New Year

The new year is a great time for new habits and fresh starts. I am a big fan of new years resolutions because there have been so many times in my own life that a new surge of determination resulted in positive change. As C.S. Lewis has said, "You are never too old to set new goals or to dream new dreams."

But the truth is most of us who attempt to turn over a new leaf don't quite get the page turned. Of a 100 people who make a determination that they will break a bad habit or begin a new one, only about 17 will succeed according to Richard Wiseman, a psychologist with Britain's University of Hertfordshire who tracked the resolution-making instincts of 1,800 Britons and 1,200 Americans back in 2007.

But I still say that if you success rate is only about 17%- that is a good enough percentage to take advantage of the fresh start the new year brings.

Next week I will publish my annual recommendation for reading a book a month in the coming year. I think a commitment to reading is extremely beneficial to the Christian life. The fact that you are reading this blog right now tells me that you likely are the kind of person who enjoys reading Why not commit to at least one book a month in 2010?

I also want to encourage everyone in our church family to commit to read the Bible through in 2010. Over the past few years I have used a pattern of reading from different sections of the Bible each day. It is a simple pattern of reading through the different genres of the Bible so that you always maintain a well balanced approach to scripture study.

If you click on this link you can find a great example of this approach. I like this method because it builds in a mechanism for making up for lost time.

A Church That Gets It

Our last Sunday of 2009 was a great experience of family worship. I thought Tim and the band did a terrific job in leading worship and it was great to have all our kids up on the stage helping them. Chris Wall did his usual great job in taking us through the last in our series on the genealogy of Jesus- I especially liked his story about the guy who dropped his wife and kids off and then did a few spins on the ice covered CUBE parking lot. I don't know who the guy was but I know a lot of likely suspects!

As I sat through worship Sunday I thought how blessed I am to be a part of such an awesome church. I Thank God every day for the privilege of being the pastor of CRBC. I thought about all the terrific discipleship ministries we have for Preschool through High School. I thought about all of our fantastic connection classes and their many community groups we have in place. Watching the kids on the stage sing the songs they had learned in Third Floor Live was a great reminder of our ongoing ministries to children. Hearing the testimony of one of our High School students of how she was reaching out in ministry to her friends at school through the CUBE was also a great picture of what God is doing within our body. I thought about all the great ministries we have going in our community and around the world about which our church is becoming increasingly passionate.

Last week I rushed to the hospital when I heard about one of our members beings sent to the Emergency Room. When I walked in the entire hallway was packed with his community group. They were there, surrounding and praying for the family and doing what they could to meet their needs. I thought, "this is the way church is supposed to work!"

I got a letter in the mail last week from a woman in our community who had received a Thanksgiving meal through our Families Loving Families. It is typical of the kinds of letters I get from people in the community from time to time:

"I want to thank you and your church for the wonderful meal. What a blessing it was to my whole family. It was the first meal in 28 years that someone else had cooked for me. It was so delicious...."

After one of our worship services a few weeks ago, I had three different church members approach me to tell me what God was doing in their lives. One had just completed the purchase of land to begin a ministry to help abused teenage girls, the other was excited about a new ministry he was a part of that has a desire to reach into every prison in Oklahoma and the third was a guy who has recently started a ministry for inner city kids utilizing martial arts. I told Teri on the way home, "How great to be a part of a church that gets it!"

I will go into greater detail later, but it seems to me that God is continuing to move our congregation towards three primary objectives that I want to highlight in 2010:

1. A heart for worship
2. A hunger for His word
3. A compassion for the poor
4. A passion for the lost

I believe these are the four values that encompass what God has called us to as we strive together to love all people to Christ and help them on their journey with God and others.

Please continue to pray for our budget needs as we close out the year. The administration office will be open until 5:00 p.m. New Years Eve.

For All The People

Today I've been thinking about our theme for this advent season, "For All the People". Of course, this is an emphasis on the angels proclamation to the shepherds "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people..." The significance of these words to us is seen in the inclusiveness of the gospel. The angels were making it clear to the world that the gospel was not just for the Jew - that the God of Israel was bringing salvation to all the nations- every tribe and tongue.

The covenant first proclaimed to Abraham was that a Redeemer would come and bless the nations through the Abrahamic seed- that the coming of Christ was the culmination of God's providential plan to bring His kingdom to every corner of the earth.

The gospel has no color barriers, no economic barriers, no language barriers. It is not just for the well connected, the powerful, the privileged and well educated- Jesus was born to a poor Nazareth family in a borrowed animal trough in Bethlehem. It is not an accident that Israel was the backwater of the Roman Empire, that Galilee was the backwater of Israel and that Nazareth was the backwater of Galilee. It not an accident that the first gospel message went out to the shepherds in the field and not heralded to the royal courts in Rome or Athens.

I do think it is a profound point to make that from the very first time the gospel was proclaimed that first Christmas day we were made to understand that the initiative of our mission is to break down every barrier and to embrace every culture.

It is at the heart of the gospel and should always be the passion of our church!

Don't miss the Christmas Eve service this Friday- we have a dynamic worship planned that will emphasize the meaning of the first Christmas proclamation, "for all the people!"

Keeping The Faith

A few months ago a 7 year old Plain City Utah boy took off in his parents car because he didn't want to go to church. He took the car down the block, turned into a local school parking lot, went for a spin a few times, then headed back home with the police in tow. No arrests were made but I'm sure a couple of commandments were broken.


The father was quoted as saying, "most kids just act like their sick..." The story made national news and video footage of the police chase was viewed on YouTube over 100,000 times.

Who can't relate to a 7 year old who doesn't want to go to church? And what parent can't relate to these parents- although I will say this kid has a little more spunk than most!

But here's to the parents who put their foot down (so to speak).

According to the latest Barna Research Group's research on the longevity of faith, the importance of parents getting their kids in church cannot be overstated. One of the most interesting aspects of the study to me was the link between childhood and teenage church attendance to how that person maintains their walk with Christ later on in life.

The study found that persons who were actively involved in church when they were younger were much more likely to stick it out later in life and to continue to embrace their faith tradition. Those who were less active were much more likely to radically change their beliefs.

I have a couple of thoughts about this study:

First of all, it really does confirm the age old wisdom that if you want to instill values that last a lifetime you must start early. The earlier a child develops a a clear value system and those values are reinforced by other adult influences besides parents, the more grounded that person will become in their faith.

Secondly, I think this study blows the idea that we shouldn't "force" our kids to come to church out of the water. If a parent ascribes to the logic of "My parents made me go to church and I hated it and therefore I'm not going to force that on my kids" they are just assuring that there is a much greater chance that their kids will walk away from their faith.

I like to tell men in premarital counseling, "If your kids have to ask you someday on a Saturday night IF they are going to church the next day, your not being the spiritual leader."

It turns out that the mom and dad who insisted on their kids going to church whether the kids wanted to or not were right all along. After all, we don't apply that same logic to other important issues. You never hear anyone say, "my parents made me brush my teethe therefore I'm not forcing my kids..." Or "my parents insisted that I go to school and I hated it therefore I'm not going to make my kids do it..."

Of course we "force" our kids to do those things that we know are going to be important to them later in life- if we don't we're not doing our job as parents.

No matter what lengths to which they may go to avoid the inevitable!

Making gods Of Ourselves

The dominant news stories over the past couple of months should remind us of core spiritual issues.  The sad headlines points to the overpowering tendency toward self-absorption flowing from our idolatrous hearts.

What do "octo-mom", the weather balloon family in Colorado, the State Dinner crashers in Washington D.C. and the Tiger Woods drama all have in common? They are all just the latest examples of how miserable life can become when one follows selfishness to it's natural conclusion. For anyone who doubts the reality of hell, all you have to do is look closely at the personal hell we take ourselves to if we pursue the idolatry of self all the way through.

Does anyone doubt that Tiger Woods, arguably the most successful and popular athlete in the world a couple of weeks ago knows a little something about where your sinful heart can lead you and what a hell you can create? Follow that path on out into eternity without the presence of even His general grace and the human mind cannot even conceive the misery that results from that depravity.

