I have noticed lately that I drive across bridges differently. I look under bridges more than I used to. I find myself wondering about the infrastructure of these massive spans of roadway upon which I have grown accustomed and until now have never questioned. After the August 1st collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, my sense of awareness has changed.
It may be months or even years before the full story of why the actual mechanics of the bridge failed on that terrible day, but one thing is clear- there was not enough attention paid to infrastructure. Of course, it sounds like an understatement- but a bridge is only as good as it's underlying structure.
Yesterday the Memphis airport was shut down because of outdated communications equipment, stranding air travellers all over the country. The news report I heard blamed the federal aviation infrastructure as being way behind the curve, and went on to say that these kinds of events will only get worse until the problem is dealt with.
Popular Mechanics magazine recently made this observation:
The fact is that Americans have been squandering the infrastructure legacy bequeathed to us by earlier generations. Like the spoiled offspring of well-off parents, we behave as though we have no idea what is required to sustain the quality of our daily lives. Our electricity comes to us via a decades-old system of power generators, transformers and transmission lines—a system that has utility executives holding their collective breath on every hot day in July and August. We once had a transportation system that was the envy of the world. Now we are better known for our congested highways, second-rate ports, third-rate passenger trains and a primitive air traffic control system. Many of the great public works projects of the 20th century—dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts, and even the Eisenhower interstate highway system—are at or beyond their designed life span. ...
...According to a report card released in 2005 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 160,570 bridges, or just over one-quarter of the nation’s 590,750-bridge inventory, were rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The nation’s bridges are being called upon to serve a population that has grown from 200 million to over 300 million since the time the first vehicles rolled across the I-35W bridge. Predictably that has translated into lots more cars. American commuters now spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, at a cost to the economy of $63.2 billion a year.
By now you have likely anticipated my obvious spiritual parallels to all of this. Jesus once asked, "What good does it do for you to gain the entire world and lose your own soul?" (Mark 8:36).
I often find in my own life that I have become like the whited sepulchre about which Jesus impugned the pharisee. My life can become like dry bone, if I am not intent on looking into it. My life, like a bridge, is only as good as it's underlying structure.
Truly, the spiritual life is a call to discipline. We honor God by how we take care of it. My spiritual life has an infrastructure that is rarely seen but needs careful attention nonetheless. If I am not engaged in it with determined regularity, the bolts and joints and hinges begin to creak and the bridge begins to sway.
Most of the issues we deal with internally can be summed up in one word- neglect. Out of sight and out of mind is a dangerous attitude not just for physical infrastructure.
All of this to say that I would love for you to go with me through the spiritual exercise and discipline of a 42 day discipleship program we are introducing to our church on Wednesday night, October 17 called "Join the Journey". You can register here.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
preaching to myself
One of my pet peeves about myself is that I tend to get preachy. It is, as you would guess, a hazard of my trade- since I am in fact a preacher. This is the part of my self that I really don't like to admit to or look at seriously, but I can really launch into sermons about the most trivial issues. I know you are shocked by this (tongue is firmly in cheek right now), but sometimes I launch into sermons involuntarily even when no one is around. It is really sick, I know. I can't help it.
Which raises the philosophical question "if a preacher preaches a sermon in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, is it a real sermon?"
But I digress. What I mean to tell you is that I preached a sermon to myself while driving down the Broadway Extension this week.
I was listening to talk radio when a woman who claimed to be a lifetime evangelical Christian called in to defend Christianity to an antagonistic talk show host. He challenged her faith by asking her to answer one simple question about the creation account in Genesis. He wanted to know how is it that eeevanJELical (that word spoken with particular scorn) Christians could claim their little corner of the truth when ALL these other religions have their own creation account.
I stared at the radio waiting for this woman to come back with SOMETHING half way thoughtful or informative in retort. I knew the odds were not in evangelicalism's favor, as one recent study found that a majority of teenage evangelicals believe that MOSES was one of the 12 disciples (If you are wondering why that is disturbing, you are hereby banned from my blog site). Anyway, the woman was speechless. She had nothing to say.
Nothing.
She just said she didn't know how to respond.
That is when I started preaching my sermon. The sermon was about our responsibility as Christians to know our faith. And in fact to know how to answer people when they ask us for the REASON for the hope we have, but to be able to do it with such knowledge and forethought, that our answer is gentle and respectful (1 Peter 3:15).
