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Life Lesson

February 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been accused of having a strong personality. Some call it a charismatic personality. Others call me loud. Some say I am far too outside the box for their liking. And if I’m being honest with myself and the world around me, they’re right.

My personality isn’t for everyone. As a matter of fact there are some people who feel threatened by the questions I ask or the challenge I give. In a recent study of the book of 1 Samuel I came across a line that said insecure people feel threatened by successful people.

Wow I really like that one! But I think it can go even one step further. I think that insecure people feel threatened by confident people. I by no means would consider myself wildly successful. As a matter of fact, I have failed at far more things that I have accomplished in life. But in failure I believe that I learn and grow and to me even a failure is a success if I learn from it.

Confident people are scary. Not because they are arrogant or know it alls but when a person is confident they aren’t afraid to try something even if failure is a real possibility. I recently have requested to have a conversation with a group about a direction of an organization of which I am a part.

Remember I’m not everyone’s favorite and I’m actually not offended by that. The challenge however is that the people with whom I’ve been speaking want nothing to do with having a hard conversation. I wonder if there’s something about this principle to blame for their unwillingness? Insecure people feel threatened by confident people. I may never know the reason but the principle remains.

Let’s get back to that whole 1 Samuel reference. This book contains the famous story of David and Goliath. Part of the story that is often overlooked is what immediately follows. Saul, a very large and powerful man, is King over Israel. But David is a young boy who really wasn’t respected even though he was confident in what the Lord could do through him. Saul hated David in part because David was successful.

There’s a verse to a song found in 1 Samuel that claims Saul killed his thousands but David his tens of thousands. Saul was not happy. He wanted to be the answer man. He wanted to have all the keys to success for being the best King and ruler and protector of the people. But here’s this confident little twerp who just killed the biggest threat to the Israelite people and he’s gaining popularity.

Instead of thanking David or praising the God who gave David this ability, Saul wanted to kill David. Man success and confidence of character don’t always prove helpful when it comes to friendships.

So life lesson for today. It’s ok to be confident and successful, but know that not everyone will like your confidence and success. As a matter of fact people that once called you friend will likely dismiss you because of your confidence or success. Don’t let someone else’s insecurity stop you from living a life of confidence and doing what you are called to do.

Time To Slow Down

September 23, 2022 / / 1 Comment

For those of you who know me, the title to this post will seem a little odd for me. I’ve never been one to really move slowly in much of life. I drive fast, talk fast, eat fast, run fast. The issue is faster isn’t always better. Driving fast means I miss the scenery. Talking fast means some won’t get the whole story of what I’m trying to communicate. Eating fast means I set myself up for an upset stomach or I’m hungry in no time! Running fast might mean that I out run the guy behind me but it also means I don’t have the stamina to run for a very long time.

One of the books that has been pretty helpful in this idea of slowing down is one by John Make Comer titled The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It’s a really good book. It hits right where it needs but is gentle where it can be. The idea is very simple.

Hurry is violence to the soul.

John Mark Comer

Now I know that sounds pretty intense but the context of that passage really sets the stage for what he means. The simple way of putting this is that we were designed to be able to run at a decent pace. Admittedly some of us can run through life moving quicker than others, but all of us have a limit. Hurry is pushing the limit to its end and then exceeding the boundaries doing harm to ourselves and others. Hurry doesn’t make us more effective. And to be honest, hurry doesn’t even let us get the task done faster (as odd as that sounds).

One of my favorite ideas that comes out of the book is actually a reference to a bible verse. Comer writes An easy life isn’t an option, an easy yoke is. That’s fairly profound but only if you know what a yoke is. A yoke was a tool used to keep an ox on task. It would rest on its shoulders and the load was tied to it. Then the ox would have to pull that load so the man wouldn’t have to pull it. Admittedly it was a great idea, but the purpose of this yoke was to load the ox to the max so you had to make fewer trips. And that’s what hurry does to us.

Jesus says in the New Testament that his yoke is easy and burden light. That means he’s not really all about heaping up load after load and making us move at a frantic pace. He’s designed the load specifically for what we’re able to handle, with his help. Don’t forget that last part!

But the problem is, we try to pursue and easy life instead of the easy burden Jesus promises and that’s where the wheels fall off. Pursuing an easy life will end up bringing a heavy burden. But pursuing an easy burden won’t necessarily result in an easy life all the time.

