Monday, September 27, 2010

Six Questions

I preached my first sermon when I was seventeen years old while I was working with Southern Baptists in Tennessee. It was a church of eight people who met in a house in Raccoon Valley. I was given two hours notice. At that time, I was on the high school newspaper staff, and had learned the six questions reporters are supposed to ask--who, what, when, where and why and how. I had also served as a youth counselor at a Billy Graham Crusade, and learned my first six verses—John 1:12, John 10:10, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, John 1:12. Somehow, it occurred to me to put those two lists together, so my topic was "the who, what, when, where, why and how of salvation."


It has now been forty years since that afternoon, I have never preached that particular sermon again, nor could I recall exactly what I said. Lately, though, I have often thought tha I should preach that sermon again, not for your sake, but for mine.

Over the years I have become a “sophisticated” preacher. I have learned Greek, Hebrew, systematic theology, archaeology, anthropology, and psychology. But the more sophisticated you become, the harder simplicity becomes. You want to show off how much you know. It has become harder to simply tell the story of salvation in a way that will change lives.

I am sorry for that. Being a believer is the most wonderful thing in the world, and we have made it into “religion”—rituals practiced without meaning, worldly organizations instead of spiritual reformation. We have turned the simple gospel into complex beliefs, and in doing so lost the power of the simple.

So today instead of giving you something new and hard, I want to give you something old and easy. I want to tell you about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the gospel.

First, who needs to be saved? You do. I do. We all do. God loves us, and wants us to spend eternity with Him. John 3:16 starts "For God so loved the world" You are part of the world that God loves, and so am I. He wants us all in heaven.

He loves you more than your mother does. He loves you more than your father does. He loves you more than you love yourself. God wants us to live with him forever, and to be with Him for all eternity.

Think of it. God the king of all the universe knows your name. He hears your prayers. He loves you with all his heart. More than anything else, God wants us to have eternal life--John 10:10 "I have come that you might have life, and have it ti abundance."God does not want us living a lives of quiet desperation. He wants us to have lives of purpose, value, and joy.

We live in a world that desperately want to be seen as happy, but inwardly is miserable. People pretend all the time. Our heroes are actors and entertainer. Our businessmen are taught to appear strong and powerful, even when they are small and weak. Our politicians pretend to have answers, when they have none. Our teachers pretend that they know their subjects, when they do not have any idea whether or not what they have been handed from their teachers is actually true. Loves pretend to love, partygoers pretend to have fun. People pretend to believe what they don't believed. All around us are people who need salvation, but are two afraid to admit it. For all these people Jesus promises life .

Second, what do we need to be saved from? In a word--sin. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were created to live in a perfect world. Then sin entered the world, and the world was never right again.

What is sin? The Bible offers two definitions for sin. The first is James 4:17--"If any man knows what it right to do, and does not do it, to him that is sin." Sin is when you don't do what you believe you are supposed to do, or when you do what you believe you should not do. Don't get hung up on all the laws of the Old Testament, and all the complexities of interpretation. Sin is not just drinking, smoking or cussing. It is not individual acts. Sin is the act of being willfully disobedient to God. The act of sin varies from one person to another, but the fact of sin does not vary. We are all sinners, because we all are guilty of acting against the conscience God had given us.

The other definition of sin is Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of God's glory." Sin is falling short of God's perfection. It is thoughts, actions, intentions, and omissions that are less than what God wants for us.

Are some sins worse than others? Not according to God. You cannot be a little pregnant. Nor can you be a little rebellious. We are either rebels or saints. There is nothing in the middle.

How good to you have to be to not be considered a sinner? Jesus said "be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." If you are not perfect, then you are a sinner, because you fall short of God's glory.

All sin has the same punishment--death. "The wages of sin is death, "Romans 6:23 says. There are no exceptions. Wages are what we earn by what we do. If we work at a job, then our wages are money, but if we work on a chain gang, our wages are our just punishment. Once our debt has been fully paid, then we can go free. The only thing we earn by sin is eternal death. We owe death for sin, and not until our lives are over have we fully paid it. But Paul goes on and says "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." God gives us what we have not earned an not given us what we have.

Third, when were we saved? This answer may surprise you. You were not saved in your lifetime. You were not saved in this century. You were saved two thousand years ago, when Jesus died on he cross. Romans 5:8 "For God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

God made the offer of redemption before you were ever born. He paid for your redemption before you ever asked. Your redemption is yours to have, through the death of Jesus Christ.

Think on this. If the wages of sin is death, then someone has to die for sin. You can't do it. I can't do it for you. The only person good enough to die for the whole world is Jesus Christ, who was God in human form.

Jesus anticipated our birth. If he anticipated our birth, he must then have anticipated our sin. If he anticipated our sin, the He also anticipated our salvation through His blood.

In the Old Testament, people atoned for sin by an animal sacrifice. This may seem strange to us, but it was not to them. They knew that the only way to redeem a person who deserved to shed blood was by the shedding of blood. But the blood of animals was not an adequate shedding for all sin. Only the blood of a pure person, who never committed any sin, was pure enough to atone for the sins of the whole world. Jesus endured the most horrible punishment imaginable, so that you would not have to be punished for your sins.

