Joe Pastor

A Pastor’s Guide to Bath Salts and Synthetic Cannabis

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 12:12:58 -0600

What are K2 and Bath Salts?

When we talk about synthetic cannabis, many times the terms K2 or K4 are used. These terms are actually just two brand names of products containing synthetic cannabis. Mad Hatter, Bayou Blaster Redoux, Demon Free Ritual Potpourri and Darkness are just a few more of the brand names. These brands, and the hundreds like them, usually contain some sort of plant material that resembles potpourri. This plant material is sprayed with chemicals that mimic the action of Tetrahydrocannibinol (THC), the active ingredient in Marijuana. There are dozens of different chemicals that are used, and each one is touted as having different effects.

The bath salts that are being abused, are not the bath salts you buy at Wal-Mart. In fact, they aren’t bath salts at all. The name is a misnomer meant to get around FDA regulations. Sometimes they are sold as jewelry cleaner or even glass cleaner. Some of the bath salt brands are Pump-it powder, White Rush and Ivory Wave. As with synthetic cannabis, there are dozens of different drugs that fall under the banner of “Bath Salts”.

Where did they come from?

In many cases, these substances were discovered during legitimate pharmaceutical research. The research on these substances is readily available in most university libraries. Manufacturers have been known to obtain this research and use it to make the desired chemicals.

How are they legal?

A lot of these substances are sold over the counter. This creates a false belief in many users that they are safe. The reality is that these drugs are extremely dangerous. I’ve already touched on the fact that bath salts are sold under the false pretense that they are meant to be put in bath water, and not consumed. Synthetic cannabis packaging usually claims that it is being sold as incense or potpourri. Packaging for both types of products usually includes a warning that it is not meant for human consumption.

Are any of them illegal?

Many of the chemicals being used in these products are now being controlled. The issue is that as some substances are controlled others are being made to take their place. Regardless of their legal status, all of these substances are dangerous.

Where do people get them?

These products are sold in any number of unscrupulous businesses. This includes, but is not limited to, gas stations, video stores, head shops and gift shops.

How are they ingested?

Methods of ingestion include smoking, injection and swallowing.

What are the effects?

Some of the reported effects are extreme paranoia, increased strength, psychotic behavior, hallucinations, and extreme energy resulting in prolonged periods without sleep. In some cases, users have become violent leading to suicide and/or homicide.

Are they addictive?

Addiction is possible, but with all drugs even a one-time ingestion can be detrimental.

Who is taking them?

The individuals that are taking these substances are not limited to hard-core drug users. In some cases these substances are their first foray into drugs. There is a misconception among many that because they are sold over the counter they are safe. This is not true.

If you suspect that any member of your congregation is taking one of these products, be very careful in how you approach them. The increased paranoia has been known to lead to violent outbursts. The best plan is to pray for the individual and then contact the authorities so that they can get them some help. If any member of your congregation brings one of these products to you, don’t hang on to it. Call the authorities immediately

Most of this article is from information that I have received as part of the law enforcement community. I have only been deemed an expert in the analysis of controlled substances, and do not claim to be an expert on the physiological effects of these substances.

In the Eye of the Beholder

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:14:33 -0600

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

In the top desk drawer of my office I have six baseball cards. There’s a 1959 Sandy Koufax, a 1953Al Kaline, a 1964 Pete Rose, a 1966 Jim Palmer, a 1965 Steve Carlton and a 1968 Johnny Bench rookie card. During the early 90’s baseball cards were highly valued, but today, not so much. The paper is the same, the ink is the same and the player’s stats haven’t changed, so what happened? Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and right now people don’t find much value in baseball cards.

On its face, 1 Corinthians 10:31 seems like an easy scripture to follow. We kind of read it like, as long as you say ‘God is great, God is good’, every time we sit down at the table, then we’re OK. But once you get past the surface, truly following the command of this verse is anything but easy.

If we are to do everything to the glory of God, then it should be important to know what that word glory actually means. The word glory comes from a Greek word that means to evoke good opinion, or to determine value through your personal decisions. In other words, every time you make a choice you are bringing glory to something and withholding it from something else. In the soda aisle, at the grocery store, if you choose Coke then you are bringing glory to it, and, conversely, denying glory from Pepsi. We give glory to something by finding value in it, and choosing it.

Let’s jump over to Matthew chapter 6. In verse 24 Jesus begins a lesson on trust. He says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”. He follows this verse up by talking about how the God provides for all of the other organisms of this world, and how humanity struggles to trust in God for these same type of provisions.

Jesus very plainly lays out the fact that there we only have two choices when it comes to who our master is going to be. He tells us that we can either choose God or we can choose mammon. Mammon is usually defined as money, but the original word comes from a Semitic phrase that means “a treasure a person trusts in”. In essence Jesus is telling us that we are going to choose to follow that which we trust, and our level of trust will be determined by how much value we ascribe to it.

Putting these thoughts together we see very clearly two fundamental elements of human nature:

1. we will choose what we trust

2. Well will trust what we value.

If given the choice between a rickety old elevator bearing a sign that reads “Caution: use at your own risk”, that appears as though it may plummet to the sub-basement at any second or a set of shiny bright new stairs, even the most out-of-shape of us will seriously consider taking the stairs, because we value our lives.

