Like Sheep

The bible likens human beings to sheep, which is a challenge for us. Why? Because it's not very flattering. Sheep are not very smart, they are prone to leave the protection and provision of the shepherd and get their lives in a bad place, and they are fearful. Yep, pretty much just like us: we are not nearly so smart as we'd like to think. If we were, our lives would have far less problems. We are prone to wander, to part company from God our shepherd with an attitude of independence. Our fears make us begin to worry at the slightest hint of the possibility of a difficulty. Interestingly, for most believing people, all three of these dilemmas send us running back to the Shepherd yelling, "Help!"

For today - it's the part about fear that I want to talk about most because I think fear can be the most insidious and least obvious to us. Fear shows up in the obvious way - when we are anxious about a pending situation or threat. That's the clearest form of fear and the easiest to identify. When we are fearful, we are never at our best. We cower, we stew, our stomachs are in knots presuming the worst will happen. Often, to fear is to assume the worst, before we have enough information to really know what to do, what decisions to make. So, stuck without information, we fear the worst. A prison.

But there are much more insidious forms of fear that may never get noticed, and yet they are every bit as destructive. The most frequent way we manifest our fear is in our desire to control. We try to control situations, people, our children - in an effort to ensure ourselves that nothing unpredictable or undesirable will happen. In controlling this way, we begin to require people to meet our control need - our fear need. They must meet our expectations, they must turn out just the way I need them to. When they don't we are angry. When we do this, when we live this way, we put people in prisons, and in time we create a prison for ourselves. Unchecked, over time, the prison walls will grow high. The others you have imprisoned will begin to either cower or rebel. Usually it's cower first, then rebel. And you will begin to sink inside the lifeless pattern of prison life - the life we created by our fear.

For lent, and for today, perhaps a growth question is to consider if you have a high control personality. If so - it's likely driven by fear of some kind. If so - this is a place to pray, to ask God to help us. To set us free. Free.... from fear.

This is War But Don't Be Afraid

(This message has linkage to the Dec 21 posting below)

Yesterday in a message at Hope, I sought to convey the larger story of what is happening on the cross. Isaiah 53 offers the most sublime, poignant, beautiful and tragic rendition I've ever read. I've read it over and over and I will keep doing so.

In our day, we like to talk a lot about peace and tolerance. I appreciate both, but like anything these can become imbalanced to the point where we are no longer dealing with reality. I think most honest adults would recognize that we live in a world where there is a battle between dark and light, evil and good, sin and love. We see it all the time, everywhere. And most honest people see aspects of it in their own hearts and lives, thoughts and perspectives. We wish all of this wasn't a reality, but it is. To say otherwise is in my mind, foolish.

There is a thread of war throughout the Bible. It begins in Genesis 3:15 where God tells satan that he will be enemies with Eve's offspring but one day God will raise up a redeemer, and while Satan will bruise his heel, the Redeemer will crush satan's head. Unpleasant, confrontational, warring words. In Isaiah 9:6, a wonderful Christmas verse, we are told that a child will be given to us and he will make the peace and there will be no more warrior's boots stained with blood. More war talk. Then we come to the birth of Christ and Luke says that an angelic army (yes, the greek word 'stratia' is army, not 'host') filled the skies. This might explain why the shepherds were terrified. Essentially, the angels said to the shepherds "We know you're scared, but our news is good. The messiah is born today. Don't be afraid." This announcement coming from a legion of warrior angels.

Okay - so then we get to Jesus on the cross, where he gives his life for ours. When he died he said, "It is finished." What's finished? The decisive battle is finished, the battle that wins the war. So here is one of the most amazing of paradoxes - and the life of Jesus is full of them: Jesus wins the war by giving life. That is not the way we understand wars - because the tragic reality of wars is that normally, the side that can kill the most people wins. Not so with Jesus - in this war He wins the war by giving life not taking it. That said, the wise Christian also knows that someone did die in this war, and it was of course Jesus himself.

So with all this talk of enemies, the great conflict between God and Satan, Satan and people, darkness and light, evil and good, sin and love - God sent Jesus for the purpose of winning the war. He was born humbly in a manger, he died humiliatingly on a cross. A friend of mine who is a bible scholar said to me recently, "David, what the angels were really saying to the shepherds was "This is war, but don't be afraid."

Lent and the Cross

This Wednesday begins the season of Lent. Lent is traditionally a season for Christians to consider the deeper matters of what Christ has done for us in going to the cross and then of course in rising from the grave. If Advent is the season of celebration, one might consider Lent the season of sorrow. That's hard to say in today's world where all the messaging is supposed to be happy. But I for one, find a "happy Christianity" to be a shallow Christianity and one that has little to say to life's hard times and suffering seasons. The fact is that life has hard times, profoundly, abjectly, excruciatingly, hard times - some times. If our Christian teaching leaves out the sorrow of the cross, we lose one of the most powerful gifts of Christianity - a theology for suffering, a God who himself suffered the torturous death of his own son with all of sin's injustices and power grabs. It's an awful scene.

Shall we turn our eyes away from it then? Horrible as it is, it is a message of consistency with life as we know it. There is suffering in our lives. There is suffering in God's life. The consistency between the two leaves us with something that matches up, albeit so sadly. There is an answer, there is an experience that our God has manifest that is a suffering experience. No other religion has a God who has suffered under the weight of sin. And no other religion then overcome its power with His power - the power of life over the power of death.

