In the "what was he thinking?" department, recently a pastor in Africa drowned while trying to play Jesus' in front of his congregation.
An evangelist who tried replicating Jesus' miracle of walking on water has reportedly drowned off the western coast of Africa. Pastor Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle, and he attempted it from a beach in Gabon's capital of Libreville. "He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus," an eyewitness told the Glasgow Daily Record. "He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat. He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back."
We shake our head in wonder at these kinds of stories, but is it any different, really, than our own foolish attempts to bring glory to ourselves?
I wonder how often I do even good things, not out of pure motive, but because it serves me well and brings me glory.
Sometimes I am a nice guy, not necessarily because of the Spirit of Christ working in me, but because I want people to like me and see my glory.
Sometimes I am more concerned with how I am percieved than whether I reflect the image of Christ.
I am not good at saying, "not my will, but yours".
I often long for attention and affirmation more than I affirm His glory and His name.
If I'm honest, I usually seek my own comfort and my own needs more than I seek His glory.
I want you to like this post so that I can get the glory for it.
To cut to the chase- If I ever tell you I'm gonna walk on water- bring a rope and a life jacket.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Friday, December 1, 2006
the truth about christianity and divorce
In the scripture we are studying this week in John 14, Jesus asks,
"Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?"
You can know a lot about Jesus, and not know Jesus. There is a difference between mere religious knowledge and genuine Christianity. Religious folks make Christianity one part of their life; they seek a church affiliation in order to be a fully orbed person. Christians, on the other hand, recalibrate and refocus their life based on their love for Christ. They see all of life through the lens of their commitment to Him.
There is a big difference between the two.
Consider the studies on divorce and religious affiliation. For years we have heard that "church people" have a higher divorce rate than normal folks. Especially depressing is this one that says Baptists are more prone than anyone to cut the ties.
Have you walked with me so long and not know me?
A careful look at these studies reveals that when you look at the "church people" who are actually living out their faith, the story is much different. The University of Virginia recently completed a study that is very instructive. When the principles of Christianity are actually put into practice in the home, this study reveals, the marriage is healthy and happy. The difference in this study and others is that the research went beyond just asking about religious affiliation and probed into actual religious habits and lifestyle.
Spouses who share weekly [church] attendance had happier wives. Spouses who share a strong, normative commitment to marriage—that is, who are opposed to easy divorce, who believe the kids should be reared in married households—have wives who are markedly happier. This factor is as strong as who works outside the home or who earns the lion's share of the income. It's also extremely important that the wife considers the division of housework to be fair to her. A sense of equity is extremely important, but equity is not equality. Women want things to be fair in their homes, but they don't equate fairness with equality.
The impetus here is especially on the man. If a man is living the biblical principles of manhood, and serving his wife, loving his kids, leading in a godly way, the home is healthy and functional.
Make no mistake- there is a wide variance between the man who says he is a Christian and the one who actually lives it out in the flesh- where it counts, in the home.
"Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?"
You can know a lot about Jesus, and not know Jesus. There is a difference between mere religious knowledge and genuine Christianity. Religious folks make Christianity one part of their life; they seek a church affiliation in order to be a fully orbed person. Christians, on the other hand, recalibrate and refocus their life based on their love for Christ. They see all of life through the lens of their commitment to Him.
There is a big difference between the two.
Consider the studies on divorce and religious affiliation. For years we have heard that "church people" have a higher divorce rate than normal folks. Especially depressing is this one that says Baptists are more prone than anyone to cut the ties.
Have you walked with me so long and not know me?
A careful look at these studies reveals that when you look at the "church people" who are actually living out their faith, the story is much different. The University of Virginia recently completed a study that is very instructive. When the principles of Christianity are actually put into practice in the home, this study reveals, the marriage is healthy and happy. The difference in this study and others is that the research went beyond just asking about religious affiliation and probed into actual religious habits and lifestyle.
