What Keeps You From Following God? « Videos « The Skit Guys

The Skit Guys have put out this hilarious video on what keeps us from following God.  I think this is applies to people who follow Christ and those who don't.  This is a longer video clip (about 11 minutes) but it had me laughing, crying and ultimately thinking.


What Keeps You From Following God? « Videos « The Skit Guys


What really keeps us from following God?  Is it our pasts?  Is it our stubbornness?  Is it the people in our lives?  Is it the things that we have grown to like?  Is it pain?


The point that these guys try to get across is that ultimately its us who stands in the way of following God.  But why would it be us, why would it be me who stands in my own way?  I don't know what your excuses have been over the years, but I know I have come up with a few--even as a Christian.


I want to take a moment and see whether it is really me who stands in the way:


"I have been hurt in the past, I just can't get past the pain..."  yet the Bible promises "I will never forget your commandments, for by them you give me life." (Psalm 119:93) And the funny thing?  When I have given over  my pain and suffering to God, and when I have followed His wisdom instead of my own, I have received real and final healing from God.


"If God really knew what I have done, he wouldn't actually forgive me.  Jesus came for those who did little things, but I know I am too bad..." I know I have felt this cry in my soul, and yet again have experienced the promises in the Bible.  "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure." (1 Cor 10:13) AND " For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" (Rom 10:13).  I guess I am neither special nor un-savable in my sins.  Jesus died once for the whole world, and I was included in that deal.  The infinite God is more than a match for my finite sins.  He makes no caveat, nor any requirements for receiving his promises, think about John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life."  God's requirement I guess is just belief.  Just for me to accept what he has already done for me.


"If Christians would just act like Christians, I could believe in God..." This is what Gandhi reportedly said about belief in Jesus, and many people the world over have said the same.  I too, have felt that Christians kind of give the lie to the promise of the Gospel.  I read how the Bible calls the people of God to be, and yet I have seen time and time again these people of God fail.  I have called (and continue to call) myself a person of God and I have watched myself fail.  So what's the deal?  Should all Christians be perfect?  Should we show the world that God makes a difference in our lives?  The short answer is yes.  The Bible tells us "Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)  Jesus calls us and gives us the power to live apart from the world, following the commands of God as we do so.  Yet that wasn't the point, and it isn't the real answer.


You see, as we come to Christmas we see a story about God that strikes us differently than our perceptions of the "commands" we find in the Bible.  God came to earth humbly, as a little baby boy who was born in one of the dirtiest places imaginable.  He was born as a human in order to set us up with a relationship with him, and not a rule book.  Even when I acknowledge the rules God gives us, when I ignore the relationship God gives us in his son, Jesus Christ, I end up losing by trying to follow "the rules."  Here's the point: when I make it about the rules I end up keeping myself centered as the point of it all.  I am trying to be perfect.  And I fail.  Just as I did apart from Jesus when it was all about me then.  Yet when I focus on the relationship I have with Jesus, rules and being perfect cease to matter.


When I say "cease to matter" I mean cease to matter.  Yes they still apply, but they become tools I can use to seek to please God rather than become good enough.  But they cease to matter, because I can no longer focus on them while looking at Jesus.  He becomes the most important thing in life.  Sure I still stumble and at times even fall.  Yet those aren't failures because I know what truly matters: Jesus.  So when I am asked about the rules we need to follow from the Bible I can say, "Yes, but thats not what is important."  What is important is my relationship with Jesus.  I don't mean to diminish their importance, but realistically next to Jesus they are nothing.  I learn to follow the rules and accept God's boundaries as part of his plan for my well being, and as things that I can do to please him.


So, like the Skit Guys suggest, it is myself that becomes the biggest roadblock to following God.  When I make it about me, I have no room for HE.  When "I" am the biggest word in my vocabulary, I get in my own way.


As we celebrate Christmas this week, meditate on your relationship with Jesus.  I have said before that all of us have one with him, it just varies upon our use for it.  Where are you at?  And do you need to ask Jesus for the Christmas gift of getting "me" out of the way so you can live for HE?

Rosa Parks and Christianity: Activism

Fifty-five years ago today, a woman riding a bus in Montgomery, Alabama was asked to leave her seat so that a person with a different skin tone could sit in her seat instead.  She had worked a long, hard day and was tired.  She was on her way home, when the bus driver asked her to move to the back of the bus so that a white person could sit in the front of the bus instead of her.  She refused.
Freeze frame.
I have grown up in a time since Rosa Parks' historical action.  Today, I struggle to really understand what this time would have been like, when a person can be told to leave their seat for another person based solely upon the fact that they were born with a darker color skin than another.  And it wasn't like Rosa Parks was the first person of African descent to refuse to leave her seat on the bus so a Caucasian person could sit near the front.  But it was her action, which sparked a bus boycott and the actions of several other persons and communities which made today's work possible.
But what does this historic event have to do with Christianity?  The Christian community was a vital force in the Civil Rights movement, especially as lead by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.. . Part of the Christian message, in addition to the fact that Jesus restores us to God by paying the price of our sins, but is that his grace extends beyond that to our relationships with each other as well!  Jesus said:

¹⁸ "The Lord has put his Spirit in me,
       because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.
    He has sent me to tell the captives they are free
       and to tell the blind that they can see again. — Isaiah 61:1
    God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly — Isaiah 58:6
    ¹⁹ and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness." — Isaiah 61:2 (Luke 4:18-19, New Century Version)

 His grace helps restore us to each other, and especially motivates us to give a voice to those who lack a proper one in society.  And so we banded together with the civil rights movement to give those being treated like second class citizens equal rights.  And so we band together to give a voice to the unborn children of God who otherwise would be (and still are) being cast aside due to inconvenience.  And most recently I have been made aware of a problem that we should be aware of as a society--and especially as Christians so that we will band together to end a problem we had previously thought finished.