Running as fast as we can seems like the best way to get the task done. And sometimes you might be right. However, that’s not all the time. You have to use wisdom to be able to determine when is the right time and when is not the right time to put the pedal to the floor in life. I know that I’ve done this wrongly for years. And it’s likely done significant damage to my own body, not to mention several key relationships.

It’s never too late to slow down the pace of life. It’s never too late to literally hit the pause button and sit for a minute. It’s never too late to take a gentle and calming walk in the middle the day to take in the wonder of life around you. Since I moved to a house on just over 12 acres, I’ve added a lot to my plate. But oddly enough the pace has slowed a bit. I can sit outside and enjoy uninterrupted sunrises and sunsets. I can hear all the wildlife moving and talking around me. Most every night I’m blessed by a sky filled with stars.

Maybe you like to move fast, I do too. But you’ll never know what you’ve been missing with all that speed until you slow your pace (perhaps even literally) and see what’s been there the whole time.

I Love Good Jazz

September 5, 2022 / / 0 Comments

If you’ve never listened to jazz music then you’re really missing out. Jazz music isn’t like other forms of music. It’s almost like Jazz music is alive. It’s not bound to a piece of paper. Jazz just has a life of its own.

I remember going to my first jazz club. I was in college, so trying new things was the norm. We left well after dinner time and took the drive into downtown Detroit. It was a neighborhood I probably wouldn’t have normally entered, primarily because it had a bad reputation and I had no real need to go that far into Detroit. But one of my friends was going to play that night so a few of us agreed and off we went. And am I ever glad I went!

Part of my excitement for going was because I’m a trumpet player. Not a great one but I still dabble around with it from time to time. I play music, like the stuff on a piece of paper, with notes that go up and down. It makes sense. There’s a rhythm that’s been predetermined for you. There are a series of notes that rise and fall. There are volume markers to show you when to get louder and when to get softer. These things are there to make sure everyone plays the exact same thing. But that’s not how jazz works. Jazz musicians don’t need this kind of sheet music.

That night that’s exactly what struck me. There wasn’t a sheet of music anywhere in the club. The drummer set a simple rhythmic beat. Discussed a pattern for how they’d approach the piece. Determined the key. Had a few comments about style and flow of the song they were about to play. Then they took off! And man was it the coolest sound I’ve ever heard! It was such a cool jazz sound that it made the room feel like I was floating down a crystal blue river. The whole room was blue like jazz.

Ok so I know this is a weird transition but there’s also a book with the same title as the feeling in that room. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. And I totally get it, if you haven’t read the book, you’ll think this is a weird name for a book. But the story behind the title is pretty amazing. I’ll do my best to summarize the title and its meaning here along with a quote or two from it that struck me as really good.

The title of the book really reflects what I was experiencing in the club that night. The air was a little foggy with cigarette smoke. I could taste the air. The lights were so dim it was almost dark. The atmosphere, while dark just felt wide open. You could see everyone in the room because there were no walls or dividers to separate you from the other patrons. We were there from all walks of life. Race didn’t matter. Gender didn’t matter. Economic status didn’t matter. Everything just fit in that one context on that one night.

It’s kind of like the way faith is supposed to be. No sheet music to tell you exactly what note to play. There’s a key in which we operate. There’s a rhythm that we match, a rhythm that’s not our own. There’s a smooth, almost silky feel to the way this life is supposed to be lived. Blue Like Jazz captures the openness of that club where we can see one another from all angles. That’s the way life in the kingdom is supposed to be. No hiding behind our embarrassment. No fear of judgement. No manmade divisions meant to break one another down.

One of the things Miller says in the book really caught my attention. If you try hard enough, you can get the things you want most in life. But you better be careful because the things you want most in life just might kill you in the end.

There’s immense freedom in the movement of jazz music. Without sheet music you can go where the beat takes you. You just have to listen to the right beat. In this quote, the author is reminding us that just because we have the freedom to play the notes we desire, it doesn’t mean it’s right or beneficial to play them. Some notes don’t match the song at all.

Faith is so often like this. We embed our ideology into the text of the Bible. We make it say something it never was intended to say. We infuse our wishes and personal lives into the words on the page that was never there to start with. But this is not the way it’s supposed to be. This is not how it’s supposed to be done.

We too can experience a faith that’s Blue Like Jazz if we take our beat from the rhythm of God’s Word. Then all we have to do is play the song using the notes he’s given us, following the patterns and flow embedded in our soul by the Spirit.

Kick back. Take it all in for a minute. I hope you can see and experience a faith that’s a little bit blue like jazz.

