Ups and downs, questions and answers

Is it just me or does the Christian life sometimes feel like a roller coaster ride? There are days when my strong hope and faith collide with an unexpected reality in my life; one of those “uh oh” moments when something happens that I didn’t see coming. Other roller coaster moments for me are when my prayers aren't answered as I desired or when my dreams become shattered. When this happens, invariably for me disappointment, and sometimes disillusionment come as a result.

I believe that all of us, whether we’re new Christians or long-time believers, battle feelings of disappointment when life goes wrong. Deep down somewhere in the recesses of our hearts is the belief that following Christ should give us special immunity against trouble. We're like Peter, who wanted to remind Jesus, "We have left everything to follow you." (Mark 10:28). The reality is most of us haven’t “left everything” to follow Jesus, but most of us have made some painful sacrifices. So we ask ourselves, “Shouldn’t that count for something?” and thus we hope for that free pass when it comes to suffering and disappointment.

What makes matters worse, at least in my heart as I wrestle with this, is the fact that godless people seem to be thriving with a sort of “Midas touch” where everything they touch turns to gold. I wrestle with the question why are they doing so well and I’m not. This week I have had to remind myself of a lesson I learned several years ago. Namely, when I’m in the midst of pain and disappointment the correct question is not “Why Lord?” but rather “What Lord?”. I’ll be honest, it is hard to ask the “right” question when the hurt and disappointment are so very real. But I’m trying to learn to ask the right questions … “What Lord are You trying to teach me? What Lord do You want me to do next?”

But what do you do when you ask the “right” questions and get no answer or the answers you do get just don’t seem to be enough? Let me close by quoting from the Scott Wesley Brown song when Answers Aren’t Enough …

You have faced the mountains of desperation
You have climbed, you have fought, you have won
But this valley that lies coldly before you
Casts a shadow you cannot overcome

And just when you thought you had it all together
You knew every verse to get you through
But this time the sorrow broke more than just your heart
And reciting all those verses just won't do

When answers aren't enough, there is Jesus
He is more than just an answer to your prayer
And your heart will find a safe and peaceful refuge
When answers aren't enough, He is there

The wonderful grace of Jesus

I received a phone call today and we talked a good bit about how marvelous the grace of God is and how undeserving we are to receive it. That conversation reminded me of a story another pastor had told recently.

This pastor told a true story about one of his church members, an attorney, who after meditating on several scriptures, decided to cancel the debts of all his clients that had owed him money for more than 6 months. He drafted a letter explaining his decision and its biblical basis and sent 17 debt canceling letters via certified mail.

One by one, the letters began to return, unsigned and undelivered. Perhaps a couple people had moved away though not likely. 16 of the 17 letters came back to him because the clients refused to sign for and open the envelopes fearing that this attorney was suing them for their debts.

So here’s my point in telling you this story. We humans owe a debt for our sin and God is willing to cancel it. But far too many people will not even open the letter (the Bible) that explains that. I think they fear reading about a God who is ready to discipline them and as I used to say as a child “beat the fool” out of them. But the reality is we find a God willing and ready to forgive every sin we have ever committed by simply placing our faith in the sacrifice He made on Calvary’s cross.

For those of us already a child of God, perhaps this story best illustrates our need for grace. In 1818 one out of six women who had children died of something called "childbirth fever." A doctor’s daily routine back then started in the dissecting room, where he performed autopsies, and from there he made his rounds to examine expectant mothers. No one even thought to wash his hands...at least not until a doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis began to practice strict hand washing. He was the very first doctor to associate a lack of hand washing with the huge fatality rate.

Dr. Semmelweis only lost one in fifty, yet his colleagues laughed at him. Once he said, "Childbirth fever is caused by decomposed material conveyed to a wound...I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proven all that I’ve said. But while we talk, talk, talk, women are dying.. I’m not asking for anything world shaking, only that you wash your hands." Yet virtually no one believed him. And Jesus is not asking anything earth shaking from us. John writes, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We only need to confess our sins, to regularly wash our souls before God. It’s essential. The failure to confess our sins will result in spiritual infection that will hinder our ability in the spiritual journey.