Our actions have a way of revealing our true character. You may profess faith and trust in Jesus, but if you’re not choosing His way then you are actually saying that you find no value in following after him, and that you don’t really trust him. I’ve heard it said before that the essence of sin comes down to trust. Do you trust God enough to meet your needs, or do feel that you have to go outside his provision and take care of yourself.

This question of trust isn’t a new one. In fact, it was played out in the Garden of Eden. Satan tempted Eve by giving her a choice between finding value in his lies or by trusting the word of God. This temptation is interesting and it gets most of the press, but what’s really worthy of our attention isn’t the temptation of Eve, but the temptation of Adam.

Have you noticed how quickly Adam accepts the forbidden fruit? In Genesis 3, Satan works hard, over several verses, trying to convince Eve to take a bite, but as soon as she does, she turns to her husband and he eats seemingly without hesitation. I don’t believe that his decision was that simple. I think that in that moment, even if it was just a split second, there was an intense debate within Adam’s heart concerning trust and value. He knew that eating the fruit was forbidden, and that the consequence for eating it was death. So standing there looking at his wife holding that partially eaten piece of fruit, Adam was keenly aware that he was looking at a dead woman. His decision at that point was whether he was going to find more value in God’s commands or in his wife’s companionship.

We have the benefit of hindsight to see that Adam made the wrong choice, but in that moment all Adam could think about was the loneliness. Adam had spent untold amounts of time alone. God noticed and finally created a help meet for him, but we have no way of knowing just how long Adam spent without any human contact. So to us this scene may have an easy conclusion, but for Adam the thought of losing the wife that he had waited so long for was unbearable. His decision was between holiness and loneliness or sin and relationship. At that point, Adam decided that he couldn’t chance losing Eve, so he chose to join her in death over trusting that God could provide new companionship for him.

Many of us find ourselves in a similar position. We want to follow Jesus, but fear keeps us from trusting him. We forget the words of Isaiah 55:9 and place more value in our plan than we do in God’s. This leads us to nothing more than self-medicating wounds that God wants to heal completely. It could be someone that keeps feeding an old grudge, because they’re afraid giving it up would mean losing out on a perceived sense of justice. It could be a man that strays outside the bonds of marriage, because his pride tricks him into feeling that the spouse God gave him isn’t enough to meet his needs. It could be a woman that lets her insecurities drive her to spend untold amounts of money to make herself feel beautiful, because she doesn’t trust God’s love to establish her sense of self-worth. It could even be a young adult that, instead of waiting on God, marries the first person that shows them interest, because they are afraid of being alone. No matter the circumstances, God has the answer if we are willing to trust and follow Him.

Just like in the Garden of Eden, the idea that we can truly find satisfaction outside of God is false. Adam and Eve realized this too late, and it drove them to hide from God. 1 John 2:17 speaks to this farce when it says, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever”. We can place value in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, but in the end it’s just an illusion; it will pass away. However, those that their hope in Jesus, and do His will, are going to live forever.

By choosing to follow Jesus we give him glory, which in turn builds his value in our eyes, which builds up our trust in him. The more you choose him, the more you trust him. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith! A life of faith begins with one decision to trust in the Lord, and to lean not to your own understanding. My hope for you, and for me, is that we make the decision to trust in God and to do all things to his glory. Even if you don’t always understand his ways, may you find value in them anyway.

And if anyone wants to by some baseball cards, just let me know.

Unmasking Moses

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:07:06 -0600

***I am currently writing some curriculum for Hyphen small groups. This is my first attempt at such a format, so I wanted to share the first lesson and get some feedback. If you read this and would like to share your thoughts, please email me at avejoepastor@gmail.com. If you like this lesson, and would be interested in purchasing the series, it should be available in time for our national Hyphen tour. Thanks.***

UNMASKING MOSES – LESSON 1

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Exodus 2:1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, this is one of the Hebrews’ children.

15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well. 16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. 18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, how is it that ye are come so soon to day? 19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock. (KJV)

Additional scripture references:

· Romans 12:2

· 2 Corinthians 6:17

· James 1:27

· 1 John 2:15-17

Big Ideas:

· Culture is the behaviors and characteristics that define a group.

· As Christians we are supposed to live our lives according to the bible, but we are still subject to the influences of the world.

And knowing is half the battle

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition defines culture as, “the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group, while also distinguishing those of another group”¹

A more general definition of culture is: the behaviors and characteristics shared within a group. These behaviors and characteristics are what a culture considers to be normal. Everything from language to fashion is defined by these standards.

1. What fashion trend are you most ashamed to admit that participated in?

2. What do you see as some accepted cultural norms in America?

Will the real Moses please stand up?

Several millennia ago, a young man sat at a well. He was running for his life, but on that day he took the time to help a septet of shepherdesses water their flocks. When the girls arrived home, they told their father that an Egyptian had helped them. Here’s the problem; he wasn’t an Egyptian. He was a Hebrew and his name was Moses.

3. What are some characteristics that may have caused Reuel’s daughters to believe that Moses was an Egyptian?

4. Moses’ good deed was credited to an Egyptian. Do you feel that good works should only be done if they reflect our identity as Christians, or do you feel that good works are to be done even if Christ doesn’t directly receive the credit?

Suit up

Obviously Moses felt an allegiance to the Hebrew people; otherwise he wouldn’t have been in the predicament in which he found himself. God orchestrated the situation so that Moses’ own mother was his nursemaid, so it would be safe to assume he had been taught about Jehovah and the story of His people.