This is part of the grand enigma of the cross. It is both the place of death - Jesus' death and also the death of the Christian - the person "who has been crucified with Christ." At the same time, it is the place of life: Jesus' death the final act for our forgiveness and preceding his resurrection which assures our eternal life. So if you consider the cross this Lent, consider it as the place where you, and He died. A place of suffering that is consistent with our world's tragedy. And then, it's the place of life - our forgiveness and first step in the two part drama of redemption - with step two being the resurrection.

To the apostle Paul, becoming a Christian meant the death of him - and yet it meant the life of Christ for him. A far better life than the "Saul of Tarsus" life he had before. For many of us, becoming a Christian seems to make Jesus an additive to our own peppy story. The cross makes all the difference.

Covet, Compare, Condemn

Covet, Compare and Condemn are three words that hang out together like friends who are teenage troublemakers, causing problems wherever they go. The Bible warns us not to covet, not only because of how our hearts will contort the thing we may covet but because of the contortions of relationships involved. In Exodus 20:17, the repeated warning is against coveting "your neighbor's" things. Not only is coveting a cancer for our spirit, it is a cancer in the fabric of relationships.

When we covet something, we usually end up comparing ourselves to the person who owns it. If it's a beautiful beach house, we may start thinking about the person who owns the house, and we size ourself up against that person. This is where condemnation comes in - because in our insecurities we either dismiss the other in some way (large or small) or we dismiss or condemn ourselves. It's a game that nobody wins, there's no life in it because their is no God in it. All the while our hearts and souls are eaten away by the desire for something that is not ours.

In time, if we seek in this challenging area, we will come to see that our problem is not in our possessions, but in our hearts. We begin to ask ourselves, "why do I want this thing so much?" or "why do I feel so inadequate by comparison?" We begin to realize that our difficulty lies in the fabric of our hearts that have sought contentment in outward things, (objects, people, recognition) instead of God - who alone can give our hearts the security and affirmation for which they long.

One of the most engaging things the apostle Paul wrote is that he had learned the secret of being content in all circumstances (Phil 4:12) - it wasn't based on good times or plentiful possessions. Well, this statement makes sense for Paul to say because his life had disappeared in the death of Christ and then in the resurrection of Jesus he had a new life - a life hidden in Christ and found in Christ. His identity was at rest here and his spirit found peace here - beyond circumstances or possessions or worldly observations and evaluations. And it bears noting; he was free.

"Becoming" (Podcast)

A long time ago, I read the quote by Martin Luther that includes these words: "This life therefore is not health but healing, not being but becoming, for we are not yet what we shall one day be." I loved the words when I read them and they have stayed firmly in my mind since. The phrase has a very Biblical theme - the idea of growth and pushing on to the high calling of Christ, a theme that is very prevalent in the NT book of Philippians.

Well, based on that quote and on the premise of growth that it offers, we've started a new podcast by the name "Becomingcast" It's discussions on life and faith and our hope is that it's both fun to listen to and also meaningful. We're new at it and I'm optimistic that it will only get better as we keep doing it. I hope so. If you like Podcasts, each episode is about 15 minutes - intended for a commute to work (at least in Richmond, VA) or a workout on the treadmill. Hope you like it - you can find it on iTunes by searching for "Becomingcast," you can go to the internet to www.becomingcast.com, or the Hope website has it here http://hopecentral.com/worship-media/becoming-cast/

Connecting the Justice Threads

Christianity is the single largest contributor to justice issues in the history of the world. The Christian faith, with its emphasis on the dignity of all human beings, has throughout the centuries been the impetus for justice in both large and small ways. Great works like the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence are laced with Christian foundations and theology. For example, the words "All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights - among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are words that wouldn't have been written if not for the teachings of Jesus and the larger teachings of the Bible. There is particularly in these Christian teachings, a sensitivity for the weak and powerless - those who are trapped, who are defenseless, and therefore are in a position of weakness, subject to abuse.

Today's interest in the church for justice issues is encouraging, particularly in efforts to combat human slavery, especially sexual enslavements. At root, underneath it all, is the sanctity of human life - the value of a human being - precious to God, made in His image, loved from His heart. I suspect it will not be a good day when a person meets God who has knowingly participated in the enslavement, abuse, or destruction of human beings. Particularly the abuse of the weak and the defenseless. Note that I said, "knowingly." In the mystery of life and human awareness this is an engaging matter. Jesus prayed to God on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." But what about those who do know what they are doing? One surmises that judgement might be a less graceful experience for a person who knowingly and willingly participated in the abuse or destruction of human beings and was unrepentant about it. Another key "and was unrepentant about it." God, in an amazing way, offers forgiveness and grace to the repentant.

The dignity of human beings, whether weak or strong, pretty or homely, rich or poor, born or pre-born, is the foundation of all human justice concerns. This dignity is rooted in Genesis 1:26-27 and manifests in many other places. It does not mean all people deserve equal experiences or lifestyles. It does mean all people are of equal value to God and thereby should be to us. It's risky in today's emotionally charged environment, but it's true - that all justice initiatives have their origin in "original justice" which is the right to life. Starting by protecting the dignity of all human beings, especially these who are the most defenseless - we then gain a growing vision for justice for all other human beings and the plight of the defenseless.

No other religion, no other philosophy, comes close to Christianity in catalyzing justice for human beings. The cultures around the world that embrace the legacy of a true Christian and biblical belief, are those that work for the highest levels of justice. I'm grateful for this legacy.

Boys to Men

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

This post is for men, and perhaps any women who might be interested. It's a call, an invitation, a plea for manhood. What's this all about? Let me explain.