The Not For Sale campaign http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ is an organization that has partnered with many churches in our area, as well as hundreds of churches throughout the country.  There are other organizations around the US and the rest of the world who are working to abolish slavery in all of its many forms.  According to these organizations, there are more slaves in the United States today, than there were before the Civil War!  And they are cheaper as well.  Slaves in the middle of the 19th Century cost the modern equivalent of thousands of dollars.  Today, you can go buy a slave not for thousands, nor even hundreds.  In some places you can buy a slave for $50 or less!


One of the things that we are known for in Tacoma, and the I-5 corridor in general, is our traffic in sex slavery.  There children, teen-age girls and young women who are being taken up and down the I-5 corridor to be sold for a few minutes of pleasure for those who buy them.  Their pimps are actually slave holders.  In addition to this, there are people who have been brought into our country in order to be house servants and free workers.  According to http://slaverymap.org/ there have been at least half a dozen reports and actions taken to their knowledge in our city recently.  And perhaps hundreds more that we don't even know about.  Even from establishments that I had thought about as being reputable--including one that I have eaten at several times!

We have to stop this!  So what can you do?  If you see something that you suspect, call the authorities.  It is not enough to just look at a girl walking down the street and say "Oh, I wish these prostitutes would go somewhere else!" Because the truth may likely be that they are being held to it as a sex slave.  If you see something that you suspect (even at restaurants and coffee shops!) report them.  Call the police, or call:

• National Human Trafficking Resource Center: 1-888-373-3888 (24hr Hotline)
• Washington Anti-Trafficking Response Network (WARN): 206-245-0782

Also!  We can partner with organizations like the Not For Sale Campaign (local contact: Kevin Austin, Free Methodist Missionary with this organization) and our local churches in order to raise awareness and fight this evil in our country and world.  Sin that is brought to the light will soon shrivel and die, but as long as it is allowed to be ignored and kept in the dark, then it will flourish and grow.  Just think of what you would want others for your sons and daughters and do the same for them.  Together, by the power of Jesus' cross, we too can see this changed.  We just need to band together, like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. did in order fight for fair treatment of all our fellow citizens.

For lots more information go to http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/about/slavery/ and  http://www.freetheslaves.net/Page.aspx?pid=348.  Please share this blog and this information!  Send to your friends, share on facebook, email it, print it off and hand it out!  Go to the websites and get tons more information to share and give people too!  This is so vital, don't just take my word, but read about it, Google it, and above all: share it!  Blessings on you all!

Mighty Men (and even not so mighty), check this out!

I have subscribed to Bill Perkins' email newsletter for men.  I have found it very encouraging.  I have shamelessly copied this week's encouraging email here for you (understand that I did not write a word of it, it was all done by amazing author Bill Perkins).  If you find it encouraging, please sign up here: http://www.millionmightymen.com/  Or, go buy one of his books like Six Rules Every Man Must Break or Six Battles Every Man Must Win.

I thought that the lesson we learn about Nicodemus fits many of us guys, who definitely desire to do good but approach commitments cautiously.  Enjoy!

Today we learn the importance of delaying judgment ...

Forego Judgment and Process Information

Bringing about change is tough because people tend to polarize around a position and feel they have to be right all the time. Rather than fighting it out at the OK Corral, suggest everyone delay making a judgment until more questions have been asked and answered. I find it fascinating that there were times when Jesus drew a line in the sand and told people they were either with him or against him. On those occasions he left no middle ground. But there were also situations where he clearly interacted with men over a period of time. The Man Who Met Jesus at Night My favorite example is Nicodemus. Their first, and best known meeting, occurred one night when the religious leader told Jesus, "No one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him" (John 3:2). Instead of dealing with the issue of his identify, Jesus told the Pharisee how he could know God. Jesus explained a man could only enter the kingdom of God if he was born again (notice Jesus gave an alternative to the Jewish list of cleansing rituals and other regulations). Unlike the combative encounters Jesus had with other Pharisees, the one with Nicodemus was tame. There's no indication Jesus asked Nicodemus to make a decision to follow him at that time. But he did give the Pharisee something to think about. Later, when the Jews were spewing venomous words about Jesus, Nicodemus asked, "Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?" (John 7:51). Nicodemus was urging them to delay judgment, the very thing he seems to have been doing with Jesus. After the crucifixion of Jesus it was Nicodemus who accompanied Joseph of Arimathea in the preparation of Jesus' body for burial. Apparently, Nicodemus quit delaying a decision about Jesus and accepted him as the Jewish Messiah. He embraced the change Jesus offered. Forego Judgment and Process Information That delay was crucial because it allowed Nicodemus to further examine the words and works of Jesus. He was able to determine if his previous assumptions about how a man could be made right with God were valid. It's fascinating that in the face of unsurpassed social and religious pressure, Nicodemus was open to the possibility that he might be wrong. Instead of backing him into a corner Jesus gave him room to process--time to consider a viable alternative to his previously held assumptions Getting a hard-line opponent to be open to the possibility of another legitimate alternative is a major step in the direction of change. Instead of using the gunslinger approach, simply ask him or her to suspend their judgment. And indicate your willingness to suspend judgment yourself--after all, you may discover an approach superior to the one you preferred.  It's important to remember the issue here is not implementing a particular change, but creating an environment where people are comfortable with change--a setting where people see the benefit in challenging assumptions and the way things are done. In that kind of environment change will be dynamic and life giving.  Miracles and Mystery In the Grand Inquisitor section in The Brothers Karamazov,The Grand Inquisitor was mad at Christ, insisting he was just involved with miracles and mystery. Frankly, I've convinced the people you lead want to see more miracles and mystery. Perhaps the greatest miracles they'll behold will be the transformation in their thinking as they learn to question long held assumptions and open their minds to the mystery of change. Locking arms, Bill From "Awaken the Leader Within" by Bill Perkins bill@millionmightymen.com

