In an age of international terror, it is natural to have the instinct of self-preservation. In the wake of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino (along with many others), we are all reminded just how unsafe our world is. And as our nation debates our responses to refugees and Muslims, we often find ourselves torn between the desire to be safe and the desire to be compassionate. As we proceed in this tug-of-war between safety and compassion, it does no good to ignore the danger. Some will say that there is nothing to fear from Syrian refugees or from the religion of Islam. They say that all religions have equal value, and therefore an extreme version of tolerance must rule our lives. As believers, we don’t believe this.

We believe that salvation is only through Jesus, and that any religion or worldview – including Islam – that teaches otherwise is false.

Furthermore, a number of religions and ideologies certainly lend themselves to violence. There are real threats to our safety in the world. The danger cannot be dismissed without us purposefully shutting our eyes. So, what do we do? Are believers called to ignore our own safety? No, we are not. At the same time, the debate forces us to ask ourselves what the bigger threat is. Is the bigger threat that we would be harmed by violent people, or is the bigger threat that we would turn away people who are in need physically, materially, or spiritually? While it may seem like a strange connection, my attention was drawn to 1 Corinthians 6, where the apostle Paul speaks to believers about lawsuits against one another. It turns out that believers in Corinth were taking each other to court over their disputes. Paul strongly rebukes them for this, saying that they should settle their disputes in the context of the church instead of taking their cases before unbelievers. What strikes me most about Paul’s words to the Corinthians, however, are found in verses 7-8: “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.” Paul’s striking words tell the Corinthians that they should prefer to be cheated than to be the ones cheating. They should prefer to be wronged then to be the ones wronging others.

This perspective that Paul espouses is not isolated to lawsuits. It strikes at the core of Christian conduct. Jesus came to serve, not to be served. Jesus would rather die than take down His murderers. Believers are called to forgive rather than take revenge. And – in this specific case – believers are called to be wronged rather than wronging others in an effort to defend their own rights.

There is no doubt that it is frightening to think about being oppressed. For believers, however, even more frightening than being oppressed, is being oppressors. While we want neither, Jesus leads us to prefer oppression against us to oppression that protects us.

Jesus calls us to love our enemies with full knowledge that we may receive cursing in response to our blessing. We may be taken advantage of while we are being generous. We may be endangered while we are giving aid. While the war on terror and the refugee question cannot be settled by sound bytes, those of us who are believers must let Jesus inform our attitude and our perspective.

The world does not need to see Christians boldly standing up for their own rights and their own safety. The world needs to see Christians who, like Jesus, would rather be wronged and cheated – and even oppressed – than become people who benefit at the expense of others.

Every Christian church should have certain similarities. For example, every church should all be about two main functions given to us by Jesus Himself. Those two functions are (1) to help people come to a place of receiving Jesus and (2) to help people grow into a mature and devoted follower of Jesus.

But every Christian church also has its unique distinctives. These distinctives reflect how one church may be different from the church down the street. And for many, these uniquenesses are what help people choose one church over another. One of the distinctives of LBF is that we are a multi-generational community. This distinctive has its own special challenges, but it also has some wonderful benefits.

On the challenge side, the truth is there are weekly frustrations related to being a multi-generational church. Just think for a minute about the generational makeup of our Sunday morning services. On any given Sunday we have people attending that range in age from 19 to 89. Can you imagine the difficulty in designing a service that meets the needs of this large and varied age group?

Someone says, “We need a choir anthem where we can hear the vocal parts, because THAT is worship.” Another says, “A choral feature song is more like a performance than worship. It’s not real; it’s not relevant.” One says, “Those people leading worship in jeans are disrespecting God and it sounds like a rock concert, including lights and sound. It’s just a show.” Still another remarks, “The lights, the quality of musicians, and the high-energy praise really helps me to worship God.” And here are two separate comments about the same Sunday experience written on our KIT cards: “The music is so loud I have to put my fingers in my ears” and “The energy in worship this morning was awesome!” Ephesians 4:3 says, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” But I have observed that where there are multiple generations, there is angst. So let me caution each generation, especially regarding music styles, that what we are doing is coming together to lift one voice in praise and celebration of Jesus. With multiple generations, a tension will always exist. But when we come together, willing to be flexible, the result can be amazing.

I really believe that while the difficulties of reaching multi-generations are huge, the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Older members provide wisdom, experience, faithfulness, and commitment. The younger church member

desperately needs the example and counsel of older, wiser members. And now that I am in my ’60s, I also grasp how much we need the energy, passion, and fresh thinking of the young.

A church committed to reaching multiple generations can actually see Scripture lived out, with the older women training the younger women (Titus 2:4) and the older men encouraging the younger men (Titus 2:6). When the older members are wiser, they understand how much they need the life that younger adults bring and how it’s critical to the mission and vision of the church. When younger adults truly desire to become Christ-like, they intentionally seek out those who have experienced the bumps and blessings of life.

For many years LBF has walked the path of being a multi-generational church.

And even with all its difficulties, we will continue to be a multi-generational church because we believe its benefits far out weigh its challenges.

Several years ago when I was a youth pastor, I did an activity with a group of junior high students. I talked about different conflict resolution styles, and then I had the students role-play different scenarios in order to practice resolving conflicts in healthy ways.

Two junior high girls – let’s call them Jenny and Stephanie – role-played the most memorable situation. In the role-play, Jenny gently and reluctantly confronted Stephanie because

Stephanie had been gossiping about her. When confronted, Stephanie coldly and aggressively snapped back, “Yeah, I said those things! I was mad at you!” At this, Jenny looked at the ground, paused, and then said, “Well…I’m glad we were able to work that out.”

Not exactly the model picture of conflict resolution.

The way this imaginary scenario played out was both comical and instructive. My wife and I still laugh about it today. However, in this role-play, Jenny and Stephanie both revealed the obstacles that would keep each of them from experiencing closeness in relationships. Jenny was so afraid of conflict that she would be willing to accept hurts without seeking resolution. Stephanie would run over others and refuse to take their hurts seriously. They demonstrated two wildly different approaches to

relationships, but both approaches are equally hindering to the kind of closeness to which most of us aspire.

Both Jenny and Stephanie needed to be set free. Jenny needed to be set free from her fears so that she could risk upsetting others in order to pursue close relationships. Stephanie needed to be set free from her defensiveness so that she could be vulnerable and considerate. One of the ironies of this scenario is that Jenny and Stephanie were best friends. But you can

probably imagine how their different approaches hindered them from

having true closeness.

Relationships are complicated.

Whether we are talking about husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings or friends, we all find it a struggle to connect. On the one hand, our hearts desire for closeness. We want to know and to be known. At the same time, we find our relationships lacking for any number of reasons.

We are too cold. We are too clingy.

We start fights. We refuse to engage.

We smother. We neglect. We send the mixed signals that we want to be known, and yet we refuse to open ourselves up so that others can know us.

Much like Jenny and Stephanie, we all need to be set free. Some of us need to be set free from the illusion that human relationships can heal all of our wounds. Until we are set free, we will pour all of our energy into relationships and then pull away and despise our loved ones when they don’t fulfill our deepest needs. Others of us need to be set free from our crippling fear of being vulnerable.

We need to know that we are safe at the deepest level, so that we can be free to risk closeness with people who could use what they learn about us to hurt us later on.

The only true and ultimate paths to this freedom is through the gospel of Jesus. Only when we are connected to God can we be set free from the unhealthy habit of using others up for our purposes. Only when we have experienced the grace and forgiveness of Jesus can we be set free from the unhealthy habit of hiding from others in order to protect ourselves.

God created us for relationships. He Himself is Triune, existing forever in perfect community. God longs for us to have connections with one another that bring joy and fullness to our lives.

And it is only God who can lead us to experience the kind of health and harmony for which we long.

In the month of April at Life Bible Fellowship Church, we will walk through a 5-week series called How We Relate: Relationships as God Intended. Each week we will talk about an aspect of how Scripture leads us to relational joy and health. And more than this, we will talk about how when we cling to the gospel of Jesus, we find ourselves free to take the risks that are necessary to experience relationships as God intended.

The issues of homelessness are complex.

There’s so much more to it than simply finding people and placing them in housing. To really embrace this problem takes a much larger commitment of time, patience, and love. It requires making an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of people who find themselves in poverty and homelessness and responding to those needs with a holistic approach.

As believers in Jesus, we want to help, we want to love our neighbor… but helping the homeless can be intimidating. It’s like heading out into unchartered waters. We don’t feel well equipped, the challenges are complex, each situation is unique and we certainly don’t have all the answers. We are fearful that we’re going to let someone down. We’re afraid the burden and responsibility will be too great to carry alone. These realities paralyze us and prevent us from getting involved.

It’s been said that it takes a village…

Open Table is a model and ministry strategy for helping individuals and families to move from poverty to community. Through the Open Table model, a collaborative team of 12 people will work together to solve the complex issues of re-establishing a person or family out of homelessness into stability. One of the key issues with those struggling with homelessness is that they’ve lost their network of relationships that can help them. Open Table creates a team of people who then leverage their expertise, experiences, networks and relationships to serve the person in need.

It’s the body of Christ coming together to help people in need.

Picture a large table with 13 chairs. One chair is for the individual/family we are assisting, the other 12 chairs are for people to come alongside and help. Each chair represents a different area of responsibility… for example, housing needs, finances, transportation, education, job skills, etc.  Each person sitting at the table will take responsibility for their area and help the family regain their footing. Each of these twelve people will meet with the family once a week for the first four to six months and then as needed for up to a year.  The 13 people at the table are working together to bear the burdens and responsibility to bring the family to long-term health and wholeness.

LBF successfully completed its first Open Table. We walked along Gina for about nine months. You can learn more about this journey here:  https://vimeo.com/155050601

We’re launching our second table this summer. Stay tuned.

 

Corporate worship is such a central part of our walk with Jesus. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” If you play an instrument or have sung in the past, we would love to hear from you. We are recruiting for our Worship Ministry and would love for you to be a part of what God is doing here at LBF. Over the past year and a half, I have had the privilege of getting to serve with a great team of people who are passionate about worship and excited to lead our church into the throne room. God has been doing some exciting things in our worship ministry and I believe He has big plans for the future.

If you or someone you know would be a great fit for our team, email me at [email protected].

I can still remember like it was yesterday the Sunday I walked down the aisle of a church to receive Jesus as my Savior. I was too young to really understand what the Lordship of Jesus is all about, but I knew I did wrong and needed Jesus to forgive me and save me from my sins. It was the pastor who helped me come to faith.

Do you remember the person who led you to Jesus? Was it a pastor or other church staff member? Was it a family member? Was it a work colleague? Was it a neighbor? Was it a friend?

 However you came to faith in Jesus, I know that God used a person to help you because that’s part of His plan in spreading the good news.

Have you ever thought about where you’d be if you had never come to a saving faith in Jesus? I can only imagine how my life would have been different, but I can say it probably wouldn’t have been very pretty. Maybe you’d say the same thing as well about your life without or before Jesus.

The second half of our LBF mission is “…and to lead our neighbors to do the same.” The “same” is about helping people experience LIFE in Jesus and that starts by believing in Jesus. We at LBF desire to fulfill the great commission found in Matthew 28:18-20. It’s our desire to be a people who help nonbelievers come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this for more than a year now. It’s what motivated me to provide “Share Your Faith” training to our church just before Easter of 2015 and then again earlier this year. If you’re like me, you need help in overcoming your fears in talking to others about Jesus and about your faith.

The truth is, our American culture has marginalized churches and Christians to the point that the classic gospel message is not respected or allowed an unbiased hearing. Plus, I think that Christians in general are afraid to share their faith because it brings back memories of judgmental people, forced presentations, talking to strangers, and trying to persuade people against their will.

So I bring this up now because I’ve taken a good, long look at how people come to faith in 2016. And LBF will soon be introducing some new ideas and programs to reach people with the message of Jesus.

In the meantime, I want to encourage you to invite your unchurched family, friends, and work colleagues to church. Better yet, bring them! Every Sunday is a good Sunday to bring someone – you just never know what God is already doing in their hearts and lives. And you may be just the person who has the wonderful privilege to see this person invite Jesus to be their Savior and Lord. Now wouldn’t that just make your day a joyous one?

Throughout our series The Church and the World, which walks through the book of 1 Corinthians, we will be confronted with the fact that the way God sees reality is different from the way that our world sees reality. We will consistently be challenged to embrace the counter-cultural message of Jesus, as He instructs us about wisdom, about sin, about decision-making, about hope, and about power. Living in light of God’s wisdom is impossible without faith. We must believe in what we cannot see.

In 2 Kings 6, Elisha the prophet ended up in a frightening situation. The king of Aram has ordered his men to find him and capture him while he was living in a city called Dothan. After they found where Elisha was staying, verse 14 says that the king “sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.” This was not a friendly visit. This was a group of hostiles, ready to capture, torment, and eventually murder Elisha. Things were looking grim for the prophet.

For most of us, we would assume that this event would mark the final line of our obituary. This is certainly the reaction of Elisha’s servant when he sees the surrounding army. In verse 15 he says, “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” The servant’s heart is filled with fear and despair. Enemies surround them and there seems to be nothing but pain and death in the future. But in verse 16 Elisha simply says, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

At this point, Elisha’s servant could have begun to contradict this strange claim by his master. After all, the servant had just looked outside with his own eyes. He saw the Aramean army. He saw the frightening enemies that surrounded them. It was absolutely natural for him to believe that he understood what was going on. But Elisha seemed to believe that his servant wasn’t seeing the whole story. He believed that there was more to reality than what was visible on the surface.

Verse 17 says, “And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” And in a moment of powerful clarity, the servant saw reality from God’s point of view. What once appeared to be a desperate and terrifying situation suddenly became an occasion for hope. The servant realized that the reality that seemed most obvious was not the true reality.

With God, there is always more going on behind the scenes.

As we look to follow Jesus in the counter-cultural ways He leads us, we will have times when it seems like only pain and death await us. We will see the impending rejection from friends and family. We will see the loss of money and opportunity. We will see the mockery from the world. When we see these things, we will be tempted to believe that they represent ultimate reality. We will be tempted to believe that these armies surrounding us will spell our ultimate doom.

The good news is that what we see is not all that there is to see. The God who sent His one and only Son to die for us has promised that He is working all things for our good. In other words, the one who is with us is stronger than the ones who are against us.

We will be empowered to live the counter-cultural life that Jesus calls us to live when we learn to expect the good God to do good things for His people.

At a recent session of the Summer Bible Study, I had the privilege of teaching through the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, which is found in Luke 16:19-31. In the parable, there is a man of extreme wealth and a man (Lazarus) of extreme poverty. When they both die, however, Jesus reminds us that the kingdom of God does not correlate with the values of our world. We know this because the poor man ends up in heaven at Abraham’s side, while the rich man ends up in Hades in torment. It is a shocking reversal!

This parable tackles powerful themes about wealth and eternity, but I want to focus on its surprising—and troubling—ending.

Jesus then depicts an imaginary conversation between the rich man (in Hades) and Abraham (in heaven). After the rich man asks for some relief from his pain (and receives none), he makes an odd request from Abraham. In verses 27-28 he says, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” While we, as readers, may not assume that this request would be granted, most of us don’t have trouble following the logic.

The rich man ended up in torment and judgment because, apparently, he was a faithless man. Despite his great wealth (verse 19 says that he lived in luxury every day), he largely ignored God. Perhaps he was blinded by his vast resources and therefore saw no need for God. Whatever led to his godless life, the rich man knows that his five brothers are living the same kinds of lives. He doesn’t want them to end up in torment as well, so he hatches a plan to warn them. And just imagine the impact. The five brothers are feasting in their house, and in walks the dead beggar! Surely every jaw would drop. Surely they would perk up their ears and listen to whatever they were told.

Surely they would change their ways, repent, place their faith in God, and end up in heaven instead of hell.

Again, we may not expect the request to be granted, but the logic of the request seems pretty solid.

Abraham, however, disagrees. In verse 29 he replies, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” To be honest, Abraham strikes me as a bit dense here. He hears of this request to send a dead man as a warning, and he basically says, “I don’t get it. Why would that make any difference at all? After all, don’t they have a Bible?” Abraham seems a bit like a parent whose child asks for ice cream and who responds by saying, “I don’t get it. Why would you need ice cream? After all, don’t we have plenty of oatmeal?” The rich man, with what I assume to be great exasperation, says, “No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” A miracle will make a difference. A sign will convince them. Sure, they’re aware of the Bible. Sure, they are aware of God’s story, His commands, His promises. But if you send them a sign, that will make all the difference.

Many of us find ourselves agreeing here with the rich man. How many of us have prayed, “God, if you would just show yourself to me in convincing ways, I will believe and follow you forever”? How many of us, when a loved one is sick, have prayed, “God, if you would just heal her, I am certain that everyone who hears about it would believe and praise you”? How many of us, when dealing with financial struggles, have prayed, “God, if you just get me this job, my whole family will praise you and follow you”? Our logic is the same as the rich man. We think a sign from God will make all the difference.

What can we take from this?

Now, God is not against signs and miracles. The miraculous fills the pages of Scripture. Jesus did many miracles. But Jesus also spoke frequently about the limited impact of miracles. In fact, He often refused to do miracles when they were demanded by the people. Miracles can be very effective in building our faith. But Jesus seemed to think that most of us overestimate the impact that miracles will have on our faith.

Too often, when God rescues us from a difficult situation, we move on and go about life as usual.

The rich man says to Abraham, “No, Scripture isn’t enough to convince them. Do a resurrection!” Abraham, however, ends the parable by saying, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” And Jesus’ potent ending to this parable is not theoretical. After all, pretty soon he would be raised from the dead, and many would still refuse to believe.

According to Jesus, miracles aren’t as effective as we think they are.

When we pray, “God please provide, and heal, and fix, and rescue, and then we will all believe,” His response to us is likely, “But why do you need those things; I gave you the Scripture.” God has given us His Word. He has told us what matters. He has told us who He is. He has told us how we are called to live.

Why is it that we need a sign? His calling for us is to listen to Him, to obey His commands, and to trust Him with all our hearts.

Don’t wait.

God, in His grace may bless us with faith-confirming signs and miracles. But we don’t need to wait on these signs in order to follow Him with our whole hearts. He has spoken clearly through His Word, and we would do well to listen careful, to trust Him, and to obey.

This post originally appeared in the August 2016 edition of LBF Church’s  Scroll newsletter.

One of the unique questions of our generation relates to the use of social media. While questions concerning the wisdom and timeliness of words is nothing new, social media provides unique opportunities for us to broadcast our thoughts to a large audience in a short amount of time. Some use social media to share stories from their lives. Some use it to express their views on current events. Some use it to chronicle the ordinary events of their day.

Our use of social media has led us to the point that we can express our thoughts, responses, and experiences at a moment’s notice. Through social media, we know what we can do. The question I want to explore is what we should do. In order to explore this question, I want to make use of some helpful decision-making criteria that the Apostle Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians. As the Corinthians seem to be focused on making sure that they are clear on what they can do, Paul directs them to focus on what they should do. In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul directs them away from the statement, “Everything is permissible,” by reminding them, “Not everything is beneficial.” Paul calls the Corinthians – and us – away from the low standard of asking if we can, and to the higher standard of asking if we should.

Here’s the starting point: There is nothing sinful about social media. There is nothing wrong with sharing pictures, personal stories, reflections, political opinions, or even the mundane events of our lives. All of these are things that we can do. What, then, would give us any pause before posting?

Let’s begin with the negative. A large number of political and social commentary made on social media is volatile and dismissive. Whether it is Trump vs. Clinton, Guns vs. Terrorism, or Black Lives Matter vs. Police Supporters, we must ask ourselves whether our words are helpful. It may accurately reflect our feelings to blow off steam about a politician we dislike or to critique the logic of a policy, but are our memes really impacting people for the better? Are any minds being changed? Is helpful dialogue being facilitated? Most of the time the answer is no.

While we can, it is worth asking, “Should I post something that will reinforce the beliefs of those who already agree with me, while at the same time alienated those who disagree with me?”

I suggest that much of what we have been posting is not helpful.

Now, let’s move on to the positive. Many of our posts are not volatile, but it could be argued that they are trivial. Constant posts about sports, entertainment, food, and passing thoughts are unlikely to offend. But are we missing an opportunity to help by using our voices on unimportant matters? It is not simply that we should be careful to avoid posts that are unhelpful. We also have the opportunity to consider what we can pro-actively post that will be helpful. This is not to say that it is wrong to ever post about trivial matters, but here are five suggestions of ways to use the platform of social media in order to build others up:

1.  Share Scripture

Whether you are sharing a reference, a passage written out, or your reflection on a passage, others can be directed to the life-changing Word of God through the platform of social media.

2.  Personal Encouragement

We don’t always have to post for a broad audience. Consider bringing encouragement and affirmation to specific people with whom you’re connected through social media.

3.  Honest Reflection

If you find God bringing insights and changes into your thinking and behavior, share with others in order to demonstrate your positive change.

4.  Celebrating

We can use social media as a way to celebrate the good things that God is doing in our lives and through His people. The heavy international events of the world can rob of us hope. Share with others the positive ways that God is at work.

5.  Normalizing

While posts about everyday life are seldom either helpful or volatile, we can use opportunities to demonstrate what we believe to be healthy responses to the events of everyday life. This can be a positive example to others.

What can we take away from this?

As we look to follow Jesus’ leading for us in every area of our lives, let’s strive to ask not simply what He allows us to do, but instead to ask how He is calling us to bring a blessing and benefit to ourselves and others through all that we do.

This is a guest post by LBF Member and Open Table Coordinator Donna Brendel.

In April, LBF committed to partner with Open Table for our second opportunity to serve someone struggling with homelessness. Ten committed members from our LBF family and one from Solid Ground Church joined us on our journey help a brother or sister in need for a full year. Our second table was off and running full of excitement. Team training took place in May, while our transitional partner, Mercy House, helped us to identify an individual who was willing to participate in LBF’s Open Table Ministry.

We were introduced to our brother, Richard H., and after many meetings with him, and going through all the background screening/processes he must do, we had our official launch on July 28^th. Nothing brings strangers together like food! Our “Breaking of the Bread” Dinner was a huge success in forming a foundation of relationships. The evening was a total success as our table members met with our brother after dinner, to tell him more about our own lives and why we wanted to take this journey with him. Richard was very emotional and stated that for the first time in a very long time, he actually felt a part of something.

He declared that he had hope for a better future with eleven people who truly seemed to care about him. He had new friends who he could call on in times of need.

This journey has already been quite a learning experience for Table members and for Richard. Even before we even had our official launch, Richard had some serious car problems which were making it hard for him to get to work.  He needed $1,800.00 to get his car fixed and had set up his own GoFundMe account to ask his friends to help contribute towards his car repairs. LBF joined in, posting this need on our social media and many from LBF generously responded helping Richard get the funds to fix his car.

While his car was being worked on, members of the Open Table Team stepped in to give Richard rides to and from work and were trying to be supportive in any way they could to help him keep his job. Richard was, and still is so grateful for all the help, and for the people outside of the Table that gave to the fund.  And we all are grateful for the over and above help from Luis and Rosario Lucas, who own a car repair business. They met with Richard and fixed another issue with his car at their own expense!

Open Table truly is a team effort – our Table Members, our church and our extended networks of relationships.  It is so good to see each and every one of you step out and fulfill our mission which is:  “To passionately pursue LIFE in Jesus and to lead our neighbors do the same.”  We look forward to the ongoing process of helping Richard grow. Thank you for your prayers.

For more info on Open Table, check out Russ Parker’s article on it here.

There is not a single one of us who would not love to see God do great and wonderful things in our lives.

When we read the great stories in Scripture, we wish that we were present for them. We wish that we were present for God parting the Red Sea for the Israelites, or leading Gideon and his 300 men to a military victory, or raising His Son from the dead. We wish we were there to see God’s great work.

And in our own lives, we long to see God bring healing, power, and transformation. We wish we saw these things more than we do. None of us can manipulate God or make demands of Him. As some have said, however, while we cannot make the wind blow, we can raise our sails. In other words, we cannot make God do wonderful things among us, but we can make choices that put us in a better position to see God work His wonders.

At the beginning of October, we began a new Bible Reading Plan at LBF Church. The plan begins with Ezra, which is not a book that is among the frequently read books in the Bible. Ezra, however, tells a divine and drama-filled story of the Israelites returning from exile to rebuild Jerusalem. They face consistent opposition and they’re faced with ongoing temptations to become discouraged.

They are forced to ask themselves how badly they want to see God do something powerful in their midst.

Here’s how the story unfolds. The Jewish people are sanctioned by King Cyrus of Persia to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. The people start building, but then in chapter 4 some opponents write to the king of Persia, telling him that the Jewish people have a history of insubordination. The king agrees, and he orders that they stop building, so that they won’t grow stronger and end up posing a threat in the future. And so, God’s people stop building.

Some time has passed when we get to chapter 5 because a new king is on the throne in Persia. And it is in chapter 5 that we see two prophets—Haggai and Zechariah—call God’s people to task. They tell them that it is time to do something risky. They need to start building again. They tell them to disregard the command of the king, and instead to trust that God will do something good if they are courageously obedient to Him. God’s people are faced with a choice. Will they wait around for God to do something great, or will they step forward in obedience, trusting that He will act?

Now, let me go ahead and spoil it. When God’s people start building again, their opponents complain to the king. When the king hears of their complaints, he goes back through the nation’s records and finds out that King Cyrus had sanctioned the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem. The king not only tells the opponents to back off, but he also goes on to finance the entire operation. The fortunes of God’s people turn! They were oppressed and alone. Now they are protected and supported. They saw God’s powerful work among them.

But here is the question: What would have happened if they had waited until the conditions were optimal before they started building? They probably never would have started. They would have been saying to God, “As soon as you make it safe and easy, we’ll start obeying you.” Instead, they stepped out in faith.  They said to God, “We will take You at Your word and do what You say. We will trust that You will do something wonderful.” And He did.

We all want to see God do great things in us and around us. Here is an encouragement from the book of Ezra: Start building now, while it still feels unsafe. Start talking to friends about Jesus. Start giving your money generously. Start speaking with godly boldness to people around you. Start fleeing from sin. Start serving at church. Start pouring out love to the people in your life who are difficult.

Don’t wait for God to do great things so that you can trust Him. Trust Him, and expect that He will do great things.

Let’s talk a minute about passion. How about we start with a definition? How would you define passion? Think about something you’re passionate about. What is it that makes you passionate about that thing? Why are you passionate about it? How does that passion direct your life?
Let me jump in here and say that I believe passion always involves a strong emotion that we have inside of us for someone or something. I also believe that when it comes to passion, we like being around passionate people. These are people who motivate us, who challenge us, who seem to have a life that we think is cool and we want for ourselves.

 
If you know anything about our church, at the very core – at the foundation – is this: we are about passionately pursuing LIFE in Jesus. Each of us is in the process of learning what that is all about, but in every situation we are asking ourselves, “What does a person look like who is passionately pursuing LIFE in Jesus?”

 
That’s a good question.

Here are some things to challenge those who want to grow in their passionate pursuit of Jesus:

First, it’s about not adding Jesus to your already busy and full life. It’s about making Him the central, guiding force of your life. It’s about weathering the storms of life with Jesus no matter how hard it gets. For example, if practicing for hours on the guitar makes the skin on my fingers hurt, passion says, “so be it.” If dancing ballet to the tune of the nutcracker gives me ugly toes, passion says, “so be it.” It’s about staying steadfast in all the seasons of life.

When we are passionate about following Jesus, we will give our full commitment and energy to our relationship with Jesus. We won’t see it as a half-hearted journey or a hobby. We’ll see our relationship with Jesus and the continual deepening of the realities and rewards of that relationship as first and of foremost importance. Being passionate is being invested. The time and effort – the costs – are paid because it is worth it. Because that’s what being passionate says.

It was Charles Spurgeon who said, “People love to see people of passion. Set yourself on fire and people will come to watch.” I don’t believe he is saying to literally set yourself on fire, but he is saying live in passionate pursuit of LIFE in Jesus. And when that happens, people will be curious and want to know what your life is all about.

 
I’m sure that as I write this some of you are saying, “But Gary, I’m not feeling very passionate right now.” If that is you, do a little recharge versus depletion assessment of your life. One way to do this is to consider the people you spend the most time with. Make sure you are cultivating that passion first by spending time with Jesus, learning of His lifestyle, and then being committed to living like Jesus. Then get next to people who radiate the passion of a LIFE lived in Jesus.

 
I believe when you make intentional decisions to grow in your passionate pursuit of LIFE in Jesus, it will result in a spiritually rich and meaningful life.

As we have walked through 1 Corinthians in our services over the past 6 months, we have seen the Apostle Paul address the sign gifts, and specifically speaking in tongues. This is an area of controversy and confusion among Christians in the world today. While I don’t believe that every question can be answered in a brief article, I want to take some time to address what Scripture says about speaking in tongues.

What is it?

When Paul writes about people who speak in tongues, he is referring to a Spirit-led activity in which a believer in Jesus praises God by speaking in a language that he or she had never been taught. The clearest case that we see of this is in Acts 2:1-13. In this passage, the Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles and they speak in tongues. In response to this miraculous act, foreigners all hear their native language being spoken by these apostles. Other passages in Acts are less detailed, but they refer to spontaneous, Spirit-led praise that someone speaks in a language they never learned.

What is its purpose?

At its most basic level, speaking in tongues provided a miraculous way for people to praise God. Others not only could stand amazed at the power of God, but they also occasionally could hear their own native language being spoken, so that they could understand what was being said. Speaking in tongues appears to be more connected to praise than to instruction (Acts 2:11, 1 Corinthians 14:16).

Is this gift still around today?

At LBF Church we believe that Scripture nowhere states that any of the gifts of the Spirit has ceased. Because of this, we believe that speaking in tongues is a gift that the Holy Spirit still gives as He sees fit. In 1 Corinthians 14:39 Paul says, “do not forbid speaking in tongues.” Because of this, we don’t intend to forbid this gift or to go beyond Scripture and say that it has ceased. It is possible that the gift is used more frequently by God when the gospel is first bring proclaimed in a culture. This certainly happened in the book of Acts, and there are many stories of this happening in frontier missions settings. That said, we don’t believe that Scripture has placed limitations on how the Spirit could use this gift.

Is it connected to a second blessing or a baptism of the Holy Spirit?

At LBF Church we absolutely reject the teaching that speaking in tongues is a sign of Christian maturity or that it is an indispensable sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of a believer. Paul is explicit in 1 Corinthians 12:30 that not everyone speaks in tongues. The Spirit gives the gift as He sees fit. We see no evidence of a “second blessing,” at which time a believer receives a fuller measure of the Holy Spirit and evidence this through speaking in tongues. We understand the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” as simply a reference to believers receiving the Holy Spirit, and not as a reference to believers receiving a fuller experience of maturity or the Spirit’s presence. Those who claim that speaking in tongues is an indispensable characteristic of Christian maturity fall into the same trap of pride and one-upmanship that led to Paul rebuking the Corinthians in chapters 12-14.

When is it meant to be practiced?

In Scripture we see believers speaking in tongues both in public (Acts 2) and also in meetings of the church (1 Corinthians 14). While at LBF Church we don’t specifically set aside time in our church services for people to speak in a tongue to the congregation, we would not forbid it. There are many occasions when people speak in tongues in more informal, open-ended gatherings, or even in much smaller groups. While we don’t forbid speaking in tongues at any gathering, our leadership would encourage anyone who believes that they have this gift to look for opportunities to use it in more open-ended settings. That said, we know that the Spirit is open to use this gift whenever and wherever He pleases, and we welcome that!

What is the proper use of this gift?

Paul is explicit in 1 Corinthians 14 that tongues are not helpful unless they are interpreted. The idea, then, is that someone would be led by the Spirit to speak praise to God in a language that they were never taught. Then someone else would be led by the Spirit to give an interpretation (or translation) of what was said. The interpretation allows everyone to benefit from what was spoken. If anyone speaks in tongues in a gathering of LBF Church, our first response would be to ask for an interpretation. If one is given, then we could praise and thank God together and be built up by what was said. If none is given, then we would simply move forward. The purpose of speaking in tongues is not to draw attention to the speaker’s giftedness, but to show God’s power and to share in His praises.

Is it a private prayer language?

Christians debate about whether one aspect of speaking in tongues is for a person to pray to God on their own in a private prayer language. Many of those who practice this find it to be a meaningful way of connecting with God when their words elude them. While this is certainly something that God can do, I personally do not believe this is what is referred to in Scripture. Instead, Scripture refers to people being led by the Spirit to speak a real known language (“tongues” simply means “languages”) in a setting that allows others to hear and benefit from it. On top of this, all gifts are given for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7), in order to build up the body of Christ. This is not accomplished through someone practicing a gift in private. That said, I don’t discourage people from this practice if they have found it meaningful. While I don’t see the practice being taught in Scripture, I certainly don’t see it forbidden in Scripture.

