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Tag: Jesus (Page 16 of 60)

Just Too Much To Carry

November 16, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I almost dropped everything.

There are two kinds of people in the world. There are the ones who carry two bags of groceries in from the car, and then there’s me. I tend to load up the arms and carry as much in as I possibly can. Less trips and all. Plus it’s kind of a challenge sometimes.

But it’s not just with groceries. I do this pretty much every time I get out of the car to go into the office or when I get home. I load up with my backpack, gym bag, Yeti, water jug, and often a coat or something additional on the cold days. This doesn’t even account for finding a way to carry my lunch. And yeah you guessed it…I carry all of it at once.

Carrying these things isn’t really a huge issue. The problem arises when I try to open the door. If we had those cool automatically opening doors, this would be a breeze! But alas, I have to dig into my pocket to get my keys. Then turn the lock and open the door. All of this while my hands are loaded and everything is perfectly balance. My wife often jokes that I need a drink carrier to hold all of the beverages I carry around since there’s normally a protein shake and some pre workout somewhere in the mix as well.

When I get to the door I have two options. I can do the weird balancing act or I could put a few things down. Generally I do the funky balancing act, look like a fool and almost drop everything on the way in the door.

I think the church has done the same thing with people and how we teach salvation. For those that don’t know, salvation is that teaching in the Bible that our wrongs are covered and we’re set up for an eternal future with God in heaven. You see we load up all the extra stuff for people to carry before they truly understand salvation.

The Bible teaches that there’s only one way to heaven. His name is Jesus. Salvation comes through no one and nothing other than Jesus. That’s a very clear message we read on just about every page of the Bible. Yet I’m seeing so many churches talking about so many other things as if they are prerequisites for understanding Jesus.

It’s like we’re piling all the extra bags onto people’s backs making it hard to carry any of it. The Bible teaches that we shouldn’t make it hard for people to believe, but that’s exactly what we’re doing. We load up worship styles, version of the Bible, doctrines and teachings of our particular denomination, how we dress, how we talk, where we go and don’t go, should we make the sign of the cross or not. Man there’s a ton of baggage that we’ve attached to the whole Jesus is the only way to heaven truth.

I’m not saying that any of those conversations are bad. As a matter of fact many of those things are good in their own right. But we can’t treat them as if they are Jesus. We need to stop loading people up with all of this extra baggage before they even know Jesus.

I’m part of a church tradition that values its heritage and its position on many topics, what we call doctrines. And I’m seeing more and more pastors in my church body making people know all of these supporting truths with minimal focus on Jesus. Sure they teach that Jesus died and rose but there’s so much more to Jesus than that one piece of his life.

If you’re a follower of Jesus, perhaps it’s time to realize who Jesus really is. He was a person with some amazing characteristics. He was a man who really walked on the earth, who dealt with some pretty nasty stuff. There’s a lot we can learn from Jesus without heaping up all the extra baggage that we have come up with over time to differentiate us from the rest of the world.

When we load people up with all of these extra doctrines and focus on our churchy jargon it’s often at the expense of Jesus. It’s at the expense of people really learning to live like Jesus. Jesus teaches that his teaching is easy and his burden is light. He doesn’t load us up with all these theological terms and churchy ideas. The Bible gives us Jesus. That’s the one thing we need for heaven. If more followers of Jesus would worry as much about following Jesus as they do about their doctrines and confessional stance on everything, we just might realize that the world doesn’t have a problem with Jesus. They have a problem with how hard we make it to follow him.

Consider thinking through what bags you make people carry on their way into church. Rethink the loads you’re putting on the men and women who really want to know Jesus. If we’re not careful, they’re going to drop everything…including Jesus.

Rapture

November 15, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I lost three of my grandparents in about a year and a half. That narrow window of time for a loss is a lot to handle. And if you’ve lost anyone special to you, no matter if it’s three people nearly all at once or something significantly different, it kind of makes you wonder. Where are they? What are they up to? And will we ever see them again?

Those questions, and likely others like them, were swirling around a young church in the latter portion of the Bible. The book of 1 Thessalonians was written to a young church that didn’t have a lot of history. They knew the basics of who Jesus was and what he did. They knew the promise that he was coming back again.

