Win the Prize

Have you looked at the sports section yet? Did your team win? Are they moving up or down the rankings? I love sports, both as a spectator and as a participant. I like to compete and to win, because it feels like we (I) have accomplished something. I am finding though, that my 40 something body does not allow me to do as much, so now I participate vicariously through my kids and other kids in town. 

Do you ever think about winning at life? What would that even mean? The old saying goes, “That he who dies with the most toys wins,” but it is countered by the more meaningful phrase, “he who dies with the most toys, still dies.” One day your name may appear on the sports page as the winner, but some day it will appear among the obituaries.

The Apostle Paul also paid attention to sports and compared them to life, saying, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). He compared life to competing as an athlete, but he wanted to make sure he was competing for a prize that could not be taken away. Likewise, Jesus also said that we in this life could build up treasures for heaven (Matthew 6:20).

These imperishable prizes are not trophies, sports cars, 4-wheelers, boats, guns, or tractors (even green tractors!). All of these things are perishable prizes. Either they will go away or you will go away from them. So what kind of prize is really imperishable?

The only things that are going to survive beyond this life are people, so the only prizes that last beyond this life are our relationships, specifically our relationships with God, and other people who will be with God. Therefore, for us to compete for an imperishable prize we need to make sure we know God and are growing in relationship with Him. We come to know God by knowing who Jesus is, what He has done, and believing in Him for salvation. By focusing our life on growing our relationship with God we earn the eternal imperishable prize of a fantastic life with Him for eternity.

Along with that relationship, God wants us to have the prize of many, many eternal relationships. So the more we introduce people to Jesus, the more people will join us in eternity. The more time and energy we spend loving others and building them up, the more we are preparing for eternity. This life is a training room for eternity, and the more we spend time training for an imperishable prize, the more prepared for eternity we will be. Furthermore, by training hard for eternity, we actually get a prize in this life of deeper relationships here with God and others, which adds a richness and meaning to this life that cannot be found by seeking after any other prize.

Don't waste your life playing the wrong game and seeking the wrong prizes. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these other things will be added to you!

New Life in a New Family

Here is an article, I wrote that was published recently in our local newspaper, the Oakland Independent.

When you open the paper, did you turn to see if any new babies were born? Babies are almost universally loved, because they are cute, innocent, and helpless. We love babies, because they represent the future.

Often though, kids do not reach their full potential. How disappointed are we when someone, especially one of our own children goes astray? Perhaps you even look back on your life and wish that you could go back have a do over.

In a favorite movie for our family, Napoleon Dynamite, Uncle Rico is a character that is constantly reliving  his glory days of high school football. He imagines that if only he could go back, get in the big game and win that state championship his whole life would be different. Many of us have similar regrets about life and we wish we could just go back, get a clean slate or at least believe that the future still holds new possibilities for us.

The Jewish teacher, Nicodemus came to Jesus for a conversation one night (John 3), and Jesus told him about a chance for a type of do over. Jesus said that he could be "born again," but Nicodemus wondered how he, as an old man, could enter once again into his mother's womb. Jesus responded that the new birth and the new life is not physical like the old life, but rather it is spiritual. What God offers is to remake us on the inside and give us a new identity as His child.

Further, this offer is for everyone no matter how many regrets, mistakes, or even major sins you have in your life. It also does not matter how old you are, God could even make an old man like Nicodemus a new child of His. When you are reborn into new life with Christ, your past is forgiven and you are given a future with new possibilities. You become a spiritual child with a new Father who will love, accept and walk with you as He helps you become the person that He made you to be.

The condition to receive this new life is to be willing to give up your old life and humbly admit you need the new life that God offers. Like a child with their parent, we need to trust that God can and really does want to make you a new person. Now this does not mean you will suddenly become perfect, but you become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and become a part of the family of God (1 John 1:12). Once in the family, God does not kick us out when we sin, but rather lovingly works with and in us to forgive and restore. No longer do our failures have to define us, because we can always run back to our loving Father.