How important is it?

A proper understanding of speaking in tongues is important because we want to (a) value every gift that the Spirit gives and (b) avoid abuses or misuses of any gift that the Spirit gives. On the whole, however, Christians who differ in their beliefs about speaking in tongues don’t need to divide over these differences. These are secondary matters. At LBF Church, we seek to major on the majors. This means that we hold tightly to the divinity of Jesus, to the Triune nature of God, to salvation through Christ alone, and to the trustworthiness of the Scriptures. We hold much more loosely to our opinions and interpretations of secondary matters like the sign gifts. So, as you consider this gift, be sure to show value and charity to those who disagree with you.

For the past several months, we have known that on November 9th we would have a new President Elect. Many of us watched Tuesday night as election results came in. We all knew going into this election that our nation would be divided over the results, and this is exactly what has unfolded. Many were delighted, and many were grieved.

Much focus has been given in the past months as to how Christians should conduct themselves in the political process. Many—including me—have weighed in on how Christians should think, and vote, in light of Scriptural guidance. Now that the votes have been counted, we will do well to consider our calling in response to the results.

In other words, what now?

First and foremost, we are all called to hope in God, remembering that our ultimate citizenship is in heaven. If you are troubled by the election of Donald Trump, you can find comfort in knowing that no president or government is able to thwart God’s good plan. If you are excited about the election of Donald Trump, take care to remember that nations and rulers are a drop in the bucket to God. Our hope is in God, and a presidential election should not lead us into despair or into euphoria. A presidential election changes nothing about God’s sovereignty, His goodness, or His calling for His people.

Secondly, we are called to pray. First Timothy 2:1-4 says,

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Part of our calling is to pray for President Elect Trump, as well as our other governmental leaders.

Pray for divine guidance, for wisdom, and for a unique work of God’s Spirit in their lives.

Thirdly, we can move forward by remembering that God has used all kinds of flawed people and accomplished His purposes through them. Before the results, I was critical of those who compared Donald Trump to biblical figures like King David, Samson, and Cyrus. I believed—and still believe—that those were weak parallels because the Israelites never had a hand in electing those leaders. To say that God would work through a flawed man like Donald Trump is not different than saying that God can work through a flawed woman like Hillary Clinton. God can do both.

However, now that we have the results, I believe that the parallels have greater credence. No Israelite voted for the Persian king named Cyrus. However, God still used this foreign king to initiate and finance the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Israelites had been in exile. No Israelite voted for Samson to be their deliverer. However, God mightily used this erratic womanizer to deliver the nation from the Philistines. God is in no way limited by human weakness and sinfulness.

I have had grave concerns about the character of Donald Trump.

I still have all of these concerns. I believe that he is a godless, crass, greedy, narcissist. (To be fair, I think Hillary Clinton is an entitled, corrupt, power-hungry liar; I believe we had historically poor candidates this year.) That said, he will be our next president. None of those flaws or sins can keep God from accomplishing His will through—or despite—him. We are called to pray to this end.

Fourthly, and finally, we are called to speak prophetic truth to our culture and our leaders. I am struck that some people compared Donald Trump, with all his weaknesses, to King David, who committed adultery and murder. It is worth noting that the prophet Nathan spoke bold truth to David after these sins. The prophet told David the truth about what God had to say about his actions. The church of Jesus Christ has the calling to speak God’s truth to the culture regardless of who is in power. We must not be selective. We must identify good and evil and call them what they are. This will always be the role of the church in the culture. Collectively, we are the prophetic voice of God. Be bold and tell the truth.

If you are excited about the results of this election, give thanks to God and then remember that no human leader can bring us the deliverance for which we long. If you are discouraged by the election results, cast your cares upon God and find your hope and comfort in Him, remembering that God is neither surprised nor overwhelmed by what happened on Tuesday night. Hope. Pray. Remember. Speak.

I will admit that I have no nostalgia concerning the Christmas song, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” This is not because I dislike the song, but simply because I don’t remember hearing it played when I was growing up. In fact, this past week was the first time that I took the time to listen to the lyrics and find out what the song was about. The reason I wanted to understand the song was that it came to my attention that a couple had re-written the song because they objected that the original version promoted a “rape culture.”

If you’re not familiar with the original song, it goes back and forth between a woman singing about how she really should leave and go home while the man tries to convince her to stay the night by warning her that “it’s cold outside.” She talks about how the neighbors might whisper and her father might be worried, while he says things like “what’s your hurry?” and “what’s the sense in hurting my pride?” At best, I think that most people who are fond of the song see it as a playful dance of seduction, a good-natured back and forth between a man and a woman who are trying to decide whether or not to spend the night together.

In the new version, the woman’s part stays largely the same, while the man’s changes significantly. Instead of trying to convince her to stay by saying, “baby, it’s cold outside,” he says, “baby, I’m fine with that.” When she says, “I ought to say no, no, no,” he replies, “you reserve the right to say no.”

To be honest, when I first heard the politically correct version of the song, I thought it was a parody. It just seemed hysterical to me to think about a couple snuggling up in front of a fire in the glow of the Christmas lights and listening to a song about a woman who thinks maybe she should go home as her man ambivalently affirms her agency to do so. It’s not terribly artistic.

That said, I actually found myself sympathetic to the concerns about the song.

This surprised me because I am certainly no fan of political correctness. But I am also not a fan of a scene in which a man is trying to talk a woman into spending the night with him. This is not because I believe that a man who does this is committing date rape. This is because I think that a man should not seek to get a woman into bed unless he has married that woman. If he marries her, trying to seduce her is fair game! But trying to get her to give herself to him before he is willing to commit to her is something that I consider dishonorable.

I recognize that my Christian beliefs about sex being reserved for married men and women represent a minority position today.

At the same time, I think the controversy surrounding this song illustrates the wisdom of God and the problems with our casual attitude toward sex in our culture.

Some might claim that “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” promotes a rape culture because it demonstrates coercion on the part of the man. Others will scoff at this, saying that there is clearly a difference between rape and the dance of seduction. I do believe that there is a difference between seduction and rape. I don’t believe we should equate a woman choosing to sleep with a man because he talks her into it with the horror of a woman being attacked by a man who forces himself on her. I think it is an insult to women who are brutally assaulted to equate the two.

That said, I believe that the man does something wrong in both cases. They are not equally wrong acts, but in both cases, the man essentially uses the woman for his own gratification. I don’t think the man who coerces a woman to sleep with him should be prosecuted. I just think he should be ashamed of himself. I believe God created men to show honor to women by giving a full commitment to them before asking them to give themselves to us physically.

I’m not a fan of the original version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” because it promotes the idea that it is harmless for a man to seduce a woman to whom he isn’t married. However, I’m not a fan of the PC version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” because it promotes the lie that the solution to the problem of pressured sex is simply to empower the woman in order to make sure that she can make the best decision. If there’s nothing morally wrong or socially sketchy about sex outside of marriage, then a man is free to try to convince a woman to spend the night, and the woman is free to say yes or no.

To be honest, I think many men might even take the message in the PC version as a new strategy for seduction. As long as I keep affirming that she doesn’t have to sleep with me, she will let her guard down and spend the night. But then the woman may discover that she’s been manipulated. Then we will need a new version of the song in order to show that men should not manipulate women into bed. Instead of the man saying, “I’m fine with that,” he will need to say, “I would really like to have consensual sex with you, but I just want to make sure that my interest or lack of interest doesn’t influence your decision in any way.” But then men might complain that women sometimes manipulate men and string them along in order to get men to take them out on nice dates and buy them things. Then we would need a new version of the song that addresses women. Perhaps the woman will have a lyric that says, “I really should go, especially since I don’t want you to think that I have any claim on your money just because you’re interested in me sexually.” The lyrics may not be deeply poetic, but it will be important to make sure the message gets out.

My point is that I believe we should not trivial rape by equating it with seduction and that we should not glorify seduction by equating it with the beauty of sex in a truly committed relationship.

The true beauty of sex is when a woman feels free to give herself to a man who she knows will be there for her.

The solution to the “rape culture” is not to work harder to delineate exactly where seduction becomes coercive. The solution is to recognize that our confusion over this line points to the eternal wisdom of God. He is not arbitrary in reserving sex for marriage. He is lovingly directing us toward the practice that will enhance the beauty of sex and will rescue of from the sadness, confusion, and regret that is brought on by casual sex.

God loves us. He doesn’t want men to use their wits to trick women into bed. And he doesn’t want women to have to walk in the uncertainty of wondering whether or not they have a man who is committed to them. God’s wisdom is always wise, and our ultimate good is always found in trusting Him and following His lead.

Grief is a journey. It takes us on a roller coaster of emotions.

Some days you can smile when you think of those you have lost and other days you can’t even get out of bed. Grief hits us like a punch to the gut any time of day and anywhere. How do we come alongside someone who has suffered a loss? What can we do? Often our words can cause pain to a person who is already hurting. Our intentions and hearts may be in the right place. We often ask, “what can I do?” The most important thing to know though is it isn’t our words that they need.

A grieving person isn’t looking to us to have the right thing to say.

Maybe you avoid grieving friends or family because you don’t know what to say. What you can give them is your time. Offer a hug or a prayer. Bring them a meal. Simply say, “I am sorry”, “I am here for you”, “I am praying for you”. Don’t fear their tears. Let them share their memories and favorite stories with you. It’s an important part of grieving. There are many stages of grief. Denial, anger, and depression, just to name a few. The final one is acceptance. Some stages come and go. Someone may go through one and revisit another later on. The first year is the most difficult because your grieving friend is experiencing all the “firsts” without the person or thing in their life they are grieving. First birthday, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, and first anniversary, etc. Sending a card, a text or calling them on those important dates can mean so much.

It reminds the grieving person that they or their loved one hasn’t been forgotten.

The first couple of months the person receives cards, flowers, food, and calls. But after a while that goes away. Then it gets quiet. That’s when they need you the most. Many people who are grieving will tell you the nights are the most difficult. When they are home and the business of the day is done. It can be lonely.
We don’t get “over” the death of a loved one. The world can often hurry us along in our grief. Telling us we should be over it. We should be better. We have to go “through” grief and come out on the other side. We come to a place where we can smile when we think of someone we lost. We can laugh when we share stories. We can find joy in the memories. That comes with time and healing. You can’t escape grief; you can’t run from it. The tears are part of the healing process. God is there in our tears, our anger, our loss. We need to cling to the hope we have in Jesus. “Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted”. Matthew 5:4. Grief isn’t exclusive to just the death of someone. People grieve loss for many different things. Divorce, loss of a job, moving away from loved ones, or an illness.
Remember that your grieving friend needs time. Don’t rush them. Be patient, be present, and just love them through it.

Shauntel Raymond is LBF Church’s LIFEcare Coordinator. If you need someone to talk to, our LIFEcare ministry can help. Go to the LIFEcare web page and contact Shauntel there.

Read more articles from LBF Church at lbf.church

Bet small, win small.

“Bet small, win small.” That was the mantra of one of my friends with whom I used to play poker. Bet small, win small. If you’re going to be cautious with your chips, you may successfully avoid some big losses. At the same time, you will certainly miss out on some large windfalls. There are advantages to playing it safe, but there is also a cost. There is a risk to pushing all your chips to the middle of the table, but there is also a risk to folding your cards. The question is always, “Which gamble would you like to take?”

In 2 Corinthians 9:6 the apostle Paul makes this exact point about Christian giving. He says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” When he speaks of sowing, he is speaking about generously giving to the work of Jesus’ gospel. When he speaks of reaping, he is not simply speaking about material rewards, but about the fact that God will ultimately make our sacrifices worth our while. When it comes to Christian giving, Paul says, “Bet small, win small. Bet big, win big.”

We have just finished a two-week series at LBF Church called The Cost of Giving. We talked about the fact that our generosity is meant to cost us. We give out of love for God and out of faith in God. In this article, I am going to give a few thoughts on how we can practically approach our giving and “bet big” on God.

Plan Ahead

Right after Paul encourages believers to bet big on God, he says in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Paul assumes that Christian giving is not simply a spontaneous activity. He encourages us to plan in advance how much we believe God is calling us to give. He tells us to plan ahead in our giving.

Most people don’t lose weight, get out of debt, or save for retirement without advanced planning. In the same way, most people don’t give generously unless they plan in advance. Unless we budget our money, we aren’t likely to stumble into extra money that we can give. Instead, give what you have decided in your heart to give. Think and pray about your giving in advance, and plan accordingly.

Give Where God Has Placed You

Generosity is not confined to the local church. Give to missionaries, to local charities, and to personal friends in need. But the local church to which you belong ought to be a giving priority. The New Testament authors teach us that we each belong not only to the universal body of believers but to our local church bodies. When we belong to one another we use our spiritual gifts and our financial resources to share with the local church.

Since I am a pastor, it could seem self-interested for me to encourage people to give to their local churches. That said, one of the reasons why I became a pastor is that I believe that the local church is at the center of what God is doing in the world. This is why Paul went around starting local churches all over Asia. This is why Christians consistently plant churches around the world. This is why Paul says in Ephesians 3:10-11, “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The church is worth your investment because it is through the church that God is making his manifold wisdom known in the world!

Stretch Yourself

At LBF Church we don’t believe that God requires any specific giving amount from Christians. While many people assume that God asks for 10%, this figure has to do with the nation of Israel and it isn’t found in the New Testament. That said, I want to encourage you to think of 10% as a good place to start. Randy Alcorn—who happens to be my father-in-law—has written extensively on Christian giving. He brings the reminder that since the poorest Jew in Israel was required to give 10%, it seems odd that those of us living in the richest nation in world history would give less, especially because we now live on the other side of God’s great work of grace through Jesus Christ. Because of this, I do want to encourage you to consider the figure of 10% as a good principle for Christian giving.

Still, as I said above, we don’t believe that there is any magic percentage for Christian giving. But Paul did challenge believers to sow generously. If you’re currently giving 10%, consider whether or not God is calling you to stretch yourself and give more. If you’re giving nothing, stretch yourself and begin to give something. If you’re giving a little, stretch yourself and give more. God is worth the gamble. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

As many of us reflect back on Sanctity of Life Sunday and on the March for Life going on around the nation last January, I wanted to write an article to explore non-legislative ways that Christians can be advocates for unborn children. This is not because I think legislation is unimportant. I think it is vital for believers to champion legislation that would protect unborn children. I also think that part of the calling for Jesus’ church is to be a prophetic voice to the culture by serving as its conscience. That said, we cannot necessarily control what happens with the laws of the land. We can, however, continue to champion and protect the sanctity of life regardless of the values of our society. Here are five suggestions.

1. Teach Your Children

For those of us who are adults, much of what we consider to be “normal” depends on what was normal in our family or origin. If it was normal in your family for people to yell at one another, this is probably normal to you today. If it was normal in your family to be thrifty and save for the future, this probably seems normal to you. If you want more people to treasure the value of unborn children, then pass this value along to your children.

Talk about it with them overtly. Share with them what God’s Word says, and talk to them about specific scenarios and how to handle them. Encourage them to follow God’s Word and save sex for marriage, but also make sure they know that you will bring support and care if they are part of an unplanned pregnancy. You have more influence than you think about how you influence the attitude of the next generation when it comes to abortion and unborn children.

2. Volunteer and Give

Some people criticize the pro-life movement, saying that we are pro-birth. They mean that we advocate for the baby to be born, but then do not support legislation that would help the mothers and the children after they are born. While I think this criticism is largely overblown, it is worth consideration. I don’t believe that a pro-life person, in order to be consistent, has to support large government programs because I don’t believe that we must look to the government as the solution.

There are many organizations, like Assure Pregnancy Clinic, which not only support the mother during the pregnancy, but also offer parenting classes, baby clothes, and ongoing counseling. When we give our finances and our time to organizations that provide poor and single mothers with much-needed resources, we are living out our pro-life position much more holistically.

3. Prioritize Your Family

Part of the tragic lie that fuels abortion is that children are a threat to a good and full life. In Scripture, we are conversely told that children as a gift and blessing from God. Our cries for the unborn ring empty if we treat our own children as an inconvenience. If we farm our kids out to be raised by others so that we can pursue our own dreams, we send the message that “rich” people have an unfair advantage because they can have kids without any significant sacrifice.

The fact is that even more than money and possessions, our kids want us! Make it a priority to spend time with your kids. Eat meals together, go on vacations, read, play games, pray and read Scripture together. If children of all ages are blessings and gifts, they are worthy of the sacrifices we make for them.

4. Use Your Voice

Not only can we teach our children about the sanctity of life, but we can also use our voice to influence others. This may be through writing articles or making videos.  This may be through speaking boldly in conversations with friends and family. This may be through offering options to a woman you know who is experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. Don’t underestimate your influence on those God has placed around you.

If pro-life people stay silent, women are robbed of good options that are readily available to them. Prayerfully and courageously use your voice to advocate for vulnerable unborn children.

5. Offer Help

If we want to give our time and money to an organization that helps unborn babies and their mothers, we can do that immediately. But God may also bring us opportunities to offer help in a more personal way. We may end up being connected to a single mother or a pregnant woman who is in crisis.

God may call us to help financially, to babysit, or even to provide housing. We are called to keep our eyes peeled for ways to reach out personally to help any person who is in need. If you truly value the lives of unborn children, prepare your heart to be ready to chip in to help those who have made the good and brave choice to keep their children. When we do this, we are pro-life in a much fuller way!

What is unconditional love? Is it affection without any limitations? Love without conditions? According to the book Real Love by Greg Baer, M.D., “Unconditional love is, in essence, true love. So different from the kind of love most of us have known all our lives that it deserves a definition of its own. Unconditional love is caring about the happiness of another person without any thought for what we might get for ourselves.”

How can we experience this kind of love? How does Jesus’ love for us give us hope for our own relationships? The Bible has many descriptions of love and the most often heard is, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NIV).

Many of our relationships, whether it’s with a spouse, children, parents, or friends, come with trials and pain. We are often hurt by those who say they love us. The behavior of people is often a reflection of a story we don’t know. Parents that have trouble showing love and affection to their children could have been raised by parents that modeled the same behavior. Constant turmoil in a marriage could be a result of not dealing with a painful past. Loving – being patient and kind – is not easy to follow when we haven’t had it modeled for us in our families.

Jesus modeled God’s love for us.

Jesus lived out that love described in 1 Corinthians 13. Where we fail, our hope is the promise that our sins and shortcomings have been wiped clean. We can live out Jesus’ promise in our lives because of what He did for us. We are loved, cherished, forgiven, and transformed because of Jesus! How can you show the same love God has shown to you to someone else today?

I have always found the story of Rahab in Joshua 2 to be one of the most fascinating stories in all of Scripture, but perhaps not for the normal reasons why people find it interesting.

Some find this story interesting because Rahab is a prostitute, and yet somehow ends up being a hero in the story. In fact, she ends up in the genealogy of Jesus. This is a great example of God redeeming people and putting them in places of prominence. While this is great, it is not what captures my attention.

Others find this story interesting because Rahab lies in order to hide Jewish spies from the authorities in Jericho. The story raises questions about when it is permissible to lie. I confess that I find this discussion fascinating. Yet this is not why this story sticks with me.

The reason the Rahab story fascinates me is that Rahab makes a choice for the future, despite the circumstances of the present. She makes a choice based on what she believes will be instead of what currently is. In this, she shows us all a picture of how we live in light of the kingship of Jesus instead of living in light of the current powers of our age.

When Rahab takes the Jewish spies into her home, she is faced with a choice. She could hand them over to the authorities in Jericho, thereby currying their favor. She might even become a local hero for helping protect the security of Jericho from this invading nation. Or Rahab could hide the spies and throw in her lot with them. She could tell them that she believes they will be successful against the mighty city of Jericho and that she wants to be counted as one of them. This would be a risky endeavor, putting herself in great danger from her community.

If you know the story, you know that Rahab risks it all to side with the Israelites. After lying to the men of Jericho and sending them away, she tells the Jewish spies that she believes that they will be victorious over Jericho. She asks them to show her kindness and to spare her and her family when they attack the city. The spies quickly agree, grateful for her help.

Rahab sided with the Jews despite being able to look around her at the fortified walls of Jericho. Despite Jericho’s strength, she feared and believed in the God who had delivered the Israelites from Egypt and had given them victory over two Amorite cities. Instead of hedging her bets and playing it safe, she risked everything for a future that she believed was coming.

Many of us struggle to live fully for Jesus because it seems to us that we will advance further in life by living according to the normal social norms. Why risk comfort and prosperity and safety? Why sacrifice money and time and social position? It seems easier to go with the flow of what we see than to risk it all for the kingdom that seems hidden from us.

But, like Rahab, we are called to look at the future promised reality instead of focusing on the current fading reality. The powers in this world will soon pass away, like a vapor. But Jesus was crowned the true king of the earth at His resurrection and one day He will sit on the throne of this earth, ruling forever. Like Rahab, we are called to live in light of what will be, rather than in light of what we currently see. Like Rahab, we are called to risk it all by faith.

As you wrestle with the challenging and all-encompassing call of Jesus, take time to remember Rahab. Remember the woman who was living a convenient life, yet risked everything for a reality that she had yet to see. And remember that Rahab was vindicated when God gave the Israelites victory over Jericho. Remember that this same God promises vindication for all who live in light of the kingship of Jesus. No risk for Jesus will ever be wasted.

We are too busy.

How many times have you asked someone how they’re doing and their reply is simply, “Well, I’m busy,” and then they proceed to give you a list of all the things that they’re busy doing. Why is this? It’s because the idea of being busy is currently a badge of honor in our SoCal culture. It’s like if we’re not busy then we’re not accomplishing all that we should be accomplishing. If we’re not busy then something must be wrong with us because we can do more. We are a busy culture and quite frankly this business is not good for us. Business can take us down the road to a breaking point.

I know myself and I know that I can get busy. And when I get too busy things start falling off my plate. I forget appointments, I get frustrated with things that take me away from my busy plans, I drive too fast, I hurt people with my words. I have learned that being busy is not really a badge of honor. There is a better way to live.

What we need is margin.

In his book, Margin, Richard Swenson says, that margin is “the space that once existed between us and our limits. It’s something held in reserve for unanticipated situations.” The truth is that without margin we live in the danger of overloaded lives. You and I aren’t wired to live without margin; we aren’t wired to live near our breaking point, yet too often this we live right up to our breaking point–everyday.

The late Dallas Willard, who authored several books on spiritual disciplines, was once asked to describe Jesus in one word. His answer? Relaxed. I thought that was a strange way to describe Jesus, but as I began to look at the gospels through the lens of that word I began to agree. Jesus’s pace is a far cry from a frantic, hurried life. Jesus was always in control, never seemed to be rushed, he never seemed bothered by interruptions. He wasn’t a workaholic and he often spent time alone in prayer – for hours. Jesus was relaxed and lived with margins.

But… margins are foreign to our cultural norms.

We value progress. Progress, after all, creates advances in technology, education, and affluence but it also devours margin. Progress asks for more in the name of being productive and also paints busyness as something good.

But when we live without margin, much of what suffers is both spiritual and relational. For example on the spiritual side, without margins, interruptions become frustrating roadblocks to our agenda rather than opportunities to see God. When we operate at or near 100% capacity, we have no time for interruptions. No opportunities to see God outside of our pre-decided to-do lists and jam-packed schedules. Yet I have learned (I might add the hard way) that interruptions can be God’s way of getting his priorities into my “busy” schedule.

Your relationships will thank you.

Secondly, without margins, relationships can fall apart. The currency of relationships is love and love is first and foremost patient and kind. Love takes time; it grows slowly. Without margins both our spiritual and relational life suffers.

Let me encourage you to join me in doing fewer things, well. Listen, I’m not against progress and I’m not against being productive. But what I am against is living without margin.  Leave open space in your day and week and month to allow God to give you rest or refreshment or to insert his opportunities into your margin filled life.

Finally, if you build this into your life the next time when someone asks how you’re doing you can say, “I’m living with margin and it’s making my life rich and fulfilling.”

Combatting a Sense of Entitlement

One of the most prominent aspects of current American culture is a widespread sense of entitlement. We believe that we are entitled to happy and carefree lives without outside interference. We believe that we are entitled to own things that we can’t afford instead of waiting and saving up. We believe that we are entitled to jobs and spouses that perfectly fit our interests and desires. We believe that we are entitled to both safety and freedom. We believe that we are entitled.

For those of us who are Christians, this sense of entitlement easily crosses over into how we approach our relationship with God. In basic terms, we believe that God owes us. God owes us a good and loving marriage without too many problems. God owes us a stable and good-paying job with appropriate benefits. God owes us and our families good health and disease-free lives. And God owes us explanations when we don’t get the things to which we believe we are entitled.

I believe that it is important to talk about this sense of entitlement because it poses a threat to out ability to follow Jesus and to experience the abundant life that He came to bring. We need to find ways to combat our sense of entitlement because it is a thief. It robs God and it robs us.

Does God Owe Us?

Before getting into the ways that a sense of entitlement robs us, I want to entertain a question: Does God owe human beings anything?

Some of us react to this question with an immediate No. Of course, God doesn’t owe us anything. Others, though, might feel differently. Some would say that God is the one who created us, and therefore He has a responsibility toward us. Just as parents have a responsibility toward their children, God has responsibilities toward His creatures.

God, in His goodness, does show great care for all that He has created. But this is not because God owes us anything. It is out of His free goodness, and not out of an obligation to give us something that is owed. In fact, Scripture teaches that God creating us obligates us to Him, not the other way around. In Romans 9:19-21 Paul writes, “One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?’ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” God, as the potter, is not obligated toward the clay. Instead, the clay is obligated toward the potter.

Similarly, Moses’ interaction with God in the burning bush passage demonstrates that God is not obligated toward us. In Exodus 4:10 Moses says to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” In other words, Moses is saying to God, “If you wanted me to go to Egypt and talk to Pharaoh, you should have made me eloquent.” You can almost re-translate it, “You owe me a silver tongue if you want me to obey you.”

The LORD does not see Himself as being obligated to Moses. Instead, he says responds to Moses in the next verse by saying, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” God fully acknowledges that He made everyone, and He takes responsibility for our “deficiencies.” At the same time, God does not see Himself as owing Moses eloquence. He tells Moses to obey Him.

God being the creator does not obligate Him to us, but us to Him. After all, it would be impossible for any of us to be entitled to be created. Every time we breathe, we demonstrated that we owe God. When we have a sense of entitlement, we give a voice to a thief. Our sense of entitlement robs both God and us.

A Sense of Entitlement Robs God of His Generosity

My wife and I recently filled out our tax return. God-willing, we will receive a refund. I promise you that no one who has ever received a tax refund considers the government to be generous. This is for at least two reasons. First of all, when I receive a refund I am simply receiving back some of the money that I gave the government. It is not generous for them to give back to me some of my money. Second of all, when I receive a refund it is because I have demonstrated that I am owed this money based on the current laws and provisions. There is nothing generous about giving someone what they are owed.

If we think that God owes us a good job, a carefree life, a husband, a wife, healthy children, and fun vacations, then we don’t see Him as generous when He gives us these things. After all, we believe that we are owed. And if God fails to deliver on any of these entitlements, we believe that He owes us an explanation.

Anytime I think of God owing me an explanation, I think of the book of Job. If anyone was owed an explanation, Job was. He was a good and godly man, and yet God allowed him to lose his family, his health, his riches, and his position in society. Throughout the book that bears his name, Job desperately tries to hold on to God’s goodness while at the same time bemoaning the injustice of life. Job cries out to God for an explanation . . . and then God responds.

When God finally speaks, starting in Job 38, you might assume that He is finally going to tell Job why all of this suffering has come upon him. But God never explains to Job why he has suffered. Instead, he peppers Job with one consistent message: There are things that you don’t know. His message to Job seems to be, “Isn’t it possible, Job, that there is a reason for your suffering, even if you don’t see it?” God rejects the idea that He owes Job an explanation.

In fact, in His message to Job, God explicitly says that He owes no one anything. In Job 41:11 He says, “Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.” When God asks who has a claim against Him that He must pay, the clear answer is, “No one!” God owes no one anything.

God owes no one anything, and yet He gives to us so liberally. He gives us breath. He gives us friendships. He gives us financial provision. He gives us a beautiful creation around us. He gives us mercy and forgiveness. He gives us promises of eternal life. None of this is because He is obligated to us. When we believe that God owes us, we rob Him of His amazing generosity.

A Sense of Entitlement Robs Us of Our Gratitude

The appropriate response to generosity is gratitude. Therefore, if God is not generous, there is no reason for us to be grateful. Because we don’t consider the government to be generous when we receive a tax refund, we don’t send the IRS a thank you note. Similarly, if we believe God owes us, then we will not thank Him.

A sense of gratitude toward God is more significant than you might think. In Romans 1:21-23 Paul places gratitude right near the core of how we relate to God: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” In this sad passage, Paul traces the downward spiral of humanity back to the fact that we failed to respond to God by glorifying Him and giving him thanks. If we don’t thank God, it is almost as if we aren’t acknowledging His existence.

Consider what you’re saying if you aren’t grateful toward God. You’re saying either that you believe that you are responsible for all the good things in your life, or you’re saying that God simply owes you all the good gifts that He has given you. Biblically, both of these beliefs are abominable. Both of these beliefs fail to acknowledge the basic reality that God, as creator, has been generous with us. And God, as savior, has poured out even more generosity. As Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” God’s generosity brings gratitude for the present and trust for the future.

How to Combat Entitlement

I have three suggestions for how we can combat the sense of entitlement that permeates our culture. These are suggestions are in no way meant to be exhaustive or formulaic. They are simply three active things we can do in order to embrace reality as Scripture has revealed it.

1. Intentionally give thanks to God. If you notice God’s generosity, thank Him for it. If you find that you aren’t really thanking Him, then set aside time to notice His goodness. Have a time of prayer in which all you do is give thanks. Journal about all the good gifts that God has given to you, just in the past month. Take time to remember that God is the giver not only of jobs and spouses and children but also of the simple joys and pleasures of life. To fight entitlement, choose gratitude.
2. Remind others that they are not owed. This is tricky. I am not advocating that we take every possibly opportunity to remind others that they don’t deserve the good gifts that God is giving them. That would be exhausting for everyone, and it would probably create more resentment than gratitude. But, especially with people who are in your direct circle of influence (children, family members, close friends), seek to remind others of God’s generosity. Teach your children to say thank you, set an example with others of giving thanks, and take appropriate opportunities to call out friends who are missing the generosity of God because they believe they are owed.
3. Live by faith, in light of the past. The past is important because it informs how we will act in the future. If we look back and see only loss and suffering, we are not likely to anticipate God’s goodness as we move forward. If, however, we look back and see God’s goodness and generosity, we can take risky steps of faith as we move forward. Take that step to give generously, to fight against sin, to forgive others, and to share the gospel with others. Do these not out of obligation to a God who was generous to you. Instead, do them out of trust that God’s past goodness demonstrates what you can expect in the future.

Getting Unstuck

When was a college pastor in Oregon, one of our traditions was to take the students to a corn maze on Halloween. It was fun because it was dark and people in costumes would jump out to scare us. It was made less fun, however, by the realization that I was not very good at mazes. I found that I kept ending up back where I started and I struggled to find a way out. It was frustrating because I was putting forth a lot of effort, but I was not getting any results. In short, I was stuck.

Sometimes we can feel stuck in our life and in our faith. It is discouraging because we feel like we are putting forth effort to grow, but we find ourselves circling around the same territory again and again. After a while we begin to wonder if it is worth the effort. It is tempting to give up and simply accept a trapped and defeated life instead of continuing to strive for victory and freedom.

While there are many ways that we can be stuck, I want to explore three of them and talk about ways that we move forward instead of remaining stuck.

Anger

Some of us have explosions of anger, while others of us are a slow burn. Instead of lashing out immediately, we internalize our hurt and we replay over and over again the ways that we were wronged. This is understandable because we all experience real hurts and some of them cut us deeply. But as our anger turns to bitterness, we can find ourselves wandering around the maze, making no forward movement. The author of Hebrews warns us in Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

The antidote to anger is forgiveness. When we forgive, we walk away from our anger and bitterness and we extend grace to others. As Paul says in Colossians 3:13, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” When we have hurts, we are called to forgive. And for those of us who have been forgiven by God, we have the model and the motivation for forgiveness. We follow the lead of our Lord Jesus.

This doesn’t mean that forgiveness is easy. In fact, sometimes we might feel like we are blocked from forgiveness because the person who wronged us is not cooperating. When this happens, it is important to remember that forgiveness is not always the same as reconciliation. We can extend forgiveness to others—letting go of our bitterness—even if they never repent, apologize, or seek to make reparations. Forgiveness is not something that we need the cooperation of others in order to accomplish. Under the leading and empowering of the Spirit of God, we simply release our bitterness and no longer hold on to our (sometimes righteous) anger. We follow the lead of Jesus in forgiving others.