But they didn’t know what that meant for their family members who died before Jesus came back. That seems to be the main issue here in the 4th chapter of this little letter. What will happen to my family who have already died?

I often wonder the same thing. I mean I kind of know, as much as a human can know the details of the afterlife. But I know they’re with Jesus and I know that one day we’ll all be with Jesus together. The challenge was that it seems Paul drew such a beautiful picture of the day when Jesus comes back to gather the living to be with him, that they started to get worried about the dead. You know the whole they’re going to miss out on this wonderful day when Jesus gathers his people to be with him.

This chapter drives us to understand this is just not the case. This is where the term rapture actually shows up in the Bible. No you won’t see it in many English translations because while it’s there it isn’t there the way we might think. It’s translated in most English versions as caught up in the clouds. That’s it. Caught up. The word that some translate as rapture and have written books about and formed whole theological traditions about is really a word that means to be caught up.

It’s a hard thing to consider especially with all the Hollywood-izing that’s happened with the term. Planes flying with no pilots. Cars with passengers zapped away. Football games with star players turned to vapor. These are the ways we try to explain it but I think this really misses the thrust of the word Caught up.

Think about the sunrise. You know that array of bright orange, red, purple and pink that somehow paint across the entire eastern sky. Add a little frost on the ground and crisp weather that makes you see your own breath and you’re caught up in something pretty spectacular. Yep you’ve been enraptured by this whole reality. It’s the same idea!

Paul here is telling the people in this little church that they will be caught up with their loved ones and with Jesus on the final day. No hocus-pocus. No slide of hand. No vapored bodies. No planes with no pilots. None of that is found here. Just being totally caught up in the presence of the risen and now returning Jesus.

Could those things happen? I mean I guess they can. God can do that if he wants but that’s not what this passage is about. It’s about you and me and even my grandparents all being fully enveloped or enraptured by the wonderful presence of the glory of Jesus when he finally returns. And that is something that should change the way we see life and death!

Don’t Strive For Success

November 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In a culture that is bent on getting ahead and being the best and coming out on top, this is not a very popular idea. But if you hang with me for a bit hopefully you’ll come around and see things a little differently.

Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

At face value success isn’t really a bad thing. Actually there’s nothing really wrong with success in and of itself. Being successful simply means that we’ve done something the way it was expected of us.

But there’s a problem when success is our aim. When all we care about is success at all costs things go off the rails quickly. And just like a train that goes off its rails, when we go off the rails people get hurt. Innocent and unexpecting people get hurt.

When we strive for success it will quickly overcome us. Success isn’t the problem. We are the problem. When we let success become the driving force behind what we do, it quickly takes over. If you’re in it for yourself then success might take you a decent distance. But it will always have a ceiling. Success can only take you as far as your achievements allow.

I’d like to encourage a little different approach than mere success. Instead of success strive to be a person of value. The difference between striving for success and striving to be a person of value is that a person of success will never surpass their talent, but a person of value builds on the success and value of the rest of the team or organization.

Being a person of value means that you’re not just in it for yourself. Being a person of value means that even when you don’t succeed you still don’t fail because you maintained value for the team or organization.

Striving to be a person of value is something lacking in so many aspects of the world today. Instead of getting ahead at all costs, perhaps we could stop and find how we can add value to the group granting us an even better chance at long term success.

A Pastor’s Prayer

November 8, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered what was on your pastor’s heart? Like what got him excited in the morning? What keeps him up at night? What breaks his heart or brings a smile to his face?

There are three short verses in a small letter in the Bible that really drive at what’s on a pastor’s heart. Here’s the set of verses – Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,  and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. There are a few things here that really stand out.

May God our Father and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you.

The first part of this prayer has two really important pieces almost hidden in plain site. You may have noticed that I re-ordered the wording of this line. Most bibles will read “our God and Father and our Lord Jesus” but I think this misses a really cool thing that’s happening here.

Paul wrote this in a specific way to highlight that God is Father and Son simultaneously and yet there aren’t two of them but one God. He shows how God is Father and Sovereign Lord all at the same time. There are two subject (Father and Lord) but the verbs in Greek are singular. So many but one, one but many all at the same time.

Now the prayer is that we would come together. This is a theme everywhere in the Bible – the coming together of the people of God for the worship of God. The prayer of this pastor’s heart is that they would be enabled to continue to meet together.