But when we read stories like we have over the past few weeks, our hearts should cry out, "There, except for the grace of God, go I!" The capacity for all kinds of evil resides in every human heart. It is the flesh that all of us struggle with. And at the heart of it is "overdesire". The tendency to make idols or gods out of those things that can never give us life is at the root of all of our fallenness. It is so pervasive and so much a part of the fabric of our lives we don't even notice it. I know I don't!

Peter Kreeft has said that hell is not just a place of eternal punishment, but something much worse, a place where there is eternal dying- a place where one makes an "eternal ash of himself". It is a place where we indulge our idolatrous hearts - to a miserable, hateful, self indulged infatuation with our own selfish wants and desires. Contrary to what we might think, the opposite of love is not hate, but selfishness.

Adolphe Tanquerey writes, “The enemy of the love of God, of charity, is the love of self. Pride is an inordinate love of self, which causes us to consider ourselves, explicitly or implicitly, as our first beginning and last end. It is a species of idolatry, for we make gods of ourselves….”

Heaven is a place where people are giving themselves away- offering their lives in praise and cointinually taking the focus off of self- and that is where we find heaven in our own lives today. Jesus taught us that to find life we must lose it- to find true joy our lives should be given away. If one does not know giving he does not know love. Charles Swindoll once said, "I have never met a happy getter. I have met a lot of happy givers, but never a happy getter".

So as we come now to the third week of advent we are reminded that the most important and meaningful things that have come into our lives have come as a result of sacrifice and giving. And conversely we are reminded that the more we are drawn into our own selfish desires, the more miserable life becomes.

Thankfulness

As we've approached the holiday, I've been thinking lately about the necessity of the spiritual quality of thanksgiving. I see this holiday as distinctively Christian in nature because it is rooted in one of the most central spiritual outcomes of the life of grace and was born out of a Christian world view.

Of course I look forward to the holiday for all the obvious reasons- some needed time off and some time with family I haven't seen in a while. It's great to have Taylor home from college for a few days and I always look forward to the annual Thompson football classic.

But this Thanksgiving I am committed to driving home the point to my family that the Christian virtue of thanksgiving is to be so central to the way we live that a holiday celebrating it should be more than just an event- it should be a true celebration of a spiritual outcome that is uniquely brought about by the gospel.

Here's what I mean- I don't really see that one can truly exist in a state of thankfulness unless He has embraced the reality of the cross. To be thankful FOR something we have to have someone to be thankful TO. The Bible says in Romans 1:18-23ff that a person without Christ exists in a state of rebellion against God not just because He has seen the reality of God's existence and denied that reality but that He has seen His grace and has rejected it and is therefore ungrateful.

So when I say that one cannot truly live a life of thankfulness without embracing the gospel I don't mean that a lost person does not feel thankful at times, but that he or she cannot truly know the life of thankfulness without truly knowing and understanding and embracing the ultimate truth of their existence- that Jesus Christ has paid the price for their sin and has become a ransom turning back the wrath of God and giving the regenerated sinner all the glorious benefits and blessing he enjoys.

I know this scriptural truth at the very core of my being. It was not until I embraced the reality of the cross that I was truly set free. Since embracing the reality of the cross every day for me has been a day of perpetual thanksgiving and praise. I can now see that no matter what life might hand me, because I know the ultimate and sustaining love of the Father as demonstrated on the cross, His love is the love I have looked for in every other love and His joy is the joy I have looked for in every other joy and His beauty is the beauty I have looked for in every other beauty. So even in hardship my eternal standing has not changed. I can drop my idols and give up on self righteous ways. The worst things that happen to me he will use for good, the truly good things can't be taken away and the very best is yet to come! Therfore I can say like the Psalmist, "This is the day the Lord has made, we WILL rejoice and be glad in it!" (Psalm 118:24) Thankfulness is an act of the will in response to the overwhelming and sustaining grace of God.

My lack of thankfulness are the result of my idolotary. As John Calvin put it, “Our hearts are perpetual idol factories.” That is precisely what Paul says in Romans 1. Rather than giving thanks, the unbeliever exchanges the glory of God for the glory of corruptible idols. Therefore in my most base idolatrous and fallen state, what I perceive as thankfulness is simply a rehearsing of my desire for things to fill my heart that will never satisfy. Thanksgiving for a lot of people is merely raising a toast to all the idols that are keeping them in bondage.

So I don't truly know thankfulness until I have truly known His grace. Until I know I have been created by Him, given life by Him, sustained in that life by Him, pursued by His grace to find salvation in Him and that the very fact that I know and understand what it is I am thankful for I cannot truly know the meaning of it.

Someone has said that "an atheist is someone who when he feels really thankful, has no one to thank."

This is why when one reads scripture it becomes clear that thankfulness is a central outcome of the life of grace. The Bible says to "always give thanks" (Eph. 5:20), "whatever you do in word or deed, always give thanks..." (Col 3:17). Over and over again the Bible teaches us that the heart of the redeemed believer is characterizd by perpetual thankfulness and joy.

I remember as a young pastor how blown away I was by the words "I am so thankful..." at so many hospital rooms and deathbeds. I have sat with many people who even in the midst of great tragedy were able to say "blessed be the name of the Lord!" I can see now after many years as a pastor that this is what happens as one embraces the cross of Christ. This attitude comes from waht we understand in the gospel in the cross of Christ. As Christians we can see that the worst thing that ever happened was also the best thing that ever happened. Gratitude is one of the purest characteristics of a life that has been captivated by His grace.

I have seen true thankfulness up close and personal in some very surprising places lately. I am a man who has been truly blessed. I have known sorrow but for the most part my life has been comfortable. Teri and I have known what it was like to live without much money but we have never known true poverty. My family is blessed with good health for the most part. We have always had good medical care available to us, a nice roof over our head and food on the table. But I have met people recently who often have none of these things and yet have a joy of the Lord that is beautiful and contageous.

I have met people recently whose lives are characterized by thankfulness and joy in spite of the fact that they are living in the midst of terrible poverty and disease and even at times persecution for their faith. Like the pastors I met in Orissa India who minister in a place where Christians are sometimes killed for proclaiming the gospel and yet they couldn't wait to tell me about what God was doing in their lives. Or like the Christians I met in the Middle East who have seen family members shot dead on their way to a Christian school and yet have chosen to forgive and to love their enemies and pray for them and continually give thanks to God for His grace. Or like the elderly woman I stayed with in Slivia Bulgaria who had been arrested by the Communist government many years ago for illegally practicing her faith and had lost her job and everything she owned and yet possessed the incredible countenance of a woman who loved Jesus with all her heart. Or like the family who has chosen to live in a Delhi slum so they can take care of children and teach them about the incredible riches of God's grace.

This is why I say that for the Christian, thanksgiving is much more than just an event celebrated once a year, it is the dynamic outcome of understanding what Christ has done for us. And that is a reality we celebrate every moment of our lives.

Caleb's Story

We have many missionary friends around the world who have come out of our church and with whom we have an ongoing partnership. The following email just arrived from one of friends who is working in a large country in Asia. I think it is a story we all need to hear. I have purposely left out the identities of names and places for their protection.

Hello Everyone,

I want to tell you a short story that may turn into a long story. Around twelve days ago, on Nov. 4, in the countryside near where we live, a baby boy was born to a poor village family. He was delivered safely but the family soon realized that he had a birth defect that is very common to this area: he was born without an anus. Many children particularly in this prefecture of our province suffer from this condition. The baby’s stomach becomes distended and bloated and typically the baby dies within a few days of birth.

The family did what most villagers in our area do with unwanted or deformed babies: they abandoned the boy outside in a desolate area to die of exposure and starvation. It sounds very cruel to us, and certainly it was a very wicked thing to do, but imagine yourself in their situation. I don’t want to justify what they did. I want only to illustrate the injustice in our world that left them with so few options.

