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Give Me Your Eyes

This song has really been on my heart recently. When was the last time you really stopped to take a look around. Every single person around you has a story, they have their own struggles and heartaches, they have their own issues, yet each one of them is extremely valuable to God.

Even with the whole Casey Anthony thing, do we see her through our human eyes? Do we secretly hope that she gets what she deserves? Do we see a lying sociopath who miraculously got away with murder?

Or do we see her through God’s eyes? God sacrificed himself for her sake, too. She may or may not have murdered her daughter, but she definitely is guilty of being a horrible mother. But I believe God still views her as one of his image bearers who has become seriously tainted. Yes, she has some serious issues and needs mental help, but she’s never going to live a “normal” life again. She may never even know love again in her life.

The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

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A Perversion of Nature

That’s me. A perversion of nature. Well…at least that’s what I was.

Well…at least that’s what I thought I was.

And you were too! You can pretend like you weren’t, but you were. Or at least you thought you were. Because that’s what you’ve been told.

“You’re not good enough/ thin enough/ tall/pretty/athletic/spiritual/holy/rich/smart enough.”

“You are weird/ a freak/ a perversion of nature.”

“No body would ever want you. I mean, look at yourself. Of course you should be insecure about your body!”

“Buy this brand/ that car/ these pills/ those gadgets because your life is incomplete and meaningless without them.”

LIES! Every one of them. Nothing but lies. Yet we believe them! Every day we buy into the lies that we’re not good enough. Even in the church we begin to believe that we’re not holy enough/ faithful enough/ righteousness enough and that God could never love us just the way we are.

I had the privilege of seeing a short film call The Butterfly Circus. Andrew Baker showed this film on the last night of Uplift at Harding University.

Please, take 20 minutes to watch it. Then take another 20 minutes to show it to someone else who needs to know that they are loved/ they are good enough/ they are not a perversion of nature.

God sees so much more in us than we could ever imagine.

The Butterfly Circus – HD from The Butterfly Circus on Vimeo.

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Independence Day

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, and yes, they DO have the fourth of July in Britain… In America we celebrate the day when our founding fathers rightly declared:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

As inspirational as those words are, our generation may be more familiar with the words of Bill Pullman who played the president in the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. I still get chills.

And then there are the words of Paul in Galatians 5:

1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 

13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 

Sure, we are living in a free country. We enjoy freedom and independence far beyond what most of the world could even imagine. But how are we using that freedom?

So often we use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. We buy into this “American Dream” which is driven by free market / capitalism. We begin to believe the lies that we are only as good as the stuff we own. We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like – all under the guise of “the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

So are we really free? Or are we shackled by our greed, desire, and lust?

That song I posted last really says it all. True freedom comes when we surrender our rights, break past our comfort zones, and love our fellow humans. Christ came to set us free from the sin that so easily ensnares us.

Paul told us not to be conformed to this world but be transformed. Peter told us not to be conformed to the passions of this world. John told us that the world and everything in it is passing away. The writer of Ecclesiastes told us that everything under the sun is nothing but a vapor.

We may be free politically and religiously, but are we truly spiritually free?

We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We are going to live on. Today is our independence day!

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I Shall Be Free

This song played before the drama performances this past week at Uplift. It’s incredible!

When was the last time we really loved without limits? Without fear?

Are we really free to love whomever or do we shackle ourselves up by our own fears/ desires/ preconceptions?

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Uplift of Bust

I’ll be out of pocket for a week. I’m taking a group of teens down to Harding University for Uplift, a week long camp. I won’t be updating during this time, but I’m sure I’ll have much to talk about when we return.

Until then, keep us in your prayers. Pray that God will use this time to move and work in the lives of these teens.

“Okay, I love you, buh-bye!”

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Saints and Sinners

In my teen class last night we were discussing holiness. What is holiness? What things/people are holy? What’s the opposite of holy? Questions like that.

And then I asked, “Do you feel holy?”

As I looked around the room at all the shaking heads, it hit me. If we don’t buy it for ourselves, how can we possibly convince others of it??

If we don’t believe that we are holy and that we share in a holy experience through Jesus, how can we possibly take that message to others?

Peter reassures us that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

When Paul addressed his letters, he often addresses them to the “saints” in a certain place (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2). This word “saint” literally means holy one. These letters were written to the holy ones gathered in Ephesus, Collosae, Rome, etc.

The opposite of holy is common. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to pull us out of our common life, this common human experience plagued by sin, pain, rebellion, etc., and to catapult us into an existence unlike any other human experience. We have been taken out of the common and placed into the holy. We have been called “out of the darkness and into his wonderful light.”