Fourth, why were we saved? Because He loves us.

I John 2:1-2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

In the end, it is not just the Jesus' blood that saves us--it is his love. We are saved by such an overwhelming love, that He would not shirk from the most humiliating death imaginable.

Crucifixion was the most humiliating death that the Romans could imagine--and they could imagine some pretty horrible stuff. A person was stripped naked. Then he was physically nailed to a wooden pole or cross. Once he was on the cross, he was forgotten. He was considered dead, even while he was alive. He was never taken down from the cross. He was left there to decay, in front of the entire world, until the vermin picked his bones clean, and he fell into a rotting pile of corruption. No one could touch him once he was on the cross. Everyone looked away in horror.

The point is not how horrible the Romans were, but how deep God loved us. God loves us enough to endure the suffering Himself on our behalf. He literally shed blood to buy us from sin, and offer us a new life. We are saved by His love.

Fifth, Where were we saved to? The world "saved" has been used so much in the context of the church that it risks losing its meaning. "Saved" means to be rescued, just like a person is rescued from a burning building or a sinking ship. What is most important in any rescue is not where we are rescued from, but where we are rescued to. Where does God take us?

We are rescued to everlasting life with Jesus. "God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life." Everlasting life is heaven--an eternity with God.

I don't understand heaven any more than I understand hell. But God occasionally gives us glimpses of what it will be. All human joys and blessings are simply foretasts of what heaven is supposed to be for us. Every sunrise gives us a glimpse. Every clear, starry sky displays heavens distant lights. Every roll of thunder or purple mountain reveals it's majesty. I do not know exactly what heaven will be, but when we get there, I believe we will say "of course, this is what life was supposed to be all along."We will know it when we get there.

Sixth, How are we saved?

Admit that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves.

Believe that Jesus Christ died for our sinners

Confess publicly that that we receive Him as our Lord and savior.

John 1:12 tells us "For as many as have received Him, to them He gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believe on His name."

It is not hard. We just confess and believe. We put our trust in Him, and He saves us.

What is the path to God? There isn't one. There is only salvation from God. We cannot go to Him unless He first came to us. When he does, then we must receive what He has offered---eternal life.

There are no time limits in heaven, but there is on earth. We have a limited time offer of salvation. It is limited to this time and this place. So if we are to receive Him, we must do it now, during this brief time on earth.

None of us know how brief that time will be. You never know when death may come over you, or with what suddenness. For that reason, it is vitally important we know what we believe now. If you are not sure what will happen to you after you die, then make sure. Take the time to know for a fact, that you are saved. It is the simplest truth in the world.

The Bucket List

There is a weird contradiction in the modern evangelical Christian. We say that Jesus is the only way. Yet we act as if there is no urgency or even need to share that way with others..


It’s like this. Suppose your mother were in the hospital with inoperable cancer. Now suppose you are suddenly given the cure for that cancer. Is there any doubt that you would rush hospital to give it to him?

Suppose it wasn't your mother, but a person you had never met. Is there any doubt that you would hurry to the hospital out of a sense of common decency and give them the cure?

Suppose that person were of another race, or a Muslim, an illegal alien, or your worst enemy? Wouldn't we go for the sake of his wife and children, or just out of common decency?

Yet here we are with our belief that all are eternally lost, and that Jesus is our only hope. Yet we are slow and timid to tell anyone. Based on the actions of contemporary Christianity, we must conclude that either we don’t believe what we claim to believe, or that we literally think that the rest of he world can go to hell for all we care. I cannot think of any other possibilities.

The atheist magician Penn Gillette once praised a man who gave him a Bible, though he did not believe it. He recognized it as an act of love. He observed that it was not a question of how much should we love a person to give him the gospel,, but how much do we have to hate a man to wish him an eternity in hell.

I confess that I do not understand hell.. Heaven and hell are both beyond our grasp, and may only be discussed in metaphors. Jesus' description of it as "outer darkness" might be the closest thing to a literal description of it,

It may be (and I think it is) that heaven and hell are not just places we go after we die, but states of being that begin on earth, and continue on for eternity. Where Christ is, heaven begins. Where Christ is not is the outskirts of hell. That would mean that millions of people (thousands in this very community) are in hell right now, walking through the day with the flame licking at their feet. Every time we go to a ball game or a shopping mall, we are surrounded by people who are already in hell and do not yet know it. Oh, they may have moments of happiness, as they enjoy communion with God’s creations. But there is a worm eating at their insides,. There is a cancer in their souls that is eating them alive, and only we have the cure. They don't see it, of course. But they are experiencing the outskirts of hell.

Hell was a place created not for people, but for Satan and his minions. Satan desires to bring the whole human race with him into his dark prison. No one in their right mind would choose to go to hell, so Satan has to deceive them and drag them in with him. Satan fishes for our souls. He dangles before us tasty treats and dainty delicacies. W see the bait. We do not see the hook. But when we feel the barb embedded in our sins, hell’s punishment begins. It never ends

How many lost souls are in our midst? How many are tasting the bait, and have not yet found the hook? How many are struggling to throw off the barb, even though they hide their predicament from others? Just because we cannot see the pain of sin does not mean that is isn't there.

