Is your church a thermometer or thermostat?

I have been reading the book by John Piper "Bloodlines."  I can't review a book that I haven't yet finished, but I have thoroughly appreciated the book thus far.  I have wept.  I have been convicted.  I have been challenged to understand things I have never considered.  I can't recommend this book highly enough...for having not finished it yet.  Early on in the book Piper begins with a representation of Martin Luther King Jr.  The book is dealing with race and the gospel...where else would you start?  Piper squishes these two quotes by Martin Luther King together and I think the point is clear.  

"There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed in. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society."


"If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will."


Turns out to be a pretty prophetic voice.  Many churches today are obsesses with developing the best techniques to know what will be the least offensive message to bring and the most inoffensive way to present it.  MLK was right.  The gospel transforms societies.  The church that stands on the gospel will stand against those who would disregard God and his standard for purity and holiness.  When the church wants to befriend these people they forget the words of James "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?"  


God has not been unclear in His declarations for our modern day.  Emperor worship and infanticide, were acceptable and popular in the days of the early church.  The early Christians died, standing against it.  Racism was clearly wrong even though some churches argued for its institutions.  Whatever argument is made today trying to validate abortion, homosexuality, or a myriad of other issues, the church is called to stand (and keep standing) for truth!  


If your church is a thermometer that is just reflecting back the values that are popular in our society, it may be big and popular...but it is not really a church.  It has become a social club that has lost moral authority.  That authority is grounded in Gods word...depart from it, and there is nothing left.  But it is not enough to simply refuse to mimic the values of a godless society.  We must strive to engage and change.  I am convinced this change will not be accomplished in the voting booth.  It will come by Jesus Christ and his glorious gospel.  that is why the church must be bringing the message.  A thermostat works to understand the temperature of society...and then works to bring it where it needs to be.  

Would You Dare Ask God for Something?

The story I am about to tell is not my original thought.  I can't however remember where I read this illustration.  It has impacted me powerfully, but I am sorry I can not attribute the story to the source.

Imagine with me that you have a really wealthy rich uncle who loves you very much.  He calls you on the phone and invites you to a home that he has had built for you.  That's right, he has built a home with you in mind.  No strings attached, he wants you to come and receive the home.  You travel to his, well..., your new home and it is amazing.  It is everything you could hope for in a home.  Your uncle has spared no expense.  When you enter the home you see that he not only built the home, but he has furnished it.  He has taken great care to know your preferences and the whole house is furnished better than you could have done it yourself.  You tour your new home with amazement and come finally to the dining room.  When you come in you find that your uncle has prepared a celebratory meal to welcome you.  All your favorites are on the table, it is a grand feast.  As you sit to enjoy the meal you reach for the salt and pepper.  Now you realize that your uncle has forgotten one detail.  There are no salt and pepper shakers on the table.  Then you ask, "Uncle, can you please provide me with a salt and pepper shaker?"

This imaginary uncle may respond in one of two ways.  Maybe he will be offended.  Maybe he will call you a discontent ingrate and lecture you about counting the blessings he has provided instead of focusing on the one detail you are without.  You will appreciate the gift he has given even as you flush with the embarrassment of having been shamed with your inconsiderate approach to your uncle.  Or perhaps he will respond differently.  Maybe he will survey the table and with a chuckle in his voice he will say, "I failed to get the shakers?" He will will say I have given all these good things to you, of course it would be my joy to add such a small detail to the gift.  You will enjoy your meal and realize you have a good uncle.

With all stories, you can't make all details into direct parallels.  I want to ask you to consider which kind of uncle best represents your view of God.  Obviously God is not the kind of God to forget any detail, however small, so it doesn't carry straight across, but I want you to consider how you view God.  Do you think God receives our approach to make a request of him with resentment or with joy and grace?

Can I suggest that the God of the Bible seems better represented by the second uncle's reaction. Romans 8:31-32  "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  (32)  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"  He has given his best, what would he now withhold?  He invites our requests.  Luke 11:9-10  "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  (10)  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."  He goes further to say Luke 11:11-13  "What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;  (12)  or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  (13)  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!""  If sinful fathers can lovingly bless their children see how a sinless God blesses his children with all good things...and best of all, he gives himself.

I hope you will approach with confidence God's throne of grace.  I hope you will come as His child through Jesus Christ.  Yes come humbly, but because of God's goodness you don't have to fear you are being presumptuous to ask.  You have been invited!

Stinkin' Thinkin'!

Jesus was walking out of the temple when he came across a man who was born with a disability.  He sees a man who has been blind from birth. John 9:1  "As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth."  That is in itself, remarkable.  Jesus saw a man.  I was just visiting with a friend whose son is paralyzed with cerebral palsy who was discussing the joy it gives him when someone sees his son and engages him instead of looking away or looking through him.  Jesus saw this man.  He saw him as a man.