But this doesn’t mean that we are free and clear when it comes to sin. I can testify that I have sinned WAY more after becoming and Christian than I did before. But that doesn’t mean we are sinners. That doesn’t mean we aren’t holy. That doesn’t mean we should give up, throw in the towel, and quit trying.

You are HOLY. I am HOLY. Even though we don’t always feel like it. That’s why Paul kept reminding them over and over that those Christians to whom he was writing were saints. They were holy. They were sanctified, set apart, called by God.

God has made us holy though the blood of Jesus. This is the truth to which we are trying to win people. So let’s start believing it. Let’s start living it.

You are holy.

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Murderers and Human Traffickers – The Gospel is for Them, Too

Psalm 19 is a beautiful Psalm. In its 14 verses we see three distinct movements:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

The opening verses describe what some call God’s “general revelation.” What can be seen and known about God just by looking around at nature? Paul says in Romans 1 that God’s divine nature and eternal power are clearly displayed in the creation around us. God has revealed a part of himself to the entire human race.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.”

The middle verses (7-11) describe God’s “specific revelation.” The Lord had specifically revealed himself to a certain people at a certain time through a certain medium: the Law. If you wanted to know more about the one who created everything, you would then turn to the Law of Moses. God reveals his character – his love, his mercy, his compassion, his holiness, and his justice – in and through the Law.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

The Psalm closes with this prayer. The last movement brings it down to a personal level. Upon seeing God revealed through the beauty and power of creation, and after being convicted and driven by the revelation of God through the Law, the psalmist’s only response is to devote his entire being to this God. In this way, the psalmist himself is joining the ranks of creation and the Law as one through whom God reveals himself to the nations.

This brings me to 1 Timothy 1:8-11. Paul tells Timothy, “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers — and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which he entrusted to me.”

The law is good if used properly. So how is the law used properly? Not in a legalistic/Pharisaical way in which the law is held over people’s heads leading to manipulation or oppression. The law is God’s special revelation to the Jews through which he made known his character. The people were then stirred in their hearts, repented of their sins, and became in themselves a revelation of God to everyone they met. Or so it was supposed to be.

We often think that Law and Gospel are somewhat opposed to each other. Law is burdensome, gospel is freeing. Law is bad, gospel is good, etc. But Paul says the law is good when used like it should be – as a way of revealing God to the nations, to those who are straying away from God, to those who have turned their back on him and gone their own way.

The whole crux of the gospel is that God has revealed himself fully and ultimately in the person of Jesus. The law was once the fullest revelation of God, but now the law has been fulfilled in Jesus.

And because of this final revelation, even the worst of sinners (of which Paul considers himself, 1 Timothy 1:15) can come to know God. That’s the good news!

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(De)Constructive Criticism

[Seeing as I am a new, young minister, I am going to be studying a bit deeper into Paul’s pastoral letters — 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus. I’ll be sharing some of my thoughts throughout the study]

1 Timothy 1:3-7

When I was in 8th grade, I had an English teacher who was brand new to the school. She was also new to the type of English curriculum we were used to — the good ol’ Shirley Method. To make matters worse, she had somehow lost the teacher’s manual (I think it was actually stolen…). So the entire year she was following along in a student book without the answer keys…and she was often wrong…and I often pointed it out.

Yes, my little brainiac, smarter-than-the-teacher, 8th grade self would correct the teacher often. So often, in fact, that she sent me out into the hall for correcting her! Ha.

As I got older I was not as quick to point out the mistakes made by my teachers, and when I did, I was much more polite and considerate. My concern became less about showing how smart I was and more about making sure my classmates were not “lead astray” or confused by a teacher who misspoke.

When Paul writes to Timothy, the first instruction is to correct anyone who is teaching false doctrines or who is focusing too heavily on myths and genealogies. The term “false doctrine” can be a dangerous one to throw around, and we need to make sure that we use the phrase with the same understanding as Paul and the apostles. But the fact remains that Timothy is given the task of correcting the shortcomings of some teachers.

I don’t think these are “bad” men. I don’t think they are purposefully trying to lead people astray. Paul even says that they want to be teachers. They just don’t know enough about what they are teaching. James gives a warning along these lines in James 3, when he warns that not many people should become teachers for they will be subject to a stricter judgment.

That’s scary to me as a youth minister. Teaching is one thing I do the most!

So what if you are sitting in your Sunday morning class and you notice the teacher talking about something that is incorrect, misinformed, or confusing? What if a teacher is beginning to cause debates, arguments, and unrest among the students?