Reconciliation is always desirable when there has been something that stirs up anger. At the same time, feel the freedom to deal with one at a time. Forgive others, and then—when possible—seek to sort out that would go along with reconciliation. Reconciliation is a two-way street. But forgiveness is something you can do with no cooperation from others. If you are stuck in anger and bitterness, God invites you to walk forward in grace instead of remaining stuck.

Grief

Sometimes we are stuck because we have experienced a loss and we simply have not found the way to move forward. This may be the loss of a person through death, the loss of a relationship through divorce or distance or conflict, or the loss of a job or a home or a dream. When we are in grief we have find ourselves wandering, half-awake, though the maze and stumbling back to our place or origin.

Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” This is a comfort to those who are grieving. God is near! There is also an encouragement, though, to those who feel stuck in grief and discouragement. In Psalm 42:11 the psalmist asks, “Why, my soul, are you to downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” This is the honest question of a grieving and depressed man. He acknowledges his sadness. In fact, he is bringing his grief before God. We never need to fear being honest with God about our grief and depression. He is close to the brokenhearted.

When the psalmist asks, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” he then speaks to himself. He gives himself an answer to his grief. He goes on to say, “Put your hope in God.” Remember God. Remember that your hope is not in money or houses or even in your relationships. Your ultimate hope is in God and He is faithful! The psalmist then says, “For I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” He has confidence that he will not always feel as depressed and discouraged as he currently does. In the future, he will praise God! After all, God is his savior. When you’re in grief, exercise faith that your times of praising God are not all in your past. There are times in the future when you will feel differently, times when your heart overflows with praise and joy. Hope in God in times of grief.

Sin

Sometimes we’re not stuck because someone else wronged up, or because we suffered a loss, but because we have a sinful habit that has stalled our lives. Whether it is drunkenness, pornography, dishonesty, drugs, infidelity, stealing, or some other sin, we sometimes find that it is not as easy to walk away from sin as we thought it would be. We find that Paul was right in Romans 6:16, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one who obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” In essence, Paul reminds us that when we choose to sin, we choose sin as our master. We don’t use sin for our purposes; sin uses us for its purposes. When we choose sin, we choose to be slaves.

What do we do when we’re stuck in sin? I want to give a theological answer and a practical answer. The theological answer is found in Romans 6:13 when Paul says, “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” Don’t tinker with sin. Run away. Flee. Stop! And instead offer yourself completely to God for His purposes. Being a “slave” to God is the only true path to joy and freedom.

The practical answer is still needed, though, because we often want to stop sinning, but we find it very difficult. If this is the case, then the single biggest piece of advice I have is to bring someone else into the battle. In Galatians 6:2 Paul writes, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Enlist someone else in your battle. If this is through Celebrate Recovery or Life Care or through a friend or a pastor or a Life Group leader, look for someone to join you in the fight. And make sure you don’t simply enlist a confessor who will listen to your sins and sympathize with you. Enlist a fellow soldier. Enlist someone who will hold your feet to the fire. Enlist a friend (or several) who will fight alongside you and who will call you out when you are returning to your sin. If you want to be unstuck, you need to fight for freedom.

If you feel stuck right now, don’t lose hope. God loves to lead us in freedom and victory and growth. If you need help, however, seek it out. One path is through the Life Care ministry at LBF Church. In this ministry, participants sign up to meet with a Life Care partner for up to 10 sessions of talking through key issues in their lives. The experience is meant to be something between counseling and friendship. It is an intentional relationship meant to help people get unstuck. If you think this will help, call the church and ask for Shauntel Raymond, or email her at [email protected].

But whether you use Life Care or not, remember that God leads us to victory, not defeat and stagnation. Hope in God and seek the freedom that only He can bring.

The Beauty in Limitations
By Dan Franklin

Many of us love Coldstone Cremery. It is a great place to get ice cream because of the many, many options they offer. Not only are there several flavors, but there are also numerous toppings. There are the syrups and the sprinkles and the chocolate and the fruit. At Coldstone you get your pick, and this gives most of us comfort and joy.
But what if you walked into Coldstone and you were told that there was only one ice cream dish? This limitation would seem stifling to many of us. We don’t like limitations. We treasure options because along with options come freedom. Limitations are the enemy. Freedom is the goal.
This brings us a problem when we approach Jesus. On the one hand, we like Jesus and we know that He has come to bring us freedom. At the same time, it is undeniable that Jesus brings us limitations when it comes to both our beliefs and our behavior. What we find when we look closely at the message of Jesus is that He brings the ultimate freedom through the limitations He brings. In other words, we find both beauty and liberation in the limitations that Jesus brings.

Limitations Bring Clarity

If you’ve ever played the game of Clue, then you know what it means to pursue limitation. In Clue, the entire goal is to discover the identity of the murder, along with the murder weapon and the place of the murder. The only way to do this is to make guesses and be proved wrong. With each guess, another player shows you a room, a weapon, or a person who could not be involved. When you find out this information, however, no one bemoans their situation, saying, “Now I am so sad because I can no longer guess Mr. Green when I am making my accusations.” Instead they say, “Now I won’t make the same mistake in guessing Mr. Green. My options are limited and this will help me immensely.” Joy and clarity come through limitations.
Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus says that if we do exactly what He says, if we embrace Him fully, then we will be set free. We will be set free because our options for what we believe and whom we believe will be so limited that we will have clarity. We will know what is true and we will know what is not true. And this will set us free to live lives of meaning and significance.
Embracing Jesus undoubtedly limits what we believe and how we behave. Far from making us slaves, however, this is the path to real freedom. Liberation comes through limitation.

Limitations Bring Guidance

Sometimes we feel limited and we ask God to remove the limitation. We may feel limited by a health problem, by a trial, by a marriage, by a job, or by some other unwelcome limitation. Our instinct is to say to God, “Take away this difficult limitation, and then I will be free to serve you with all my heart.”
This was the attitude of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 when he talks about his thorn in the flesh. It is unclear exactly what this trial was—whether it was physical, emotional, or spiritual—but we know that it was a limitation that he wanted to do without. Three times he asked God to take it away from him, presumably so that he could serve God with greater freedom. God, however, responds to him in verse 9 by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In other words, God refuses to take away Paul’s limitation. Paul responds by saying, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul embraces his limitations so that God’s power can be put on display through his weakness.
Paul asked for his trial to be taken away. When God refused, Paul said, “Okay, apparently this is my new normal. This is my life. These are my limitations. They are God-given. I will now move forward with that as my guidance.”
If you’re in a difficult marriage, you might think that liberation will come through escaping your marriage. Much more likely, though, liberation will come through embracing your situation. Liberation comes when we say, “Okay, this is where I am. This is my marriage. This is my job. This is my income. This is my health. I take my life situation as part of God’s guidance on how He is leading me to proceed.”
Just as it would not be advisable for someone on a fixed income to pursue freedom by going into debt, someone in a difficult marriage should not be advised to pursue freedom through divorce. Someone with health problems should not pursue freedom through denial. Someone with a challenging job should not simply pursue freedom through quitting. Someone with sharp temptations should not pursue freedom through sin. Our limitations are part of God’s guidance for how we are called to live.
God did not leave Paul with his thorn in the flesh in order to be cruel. It was in order to keep Paul humble and dependent. God graciously gives us limitations in order to keep us humble and dependent. And this is how He leads us to true freedom.

Cultivating a Life of Prayer
By Gary Keith

Prayer

It’s no secret that most followers of Jesus struggle with feeling satisfied with their prayer life. This is especially true when we read passages like 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – “Rejoice in the Lord always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Really? We are to pray continually? How in the world do we pray continually when we have so many other aspects to our life that need our time and attention?

What does Praying continually mean?

So let me give you a few thoughts on this verse. To pray continually is not prayer that never stops without interruption. We are not to be mumbling prayer all day long.  Instead Paul was speaking of maintaining continuous fellowship with God as much as possible in the midst of daily living. It means constantly recurring not continuously occurring. We are to “keep the receiver off the hook” and be in touch with God so that our praying is a part of a long conversation that is not broken. God knows the desires of the heart and He responds to those desires even when our voice is silent. Whether words are uttered or not – it’s lifting up our hearts to God even while we may be occupied with something else. This is prayer as the result of settled dependence on God. It’s the first place we go to and not the last. It’s prayer as a relationship not a ritual or task to be completed.

Paul’s Prayers

There are times I have used Paul’s prayers as reference points or examples of how to pray. In fact, I have personalized Paul’s prayers for myself. They are powerful prayers and I recommend reading them and even using them for your own relational prayer life with God.

Read Ephesians 1:15-23 to see what I mean. In this prayer Paul prays:

Vs. 17 – That they may know God
Vs. 18 – That they may know God’s calling
Vs. 18 – That they may know God’s riches
Vs. 19-23 – That they may know God’s power

I think you’d agree these are great things we can pray for ourselves and for others. Powerful stuff!!!

Other prayers of Paul can be found in…

Philippians 1:9-11
Ephesians 3:15-23
Colossians 1:9-14

May I suggest you read them and even pray them when they represent the things you want to talk with God about.

Lastly let me summarize by saying that prayer is simply talking with God – we speak He listens – He speaks we listen – it’s a conversation. Our prayers are best when they are heartfelt and not out of ritual. My prayer for you is that your prayers with God would be relational – personal – authentic and continual.

Seven Keys for Effective and Consistent Bible Reading
By Dan Franklin

Consistent personal Bible reading is one of the most important and meaningful ways for believers to draw close to God. Through God’s Word we see His heart, we hear His voice, and we receive His guidance. Without God’s Word we are left to wander on our own, doing our best to try to figure out God, life, decisions, and the world.

Most Christians will agree on the importance of reading the Bible, and yet a huge number of Christians struggle to read with any consistency. We are too busy. We aren’t sure how to do it right. We don’t get anything out of it. We have tried, but it didn’t take. How is it that something we believe to be so important is something that we so rarely do?

There are no magic tricks when it comes to consistent Bible reading. That said, there are some ways that we can approach Bible reading that will help us immensely. In this post, I will highlight seven keys to effective and consistent Bible reading.

Have a Plan

People who successfully lose weight and get into shape do so by having a plan. They don’t come to the breakfast table and say, “What should I eat today?” They don’t show up at the gym and say, “I wonder what exercise I should do?” They find success when they plan in advance. They get certain groceries and plan out healthy meals. As soon as they arrive at the gym they start into their stretches and then their cardio and then their weights. If you are cultivating new habits, it is unrealistic to do so without a plan.

If you want to read the Bible consistently, have a plan. Don’t wake up and then decide whether or not to read. Decide in advance when and where and what you will read. Pick a time, pick a place, and pick a reading plan. At LBF Church we put out a new Bible Reading Plan every three months. This is not because our plan is the only good plan. It is simply because having a plan is better than not having one. Plan to read through the whole Bible in a year. Plan to read the Gospel of John one chapter per day. Plan to read through the Psalms, three at a time. There are plenty of good plans. Choose one. Don’t simply hope that you stumble into good habits. Make a plan in advance so that each day you are simply living out your plan.

Read a Unit

I know some people who, for their Bible reading, simply open up their Bible and then read a specific verse at random. While God is certainly able to work through this method, I would not recommend it. First of all, I already advocated for a plan. Second of all, don’t simply read one verse or a couple of verses. Read an entire unit. When we read books and articles, we usually don’t stop in the middle of the author’s thought. We read a whole chapter, or at least a whole paragraph. That way we get the author’s complete thought.

When reading the Bible, read a complete thought from the author. This often means reading an entire chapter. If not a whole chapter, however, this probably means at least that we read an entire paragraph. This allows us to experience the context and flow of the passage, instead of just looking at one verse out of context. When you read an entire unit, you are reminded that the Bible is not a magic book with spells and tricks. It is literature. It is a God-inspired book that is written with human methods. Read the whole psalm. Read the whole chapter. Read the whole thought. Read the whole unit.

Read for a Message, not for Nuggets

When I was growing up, I heard a lot of people talk about “nuggets” that they picked out of their Bible reading. They meant that they were treating their Bible reading as if they were panning for gold. Much of what they read did not connect with them, but then they would seize upon one meaningful part of the passage, and they would take that away as God’s message to them. Again, God certainly works through this method, but I don’t recommend it. We are not panning for gold when we read Scripture. It is all gold! We are not called to sort through the meaningless parts in order to find something valuable. It is all God’s Word!

Inspired of panning for nuggets of gold, read for the author’s message. When you read a psalm, it is surely a good thing if you pick up a specific point that is meaningful to you. However, it is a much better thing if you pick up on the author’s message. If you read an entire unit, and you look for the author’s message—his main point—you will be gaining deeper insight into God’s message through His Word.

Look for the Intended Application

Scripture is meant to impact our lives. This means that we read passages in order to look for practical applications for our lives. Look for how God is calling you to think, how He is calling you to act, and how He is calling you to change your behavior. If we read an entire unit, looking for the author’s meaning, then we will be much more likely to come across the way that God intends for us to apply His Word to our lives. Don’t read while trying to generate application for your life. Read the Bible looking for how the author of that particular passage intends for his readers to apply the passage.

Incorporate Prayer

Don’t simply read the Bible in order to gain knowledge and understanding. Read the Bible in order to draw close to God. Being your Bible reading time in prayer, asking God to guide you and to open up your heart to what He is going to say. Pray along with way, giving thanks and asking for understanding. And pray afterwards, asking for God to lead you as you look to live in light of what He has said.

Use Resources

The Bible is not an easy book to read. It was written long ago in foreign countries and in different cultures. There is no shame in using resources for help. Use a study Bible or commentaries or a Bible program. Get help in understanding what confusing verses mean. None of us is equipped to read the Bible and understand everything without help. Avail yourself of the great resources that have been passed along to us by men and women who labored over God’s Word.

Persevere

The person looking to lose weight and get into shape will not do so in a week. They will do so through persevering. Don’t simply read the Bible and expect it to be easy. Persevere. Persevere when you’re tired. Persevere when you don’t feel like reading is making any difference. Persevere when you’re busy. Persevere because you trust that God will not allow His Word to come back to Him without accomplishing what He intends. Don’t give up. Read the Bible consistently is something that you will never regret. It is worth your perseverance.
If you’re interested in growing in the area of personal Bible reading, sign up for a four-week class called How to Read Your Bible. The class begins on Tuesday, April 25th. Sign up here.

Mentoring for Everyone
by Troy Spilman

The topic of mentoring is one that is often intimidating to a lot of Christians. When the subject of mentoring arises, there are probably many people who read this and think, “That’s not for me.” For anyone who is thinking that, my goal is to try to convince you that mentoring is something that you can be a part of. I want to take the “scary” out it and walk through some straightforward steps that are very doable for anyone who is willing to take a step of faith.

If you look at the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says that we are to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…” In the original language, the “Go,” carries the idea of “as you are going.” The idea is that as you are going about life, wherever you are, you are to be about helping to make disciples. We often disqualify ourselves by thinking that since I’m not called to go on the mission field in Africa or some other far off place, that I am off the hook with this idea of “making disciples.”

But nothing could be further from the truth. The original disciples were ordinary people like us with their own flaws and weaknesses, who were willing to obey Jesus while being empowered and led by the Holy Spirit to make disciples. Jesus made disciples by investing in them, then these disciples went and made disciples who also made more disciples and then fast-forward to where we are today. We are here as a church today because this process was passed along, and each one of us has a part to play.

I really like to define a disciple as “someone who knows Christ, grows in Christ and goes for Christ.” Think of it, we each get to help in this process of people moving forward in their faith where they can then use their God-given gifts in serving others. We are going to walk through a five-step process that is incredibly helpful. These steps came from the book Exponential by Dave Ferguson & John Ferguson. Step One for mentoring someone is “I do. You watch. We talk.” This creates a safe environment where someone can learn the practical steps of actually doing ministry. When I was learning to ride my bike as a kid, my brother and his friends got me a skateboard helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and a big puffy jacket, I looked like the Stay-Puff marshmallow man. The idea is that as I was learning how to stay upright, I was in a relatively safe environment that would keep me from harm.

With this first step of “I do. You watch. We talk,” the mentor demonstrates ministry in action, this could be learning to teach a short bible lesson, be a greeter at church, help out in children’s ministry, lead worship, etc. For me, this is how I learned how to do a “hospital visit” and bring care and comfort to someone who is going through a difficult time physically. I would watch my mentor as he would greet the person and family members, ask some questions, read a Scripture or two and then prayer for them. Then afterward we would debrief and talk about it.

Step two is, “I do. You help. We talk.” This is a tag-team approach, literally trading off back and forth between the mentor and mentee. Back to the hospital example, my mentor would read a short passage, then I read a passage, he started the prayer, I finished the prayer. He was clearly in the lead role and I was clearly in the support role. Then we could debrief and talk through some of the details. For instance, I remember being thrown off by the noisy machines beeping, and I had to learn to push through the distractions. I have found that when it comes to mentoring, often so much more is caught than taught.

Okay, now the move from step two to step three is a really important one. We move from “I do, You help” to “You do, I help.” This is where the tables turn, but there is still the security of the mentor being present and involved, but now the mentee takes the lead. Clearly the mentor still has a role, but a minor one. The mentor has to resist the urge of “rescuing” the mentee if things don’t go precisely as planned. If we use the example of facilitating a Bible study in a Life Group setting, this is where the one being mentored would take the lead. He or she has seen their mentor do it several times and has even helped, now they are in control. The mentor has a role, but a very reduced one, it clear that the authority has shifted. The debrief afterward is very important because there are a lot of fine-tuning needed that are only discovered by doing. Such things as, “How long should I pray?”, “How long do I wait in silence for someone to answer a question I put out there?”, etc.

Now we move to step four, which is “You do. I watch. We talk.” This is where the mentee “owns” the ministry and takes full responsibility. The mentor is still on-hand, but just as an observer. The disciples had been watching Jesus for a long time do ministry, then there was the day that He sent them out to do the ministry themselves. They came back so exciting at how the Lord had used them. This reminds me when I was taking the lead for a jail visit and I was placed in the wrong cell with the wrong inmate. I couldn’t get ahold of any of the guards and was stuck there for about 45 minutes. Since I had been to the jail a few times, I knew how things worked, so I was able to now adjust when I was given a curveball. The inmate I was put with had just been arrested for robbing bank with several other guys, all out of town, and was only 18 years old. I was able to point Him to Jesus and share the message of hope with him during that time. It really was a divine appointment. Since my mentor had done a good job in preparing me, I felt fairly confident in this situation also.

And finally, we have a fifth step. This is important because it is the step that keeps the process going. Step five is “You do. Someone else watches.” The whole goal of discipleship is reproduction. The idea is that I train someone to do the work of the ministry so that they can train someone else and so on. This is where the mentee now becomes the mentor and brings someone else into the work of the ministry as an observer just as they were at one point. When I started to mentor someone else, I had lots of compassion for their nervousness since memories of me being nervous the first few times were still very fresh. We are called to pass the torch just like Moses did with Joshua, David did with Solomon, Paul did with Timothy, and Jesus did with His disciples. This is how Kingdom ministry is carried forward.

I want to encourage you and let you know that YOU can do this! You can pour into someone else and walk with them through these five steps to carry on the work of the ministry. I want you to see yourself as a coach that simply helps a disciple get to the next level spiritually. I would challenge you to pray and see if there is someone that you should ask about being in a mentoring relationship, this could be formal or informal. Maybe you realize that you are the one who needs to be mentored, I would say the same thing, pray about it and see if there is someone in your life who you could ask to take on this role. If you are stuck in either side of this equation, I encourage you to talk with your pastor or one of the pastors/leaders here at LBF or contact me (Troy Spilman, Local/Global Serving Pastor) – [email protected].

As a parent, do you ever feel like you are being pulled in 10 different directions? When I think about all of things that parents are suppose to make sure they support and provide for their kids, the list is overwhelming. We are asked to be a part of the PTA, homework, fundraisers, and sports. We want to make sure they eat nutritious food, get outside and away from video games, and wear sunblock. We make sure they are being taught manners and social skills. We want them to be well rounded and able to keep up in this competitive world and all of this takes a lot of time and energy. Although all of these things that are listed have value and are important, they can also be a distraction. All of these things can distract us parents from focusing on another type of parenting – one that this world does not place much value on.  

The other type of parenting I am referring to is spiritual parenting. Now, before you start to feel overwhelmed and think I am going to add a whole new list of things that should be done for your kids, I am not. Instead, I want to talk about it means to spiritually parent and a few ideas on how it can be incorporated into your family.  You may think that it is all about teaching your kids how to lead moral lives, to learn the stories of the Bible, and to love Jesus. Yes, it is all of those things, but it is so much more than that. Spiritual parenting is placing what is most important to God in the path of your kids’ lives. He is the one that knows every detail of how your child is made and how their hearts can be transformed through the Holy Spirit.

The next question is then, is how do you do this? Well, I definitely don’t have all the answers and this article will not be a complete, exhaustive list, but I want to share a few ways that could help get you started.

One way is just simply by example. Kids watch and observe what you do, how you spend your time, and what you place as important. So, when you are reading your Bible, maybe you include them in what you are reading or share a quick thought about what you have been reading.

Another resource is the Home Front Weekly that are available each week in LIFEkids. It is a great devotional that can be done around the dinner table or before bedtime. It can open the door to talk about how they see God working in their life of how that Bible story can help them through something they are going through.

Praying together is also so important for you and your kids. Here is another place where a deeper relationship will begin to develop. Through prayer your kids will be able to see how God answers us and begin to hear Him in new ways.

Lastly (for this article anyway), if you haven’t had a conversation with your child about their relationship with Jesus, or you are not quite sure how to begin, I want to encourage you to take advantage of the We Believe presentation that is offered once a quarter. This is a time that you and your kids will be together and hear how God loves us and wants to be a part of our lives. When you leave this presentation you are given some resources so you can continue the conversation at home and begin a journey of spiritually parenting your kids as they grow.

This is something that you can start today, whether you have just became a Christian or if you have been a believer for a long time. I look forward to learning and growing with you as parent that guides kids spiritually as well.

To Drink or Not to Drink
By Dan Franklin

At the most recent Deeper event, I had the privilege of teaching what God’s Word says about alcohol. It is an important topic not only because many people have strong disagreements about it, but also because our decisions about drinking have a big impact.

If you’d like to get the full info from the Deeper event, you can watch it here. If you don’t have time for that, however, let me give the big picture:

1. Drinking alcohol is not only permitted by God, but alcohol is seen as a good gift from God, a blessing, and a tool for joy and celebration.
2. Drinking alcohol can have horrible effects if we drink too much, become addicted, or fall into sin as a result of its impact on us.

With those big picture facts in mind, we can conclude that we can drink, but this doesn’t always mean that we should drink. In light of this, I want to share some biblically-inspired counsel on questions each of us can ask when we are considering whether or not to drink.

Why am I drinking? In Scripture, positive depictions of drinking surround occasions of joy and celebration. Alcohol enhances the joy. As Psalm 114:15 says, it “gladdens the heart.” Are you drinking because you are celebrating and giving thanks for the good gifts that God has given? If so, you are acting in a way that is very consistent with how Scripture talks about drinking. If, however, you are drinking in order to dull your pain, in order to escape your loneliness, or in order to cope with deeply-felt anxiety or anger, you are walking on the edge of great danger. When we drink out of joy, we celebrate God and His good gifts. When we drink out of pain, we create unhealthy habits of escape and avoidance. This is not reflective of the abundant life that Jesus came to bring.

What impact is my drinking having on me? While Scripture does not give a hard definition of drunkenness, several passages describe it. Scripture speaks of people staggering and vomiting. There are stories of people getting drunk and then falling asleep naked, stories about people getting drunk and then engaging in sexual immorality, and stories about people getting drunk in the night and then remembering nothing the next morning. If your drinking is a cause or a precursor of you making destructive and sinful decisions, then you need to pull back and reconsider your habits. If your drinking is becoming a habit that you cannot break, then you need to make sure nothing is enslaving you (1 Corinthians 6:12). If your drinking has become a coping mechanism, then God would call you to deal with your problems head-on instead of medicating yourself in order to avoid them.

How is my drinking impacting others? In the United States we have freedom of speech. This means that people can say stupid things without fear of imprisonment. But we act unwisely when we use our freedom of speech in order to say ugly and hurtful things to others. Legally you can say it, but this doesn’t mean you should. Similarly, Christians are allowed to drink alcohol. But before doing so, we should ask if our drinking will hurt anyone else. If you’re drinking around people who have battled addiction, are you exposing them to extra temptations? If you’re drinking around people who choose not to drink, are you alienating them? If you’re drinking around younger Christians, are you confusing them? Believers are called to love one another and to bear one another’s burdens. This doesn’t mean that it is always wrong to drink. This simply means that we must consider the impact of our drinking on others. Our calling is to act out of love, not out of selfish indulgence and license.

Just for the sake of full disclosure, I drink alcohol. I enjoy it as a good gift from God. I have never been drunk and I never intend to be. I choose not to drink when I am feeling depressed or discouraged. And I am happy to abstain from drinking if I think it would result in temptation or discomfort for others. I invite you to approach alcohol with joy, with caution, and with thoughtfulness. And wherever you land in your decision-making on this issue, I invite you to give thanks to God for the good (and undeserved) gifts that He gives to His people.

“Myspace” was my introduction to the world of social media. I had been hired about a year earlier as a youth pastor, and heard students talking about all the things they were posting, and how they were designing their page. As a “mature” 26-year-old I figured this was something for the youngsters, so I hesitated getting involved. But the more I heard them talking, the more I realized this was an opportunity to be involved with their lives at a different level, and this could be a key tool for my ministry. So, I set to work designing my Myspace page; I got the background selected, my profile picture set, I was SO relevant. Two weeks later… “Hey Jeff, do you have Facebook?” This began the journey that continues today of trying to keep up with the latest and greatest when it comes to social media. But what is worth a “Like”? What is important to “follow” or “Unsubscribe” from? Not only is it far from a simple answer, it is a cultural dynamic that is constantly shifting and changing.

I talk a lot about this with students, and also parents especially when it comes to what is good and bad about social media. Let’s start with the good! We were created to be social, which means that we will naturally look to be connected with those we relate to, connect with, share a common interest, and seek approval from. Social media gives us more and different opportunities than ever before to be social (it’s even in the name). I have seen incredible opportunities to stay connected with people that live far away, and otherwise would be a struggle to really know what’s going on in their life; or to let them know what is going on in mine. While you can look at this and judge whether or not this is “real” relationship, I have seen positive things come from people sharing their lives on social media.

Social Media can give people a voice who, in person, would struggle to be extroverted enough to have their voice heard. I have had the personal experience with this and a young lady in my youth group who will occasionally post a drawing or some work of art that she has created. Because of this girl’s personality and comfort level in front of people, she would never draw the attention to herself by bringing her art to youth group, and saying, “Hey everyone, look at what I created”. Yet, because of social media she has been able to put herself out there, and her art has been an encouragement to many people. In fact, because I commented on one of her pieces that she posted, she arrived with it the following week at youth group as a gift for me, and I have had it in my office ever since.

Naturally, there is a dark side to most things when they are abused or go unmanaged, and social media definitely has its share of things that we should be aware of, set up boundaries for, and even be accountable to. Romans 12:2 says that followers of Christ should not be looking to copy and conform to the behaviors and customs of the world, but be transformed by allowing God to change our thinking. Social media gives us unedited and unending glimpses and pressures from culture and the people in our lives, that scream messages of who you should be, what you should look like, what you should value, how you should react, what you should think of people, etc… It is a constant battle and point of deciding, “who will I be? What will I allow to shape me?” It’s like when you change schools, and no one really knows who you are and you have the chance to present yourself as whoever you want to be. You consider what has worked for you in the past, and what didn’t, and then put your best “product” out there. Social media can be like this, where we are tempted to reinvent ourselves to be who we want people to think we are, or who we think people expect us to be. But what does that do for you? Does it lead to authentic relationship? Does it communicate that you are a person in need of grace just like everyone else? I see post after post of perfect hair, perfect smiles, perfect families, but far fewer confessions of a rough day with the kids, or a disappointing result from an interview. It can be so easy to conform to making ourselves look perfect, while at the same time railing against those who don’t think like us politically, or socially, or even spiritually. Social media can be a place where we put a premium on what the world thinks, and we base our value on the number of “likes” “retweets” and “views” we get.

Philippians 4:8 says Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. How does your interaction with social media help or hurt this ambition? As you scroll through and you see someone else’s “perfect” life, are your thoughts honorable, or are you hoping a bulldozer drives through their house? When someone posts something that you disagree with, are your thoughts lovely, or do you want to use the comment section to prove to them and the world just how dumb they are and how you have the right opinion; when you read the latest gossip are your thoughts on truth, or is repeating the story more important? When an ad pops up advertising whatever appeals to a weakness you have, are your thoughts pure, or does it leads to action that you then try and justify?

Before, during, and after our engaging with social media, we should consider, “has this helped me think about what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy?” And “Will what I just posted help someone keep their minds there as well?”

 

Stories are powerful. This is why we are captivated by movies, by television, by musicals, and by novels. This is why advertisers sell their products by telling stories. This is why politicians advocate for their positions through telling stories. Stories are memorable, and they shape the way we view the world.

We are bombarded with stories each day, so it is incumbent upon us as Christians to remind ourselves of THE story. After all, we have come to believe that we are living in a story in which God is drawing lost people to Himself through Jesus. We are living in a story in which we have an enemy who deceives and attacks. We are constantly in a battle between good and evil, between righteousness and temptation, and between heaven and hell. We need to be reminded of the story in which we live, lest we begin to believe that we are in a story that is only about the here-and-now.

One of the ways that I remind myself of the Christian story is through reading great books. Of course, as Christians we should all begin with consistent Bible reading. On top of this, though, I find that there are certain books to which I continue to return. In this post, I will share about five books that I have read a number of times because I want to recommend them to everyone. If you take the time to read these, I believe that you will find it time well spent.

Future Grace by John Piper. John Piper is a wonderful author and speaker and he has written many celebrated books. Future Grace is my favorite book of his because it is deep biblically and helpful practically. The basis of the book is that God calls us to live our lives not simply in light of gratitude for what God has done in the past, but by faith in the future grace that He has promised. Piper explores how faith in future grace liberates us from bitterness, from anxiety, from lust, and from misplaced shames. It is a fantastic book that I have read over and over, and I plan to continue. Also, as a note, the book has 31 chapters, so some people choose to read a chapter a day over the course of a given month.

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. In this particular list I am only recommending non-fiction books. If I was recommending fiction, though, C.S. Lewis would make that list as well. My favorite of his non-fiction books, however, is The Four Loves. In this book, Lewis walks through the four Greek words for love. Roughly, the four words refer to (1) affection, (2) friendship, (3) erotic love, and (4) charity. If you read The Four Loves, be ready to be humbled. You are likely to find that there are many times when you believe that you are acting in love, but that you are truly acting in a self-serving way. Also, be ready to grapple with how our love for God is so very different from His love for us. This book is relatively short and very readable.

Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller. If you attend LBF Church, you are likely to have heard me talk about Timothy Keller. I love his writings and his sermons. I find him to be deeply insightful. His book Counterfeit Gods is about how human beings are made to worship. However, instead of automatically directing this worship toward God, we tend to manufacture idols. In our current culture, three of our main idols are money, sex, and power. Keller takes on these three “counterfeit gods,” as well as several others. In each chapter, he exposes an idol of the heart and highlights a biblical narratives that demonstrates that problem of the idol.

Knowing God by J.I. Packer. This book has become a Christian classic. In it, Packer walks through the characteristics of God, so that we can grow to know Him in a deeper way. The book is deep in Scripture and theology, and yet it is also truly devotional in spirit. According to the Apostle Paul, all pursuits in life are garbage as compared with knowing God. This book is a gift in our pursuit of knowing Him.

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton is another author who would make by fiction list as well. His book Orthodoxy is both philosophical and autobiographical. It is the story of how he, in search of a philosophy of life and of the world, found himself utterly convinced of Christian orthodoxy. His book is rich, funny, insightful, and timely. There are many themes in the book that seem like they are ripped from the headlines today.  Of the five books recommended in this post, this is probably the most challenging. At the same time I could not leave it off the list because I find myself enriched and delighted each time I read it.

What stories are you consuming? As you look to live in light of the true story of God’s great work in our world, take the time purposefully to read good books that remind you of the battle you are in and of the God in whom you have come to trust.

Also, feel free to comment on this post and recommend good books that you think can be helpful to others who are looking to draw near to God.

Listening is more difficult than we think it is.

