Genesis 3, which details the Fall of mankind into sin, had, and continues to have, serious consequences on man.  In fact, it’s had an effect on every human that has lived (even Jesus, who was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15)).  We are all born under its curse.  Everything bad that happens on this earth can be tied in some way or another to sin, from murder and lying, to stealing and adultery.  Sin’s curse is pervasive.

Did you know that it even has an effect on nature?  “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21)  You would be wrong if you thought that only humans suffer.  These verses tell us that even creation itself is suffering, with us!  We are all slaves to the corruption of sin, from man to beast to trees and flowers. Your suffering does not have to necessarily be connected with a particular sin you committed.  The difficulties and frustrations that you and I experience in life are part of the larger consequence of sin, in general.  So when you stub your toe, or don’t get into the school you wanted, or fail the test you studied so hard for, it’s not just because you sinned right before that happened.  All of creation groans with us, and understands the effects of sin.

So I am a tree hugger because of this.  I want to redefine it, though.  I define it as this: I care for creation because God made it good (Genesis 1), sin is working to corrupt God’s good work, and that bothers me so much that I’m going to work to reverse the curse of sin.  We work to reverse the curse of sin in our personal lives, right?  “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away…and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” (Matthew 5:28-30)  We seek to rid ourselves of sin because God has given us a new heart that desires to serve Him.  We help others to do it as well (Matthew 29:19-20), or at least we should be doing that.  Why should we also not work to reverse the effects that sin has on creation itself?  Water your flowers, plant a tree, prune a bush, do some landscaping, recycle, clean up trash…because you love Christ and hate sin!

Enjoy this heretical video:

 

You may have already seen this video, but if not, I hope you enjoy it.  We can squabble over styles of music, but I pray that we never go back to this…ever.

 

It’s hard to capture community and try to explain it to people in a Sunday morning announcement.  Nevertheless, we gave it a shot.  Check out this video that I put together, trying to give people a snapshot of what it looks like, physically, to live life in healthy community with other believers.

 

I’m not going to give much commentary for you here.  Just suffice it to say that words really do matter.  The way you say something, the tone of voice you use, the timing, the attitude, the context, the manner and mode of delivery…it all matters!  It also matters the words that you choose.  Watch this video, and laugh a lot.

 

My wife and I went on a little getaway to Whitestone Inn recently. It’s really a beautiful, relaxing place, and we found out just how much we both needed some rest (especially before the baby comes!)

Right outside of the window where we ate our meals there was a hummingbird feeder. They’re fun little birds to watch. The first day we were there, the feeder was empty, and the birds, not knowing that there was no liquid in the feeder, would approach only to leave in disgust. By the second day, the feeder was full of red-colored sugar water, which the birds love, and they were flying all around. There were actually two feeders, and probably a dozen birds total. Two birds stood out to me, though. They were guarding “their” feeder. They would not let any other birds drink any of the liquid that was in the feeder. Whenever another bird approached, the dominant bird would become like a dart, and with its long slender nose, fly directly at the threatening bird. It was a pretty funny sight to watch!

My wife and I were both struck by the ridiculousness of this fighting. There was more liquid in the feeder than would fit in all of the tiny stomachs of all of the hummingbirds combined! And when the feeder ran out, it would be soon filled again with the fresh liquid. Their selfishness was completely unwarranted because they would always be provided for by the workers at the inn. This wasn’t even something that the hummingbirds gathered themselves…it was provided for them free of charge, and in more abundance than they could consume.

You probably already see where I’m going with this. Isn’t it the same with us? How often do we become selfish with our ‘stuff’? We try to hoard it and protect it because, well, it’s ours! Or so we think. We’ve been the ones who have earned the money that’s bought it, right? “I need this extra _______ because of the line of work I’m in…I deserve this extravagant vacation…I need a bigger house, which costs way more money than I can afford…” The list goes on and on. Or maybe it isn’t ‘stuff’ that you’re selfish with. Maybe it’s your time that you’re selfish with. You have to protect it, making sure that you spend it ‘wisely’ on things that will profit you, entertain you, serve you, benefit you. Time is short, right? You can never get it back. “Don’t waste your time.”

But is our ‘stuff’ really ours? Is our time really ours? Do we truly have ownership of it? “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) In this context, Paul is saying that it makes no sense for Christians to commit sexual immorality because, when we received Christ in faith for our salvation, our bodies were united with him. How can our bodies then be united with “a prostitute” (6:15)? It makes no sense in Paul’s mind how these two things could be united. He goes on to say that, because we are united with Christ, our bodies are no longer our to do what we want with them. Our bodies have been bought with a price (Christ did not just die to save our souls, but our bodies as well), and that price was the life of Christ.  Having ‘stuff’ and enjoying ‘time’ is not inherently wrong.  It’s wrong when you are mastered by it (see 1 Corinthians 6:12).