It was about our responsibility not just to know our religious belief, but in a multicultural multi-religious context within which ALL OF US now live, it is important that we even know what other religions believe and teach.
It was about how in order to truly love someone with you whole heart, you have to KNOW them. I waxed eloquent to myself about how true Christianity is not just experiential knowledge, it is also informational knowledge and to truly know the Lord you have to know doctrine. You have to love doctrine and love His Word.
And how if this woman really was who she said she was (a lifetime evangelical Christian) and was being asked in front of the entire national talk radio audience to give a reason for the hope she had, and if she truly had through her love for the Lord and for her love for others and her love for the gospel had taken the initiative to learn about these things, she would have been able to very simply, very powerfully answer his question.
In my sermon, I went on to explain that the talk show host had framed the question in the wrong way. She should have just asked him what he knows about what other world religions teach about creation? If she had done that she would have changed the focus of his scorn and a very good point about truth could have been made. Because in fact while most of the world religions do not agree about the most important truth issues, it just so happens that creation is NOT one of them. All the major monotheistic religions in the world agree in essence on the creation account. In fact the major religions all read and claim belief in the same text- the Genesis account is agreed upon by Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Mormonism and only disagree in their interpretation of it. Eastern religions believe that the material world is an allusion so their ideas of creation are not even in the same context- they wouldn't agree to the question in the way he framed it, it seems to me.
I went on in my sermon to myself to talk about how all of us are given the responsibility to engage our culture, to love our culture, to understand our culture and to not be intimidated by the questions of culture. I talked about how all truth, by it's very nature, is narrow and that even the talk show host would have to agree to that.
I pointed out that if one says that there is no such thing as absolute truth then he is making an absolute statement and therefore we can't even believe that assertion, making it irrelevant and empty. As C.S. Lewis correctly pointed out, "you can't go on seeing through things forever, if you can see through everything, then what you see is nothing".
Man, that was a good sermon.
Too bad I was the only one who heard it. The only thing worse than me preaching to myself is when I amen myself.
(And by the way- this is a good time to remind you that the next "Explore the Journey" Course on the doctrines of our faith begins Wednesday night October 17 in room 200)
Which raises the philosophical question "if a preacher preaches a sermon in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, is it a real sermon?"
But I digress. What I mean to tell you is that I preached a sermon to myself while driving down the Broadway Extension this week.
I was listening to talk radio when a woman who claimed to be a lifetime evangelical Christian called in to defend Christianity to an antagonistic talk show host. He challenged her faith by asking her to answer one simple question about the creation account in Genesis. He wanted to know how is it that eeevanJELical (that word spoken with particular scorn) Christians could claim their little corner of the truth when ALL these other religions have their own creation account.
I stared at the radio waiting for this woman to come back with SOMETHING half way thoughtful or informative in retort. I knew the odds were not in evangelicalism's favor, as one recent study found that a majority of teenage evangelicals believe that MOSES was one of the 12 disciples (If you are wondering why that is disturbing, you are hereby banned from my blog site). Anyway, the woman was speechless. She had nothing to say.
Nothing.
She just said she didn't know how to respond.
That is when I started preaching my sermon. The sermon was about our responsibility as Christians to know our faith. And in fact to know how to answer people when they ask us for the REASON for the hope we have, but to be able to do it with such knowledge and forethought, that our answer is gentle and respectful (1 Peter 3:15).
It was about our responsibility not just to know our religious belief, but in a multicultural multi-religious context within which ALL OF US now live, it is important that we even know what other religions believe and teach.
It was about how in order to truly love someone with you whole heart, you have to KNOW them. I waxed eloquent to myself about how true Christianity is not just experiential knowledge, it is also informational knowledge and to truly know the Lord you have to know doctrine. You have to love doctrine and love His Word.
And how if this woman really was who she said she was (a lifetime evangelical Christian) and was being asked in front of the entire national talk radio audience to give a reason for the hope she had, and if she truly had through her love for the Lord and for her love for others and her love for the gospel had taken the initiative to learn about these things, she would have been able to very simply, very powerfully answer his question.