Spouses who share weekly [church] attendance had happier wives. Spouses who share a strong, normative commitment to marriage—that is, who are opposed to easy divorce, who believe the kids should be reared in married households—have wives who are markedly happier. This factor is as strong as who works outside the home or who earns the lion's share of the income. It's also extremely important that the wife considers the division of housework to be fair to her. A sense of equity is extremely important, but equity is not equality. Women want things to be fair in their homes, but they don't equate fairness with equality.
The impetus here is especially on the man. If a man is living the biblical principles of manhood, and serving his wife, loving his kids, leading in a godly way, the home is healthy and functional.
Make no mistake- there is a wide variance between the man who says he is a Christian and the one who actually lives it out in the flesh- where it counts, in the home.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
In Africa every morning ....
| A few weeks ago I quoted the famous African proverb about the Lion and the Gazelle. After watching the above video, how would you finish this sentance?: Every morning in Africa the lion wake up and knows that he has to run faster that the gazelle to eat and survive, every morning in Africa the gazelle wakes up and knows that the has to run faster than the lion to survive. But ... | |
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
the importance of "with"
And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God's people to understand Christ's love (Ephesians 3:17b-18).
Recently another high-profile pastor was revealed to be living a double life. Sadly, his story is just one in a long line of stories about spiritual leaders and pastors who have had very public failures.
What do we make of this?
First, it is a good reminder that the potential for human evil and failure is in all of our hearts. Pastor's are not exempt- it is just that because of what a pastor does and stands for, he is under more scrutiny and therefore his failure is much more scandalous. So when we hear of these kinds of things we say, "there except by the grace of God go I!" Like Paul we say, "those things I don't want to do I do...wretched man that I am!"
As Francis Schaeffer once said, "he who thinks he has arrived, never will."
Second, it is important also for us to remind ourselves that we are only as sick as our secrets. There is a reason that God calls us to live in fellowship. Biblical community is absolutely necessary for a godly life.
In the passage above, Paul said, "I pray that you will have power WITH all the saints". This is an important distinction. The reason it is easy for even people who look the part and attend church to live in hiddenness and not change is because they are not truly on the journey with people who can challenge them with the "How are you- really?" question.
In American Christianity we are often guilty of defining the Christian experience as something lived out in isolation. We talk about a "personal relationship with God," or we claim, "My religion is a personal matter, between me and God" or "I keep my religion to myself".
What these cliche's have in common is that none is a Biblical concept.
The truth is that Scripture rarely contemplates faith living without community. It is true that each of us is personally responsible for his or her own salvation and spiritual maturity. None of us will stand before God and give account for anyone else. But the teaching of Scripture is that to be "in Christ" is to be "in His body," in Biblical community.
It is in Biblical community that we bear each other's burdens (Gal. 6:5), hold each other accountable (Heb. 10:24), encourage one another (Phil. 2:24), serve one another (Gal. 5:13), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16) and love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34).
In fact, what we find in Scripture is that God created us for community. The one thing God said was "not good" in the creation event was that man was alone.
"Incompleteness", in other words, is directly associated with "aloneness". We are incomplete in our isolation. To be alone is to be unhealthy. The worst punishment for a prisoner is to be put in solitary confinement because it has the most torturous and debilitating effect on the emotions. God created us emotionally and spiritually to live life together. There is, in fact, a direct correlation between physical and emotional disease and isolation.
Condemnation in the literal sense is to be isolated from God- to exist without the full beam of God's love. Hell is eternal separation from God. We create our own personal hell as we isolate ourselves from His love and the love of others. death is seperation- first our body and spirit separate and then our bodies "de-compose".
To be isolated is to decompose, and the more we separate from God the sicker we become. All of us know people who isolate themselves from others and from God and the more they are apart from Him and others, the more they come apart. Sadly, this is the peril of many pastors, who feel as if they must stand alone and hide their weakness.
We must not forget that we are wired for community. So, the church is not merely a place you go to, it is a movement you are a part of and that you participate in WITH others.
It is not a building in which isolated and alone people gather together to pat each other on the back and empower their varying degrees of aloneness and isolation and denial. It is a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit, lived out in Biblical community.
Recently another high-profile pastor was revealed to be living a double life. Sadly, his story is just one in a long line of stories about spiritual leaders and pastors who have had very public failures.