My wife and I were talking about what if we were living back in Oklahoma or California and had this baby how different his situation would be. He first of all would have been born in a warm and dry hospital where literally dozens of qualified doctors and nurses could have immediately diagnosed his situation and taken the necessary steps to repair his defect. We would have medical insurance that would cover his expensive bills, and we could probably count on the generous support of our church (whether it be FBC, CRBC, or SFMBC) to visit and encourage us in the hospital, pray for us, cook meals for us, and even help us with any other expenses incurred in the process.

Caleb by contrast was probably born in a freezing cold concrete or dirt floor bedroom with no medically trained personnel of any kind. His parents have no insurance, probably subsist on less than 300 USD a year, live hours away from any hospital (and it’s probably the kind of hospital most of us from the western world wouldn’t even want to think about going into even if we were very ill). The government here only allows them one child which means most crippled or deformed babies are abandoned in the hopes of having a healthy one next time. His parents have no Christian brothers and sisters to speak truth and hope into their lives. In short they were hopeless and desperate people, so they left their son outside to die.

As it sometimes happens in these awful situations, God intervened for Caleb, much in the same he did for the girl child (Israel) of Ezekiel 16. It so happened that an anonymous farmer was ambling by on his way to cut wood or tend livestock when he heard a baby crying. He found Caleb lying on the ground freezing and starving to death and for some reason his heart was moved with pity. So he gathered him up and brought him to our city to the orphanage hoping that at least Caleb could die with a roof over his head. The orphanage here is not a nice, bright, well-funded operation like we’re used to in the U.S. It’s a small grim place where only a few kindly women work. When they took a look at Caleb, they knew in their hearts that his case was hopeless. To feed and nurture him would only make the pain caused by the blockage of his bowels increase. They decided to put him in a small room in the back on a counter away from the other children and wait for him to die in few days.

As near as we can tell that’s the story of how Caleb’s life begun and was supposed to end. We don’t know who his parents are, where they live, or even who the nice farmer was who brought him to the orphanage. Much of what is in this story concerning his parents is guesswork based on the social circumstances and customs of this place. What we do know is that a farmer found this deformed baby abandoned in the field and brought him to the orphanage. The orphanage workers will tell you that most of the children who come to them, come to them via someone like the nice farmer finding them unwanted in the open country. From this point though his story becomes much more clear.

Again left for dead and written off as hopeless by the orphanage workers God rescued Caleb again. There are two European girls here who are also involved in the same kind of work we are but with a different organization. They’re both single in their late twenties, and were crazy enough to follow God to the other side of the world rather than lead a life of comfortable ease like most of their peers at home. Anyways, these girls are in the habit of visiting the orphanage and playing with the children there every Saturday. In fact my wife and I were over at their house this last Friday, the 13th, for dinner and briefly talked with them about their plans to go to the orphan house the next day.

When they got to the orphanage the next day, they were surprised to hear the sounds of a baby crying coming from the back since all the children at this orphanage are big kids, not babies. The ladies tried to keep our friends from finding the starving baby in the back, but they wouldn’t be denied and when they discovered him and began to feel the terrible hopelessness of his situation, they refused to believe it. Their reasoning was if God had sustained this child thus far when he’s been twice cast aside maybe He will work some more miracles for him. After much pleading and haranguing, the girls managed to convince the orphanage to sign the baby over into their foster care.

Once in charge of the babies the girls flew into action. They quickly named they boy Caleb and rushed him to the capital city in our province, bought airline tickets and were hoping to fly the baby to a bigger more modern city where the baby could receive better treatment than is available in our somewhat backwater province. However, as one of the girls was preparing to board the plane with Caleb, airline officials came and notified her that she would not be allowed to take the baby because: 1) they did not want the baby to die on their plane and 2) they were afraid despite the orphanage’s paperwork that perhaps Caleb was being kidnapped. This meant that Caleb would have to take his chances with the local hospital in our capitol city.

Yesterday, Caleb underwent an emergency surgery. The doctors told our exhausted friend, who had stayed up all night with Caleb, that his chances for survival were almost nil. For one thing, the operation is very invasive, and to complicate matters, Caleb’s blood pressure had already dropped dreadfully low. In fact, it was so low that the doctor said he would not even consider the operation if he didn’t know for sure that Caleb would die without it. In our local Sunday morning group we all spent considerable time in prayer, but one of the girls told me that there was not a lot of hope…we should have known better.

Guess what? Today we heard that Caleb had, despite the doctors predictions and our own fears, been brought through by God’s hand again. The doctor successfully created a colostomy for Caleb and another opening for him. He remains in very critical condition, and he certainly isn’t out of the woods yet, but every hour he survives is a victory and he is one step closer to making it.

Is our God amazing? Isn’t He a father to the fatherless? Is He not a God who defies our descriptions and expectations? Can anyone save like Him? Who brings hope to the hopeless if not He? Should God in his providence continue to uphold Caleb don’t you really believe that his life will be one miraculous praise song to God? I want to ask all of you to pray for Caleb right now and every day for the rest of his life. In his short life, he has walked closer to death than most of us ever have, and I am so curious to see what becomes of him. The best case scenario is that he pulls through this and his follow-up surgeries and, in a year or two, someone adopts him, maybe even somebody reading this e-mail.

I also should mention that my two friends who are taking care of him aren’t exactly swimming in cash and have undertaken this attempt to save his life with no idea how they are going to get the money to cover all his medical bills and other expenses. Please no pressure at all, and they would much rather have your prayers than your money, but if anyone does feel the Spirit’s leading to give, you can contact us and I’ll try to find how we can connect some of your generosity to the girls’ needs in looking after Caleb.

For information on how to help, email info@councilroad.org.

lessons from India

What if I were to tell you that in India there are over 400 million who have not even heard the gospel? What if I were to tell you that in the Middle East, there are over 175 million unreached unengaged people? Do those numbers surprise you?

They do me.

When one considers that there are more lost people in these parts of the earth than there are actual people in the United States it puts the world's darkness in perspective. This is why I believe it is absolutely essential for a church like ours that is serious about embracing the Great Commission cause to put energy and resources where they are most effective. One part of the answer is to support the missions efforts of the IMB- the largest missions sending organization in the world. The mission of the IMB is to plant churches around the world but especially in the places where the gospel has not yet reached. Another part of the solution is to support other para-church organizations that God is raising up to fill in the gaps that are not a part of the IMB strategy. Global Action, as an example, does not have the same priority of planting churches, but has developed a simple philosophy of connecting resources to national leaders who have ministry ideas but who don't have the means to accomplish them.

It is those kinds of missions objectives that Kyle and I were able to see up close and personal on our trip to India.

Like the ministry in Calcutta that cares for children in the slum near the convent founded by Mother Teresa. This ministry of Global Action not only cares for the physical need of the poorest of the poor in the slum, but they also give these children an education and teach them of the love of Christ. This is a ministry that is truly having an impact on the physical and spiritual needs in this dark and desperate place. You get the sense as you are observing this ministry that these are the places to which Jesus would be drawn.

Or like the evangelical church in which I was privileged to preach that is positioned right smack dab in the middle of the Calcutta slum surrounded by hordes of beggars, trash dumps, card board houses on sidewalks, and scattered Hindu temples and shrines. I was surprised when over 200 people filled the church, enthusiastically worshiped for over 2 hours, shared testimonies and sang with great joy and gave praise to God.

Or like the conference Kyle and I attended for young pastors in Ranji who are proclaiming the gospel in a part of India that has very little Christian presence. We sat with them all day in a small hotel in this city of about 500,000 as they listened intently, took notes and enthusiastically shared what Christ is doing in their churches. One gets the sense that even in the places around the world where there are very few Christians, God is at work. The Spirit is moving. And in those places where He is at work, we want to join with Him.