In my sermon, I went on to explain that the talk show host had framed the question in the wrong way. She should have just asked him what he knows about what other world religions teach about creation? If she had done that she would have changed the focus of his scorn and a very good point about truth could have been made. Because in fact while most of the world religions do not agree about the most important truth issues, it just so happens that creation is NOT one of them. All the major monotheistic religions in the world agree in essence on the creation account. In fact the major religions all read and claim belief in the same text- the Genesis account is agreed upon by Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Mormonism and only disagree in their interpretation of it. Eastern religions believe that the material world is an allusion so their ideas of creation are not even in the same context- they wouldn't agree to the question in the way he framed it, it seems to me.
I went on in my sermon to myself to talk about how all of us are given the responsibility to engage our culture, to love our culture, to understand our culture and to not be intimidated by the questions of culture. I talked about how all truth, by it's very nature, is narrow and that even the talk show host would have to agree to that.
I pointed out that if one says that there is no such thing as absolute truth then he is making an absolute statement and therefore we can't even believe that assertion, making it irrelevant and empty. As C.S. Lewis correctly pointed out, "you can't go on seeing through things forever, if you can see through everything, then what you see is nothing".
Man, that was a good sermon.
Too bad I was the only one who heard it. The only thing worse than me preaching to myself is when I amen myself.
(And by the way- this is a good time to remind you that the next "Explore the Journey" Course on the doctrines of our faith begins Wednesday night October 17 in room 200)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
if you run with the dogs, you will catch fleas
Let me begin this entry into my blog by stating the painfully obvious- there is something wrong with the American psyche and it goes much deeper than a professional athlete who has his own dog fight gambling ring. The summation of the depth of the problem is not encompassed by the tragic story of Michael Dwayne Vick.
But it is the latest most obvious illustration of it.
Sports, cable and major news outlets are obsessing over this modern version of Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. We shake our heads in awe that an athlete with the potential and future of Vick could kiss it all good-bye for the "thrill" of gambling on which dog can tear the other dog's throat out. I have never really understood the gambling addiction, but I suppose it is the result of the adrenalin one feels as he sits on the razor edge between ruin and fortune. The edge ran out last week for this one time sports hero, who was once revered as a role model for struggling urban youth.
Last week he went from hero to zero. but it didn't happen overnight. Michael Vick, like the rest of us, is the product of his choices.
This story has already been hashed and rehashed from every possible angle and I don't intend to go very far down that road, but do want to reflect on the issue from a spiritual perspective by asking what are deeper macro issues involved here?
1. Just because a man has fortune it doesn't mean he has wealth. There is much more to wealth than just money or fame. The word "wealth" in scripture is related to the word "weight" or "worth". A man of weight is a man of substance. A man's weightiness is related to the value he carries not in his bling but in the substance of his character. The lesson to kids who look up to athletes like Vick is that there are many things money can't buy, and character is not something you can buy back with multi million dollar contracts.
Character is earned. But it is never too late to start earning it.
One only has to contrast the inspiring speech of another football hero named Michael on the same week the Vick story broke. Michael Irvin, the one time bad boy of the Dallas Cowboys who in the early 90's battled drug abuse and arrest, delivered an inspiring speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony, giving thanks to God, his pastor and even leading the crowd in a brief prayer. My favorite part was when he turned to his wife:
For better or for worse, those are the vows we take before God in marriage. It's easy to live with the for better, but rarely can you find someone who sticks around and endures the for worse. Sandy, my beautiful wife, I have worked tirelessly, baby, to give you the for better. But I also gave you the for worse, and you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it. But through it all I experienced the depth of your love and I thank God for you. I love you for the mother that you are, the wife that you are, I love the way that you take care of our family, our daughters Myesha and Chelsea, and our sons Michael and Elijah. I thank you from a place that I can't mention, I can't even express, baby, for keeping our family together. I love you so much.
It is said that Henry Ford once sat at a table with his boyhood hero, Thomas Edison. He asked him, "what is the secret to success?"
Edison's simple answer was "good choices."
Ford thought about those words for a moment and then asked, "How does one learn to make good choices?"
"Bad choices" Edison answered.
The substance of a man's character is seen in his ability to learn from life. The Bible says
"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Wisdom is making the most of every opportunity, it is asking yourself what is the VERY BEST thing for me to do in this decision, at this moment. Not "what is the easiest" or "what is the most thrilling" or "what can I get away with" but "What is the VERY BEST thing for me to do".
That is what a real man asks. That is how a real man lives. It is a man that makes those kinds of choices that becomes a man of substance, a man of wealth.