Christianity 101: SIN

This blog is one of the hardest ones to write.  For one reason, in our culture it is becoming increasingly controversial to say that specific actions may not please God--that some of us may actually be living our lives in the "wrong" way.  For another reason, I personally have not yet achieved perfection (some of you are saying right now, "Big surprise.") and I still fail.

How would you define "sin"?  How would you explain to another person what the Christian view of sin? I know when I first think of this idea, I get all kinds of pictures in my head of actions that are wrong and all kinds of messages telling me in strong, condemning voices how bad they are.  Whether or not we agree with the idea of sin, I know that any one of us could easily come up with some kind of list of things that are considered to be sin.  I have a friend that though he is not Christian, challenges people he meets to be able to say all Ten Commandments.

I think that we have the idea of what sin is all backwards.  We view sins merely as actions that displease God.  We may even view these as His arbitrary rules designed to spoil all of our fun.  We even have websites like http://www.areyouagoodperson.org/ which are designed to make us feel guilty for letting God down because we could not live up to His standards.  Yet we fail to recognize that the Bible teaches us that even those of us who may be able to follow all the rules, can still live lives full of sins.  You can "do the right thing" and STILL fail!  Hold on a second, and I will clarify that last one in a bit.  First of all I am not trying to say that when the Bible calls lust a sin, it really isn't.  God clearly lays out in the Bible the things we can do to please Him, as well as which things we can do to displease Him.  But it really isn't about what things we can do or not do.

What sin really is about, is our relationship with God.  I can be a perfect person in following all the rules, and still be a "sinner" if following all the rules is about me being perfect.  I can have struggle with following the rules and be without sin, if my life is about following Jesus.  How else can Paul call himself the "chief of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15-16) in the Bible when he also claims to have lived according to the strictest sense of following God (Acts 26:5)?  There is no doubt that Paul lived his life according to the rules.  But he missed the mark in the end, because following the rules became the end and not the means.  His righteousness became more important to him than God. It wasn't until he met Jesus that this was corrected and all of his efforts to please God finally became worth anything.

Let me say this another way, what we do or don't do does not have any significance if our actions are aimed at the wrong thing.  It is my relationship with Jesus that ultimately determines whether my actions are good or bad, sin or not.  In turn, it is also my relationship with Jesus that leads me to pursue the things that please God or not.  I obey what the Bible says God wants me to do simply out of my love for God.  I can't make Him love me by doing good things, any more than I can lose His love for me by doing bad things.  I can be a good person all my life, doing good things and making a difference in people's lives.  But without a relationship with Jesus those things lose their significance for me when I die.  But, when I do them out of my love for Jesus first, all of the good I do in my life carries its significance with me--because their significance is found in Jesus.

For example, I can "do a good thing" and donate above and beyond the Biblically mandated 10% (tithe) of my income.  Say I even go to the point where I donate 30% of my income to the church, where it will do lots of good and change lives all over my neighborhood and on into the world.  Yet say my motivation is the tax write off.  While you might cite the good achieved by my action, can you really call it a good act?  No, I am being motivated by how it benefits me.  In fact, you could say that the amount really doesn't determine its worth.  We could easily agree that a millionaire's $10,000 donation this week is no more or less valuable than an average person's $10--though $10k would do much more good than $10.  I might even go as far as to say that the percentage itself does not really matter.  But the heart does.

But I also said that the actions that we do still matter.  And they do.  It matters that God has told us through the Bible that we should remain faithful to our spouse.  But more important is that I have a relationship with God.  For me, it is much easier to follow God's commands when the goal is showing Him that I love Him, than it is to follow His commands out of a desire to be good, or righteous.  Without a love for God it is much easier for me to agree with "Good girls rarely make history" (Marilyn Monroe).  Without a love for God it is easy for me to view tithing (giving my 10% to the church) as a loss.  But because of my love for God, and especially because of His love for me, everything changes!

In closing, I have to say that sin is not an issue of actions.  Sin is an issue of whether or not we love Jesus.  Our actions have little merit or bearing compared to the significance they have when we live in the love of God.