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love

All too often we get tunnel visioned on what we don’t like and the things with which we don’t agree. We get vocal about our opposition to the newest bill that was passed or the lifestyle choices of those who live differently than we live. Here the prayer turns to enhancing and nurturing what we’re for instead of what we’re against.

The two words used here – increase and abound – are kind of two sides of the same coin. It’s like he’s praying that love would abound abundantly in us. A bit repetitive I know! But the point is that this concept is vital to who we are as Christians. Yet it’s so easy to leave this one by the wayside when we’re upset or don’t get our way.

Establish your hearts blameless in holiness…at the coming of Jesus.

There is a ton packed in this little section but we’ll focus on just one part of it. This is all about God’s acting for us. Have you noticed that every single verb here has the same subject. The same actor. The same person making it happen. In each of these God is the actor. Jesus is the one who’s bringing these things to be.

He’s the one who will make us holy and blameless. This is such a great part of the prayer. We don’t make ourselves good enough or holy or blameless. No matter how hard we try, it just doesn’t work. But God in His Son Jesus, has already made us blameless. Now the prayer is that we are kept in that blameless and holy way of life until Jesus returns.

The prayer of the pastor’s heart is one of togetherness, love for one another and submission to who Jesus is. We pray other things too but this is the heart and soul of all we pray for the people God entrusted to us. And this is my prayer for you even if I don’t know you personally just yet.

Context and Culture

November 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

There’s something to be said about knowing your culture and context. Whether you’re in marketing, sales, public speaking, an author, a song writer, or even a pastor we need to know the culture and context into which we’re speaking.

For some these two words might seem the same but I see them as two sides of the same coin. Both are needed and both are important. Culture is who we are. It’s the systems and ideals with which we’ve been raised and that define our character and personhood. Context on the other hand is the lens through which everything we see is filtered. Our culture is more consistent than our context.

My family of origin and my current household structure are not likely to change a whole lot through the years (aside from the age of my children). But my context is all the other stuff like my neighborhood, financial status, job title, and all those things that can and often do change frequently.

If we don’t understand the culture and context of our audience, we’ll never speak in a way that they hear much less understand. I’m going to take this conversation to my context. I’m a pastor so this applies to me in a very specific way. I need to know how to contextualize the message I preach.

Now some out there will get all bent out of shape by hearing me say something about contextualizing the gospel. They likely think I’m talking about changing the gospel to meet the scenarios of the people around me. But they couldn’t be more wrong. As a matter of fact I don’t change the message, or in your case the product you sell. We do however need to change the way we communicate the value of that product or message.

Take my role again as an example. I need to be able to speak in a contextually applicable way. That is not making the gospel fit into the lives of my hearers by any means. The idea of contextualization of the gospel is about helping my hearers find the end of their current, and future, story in the gospel of Jesus. It’s about helping people see how their lives already are impacted by the message of the Bible.

If you’re in sales or marketing it’s the same thing. You’re not forcing your ideals, product or message onto someone else. Your goal is to help them see themselves and their problems being cared for by the message or product you provide. When I was in car sales I did this all the time. Someone would come with a problem. My car has a problem, doesn’t run, is old, needs replaced.

I didn’t have to convince them to buy the car. I just had to show them how the car I had on the lot actually was the answer to the problem they presented to me in the first place.

As pastors we tend to get stuck in a rut of Jesus loves me this I know, blah…blah…blah. Yes that message is really important and it’s very true! But it’s only part of the story. If we don’t contextualize the message in a culturally relevant way, then people aren’t going to be able to hear the message much less be impacted by it.

Take time to understand the culture around you and the context into which your message or product will be presented. You’ll be far more effective when you do.

The Gospel

November 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This week in the church I serve we talked about something called the reformation. Now the reformation is celebrated by some as an event in time, a day that happened over 500 years ago. Some consider it a work of a team of men who sought to reform the church to a more biblical time frame.

I’m not one of those guys. I don’t necessarily see the reformation as a day or period in history. Well not exactly. Sure it was a time in history and several guys were part of this movement that we now call the reformation. Yes it was about bringing the church back from the cliff of bad theology. But it was so much more. To relegate it to a historical period I think does it injustice.