2. A second and very important lesson here from a macro perspective is that our lives will often take the shape of what we project them to be. My dad used to say "If you hang with the dogs, you will catch the fleas". That statement seems particularly poignant in light of the Michael Vick story.
There is a scene in the movie "Rocky Balboa" which particularly intrigues me. Rocky has taken a street kid under his wing and for whatever reason, wants him to go with him to pick out a dog. In what now on reflection seems like a very symbolic statement about the disenfranchised and disconnected urban teen, he asked him what dog he would pick out. The boy immediately picked out a pit bull.
Rocky, being the great student of human behavior and social philosophy that he is, points the boy to a down and out mangy old used up mutt. Together they take the dog home and give it a second chance, even as they both find their own way through the challenges of despair and fear and change. At the time it seemed random, but I now see that trip to the dog pound as central to the theme of the movie.
Rocky, as a kind of father figure and a symbol of new hope for the boy who was struggling in his relationship with his single mom, was pointing the teen away from an image he had picked up on the street. He was turning his eyes and his heart away from the powerful lure of gang culture that so many young urban teens who grow up with single moms gravitate toward, and toward the image of real manhood. It seems like such a simple, even insignificant scene in the movie- but how striking it was now that I have had time to think about it. It was as if this fomer heavy weight champion boxer who the boy revered was saying to him, "you don't have to have a pit bull to prove yourself! Your character is measured in other ways- a real man can take care of an old dog that nobody wants. A real man will take responsibility for things that no one else will take responsibility for!"
If you can see yourself as one who doesn't NEED the pit bull image, but as one who can bring an old dog to life, as one who can be just as self assured and even more so by rejecting the projected image of the negative culture around you, then maybe, just maybe, other more substantive changes can take shape. It all starts with a choice. And then other choices.
We should never forget that every man at any given time has a choice between two Adams. The first Adam was passive and irresponsible and would not lead his family and expected his own reward, not God's reward.
The second Adam by contrast, Jesus Christ, took responsibility for those things that were not his fault and rejected passivity and lead courageously and expected eternal rewards, not material, physical ones.
That is the difference. To truly "man up" is to follow the example of the second Adam, not the first.
To put it another way- a real man isn't measured by the weight of his bling or the fight in his bulldog... but by the weight of his character and the substance of his choices.
But it is the latest most obvious illustration of it.
Sports, cable and major news outlets are obsessing over this modern version of Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. We shake our heads in awe that an athlete with the potential and future of Vick could kiss it all good-bye for the "thrill" of gambling on which dog can tear the other dog's throat out. I have never really understood the gambling addiction, but I suppose it is the result of the adrenalin one feels as he sits on the razor edge between ruin and fortune. The edge ran out last week for this one time sports hero, who was once revered as a role model for struggling urban youth.
Last week he went from hero to zero. but it didn't happen overnight. Michael Vick, like the rest of us, is the product of his choices.
This story has already been hashed and rehashed from every possible angle and I don't intend to go very far down that road, but do want to reflect on the issue from a spiritual perspective by asking what are deeper macro issues involved here?
1. Just because a man has fortune it doesn't mean he has wealth. There is much more to wealth than just money or fame. The word "wealth" in scripture is related to the word "weight" or "worth". A man of weight is a man of substance. A man's weightiness is related to the value he carries not in his bling but in the substance of his character. The lesson to kids who look up to athletes like Vick is that there are many things money can't buy, and character is not something you can buy back with multi million dollar contracts.
Character is earned. But it is never too late to start earning it.
One only has to contrast the inspiring speech of another football hero named Michael on the same week the Vick story broke. Michael Irvin, the one time bad boy of the Dallas Cowboys who in the early 90's battled drug abuse and arrest, delivered an inspiring speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony, giving thanks to God, his pastor and even leading the crowd in a brief prayer. My favorite part was when he turned to his wife:
For better or for worse, those are the vows we take before God in marriage. It's easy to live with the for better, but rarely can you find someone who sticks around and endures the for worse. Sandy, my beautiful wife, I have worked tirelessly, baby, to give you the for better. But I also gave you the for worse, and you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it. But through it all I experienced the depth of your love and I thank God for you. I love you for the mother that you are, the wife that you are, I love the way that you take care of our family, our daughters Myesha and Chelsea, and our sons Michael and Elijah. I thank you from a place that I can't mention, I can't even express, baby, for keeping our family together. I love you so much.