All of us have a mission. All of us who call upon the name of Christ are missionaries in our mission field. We are all given the responsibility of loving all people to Christ and helping them on their journey with God and others. But in addition to the mission field that we all live and work in every day, we also have an even greater responsibility to take the gospel where it has not yet been proclaimed. To take His commission seriously is to ask ourselves "where has this gospel not yet been proclaimed?" and "Who will proclaim it if we do not take the responsibility?" If we are to "make disciples of all the nations" we must take a decidedly proactive approach. There is no greater joy or greater objective that any of us could commit.

We are to have a local impact AND a global impact. That is the purpose we are all given and it is a purpose worth giving our lives to accomplish. This is just one of the lessons God has taught me in my trips to India and the Middle East.

one simple idea

The best ideas are the simplest, it seems to me. Most of the things we enjoy in life are the result of someone taking complex ideas and narrowing them down to the simplest solution. They are the result of people asking questions like "I wonder if we could bring light into this room at night without having to light a fire?" or "Wouldn't it be great if we could find a way to communicate to others and actually hear their voice?" Even our modern inventions are simple ideas that are worked through a matrix of complex solutions. "How could we make a device that is a phone, a computer, a camera and connects to the internet?" is an example.

The simple ideas with profoundly accessible solutions are the most brilliant.

This is why I love the work of Global Action in India. The ideas they employ that drive the organization are very simple. The idea is to connect the resources of believers around the world who God has blessed with Christian ministry taking place in the most desperate parts of the earth. The idea is to connect believers that have the ability to give but don't know where, to the beleivers in third world countries who know how to do the work but don't know where to find the resources.

This is how the Motipur Hope Center was started. Lars Dunberg, the founder of Global Action, met Daniel Suban, the Indian pastor who had a dream of taking care of orphaned children from the streets of India in the rural setting of Motipur, far from the horriblly populated slums that exist in every major city here. Dunberg liked the idea, and he could see that Daniel was a good leader and had the passion necessary for the job. So Daniel provided the ability and the passion, and Lars and Global Action provided the resources and organization.

The result just three years later is a church, a soon to be clinic, a school and a Chidren's Home for about 50 beautiful children who have been pulled off the streets of Lucknow, Kalkota and Delhi. The children here are taken care of by house parents who love them with the love of Christ and teach them to read and write and to learn English. The future plan is to teach them a vocational skill and to train them to excell to the degree of one day furthering their education. The newly constructed church is the only Christian comminty for many hundreds of miles among a huge poplutation of Muslims and Hindu.

When Michael Butler and I traveled here two years ago, we both felt that there was a great purpose for us seeing this Hope Center. We knew that God wanted us to spread the message and to encourage our church and other churches to join in with Global Action to accomplish the task. The school was up and running, but to finish the job Western Christians needed to help shoulder the load. Since that time our church and other churches in our area and Christian businessmen and women from Oklahoma City have contributed around $50,000 toward this work. With that investment Global Action has been able to construct 6 homes for the children.

This week new land was purchased to begin construction for a clinic that will provide medical care for hundreds of thousands of people in the region who currently have no access to a hospital or doctor.

One of the most remarkable things our team has witnessed here happened on the second afternoon we were in Motipur. Women from the Muslim village near by came to the Hope Center to express their gratitude to this Christian ministry for building the clinic. They came bearing gifts of flower necklaces. They sat in front of us for several minutes and sang song after song of joy and appreciation. Lars addressed them and told them that we are building this clinic because we love them and Jesus loves them.

The fame of the name of Christ is beginning to penetrate the spiritual bondage of this dark land.

One can see the effectiveness of a simple idea in a single blanket. A couple of years ago, Sheba Suban, the daughter of Pastor Daniel, was in a village near Motipur talking to the children. One of the little girls, who had no clothes to wear other than rags her family had wrapped around her body told Sheba that when she came back she would like her to bring a "suiter".

Sheba wondered what she might have meant by a "suiter", when it occurred to her that she was using the English word "sweater". When the profound meaning of that question dawned on her, it broke her heart. The winters in this part of India, at the base of the Himalaya mountains gets very cold. Over 10,000 people last year in this area alone died of exposure. The girl was asking for something to keep her warm.

To Global Action the solution to this was very simple. Tell Western Chrisitans that for only five bucks, the price of a venti Latte from Starbucks, they could buy a blanket and save a life.

This year Global Action has raised close to 50,000 dollars to send 10,000 blankets to India. Our group was the first group to begin the distribution.

I have had many great experiences here in India. But what I experienced at that distribution stands out as one of the most touching. Our group was welcomed as honored guests to the village. The elder spoke a few words and then Pastor Daniel proclaimed the message of Christ. Our team of Americans sat one side of the circle, and the villagers on the other side. Christians on one side and Muslims on the other. Americans on one side, Indians sitting on the opposite. Two groups from opposite ends of the earth, separated for most of our lives by a seeming insurmountable ethnic, religious, socio-economic and cultural gap. In between were laid the blankets, bought by American Christians for the sake of distributing them out of Christ's love. As Pastor Daniel spoke, the people nodded in approval and appreciation for the expressions of love and the proclamation of the gospel. And then the two groups were brought together as the gifts of the blankets were exchanged. One by one our group came forward and met villagers in the middle and wrapped the blankets around their shoulders and told them that Jesus loved them. They did not hear or comprehend our words but the felt our touch and the warmth of the blanket. They looked in our eyes and expressed their appreciation and joy. In that moment the incredible gulf that had separated us was bridged. We were brought together by a simple 5 dollar blanket. But much more profoundly we were brought together by the love of Christ.

Such a simple idea. A 5 dollar blanket. Five dollars that most of us would spend in a day and not give a second thought to it. A simple blanket much like the stacks of blankets most of us have in our closets at home. But to the people living here that blanket represents survival in the winter.

Such a simple idea. But the simplest ideas are often the ones that change the world.

light in the darkness

"I've been here four times now" my new friend from Cuba tells me as we are walking away from the Delhi slum, dodging piles of cow refuse, trash and potholes in the dirt alleyways. We have just left one of 8 ministry centers for children that is situated right smack dab in the middle of a glorified garbage dump that is home to hundreds of thousands of India's poorest families in what is referred to as the Delhi slum. If you have seen the movie, you would recognize this as a place of ministry for the "slumdogs". Each day hundreds of children are cared for, prayed over, fed and taught how to read write and speak English- a language that may help them to find a job some day. They are taught these things as they learn the scriptures and as they experience the abundant and joyous love of Christ.

My Cuban friend tells me that everytime she comes to this place she feels the sting. The sting of pain that comes to a mother's heart as she holds little babies who are hungry and have nothing to eat. "I have five children" she says to me with her eyes tearing up, "I breast fed all of them and always fed them many times a day before they even had a chance to cry".

She goes on to explain why it is such an important journey for her.

"I come back here because I believe this is a part of the abundant life too- to come to places like this and to see the poverty and reach out and touch it and to let it sting. I never want to forget that their are little babies in places like this that are hungry and looking for their mommies and they are nowhere to be found."

"I never want for it to not sting- because that would mean my heart has grown cold."

I know what she means. The sting of pain that is felt when one first experiences the overwhelming poverty of this slum is one that I believe comes from the heart of Christ. This certainly is a place that Christ had in mind when he said "if you have not done it to the least of my children you have not done it unto me..."

For any person who would ever doubt the love of Christ and the impact of His work, this place is a shining example of how light penetrates darkness. There is no darkness as dark as this darkness. And there is no love that shines brighter than in this place. It shines brightly in the hearts of the two Indian believers who are leading the ministry. Allen and Vaneta have lived here with their young family for the past 12 years for the sole purpose of taking care of the children of the slum and to reflect the love of Christ.

And they are doing this by literally living in the garbage dump with their small children, raising them alongside the untouchables in a place that most of us would not want to bring our children for more than a few hours at a time for fear of what they might be exposed to.

Their family sleeps and eats in the rooms attached to the ministry center. Their children sleep on cots on the floor without running water or any of the conveniences that most middle class children in India enjoy. Though they are both well educated and speak very good English and could find quality jobs almost anywhere else in the world, they choose to live in the Delhi slum for the sake of the gospel.

