Friday, May 30, 2008

Love Your Neighbor Pt.4

I would say that it is totally impossible for any human being to love their neighbor as himself. Our entire nature demands that we look out for our own needs first. Only that HSM relationship with Christ allows us to approach the place where we can love our neighbor equally with ourselves.

The person who really does love his neighbor as himself will be a remarkable person to us. It is very unusual and attractive to see someone who acts in a selfless manner and who puts the needs of others ahead of his own. But is he really remarkable, when he is only doing something that is commanded by God? God's commands are what He expects from us. They are not "extra credit questions". But if something is commanded of God, then it is possible for each of us to attain it through Christ.

We should not hold commandments from God out as goals that only a few are capable of completing. 1 John 5 tells us that "(God's) commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world." Everyone includes you and me. Let's begin allowing God to make us into people who love their neigbors.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Love Your Neighbor Pt.3

We cannot truly love our neighbor as ourselves unless we are in a HSM (heart, soul, mind) relationship with Christ. Our human nature will always insist that we love ourselves more than anyone else. But if we are sold out HSM we will naturally love our neighbor as ourselves.

When we love our neighbor as our selves, we do not have many theoretical theological issues to haggle over. In every situation, we need only ask, is this how I would treat myself? We would not harm ourselves, we would seek only the best for ourselves, we would not gossip about ourselves. We would not cheat ourselves, or even cut in front of ourselves. We would make sure that ourselves would have the better parking spot, get the last muffin, and get the quietest room. We would do all in our power to get a good result for ourselves. If we would do these things for ourselves, we must do these things for others. No other discussion is necessary. It is that simple.

Yes, it is simple, but that does not mean that it is easy.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Men's Breakfast This Saturday!

Guys- Don't forget to come to the Men's breakfast this Saturday at 9am. It will be in the church fellowship hall. It is always a good time around some good guys eating some good high cholesterol food. Afterward, those who can stay are asked to help Mike Lowder on the nursery remodel. There will be a small amount of tile to be laid, some walls need to be textured and some work needs to be done in a closet. Call Mike if you need more details. I know it doesn't look like it, but we will be finished by the end of June if we can get some help. Mike has a schedule on his blog. You can get to it from the favorite blogs section of my blog. It is the GoKidz blog.

Love Your Neighbor Pt. 2

How do we "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind?" It means a total commitment (nothing reserved for anything else) that consumes every fiber of our being. Many of us break down at this point. We think that this means becoming a wierd person who hides from "worldly" people or having to memorize the entire New Testament and be in prayer from 3:00 - 6:00 every morning.


Obviously, scripture memorization and prayer are fundamental elements of the christian life, but they are not the goal; they are a couple of the ways we get to the HSM (heart, soul, mind) relationship. The person in the HSM relationship is marked by what his life produces more than what he person does. When we live the HSM life, our lives are at the same time faith-filled and practical. Christ moved among those who had no hope of meeting Him through conventional church circles because they were of the wrong occupation, gender or race. He went to where those people were and talked with them at their level of understanding. He met both spiritual and physical needs and although He didn't judge, he was very frank about addressing the sin in their lives and made it clear that they needed to change. But since the love He clearly showed them opened their hearts to Him, they were willing to change for Him.



When we love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all our soul and with all our mind we will naturally do the next part, that of loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Love Your Neighbor Pt.1

We make Christian living so difficult. We discuss many details and argue over translations or proper interpretations of the original Hebrew or Greek. All of those discussions are fine in their place, but when it comes to just every day living out of the gospel, these discussions seem disconnected to our realities. As a result, we know the three Greek words used to convey different levels of love, but we don't know how to love the knucklehead we work with.

Christ spelled it out where anyone can understand it in Matthew 22:39. He was asked which of the commandments was the most important. (Another theoretical theological discussion topic.) Christ just cut to the chase by saying " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

All of Christian living is contained in this one paragraph. I'll talk more about this tomorrow.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Big Trust/Big God

We have three large initiatives currently underway at Lakeside. Lakeside MAPS is seeking to raise $250,000. Kenya Connection has $50,000 as its goal, and the Freedom Fest is looking for sponsors to underwrite some $25,000 to do all that is on our heart to do. When these are done, there will be other projects to take their place. We will never be finished until the return of Christ.