While we are all capable of hearing the words of others and discerning their surface meaning, all of us have had the experience of finding out that we wildly misunderstood the message that a friend was trying to convey to us.

We misread the subtext, the emotion, or the deep desire behind the communication. We don’t catch the tone or the body language and the subtle messages they carried. All of this makes is more difficult than we think to truly listen and understand.

I have often responded to the difficulty of listening by saying, “It’s up to the other person to make their message intelligible to me.” In other words, I have not wanted to put forth the effort to understand if someone is hard for me to understand. Whether the confusion exists because the other person is not a clear communicator, or because the other person is speaking out of pain and anger, my gut reaction is to see it as their problem and their job to make me understand.

If you have a similar gut reaction to what I just described, I want to challenge you to a new approach and a new perspective.

Those of us who belong to Jesus have been shown profound grace, and therefore we are empowered and called to show profound grace to others. One of the key ways that we show this grace is by seeking to listen and understand even when they are being difficult and confusing.

While there is not one all-encompassing key to learning to listen with greater skill and grace, one foundational practice is learning to listen for the hurt instead of simply reacting to the words.

Several years ago I remember being baffled by the way a fellow Christian railed against me for what seemed like a fairly small disagreement over a decision I had made. My initial response was to be offended by her (in my mind) inappropriate words and tone. While I still believe she responded in an inappropriate way, I gained greater insight when I came to realize that her reaction arose because of hurt she was dealing with. I did not help the situation because I was listening to her surface communication and it did not seem reasonable.

I was all facts and no emotion. If I had addressed her hurt instead of addressing facts, I would have been much more helpful.

While it is not an excuse, bad behavior arises from pain. We lash out at people when we feel slighted or forgotten or embarrassed. When we’re hurt, we tend to hurt others. Learning to listen to others means learning to assume that there is a reason behind the interactions that baffle us.

Instead of reacting in kind, we have the opportunity to kindly pursue the reality that is leading to the behavior of others. Instead of responding by saying, “You can’t talk to me that way,” we might respond by saying, “It sounds like this really bothered you.” We can be agents of healing toward others when we show the grace of assuming that while their bad behavior may not have an excuse, it always has a reason.

On top of this, when people don’t spell out the reason they are upset, it is not necessarily because they are intentionally withholding that information.

It may be because it seems so obvious to them that they can’t imagine it needs to be said. If they live by the clear code that it is rude and disrespectful to be late, then they may not spell out to you that they are upset about you showing up late to dinner or coffee or a family event. Most of us are not trying to be confusing.

We simply don’t spell out things that seem obvious. Consider saying sometimes as simple as, “I really apologize because it’s obvious that I’ve done something to hurt you, but I am not sure what it is. Can you help me understand?” Saying this is showing profound grace. It is responding to the great grace that God has given us in Jesus by saying, “God has cared for me, and so now I am set free to think about your hurt instead of my own discomfort.”

Listening is more difficult than it seems. And many of us lose opportunities to build up others and to show grace because we are too busy or offended to seek to understand people.

However, when we respond to God’s grace by seeking to understand, and when we listen for the hurt instead of simply the words, we can be agents of God’s healing in the lives of people who are precious to him.

In our culture we can tend to romanticize the practice of asking questions. We like to deconstruct ideas. We like to reject easy answers. We like to question everything. Many of us have become expert skeptics. We are like Neo in The Matrix, questioning everything about reality.

Questions are good. Having an open mind is good. But as G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” There is nothing wrong with asking questions. But questions should be asked in order to seek out answers.

Lately in my personal Bible reading time, I have been journaling through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. If any book of the Bible rejects easy answers, it is this book. The narrator deconstructs the truisms of life one by one, consistently repeating that many of the easy answers only lead toward futility.

If we are honest, we all know that there are times when we are asking questions in order to get answers, and there are times when we are asking questions just to complain. This is just as my children will sometimes ask why they have to do something, often not really wanting an answer. If you are a person who likes to poke holes and question closely-held beliefs, ask yourself if you are truly open to finding an answer to your question.

What strikes me about this sometimes-depressing book, however, is that the narrator is genuinely seeking answers. He is not simply complaining. After deciding that wealth and accomplishments and pleasure all lead to futility without God, the narrator makes a mini-conclusion in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26: “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

This section is profound to me because the narrator is not simply accepting an easy answer. And at the same time, he is not refusing to accept any answer, simply because he cannot find an answer that addresses every possible aspect of life. He recognizes that the world is a confusing place. He accepts the idea that there will always be some level of ambiguity in reality. But he does not allow this to keep him from seeking an answer. He is circling around, gazing down from his plane, not in order to criticize the runways, but in order to find a safe place to land.

And the narrator believes that the safe place to land is God himself. He believes that life cannot be meaningful apart from God. He believes that we can enjoy simple pleasures and gifts once we have embraced the goodness and power, and the mystery, of God himself. God is the solid one upon whom we close our open minds.

If you are currently questioning some big picture beliefs, then this doesn’t mean that you are doing anything wrong. It may simply mean that God has you on a journey and that you are being honest about that journey. My encouragement to you, however, is to ask questions in order to get answers. So, don’t just ask. Read good books. Have conversations with smart people. Pray for God to bring leading. Journal about your mini-conclusions. Don’t just circle the runway; search diligently, believing that there is a place to land.

There is nothing wrong with questions, and there is nothing wrong with an open mind. But as you seek truth with an open mind, look for the opportunity to close it on something solid.

The Body of Christ

Have you ever thought about the idea that you are an integral part of God’s bigger plan? If you are a fellow believer in Christ, then you are part of something bigger—something much bigger than you might realize. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he makes it clear that each one of us is a vital part of the Body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13: Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Jesus is obviously no longer here in physical form on this earth. When he was here, He could only be at one place at one time interacting with a limited number of people. However, when Jesus left earth for Heaven, He left the Body of Christ (the Church), to carry on His mission of pointing people to Heaven and of making disciples. His Body, literally, is all around the world, representing the risen Lord.

 

We each have a role to play

This is where you and I come into the picture. We each are a part of His Body. Let me ask you this, how many of your body parts do you want to be functioning? Would you be ok with 50, 75, or 90%? Well, I don’t think Jesus would either. In churches (and other areas of life), there is something called the 20-80 rule, meaning that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. I don’t know how accurate this is, but there certainly are times that it feels truer than not. Just as we would want all our body parts to be working, Jesus would desire that also for His Body. My question to you is, “Are you using the gifts, talents, and resources that the Lord has given you for His greater work?” If you are, awesome, press on. If you aren’t, I’m sure your church would love to help you discover what your gifts are and how you might be best used for God’s work.

 

It’s not “we have to,” but it’s “we get to”

If you think about it, the Lord could accomplish His plan without us. No really, He is more than capable, He is the All-Mighty, All-Powerful God. He could also just use His angels that are way more efficient and not to mention, obedient. But no, He chooses to use redeemed men and women like you and me to be “ambassadors” to represent Him. It might be easy to be thinking, “Aren’t these roles for the leadership and pastors of the church?” I’m glad you asked. Paul explains that pastors are to equip the saints (that would be any believer in Jesus) to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 44:11,12). The function of pastors is to come alongside to coach and train the saints into doing the work of the ministry. “Are you willing to simply say ‘Yes’ and join the greater movement of what God wants to do in this world?” All I can say is that you were made for this! It’s amazing that we “get to” be a part of what He is doing, and that is truly a privilege.

 

No Lone Ranger Christians

We were designed to be together. No individual body part can survive for long on its own. To say the least, a body part that is not connected to the rest of the body would be a disturbing thing to witness. In the same way, we were designed to be in community and be connected to one another. There is no way that a single body part can fulfill its true function unless it is operating in cooperation with the other parts. We might have our reasons for being disengaged, but the fact is that we are better together. We were never meant to be “Lone Ranger Christians,” (and even the Lone Ranger had Tonto). No matter where you are on the involvement scale, I would challenge you to become more engaged. Otherwise, others are missing out on what you could be bringing to the rest of the Body.

 

Next Steps…

If you are a part of LBF Church, we can help you become engaged in the life of the church and to be fully using your gifts. If you are already involved, maybe there are ways that the Lord would want to stretch you to expand into other ministry options. Either way, you could learn more about serving opportunities through our website. You could also email me at [email protected]. If you are connected to another church, I would encourage you to contact your pastoral staff and let them know that you want to be more involved. I truly believe that if ALL the body parts in the local churches were fully functional and were working together, there would be no stopping the territory we could claim for Jesus! Just as in the Book of Acts, it was said that the Christians were guilty of “turning the world upside-down.” May that be said of us!

Several years ago I was meeting with a couple for pre-marital counseling. At one point, in order to discern some things about what role God was playing in their lives and in their relationship, I asked them if they were sleeping together. When they acknowledge that they were, I asked them how they thought this impacted their relationship with God. They struggled to answer the question. They looked at me as if to say, “So you guys are still holding onto that whole premarital-sex-is-wrong thing?”

In many ways I understood their confused reaction. In 21st century American culture, premarital sex is no big deal, especially when it is between two people who are planning to get married. It seems like a petty and outdated rule. Shouldn’t we simply retire this teaching and put it alongside the flat earth?

I don’t believe we should stop talking about premarital sex. I believe that it is important for Christians to hold the line on the conviction that sex is reserved only for marriage. In this post, I want to defend the idea that Christians hold onto this conviction (and that we freely talk about it) by exploring the three most common critiques of this conviction.

Christians should just concede because it isn’t really a sin.

There are some who claim that the Bible doesn’t actually teach that premarital sex is a sin. If this is true, then I agree that Christians should stop saying that it is. Let’s explore.

When people say that the Bible doesn’t specifically forbid premarital sex, they often mean that there is no passage that directly says, “Consensual sex between two unmarried people is a sin.” This is true much in the same way that we have no statement of Jesus specifically saying, “I am God.” The argument is silly and ignores the constant threat of sexual commands and prohibitions in Scripture related to sex. Let me give an example from the Old Testament and the New Testament to demonstrate the Scripture teaches that people should either (1) get married or (2) remain celibate.

Exodus 22:16-17 says, “If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.” As strange as this passage seems to us today, its teaching is fairly straightforward. Here was have an unmarried man who sleeps with an unmarried woman. It is consensual. Yet instead of turning a blind eye, the law is that he must pay the bride-price and marry her. While it is not strictly correct to say that marriage is the consequence, the passage clearly makes a stand. Sex is for marriage, and so a man who sleeps with an unmarried woman needs to marry her. And if the woman’s father thinks that the man is not a good man for his daughter, then the man still has to pay the bride price. In the Old Testament it seems pretty clear that sex was always meant to go along with marriage and sex outside of marriage always had consequences.

In 1 Corinthians 7, the Apostle Paul speaks to several different groups of Christians. He speaks to Christians who are married, divorced single, and widows. In verse 8-9 he makes a statement that betrays his overall sexual ethic. He says, “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” Again, Paul’s point is clear. He says that it is good for Christians to remain single and no Christian should idolize marriage. He encourages marriage, however, is a person’s sexual desires are so strong that they will have trouble staying single.

Someone might argue, though, “Paul, why do they need to get married? If they have strong sexual urges, then they should just have sex with another single person every so often. After all, sex is just a normal human appetite.” Paul does not see this at all. At the end of 1 Corinthians 6 he tells believers to flee sexual immorality. Again, his teaching is clear. If you want to have sex, you need to get married. If you stay single, you need to abstain. This is not because God (or Paul or Moses) is anti-sex. This is because sex is so powerful and so intimate that it only brings good results within marriage.

While it is true that there are some recent movement to say that Scripture doesn’t forbid premarital sex, it is worthwhile to understand that these recent trends go against centuries and centuries of a near-unanimous understanding of Scripture. No one reads the Bible and concludes that premarital sex is fine. People only arrive at this conclusion if they read the Bible saying, “Can I find any way to read this that does not specifically forbid this?” We cannot abandon this teaching on Scriptural grounds because Scriptures clearly does teach it.

Christians should just concede because we’ve lost this battle.

Some might say, “It is true that the Bible teaches that premarital sex is wrong. But we should stop talking about it because we have lost this battle. The culture is so far on the side of sexual freedom that we should squabble over the little things like premarital sex. We should focus on larger matters.”

On the one hand, I certainly agree that the Christian conviction that premarital sex is wrong is a counter-cultural conviction. On the other hand, I disagree that we’ve lost this battle. We certainly have lost ground in the sense that in the Untied States most people—and according to many studies, most Christians—have premarital sex. But I believe that God’s wisdom on sex is currently being vindicated, and will consistently be vindicated. No one can mock God. God’s wisdom will always be shown to be right in the end.

Studies consistently show that premarital sex has a negative impact on our marriages and relationships. In an article written a year ago for the Institute for Family Studies, Nicolas Wolfinger explored a recent study that specifically traced the connection between lasting marriages and premarital sex in women. The study found that if a woman had no premarital sex, then her chances of being divorced after five years was 5%. Shockingly, the number jumps to 20% if she had only one sexual partner (usually the man she ended up marrying). The number jumped to 25% and 30% if he had 2 or 3 partners. This study was consistent with many others that show the same trend. While we like to trivialize premarital sex in our culture, it clearly has significance if we want lasting marriages.

Similarly, it is worth noting that freer sexual expression in our culture does not seem to be leading to sexual satisfaction. We see consistent cases of sexual addiction (related to pornography and sexual intercourse). The logic that we just need to treat sex as an appetite like food seems to fall short. When we make sex casual, it does not lead to satisfaction. It only leads to addiction.

While it could seem like we should concede because we’ve lost this battle, Christians clearly have something valuable to say on this subject. And God’s wisdom will always be vindicated.

Christians should just concede because this makes us seem silly to the world.

Some Christians may be convinced that premarital sex is wrong, but they don’t want to talk about it because it seems like an embarrassing belief. We think it makes us look silly and puritanical to the world around us.

It very well may.

The truth is, though, that Jesus doesn’t call believers to expect the favor of the world. Quite the opposite. We are to expect opposition from the world. If the world never thinks that we are silly or out-of-touch, we need to ask ourselves if we are really serious about Jesus. Christians have frequently been “on the wrong side of history.” The disciples looked silly before the resurrection of Jesus. Christians today look silly, but we won’t when Jesus returns.

As believers our calling is to wear the disgrace of Christ with boldness rather than to shrink away. The disapproval of the world must not keep us from teaching something that is Scriptural and something that leads to people’s ultimate good, while warning them of the harm of sin.

What do we do?

Let’s say you’re convinced. You might ask, “But what do we do about this as we live in the midst of people who think premarital sex is no big deal?” I have three suggestions:

1. Take sexual sin seriously in your own life. Don’t turn a blind eye to lust, pornography, extramarital flirtations, or premarital sex. Fight the good fight. Flee immorality. And if you’re having trouble, bring other believers into the fight with you as friends and accountability partners. And if you have shame and guilt over past (or present) failures, seek God’s grace and the grace and help of others who will affirm God’s forgiveness in your life.
2. Speak up in your sphere. If you’re a parent, teach your kids the Scriptural teaching on sex. Sex is good within marriage, but it is destructive outside of it. Don’t be afraid to speak up with friends, family members, and co-workers. Don’t be ashamed. After all, God’s truth will ultimately be vindicated.

Don’t be embarrassed. Shame is powerful, and Satan wants to shame us not only when we mess up, but when we do what Jesus calls us to do. Jesus took on our shame, which meant that he was crucified and publicly humiliated. If we stand with Jesus, we will be subjected to shame from the enemy and from our culture. But don’t be embarrassed. When you stand with Jesus, you stand with the risen Lord and the future King of this earth. You are most certainly not on the wrong side of history when you stand with him.

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. – 2 Tim. 4:3-4

In some way, we have all been in a situation where we really don’t want to hear or accept the truth. So, we look around for someone who agrees with us, will minimize like us, justify our behavior, or allow us to feel good about ignoring reality.

Our culture does an amazing job at blurring the lines that God has drawn; these lines, created to bring us life and freedom, the world calls limiting, ignorant, bigoted, unreasonable, impractical, or just plain wrong. So, with the hope of being able to do what we want, when we want, with whom we want, whenever we want, our culture says to ignore any outside counsel or source of wisdom, and just “go with your gut,” “follow your heart,” “if it feels good, do it,” and on and on and on. But the more we embrace the philosophy of this world, the more blurred the lines get, and the more the truth is so much harder to find, and listen to.

This societal blurring of the lines is nothing new. This is why Paul had to remind the believers in Rome not to conform, imitate, and take on the attitudes, customs, and behavior of the society around them, but to seek God’s perspective, and allow Him to change their thinking. Political correctness and the desire to not have our culture, social media, and relationships think we are any of the critical and negative things listed above, make it so tempting to allow the lines of truth to be blurred in so many areas. Some of these areas are things like drinking, drugs, attitude, sexual behaviors, absolute truth, gossip, lying, and more. All are things that a culture not seeking true life from God believes will bring them freedom.

Recently there have been shark sightings and encounters at our local beaches in California. The lifeguards have been on watch, letting people know when and where it is safe and when people need to get out of the water. The limits, boundaries, and restrictions are meant to bring life; to keep people from harm. But the limits, boundaries, and restrictions are also meant to bring freedom! When I go to the beach and am in an area that has been deemed safe, I can enjoy the water and have a good time without having to look over my shoulder, questioning whether I should really be there and be nervous about what could happen to me. Alternatively, as I decide to go with my gut, trust my feelings or not allow anyone to restrict what I want to do, I venture out into water that is dangerous and I am actually less free to live as I want to live because now I do have to worry about what is around me, what could harm me, and I end up living less free than I ever wanted.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” I want that veil that blurs the lines of truth to be removed. I want to see how God sees, and be where He calls me to be. It will mean denying myself, and daily taking up my cross to follow Him, but I can live in the assurance of LIFE that He has promised, and the freedom to find joy, not based on my own attempts, but as I allow Christ to be my strength and my guide. – 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 

I want the veil that blurs the lines of truth to be removed. I want to see how God sees and be where He calls me to be. It will mean denying myself, and daily taking up my cross to follow Him, but I can live in the assurance of real life that He has promised, and the freedom to find joy, not based on my own attempts, but as I allow Christ to be my strength and my guide.

I love to read. I understand that not everyone loves to read, but I want to make an appeal that more of us make reading a regular part of our lives. Reading engages our God-given minds and bodies in a way that is different than when we watch movies or television shows. Not everyone needs to be an avid reader, but I suggest that each of us takes the time to read a little more.

And I want to suggest that we not only take the time to read good non-fiction, but also good fiction. Before sharing five suggestions for fiction reading, let me share two reasons why it is good for Christians to read fiction. (1) Reading fiction is good because it allows us to engage with ideas in a unique way. Most of us are more impacted by stories than by propositional statements. We find To Kill a Mockingbird more moving than someone saying, “You shouldn’t be prejudiced.” (2) Reading fiction gives us the experience of the highs and lows of a story. This is good because it reminds us that we as Christians believe that we are in the middle of a story that God is telling (a story that culminates with Jesus being crowned king and this cursed world being redeemed). When you’re in the middle of a good book, you are not overly troubled when things are going poorly. You know there is more to the story. When we have this experience through reading, I believe that this is helpful preparation for responding well when things in our lives don’t go according to plan.

With that said, here are five novels that I find myself reading again and again. Take them as suggestions for some good summer reading.

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. The premise of this book is a busload of passengers in hell who get to visit heaven. If you engage with the story, you find that it is less about Lewis presenting a detailed view of heaven and hell, and more about Lewis presenting the kinds of choices that lead us toward God or away from him. The relatively-short novel walks through a series of conversations that are striking both emotionally and intellectually. It is a quick read that is worth your time.

Peace Like a River by Lief Enger. This is the most recently-written book on my list. Enger’s novel is the story of several members of family who on the one hand are on an adventure, and on the other hand are dealing with tragedy and difficulty in different ways. It is a character-driven story that is beautiful and engaging. It is Christian literature in a broad thematic sense, and it deals with rich themes concerning suffering, sacrifice, and redemption.

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. This is my favorite novel of all time. I must have read it over a dozen times. On the surface, this is a story about a police officer who goes under cover to infiltrate an anarchist society. In a deeper way, however, it is a story about God’s role in human suffering. It is at once moving, brilliant, and hysterical. It is worth your time.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is the only book on this list that is clearly not written from a Christian perspective. Fitzgerald’s book is really about longing and the emptiness of the dreams that we build up in our heads. If you read this in high school, it is time to give it another read. The story is insightful about human beings and what drives us to make the (sometimes destructive) decisions we make.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. This is another book that you may have read in high school. If you did, read it again because you will be able to engage with the themes in a different way as an adult. Dostoevsky, the great Russian novelist, tells the story of a man who attempts to conquer his conscience with his reason. It involves murder, betrayal, and hope. It is a brilliant, brutal book. It is the most challenging of the five books that I have recommended, but it is a classic for a reason. Take the time to read through; you will be glad you did.

While not everyone needs to devour books on a weekly basis, take some time to shut off the noise and the screens (other than your kindle) and do some reading this summer. As you do, take time to remember that you are in the middle of a story that God is telling and that, while not all the stops along the way are pleasant, the ending is better than anyone could ever imagine.

Living in southern California there are many opportunities to do things on Sundays other than go to church. You might head to the beach or to the mountains. You might have your kids involved in sports with games or competitions on a Sunday.

After a busy week, you might just want some down time to recoup and get ready for Monday.

My guess is that most people who miss a Sunday probably think it’s no big deal. It’s not a sin (that’s true). It’s not earth shattering (Or is it?). No one notices (or do they?).

Let me suggest that when people miss a Sunday, they miss way more than they may think.

People who skip a Sunday morning miss uninterrupted time to listen for God’s wisdom. Sunday’s practical teaching from the Bible translates into godly wisdom that people can apply to their daily life.

We live in a world system that is hostile to godly wisdom and spending time listening and responding to spiritual teaching is so essential.

It’s true that people can hear great teaching in a variety of ways. But listening online is different than listening in the service. I don’t know about you, but when I listen to messages online there are interruptions. I almost never absorb the message in the same way as I do when I’m physically there.

When I’m in the service, I have uninterrupted time. Time to focus on what God is teaching me.

Secondly, when people skip a Sunday morning they miss the value of worshipping God with others. There is something intangible that happens when we worship God—out loud—with hundreds of people who share faith in Jesus.

Sundays are an irreplaceable opportunity to take a step back from the business of our everyday lives and directly give our devotion to God.

When we gather and sing and give praise to God or sing to declare a message of devotion to God, it connects us to our creator in a way nothing else can. That’s why we sing together—to offer God our words of devotion and love.

Lastly, if I miss Sunday I miss the power and movement of the church as a community. Coming together with others who believe the same way lifts us up in positive ways to live for Jesus—to hang in there when we may feel like it isn’t worth it.

Picture this–let’s say your life is like a small stream of water. This stream of water twists and turns and meanders down a path of least resistance. It’s beautiful – but it has very little strength. But what happens when you cross paths with another stream of water, and another, and another? Something bigger starts to happen, something that small stream can’t do on its own.

Momentum happens—then power happens. In the same way, when hundred’s of people come together moving in the same God-given direction it is powerful. But it can’t happen if we’re not there.

When I miss Sunday mornings, I miss the opportunity to be part of that community as I serve the needs of the church and the people who come.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever thought about Sunday morning this way, but I know when I’m not there I miss being part of the movement of God’s work at LBF.

Gathering together as a community of believers is an irreplaceable part of our Christian life. It’s immensely important for your spiritual health.

The way that we prepare to gather for corporate worship is really important.

In Psalm 122 David writes,

“I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Something unique and special happens when we gather as God’s people to sing his praises, to be encouraged in our faith, and to remind our hearts of the good news of the gospel.

Recently I attended a U2 concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of their hit album “The Joshua Tree.” I began thinking about the concert beforehand; I listened to lots of U2 songs in the week leading up to the concert – even loading up my vinyl copy of the Joshua Tree on my record player. On the day of the event, I arrived early. We made a plan for parking and took into account the travel time it would take getting there and arrived at our seats with plenty of time before the band came on stage (It was a great concert!).

On the day of the event, I arrived early. We made a plan for parking and took into account the travel time it would take getting there and arrived at our seats with plenty of time before the band came on stage (It was a great concert!).

I believe a lot of the same principles can be applied when we prepare to come together on Sunday mornings.

It is good to ready our hearts by reading the word with our families, spending time praying and listening to worship music. Thinking through timing so that we can park, grab a donut, say hi to a few people, drop the kids off at LIFEkids and then be in the worship center before the service begins.

However, this isn’t usually the case for most of us. We often race up to church late, maybe arguing with our spouse over the kids clothing choices for the day. We then rush to find a parking spot, don’t get to say hi to anyone, drop off our kids in the children’s ministry, and then walk into the worship center halfway through the third song. How can we expect to connect with God and have our hearts in the right place when this is how we prepare? For the Puritans, preparing for worship started the night before. The Puritans were people who were concerned with being prepared for Worship. Maybe this is something you could begin to think about in your weekend routine.

How can we expect to connect with God and have our hearts in the right place when this is how we prepare? For the Puritans, preparing for worship started the night before. The Puritans were people who were concerned with being prepared for Worship. Maybe this is something you could begin to think about in your weekend routine.

I really try to guard being out late on Saturday night because I know on Sunday I will not be able to focus and worship in the same way if I am tired from the night before.
Let me give you some questions to ponder. What are your expectations for Sunday mornings?

Have you thought about why you go to Church?

How do you and your family prepare for corporate worship? My concern is that oftentimes we are too casual with how we approach our worship gatherings. We need to build a sense of expectancy that God is going to move and change lives for his glory!

Ephesians 5:15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Only Through Faith in Jesus Christ can People be Saved

About a month ago there was a strange interaction in Washington D.C. Russell Vought was being questioned by the Senate in order to be confirmed for the government position of Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Senator Bernie Sanders asked Vought about the following statement he had made: “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology.

They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned.”Vought had written the statement in an article for Wheaton College (his alma mater), surrounding a controversy about whether or not Christians and Muslims pray to the same God. Sanders concluded that this belief of Vought’s was inappropriate and was not in keeping with American values.

Vought had written the statement in an article for Wheaton College (his alma mater), surrounding a controversy about whether or not Christians and Muslims pray to the same God. Sanders concluded that this belief of Vought’s was inappropriate and was not in keeping with American values.

What surprised me most about this interaction was not that Bernie Sanders disagreed with the statement or found it offensive. What surprised me is that Bernie Sanders seemed shocked that a Christian would hold this view.

He seemed unaware that Vought was simply expressing a very basic Christian belief: the belief that only through faith in Jesus Christ can people be saved.

I am not sure if Senator Sanders was genuinely shocked by Vought’s statement or if he was simply playing political games. I am sure, however, that the only reason Senator Sanders could have expected that his critique would be taken seriously is because public opinion is more on his side than at any other point in American history.

It is now fairly common for Christians to be seen as bigots for believing that faith in Jesus is the only path to salvation. Because this is the cultural reality in which we find ourselves, I want to give three suggestions for how we talk to others about the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ.

Remember the Present

As Christians, we don’t choose our beliefs based on popular opinion. We believe what we believe in light of what God has revealed through His Word. That said, it is worthwhile to recognize what statements will be shocking to people in our present cultural context. Don’t back down from speaking the truth, but be willing to speak it in a polite way. When I meet with couples for premarital counseling, we talk about pre-marital sex.

I never back away from the biblical teaching on pre-marital sex, but I always say, “I understand that what I am saying is very counter-cultural.” This is simply to show them that I understand that they may be shocked by what I am saying. It helps to bridge the gap between us.

There is nothing cowardly with saying, “I know this is not a popular position in our culture, but I believe that Jesus is the only way to God.” That is not being wishy-washy; it is simply acknowledging the context in which you find yourself.

Remember Your Past

The Christian teaching is not that God looked down at people and decided that some of them were doing things that were deserving of hell. He did not say, “He’s a murderer, so he’s out! She’s a prostitute, so she’s out! He’s gay and she’s a Muslim, so they’re condemned!” It is not that some people do things that are so bad that they are condemned.

The Christian teaching is that every single one of us is condemned. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All are estranged from God and deserving of His wrath. Because of this, the gospel of Jesus is actually an incredible inclusive message. Jesus says,

“Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, regardless of gender, ethnicity, and education, you are all invited to receive forgiveness and adoption into the family of God by coming to me!”

When you talk to others about the exclusive claims of Jesus, be sure to help them understand that the Christian position is not that you become condemned by joining another religion, coming out as gay, or doing certain bad activities. We all are born condemned, and we become rescued by Jesus and by Him alone.

If you were told that no one who doesn’t visit a certain hospital will get cancer and die, this would be an alarming message. But if you were told that we are all dying of cancer and there is one, and only one hospital that has the cure and that anyone is welcome to come to the hospital and get the treatment for free, you would see this is great news.

You would not view that hospital as bigoted or arrogant (thinking they’re better than other hospitals). When we provide the bigger picture, it becomes easier for others to see the gospel as the good news that it is.

Remember the Future

It may be true that right now it is a minority position to believe that Jesus is the only way to be connected to God. Holding onto this belief may even result in you being insulted, disregarded, or marginalized.

You may be told that you are on the wrong side of history. These things can make it difficult for Christians to hold onto the gospel and present it to others without compromise.

Remember, though, that Christians have always been on the “wrong side of history.” When Jesus was crucified, his disciples appeared to have backed the wrong horse.

When first century Christians were being imprisoned and martyred, they seemed to be holding onto a fading belief. In our “post-Christian” society today, don’t give in to the temptation to change or “improve” the exclusive claims of Jesus. While it may seem that we are on the wrong side of history today, Jesus’ future return and the kingdom will be His (and our) final vindication.

Recently at one of our Sunday gatherings, we spent time worshiping through several great songs from the past 20-30 years. These songs included “You’re Worthy of My Praise”, “Heart of Worship”, “We Fall Down”, “Shout to the Lord”, “Open the Eyes of My Heart” and “Rain Down on Us”.  

The goal of worshipping together with these old songs came from the Psalms:

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”
Psalms 77:11-12 NIV

Each of these songs has had a significant impact, both globally and at our church. I can remember singing some of these older lyrics when working through grief, during times of celebration, through seasons of dealing with sin, and countless other times in my life.

Singing these songs is like hanging out with one of your best friends who you have not seen in many years and you pick up right where you left off. We had a sweet time of remembering the deeds of the Lord and thinking of his goodness in our lives. It was great getting to hear about how people were able to meet with the Lord during that service.

Just like Psalm 77 says above, remembering is powerful.

When we pull back from the day to day busyness of our lives we can see so many ways that the Lord has blessed us, how he has provided for us, how he has grown us, and how he has brought us up out of dark seasons.

It is really important to remember these times as we move forward into new seasons of life.

How have you seen God move in your life? How has he provided for you and your family? What good deeds in the past can you thank Him for today that give you hope for tomorrow?

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”
James 1:17-18 NIV

My hope is that every one of  our corporate worship services are a time for not only thanking God for what he has done, but also declaring his character traits – redeeming, mighty, omniscient, merciful, just, loving, steadfast, gracious, trustworthy, good, awesome, forgiving, righteous, holy, sovereign.

It is important that we sing familiar songs in our gathered times, but in studying the scriptures we are also instructed to sing a new song to the Lord multiple times.

God is unchanging, however, He is the God of creativity and is constantly encouraging us to be creative in how we worship and respond to His work in our lives. Next time you worship, remember your past and look to your future with hope.

If you think you have a better idea than obedience, you’re wrong.

There is a sentence that I use with my sons when they disobey. The sentence is, “If you think you have a better idea than obedience, you’re wrong.” I say this to them because there are times when I will tell one of them to do something, and he will seem to think, “If Dad really understood the situation, he would have asked me to do this other thing instead.”

So, instead of telling me that he thinks I might be missing some information, he simply does what he thinks I should have told him to do. His assumption that he knows better is what leads him to disobey.

In 1 Samuel 15 Saul decides that he knows better than God. Seeing someone disobey God may, by itself, not be a very helpful thing. But in the case of Saul, we get insight into what led him to rebel.

This insight is incredibly helpful because it gives each of us insight into two realities that are often at the core of what leads us to rebel against God.

Trusting Your Limited Wisdom.

1. In 1 Samuel 15, God told Saul to do battle with the Amalekites and utterly destroy them all (people and animals). While this command is deeply troubling (and could be the subject of a whole different post), the basics of the situation are that God decided to judge a wicked nation and that Saul and the Israelites would be his agent of judgment.
   But Saul, instead of carrying out the order, decided to bring back many of the livestock and the Amalekite king. When Samuel confronts this disobedience, Saul has a ready response: “‘But I did obey the LORD,’ Saul said. ‘I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.’” (1 Samuel 15:20-21)

Saul’s logic seems pretty solid.