It is said that Henry Ford once sat at a table with his boyhood hero, Thomas Edison. He asked him, "what is the secret to success?"
Edison's simple answer was "good choices."
Ford thought about those words for a moment and then asked, "How does one learn to make good choices?"
"Bad choices" Edison answered.
The substance of a man's character is seen in his ability to learn from life. The Bible says
"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Wisdom is making the most of every opportunity, it is asking yourself what is the VERY BEST thing for me to do in this decision, at this moment. Not "what is the easiest" or "what is the most thrilling" or "what can I get away with" but "What is the VERY BEST thing for me to do".
That is what a real man asks. That is how a real man lives. It is a man that makes those kinds of choices that becomes a man of substance, a man of wealth.
2. A second and very important lesson here from a macro perspective is that our lives will often take the shape of what we project them to be. My dad used to say "If you hang with the dogs, you will catch the fleas". That statement seems particularly poignant in light of the Michael Vick story.
There is a scene in the movie "Rocky Balboa" which particularly intrigues me. Rocky has taken a street kid under his wing and for whatever reason, wants him to go with him to pick out a dog. In what now on reflection seems like a very symbolic statement about the disenfranchised and disconnected urban teen, he asked him what dog he would pick out. The boy immediately picked out a pit bull.
Rocky, being the great student of human behavior and social philosophy that he is, points the boy to a down and out mangy old used up mutt. Together they take the dog home and give it a second chance, even as they both find their own way through the challenges of despair and fear and change. At the time it seemed random, but I now see that trip to the dog pound as central to the theme of the movie.
Rocky, as a kind of father figure and a symbol of new hope for the boy who was struggling in his relationship with his single mom, was pointing the teen away from an image he had picked up on the street. He was turning his eyes and his heart away from the powerful lure of gang culture that so many young urban teens who grow up with single moms gravitate toward, and toward the image of real manhood. It seems like such a simple, even insignificant scene in the movie- but how striking it was now that I have had time to think about it. It was as if this fomer heavy weight champion boxer who the boy revered was saying to him, "you don't have to have a pit bull to prove yourself! Your character is measured in other ways- a real man can take care of an old dog that nobody wants. A real man will take responsibility for things that no one else will take responsibility for!"
If you can see yourself as one who doesn't NEED the pit bull image, but as one who can bring an old dog to life, as one who can be just as self assured and even more so by rejecting the projected image of the negative culture around you, then maybe, just maybe, other more substantive changes can take shape. It all starts with a choice. And then other choices.
We should never forget that every man at any given time has a choice between two Adams. The first Adam was passive and irresponsible and would not lead his family and expected his own reward, not God's reward.
The second Adam by contrast, Jesus Christ, took responsibility for those things that were not his fault and rejected passivity and lead courageously and expected eternal rewards, not material, physical ones.
That is the difference. To truly "man up" is to follow the example of the second Adam, not the first.
To put it another way- a real man isn't measured by the weight of his bling or the fight in his bulldog... but by the weight of his character and the substance of his choices.
Friday, August 10, 2007
intruder in the house
We were all shocked and sickened to hear the story this week of the Connecticut doctor and his family who were brutally attacked inside their own home. Dr. William Petit Jr. and his wife Jennifer and their two daughters Hayley (17) and Michaela (11) were enjoying a night together in the peace and calm of their own home, when two men broke into the house, knocked out Dr. Petit with a baseball bat, tied him up and threw him in the basement, and then for several hours terrified and brutally tortured his wife and daughters before finally setting the house on fire, killing everyone except for Dr. Petit, who managed to break out of the basement just as the police and fire department arrived.
This is the kind of story that strikes horror into the heart of every man. It is absolutely the worst nightmare any of us could imagine. I am praying for Dr. Petit and asking for God's continued grace and strength- my heart goes out to this man. I cannot even begin to imagine how a man can survive such sorrow. It will be only by the grace of God.
A home is sacred- a place of refuge and peace and protection. A home is a families "shalom" where children should always feel the love and peace and joy of the Lord. It is a place where spiritual maturity should be nourished and encouraged and the family should thrive in an environment of growth and learning.
As a husband and father and the head of my home, I feel a heightened sense of responsibility for the welfare of my family. I see that God has given me stewardship over them and that I am to stand in the gap for them in prayer and to hold the vanguard against the work of the enemy.