Those are the people that God wants us to save. They are all around us, in our very homes, our churches, and our community. In fact, God loves them so much that He sent messengers into their lives to show them a better way. These messengers exist on earth solely for the purpose of saving them form their hell and pointing them towards God.

We are those messengers. That is our purpose on earth.

St. Jude, wrote about this in Jude 20--23



Be merciful to those who doubt;

snatch others from the fire and save them;

to others show mercy, mixed with fear-hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh."



Some people doubt that there is a God. Their minds are clouded by Satan. Show some mercy to them by helping them find their way.

Others are tasting the bait on Satan’s hook. They are very close to being hooked. Pull them away, if you can. Pray for them, talk to them and, if necessary snatch them awayl

Others are already caught. They are being pulled into the flames. Reach them befoe they are lost, even if you risk getting singed yourself. Unles we put ourselves in danger for the sake of the lost, we have not done all we can to help them. But take precautions that you do not get caught yourselves.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He did not pursue them in Sunday School and in church on Sunday. He went where they were. He made friends with people others would not touch. He risked his safety and his reputation to bring people to himself. Should we be any different? Shouldn’t we do what he did?

Maybe we don’t see the urgency. Maybe we think that if we don't tell them, someone else will. After all, we Presbyterians believe in predestination—the belief that God will save who He wishes and He doesn't need out help to do it.

I believe in predestination, too. But God does not allow us the luxury of sitting on the bench and waiting for Him to play the game. He expects us to be on His team and to fully participate in the work of saving His portion of mankind.

The apostle Paul makes that clear in Rom 10:11-15



For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."



We may be right about predestination, But who's to say who's chosen? Am I? Are you? Does he save one kind of people?

People thought so in Paul's day--if you were Jewish, you were going to heaven. Today we seem to think that God will save our good chuch-going families and no one else.

It's not that simple. There isn't one whit of difference between Jew and Gentile. Anyone, whether inside or outside the church, may be forgiven. All we have to do is to let go of our. False hopes and take hold of our false hopes and take hold of the real hope. We cannot save ourselves from Satan’s hook. But Jesus broke the power of Satan when He died on the cross for us. Any claim that Satan has on us is broken in the cross.

"There is no difference between Jew and Gentile" Paul says. There is also no difference between right and poor, black and white, churchgoer and sinner, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Catholic. Anyone from any place or any background who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Most of the world does not know this. Many who do do not believe it can be this simple. They think it has to do with joining a church, getting baptized, giving up cussing, and voting Republican. They have no idea that is it just calling on God's name, trusting Jesus--nor will they know, unless somebody explains it to them.



How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can they preach unless they are sent?



The only way they can call on God's name is if they believe. The only way they can believe is for someone to tell them . The only way they can really be told is if you and I tell them, or at least send someone on our behalf , supporting them with our prayers and money. Without crossing the great divide between believer and unbeliever, then people will ensnared by Satan will eventually go to hell.

I believe in God’s sovereignty. I believe that those God has prepared will accept him. But I want to do my part in helping them to accept. Every person we help to come to Christ becomes a trophy of God’s faithfulness and our obedience.

In the basement of our church, there’s a trophy case, containing trophies our church earned playing in a softball league. We haven't had a softball team for years, so these trophies are largely forgotten. Most of us have forgotten they are there. When you don't play ball anymore, who remembers the trophies?

It makes me wonder—where are our spiritual trophies? Can we point to those whom we have brought to Christ? If we have them, we no longer talk about them. Is it possible that we have quit the game, and therefore forgotten that we once had trophies? If we had a trophy case to display our spiritual trophies, I fear it would be empty.

Let's get in the game .Let's get busy doing what God put us here to do. It doesn't start in the pulpit. It is not something that I can do. It is something that we all must do. Let me tell you how.

Have you ever heard of a "bucket list?" It’s a list of things that we want to do before we "kick the bucket"-- adventures we want to have, places we want to go, things we want to build, and so forth.

I propose that we all have a new kind of "bucket list"--people that we want to see trust Jesus before they kick the bucket.

For the Christian, death is just the next chapter of life, that's all. But for our friends, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, co-workers, and total strangers who occupy the space around us, who don't know Christ, death is the deadline for getting right with God. What we do from now until our death is inconsequential. What they do is vital for their eternity.

List five people you know that you don't know are believers. Pray for them daily. Make it your responsibility to see that they are given the chance to hear the Gospel before they die. Don't let them kick the bucket without an opportunity to know that God loves them and has a better plan for their eternity. If you get the chance, tell them how to know that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.

Signs and Wonders

I don't believe in Bigfoot. Oh, I've seen films and the plaster casts of his foot, but they are unconvincing. I've heard the eyewitness accounts, but they are debatable. Eyewitnesses can be deceived, pictures can be faked, footprints can become distorted with time. The reason I don't believe Bigfoot is because there are no real signs of his existence. A seven or eight foot tall animal cannot exist in the woods without leaving some trace of himself behind. Without better signs, I can't not believe in Bigfoot.