He may have been Hebrew at heart, but the rest of him lived in an Egyptian world. He attended Egyptian schools, went to Egyptian dinners and sat in the court of Pharaoh. Eventually, the influence of Egypt took its toll. In short, the culture he lived in influenced him to the point that his true identity was camouflaged.

5. What do you see as Christian cultural norms?

6. A 2009 study, by the Barna Group, found that “less than one-half of one percent of adults in the Mosaic generation – i.e., those aged 18 to 23 – have a biblical worldview”². What might be some reasons for this finding?

7. What connections could be made between Moses’ situation, and James 1:27? How could these same connections be applied today?

I’m lovin’ it

Moses’ dilemma is one that we share. As Christians we are commanded to be separate from the world (2 Corinthians 6:17), but we still have to live in it. Because of this, we are daily subjected to cultural influences that are contrary to our Christian identity. Even though we may have the desire and the knowledge to stay unspotted from the world, if left unchecked, a love for the things of the world will eventually overshadow our Christian character.

8. How would you explain to a non-Christian what it means to be in the world, but not of the world?

9. What are some areas in which Christian young adults might struggle to be separate from the world?

10. How could we use John 15:19 to understand the link between our love for the world and our need for acceptance?

The Battle Between Your Ears

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:05:00 -0600

***NOTE: I am not a Greek scholar nor a cat person. However neither one of these things stopped me from writing this essay. Enjoy.***

Last week I spent some time meditating on 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. This passage of scripture is familiar to a lot of Christians, especially to Pentecostals. Verse 4 is one of those good old fashioned, foam at the mouth, whip everyone into a frenzy, screaming verses. Using ye olde KJV it readeth like this:

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Looking at the context of this passage we see that Paul is expressing to the Corinthians that he is aware of certain criticisms that people are making concerning the carnality of his leadership. His reply to them is that he is not operating from a carnal standpoint, and that he has the right and ability to use spiritual weapons to combat such mindsets in the church.

As I studied this passage, and dug deeper into its meaning, I quickly realized that we often take these scriptures way out of context. I can feel your deep sense of awe, at the depth of the revelation, of my thought, that we preachers might take a scripture out of context in order to make a point at the pulpit. Setting sarcasm aside for a second, this does happen and the sad part is that when we turn the Bible into a collection of sound bites, we miss out on the power of true life change.

For example, we often use 2 Corinthians 10:4 to encourage people to rush out into the world, and tear down Satan’s kingdom. However, more times than not, people leave the church itching for a Holy fight, only to discover they don’t really know what to do next. So they do nothing, and the next week the pastor has to hype them up all over again. It really is a vicious cycle.

By now you might be asking what my great revelation has to do with anything. So, without further ado, I will drop the knowledge bomb. Here it goes – Paul was talking to the church. BOOM! Did you feel it?

Paul was addressing the use of spiritual weapons to tear down carnal mindsets in the church. This passage of scripture isn’t about waging holy war on the devil as much as it is about fighting the war between our ears. The devil is only as strong as we let him be, and for many our own thoughts do his work for him.

Paul was addressing the entire Corinthian church, but we can make his words personal and focus them on our own minds. All of us are fighting a battle of the mind. If we can assemble a collection of believers that are individually winning their specific wars, then we will have a church that is winning victories in the world.

PULLING

Let’s start with verse 4. Paul says that through the Spirit, we can “pull down strongholds”. In the Greek this phrase is rendered “kathairesin ochyromaton”. Catchy, huh? It literally translates to this, “Destroying false arguments in which a person seeks a safe place to escape reality”. In a culture that encourages us each to create our own reality this verse takes on a new sense of importance. We are told that what is good for me is good for me, and what is good for you is good for you, but Paul is letting us know that we have to utterly demolish this sense of individual reality. Take that Postmodernism!

As humans we can rationalize almost anything. One minute we can tear down someone that was caught in the act of adultery, but then we can turn around in the next minute and justify our own sin. If we are going to live a life in victory, we have to see things as they really are. Our reality must be changed to that of God’s kingdom. Having eyes we must see and ears we must hear.

When we are filled with God’s spirit, it gives us the ability to step out of the carnal world and in to the spiritual realm. We leave behind our old reality and step into a new reality of God’s kingdom. We were all born into a sinful reality, and every day we must war against falling back into it. To quote the great philosopher Morpheus, “Like everyone else you were born into bondage; into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch, a prison for your mind”.

CASTING

Verse 5 continues this theme. It says that next we are to cast down imaginations. This isn’t condemning using your imagination. As annoying as he may be, Elmo is not the antichrist. The word imagination is better expressed as argument. In the Greek it looks like this, casting = kathairountes and imaginations = logismous. A paraphrased version of these two terms might read like this “I choose to destroy for myself, the way I see the world”.

The verb casting is similar to the word used for pulling in verse 4; however in this use it becomes personal. I cast down. I forcibly remove. I destroy. It is declaring that you choose to make the mission your own. Paul used this to show that he was personally involved in what was happening in Corinth, but I think that today we can use his word choice to see that this fight is our own. We can control what’s in our own heads.

Logismous refers to arguments or imaginations at a base level. It can be thought of in terms of assigning weight to particular factors that we use to form our personal opinions. For example, a man with a family will, hopefully, give this part of life weight when making decisions, whereas a single guy wouldn’t. It speaks to how personal opinions are formed.