When I first read this terrible account of the attack on this Connecticut family, I immediately thought of this teaching of Jesus found in Matthew 12:29:
"Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house."
In context Jesus is addressing the issue of spiritual battle- by implication He reveals here a very specific tactic of the enemy in destroying a home. He is saying that the way the enemy comes into a home and destroys everything of value in that home is by first tying up the strong man. The "strong man" is the head of the house- the man who is given responsibility to stand in the gap for his wife and kids. If the enemy can take the man out, he can have his way in the home.
The details of the abhorrent crime in this quiet community in Connecticut have sent shock waves across the world, but this teaching of Jesus highlights a more subtle and yet incredibly destructive spiritual parallel that I see happening in homes today at an alarming rate.
I see the remains of shattered lives and homes under attack almost weekly. I see men who have been bound up by pornography or workaholism or drug or alcohol abuse. I see men lured away from their wives and children and the responsibility that God has given them as the "strong man" in the home. I see good men, Christian men often, who know better and who have understood clearly the consequences of their behavior, throw it all to the wind and leave their families for greener grass or better promise or the attraction and thrill of an adulterous relationship.
The affect of this is no less dramatic than an intruder taking a baseball bat and smashing him in the face and tying him up and rendering him completely defenseless while the evil one goes into his home and robs everything precious to him. I have seen wives and children's lives forever altered because of the work of the intruder. I have spent hours begging men not to do it, not to buy into the lie of the enemy. I have watched as men who at one time in their lives had said that it could never happen to them essentially welcome the enemy in to destroy all that they have ever cared about. My wife and I have spent many hours with broken hearted wives who try to find some sense out of behavior they never dreamed they would encounter in their husbands.
I tell you very honestly- today more than ever I fear for every young man I sit with in premarital counseling. My counseling has changed dramatically since I was a young minister. I spend a lot more time today addressing the need for godly men in the home who understand the principles of manhood of rejecting passivity, accepting responsibility, leading courageously and expecting God's reward.
I spend more time talking about the work of the enemy in attacking the strong man first. I look young men in the eye and tell them, "you will be under attack- the enemy WILL come after you. It is not a matter of if it is a matter of when." It is a tactic that Jesus has taught us about and it is in play in very powerful and effective ways. You must know it, understand it and guard against it. When you think you are invulnerable to it, you are as good as dead. Just as every man locked his house a little tighter after hearing about the Petit family, every man should guard his heart and muster all his strength and discipline once he understands the work of the intruder!
I am praying today for William Petit Jr. And as I think of his horrible pain and sorrow, I think also of the horror that awaits every home in which the strong man has been bound up.
I would say to every husband and father who is reading this- there is nothing the enemy would like more than to steal everything you have, but how can the robber come into your home and take everything you have unless he first comes in and ties you up?
I would remind all of us of the words of Jesus to Simon Peter in Luke 22:31-32:
"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
cracks in closed doors
Of the 15,969 people groups in the world today, 6,429 are cut off from the message of Christ. While the advancement of the gospel has made significant progress over the past 20 years, the door to our missionaries and mission strategists remains tightly closed in many countries, especially those that are Muslim dominated.
But there is one glaring exception to this. There is a gap in the door to most of the unreached people groups that few people know about or even think about.
I am talking about medical missions.
While most missionaries are not allowed into these countries, medical doctors and personnel who have a love for Christ and are committed to pushing back the darkness not just of physical disease and poverty but also of spiritual poverty and darkness, are welcomed with open arms and sometimes with great enthusiasm into places the rest of us could not go. God is using them in ways that defy imagination!
One of the organizations that has made significant progress along these lines is Medical Missions Response. This organization was founded by brave medical missionaries from around the globe who purposed to leverage their influence toward the darkest and most vulnerable places on earth. Although their names cannot be printed here or their incredible stories will likely never be told in full detail, it is good for us to at least get a glimpse of the impact of their work.
Our church is privileged to have one of their founding doctors, Dr. Chuck Fielding (not his real name) come to our church on August 12 to share from first hand experience how God is using medical missions for His glory.
Dan Bivens, who is the stateside support for this ministry and a new member of our church has made the arrangements for Chuck to be here with us. I am grateful to him for this unique opportunity.
