Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’

Aug
14
2012

What Is Your Thing?

As a pastor I meet a lot of interesting Christians. I have people who attend my church, people who call or stop by to promote their ministry in our church, and/or people who send me information via email or mail. The common theme is that every Christian seems to have a “thing.” That is to say the one theme of their life and their advocacy.

For instance, there are those whose specialty is defending Genesis. For others it’s Christian political activism. There are outreaches and emphases on Jewish ministry, men’s ministry, Christian education, eschatology, and a host of other specific niches. Pastors get hit with appeals for these on an almost weekly basis.

In one sense, I love this because it demonstrates how God has uniquely gifted and called individual Christians and ministries. Their laser-like focus helps educate and edify God’s people. For the busy pastor, who sees the whole church, having speakers or curriculum or small group studies can help sharpen the faith of this people.

And yet sometimes I see an unhealthy imbalance where your emphasis becomes your “thing.” Let me explain. I’ve had conversations with people passionate about science around Genesis. I find this compelling and I’m in agreement with the view that Genesis describes a literal six-day creation. I enjoy hearing from smart scientists who defend this view. But an emphasis or a calling to this field can easily become a “thing” that seems to drive everything about a person’s life. And rather than Jesus becoming their animating theme, defending against evolutionists is their animating theme. Every conversation, every concern in the church, every social ill must become a debate about origins. I think this is unhealthy.

I”m not just picking on creationists here. I’m just using this as an example. I see this in every other specialty. And this can happen with any particular focus of Christian ministry. Where what we are most passionate about becomes less the gospel and more our pet “thing.”

It’s unhealthy on a number of levels. First, what was a good interest and a worthy calling can become a source of conflict with other believers. When the gospel animates us, then we are humbled enough to work toward unity in our local body of believers and in the body worldwide. But when our pet “thing” animates us, we become argumentative, looking always for opportunities to prove how right we are. Secondly, I think the enemy is okay with us focusing on a “thing” rather than focusing on Jesus and using our gifts and talents, ultimately, to build God’s church through evangelism. Third, an unhealthy imbalance divides people into categories and suddenly we don’t see the unchurched as objects of God’s love in need of the gospel, but people on the wrong side of an issue. And we don’t see brothers and sisters who disagree with us people we should love, but people who we must win over to our view of things.

Unhealthy imbalance can also create a culture, in the home or the church, where the gospel is actually not the main thing we’re concerned with passing to the next generation. Teens sniff this out right away. They quickly get what we are most passionate about. If this is not the gospel, the “faith” once delivered to all saints” (Jude 1:3), they may reject our faith. Because our faith in Jesus is the only thing contagious enough to be “caught” by the next generation.

I guess what I’m saying is this: everyone has a “thing”, a special calling or emphasis they feel is important to ministry. But this must always be surrendered to the larger “thing” which is the call to live and share the gospel with those who are far from Jesus.

At the end of my life, I don’t want it said that what drove me most was that I believed in a six-day creation or that was a dispensationalist or that I was a political conservative. I want it said that I loved Jesus, that I faithfully taught His Word, and that I loved those God has called me to love. That’s what I want most to drive me.

May
11
2012

Why Mother’s Day Will Be Harder for Us This Year

I’m thirty-four and so Mother’s Day has endured several new seasons for me. There was the season of my birth, which I don’t remember of course. Then there was the seasons of childhood where I came home from church on Mother’s Day with hand-made cards, where I partnered with my dad and siblings to make meals, create artwork, and honor my wonderful mom. There was the season of junior high and into high-school where I offered the obligatory thanks to Mom, but didn’t fully appreciate her investment in my life. And then of course there is college years where I’m pursing my dreams and slowly begin to appreciate Mom.

Then there where new and fresh seasons of Mother’s Day. When I married Angela, I added another mother to my life. Angela’s mom, Linda, was a wonderful new addition. And then, when we began having children, Mother’s Day was given a whole new meaning. The first year of parenthood I didn’t fully appreciate this. That Mother’s Day I went about as usual, buying gifts for my own mother and making sure we took care of Angela’s mom. Big mistake. I had forgotten that this was a day to honor my wife, who is the mother of my children, who was laboring hard to make our house a home for the children God entrusted me. It was a lesson I didn’t ever forget.

This year, as Mother’s Day rolls around, we’re experiencing yet another season. In January of this year, Linda Sullivan, Angela’s Mom, my mother-in-law, slipped from this life into glory. It was a tragic loss for us. This Mother’s Day will be especially difficult for Angela, the first without the woman who so shaped her life. It’s also a hard day for me, to lose a wonderful friend, listening ear, compassionate soul, cheerleader, and mentor. The ten years I knew Linda were good years. We wish we had at least ten more with her, but we don’t.