He knows that God loves sacrifices. So, if God would have really thought this whole thing through, God would have ordered them to bring back the best animals for sacrifices instead of killing them. Since God, however, clearly didn’t think of this, Saul and his men would help God out by doing what God should have told them to do.

Saul ended up rebelling against God because he put too much trust in his own limited wisdom.

Craving the Approval of Others.

2. After Samuel tells Saul that God would rather have his obedience than his sacrifices, Saul reveals the real reason why he rebelled. He says in verse 24, “I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them.”
   While Saul originally claimed that he kept the animals in order to please God with sacrifices, he confesses that his real reason for rebellion was that he wanted to please his men.

Whenever you think you have a “better idea” than obeying God, it would be worthwhile to check your motives to see if your real reason for rebellion is to make other people happy with you. I believe that the situation in which this happens to Christians most is when it comes to telling the truth.

On the surface, we may tell someone that God is okay with their sinful behavior because we don’t want the person to think of God as an angry killjoy. If we’re honest, though, our motive is probably that we want them to like us. On the surface, we may stop talking about hell and judgment because we say that we don’t want to turn people off to God.

But most of the time our real motive is to have people come to the conclusion that we are not like those other Christians who are judgmental. After all, if they thought we were judgmental, they would not approve of us.

The approval of others is such a strong craving that Jesus said it is one the main desires that keeps people from placing their faith in him.

In John 5:44 he said to the Pharisees, “How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

Craving the approval of others is one of the key causes for rebellion against God.

The next time you find yourself tempted to carry out an idea that is “better” than obedience to God, ask yourself two questions.

1. What leads me to believe that I have better facts and better judgment than the God who has called us to follow his word?
2. Am I valuing the opinions of other people over the opinion of the God who created me and rescued me through Jesus?

At LBF Church we are pro-life. This is not because we align ourselves with a specific political party, but because we believe that God is the author of life and that God calls His people to care for the most vulnerable and to

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute” Proverbs 31:8

With this in mind, I would like to address three common objections to the pro-life position. These objections are important because they are, most of the time, honest objections that pro-life people should take seriously and be able to answer with compassion and thoughtfulness.

You’re heaping guilt on people.

Every year when we hold our Sanctity of Life service, I know that there will be women (and men) who feel deeply uncomfortable because they have participated in an abortion in their past. There are some who argue that it is cruel to talk about abortion as evil because it heaps guilt on people who have had an abortion.

On the one hand, this is undoubtedly true. Talking about the evil of abortion will make many people who have had abortions feel guilt or shame. On the other hand, we have to ask if this automatically means that we shouldn’t talk about it.

Adultery is something that is clearly an evil action according to Scripture. That said, there are undoubtedly a number of regular church attendees who have committed adultery in their past. Few of us, however, would say that there should be no mention of the evil of adultery simply because it would bring up guilt for some.The purpose of bringing it up is not to heap guilt on people who have fallen short but to warn others so that they don’t participate in this evil. The same is true of abortion.While it is unfortunate that it results in some people feeling guilt and shame, it would also be unfortunate for others to end up making bad decisions because we refused to talk about something that made some people uncomfortable.

The purpose of bringing it up is not to heap guilt on people who have fallen short but to warn others so that they don’t participate in this evil. The same is true of abortion.While it is unfortunate that it results in some people feeling guilt and shame, it would also be unfortunate for others to end up making bad decisions because we refused to talk about something that made some people uncomfortable.

While it is unfortunate that it results in some people feeling guilt and shame, it would also be unfortunate for others to end up making bad decisions because we refused to talk about something that made some people uncomfortable.

On top of this, the Christian solution to guilt is not avoidance. We don’t simply pretend that we have no sin. We experience freedom from guilt and shame because of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection. We need not shy away from talking about adultery, and violence, and deception, and abortion simply because people have failed in these areas. As Christians, we have the true solution to guilt.

You are being uncompassionate toward the mother.

Some people will reason that the pro-choice position is the compassionate position because it takes into account the fact that women who choose to have abortions, for the most part, do it because they are overwhelmed and afraid. They choose abortion not out of hard-heartedness, but out of desperation. Pro-life people, the argument goes, are denying relief to women in desperate situations.

My experience in working alongside Assure Pregnancy Clinic tells me that it is true that most women do not choose abortion casually. Most agonize over it. Many who choose it, believe that they are doing something wrong, but that their desperate situation leaves them with no choice.

Compassion for mothers in these situations is vital. This is one of the reasons why I admire ministries life Assure, where they provide counseling, medical assistance, parenting classes, and baby clothes for expectant (and new) mothers. Pro-life people are carrying for those unborn children by caring for the mothers.

This said, it is tragic to me that pro-choice people, in their claims to be compassionate, seem to ignore the vulnerable baby who cannot speak for herself. If a mother had seven children and was utterly overwhelmed and in financial distress, we would certainly not think that this would justify her killing one of her children in order to ease her burden.

Instead, we would protect the life of that child, while offering financial, emotional, and practical assistance of any kind. The desperation of our situation does not justify the killing of an innocent and vulnerable person.

You are being sensationalistic.

Some people will criticize pro-life people who speak about abortion by calling us sensationalistic. There is no doubt that this critique is sometimes true. Sometimes pro-life speakers use language, pictures and, analogies that are purposefully provocative. While, in general, I think the sensationalizing subjects is not helpful, I do think there are times when strong, shocking statements need to be made.

If pro-life people simply talk about “terminating a fetus,” I believe this accepts the faulty premise that we are not talking about the loss of a life. On the other hand, I think it is rarely helpful to use terms like holocaust when it comes to abortion—not because it is untrue—but because it often creates an us-and-them divide that is very hard to cross.

If you have the calling to speak about abortions in public setting and debates, I believe that there may be times when it is helpful to use provocative language, to use pictures of aborted babies, or to use descriptions of what comes from abortion.

The shock can be useful. I believe, however, that most people’s minds are changed not through public speeches, but through personal conversations. If your neighbor is considering an abortion, I don’t think it will be helpful to tell her that she is participating in a holocaust.

It would be much better to help her to look toward her future instead of being blinded and overwhelmed by what is right in front of her. Show compassion, offer any help that you can personally give, and to encourage her that her situation is not as dire as she thinks.

If you have a personal connection to someone considering abortion, you have more influence than the politicians, the lawmakers, and the people making public speeches. Use that influence with compassion and boldness.

Abortion is an important and emotional topic. Don’t let this keep you from speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and never believe the lie that you have to choose between compassion for the mother and compassion for the child.

By upholding the sanctity of life, you are encouraging people to make choices that may result in difficulty in the short-term, but will result of greater hope and less regret in the long-term.

 

“Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business…” 1 Thessalonians 4:11 NLT

Enjoying a life that is peaceful and quiet, not engrossed in other people’s affairs, is harder today, than ever before.

But in the verse mentioned above, Paul is telling us this is an important concept for us to understand. A life that is rich with quiet moments—not preoccupied with the business of others—is vital for our health.

Paul challenges us to reflect. How quiet is my life?

Do I have moments that are free from all the “noise” of sensory input and stimulation? If not, then how can I?

Sadly, most of us are no longer strolling through the park, stopping “to smell the roses” these days. Instead, we’re rushing to our next activity, stopping briefly to check our Facebook, change our Spotify, or send off a quick text—all while shopping or talking to a friend. We are out of control and missing what we desperately need.

The word “quiet” doesn’t just mean “free from noise.” It also stands for a calm or tranquil environment, free from disturbances or interruptions.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
  he refreshes my soul.” Psalm 23:2

Recent studies have shown that this continual shifting of our attention from one activity to another (phone to computer to social media to phone to computer to T.V., etc.) is actually wreaking havoc on our minds.

What do the researchers say we need more of? Quiet.

 “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Come with me … to a quiet place and get some rest.’” Mark 6:30-32

The lure of the Internet, Google, and social media beckons us all day long. I’ve realized my need for a healthier balance.

I want to have a quieter life. I’m asking God to “renew my mind, to what His good and pleasing and perfect will” in this area of my life. (Romans 12:2)

So, I’ve begun to make some changes.

First of all, I’m taking intentional breaks from my phone: from all of the calls, texts, emails and social media. I don’t take it with me everywhere I go. I leave it behind when I can, or when I’m at home I turn it off for periods of time.

I’ve found that when I leave my phone behind, I’m more relaxed and better able to focus on what I’m doing.

I come away from these “sensory sabbaticals” feeling recharged and ready to go!

Another change I’ve made is to limit how often I check my social media each day. Or even how often I reach for my phone. Instead, I look out the window or pray or take a stroll.

Old habits don’t die easily though. As Paul said, we need to have a goal. Just by making a few simple changes in my daily routine, I’ve noticed a big difference in my life. It feels really good.

I encourage you to spend some time this week praying about this area in your life.

What is God speaking to your heart? Where does He want to set you free?

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
 I will advise you and watch over you. (Psalm 32:8 NLT)

Prior to our time at LBF church, my wife Amy and I use to attend a wonderful church in the Los Angeles area. We loved this church. The worship was inspiring, the teaching was challenging, and Sunday mornings were filled with energy and joy.

We attended for six years. In those six years, we never got involved. We simply attended on Sunday and went home. Amidst so many opportunities to be involved in the body of the church, we chose not to make an effort. Honestly, Amy was ready and eager; I was not.

Many of my excuses were typical: too busy, not enough time, stress from work, etc. Upon reflection, I cannot justify these excuses.

My excuses don’t hold up because everyone is busy…

We all have full plates and lives that are scrambled with responsibilities–professional, social, familial.

The truth is, I felt like I didn’t fit in. In six years, no one from the church ever invited us to an event, home group, or Bible study. In six years, no pastor, staff member, or church member ever reached out. In my mind, it was their responsibility to reach out to me. I was quite happy to remain the new guy for six years, and not say hello to someone first.

I was wrong. I had a selfish and entitled perspective.

My perspective has changed. As Pastor of Community Life at LBF Church, I am responsible for helping new folks get involved. Every Sunday, I see firsthand how intimidating it can be to attend a new church for the first time, and how easy it is to feel lost on a Sunday morning. 

I also meet new folks who are eager to experience all that LBF has to offer, and those that have a thick skin on; just like I once did.

As a pastoral staff, it is important for us to reach out to new folks. Every new person at LBF receives an email or a call (or both) from me, and the pastors, staff, and elders post ourselves with name tags on Sunday mornings in an effort to come in contact with as many first-time guests as we can.

We want to be welcoming, we try to be welcoming, and there are fewer joys on a Sunday morning beyond making a real connection with someone who is brand new to LBF.

Yet, as hard as we try as a staff, and as sincere as we are in our desire to be welcoming, we will never be able to do it as well as you.

If Sunday morning is filled with friends and family, if you know exactly where to park, if you know the perfect time to get the best selection of donuts, If you call Pastor Gary, “Gary”, if you call LBF your home church; a welcome from you to a first-time guest will mean a lot more than a welcome from me as a pastor.

You are simply a lot “cooler” than me, and you always will be.

It’s the difference between being accepted by a teacher in high-school or the other high-school students. It’s good and fine for the teachers to be nice–“they have to be nice.” But what you really want is to make friends and be accepted by your peers.

I promise this analogy isn’t intended to communicate my relationship to you as teacher-student one. It’s not. In my years at LBF, if anything is clear, it’s how much I am able to learn and grow from relationships I’ve made. My intention is to communicate that you as an LBF church member or attender, have more credibility with new folks because you don’t work for the church. Kindness from you will always mean more than kindness from me.

My hope is that each of us will dig a little deeper and keep an eye out for new folks at church.

Some are long-time Christians; some are brand new to the faith. Either way, reaching out to folks who look lost on our campus is real ministry; just as reaching out to people who don’t know Jesus on an overseas missions trip is. LBF is your home. Yet each Sunday, there are strangers that wander around your home, looking to be accepted.

As you look to attend church this Sunday, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Remember High School? For many of us, nothing was more important than being accepted and making friends in school. As adults, not much has changed. That feeling of intimidation is there with most of us when we are in a new environment. If someone looks new, they probably are. Don’t wait for them to approach you. Go say “hi.” Make the first move. And if they happen to be folks who’ve been at LBF for 5 years, no worries, you just made a new friend.
2. Lost and Confused. If someone on our campus looks lost and confused, approach them and see if you can help. Often times, folks can’t find the Youth Service or don’t know where the closest restroom is. Either way, trying to be helpful to someone who clearly looks lost shows care and kindness. And who knows… it may lead to a conversation over a donut.
3. This is Your Home. Because LBF is your home, that makes a new person your guest. If they are your guest, that means you are also their host. If you see yourself as a host, that means you will naturally want to show hospitality and generosity. Ask them to sit next to you, save them a seat, buy them a cup of coffee. Any kind gesture carries weight and shows warmth.

As we look to welcome those who are new to LBF, let’s remember that each person brings burdens, joys, past church experiences, and worldviews that we can never anticipate.

Although we can’t anticipate how someone will respond to us when we make an effort, we can be sure that a gesture of kindness along with a smile is difficult to reject.

That effort shows that we are going to try to reflect Jesus, and that gesture could be the first bit of Jesus that person has ever received.

Seeing self-identified White Supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia two weeks ago was a chilling sight for many of us. It brought up injustice and violence that has been a part of the history of our world and the history of our nation.

It was also a reminder that while laws can be changed, there is no legislative solution to the racism that can reside in human hearts. As we process the fallout of Charlottesville, both political and social, I want to take some time to speak about how the gospel of Jesus speaks to the issue of racism.

Racism is an affront to the Creator.

There is no verse in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt not be racist.” That said, mistreating others because of their race is utterly inconsistent with the message of Scripture. Genesis 1:26 says that human beings are created in the image of God. James 3:9 says that curses against people are evil because people are created in God’s image.

Throughout Proverbs mistreatment of the vulnerable (usually the poor) is condemned because it mocks their maker. When we mistreat, dismiss, or exclude people because of their race, we insult the God who created everyone in his image. Practicing racism is not simply breaking a rule; it is mocking God himself.

Racism is a form of justification.

As repugnant as racism is, I think we would all be wise to pause before treating “racists” as if they are some clearly-defined group. People practicing racism are precious human beings created in the image of God.

While racist actions are horribly evil, we practice arrogance if we act as if we could never fall victim to those same temptations. We must have the humility to recognize that people practicing racism are not so different from us “non-racists.”

I believe that the driving force of racism is self-justification. Justification has to do with a person proving that they have significance in this world. Some justify themselves through their hard work and money. Some justify themselves through their upbringing and their education. Some justify themselves through their race and heritage.

Even many Jews (arguably the most oppressed people group in the history of humanity) fell into this form of justification. John the Baptist says in Matthew 3:9, “And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”

In Philippians 3:5, Paul talks about how he used to pride himself on his Jewish heritage, listing his qualifications as “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.”

Paul then goes on to say that he now considers these qualifications to be garbage (verse 8). He does not mean that he is ashamed of his ethnicity (none of us should be!), but that his Jewish heritage does not justify him. Jesus set him free from self-justification by justifying us through his death (Galatians 2:15-16).

The gospel of Jesus frees us from racism because it frees us from the need to justify ourselves.

Racism is fought through proximity.

In Ephesians 2:14 Paul says, “For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility.” The two groups are the Jews and the Gentiles.

Paul says that Jesus has brought peace between these two (often-opposed) groups by making them one people. The church is the people of God and it is the group in which Jews and Gentiles are one.

Jesus’ solution to racism is not to have each ethnic group politely stay in their own space. His solution is to bring us together and force us to get over our differences. Paul the Jew traveled with Titus the Greek. Philip the deacon shared the gospel with the Ethiopian.

Within Jesus 12 apostles, Simon the Zealot shared space with Matthew the tax collector. Jesus brings a powerful unity because with him we are all grateful recipients of the grace and adoption that he has brought us.

If you want to fight racism—both in your own heart and in society—your best strategy is not to shame racists or shout them down. Your best strategy is to be around the diverse people of God, flex your empathy muscles, and practice unity with people who are different from you.

While there is a time and a place to advocate for structural and societal change, the biggest transformations take place when we are free from the need to justify ourselves and we can break bread with people of all colors and backgrounds.

After all, as Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentiles, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In the United States, freedom of speech is paramount.

It literally comes first in the amendments to our nation’s constitution. The idea is that the government will not squelch any individual’s self-expression. Freedom of speech does not mean that a person cannot be fired, shunned, or despised by others for what they say.

It simply means that a person’s speech will be protected by the government, no matter how repugnant others might think this speech to be.

Free speech was on display in Charlottesville on August 12th. According to our Constitution, the white supremacists absolutely had the right to march, hold up signs, and say their piece. But while many of us who would defend the rights of this free speech don’t remotely approve of this use of free speech.

We see the beliefs of the white supremacists as evil. It is a classic case in which we might say to a fellow American, “You certainly can say that, but that doesn’t mean that you should.”

In the New Testament, the apostles write frequently about the newfound freedom that we have in Christ. While we still are given commands, we are set free from a law-based approach to our faith and are instead led by the Spirit and by the law of love. The apostles, however, warn Christians that just because we can do certain things doesn’t mean that we should.

Peter writes, “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves” (1 Peter 2:16). Paul writes, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love” (Galatians 5:13). Both Peter and Paul tell believers that the purpose of their freedom is not to be self-serving, but to serve and love others.

This brings up an important question: Is self-expression a Christian value? On the one hand, there is a great value given to Christians having the freedom to express themselves. Paul goes to great lengths to tell believers not to judge one another over disputable matters (Romans 14:1).

At the same time, Paul also sets an example as a man who is prepared to sacrifice his freedoms in order to communicate the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:15-18).

While self-expression is certainly permissible for Christians, it takes a back seat to the bigger priorities of loving one another and spreading the message of Jesus. In light of this, here are three thoughts to consider when you are choosing whether or not to express something.

Will this benefit others?

The truth is that many times we express things not because we think they will benefit others, but simply because we want to say them. Whether we are making a political rant on social media or going on and on about how much we liked (or disliked) a movie, we often speak in order to get things off our chest.

While we might think that what we say “needs to be said,” we must consider that others are not often asking our opinion. If you are expressing opinions to people who haven’t asked, consider whether you are speaking in order to speak or in order to benefit others.

Will this be understood?

The difficulty of communication is that a speaker often has one intent, while a listener ends up misunderstanding that intent. Sometimes we are tempted to express ourselves, even though we know that many others are likely to misunderstand us.

For me, a good example of this is those who display Confederate flags. I personally don’t believe that displaying a Confederate flag is an overt act of racism. People value that flag for different reasons. That said, since it is fairly common knowledge that many people in our country associate that flag with racism, it is worth thinking twice before displaying it.

Ask yourself, “Is my desire to express that I value the Confederate flag worth what it will cost in others misunderstanding my attention and being personally offended?” We ought to speak not simply to speak, but to be understood.

Does this reflect well on Jesus?

Every Christian is an ambassador of Christ. We all represent him in what we say and do. Because of this, we must consider how our words and acts of self-expression reflect upon our Savior. When we speak (or type), do people hear anger, self-righteousness, or dismissiveness? If so, this certainly will not adorn the gospel of Jesus.

There are times when we must offend others in order to communicate the offensive gospel of Jesus. However, there are many times that Christians offend others for communication that isn’t related to standing for truth but simply related to voicing our opinions. Each time we speak, we must consider how our words (and tone) point people to the One who came to save them.

Self-expression is not wrong. At the same time, there are many higher priorities for those of us who are Christians. As you consider your words, remember that, as a Christian, you are loved, accepted, and treasured by the God of the universe.

You don’t need to prove yourself, get revenge, or vindicate your opinion. Your goal is not to win an argument or convince others to agree with your positions on disputable matters. Your goal is to direct people to Jesus so that they can experience the new life that he brings.

I want to speak to my fellow cautious people out there. I’m speaking to those of you who have trouble pulling the trigger on decisions. I’m speaking to those of you who want to make sure your plan is perfect before you take the first step to move on it. I’m speaking to those of you who instinctively ask, “What would go wrong?” when you are considering an action.

Here is what I want to encourage you to do: Try something. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

It doesn’t have to be all-encompassing. It doesn’t have to be something that you commit to doing for the rest of your life. But don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Try something.

In 1 Samuel 14:6, King Saul’s son Jonathan decides to attack some Philistines. It is a bold and risky move that could go terribly wrong. When he chooses to take action, his words to his armor bearer are striking:

“Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”

Jonathan didn’t know if God would bring about something wonderful, but he knew that it was a possibility. In Jonah 3:9, when the Ninevites repent after Jonah’s message, they say,

“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

They didn’t know that God would respond to their repentance, but they knew that he might. Jonathan and the Ninevites both could have been paralyzed by asking, “What could go wrong?” Instead, they acted upon the thought, “What could go right?” When we refuse to act without knowing the outcome, we miss out on the possibility of God doing something wonderful.

I have trouble taking risky action, but during the past few years, I have seen wonderful things happen when I prayerfully try things without knowing what results they will bring. With my family, we began reading the Bible together at dinner. I didn’t have a comprehensive plan for how we would do this. I simply started trying it. It has been wonderful to see the results it has brought. In personal conversations, I have begun to put myself out there more and share thoughts that could be helpful to others. God has worked when I have done this. Many times when I am about to step out and take a risk I find myself saying, “Who knows? God may do something wonderful through this?”

If you are wrestling with ways to bring a God-focus to your family, don’t wait for a perfect plan.

Start trying things. Start reading the Bible at the dinner table. Start taking prayer walks. Start asking members of your family spiritual questions. If you are trying to figure out ways to bring renewal into your personal relationship with God, don’t wait for the perfect plan. Start trying things. Begin a journal. Listen to good worship music. Read through a book of Scripture. Read through a devotional. If you are trying to figure out your spiritual gifts so that you can serve God, don’t wait until you have all the answers. Try something. Try Children’s Ministry. Try being a Life Group leader. Try serving as a greeter. Try being a Detour Group leader for Exit83. Try joining the worship team.

Don’t let uncertainty keep you from missing out on what God may do in you and through you.

Every time you find yourself looking at a possible action and saying, “What could go wrong?” take a moment to ask, “What wonderful thing might God do through this?” Who knows?

Keep it simple

When it comes to connecting kids with God, it can seem a bit overwhelming and you might not be sure where start. It may cause you to be paralyzed and not begin anything in fear that it won’t go well, or it will be one more structured thing that you are just not ready to tackle.

But if there is one thing that I hope you as the reader can walk away with, is this thought, “Keep it simple.” Kids can get connected with God through simple everyday conversations, easy short activities or a once a week family dinner together.

Ideas to Get You Started

Here are a few ideas for you to get started. If you like the idea of gathering around the table for a family dinner and talking over a devotion you can easily take a part of the Bible Reading Plan and discuss that or utilize our Home Front weekly that is offered in LIFEkids for the 2-year-olds through 6th grade.

Each of the classrooms has Home Front Weeklies that you can take home. You could also take the bible verse that the kids are learning and ask them questions about that verse.

Another idea is to incorporate God into your everyday discussions. There might be an amazing sunset or a discussion on how cool a bug is. That can lead into a discussion about how great God’s creation is. Maybe when they get home from school you can ask how they saw God at work that day.

There are so many ways where short conversations can take place that can be so meaningful and can refocus the day on God. If crafts are more your speed, there are tons of crafts that you can look up online to get ideas. Then discuss how God can give us our creative gifts.

If your kids like to write or draw have them write thank you notes to God or draw a picture that relates to a specific verse in the bible. Bible journaling is another great outlet you can encourage your kids to do.

Another great time to get connected to God is at bedtime.  As you tuck in the kids you can pray together, talk about the day, and how God was with you during the day.

Keep Going

I hope that these ideas can give you a place to begin or develop what will work best for you and your family. Also, remember that it may take a few tries for kids to embrace what you asking them to do and repeating an idea or activity may help them to understand it better and begin to feel a connection with God and be more comfortable talking and sharing.  So, begin wherever you are at and try and incorporate some of these ideas with your kids.

Author: Laurie Baiz, LIFEkids Director at LBF Church

There was a time when the word “invest” was used mainly when discussing bonds, stocks, and retirement plans.

Currently, we still talk about investing our money, but we also talk about investing our time, our thoughts, our energy, and investing in our future.

I believe that as parents we need to take a good look at what we are investing in, especially when it comes to our kid’s future.

With the different things that demand our time, each one of us has to make hundreds of decisions on what we are going to invest in and what we are going to let go. It can be very overwhelming at times, with all of the business, it can be a challenge to fit it all in. I find that in this culture we live in, the world is very loud about what deserves our time and energy. Just to name a few: sports, education, securing a scholarship, helping the less fortunate, etc.

These are all good things, and I am by no means implying that these items do not deserve to be invested in, but what about the items that the world is not talking about?

How about investing in spiritual growth for our kids?

What about ensuring that the next generation has not just heard the gospel, but learns to walk with God as they grow older. This should be the most important priority, but it’s often easily lost in the mix of items that scream much louder for attention.

So, I want to challenge parents out there to slow down, take a moment and think about the ways they can invest in the spiritual growth of kids. This can be a simple conversation about what they learned on Sunday morning, or how amazing God is to create that beautiful sunset. Or maybe it’s a discussion at the dinner table about a single Bible verse and how they can apply it to their lives.

As parents, we all know that our kids are watching us and modeling what we lay out before them.

What we choose to do with our time and energy speaks volumes to our kids about what is valuable to us and what they should invest in as they grow.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

My hope is that each of us rises up, boldly model the importance of spiritual growth, and invest in the kids that are in our homes, at our schools, and in our church.

In our culture, we have a strange relationship with food and physical health. On the one hand, many people in the United States are overweight partly because we have an excess of food available to us.

On the other hand, we seem to have a national obsession with health. We want to reform school lunches, serve kale as much as possible, and promote exercise for everyone. Physical health is both a challenge and a virtue in our culture.

This leads to an important question: What is the Christian perspective on physical health? Should we be talking more about eating well and exercising? Should we be confronting people who are overweight? Are we inconsistent if we call out sexual immorality while not calling out gluttony?

In this post, I will explore the Christian perspective on food.

For starters, it is important to point out that most of the Scriptural passages concerning food are in the Old Testament and they relate to Jewish dietary laws. The purpose of these dietary laws was not to make the Israelites healthy, but to make the Israelites unique. They were to be a holy people who would stand out from the nations around them.

When Jesus arrives, he declared an end to these regulations by proclaiming all foods to be clean (Mark 7:19). This is because Jesus fulfilled these regulations by cleansing us once and for all.

In the New Testament, the emphasis concerning food is not that Christians must eat healthily, but that Christians should be suspicious of anyone who is forbidding certain foods (Romans 14:1-4, Colossians 2:16-22, 1 Timothy 4:3). Physical health is not of primary concern to Jesus or to the New Testament authors.

But what about the sin of gluttony? After all, isn’t gluttony one of the seven deadly sins? Well, the “seven deadly sins” are not a biblical invention. And gluttony is mentioned only six times in the Bible. It is mentioned as a parallel with drunkenness in Proverbs 23:19-21, Deuteronomy 21:20-21, and Matthew 11:19. It is mentioned also in Proverbs 23:1, Proverbs 28:7, and Titus 1:12 in the context of wild and foolish living.

The concept of gluttony is not someone who simply eats too much or is overweight. The concept has much more to do with wild partying and excess. Kevin DeYoung writes, “The composite picture from the passages above suggests that a glutton is a loafer, a partyer, and a profligate. He’s the prodigal son wasting his life on riotous living.

She’s the girl on spring break who thinks the pinnacle of human existence is to eat, drink, and hook up. A wastrel living for the weekend. A big-city highflier who cares for nothing except that he might indulge in high society. A ne’er-do-well who takes lifestyle cues from the Hangover franchise.”

Instead of emphasizing the importance of physical health, the Apostle Paul says that it is of some value while focusing on godliness has benefits both for today and for eternity (1 Timothy 4:7-8). Paul speaks of food similarly in 1 Corinthians 6 when he contrasts the relative unimportance of eating with the great importance of our sexual activities. Food and physical health are not meant to be areas of preoccupation for Christians.

So, what are we to do? Here are some thoughts:

1. If you are overweight, treat your situation not as a sin to repent of, but as a problem to solve. As you seek to follow Jesus, you don’t want to be limited by your lack of self-control or by getting easily exhausted because of your lack of health. Take the time to address the problem, but don’t become preoccupied with it.
2. If you find yourself preoccupied with health and physical appearance, God has something better for you. We are called to cultivate inner beauty instead of simply outward beauty (1 Peter 3:3-4).

As Christians, we can be just as distracted by our obsession with physical health as we can with our obesity and bad food habits. As you seek to cultivate your passion for following Jesus, seek to put your focus on him and limit the distractions of both obsession with physical appearance and also with avoidable health problems.

Have you ever walked by a cubicle, park, or neighborhood and thought to yourself, “Those people really need Jesus. They are really lost. I wish someone would go and reach out to them”? I know that those thoughts have crossed my mind many times as I go about life. Then the Lord will gently remind me of the passage that many of us have probably heard multiple times in Sunday School…

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” – Matthew 5:13-15

We often think of salt as adding flavor to our food. There is no doubt that a hardboiled egg tastes a lot better with some salt sprinkled on top. In the time of Jesus, there was no refrigeration, so salt was a valuable commodity to preserve food and especially to keep meat from spoiling. Roman soldiers were known to sometimes be paid in salt, hence where we get the term “salary” and the phrase that “someone is worth their salt.”

In a similar way, as followers of Jesus, we are to be a preserving agent in our world by allowing the hope that we have to be spread around to others. This only works if we truly embrace our “saltiness” and intentionally be around those that need our “salt”–our faith in Jesus. Our problem is that we, being the salt of the earth, tend to want to stay in the salt shaker. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge advocate of believers being in fellowship with other believers. However, sometimes we are so connected in church meetings and activities that we have very few meaningful relationships with those outside the church. We have Sunday church services, LIFEgroups, Moms’ meetings, Men’s Bible studies, BBQ’s, the Harvest Party, retreats, camps, mission outreaches… you get the point.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge advocate of believers being in fellowship with other believers. However, sometimes we are so connected in church meetings and activities that we have very few meaningful relationships with those outside the church. We have Sunday church services, LIFEgroups, Moms’ meetings, Men’s Bible studies, BBQ’s, the Harvest Party, retreats, camps, mission outreaches… you get the point.

Here are a few ways to intentionally get out of the salt shaker and more into the lives of others so that we may have an impact for Jesus:

Build Relationships with the Unsaved:

Look to cultivate deeper connections with those outside the church. This could be your workplace, the coffee shop, coaches and parents of your kid’s soccer team, your neighbors, the checker at the grocery store, those at the gym… the list could go on and on. Let’s take out the earbuds and seek to get to know those around us. Because of the hope we have, we should be some of the friendliest people out there.

Ask questions and then LISTEN:

Learn to ask questions about their lives, family, and interests. Everyone’s favorite topic is themselves. Ask engaging questions and then listen, listen, listen. For good measure, reiterate some of what they communicated back to them. This lets them know that you are truly interested. To be a good listener who doesn’t interrupt, doesn’t try to top a story, and refrains from drifting off is truly counter-cultural.

Look for opportunities to share your Jesus story:

If you are a follower of Jesus, you have a story of how He has pursued you, rescued you, and changed you. I believe that every Christian should be able to communicate the story of what their life was like before Jesus, how they met Jesus, and what their life has been like ever since. We live in a culture that appreciates and values stories–when you tell your story, people tend to lean in–but keep in mind, you should be able to give the brief version of your story in three to four minutes.

Serve these around you:

Now that you are building these relationships, look for simple ways to serve them. An elderly woman down our street uses a walker, so I brought over some nine-volt batteries to change out the old ones in her smoke detector, and she was overjoyed. Be ready to jump at ways to be a servant and remind yourself that it doesn’t have to be complex.

Pray:

Let’s be praying that the Lord would use these relationships to open doors for spiritual conversations. Jesus says that “we have not because we ask not.” So, let’s ASK. Ask them if they have any spiritual beliefs and see where it might lead. And then invite the non-believers in your life to a church event, Christmas Eve service, and Sunday morning services.

Let’s be the salt and light in our world!

We don’t have to go to Cambodia, Kenya, or Mexico to be on mission for Jesus. Engage the “world” right here where we live, work, and play!

 

 

 

 

 

Violence is a major subject in current American culture. As we reflect back on another mass shooting this past week, the topics of guns and violence fill our minds and our conversations. Part of this discussion comes to the role of Christians in society.

Specifically, I want to ask (and answer) the question, “Can Christians ever participate in violence?” Is it immoral for Christians to be involved in owning guns, serving in the military, working as police officers, or committing violence in defense of self or others? I want to answer this question through three core statements.