I do believe in skunks, though. I've never seen a skunk. I hope I never do. But I have smelled enough skunks to know they are real. I do not have the witness of my eyes, but I sure have he witness of my nose. A skunk leaves abundant evidence of his presence.

The same is true of the Holy Spirit. Is it reasonable to think that God can be active on the earth and not leave some sign of His existence? Whenever He appears in the Bible, things happen. We see signs of His existence.

We have utterly failed to reach the lost. We are not alone in this. Almost all churches in America, of whatever denomination, have also failed to make a significant impact on the lives of the Godless. Whatever we have tried in the past hasn't worked. We've had sports teams, ice cream socials, advertizing, door-to-door campaigns, and nothing has seemed to make any difference. No matter, what ever we are doing isn't working.

The first few generations of the church were fantastically successful. People came to Christ by the thousands, without outreach committees, purpose statements, or church planning consultants. They succeeded for one simple reason. The Spirit of God was at work. He moved in their midst, performing signs and wonders which gave evidence of His existence.

We have always been told that we are more blessed if we walk by faith and not by sight. But is that what we are really so? Are we supposed to believe that God exists in the spiritual world, but no longer ventures into the physical? That’s s Deism, not Christianity. Without evidence, is it any more reasonable to believe in Him than Bigfoot?

Jesus praised His disciples when they believed without seeing. But they had already seen many miracles. Jesus urged them to act upon the evidence they had already seen. Do we expect unbelievers to have more faith than the disciples? Before unbelievers can believe, they must see some evidence that all this is real. That evidence is called "signs and wonders."

"Signs and wonders" is used eleven times in the New Testament. Jesus used it once in John 4:46-48

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders ," Jesus told him, "you will never believe."

This is often taken as a put-down by Jesus of their lack of faith, but I do not think it is. It is a simple statement of fact. They would not and could not believe until they saw some evidence of God's presence with Jesus. They wanted some hard evidence. They did not want to take someone's word for it. Nor would I.

49-53 The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live."

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour."

Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed.

Would they have believed without seeing some kind of sign? I don't think so.

"Signs and wonders" is used eight time in Acts. Each time we see signs and wonders, it is a time when God's people needed special assurance that they were headed in the right direction. Do we need them any less today? I am convinced if we are ever to persuade people this skeptical age that God is here, it will not be through reason, but through signs and wonders.

I will explain what I mean by signs and wonders later. Before I do, let me with a couple of misconceptions.

Signs and wonders are not ordinary events. Believers see proof of God in the ordinary joys of life, like babies and sunrises. Unbelievers do not see God there. Unbelievers are not less intelligent than believers because they do not see God in all things. They just do not think of beauty as a work of God. That’s why they are called unbelievers. These are not miracles, but the natural/ At best, it proves that God was once here, but it does not prove that He is still hear and still active now.

The second misconception is this--that God is no longer doing signs and wonders. Miracles were for ancient times, people say, not now. They were signs of Jesus and the apostles, not signs of His presence in the church today.

Signs and wonders have not ceased. Some people say that miracles ceased in the time of the apostles. I cannot accept that. A sign is evidence of God’s continued existence and work in the world. Is it reasonable to assume that a living God does not leave evidence of His work? The same God who made the world, raised Jesus from the dead, and began the church with miracles at Pentecost is the same God we worship today.

What are signs and wonders meant to show? Not someone’s qualification for office, but the presence of a living God. Jesus’ miracles were a sign that God was with Him, and therefore was the true Messiah. The Apostles’ miracles showed God was with them. Paul’s miracles showed that God was present with him. Hebrews 2:3-4 says this:

This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Signs and wonders attest to God’s salvation. God’s salvation is still with us.They are also a witness of the presence of God today.

Now, what are signs and wonders? A sign is any definitive and extraordinary evidence—however great or small—that God is working today. Where do we find that evidence? Let me suggest three places/

A changed life. In all the universe there is nothing so hard to change than the human heart. How many times do we see a person completely turned inside-out, so much that he actually becomes someone new? Have you ever seen a drug addict get clean? A homosexual change sexual orientation? A drunk leave the bottle? A violent man turn gentle or a shy person turn bold? I have seen all these things happen through the power of the Gospel. These are signs and wonders.

A prayer answered Imagine you're playing driveway basketball. A man comes up and wants to join you. You don't know who he is, but you pass him the ball. He immediately throws a basket. Lucky, you think. But then he does it again and again. Now you know he is no ordinary player. He is a professional, or one who will be soon.

It isn't just hitting the basket that proves who he is. It is the consistency and the difficulty of his shots. It isn’t just one answered prayer. It is the consistency and the difficulty o those answered prayers that prove God’s existence. Most of our prayer are for nothing difficult, and not much, so we have little to report when we testify. But when we consistently see difficult prayers answered, we realize His power. Answered prayers are a sign and a wonder.