But there is one glaring exception to this. There is a gap in the door to most of the unreached people groups that few people know about or even think about.
I am talking about medical missions.
While most missionaries are not allowed into these countries, medical doctors and personnel who have a love for Christ and are committed to pushing back the darkness not just of physical disease and poverty but also of spiritual poverty and darkness, are welcomed with open arms and sometimes with great enthusiasm into places the rest of us could not go. God is using them in ways that defy imagination!
One of the organizations that has made significant progress along these lines is Medical Missions Response. This organization was founded by brave medical missionaries from around the globe who purposed to leverage their influence toward the darkest and most vulnerable places on earth. Although their names cannot be printed here or their incredible stories will likely never be told in full detail, it is good for us to at least get a glimpse of the impact of their work.
Our church is privileged to have one of their founding doctors, Dr. Chuck Fielding (not his real name) come to our church on August 12 to share from first hand experience how God is using medical missions for His glory.
Dan Bivens, who is the stateside support for this ministry and a new member of our church has made the arrangements for Chuck to be here with us. I am grateful to him for this unique opportunity.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
the invisible women
The picture you are looking at is of one of the most unreached people groups in the world.
My wife snapped this picture on the woman's side of a Bedouin tent a couple of weeks ago.
The image strikes me for a number of reasons. One, as a Western man, Bedouin women are virtually invisible as it is their shame to be seen. They cover their faces and run to their side of the tent when we approach. It is a rare glimpse into a world few ever see. Most Bedouin women will not allow you take their picture. This one didn't care.
I also notice something in her demeanour. I can't help but notice the sadness. As it turns out, it is not just a flash of expression captured in an instant and frozen in time by a camera lens, the sadness in this woman's heart is real. Her heart is full of darkness as life has no hope.
As our missionary to this country explained to Teri and I, she feels totally and completely hemmed in by her life situation. She was married off very young by her family and now struggles day to day to stay above the creeping hardship of poverty while raising her children, taking care of animals and feeding and tending to her household. Women in this part of the world have few rights and are often subjected to terrible oppression. In this picture she is preparing a fire to make tea to serve her guests. The tea will be served to the men first, and if there is time, the women will be served some as well. But only after the men have had their fill and have had their conversations and are sitting back away from their cups, refusing to take any more refills. It is only when the men are totally satisfied that the women are allowed to partake in the pleasure of sharing in the tea.
That is the way it is in Muslim dominated countries. Women are not to be seen, they are only to serve their husbands and take care of their children.
It is the way it has always been in the Middle East. It is not far from the way it was in the Greco-Roman culture of the first century in the time of Christ.
When I look at this picture I am reminded of some of the women Jesus encountered in the gospels. The woman at the well, the woman who was caught in adultery, the widow who gave all she had, Mary and Martha and the woman who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair. I think of how Jesus honored the women who were around him. I think of how others were shocked and offended by the scandalous Jesus who welcomed "prostitutes" into his presence.
When one spends much time in this part of the world and experiences the culture that has remained basically unchanged for thousands of years, it is not long before you realize that the message of Christ, so radical even in our culture, was even more radical in theirs.
The liberating power of the gospel becomes glaringly obvious when set in the contrast of countries that are living in such utter darkness. There is no doubt, the only solution to the oppressing shadows of the Muslim world is the light of Christ.
But the only way for Bedouin women to be reached is if Chrsitian women respond to the call in mass, for the harvest is full and laborers are few. Pray with me today that hundreds and even thousands will respond to this call.
My wife snapped this picture on the woman's side of a Bedouin tent a couple of weeks ago.The image strikes me for a number of reasons. One, as a Western man, Bedouin women are virtually invisible as it is their shame to be seen. They cover their faces and run to their side of the tent when we approach. It is a rare glimpse into a world few ever see. Most Bedouin women will not allow you take their picture. This one didn't care.
I also notice something in her demeanour. I can't help but notice the sadness. As it turns out, it is not just a flash of expression captured in an instant and frozen in time by a camera lens, the sadness in this woman's heart is real. Her heart is full of darkness as life has no hope.
As our missionary to this country explained to Teri and I, she feels totally and completely hemmed in by her life situation. She was married off very young by her family and now struggles day to day to stay above the creeping hardship of poverty while raising her children, taking care of animals and feeding and tending to her household. Women in this part of the world have few rights and are often subjected to terrible oppression. In this picture she is preparing a fire to make tea to serve her guests. The tea will be served to the men first, and if there is time, the women will be served some as well. But only after the men have had their fill and have had their conversations and are sitting back away from their cups, refusing to take any more refills. It is only when the men are totally satisfied that the women are allowed to partake in the pleasure of sharing in the tea.