Sheeba Subhan, our friend from Global Action tells us that several months ago she told Vaneta that she should move away and drive in every day to take care of the children. "You don't have to live here." She told her. Vaneta said without hesitating, "We want to live here. We would never live anywhere else, this is where our heart is. We want to live among the children."

For most of us this kind of choice seems somewhat counter-intuitive. It makes no sense.

But somehow when you are here and experience all the bright smiles against the sadness and all the suffering alongside the joy and when you feel the sting and sense the boundless love of Christ that comes from a ministry like this, it all makes sense. Somehow you understand. they are doing what comes naturally when one is totally immersed in the gospel.

Our time at the ministry ended with a story from a 17 year old girl who has just started working on the staff. Punim first came to the slum ministry as a little girl living on the street at 5 years old. A few years ago she embraced the gospel and became a Christian. She asked for prayers as she continues to reach out to her Hindu family- many of whom are not pleased that she has left their traditional religion and converted to Christianity. She told us of how important the ministry has become to her and how it is like family. She has decided to devote her life to caring for the children of the slum. What makes Pumim's story so remarkable is that she is presently the youngest student of the Glomas training- a kind of seminary equivelent for Indian students who are interested in fulltime ministry.

As I watch this beautiful young girl, face glowing with the joy of the Lord explain how Christ has changed her life in one of the most desperate places on the planet, it occurs to me that truly the gospel is reaching into every dark corner. The sting of pain and misery and hunger is still here.

But there is a light shining in the darkness.

global action

Two weeks ago I went on the Board of Trustees for "Global Action". This is an international missions organization our church is associated with that specializes in partnering with Great Commission Christians to accomplish Kingdom purposes among some of the most marginalized and desperate people groups on the planet. Their objective is not just to help meet physical and economic needs, but also to strengthen the local church in those targeted areas for the proclamation of the gospel. I am a big believer in Global Action because of the their excellent training and sending module and their ability to get resources where they are needed quickly with very little red tape and administrative cost.

Last week some of our Global Action friends were in town to update us on our work in Motipur where we have a home for homeless children called "The Hope Center" and where we are preparing to distribute thousands of blankets before winter sets in. This is a part of the world where people regularly die of exposure and a simple blanket costing only about 5 bucks can literally save a life. As Lars Duberg likes to say, "For the price of a Starbucks coffee you can save a life!"

In two weeks Kyle Pewitt and I will travel to India to tour some of the ministries Global Action has in the cities of Dehli, Lucknow and Calcutta in additoin to our Hope Center in Motipur. We will visit churches and ministries where national believers are giving their lives to help people who literally have nothing to give in return. In addition, we will connect with some of our IMB friends along the way.

Why do we have a minstries in these places? After all, we have lostness and economic and social needs here at home in the states. The simple answer is that these are the places where the worlds lostness is most severe. Christ has called us to proclaim the gospel in every dark corner of the earth. These regions are some of the most unreached areas on the planet. Additionally, these are the places where the poverty and social needs are most desperate and overwhelming. We may not be able to change the whole world, but we can change the world for a few. This is what God calls us to do as long as we have breath and as long as there is at least one person on earth who has not heard the gospel.

For more information on Global Action, click here.

a morning lesson

This morning I spent a good half hour trying to rescue a hummingbird out of my garage. The crazy bird was literally beating it's head against the wall trying to find an escape. It had mistaken the circle of light reflecting on to the ceiling cast by the garage door light for the dawning sunlight outside. I know it sounds crazy to higher life forms like us- but the creature was so fascinated by the substitute light reflecting on the garage wall that it could not see that a few feet away was true sunlight and freedom!

Crazy, crazy stuff. How I pity these lower life forms.

I mean, seriously... if only this bird could think like humans- then he could clearly see that if you only follow those things that substitute for the true light, you will continually flap your wings and bang your head over and over again against the wall- it will get you nowhere in life. You will be trapped by your meaningless pursuits.

There is no freedom in that. There is only one true light.

What to do?

I considered my options. A net? No good- the tiny bird could easily be permanently injured by the net and thus the rescue itself could do more harm than good. A towel to throw over it? We used to catch bats this way when we lived in Texas. But again- not the way to catch a hummingbird.

I could just leave the creature to it's own demise. After all, the poor foolish bird had chosen it's course. But somehow the more I got involved with the tiny creature's plight, the more I felt the need to show grace- to help it to find it's way. Perhaps because I am constantly aware of how I have been shown grace.

Of course by now you can see that I was identifying with the hummingbird- having been there myself many times. I recognized that crazy struggle it was in- those wings were flapping hard against the wall. The little guy was wearing itself out. Boy do I know what it's like to beat your head against the wall and to work feverishly to no end!

Finally, an idea- turn off all the lights in the garage, open one door and wait for the bird to see that there is only one true light.

Sure enough- this was how the little bird was liberated.

It finally saw the light when it realized that all the other lights had gone out.

It wasn't until all the other lights in the room that had captured it's attention and had caused its many meaningless and fruitless attempts to find freedom had gone away, that the bird was able to focus it's attention on the one true light.

In a flash, the bird was out the door and disappeared into the morning sky.

Such simple creatures, those hummingbirds.

It takes one to know one I guess.

I stood there for a few seconds watching the bird fly away thanking God for this mornings lesson.

This coming Sunday I will be teaching on Matthew 5:27-29- the passage of scripture in which Jesus teaches about the folly of an adulterous life. I want all of our parents to be fairly warned- because of the subject matter, I don't feel it will be appropriate for children 5th grade and under to be in the room for this teaching. This is a Sunday you will want to put your children in our excellent Children's Worship program on the third floor.

over-desire

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Galatians 5:16)

This year God has been teaching me about my over-desires.

The word translated "lust" or "sinful nature" in Galatians 5:16 is the word "sarx" in the Greek which has a meaning that is not easily translated into the English language. When we think of "lust" in our language, we think of "sinful desire for evil things", when in fact the word means "over-desire for good things".

So when I walk by the Spirit and not by my "sinful nature" I am living in a way that does not give in to my idolatrous nature. The doctrine of sin teaches us that our problem is that we make idols of good things. As John Piper has said, "All human relational problems—from marriage and family to friendship to neighbors to classmates to colleagues—all of them are rooted in various forms of idolatry, that is, wanting things other than God in wrong ways."

So when I think of "lust of the flesh" I should not just think of sexual sin- I should think of the sin of over-desiring the good things in life.

For example:

A Christian businessman can make his job his idol and over-desire the good things his career can bring. Therefore when things go wrong at work he is condemned by the god he has created.

A parent can have an over-desire for her kids well-being. Not that wanting the best for our kids is a bad thing, but when we make it the meaning and purpose of our lives, putting it in the place of God, then it becomes an idol to us. So if things don't turn out just right- the god of "wanting what's best for my kids" will continually strike us down and condemn us.

A pastor can over-desire good things for his church.

A student can over-desire good grades and success at school.

A husband can over-desire a dream marriage.

A retiree can over-desire good things for his retirement.

Anything that we seek to enjoy in the wrong way can become an idol to us and anything we put in the place of God will end up condemning us. Our problem is not that we have sinful desires for evil things but that we have over-desires for good things.

God is teaching me that this is one of the most important teachings of scripture- it is in fact the core issue of our lives. Our problem is that we are terribly idolatrous and that we desperately need to pull our hearts away from our idols and toward the one thing that will not distort them meaning of our lives.

great commission resurgence

At last summer's Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary made a motion that the convention respond to a growing sense of purpose and direction that had grown out of a sermon preached by Dr. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary in their chapel service entitled "Axioms for a Great Commission Resurgence". The axioms proposed in that sermon would later become the principles in a more refined document that was embraced by the new president of the convention, Dr. Johnny Hunt and several other leaders of the convention including Thom Rainer, James Merritt, Mark Devers Ed Stetzer, and others.