To close, here is a poem from an unknown elementary school teacher, that describes the constant renewal with the new life in Christ.

He came to my desk with a quivering lip,
the lesson was done.
“Have you a new sheet for me, dear teacher?
I’ve spoiled this one.”
I took his sheet, all soiled and blotted
and gave him a new one all unspotted.
And into his tired heart I cried,
“Do better now, my child.”

I went came to the throne with a trembling heart;
the day was done.
“Have you a new day for me, dear Master?
I’ve spoiled this one.”
He took my day, all soiled and blotted
and gave me a new one all unspotted.
And into my tired heart he cried,
“Do better now, my child."

The Last Act is Tragic

This is a column I wrote for our local paper, the Oakland Independent. It is the first in a series that uses different parts of the paper to encourage people to examine their lives.

What is one of the first places you flip in a local newspaper? I bet most of us look pretty quickly at the obituaries. Did you turn there to see if someone you know or someone famous or someone too young died.

Why are we the living so interested in death? Might it be because we know that death is a destination where we are all inevitably headed. No matter what modern medicine might do, we have not conquered death. No matter how significant your life here might be, it will someday, perhaps someday soon all be over.

Blaise Pascal wrote about our situation like this, "Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. It is an image of the condition of men."

No matter what we do to try to ignore and put it off, death is inevitable. Whenever we read the obits or watch the news of another war or murder, we are reminded of our fate. Even if your life now is great, you will eventually die, and as Pascal also said, "The last act is tragic. They throw earth over your head and it is finished forever." Ecclesiastes declares that everything under the sun is vanity or a vapor, and this includes our very lives. They are here today and gone tomorrow, and if this world is all there is, then death is the final word.  

But Christians have hope that death on this earth is not the end. We believe that Jesus conquered death, and so we do not view death as the same kind of tragedy as those who do not know their fate or who believe death is the final end. In fact, we believe that Jesus conquered death and that when we trusted Him as our Savior, that He gave us eternal life. So we can now declare with the Apostle Paul, "Death where is your victory? Where is your sting?" 1 Corinthians 15:55, because we believe that death in this life simply transfers us to a new and even better kind of life.

This kind of confidence makes a huge difference, and if you don't believe me, then just join me for a funeral of someone who knows Jesus. We have had three such funerals at our church this last year. While there is sadness for us at parting from someone we love, there is also an incredible joy in the confidence that they are now with Jesus and that we will one day see them again.

If death comes for you today, tomorrow, or 50 years from now will you be ready? Are you confident that death is not the end? Are you confident in where you will spend eternity? The time to examine death and life is now, not some time later. If life is not just about what you can do while living under the sun, then you should figure out why you are here and where you are going before they throw dirt over your head.

Incarnation — Putting on Flesh

At Christmas we celebrate the coming of Jesus. This is one of the most amazing miracles of the Bible. It is called the incarnation or "putting on flesh." The infinite, uncontainable God of the universe came down and put on human nature and took a human body. 

The incarnation has several meanings for us.

First, it means that God bridged the gap between humans and Himself. Sin and our own finite nature stop us from ever reaching God on our own. All other religions of the world are based on human effort to reach up to god or to reach some perfected state based on our own efforts. For us, we celebrate a God who came to us, to bring us to Himself, because our efforts would never be enough to come into His perfect presence.

Second, the incarnation means that we have a God who identifies with us in our trials and temptations. Jesus wept with and for his friends. He go tired and was hungry. He was tempted, but did not sin. God the Son became fully human, and because of that when He comes to us, we can know that He understands and cares for us right where we are.

Third, because He is both God and man, He is the perfect high priest to stand as a mediator between God and man. Furthermore, he is also the perfect sacrifice who paid the debt for our sins. Therefore, as He stands before the Father interceding on our behalf, we can have confidence that our sins are indeed forgiven and that we are accepted by God.