That is the way it is in Muslim dominated countries. Women are not to be seen, they are only to serve their husbands and take care of their children.
It is the way it has always been in the Middle East. It is not far from the way it was in the Greco-Roman culture of the first century in the time of Christ.
When I look at this picture I am reminded of some of the women Jesus encountered in the gospels. The woman at the well, the woman who was caught in adultery, the widow who gave all she had, Mary and Martha and the woman who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair. I think of how Jesus honored the women who were around him. I think of how others were shocked and offended by the scandalous Jesus who welcomed "prostitutes" into his presence.
When one spends much time in this part of the world and experiences the culture that has remained basically unchanged for thousands of years, it is not long before you realize that the message of Christ, so radical even in our culture, was even more radical in theirs.
The liberating power of the gospel becomes glaringly obvious when set in the contrast of countries that are living in such utter darkness. There is no doubt, the only solution to the oppressing shadows of the Muslim world is the light of Christ.
But the only way for Bedouin women to be reached is if Chrsitian women respond to the call in mass, for the harvest is full and laborers are few. Pray with me today that hundreds and even thousands will respond to this call.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
buildings not made with human hands
Last week, while visiting Jerusalem at the end of a very meaningful and strenuous mission trip to the Middle East, our group was kicked out of the (supposed) oldest church in all of Christendom (It's a long story- involving a very cranky Syriac Orthodox care-taker with an unfortunate Monty Python type voice, chewing gum, teenagers and uncontrolled giggling).If that were not humiliating enough, today I learned that we protestants have now been kicked out of the Catholic Church. Who knew? In what I guess was to be considered a real news flash for world Christianity, Pope Benedict doesn't think that either the Orthodox or the Protestants have got it right.
I probably would not have given either of these events a second thought if it had not been for the stark contrast between the coldness of such exclusionary angst in the self righteous on the one hand, and the warm embrace of genuine Christianity I have felt in the persecuted Church of North Africa Middle East on the other.
By contrast to the cold dead religiosity of churches that now exist only as monuments, there is a church rising in the land of Promise.
In the past 20 days, I have watched as an Arab Pastor boldly laid hands on and prayed for the healing of a committed Muslim and Islamic teacher who allowed him to pray in the name of Christ for his cancer.
I have observed as a former Muslim who is now a passionate believer in Christ excitedly tell all who will listen what it means to leave the darkness of Islam and to follow the teachings of Jesus.
I watched as an Arab Christian teenager shared the gospel in a room full of Muslim scholars in a country where it is strictly forbidden.
I have watched as one of our missionaries wept over the condition of an abused Bedouin woman who has suffered such humility in a culture she cannot escape.
I have prayed for and with missionaries who have given their lives and futures to serve in one of the most difficult places on earth where spiritual darkness is deep and abiding, and yet their light shines bright and joyful.
I have worshipped with Arab believers who could not understand English as I could not understand their language, and yet, in worship, we were in agreement and unity over our praise of Christ.
I have laughed and joyfully walked with people from half way around the world I have never met before, but because we had Christ in common, felt the incredible bond of fellowship and Christian community.
I am reminded today as I reflect on this contrast, that to be a follower of Christ is to forsake religion with all of it's silly rules and empty promise. The two are not compatible. Religion is the invention of man- the idolatrous attempt to control God and look down on others. It is our attempt to create Him in our image. Religion is the worst form of humanistic atheism- it puts man at the center and elevates our contemptuous pride while piously maintaining self importance.
In Christianity, one kicks self off the throne of the human heart thus making it His building. In religion, one puts self at the center and kicks everyone else out.
Genuine ChristianityI have found is the same in every culture and in every language. It is the abandonment of self. Christianity says, "nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling." Christianity is the freedom of release- the joy of relationship. It is opened arms and warm embraces that knows no cultural or racial barriers. It puts up no false fronts or barriers but bears all things and hopes all things.
It is only by His grace that you and I belong.
And only by His grace, we are not turned away.
(Even if we are chewing gum).
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.
(Joseph Hart, 1759)
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