Christianity 101: WORSHIP

Have you ever wondered what the deal about "worship" is?  I have heard many things from Christians over the years, and have been continually surprised at how we seem to have so many different definitions for it.  Basically, I guess I have never heard it defined wrong.  Or that is to say, what I have heard is always a part of worship, but not the whole of it.  Before I go on, take a moment and think for yourself what worship is.  How would you define or explain it to someone who asked you what it was.
(If this were a worksheet, I'd have you fill in your answer here: _______ maybe you'd be willing to put your original definition in the comments?)

Worship is simply working out your relationship with God in everyday life.  Most commonly we use it to refer to the Sunday morning church service, or more specifically in evangelical churches we use it to refer to the singing part of the worship service.  In scripture however, worship refers to any act used to specifically connect with God, usually the offering of sacrifices, petitions, and praises to God.

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^[a] act of worship. (Romans 12:1)

 We are urged by Paul in this passage to offer our whole lives up to God in an act of worship, in other words can we say that we are being called to work out our relationship with God in every area of our lives?  How awesome and scary a thought that is!

Think about your personal definition of what worship was.  I hope I am right in believing that it described a way or some of the ways that we already think of worshiping God.  Because we are correct when we call the singing part of the service worship.  In fact, one of the great things about singing is that songs offer us a chance to practice ways of talking about and speaking to God, as well as giving us memorable ideas to hold on to in the various areas of our lives.  We are also correct in calling the whole service an act of worship (everything that we do in church hopefully connects us with God, if not we either need to adjust how we approach it or have a serious heart to heart with our pastors).

Yet, its not enough to connect with God only at church.  It is so important that we extend our worship beyond the four walls of the church!  The following was said by one of the most influential persons of the last century who wasn't Christian, and I wonder if you can see how it applies to the simple definition of worship that I gave above:

"If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christian."  -Mahatma Gandhi

 Lets have that definition of worship again: Worship is simply working out your relationship with God in everyday life.  What then are some "non-standard" things we can call worship?  Where, with whom, and how I bank?  What kind of coffee I buy?  How I treat my friends (or enemies)?  How I drive?  What else can you think of?  I have found that as I think about what I do as a way of worshiping God, then I start to look at what I am doing in a different way.  For example, if I found out that my bank was investing my money in porn, drugs, or environmentally damaging companies then I might decide that that was not a good way to worship God and in order to use my bank to "worship" God I would have to change it.  Or, I might even decide that how I raise my kids was a great way to worship God.

In view of all that, if you have time, lets turn to a worship song and think of the lyrics being sung in light of our simple definition of worship.

Christianity 101: PRIMER

This marks the first in a series of blogs aimed to discuss the things we do as followers of Christ.  My goal is to take things down to brass tacks and succinctly describe different aspects of our faith and perhaps how then do we live those out in our lives.

Our problem as Christians is that I think we make things too complicated and then lose sight of their purpose.  For instance, why do we sing songs in church and call that part "worship"?  Why do we meet on Sunday mornings?  What is a tithe?  What is communion?  Baptism?  What are spiritual disciplines (sounds like going to the principal's office) and why should we "fear the Lord" (I thought God wanted us to love him...)?

What I am not saying is that a complex and well nuanced faith is not to be desired.  On the contrary, our faith should be very nuanced, complex, and integrated into our lives.  Our lives are complex and messy and we need a faith able to handle that.  I also am not suggesting a one-size fits all understanding of the parts of our faith.  If I give an explanation of something that doesn't exactly include something that you have experienced and feel is appropriate, then it may well be.

Someone once told me that all we need to know to share our faith is, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."  I love that, for the reason that we tend to think that we need years of study before we can tell someone about our faith.  The truth is that all we need to know is that (and how) Jesus loves us, and we have an authority (the Bible) to go to in order to help prove that.  Now, would a class in the topic help? Yes!  Would role playing help? Yes!  Would developing a complex and nuanced understanding of how to talk to people about Jesus help? Probably.  But the fundamental part of this is that all I need to know is that Jesus loves me--all the rest is beneficial.

Bottom line: this series of posts will hopefully help me to be able to describe the purpose of the things we do and believe as Christians simply and concretely.  Hopefully it will help you to, if you are a newbie that needs to understand what's been going on or as reminder to you seasoned veterans.

One more thing, if you have questions or ideas for something you'd like explained please feel free to email me or post comments.  Also, if you want to push back and start a discussion please feel free to do so as well!

From the mouths of babes...wow!

(So I had intended to be more regular about these posts.  Well, there is no time like the present...)

We were sitting together at home the other night, and my daughter Chrissy was next to me sitting on the floor, and she mentioned that Jesus died on the cross.  So my wife asked her what did it mean when Jesus died on the cross.  I was really surprised by her answer.

Before I tell you what she said, let me ask what you would have said.  Why did Jesus die on the cross? I know what I was trained to say, and probably what I would have thought of first.  My answer would have been first of all that Jesus died so that our sins would be forgiven.  Probably yours too.  And let me say that that answer would be impeccable.  There is nothing wrong and everything right with that answer.  Except for the fact that in light of my daughter's answer it seems a little off.  It puts the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle (as a old friend of mine would say).