At times I am intimidated by the size of these amounts. I am tempted to shout, "Enough!" Our congregation can only handle so much! And, in actuality, I am correct. There is an amount that I can give and then there is no more. You are in the same boat.

But, as our weekly profession of faith says, "My God will supply all of Lakeside's needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus, amen." The question has never been, "Can we afford it?" The question has always been, "Is this what God is calling us to do?" In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ told us about the lillies. He said that if He is concerned about a beautiful flower that may never be seen and has a life span of just a few days, how much more concern does He have for us who love Him? So, He says, make His kingdom our top concern and He will take care of our earthly needs.

I am blessed by the faith progress that Lakeside has made in the past couple of years. Two years ago this month we were behind on our bills by more than $75,000. We trusted God and He delivered. In six months He provided the means to get current on all our bills, and we have been current ever since. I am blessed that we can now look outward and prepare for the future.

Each of us can do our part to be a conduit of God's blessings. I'm not talking about prosperity gospel. I'm talking about the biblical principle of sowing and reaping. God is as big as we will let Him be. If we trust Him to be big, He will be big. If we have small trust, we get a small god.

Let's trust Him to be big and see more things than we can even imagine.

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Dangerous Small Things

I heard a story told recently about satan training some new imps. He told them to see what they could do to tear down the ministry of a pastor of an up and coming church. They immediately set to work by enticing him with drugs, sex and money but the pastor was impervious to that manner of temptation. When they reported their failure to satan, he told them to step back and he would show them how it is done.

Satan whispered very softly in the pastor's ear, "Your friend from bible college who pastors in the next town was just presented with a new car compliments of his congregation." Immediately, the pastor's contenance changed. Envy started building up within him and he began recounting all of the shortcomings of his once beloved congregation. A few weeks later, the pastor resigned his church.

Many times it is not the blantant temptation that will take us down. We set up protections to keep those things from being a big problem. It is the small, seemingly insignificant event that festers and causes destruction. We need to be on the lookout for those events. If you hear a good report about someone else and your first impulse is to think that that person didn't deserve it, you need to address it to God immediately. If you hear something bad about someone and your first impulse is that they had it coming, you need to address it. Don't let the small things take you down.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Can We Talk?

Can I use this blog to get something off my chest? I'm talking about cell phone etiquette. When you go into a store or a fast-food restaurant, please hang up your call while you are involved in your transaction. It is the height of rudeness to continue on a call while transacting business with someone else. If the call is too important to make later, than it is too important to make while ordering a big mac or while paying for your groceries. I see this a lot. Continuing to talk to the invisible person on the phone completely dehumanizes the person who you can see on the other side of the counter. Show a little respect. Treat someone the way you want to be treated. Please. One conversation at at time.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Bathroom Home Stretch

We are getting close to being finished with the Men's bathroom remodel!!! It has been a long road, but it is going to look and be incredible. Jason has done a great job of heading up the project and many men are to be commended for their involvement in the work.

Jason and Michael will begin to install the urinals and I have been hooking up the faucets and drains for the sinks. It is a hard-and-fast rule that no plumbing project can be completed with less than 3 trips to Home Depot. I am getting ready to leave for trip #5.

Sorry ladies, the door will be going back up soon. Don't talk to any of us about remodeling your bathroom, because we have had all we want for now. :)

Monday, May 19, 2008

What's a minister to do?

Ephesians 4:11-12 speaks of the fivefold ministries; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. There has been a lot of discussion in church circles as to whether there should be job titles for ministers from this list, or if the list simply describes the most effective area of ministry of the individual minister. However you come down on this, I feel that the important part of this scripture is in verse 12. Here is where the purpose for ministry is revealed. The scripture tells us that the purpose of these ministries is "to prepare God's people for works of service." Read it again. It doesn't say that the purpose of ministers is "to give good service to God's people."

If your pastor is consistently teaching you God's word and consistently encouraging you to get involved in acts of ministry or service to others, then he is fulfilling the Ephesians 4:12 mandate. Conversely, if he is doing all of the ministry and meeting all of your needs and giving you good service, he is cheating you of the blessing that comes from the mature Christian life.