Is it time to “wash”?

NFL and the Church

I watched with dismay just now about fifteen minutes of Sports Center on ESPN and learned about the players union decertifying their union in order to take the owners to court in an antitrust lawsuit. I find it difficult to side with either group, especially when they cannot figure out an amicable way to divide $9 billion in annual revenue. With all the talk of football I sat on the couch and started thinking how much the church is like football. Not that we have $9 billion to divide, but there are some other startling similarities.

All of the NFL team have owners. The owner pretty much makes the rules because he owns the team. When there are coaching changes to be made, like with the Titans this year, the owner ultimately has final say over who serves on the coaching staff. The owner has expectations of his team and typically will supply all of the means necessary for them to hopefully reach their goals. All owners want to have a winning team and typically will settle for nothing less than 100% effort from the players and coaching staff. The church also has an “owner,” the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who makes the rules though we sometimes get this backwards. He makes the rules because it’s His team. He selects the pastors who serve because it’s His team. He tells the “coach” (pastor) what His goals are for the “team” (church) and He always provides the means necessary for the church to achieve His goals. Because He is Lord, He will settle for nothing less than a life committed wholly to Him.

Every NFL team has a playbook that is often several inches thick. Players are expected to memorize their assignments in that playbook. Often games are won and lost based on how well the players carry out the game plan from the playbook and not solely because their talent was superior. We also have a “playbook” (the Bible) where our Owner (the Lord God) has given instructions for us to live by. If we carry out what He has designed in our playbook, to the best of our ability, the church goes forward because everyone is following the same game plan.

Every team in the NFL is made up of individuals that work together as teammates. Peyton Manning would be the first to tell you that if the offensive line does not block, if his backs and receivers do not catch his passes, that the team is likely going down in defeat. These teammates help each other and encourage each other to give their best. Watch when a player gets a penalty, often teammates will come up and slap him on the back or the helmet as a way of encouraging him to put that behind him and look to being the best he can for the rest of the game. There are times when strife rises up on football teams, and often leaders of that team will have a “players only” meeting where they air their differences and pull together as a team. As church members we need to encourage one another to live for Christ. When a brother or sister sins, we need to come alongside of them, and when we know they have talked to the Lord about their sin, then encourage them to put that behind them and look to the rest of their life to bringing the Lord glory. When there’s strife in a church, according to Matthew 18, we should go to our brother in private and hopefully make peace. This reminds me of the player’s only meetings, with the difference being that part of our “ownership team” (the Holy Spirit) is always sitting in on those meetings.

There are different positions on football teams. Not everyone can be the quarterback. Not everyone can be a running back. Not everyone can be the middle linebacker. Those are known as the “glory” positions. But the teams also need interior linemen, special team’s players, and even reserves to step in as needed. Every position is vital to the team if it is going to win. Likewise we each have different “positions” in the church with different responsibilities, but all are necessary for the advancement of the church.

There are opponents every game that try to keep a team from gaining yardage, scoring touchdowns, and winning games; they are out to defeat the other team. We likewise have an opponent, the devil. Sometimes teams get a little too cocky because maybe they are playing a team with a poor record, and next thing you know they have lost a game to an inferior opponent. Likewise we know the devil is already a defeated foe and that the Lord has already achieved the victory. But as Peter said in 1 Peter 5:8 we need to be attentive to the fact that our enemy is seeking to not only defeat us but do us great harm in the process.

In 1995, the Carolina Panthers, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars joined the NFL as “expansion” franchises. In less than 10 years the Panthers made it to the pinnacle of their sport playing in Super Bowl 38. We are about to embark on an “expansion” project into the Plano community. I believe this expansion will be highly successful for several reasons:

• We have an owner who has provided all of the resources we need to achieve His goals.
• We have a perfect playbook that is fail-proof if we will but follow it.
• We have a team of players who genuinely enjoy being on the same team. When a teammate slips up, we try and hold them accountable, encouraging them to give their best from that point forward.
• We have a team of players who recognize the position they have been called to play and understand that if each person fulfills their responsibilities by properly using the gifts and talents they have been given, that the church is likely to achieve great success.
• Finally, we recognize who the enemy is and understand that our success is not achieved by lining up and going toe-to-toe with our foe, but for us success is achieved on our knees.