Correct them. Go to them and discuss your concerns. Study with them more on the topic. Do something!

But the goal is not to make yourself look better. It’s not to show how much you know and how little the teacher actually knows.

The goal is LOVE.

“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (vs 5).

That’s tough stuff. It’s not easy to keep a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith when confronting someone with whom you disagree. But that’s what is necessary if love is to be the ultimate goal in all we do.

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Where God Is

We’ve all been there. Standing on the beach, watching the sunset cast its brilliant reds and oranges across the sky. The sea breeze gently kissing our face. Gulls singing in the distance. The pulse of the waves as they roll in and then back out again.

And then we think, This is the closest I’ve felt to God in a long time.

This is exactly the type of place and time we expect to find God. But what if we were wrong?

In the story of Jonah, the prophet decides to ignore God’s command to go to the people of Nineveh. Who could blame him? That was the capital of Assyria, the largest empire ever known at the time. It was also home to the most ruthless armies ever known. Think Mos Eisley Spaceport: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” But worse. Much worse.

Anger, violence, and death were a way of life for these people. If there were any place on earth where God would not be, it was Nineveh.

Rather than walk into what he considered to be a suicide mission, Jonah decides to head the other direction to Tarshish, a trade/business hub and vacation hot spot along the Spanish coast. Think sandy beaches, palm trees, and breath-taking sunsets. That place of beauty where any person with a soul would experience the presence of God.

Except we are told three times that Jonah was going to Tarshish to flee from the Lord (Jonah 1:3; 10).

So where was God?

The entire book of Jonah is about shattered expectations. Assumptions are turned on end. Black is white, up is down, right is wrong. God is in Nineveh, not Tarshish. The pagan sailors are more religious than the prophet of YHWH. Jonah sings a Psalm of thanksgiving, not lament, while in the fish’s stomach. And God has mercy and forgiveness on the enemies of his chosen people.

God was in Nineveh, not Tarshish. If God was with the Assyrians, could he also be with the strippers and bar tenders? Prostitutes and convicts? Drug addicts and atheists?

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 139:7-12

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Why did God do that?

In our Sunday morning youth class we’ve been walking very slowly through the opening chapters of Genesis. It’s been 6 Sundays and we’re just now into chapter 3. There’s just so much there!

Anyway, it’s incredible how we often have those aha! moments in passages that we’ve read and read and read and have even taught and written about.

I had one of those last week.

I have often heard the question: Why did God put the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” there in the first place?

The assumption is that the tree itself was bad. The first humans were not allowed to eat of it. Ever. Never ever were they supposed to touch or eat of this tree because it was bad. God must have put it there because there could be no free will where there was temptation, i.e. God created temptation…?

But throughout the first chapter of Genesis, EVERYTHING God created was declared “good.” In fact, the only thing that was labeled as “not good” was the fact that the first man was alone. So follow this: 1. God created everything; 2. Everything God created was good; 3. God created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; 4. The tree itself was created GOOD.

God did not create anything bad or evil. So the Tree was good. But how can that be?

Listen to the language used to describe the first humans. They were naked and they felt no shame. They had no knowledge of good and evil. Their understanding of cause/effect and action/punishment were not highly developed. All of this sounds very child-like.

And notice in God’s command concerning the tree that he does not say, “For if you eat of it,” but “when you eat of it.” When the woman relays the command to the serpent, her version is very different. She says they aren’t supposed to eat it or even touch it or they will die.

So our first false assumption is that the tree was somehow bad or evil itself, thus God created temptation. Our second false assumption is that the garden was meant to be a permanent dwelling. We assume that the humans were never supposed to eat of the tree and thus live a blissfully ignorant, childlike existence forever in paradise.

On this assumption we fall more in line with the woman’s understanding of the world and less in line with God’s bigger picture. There would come a time when the humans would be ready to eat of the tree, leave the garden, and face the world on there own. Much like there comes a time when it’s up to the child to leave his parents and make it on his own out in the world.

So the tree was good, and there is indication that they would one day be ready to eat of it and leave the garden. The real problem came when they were enticed by the serpent to eat of the tree before it was time. They didn’t fully understand the consequences of their actions. They didn’t truly grasp cause and effect. They weren’t ready.

The good news is that the garden makes a reappearance. All the way at the end of Revelation, John describes his vision of a city coming down from heaven. The tree of life was at its center. The garden has now become a city. So not only was the garden not intended to be a permanent dwelling place, but the garden itself had changed and grown and evolved into a city – which is a permanent dwelling.

The tree of life is there, but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This city is built for those who have eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge but have proved themselves worthy to eat of the the tree of life once again.