Over the last several years in ministry life, I have observed a disturbing immaturity among men. I am finding men who are emotionally immature, men who are living like and behaving like boys - even though they may be in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and even into their 60s. This is primarily manifest in men who seem to be unable to take on adult responsibilities, unable to govern their personal interests and emotional or sexual appetites, and apply self control to their desires. I see men in their twenties and thirties who haven't outgrown hours-long video gaming with their friends - doing pretty much the exact same things they were doing with their friends when they were 12 years old. Okay - so before getting blasted for being anti video game, let me say that sure - the occasional gaming session for entertainment can be a fun diversion. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about men who spend many hours a week gaming.

I see similar but different manifestations of "adult adolescence" as well. I see men who are unable to love their wives by putting their own interests second to the needs of their wife. Men who are unwilling to deny themselves personal desires such as drinking, drugs and pornography - all while their families suffer for lack of attention, strength, character, and responsibility. I see men who are unwilling and unable to make clear commitments. I'm concerned about it.

I'm not quite sure how we got here, but I do see some suspects in our culture and other places that likely developed in our upbringing. Our culture has so pressed for the feminization of men that we are now seeing results of that. That's a book in its own right. Further, I think our problem may result from parents and mothers who coddled us, perhaps afraid that if they placed a high bar for us we'd rebel, or turn to unhealthy places. I think it's possible that this is the result of more absentee parents - or just distance from our parents. I think that comes from cell phones, personal computers and other things that have fostered relational isolation and individual living rather than more family relating. With everyone having their own computer, we retreat from family conversations, accountabilities and socialization, to the personal entertainments of our computers. Some of those entertainments take many men toward pornography. The pain this is causing marriages is enormous. I can hardly tell you how much time I spend with couples on this issue. I'm not sure if I'm right about these causes - these reasons and sources. I know that life is complex and the stories are likely unique for each person, but there have to be common contributors too. I am sure however, that many of us have turned to unhealthy practices and places. I am sure that I see many, many men who are little more than adult adolescents.

Here's the hard blow - ready? I find that women are generally much more mature in these matters of life than men are. Not all of course. But in general I find more women who are emotionally mature and able to commit to healthy relationships. But their desire for male companionship is so strong, that many believe they have to settle for an immature man - and then the women too can be influenced by the lower bar of the behavior of men. The other day a woman asked me, "Where are these mature men? Because I'd like to meet one." I get that.

Okay - so guys, I'm with you and I think we need to help one another rise to new levels of maturity. We need to take responsibility, put our wives and children before ourselves, learn self-control for our desires and learn that love is sacrificing ourselves for higher purposes and callings: other people, our wives, our kids, our communities. Higher callings also include less tangible things like character. Becoming a person of mature character is a high calling and the benefits that come from this are enormous for our marriages, families, children, communities, and yes - for ourselves.

So guys, let's help one another grow. Grow in character, grow in emotional maturity, grow to take on responsibility, grow to provide the strength that yes, the whole world needs - - from men. This isn't a tirade against men - please don't mistake it for that. I'm one of us. It's a rallying cry to a new vision of mature manhood. Women are waiting, children are waiting, our society is in deep need.

Success?

Richard Halverson said, "Christianity began in Palestine as a relationship, moved to Europe and became an institution, then came to America and became an enterprise." Fascinating, sad, and I think true.

In the U.S. I find that many Christians tie their sense of value to an idea of "what I have accomplished for the Lord." This takes the form of writing books, starting ministries or churches, developing "kingdom centered" businesses and other things like this. It has a characteristically american entrepreneurial flavor to it. Is that bad? I suppose like a lot of things, it has it's good sides and it's not so good sides. I could reflect on that for several pages.

However, for the moment, my greater interest is how the bible tends to portray success. Ironically, many of the people our entrepreneurial and quantifiable measuring sticks might consider successful are portrayed somewhat negatively in the bible. Solomon was a man who had amassed tremendous wealth and had a heart for God; for a while. The tragedy is that at the end of Solomon's life the bible says he worshiped foreign gods. His wealth took his heart and led it away from God. Then in the new testament there is a man called only "the rich young ruler" who was apparently very successful. He however, turned away from Jesus; he was too devoted to his wealth and status. Even Job, in all his struggle, is a story of a wealthy man who appeared to have a wealth-formula theology. His struggles led him out of this false theology toward a relationship with the grand and glorious God. The guys who were "successful" are generally not held in esteem in the bible's economy.

Then there are others who are huge successes - stand-out luminaries who shine as examples. They are people like Ruth - who had nothing, but was a woman of profound devotion and character. In the new testament, there are three people that come immediately to mind (since it's Christmas time): Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist. These three people appear to be very modest people. They are without worldly acclaim or accomplishment, yet they are towering figures of success in the bible. Simeon was a man of deep devotion who had shaped his heart into expectant devotion awaiting the messiah. You could say that giving his heart to God and expectantly awaiting the messiah was his vocation. Anna was a woman who spent seemingly all her time in the temple courts praying and worshiping. John the Baptist was the one who said one of the most significant things any human being has ever said regarding God: "I must decrease and he must increase." Of John the Baptist, Jesus Christ himself said "there is none greater born of woman."

Simeon and Anna were people to whom the world paid little attention. John the baptist received attention, but likely was seen by most as a kind of religious kook. The bible however makes it clear that these people are a huge "success" and the "successful people" were often not what the bible considers successful.