In a way, the varied seasons of Mother’s Day are helping to shape my own ministry to others. Until this year I didn’t realize the mixed feelings or even outright pain most feel on this holiday when it seems everyone is celebrating motherhood. If you’ve lost a mother, this particular Sunday in May revives those emotions afresh. If you’ve experienced the sting of infertility, this is a day in which you’re not sure how to act. Anger, jealousy, sadness, embarrassment, grief. If you’ve lost a child, you may just want to roll right past this Sunday in the calendar.

As I get up to preach on Sunday, I hope to offer Jesus as solution to the empty parts on Mother’s Day. I hope each new seasons allows me, like Paul, to care for God’s children “like a nursing mother taking care of her children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7). But ultimately, I know that each loss we experience on Mother’s Day is a fresh reminder of God’s sovereignty over all things and that even the best relationships, the ones we’ve experienced with our mothers or mothers-in-law are but small pleasures pointing us to the ultimate joy found in relationship to Christ, who fills all the empty places in our hearts.

Sunday, I will do my best to help Angela grieve the loss of her mother and to honor Angela’s own efforts as mother of our four small children. Like most on this holiday, I suppose we’ll limp along less triumphalist as we may have in the past when everything was just right on Mother’s Day. And I encourage you to do the same.

When Sunday approaches, make sure you give your mother and your mother-in-law quality time and affirm your gratitude for their contribution to your life. If you’re married, honor your wife. If you have children, doubly honor your wife. And when the day is over, whisper a silent prayer of thanks to your Heavenly Father, who sustains and holds all things in His loving hands.

Nov
18
2011

Friday Five: Stan Guthrie

Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine; he authored the “Foolish Things” column for CT. Stan writes opinion pieces for Crosswalk.com and BreakPoint.org. His articles have been honored in the Evangelical Press Association’s Higher Goals in Christian Journalism competitions.

Stan has appeared on National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More,” WGN’s Milt Rosenberg program, ABC’s Nightline Twittercast, WFMT, and many Christian programs, including Moody Radio’s “Chris Fabry Live,” “Inside Look,” “Prime Time America,” and “New Day Florida.” An inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for a debate with Christopher Hitchens entitled “Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?”

Stan is married and has three children. 

He is the author of several books, including his latest, All That Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us. Stan was kind enough to stop by and answer questions about this book for today’s Friday Five.

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Aug
18
2011

Why Hobbies are Better When They are Not Idols

John Calvin famous said our hearts are great “idol-making factories.” A good, wholesome, beneficial pursuit can quickly become an idol. For me, I find that my pleasurable hobbies can often lead to idolatry. Sports is perhaps the biggest threat. I’m a big time fan of team sports. I love the NFL, the NBA, and Major League Baseball (when our Chicago teams are competitive.). Sports is a terrific way to enjoy leisure time, great way to occupy creative and emotional parts of our minds and to find common ground with others. But it can also become an obsessive pursuit. Let me explain.

There are seasons when I’m so completely locked in on sports. For instance, last NBA offseason and the season were terrific, perhaps one of the best in many years in the League. During that season I was checking Twitter constantly to see where LeBron might be signing. I watched many regular season games and most playoff games. And I was constantly listening to sports radio in the car. None of those are wrong, but they began to consume my time. In increasing amounts.

And do you know what was interesting about this newfound idol? It didn’t satisfy. When I began to look to my sports addiction as something that can fill me when I’m discouraged or distract when I’m convicted by the Spirit, it became a lousy friend. The reason for this is simple. Sports was never created to satisfy me. It can only bring temporary pleasure or enjoyment and provide a prism thru which I may appreciate and glorify God more.

I’ve found something else interesting. When I unplug from sports (or whatever my idol is that season) and dive deeper into the Word through prayer, preaching, and good reading, I find I still have an affinity for sports like the NBA, but I tend to enjoy my limited exposure to it. Do you understand what I’m saying? Too much of a pursuit/hobby I love not only becomes a bad thing, it becomes a terribly object of worship. But when sports is in its rightful place in my life, I find my limited moments indulging become true enjoyment. The expectations for satisfaction are way lower. Sports becomes what it was supposed to be for me: a time to rest, relax, reflect, unwind. But not my Master and my source of delight.

Only God gives this. And our hearts are wired only to find pleasure in Him. So the answer, I guess, is not to completely abandon all good things that can be turned into great, but it is to keep them in their place. When our pursuits begin to look like worship, we should scale back, dive back into the Word, and then realize we only find life in Jesus.