The hummingbirds have been mastered by their stomachs.  Let them remind us that Christ died to redeem our bodies, and that He is our true master.  Their idolatry should point us to the cross, and show us that following anything or anyone other than Christ is foolish.

 

So my wife and I thought it would be a good idea to save a few bucks on some furniture for the office in our home by buying it unfinished. Sounds like a good plan, right? I mean, it can’t be that much trouble to stain and paint a desk and chair. That’s what I thought.

To make the story shorter, I’m not good at painting or staining.

We bought the things a few months ago and I’ve just gotten around to finishing them. I’m not good at it, I don’t enjoy it, it took up a lot of room in our garage, it made a mess of the floor (well, I should probably go ahead and claim that as my fault), and it caused a fair amount of stress because of how long it took for me to finally finish.

But isn’t this sometimes how the Christian life goes? It’s not easy, it takes up a lot of “space” in our life (as if it’s ours in the first place!), it’s messy, stressful, and not fun. Often, God calls us to do things that we don’t want to do. Don’t believe me? Read Matthew 18:21-22: “Then Peter came to him and asked, ‘Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?’ ‘No, not seven times,’ Jesus replied, ‘but seventy times seven! I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.'” Imagine if someone sinned against you in the same way seven times in one day. That’s pretty rough, right? Peter’s no slouch. He’s saying he’ll forgive a person seven times in the same day for the same sin. But Jesus completely blows him (and us) out of the water by saying that you are to forgive a person, not just seven times, but seventy times seven! You can do the math if you want, but it’s more likely that Jesus is using this number metaphorically. I don’t think he intends for us to actually keep a record of the times that people sin against us. The thought here is to forgive…and forgive…and forgive…and forgive…etc. The reason we are to forgive is rooted in God’s forgiveness of us, first of all.  We offer grace and forgiveness to others because we realize that we are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness.  Secondly, we offer forgiveness because judgment is coming.  After the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23-34), Jesus says that God will not forgive us if we do not forgive our brothers from our heart.

This verse causes me to lose sleep at night.

If you get nothing else from this blog post, catch this.  We’re not called to forgive others because we feel like it. If we were to wait until we felt like forgiving people, most of us would never get around to it.  We’re called to forgiveness whether we feel like it or not because God has forgiven us, and our debt to Him was beyond anything that any person could ever “owe” us.

Forgiveness is only one example of something that God calls me to do that I often don’t want to do.  But I do it, trusting that He knows what He’s doing (it’s usually a good idea to trust a God who created the earth and rose from the dead, neither of which I can do).

So, ultimately, I’m glad that I bought the unpainted furniture.  I saved some money, I am proud that I finished it, and it looks good in our office.  It also pointed me to my relationship with God.  What’s He calling you to do today?

Do you want to do it?

 

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day, and he asked, “How is the church business going?” It sounds odd to place the words “church” and “business” together in the same sentence, doesn’t it? At first, I was taken aback, almost offended, that he would equate the two. I mean, the Church is God’s sacred bride, for whom Christ died! The church’s foundation is Christ, the chief cornerstone. The Church is a body of people, spanning thousands of years, not a building.

As I began to think about it a little more, though, I saw some similarities.

• Businesses are out to sell their product…churches are out to “sell” a product (Jesus)
• Businesses are mindful of their consumers and are trying to market their product in a way that is relevant to the consumer…churches are mindful of the consumer (the congregation), and are trying to keep their product (Jesus, God, Bible) relevant (the church has been around since ~30AD…don’t we believe that the Bible is relevant for today??)
• Businesses want to come up with products that are useful and keep people coming back for more…churches want to “feed” people from Scripture, help them to grow spiritually, and have them come back the next week. In fact, both die out if people never come back.
• Businesses want to grow to the point that they can open up more stores and spread ultimately throughout the country and the world…the Church’s goal, via Christ, is to make disciples of all nations, spreading the gospel to the whole world (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8)

I don’t want to take this illustration too far. Ultimately, the Church is not a business. The Church is the worldwide community of the redeemed people of God. We are established, fed, matured, sustained, and loved by God. To say that the Church is simply a business would sell it far short of its beauty.

But comparing the two is intriguing, isn’t it? I know that there are many more, but these are just the few that came to mind. If you’ve got some more, feel free to leave a comment.