We are responsible for dismantling for ourselves, the value system of our carnality. Jesus presented this concept in Matthew 6:33, when he said “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”. We are to assign weight to the things of God, and let the rest fade away. This is why Jesus could say that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of needle, than for a rich man to enter into heaven. We must daily fight against our love for the things of this world. Your quest for being cool can’t trump your desire to please God.

This is another daily battle; the battle to make what’s important to God, important to us. Jesus tells us in Matthew 25, that the difference between the goats and the sheep will be that the sheep saw the world in the way that Jesus saw the world. It’s kind of a big deal to do this.

LOWER

Verse 5 continues by talking about high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. This phrase takes a little different tack on the battle of the mind. High things can also be translated as bulwarks or obstacles. High things that exalt themselves could be expressed as “obstacles that I lift up”. In other words, this part of the verse is urging us to completely destroy any obstacles that I might raise up to keep me from the knowledge of God.

When this verse speaks of knowledge, it refers to a type of knowledge that is only obtained through first-hand experience. In other words, “I know it because I’ve done it”. This type of knowledge is powerful, because it is indisputable. Especially in today’s culture, the personal experience is held as sacred.

However, we can erect barriers that insulate us from having these personal experiences. Or even worse, we can raise up barriers that let us have a shallow level of experience, but they don’t let God get to the core of us. It is a scary thing feel that we are Godly, but in reality to be far from it. No man ever encountered God and stayed the same. If we are to be like God, then we must remove every mental barrier that would prevent us from encountering Him.

What can separate us from the love of God? We can. We can put up walls that God refuses to walk through. We can fit together bricks of bitterness, doubt, anger, hurt and fear until they are so tight even God’s light can’t penetrate the cracks. We must fight daily to demolish the bulwarks that would keep us from touching God.

CAPTIVATE

Verse 5 also tells us that we can take captive our thoughts to the obedience of Christ. I hear people say things like, “The heart wants what the heart wants” and “I can’t control how I feel about that”. These phrases are dumb. You can control your thoughts; you just have to decide what is more important to you, pleasing God or pleasing your flesh. That is not to say that this is easy, and that mistakes won’t be made, but if you keep trying to catch your thoughts eventually you will bring them under submission to Jesus. They are slippery little suckers though.

When Paul chose the phrase “Bringing into captivity”, He is again using a phrase that is personal. It is “I take captive my thoughts”. We are responsible for what we think. Contrary to what some saints, and some pastors, might think, the man of God cannot control your thoughts. Preachers preach and people choose to act on this or not.

Our thoughts are not just the little flashes of insight that streak across our mind’s eye. Paul uses a word that refers to all of who we are internally. It concerns our heart, mind and soul. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”. We are to take captive our feelings and our thoughts, and submit them in obedience to the Jesus. It is stupid for us to think that we can compartmentalize ourselves so that there is a portion of us that loves God, but then another that loves the world, and this is ok.

This is part of the verse tells us that we are to take all that we are and submit it to obedience to Jesus. Just when you thought I’d stopped talking about Greek words, I bust out one more. Obedience comes from the word hypakoen. It means submission to what is heard. We are to do what Jesus tells us to do. So putting it all together it might sound something like this, “I detain my thoughts, in order to obey the words of Jesus”.

GET TO THE POINT

Throughout these two verses we see that Paul is speaking to the Corinthians, and to us, about the difference of living a carnal life and a life that is spent in worship to God. Worship is admitting that God’s way is better than ours, and then submitting ourselves to life that life. Worship is life! The decision to live a life of worship is a direct result of the battle between your ears.

This way of life demands all of us. It is a complete surrendering of the self to Jesus. The daily fight is to make us zero and God everything. Jesus would say it like this, “Not my will Lord, but your will be done”. John the Baptist would put it a little different, but with the same gist, when he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease”.

We must use weapons such as prayer, fasting, studying, worship, praise, meditation, service, silence, journaling and evangelism to tear down the strongholds in our minds. With these weapons, through God, we can:

Destroy our false realities, and accept God’s reality

Dismantle our carnal value system, and see the world as God see’s it

Demolish the barriers to experiencing God, and encounter Him in our lives

Detain everything inside of us, and submit it to the word of God

Joseph who?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:27:18 -0600

I had a random thought on the way to work this morning. In preparation for some Hyphen stuff that I’m doing, I’ve been revisiting some resources about the cultural gap in churches. With this information in the back of my mind, I set out on my commute. Somewhere about the halfway mark, Exodus 1:8 popped into my head. Ok, so I had to look up the chapter and verse but the guts of the verse were in my head. Anyway, this verse says, “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph”.

We live in a culture that is antagonistic to the concept of church. There is an atmosphere of shifting moralities, heightened self-centeredness and demanded tolerance. These qualities, plus others, have seemed to have set the church and culture at odds with each other.

Many elders look back to a time of perceived mutuality between church and culture. They may long for Mayberry, but the truth is the church and the world have always been the opposite of each other. One is spiritual, the other is carnal; one is holy the other is sinful and one is eternal while the other is temporary. As Paul said to the Corinthians, “What fellowship does light have with darkness”?

Though we are meant to be separate, God uses cooperation, as well as opposition, with the governments of this world in order to further His kingdom. When Joseph was sold into slavery, it was God’s plan to bring him and his family to Egypt to ensure their survival. The government of Egypt, was used as a tool by God.