If this question is ever a struggle for you - you've wondered "what you've accomplished for the Lord," take heart and realize that Dick Halverson was right. Christianity started in Palestine as a relationship, and giving your heart to God is the highest version of success in His eyes.

Christmas Thoughts

A Sign: Both Isaiah 7 and Luke 2 say essentially: "this shall be a sign to you, the virgin will be with child..." A sign? A sign is something that shows us something else or points to a larger destination. A sign gets us somewhere. But when we're talking about Christmas - I thought the manger was that destination, that place where we would find the baby. Isn't he - the baby Jesus, the big payload of Christmas? Isn't he the point? Well, yes and no. Or yes, and not exactly. It's helpful for us to be reminded that Jesus' birth was not exactly about Jesus. Jesus wasn't born so we would come to Jesus; he didn't come into the world to lead us to himself. Jesus came into the world to lead us to God. God then, is the full destination. So if a sign is something that helps us get to our full destination - then the baby in the manger is a sign. The one by whom we can get to God. "God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ..." Col 1.

Heavenly Host: In a recent email exchange with a friend, we were talking about the word "host" as it describes the angels. The word host is a watered-down word. In greek the word is στρατιᾶς (stratias) and this word has a very normal translation which is "army." I suspect in our modern days where we wish away violence (but fill our minds with it on TV) we have sentimentalized ourselves away from heavenly armies and distorted them to hosts. This may have started with the King James version, but most modern translations pick up on it. Translated more accurately, the sky was filled with the heavenly "army." As my friend wrote, "this was no baby shower, this was an invasion force and this is one more reason the shepherds had to be told to not be afraid." Well that changes the scene a bit. Now we have a baby who is announced and supported by an army. This puts some teeth into what Christmas is about: Bethlehem, a beach-head stormed by the son who's come to get his people back. Bethlehem the beach-head of a battle, a cosmic war that was won through the cross and the resurrection. The baby is cute, but he's a warrior, and the sky was filled with his troops. This idea is furthered when we realize that the angel who is named in the birth accounts is Gabriel. The name Gabriel means "warrior of God."

What Child is This? I have always liked this Christmas song. If I'm not mistaken it's one of very few hymns or songs with a title that is a question. It's a good question. It suggests the answer is not obvious, and even when it becomes clear that it's Jesus, we've an eternal life to reckon with the fulness of who HE is. John says he's the one through whom all things were made, whether in heaven or on earth. Paul says in Colossians that "He is before all things and in Him all things hold together." You tell me if you can grasp the fulness of that. I get the general idea, but I'm certain I have no idea of the grand scale of this. And trying to grasp the grand scale is all the harder when juxtaposed with the fact that here before us in a manger is a tiny (much smaller than us) baby. A much smaller than us baby, who is the much bigger than us creator, of everything. "What child is this?" Good question. Something to sing about, think about and grow into. Forever.

Merry Christmas Friends. Christmas is God saying, "I'm here, I'm real, I love you." In a whisper.

"I Had No Idea"

One of the things that happens in life comes when we gain new levels of experience which make us say, "Wow, I had no idea." For example, when you were a child you may have had lots of thoughts about your folks and how well (or not) you thought they did as parents. Then you had children of your own and you said to yourself, "I had no idea." Or, perhaps you are a person who dreamed of starting your own business. You may have seen others who had their own successful businesses, and you figured it was something you'd do one day. So you embarked on the journey and in a short time you found yourself saying (or thinking) "Wow, I had no idea" how much work it takes. This pattern of coming to the point where you say, "Wow, I had no idea" is a normal part of life for those who pay attention as they mature. Maybe you lose one of your parents to death, and then you remember some conversations you had with a friend who's mother died who had told you it was hard. Well, when you lose your own parent, you grieve and realize the depth of it and say to yourself, "I had no idea."

If this is true with normal experiences of human life - imagine how it might be when we meet God. See, in each of these normal life experiences, it's not that you knew nothing of the topic at hand, it's just that you hadn't experienced it first hand. When you did though, you began to say "I had no idea." The Bible suggests a similar experience awaits us regarding meeting God when we enter Heaven. It says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Cor 2:9) In other words, we can expect to get there and say, "Wow... I had no idea." Not that we hadn't heard about Heaven's experience or thought about it - it's just that when it's first-hand it's a whole lot different, much bigger than our small-by-comparison thoughts could have grasped.

Finally - this makes me think of Christmas. What is really happening here - this small baby in a manger in a tiny village. We try to grasp the magnitude but it's hard to do, even with the assistance of Christmas carols and Bible texts. The Bible suggests people talked about the baby, some revered him, others had little recognition of his magnitude or majesty. Who is this child in the manger? Who is he really? Well, a little later in the New Testament we read "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (Colossians 1:15-20)

There we have it. This is who the baby is. Wow. We had no idea.

How Do We Recognize Love?

Love will heal you. Love will give you life. Love will make your soul grow. Love will make you a freer person. Love is not the same as strong feelings which can be often possessive, sometimes obsessive. Love does not manipulate you or treat you as something to consume or possess. Love may let you learn a difficult lesson to protect you from a more difficult one. Love may say yes, love may say no – it depends, because love always wants the best for you.

Love will tell you the truth which may sometimes hurt. Love will not assist you in self destructive behavior. Love can manifest in anger when it sees evil being done, but love is not self-centered anger. Love may discipline you because it believes you are better than your poor behavior and it wants better for you, believes better for you. Love exhorts you to your best because love is always “for” you and for your well being. Yes, love is for you, never against you.

