Christmas Thanks

Things I am thankful for…

I am thankful for my wonderful family.
I am thankful for good health.
I am thankful for meaningful work.
I am thankful for friends who really are.
I am thankful for opportunities to share with others in what I know to be life transforming ways.
I am thankful for the joy of sharing in the lives of children.
I am thankful for the wisdom that God allows me to understand.
I am thankful for good books, good food, and good times.
I am thankful for the beauty of God’s creation.
I am thankful for joy in the midst of challenges.
I am thankful for kindness and generosity and excellence whenever I experience it and see it shared.
I am thankful for those who make a good and vibrant community possible by their investments in the lives of others: police officers, medical personnel, firemen, teachers, sanitation workers, artists, poets, musicians, postal workers and the host of those who prepare meals, drive buses, coach little league and volunteer.
I am thankful for my church and its influence for good, its witness to faith in Jesus Christ, and its commitments to sharing the Gospel in countless avenues of ministry and service.
I am thankful for a relationship with my Lord that has transformed every day of my life in distinctive and continuing ways.
I am thankful for God’s abiding, unfailing, and amazing love.

Now Just A Second...

The U.S. Naval Observatory is going to add a leap second to the world’s clocks at 23
hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 31,
2008. This corresponds to 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time. Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one second.

Maybe we could have guessed that we needed more time in this year to figure out how to work on some of the problems that have cropped up for so many. Maybe it has been a matter of people making split second decisions that went wrong. Perhaps some should have waited for the leap second to decide and perhaps a better outcome might have been decided.

While the effect of a leap second may be small from our perspective, just how long does it take to correct an error of judgment, a moral failure, or an ethical misstep? How long does it take to rebuild a reputation, to generate goodwill after a broken relationship, to promote a positive upbuilding agenda after a dismal failure? The time it takes for that always is longer than a leap second, but a leap second certainly won’t hurt us any, if it will give us another moment to consider our need for a greater source of help than our own often wayward thinking. We need the wisdom of heaven, the truth that endures forever, the way of redemption and the promise of hope. We need Jesus and in Him there is life and life abundant. Take a leap second and consider that.

The Clutter Rule

I heard of a family that made a point of every Thanksgiving going through their home and belongings and identifying all the things that needed to be “purged” for the year. Some obviously was for disposal by recycling, others were useful items gifted to charities, some were shared with family and friends -- items that were outgrown or gently used. In addition, they then went and bought new things to give for local charities as part of their “Thanksgiving” tradition. Such a pattern would be helpful tradition for many households in removing the clutter that so easily takes over and in turn recognizing the ways in which your abundance can be of benefit to others.
As we continue in this Christmas season, consider some uncluttering opportunities that may arise for your household. Consider donating useful items in creative ways that bless others. Give joyfully. Give thanks often. And when you are offered gifts…graciously receive them in the knowledge of God’s great gift to you –the gift of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Your Faith Has Made You Well

Jesus spoke those words on more than one occasion as he extended the healing of God’s provision to those who came to him seeking relief from physical struggles. As one of ten lepers who had been healed returned to offer thanks, Jesus told him to “Get up” and “go on your way; your faith has made you well.” This man had discovered his reason for rejoicing in more than a physical return to health, but in a relationship that established his future in more profound ways as one who had confidence and hope in the knowledge that Jesus had healed him. Trusting expectation and plea had led to physical healing, but a response of faith in praise and thanksgiving was a recognition of blessing from God. That kind of faith restores in ways that far exceed a measure of physical health alone.
Persons of faith, who hold an abiding trust in God, who offer Him their praises and thanks… discover the joys of a daily journey with Him. To know Jesus as your Lord brings a joy that extends far beyond the limits of a crippled body or a failing heart or weakened lungs. It brings the peace of God with us…come what may…forever.

Behind the Scenes

November during election years has often triggered vigorous activities related to transitions. In the White House preparations are underway for new arrivals and equally cumbersome exits. Plans for transitions will occur on multiple levels in hundreds of jobs just related to a new administration. Outside the beltway, thousands of Americans remain without jobs, the auto industry is in near bankruptcy, and housing foreclosures loom large for many. In the midst of global recession or natural disaster or global warming or energy crisis or wars…the reality of our times is one of transition, crisis, upheaval and change.
In the midst of such times, change has also come to the church. Ecclesiastical bodies, denominations and associations continue to demonstrate a remarkable degree of flux and transition. Many of these changes center on diversities of perspective, power wielding intentions by certain leaders, and a weakness of spiritual maturity among many who remain nominal Christians. The secular culture appears to dominate the behavior of the church causing it to leave its God-given mission lagging far behind. Biblical mandates to love our brothers and sisters in Christ falter in the face of exclusionary demands and less than Christian world views.
The miracle is that the church has survived and continues to survive in the midst of such times. The genuine church, however you may wish to categorize it, will ultimately be the people of God who live in faith and expectation in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ who has saved them and called them to a holy mission and divine relationship. Whether in masses or in minorities or “the remnant” of prophetic description, the church endures.
Fear-filled rhetoric has filled the air, but the nature of God’s truth remains winsome and redeeming. The joy of our salvation will never go missing among those who follow Christ. The hope we share for our future will not be abandoned in the face of persecution, trial or temptation. When we commit ourselves to following Christ, we find our way, our truth and our life.

Wealth Management

In light of the results reported from Wall Street over the last month, many forms of wealth management have somehow been severely misstated. What instead has arisen is an ugly array of mass miscalculations and overtly exuberant hedging of bets “as in the gambler’s venue” that faltered badly. Investment houses, the nation’s largest banks, corporate mortgage lenders, hedge fund providers, and insurance institutions…all have been affected adversely by the revelations of misinformation, fraudulent lending practices, and a disregard for oversight, verification, and a lack of restraint in leveraged buying practices. In other words…we built an economy that could not be sustained by the foundation of honest labor for honest work. Dishonestly allowed an economy of deceit to be perpetuated by willing victims and unknowing pawns…alike. What has been so strange is the incapacity of normalcy to be reestablished because distrust has risen to such an exacerbating level. Where deceit is revealed to be the order of the day…no one trusts.
We should not be so surprised. As a nation and engaged in an interrelated world economic system…we reap what we sow. Disregarding the poor, the powerless, the weak and taking advantage of the uneducated, the impressionable, and the corruptible, has led down a road yielding the dissatisfying returns of pain and corruption and loss. From the pages of the prophet Amos to the sound wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, we have missed the mark. Justice will roll down and destroy the injustice of such times…and with clearly earthshaking outcomes. Loving God and loving neighbor suddenly become more important in light of fortunes lost and false securities erased. Those who pursue “Securities” as an answer to their life’s great need are just falsely pre-empting where and with whom we find true security. Perhaps with less money, there will be more time for the really important things. Faith, family, truth, justice, love…if we go there…it looks like there might be hope for a truly promising future.

Something Beautiful, Something Good

It is always fascinating to consider the variety of perspectives shared by those who constitute a local congregation of Christians. There are usually a considerable diversity of ages and age-related milestones occurring in the lives of those people. And each person uniquely brings an ever changing variety of life experiences to share from and to offer in relationship. The beauty of this complexity is the unity shared in Christ. It is Christ who brings us together, who unites our hearts, who provides for our best understanding of God’s will and way. It is Christ who has joined with us in our humanity to lead us to our divinely inspired calling as children of God. In Christ we discover our best selves, our best opportunities, and our best gifts to share. I am so very thankful for the church, because it reminds me that in the midst of my own weakness and imperfections there is a Savior who brings me to share in a community of hope a way of promise and joy that allows life to be lived in expectation and celebration. That is a gift I can never repay, but for which I will always be joyously receptive. It is the love of God. That love is what sustains the church. That love is what sustains each of those who share the experience of grace through faith in Jesus.

Bank Robbery?

I heard there was a bank robbery last week at the now defunct Washington Mutual. Only this time there was no bandit, it was a real “inside” job. It seems the new chief executive officer of the beleaguered institution saw fit to sign on to his new job three weeks ago with a $7.5 million signing bonus and a guaranteed $11.6 million cash severance package. There aren’t too many people who can get that much out of a failed bank for three weeks work. Alan Fishman received $19 million dollars in “legal” compensation from a failing banking institution now taken over by the government.
My question is, how can such a “theft” occur in the first place? Is corporate greed so profoundly out of step with the rest of the world that such nonsense can be regarded as business as usual? I will give Fishman his due. In his three weeks as CEO, WaMu did launch an aggressive and no doubt expensive television ad campaign aimed at attracting new accounts. Too bad the cost of those ads didn’t come out of Mr. Fishman’s own pocket. Instead they will likely be indirectly paid for by taxpayers who ultimately provide the “guarantees for depositor’s funds” to such institutions.
There is a passage in Proverbs that reads, “The faithful will abound in blessings, but one who is in a hurry to be rich will not go unpunished.” Perhaps many should consider those thoughts good advice for such times as ours.

God Help America!