However, this symbiotic relationship only lasted so long. Eventually there arose a king that didn’t know Joseph. In other words, the secular world didn’t understand the value of God’s people living in their midst. That sounds a lot like where we are today. We may not have the physical oppression that existed in Egypt, but we see that the church is clearly the antithesis of modern society.

The temptation is to sequester ourselves in a bubble of self-pity and outrage, but before we give into this let’s take advantage of the experience that the bible affords us. The Israelites were mistreated; they were disrespected by the foreign government that controlled them but it was precisely in this moment that God choose to lead them to the promised land.

We do live in a world that is evil, but is in the darkness that light becomes the most important. It is times of cooperation with the world that God uses them as a tool to protect his people, so it only stands to reason that it is the times of the greatest opposition that God believes His people are at their strongest.

I expect great things from the young adults and teenagers in the body of Christ. Why? Because this world has forgotten Joseph.

References for Relationship and Religion

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:59:32 -0600

I wanted to give the resources that I used for my last blog post. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to practice listing references in APA style. They are as follows:

Bender, T. (1982). Community and social change in America. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.

Putnam, R.D. (2001). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Touchstone Books by Simon & Schuster.

Tonnies, F. (1998). Community and Society: Gemeinschaft and gesellschaft. Piscatawny, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

The Barna Group (2009). Barna survey examines changes in worldview among Christians over the past 13 years. Retrieved from http://www.barna.org/transformation-articles/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years.

Ward, G. (2003). Teach yourself postmodernism. London, England: Hodder&Stoughton Educational Division.

Relationship and Religion (part 4)

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:58:05 -0600

*part 4 of 4

Behaviors such as: church attendance, tithing, obedience to authority and sacrifice are not only vital, they are biblical. Yet as we see this generation take its place as church leaders, these are the things that are being laid by the wayside. Pastors are fighting to engage a group that claims to love Jesus, but have disengaged from the church. In addition to this, in 2009 the Barna group found that less than one half of a percent of Americans, ages 18-23, say the agree with all of the following statements: 1.) Absolute moral truth exists.; 2.) The Bible is totally accurate in all the principles it teaches.; 3.) Satan is a real being or force, and not just a symbol.; 4.) A person cannot earn their way into heaven by trying to do good or doing good works.; 5.) Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth. ; 6.) God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. These are the tenets upon which Christianity is built. A biblical worldview cannot be labeled as “religion” and rejected. Being a Christian means having a relationship with Jesus, but Jesus also said “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). We need the word to survive!

So my advice is this; instead of trying to make the church in our image let’s make it in the mold that the bible sets for us. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul lays out the best analogy for the church – the body.

1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

We are to all work together for the glory of God, but if we are outside the boundaries of the body then we can’t function. We need to be part of the church, to function as part of the body of Christ. In Ephesians 5:23, Paul makes the statement that Christ is the head of the church. If we are going to succeed as a “the church”, we have to work as a community, under the authority of leaders with all of us under the authority of Jesus.

Relationship and Religion (part 3)

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:07:46 -0600

*part 3 of 4

At its heart, the church is first and foremost a community. If we look at the end of Acts 2, we see that the early church lived a communal lifestyle. They ate together, prayed together, worshiped together and they supported each other financially. During this time God worked great miracles among them, and they church grew, but it doesn’t take long for this rapid growth to create problems. In Acts 6:1, the bible tells us that as the church rapidly grew, a conflict arose over the fact that that the Greek believers felt that the Hebrew believers were neglecting the Greek widows when it came to the daily distribution of food. In response to this, the 12 disciples called a meeting, and elected seven men who would be tasked with running the food disbursement program. At this point, it becomes necessary to start introducing some structure into the church, so that the community can continue to thrive. This is one of the earliest examples we have of church government starting to solidify.

In Acts 15, we see the societal aspect of the church in full effect. Paul is dealing with Hebrew converts that have shown up in Antioch. Verse 1 says “Some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the Law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

This caused a great stir in the church at Antioch, and Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to discuss it with a leadership council that was made up of apostles and elders. This council considered the issue and made a proclamation detailing the governance of existing and future Christian churches. Here is a council of men, trying to be attuned to the Spirit of God as much as possible, making rules that are designed to make the church better. If it wasn’t for the leadership of this council, there would have been a great risk that Christianity would’ve fragmented to the point where it would have become unstable. In this case, elements of society were mixed with love, humility, wisdom and the Holy Spirit to make the church better.

As this generation shapes the church to reflect their culture, it is important to note that not all societal aspects are bad. It is vital that they remember that the resentment that they feel toward religion is in many ways a reaction to the negative characteristics of a previous generation, but not everything the previous generation did was bad. They are a generation that sacrificed and put others first. They are a generation that demanded faithfulness, and respect for the work of the Lord. The reaction that the current generation has needs to incorporate the positive aspects of the past and merge them with the positive aspects of the present. There has to be a balance between society and community.

In the video, the young man makes the statement that he still loves the church. I find this very reassuring, but what does it really mean? It seems to indicate that in the minds of many, there is a clear distinction between the church and religion. If religion is defined as society having too much value in our churches, then the challenge that this generation faces is to bring these two parts of the church back in to balance. We cannot be so focused on stripping away the veneer of the past that we damage the substance underneath. This is the danger of shaping the church in our own image; we tend to go too far with it. If we’re not careful we can get to the point that instead of fixing the wrongs of the past, we simply replace them with the wrongs of the present.