Verse 13 tells us that if we are prepared for acts of service we will be blessed with maturity and "attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Don't get sucked into the notion that the pastor is supposed to take care of you. He is supposed to prepare you.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

More Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount expects that we will live out our Christianity in a hostile world. When it speaks of us being reviled and persecuted, it is not talking about the person who complains that the music is always too loud. At the time of the sermon, Jesus was talking about situations where Roman soldiers or religious authorities could and did actually inflict physical punishment (torture, really) on Christ followers.

Let's make no mistake, here. The message of the Cross is offensive to the unbelieving world. That fact does not change just because we insulate ourselves from people who find us intolerant and ignorant. In fact, I would posit that we are not fullfilling our proper roles of "salt and light" unless we are placing ourselves in the path of those who would hate us, exclude us, insult us, and reject our names as evil because of our alignment with Christ. (Luke 6:22)

The community of faith is critical to our continued growth, learning and support, but finding a body of believers that we enjoy hanging out with is not the purpose of Christianity. Going into all the world and making disciples is. I'm talking about the world that doesn't like us and laughs at us. The world that would like to discredit and abuse us. The world that would like for us to hide ourselves away and not bother them. In other words, the world Christ died to save.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Sermon on the Mount

For years I read the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) as a really nice set of suggestions that would be really great if people would think about doing them.

As I get older my perspective changes and now when I read this sermon I am amazed at how radical, liberal, progressive, (or whatever term you want to use) Jesus was. This sermon is a terrible load to put on christians. No where in it is a call to enact laws or appoint judges that will uphold "our" values. Rather, it calls us to a seemingly impossible set of standards of individual conduct which assumes that injustice, intolerance, and persecution will be inflicted on those who truly follow Christ.

It never promises that anything positive will come our way while we are here on earth. It won't even let us get any credit for the nice things we do for someone else.

No wonder that the established leaders were so adamantly opposed to His teaching. It flew in the face of their power gathering. It stood in direct opposition to their traditions and their lists of rules and rewards. It placed responsibility not with the leaders or institutions, but with each individual.

It is also challenging and exciting. Its impossibility is its greatest attraction. Only by faith in Christ and by receiving His grace can this life be done, even if imperfectly. But even though I am still imperfect and will be on my last day on earth, His grace is enough.

Sweet.

Monday, May 12, 2008

It was a great week!



What a week! We left Monday and arrived in Las Vegas that afternoon. We spent two days walking the strip and visiting the huge, over-the-top casinos disguised as resorts. On Thursday, the fun began. We boarded a small passenger plane and flew to the Bar10 ranch in the Grand Canyon park. There we rode horses, shot skeet, drove ATVs to the rim of the canyon, and slept in a western style bunkhouse. Friday morning we boarded a helicopter that took us to the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We boarded rafts and traveled some 45 miles with several rapids before stopping for the night. We slept on cots out in the open night air and saw stars that were more vivid than any I had ever seen before. We reboarded the rafts early the next morning and headed downriver. We stopped to climb some rocks to get to a natural spring waterfall in a cave. We braved more rapids and then met with the jet boat that took us to the shore where the bus waited to take us back to Las Vegas. On the road trip back we crossed Hoover Dam. We got to the hotel just in time to shower and get to the Mirage and see the Beatles Love show done by Cirque du Soleil. It was beyond description.

My favorite part? Getting to do all of that with my favorite person in all the world, Carole.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Back in town today!

If everything goes according to plan, we should be returning from our Grand Canyon adventure today. We should get back in town about 3:30pm which will give us just about enough time to go home and change before attending the dedication service for our grandson, Tyler. Mark, Elizabeth, Rob and Taylor all attend the Divine Life Church, and their elders/friends Chris Green and Stephen Hanscom will do the dedication. (Chris is the minister who married Mark and Elizabeth.)

Monday morning I come back to earth and will be back in the office doing my normal duties.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.

Friday, May 9, 2008

The chemistry of salvation

NaCl (Sodium Chloride) is the scientific name for salt. Sodium and Chlorine are two elements that are deadly poison in their elemental state. But when they are joined together they form a substance that is necessary for life.