I know there are many short-comings in this metaphor, but there are also many truths in it. If you speak “sports”, maybe this has helped you understand a little better the church. And if you don’t, well there’s always another day and another blog. Thanks for reading.

Would God choose to use you?

The devil, whom Jesus described in John 8 as a “liar”, is quick to place into the mind of the believer the thought that God would never choose to use the likes of someone like them because of their great sin past. Truth be told, there are days I am amazed that God would use me. I relate to what Paul said about himself when he said he was the “chief of sinners.” So let me ask you a question. Do you really think, in light of all the sin you have committed throughout your life, that God could or even would, choose to use someone like you? Consider the following story.

There was a man who was born on August 19, 1843 near Clinton, Michigan. When he was 17 years old he moved to his sister’s home in Tennessee where he enlisted in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He got out of the army a year later in 1862 and he went to St. Louis to study law. On September 21, 1866 he married his wife, Loentine. In 1869, he and family moved to Kansas where he practiced law. He then entered politics and served in the Kansas House of Representatives. President Grant appointed him United States District Attorney for Kansas in 1873. But he resigned within six months under suspicion of misuse of his office for personal gain. He began to drink heavily. His wife gained a legal separation from him and then eventually divorced him. He returned to St. Louis and reentered law practice. But during this time he sunk into a life of stealing and drunkenness. And then, in 1879, a man named Thomas McPhetters witnessed to him and he got saved; he trusted in Christ alone as his Savior.

He immediately became active in Christian ministry. He assisted in the evangelistic crusade ministry of D. L. Moody in St. Louis that year. He joined the Pilgrim Congregational Church.

He was licensed to preach by the St. Louis Association of the Congregational Church shortly thereafter. And then he organized and pastored the Hyde Park Congregational Church in the city. In 1882 he accepted a call to a mission church of the denomination in Dallas. He started the church with fourteen people. Thirteen years later, the church reached a membership of eight hundred.

He was also involved in Bible teaching and theological training. He helped start several schools, including Southwestern School of the Bible in Dallas, Northfield Bible Training School in Massachusetts, New York School of the Bible, and, finally, Philadelphia School of the Bible (now Philadelphia Biblical University).

When it came to missions, he founded the Central American Mission in 1890. And he presided over its direction for nearly thirty years.

He was a voluminous writer. He authored countless pamphlets and books on numerous biblical subjects. And he mentored a young man named Lewis Sperry Chafer who went on to become the Founder and President of Dallas Theological Seminary.

So, who is this man? Who is this one-time divorced drunk and thief who went on to do such great things for God? The man’s name is Cyrus Ingerson Scofield—C. I. Scofield—the author of the Scofield Reference Bible—the study Bible that has helped me and countless others gain a clearer understanding of the deep truths and riches of the Word of God.

Now, if God can use a repentant divorced drunken thief, then He can use you. And He can use you in a wonderful way. The choice is yours.

The crisis draws ever closer

So I'm a month closer to this "crisis" than I was the last time I posted some fun stuff about age, so I thought it was time for some more humor. Someone sent this to me recently and I found it really funny. The scary part though is that I now understand it whereas at thirty I'm not sure it would have made as much sense. So here it is ... enjoy!

“When I bought my Blackberry I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures and communicates with Facebook and Twitter. I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie, Twittererific, Tweetdeck, Twitpix, and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, 'Re-calc-u-lating.' You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made a right turn instead. Well, it was not a good relationship.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden 'Paper or Plastic?' every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, 'Paper or Plastic?' I just say, 'Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.' Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, 'No, but I do toot a lot.'”

So I, Tom, keep reminding myself that age is merely mind over matter, if I don't mind, it don't matter.