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

August 30, 2022 / / 0 Comments

The life of the person who claims to follow Jesus should be encompassed by love. Instead we make it about rules, attendance, offerings, and so many other secondary items that are important but not the main thing. Throughout the Bible, we’re told to love. We’re called to love God and love neighbor. So if we’re called to love so often, why do we instead focus so heavily on rules and even in some cases uniformity?

To put it short, it’s way easier. It’s far less messy to just attend, give offerings, and make everyone follow a set pattern for worship than it is to actually practice love for one another. Loving someone isn’t something that’s emotion charged rather it’s relationally bound. We have weakened love to something we can fall into and out of like it’s a boat on the water. We throw love away when it’s challenging and walk away when we just don’t want to put in the hard effort. But love is relationally bound. That means if we’re going to love someone, we’re not there just for the feels. We’re in it because of a bond we have with the other person.

This love is so much more broad than a marriage relationship, but most certainly applies there. The love talked about in the Bible is about all relationships for those who claim to be in Christ. It’s about the marriages, friendship, brotherhoods, coworkers, neighbors, workout partners, colleagues…all of them!

Throughout the book of Hebrews we’re brought face to face with men and women who lived their lives by faith in God. They believed that God was there for them and that he had their best interests at heart. They also lived knowing that the struggles and pains we face in life were there to help us grow in the discipline of following in faith. The men and women of God in Hebrews 11 remind us that even though life was hard and often nearly impossible, they relied on the work that God said he would do for, in and through them.

As the book of Hebrews closes, we see one more phase of the faith life of God’s followers. It’s what faith does to us as we live it out. We’ll call this one through faith. As we navigated through faith, we see that being in Christ means we love those around us. We’re kind to those not like us. We go out of our way to make sure people are connected not just to one another but also to the wonders of the love of God.

What’s love got to do with the life of the Christian? Well for many, unfortunately not all that much. But according to the teaching of the Bible it should be everything! Everything we do should be done out of love for God and love for our neighbor. We don’t love those around us because they’re worthy of our love but because Jesus is worthy of our loving them. It’s a really cool cycle if you think about it. God loves us when we’re unlovable, so that we can love those around us who are essentially unlovable as well.

If you’re into listen to people talk about things like this or watch a message on this very idea, check out the video below. If not, then go love someone because God is worth the love you share with them.

Please Stop Just Praying

March 16, 2022 / / 0 Comments

You know I have a bit of a love – hate relationship with the phrase our thoughts and prayers are with you. It just seems so very lame! Do we even know what we’re saying? I mean really, the context in which we say this phrase is that we don’t know what else to do so I guess we can just pray.

We treat prayer like it’s a last resort. A natural disaster happens or something occurs that shakes us to the core emotionally, and we say things like I don’t know what to do. All I can do is pray.

Yes you’re right! All you can do is pray! But that’s not a bad thing. Actually, that’s where we should all start. Start with prayer and I mean the real prayers for God to move mightily in a situation. Then wait for His leading. But instead we tend to move, then pray that God will be ok with our movement. Or we like to pray those generic prayers of God be with everyone and bring world peace.

Yeah. I get it. We should want God to be everywhere. But He already is. And we should want there to be peace in the world and in our communities. But when we relegate God to a spiritual slot machine by only coming when we can’t handle the problem ourselves it shows how little we think of God.

Prayer is huge. And I mean huge! When we pray, really pray, with heartfelt words – emptying all of ourselves at the feet of Jesus asking him to do what brings him most glory we will be amazed at what is possible.

So if you see something going on in the world or your community, please don’t just pray. Take time to just pray. Pray first. Pray second. And when you have done everything else pray. Because when all you can do is pray, you are doing more than you can ever imagine! Prayer is tapping into the very power of God. Prayer is not about bending God’s way to match your will. It’s about bending your will to match God’s way.

So pray. And when you think you’ve prayed enough, you should probably go ahead and keep on praying. Because the Bible is pretty clear that prayer might be all you have to offer, but that’s more than you’ll ever need.

But Didn’t Jesus Say?

March 15, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Ok so since my last post I’ve received a couple of comments (two of them) from a couple of people (again 2 of them) who may not have found my words all that acceptable. And that’s totally cool. I absolutely love having what a friend of mine calls robust dialogue around issues upon which we disagree. Well the point of contention with the post about my job not being to feed you was with a reference to something Jesus actually said.