What do we make of this?
First, it is a good reminder that the potential for human evil and failure is in all of our hearts. Pastor's are not exempt- it is just that because of what a pastor does and stands for, he is under more scrutiny and therefore his failure is much more scandalous. So when we hear of these kinds of things we say, "there except by the grace of God go I!" Like Paul we say, "those things I don't want to do I do...wretched man that I am!"
As Francis Schaeffer once said, "he who thinks he has arrived, never will."
Second, it is important also for us to remind ourselves that we are only as sick as our secrets. There is a reason that God calls us to live in fellowship. Biblical community is absolutely necessary for a godly life.
In the passage above, Paul said, "I pray that you will have power WITH all the saints". This is an important distinction. The reason it is easy for even people who look the part and attend church to live in hiddenness and not change is because they are not truly on the journey with people who can challenge them with the "How are you- really?" question.
In American Christianity we are often guilty of defining the Christian experience as something lived out in isolation. We talk about a "personal relationship with God," or we claim, "My religion is a personal matter, between me and God" or "I keep my religion to myself".
What these cliche's have in common is that none is a Biblical concept.
The truth is that Scripture rarely contemplates faith living without community. It is true that each of us is personally responsible for his or her own salvation and spiritual maturity. None of us will stand before God and give account for anyone else. But the teaching of Scripture is that to be "in Christ" is to be "in His body," in Biblical community.
It is in Biblical community that we bear each other's burdens (Gal. 6:5), hold each other accountable (Heb. 10:24), encourage one another (Phil. 2:24), serve one another (Gal. 5:13), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16) and love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34).
In fact, what we find in Scripture is that God created us for community. The one thing God said was "not good" in the creation event was that man was alone.
"Incompleteness", in other words, is directly associated with "aloneness". We are incomplete in our isolation. To be alone is to be unhealthy. The worst punishment for a prisoner is to be put in solitary confinement because it has the most torturous and debilitating effect on the emotions. God created us emotionally and spiritually to live life together. There is, in fact, a direct correlation between physical and emotional disease and isolation.
Condemnation in the literal sense is to be isolated from God- to exist without the full beam of God's love. Hell is eternal separation from God. We create our own personal hell as we isolate ourselves from His love and the love of others. death is seperation- first our body and spirit separate and then our bodies "de-compose".
To be isolated is to decompose, and the more we separate from God the sicker we become. All of us know people who isolate themselves from others and from God and the more they are apart from Him and others, the more they come apart. Sadly, this is the peril of many pastors, who feel as if they must stand alone and hide their weakness.
We must not forget that we are wired for community. So, the church is not merely a place you go to, it is a movement you are a part of and that you participate in WITH others.
It is not a building in which isolated and alone people gather together to pat each other on the back and empower their varying degrees of aloneness and isolation and denial. It is a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit, lived out in Biblical community.
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
deep roots
I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have strong foundations (Ephesians 3:17).
Many years ago Teri and I built a house on top of the highest plateau in Wichita County, Texas. (Not saying much!) The locals knew the hill for two things—strong winds and rattlesnakes. (Neither was mentioned by the guy who sold us the land, by the way.)
It wasn’t long after we built our home that the hill began living up to its reputation. Our family has many wonderful memories of Rattlesnake Hill, but the wind is not one of them. I planted many trees, as had generations before, I am sure. I planted pecans, oaks, elms, cedars. They all succumbed to the punishing wind. One tree survived. One tree, in fact, thrived. It was the one tree I didn’t want—the mesquite.
The mesquite tree is a sorry excuse for a tree! It looks like an overgrown weed and is the bane of every Texas rancher. Its thin leaves, winding branches and long nail-like thorns make it the tree from hell.
The mesquite survives the punishing wind, drought and cold of west Texas for one reason: roots. As anyone who has ever tried to clear mesquite will tell you, the roots grow deep and wide. They can encompass a huge tract of land and are almost impossible to kill. The hardy mesquite is a great example of “rootedness.”
On a recent trip to the Holy Land, I noticed there is a tree in the Judean hills that grows as wild as the mesquite. The olive tree grows hardy and wild in the harsh conditions of the near eastern desert.