God is Love

Love is emotion, love is intellect, love is highest ideals and virtue. Love is rescue, love is sacrifice, love serves and love gives. Love is not in it to get your love; love is in it to give you love. Love does not require and certainly does not demand, sex. Love is rich in friendship, tender toward the weak, protective of the vulnerable. Love never exploits. Love gives affirmation and often affection. Love does not always like; it is deeper than that and stronger too – love always loves.

Love comes from God, He is its source. Love seeks reconciliation, love works for redemption, love is the first to a sincere apology. Love is life giving and identity affirming; love changes lives, changes hearts and changes the world. Love is the work of the church – of all believers, and it is the hunger of every human being’s deepest place.

God is Love

Love will not betray you or double cross you. Love is not apathetic; love cares deeply. Sometimes love cries, sometimes love fights when a person or a relationship or a thing is worth fighting for. Love is the highest virtue because all other virtues are sub categories of it. This is because God is love.

Because Love is from God we may not always understand it because His ways are higher than ours. But as longing has an object – as thirst has water and hunger food, Love is our highest longing needing the highest answer. Yes – God is love.

Advent & When God Does Religion

People tend to do religion quite differently than God does. You probably know that the word "religion" means to "reconnect." That in its own right is provocative to me. Reconnect to what? To whom?

Well, Christmas gets to the core of Christianity. You might say that wrapped up in those swaddling cloths, IS the core of Christianity. Here we have neither abstract theologies or philosophical debates. We have no denominations and spats about free will or ways of baptism. Here we have, quite simply - what is real, what is alive, what is relational, what is human, what is God. What could be more real, more present, less debatable, than a baby lying before you? This is how God chose to do it. It's not theological, and yet it's the highest Christian theology - Jesus Christ, God's son, a newborn. What could be more normal than a baby? What could be more everyday than a baby? You try changing diapers and getting up in the middle of the night. What could be more life than a baby? What could be more miraculous than a baby who is God's son? Here you go, in a manger, the normal and the miraculous. Two words that describe the ways of God.

How would you have done it if you were God? How would a transcendent, awesome God who wants a relationship with us, show himself to us without scaring the pants off of us? So God, the one whom all the "religion" is about - chose to do it this way: a baby. It makes me think -

Where religion drifts toward the intellectual, this is personal.
Where religion gets into debate, this is about relationship.
Where religion gets philosophical, this is actual.
Where religion can be distant, this is present.
Where religion gets institutional, this is human.
Where religion gets abstract, this is quite simply, God.

Six words for Christmas: personal, relationship, actual, present, human, God. I hope all six saturate your soul. That'd be quite a gift.

Questions

We can presume that people are the only living things that ask "why?" Human beings are the only living things that have a hunger to know, to understand the larger picture, the philosophical mysteries. Only Gary Larson's "Far Side" would have animals asking "why?" I'm full of questions. Perhaps you are too. Children are the ones with the most questions, as their curiosity sends their minds on a constant search to know why. In this regard, perhaps I haven't outgrown childhood.

A few reflections on all of this: There's a difference between curiosity and skepticism. Curiosity is open while skepticism is doubtful. Both have their place but skepticism runs the risk of thinking too highly of itself. It has a "know it all" thread underneath. The skeptic also has to be skeptical about skepticism, asking "is this attitude and approach really appropriate?" Yet, to be skeptical sometimes is healthy - perhaps even a God given gift. When you smell a rat, it's probably a good thing to be skeptical. I have my share of skeptical queries, but I've learned to try to see the risk of having an attitude when it comes to skepticism. "Having an attitude" is never life giving, never a place of soul growth. Curiosity is different however.

This brings me to the important understanding of balance, when it comes to questions. There are lots of important balance points it seems to me. One is knowing when to admit our smallness and to embrace an appropriate humility up against the great mysteries. (That's part of being a child, and Jesus said the Kingdom is for those who come to it as a child.) The second is sticking to what the Bible says and not prognosticating far beyond.

Regarding the deepest mysteries of life - we pretty quickly come to questions of origins - "how is there something instead of nothing, and how did that something begin?" In my view, the most aggressive philosophical pursuits take us to a point where we have to admit our smallness. It's like saying, "beyond this point, we have no answers." Both an evolutionary atheist and a Bible believing Christian come to a point where they have to "just accept things" at that point. For the atheist, it's where did matter originate? Where did it come from? No matter how small the particulates, we have to ask "where did it come from?" For an atheist on the question of origins, to have a position on this is to make a statement of faith - to believe something we can't fully understand.

For the Christian, we accept that in the beginning, before anything we know as "the world" existed, God existed. We then ask, "Where did God come from?" The answer is, "He didn't come from anything - he always existed, and he is the source from which everything else comes." To accept this is to express faith. Faith is not unreasonable, it the position we hold as the result of our reason. On the matter of origins the atheist and the believer both have a point of faith. There are lots of other matters like this too - predestination and free will being one example.

On #2, what the Bible says - I find it unpersuasive when people try to create dogmatic biblical positions by assuming things that the Bible doesn't say. The bible speaks to many things, but there are also many things it doesn't cover. I think it's helpful when trying to glean from the Bible, to stay with what it says. After that, I have to say, "I'm not sure about that - God has chosen not to reveal that in the Bible." We either accept that or not. One is a position of humility which is life giving, the other a position of superiority which isn't life giving. On this topic, someone once said, "Trying to answer a lot of scientific questions from the Bible, is like trying make Moby Dick a manual on whaling and oceanography." That's not what it is, and it's not why it was written.