Fourth, we, who are His followers, are called to be like Jesus. In fact we are called the body of Christ, which means that we are called to live “incarnationally.” When we are going out into a lost and dying world, we should be bringing Jesus to them. As we live and speak the gospel, we are helping to bridge the gap to God for others. To do this we need to enter into their lives. This will likely be hard, messy and painful as we walk with broken people in a fallen world. Fortunately, we do not have to fix them ourselves, but rather we simply point them to Jesus, God who took on flesh to bring people to Himself and to fix the broken world.

At Christmas, we remember the incarnation which means that God entered into His world, and we are also reminded that God calls us to be incarnational by entering into the lives of others so that they too can meet the God who came down.

Missions versus Mission

Recently at our church we had a Missions Sunday where we brought in a number of missionaries that we support to hear what God is doing through them and to encourage them. Our church has a fine missions program and I want to affirm it and support it.

In fact, I have made a commitment not to make or even suggest any major program changes at the church for at least the first year so that I can focus on getting to know the church (the people) better.

That begin said, if I am going to be faithful to the Lord, then I cannot help but continue to be on the mission that God has given me. He has called me to make biblical disciples through authentic and intentional relationships. Because of this mission, I am constantly seeking to encourage the people currently in the church to grow closer to Jesus, and I am constantly asking God to help me form new relationships outside the church to help draw more people to Him.

As a result of desiring deeper relationship with them, my family and I (and hopefully many of you) are naturally going to invite new people to join us for studies, worship time, kids ministries, and various other activities with our friends in the church.

These new relationships will bring change to the church, because new people will bring new and different ways of doing things. Some of the differences will simply be cultural like, how they dress, how they speak, what they like to do for fun. Further, they will not understand our Christian culture and probably could not find the book of Genesis, let alone the book of Hezekiah. Other differences will be because many of these people are not yet Christians or are new or very young Christians, and so they do not behave as we expect Christians to behave. They might cuss sometimes. Some of them struggle with money management, addictions, anger, broken families with all of their messiness, and sometimes even basic life skills like how to work, how to do laundry, etc.

While these behaviors might make you uncomfortable around new people, I would like to remind you that these should all be expected because we are all in the process of growing. In fact, if you dig deep enough with any of us, you will find that we are all still pretty messy at some points, and that God has lots of work still to do in our lives. As long time Christians we often get good at hiding our issues, but how many of us still struggle with lack of faith, gossip, conflict, pride, greed, and lack of love. We all need Jesus every day, and any changes in our life and character are to His credit not ours.

Most Bible believing Christians agree that one of the primary missions of the church is to reach out to the lost, and that is one of the reasons that we support missions. On the other hand, when it comes to fulfilling our mission to reach the lost, we often talk a good game, but do not in fact fulfill the mission very well. One of the reasons is that being on a mission means change and risk and being uncomfortable. God specifically calls us on mission to help stretch us and cause us to see our need for Him.

Therefore, while I am not proposing any new programs for the church, I would like us to be aware of the fact that if we are obedient to God's mission for the church, then the church is going to change even if we don't change a single program. Beyond that, we will change, because as God uses us to reach more people, the Holy Spirit will also change us so that we can minister to them like Jesus. I am praying that God will continue to change us, so that everyday is a Missions celebration.

Hospitality and Outreach

Outreach & Hospitality

Among the qualities of church leadership listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, outreach or evangelism is not mentioned among the qualities of a leader, but both places mention that a leader should be hospitable. We might take this to mean just be friendly or perhaps think of a gift of hospitality, but in biblical times hospitality was one of the primary ways that the church would reach out to new people.

In the Old Testament, hospitality was a duty to welcome and provide for strangers and aliens in your land. Abraham exemplified this when he welcomed in three men who ended up being angels, one being the angel of the Lord (Genesis 18:2-8).  In the New Testament, we see that Jesus received hospitality as the stranger and wanderer who was frequently welcomed into people’s homes.He was also the one who practiced hospitality by breaking down barriers and welcoming people into his friendship who would other wise have been outcasts to a Jewish leader (John 4:1-42, Luke 19:1-10).