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spoke prophetically, even with his considerable measure of politically motivated opinion when he recently chided the United States and other powerful nations of the world for a lack of attention to “freedom, obedience to God and justice.”
It wasn’t exactly where I thought I would be hearing the echoes of years of bible themes from the past, but the last time I checked, Jesus was very much interested in his followers being interested in truth, justice, righteousness and obedience to God, especially as they were evidences of love for God and for our fellow man.
It may be odd to hear such words coming from one we have often preferred to ignore in the name of patriotism. It may seem odder still if they were profoundly true.
The nature of many of the problems at hand in our world today are the result of a failure of justice, a lack of truthfulness, and an insulting disregard for righteousness in relationships toward God or neighbor. When individuals and nations reap the whirlwind of such behavior, it should not be surprising. God loves us all, but he chastises those whom he loves when there is disobedience to His law and unrighteous living out of the bounds of his truth and purpose. The aim of God has always been redemptive. Even the times of testing are meant to remind us of first priorities. Perhaps it will take the crises of the present to awaken repentance and faithfulness once again. As Jesus said, “Those with ears to hear…let them hear.”

Financial Angst

Wall Street watchers precipitated panic after seeing the Dow Jones average drop by 500 points yesterday. International markets followed, and suddenly the stack of cards that is the financial district seems to be tilting. News of larger brokerages collapsing and others declaring bankruptcy or headed to the auction block are numerous, following bailouts of mortgage lenders and other investment houses by the Federal Reserve. Over one trillion dollars of assets are now up for sale due to these overnight fluctuations, but not because the problems happened overnight. We have been experiencing a long period of government refusing to exercise oversight, and a failure of enforcement regarding banking and investments. Too many “slight of hand” activities have put too much leveraged (only partially funded) investment into a state of flux. Paper assets have returned to paper. That has left many wringing their hands over choices and decisions that made fast cash in an earlier day…at the expense of the day of reckoning now at hand.

Jesus shared a parable of talents that reminds us of the importance of making good investments. He reminded us that we should not bury our assets in a way that does not allow them to be useful. Likewise Jesus commended us to recognize that the resources we share are the gifts of God and the opportunities to use them --- daily grace to be matched with wise stewardship.

In consideration of the choices you have each day about your resources, consider the challenge to invest well and often in the lives of those near you. Share the love of Christ and the influence of your blessings in ways that bring blessings to others. Many will suffer the difficulties of putting their trust in things that don’t really satisfy, but as followers of Christ, we can learn about seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in order to know all our needs will be met. Priorities matter. Loving God always trumps the love of money.

New Light from Black Holes?

Latest news in the Physics world is a new particle accelerator set to go online in Switzerland. Some speculate the capacity to mimic nature’s black holes in miniature, along with investigation of physical particles in sizes 10 times smaller than we have ever been able to study before. While a bigger accelerator under construction was abandoned several years ago in the US because of escalating cost overruns…who knows…it might be a threshold event that could open the door to ever more interesting aspects of the universe we live in.
The limits of present investigative tools have been discussed by many, in regard to the limits of our analysis of the building blocks of the created order. As we study the heavens above and the most minute of particles, we are again confronted with the amazing complexity and order associated with this physical world we share.
As I read the book of Proverbs, I am reminded of our reasons for praise, in the wonder of God’s gifts to each of us and the bounty of His wisdom revealed in every new insight.
In the words of Wisdom, (from Proverbs 8:22-31 NIV): “The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”

Drinking Age: Sooner or Later

The recent indication that some college presidents would like to opt out of feeling some sense of responsibility for underage drinking on their campuses has led them to the conclusion that if we lower the drinking age we help their problem. Sadly, according to national statistics relating to alcohol related deaths among teens, indications are just the opposite. When the legal age was increased, deaths decreased by nearly 50%. The sudden binge drinking syndrome reported by these presidents would indicate that most schools could do a much better job of teaching science and health than they are. The facts of alcohol poisoning and sudden heart arrest induced by alcohol consumption are simply facts that need to be taught, understood, and hopefully applied to life’s challenging college environments. My personal memories of the back rooms of college fraternities and sororities inviting new freshmen to get an eyeful and belly full of alcohol available to them via pledge week introductions and the promise of great revelry to follow, commends me to regard the challenge to college presidents as simply an issue of confrontation. Several college presidents have taken the first steps on changing such alcohol promoting activities by nullifying the charters of certain fraternities that refuse to comply with lawful alcohol use.
Beyond that, a healthy regard for personal existence remains a stronghold for considering alternatives to the binge initiatives. It is true that some college students are subject to poor choices…they aren’t so smart. It is true that many older and supposedly wiser upperclassmen on college campuses are familiar with methods for coercing and creating environments whereby underclassmen, particularly coeds, are subject to altered judgment and abuse. The presence of date rape drugs are often linked with binge drinking events and those who are affected by them can be males and females. While the threat of alcohol poisoning and the potential for death are constant in a binge drinking environment, even greater complications can occur when drugs are introduced with the beverages consumed.
For those presidents who are cited as “knowing a great deal about these things” it is my judgment, they would pretend to know less than they should know. In an age of frequent legal challenges to those deemed to be negligent in their duties…it would seem that some college presidents might feel a little vulnerable to the free-wheeling antics of some on their campuses and in effect, be wanting to get rid of the potential for their own court appearances on charges of negligence in matters of campus tolerance of abusive patterns of behavior.
The real trouble lies in the desire to retain advertising dollars for college programs submitted to NCAA sports from beer marketers and coddle the frequently well-lubricated alumni who attend college sporting events. It truly is more basically a “like father…like son” equation in most instances. If parents haven’t set the standards any higher than the legal minimums, most kids won’t have much of a chance in the first place. Self-respect, self-preservation, and the basic desire to live in a productive, healthy way should get higher billing as a way to have a good time.
On one occasion, as I presided over the funeral of a victim of a binge drinking event, I was surrounded by a church filled with college age students. I reminded them that they were meant to live and to love and to care about one another. To put oneself in a physical condition that allows you to disregard the life you live, and negates your response to the needs of those around you, also eliminates the possibility of caring about anyone. Choices matter. For a roomful of people to be in such a physical state of intoxication that they did not know or care that they had one among them dying while they walked around his body...should be such a horrific reality in their minds, that it should cause them never to allow themselves to be so callous toward life again...their own or others.
To those college presidents, I simply say, give me a chance and I’ll testify.

Ten Church Aims

I. Helping Christians to understand and exercise biblical stewardship of their lives and lifestyle choices.

II. Helping Christians communicate Christ’s love as the first priority of relationship-building.

III. Helping Christians to have a vision for Christian influence beyond their own self-interests.

IV. Helping Christians benefit from organizational cooperation and efficiencies through the use of the gifts and abilities of all those in the church who will offer their service as an act of worship.

V. Helping Christians to develop to a level of biblical literacy strong enough to tell the Christian story to the next generation needing to hear and understand it.

VI. Helping Christian people to share themselves in community.

VII. Helping those who are not Christians to believe Christ is in us who call ourselves Christians.

VIII. Helping Christians to embrace the blessings of the wisdom of God with a commitment to teach it, share it, and live it.

IX. Helping Christians to discover the power and transforming influence of forgiveness.

X. Helping Christians to hear and obey the calling of God.

Olympic Efforts

Athletes from around the globe will gather in China this week for the Olympic Games. The sheer magnitude of the task to host such an event will place the spotlight on China and the rest of the world as athletes represent each country that participates.
It is understandably a time for enthusiasm toward athletic effort and national pride for each country. It is also a time for the highest standards of sportsmanship, friendship, and camaraderie. When our sights upon winning become so distorted that we fail to recognize the benefits of relating to others of our larger world community, we lose sight of the opportunities such an event entails.
Let us pray that the Olympic Spirit might be one of honor, hope, high expectation, and celebration. Along the way, may the world discover an opportunity to build relationships and friendships that cross all the barriers we so often build socially, politically and economically.
Pray for the Olympic gathering to be both peaceful and harmonious. Pray also for Christians who participate in the event to bring the light of Christ.