So "balance" is the word that comes to mind. On the biggest, most mysterious questions of life, I want to seek them out as rigorously as possible. But I have to balance that with knowing that up against the biggest mysteries, my intellect is small. I accept that there are things I will not know. That doesn't mean I don't keep seeking though.

On Biblical debates, the balance is to stick with what the Bible clearly says, and accept that there are mysteries in the space beyond what it talks about. When a position is required and the Bible isn't clear, then we're best to hold our position with a significant dose of humility.

Grace Like Manna

In Exodus, God set his people free from Egyptian captivity and then provided food for them on their journey toward his promised land. The food was a daily supply of bread-like nutrition called manna, and it appeared each new morning. God told his people to gather enough to last for one day, and then tomorrow they could gather enough fresh manna again. Being fearful and untrusting people like most of us, some of the Israelites sought to gather more than one day's need. After all, "what if God doesn't hold up on his promise and give us manna again tomorrow?" To this, the Bible says essentially that "manna doesn't keep." Those who sought to store it found that it spoiled and had maggots. Gross. Yesterday's manna wont do and tomorrow's manna isn't here yet.

Grace is like that. Grace is a daily thing with God. See, through the cross God has set us free by his forgiveness. On the new journey of life with God, he offers us grace for our sin so that we might keep living as free people. Kind of like manna for Israel. Grace is his daily supply of what we need to live in his freedom and with joy; with a clean conscience from the past and without fear of what will happen if we sin in the future. But many of us have a hard time trusting grace. What if God doesn't give us grace for sin in the future? When will he just say, "enough grace for you already - do you know how much grace I keep pouring out for you? No more." We can get fearful about this so we try to "store up grace" in case we need it in the future should God decide to no longer provide it. Or sometimes we reach for yesterday's grace when we felt it in a special way. Like manna, yesterday's grace doesn't keep however. Is that bad news? It'd only be bad news if there wasn't a fresh supply of grace every day. Sometimes we keep trying to retrieve yesterday's grace because while God has given us forgiveness, we're still living in the regret of our yesterday, not believing that his grace was sufficient for it.

Will you trust God for today's grace? It's likely that to do this you will also have to grow to trust him for tomorrow's promised grace. Otherwise you will you try to "store up grace" the way some Israelites tried to store manna; and grace like manna, doesn't keep. God made it this way, so our relationship with him would never get stale, so we'd keep coming to him daily, living with him in his fresh supply of today's grace.

"Prosperity Leadership" and the book of Numbers

The book of Numbers is a very helpful study in leadership. It couldn't be any clearer that Moses was God's called leader. It couldn't be any clearer that Canaan was God's given vision. It also couldn't be any clearer that the challenges for God's leader were enormous and difficult as he led God's people toward God's vision.

The reason this is worth noting is that it debunks a false leadership narrative. That narrative goes something like this: "If we really have the person God has called, and we are really following God's vision - then it should all go smoothly and easily." I have seen this false theology of leadership expressed many times in the church, through many different statements and sentiments. "Gee, this is hard, maybe we aren't following God's vision for us." "I wonder if our leader isn't really the right person - if he/she was, this would be a much easier journey." No, there's much more to it than that simple formula.

The book of Numbers tells it differently. The journey was hard for the people and for the leaders. There was complaining and rebellion, insurrection and doubt. Moses as leader was challenged with hard decisions, dilemmas, a legion of obstacles and difficult people. My own leadership experience suggests to me that this menu of leadership challenges may be common fare. The bible tells numerous stories of God's appointed leaders dealing with one hardship after another. Talk to the apostle Paul about this - who was shipwrecked, flogged, opposed, mocked, stoned and starved.

I'm not sure where the idea of "prosperity leadership" originated. I suspect it is tied to some form of prosperity theology where God's favor is calculated through ease of life and comfortable circumstances. Summed up, this theory suggests, "If God is in it, it's going to be easy." Try telling that to Moses, Joshua, Daniel, Paul, Peter, and most of all Jesus.

Such a theology of leadership is shallow and I imagine it makes for shallow leaders, as well as shallow followers. I suspect it has also led to a lot of division in churches, as well as the forfeiture of following God's call and God's vision when things began to get a little challenging. It requires no real faith, it asks for no growth and frankly it's a model I have never seen in the scriptures.

The Little Word with Huge Meaning

In the New Testament there are a number of places where Jesus teaches the disciples through the use of the word "as." As, suggests "in the same way." When you begin to give real thought to this you begin to see the remarkable and sometimes startling power of this little word 'as.'

In the Lord's prayer Jesus teaches us to seek to do the work of God's heart so that His will is done on earth "as" it is in Heaven. Same priorities, same character, same vision, same love. Then in the prayer, we ask God to forgive us our sins "as" (in the same way) we forgive those who sin against us. Wow, that'll get your attention. In reality, I'd like God not to forgive me as I forgive others. I'd like God to use much more grace and mercy than I do. Of course there's a teaching point, "Well David, perhaps you need to have much more grace and mercy."

Jesus said on a couple of occasions, "As (in the same way) the father has sent me, so are you being sent." Jesus was sent to live a life of redemptive purpose and to give his life a sacrifice for others. "As" here, suggests we are sent to live the same way.

Jesus prayed in John 17 "may they be one 'as' we are one." Here he is praying for us to have the same unity the same depth of love and soul connectedness, the same yieldedness and mutual love and support that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have in the Trinity.