The motion by Dr. Mohler to form a GCR committee to study structural changes to be made in response was overwhelmingly approved by the convention.

I have just recently studied this document and thought through the ramifications of it both as a local pastor and as a trustee for the International Mission Board. I believe the document is more than mere bureaucratic blather- I believe it is an honest attempt to make necessary changes to set the convention on the right course. The timing is right for change. Many would say it is past time for change. I talk to young pastors on a regular basis who are less than enthusiastic by what they have seen in the convention in recent years.

For this reason I have decided to sign the document and pray for the committee as they prepare to bring a report to next years convention. You can do the same here.

You can read the full document here.

self inflicted wounds

A good friend came to community group Sunday night with a black eye (I wouldn't want to embarrass him by giving his true identity but if any of you saw Steve Duty at church last Sunday the black eye looked kinda like his), and so we asked for an explanation. He confessed that it was self inflicted. He told us how he had been attacked by wasps in his barn and out of anger tried to take care of the one that was stinging him just below the eye by inexplicably balling up his own fist and giving it a good wack.

He missed the wasp but nearly knocked himself out.

I know it had to hurt- he said he thought he had broken his nose in the process- but the full explanation with physical demonstration was rapturously funny. It took awhile for our group to regain composure.

I've been thinking today about self inflicted wounds.

Not the physical ones but the emotional and spiritual ones. These are the wounds much less obvious and more difficult to heal.

Let's face it- most of the wounds we experience are the ones we bring upon ourselves. The Bible teaches that the core issue we deal with in our fallen condition is the problem of idolatry which is the ultimate self inflicted wound. Idolatry is the act of putting something at the center of my heart that continually strikes me down. If there is anything at the center of my affections other than Christ Himself, that thing will destroy me- it will crush me to the ground.

Today I had a conversation with a young man who told me of a struggle with depression and anxiety- he wondered if his problem was spiritual warfare. "Of course" I told him, "but the core issue is your idolatry."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

I told him that most people misunderstand idolatry as being some benign object of worship- they think of a golden calf or one of the millions of Hindu gods or goddesses- but not of anything related to their own life. But there is a reason the first two commandments deal with the issue of our idolatry and that the other 8 are simply manifestations of the first two. We are all terribly idolatrous and that is our core issue. It is by far our biggest problem. This is way I am constantly telling people "your problem is not really the problem you think it is- it is deeper than you think." We are stung by it every day and are constantly having to fight it's influence over us.

An idol is anything I have placed in my life other than Christ that I believe will give me significance and meaning. It is whatever causes me to say "If I lose everything else, at least I have this..."

Whatever "this" is, is your idol.

It is what you do not believe you can live without it. And if it's not God, it will destroy you.

So if you are feeling depression or anxiety it is most likely because your idol is condemning you.

I once had a conversation with a girl who struggled with doubts about her salvation. She showed all the signs of a committed Christian and yet she felt constantly condemned. After talking through her doubts it became clear that instead of relying on His grace, she was focused on living up to the high standards her parents had set for her.

She was guilty of idolatry.

Her idol was the projection of the person her parents wanted her to be and therefore she was constantly condemned by it. She was not living by His grace, she was stuck in the bondage of religious idolatry and yet she looked to everyone who knew her like a committed believer.

Her wounds were self inflicted.

And so were the young man's who told me today he was feeling depression and wondered if it was spiritual warfare. He wondered what God was trying to tell him through all of this. I told him "God wants you to put away your idols and accept His loving grace and love and serve Him because of His great love for you and stop serving an idol that is constantly condemning you."

Life should hurt at times. At times we should feel a little depressed or a little anxiety. Certainly the wasps will sting- but we should not be struck down by the natural ebb and flow of this life.

If you lose your job it should hurt but if it devastates you it's probably because your career has become an idol.

If you lose a relationship it should be painful but if you fall into a deep depression it is likely because that relationship is what was giving you meaning and purpose and joy in this life. That relationship had become an idol and now your idol is condemning you.

We go through normal emotions in the natural course of this life but when Christ is not at the center we go through idolotrously magnified feelings of depression and anxiety and hopelessness and that is our deepest self inflicted wound.

The Psalmist put it this way:

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

It is a good question. A question I ask myself a lot.

If our hope is in anything else, we are like a guy I know who nearly knocked himself out while trying to swat a wasp- our deepest wounds will be self inflicted.

the first step

There is great power in a single step of determination. Like the old Chinese proverb says, "A trip of a thousand miles begins with a single step". It really is true that every advance we make along our life's journey begins with a single act of determination.

I remember well the first steps my kids have taken. The first time they balanced on two feet- the first nervous jump into the pool, the first time they pedaled out on their bikes. All of these milestones are celebrated mightily, because we parents know the importance of that very first act of determination- it is the most important step.

Forty years ago today Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, immortalized that moment with these words,

"One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

That was one step that none of us who were alive during that time will ever forget. It was a step that seemed to recalibrate the way we saw the world and saw ourselves. From that point on people around the world would say things like "Well, if we can put a man on the moon, surely we can _______".

There is great power in a single step.

But as important as that event was to human history, it pales in comparison to the first step Jesus took toward Jerusalem recorded in Luke 9:51. In this passage the Bible says that Jesus "set His face toward Jerusalem..." He was, in other words, determined to take that first step toward what He knew would be arrest, trial and crucifixion. It was the first step toward the most important event in any of our lives. From that first step came sacrifice, atonement, resurrection and new life. The most important event in all of our lives began with a first step.

It was truly a small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind.

Yes it is true, any of the good that comes into our lives has been the result of the determination of a first step.

All of this to say that the rest of your life is ahead of you- the journey laid out in front of you , whether it be of a thousand miles or a million or just a mile or two from where you are right now, all begins in the determination of the first step.

God, give us men

I know that preachers are given to platitudes and gross generalities at times- so at the risk of maintaining that sad stereotype I want to make what may seem to you a sweeping observation about our culture: in my opinion one of the biggest problems we have in modern American culture if not THE biggest problem is the curse of the adolescent male.

And I'm not talking about teenage boys.

I'm talking about grown men who act like teenagers. I'm talking about men who have never grown up- men who are ruled more by their hormones than they are their back bone. I know this is not a new problem, but I do think that it is at least a growing problem.

Consider the headlines of the past few weeks:

* June 21: South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, husband and father of four, leaves the state over Father's Day weekend without telling anyone where he is going. After at first saying he was hiking in the Appalachians, he later admits to flying to Argentina to hook up with a girlfriend.

* July 4: Former Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair is shot four times while in bed with his girlfriend in the apartment he provided for her. Although McNair had a wife and kids at home, it is now known that he had more than one girlfriend. A Minneapolis newspaper has reported, "McNair had been a frequent visitor to a local strip club and had an intimate and extramarital relationship with an exotic dancer for about six years. 'She liked money and athletes,' the former business manager said on condition of anonymity. 'She went out with athletes before. She was one of those girls who said, 'You're married? You have kids? So what?' Lets have fun.'

* July 9: Nevada Senator John Ensign, the only Pentecostal in the U.S. Senate and an active supporter of Promise Keepers, a husband and father of three, admits to an extramarital affair with one of his campaign aids. It is later learned that his father, a casino mogul in Las Vegas, paid his mistresses family 96,000 dollars.

* July 7: Perhaps the most dramatic example of a prominent adult male who never really grew out of his adolescence is Michael Jackson, whose incredible musical career was overshadowed by his sad and terribly tragic personal life, characterized by countless cosmetic surgeries and fixation on Peter Pan. Jackson died in an apparent drug induced Neverland stupor millions of dollars in debt and struggling with bouts of deep depression. His subsequent funeral, paid for by the city of Los Angeles, was more of an extravaganza than a memorial service and cost an estimated 1.4 million dollars.

Some will say that this is not a trend in the making- that these are the kinds of things that have always gone on and that we are living in an information age in which an explosion of scandal is constantly barraging public consciousness that in other times would not have been known or reported. To that I would confess that I am somewhat but not completely naive to human nature and our societies somewhat scandalous history.