Scripture is filled with examples of just violence

Many of us think of the Ten Commandments and the command not to kill (better translated “murder”). In isolation, this command would seem to say that Christians should never be involved in killing or violence. However, it is impossible to read the Old Testament and conclude that the command means that godly people can never participate in violence.

The Old Testament is filled with stories of people acting violently and being commended. This is not to say that all violence is commended (certainly not!), but that there are many times when a person who participated in violence is seen as having acted justly. This is true of Abraham when he rescued Lot (Genesis 14). This is true of David when he killed Goliath (1 Samuel 17).

This is true of Joshua when we carried out the death penalty on Achan (Joshua 7). And this is true many times when Israel participated in wars. Clearly, Scripture presents the idea that a call to godliness is not a call never to participate in violence.

But are things different now that Jesus has come? Are these simply Old Testament examples that we have outgrown? I don’t think so. While there are definitely differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament regarding how God’s people are called to live, these differences are mostly because of two realities: (1) Jesus fulfilled certain practices (food laws, sacrifices, the priesthood) and (2) God’s people are no longer an identifiable nation with borders and a military.

Therefore, there could still be godly people participating in the military and as police officers, because Jesus and the New Testament authors teach that we live in legitimate governments that can be supported (John 19:11, Romans 13:1, 1 Peter 2:13).

Non-violence is not the same as non-retaliation

In the New Testament, I fail to find a call to non-violence. Instead, we find a call to non-retaliation. Jesus calls us to non-retaliation in the Sermon on the Mount when he tells us to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5). Paul calls us to non-retaliation when he tells Christians to stop suing each other (1 Corinthians 6). Peter calls us to non-retaliation when he calls us to repay curses with blessings (1 Peter 3). Jesus did not retaliate and, because of this, we now walk in forgiveness and new life.

While Christians are called not to retaliate physically, verbally, or in any other way, this does not exclude violence. The reason for this is that a police officer is not enacting revenge when he tackles a violent suspect. A member of the military is not retaliating when he shoots an enemy combatant. They are instead acting in line with the state.

This is not to say that the government will always be just. Christians must be willing to disobey authority if we are commanded to do evil. That said, governments certainly have the potential to be just and the authors of Scripture present them as legitimate. Keeping law and order, participating in the military, and acting in self-defense do not fall into the realm of retaliatory actions. They can be just ways of participating in violence, even though violence is always a tragic path.

If something is good for someone to do, then it is good for Christians to do

There are some who say that it is fine for Christians to live in a society in which the military and police officers protect us, but that Christians should not participate in these professions. I believe that this is not a biblically defensible position. If serving as a police officer is a good thing for a non-Christian to do, then it is a good thing for a Christian to do.

Peter speaks of the Christian calling to do good in society (1 Peter 2:11-12). Sometimes the good thing to do in a horrible situation is to participate in violence in order to prevent a worse and more unjust situation. Christians are not called to keep their hands clean while others do their dirty work. We are called to do good, even when it might involve sad acts of violence because of the evil choices of other people.

Clearly, this article is not exhaustive. Feel free to give feedback or raise questions. Christians are not called to delight in evil or violence or weapons. We grieve the fact that we live in such a broken world. We live in a world that desperately needs Jesus. We live as people willing to choose blessing over retaliation. And we also live as people who are willing to call some violent actions “good” if they are courageous actions that protect others from further violence and injustice.

 

Much has been said in the recent weeks as celebrity after celebrity faces accusations of sexual assault and sexual harassment. To have a Christian response to all of this might seem silly to some. After all, isn’t our response simply that we think this is wrong and terrible?

Yes, that is an appropriate response. But it is also worthwhile for us to ask (1) how we cultivated a culture that ended up perpetuating this and (2) how we can respond to this epidemic of inappropriate behavior.

How Did We Get Here?

While there is—and always has been—sin everywhere, I think it is striking that so many of those accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment are celebrities. It strikes me because popular culture, which is reflected and influenced by Hollywood, is a culture of loose sexual morals. It is a culture that tells all of us to relax about sex. It is a culture that tells us that we are prudes if we think sex should only be for marriage, that pornography is bad, or that women should post nude selfies.

Popular American culture has tried to say, on the one hand, we should all be casual about sex, but then, on the other hand, that it is a horrific evil if a man makes non-consensual contact with a woman. This seems like a strange pairing.

Now, lest you misunderstand me, I am not advocating for a casual attitude toward men touching women in inappropriate ways. This is evil. But it is also evil for unmarried people to have sex, for people to view pornography, or for people to engage in open marriages.

As Christians, we recognize that sex is never casual. It is part of a covenant between a man and a woman. It seems obvious that sexual harassment and assault has become widespread in our nation—and in Hollywood in particular—because it is a natural outflow of trivializing sex and then shaming anyone who objects to this.

A Big Distinction?

There’s an odd and troubling passage in Genesis 34 in which Jacob’s daughter Dinah is defrauded sexually by a man named Shechem. The odd aspect of the passage is that it is not completely clear whether he raped her or seduced her. Bible scholars debate this because the passage is not clear on the point.

On the one hand, the outcry after the matter (verse 7 says, “Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel”) points to rape. On the other hand, verse 3 says that Shechem loved Dinah and spoke tenderly to her. On top of this, he then sought to marry her. Was this rape or was this seduction.

For those of us living today, it seems unthinkable that we would look at a story and not be clear on whether a woman was raped or seduced. However, for Dinah’s brothers, and for many people living at the time of this story, the distinction was not as sharp. While rape certainly would have been worse than seduction, both were viewed not only as sinful but as a defrauding of a young unmarried woman.

I direct attention to this story because this gives an insight into God’s view of this issue. The ambiguity between rape and seduction is not meant to lessen the horror of rape. It is meant to strengthen the immorality of a man taking advantage of a woman by bedding her without marrying her. If we had that standard today, we would not be fostering a culture of sexual harassment and assault.

What Do We Do?

We can look at how we got to this point as a culture, but then we must ask what we do now. I have two suggestions.

First of all, we as Christians don’t need to be ashamed of practicing or championing God’s wisdom and standards on sexual activity. Don’t be ashamed to teach your kids to save sex for marriage. Don’t be ashamed to practice chastity if you aren’t married. Don’t be ashamed to teach the biblical sexual ethic in Sunday school, in small groups, or in any other setting.

If you sense the world seeking to shame you as a prude, remember that God’s wisdom is always vindicated. And remember also that the world’s loose sexual ethics are part of what has led to the recent mess in our culture.

Second of all, make it a practice to treat your sexuality as something that is private. This not only means reserving sexual activity for marriage but also practicing discretion when it comes to talking about sexuality. In Proverbs 5:15-16 Solomon advises his son (in a not-so-subtle euphemism), “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public square?”

His point is that his son’s sexuality is something that belongs to him and to his wife, and to NO ONE ELSE! If a person is consistently talking about sex or about their body, this invites people into an area of life that is meant to be private. As Christians, we can set a positive tone by treating sex as something important, not as something trivial.

And, by the way, being discrete about sex does not mean that we are ashamed of sex. We aren’t! Sex is a good gift from God. But if you enter an art gallery, you are not permitted to simply touch and handle the art. This is not because the artist is ashamed of his work. It is because it is too valuable to be treated casually. The same is true of our sexuality. If we handle sex with a bit of reverence and respect, we will avoid a great deal of pain and sin and destruction.

by Pastor Marnie Grigsby

“Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9 NLT

If God’s way of thinking is literally light years ahead of ours, we shouldn’t be so surprised when He interrupts our plans with the unexpected. These “God-surprises” will often happen at the most inconvenient times—and usually when we least expect it.

I had one recently. I was very excited about a new exercise strategy I had just figured out. In fact, I was calling it my “Plan D” for determined! (Plans A, B and C hadn’t worked out so well). I was sure this time my idea was going to succeed.

And for a while it was as I was swimming merrily along at my local YMCA…  and then it happened.

These unplanned moments—the ones that we can’t take any credit for—are often our greatest opportunities.

After swimming a few more laps I stopped to catch my breath, and as I did, the man in the next lane over started chatting. What’s important to understand here, in case you’re not a swimmer, is that swimmers don’t chat. We swim!

I found myself becoming more and more irritated with this stranger. The key to my plan D was exercising on my lunch break, so my time was very limited.  Minutes were ticking away. Finally, when he paused for a moment I turned to bolt, and as I did, he blurted out, “I’m an atheist!” 

This is where God does what I like to call the “Big Switcheroo”—where He replaces my human plans (which are temporary) with His (which are eternal).

Expect that God will put you in just-the-right-place at just-the-right-time in order to share your faith.

When God gives us these opportunities we have to make a choice. Do we surrender to God’s will?  Do we carry on with our own?  Do we lean in and embrace what God is doing, or do we turn away and miss out?

I struggled for a moment as my “precious” Plan D started swirling down… down… the drain, but eventually I did lean in—and as I did—God changed my heart: from disappointed and frustrated to more caring and concerned, from feeling inadequate to trusting God. As we say, “yes” to God—He takes over.

In those unexpected God-moments, we must remember that He has placed us there. He planned it—so we can trust Him with it!

“When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” 1 Corinthians. 2:13

Too often we turn away from these God-designed moments because we think we need to have all the answers. We don’t.

All God asks of us is that we trust Him to use who we are and what we know for His glory in a particular situation.

I didn’t try to debate with “John” (the chatty atheist). I felt God leading me in a very different direction. After listening to more of his complaints, I shared with him how much God loved him. I told him that I believed God set this whole thing up so I could tell him so. I reminded Him (knowing the nature and character of God) that God had been there for him throughout his life: reaching out to him, protecting and providing for him, and most of all, I told him that God had created him for a personal relationship that was motivated by His love.

Though earlier he had bombarded me with a barrage of “whys?” and a long list of complaints—now John was completely silent. Speechless.

People need to hear about the love of God more than anything else. It’s the missing piece in the lives of too many people.

“For God SO LOVED THE WORLD that He gave…” John 3:16

Since God’s thoughts are so much higher than ours, and because He sees and loves and longs to help all the people in the world who are lost, lonely, and confused—people who are all around us, we shouldn’t be too surprised when He unexpectedly interrupts our plans and replaces them with His. No, I think it should be quite the opposite—we should be living lives of faith that are counting on it!

Options and Limitations

We love to have options. We love Netflix because it gives us thousands of movies to choose from. We love our iPhones because they give us countless apps to use and songs to listen to. We love online shopping because we can choose between different brands, different colors, and used or new.

We love to have options and we find ourselves frustrated when we are left with only one possibility. We would rather be able to choose between many options.

On the other hand, there are times when we would prefer not to have as many options. When you lose your keys, you would rather have only one place where they could be, instead of having to choose between many. When you’re trying to put together a puzzle, you would rather have only one piece that fits instead of several options.

When you’re playing the board game Clue, you would rather know that it could only be Mr. Green, instead of having the possibility that it could be Scarlet, Plum, or Mustard.

When you’re trying to find a solution, having only one possibility is better than having many.

Solving the Mystery

What if you were trying to solve the mystery of determining a solid basis for hope in your life? You start with many possibilities.

You could place your hope in your job, in money, in the security provided by the government, in your family, in your intelligence.

The list could go on. If you were looking for peace, you could try to attain it through breathing exercises and visualization, through religious activities, through owning a gun and a security system, or through appeasing the people around you. If you were to chase after joy, you could chase possessions, romantic love, a dream job, or physical pleasure. If you were looking for love, you could look for it in your parents, your children, your spouse, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors, or your online friends.

If you were trying to solve the mystery of how to find hope, peace, joy, and love, it might not be a great thing to have so many options. You might find yourself relieved if you were told, “This is the one and only way to find hope, peace, joy, and love.” At least then you would know how to pursue them.

Jesus as The Only

While Christmas is a holiday celebrated by many non-religious people, the basis of the holiday is the birth of Jesus. And each Christmas, Christians around the world celebrate Jesus as our only hope, our only peace, our only joy, and our only love. While this might seem like an audacious claim about Jesus, it is a liberating claim. After all, this means that we can stop looking in all the wrong places and finally pursue the only source of true hope, peace, joy, and love . . . that is, if it is true.

This upcoming Advent season we will celebrate Jesus’ birth by walking through a sermon series called The Only. We will reflect on the many empty ways that we seek life, and we will honor Jesus as the only true source of the life that we so desperately need.

Living in the United States means living in the context of consumerism and greed. It is part of the air that we breathe. Living in the U.S. opens each of us up to the temptation that money will solve our problems.

While this is clear during the whole year, it is true especially during the Christmas season. We see extravagant decorations, we buy expensive gifts, and we throw crowded parties.

Greed is an issue to be taken seriously. Rather than shrug our shoulders at it, we are called to combat greed. After all, according to Colossians 3:5, greed is idolatry. Greed is dangerous because it tempts us to hope in money and possessions instead of hoping in God.

In light of the seriousness of greed, we can direct our attention to 1 Timothy 6:6-10, where Paul gives us guidance on three ways that we can actively combat greed in our lives.

Embrace Gratitude

First Timothy 6:6 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” He says this because in verses 3-5 he was rebuking “Christian” teachers who were “godly” only in order to gain money. Paul says that godliness does bring us gain, but only when it is married to contentment.

We are content when we are grateful and satisfied with what God has given us. In light of this, we can combat greed when we embrace gratitude.

This past Summer I got to spend a week in Haiti with one of our GO Teams. During the trip, we had to deal with the inconvenience of having cold showers. Each time I took a cold shower, however, I was struck by the fact that most of the people living around me would have loved to have regular access to a shower, hot or cold.

And most of the people would have loved to have air conditioning in their houses. And most of them would love to be able to walk to their refrigerator and get a cup of cold, clean water. Compared to most of the world, those of us in the U.S. live like royalty. We do well to thank God for his blessings.

And this is to say nothing of the spiritual blessings God has given us! We are forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus. We have the hope of eternal life because of Jesus’ resurrection. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Anytime we begin to think that our unhappiness in life is based on our lack of money or resources, we would do well to embrace gratitude and promote it in our families.

Differentiate Needs and Wants

Paul goes on in verses 7-8 to say, “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” Paul does not say, “If we have new cars and Disneyland passes, we will be content with that.” Those things are luxuries.

Paul says that we will be content with our basic needs being met. This is what God promises us when he promises provision. He does not promise us that he will provide anything that we happen to think will solve our problems.

You may not have enough money for the vacation that you want to take, for the Christmas gifts you want to buy, or for the entertainment that we want to take in. But God doesn’t promise us those. When we have to deny ourselves some luxuries, this gives us the opportunity to recognize that “things” do not bring us true life.

If you find yourself upset with God because you don’t have more, consider the needs that he has provided for. Do you have food? Do you have clothes? If so, then you have plenty of reasons to thank God.

Look Down the Line

Paul concludes the passage in verses 9-10 by directing our attention to what happens to people who are greedy: “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Asking for more money is asking for extra temptation. Setting your desires on riches is opening up greater possibilities for wandering from the faith and experiencing grief and destruction. Greed is destructive.

The fact is, we don’t have to look very hard before we will realize that riches do not lead to happiness and fulfillment. When we look at the wealthy celebrities in our culture, we see a culture full of divorce, depression, immorality, and emptiness. Do we really want that?

Whenever you begin to feel tempted to look to money as the solution to your problems, simply look at those who have great riches. Then ask yourself if you really want to trade lives with them.

God is the great provider. And Christmas is a great time to celebrate God’s gift by celebrating his ultimate gift in Jesus. As you approach Christmas this year, don’t allow greed to gain a foothold. Fight for the purity of celebrating Jesus as God’s greatest gift to us.

As a New Year is about to begin the subject of making resolutions and new goals always seem to come front and center. Some people do not make New Year resolutions believing it’s unnecessary or a waste of time. But it is a good thing to make plans. In fact, according to Proverbs, the wise person will set goals and prepare for the future.

Proverbs 16:9 – The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps

Proverbs 16:3 – Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established

In these two passages we see that while the outcomes belong to God, it is good and valuable to makes plans and set goals. Not only does God encourage us to make plans (set goals) but he also wants us to get the best advice we can to help make those plans:

“Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisers, they succeed.” Proverbs 15:22

Simply wishing for big results is not enough! It’s important to set goals and then follow through with action. But we do this with a heart that allows our plans to be held loose enough for God to change those plans as he sees fit.

With that in mind here are some reasons that the goals we make fail:

1. We go it alone – When moving towards achieving a goal it is best to have someone alongside you who knows about your goal and can help you remain faithful.
2. We give up too easily – It takes time to achieve anything worthwhile. When it gets tough to keep going we can get discouraged and lose interest.
3. We don’t have time – In our busy lives, it’s easy to NOT consider the time it takes to find success in that new goal. Once you start working toward your goal maybe you realize that your resolution takes more time than you thought.
4. We did not make a specific plan – The best goals are those that actually include a plan of action. For example, some may say, “I want to lose weight” but have no plan of action to achieve that goal.
5. We are not honest with ourselves – Sometimes we commit to something because we think we should but we really don’t want to. So when it becomes hard we quit because we honestly didn’t really care about that goal in the first place.
6. We don’t believe in ourselves – For some, all you really need to keep going is a pat on the back from yourself. Let’s say your plan was to send out ten resumes a week for a new job and you only sent out five. There’s no need to beat your self up. Be encouraged that you sent out five.

Here are some tips for successful goal setting

 

• Start with prayer – Start the process with prayer – maybe even a short retreat where you intentionally get alone with God – If you set goals in the context of prayer, there is a much higher likelihood that your goals will glorify God. 

• Think in categories – family – personal growth – travel – marriage – physical – realize that any goal that cultivates physical discipline will usually cultivate spiritual disciplines as well.

• Be specific – If a goal isn’t measurable, you have no way of knowing whether you’ve accomplished it. Losing weight isn’t a goal if you don’t have a target weight within a target timeline.

• Write it down – It’s been said, “The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.” If you haven’t written down your goals, you haven’t really set them. Something powerful happens when you have it in writing.

• Include Others – We need the support of others to help us accomplish the attainable goals we’ve set.

• Celebrate along the way – When you accomplish a goal, celebrate it. When God answers a prayer, throw a party. We should celebrate with the same intensity with which we pray.

• Think Long – Most of us overestimate what we can accomplish in two years and underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years.

• Continue to pray – Goals begin and end with seeking and connecting with God. God designed goals are not only birthed in prayer but prayer is what helps them find completion.

 

So as you approach this New Year consider setting a goal that will help you not only in your physical life but also in your spiritual life.

By Pastor Gary Keith

One of the enjoyable parts of the Christmas season is seeing people willingly and generously giving to others. In addition to Christmas morning, it happens in a variety of ways. For example, I’ve seen our local TV station fill busses with toys, I’ve seen the Marines sponsor a drive called “Toys for Tots,” I’ve seen urban organizations sponsor free meal giveaways and so much more. It does seem that a spirit of generosity comes out shining brightly at Christmas. And I’m sure this giving makes us all feel good about ourselves as we care and give to others.

I’m encouraged and inspired as I see people willing to think of others.

So is this what it means to live a generous life?

Every time I think about generous living I turn to the example found in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 (linked here for later reading). Paul is writing to the church in Corinth asking them to help out a struggling church in Jerusalem. In challenging the church in Corinth he used the example of the church in Macedonia who had already given to the need.

I think what we learn from this church defines what it means to live a generous life. Here are some of the key points:

• Generosity starts with acknowledging God’s grace and generosity with us.
• Generosity is not to be hindered by difficult times and severe trials–in fact, they were filled with overflowing joy as they gave under these circumstances.
• Their “extreme poverty” did not stop their rich generosity.
• They not only gave what they were able but even beyond their ability.
• They urgently pleaded to give.
• They saw giving as a “privilege of sharing” with the Lord’s people.

How did they do this?

• They resolved to do what God wanted them to do.
• They gave in obedience without hesitancy or under coercion.
• They were cheerful (literally the word means “hilarious”) givers.
• They understood the principle of sowing and reaping.
• They knew that God was able to bless them abundantly.
• They knew God could provide for their needs.

For most of my life in the church, I was taught that I was to give a tithe.

I came away from that teaching understanding that all I had to do was give a tenth and this would be enough. My giving became “works” oriented and legalistic. In giving just the tenth I felt I had done my part. But there was no heart in this–it was mechanical and lacked any ability to see God develop my heart of generosity.

But living a generous life is so much more than this.

A generous lifestyle is where I realize just how well God has provided for me that leads me, in return, to a desire to be a generous giver to others. Living generously is living gratefully and offering to others without worrying about getting something in return. It is gratitude in action. A generous life is a life lived with our hands open. A generous lifestyle is an intentional way of living that reflects a life touched by God.

In formal debate, participants prepare themselves to be able to articulate and defend a certain side of an argument. But they often are not told until right before the debate which side they will need to argue. For example, they may know that the debate is about the death penalty, but they may not know whether they will be arguing for or against it.

Because of this, debaters are forced to learn both sides of an issue. In fact, they are forced to know both sides so well that they would be able to effectively argue for positions with which they disagree.

This skill—the skill of articulating both sides of an issue—is one that is in short supply in American culture. Most debates that we observe on television consist of two people trying to outshout and demonize each other. This is because it is much easier to dismiss opposing arguments than it is to understand them.

And most of us opt for the easy way more than we realize. We do this by listening to podcasts, reading books, and watching shows that reinforce—rather than challenge—our beliefs. It is more comfortable to think that the other side (politically, theologically, or in relationships) is immoral or foolish than to think that they may have arguments that would challenge us.

Proverbs 18:17 says, “In a lawsuit, the first to speak seems right until someone comes forward and cross-examines.” In this verse, Solomon says that wise people make sure that they know both sides of an issue before drawing a conclusion. Because this practice, though, is in short supply in our culture, I want to offer four ways that we can follow Solomon’s wise words and pursue understanding both sides.

1. Assume there is more to the story. I have three sons. When one of them comes to me with a story about how his brother attacked him, I find myself being skeptical. I am not skeptical that a conflict occurred. I am simply skeptical that the conflict arose because of one completely innocent victim and one unprovoked perpetrator.So I ask questions and I listen to both of them give their explanations for what happened. This is a good practice not only in parenting, but in life as a whole. If you find yourself saying something like, “Why would anyone vote for Donald Trump?” or something like, “Why would any thinking person be an atheist?”I suggest that you begin with the assumption that your perspective would change if you had more information. This would not necessarily mean that your opinion about politics or religion, but you may end up having more empathy and respect for those who hold differing viewpoints.
2. Listen to the other side’s best case. We can all find youtube videos of our favorite debaters ripping their opponents to shreds. However, many of these videos exist because the debate is a mismatch. My suggestion is not simply to listen to a liberal if you are a conservative, or to a pro-life person if you are pro-choice.My suggestion is to listen to the most articulate liberal or the most intelligent pro-life person. Listen to the other side make their best case and see if your belief stands up to this. In saying this, I am not suggesting that Christians should only read books by atheists (I think this would be a bad idea because we all need encouragement from other believers). I am simply suggesting that it is best not to draw a firm conclusion unless we have heard the other side give their best argument.I personally read a lot of books by people with whom I agree. But I also read books by people who disagree with me on foundational issues, whether relating to God, to politics, to the Bible, or to human nature. Listening to the other side gives me a great chance to (a) be more secure in my position or (b) change my mind when presented with a better option.
3. Ask questions. Social media thrives on each person expressing strong opinions. While strong opinions may get clicks and likes, they are often uninformed opinions. If wisdom is found in knowing both sides, cultivate the skill of asking questions. If someone says something that you find outlandish, ask them about it instead of simply concluding that they are a fool. We would all do well if we had less name-calling and more question-asking.
4. Offer conclusions humbly. This post is not meant to say that we shouldn’t have strong beliefs and convictions. We absolutely should. G.K. Chesterton—one of my favorite authors—said, “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”safaSo draw conclusions. I personally have very strong beliefs about God as the one and only Creator, about Jesus Christ as God’s only Son, about our need for salvation through Christ alone because of our sins, about the resurrection of Jesus, and about a number of other issues. And when we come to strong conclusions, most of us want to share those conclusions with others. But we should do this with humility.After all, if you have arrived at the truth, the great thing that you have to offer is not yourself, but the truth.

by Phil Shahbaz

Nearly every day, shortly after I step into my worn and weathered 2005, Chevy Tahoe, I begin to reflect. I can hear the constant ticking of the old engine. I know it needs to be serviced, but my mind wanders. It goes backward.

I sometimes think about my parents. My dad grew up in in a Christian family but accepted Christ while translating for a Southern Baptist Missionary as he attended university in Istanbul, Turkey.  He knew almost immediately that his calling was to be a preacher.  He then attended the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, Lebanon. While preaching on the radio, he met my mother, the receptionist at the time for the radio station. She was born in a small Catholic Village in Lebanon before her family moved to Beirut to support the seminary and help build a Southern Baptist church. They married in 1970, and moved to Chicago, IL to be missionaries for the Southern Baptist Convention. 

What are the odds?

I sometimes think about growing up in Chicago. I remember my dad doing donuts in the snow, while behind the wheel of our baby-blue Oldsmobile station wagon. He would pick me up from school, switch the siren on (I have no clue why it had a siren), and proceed to spin the family sedan in circles; right there in front of kids, parents, and teachers. I remember the many houses with Menorah’s in the window of my neighborhood during Christmas time. I was always confused why they didn’t have a tree like we did. I remember visiting my mom on the fifth floor of the bank she worked at. It was always a treat to go to the cafeteria with her for an oversized burger and Jell-O cup. I remember attending baseball and soccer games at old Comiskey Park on the South side.  I remember Lake Shore Baptist Church. A small red-brick church with a white steeple. It’s the place I accepted Christ, and the place I was baptized. I remember it well because the water-heater had broke and the water was freezing.  I remember the day we moved to Turlock, CA.

What are the odds?

I often think about my years in high school and college. These years are filled with memories of triumphs, failures, barriers broken, or broken hopes. These years are very much marked by choices I made; choices that lead to life-long relationships, or betrayal, choices that were made in service of myself or others, choices that lead to failure or victory, and choices to follow Christ or give in to sin.

All these memories dance in my mind. They dart back and forth as I drive East on the 210 Freeway, with no warning as to what recollection will code my day to come. A lifetimes experiences, good and bad, that have lead to being a Pastor at LBF Church with a wife and four 10-year olds at my side.

What are the odds?

Some folks may look at their lives and see coincidence and irony.

Sometimes I’m tempted to see life that way. But I believe in a Creator whose hand is on every moment of my life, guiding my path.

We just finished a study of the book of Esther at our Men’s Wednesday Night Bible Study. The book of Esther is a story about a young Jewish Woman who is elevated to Queen of Persia, and how she and her cousin Mordecai save the Jews from annihilation at the hands of the Haman the Agagite.

It’s an interesting book because God is never mentioned throughout the text. Yet the book stands as an invitation to read the story looking for God’s activity, God’s purpose at work, and the signs that He is involved.

As we studied the book of Esther, I was surprised at how much I saw my life mirrored in the narrative. I realized that in my own life, when I made decisions that took me away from God, when I behaved selfishly, or sinfully; there were still signs of God’s activity, and God’s purpose at work.

There is evidence today, that He was always involved.

I am not special, but I am special in God’s eyes.

Just like you. And despite your past failures or sin, your belief in Jesus Christ sets you free from a past that may be set with failure and sin. 

The book of Esther reminded me that God has a plan for my life, and that despite the moral ambiguity of much of my life, God was present. I was reminded that accidents and coincidence are not part of my story. I may not have seen them as divine moments at the time, yet God’s timing was always providential, and remains as such. And I was reminded to stand with courage, even when it’s not popular to do so.

When God seems absent, when you feel like you are in exile, when you feel like your decisions have separated you from God; do not be deceived by the enemy. God is not done with you and will not abandon His promises.

God CAN and WILL work in the mess and moral ambiguity of our lives, and use our faithfulness, even amidst a compromised world to accomplish His purpose.

The book of Esther challenged me to trust in God’s providence, even when I can’t see it working, and remember that no matter how things get, my Savior is committed to redeeming me and redeeming this world.

There is a new vision of courage that is being celebrated in our culture. About four years ago, a woman named Brittany Maynard became a public figure. This happened because she tragically had terminal cancer and she made public her decision to eventually end her own life on her own terms. There was a lot of controversy surrounding this decision, and there were arguments about the morality of it.

What was striking to me, though, was the large number of people who talked about how brave she was. While I could understand the debate about whether or not she should have the right to end her own life, I struggled to understand why her decision should be considered courageous.

The more I considered this case, though, the more I realized that this vision of courage was right in line with a new vision of courage that is being celebrated in our culture. It is brave to choose suicide over physical suffering. It is brave to leave your marriage if you aren’t happy. It is brave to embrace your sexual instincts and desires instead of fighting them. This is the new vision of courage in the United States. The people who do these things are considered brave.

Without even getting into the morality of these decisions, I simply want to challenge the idea that these are brave actions. You may believe that Brittany Maynard made a moral decision, but it is hard to argue that choosing death in order to escape suffering is brave. It is actually the opposite. Courage has traditionally meant that we are willing to enter into discomfort.

The new vision of courage tells us that courageous people are those who abandon the fight. They are those who say, “I’m tired of fighting for a better marriage; I’m out!” and “I’m tired of fighting sexual temptation; I’m just going to embrace it!” These actions do not reflect the brave soldier who—despite his fear—chooses to run toward the battle. These actions reflect the soldier who chooses to walk away from the fight.

I write this not simply as a cultural critique, but because we all must decide how we will engage with the battles we face. We all will be tempted to surrender to sin, to temptation, to despair, to bursts of anger, and to cowardice. As Christians, we will be called to deny ourselves, to lean into areas of growth, and to resist the devil. If our grid for courage is that it is braver to abandon the battle and “be true to ourselves” than to fight on, then we will cave to pressure every time.

This courage-by-abandonment vision is a far cry from God’s words to Joshua in Joshua 1:6-9. Three times in this short passage, he calls Joshua to be “strong and courageous” as he strives to lead the people of Israel. The implication is that Joshua will face many dangers and many doubts. He will be afraid and overwhelmed.

But his calling is to fight on. Similarly, Jesus himself faced fear and stress to the point of his sweat being like drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Yet he courageously continued on to the cross, instead of abandoning it in order to protect himself from harm.

For Christians, God’s calling requires that we be courageous. And this courage calls us not to “be true to ourselves,” but to deny ourselves. It calls us not to give in to fear, but to acknowledge our fears and carry on. This is the courage to fight against discouragement and resentment as we keep our wedding vows. This is the courage to fight temptation toward sexual immorality and anger as we pursue holiness. This is the courage to fight despair and fear as we endure suffering.

Courage is not shown when we abandon the fight, but when we continue on in it. The gift of the Holy Spirit empowers us to continue on in boldness and power, instead of shrinking back and giving in to fear.

So, what battles are you facing? And what vision of courage are your embracing? You will not win every battle, but your calling is to stay in the fight. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”

by Andy Watson, Worship Pastor at Life Bible Fellowship Church

My wife Laura and I got married just over 13 years ago. During our engagement Laura let me know that there was no way under any circumstances that she would ever let me get a dog. I counted it a small cost to marrying the love of my life. Three months into our marriage I somehow managed to convince her otherwise, and she finally agreed to my request of us getting a yellow Labrador. The next day I found a dog that I wanted online and he was flown in from Ohio that very next weekend. 

Winston was an English Labrador with an amazing temperament. 

He’s been with us at each of the five homes we have lived in and watched as each of our three kids came along and even as we made the move from Texas to California. He has been a big part of our family and has been dearly loved. 

Yesterday, after a sudden turn for the worst, we had to make the tough decision to put our beloved Winston down. This was a very sad day in the Watson household. I, my wife, and our three kids sat around in our living room, stroking our faithful friend, as a vet inserted the needle and he breathed his last breath. Then we all began to cry and recount various stories from that past 13 years of how Winston had blessed us.

Today has been a day of processing these events for me. 

I have been asking the Lord to come into the sadness. The reality is that all dogs die and it’s just a part of being a pet owner. But this was not what I had planned. Winston was doing well and seemed to be healthy until this past weekend. 

I have walked through much tougher seasons than this and losing a dog pales in comparison to some of the hard things that we go through in this life, but it has still been a sad time for our family.

I think for many of us we go about our lives with a desire to plan them out and have full control. 

As I have been praying today, God has been graciously reminding me that we do not know what tomorrow may bring. 

James 4:14-15 says “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

It is easy to have a self-centered worldview that craves the short-term gains that this world has to offer. As Christians, we are called to set our minds on things above and seek the will of the Lord. I think Jesus describes it best when one of his disciples asks him how they ought to pray. Jesus’ response calls them to turn to the Father and ask for him to “give us today our daily bread.”