Learning to Merge

One of my traveling experiences this summer found me on the road to Asheville faced with what I thought was a road protest of some sort by a trucker that was blocking the left lane while going very slowly. Another co-conspirator to his right was aiding and abetting this rolling blockade by doing the same. Regardless of the driver’s motivation, after about 30 minutes of sitting stopped or rolling along at less than five miles per hour, it was a bit aggravating, as I saw on a curve that the truck driver immediately in front of me had more than a mile of empty road in front of his truck.
A driver from behind me pulled into the left emergency lane to move around the truck. The truck driver jerked his rig to the left and ran the SUV into the grass, but the SUV accelerated through the grass and passed the truck, speeding ahead to the open road. A long 30 minutes later, we finally arrived at the place where the road lane was reduced to one lane for construction and the right lane moved into the designated “newly formed lane” on the right emergency lane, meaning that we had been blocked for no good reason at all.
Such an incident reminds me of two things. One is that while signs set up along highways are good warnings of what is up ahead, they also can be inaccurately placed, left behind by accident, or not applicable on holidays and weekends when work is not in progress. That said, I do observe them with diligence and caution. On the other hand, it is important in this day of $4 plus gasoline to understand the waste generated by a simple lack of understanding in how to allow traffic to move forward with the most efficiency.
Tom Vanderbilt discovered when he applied a digital model to traffic dispersion and progress, that the best means of merging when lanes are reduced is to move forward toward the “pinch point” where the two lanes become one and then to merge, by taking a gap and giving a gap. It maximizes the usefulness of the available roadbed and limits the impediment to traffic and allows for a return to normal in the most expeditious fashion when the one lane returns to two. That said, please value the place you share on the road with your fellow drivers, not just in your enthusiasm for controlling the space in front of you, but in regards to the safety of all. Driving in a fashion that is unpredictable or “unethical” in terms of forcing many others into useless delay and waste of fuel and resources is not a positive.
Just as all of us must and should respond to the signs of the times, let us not react in ways that add to the problems rather than help them. For the church to recognize its influence in the world, it should not be a roadblock to progress, but rather an engagement of intentional sharing and influence often brought about while meeting others at the “pinch points” and making sure that those on the road understand where they are headed in the first place.

Thanks Thoughts

God has blessed me with an amazing family. I thank Him for each of them every day.
What has continued to be a joy in regard to these loved ones is the way that I can see God working in their lives. The variety of spiritual gifts that they demonstrate is truly a delight to recognize and understand as uniquely their giftedness in God’s grace. The capacities to grow continue to be observable and understood as a part of every day. God has called us to His service, in His world, for His glory. As we follow Christ in faith, we discover again and again the gifts he gives, uses, and blesses.

I encourage you to pause and spend some time to reflect on the blessings of God to your life and to extend a word of thanks and to voice praise unto God for his gracious mercies.
Pray for your family members and share with them your love for them and share with them the joys of serving Christ.

A New Kind of Patriotism

The Gospel passage (Matthew 11:16-30) begins with an accounting of accusatory and threatening statements. Descriptions are made of John the Baptist and Jesus…John was regarded as the ascetic, pious, self-denying prophet and ethical high-roader when it came to people’s general impressions, yet he was labeled by the religious leaders as a nut (they said he had a demon). Jesus joined in on the social scene and was labeled as a drunk and glutton, being repeatedly accused of hanging out with the wrong kind of company, particularly tax collectors and sinners.

So whether it was in the context of feasting or fasting,austere surroundings of the wilderness or the lavish homes of the well-to-do…whether in geographic isolation or in the midst of the city….these who were declaring the message of God to the world were the fodder for after-dinner conversations and to put it lightly, were chewed up and spit out by their critics. They were described in terms meant to diminish them and their message…They were made the target of language meant to undermine their message and to lead others to disregard the messenger.

Jesus said…the best comparison was to note that these people were behaving like children…playing wedding and funeral…. They complained that the others weren’t playing the right pretend game at the right time….
We played the flute…you didn’t dance…(like at a wedding); we wailed…you didn’t mourn (like at a funeral).
All along it seems… we find ourselves being like children…selfish…self-centered…and yet like children jumping from one thing to the next seamlessly …carelessly…playfully…
But when our attitudes and actions turn from play to viscious,malicious, contentious words of willful intent meant to destroy…to kill…to murder the reputation and character….It is something far different than child’s play. It is soul threatening.

Jesus responded by saying simply: Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. (or Wisdom is proven right by her actions.) The invitation to wise action is called for in Jesus’ reminder to those who are rejecting wisdom in favor of their own false opinions.

It was said that the Roman Empire fell when free food and games became the greatest distraction of the masses. Parallel our generation of sports fanatics with those of ancient Rome: The Romans had chariot races, gladiators and Olympic style games…and we have armchair quarterbacks overseeing Monday night football, we have the weekend golf widows waiting for absentee fathers and husbands to share time with the family, we have afternoon baseball prognosticators quoting the stats of players a decade ago, we have soccer moms racing to make practices and get game pictures and picking up the shin guards before the meatloaf burns, and Olympic hopefuls of every type lining up for lessons and coaches and camps and competitions and region and state and nationals and time trials and a media industry that exploits every sport on any occasion for rebroadcast, for the pleasure of sedentary gamers and addicted gamblers and predatory advertisers, for individualized re-dispensing in pay-per-view formats on widescreen high-definition screens with digital surround-sound at anytime, anywhere. We put Caesar’s spectacles to shame. And we stand up and applaud heroically for the athletic few as they parade before the obese masses who are eating $5 hotdogs.

We have multitudes of people who begin each day with expectations of what they think they deserve. Entitlement thinking is everywhere. Some do deserve much more than they will ever receive. Others deserve exactly what they are getting. Still others are failing to show any reason to deserve much at all because they are not, in light of their abilities or capacities, making any effort. Someone recently asked me to tell them where it was, in the Bible, that said, those who could work and would not, shouldn’t eat. It’s found in 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

We have many who are working the systems. Some work the welfare system, or the benevolence system, some work to exploit farm subsidies to their best advantage, some work to establish corporate write-offs by disguising profits with paperwork loses made possible by acquiring larger assets credited as corporate expenses with fast depreciation options. Why are there so many 6000 pound vehicles on the road? It was a favor to the big SUV and pickup manufacturers, not to mention the oil companies that supply the gas. It is standard procedure to play the tax reduction game…for everybody. And to play it to the highest advantage. But look at those with average to low incomes…they have many fewer options for reducing their tax burden.

It seems that we have this sense that we deserve better and should be getting it sooner, faster, more frequently. Almost like television commercials…instead of once every 30 minutes, now they may go on for 3 or 4 minutes every 7 or 8 minutes apart. We have lost our ability to concentrate any longer than that. We’ve stopped reading. The average young adult in America hasn’t read a book in a year and does no reading except for work. Teens phone and text and facebook one another ad infinitum…using code and abbreviations and many can’t write a clear sentence in the language of their birth with correct spelling. At the same time all college graduates in India speak English. And soon China will surpass the US for being the country with the most English language speakers in the world. Who will be teaching English to your grandchildren?…hopefully someone who knows how to speak it, read it, and write it. But they may not be Americans.

The workplace is now dehumanized almost beyond recognition. Corporate decisions are made every day without thought for personnel or families or communities…only the bottom line. And while profitability is the expectation of those who invest in a business…it is only a single factor in what will ultimately bring that business success.

By world standards, many American towns and cities are in rapid decline. We have less educated citizens, less healthy children, less stability in families, less effective infrastructure. Even our churches are declining, it now takes an average of 47 Baptist church members to see one person baptized in a year. We have moved progressively downward in stewardship so now we average giving 3% of our income and call it a tithe and pretend the $5 for PTA membership is just as much an offering to God.

We are fulfilling our own selfish interests at a pace that will bring us to ruin… lickity split. And you can tell everybody is happy to take what they can while they can. We will buy cheap before we will buy quality. Or we will pay a premium for junk if we think it has the right label. We have lost our ability to discern the truth, to see the truth, to live by the truth or to value the truth. We will make choices for today and utterly disregard the needs of others or the needs of the generation that follows us.

America has lost its edge. We stopped working together to build a nation. Instead, we decided to be satisfied with what others can provide for us. More people are looking to work an angle than to angle for work. They want to work smarter and not harder…or just less… like a neighbor we knew a long while back who just never could bring himself to accept a job that payed less than what he thought he was worth. His saintly wife ended up providing most all the family income working as a nurse.

Its an ego problem…it’s a spiritual problem…its a mindset problem…it’s a relationship problem…it’s missing the guiding force...lacking an attentive relationship to God problem.

A teacher can’t inspire a parent to read to their third grader if that parent has no heart to love that child enough to spend the time and take the effort… and to discipline themselves enough to want to teach that child. That is a love born in a life by the presence of God and the light of his hand and the desire that He gives to engage and teach the values important to be taught by example…as much as by words.

We spend so much time in institutional settings, colleges, universities, and graduate schools these days teaching ethics because people thought we had lost them. And we have in our midst so many trying to rewrite their own ethics that they have forgotten that God had already given us a set. And he sent his Son to teach us how to understand and apply them.

There is wickedness in high places…and low places and a lot of inbetween places. We complain about “pork barrel” spending by Congress ( putting hidden special interest projects under the banner of larger more clearly required legislation). But we can just as quickly sight the local group that fails to disclose information freely, or the court case that was thrown out for lack of a witness appearing, or the failure of an injustice to be overcome because a capable person neglected their responsibility at a critical juncture in time. More evil has occurred when those who might have done their duty stepped away from it, than ever when the challenges were difficult and engaged.