Deep roots in hard terrain—the tenacious olive and mesquite trees. These are great symbols for what our spiritual lives should be. Paul thought of the many friends he had in the Ephesian church who were new believers and wrote, “I am praying for deep roots for you!”
It’s tough out there. Life is hard! Crazy, counterfeit doctrines are everywhere, competing for your attention and loyalty. “Grow those roots deep!” Paul is saying. It is important that a church nurture a maturing process that grows deep roots. Our “rootedness,” our foundation, is found in the depth of our understanding of His word.
Blessed is the man… (whose) delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers (Psalm 1:1-3).
A person “in Christ” has rootedness when he or she “delights” in the word of God—when the regular, sustained study of God’s word and doctrine brings joy. Rootedness is the result of purposeful study and meditation that goes beyond occasional reading.
A deep understanding of God’s word means knowing the essentials of the faith. Someone rooted in Scripture knows the difference between the essentials and the non-essentials. The roots grow deep as he gains clarity regarding what is most important and what is really not all that important. Immature Christians are notorious for majoring on the minors. A rooted “in Christ” believer majors on the majors. She knows the mountains from the molehills.
Many years ago Teri and I built a house on top of the highest plateau in Wichita County, Texas. (Not saying much!) The locals knew the hill for two things—strong winds and rattlesnakes. (Neither was mentioned by the guy who sold us the land, by the way.)
It wasn’t long after we built our home that the hill began living up to its reputation. Our family has many wonderful memories of Rattlesnake Hill, but the wind is not one of them. I planted many trees, as had generations before, I am sure. I planted pecans, oaks, elms, cedars. They all succumbed to the punishing wind. One tree survived. One tree, in fact, thrived. It was the one tree I didn’t want—the mesquite.
The mesquite tree is a sorry excuse for a tree! It looks like an overgrown weed and is the bane of every Texas rancher. Its thin leaves, winding branches and long nail-like thorns make it the tree from hell.
The mesquite survives the punishing wind, drought and cold of west Texas for one reason: roots. As anyone who has ever tried to clear mesquite will tell you, the roots grow deep and wide. They can encompass a huge tract of land and are almost impossible to kill. The hardy mesquite is a great example of “rootedness.”
On a recent trip to the Holy Land, I noticed there is a tree in the Judean hills that grows as wild as the mesquite. The olive tree grows hardy and wild in the harsh conditions of the near eastern desert.
Deep roots in hard terrain—the tenacious olive and mesquite trees. These are great symbols for what our spiritual lives should be. Paul thought of the many friends he had in the Ephesian church who were new believers and wrote, “I am praying for deep roots for you!”
It’s tough out there. Life is hard! Crazy, counterfeit doctrines are everywhere, competing for your attention and loyalty. “Grow those roots deep!” Paul is saying. It is important that a church nurture a maturing process that grows deep roots. Our “rootedness,” our foundation, is found in the depth of our understanding of His word.
Blessed is the man… (whose) delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers (Psalm 1:1-3).
A person “in Christ” has rootedness when he or she “delights” in the word of God—when the regular, sustained study of God’s word and doctrine brings joy. Rootedness is the result of purposeful study and meditation that goes beyond occasional reading.
A deep understanding of God’s word means knowing the essentials of the faith. Someone rooted in Scripture knows the difference between the essentials and the non-essentials. The roots grow deep as he gains clarity regarding what is most important and what is really not all that important. Immature Christians are notorious for majoring on the minors. A rooted “in Christ” believer majors on the majors. She knows the mountains from the molehills.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
taking the beauty in
Several have asked me for this quote from C.S. Lewis I used on Sunday. You can't beat Lewis when it comes to nailing things on the head!
We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves — that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which Nature is the image.
That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can't. They tell us that "beauty born of murmuring sound" will pass into human face; but it won't. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.
We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves — that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which Nature is the image.
That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can't. They tell us that "beauty born of murmuring sound" will pass into human face; but it won't. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.
We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
Monday, October 9, 2006
city of God
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).