The disciples didn't so much see a man, they saw an opportunity for a theological discussion.  They didn't necessarily even care who it hurt. John 9:2  "And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?""  That's what the good ol' revival preachers used to call stinkin' thinkin'.  They assumed his disability, his blindness, must be a result of his or his parents sin.  Jesus gives a quick refuting of this thought process which still wields a great deal of destruction for many in the church today, and shows why this suffering had come into this mans life. John "9:3  Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him."  Wow, this man's suffering is a unique opportunity for God to display his glory!  It has been a hard privilege.

In fact Jesus does a Christ exalting miracle in this mans life.  He gives him eyes that can see.  Then he gives him spiritual eyes that begin to see more and more.  By the end of the story this man is worshiping Jesus.  John 9:38  "He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him."  Even as this miracle was in the works we see the influence of the stinkin' thinkin' that has marred this mans psyche.  He has the same understanding of God as the disciples when he responds to the Pharisees back in John 9:31  "We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him."  The implication of that statement is blind worshipers get to see while blind sinners stay blind.  If you are blind or suffering then you must be a sinner.  You or your parents?

My hope is that Jesus rescued him from those scars.  I hope he was given eyes to see the glorious Jesus who came and died for us while we were yet sinners.  I hope his eyes were opened to see not his own approach to righteousness but the miracle of Jesus declaring him righteous.  My hope and prayer is that you, reader, might come to see and worship Jesus this way too.  


 

A Disabled Person's Great Need.

Until four months ago I was (I am ashamed to say) almost completely unaware of the needs of the disabled people in my community and their families and caregivers.  The horizon of my world expanded a bit when my my son was born two months premature.  For weeks we had been at our local hospital trying to stop my wife's contractions but nearing the end of June nothing was to be done.  We awoke early in the morning, my wife was flown to the nearest large city that had a NICU that could provide the care a baby born so early would need.  The concern was his lungs.  When a baby is born that early, it is hard to know how developed their lungs will be.

I can remember the day clearly.  By the time I got to the hospital my wife was under an hour away from delivering our son.  As he was delivered the room sprung into activity.  Nurses and doctors were caring for my wife and for our baby boy.  I tried to find my peace in the Lord as we waited to hear how he was breathing and how everything else was looking.  The next few moments were incredible.  His lungs were healthy, he was breathing fine.  His heart looks good!  the reports came in one after the other in a matter of minutes.  The doctor relayed the news, everything looks good.  And then, without even looking up she said "And you know we think he has Downs Syndrome right?"  No, we hadn't done any screening, I was floored by the news.  All the good news was rolling in and then this seemed to come crashing in like some joke that I didn't get.

Over the next few days I sought to bless my wife, bless our other four children, and try to read as much information as I could get my hands on about Downs Syndrome.  Most of the medical information I read was pretty bleak.  I thought it could have been written by Rabshakeh outside the walls.  One percentage after another was given to describe the heart defect I should expect, the intestinal issues that would probably require surgery, the hearing issues, the developmental difficulties...on and on it went.  I had to come to a place where I recognized that the God who delivered my son safely into this world, would see him through this life, whatever difficulties lay ahead.

These were the words I tearfully read in the NICU as I watched my son sleep under the lights and hooked up to all the equipment.  Psalm 71:5-6 " For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.  (6)  Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you."  I know hard times may lay ahead, but we will trust the Lord in them.

As I mentioned, my horizon expanded that day.  I have the hope of Jesus Christ to walk through this season.  Many organizations reached out to us, some were very gracious and much appreciated.  None offered the hope of Jesus Christ; the hope and help that comes in the gospel.  So God has allowed us to begin a Disabilities ministry through our church.  I am excited for the opportunity to see Christ magnified in the disabled community.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a disabled persons greatest need.

I think that is made evident in Luke 5.  Some men bring to Jesus a paralyzed man.  Jesus has compassion of the man and speaks his grace to meet his greatest need.  Luke 5:18-20  "And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,  (19)  but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.  (20)  And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you.""

Jesus forgave his sins.  of course he wasn't done, he would also bring healing to his body, but if the story had ended right there, Jesus would have given the paralyzed man the best he had to offer.  He removed his sin, no barrier remained for him to walk with God for all eternity.  A few years of laying paralyzed would become "light and momentary affliction" in the eternity with almighty God.  I don't make light of his disability or anyone else's.  I mean to highly exalt the glory of Jesus Christ over any of the trials of this life.

I hope you know this Jesus. I hope you have found in him the forgiveness of your sins that you might walk with him forever!

Getting out of the Pool

I am sure every parent knows the drill.  If you have ever taken your children to the swimming pool for a day of fun in the sun, you understand what it is to be misunderstood and under appreciated.  I don't mean your kids don't love the fact that you took them to the pool, but at some point you have to tell them "It's time to get out of the pool."  This is rarely very well received.

Picture it with me.  The day started fine and fun.  As the afternoon has moved on you have seen the growing clouds in the distance.  You have felt a few small drops of rain and the breeze growing ever so slightly stiffer and then it happens.  You see the distant flashes of lightning.  The time has come.  You say to the kids "It's time to get out if the water, dry off, and get in the car."