There are many more "as" places in Jesus' teaching. When this little word shows up, it carries huge meaning that needs real reflection and prayer.

Morning Prayer

I am a morning person and I often feel most alive in the first few hours of a day - most optimistic and also most clear minded. I should also say that sleep has a lot to do with this. I am grateful because I generally sleep well and I usually wake up feeling rested and ready to for a new day.

I particularly like the quiet of the morning as a time to meet with God, to think about His goodness, to read the scriptures and to pray. In so doing, I embrace the rhythms of newness as the cycle of creation offers a new day as God has made it.

From the time I was a kid, the little bit of church going that I did was in the Episcopal church which was liturgical and mostly from the Prayer Book. While I usually prefer other styles of worship, one thing the liturgical tradition impressed upon me was the idea of prayers that were offered for various occasions. Couple that with the fact that at a recent staff meeting our staff discussed Psalm 90 and the idea of "numbering our days," implying each one of them is special and unique. This prompted a discussion about a "Prayer for the Morning" - an expression to God that could set our hearts and minds with Him as we enter this new and unique day. Each day of course is unique, it has never been before, and it will never be again. Our staff asked me if I would try to write a prayer like this - so here it is:

Good morning gracious and beautiful God.
With the sun I rise to you, with creation I praise you, with the saints I adore you.

Thank you for the gift of sleep and the arrival of this new day.
You alone are God; my Lord and my forgiver.

Heavenly Father, help me move through this day with the wonder of a child;
with my heart open to both give and receive love.

Fill me with your Spirit so that I am communing with you throughout the day;
moment by moment and breath by breath.
Grant me the faith to face challenges, the character to be true, the grace to forgive.

And when the sun seeks the western horizon and this day's end draws near,
help me rest in the knowledge that you are my life,
and all that I am is secure through Jesus Christ. Amen

Thinking and Thanking

Recently when studying Jesus' prayer in John 17, the thought hit me that Jesus was praying about God's interests. It made me ask if I ever do this. There are times when I have asked God to glorify Himself, to reveal Himself and things like this. But what struck me about the prayer was a sense that Jesus was not praying for God's interests for any other reason - not as they have to do with His own (Jesus') plans or hopes. Rather, Jesus was simply aligning His heart with God by praying for God's interests.

To pray for God's interests requires first that one knows God's interests. To know God's interests, one has to really know God Himself, or as Jeremiah said, that a person "understands me and knows me." See how all of this builds - one step on top of the other?

All of this then took me to another place of prayer - and for lack a better way to say it, this other thread is "thinking and thanking." The thought occurred to me that one of the great aspects of prayer is to simply think about God. Yes, to direct my spirit and my mind to think about who God is and make these thoughts intentionally God directed such that they are prayer. In so thinking about God, I can come to no other conclusion except to begin to delight in who God is - what He is like, His personality, His priorities, His character - His Glory. To think about these things is going to make me grateful. I'm going to start thanking Him for who He is and then my prayer is going to turn into a little worship service of gratitude. As I continue to thank Him, my mind is going to be continually stretched to be thinking more about who He is. And the more I think about who He is, yep, the more I'm going to be thanking Him for who He is. So the two are going to propel one another forward in a prayer cycle of higher reaching thoughts and deeper reaching gratitude. For what? For nothing other than God. A beautiful dance and mutual encouragement that comes when God directed prayer is woven in the pattern of thinking and thanking.

10 Year Remembrances

In honor of the horrible and tragic events of September 11, 2001; remarks from my message delivered the following Sunday are reprinted here:


The prophets speak about how we mis - take life. How we substitute the false for the true, the superficial for the sublime. How we neglect the important and entertain, even work for, the vain things.

Now tragedy is our prophet. Her voice has made many things clearer now. Sadness is our nation’s unity and anger is knocking at the door, while vengeance is an unwelcome outsider that wishes to come in – brandishing its grim sickle.

In our sorrow that sometimes seethes, our laments become our confessions – but they need greater definition from us. They need to be faced and named so we wont be the same again. So we will seek God for real and for good.

Now our generation has met with calamity and a new fear. Now we understand our parents more, or our grandparents. Now we live more together, and less full of our selves. Now our hugs mean
more. “I love you,” means more. Friends, family, real community in Christ, mean more.

When will it be like it was again? Do you want it to be? Now that what’s meaningful is meaningful for real. Today our living is more profound, more sublime, more grateful, and imminently more a gift. Those who lost loved ones feel a pain that aches, and anger too. But their death is not wasted. And if I might say it, their death has become a gift to us. For their death has given us a call to life and to meaning and to God. Theirs then is a sacrificial death, pointing us to the one who died as the sacrifice… the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

And so, when I seek God, I think of a verse of Scripture that is perhaps my favorite. But I sometimes feel unsure of saying so because when people have the “What is your favorite verse?” discussion this one does not appear very personal and it is not about Jesus. But I am a morning person, and on countless mornings, I have risen to a new day and sought a quiet place – which is usually my back deck. I often go there with my Bible and a cup of coffee, and this verse is how God and I greet one another…..

Lamentations 3:21-24

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

God Being With Us

15 years ago, a friend gave me a small piece of paper with the following words typed on it. I placed it in the mirror over my dresser, and it has served as a foundation for me, a reminder of God's goodness and presence through all the experiences of life.

"With You, nothing is accidental, nothing is incidental, and no experience is wasted. You hold in Your own power my breath of life and all my destiny. And every trial that You allow to happen is a platform on which You reveal Yourself, showing Your love and power, both to me and to others looking on. Thank You that I can move into the future non-defensively, with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead, for You hold the future and You will always be with me, even to my old age, and through all eternity."