In an effort to get inside my head and heart a little and see why I wrote what I wrote and what the perceived in-congruencies are of this Bible verse and my previous post, I decided to dig into what Jesus told Peter and what I intended by my comments. Here you go…

In John 21, Jesus cooks a hearty breakfast of grilled fish over a charcoal fire and recommissions Peter into the work he was originally called to do. Way back at the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus calls disciples to come and follow me. Then he says, I will make you fishers of men. Somewhere along the line, Peter and his compadres took the command to follow me less seriously and thought Jesus should follow them. Peter went so far as to even deny Jesus around a charcoal fire while Jesus was on trial getting ready to be crucified.

Fast forward now to chapter 21. We are now on the shore with Jesus and Peter. And there’s a charcoal fire. In my mind this is really an important detail that we tend to gloss over. The fact that it’s called a charcoal fire and not a bonfire or wood fire or any other kind of fire to me seems significant. Why? You ask. Well there is only one other time in John’s gospel where a charcoal fire is mentioned, and yep you guessed it. The time Peter denied Jesus it was beside a charcoal fire.

Now to understand why this is so important you have to go back to the time you were beside a charcoal fire, or even a fire in your fire pit for that matter. If you’re a campfire lover then you undoubtedly know the smell of the smoke in your clothing and on your skin. This is an unmistakeable smell. Not to mention the sounds of the crackling and warmth it provides.

Imagine for a minute you’re Peter, and you walk up to this fire. You smell the charcoal and feel the warmth and hear the sounds of the fire crackling on the shore. Where does your mind go? I would guess this is why the text describes this as a charcoal fire, because John wants us to go there too! Right back to the last charcoal fire. Peter would have remembered denying Jesus. He would have likely thought that some sort of scolding was coming. But what did he get instead?

Hey Peter do you love me? Then why don’t you feed my sheep please.

What! Jesus didn’t scold Peter, but instead consecrated him for continued ministry and mission work. So that’s the first part of this passage that really sets the stage. Second is a hidden little gem in the Greek language about the use of two different words for love which we won’t have space for here. Then Jesus tells Peter to feed my sheep and tend my lambs. So the question that was raised by two people about my former post was essentially if Jesus told Peter to feed my sheep, why are you saying you’re not going to feed the sheep entrusted to you?

Great question! But it’s kind of a wrong question. Now don’t get your undies in a bunch here. I don’t mean that to come across all sassy. It’s jus…if you really think about this for a hot second. Jesus told Peter to feed my sheep. Peter knew how sheep were fed. Do you? Do you know how a first century Jewish shepherd would feed the sheep? They would pasture them. They wouldn’t chew the food for them or bottle feed them. Ok. Sure for a time, like when they were young or if there were problems a shepherd could give a given sheep a little more attention and care, but that wouldn’t last forever. The shepherd was charged with making sure the pasture was green with enough good grass for the sheep to graze. Not to spoon-feed the sheep.

Now take that same imagery of feed my sheep by letting them graze a pre-selected pasture and bring it into the church today. If we’re going to apply the command of Jesus to feed my sheep to our modern context, then we sure as the dickens better apply it’s original intent and context as well. If, as a pastor, my job is to feed the sheep as Peter was commanded to do using the imagery of a first century Jewish shepherd, then I am commanded to lead the people to the pasture and ensure the pasture is tended properly. Hence I’m not going to feed you, but I am going to take you to the food and lay the food before you.

So I’m still not going to feed you. I still don’t think it’s the job of a pastor, DCE, church body or anyone to go on feeding the people, like literally feeding them. But am I regularly going to lay the feast of God’s word in front of the people God entrusts to me? Abso-stinking-lutely! (Technical term for you betcha!) Am I going to make sure the Word of God is rightly taught so that all can have access to the truth of God’s unchanging word? You better believe it! Am I going to lay before the brothers and sisters the true Body and Blood of Jesus as a foretaste of a much greater meal to come in heaven? You can take that one to the bank!

But I’m not going to let you as a called disciple of Jesus sit around and wait for me, or anyone for that matter, to feed you. I don’t want anyone to make you think that pastors have some magical access or backstage pass to some truth you don’t have access to! I’m not going to pick up the spoon and feed you. I’m not going to chew the food for you. I’m going to show you, train you, equip you to use the gift of God in His Word so that you can be fed even when you’re not with a pastor.

So there you have it. Jesus did command Peter to feed the sheep. And I’ll do that the very way Peter would have fed the first century church and the way Jesus even fed the disciples. But I’m not going to chew the food up and spit it into your mouth. Come join me and let’s graze on the truths of God’s word together and see what amazing things He is doing all around us!