We have created “privacy” for each citizen. Privacy that has trashed our mailboxes with notices and unnecessary paperwork and legalese of every sort and has not improved our real privacy at all. It has created a monstrosity of expense for nothing that benefits any of us. Who are we hiding from and for what reasons? What ever happened to the idea that what a person says and does should be something regarded as important enough and worthy enough to be respected and valued rather than hidden and privatized. What happened to the idea that we could mean what we say and say what we mean and our word was our bond?

These days, our entire society operates on a presumption of deceit. That is where we start. We presume others are out to do us in. We assume others will be trying to cheat us, we assume we are the targets of deception; we assume something is hidden in the fine print. We have lost our capacity to trust, our ability to relate to one another in positive ways. We have lost our ability to care about one another. People are so deceptive with such frequency and with such apparent ease of conscience or lack of one that we can’t count on much of anything in regards to someone’s word. What makes that acceptable? It is because we allow it. It because we say it is O.K. by our refusal to say otherwise. How will we find find justice in our society when that depends upon truth for justice, truth for relationship, truth for trust and truth for shared endeavor?

Some of the largest financial institutions in the nation have conspired to deceive those who regulated their industry only to create credit crises for thousands due to their misrepresentations and anything-goes attitude in order to close a deal. Living under the illusion of “no consequences” continues to plague the thinking and the attitudes of people everywhere.

This nation is more than in financial crisis, and it is not a crisis of politic so much as it is a crisis of integrity and the unwillingness to take hold of responsibility and to fulfill it. Is duty the word I am searching for perhaps? Do we have a sense of duty anymore? Have we forgotten about respect for one another as fellow human beings? Do we have respect for ourselves enough to value the work we do, the words we utter, the relationships we enter into? Is there faithfulness any more?

Today we find assaults on the pocketbooks of every citizen, from hundreds of billions spent behind the curtains of “national security measures” and the exploitive fear-mongering generated by the profiteers of war to the tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens and the disproportionately higher percentages demanded from families with much lower incomes.

When we consider the abuses of power, the flagrant greed, the menacing actions of many in high places, will we consider the need for a new patriotism of integrity, generated by the common citizen, shared by the day laborer and the corporate executive, inclined to pursue the good for all in the midst of self-interest?

We have often heard proclaimed that our need is leadership but the answer is not a lack of leadership, but ultimately a lack of followship. That’s follow-ship.…or in another word… servanthood. We have failed to be servants of the Lord our God and in doing so have failed to find an ethic for life and living that benefits and blesses our service to others. In pursuit of our own way, we have failed to follow the way of Jesus. And that is the way of His love.

Can we find sufficient will in the hearts and minds of people in this generation to bring about a new birth of freedom? Or have we sacrificed our freedom on the altars of laziness, ignorance, intolerance and fear? It is time to stand up in this nation and to participate in ideals of wisdom and to share the ideas of those who would serve and work and labor with honor and strength of character and mind to build a stronger, better, and more respected nation.

Take our addiction-laden, psychosis-driven, fear-plagued, stress-loving, mind- numbed, dumbed-down and diseased populace and consider the necessity of some new directions. Might we consider the renewal of our minds in Christ Jesus? Might we consider prisons and treatment facilities with education and work requirements before release? Perhaps we could propose a national medical care system with integrated medical reporting and treatment, that would have a chance of eliminating the system abusers on the giving and receiving ends while improving health in general as effectively as fighting disease. What about changing property insurance systems that insure properties built on flood plains, beaches, and environmentally unreliable building sites, and then also stop using the government as the default insurer for those who do put themselves in such situations frivolously in the first place, much less repeatedly.

Could we not encourage city planners to exercise in design and development sound efforts to integrate transportation, housing, and services into multi-generational communities in which people can once again engage in safe and enjoyable and upbuilding community life? We have segregated ourselves by age too often. We warehouse our college students in dormitories of their age group, pack senior citizens into retirement communities that don’t allow children, and send the wealthy into gated strongholds that imprison them as surely as anything else. We are missing out on the richness of shared relationships across the spectrum of ages, rich in knowledge and wisdom and insight worthy of learning and being shared. We need such for the fabric of our nation to heal and for the strength of our homes and communities and nation.

Where have our values for respecting times for worship gone? What happened to family time? When did teaching our children become only the province for professional educators? Have we forgotten the role of parents as teachers of their children? A child looks to parents for modeling every behavior and action. And they are learning exactly what we are teaching them by our example -- good or bad. It is a necessity that we reengage one another… personally… face to face, in trustworthy and instructive human contacts of concern and guidance and sharing.

Has the time come for a new kind of patriotism? Is it time to reconsider that the government of the people, by the people and for the people must entail the participation of the people with the best possible effort applied to work for positive outcomes for the greater good, not the exploitive benefits for the few? Is it not time to consider the necessity of hard work and anticipated labor in order to be rewarded with income and the benefits of that effort? Is it not time to afford the common working man or woman the dignity of a living wage? Is it not time to consider the task of labor as a worthy enterprise for each person in light of their gifts and abilities. Can we not rebuild the fast disintegrating infrastructures of our nation with the valuable labor of many now unemployed? Should there not be opportunity for basic education available to all, but advancement dependent upon proficiency and progress? Motivation is missing in the minds and the hearts of many today. There is a lack of expectation…and a lack of personal will. Reward and achievement have been watered down to mean getting recognition for something less than one’s best effort. All are clear signs of spiritual needs in the lives of many. Until a person recognizes their own worth, they often fall into the place where the culture in which they engage pushes them. For good or bad, that destroys the will of many to pursue positive dreams and goals. To lack a vision for the future prevents many from helping to promote or sustain a healthy family or community or in the larger sense, a healthy nation. Adding to the problem, when the policies and practices of a community include deception, deceit, and presenting less than the truth, the people suffer in wholesale fashion.

Will we keep on seeking something for nothing? Will we sell our souls to the highest bidder? Will we play games and beg for free food until there is nothing left of our spirit or minds? Will we numb ourselves physically and neglect ourselves spiritually and ignore the truth and excuse ourselves by claiming it is not our fault? Will we constantly aim for mediocrity or less because we just don’t believe it is worth it to do more?

It is a time for discernment, and prayer, and repentance. We are overdue giving proper attention to the things God has for us to hear, to know, and to do.

Wise actions are proven by the powerful results of those actions. The wisdom of obedience to God was more important for John the Baptist than pleasing the crowds or winning the popularity contests for the minds of the people. What mattered was the truth of what was said and done and lived before God.

After these critics brought forth their malicious attacks… Jesus pronounced words of woe upon three cities, Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to Bethsaida, … and you Capernaum. He said if the mighty works that they had seen had been done at Sodom, Sodom would have remained to this day. These cities had in large measure turned away from the words of Jesus…words calling for repentance and faith. What would our Lord say about us…our nation…our city?

Then Jesus offers a prayer of thanks… I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants;

The intellectually entrenched were bewildered by the message…while the least of those with knowledge or experience could understand...The love of God is not hidden from children, but so often has been rejected by those who think they know so much.

To make it your mindset to out-know God…
That’s an ego problem.

The Old Testament has a wonderful passage that speaks to this in Jeremiah 9:23-24.
It says, “Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.”

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
(It was God’s will for children to be able to understand his love.)
The uneducated knew and received more than the brain-trust of the time.

Jesus came with a clear message: Come to me, take my yoke…learn from me…my burden is light. Who is invited? You who are weak… You who are heavy-laden… you in need of rest.

Learn from Me…(be teachable…receptive…willing to apply your senses to the task of receiving knowledge and understanding and truth) He said, “I am gentle… and humble in heart”…(approachable). Jesus was not a teacher without answers nor a teacher unwilling to help. He readily extends to us his wisdom and guidance…if we will receive it.

“Take my yoke,” he said…You won’t chafe under this yoke…it is easy…it fits you…it is made for you…it is customized for your abilities and strengths and capacities. It is in turn enabling you to take the load…the responsibility…the work…the duty…the labor…and handle it without difficulty…because the load…the burden is not heavy, but light.

For all the wisdom of the world, there is a great sense of burden to hold on to it, to take it, to absorb it, to value it, to be able to make use of it…and while this wisdom may be good… in comparison…We are called to take the Yoke, not of wisdom, but of Jesus…whose capacity to bring us what we need is ever more promising…it is a light load…a paradoxical statement we might think, but not if we understand what Jesus is trying to open us up to understand…

Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 NRSV “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Jesus invites us to join with Him…true Wisdom personified…An easy yoke…shaped and fitted by one who invites you to share each responsibility…each weight of life’s challenges…with HIM.

In finding him…you find rest…not the kind that puts you in passive, inactive mode, but rest in the sense of completeness, wholeness…fullness of life…That kind of rest renews you…sustains you …and equips you to find fulfillment in your God-breathed-into life.

Come to him today…come to life in Him…come to Jesus…and know Him as your Lord and Savior.

Have Christians Lost Faith? Or Never Had It?

I recently attended a seminar suggesting that we are in a cultural shift that has rearranged the faith of many along the following lines:

“Salvation is self-realization and self-fulfillment.”
“Salvation is corporate: people from other religions must be part of it”
“We have an altered view of scripture, the role of Christ, and the nature of heaven and hell.”
“We are open to new ideas and influences.”
“God is a continuing Creator.”
“There is an importance of love, trust, and a sense of adventure.”