In my mind, the reformation had a pretty singular focus. The Gospel. It was about re-understanding the wholeness of the gospel. It was about finding the heart of the gospel and what it meant for our lives here, now, today. The reformation wasn’t just a period in history. It was about a new way of living as followers of Jesus. It was intended to be a believe that would redefine how we live and who we are.

As I said above, at its core the reformation was about the Gospel. But what is the Gospel? Some narrow the message of the Gospel to some future hope to which we look. One day we’ll die and go be with Jesus forever in heaven. That’s a pretty nice idea. But the Gospel isn’t just about some nicety that one day will be true. At least that’s not how I see it!

The Gospel is about here, now, today. It’s about my life in 2023. It’s about how we see parenting, marriage, work, finance, health, fitness, the war in the Middle East. It’s about all of it – not just a future destination.

The people known as the reformers (aka guys who led the charge in making the reformation happen) were so sold out on this reality that they were willing to stake their reputations and even their lives on this new way of living. They wanted to get back to the basics of what the Bible was all about. The Gospel!

Sure the Gospel is about Jesus. It’s about dying and rising. It’s about grace and forgiveness and salvation and all those cool churchy words. But at its core, the gospel is really deeper than that. It’s about a transformed life. It’s about a fire in our soul that can’t be quenched with anything other than more of Jesus.

Yeah, yeah I know – the gospel in a nutshell (John 3:16) is all about Jesus dying and rising. What do we do with that? Well that’s part of it but not all of it. He died and rose. Yep. Not denying that one at all. But He didn’t die and rise only so I would have some future hope. If so then what’s the point now? He died and rose so that I can have a future hope and a totally different way of living today!

The Gospel at its core is about the difference that Jesus makes in every aspect of my life. The Gospel is just as relevant to my parenting and budgeting and healthcare as it is to my someday after I die future hope.

In short celebrate the reformation but don’t make it about a guy, a day, a time period, or even just about heaven. It’s way bigger than that! Happy Reformation friends!

Signs Of A Real Church

October 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I spend a lot of time with many people talking about church stuff. From pastors discussing how they do worship and lead programs to church members about getting involved in serving or studying the Bible to people who want nothing to do with church, I see them all. And each of them come with their own set of benefits and challenges.

Recently I talked about a book of the Bible, 1 Thessalonians. Ok I know weird name but we have some doozies in states around the country as well!

Thessalonians is a letter that was written to a very young church in parts of Europe around the year 50 AD. The church was just getting started after a man named Paul came and started sharing what he believed about Jesus and the whole death and resurrection bit. He talked about how lives should look different if we actually believed this all to be true.

Well his stay in this bustling town didn’t last very long because some people were threatened by a message that wasn’t theirs. So they ran him off. Fleeing to a neighboring city he wrote a letter to those that remained as part of this fledgling church. His letter is packed with encouragement and thankfulness. But woven into the first few verses are three things Paul highlights that I believe are marks of a true, real, authentic and spirit filled church.

Work of Faith

The first thing Paul mentions is this idea of a work of faith. Now we have to make sure to get this right. This is not a work that leads to faith or earns some favor with God. This is a work done because of faith. You believe something so deeply that it changes who you are and how you live.

There’s another verse in the bible that says faith without works is dead. This means a person can’t say they believe and then have nothing in their lives change! If you really believe it then it has to shape who you are and how you live. This little church start known as Thessalonians had just that – a powerful faith in Jesus that led them to live a totally different kind of life. Turns out that these new Christians didn’t just say they believed in Jesus, but they actually let it change how they lived as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. Just about every aspect of their lives was lived out in faithful obedience to God’s word. Pretty cool huh!

Labor of Love

The idea of something being a labor means it’s work, often hard work that’s not all that pleasant at the time. When you have to labor through something it often means pain, or at least discomfort. It means some bit of self sacrifice to make this happen.

Paul tells this little church that their love for people (people like them and not like them) was something to take note of! They loved their neighbors, even their enemies and it was obvious to just about everyone. The Bible tells us that the world will know that we are followers of Jesus, not by how we lead our worship services or what hymns we sing. Nope they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

This group of new followers of Jesus got the love part down cold. Not some roses and candy kind of love either. This was a love that was able to welcome the person no one wanted to be around. It was going out of their way to help widows and orphans. It was serving the poor at their own expense. This love was strong, powerful and super evident to the world around them.