My question for you is this: “have you been turning to God as your all-sufficient life?”. When hard times come are you rooted in your life in Christ? Are you living for the here and now or for eternity? When we make plans they can often change in an instant, but when we trust God with our lives then we will be able to handle whatever life throws our way.

I am thankful that God is faithful and that I can trust him. I am also thankful that he gave me 13 years with Winston the adventure dog.

by Shauntel Raymond 

Have you heard of mom guilt? We all know what guilt feels like but I didn’t feel real guilt until I became a mom. Ending each day thinking of all the things that I did or didn’t do right! It was so intense when my kids were toddlers. Social media has made it worse because you see other people making homemade organic bread and cutting their kids sandwiches in special shapes or making homemade baby food. What’s wrong with the jar of Gerber or the pre-made bread? NOTHING!

What about when we sin? Where does that guilt come from?

John MacArthur says, “The conscience is a built-in warning system that signals us when something we have done is wrong. The conscience is to our souls what pain sensors are to our bodies: it inflicts distress, in the form of guilt, whenever we violate what our hearts tell us is right.”  

We are wired this way. The Holy Spirit is alive in us as believers. When we sin we are often immediately ridden with guilt and shame. You can also feel that before you are about to sin.

God always provides us a way out.

And He promises us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

He provides a way out! What a beautiful promise–to know I am not alone in the world–that I don’t have to face temptation all by myself.

But wait! There’s more…

The Lord promises us in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Read this verse every day, pray on it. Remember his faithful promise to you. Find someone you trust and share your burdens. Often just saying it out loud takes a big weight off your shoulders. Try finding someone you can meet with regularly to share and help keep you accountable. Also, find a small group. The beauty of a small group is you have a place to share and grow in your faith with people in a similar life stage.

Psalm 32:1-5 say’s “Happy is the person whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty and in whom there is nothing false.”

I know that I am forgiven but often I struggle with forgiving myself.

I pray each day and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness but I am not allowing for his gift and promises when I don’t forgive myself. There are many reminders in the Bible about being forgiven. Who am I to reject this blessing? You hear people say, “put the past in the past.” That’s exactly where it belongs. Ask for the Lord to remove your guilt and bring you peace.

You ARE forgiven and you ARE loved!

Remember this: “No power in the sky above or in the earth below–indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Kerry Jepson, the CEO of Assure Pregnancy Clinic. We had a discussion about the pro-life movement, current legislation, and also about practical ways that men and women can participate in bringing support and help and advocacy to unborn babies. Many of us who are pro-life want to help in practical ways. In this post, I will summarize the conversation I had with Kerry by pointing to three tangible ways that each of us can be involved in caring for unborn babies.

Empower and Support Women

The abortion debate is often framed as a women’s issue. The typical narrative is that pro-choice people want to empower women by allowing them to make their own choices about their reproductive health, while pro-life people want to control women by making them have the children they conceive. The irony of this is that the frequent message from Planned Parenthood to a pregnant woman is, “You cannot handle this, so you need to have an abortion.” On the other hand, the message a pregnant woman receives from a place like Assure Pregnancy Clinic is, “You are a precious and valuable person created in the image of God.

You can do this, and we will help you.” Take a moment and consider which of these messages is actually more empowering and “pro-woman.” Whether it is with your daughters, your nieces, your sisters, your friends or co-workers, or other women in your life, consider how you can communicate respect and support to the women God has brought into your life. Help to communicate to them that they can face uncertainty in their future (or present) because they are valuable image-bearers and because God (and you) will be there to help support them.

Pray for Our Government

There is much more to being pro-life than voting for legislation and pro-life politicians. That said, there are times when significant policies are in the mix. On March 20, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of NIFLA (National Institute of Family and Life Advocates) vs. Becerra. The case revolves around a California law that would require crisis pregnancy centers (such as Assure) to post information about where women can go to get free abortions.

In essence, the law our require clinics to advertise abortion, even when this is the very thing they are looking to prevent. Please be in prayer about this upcoming decision, as it impacts both freedom of speech and also the ability of crisis pregnancy centers to fulfill their calling in the best way possible.

Support Your Local Pregnancy Clinic

At LBF Church we support Assure Pregnancy Clinic in Fontana through financial giving and volunteers. These centers provide free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, as well as free counseling. On top of this, the centers give away baby clothes and train new parents through parenting classes. Each day women in crisis walk through the doors of these clinics and receive powerful support and help in their time of need. Consider how you can give, donate, volunteer, and pray for your local center.

In all of this, remember that this is not primarily a political issue. This is primarily a gospel issue. Jesus Christ left behind his comforts in order to rescue us in our time of need. Consider God’s calling for you as you seek to use what He has given you in order to help bring rescue and support to those who are most in need of help.

Psalm 46:10 famously says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Many of us might read this invitation as a nice idea, but an unlikely reality. I mean, can we really experience serenity and rest and peace in the midst of the noise and uncertainty of our world? In this post, I want to give an invitation to seek (and find) rest in God.

But before that, let’s just give some background. Why do we need peace and rest? Several reasons come to mind. First of all, the passage paints a context of an uncertain world in which the earth may give way and the mountains might fall into the sea. The world is filled with uncertainty. There are a lot of scary things that might happen. The very earth underneath us might quake at any moment.

We might get a cancer diagnosis for ourselves or a family member. We might lose our job to a recession or our family to a car accident. We might have a gunman walk into our child’s school. These are scary things! The uncertainty of life is enough—by itself—to show us that we need to find rest in God.

But there are other reasons why we need rest in God. We all deal with personal guilt and shame that brings us stress and striving. We deal with anxiety over the many options from which we must make choices. We deal with distractions from all the text messages, social media posts, news stories, and internet ads. We seldom have a quiet moment, and when we do we often fill that moment with music, a Netflix show, or a podcast. We need rest!

We are invited to find rest in God not only in Psalm 46:10, but also in a beautiful passage spoken by Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

According to Jesus, we find rest when we (a) come to him and (b) take on his yoke. In order to find rest in God, we need to stop looking for it in lazy Saturdays, in overeating, in binge-watching sessions, and in weekend partying. These things distract us from the only one who can truly give us soul-rest. Jesus invites us to come to him for rest. And coming to him means that we take on his yoke. This means that we trust and follow him in the way that he leads us. This means that we obey his commands, repent of our sins, trust him with our money, and pour out love to others.

You may read the above paragraph and wonder, “How can it be restful to follow Jesus if he is going to call me to change my approach to what I watch, what I buy, and how I spend my time?” The answer is that we experience real rest when we stop striving to find refreshment in all the wrong places. We yield to the purpose for which God created us.

This also sets us free to refuse to take on the “yokes” that the world tries to give us. We no longer need to be the people-pleaser who refuses to say no. We no longer need to be the conflict-avoider who refuses to speak the truth. We no longer need to be the “perfect mom,” the workaholic, or the pin-up model. Those are burdens that come not from Jesus, but from the world. When we come to Jesus, we experience the freedom from oppressive yokes, and the freedom to live out who God has called us to be.

On March 4th at 6:00 pm, there will be a Deeper event at LBF Church that will further explore what it looks like to find rest in God in a chaotic world. Be sure to come out for a great time of deep Scriptural teaching with a Q&A to follow.

By Dan Franklin

Many of us have responded with a heavy heart to the news of yet another mass shooting in our country. This time it took place at a Florida high school, and it claimed the lives of at least 17 people. Inevitably, fallout from the incident has brought political waves. Discussions of guns and mental health have taken center stage. While these discussions can be fruitful and necessary, I want to present a gospel-driven response to incidents like this one. By this, I mean events that represent acts of profound evil from unexpected sources. I believe that the gospel of Jesus leads us to an ability not only to evaluate what has happened, but to think through how we move forward.

The Problem Is Within

Discussions of policies are good and necessary, but they do not address the key problem that is presented in the message of Jesus. According to him, the reason people perpetrate evil acts is not simply because of a negative environment or because of tempting opportunities.

It is primarily because of the brokenness and evil inside each one of us. We are all rebels against God. We are all slaves to sin, compelled to do its bidding. Jesus’ message is that the main problem in the world is not weapons, bad parenting, poverty, or any other social structure.

Our main problem is that we are estranged from God and in need of redemption.

While this does not mean that there isn’t value in dealing with societal structures (they can certainly be better or worse, depending on the culture), it does mean that the primary blame does not reside with politicians, gun dealers, or the FBI.

The primary blame goes on the young man who walked into a school and shot people. This was an act of profound evil, and it is a reminder that our biggest problem is not the environment outside of us, but the wickedness within.

This is not meant to lead to a fatalistic attitude. At the same time, gospel-believing Christians should not be shocked by acts of evil, even when they are perpetrated by seemingly-normal people. We all have the capacity for great evil and violence.

Christ Is Our Only Hope

The reason the gospel of Jesus is “good news” is that it not only diagnoses our problem, but it offers hope. It offers Jesus Christ as our only hope. Only he can reconcile us to God and fix what is broken. Only he can fill the void that is left by our estrangement from God.

When we embrace Jesus, we receive not only forgiveness for our sins, but also adoption into the family of God. We also receive the Holy Spirit who leads us and empowers us to win the victory over sin.

In the aftermath of great evil, Christians everywhere should (1) hold more closely to the gospel of Jesus, realizing that we are all lost without him, and (2) boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus to others. If we are concerned with the evil in the world, then we must point people toward a way to solve the internal problem that brings about this evil.

Our hope is not in a politician, a new policy, or armed security. Our hope is in Christ alone. And, thankfully, this hope that he gives transcends death, so we don’t have to despair of the danger we and our children face in this world.

Communities Create Culture

This point may seem out of step with the first two, but let me explain. The gospel call of Jesus is not simply a call for individuals to personally repent of sin and place their faith in Jesus. It is also a call to repent from our involvement in a perverse generation (Acts 2:40) and to identify with the community of Jesus, which is his church.

In other words, Jesus not only brings us hope for life after death in the family of God, but Jesus brings us right now into his community. And in this community, we love one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, confess our sins to one another, and serve one another.

Those of us who identify with the local church have a calling to create a counter-culture from the world. While the world may celebrate casual sex and divorce, we treasure purity and commitment in the church community. While the world may be filled with disrespect and anti-authoritarianism, we treasure kindness and order and submission to authority in the church community. And while violence may fill the streets in our world, in the church we seek to cultivate an environment of peace, forgiveness, and healthy relationships.

While environment is not a guarantee against acts of evil, it is profoundly important. In our families, in our small groups, in our student ministry, and in all our interactions, Christians have a calling to cultivate an environment that gives people a legitimate alternative to the immorality, violence, and emptiness that our world offers.

We can have no guarantee that we can do anything to stop the next attempted mass shooting. We can—and should try—but we are limited creatures. What we can do is cling to Jesus as our only hope, fight the sin within ourselves, proclaim the gospel call, and cultivate communities where Jesus’ values are treasured and lived out.

I recently cleaned my BBQ (exciting, I know). I took the whole thing apart, cleaning out the burners of all the grease and grime that had dripped over the years, scrubbing off the grates that I had been cooking on for forever with nothing more than a quick surface scraping before cooking again. It was inconvenient, and my initial thought was, “I can probably just keep cooking, and not take all this time to do this? My BBQ is fine!”

“Fine”, one of the most spiritually dangerous words in our language, as it demonstrates a heart in a place of determining for ourselves, “where I’m at is good enough, and I don’t really need to pursue anything more of God.” This is where I was at with my BBQ; I could see there was fire, I could feel some heat, and my food was cooking, so I determined that my BBQ was “fine”, good enough, and without any need for anything more.

On the day I cleaned my BBQ I found all kinds of things that I knew were not good for the BBQ or helping the cooking of my food in any way. It wasn’t necessarily harmful, but it certainly was not what the designer of the BBQ had intended for an optimal cooking experience.

Don’t settle.

Jesus said that what God desires is for us to love and pursue Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This sounds great, and something we want/intend to do. But over time, the grease and grime of life begin to drip over the burners, the crust of life’s circumstances begins to build up, and we start to justify how we don’t have time to take things apart, to really allow the Holy Spirit to do His work, so we settle for “fine”.

Nowhere in God’s word to us, when God spoke through people, or when God sent His son, does He say, “Settle for what you’ve experienced in the past, accept that the greatness and power of God is only as great and powerful as a worship song or a sermon on Sunday morning. And don’t expect anything more from God than what you could make happen yourself, in case God doesn’t show up.” To love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (or as we say around LBF “Passionately Pursue LIFE in Jesus”) means we allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in our heart where we are unwilling to accept anything less than the full glory of God and to take every thought captive to the authority of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) that would lead us to accept “fine”.

Allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in our heart where we are unwilling to accept anything less than the full glory of God.

When I took my BBQ apart, I found things clogging up the works that I didn’t intend or desire to be there, but I allowed because I was satisfied with “fine”. When those things were cleaned out, and my BBQ was put back together, I was astounded at how differently it cooked! The time, the evenness, the little black lines that appear on a steak, were all so much better, and I realized I had just gotten so used to “fine”, that I was accepting so much less than what the BBQ had to offer.

This requires me to consider how I have done that with God. Church goes well, youth group grows, people seem to enjoy themselves… good enough for me. But what if the Holy Spirit has so much more? My family seems happy, my finances are in order, I have a good job… good enough for me. But what if the Holy Spirit wants to move in power, and in essence, I am telling Him, “I don’t really want to take the BBQ apart; it’s working “Fine”? What would I miss out on??

What if the Holy Spirit has so much more?

I want to invite you to wrestle through what you are accepting in your relationship with God that may be less than what He has for you. In what ways have you settled for “fine” when in reality it is so much less than the LIFE that you could be experiencing. This is not about increasing church attendance, being more generous, or reading your Bible more (Though I believe all of those things are an important part of our faith journey), this is about how we are Passionately pursuing, or sitting back and settling.

Why would I want to settle for a small flame, clogged burners, and a dirty grate to cook my food “fine”, when God has a Holy Spirit fire that is capable of doing the miraculous in and through our lives? Happy Barbecuing!

Whether it is rampant sexual abuse or horrific school shootings, there are events that happen that drive us to search for the deeper reasons behind why problems arise in our culture. As Christians, we believe that our core problem is when we reject God and follow our own “wisdom” and impulses. That said, there are times when we can identify a specific source of chaos in our culture. And this can be helpful as we seek to respond to our dysfunctions. I want to make that argument that a core problem that exists in the United States is the problem of men not living out our God-given calling.

This is demonstrated particularly when you take a glance at statistics of what happens in fatherless homes. Just as a quick survey of the statistics, 71% of high school dropouts, 71% of teen pregnancies, 90% of runaway and homeless youth, 63% of youth suicides, 85% of youth in prison, and 71% of adolescent substance abusers come from homes that don’t involve a father.

Along with that sobering truth, it is worth noting that 33% of children in the U.S. grow up without a father. Back in 1960, only 8% of children grew up without a father in the home. We can argue about what has caused this dramatic increase, but the problem exists regardless of its cause. The (secular) evidence clearly points to the conclusion that men (particularly as fathers) have a massive impact on our society.

For those of us who are Bible-believing Christians, this should come as no shock. In God’s Word, we are given the message that men are disproportionately responsible for the plight of their families. The man is called the head of his home—a position that certainly includes authority, but is more focused on responsibility.

In Colossians 3:21 and Ephesians 6:4, Paul specifically addresses “fathers,” seeming to assume that the men will take the lead and the responsibility for their children. In fact, as early as Genesis 3 God holds Adam responsible for the sin of mankind, despite the fact that one could argue that Eve was the core perpetrator. All of these Scriptural messages point to the reality that men have a massive responsibility in the context of their families and in the context of society.

While this might seem daunting, this is actually encouraging news. If you are a man, this means that if you walk with Jesus then it will have a disproportionately positive impact on the people in your life. With that in mind, I want to share five straightforward ways that men can seek to live out the unique calling that we have.

1. Take the Lead in Church Involvement. There are too many families in which the mother is dragging a reluctant father to church. As men, we must set the tone for our families that involvement in the body of Christ is important. Children will pick up on these cues. Take the lead on how your family engages with God’s people.
2. Demonstrate Your Pursuit of Christ. Set an example for your family on how you are pursuing closeness with Christ. Don’t be afraid to let your family see you reading the Bible or to let them hear you pray. Share at the dinner table how God has been guiding and convicting you. Of course, in order to let your family observe this, you have to be doing these things. Set the tone and allow others to see it.
3. Be Physically Affectionate. This applies to both your children and your wife. Show that warmth is not solely a feminine quality. Hug and kiss your children to bring them reassurance that they are secure with you. Show affection to your wife to reassure her, and so that your children can observe how a true man treats a woman.
4. Make Time for Things to Happen. It is wonderful to have purposeful times of family devotions and prayer, but much of our meaningful family time will happen when we have simply carved out enough space for meaningful interactions to happen. Make time to do family activities, to show up at your kids’ sporting events and recitals. Take them to the park (or just on a walk). Spend enough time together that meaningful conversations can just “happen.”
5. Articulate Big Truths. Make sure that your kids have a list of things that “Dad always said.” And makes the items on that list count. Let it be things like, “Dad always said that real men treat women with respect,” or “Dad always said that Jesus is more important than anything else in life,” or “Dad always said that no one is ever too busy to pray.” It is true that life lessons are more often “caught” than “taught,” but don’t miss opportunities to articulate the things that you want your children to have internalized long after they have graduated from your home.

The world needs Jesus. He is the only one who can offer the redemption and healing that we all need. And men have a unique role in pointing their families—and society—to the one we need. Take up the challenge. God is with you. The world needs men.

As we now stand about a year and a half into the presidency of Donald Trump, I think it is valuable to think of his presidency not only from a perspective of civics, but from a perspective of how the American church is being impacted. The reason I think this is valuable is that evangelical Christians have become largely associated with the Republican Party.

In 2016 Donald Trump received a huge percentage of the evangelical vote and he also received a number of endorsements from public figures who have sway in evangelical circles. In this sense, Christians appear to be much more on-the-hook for Trump’s presidency than they would if Clinton would have won. This leads many in our country to conclude, “I guess for Christians, President Trump is their guy.”

While I know many Christians who criticized Donald Trump’s character and conduct and yet still voted for him at the polls, many of those outside of the church are unlikely to see this nuance. Many are legitimately confused as to why so many Christians—who criticize the immoral behavior of so many in our culture—would support a man who has had such public moral failures, and who consistently makes crass and cruel comments toward his political opponents.

This leaves the American church open to the charge of hypocrisy. It also leaves us open to the charge of idolatry. After all, some would say, if we are willing to compromise our moral stance in exchange for political capital, then this is tantamount to putting our commitment to power in front of our commitment to God. And while many may say that this wasn’t their motivation for supporting Donald Trump, it is important for us to recognize that this perception exists. And this perception impacts what people think of Jesus and his church.

Doom and Gloom

But are we left only with doom and gloom? Certainly not. I believe that our current context provides the church of Jesus Christ with an important opportunity. After all, if non-Christians are genuinely asking, “Why do Christians support Donald Trump?” then this provides an amazing opportunity for dialogue. It gives all of us an opportunity to communicate our true allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom.

It allows us to talk about how we are Christians who happen to be Americans, not Americans who happen to be Christians. And it provides the opportunity for Christians who did vote for the president to demonstrate that voting for someone is not the same as idolizing him.

Regardless of how we all voted in the previous election, there is a calling on all Christians at this time to demonstrate a commitment to Jesus and to his kingdom. If we want to participate in this demonstration, we must be willing to do at least two things. First of all, we must be willing to tell the truth about the president. This is part and parcel of the church behaving as a prophetic voice in the culture. We must be willing to say that good things are good and that evil things are evil.

When we are willing to say, “This speech the president said was good,” and also to say, “That thing the president tweeted was bad,” then this demonstrates to people that Christians are more committed to our principles than to our politicians. If we are unwilling to compliment anyone who says something right or to criticize anyone for doing wrong, then we have missed an important opportunity.

Second of all, we must be willing to engage in personal conversations with people who are critical of Christians. If we want to change minds and hearts, this normally happens through personal interactions. Instead of rolling our eyes at neighbors and co-workers, we should take their criticisms as opportunities to share a true Christian vision. To share a vision of a perfect king who will one day return to usher in his perfect kingdom of justice and mercy.

Each Easter, we have a special celebration for the resurrection of Jesus. But the truth is that the resurrection is not simply the focus on the Easter holiday, but the focus of the entire Christian faith. In fact, according to the Apostle Paul, the whole faith hinges on the resurrection. If Jesus wasn’t raised, we are still in our sins and our faith is vain (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).

This is why the resurrection was at the center of the proclamation of the apostles in Acts. The resurrection is the central celebration not only for Easter Sunday, but for every Sunday when the church of Jesus gathers.

If the resurrection has such a central place in Christian belief, it is worthwhile for us to ask why we believe it. After all, it is not natural simply to believe that a man rose from the dead. Some would claim that it is silly to believe that it took place. In light of this, let me share some reasons why I think it is totally intellectually reasonable to believe that the resurrection took place.

1. The story began early. It is important to remember that the reports of Jesus’ resurrection did not begin hundreds of years after his life. Instead, they began only days after his death, and the extensive written documents about his resurrection showed up within the same generation as his death. This means that it bears the marks not of a legend, but of a report. This should catch our attention. That said, this point alone should not be nearly enough to convince us. But it leads to another point.
2. The story was not disproven. It is very difficult to prove a negative. In other words, it is not reasonable to ask someone to disprove the resurrection of Jesus. But it would not seem to be a difficult task when the disciples first began to proclaim the resurrection. Why was Jesus’ dead body not produced, so that the reports of his resurrection could be stopped? Some say that the body wasn’t produced because the disciples stole it. But this would mean that the disciples willingly endured torment, imprisonment, and death for something they knew was a lie. Some people say that the Pharisees stole the body. But this would mean that the Pharisees had the proof they needed in order to squash the rumor of Jesus’ resurrection, and yet they didn’t produce it. Some say that Jesus didn’t actually die, that the disciples hallucinated, or that Jesus’ followers went to the wrong tomb. But none of these explanations seems adequate.

Again, it is hard to prove a negative, but it should strike us as odd that a big claim like this could not be disproven so close to the events. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all written within about 35 years of Jesus’ death. To be safe, though, let’s lengthen the timeframe to 50 years.

Let’s say that I claimed that 50 years ago the Dodgers won the World Series. You would not have to work very hard to disprove this claim. There would be articles, photos, and personal reports from people who were alive at the time. They would point out that the Tigers won the World Series that year. When the Gospels were written, there were many people who personally observed the events. It seems hard to believe that the belief would not only have persisted but would have spread.

3. The story had a significant impact. People believing something doesn’t make it true. That said, it should strike us that so many people from so many different parts of the world, over the course of almost 2,000 years, have believed that Jesus was raised. People are not anxious to be deceived. The impact of Jesus is based on the reports of his resurrection. This should make us slow to dismiss this historical claim. Fact is not based on popular vote, but the sheer number of believers should cause us to give the resurrection a second look.

As you reflect on the resurrection of Jesus, I invited you to embrace Jesus with confidence. Our faith is based not on closing our eyes and trying to believe. Our faith is based on seeing convincing evidence, and then filling in the gaps of uncertainty. I invite you to walk forward with confidence that the risen Jesus Christ is still working victory and power in the world today.

Anger can play a significant role in all of our lives. With men in particular, though, anger tends to be a major battlefront. And for men who have families, anger is too often directed toward the very people that men are called to protect. Wives and children end up caught in the crossfire. Whether this results in domestic violence, volatile arguments, or verbal outbursts, those of us who are men must seek to bring our anger under control.

Apparently, the connection between men and anger is nothing new. The apostle Paul mentions the connection more than once. In 1 Timothy 2:8 he says, “Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.” What is striking about this passage is that this is right before Paul gives some specific instructions to the women in the church. In other words, what Paul says in verse 8 represents what he specifically wants to address in men.

And at the center of his concern is anger. Similarly, in Colossians 3:19 Paul addresses husbands by saying, “Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.” Then he addresses fathers in verse 21: “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.” Paul wants men to avoid being harsh and to avoid embittering children. Again, anger is central to Paul’s concern when it comes to men.

If anger truly is a frequent stumbling point for men, then it should be treated as something of utmost importance. The reason is that men have a disproportionate impact on their homes. Biblically, men are called the “head” within their families (Ephesians 5:23, 1 Corinthians 11:3). This means that men, as the head, set the tone that impacts the rest of the family.

Whether or not a man accepts this reality is beside the point. After all, the apostle Paul never tells men to be the head. He simply says that they are the head. Those of us who are men need to figure out our anger issues because, as the head, our actions have a massive impact on our families.

If we want to address the issue of anger, it is important to begin by recognizing that the goal is not to stop feeling a certain way. The feeling of anger is not a sin. It is a very understandable response to frustrating circumstances. In Ephesians 4:26-27 Paul writes, “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”

Paul does not tell people not to be angry (in fact, Jesus himself showed anger on multiple occasions). Paul tells people not to sin when we are angry. In fact, he says that we should deal with our anger before the day is done. If we don’t, we give the devil an advantage as he seeks to tempt us to sin.

If then we are pursuing not the elimination of a feeling, but self-control when we have that feeling, what can we do? First of all, it is worth considering the source of our anger. If a man is having an outburst of anger at his children, there is a good chance that the deepest source of that anger is not his children. It is often disappointment about work, or anxiety about money or fatigue.

Those of us who are believers in Jesus can bring these burdens to God. Through prayer and reflection, we can experience ease from the anger that goes along with these burdens. Before trying to change our circumstances, we can seek God’s power to deal with the issues that lead to our outbursts.

Second of all, we can exercise our self-control, so that we keep ourselves from acting—or speaking—while we are angry. Proverbs 14:17 and Proverbs 19:19 warn against being quick-tempered. Again, the problem is not when we’re angry, but when we act on our anger. If you find the temperature rising and you are near losing your temper, don’t be ashamed to remove yourself from the situation. Take a walk. Pause for prayer. Call a friend. Keep yourself from words and actions that will hurt others.

Finally, men can seek the support of other brothers in Christ who can help as we walk through our struggles with anger. As Proverbs 27:17 says, men can sharpen one another just as iron sharpens iron. If you are battling anger, find some trustworthy men who will show you compassion, but who will also call you to growth and call you out when you are failing. Part of the genius of the church is that it keeps us from carrying our burdens on our own. Share them with God and with other trustworthy people who will help you grow.

All of us are called to deal with our anger. Let me give a special appeal, however, to those of us who are men. If we truly want to fulfill God’s calling for us to be servant leaders, we must deal with our anger. If we want to set a godly tone in our household, we must deal with our anger. And if we want to live up to the respect that we so deeply desire, we must deal with our anger. And, as gospel-believing Christians, we have the joy of knowing that God is not calling us to deal with our anger on our own. He invites us to take his hand as he leads us to greater freedom and victory in this area.

by Pastor Troy Spilman

There are seasons in our Christian experience where we can go through the motions of the faith but not be walking in true obedience.

Excuses

In the book of 1 Samuel, King Saul comes back victoriously from the battle of fighting the dreaded Amalekites. He was given the command to utterly wipe out every living thing, yet Saul decided to keep some of the best of the loot, which included many animals. To justify his choice, he claimed that the oxen and sheep were to be sacrificed unto the Lord.

This is where Samuel has his famous speech, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).

My first impulse is to mentally scold King Saul for his disobedience and countless excuses. He had even gone so far as to claim that he feared the reaction of his soldiers if he followed through with the orders.

But then I quickly recall the many excuses I have given for shrugging off a prompting of the Holy Spirit. I can also be fearful of the reaction of others or consider myself too busy in my obedience in other areas, or simply don’t want to be inconvenienced.

Responding in Obedience

A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a woman who lives on the East Coast whose sister is a part of one of our short-term missions teams. The team will be partnering with a ministry in the Tijuana area to build three homes over Memorial Day weekend for deserving families. In her letter, she wrote that she had a strong sense that the Holy Spirit wanted her to give a sizable gift toward this project, even though she has a modest income.

She explained how the Lord confirmed in multiple ways that she should move forward in sending the check. In her letter, she explained how she learned in a recent Bible study that we can often experience a “crisis of belief” after God speaks to us. She was faithful to push through this “crisis” and responded to the Lord in obedience.

I was challenged by this dear sister in Christ to walk by faith and simply be obedient to the Lord’s leading. I was reminded of the verse that states “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Obedience means to simply walk by faith and to say “Yes” to the Lord.

What is He asking you to say “yes” to?

Maybe it is volunteering for the children’s or youth ministries at your church, sharing your faith story with a friend, or introducing yourself to your neighbor and offering to help fix their fence. It could be volunteering at a local organization in order to be a light to many people, or getting involved in a missions project. Whatever it is, commit to saying “yes”, and see what the Lord might do in and through you!

When I was a young man, I always looked forward to getting married. When I talked to older people about marriage, their basic advice was always the same: “Marriage is wonderful, but it is also hard work.” Now, seventeen years into marriage, I believe that those people were telling the truth, but that it was incomplete. It is true that marriage is wonderful.

It is a gift from God, and I am profoundly thankful for the wife God has given me. And marriage is hard work because partnering together with someone else takes forgiveness and communication and sacrifice and compromise. But as I look at the current cultural attitudes toward marriage, I think that we need to talk about marriage at a deeper level. We need to talk about marriage’s purpose.

Many people describe their marriages by saying, “It just isn’t working anymore.” Divorced people often look back and say, “Our marriage just didn’t work.” But we have to ask, “How did you know it wasn’t working?” In order to know whether or not something is working, you need to know its purpose.

For example, a foosball would not work well if you tried to use it to play ping pong. But we would consider it foolishness if someone threw away a foosball because “it just didn’t work.” True, it didn’t work for ping pong, but that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t have worked if you would have used it for its intended purpose. Perhaps we conclude that our marriages aren’t working because we are unclear about what marriage is for.

Before talking about the biblical idea of marriage’s purpose, let’s consider the prevailing view of marriage’s purpose for our culture today. In short, we seem to believe that the purpose of marriage is self-fulfillment. Marriage exists so that we can find that one person who can bring us from loneliness to completion.

This is reinforced in almost every romantic film that Hollywood produces. Because of this, we can become disillusioned when we find that marriage simply isn’t working. If a person is expecting that marriage will lead them to feel loved and valued—that they belong—then they are often right in saying that it isn’t working. And in this way, many marriages end.

While the ideal marriage certainly should lead to a man and a woman feeling loved and valued, self-fulfillment is not at the center of the biblical idea of marriage. First of all, marriage isn’t a necessity, but a choice. In 1 Corinthians 7, the Apostle Paul tells believers that they can opt to marry or to stay single and that both are options that can facilitate a full and godly life. Second of all, marriage is about more than the two people involved. Marriage is a sign. It points toward the gospel.

In Ephesians 5:31-32 Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 (the verse that introduces the idea of marriage, and then comments on it: “‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” In other words, the classic verse on marriage is not simply talking about a man and a woman joining their lives to one another. It is a sign that points to the gospel. It points to Jesus commitment to his bride (the church) and the church’s submission to her groom (Jesus).

When husbands love their wives (even when their wives are not worthy of that love), they paint a picture of Jesus’ sacrificial commitment to his people. And when wives respect their husbands (even when their husbands are not worthy of that respect), they paint a picture of the church’s trust and deference to Jesus. But when husbands and wives abandon their marriage vows, they not only hurt themselves and their children. They also hurt everyone’s ability to see the gospel clearly.

In his book, The Meaning of Marriage Tim Keller writes, “This is the secret—that the gospel of Jesus and marriage explain one another. That when God invented marriage, he already had the saving work of Jesus in mind.” Keller is rightly highlighting the true purpose of marriage. In light of this, men and women can display the gospel through their marriages, even if the marriage is very difficult. For example, the prophet Hosea displayed this reality as he lovingly committed himself to his unfaithful wife Gomer. And all husbands can display the gospel through loving their wives in good times and bad. And all wives can display the gospel through honoring their husbands in good times and bad.

In fact, when we stay committed during painful seasons in marriage, this displays the gospel in a particularly powerful way. After all, Jesus loved us while we were still helpless, godless sinners (Romans 5:6-8). So when we say our marriage isn’t working, we may be wrong. True, it may not “work” if we think marriage’s purpose is to bring us emotional fulfillment. But it still can work as a signal of the gospel.

One final plea. When we abandon our marriages, we often rob God of the opportunity to bring beauty out of the ruins. The book of Ruth is a beautiful story that begins with death and famine and bitterness and ends with marriage and children and redemption. At the beginning, after the Jewish woman Naomi has lost her husband and both of her sons, her two Moabite daughters-in-law vow that they will follow her back to her home in Israel.

