I Don't Need to Defend My Doctrine to Everyone, All the Time

I like this statement from Pastor James MacDonald.  It is the statement of a pastor who is secure in his beliefs and who has grown over many years having come to an understanding that you'll always have critics, and that you don't always need to be defending yourself or picking fights.

I have been preaching the Word of God verse-by-verse for almost 30 years, and my teaching has gone further in every form than I ever dreamed. I don’t need to prove my orthodoxy in every conversation or press every dialogue to the breaking point, in fear of failing to evidence my own fidelity to Scripture.

I've been around people who haven't learned this.  I've probably been the guy who always has to frame things around his own theology.  These are dumb battles to fight.  In college I saw many relationships go south when people felt that they had to defend their doctrinal stances.

Be who you are.  Belief what God puts into your heart (as long as it is your most faithful interpretation to the breadth of Scripture).  Trust that you are justified in Christ alone, and not in someone else's impression of you.

I Don't Just Sell Stuff

God has gifted you and placed you where you are for a reason; minister right where you are.

I work in the retail environment.  Some days I get caught thinking that my job is a drag.  Each day brings the same drama and challenges of working with people and 'selling stuff.'  I need to remember that God has placed me where I am for a purpose, and that there are people all around me who need the love of Jesus in their lives.

Here's a brief list of some of the pain the people around me are facing:

- single mom who son is often sick
- mother whose daughter has an incurable skin disease that causes intense pain
- parents whose daughter is teen suicidal and on many medications
- multiple women whose spouse/boyfriend abuses them
- 18 year old raising her sister's 4 year old
- more than one person with "serious" problems at home
- mom of 2 whose boyfriend won't help care for the kids
- a guy with heart problems

And the list goes on and on.  My job isn't just selling stuff.  My job is showing the love and compassion of Jesus to the people around me, in the hope that I will be afforded the opportunity to tell of my faith in Him.

The Cathedrals of the Underground Church

Is the Underground Church really a church?  Where do they meet?  Who is in charge?  Do they have the funds, building, education, training necessary to be a church?

In his book Tortured for Christ Richard Wurmbrand writes,

Men with such ordination [men who said they were ordained by the Holy Spirit], who have never had any theological training and who very often know little of the Bible, carry on the work of Christ. 

It is like the Church in the first centuries.  What seminaries did those who turned the world upside-down for Christ attend?  Did they all know how to read?  And from where did they receive Bibles?  God spoke to them. 

We of the Underground Church have no cathedrals.  But is any cathedral more beautiful than the sky of heaven to which we looked when we gathered secretly in forests?  The chirping of the birds took the place of the organ.  The fragrance of the flowers was our incense.  And the shabby suit of the martyr recently freed from prison was much more impressive than priestly robes.  We had the moon and stars as candles.  The angels were our acolytes who lit them. 

I have found truly joyful Christians only in the Bible, in the Underground Church, and in prison.

* For more resources and information about persecuted Christians and the Underground Church visit Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com). 

When One Part of the Body Suffers - the Whole Body Suffers

More from Tortured for Christ,

When I was beaten on the bottom of the feet, my tongue cried.  Why did my tongue cry?  It was not beaten.  It cried because the tongue and feet are both part of the same body.  And you free Christians are part of the same Body of Christ that is now beaten in prisons in restricted nations, that even now gives martyrs for Christ.  Can you not feel our pain? 

While the Lord Jesus Christ agonized in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter, James, and John were a mere stone's throw away from the greatest drama in history - but they were deep in sleep.  How much of your own Christian concern and giving is directed toward the relief of the martyr church? 

Our brethren there, alone and without help, are waging the greatest, most courageous battle of the twentieth century, equal to the heroism, courage, and dedication of the early Church.  And the free Church sleeps on, oblivious to their struggle and agony, just as Peter, James and John slept in the moment of their Savior's agony.

* For more resources and information about persecuted Christians and the Underground Church visit Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com).

Strive to be, only, a Christlike Christian

Words from a letter smuggled out of the Underground Church quoted in Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand.

We don't pray to be better Christians, but that we may be the only kind of Christians God means us to be: Christlike Christians, that is, Christians who bear willingly the cross for God's glory.

* For more resources and information about persecuted Christians and the Underground Church visit Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com). 

The Void in the Human Heart is Filled by Christ Alone

I'm reading the book Tortured for Christ.  It is the autobiography of Richard Wurmbrand, a Christian of Jewish descent who suffered horrifically in Romania prisons under a Communist regime in the 50 and 60's.

Wurmbrand was released after 14 years of imprisonment for refusing to stop declaring the Word of God and preaching the love and salvation found in Christ alone.  Wurmbrand tells of terrible suffering in Communist prisons, more importantly, he writes to open the eyes of Western Christians to the torture and perseverance in the faith of those under severe persecution around the world. 