A love exhibited. "By this will all men know you are my disciples," Jesus said, "By your love for one another." In the eighth century, Irish monks evangelized Britain and Scotland by building monasteries right in the middle of cities. They lived lives of charity and love among the people. They opened their doors and took in those no one else wanted. They converted them by the signs and wonders of unusual love. Love can be a sign and a wonder, too.

But signs and wonders alone will not persuade the unbeliever. Those signs and wonders have to be told. Somehow the Devil has planted it in the hearts of churchmen that it is rude to talk about God, that a person’s religion is his own business. If we don’t open our mouths and tell about the evidence of God’s power in our own experience, how can the world benefit from it? The world must hear what God has done, and what He is still doing. Anyone who’s life has been touched by the power of God in anyway, no matter how great or small, has an obligation to tell others. You are the witnesses to God’s salvation.

I had a friend who was a walking miracle. He was a student at a Christian college that did not believe in modern miracles. He fell out of a top bunk and injured his head. They told him that much of his brain was damaged beyond repair that he would never see or walk again. He went into despair. Then a cleaning lady in the hospital prayed for him. Over time, he regained first his sight, then his legs. His doctor, who had been an agnostic, gave his life to Christ, along with twenty-six other people who heard the story.

But imagine if no one heard the story. Where would those twenty-five be? Imagine that that maid had not talked to him? Where would he be?

Tell of the great things that God has done. Don't be shy. Tell it over and over, tell it proudly. Don't worry that it may be too small or unimpressive.

We are a church with many difficulties today. Frankly, I don’t' know he answers. I don't have any plans, I can't recommend any programs, I don't think revivals or recreation is going to fundimentally change our situation. But I believe in the Holy Spirit, and I believe in signs and wonders. Signs and wonders will change our church.

How do we have signs and wonders? The same way they happened in Jesus' day--one person at a time. They greatest sign and wonder is you. Let Jesus change your life, then tell about it, and that will change not only our church, but the whole world.

Lies and Double Lies

Politicians lie. So do entertainers, salesmen, lobbyists, mirrors and scales (Okay, the last two may be just wishful thinking. )


First, let me make clear what a lie is.

A lie is a deliberate denial, distortion, or evasion of the truth. It is giving of false information intentionally for the purpose of deception. The key word to understand lies is the world deliberate. A liar intends to be a liar. He is not mistaken or misinformed. He actually intends to deceive. It is not an accident.

But the not all lies are the same. An ordinary lie is perpetrated by a person or persons who know what they are doing it deceptive. It is easy for us to condemn such lies, because the culpability for them fall upon a small group--a liar or liars. But there are lies for which encompass a much greater field of culpability. These are lies which are supported by a society at large by silence or false assent. These lies become not only a shame on a few, but shame to the many. These are double lies. They are much harder to deal with, and have much wider consequences than ordinary lies.

A double lie is not believed by larger society, but it is supported as if it is believed. We all know that it is a lie, but no one wants to admit it. We go along with the lie because we are afraid not to, or because we receive from benefit for ourselves, or because we don't want to rock the boat. No one wants to call it what it is, so it continues to exist forever, or at least until it ceases to be useful.

An example of a double lie is the story of the emperor's new clothes. Two lying tailors convince a king that they can make a magic suit that only a fool can not see. The king, being stupid, believes it. It would seem that such a rank deception would not hold up long when exposed to the wider world, but incredibly it does. The king parades around the town, while people praise his beautiful new clothes. The whole town participates in the lie. Because each one is afraid to tell what they see with their own eyes. Cowardice and selfishness keeps the whole country from speaking their mind. nly one little boy, who has nothing to gain from the deception, speaks up and exposes the lie.

The Nazis told Germany that Jews were subhuman. Of course the Germans did not think that the Jews were subhuman, but they were too afraid to say it. It just that the Nazis were more powerful. As a result millions of people died. Stalin said that Communism worked in Russia. All the average Russian had to do was to look around, and they could see that it didn't, but fear kept them from saying so. Their silence again contributed to the death of millions. Modern, nonjudgmental thinking says that all religions are equally valid and deserve equal tolerance. Yet even in the wake of 9-11, we still refuse to believe our own eyes.

The world is full of liars, and always has been. But whenever we keep silent about the lie, we lie again, and the lie becomes a double lie.

A modern example of a double lie is the medical use of marijuana. Those who promote it know that they are being deceptive. They admit it among themselves. They want to legalize the drug. The argument that it is somehow medicinal is a smoke screen, and they know it. Thousands of marijuana "clinics" have sprung up around California. One LA paper has a a marijuana critic who rates the quality of the various clinics. One clinic sells marijuana-flavored ice cream.

How can marijuana be good for our health, if in order to take it, be must inhale smoke? Is it rational to assume that, if there are legitimate medical uses for it, that it would not be better to take it in pill or tablet form under a doctors supervision than to allow it to be used in unmeasured doses whenever we want it? Would it not be better to isolate the substances in marijuana that are useful and treat people with them, just like we have done with most herbal medicines?