But Naomi warns them that bitterness probably lies in their future if they come with her. At this warning, one of the daughters-in-law, Orpah, leaves and heads home. And who could blame her? It seemed like her best bet. But Ruth insisted that she would go with Noami, even vowing that she would be buried in the same place as her mother-in-law. And Ruth not only ended up seeing the beauty of the redemption that God brought about, but she ended up getting to be the great-grandmother of King David. Meanwhile, Orpah missed out on a chance to participate in the beauty that God brought about.

If you are ready to call it quits in your marriage, consider the beauty you might miss out on. God is telling his story through us, and he is pointing to the gospel through our marriages.

By Pastor Gary Keith

Our church recently invited a nationally known speaker to come and share a message to the men at a breakfast. He did a great job. He was funny and inspiring and challenging. He shared from his life experience in ways that men could easily relate to. It was a great morning.

I had the privilege of meeting him for breakfast the day before. We had a great time getting to know each other. During our time together he asked me a thought-provoking question. He asked how he could make a lasting impact on the men he speaks to.

He realized that as he travels from place to place and speaks, that most men would only remember about 7% of what he said the next day. And the reality is probably most of the men will not make any life-changing decisions as a result.

My answer to him reflected my own experience.

I was raised in a church setting. I went to church twice on Sunday and every Wednesday night. That’s just what our family did. No doubt this has influenced my life. I became a Christian while I was young and I learned how to follow Jesus in this church. But there was a point in my life when I had to assess what influenced my life more. Was it listening to weekly sermons and special speakers or being in an intentional relationship with other men focused on growing in my faith?

As I gave an answer to our speaker at that breakfast, it was clear that my life was most affected by connecting with other men in an ongoing intentional relationship focused on growing as a Christian.

I didn’t know how he would respond to that answer but to my surprise, he also talked about his life and about how he regularly meets with two other men for the purpose of Christian accountability.

Before I go any further let me say, I would never stop the intake of great preaching or listening to great speakers teaching me and inspiring me to walk the walk of faith. But I can easily trace significant life transformation to my times with a very small group of men who I meet with on a regular basis.

These are men with whom a trusted relationship has been built. Men who are different from me. Men who are as committed to spiritual growth as I am. Men who I can count on in times of need, spiritual or otherwise. Men who will pray with me and I with them about real life issues. Men who are willing to ask me the hard questions that I need to be asked.

There are several passages of scripture that support this type of relationship.

For example, Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” I Thessalonians 5:11 says to, “…encourage one another and build each other up…” And lastly a very familiar one from Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 that says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help him up…”

Find Someone.

Let me encourage you to find a friend or two with whom you can build an intentional relationship designed to help you remain faithful to your spiritual walk. Once you find this person or persons then commit to meet on a regular basis (I meet every other week during lunchtime). Be patient and realistic about building trust with each other. This takes time and a willingness to both give and receive trust.

Don’t give up; remain consistent.

I’ve had a couple of relationships that didn’t work out and I wanted to just give up, but I’m glad I didn’t because the impact of having a Christian accountability relationship that works has been incredibly life-changing.

You see, I believe that in this world of challenge and temptation we need each other in personal and intentional ways to help keep us where we want to be. If you want to grow in your passionate pursuit of life in Jesus, Christian accountability is indispensable. So my question to you is this, “who’s holding you accountable?”

Same-sex marriage was perhaps the most contentious issue of the past ten years in the United States. Many Christians stood opposed to recognizing same-sex marriage, claiming that marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe that this is true. I also believe, however, that the case for “traditional” marriage was undercut by the fact that our entire nation seems to have adopted the idea that marriage’s purpose is to bring personal fulfillment.

If that is the purpose of marriage, then why in the world would it be important that the fulfillment should come between a man and a woman instead of through two men or two women? After all, as the slogan goes, love is love.

Certainly love is love. After all, if you say a word and then say “is” and then say the same word again, then you have made a true (albeit obvious) statement. Love is love, but not all love involves sex and lifelong one-flesh commitment. The friendship between David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 20) or between Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth 1) are powerful examples of love. And the gospel of Jesus is reflected in this sacrificial love. But both of these examples are different from the one-flesh love of marriage.

If the purpose of marriage is self-fulfillment, then there’s hardly a case to be made against same-sex marriage. In fact, there’s hardly a case to be made against no-fault divorce in this model. If, however, marriage is about putting the gospel of Jesus on display (Ephesians 5:22-33), then this has implications into how marriage works.

Marriage, most simply, is about a one-flesh relationship. This is the first word on marriage in the Bible. Genesis 2:24 says, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The idea is that a man and a woman join their lives together not only physically, but emotionally, financially, practically, and in every other way. This is why I don’t advise separate bank accounts or pre-nuptial agreements. I believe that these undercut the one-flesh nature of marriage.

That said, the one-flesh nature of marriage is reflected specifically when a man and a woman are joined. The narrative of Genesis 2, when God creates Eve, reflects the idea that Eve is like Adam, but different from him. He is joined to someone who is his same species but brings something different to the table. This reflects what is so special and powerful about marriage. When a man and a woman join their lives to one another, a gap is bridged. A barrier is overcome.

This reflects the gospel in a way that is different than any male-male or female-female relationship. It is not that there can’t be powerful same-sex friendships or connections, but that these don’t fit into what God was doing when he created marriage. And he reserved sexual activity for marriage specifically because sex is the physical manifestation of the one-flesh relationship that marriage is.

Those of us who are believers are called to look at our marriages not simply as opportunities for us to experience love and acceptance (although this is certainly God’s desire for us within our marriages). Our marriages are about telling a story to the world.

The story is about a God who is so deeply committed to us that he is willing to sacrifice everything for us, even when we are unworthy. It is the story of a groom who promises that he will never leave us or forsake us. And when we embrace this story, it transforms how we approach God’s gift of marriage.

The most frequent command in the Bible is some form of, “Do not be afraid.” Over and over again, God’s people are told not to fear kings or armies or rumors. In fact, the only thing they are told to fear is God himself. The fear of God is said to be the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7) and the whole duty of mankind (Ecclesiastes 12:13). It is vital to a godly life.

One of the key implications of a proper fear of God is that the fear of man goes by the wayside. By “fear of man” I mean the desperate quest for the approval of other people. If we are going to fear God, this means that we will make decisions based on the reality of God, the commands of God, and the priorities of God.

This means that we will be incapable of living for the approval of other people. We must choose. The fear of man, therefore, is a competitor of the fear of God. In this post, I will suggest three practical ways that we can fight against the fear of man.

Soak in the Reality of God’s Judgment.

In 1 Corinthians 4:1-4 Paul writes to people who are unimpressed by his physique and his speaking abilities. To them he says, “This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” It is striking that Paul cares nothing about whether or not he is judged and disregarded by other human beings. This is not because he thinks that only his own judgment counts. He doesn’t say, “I don’t care what you think of me; I only have to please myself.” In fact he says that his opinion of himself doesn’t even matter. The only judgment that counts is God’s.

It may be daunting to think of God’s judgment. But also consider that, for believers, God’s judgment is already in. There is no condemnation for those who belong to God through Christ. Because of this, believers can freely disregard the condemnation of others. God has received us! The more we soak in the reality of God’s judgment, the more we will be able to throw off the fear of man. We should revel in God’s judgment. We should celebrate it. We should read about it, pray about it, and thank God for it. God has judged us righteous in Christ, and we are now free to live for him and not for the approval of others.

Imagine the Worst-Case Scenario.

When we crave the approval of others, it is often because we fear what will happen if they disapprove of us. Jesus invites us to imagine the worst-case scenario of this happening and then to realize that we can survive it. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” The worst thing that someone could do to us is to kill us. Jesus says that this should not phase us.

In essence he says, “You can survive being killed.” After all, we all die, and God’s judgment is all that matters in the end. Don’t live in fear of those who can only kill you. Fear the one who has the final say over your eternal destiny.

Often we are afraid of people who pose no real physical danger. What do we fear? We fear that they will mock us. We fear that they will destroy our reputation. We fear that they will stop being our friends. Maybe we fear that they will fire us. Jesus invites us to imagine a world in which these things happen. When we do this, it breaks the power that these people have over us. When we realize that they have limited power, we are freed up to fear God alone.

Pray for Those You Fear.

In John 5:44 Jesus says, “How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” He is saying that we cannot seek the glory of God if we are obsessed with the approval of men. We must stop fearing people!

But if we no longer seek the approval of others, will this make us cruel and selfish and conceited? Not at all. Jesus was free from the need to get approval from others, and he was the most loving and selfless man who ever lived. This is because we cannot truly love and serve people if we need their approval. If we want to be free from needing the approval of others, I suggest that we pray for them. When we pray for others, it is an opportunity for us to remember that they too have needs. It breaks the illusion that they are all-powerful. It also is a selfless act that doesn’t bring any immediate benefit to us. Pray for those you fear, and you will find God setting your heart free from the need for their approval.

On May 20th at LBF Church, we raised over $15,000 in order to support the translation of the New Testament for an unreached people group in Kenya called the Ilchamus. From June 7th to June 15th, Troy Spilman and I were privileged to get to go on a trip to Kenya.

Our primary purposes were (1) to visit with the translation team for the Ilchamus people, and (2) to visit with the Kiprops, some of our long-term missionaries in Kenya. The trip was a blessing and a wonderful opportunity for gospel partnership.

After two days in Nairobi with members of Seed Company (through whom we have supported the Ilchamus people), we flew to Eldoret and then drove about four hours to the area where the Ilchamus people live. It was deeply moving to visit a marketplace where fruits and vegetables were being sold and to take in the fact that these were the very people we had been praying for.

We had the privilege of meeting with the six members of the translation team for the Ilchamus people. The men involved are all passionate about the project and passionate about the gospel of Jesus (most of them are pastors in addition to being Bible translators). They love the Ilchamus people, and they anticipate a great harvest of people coming to faith in Christ as the Bible becomes translated into their language.

It was stirring to hear one of the translators say with great conviction, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!” Many of us know those words, but they were brought to new life when thinking of the life-giving Word of God coming to a people who have previously not had access to it.

It was a privilege to speak with, eat with, and pray with the translators. They are our family, even though they live across the world. And they were deeply warm in their gratitude and affection for our church because of the role we are playing in this project.

They currently are nearing the end of translating the New Testament, and they are praying that they will be completely finished by the end of 2019. Please pray along with them for the success and impact of this project.

After our visit with the translation team, we drove back to Eldoret and met up with William and Michelle Kiprop, who are long-term missionaries from LBF Church. In Kip Karon, Michelle runs a medical clinic for low-income people. We got to meet those who work at the clinic, as well as getting to meet a couple of patients who have benefited from the ministry.

One especially moving moment was when we did a home visit for a single mother of a child who needs heart surgery. Without Michelle’s compassion and without the ministry of the clinic, this young man would likely have gone undiagnosed. His name is Ivan and he is awaiting heart surgery in September. Please be in prayer for his health and for God’s impact on this family.

We also got to visit the site for the hospital that is currently being built for the ministry. The plan is to move from their tiny clinic into a full-service hospital, in order to serve the poor in the area. It was wonderful to see the progress and to pray about its progress. It was wonderful also to see how integral the Kiprops are to their community, and how many people are impacted by them on a daily basis.

As you consider your relationship with Jesus, remember that God is a global God. He cares deeply for all people in all nations, and he does powerful work in our lives when we follow him across borders of race, language, socio-economics, and location. Join others of us at LBF Church in partnering through prayer and giving for both the Ilchamus people and for the Kiprops.

“Speak your truth.” That’s a phrase that has become common in popular culture over the past year. It was perhaps most popularized by Oprah Winfrey at the 2018 Golden Globes when she said, “Speaking your truth is the most powerful weapon we all have.”

I’ll let the cat out of the bag early on in this post. I don’t think this phrase is helpful. I don’t think Christians (or anyone, for that matter) should use it. But I don’t simply want to say, “Don’t say it!” I want to explore the assumptions that have made this phrase our culture’s calling card. By looking at two problems with the phrase, we can examine ourselves and see how much we have adopted these cultural assumptions, even if we don’t use the phrase, “Speak your truth.”

Problem #1:

This phrase tells us that we are our own source. To speak your truth is to assume that the there is some truth that you yourself possess. It assumes that each person is his or her own source for truth and authority. This leads us to believe that no one else has the right to correct us. No one can tell us what to think, what to believe, or what to say. After all, we’re just speaking our truth.

Those of us who are Christians believe that truth is not something within us, but something outside of us. We believe that there is objective reality and objective morality because there is a God who has set reality into motion. We believe that Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life. We believe that there is truth out there, and the truth does not change based on our perception of reality.

In fact, we believe that the truth is something that confronts us. My perception of how safe it is to cross the street matters very little if a car that I didn’t see runs into me. My view of reality will not change the truth of the car’s presence. In a similar way, Christian belief is centered not on a subjective idea, but on a truth claim about an event. At the core, we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. If he wasn’t, then our message is false. If he was, then we must take Jesus seriously. But either way, my belief (or disbelief) in the truth does not change reality.

Problem #2:

This phrase feeds our narcissistic idea that the world is anxiously waiting for us to weigh in. When Oprah Winfrey said, “Speaking your truth is the most powerful weapon we all have,” she was speaking in reference to women who tell their stories about sexual harassment and assault. To Oprah, these women are speaking their truth. I would argue that they are speaking the truth, not their truth.

It may be a truth that most others are not aware of, but it is an objective truth about something that actually happened (assuming that the story that they tell is true). Very few of us would say that these women should stay silent. We all should champion them exposing the truth so that evil actions are held accountable and so that future women don’t become victims of the same behavior. This “truth” is certainly worth being spoken.

But, for many, speaking their truth means speaking their opinion. It is not speaking truth to say, “I think we should abolish private property,” or “I believe every citizen should own a gun,” or “All Trump supporters are just secret racists.” Those are not truth statements. Those are opinions. Now, we all have a right to our opinions, and we have a right to provide support in order to convince others that our opinions are good. But voicing these opinions is not the same as contributing truth to a conversation.

Social media indulges the narcissism that dwells within each of us by telling us that the world is awaiting our opinions. We can begin to believe that it is our obligation to bring our voice into the nebulous space of facebook and twitter. We owe it to others to “speak our truth.” This feeds a dangerous delusion. Often, when I am considering weighing in on a hot topic on social media, I pause to ask myself, “Has anyone asked for my opinion on this subject?” If they haven’t, I then ask myself, “What will be contributed by these words that I want to say?” If I can’t see a good outcome, I opt to stay out of it.

Certainly, there are times when we need to speak up. But James 1:19 instructs us, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” Instead, most of us speak quickly and angrily before taking the time to listen. As believers, our calling is to “not let any unwholesome word come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29). Our calling is not to air our grievances whenever we feel like it but to weight our words carefully and speak up when it will be helpful.

And it is vital that we don’t waste our words by “speaking our truth,” because this often distracts from the world hearing the clear gospel message. If Christians are clogging the airwaves with constant opinions about guns and taxes and politicians and pop stars, people will have a hard time seeing that Jesus’ life and death and resurrection are our central message.

We believe that God not only spoke the world into existence but that he has provided redemption for the world and adoption for all who place their faith in Jesus. This message should be our calling card. And we should minimize other noise that distracts from this. If we embrace the idea that the world is waiting for our opinion on every subject, we feed our pride and we distract from our message.

As a final thought, our words matter. Some might be thinking, “Who cares if someone uses the phrase ‘speak your truth’? They’re just words.” Words are how we communicate to the world and they are how we reinforce our view of reality to ourselves. This is why in James 4, James calls Christians not to say, “I am going to go to this city and do business,” but to say, “If the Lord wills I will live and go to this city and do business.”

James is not simply calling believers to use spiritual language. He is calling believers to embrace the truth in such a way that we speak with accuracy about the fact that our plans are utterly dependent on God’s providence. In the same way, “our truth” is not something that is real or important. Our opinion may or may not matter, depending on the situation. The truth, especially the central truth of the gospel, is the message that ought always to be on the forefront of our minds and our tongues.

What do we do when something taught in the Bible comes into direct conflict with a deeply-held cultural value? This is a question that Christians have always had to wrestle with, and it is certainly a challenging question for Christians today. For example, what do we do with the teaching of the Bible is that sex outside of marriage is wrong, and yet our culture embraces the value of sexual freedom and casual sex?

Or, what do we do when the teaching of the Bible is that only those who embrace Jesus are saved, and yet we live in a culture that celebrates a pluralistic view of religion and faith?

When we face this conflict, those of us who don’t simply want to abandon the Bible can choose between one of two options. Our first option is simply to decide that what the Bible says was good for its original hearers, and it is still good for us today. Our second option is to decide that what the Bible says was good for the original hearers, but that it is no longer good for us today.

In other words, the first option would lead us to say, “It was good for the Israelites and the first century Christians to save sex for marriage, and it is still good for us to do this today.” The second option would say, “It was good for the Israelites and the first century Christians to save sex for marriage, but it is no longer something that is necessary for Christians today.”

Those who argue that there are parts of the Bible that, while perhaps good and helpful when they were written, are no longer good and helpful today, normally use two basic arguments for their position. The rest of this post will explore these two arguments.

#1: There Are Already Parts of the Bible that Christians Now Ignore

Some will say, “What is the problem with saying that we should ignore the Bible’s teaching about homosexuality? After all, there are already many other parts of the Bible that we ignore?” Now, some might simply mean that we no longer follow many of the laws for the Israelites in the Old Testament. While it is true that we no longer observe these laws, it is not because we have become more enlightened and moved beyond them. It is because Jesus came to fulfill these laws, and so their usefulness has run its course.

Others, though, when they argue this will give the example of slavery. The reason goes, “The Bible endorsed dehumanization through slavery, and yet now we reject this. So now we will also reject the dehumanization of saying that there is anything wrong with homosexuality.”  While this may seem like a strong point on the surface, it ignores some important qualifiers.

First of all, in the Bible slavery is not commanded, but assumed. It is certainly true that there is no outright condemnation of the institution of slavery, but slavery was not invented by the Bible. Much like polygamy, slavery simply shows up and is tolerated. And while neither is condemned, negative fallout surround both of these realities.

Second of all, not all slavery is exactly the same. One of the reasons why many of us are baffled that the Bible does not condemn slavery is that we tend to think of slavery through the lens of how it was practiced in the United States. In his book Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller gives some helpful insight into this issue. He writes, “In the ancient world there were many ‘slaveries.’ There is good evidence that much of slavery was very harsh and brutal, but there is also lots of evidence that many slaves were not treated like African slaves would be, but lived normal lives and were paid the going wage, but were not allowed to quit or change employers, and were in slavery an average of ten years.”

He continues, “To our surprise, slaves could own slaves, and many slaves were doctors, professors, administrators, and civil servants. (See Andrew T. Lincoln’s discussion of ancient slavery in his Word commentary on Ephesians, 415-420.) In his survey, Lincoln says that no one in ancient times could conceive of an economic or labor structure without it.

While there were brutal forms of slavery, the concept—indentured labor in which the laborer was not free to market his skills to other employers—was considered a given. Quoting another scholar, he writes that this was not accepted, ‘one cannot correctly speak of the slave “problem” in antiquity’ (Lincoln quoting Westerman, 415.) In other words, no one—not even slaves—thought the whole institution should be abolished.”

This picture of slavery is very different than the U.S. form, which involved kidnapping and race-based slavery. In fact, the kidnapping form of slavery is condemned in the Old Testament. While we may wish today that the biblical authors condemned slavery, much of our desire for this is born out of a much more recent definition of slavery.

On top of all of this, the abolition of slavery did not come about through people saying, “The Bible has taught us to do this, but let’s move on to a more enlightened view of the world.” Abolition came when Bible-believing Christians pointed toward the teachings of Scripture in order to advocate for the end of the institution. They claimed that an institution based on kidnapping, racism, and oppression could never be squared with the biblical teaching that all human beings are created in God’s image.

#2: The Bible Simply Reflects the Viewpoint of Its Time

Some will argue that we should ignore certain teachings in the Bible because these teachings are simply reflections of what people believed during the time when it was written. For example, they claim, the reason why homosexual activity is not allowed and why male headship is taught is because people in those times simply thought homosexuality was distasteful and they believed that men were superior to women.

In some ways, this argument can seem appealing. After all, we are all influenced by the values of the times in which we live. A quick note, though. If we are rejecting the time-bound values of the Bible because we now have new values, how do we know that ours aren’t time-bound? In fact, how do we know that our culture’s values are not even worse? These are questions worth pondering.

But to claim that the Bible simply reflects the viewpoints of its time is to misunderstand the Bible entirely. Far from simply being a product of its time, the teachings of the Bible consistently confront readers with counter-cultural messages. Even the creation narrative itself stands in contrasts to other ancient creation myths.

While other nations believed that the world was created through a battle between many different gods, the Bible teaches that the world is a good creation from the one and only God. On top of this, Israel was not told simply to blend in with the other surrounding nations. Quite the opposite! They were given commands that led them to stand out as a peculiar people.

Jesus himself is subversive to his culture throughout his life, but especially in the Sermon on the Mount. He rebukes the practices of his time. And he does this not by casting the Bible aside, but by pointing people to not only the letter of the law but the spirit of it.

The central teaching of the Bible is the gospel of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 Paul says this about the gospel: “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block of Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

The truth is that the Bible has always confronted culture. The Bible is not anti-culture. But God’s teachings through Scripture are meant to confront every one of us and to call us to a new way of thinking, experiencing, and living. The goal was never to make us comfortable with its teachings. The goal was to set our assumptions up against what God says and then to let us decide if we will embrace our cultural values or God’s revealed values.

Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” The question before all of us is this: Will we allow the Bible to rebuke us? Will we allow God, through Scripture, to correct us?

When we elevate our cultural values above the straightforward teachings of Scripture it is a way of us saying to God, “I will adopt what you say only whenever you agree with what I already think.” However, when we allow Scripture to rebuke us, we say to God, “I trust that you are wiser than I am, and I will willing to embrace a message that seems foolish to many because I believe that your wisdom will be vindicated in the end.”

“Cancel Culture” is a term used to describe the recent movement that has led people to lose their jobs or their influence because of troubling things that they have said, especially on social media. The highest profile was perhaps Roseanne Barr losing her show over an ugly (and almost certainly racist) tweet about Valerie Jarrett.

What struck most people was the speed at which the whole process moved. One day, Roseanne had a hugely successful TV show, and the next moment she was radioactive and her friends and coworkers distanced themselves from her. It certainly reveals the power of our words.

Careless words are nothing new, but most people have not had ample opportunities to publish their passing thoughts for the world’s consumption. This puts us in a position to be judged far and wide for saying things that may not be entirely thought through.

While the Roseanne case surprised me because of its speed, it is difficult for me to feel that anything unjust happened. The basic facts of the case are that (1) Roseanne said something wildly inappropriate, (2) she was judged for her words, and (3) her show was canceled as a consequence.

This was a case of someone crossing a line and experiencing the consequences. If I got up in the pulpit this next Sunday and said something ugly and inappropriate, it would not seem unreasonable to me that I would experience consequences—and perhaps be fired—because of these words.

What is more troubling to me is when people experience “cancel culture” because of things that they have said many years ago. Recently James Gunn was fired as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (he directed the first two films) for inappropriate jokes that he made a decade ago. To add to the irony, it turned out that he had not only disavowed these previous tweets, but that he has spoken publicly about it several times.

Then, in the past two weeks, two baseball players (Josh Hader and Sean Newcomb) each had ugly tweets from their teenage years brought to light. While neither player has experienced employment consequences at this point, both have experienced public shaming over these past words.

While each of us surely has an opinion about these issues, I want to explore a gospel-centered response to this movement. Is this simply justice being done through consequences being enforced? Is this a case of malice? Is there a lesson about how we use words? I want to make three suggestions about how Christians can respond to this cultural reality.

1. Be Wise About Your Words.

Some of us may conclude that it is wrong for people to have their words thrown in their faces. But concluding this doesn’t change reality. We live in a world in which more of our words are published and more of our actions are caught on camera than ever before. We simply must be wise about how we conduct ourselves in this kind of world.

Of course, the ultimate key to avoid saying stupid and ugly things on Twitter is to cultivate the habit of not saying stupid and ugly things in general. And the key to avoiding saying stupid and ugly things is to grow into the kind of person who doesn’t speak in that manner. This is a by-product of our connection to God.

We are set free to love others (even our enemies) when we live in the reality of God’s love for us (1 John 4:7, Matthew 5:43-48). Jesus said that “everyone will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken” (Matthew 12:36). Words have the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). We are wise when we take great care with what we say.

On top of this, it is incumbent upon those of us who are parents and influences in the lives of younger people to warn them of the dangers of careless words—especially when those words end up recorded on a video or written online. Future opportunities may be lost because of silly and careless things that are said during youth. While many of us may believe that this shouldn’t happen, we must live wisely in a world in which it does happen. And we show compassion when we teach and train others to be wise with their words.

2. Beware of Malice.

Sometimes we ought to ask, “Why did this person’s ugly tweets get dug up by someone?” In one of the most recent cases, Atlanta Brave pitcher Sean Newcomb had some tweets from his late teenage years publicized on the afternoon of Sunday, July 29th. This was striking because this was right after Newcomb came one out away from pitching a no-hitter against the Dodgers.

It was the greatest pitching performance of his career. It seems hard to believe that it was coincidental that these tweets were brought up on this exact day. It seems much more likely that someone who was about to have his greatest moment in the spotlight was taken down a peg. And it is hard to imagine that the motivation for this was anything but malice.

Malice describes how we behave when we take pleasure in someone else’s misfortune. This is different than holding someone accountable for their actions. It is one thing for mistreated women to speak out against Harvey Weinstein so that he can no longer live as a predator. It is another thing to tear someone down, not because he is a danger to society, but because it is more fun to watch a hero fall than to let him have his moment in the sun.

We all must pause, search our hearts and beware of malice. None of us is above celebrating the downfall of someone we don’t like. Whether this means enjoying a scandal involving a politician on the other side of the aisle or smiling when we hear that an obnoxious co-worker is going through a divorce, malice is a temptation for every person.

We must acknowledge it, confess it, repent of it, and fight against it. We all do well to take to heart Jesus’ words to pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44). It is hard to be malicious to someone if you are praying for God to bless them.

3. Believe in Redemption.

As I stated previously, it does not trouble me deeply when I see people experience negative consequences for careless or ugly words that they have just used. I do feel troubled, though, when I see people experience blowback from words that are several years old. This is especially true when these words were made by people during their teenage years.

I would hope we would all have the humility to remember some of the foolish things we said as teenagers. I am deeply thankful that social media did not exist in my teenage years. I, along with many of my friends, would no doubt have to explain stupid and careless things that we said.

When we practice “cancel culture” about people’s past words, we often demonstrate that a person’s words at any given time reveal that person’s true and unchangeable nature. This simply is not true. Every single one of us would disavow certain things that we’ve said in the past.

Either our minds have changed or we have matured or we simply would use different words today. While we are all accountable for our words, our past words should be treated as something in our past, and not necessarily the final word on our character. As Christians, we should believe this at the core of our being, since the gospel is about redemption and transformation.

Were Peter’s denials of Jesus the final word on his life? No, he ended up being the rock on which Jesus’ church was built. Were Paul’s violent attacks on Christians the final words on him? Certainly not! He ended up writing almost half of the books of the New Testament. Are David’s adultery and murder the whole story of his life? Not at all, because he repented and is remembered as a flawed, but wonderful king of Israel.

We betray a lack of faith in God’s power to bring redemption when we don’t allow people’s past words to be something in their past. It is wonderful for a person to say, “Yes, I tweeted that. And I wish I hadn’t. It was a stupid and ugly thing to say. I would never say that today.

I’m truly sorry that I said it and I apologize. I have grown a lot since the time when I wrote it.” A person who says this is not demonstrating that they are not taking responsibility. A person who says this is demonstrating that people change, people grow, and people experience redemption. To dig up offenses in the far past is to demonstrate that we don’t believe people can change. This is a sad mark of “cancel culture.”

As believers in Jesus, we have the calling to wisely navigate the culture in which God has put us. We don’t need to rail against the culture all the time, but we are called to critique it when it is helpful. One way that we can all be counter-cultural is to take great care with what we say, to search our hearts and rid them of malice, and to see others through the eyes of redemption.

Thank God that he didn’t view us all as lost causes, but as men and women to be redeemed and forgiven. May we go and express that same love and compassion toward others.

The term “virtue-signaling” has emerged in the public vernacular over the course of the last several years. The term refers to the idea of saying or doing something in order to let other people know that I am on the “right” side of an issue.

In other words, I signal my virtue to others. I signal to them that I care about poor people, that I don’t drink too much, that I care about the environment, or that I support our troops. In other words, I virtue-signal when I make sure that other people know how virtuous I am.

For me, one of the most comical instances of virtue-signaling was a Super Bowl commercial from 2 years ago. Audi ran an ad that involved a father of a daughter voicing his internal struggle over wanting to make sure that his daughter was not treated as a second-class citizen because she was a girl. He wanted to make sure that she was paid as much as men were and that she wouldn’t be denied career opportunities.

Then, the commercial simply ended. Audi did not announce that they were dedicating money to an effort for equality. They didn’t even announce an internal policy to make sure that women were paid as much as men. They simply signaled their virtue through showing that they “cared” about equality for women.

The Audi instance illustrates the great danger of virtue-signaling. It reveals that we are more concerned with being seen as virtuous than with actually being virtuous. We are less concerned with helping the poor, and more concerned with being seen as the kind of people who care about the poor.

In the end, virtue-signaling is a form of self-justification. It is a way of showing why we are good and worthy people. I am good because I care about the gender wage gap. I am good because I care about the problem of racism. I am good because I care about unborn babies. I am good because I didn’t vote for (fill in the blank).

We signal our virtue often at the expense of others. We want to make sure that others know that we aren’t like those racists, those yuppies, those terrorists, or those baby-killers. We don’t actually want to do anything to help those causes, but we want to make sure that it is known that we are better than those other people.

In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus gave a parable that, in essence, is about virtue-signaling. It is often called the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The parable is introduced in verse 9 in this way: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable. This parable is the antidote for virtue-signaling. Jesus tells a parable in order to rebuke those who justify themselves at the expense of others.

In verses 10 the parable itself begins: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. As you may know, Pharisees were the most stringently moral and religious members of the Jewish community in the first century. Tax collectors, on the other hand, were Jews who betrayed their nation in order to sidle up to the Romans. Tax collectors got rich by price gouging their fellow Israelites. They were despised.

Jesus then describes the prayer of each man. In verses 11 and 12 he says, The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

The Pharisee’s prayer doesn’t really seem concerned with God as an audience. Either he is satisfied with being his own audience or he is seeking to catch the ears of others in the temple. He prays about his own goodness, especially in comparison to others.

He thanks God that he is not like the immoral people around him—including the tax collector who is also praying in the same temple. He justifies himself by his good works—fasting and tithing—and by the fact that he is not bad like others.

While we may not pray in a way that thanks God that we aren’t like other men, but I can’t help but notice how many social media posts seem to reflect this same construction. We thank God that we are not like the atheists, not like the racists, not like the uncaring conservatives or the unthinking liberals. We thank God that we are woke, enlightened, and compassionate.

We change our profile pictures for holidays or in response to tragedies. Either we are fooling ourselves or we are desperately seeking to demonstrate to others that we are virtuous in our care for school shooting victims, soldiers, or immigrants. After all, our care is evident by the fact that we clicked “post.”

Much of social media drives me so crazy that I find myself thanking God that I don’t post sanctimonious silliness like other people. (Irony intended)

The prayer of the tax collector—a sharp contract from the Pharisee’s prayer—is recorded in verse 13: But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The tax collector’s audience was not himself. And he did not see any path toward self-justification. In his desperation, he cried out to God to justify him. And he did so anonymously in a corner while beating his breast.

Several months ago a Christian writer—one that I like enough that I follow him on Twitter—posted in response to a well-known Christian woman who wrote an article about a pastor who had interacted with her in an inappropriate way many years previously. The writer—who I like a lot—posted something to the effect that he is not a violent person, but that it was good that he was not in the room when this incident took place.

I couldn’t help but notice how different this response was to the prayer of the tax collector. Perhaps a more appropriate—and less self-aggrandizing—response for him and for all of us would be to say, “God, save me from ever doing the same evil thing that this man did. After all, I am no less evil than he is.” I am deeply challenged by this thought.

Jesus ends the parable with the idea of justification. Verse 14 says I tell you that this man (the tax collector), rather than the other (the Pharisee) went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Our only hope for justification is for God to justify us. And the path to this is humility. We thwart this when we elevate ourselves at the expense of others.

Perhaps you’ve never used the term “virtue-signaling.” Perhaps you never will. Regardless, this term reflects a timeless human instinct to seek self-justification by looking down our noses at others. Jesus warns us to beware. When we exalt ourselves, when we signal our virtue to others, we undercut our opportunity for God to be the one to exalt us.