Chrissy told us that Jesus' death on the cross "tells us about Jesus loving us."  Wow.  Why did Jesus die?  Was a response to our sin or initiated by God's love?  Is it about God correcting our mistakes or is it about God displaying his love in a powerful way?  Is it about us causing God pain and suffering or is it about God suffering so that we could experience true love?  Both are right and each amounts to the other.  However, I was struck by the depth of insight that the cross "tells us about Jesus loving us" means we focus on him, rather than our own sin.  

1 John 4:9-11 (New International Version)

⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son^[a] into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for^[b] our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Personally, I would much rather focus on the goodness of God than my own faults.  I have a tendency to focus on myself in so much of life.  I wonder if I am a recovering self-addict?  However, I think that we will succeed more often following the grace that Jesus gives us, than focusing on what occasioned our need for that grace.  I am not saying we should forget it, just where do we put the emphasis?

Psalm 8:2 (New International Version)

 ² From the lips of children and infants 

       you have ordained praise ^[a] 

       because of your enemies, 

       to silence the foe and the avenger.

Now, I am not sure where she got that was of telling about the cross from.  Perhaps it is because she has awesome preschool and Sunday school teachers (both of which are very superb!) or if it was a God-ordained inspiration.  But I thank my God and my daughter for refocusing how I will explain the meaning of the cross in the future.  Hallelujah!

The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me!

My daughter has learned the B-I-B-L-E song in her preschool, and I am sure her Sunday school class as well, and I have been thinking of the lyrics of that song. (Easy to do when its stuck in your head!)

The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes that’s the book for me
I stand alone on the Word of God
The B-I-B-L-E

Veggie Tales B-I-B-L-E on Amazon.com

The part of the song that had me going though, was "I stand alone on the Word of God." So here's the question: what does that mean?  Does it mean that it is upon the Word of God alone which we stand?  Or is it that we stand alone when we stand on the Word of God?  And should we really be standing on our Bibles?

Well, I was thinking that by any interpretation of that line you don't get a good picture.  We are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).  We are told that God's words are important to us, but are they what makes us stand?  From my experience this is partially true.  There have been times when I have felt discouraged or really down and have read scripture that lifted my head and reminded me of the faithfulness of God, of his love and grace and mercy.  But in reality it is those things that the Bible reminds me of which I am standing on.

I also don't think we stand alone on God's Word.  The "church" or community of God's people stands together holding God's Word.  This is something we do together.  It is when people do it alone, thinking that they have a better interpretation or version of God's Word that we get cults and false teachers leading people away from the real meaning of God's truths.

I will say that it is the teaching of the Bible which I would hold as more true than anything else offered in our world.  So in that respect, I wouldn't stand on the teachings of the Koran, or Buddha, or Harry Potter, or Twilight, or anything else, just the Bible.  We are told that the Bible is useful for correction and instruction, and I will be the first to say that many of the things that bug me in this world, even in our grand 'ole country of the USofA, could be made better through the corrections offered in the Bible, but even then that is really the work of the Holy Spirit through the Bible and through we the people.

In the end, I think that an edit to the lyrics would be in order: "I stand up strong by the Word of God"

What do you think?

Thanks Mom!

Sometimes we don't always honor those that we love and who have taken great pains to take care of us.  This Sunday, we have to opportunity to say "Thanks" and "I love you!" to our mothers.  Some of us, however, need to say "I'm sorry."



I have to say for myself that I haven't always said "I love you" to my mother when I needed to.  Nor did I always appreciate what she did for  me over the years.  In fact, I might say that I never started to fully appreciate her until I started living on my own.  Sorry mom, for not really realizing how much you did for me until I moved out!  Thanks, I love you!  You were always a great role model for me!

Now, watch the video below and then call your mother!

Hypocrisy

I have been reading a book called unChristian.  The point of this book is that many "Christians" and churches have become UNChristian.  Currently I am in the chapter on hypocrisy and came across this quote:

"Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies.  If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side!"  --Leo Tolstoy in a personal letter (p. 66, from an excerpt originally by Jim White)

This is the hard part I find in being a Christian.  I want to show people that aren't Christian  that following Jesus really does make a difference.  I want to show people that Jesus has changed my life, and have found that I feel guilty when my life does not yet match up with the example Christ set.  It seems my goal has become to show everyone else that I am different, rather than allowing Christ to make that difference in me.  So instead of being honest I have become a hypocrite.  Its like I view Christ as some kind of lipstick that I am slavering on a pig (me) and hoping that the world will call it beautiful and do the same!!!

How often have we done this?  We want to put the best face on Jesus (as if we could!) so that people will come to think he really works!  Well, if God really works (and I have experienced that he does) then perhaps we can trust that the Almighty has the power to remain attractive and powerful, even when we don't quite cut it.

What do you think?  Can Christ still have power in my low moments?  When I swear, lust, steal, lie, and otherwise stumble on my way home--can Jesus still work miracles and call a fallen world to him?  Does he have the power to overcome even my own false image?

Perhaps he does.

So what would that mean for me?  Does that mean I shouldn't care how I act?  By no means.  But what it looks like is me seeking to follow Christ and become like him for his sake--not whether or not people will reject him because of me.  It means I can stop looking over my shoulder, wondering what those around me think of me and focus solely upon Jesus.  It means I can be authentic when I stumble, because perhaps, just perhaps, there is someone else struggling too.