The children come to the edge of the pool with a great deal of disappointment because fun time has drawn to an end.  In their little minds it seems so arbitrary, you are the reason fun has stopped.  If they were upset at the edge of the pool wait until they get out and feel that "ever so slight" stiff breeze.  Now they are freezing cold and shivering and very unhappy.  They had been playing hard which had distracted them from the knowing hunger in their stomachs and now their misery only draws attention to the fact that they need immediate nourishment.  They are not having fun, they are cold, they are hungry, they are tired and you did this to them.  You can try to help them understand the reasoning behind your decision, but they are way past making any sense of it.  It's time for the noisy ride home.

In the Bible we read the words of a "now much wiser" king Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 4:34-35  "At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;  (35)  all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?""


The rest of the Bible agrees with Nebuchadnezzar that God is providentially in control of all things.  The Bible is not unclear on this doctrine, but I think the implications of this truth make it hard for us to want to believe.  One of those difficulties is the suffering that comes into our lives.  It is hard for us to imagine that God could stop the hardship if he wanted to but he allows it to happen.  This feels arbitrary.  It feels unloving.  And yet the Scriptures remind us Rom 8:28  "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."  Not everything that happens to us is good, but God is working all these things for good.  Even what other men "mean for evil" God "intends for good."


Let me encourage you to recognize that God is good and loves you.  He is wise.  He is powerful.  He may take you intentionally through a season of life that feels like the kids getting out of the pool.  You get hungry, cold, tired, and your not having fun any more.  Trust God.  Trust him whose eyes are on the distant lightning that he is taking you through this season for your good.  He is accomplishing something!  Trust that he is not arbitrary or unloving or powerless.  He is blessing you in the midst of hard things.  If you can trust God through suffering you may say with Job in Job 42:5  "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you..."

Me On My Best Day

God often reveals things to me through my children.  I am sure I am not alone in that reality.  As I strive to teach my children about their perfect heavenly Father through their relationship with their flawed earthly father God takes the opportunity to teach me about my relationship with Him as well.  I experienced a great and humbling example of this last night.

After returning from church and getting the kids through the routine of snack, brushing teeth, putting on pajamas (which are only going to come off within minutes of getting sent to bed anyway), praying together, and getting in bed I heard a tremendous commotion.  My four year old daughter had sneaked into my medicine cabinet somewhere in the process and helped herself to a cough drop.   This is obviously a big no no in our house.  I had no idea however.  But as she was making her bed her older brother smelled the cough drop and asked her if she had taken one.  She immediately burst into tears. Down the stairs she came with all the melodrama of an over tired four year old.  She was sobbing deeply as she crawled into my lap and I could barely make out her confession through the chest heaving sobs and tears.  I was trying to decide how to react, she had offended one of our big no no's and yet hear she is obviously broken about it.  As I was thinking she laid hold of my face pulled me to look square in her eyes and said, "Dad please forgive me, please do you forgive me?"  I hugged her close and said "Yes darling, I forgive you."  After a few words of caution about the danger of getting in that cabinet she went up the stairs laughing.  The laughter betrayed the fact that she actually knew our relationship was unhindered.  Nothing remained between us.

I looked at my wife across the room who had been watching all of this in silent amusement.  Then it hit  me.  That encounter is my relationship with God on my best day.  I want to live a sinless day, but I know that I do not.  I am plagued with inner pride, lust, desires, selfishness, and this list would get very long to be exhaustive... Even as God grants me growth in all of these areas I still have them in my life on a daily basis.  On my best day I am really broken about them.  On my best day I come confessing and weeping before the Lord and seeking forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  On my best day he looks me square in the eyes and says "yes darling, I forgive you."  On my best day I rise from the encounter filled with laughter because I know Jesus did everything required to deal with my sin.  Nothing hinders my relationship with God.  This is my best day!

I hope that you know God this way.  I hope you have the confidence when you cry out to Him that in Jesus Christ you are forgiven all your sin.  I hope you are walking in the joy of that relationship!  

Blessed to be home.

So I am picking up on the blog again after weeks away.  There was the time away in India, which was awesome ministry.  In addition there was the time away recovering from the food poisoning or bad stomach issue I contracted while in India.  Then there was the time away from blogging as I caught up on the rest of life from the first two times away.  At any rate I am blessed to be home and back blogging. God has been very good to me.  I am thankful to be home and eager to return to Mumbai if God will grant me that privilege.

You can check out the ministry we worked with at their website http://www.sevambs.org/ and I hope you will.  These are men and women who are ministering a midst tremendous needs.  It is incredible to see Jesus moving in the middle of incredible spiritual darkness and intense poverty.  In the middle of all of this Jesus shines brightly.  I am again reminded that there are not political or ideological solutions for this level of need, but it is the gospel that is "the power of God for salvation to all who believe."

I hope to share more posts in the days and weeks to come.  I hope to share more boldly.  I hope to share more humbly.  Thanks for reading.