 

I like this little application. You can enter in a website or RSS feed, and it will create a visual “word cloud” of the words that are used most often. I haven’t been blogging for long, but this gives you an idea of what I blog about:

 

My youth pastor, Phillip, from my days in middle school has recently acted a little bit out of the “norm.”  I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s “normal” for youth pastors to do strange things in order to connect with the middle school/high school generation.  It’s not out of the normal context of a youth pastor’s day to perform odd stunts, eat things that shouldn’t be eaten, and dye their hair strange colors for the purpose of “ministry.”  That’s just not been Phillip.  He’s not been the guy who’s gone over the top to be the “cool” guy.  He’s connected with our generation, for sure.  It’s just not been because he’s done crazy things.  Until now…(see picture below)

Never would I have thought that Philip would have stooped to this level, dropped this low, and gone this far all to raise money to buy bikes for pastors in India (for more information, see his church’s website).  But, he did.  This is a different side of Philip than I ever saw, and I have to say that, though it’s a bit unorthodox, I like it.  He’s done it in the name of love of ministry, of the love of missions, of the love of people, and of the love of God.

We do a lot of things “in the name of love.”  I know I have.  Before I got married, you would have never found me eating a chicken salad sandwich at a dainty cafe.  You also would not have found me watching girly movies or tv shows like John and Kate Plus Eight or The Gilmore Girls.  You probably wouldn’t have seen me strolling through a nursery to find just the right plant to go into our flower bed.  You also wouldn’t have seen me making sure I had my shirts ironed and socks matching before I left the house.  I’ve learned to do a lot “in the name of love.”  And is it all that bad?  I think not.

I have learned that self-sacrifice is essential in loving my wife.  If I am going to begin living up to the high calling that Paul lays down of “husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church” it absolutely must involve self-sacrifice.  I know that eating chicken salad at dainty cafes and making sure my socks are picked up off of the floor (which I’m still working on, honey) are seemingly minor things.  But they’re a step in the right direction.  They’re revealing that my heart adores my wife.  It’s these small acts of love that speak volumes to my wife, and tell her that, when the huge opportunities come, I’ll love you even more (it might be a stretch, and not the primary application of the passage, but Luke 16:10, “He who can be trusted with little can also be trusted with much,” may apply here).  My attitude and behavior is an overflow of my heart (Matthew 6:21; James 4:1-3), even in the small things.

Don’t forget about the strange behavior of Phillip.  It’s reflecting a heart that loves God.  What more could you do in the name of love?

 

My wife and I got excited the other day when we heard the ice cream truck blaring its horn through our neighborhood.  It brought back great memories from our summer childhood, where we would stand in the road staring at the side of the ice cream truck trying to decide between an ice cream sandwich, a chocolate/vanilla combo served in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head, and a spider-man head with a cold, stale piece of bubble gum waiting for you at the end.  Just hearing that music made us want to run outside in reckless abandon!  Apparently, though, both of our memories from “the good ole’ days” painted the ice cream truck in a much brighter light than we currently found it.

Who ever thought that buying dairy products out of an old rusty van that had been driving around in the hot sun for hours on end was a good idea anyway?  The van, whose horn had begun to distort the sound of the music into the sound you would expect coming out of one on a creepy horror movie, had a window on the side that had been busted out, and that’s where the woman took our money and served us our ice cream.  Actually, she was out of my top 4 choices.  I didn’t even know I had 4 choices when it came to the ice cream truck, but apparently, she was out all of them.  I had to settle for a chocolate eclair…not all that bad, but quite a disappointment.  The whole experience has left me a little shaken up.  I, a sane adult, bought ice cream out of the busted window of a rusty van.  

We should all hope that, as time progresses, we find ourselves growing closer to the Lord.  Our walk with Christ should continue to become more intimate (progressive sanctification) as we seek to put off our old self, our former way of life, and put on our new self which has been created to be like God, full of holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).  Sometimes, though, we slip back into “childish” ways, reaching for ice cream out of a rusty van.  

What should we do when we find ourselves “feeding our flesh?”  Paul exhorts us to put off the sin, and replace it with its righteous counterpart.  Put off lying and put on truth-telling (4:25), put off anger and put on active reconciliation (4:26); put off stealing and put on honest labor (4:27).  Stealing should be put off, and honest labor should be put on, following by generosity (4:28).  Unwholesome talk should be put off, and in its place should come words of encouragement (4:29).  Bitterness, anger, rage, brawling, slander, and malice should be given up, and forgiveness should be put on (4:31-32).  Paul’s teaching is simple and, at the same time, some of the hardest teaching to put into practice.  It’s so hard that, without Christ, it’s impossible.  With Christ, though, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).   

So when you find yourself in the middle of the road on a hot day staring at a rusty old van, longing for ice cream to be served to you, trying to understand the ice cream man over the clanking and banging of the muffler, and exchanging money through the broken glass, just stop!  Think to your own spiritual growth. Is there anything you need to give up for the sake of following Christ?  What needs to be put on in its place?  I know I won’t be buying ice cream from that truck anymore.