Steadfastness of Hope

The idea of being steadfast is to endure or stand the test. The third mark of the true church that Paul here highlights is about hope that can withstand some pretty crappy stuff. This church was started under duress. Paul was there only for a few weeks preaching and teaching. Then he was run out of own by people who didn’t want anything to do with him.

It was under these conditions that this church came into existence. It was under these conditions that this little group of followers was forged in character of hope. If you can have hope in the power of Christ through these types of scenarios, then hope has become part of your DNA.

So there are probably more things that we could say about marks of the church. The whole preaching of the gospel and rightly administering the sacraments are hugely important. But here in 1 Thessalonians, Paul doesn’t use those as examples. He does however say he knows they are real followers of God because of their working faith, laboring love, and enduring hope.

This is what we should all attain to as Christians. Just imagine how different life would be if we had these three markers in all we do.

I’ve Never Had A Job

October 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Some of you are going to call me a liar here but I have never had a job. You’re probably thinking yeah right! I know you have a job because you tell us all the time that you’re a pastor. But just because I have a place where I go and thing that I do for a living doesn’t make it a job.

You might not agree but that’s ok. One of us is right and the other one is reading this right now. In all seriousness, to me a job is something that’s burdensome and a task that we all too often dislike. I’ve never had a job in that sense. I’ve worked at so many places that I can’t even list them all. From bartending to line cook to landscape to helping on the farm to building and selling cars I’ve done a lot of different things in life! But they all have one thing in common.

I really enjoyed each of them. They weren’t a job for me. They were work. They took an investment of my time, energy and effort but they weren’t a job. I didn’t dread them. Even when I worked at 3 different places at once, it wasn’t a job because I could find value in each of those places.

Enjoying your work is one thing but really thriving in it is a totally different thing. In my current occupation as a pastor I really feel like this is what I’ve been built to do. I’m not perfect at it but it’s something I’m passionate about and that is fulfilling. I love what I do!

Honestly though it causes me some trouble from time to time loving this so much. There are regular conferences and gatherings where I get to sit with other pastors sharing insights and stories and getting training to make me better. The biggest challenge to loving this so much is when I sit with other guys who do the same thing that I get to do and they talk about it like it’s the worst thing in the world.

I mean seriously as a pastor we get to do some pretty cool things. If you can’t find value and meaning in that, then you probably should do something else!

This is pastor appreciation month. I don’t say that so that anyone will recognize me. Actually I say that so that pastors can start to appreciate what they do! Do you know what your work means? Do you know what you’re called to do? It’s not a job! Your obligation is not to fill your church with people. It’s not to preserve rituals or traditions of how we’ve done it. It’s not to lead engaging worship or do great outreach gigs. It’s not to have great praise teams or strong pipe organ music.

None of these are wrong but they are not the point! They are all good and right in their own way, but they are not why you’re here.

You are to be a shepherd of the people. What do shepherds do?

  • Make sure the sheep have good food. Lay out a good variety of healthy options for them to engage in for spiritual maturity. Show them how to use their bible. Teach from it. Connect some of the dots between passages. Teach on different levels from generalities to specific details. Give them a good diet to choose from.
  • They keep the wolves away. Those who seek to harm and kill the sheep. We do this by exposing teachings and thoughts that are against scripture (not against our preference).
  • Challenge them to be in new places. If a shepherd kept the sheep in one place, the grass would be bare and nothing would be left. So often the shepherd needs to lead the sheep to new pastures. This doesn’t mean to use different things than the Bible. It means to find new ways to teach similar content. It means understanding the needs of the people you serve. It means different teaching styles and showing how the Bible actually is still relevant to our current culture.
  • Equip them. It’s odd that the Bible never tells us to spoon feed the people in our churches but to equip them with utensils and wisdom to know what is good food to eat and what is not. A good shepherd will make sure the sheep know what plants are against scripture and keep them away from the people at all costs. But this isn’t about preference it’s about the Bible.