Relationship and Religion (part 2)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:40:47 -0600

*This is part 2 of 4

Everyone, at some level, functions as a member of both communities and societies. You go to school (society), but you have your group of friends (community). You work a job (society), so that you can feed your family (community). It doesn’t matter if you grew up in the great depression or if you are now growing up in the great recession, you belong to both types. However, even though members of all generations have belonged to each association, the values that they have placed on these two associations have changed dramatically over the years.

The generation of the 50’s and 60’s, the so-called greatest generation, had a cultural philosophy that was dominated by modernism. Modernism believed in the improvement of the world, through science, industry and the betterment of the self. In other words, it was you moral duty to be the best person you could be. During this time civic participation blossomed. People wanted to build a better world, so they got involved in politics and social institutions. Modernists placed a high value on society. Even though they still enjoyed a sense of community, modernists were society builders.

Taking a look at today’s world we see that a cultural transformation has taken place. Now postmodernism rules the day. In postmodernism, individualism thrives. Life isn’t so much about making the world a better place as it is about pursuing the things that make you happy. It’s about deconstructing and examining societal norms. In postmodernism we are encouraged to accept people no matter who or what they are. Under these conditions, if society was a stock it would be at an all-time low. Community is the word of the day. In fact, the concept of community has been exaggerated to the point that it now breaks traditional definitions. For example, Facebook is now considered a community, even though it breaks the mold of traditional definitions. (This might be a subject of another blog-post)

Because each generation sees the world differently, they place different values on the importance of society. This creates a problem when this comes to the church, because the church functions as both a community and a society. It takes elements of both associations to make it work, but these elements must be kept in balance and be motivated in love and humility. I believe that a lot of the resentment that is associated with “religion” comes from too high of a value being placed on the societal aspects of the church.

In a cultural philosophy that enjoys society building, man-made rules are par for the course. In this atmosphere leaders can demand obedience to certain behaviors that are not spiritual significant, but instead are culturally important. For example, dressing up for church is something that this generation doesn’t really understand. To many older pastors that has caused much frustration, but the truth is there is no biblical command to wear a tie to church. Another major source of conflict is the that the church is perceived as caring more about building its own kingdom, than it is reaching out to the homeless and hungry. This perception may not always be accurate in every church, but in the not so distant past, there was a push to run our churches more like a business. In this climate, pastors became CEOs and the goal was to build the biggest church and the most dynamic ministries possible. During this time, the church tended to be more focused on internal things and less on external things, like feeding the hungry.

Relationship and Religion (part 1)

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:01:11 -0600

This is a lengthy essay that I’ve been working on, so I’m going to post it one page at a time. I’d like to point out that I am in no way a sociologist, and if any real sociologists read this, please have mercy on me. Thank you.

There has been a video making its rounds on Facebook for the past couple of weeks. It’s about having a relationship and not religion. I’ve noticed many different reactions to this video, some have been positive and some have been negative. My reaction to this thought is mixed. There are some great statements, and some good things that would serve everyone well to pay attention to, but I have some concerns about this type of sentiment.

First off, what’s happening here is not a new phenomenon. At the heart of this video isn’t just a new way of seeing Jesus or Christianity, it’s about a generation redefining cultural intuitions in their own image. As successive generations come of age, they see the world differently than the previous generations. This shift in world view is typically a reaction to the world view of the previous generation. What is happening in the church right now is that we are seeing the post-modern generation attempting to remake the church culturally in a way that makes sense to them, and while this may sound scary, it is something that has been going on since the beginning of Christianity. Parts of this transition are natural and necessary, but they must be handled with care. Generational rebranding of cultural institutions is about a clash in cultural philosophies, and it has happened already happened in many different arenas in our society.

To understand what’s happening we have to take a look at how humans associate. Most sociologists agree that the two main forms of human association are society and community. Society is mechanical and artificial in nature. You belong to a society because of some other indirect benefit. A great example is working in a factory. A factory worker doesn’t show up to work because they really like their co-workers, they show up because they get a paycheck. They may like their co-workers, but in most cases they wouldn’t show up to work for free just because they like the person standing next to them on the assembly line. Now let’s say that this same factory worker makes friends with some of their coworkers, and before you know it a group of co-workers start hanging out together on the weekends. They get to know each other and develop bonds that are based in mutual sentiment. Now these coworkers are part of a community.

Another great example of being part of a society is being an American citizen. As an American you vote, pay taxes, fly flags and blow stuff up on the fourth of July, but you’re not going to help some stranger on the street move his stuff into his new apartment just because you both live in the same country. To belong to a society, there are things that you do, just because it makes the society stronger and in the long run it indirectly benefits everyone else. Exercising your right to vote makes you a better citizen.

Communities on the other hand, are like families. Imagine a small village where everyone does their part to help out, because they know and care about their neighbors. In a community there is a direct benefit to being part of this association. You’re happy when someone in the community is happy. You get sad when something bad happens to someone in your community. You may belong to several different communities, but the effect is always the same. Whether you call them friend, family or loved ones, your relationship with them is its own reward.

This is the flier for our outreach program. If you know someone...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:09:51 -0600

This is the flier for our outreach program. If you know someone between the ages of 18-40, in the Carbondale area, that doesn’t go to church please invite them. Thanks.