The Church is not a building; it’s a dynamic forward movement of the Kingdom of God. It is an unstoppable force, an irrepressible energy in the universe. Christianity is much more than just going to a building once a week. The building is significant because it is a place of gathering (ecclesia). But even more and in addition to a gathering, the church emobodies the abundant life of her members, and calls us to the very best life possible (sanctification). That is the life Christ has called His body to—an exciting life, a life that is subversive to culture, a dangerous life. The church is to offend the gates of hell, to change culture. We are to be the city on the hill that changes the city of man. In the words of Erwin McManus:
I have no doubt that in the hearts of men and women there is a yearning to live the quest. We are all haunted with the fear of living lives of insignificance, and we all hear the voice that tells us we can live the dream. Somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game. By definition an adventure is “an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature.” And life as God intended us to live is nothing less than adventure. It comes at great risk and significant cost. (Seizing Your Divine Moment)
I have found that this kind of life does not come naturally. It is easy for us to take the path of least resistance and live comfortably, but not effectively. The good is often the enemy of the best. Christ calls us to a different kind of life, one in which we must pick up a cross. It is offered to all who hunger and thirst for it. As in everything else in life, you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to be willing to do the hard work. Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” An Olympic athlete sees the vision of what he/she wants to become, then goes into diligent training to accomplish that goal. Professional athletes get where they are by training and purposing to be the best. It is no different for the abundant life.
And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God's people to understand Christ's love (Ephesians 3:17b-18).
Paul prayed that the Ephesian church would not stay in mediocrity but that it would purpose to discover the full dimensions of Christ’s love. He prayed that the Church would become the unstoppable force it was designed to be. He prayed that it would not be static in spiritual growth but that it would be dynamic and full in it's understanding. The New Testament does not envision a church that is not in motion. A Kingdom-building church fills up all the space around it (Eph. 1:23). Paul’s prayer for the church was that it would be in Christ and that it would have the power with all God’s people to understand God’s love and that it would make God's love known to the nations. To pursue this kind of reality should be the passion and teaching of every church!
The Church is not a building; it’s a dynamic forward movement of the Kingdom of God. It is an unstoppable force, an irrepressible energy in the universe. Christianity is much more than just going to a building once a week. The building is significant because it is a place of gathering (ecclesia). But even more and in addition to a gathering, the church emobodies the abundant life of her members, and calls us to the very best life possible (sanctification). That is the life Christ has called His body to—an exciting life, a life that is subversive to culture, a dangerous life. The church is to offend the gates of hell, to change culture. We are to be the city on the hill that changes the city of man. In the words of Erwin McManus:
I have no doubt that in the hearts of men and women there is a yearning to live the quest. We are all haunted with the fear of living lives of insignificance, and we all hear the voice that tells us we can live the dream. Somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game. By definition an adventure is “an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature.” And life as God intended us to live is nothing less than adventure. It comes at great risk and significant cost. (Seizing Your Divine Moment)
I have found that this kind of life does not come naturally. It is easy for us to take the path of least resistance and live comfortably, but not effectively. The good is often the enemy of the best. Christ calls us to a different kind of life, one in which we must pick up a cross. It is offered to all who hunger and thirst for it. As in everything else in life, you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to be willing to do the hard work. Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” An Olympic athlete sees the vision of what he/she wants to become, then goes into diligent training to accomplish that goal. Professional athletes get where they are by training and purposing to be the best. It is no different for the abundant life.
And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God's people to understand Christ's love (Ephesians 3:17b-18).
Paul prayed that the Ephesian church would not stay in mediocrity but that it would purpose to discover the full dimensions of Christ’s love. He prayed that the Church would become the unstoppable force it was designed to be. He prayed that it would not be static in spiritual growth but that it would be dynamic and full in it's understanding. The New Testament does not envision a church that is not in motion. A Kingdom-building church fills up all the space around it (Eph. 1:23). Paul’s prayer for the church was that it would be in Christ and that it would have the power with all God’s people to understand God’s love and that it would make God's love known to the nations. To pursue this kind of reality should be the passion and teaching of every church!
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