I do not know who originally wrote this, but it has been very meaningful to me and I hope it might be helpful to you.

The Ultimate Questions

Lately I've had some meaningful and warm conversations with people about faith, the possibility of faith, questions about truth, science and religion and things like that. I enjoy these conversations a lot, I like the intellectual pursuit of them and the way they offer opportunities to make new friends over meaningful interaction and thought sharing.

The question of whether God exists is of course one of the oldest questions of human inquiry. The two basic conclusions have placed people in either the "yes" or "no" families for many millennia. The yes or no families tend to represent those who draw their conclusions through religion and those who draw their conclusions through science.

In my view, a serious thinker who is a person of character (both are important here) sees two important points in this inquiry: The first is that these questions are about the very highest and most mysterious aspects of existence. In our day, people who approach this intellectually, will not in this life "prove" that their position is right - proved as to make an air tight, locked up case. That is to say, I believe that both sides must admit that faith is involved - faith being a component of trust into the space where one is not sure. A person of religious faith should agree to this, but a person who has placed their trust in science must also agree that they are putting faith in certain places of the argument. So faith is involved, regardless of which side you choose. Secondly, because there will not be an air tight, completely conclusive proof, a person must then choose based on the side he/she finds to be the more persuasive one, the more logical one, the one that presents the most intellectually intelligible position - the one that is founded on rigorous intellectual examination while at the same time must be accompanied by sterling character. The character part is needed to ensure that a person will not be deceitful, that they are humble enough to concede where they may be wrong or where the other person has made a good point, and finally, that they will not manipulate information in order to gain currency for their position. Finding people like this is not always easy.

Okay - now on to why I once was an atheist who embraced the scientific view, a view without God, where all that exists is the result of random physical forces, but I no longer hold this view. There are two main streams for me, and remember that the point I'm making is not "which one is right" but "which one do I find more persuasive - more logical to me, makes the most sense." The first stream is the question of origins - "where did anything come from?" Science says "matter, elements, sub atomic sized particles that banded together and became something more" etc... I appreciate that, but the question remains - "where did that come from?" Science says "it was so tiny, it was gaseous, it was...." It doesn't matter how small it is, size is a relative concept. It's not a "how big" question, it's a "yes or no" question, an "it exists or doesn't" question. Size is immaterial. Thus, to hold a position that "it just came out of nothing" is illogical to me. It does not have intellectual credibility to me. There is nothing that exists, that comes from nothing. Something, or someone - made it. That's normal every day life reasoning. Remember when you were a kid and you saw a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat and it seemed to you that "something just appeared." Well, later you learned that the rabbit was always there, it didn't come from nowhere - but that it's "appearance from nothing" was not actually an appearance from nothing - but it was done with a sleight of hand. Actually the magician brought it to our attention through some mysterious means. Interesting.

To me, it is not persuasive to say that matter came from nothing, even if it was tiny, even if it was elemental or gaseous. It is much more logical to say that God has always existed, and then at a point of his choosing, he chose to create. Science may then ask, "Where did God come from?" That's a good question - but the answer is "He always existed, he is the ultimate reality - thus everything came from him." A science person might say "I don't buy it." Okay - fair enough. We can only operate on what we personally find the most persuasive position. To me however, this view is much more persuasive, more logical, than the view that physical existence came into being, from nothing. Another aspect of the purely scientific view that began to grow hollow for me, was that advances in science, meant changes were made to "scientific facts." For instance, 50 years ago - there were scientific views that were held to be "fact" but now they aren't, because advances have changed our understanding. In other words, "that was wrong, cuz now we know more." Take one of the simplest examples; when I was a kid, there were 9 planets, scientific "fact." Now however, there are 8; scientific "fact," because Pluto it was discovered, did not qualify as a planet. I find the changes in the facts to be disconcerting to intellectual progress as well as determinations through logic.

In wrapping up this part - someone's gonna say "do you believe in science." My answer is definitely "yes." I believe in so much of what science teaches us, and has uncovered and discovered. I'm really grateful for it. But on the question of origins, I do not find the science side to be persuasive.

The second stream is that science has no explanation for the non-physical world, and the non-physical world is an absolutely massive part of human life. Human beings live every day looking for love and identity, they seek forgiveness and hope. These are major, major aspects of human existence and science does not have an explanation for these things. If life was purely a science based, physical world, love would not be part of human life and existence. Yet love is a more significant player in human experience than the existence of many physical things like mountains or flowers. We must have some understanding for the question, "where did love come from?" Now this entry is getting really long and I could go on for a long time, but gotta cut it short - so by far the most persuasive answer to "where does love come from?" is "God." God is love, we're told in the Bible, and this foundational point explains a great deal of human existence. Without this foundational point, we are addressing only the physical world, which is no where near a full explanation of human existence and human experience. My mind demands some kind of persuasive answer to this massive category of life. And this category of love, is only one of many like it that are in the same conversation - grief, forgiveness, hope... are a few more.

I'm very appreciative of people who are seriously seeking truth and doing so with both character and intellectual rigor. I hope that I've done it this way, I know I continue to try. For me, this (constant) inquiry has led me to the position that I find most intellectually credible, most persuasive - that God is the ultimate reality and all comes from him. This is what first led me to become a Christian; and while there are many more aspects to my Christian life now that I have been a Christian for over 25 years, this one remains a mainstay of my relationship with God and life as I understand it.