These views were attributed to “mainline” ministers and “reflective” lay persons.

I see the plentiful evidence of the above in our culture, but I shudder to think that these “principles” would serve as the bedrock description for anyone who identifies themselves as followers of Christ. For Christian faith, Christ is central. Jesus said…”If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23 NRSV) Is that revolutionary? Is that a new idea? Is that the basis for a “sense of adventure” in faith? Absolutely…and Jesus said “those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:24b NRSV)

While many struggle to consider the nature of salvation in terms of this world’s pain and suffering and collective experience of sin and brokenness…there remains the consistency of God’s call to righteousness in light of his revelation and calling. We are called to understand His provision of grace through faith in Jesus. And regardless of the “system” you think God should have for saving us, Jesus is the Savior. Whoever will know God’s salvation will know it through Him. I won’t reserve God’s privilege to love whom he will, and to save whom he will, in His ways, as He will. But there is nothing in my understanding of God’s revelation that would exclude the provision of His son to be our Savior. Call on Jesus.

An altered view of Scripture is not always unhelpful. But an abandonment of scripture is never good. We may alter our views of certain passages of Scripture when we study it more completely and gain more careful insight into its meaning. We may alter our views when we explore the earlier manuscripts in the original languages. We may alter our views when we relate one passage to others in the larger body of scripture. But to alter our view of scripture, as some have done, by calling upon individuals with neither a premise of faith nor an intention to study from a perspective of openness to the witness of scripture, nor to even adopt a basis of historical interaction with the history of the biblical texts, is to find some who insufferably reject, deny, denigrate, and abuse the context and content of scripture for ends that are certainly not helpful to the community of faith or the extending of the biblical witness. Sadly, some have attributed to such individuals great credibility and in the face of their abuses, welcome and embrace their opinions.

For Christians, there should be a willingness to be discerning in openness to new ideas and influences. Such influences should not prevail upon our consciences to reject our experience of faith or to deny our testimony of faith in Christ. Too many in the church seem so enamored with novelty that they have failed to understand that embracing the new does not mean abandoning the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

God does continue to demonstrate His creative and redemptive influence in all of is creation and that is certainly not foreign to the perspectives offered by both Old and New Testament scripture. Love is central to the comprehension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and best defined by the love demonstrated by our Lord toward us. Our relationship of faith, while truly “adventurous” in experience and circumstance, does not necessitate a search for a “novel form of God” or a “new definition of salvation” as pronounced by those who share no relationship of faith in God.

It is no wonder that churches are struggling to survive in a climate where ideas about faith have been so distorted. Open minded people would do well to open themselves to the diligent study of scripture and to the revelation of Jesus Christ. It seems terribly sad that the ideas suggested above would be considered as representative of any significant number of Christians, much less Christian leaders.

While Abraham Maslow’s self-actualization concerns were outlined in his writings in the field of psychology, they should not be inferred to supplant or substitute for a relationship of faith. Our “fulfillment” is “in Christ,” not apart from him.
Salvation is received in the context of faith in Christ, and acknowledging Him as Lord.
God has always used time and place and persons to bring forth an awareness of our need of Him and the biblical story gives clear account of that revelation initiated by God toward humankind. We have not been abandoned to our sin or self-made solutions. God has sent a Savior.

Sin and evil may be a bit old fashioned according to “new age thinkers” but the evidence is plentiful that these problems are not so new, and the weakness of this and any generation lies in the absence of faith for so many. God is indeed the creator of hope for our time. He is the deliverer, healer, and authority for this and every generation.

Perhaps I will be among the minority …but count me with those who turn to Christ in faith and trust, acknowledge his death on the cross for my sins, and the sins of the world, and who trust Him in faith as my Lord and Savior. I am not ashamed of that relationship. I am not ashamed of that trust and faith and belief. And I am convinced with every fiber of my being, that He is my light, my Lord, and my salvation. Yes, that’s personal, and when the love of God is experienced in that kind of an abiding, continuing, daily relationship…those who journey there know it. It is an opportunity for all in Christ.

The Wonders of Modern Technology

I am blessed to be among a group of individuals who have been receiving an amazing number of contacts related to a shared organizational connection brought on by a reply response that in turn relates the message to everyone on the mailing list. It has been amazing to see that when people do what only a few would likely do, unsubscribe to the regular information, the opposite happens, they are mailing themselves to all the others. It is unintentional unorganized spam. Never malicious in intent, only exaggerated because of the responses to others aggravation that furthers the dispersal of responses, that causes some to respond who would not have otherwise, and again it goes on. I laughed thinking about all the times we attempt to contact someone and instead would get a phone message or an unanswered call, and now we get contacts from everywhere that were neither intended to be sent, nor desired to be received.
Another gift of this techno-age is the almost daily invitations from people in faraway locations identifying themselves as needing an agent to collect millions of dollars sitting in someone’s bank account who wants me to have it to distribute for charitable purposes, and allowing me to take a sizable fee for myself if I would be willing to take responsibility. This scam is so old, but so prevalent, and so frequently appealing to that element that “wants something for nothing” that I am sure there are those gullible to respond.
And for all our technology, the televisions with 100+ channel capacity…the last time I checked, there still was only the real ability to watch one at a time. I will subscribe to the first place that will allow me to be reasonably charged by the minutes of time I have my TV on; with lots of options to choose from. And the system that would offer no commercials would get even more of my interest. I am trying to remember the last time that I bought anything because it was advertised on television. I have eaten foods that were advertised there, but I don’t remember making the decision to buy a product based on the TV ad itself.
Perhaps it would do us well to take a technology break…to spend a day without it. Listen to the birds, read a good book, have a conversation face to face with a loved one or friend. It might remind us of what is too often missing in a time when we have given so much attention to information sources, and not enough to the personal processes of knowing one another and sharing together. The greatest need for the next generation will perhaps be to know how to engage in a personal conversation, to know how to sit and read a book, to be able to stay focused on something for more than a few moments. What we do physically and mentally trains our minds. Some patterns and practices should not be abandoned in the name of technologies that depersonalize our lives further. Let technology be a tool, not our master.

My Advice to Graduates

In honor of the season, I wish to offer a few choice thoughts on behalf of those who have at some level achieved academic notoriety in earning a degree. For all the times your parent stayed up late helping you finish an assignment that you should have finished a week before, offer a prayer for their blessing.

For all the friends you made while you pursued these years of academic advancement, remember them as you continue aiming toward future goals and remember that friends are not a dime a dozen. Make the effort to keep in touch. It will always bring benefits. Everyone needs friends. And remember as the old song reminds…”you have a friend in Jesus.”

For many young graduates, this is the time in life to “sow wild oats” or in some other way to suggest “going out and making a real mess out of life.” People make mistakes, but before you go out and make a bunch of them on purpose, stop and consider the fact that no matter how many times you think “you are only hurting yourself” you are also hurting every person who loves you, cares about you, and who has invested in your life in positive ways. Sit down with the book of Proverbs and read it slowly…thoughtfully, underlining things you recognize as helpful to remember. It may save you, and people who love you, a lifetime of heartache.

Many people decide graduation is a good time to walk away from church. You will find a crowd of folks who have adopted this profile. And what you go to is what you get. You will find many who don’t prioritize a relationship to Christ, a lifestyle of faith, or a public testimony of following Jesus. I challenge you to get the religion out and the Christ-following in. If all you have is your parent’s faith…it won’t work for you…it has to be your own. On the other hand, many Christian parents have set a wonderful example of love and care and support for children and have taught them well the love of Jesus. Many such parents have obviously understood what it means to share high expectations and ideals. People who keep settling for less than what would be pleasing to God have settled too soon. As you go searching for great things -- understand the words of Jesus:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things (that you need) will be added to you.”

While not a biblical quotation…it perhaps has the vision of one…In the name of Christ, do as much good as you can, as often as you can, for as many as you can and trust God to lead you, to enable you, and to be with you all the way.

Defining Community

Community: A place of shared identity and purposeful interchange of ideas and understanding.

The above definition is my own. I attach to the understanding of community three key elements. First there is recognition. In communities, people identify one another. They know one another. They recognize personalities and unique qualities. They observe one another in vocational roles and in personal ways identify with one another.

Then there is interaction. People in community enjoy a rich interchange of ideas. They share with one another. They challenge one another. They provoke one another. They employ one another. They inspire one another. They think about one another. They care for one another. They believe in the value of one another.