Aug
11
2011

Christianity, Six-Inch Headlines, and Fear

I’ve had several conversations with folks in the last few weeks, fearful of the state of the world. Economic downturn, failed leadership at all levels, personal tragedy, and just really bad news all around. A lot of people are starting to think that this is the worst time in history. At least American history. I’ve heard various versions of “America has lost its greatness.” or “America is headed downward.” It’s interesting that I only seem to hear this from Christians when a certain party is out of power. Then suddenly, when someone we like is in the White House, suddenly things are sunshine and roses again and America is “back.”

I’d be lying if I said there weren’t troubling indicators in America. Unsustainable debt, paralysis at the top levels of government, a culture embracing ungodliness, and a seeming decline in Christian influence. But I wonder if our fear is less about reality and more about our increasing knowledge in this 21st Century. Everyone knows all the bad news all time and in real-time. That makes a huge difference. We live in the days when bad news travels to us like a never-stopping ticker, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, news sites, or screen crawls on the bottom of cable news channels.

There are advantages to this, of course. When disaster strikes, we can mobilize quickly to help those in need. But there are extreme disadvantages. Such as the paralyzing fear that is sinking into the hearts of people.

I’ve recently been reading history, some biographies centered around the 1940′s to 1960′s. I’m amazed at the threats the world faced then. Three menacing powers threatened to take over the world: Stalin in Russia, Hitler in German, Hirohito in Japan. These weren’t some garden-variety nut threatening to use a nuke, but marginalized by the world powers. These were real, massive, imposing armies on the march. Civilization, literally, did hang in the balance. But for the courage of men like Churchill and FDR, perhaps Hitler would have won. (As a Christian I argue that God intervened in the course of history). It was a harrowing time, followed by decades of more fear: Korea, Cold War, Vietnam, division and racial tension in the U.S., assassinations of world leaders, economic stagnation, Watergate. It was a time of fear.

Fast forward today and you might say, “Yes, the world is in trouble” and you’d be right. You’re right to pray and vote for leaders with spiritual and moral courage. But you’d be wrong to assume you’re living in the worst time in history. Far, far from it. Think back throughout human history and you find a sordid tale of man’s inability to govern himself, the ravages of sin upon the human race, and very few pockets of stability and freedom.

Today the average American enjoys, even in economic decline, unparalleled wealth compared to the way people have lived throughout history. He enjoys something completely rare in all of history: religious freedom. He enjoys opportunity not granted to any other group of people in the history of the world.

You wouldn’t know that by checking Drudge’s sensational, six-inch headlines every day. But imagine if Drudge had given blow-by-blow accounts of, say, D-Day or the Great Depression or the Civil War? Yeah, maybe it’s good the Internet wasn’t around then.

I’m not saying we’re not in scary times. We definitely are. But we are also in good times. It’s just that we’re not conditioned for any kind of disruption of our comfort. Perhaps it would be good to study history and realize how good we have it today. Let’s pray that America’s very serious problems will be solved and that good leadership will rise. But let’s also be grateful to God for allowing us to live in such a blessed, prosperous age. And let’s model Paul’s spirit from a Roman prison, “I have learned, in whatsoever situation I am to be content”(Philippians 4:11). And let’s pray that our awakening to everyday bad news will bring believers to their knees and unbelievers to the cross.

May
20
2011

Friday Five: Jared C. Wilson

 

If you’re a fan of Twitter (as I am), you’ll know that Jared C. Wilson is one of the great “follows.” He’s alternatively funny, serious, and poignant. Jared is a prolific writer, church planter, and conference speaker. He blogs regularly at his blog, The Gospel-Driven Life and at his group blog for writers, Thinklings. He’s currently the pastor of Middletown Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont as well as the author of Your Jesus is Too Safe and Gospel Wakefulness. Jared was kind enough to stop by for today’s Friday Five:

You’re a guy from Texas pastoring a church in Vermont. You talk often about the challenges of doing ministry in what most would describe as a less-evangelized area of the country. What’s the toughest part of about ministry in New England?

The toughest part is relearning how to bring the gospel to a field that is biblically and ecclesiologically illiterate. The Bible Belt is rapidly approaching this point, and biblical illiteracy is actually a problem throughout evangelicalism in every part of the nation, but in New England there is already a generation or two that has *no* church background or exposure to the Scriptures. We have to start from scratch very often.

