man who I respect very much. We had never met, but he was the speaker at a camp I was attending with the youth ministry from our church. Shortly before we met, a friend of his and a man I very much respected had died. If I mentioned their names everyone would know them, so I won’t. We were talking about this when he said, “John the thing about _____ is that he understood justification but not sanctification.”

That has stuck with me to this day. Do I understand both? Do I live in the tension of grace and freedom? Am I a Pharisee or a hypocrite?

My prayer is that each of us understands that God’s love is not based on our actions. I also pray that we understand that our actions should be a daily reflection of God’s love.

Different Together

I am in the office for the first full day since my two week vacation. It was a great trip with a lot o fun with the family, but it is always nice to get back home to your own house, your own bed, your own dog and especially your own church.

The two weeks we were on vacation we worshipped with our families at churches that have very different styles than LifeQuest. They are a little more traditional, larger and in very small towns. They dress different, use different translations of scripture, and sing different songs. Yesterday, as I spoke at LifeQuest, I talked about how although we worship in different styles we have the most important thing in common: Jesus.

This morning I began reading the book of 1 Timothy in my devotional time. In chapter 1 Paul is instructing Timothy to have the church focus on the things that unite rather than things that divide. In verse 5 he says, “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” That is what the church should be about.

In verse 6, Paul gives the other side of the coin: “Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk.” This is, unfortunately, what the church is often about. We gossip, criticize, complain and divide. It is shameful.

Today we need to learn to live united. The enemy of our soul is out to destroy the work that God has begun in our lives. He not only uses our sinful flesh, but the sinful flesh of others to distract us from the eternal truth of God’s plan. As Christian leaders we must never give in to the trap of destroying the work God is doing in another ministry. There is plenty of work for us all.

Churches operate differently. They worship differently and they are structured differently. But any church that preaches Jesus Christ and him crucified and raised from the dead is a partner in our cause. We must not allow style differences to cause body divisions.

Today, pray for churches in your area. Pray for God to bless their ministries, their pastors and their effort to increase the Kingdom of God. That is how we demonstrate love from a pure heart.

Back and Better Than Ever

I have been gone from this site for two weeks. I had many thoughts of things I wanted to write about, but really felt the need to unplug as much as possible during this vacation with the family.

We drove over 3,000 miles through seven states and visited my mom and Alana's parents. It was a great family get away. Now we are back and I am ready to get rolling into life again. I can't wait for tomorrow to worship and speak at LifeQuest again. I miss the people of our church so much when we are gone.

Today we are going to relax, celebrate the birth of the greatest nation on earth, and enjoy some time with friends. I hope that you have a great Fourth of July and that you experience the true freedom found in Christ.

The pictures are from fishing on a pond in Mt.Pleasant, Texas. Yes, people from Florida went there for vacation. Kimmie was a great worm wrangler and Zach and Emily both had to kiss the fish they caught. Vacation=Good Memories!!!

Truth Killer

There is an old saying that “truth is the first casualty of war.” That may be true in our 24-hour drive-by news cycle of today. But God’s Word points out to us that it has always been true. In spiritual battle, as well as in earthly combat, truth is quickly relegated to the infirmary.

In my personal devotion times lately I have been hanging out in Daniel. The first few chapters are pretty straightforward and understandable. They are the famous stories; Daniel and his friends not eating at the kings table, Daniel interpreting dreams for the king and Daniel in the lion’s den. The last few chapters are much more intense. They involve visions, symbolism and prophecy.

I have no desire to expound of what they meant in Daniel’s time or what they may mean for us today. Instead I want to point out a simple fact: pride kills truth.

In Daniel 8 there is a vision of rebellion and war. There is the destruction of kingdoms and kings. At the very end of the chapter Daniel himself falls ill because of the heavy nature of the vision. But today, one small verse caught my eye.

“Because of rebellion, the host of the saints and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did and truth was thrown to the ground.” Daniel 8:12

Truth became a casualty of this rebellion. In so many ways, we become prideful and rebellious in our walk with God and truth gets thrown to the ground. When we think that we have a right or special access to God because of our position or our success, we are the leaders of rebellion. And when we believe that what God has done would not have been possible without us, we buy into the lie. Truth gets thrown to the ground.

The past week has seen a man of God who was being used by God in a powerful way fall in the battle. I don’t know this man personally, and I have no idea about the depth of his sin or the struggles he is facing. But for all of us who may want to throw stones or cast judgments or think we are above such things, we are throwing truth to the ground.

Some may argue my interpretation or exegesis of the passage. I am simply sharing what God showed me today from his word: I can kill truth very quickly if I am not careful. When I get arrogant and judgmental, when I get lazy or casual, when I get frustrated and tempted, I am on the edge of body slamming the truth. I need to remember that all that is good in me is the result of all the good Jesus has done.

What are the areas that you need to pick up truth? Where are you buying into the lie of rebellion?