A Message of Hope This Year

December 22, 2021 / / 0 Comments
Hope is often found in unlikely places.

It’s no secret at all. The last two years have been harder than many of us could have imagined. We have dealt with trials that we only thought existed in books. It’s felt at times in these past 22 months like we’re living in some alternate, sci-fi reality world. No matter what field you’re in, this has not be easy and many are giving up hope. I wanted to share with you a little bit about how we can remain hopeful when it seems all hope is lost.

Now admittedly the idea for this post came from an article I read but the content included is my own. So credit for the idea goes elsewhere. Thank you to whomever wrote the article and I don’t even remember where I read it!

In the book of 2 Corinthians in the Bible, Paul writes about navigating times of challenge and trial. And while this passage does not directly apply to our current situation is does speak to the reality in which we are living. Here’s the passage:

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 CSB

Pressed but not crushed

I know the feeling of being pressed down fairly hard. Circumstances of life can really weigh a person down. This year is probably one of the hardest many of us have experienced. The weight of the holidays combined with the pressures of how different people react to illness and vaccines is really causing trouble in so many places.

But the passage tells us that as followers of Jesus, we should expect to be pressed but know that the pressing will not crush us. I think of it like pressing grapes or squeezing an orange. The good stuff of grapes and oranges is found on the inside. And without the external pressures of hardship and squeezing, we’d never have great things like orange juice or even wine. Could God be doing the same thing for you?

It’s not fun to think about being pressed by any means, but when you realize the pressing is to bring about something even better it makes things more manageable. Your hope is found in that while pressed you will not be crushed.

Perplexed but not in despair

Perplexed. Such a fun word. It simply means to be baffled or puzzled. Have you felt perplexed the last couple of years? I know that I sure have! Some days I don’t know which way is up. It’s hard to know if your words and actions will make someone happy or if it will thoroughly upset someone.

The idea behind being perplexed is that we are thrown off of our normal. We get confused. In and of itself, being perplexed is not a bad thing. It’s how we deal with the perplexing feelings that makes a difference. All too often the feelings of being perplexed lead to despair. When we don’t know where we are, it’s hard to know where we are going. And as leaders it can easily lead to despair when we aren’t able to know where we’re headed or even where we even are! The hope here is that God promises that being perplexed doesn’t have to lead to despair. When we find our truth and our way in Christ, we can remain hope-filled even in the most perplexing times of life.

Persecuted but not abandoned

This is one I hear far too often here in the USA. We act as if our inconveniences are persecutions. While that is true to a greater or lesser degree, we have to make sure we keep this in context. We are not persecuted when you compare how we have thing to how people are treated around the world.

But even if you happen to be reading this in a part of the world where persecution is real and dangerous and on a scale that much of the world can’t understand this promise is for you too. You can have hope knowing that even if life is dangerous and we are truly being persecuted for our faith, God is present. He is with us through it all. He won’t take away the pressure or persecution but he will be with us through it all. He’ll stand beside us to give us the aide we need to get through the trials of life. We are not abandoned.

So the long and short of the challenges we face is that they are not the end of the world. They are there to point us to how amazing and wonderful God is. He’s faithful. He’s present. He’s protecting us in ways we don’t even see. Stay strong friends. Rely on the power of the ever present God to get you through.

Perhaps An Unpopular Opinion

May 5, 2021 / / 1 Comment

I want to start by saying this will likely be unpopular with some of you and I respect your opinion. However this is something I am starting to believe more and more firmly as I watch my own home, church, community, country and the world as a whole. To put it short, the biggest challenge facing the world right now is not political, medical or financial. It’s about family.

Everything in our world right now is messed up and upside down and it has nothing to do with who’s in the White House or how imbalanced the sides of the aisle are currently. It has nothing to do with unemployment or national debt. The problems that we are facing by and large come from the breakdown and devaluing of the family unit and men it’s our fault.

Now before you go getting all upset and crankified hear me out.

Men have neglected their responsibility, and it’s killing families which in turn kills communities which in turn kills cultures which in turn is messing up the whole world in which we live.

If we want to really right the ship we’re all sailing on we’ll focus on raising men who know how to be men. We’ll raise a man who stays with his wife even when he disagrees with her. We’ll teach a man to be there for his family, not just abandon them or throw a paycheck at them. We’ll teach a man to claim responsibility for failures and mistakes. We talk about abortion but why not focus on teach the boys in our culture to keep their pants on! We talk about getting handouts from the government but why not teach boys to get jobs and stick with them!