I think that in the end it is not about individual actions that we participate in.  In the end its about whether we let those individual actions define who we are.  In the end its about whether I continue to pursue Jesus despite (maybe even because) I stumble.  In the end it is less about whether or not I can suck in my stomach long enough so that no one can see my gut than it is about they journey that God is leading me on!  Oh!  And also not holding others to a standard of action that I can't follow myself, and instead just loving them like Jesus did.

What are you afraid of?

For my son, who is almost two, it is this:
His name is TriBot and he is a cool little remote controlled gizmo that is really fun to play with.  But my son is afraid of him.  Why?  I am not sure.  But I have been trying to think of what I can do about it.  I have tried a gentle introduction, I have tried surprising him (not a good idea!), I have tried many other things all to no avail!  I have started to think of ways that I can constructively use his fear of the "Wo-bot" but I am not convinced that this is the best thing to do.  I used the fear of the robot to get him to eat his dinner last night, and I posted the little red monster at the door to my office to get some peace while working.  But while somewhat humorous, I don't think that this is something I will continue.  But, posting my little sentry at the door did get me thinking of how our fears stunt our relationship with God and keep us from truly enjoying him!  ("Way to go preacher-boy!" as my wife would say)

Realistically, it is only my son's fear of the robot that keeps him away.  He is physically strong enough to move it if he wanted.  Or, he could just walk right on by.  Or, he could get the remote and make the little bugger drive itself out into the road and get squished by oncoming traffic!  But he doesn't.  In fact, when he sees it he runs.  When you mention it, he tenses up and gets worried.  He says this cute little "No" and shakes his head with huge eyes if you suggest that he have some sort of interaction with it!  So sad, because he loves gadgets and I know he would have a blast if he would just get past the fear of it!

Sounds like many of us and the idea of church, or relationship with God.

I think most of us get what I am driving at here: God is waiting for us to respond to his love.  He longs for it!  But many of us are kept from truly experiencing it because of some kind of fear.  Perhaps its based on an experience that we had at a church or with some "Christian" that has left us with scars.  Perhaps it is based upon a (hopefully) false assumption.  Perhaps it is deep seated and we cannot explain it, but there is something that is keeping us from wanting to enter into the room where people even mention God or Jesus.

When I put little TriBot at the door, my son missed out on relationship time with his dad.  When we are stopped by our fears we miss out on an even greater opportunity.  We miss out on the relationship which each of us was created for.  We miss out on spending time with our Father, God.  I don't know what your relationship with your dad was like growing up, but mine sucked.  But let me tell you, relationship with Father God surpasses anything else you could possibly imagine.  So don't let fears stop you.  Jesus took care of anything and everything that could possible stand in our way or block us from getting to know him.  So lets trash our fears, kick them aside and run to God!  Lets experience what we were created for!

Sidetracked...might as well post!

So tonight I really meant to be finishing my sermon. A couple of years ago I realized that the Sunday message was so vital that I had to do my best to make sure that it was done not as a last minute project and was so important that I should get it done early. That doesn't always happen, but I work on it as much as I can as early as I can to devote as much time as I should to doing a good job with it. But tonight I became sidetracked.

I was looking for a good picture of Jesus that wasn't white. I could talk more about that later, but for now suffice it to say that it lead me to a great photo-mosaic made up of over 1000 unique images created by Christians meant to depict our Lord and Savior. However, the picture collage was created by atheists bent on proving that Jesus was just another myth in our pantheon of legendary heroes. Which led me to finding a video on YouTube describing the difference between a atheist life and a religious life.

I listened openly because I wanted to know what this person's understanding of Christianity (or as he called it, "religion") was. To summarize what he argued: Christians are a group of people fearing divine punishment, bent on getting the world to turn off their thinking and accept cold and unbending dogmas, who give money to an ineffectual church, and all of this is for no point because he doesn't believe that there is a God. You can find the video here. But please finish this post before you watch it.

My heart broke listening to it. Not because I felt myself agreeing (which I don't), but because I could feel the longing which God probably yearns for this person to learn the truth: that God is real and he desires this man to come to love him. I always find myself winding up with these kinds of things because I want to take the time to discuss and explain why in fact God makes sense.

But tonight I also did something else. I asked myself "Is there any truth to his claims?" This is something I learned while reading the book "Axiom: Leadership Proverbs" by Bill Hybels. Now you may or may not agree with how he does church, but if anyone has experience dealing with criticism, this man does. And what I figured out was this: the basis of this man's arguments had elements that could be found in Christianity. But in the people, not in what Christ taught.

I agree with him on these points:

• Sometimes we Christians act as if our brains have been turned off.
• Sometimes we have caused more harm than good.
• Sometimes we act, preach, evangelize based out of fear from hellfire rather than based upon how God has blessed and loved us.
• Sometimes we turn complicated problems into an occasion to pick a scripture or religious law and then oversimplify things.

My response: I am sorry.  There is nothing else than this that I can say, because we have acted like this in the past.  There is precedence for these claims.  We should get together as a group and apologize for our behavior.  However, I also know that this is not the case, nor are these things taught to us in our scripture or our orthodox beliefs.

I believe that our faith should make logical sense.  But we must also trust our personal experience.  And also utilize the tradition of the Church.  And since our scripture can be proven to have remained more or less the same over the years that must be our overriding measure by which we verify the other three.