Even so , many will defend the lie of medical. They do so for a variety of reasons. Some defend it with the hope of growing it for profit. Others want to use it recreationally. Still others are just embarrassed to be thought of as intolerant prohibitionists. So they say nothing--a double lie.

Another example is illegal immigration. There are thirty million Americans who need jobs, and there are eleven million people working here illegally. Every one of those people is working because of stolen social security numbers, fake licenses, and counterfeit green cards. Those for whom they work are getting rich off paying subminimum wages. Many are treated like slave labor. Human smugglers rob them of their life savings to get here Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people are killed by criminals in order to get into this country illegally. Yet somehow we never speak of the horror and hardship it brings of so many people.

The answers to illegal immigration are simple Just require a social security number check whenever a person gets a job, enrolls children in school, applies for food stamps, or seeks out public welfare. When someone is arrested automatically check their papers and their status. So why don't we?

Because of the double lie. One group doesn't want to offend the Hispanic community, because it would cost them votes. Another group doesn't want to enforce the law and lose their cheap labor. Millions of other simply do not want to seem intolerant or racist--as if racism had anything to do with legal status. If we ever have an influx of illegal Swedes, they should be deported, too. Meanwhile, the deaths at the border and bone-grinding poverty for those who make it through goes on and on.

Or take abortion. Those who support a mother's right to chose do so by denying a child's right to live. There is no moral equivalence between the two. Should a man be allowed to beat a dog simply because it is his dog to beat, and can choose to do with it what he wishes? Should a erson kill a mentally incompetent child, or a wife in a coma, when it becomes inconvenient to keep them?

There are legitimate arguments to be made whether or not a fetus is a human, I suppose. But there is no legitimate argument to be made for choosing to terminate a pregnancy if the fetus is human. Then it is the taking of life, and not subject to choice, even to the mother who bears it.

That a child's life is more important than a woman's choice seems pretty obvous. Yet a large segment of the population finds unwanted children inconvenient. so the truth becomes inconvenient. Our lack of outrage over suggesting choice is more important than a determination of humanity is a lie. We ought to be outraged at it. But we choose not to be.

The cure for double lies is simple honesty. We have to be the child shouting from the crowd that the emperor has not clothes.

Unlike in the children's tale, just having one person say it is usually not enough. The power of the double lie is such that the obvious is often shouted down. It takes our willingness to speak up and keep speaking if we are ever going to turn double lies around. Until those who see the truth are willing to speak, the double lie will always prevail.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