They find understanding of one another in the context of their engagement. They may now agree, but they find ways of seeing and knowing and valuing the differences represented by other’s points of view. They move past the personal to the collective comprehension of the larger body of persons relating to one another. They value positive outcomes for all. They believe in the capacity of a cooperative spirit to move a group of people forward. They perceive the interests of all worth the challenge of engagement and healthy debate, with a willingness to appreciate and value the person who might extend a less-collectively approved minority opinion. Communities that inspire the best in all of us respect the worth of every individual and demonstrate above all the capacity to engage one another in openness and integrity of thought and consideration of each person’s unique gifts and abilities. Building such a community is not the work of those employing wood and brick and mortar. It is the willingness to share, to think, to listen, and to welcome one another to the conversation and to nurture and promote those places in which we can learn to know one another and appreciate one another.

In all the places we might consider as places for community, the church is clearly a place that deserves to be at the top of our list as a place to find it. At the same time, in order for the church to be the kind of community I have described, it must clearly be Christ-like in spirit and openness toward all.

Refuge

After all the news of the past few weeks, I needed the words of the 46th Psalm. They reminded me that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” As I think about the multitudes of people facing disasters of all sorts this week, I acknowledge that many of those people will only have God’s presence to see them through the next hours and days. Whether in Myanmar with flooded fields and destroyed homes and destroyed roads and stores and schools…only the very present help of God will meet the needs of those desperately seeking the basic needs of life. In the streets of China where buildings fell and thousands died, there is the great hope alone in God’s presence that can sustain.

The Psalmist said. “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.” An invitation to “fear not” has always been the message of God to us. But our fears always stir in the shortsightedness of our pain, in the brief, momentary afflictions that garner our full attention to the neglect of greater truths. Fears stalk our memories and yield only slowly to the power of a truth beyond all others…the love of God for us.

Some may face an earthquake, and others the torrents of storms from the sea, and others may be moved by the floods and troubles of days that may be described in a hundred different ways…cancer, business collapse, war, fire, economic ruin, broken relationships, prison sentences, accidents, disease, death…and the Psalmist still reminds us…” The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.”

The affirmation, the promise, the hope lies in what we must remember in times like these: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

God brings to all of our circumstances, the capacities to change the way things are at any moment, by reminding us to “Be still, and know that I am God!”

In those moments …when we exalt the name of the Lord our God…when we and the earth seem most unlikely to survive, God brings us hope…”The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

Celebrity Call-in

It is the eve of our primary election here in North Carolina and candidates are spending a lot of money on direct mail and direct phone and direct TV advertisement.
Just today I have been called by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Andy Griffith, and a host of other people who didn’t talk to me except on a recorded tape played for my listening enjoyment. I have learned when the polls open, where I can call for a free ride to the polls, who will offer to lower gas prices, who will help to provide health care for all Americans, who will serve the state house with integrity, and in some ways I am very proud that they all want so much to serve the people of this great state and nation.

What I am also proud of is the opportunity we have to vote. I do my best to learn as much as I can about candidates, but to really learn about them is sometimes the hardest work of all. It is easy to hear the ways they spar with one another about those issues that “scream” for attention. Everyone wants lower taxes and no one wants to pay the ones they have. Everyone wants good government, but fewer and fewer seem to have the means to wage the kinds of campaigns that we have today…largely sound bites and snippets of phrases taken out of context used to “attack” fellow opponents. In reality,
the largest contributors to campaigns are often the largest corporations, and with some frequency they hedge their bets on who is “winning” and send money to both sides. It all seems a bit sleazy when you get down to the reality that contracts for government work and appointments to places of power are still big ticket items for plucking in the systems we have created.

But somewhere, down deep inside, the ideals of this nation remain strong. We can be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people…if we remember our own responsibilities to the process. From the town hall to the public square, from the gathering places of friends and neighbors, to the coffee shop conversations and hometown editorial pages, the information is able to be shared in ways that do inform and inspire us to carry out with distinction the processes of this republic. Democracy, while not always able to be “infused” by design, can be undertaken by those who believe in the highest ideals over the lowest common denominators of human endeavor.

Tomorrow will come and go, but the choices we make will be important ones as we exercise our freedoms and opportunity. Never take such gifts for granted.

It Really Needs To Stop

The practice of churches using moneyraising schemes to provide resources for their work is a sad chapter in religious history that continues to plague communities of faith with long-term negative influences. Last week, a priest in South America rigged helium balloons in enough numbers to lift himself into the sky and is now unaccounted for several days after the stunt to raise money for ministry needs.
The occasional roof-sitting preacher may rally a church to action, but when it comes to risking life and limb for the dollar, that is going too far. It is time for churches to return to a biblical basis for stewardship that will provide for the needs of churches and their ministers and the ministries to the world that God intended to be accomplished through his people. It was a very simple system: tithes and offerings. Tithes were given… a tenth of one’s increase. It was a first-fruits offering…the first and the best. It was an intentional, purposeful, act of worship in thanksgiving and trust toward God. It was a shared participation that regardless of wealth or poverty, community status or the lack thereof, it was proportionate giving. A tenth is a tenth is a tenth. Interestingly, it is usually the wealthy that endeavor to justify something less than a tenth as their tithe. They just never were good at math when it came to giving. Jesus said it would always be an issue for those with wealth…they would be continuously challenged to comprehend the basis of faith and stewardship. There are a few who have caught on…but they are few and far between. Freewill offerings like that which supplied for the building of the Temple were described as so generous that they had to tell the people to stop bringing any more…there was more than what was needed. When was the last time you heard of such a thing in modern times? .What we need to remember is the fact that everything we have is a gift of God to us and a stewardship of time and opportunity for a season. Every choice we make is an exercise in stewardship…of the earth, of our knowledge, of our experiences, of our resources and energy. We will be stewards…good or bad. We should be challenged to gain a common sense and positive approach to stewardship principles through a study of scripture and to establish a biblically informed practice. Jesus got more than a little upset with those who turned the place of worship, “a house of prayer for all people,” into a marketplace of moneychangers and livestock sellers. We would do well to remember and chart another, more authentically Christian course of action.
We need teachers and visionaries to take up stewardship as a focus. Environmental stewardship poses one of the most significant concerns of our time. Developing more substantive resources of nutritious and safe food supplies, clean water, adequate systems of agricultural distribution remain key world needs. God has given us some good principles for stewardship. We should start exercising them and put a stop to nonsensical schemes that undermine the foundations of sound stewardship practice.

Sinking Sand?

The financial headlines suggest more than a meltdown in the housing market, the mortgage banking industry, and in many investment houses. The troubles may be diagnosed as a result of more than inflationary pressure brought on by over speculation in the commodities markets due to an excess of investment capital taken out of the market due to poor returns and questionable values of properties and loan packages built upon sub-prime lending to those without resources to sustain payments as variable interest rates climbed. No, our problems in these times stem from more basic troubles, like dishonesty. Greed might be also added to the list. A failure to invest in the future on the basis of something other than quick profit-taking while riding the ups and downs of the emotionally charged marketplace.

Basic to our problems are things like a lack of informed disclosure. But that is a two-sided problem. Many people don’t really want to know the whole truth about the circumstances they are getting themselves into, especially when it comes to financial decisions. Others relish the moment when they make the big score by suckering someone into a deal that pulls the wool over their eyes and takes them for all they are worth. Our problems lie in a lack of truthfulness, an evil intent, a greedy heart, a failure to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Perhaps it is even the failure to love yourself enough to respect the choices you make and the quality of life you live.

Jesus offered a powerful message about living in what we often refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. It is found in Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew’s gospel. The closing words of that passage convey an easily understood message.
Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!”

Every generation will face those seasons of life’s storms. I wonder if this generation will understand that the strength we will need to establish a future is dependant upon hearing the words of Jesus and acting on them?

And if they do not believe...

The invitation to God’s grace and forgiveness are transforming experiences. Not every person has the same sequence of subsequent maturity and practice of faith, but all who receive Christ are renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit for the work of ministry and the glory of God. We are called to faith and mission. We are called to hope and service. We are called to take up the cross and follow Christ and in doing so to be invited to take up the towel and the basin. We are called to set aside our prejudices and to recognize in every life the presence of one for whom Christ died, and rose again. We preach Christ…we teach all the things he taught…we take this good news to every nation. It is work yet to be fulfilled, but with God, nothing is impossible.

The strange circumstance for the contemporary church lies in its departure from classic New Testament Christianity in terms of disciplemaking, ministry, education, and evangelization of the nations. Far too many elements of false teaching and the instruction of men (as opposed to the instruction of God) have been given the priority in many settings. Values are derived from the lowest common denominators of cultural mores, not the morality of the Sermon on the Mount. Crowds are drawn to “prosperity” messengers that make their measures of success the same as those espoused by the pagan culture icons. Financial wealth, mansions, extravagant lifestyles of luxury all point to the failure of looking past self-satisfaction and self-indulgence as motivators.

All the while, our religious climate becomes less and less instructive or influential as salt and light to our generation. The primacy of political power makes appeals to the “religious culturalists” not on matters of biblical ethics or justice, but on the basis of religiously promoted powerbrokering that highlights prejudice, divisiveness, and often twisting appeals for single issue viewpoints to create rhetorical theatre and emotional hostility. Conflict creates interest in the effort to promote a high promise, high vote getting outcome without any general intention to follow through on promoting those views after elections. Using religion as a pawn of politics has only left those in the political arena with dirtied hands and those in the religious community temporarily flattered by the public attention.