For Christians, here is what I suggest that we do: hear the arguments of people like the above self-proclaimed atheist.  Next, let us not try to argue back in the forum of online responses to videos (which only allow us 500 characters anyway...not much space for a quality answer).  More appropriately, we need to have these discussions in the context of real relationship.  But more importantly lets strive to live our lives in a manner that proves these claims wrong.

It is vital that we:

• Keep our brains turned on!  Reason and faith are not incompatible!  They are not opposite!  I think I will go on more about this in a later post, send me a message if you want to hear from me personally regarding this.
• Our local churches must remember that God has called us to be relevant to our neighbors and to be engaged in significant work.  People, when we fight about the comforts we want on the inside of the building, we forget that we are supposed to comfort those outside it!  People who follow Christ are not our neighbors, they are our siblings.  Christ calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and I have often found that our neighbors disagree with and misunderstand us.
• Let us remember that Christ gives us a spirit of boldness, not a spirit of fear.  But let us not confuse that to mean he gives us a spirit of boldness to preach our fears.  Christ came to die for our sins, but he was then raised to new life--so that we could have that new life too.  Our message is a message of life, we should try telling people about that once in a while.
• Life is complicated, and so should our answers be.  We cannot turn homosexuality, abortion, greed, lust, drunkenness, and other "sins" into simple problems.  Nor can we excuse them either.  I cannot agree that God created people to be gay or any of those other things.  But we cannot fight them through hate or legislation.  We can only win through the power of God's love!  Let us live Christ's example and people will run to it, there will be no argument necessary when the results of real faith in God are present.

So what do we do when people like "FightingAtheist" and more dogmatic opponents to the church step forward to denounce us and criticize what we believe?  What do we do when we feel attacked and people argue against what we have committed our lives to? Well in short do this:

1. Take a deep breath and listen, really listen to what they are saying.  Then thank them for what they are sharing.
2. Ask, "Is there any truth to what they are saying?"
3. Correct what needs to be corrected in your own life.
4. Then share how Jesus is actually lived out in your own life and how he makes sense for you.  Don't show how they are wrong, but just show how Jesus is right for you.
5. And finally, allow them to make their own choices.  Its hard, but only God can change hearts--not us.  If you fight them, they will only screw themselves up to fight back harder.  We show people with our lives, not our arguments, that Jesus is real.  

Thanks for getting this far!  I know that tonight I wrote a long post, and I pray that it blessed you as you read it.  Jesus came so that we could have real life and have it to the full!  Let us be authentically his!  He gave his all so that we could be, so lets do it!  Let us be so filled with God's love that the arguments like these cease to have validity because they will no longer hold truth. 

The Way Of The Cross

Here is something I wrote a few months ago, thinking of what happened to Jesus on the way to the hill of calvary where he was put to death for our sins. It wasn't just a whack on the head and "Oh, he's dead!" No, in the process of taking our punishment, Jesus was tortured and mocked and beaten beyond human endurance. But aside from the horror of the event, I was struck by the truth that at any moment he could have called armies of angels to change the situation and rise victorious over his persecutors: he willingly suffered the full measure of agony for us. It was a tremendous act of love and sacrifice. He willingly submitted to it because he loves us. I guess that's why they call it "Good Friday." Though this was a terrible occurrence, God intended it for the good of all. You, me, all of us. Kinda comes back to John 3:16...enjoy the poem. Perhaps later I will set it to music.

The Way Of The Cross
Brian Lahti

How steep was that hill, how heavy the load?
And yet you said nill against our sins' goad.
How we washed our hands, spat upon your face,
You carried our bands and took up our place.

A speck of your love is all that we need;
For mountains to shove, it just takes small seeds.
Crushed beneath our Cross, with pierced bloody brow,
You sure knew the cost of paying our debt now.

We hear your silence, see the path you trod.
Know of what you spent, believe that you are God.
Though at times we tire, weary beyond strength:
You went further still, treading full length.

Nothing that we've done compares to your work,
Despite how we've come, your love we'll not shirk.
You were mocked and killed, how'd it go this far?
Now my mouth is stilled, yet your hands are scarred.

This is a bloody note of love for us all,
that to us your wrote, by taking our fall.
Your blood washes clean, not just head to toe--
But inside us e'en: heart, mind, body, soul.

With death you're note done, the grave not your end.
The victory won, new life you did send.
By paying our price, by ending our strife,
By being the Christ, you give us new life!


If you have been struck by your need to know the God who has gone to the ultimate extreme for you, whether by this poem or because God has placed events and people in your life that have brought you awareness of your true need for him, please talk to God about it! Pray to him and confess your sins and your need and ask him into your life. Commit yourself to him. Then do two things: 1) Tell someone you trust about your decision. 2) Find a church (if you want you are more than welcome at ours!) because we all need people to love and support us, and we will always be stronger surrounded by others who love God just like you do!

If you need help doing this, or need someone to talk to, or have any questions at all, feel free to email me using the contact form on our website! http://tllcf.org/contactus.aspx

Go with God!

Tired of big overdraft fees?