Hagios

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:08:03 -0600

Next Friday marks a new chapter in my life and the life of my church. We are starting a new outreach program that we’re calling Hagios. My desire is to reach the community of Carbondale, and so far the success has been minimal. A few months ago, while in prayer, I felt an urging to do something different, and the idea for Hagios was born.

Really it’s not that complicated. We reserved a room at the Carbondale Civic Center, and passed out fliers advertising an open discussion bible study. The plan is to meet once a month, have some worship and prayer and then do a bible study with whoever shows up.

Our target is young adults that don’t go to church anywhere. We’re not trying to be exclusive, but we don’t really want young adults from other UPC churches coming to be spectators. If someone genuinely has a burden for what we’re doing, then they are welcome, but I don’t want to stuff the crowd with ringers. If three people show up, then that’s three people we didn’t have contact with before.

My burden is to see lives changed, and for the Carbondale to be impacted for Christ. There are a lot of young adults in the area that are cynical about church. Their opinions maybe justified, or they may be overblown, but in the end the likelihood of them crossing the threshold of church is slim to none. So we want to bring the church to them.

The word Hagios means holy, sacred, other or different. Our mission statement is to help people experience a different life, fulfill a different purpose and create a different world through biblical teaching and Spirit-led lifestyles.

As a chemist, I am used to experiments. I know that when you mix ingredients together sometimes it creates something amazing and sometimes it just blows up in your face! Please pray with us that something amazing comes out of this. I know God can do anything, and we believe that His hand is in this. Thank you.

Renaming Ai

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:54:55 -0600

When I started this blog, it was with the intention that I would share the struggles and triumphs that I was experiencing in my ministry. It was my hope that someone else might read my blog and be encouraged by the knowledge that they weren’t the only ones going through these things. In other words, I would tell the truth instead of the twitterized version of life. I don’t know if this goal has been reached, maybe it would help if I posted a new blog post more than once every three months, but in any case I want to be honest with my posts.

With this in mind, I don’t mind telling you that there are times when I struggle with my faith. There are days when I doubt my calling, ministry and sometimes even God himself. Like most people, I want to see God do wonderful and miraculous things in the world around me, and when this doesn’t happen it is easy for doubt to begin to creep in.

For example, we have had our house on the market for almost four years. In that time, it has only been shown about seven times. At one point, we were very close to making a deal only to have it fall through at the last second. Living in the small town that we minister to would be a huge advantage in outreach. And since we work in the same town that we minister, it would be a huge blessing to not have the daily commute that burns so much of our time and gas. We are in the position, where we need the equity in the home to make a down payment on another house, so renting it is out of the question. Our only option is to sell.

I don’t say this to be negative, but simply to point out that this obstacle is frustrating. I know that God could open this door, but so far he hasn’t. Even our real estate agent has remarked on more than one occasion that she can’t figure out why our house hasn’t sold. In the time frame that our house has been on the market, other houses, that are not as nice as ours, on the same block as ours have been sold for more money than we are asking. It is maddening! By the way, if you are looking for a good deal on a house, give me a call.

Other circumstances, like this, combine into one big frustrating mess. And when that mess doesn’t get cleaned up, after a while you start to doubt the path you’ve chosen. Spiritually, this is where I’ve been recently. I am just ready for something to happen.

This past week, I was in prayer and trying to find God’s direction for what to preach. I had the topic of faith on my heart, so I began to read Hebrews chapter 11. After a few verses, I came across the part where it talks about Abraham. I’ve always felt a resonance between my story and Abraham’s, so my eyes were drawn to those verses. Eventually I ended up in Genesis chapter 12, where the story of Abram’s journey begins.

He has a wealthy 75 year old man, who had a faithful wife, a nephew, who he loved like a son, and a bunch of servants and livestock. God told him to leave his families land and to go to a place that God would show him. God goes on to promise Abram that his lineage would grow into a great nation. So to sum up, God says I’ll give you territory and children. I think that most of us are familiar enough with this story to know that at this point Abram and his 65-year-old wife Sarai did not have any children, and it was past the time in Sarai’s life where she would be able to conceive.

Abram shows his high level of faith by gathering everyone up and heading out. The bible says in Genesis 12:6 that eventually they found their way to the land of the Canaanites. In verse 7, God appears to Abram and makes this grand proclamation to Abram that He is going to give this land to Abram’s seed. Abram gets so excited that he builds an altar.

I’m sure there was a lot of rejoicing and dancing. They probably sang a few songs, and maybe danced a little. I mean, this was a big deal. If God almighty appeared to you, and said that He has going to bless you beyond your wildest dreams, you’d probably get a little crazy too.

So here is Abram. He builds the altar, he does his thing and then …nothing. God just promised him all of these tremendous things, but nothing has changed and God isn’t talking. I know that if it were me, I would have expected to hear a baby cry the second that we got done with our prayer meeting at the altar. A miraculous conception should have taken place and baby Isaac should have popped right out. At least the president of Canaan should have shown up, and given Abram a deed to the land. But instead, after everyone was silent, and the altar fire went out, there was Abram with an unfulfilled promise. Ok God, now what? Where do I go? How do we get this process started?

In verse 8 it says that Abram left there and went to a place between Beth-El and Hai, and here he built a second altar. This altar was different than the first altar. It wasn’t built in a time of great rejoicing; instead it seems to have been built in a time of nothingness. There is no real reason given for the construction of this altar.