A Puritan Approach to Fishing

I have just finished a little booklet on evangelism, according to the Puritan method, by a modern author whose name I will not mention.  It is really an amazing book.  Somehow the author manages to write fifty pages on the subject of evangelism without even once suggesting that we talk with unbelievers except from the pulpit.  Instead, the book declares that the one and only method of evangelism is to preach from the pulpit the "whole counsel of God," using "plain sermons" done in the Puritan style, heavy on doctrine and archaic language. 
It is not a book on how to evangelize sinners,  it is a book on how to evangelize sinners three hundred years ago.  The majority of the book is occupied with what is wrong with modern evangelistic methods.  After having read this slim book, I am ready if  ever meet an Eighteenth Century sinner.
I respect the Puritans.  I respect their love of the Bible,  their prayer and piety. But their approach to evangelism was a product of their time when even unbelievers came to church, and the vast majority of people believed in God and respected the Bible. This is not the case today.  Today, the majority of people have no idea what the Gospel is, and have no inclination to find out.  The never set foot in a church or place of worship except on holidays and weddings.  If a preacher believes that the only way of evangelizing is through the pulpit then he should move his pulpit  outside in the front yard of the church, where at least he has a chance that a passersby might accidently hear and believe.
But enough about this book.  It did not do much to make me rethink my view of preaching or evangelism. It did, however, cause me to rethink my view of fishing. What if we applied the same approach to catching fish.  What a difference it would make!
The Bibles supports fishing, I am happy to say, as an activity which can be readily practiced by believers. After all, did not God Himself fish when He drew out Leviathan with a fishhook?  Did not the apostles fish on the sea of Galilee?  Did not our Lord, on more than one occasion, command  his disciples to fish?  And what about Jonah?  It is heartily reassuring to know that fishing is AOK with God. 
But what are we to think of the modern diversity of fishing methods, and the proclivity of many so called "fishermen"  of  our day to fish in strange places for strange fish?  The foolishness of their activity is shown by the number of times, once they have  a fish on the hook, they subsequently let it fall away. Their shallow, worldly approaches to fishing may attract many fish, but they often lose as many fish as they land.  With such large numbers of fish, they often do not have time to properly clean them.  And how many of those are the best quality?  They regularly land trash fish as well as good ones. 
It is not enough to fish--we must fish as God intended! That means the use of a net, preferably on the sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is the only place where God specifically commands any to fish.  That one lake should be sufficient for us.   Though it might be difficult for the average fisherman to make it to Israel,  the rewards of knowing that we are righteous fishermen, attentive to His word ought to be enough to make the extra trouble worthwhile.  
In the Holy Scriptures, the fish caught, were those which God intended for us to catch--those preordained for our consumption.  Indeed, did not our Lord tell Peter which side of the boat to cast upon? Was not the number of the fish caught recorded in Scripture on one occasion(157) so we might know that the number of fish was specially ordained?  Without our Lord's command and specific direction, the disciples came back empty.  Without a clear sense of the Spirit's leading and God's specific command,  they should not have even tried.
The modern fishermen cares naught whether his fish are rightly  or wrongly caught. All he cares about is filling is cooler.  The modern fishermen uses unnatural means, such as artificial bait, fish finders, and outboard trolling motors. He focuses on quantity instead of quality, when he should be trusting in God to bring the fish to him, as Peter did of old.  Does he not hear his Lord's command,  saying "Throw over to the other side of the boat?"  Shocking!
As with everything else a pastor does, proper fishing begins with proper preaching.  Fish need to be intellectually challenged to jump into our nets.  It must be explained by clear and simple proclamation that it is their duty as lower creatures of the water to obey us, their masters.  They need to respect the authority given to us over nature in Genesis 1:28. 
A proper fisherman be a man of prayer.  He must get his heart right before God.  Then if he does not catch fish he will know that he is really at fault for not praying with sufficient intensity and passion for fish.  Once he has prayed with force and intensity, then he must  stand over the lake pleading with tears, saying "Come thou fish! Come and be captured for the Lord's sake!" He must read to the fish from the Scriptures, (King James preferred), admonishing them that it is their duty to become part of our diet.  He must comfort the fish, by revealing the glories that await when he is filleted, breaded, and dipped in tartar sauce! Surely it is his only the fish's willful disobedience in loving his meager life, coupled with our lack of zeal in our prayers and preaching, that has kept these creature from their appointed places in our frying pans.
But what if our cooler is still empty at the end of the day?  What if we catch nary a single fish? It matters not. We can still rejoice, because we know that we have fulfilled our Lord's command to fish.  We have done our duty,  whether or not any fish have actually come into our nets. We can go back the next week and the next, getting no results, because we are firm in our assurance that the fish whom God has foreordained will come, even if we have not seen any yet seen them, or any other.  And if the fish seem to be laughing at us under the surface, and think us to be a bunch of loonies, then indeed our empty stomachs are proof of our faithfulness and obedience, as we have not stooped to worldly methods of fishing.
But what if we never catch any fish at all?  Rejoice anyway, brethren.  We have the advantage of having more time to spend in his study the Word, finding more and more things to disapprove of in ourselves,  and more of what God has forbidden in fishing.  We can study all night,  since we are not burdened with the necessity of actually cleaning any fish. 
Amen and amen!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

A handful of Grain

When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,
We were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter,
Our tongues with songs of joy.



Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.
Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow,
Will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. Ps 126

The farmer looked at his storehouse with satisfaction. The grain was golden—literally and figuratively. This grain would feed his family for several seasons. With this grain, his family had a future. Without it, they would starve.
It was good that he had the foresight to store the grain, instead of eating or bartering with it. A war was coming. The Babylonians were threatening invasion.
But with this grain, the farmer needn’t worry. His family could withstand a siege. They could retreat within the fortified walls of the city and last for months. Even if (God forbid!) something happened to him, there was enough here to feed his family for the rest of the season.
Then war came. The enemy laid siege to his town. Day after day they looked for help, which never came. Each day he opened his storehouse and took out their daily rations. Each day there was less. The farmer grew worried as he watched his precious sacks of grain grow thinner.
He conserved as much as he could. He cut the rations by half, then half again. Now there wasn’t enough to feed them all. For many days, he went without eating, so the children would have enough. Only one small pile remained—about a day’s ration. Tomorrow, even that would be gone.
The farmer took a small sack and carefully, precisely put every last remaining grain into it. He tied it up, took it to his house, and put it in a safe place. He and his family had nothing that night. His wife complained, “If we still have grain, we should eat it.” He shook his head. The grain would be needed later for other purposes.
The next day, his town surrendered. The Babylonians took everything they could find of value. But they missed the last of the farmer’s grain, because he had hidden it carefully. He lost everything else, but he still had the grain.
The Babylonians marched them away into exile. They were to be resettled on the banks of the Euphrates. They would never see their city again.
But they were not completely destitute. They still had something of their old lives—that handful of grain.
The farmer scratched a ditch in the mud. He opened his little sack and took out his handful of grain. Kernel; by kernel, he laid it carefully along the furrow, and covered it up with earth. Then he waited…
First the shoot appeared—then the stalk, then the tassel. New grain grew from the old. In the fall, they harvested the new grain. For the first season, they ate sparingly, putting most of the grain in storage for the next season. In the spring they planted again. Year by year, little by little, the garden grew into a farm. The single handful of preserved grain spread over many acres.
Seasons rolled by. The farmer grew old and died, but his son took over and managed it the way his father had taught him. When his son grew old, his children carried on. Seventy years—a whole generation—passed in the land of Babylon.
The family was successful in exile, but never happy. They wanted more than anything to plant in their own soil and to raise children in their own country. Every year, they said the same thing “Next year in Jerusalem.”
Then the word came down from the government that they could return to their homes. They lost no time in deciding to go. They celebrated just as this singer tells us—their mouths were full of singing and their houses with laughter.
Before they left, they harvested the grain. They put some into a small sack for seed. Then they left for Israel, bringing their sheaves with them.
The return journey took months. Finally, though, the family stood on the ground their grandparents left.
The first thing they did was to carefully plant the grain—the offspring of the very grain they carried into exile.
The grain had returned home.