Really those are the pieces we are called to do. If you can’t find joy in helping someone dig into the Bible or giving them tools to be able to understand what’s been written or fighting off a wolf or two then I think you might want to work at Build a Bear and stuff a heart into a ball of cotton. If you’d rather fight with people than show the truths of the Bible then join the military.

If you don’t like it. If you aren’t fed by doing it. If you aren’t passionate about the calling of being a pastor. If it’s just a job to you, then maybe it’s not right for you.

My goal is to never have a job. I’ll work my backside off everyday of my life, but I never want to have a job. And I don’t think you should either.

Why Are They Fighting

October 12, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard that there is yet another conflict in the Middle East. However, this one isn’t your normal everyone is angry with everyone kind of conflict. This one has elevated to a horrific state of war. And I’ll be the first to admit that no one benefits from war. I’m not saying that as a knock on military or country by any means. As a matter of fact I’m a huge advocate and supporter of our military! It’s just the sad reality that war brings death and destruction. These aren’t part of God’s design for us but sometimes are necessary to fulfill an overall end goal.

Now why does this war matter? What is it about? What is it not?

There are a ton of war mongers out there who are spewing all sorts of things about this being the end the world. Or this has to happen for Jesus to come back. Or it was all staged. Or any number of things. But I’m not sure we really get the gravity of this whole situation until we step back a bit.

Now I’m not going to get all political with you. This isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong. Although I do have my own very strong personal opinions about that. My purpose here is why do they fight, and why does it matter.

Ok so who are these two groups: Israel and Hamas. Strictly speaking Hamas is a Palestinian group that has taken their beliefs to an extreme position. Every country, every political party even has some who are extreme in their beliefs and often in their actions. Some call them extremists others radicals but we can see from the manner in which they operate that they function much like what we have come to know as a terror cell. Striking in civilian rich places with no warning and an intent to cripple, harm, and kill anyone and everyone who is not like them. Add to it the women and children that have been tortured and things get really disgusting really quickly. It’s terror on many levels.

Now not all Palestinians are part of Hamas. Like I said it’s an extreme group of them. However there is a pretty decent amount of sympathy toward even the most extreme parts by the rest of the group. It’s what’s meant by the statement the enemy of my enemy is my friend. While they don’t agree with the actions of the extreme group, they dislike the other side even more. But who are the other side?

Have you ever heard the biblical story of Jacob and Esau and the bowl of stew and the birthright and the promise and the legacy? It’s a story in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Esau was the older twin who was hungry. Jacob, the younger brother, was a great cook. Short version of the story is that Jacob made some delicious lunch and Esau was so hungry he was willing to trade his birthright for that bowl of soup. Yikes! That must have been some hunger! Later Jacob would deceive their father and outright steal a blessing that was intended for Esau. So there’s been some hatred and animosity between them pretty much since their birth.

Jacob would later be come to known as Israel. And from Esau would be a lineage that would forever be angry with his brother. Remember the soup? This group is what we have in large part as the Palestinian people. Please know I’m painting with large brush strokes here because there is more to the history but I’m giving a simple overview here.

All this to say, the fighting isn’t new. Actually it’s been going on for thousands of years. Some years it’s full blown atrocity like we’re seeing now. Other days it’s angry yelling across a border wall. But even in times of peace it isn’t the whole shake hands and be best friends kind of peace we want. It’s mind your own business and I’ll mind mine kind of peace. We’ll disagree and the only agreement is that we hate each other kind of peace.

Now that we have a quick biblical framework for who these people are and some idea of why they’re fighting, why does this matter today? Well some are taking this conflict and saying that since this is a biblical fight then it must be explained later in the bible as a sign of the end of the world. Caution – let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

Remember how I said this was a conflict lasting thousands of years? Yeah then why would today be the golden moment that indicates it’s all over? The Gaza region has been a point of contention for them for as long as they both had land. This is not new! There’s talk about a third temple being built but that isn’t happening this weekend. Actually, it’s been talked about since shortly after the last temple fell, which was over 1900 years ago! They’ve planned, prayed for, and talked about this happening for nearly every one of those 1900 years. And here we are with no foundation poured. The land hasn’t been graded down. The lumber hasn’t been gathered. The supplies have not been calculated and purchased.