But I see other signs that the moral fabric of society is beginning to fray that go beyond these latest and most obvious examples. There are many more prominent examples that are impacting our culture that we can see and feel every day- like the fact that most babies born in Oklahoma county are born into homes needing government assistance and that the large majority of them are single moms. Like the fact that men are marrying late or not marrying at all. Recently, the New York Times reported:

Once, virtually all Americans had married by their mid-40's. Now, many American men without college degrees find themselves still single as they approach middle age. About 18 percent of men ages 40 to 44 with less than four years of college have never married, according to census estimates. That is up from about 6 percent a quarter-century ago. Among similar men ages 35 to 39, the portion jumped to 22 percent from 8 percent in that time. At virtually every level of education, fewer Americans are marrying. But the decline is most pronounced among men with less education. Even marriage rates among female professionals over 40 have stabilized in recent years.

Like the fact that most violent crimes against society are by angry, adolescent men.

Like the fact that the large majority of men in prison were raised by their moms and did not have a father at home and that nearly 100% of men on death row admit to either hating or not knowing their dads.

It may not be an epidemic, but it is at the very least a growing crises. And this is why I say it may very we be THE biggest problem in culture.

All of this leads me to simply say that it seems to me that one of the greatest challenges for the church in the future will be the discipleship of men. We need fathers and men of God who influence young men without fathers to step up and teach what it means to be a real man.

Real men provide for their family.

Real men don't cheat on their wives.

Real men, like my own father and his father before him, love their wives all their lives and care and support their families and sacrifice for them and though not perfect, live responsible and humble lives and pass down their faith to the next generation.

Just because you can play football for a living it doesn't mean your a real man.

Just because you have political power it doesn't mean you are a real man.

Just because you make millions as an entertainer it doesn't mean your a real man.

A man, a real man, leads courageously, accepts responsibility, rejects passivity and expects God's reward, not his own reward. A real man rejects the tendency toward selfishness and irresponsibility as characterized by the first Adam and is called toward the adventure of living like the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

And though the man who strives to live like Christ within Christian community is not always perfect and often falls short, give me that man who is plugging away at work and loving his family and being faithful to his wife and leading and serving in the church EVERY TIME over the spectacular examples of failing male role models we so often have in current culture.

Josiah Gilbert Holland wrote the following the late 1800s.

GOD, give us men! A time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie;

Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty, and in private thinking;

For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,

Their large professions and their little deeds,

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,

Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

What was certainly true then, is even more true today.

don't blink

Kenny Chesney sings a song I like called "Don't Blink". In the song he describes a meeting with a 100 year old man who when asked his advice about life said simply, "Don't blink..."

We were having dinner the other night with some very close friends that I have known since High School when someone in the crowd mentioned they were turning 50 next year. Although I will not reach that milestone for a couple of years, the sound of it in that moment was kind of shocking. Now I know that that age (the one with the 5 followed by the 0) is coming and has been coming, one year at time, for some time now. And I don't really think of myself as being old, but I do distinctively remember my much younger past self thinking that 50 something was way on the other side of over the hill.

Boy... was my much younger past self ever mistaken! I mean, good grief, I'm not even close to being old. I like what Yogi Berra once asked, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?" Old is always about 20 years older than what you are right now, I've learned.

I have learned existentially what I have always only partially known in theory- and that is that life on earth goes quickly. Truly, it is a "vapor of smoke". Chesney is right- we can't blink or we'll miss it.

James Orchard Halliwell wrote in 1842:

Solomon Grundy,

Born on a Monday,

Christened on Tuesday,

Married on Wednesday,

Took ill on Thursday,

Grew worse on Friday,

Died on Saturday,

Buried on Sunday.

This is the end

Of Solomon Grundy

Yep. Life is short.

But it is ordained by God to be that way. In His providence and goodness He has numbered our days on earth. Every single one of us is given as much time, no more and no less, to accomplish His good purposes and it is in those purposes that we find true meaning and joy and happiness.
And so, this being true, it stands to reason that if we complain about the shortness of our days we are in a sense committeing a form of blasphemy- we are telling God He's gotten it wrong. But truly, God knows what He is doing and each of us has been assigned exactly the right number of days for His providential plan.

God has a purpose for my life and He has given me all I need to accomplish it.

There is nothing more important than that. That was true for me at 18 and it is still true at 48.

A few years ago, scientists at John Hopkins University surveyed nearly 8,000 college students at forty-eight universities and asked what they considered “very important” to them. What would you guess was most important? Make a lot of money? Get married? Get a job? Buy a home?

Surprisingly, only 16 percent answered “making a lot of money.”

But a whopping 75 percent said that their first goal was “finding a purpose and meaning to my life".

It just goes to show that most college students today and most people know instinctively what is most important- but it doesn't mean they will actually act on what they know to be true. My experience tells me that most people do not believe they have yet discovered their purpose. The key is to find it, embrace it, and to give your life to it.

But don't blink.

"we can't help but proclaim the good news"

Yesterday during our all important Sunday afternoon nap I was shaken out of my slumbering bliss by the rude sound of our doorbell going off- and not just once, but three, four times. It was the trademark inquiry of my little nephew Steven who lives down the street.

I am thinking to myself as I rush toward the front door, "I'm gonna have to teach little Steven about the Sunday afternoon 'no doorbell' rule".

I throw the door open and sure enough there he is in his 7 year old glory, toe-headed and toothy grin flanked by a few of his best neighborhood buddies. They stand there staring at me, rip sticks in hand.

"Hello Boys", I say

"Hello Steven."

Before I can get my prepared speech out of my mouth, Steven says

"Hey Uncle Rick, I brought a few of my friends over so that you could tell them the story of how Jesus came into my life at VBS and how Jesus can come into their life too."

Funny how your perspective changes in a time like that. Sunday afternoon naps will come and go- but this is a moment for the ages.

Later in the day Teri asked me about the doorbell rings during the sacred Sunday afternoon "no fly zone". I told her, "Wait till you here the story..."

"Oh man!" She said- "That's definitely worthy of nap interruption!"

Steven and his entourage swept past me as the erstwhile neighborhood evangelist led them up the stairs to the family room like a mother goose shews her goslings to the grain seed. Once upstairs, he directs them to all sit on the couch -

"Guys- sit here- sit by me- Uncle Rick is going to tell you the story!".

So, there I was, fresh out of my nap, preaching my third sermon of the day- but this to an audience of 7 years old boys who had been redirected from their usual Sunday afternoon neighborhood romp by the missionary to Carlton Lakes.

It was a short sermon to be sure- a story really- a story of how Steven had taken his first precious steps toward Christ a few days earlier made possible by His grace because of the joy and excitement and the beauty of Christian community packed into an event filled week that we call Vacation Bible School.

I'm thanking God today for VBS- and for all those who worked so hard to make it happen.

I'm thanking God for the glorious opportunity to share in Steven's first missionary journey.

I'm thanking Him for interruptions.

And I'm saving that speech for another day.

the high moral ground of right to life

I just finished listening to the speech that President Obama gave at Cairo University. While I do not agree with some of what our president said, for the most part I was impressed with his delivery and content. I am especially pleased that in his discussion of the plight of the Palestinian people, he included Palestinian Christians as a group that has suffered in recent years as a result of the turmoil in the Middle East. So often, this group is completely left out of the discussion, although the population of Palestinian Christians in Israel especially has dramatically decreased and because they are caught in the middle of the conflict, have suffered the most in terms of percentage loss.

I also would have liked to hear stronger language when it comes to religious freedom in Islamic majority countries. One of the reasons I believe that radical Islamic terrorism takes hold in so many of these countries in the Middle East is because there is an official intoleration to other faith expressions.

I couldn't help but think that in a setting such as this, it was good for the president to claim the moral high ground when it comes to human rights. But moral high ground can only be claimed if one has a moral authority higher than himself to stake the ground. Of course, President Obama has frequently pointed to his own Christian faith and to scripture to make this point and indeed he pointed to his own Christianity in this speech.