Sin is a deadly element. It separates us eternally from the presence of God.
Crucifixion is a deadly event. It served as a ghastly life-ending punishment for wrongdoing.

But when our sin was combined with Christ's crucifixion, it created salvation, which is necessary for our eternal life. How awesome is that?

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Yes I love technology, but not as much as you, I see,

Right now I am taking advantage of technology. The post you are reading was written several days ago and a new feature on blogspot allows the publishing of these posts to be arranged for whatever date I select. Today Carole and I are in Nevada. We have been here since Monday. Tomorrow we will begin an odyssey to celebrate our upcoming 30th wedding anniversary. We will go whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon. (It was Carole's idea, really!) I'll be sure to tell more about it when we return.

Does anyone recognize the lyrics that made up the title of this post?

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The reward

The two guys who risked and increased their master's assets were rewarded. But they were not rewarded with ease and comfort. They were rewarded with more responsibility. As our life for Christ progresses, we should see growth in what God can trust us with. There is no time here on earth for any of us to say, "I've done my share, now let the younger ones carry the load." As we risk and grow, we have to take the lessons learned and trust earned to do more for the kingdom. We must constantly be risking and growing. And we must constantly be increasing our areas of influence and responsibility. I'm not talking about getting involved in more programs or ministries, I'm talking about being a steward that God can trust with big things. Things that would scare a young believer, but that we can take on because we have "been there and done that" with God and we know that when He gives us something to do, it is His already and when we do it we are really risking nothing. The outcome is in God's hands. He knows what he is doing. He'll get'r done through us.

It will be awesome.

Then Heaven.

Sweet.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Risk and get rewarded- protect and get punished

The steward who hid his talent returned it to the owner undamaged. It was worth every cent that it was worth when it was entrusted to him. What did he get? A tongue lashing and punishment. The other two guys doubled the owner's money, but they had to risk losing it to cause it to double. They were praised and rewarded. I think the lesson here is that God is not calling us to live a nice life in a nice church with our nice church friends. He is calling us to a life that causes us to risk all for the reward that awaits us.


If you will notice, there is one character missing in this story. There is no one who risked and lost. I think the reason for this is that in the walk with Christ, there is no way to lose except to waste a life by trying to protect it. When we truly believe that "to live is Christ and to die is gain", we find that we can't lose. Our life is not our own. It is given to us by God. As a believer, we can experience incredible "highs" by risking it all for the cause of Christ. When we are doing what God calls us to do, the result is in His hands. If that risk results in us coming to the end of our earthly life, we automatically go to eternal life with Christ. There is no loss for the believer who risks his "talents".


Get'r done!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

God owns everything- we own nothing

My first observation was that the owner retained ownership of the talents even as he entrusted them to the stewards. When we realize that God owns it all and only lets us use what we have, our hold on things and positions should loosen up considerably.


The second observation was that when the stewards put the talents at risk, they were risking the property of the owner and not their own wealth. That is both humbling and relieving. Of course we want to do well for the Lord and be good stewards of what He entrusts to us, but we can't really lose anything, because if God owns everything, He still owns it even after it leaves our hands.

We have to make sure that we realize our steward role in this world. It looks like we can't lose if our desire is to do God's will. The problems arise when we see God's assets as ours and begin to try to protect them by not putting them to use.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Rewarded with more work

In the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30) I have noticed a few things.
1.The guys who were put in charge of the talents didn't own them. The owner did. They were entrusted with them in the assumption that the talents would be put to work so that they could increase. There was no understanding that the stewards would ever own the talents.
2.The guys who doubled the value of their talents had to put them at risk in order to grow them. They weren't risking their own possessions; only the possessions of the owner.
3. The guy who didn't risk was the one who was punished. Protecting the talent and keeping it in its original condition was not an acceptable outcome for the owner. He expected increase, even if it was small. Protection of the talent was seen as a punishable offense. Risk was rewarded.
4. The story tells only of risk and increase that resulted in reward vs. safety and protection that resulted in punishment. There was not a steward who risked and lost.
5. The reward for being a good steward of the owner's resources was more responsibility (i.e. more work).

I'll begin to apply these thoughts tomorrow.