Many of those who serve in the midst of congregations today find their labors intensified by the almost constant lack of consistency in general patterns of participation and the erratic and often limited responses that give evidence of individuals following Jesus. Entire communities of faith can be ensnared and undermined in their efforts to communicate the gospel by the clearly dysfunctional efforts of a few. John the Baptist apparently felt the same way about some of the scribes and Pharisees who he not so kindly referred to as vipers…suggesting their danger to the spiritual health of the community then being called to repentance and preparation for the Kingdom of God.

Clearing straight paths must again be the key to renewal in the life of the community of faith. The entanglements and crookedness of spirit and character must be relegated to the dust and the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit must be allowed to burn away the impurities of heart and mind and soul that would prevent the church from being the holy body of Christ.

The list of challenges to the integrity of the church’s mission and message are many. The rise of secular agendas; the treatment of ministers as employees to be hired and fired like football coaches; the people pleasing consumerists packaging of churches and their ministries in efforts to gather a crowd only to create a marketing frenzy to replicate the latest fad or fashion; the failure of excellence and the detraction from divine calling in the suggestion that “what everyone wants by consensus of local cultural behavior” is the way to go, versus the instruction of scripture and the desire to glorify God. The abandonment of our first love…Jesus Christ is the greatest and most glaring missing factor in our church practices and community identity. And that begs the old question of …if they don’t act saved, and they don’t talk like they are saved, and they don’t love like they are saved, and they don’t believe like they are saved, are they?
And that could be the problem most haunting the churches of our time…at least those physical structures called the church. Those places are infected or infested with Christians in name, but not in spirit or truth. True worshippers Jesus said would be so in both spirit and truth.

So what if they do not believe?

Can we expect individuals within the church who do not love God to really be able to love their neighbor or themselves?

It is no wonder they cannot…




So what if they do not believe?

Can we expect them to act on the basis of acknowledging God as the giver of every gift and the creator of everything? If they do not know Him, if they do not worship Him, if they do not acknowledge Him as Lord, why should we expect them to act in trust toward God? We can’t.

So what if they do not believe?

Can we think they consider it important to guide their children, their grandchildren, and the generation of those that follow them to an understanding of faith…if they have no such faith. Of course not.

So what if they do not believe?

Do we assume that by their presence in our midst and their attachments to the world, that they have the heart and mind and spirit of those who love the Lord their God and would desire to lay their lives before Him in obedience and in a willful desire to follow the Christ who laid down his life for them. Of course we cannot.

So what if they do not believe?

They are still blinded by sin. They are still ensnared and enslaved by it. They are still separated from the light of Christ in their hearts…they are still without the indwelling Spirit of God… it is no wonder they are hostile to the mission of the church. It is no wonder that they abandon the worship of God. It is no wonder they do not have ears to hear. It is no question they they do not understand the power of God at work in the world.

So what if they do not believe?

It is no surprise when they are caught in the pursuit of this world’s successes in the way that this world sees as important and that they are personally unfulfilled and unsatisfied and unattached to the work of ministry that God has called to the church to perform…feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, welcoming the stranger, ministering to the widows and orphaned, teaching and proclaiming the gospel to every nation…such agendas do not have their attention because they are not believing.

So what if they do not believe? Then they need Christ.

So what if they do not believe? Then they need the compassion and the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness of God.

So what if they do not believe? They need the good news that Christ has come with that gift of life in Him…and they are called by God to repent of their sins and to yield their hearts and lives to God. You who do not believe… Lay your burden down….hear the good news…receive forgiveness and new life through faith and trust in Jesus…

And if they believe…they will take up the mission of love…they will receive what God alone gives…and they will no longer be faithless, but believing.

John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. One without the other apparently isn’t sufficient. It takes losing what needs to be let go of in order to fully receive the presence of God. The community called the CHURCH, capital C, the WHOLE UNIVERSAL GATHERED COMMUNITY OF GOD’S GATHERED FAMILY OF BELIEVERS to be sorted out clearly enough by Jesus himself.

I hope you already know Him. I hope you believe in Him. I hope you love Him. I hope you serve Him. I hope you will hear his voice and follow Him. For those who do….there will be life, even it means coming through the fire. And for those who don’t believe, even for those who assume the name, but refuse to claim Him as their Lord and receive Him…who refuse to believe in Him and His word to us all; for them there is only the fire.

The truth is…if all you have your trust in is what you can get your hands on…you will lose everything. But if you will let go of yourself and give yourself to God, he will provide you everything you will ever truly need. That is His promise…

For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Believe in Jesus… be born from above…be alive and blessed forever in His love.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name.. ON Christ the solid rock I stand…all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is that branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty, art, and taste and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. For a long time, I didn’t know such a focus of philosophy even existed, though I knew in my own mind it was an almost constant consideration. In some ways, I feel that attentiveness to beauty always goes beyond what most people observe as physical attractiveness and more to the role of aesthetic influence and power. Far beyond the human compulsion to attend to the visual issues of pleasantness, it has always been my sense that just as important, or more so, is the capacity of purpose to be fulfilled.

Human life that fails to discover the character of divine intention within the experience of living seems to share an element of brokenness and dissonance. The factors of human sin constantly undermine the divine intention of fellowship with God.
As the Christian Gospel so clearly spells out in the coming of the Messiah, by the Savior of the world, we find hope and a future bound in the relationship that we may know in Him. Aesthetically, we discover healing and wholeness and meaning and purpose in the context of this divinely initiated redemption. It is beautiful in every aspect. It is joyful in every discovery of divine intention.

Tragic disparity exists in the lives of those who do not experience the divinely inspired…God-breathed-into life. They are caught in repeated experiences of human failings and the unfulfilling tragedy of misdirected worship in idolatries of every sort.
The life apart from receiving God’s grace is futilely bound to a morbid existence without direction and vision.

Aesthetics is in some measure the longing of the human soul for divine order and presence. Likewise in the awareness of the Holy Spirit, there is the continuing recognition of human separation from God and the urgency of human appeal for repentance, change, refocus, redirection, and clearly faith directed to God. Only in such a time and place can there be a transformative experience of human aesthetic comprehension. Separation from God is understood and appeal to God’s invitation to faith is plausible and possible. In the aesthetic brokenness we discover our need and in the divine manifestation of grace we find our vision of hope.

The aesthetic of faith is then a unified expression of God’s working. Willing disciples of Christ are followers…these are those who are responsive to the teachings and instruction of Jesus. The realities of change brought about by this relationship of faith yield compelling recognitions of new approaches to life in every expression.

The New Terror: Ignorance

You have noticed it. The person working the counter at the fast food chain can’t make accurate change. The parent asked to sign their child’s homework and review it with them can’t seem to handle that simple task. The truck driver asking for directions to a place written on a piece of paper, but that he could not find because he could not read it.
To make matters worse, we find those who have been identified as graduates of colleges and universities struggling to use correct grammar in written or verbal communication. Even teachers and teacher’s aides sometimes lack skills in correct usage of language. Employers are reporting difficulty in finding capably trainable employees because of the lack of basic reading, writing, and math skills.
In the U.S., there is a growing awareness that we have fallen behind in the education and preparation of those of the coming generation who will be responsible for the economic success or failure of our nation. One third of Ivy League schools admissions are now filled by foreign students, because they score consistently in the highest brackets academically. When vast numbers of U.S. students show deficiencies in academic capacity in general, we have to look at the underlying issues and evaluate accurately where the weaknesses lie.
Recently, North Carolina changed the way it calculated dropouts to reflect a more accurate counting of those who left school between 9th and 12th grade only to find the statewide high school graduation rate drop from a previously calculated 95% to 68%. If you dropped out over the summer, you weren’t counted previously.
U.S. Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, announced on Monday that there would be a new national standard for tracking student dropout measurements. This came following a report presented by a non-profit group led by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, that noted the critical need for change to remedy current school dropout rates nationally. They reported 1.2 million teens annually drop out of U.S. high schools. Nearly a third of U.S. students will not graduate with a high school diploma. In some areas of the country there is a 70% dropout rate.
Economics has often been touted as the basis for poor achievement. Poor students are reported to have poor grades, poor success, etc. The lack of literacy however has little to do with poverty. Some third world countries are now competing with the U.S. in literacy counts.
The apparent issues more prominent in the educational endeavors for U.S. students have long been noted by the litany of many very capable educators who point to the distinctive breakdown in family life as the essential and critical missing link in the education of many children.
Dropping out is not an option when cooperating parents set a higher standard for their children and demand it of them with loving discipline and clear expectations. Not all children will be at the top of the class, but every child with parents that care can be in class. Students that seem unmotivated often are surrounded by those who model a lack of motivation for improvement. Parents who were dropouts often create a second and third and even fourth generation of low expectation. While not everyone may have had the opportunity of education, no one should hold to the attitude that education is unimportant for future generations. Even the least educated parent should aspire for their children a good education and should be supportive of every effort of their children to achieve such. To do so requires parents who love their children and who encourage their children. Such encouragement is found in the simple basics of daily attention, asking questions, talking with those helping with your child’s learning and development, accepting the guidance of those who have a sincere interest in helping your child to grow in their knowledge and skills. No person is beyond using their abilities to help others in some way. We do have a crisis on our hands as a nation. It begins with the basics of home and family and shared living and responsibility and love and care and forgiveness and encouragement and help and guidance and instruction and community and living by the compelling words of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. Ignorance is deadly -- it kills the innocent; it destroys hope; it inhibits opportunity; it paralyzes with fear; it creates pain; it undermines improvement; it disregards truth; it overloads the already overburdened; it is a cancer that will undermine a culture of freedom and responsible living with the necessity of mass management of illiterate masses, primarily via prisons and communities of persisting poverty bankrolled by those who remain able to function in an increasingly incapacitated environment.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Where there is no hope for tomorrow, people fail to consider the reasons for today’s effort. In the grace and mercy of God, we see the love of the One who desires to redeem and save and give life. In Him we discover our worth and value. In Him we gain a vision for our future that includes being disciples of righteousness, truth, and wisdom – all most clearly defined in him.
Until we value one another with the eyes of Christ, we will remain as those who relate to one another as commodities to be bartered, sold, or ignored on the basis of our own selfish intentions. God help us to discover again our hope in him that will allow us to regain a vision for redemptive change. It is a time for all of us to be students…and a time for all who will, in love, to be teachers.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