The problem isn’t about jobs or politics or even race. It’s that we as a society have let men get off the hook with being pansies. We’ve let them stay boys in a world that needs men. We’ve let them run off and abandon their wife and kids. All this does is teach the next generation that this is the way you can treat a woman. And the cycle continues and spirals.

If we want a movement in our world that will really impact an entire nation and that balances presumed racial hate and elevates women, then we need to start teaching men how to be men. When men reach the top of our potential, we’re better able to lift the ceiling so that our wife and children can go farther and higher than we were able to go.

We’ll never grow as a society on the shoulders of weak men. We’ll never conquer the hate in our world be belittling anyone. You don’t empower one people group by putting another group down.

Men we haven’t lived lives worth following. We haven’t been worthy of the respect we so badly want from those around us. We’ve been weak and at time pathetic. It’s time to man up and raise the bar.

This weekend I challenged a group of guys to grow as men. I challenged them to journey with me in a study of what a man is supposed to be. I challenged them to gather in groups of three to work together and challenged each other to grow as strong men who take responsibility for their actions. Men you aren’t going to do it alone. Find a band of brothers to sharpen you. Find the group who can hold you accountable. Push each other to be present for your family. Raise you sons to be strong men of faith willing to serve those around you. It’s time we as men take our God-given responsibility seriously and man up before there aren’t any men left to stand.

Phone Second

December 14, 2020 / / 0 Comments
The Pros and Cons of cellphones in schools – Dobie News

The final daily habit we want to take up in our creating a new daily habit series is to not grab the phone first. This is probably harder than most people realize. Unfortunately the phone has become an extension of ourselves to the point that we grab it before we grab anything else.

This isn’t a healthy scenario. Grabbing for our phone, whether it’s for work or social media or even just playing games, it sets our minds and hearts in a distracted place. When we reach for our phone to scroll our social media feeds, we are all too tempted to start comparing ourselves to the likes and shares of those around us. We don’t have teeth as straight as the perfectly polished selfie we just saw. Our tree doesn’t look nearly as nice as theirs does. We wish we could lose weight the way she did. Or be as strong as he is.

There are so many things that happen in our social media lives that are just not healthy or good. But it’s not just there either. When we roll out of bed and glance through our work emails or fiddle with our virtual games we set our minds on things that don’t provide any lasting benefit.

Instead a practical first step for us should be to grab our Bible and start each day as followers of God with a quick read through something from God’s word. It may sound cheesy or like a bit of a gimmick but it’s honestly the best way to start the day!

When we open the bible first thing in our day, we automatically set our minds to be looking for the ways that God is already at work around us. Try it for 7 days and see what happens. Let me know how it works for you. Tomorrow we’ll begin looking at some weekly habits we can start that will again be helpful in setting us up for greater success in life.

Yes. I Meant What I Said

November 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Something I said on Sunday has caused a few eyebrows to raise. Surely, you didn’t mean what you said – was one reply. I have a feeling more than just a few people were a bit caught off guard by something I said in a recent message, but yes I was very serious. So let me explain.

Assume I’m not getting it right.

This was the gist of one of my points on Sunday in my message titled What the world needs now. The context of that quote was that in my preaching and teaching on the Bible, please don’t just assume that I’m teaching right. Don’t think that just because I’ve been a pastor for 18 years, just because I know Greek and Hebrew, just because I put many, many hours into each week’s message preparation – don’t assume that I have it right.

I don’t say that so that you’ll look at me like a bad person or not believe what I am teaching. Quite the contrary. I want you to believe what I’m teaching. I want you to be able to trust the things in the lessons I teach and messages I preach. But I don’t want you to believe me just because you like me or because I’m a pastor or because I’ve been here for 7 years.

I want you to believe the messages because you’ve studied them and found them to be accurate. I want you to do the hard work of digging through the Bible the way I have to see what the Scripture has to teach us.

You see the point is all too often it’s easy to be Netflix Christians on Sunday morning. Think about it for a minute. When’s the last time you researched to see if that show you’ve been binge watching was based in any form of accuracy.

Is that how you treat the messages on Sunday? Or do you take the bible verses we talk about and trace them through the Bible? Do you look them up? Follow cross references? Do you challenge the points being made in the message to see if they fit the overall Biblical message?

This is what I meant when I encouraged you to not believe me or to assume I wasn’t getting it right. This isn’t true just for the Bible either. It’s kind of what critical thinking is all about. Don’t believe what the world is feeding you. Test it to see if it really is accurate.

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