I found this quotation compelling.  Wurmbrand writes about the great opportunity to preach the Gospel to those who have not yet encountered Christ, and yet maintain an emptiness in their hearts.

There is a void in the hearts of the Communists.  This void can be filled by Christ alone.  The human heart by nature seeks after God.  There is a spiritual vacuum in every man until it is filled by Christ.  This is true also for the Communists and those in other captive nations.  In the Gospel there is a power of love that can appeal to them, too.  I have seen it happen.  I know it can be done. 

Christians - mocked and tortured by Communists - have forgotten and forgiven what has been done to them personally and to their families.  They do their best to help the Communists pass through the crisis and find teh way to Christ.  For this work they need our help.

More from this great book.  These words are from a letter written by a young Christian girl regarding the witness she has shared with another 19 year old Communist girl.

When you listen to those who loudly deny God, it seems that they really mean it.  But life shows that many of them, although they curse God with their lips, in their hearts have a great longing.  And you hear the groaning of the heart....They seek something and wish to cover their inner emptiness with their godlessness.

* For more resources and information about persecuted Christians and the Underground Church visit Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com). 

2012 Goals

I haven't finalized my list of goals for 2012, but here are some things that I hope to accomplish this year.

Activities:

1. Read 24 books
2. Take Jacob to Red Sox game in Kansas City, MO
3. Take the kids on a camping trip
4. Hike up Pike's Peak
5. Run another marathon
6. Something special for my 10 year wedding anniversary
7. Pay off 3 debts
8. Get down to 190 lbs (current weight 210)
9. Paint some rooms in our house
10. Shoot my first pheasant

Some general behavioral things I'm working on:

1. More patient
2. More generous
3. More friendly

As a parent:

1. Teaching my kids the Bible
2. Meal times more intentional as a family
3. No yelling
4. Praying with the kids
5. Volunteer event as a family
6. Involved in their activities

As a husband:

1. More generous
2. More gracious
3. More gentleness
4. More dates
5. More listening
6. More serving
7. More fun

As a Christian:

1. Be devoted to Jesus
2. Be authentic with others
3. Pursue holiness in all things
4. Serve my church and my community
5. Base all things on the Bible

Reflection After Preaching at Quarry Church

Last Sunday I had the privilege of preaching the sermon at Quarry Community Church in Monticello, MN.  The Quarry is the church that Stephanie and I helped plant in 2001 when I served as the Youth Pastor.  This was just the second time we have been back since we left 6 years ago, and the first time I have preached there since leaving.  It felt so good to be back, see the growth the church has experienced, and to reconnect with old friends.

The reason preaching at the Quarry meant so much to me is that it represented the closing of one chapter of my life and the opening of a new one.  That's because the last time I stood on stage at the Quarry was when I told the church I was resigning my position as Associate Pastor in order to focus on healing my marriage and my soul.  For the last six years I have been working hard to eliminate sinful patterns of thought and behavior from my life.  By God's grace I can say that I have walked in more freedom during the past year than I have since 8th grade.  My wife and I are serving and loving one another and God is leading our family to an awesome future.

Since leaving the Quarry I have had to face down some very tough things.  It has taken years of counseling, painful confessions, copious amounts of love, grace, and forgiveness from others, accountability from friends, and determination to change from within myself.  Standing up in front of the people of the Quarry and preaching from a place of integrity and authenticity was a confirming act of God's blessing and goodness in my life.  I don't know if I'll be asked to return again to preach there (or if God will ever call be back to full-time ministry) but I am so grateful to all who have invested in me and played a part in bringing me to where I am today.  And I am most grateful on earth to Stephanie my beautiful wife, and foremost grateful to Jesus Christ who was not content to leave me the way I was, but who broke so that he could reform me into something even more useful and glorifying to God.

His Kingdom, not Your Thingdom

Your time, talent, and treasure have been entrusted to you by God, not to dead end on you and your Thingdom, but rather to be invested in the building of God’s Kingdom.  A kingdom that grows through every act of kindness, through servant-hearted men and women who serve in all kinds of capacities, through people who give away their wealth proportionately to what they earn, through individuals who see small needs in the people around them and meet those needs without expectation of return, through people who build businesses to fund ministries, through people who open their homes in acts of hospitality, through people who serve on non-profit boards, who invest in the next generations as teachers and small groups leaders, through people who work to make their city great, through people who serve in armed forces and public services.  Through all sorts of men and women who lives have been captivated by Christ and who are committed to lives of generosity.

Driscoll and the Generosity of Jesus

Pastor Mark Driscoll put it like this,

Jesus was generous.  He was generous to become a human being.  He was generous to go to the cross and suffer and die to pay our debt of sin to God.  Three days later, he rose, conquering Satan’s sin and death, to give us the generous gift of God the Holy Spirit, to give us the generous gift of salvation, to give us the generous gift of eternal life. Jesus is the greatest, most generous giver who has ever given. And his greatest gift was himself as a substitute and sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins. Our Jesus is generous. Our Jesus is gracious. Our Jesus is a giver.