Being hospitable is one of the easiest and most natural forms of outreach, because anyone can do it even if they have never read a how to book on evangelism or taken an evangelism class.  I would like to encourage us to be hospitable in three areas of our lives.

First, in your personal lives you can be hospitable by having a welcoming attitude. Pray that God would give you His heart for the people around you, whether you are at school, work, shopping or in your neighborhood. A smile and a hello go a long way in making a connection. You could open a door for a stranger or help a neighbor bring in groceries. These seemingly small kindnesses can open a door for a connection that God can use to build deeper relationships. We need to be prepared to open our lives to the new people that God puts in front of us. This is the hardest part of hospitality, because it will often mean making sacrificial choices of things we like to do to open up space in our lives.

Our homes and families are a second place where we can be hospitable. We can invite neighbors over or develop deeper relationships within the church by opening our homes and families to outsiders. Perhaps your house can become the cool hangout place where all the kids from school or the team like to come because yours is a safe and welcoming home. The front door to the church and the first place that many people see the gospel lived out is most frequently in the homes of Christians who show Christ’s love in this very personal way.

Finally, we need to be hospitable when we come together as a church body, whether at Sunday worship or other meetings throughout the week. When someone new comes, they have taken a personal risk to come into a strange setting with new people, so we need to help them overcome the barriers by being very welcoming. When you see someone new at church, give them a smile and a handshake. We need to listen to their story and be ready to invite them into our lives. Often they look different and behave different, but it is those very differences that help us learn to love like God does. He reached out to us when we were not just different, but His enemies. When we learn to overcome barriers, we are learning to look beyond the differences and see the person that God loves and He wants to show His love through us. 

My prayer is that hospitality would be a hallmark of my life, my family's life, and my church's life. With God's help we would be known as safe and welcomed people whether at a Sunday service, in our homes, or on the street. 

Personal Evidence for Faith

The last in my series on faith and evidence for the local paper, the Oakland Independent.

Over the last couple of weeks I have written about faith and evidence. Last week’s article pointed to physical and historical evidence that can help us trust God and His message of salvation. But, while this type of evidence is good for helping secure our faith in the face of doubt or challenges, few of us actually come to believe in Jesus by reading a textbook and then constructing a logical argument for faith.

 Many of us came to faith in Jesus because we felt His love and heard the truth about Jesus from our parents who believed in Him. Likewise, pastors, teachers, church leaders, neighbors and friends with authentic faith often play a major role in a person deciding to follow Jesus. Their changed lives are real evidences of the truth of the message, because Jesus promised that we would be changed if we follow Him (Matthew 4:19).

On the other hand, if others' testimonies remains the primary evidence for your faith, then it is susceptible to challenge, because many other belief systems claim the same thing. I have had friends from other religions who live moral lives and sincerely believe something different. They claim that you should believe what they believe based upon their lives. Furthermore, if our faith in Jesus is based primarily on the faith of others, then it can be shaken when they mess up or fall away. Therefore, while this evidence is often very important in leading us to Jesus, we should not believe simply because others do.

We each need a personal experience with God. Each one of us has to decide if Jesus is really God and if He has really died for our sins. The Apostle Paul  says, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).

So the last gap to overcome for faith in Jesus is a personal decision to trust Him. This can be hard because if Jesus is really is God, then this is no mere intellectual exercise. He does not just want a place in our mind, rather He wants all of us. When we really trust Him as our Lord and Savior, He radically changes us into the people He created us to be. The barrier to faith for many people is not intellectual, but rather the fear of losing the “good life." The famous Christian author C. S. Lewis wrote that he was the most "reluctant convert” (he was an atheist), because even after his doubts had been answered he still resisted, because he understood that belief in Jesus meant a change in His life.

Fortunately, Jesus tells us He wants to give us an "abundant life,” and I can testify that trusting Jesus has been worth it both intellectually and personally. Don’t just take my word for it though, examine the evidence and have faith in Him.