So I Twitter. Or is it "tweet?" In any case, one of the Twitter-ers that follow is my bank ING Direct. Personally I think they have the right idea for the emerging generation. I am tired of banks that make you feel like you are intruding when you do business with them. Also, what is the deal with late fees! At one time or another most of us have bounced at least one check. Then you enter the myriad of "oops guess you suck with your money, but you agreed to let us charge you whatever we want when you messed up..." options for overdrawing your account. Why would a bank need to charge me almost $40 to get things straightened out? A simple piece of computer code could take care of that. I even loved that a friend of mine had a successful large bank who I won't defame here charge him an additional fee for each day he remained overdrawn! Well you can read the story about ING here (http://adage.com/article?article_id=142331) and its not really what I wanted to blog today, though close. But I just wanted to say that it is great when we find those people that really get what we need.

Kinda like Jesus.

You know, often we talk about our sin as a debt and use financial language to help us understand it. Perhaps because we understand financial debt. Perhaps because the Bible talks a ton about money. Perhaps because big JC himself used examples pulled from the financial world. Like Matthew 18:23-35 where Jesus tells a story about a man who is forgiven an astronomical debt. Some of us have just have a little trouble handling our money, and then there are some of us who shouldn't be allowed to see our own pay stubs. But the man in this story must have been one of the worst. He owed 10,000 talents of gold to his master (If you don't care what a talent of gold is worth, skip this part: 1 talent of gold = about 56lbs of gold. Today gold was worth $1116 per ounce or about $18k per pound. One talent of gold is worth about $1,000,000 and he owed about 10,000 times that!!! Thats like $10 billion in today's market!) This man owed a phenomenal, unpayable debt!

Yet his master forgives him of his debt! Before we leave this thought, think what would happen in our world today if someone just forgave that kind of debt. The money to make it up has to come from somewhere! We can't just think that the master in this story just said, "Ah well." This money had to be made up by someone...perhaps the master himself?

Well, this story and blog aren't really about financial debt. If you are struggling with financial debt please take care of it! I personally recommend the sound advice available at either http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/ or as I think both are stellar resources for getting out of debt. I personally have experienced the heartache and struggle with getting into debt and know the weight it lays on our shoulders. Get 'er done, and do what it takes.

However, there is a greater debt that each of us faces, that no website or financial guru can help us solve. In fact, can you imagine being under a debt that you know you will never ever be able to solve? Knowing that in fact, there is nothing that you can do to make amends? Ever? The Bible tells us that when we sin, we incur a debt that requires a great and final penalty. You could even say that the late fees are killer... *groan*. And thats for one sin! What about if we sin multiple times? I don't know about you, but I think I am only able to die once! And I don't even want to do that once! The truth is that each of us has racked up debt that is beyond belief. And our Master in heaven, the Creator of everything, the Lord of Lords, has seen our debt pile up and up over our heads. Then one day, he decided to do something about it.

He paid our debt for us.

You may think that Jesus came to give us better morals, or even to live a good example for us. And yes, it is true that he corrects religious thinking and provides us with a perfect example of what real true life should look like. Yet another purpose, perhaps almost the most vital purpose of his coming to live on earth over 2000 years ago, was to pay our debt for us. The eternal and all powerful God came to suffer and die the death that we deserved so that instead of condemning us, he could tell us, "I paid off your debt, you are free to be free now!"

So I entreat you today, believe that God came to earth after seeing your debt and seeing that you would be unable to pay it off. And loving you so much he desired that you be free from that debt, and even more free to live in his presence for the rest of eternity (which I hear is a pretty long time)! Think of it, not just no debt but a good long vacation in paradise to boot! Not even ING can offer that! So the sooner you believe, the sooner you will find total freedom!

Can I really do all things through Christ?

Phillipians 4:13 tells us,

"I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength." (NCV)

But don't you wonder sometimes how true that really is? I know I do. There are times when I wonder if I will be able to move cars or something. There are other times when life has just hit me in the face and I desperately want this to be so, but don't feel it so much. Don't we all get to this point at times? In the moment, when I can see nothing but my own problems I can forget how true this has been in my own past. In the moment the mounting problems can overwhelm my perspective and I see nothing to hope for.

I have come to find that you can never experience the true meaning of faith in God without these kinds of moments. Jesus told us,

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3, NIV)

And how true this is, when I can experience the grace of God, a little taste of heaven when I am at the end of my rope. I remember when my wife was pregnant with our last daughter and we were facing the uncertainty of her complications with the pregnancy. The doctor didn't know too much, and had to constantly reevaluate our situation. My stress mounted as I had to take on increasing responsibility with the older two kids, most of the housework and errands, trying to help my wife feel included and safe, and on and on... It got to the point where each time we went to see the doc we got worse news and worse news.

And yet we had the temerity to give our daughter the middle name of Joy.

What we found first of all, is that we need to respond with God before we feel like it. Joy did not come to us, and then we had faith. No, we had to have faith in God and that he would take care of my wife and daughter and then He gave us his joy. I couldn't wait to feel if Jesus was giving me the strength to go on. Little kids don't allow you the time to sit around and wait! There were countless times where I had to move, and trust that God was giving me the strength I needed. I found that God doesn't give us strength so that we can just sit around feeling strong, he gives us strength for a purpose.

Now, I haven't been able to fly over tall buildings yet (though neither have I gone down town to test it either), but I have tested God and found that He does indeed give me the strength I need in the times I have needed it.

What about you? How does your trust in God rate? Why not take a step today, before you feel like it, and see if God will strengthen you?