A Book A Month In 2010

Studies show that people who read are generally more happy and do better in life.  This is definately true of the walk of faith.  We should never forget that God reveals Himself to us through His written word.   The word "disciple" means "learner".  To be a follower of Christ means that we seek truth and pursue it- that we love wisdom and that we live our lives with understanding and do what is wise.    It is a basic characteristic of the Christian life to desire to grow in our faith by growing in our understanding of His truth.  Of course this is brought about  primarily through the daily study of His word, but I have found that a good reading regiment is like having a host of mentors in my life as I study scripture.  So with that in mind, here is my annual recommendation for reading a book a month in the coming year:

1.  The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney

2.  Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

3.  The Death of Death by John Owen

4.  Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott

5.  The Jesus I Never Knew by Phillip Yancey

6.  Case for Christ by Lee Strobel 

7.  Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan

8.  Humility by C.J. Mahaney

9.  Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

10.  Abraham Lincoln by James McPherson

11.  Life Together by Dietrick Bonhoeffer 

12.  The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

This reading list has a pretty good mix of topics- and a few classics.  It will be a great challenge to read some of these books in just one month- but it is a worthy goal nonetheless.   Part of the reason I put the Rings trilogy and Narnia on the same list this year is because I went to see the movie "Avatar" over the Christmas break and came away from that movie mesmarized by the incredible special affects but really disturbed by the in your face New Age philosophy it espoused.  It left me longing for a modern day Lewis or Tolkein who can help reclaim a Christian worldview in story telling. 

I remember many years ago, when I was a youth pastor in South Carolina, I heard Jay Kessler give a lecture in which he made the observation that in the future "the East and West will pass in the night".  At the time I thought it sounded impossible.  But this year I visited pastors and churches in India who tell stories of incredible growth and I can see that the major church growth movements are taking place not in North America or Europe but in Asia and Africa.  At the same time it is not lost on me that the most expensive American movie ever made and by far the biggest box office hit is a movie that is named after a Buddhist god incarnate.   Looking back now about 20 years later it seems to me that Kessler's prophecy is coming true.

All the more reason for us to read and learn and to "always be prepared to give a reason for the hope" that we have.

Preperations

We are getting down to the final days before departure. Getting ready for travel anytime can be hectic, but seeing as its Mercury retrograde, things are made a little more so. We, after much deliberation, seem to have settled on a rough itinerary. It looks like there is simply too much to do in Thailand/Laos. Because of time constraints we decided no beaches. I know, go all the way to Southeast Asia and no beaches? I would love to see them too. However, we are traveling at high season and hordes of frat-boys trying to have a cultured experience are not our idea of fun. So, maybe some other time, for now... into the mountains.

I am looking at my inventory of things to pack and bring, its hard to think about what you will need over the course of four months and 3 countries. Clothes make up the smallest portion, mostly its medical supplies and electronics.... you know the essentials.

This is a test run on this blog, to see that it works, and that everyone can see it. Leave a comment and let me know.

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.