In this season of extensive military involvements it may seem to some that a failure to formally support the war is somehow unpatriotic. G.K Chesterton once wrote that to say,”‘My country right or wrong’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case.” He said, “It’s like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’”
Easter week gave us casualties in this present conflict in Iraq nearing 27,000 with 4000 of those being fatalities. Wars leave wounds that in some cases never heal. Our finest young men and women are being “voluntarily” called into service with monetary incentives and promises of educational opportunities. For many it is a means of escaping reality of educational opportunities too far removed and the high unemployment rates of local communities. States such as our own have been disproportionately affected. Is it that we are more patriotic, or that our young people are desperate for work?
Some may well benefit from the experiences of training, discipline, and cooperation instilled by time in military service, but we would do well to remember the cost to those who leave dreams behind on the battlefields. It is time for an accounting that few of us are seeing or thinking about. Who benefits? Is it those of another nation now entering 5 years of daily fighting in its streets? The neighboring countries whose communities are filled to overflowing with war refugees seeking safety? Those who have been released from the oppressions of a strongman dictator that our own government once helped to gain power? The questions are hard ones, and already too late, but what beyond the greed for oil lying beneath this distant nation, do we really believe is the legitimate justification for the prolonged presence of US forces?
This war is neither revitalizing our economy nor encouraging positive developments for the future. We are undermining our relationships with allies as a nation and showing little more than stubbornness in our refusal to comprehend the internal conflicts within the country we have occupied that have been present for generations. Jesus said, “Those who live by the sword die by the sword.” Everyone recognizes, “Its complicated.” But I for one think it is time for patriotic persons to understand the importance of sharing their convictions about legitimate reasons for war in such a way that we require a qualified demonstration of necessity before military engagements are initiated. Forcing our fine military to take on the task of “policing” the failures of diplomacy is a sad mission statement for our military, especially when that diplomacy has not been elevated to a priority before war. Too often, we are dealing with international conflicts of our own making, created by our own misjudged actions. Too often, we are sending armed forces without any declaration of war at all.
“War on terror” may be a rally cry for those whose vision is telescoped exclusively to the painful memory of 9-11, but the realities of “pre-emptive” conflict initiated toward a country with NO ties to that event have been disastrous…economically, ethically, and spiritually. There was also this month a full report from the Pentagon noting no evidence of any ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq prior to the war. We have made a mess; we have initiated a regime change, but only to offer the prospect of a long line of conflicts to follow.
I commend every soldier who has taken up the tasks requested on behalf of our nation and its security. I am proud of each of them. But I am also prideful enough of our nation to expect better of those who decide such matters as taking up arms…to do so apart from the manipulations of those who see war as a business to be encouraged for the sake of windfall profit-taking rather than a necessary sacrifice for national defense and the true freedoms we espouse. Nations that are “bought and sold” by corporate actions will never be the nations of the people, by the people or for the people. That includes our own.

Word Warrior

I took some kind of a test once that when I was finished described me as a “Word Warrior.” I can’t remember if the test was worth the time to take it, but it did to some degree give credence to my frequent awareness that words are much the common ground for my daily life’s work. The words on the other hand may be spoken or written or in some sense both. As a proclaimer of the Gospel, I find myself highly conscious of the tremendous differences between spoken and written language. There is a flow to speech that few have ever captured capably in written form. Likewise, the written word can be powerful and pointed, and moving all at once, but unyielding in spoken form to ready hearing. So between the two we move, as readers and writers, speakers and voices of witness. There is for all of us the words that tell the story, point the truth, share the dream, create the conflict or allow the opportunity for peace. Words continually allow our thoughts to move and to be challenged and more.
As I think of words that speak to hearts, I realize the necessity of shared experience as the basis for understanding. Likewise, there is the power of a truth that when applied and learned by the experience of a chosen response, builds the capacities for growth and progress. I have seen faith mature and hopes grow in the face of many challenges by the power of words to guide and shape perspective and understanding.
Words are truly gifts to us all. It’s too bad that so often words have a way of piling up around us, unconsidered or never heard, when for a season they would be like a steady rain to a parched field. But in order to mean much at all…the word must be heard or read with contemplation of thought and meaning. Likewise, the force of speech bears little semblance to value if only the volume of words is perceived. It is the voice of reason matched with a passion for truth that unleashes discourse for gain and blessing.
Sadly, even in some religious contexts, the message of truth is forsaken for hucksterism and pep rallies, evoking more passion that purity, more adrenalin than dreams, more fleecing than shepherding. The words do matter.
It matters that our words can potentially heal or destroy. Our words can move mountains or rally riots. Our words can compel or comply, respond or reject, relieve or bereave. Words are full of power…for good or ill. But for effect, there must be the words and the hearing. Both are essentials for blessings of strength to life and living. Count me in as a “Word Warrior”…but I pray the words will do what God would be pleased they do in and through me.

Crude

I had to look at the number and I had to think about it a little…$40,610,000,000. That is the amount of profit recorded for 2007 by Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil company. Those profits by one company were more than the gross domestic product of more than 120 countries. That alone should remind us who carries economic clout when it comes to many political decisions. Many choices will go to the highest bidder. And now we know who has the money to pass out.

Some might suggest that any critique of such profits simply disregards “good business practice”…so I will look back a bit. The previous year, the same company reported $39.5 Billion in profits, which was up from the previous $36.13 Billion in 2005.

But now we have done it! The current price of a barrel of oil ($110.60) this morning, is now higher than at any time in the history of US oil production since the 1860’s (adjusted for inflation to 2007 dollars). Strangely in almost all of that time…most oil was well under $40 a barrel (in inflation adjusted 2007 dollars). Today the price of a barrel of oil was ten times what it was less than 10 years ago. Every dollar higher for oil will automatically create inflation for the economy as a whole. The costs of goods and services will largely be escalated by the movement of those products and the rising costs of moving them. Suddenly domestic production may become more favorable than international transport of goods to and from distant ports. But wait, we just sent our factory contents overseas!

Is there a moral issue to be addressed in times like these? I would suggest several. Does it help or hurt people to increase their costs of living without also creating an environment for increasing their capacity to earn higher wages? At what point does mobility become less of a value worth pursuing in favor of other humanitarian goals, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing decent housing, educating our children, providing basic health care to everyone interested in pursuing health and a quality of life in healthy relationships toward others. Mobility is a need in these contexts, but it may also be a less important need if we prioritize in light of environmental consequences and basic requirements for clean air, and clean water, and uncontaminated food sources.

For too long, we have accepted the idea that government is the solution to our problems. Government has not been particularly effective toward that end. Efficiencies are derived from local activity addressing local needs in specific ways with local responses. Jesus had it right when he commended us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We have got to start thinking about things more cooperatively and collectively in community. Better ideas happen in the places where people know one another and know how to best meet needs in light of those circumstances. We have seen it work before; it can again. Carpoolers unite! Shop less frequently, but with greater intensity and efficiency. Spend your extra time helping those near you. Plant a garden, take a walk, ride a bike, cook a favorite recipe and share your efforts with a friend or two. If economic recession is to be experienced by the force of poor economic decisions in the past, it would stand to reason that some progress might be made if we pitched in together to do what we could to help one another through it. Whether that will be helping someone next door or around the world, it ought to be an effort of joy from a heart of love. Somehow that wolf of greed needs to be held at bay some way or another. And maybe, in the process, we will become a little more human.