Are You Robbing God?

*more info cut from the sermon I'm writing for Jan 15

Imagine with me that you invested some of your money with an investment company hoping for a gainful return and after a few months you found out that the broker you were dealing with took your both your invest and your earnings and started using them like they were his own.  Instead of putting it in high performing stocks, he was using the money for betting on the Vikings (which of course was like giving it away), eating at Manny’s Steakhouse and all kinds of other self-serving pleasures.  

Wouldn’t you be indignant?  Wouldn’t you say, “I need a lawyer.  I’ve been duped.  I trusted that guy to be wise with the resources I gave him, and he’s squandering it all.  I’m getting robbed!”  Wouldn’t you say that?  

That, in fact, is what God says about you and I.  In Malachi 3:8-9 the Lords says through the prophet Malachi, “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.”

Tim Keller points out that the word ‘rob’ in this text isn’t just like taking candy from the Kwik Trip.  This word ‘rob’ is used to describe what would happen when one nation would invade, pillage, oppress and rape the people and resources of another nation.  And in this text God speaks through Malachi with the message saying, “I gave you so much and I trusted you to be generous and get a good return on my investment.  And instead you’ve invaded and pillaged me!  You stolen what doesn’t belong to you and used it all for yourself”

Most of you probably don’t think Malachi is talking to you this morning.  Like the nation of Israel you’re probably thinking, “Me?  How do I rob God?  I’m middle class Monticello?  I only have two cars, two game systems, and two bathrooms in my house.”

Well here’s the insidious thing about generosity’s evil brother greed - almost no one thinks they are greedy.  It is the the sin no one confesses, because it is the sin know one thinks they’re guilty of.  People know what lust is.  They know what pride is.  They know what gossip is.  They know what adultery is.  But very, very few people would ever say, “Greediness is my biggest sin.”  And do you know why?  Because we can always find someone around us who has more than us and we can say, “Look at them.  They’re greedy.  My boat - its only 14 feet, that guy’s is 20 ft.  He’s the greedy one.  Look at that lady - so what if I have 10 pairs of shoes - she’s got a whole closet full.  Man she is really greedy.”  

We get so caught up in our own little “thingdom” that we neglect being generous to God’s “kingdom.”  King David spoke to the assembly of all the nations greatest leaders - the richest, most powerful men in the land - and he reminded them - “ITS NOT YOURS!  IT WAS GIVEN TO YOU BY GOD.  IT IS FROM GOD AND IT IS FOR GOD.”  

And this morning I stand in a room with some of the richest men and women in the entire world.  Did you know the average American, according to Pastor David Platt, lives on $90/day while, by conservative estimates, 75% of the rest of the world lives in less than a $1?  That makes you and I some of the richest, most powerful people in the world, and we are reminded today in God’s Word “It is not yours.  You own nothing, and you manage everything.”

Book Review - The Ledge

Yesterday I finished book #1 of 2012.  It is a mountaineering book called The Ledge, written by Jim Davidson and Ken Vaughan.  The Ledge tells the story of Jim Davidson's climb of Mt. Rainer, June 1992.  The glory of the summit was soon tarnished by the death of Davidson's friend Mike Price after both men plummeted through a soft snow bridge down into the depths of an ice crevasse during the descent.  The high point of the book is the detail of Davidson's amazing climb for survival 80 feet up nearly vertical ice with minimal equipment.

In the beginning of the book Davidson details some of his experience's working for his father's painting company, and how those times shaped and influenced him as a man.  He also shares the story of who Mike Price was and how the two of them became such great climbing friends.  The end of the book contains a brief section explaining how he has since coped with survivor's guilt, the lessons he's learned since the climb, and how he has worked to honor the legacy and memory of his friend Mike.

Despite the tragedy involved, the book includes some great insights about pursuing your dreams, reaching to unimaginable heights, persevering through trouble, and pushing yourself to accomplish more than you ever thought you could.  Davidson shares some thoughts about how being level headed, analyzing your resources, and determining what you can and cannot control are not only skills that enabled him to survive his climb out of the crevasse, but are also skills anyone can use to overcome crisis and trouble situations they may find themselves in.

Here's a quote from page 249,

In time, I recognize that the most important things I learned were not about scaling overhanging ice walls but about what allowed me to climb out of that crevasse.  Life is full of scary crevasses.  Illness, accidents, and financial disasters can appear without warning.  Seemingly secure institutions like banks, businesses, and marriages collapse, lust like snow bridges weakened by the sun.  At some time, everyone will fall into a one of life's crevasses; mine juts happened to be a crack in the ice.  Crawling out of these crevasses, overcoming life's challenges, is something each of us must face.  Finding resilience for surviving and thriving through adversary is part of the climb.