As Christians, we respect human life and dignity because these things have been "endowed" by our creator and He has called them "good" and sacred because we were created in His image. Life is sacred and holy because it was given to us by God.

Obama's use of Koranic versus to claim that ground was obviously well received in that context there in Cairo. It was necessary for him to point to the spiritual authority of the audience he was trying to convince. But the theology of the Koran is not the same as the theology of Christianity, and therefore it is not exactly correct to say that we are all "children of Abraham". The same Koran that says "when you kill an innocent person you kill all humanity" also says "Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you." (Koran 9:123) The moral high ground there is pretty shaky.

As Christians we can see that the seed of Abraham was Christ and that the blessing to the nations prophesied in the Abrahamic covenant was that Christ would come, born as a Jew in the city of David from the tribe of Benjamin, and that He would lay down His life as a sheep before His shearers as a ransom and atonement for our sinful condition, becoming the covenant curse so that we could become the covenant blessing. He was torn to pieces in fulfillment of the covenant so that we wouldn't have to be. That is the only way that any of us are truly "children of Abraham".

I also could not help but think that if our president wishes to claim this moral high ground that can only be given to us by a higher authority, then he must be consistent. This was the statement the president issued on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 23:

“On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters."

Last year over 1 million babies were killed in abortions in the United States. That's the equivalent of 350 world trade center bombings every single year.

I cannot say it better than John Piper in this video:



If the president will say out of one side of his mouth that we cannot stand for the murder of innocent men women and children in acts of terrorism and then out of his other side say "we should not intrude on our most private family matters" even if that lack of intrusion involves the murder of innocent babies in the womb, he has forfeited the high moral ground that is so important to the thesis of his argument so masterfully articulated in Cairo today.

freedom from freedom from religion

Last week the superintendent of the Putnam City School District, Dr. Paul Hurst, received a letter from an organization called "Freedom From Religion Foundation" out of Madison Wisconsin. The subject of the letter was their objection to the baccalaureates of Putnam City West High School and Putnam City North High Schools respectively. This is a radical left wing Atheist organization (with a staff of only 7 people!) whose mission is to eradicate religion from the public square. The letter threatened a law suit because of the implication that these two events, neither of which were actually sponsored by the schools, were a violation of the principles of "separation of church and state" in the U.S. constitution.

It was somewhat ironic that Chris Wall was the guest speaker at P.C. West and I was the guest speaker at the P.C. North baccalaureate. A further irony was that the subject of my talk that night was the etymology of the word "baccalaureate" in the English language and in Western civilization. Despite what many secular humanists might think, the history and meaning of this event goes back into antiquity- even predating the advent of the most historic educational institutions. It is an old Latin word that means in essence "bequeathing authority to teach".

I am very proud of our school district for not backing down to a very small radical fringe group from Wisconsin that has probably never even stepped foot in Oklahoma City and wouldn't know the difference between Council and Rockwell. Although there was a lot of chatter from the parents, teachers and administration about the letter, the events went on undeterred.

The two primary reasons I believe our community should never stop this very important milestone for high schools seniors are:

1. History. The reason these events have a somewhat religious meaning is that the very first institutions of learning in Western culture were Christian institutions. That is a fact that even the single-minded and passionate "Freedom from Religion" organization cannot deny. For our schools to stop the tradition of baccalaureates would mean that they would end a tradition that goes back not just to the beginning of public school systems in America, but to earliest centuries in Western culture.

In fact, there is a place in scripture in which the implication of this concept is clear. In Acts chapter 4 the disciples were challenged for their very effective and authoritative teaching that had resulted in thousands of conversions. The religious leaders and political authorities were not so much upset by what the disciples were teaching, but by the authority and swagger of their teaching.

"The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. ⁶Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. ⁷They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?""

They were in affect asking about their "baccaulareas"- their authority to teach- they wanted to know their credentials. How dare these uneducated men come into Jerusalem and teach with such authority!

The history of this event goes back much deeper into our culture than the concepts of school systems, school boards, and even democracy and the Bill of Rights. It is a sad day indeed when we as a people begin to deconstruct the very moorings upon which our philosophy of freedom and moral law have been carefully constructed.

2. The fallacy of their argument. A second reason I would object is that there is really no such thing as freedom from religion. Every human being is seeking meaning and purpose in something- whether it be the religion that is found in churches and synagogues and mosques or it is the religion that is found in an office building (ironically, a converted church building) in Madison Wisconsin that says its purpose is to promote Atheism. The issue at the center of the human heart is a need to find meaning and purpose - a person will look for that in God or in some substitute for God. In this case, this organization is passionately promoting their religion as aggressively as any evangelical church. They are not true atheists. Because a true atheist would be completely ambivalent about another persons belief and wouldn't care less whether a person attended a ceremony that just happens to have a tradition centuries old, regardless of the premise of the event. But they are not ambivelent- they are passionate and aggessive and are acting as if their very life (soul?) depends upon it. Thier behavior is the behavior of true religonists and believers. So if we truly seek freedom from religion it would mean that we would seek freedom from the Freedom from Religion Foundation and therefore we should not pay attention to their silly letter.

And that is exactly what I hope Putnam City Schools continues to do.

i'm just sayin

This morning I found an interesting article on msnbc.com called “Winning at all costs is for losers.”

In it, Bruce Weinstein from Business Week Magazine makes the following observations about good business leadership as he reflects on the current economic crisis:

1. What's good for the gander is good for the goose- If your cutting back on the compensation of your employees, then be prepared to cut back on your own compensation.

2. Know your product- Don’t sell something you don’t really know about- like bundled loans that turned out to be “toxic” investments.

3. Winning at all costs is for losers- It is unethical to try to make profits at the expense of the greater good.

4. Tell the truth.

5. Prevent harm- Don’t do something you know will cause harm no matter how much profit you might get in the short run.

6. Don't exploit- It is unethical and immoral to sell something to someone that will ultimately harm them.

7. Don't make promises you can't keep.

8. Take responsibility for your mistakes.

9. People, not profits- “For the good leader, this means that the ultimate goal in business — and life — is not hoarding riches but making things better for all, especially the neediest.”

10. Be kind, not king- “Yes, good leaders are enthusiastically devoted to accomplishing their mission, but this pursuit cannot be at the expense of the well being of others.”

What I found interesting about this article, coming from a secular website reprinted from a secular business magazine, is how closely these particular principles were related to the teaching of Christ on the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. Look closely, and you will find the teaching of the Ten Commandments as well.

Listed below are just a few of the parallels between the teaching of Christ and what Weinstein sees as important leadership principles:


1. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (5:5)

2. Let your light shine before men that they will see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (5:16)

3. You cannot serve both God and money (6;24)

4. Enter through the narrow gate, for broad is the way that leads to destruction. (7:13)

5. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. (6:19)

6. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles (5:41)

7. Simply let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”; anything beyond this comes from the Evil One. (5:33)

8. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (5:23-24)

9. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. (5:12)

10. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (7:19)

All of this has made me think- could there be a parallel between our current economic crisis and the loss of a biblical worldview in American culture?

Of course it is certainly true that all of the issues we deal with in our lives have some kind of derivative from our fallen nature.

It is something to think about for sure.

After all, if you buy into the secular humanist Western Enlightenment concepts of atheism, existentialism and relativism, from where do you get your moral bearings and final moral authority when making business or employment decisions? Why not exploit the weak and look out for number one and go for the short term gain no matter what the long term cost?

I’m not saying that Christians are not susceptible to the same greed and immorality that many have fallen prey to and that has brought about our current economic crisis, I’m just making the point that a good healthy understanding of biblical content and Christian principles is somewhat indirectly being promoted here by a secular business writer as something that is desperately needed in strong leadership to get us through the perilous economic time we are in.

Maybe the Sermon on the Mount should be taught in business schools.

Maybe the Ten Commandments should be posted on the walls of corporate offices.

I’m just sayin…