Just as an example of the difference: In the Bible Belt, very often Easter and Christmas are huge attendance days. People who don’t go to church the rest of the year feel compelled to attend on these holidays. They often have some church background, went as a kid, or are even members somewhere from way back. This doesn’t really exist in many parts of New England. A few people may be more inclined to accept an invitation to church near these holidays — Christmas more than Easter — but there is no huge attendance bump. There is no nostalgia factor. So we are dealing with a real mission field, where the message is a foreign concept.

On top of that we have the added difficulty that while most people have no knowledge of the gospel or the Scriptures, they have an image of evangelicals as bigoted, intolerant, unintelligent fuddy-duddies. There is no commonly accepted cultural Christianity like in the South, for instance. So the illiteracy matched with the ideological hostility is a hurdle. But the gospel shared from a loving heart is a great jumper.

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Apr
23
2011

Easter Meditation: What Am I Doing With Jesus?

I’m writing this as I’m meditating on the most beautiful moment in the history of the world. It is the moment when the risen Jesus says, “Mary.” Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows the names of his sheep. And Mary was a most earnest seeker of Jesus. She had a past to be ashamed of, baggage that would embarrass most of us, things we wouldn’t talk about in polite company.

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Jul
26
2010

Immigration and Evangelism

Perhaps there is no hotter topic than the subject of immigration. If you want to turn a really nice dinner party into an ugly brawl, just stand up and give your views on immigration. Yes, you will have ignited a verbal war.

Judging the emails, Facebook entries, and Twitter chatter, Christians are talking a lot of immigration. But the question is, and should be, how should a Christian think biblically about this issue.

Its no secret that the population of immigrants is swelling in the United States. And many immigrants are not here legally. This has many people rightfully upset, not the least of whom are those immigrants who worked hard to be here legally. It’s quite obvious that the government has had difficulty enforcing the border. Some feel they haven’t worked hard enough. But they have beefed up security in the past couple of years, and if you believe it, the statistics show that the flow of illegals has declined.

For many, its an issue of law and order. A nation of laws cannot allow laws to be unbroken. I agree with this. Order in society is essential to freedom. Romans 13 clearly gives the government the right to enforce its own laws and Christians should abide by those laws unless they infringe on our ability to worship God.

Here is where I have a problem with the typical conservative reaction to illegal immigration. I think they have largely directed their angst at the wrong group of people: the immigrants themselves, instead of the businesses who have largely “winked and nodded” when it comes to hiring illegals below wage and getting much more labor than would be required for a typical working citizen. The Bible tells us that the laborer is worthy of his wages (Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18). Businesses have largely gotten a free pass on what could be described as a form of slavery or serfdom.

And yet, we have much more anger at the illegals themselves. My question, as a Christ-follower, is this. How does God see these people? Statistic show that immigrants, especially Hispanic ones from Mexico, have a very high percentage of converting to Christianity when they arrive. This is a huge mission field for the gospel.

So what should we see when we see the great tide of immigrants across the border? We should see what Jesus sees, “fields that are white and ready to harvest” (John 4:35). We should see human beings, created in the image of God, whom God wants to restore to Himself through the salvation of the Gospel.

But many times, Christians don’t see what Jesus sees. We instead see a rising influx of immigrants as a threat. I’ve had more than one conversation with them and I’ve noticed that people complain about the changing demographics of their neighborhood.

You see, Jesus was always about a perfect balance of law and grace. The Pharisees were all law. They even added to the law. They were so intent on finding, pointing out, and stamping out sin. And Jesus didn’t necessarily disagree with their assessment that men were sinners. But He also talked of grace. Grace that loves the sinner in spite of the sin.

When it comes to illegal immigration, I wonder if Christians lead first with their Bibles, they might come to a more compassionate response. This is why I think you’re seeing a rising tide of evangelical leaders push for stricter border enforcement, but also a humane and compassionate response to those illegals immigrants who are already here. Not because we ignore the law, but because we are also about grace.

And to those who will still argue about the law–are they willing to be completely scrutinized for every law they might be breaking. What about those Christians who refuse to obey taxes? Should we apply the same tough tactics some advocate toward illegals?

I know this engenders a lot of heated opinion. But here is the bottom line. As Christians, called to be on mission with God and to reach the unreached with the gospel–can we honestly advocate a “kick ‘em out” mentality? Can we be faithful to the Great Commission and still speak of illegal aliens with the angry anti-immigrant rhetoric?

I wonder sometimes if we conservatives are more interested in scoring political points, in seeing the “bad guys” (Democrats, liberals, etc) defeated than we are in seeing lost souls won to the saving knowledge of faith in Christ.

Because I think we are to follow Jesus first, follow Scripture first, and then let our political viewpoints fall where they may. Most of all, to those who come here to the U.S. , will the church reach out with the gospel or with a political punch in the mouth?