The story that frames this psalm is the return of the exiles—how they reentered the land, sowed the seed, and harvested their crops. It is the story of how the people of Israel preserved their most precious traditions—their faith, their family, their God. They returned with their identity and principles intact. No wonder they sang it again every time they traveled from their homes to Jerusalem.
We enjoy the benefits of faith, but are we continuing to pass it on to the future? Faith must be planted in new soil every season. If we do not plant anew, our faith will disappear.
The world is changing. The old ways are dying. New generations are fleeing the parochial community of the past and becoming citizens of a much more complex global world. In this interaction with different cultures and traditions, Christians are in danger of losing their distinctiveness. Christians find themselves in a world they do not recognize, cut off from their roots by time and change. The world we knew will never return again. Instead, we are entering a world of diversity, where Christianity is one of many voices in a cacophony of competing cultures.
We should not worry about this. Christianity is ready for it. We were born for such a time. Old Testament Judaism was in constant competition with the religions of surrounding nations. The early church thrived in such a culture. Christianity was born in Galilee—the “circle of the Gentiles”—a melting pot of Jewish, Eastern, and Greco-Roman culture. Our journey is not that different from the one our ancestors made.
by the time we reach the middle years, we no longer look to our elders as leaders. We discover that we are the leaders. So it is important that we know what to abandon and what to preserve.
Much of what we think of as “traditional” Christianity is not traditional at all. Our music, our church sanctuaries, our liturgy, even robes and pulpits are not as ancient as we think they are. “Traditional” Christian churches maintain the outer trappings of a tradition, but may neglect the essence. Organs and choirs, and pulpit robes are not necessary expressions of our faith. We can abandon all the trappings of the past, so long as we preserve devotion to His Word and devotion to His Spirit. This is our handful of grain. As long as we stay true to Him, we need not fear assimilation into the world.
To preserve this grain, we need to plant it. Our generation has to plant that old faith in new soil. We may believe in a two thousand year old faith, but our ancient faith means nothing if it is not planted in contemporary soil.
The world is changing. We may enjoy prosperous times now, but lean times will come. When they come, our children—spiritual and physical—will continue our faith into the future. God will preserve them as He has preserved us. But there is one condition. We have to preserve the purity of our faith; so that one day we can return and rejoice, bringing our sheaves with us.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Sad News

Yesterday, a situation that I have known about for more than a week became public knowledge. A close friend was found to have been taking money from the church. I won't mention his name, nor the name of the church. Those who know it know it, and those who don't, don't need to. I mention it, not to further embarrass them, but because I want to share what I've learned from it.
First, I learned not to trust anyone. This is not because we don't love them, but because temptation is universal. The fear of being caught is one of the most powerful guards we have against dishonesty.
Second, I learned that anyone can stumble. I would not have thought it possible for this person to take money any more than I would have thought it possible of myself. But if he can fall, so can we. I know this because in some ways, I already have. We have all done things we shouldn't. And if we fail in small things, we can do it in big things, too, under the right set of circumstances.
My third thought on this is that when we sin, we literally split in two.
Some people divide the world into two groups--good guys and bad guys. The truth of it is much more complex. We can be good one day and bad the next. One day we can be a pious, church-going individual, thoughtful and generous to others, and really sincere about it. The next, we can do things that are unbelievably ugly and destructive. Then we put up a wall between our pious selves and our ugly selves, so that one does not ruin the other. On our pious days, our mind rejects what we do on our ugly days.
I know it sounds like Jekyll and Hyde, but it really isn't. We are the same person. We are not delusional. It's not that we forget, it's just that we choose not to remember. We believe that the good and pious person is the real person, while the other is just a shadow. But the side of us we do not wish to acknowledge is still ourselves, and can come to dominate us. Then one day, the two sides of ourselves collide. Suddenly, the part we hide comes into the light. Our divided self crash together like two asteroids, and we are wiped out in the collision.
My friends predicament has caused me to do some serious self-examination. No sin starts large. It starts as a little crack--a casual flirtation, an innocent deception, a corner cut here or there. But if we don't admit it, it grows. It gets bigger and bigger, and if we don't watch ourselves, it can break us in two.
As a Christian, I am not any better than anyone else. But I do recognize that there a cure for a sinsick heart.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.


" If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." I john 1:5-10 NIV

Light is the greatest disinfectant. Whether it's comfortable or not, we need to walk in honesty and openness.
I pray for my friend, his family and his wounded church.. My hope and prayer is that the pain they are enduring now will result in healing later. I have no doubt that it will.