So I’d like to caution us to go a little slower with the whole end of the world motif. There are numerous people who’ve calculated the end of the world based on earthly happenings. Y2K anyone? And how has that worked out for us…Since we’re still here it hasn’t happened. The Bible tells us that no one knows the day or hour of the end. But we should be ready all the time.

Look what’s happening over there and in various places around the world is not good. Killing innocent people is not good. War in and of itself is not what God intended for us. I don’t want to say it’s a necessary evil of the world but we do know that the sword has been given to keep peace and order. That means, as ugly as war is there are times when the muscle of power has to be flexed to keep evil at bay.

So the long and short is this is a territorial war over land that is built on hardships and disagreements for centuries! There’s a lot of hatred that can mount up in that length of time. What are we to do about it? Pray! Really it’s the one thing we need right now. For those of us who have family moving into that region to try to restore peace and to help innocent people get to safety, pray! For the men and women defending the innocent and rooting out evils, pray! For your loved ones near and far, pray! For you family and friends, pray! For you enemies and people you’ve never met, pray!

When evil rears its ugly head, all it desires is to turn us against one another. You can’t be against people if you’re praying for them. So get to it people! Pray for peace not just in Israel and Gaza but around the world and even in your own heart.

The Same Team

October 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’m a pretty big sports fan. I love college football. As a matter of fact I will do just about everything in my power to rearrange my life for 14 Saturdays a year just so I can watch what in my opinion is the best sport around. Now you don’t have to agree with me. But it’s not going to change my mind.

I really think we can learn a little from the sport of football. Life lessons. Business approaches. Relationship learnings. And I really think the church can take a lesson or two from the game of football as well.

It really hit me the other day when I was looking at the sideline. Why was the coach on the sidelines wearing that bright green shirt? Then another coach for the same team was wearing a bright blue one. These are not their colors. What’s the deal? Why not wear apparel for the team you’re coaching?!?! It seemed really absurd to me. Until I realized who they were and what role they had. Then it started to make a lot more sense!

You see one of the coaches on the sideline was one of the defensive coaches. He was letting the defense know how they should be lining up based on what the offense was showing. The one in blue? Yeah he had a different function. Not defense but his position on the team related to the offense.

They had to stand out so the men on the field could see them easily enough in the moment. They were on the same team, but they had different methods for achieving the same goal. They both wanted the team to win. They both wanted their team to score more points than the other team. One dealt with a really strong offensive strategy. For them it was all about scoring points. The defense however wasn’t as focused on scoring points. They just didn’t want the other team to score. While their tactics were different their end goal was the same.

Then it hit me. It’s the same way in the church. It’s not about offense and defense but different approaches to accomplish the same goal. What’s the goal of the church? According to the Bible the goal of the church should be to equip the saints for works of ministry and to disciple people through relationships built around God’s promises (baptism) and His commands (obedience).

Nothing in that tells us what color shirt to wear. As a matter of fact there is a ton of flexibility in developing relationships leading to discipleship. And just as much freedom in equipping the saints. As long as the end goal is the same – eternal life in Jesus. It’s about believing and living out the belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven.

He doesn’t tell us to wear special clothes when we preach or teach. He doesn’t tell us what songs are better than others. He doesn’t have a preferred musical styling. It’s almost like Jesus knew that one day we’d have a full team standing ready on the sidelines. It’s almost like Jesus had some kind of knowledge that helped him realize we don’t all learn the same way.

As big of a football fan as I am, I am a much larger fan of Jesus and the way he describes his church in the Bible. I’m not really a huge fan of how the church functions in the world all of the time today however. I’ve been on the receiving end of comments saying you’re not a real pastor because you don’t wear a robe. Or others have told me you’re not really teaching the Bible if your church is growing that fast. You mean that teaching the Bible is a deterrent for growing the local church?! Yikes! Pretty sure someone needs to read the bible a bit!

Look, I know that one size doesn’t fit all. And that’s the beauty of the church. Some of us are wearing the blue shirts of the offensive line coach. While others feel more comfortable in the stylings of the defending the ways we’ve done it approach. Both offense and defense are necessary for a football game! What’s it going to take for us to get this through our thick skulls?

It’s like this – Jesus is the only way to heaven. But my blue shirt or your green shirt are not the only way to Jesus. We’re on the same team, so for the sake of everything holy let’s act like it!

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