As I looked at this passage, I felt God lead my mind in the direction of my own situation. I feel that God has promised me some great things, but like Abram, in chapter 12, I have yet to see these promises manifested. I am between Beth-El and Hai. This can be a dangerous place to be, in your walk with God.

Being stuck between knowing that God can do it, and waiting for it to actually happen is the true test of faith, but it can be a land of frustration and bitterness. It can bring on highs of anticipation and excitement one minute, and lows of confusion and doubt the next.

Beth-El was formerly named Luz. I looked up the meaning of Luz, and I found that no one is really sure what it meant, but somewhere along the line, someone decided to change it to Beth-El, which meant the house of God. On the other side of Abram was Hai, or Ai, the name of this place has no great meaning either, it is simply a Canaanite city. Even though the names of these two places don’t have any great meaning, they still have significance.

Luz had already been changed to Beth-El. It represents what we know God can do. We hear about God’s wonderful abilities in His house. It is in the house of God where we believe that anything is possible. It is in the house of God, where our faith is at its highest.

Ai had no such change. It was a blank slate waiting for God to perform a miracle. In other words it represented the unfulfilled promise. It is the concept of someday, but not yet. We find Abram smack between knowing what God can do, and waiting for God to do it.

It is in this place that Abram built an altar. With this altar, he makes a silent declaration. He lets the world know, that he isn’t going to give up on God’s promises. He didn’t know how God’s promises were going to be accomplished, but just because the answer didn’t immediately present itself, he wasn’t going to quit and go back to where he started. He was committed to waiting for the promise to be fulfilled.

It was this level of faith that caused Abram to be chosen in the first place. A big promise required big faith. Could it be the reason why your promise hasn’t been fulfilled yet, is because God knows that you’ll be faithful enough to wait on Him to prepare it? And maybe the longer you wait, the bigger the blessing?

When I read this on Sunday, I felt my faith resurging and so I decided to take action. My reading in Genesis led me to Romans 4:17. In this scripture, Paul talks about Abraham’s faith. It also says that God calls things that are not, as thou they were. God sees the non-existent. I wanted to show my commitment to God’s promise in my life, and declare my faith so I grabbed some paper, magic markers and some tape, and I started making signs that call things that are not as thou they were.

I put signs on the pews that said things like “reserved for the Jones family” and “reserved for the Miller family”. I put signs on the altar that said “Someone is going to get the Holy Ghost on this spot”, and “Someone is going to be healed of cancer here”.

Then I gave paper to some of our congregation, and asked them to write something. Now we have signs all over our sanctuary saying things like “all of my children coming back to the Lord”, “kids being filled with the Holy Ghost” and “new converts coming for the first time”.

My faith has been bolstered and I’m ready to see God make some of these promises come to pass. I’m ready to rename Ai.

Cross-cultural Christianity through John 4:24

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:51:45 -0600

It has been awhile since I’ve updated my blog. I do offer my sincerest apologies to the legion of faithful readers that have been anxiously awaiting a new installment.

What inspired me to put carpals to keyboard, on this fine day, is a thought that came to me while I was preaching last night. I was preaching on John 4:24, in which Jesus told the woman at the well, that they that worshiped God must do so in Spirit and in truth.

Now, obviously, this is a scripture that has been the root of countless sermons, and I don’t wish to expound on the theology of this scripture, but as I was preaching it became clear to me that this scripture wasn’t just a comment on the differences in theology between the Samaritans and the Jews, but it could also be used to illustrate how true worship can be used to bridge the gap in cultural philosophy.

I am an armchair philosopher. Anyone that knows me knows that I am obsessed with trying to understand why people do what they do, and how culture influences our decision making process. This hobby has brought me many times to the edge of the canyon that separates the modernist and post-modernist church-goers. It is alarming the rate at which we are losing young adults in Christianity. In many situations, the cause of this exodus is just as much cultural as it is spiritual. So looking for bridges has become something that has captured my attention.

That being said, John 4:24 brings out a very significant point in relation to this gap. We are to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I’ve always felt it interesting that Jesus would choose these specific words. He could have said, they will worship in Love and Grace or they will worship in Freedom and Knowledge, but Spirit and Truth were what he used. I believe that these two words speak to the world that we live in today.

The modernist philosophy tends place a premium on truth. It is a very logical philosophy that derives meaning from structure. Scientific and technological advances abound under this philosophy. It is a system that breeds belief through experience. Hypothesis are formulated, tested and then accepted as truth. This philosophy was beneficial to Christianity in the sense that, individuals believed in accuracy of scriptures, and obedience to the clergy. There was definitely a spiritual component, but it could be argued that many people belonged to church because it was considered the right thing to do in order to build a good society.

The post-modernist philosophy is a reaction to this love of logic. It stresses feeling over function. If you feel something is right for you, then, no matter what logic dictates, it is right. Because it stresses acceptance, the post-modern world has an easier time accepting spiritual claims. Moral relativism has flourished in this environment. The positive here is that is often easier to interest this group in the spiritual aspect of God. Unfortunately, positive Christian principles, such as the infallibility of scripture and obedience to authority, have become harder for them to accept.

This is what is so beautiful about this scripture. It speaks to both sides. We are to show our love to God by embracing truth and the Spirit equally.

We worship God in truth through our embrace of doctrine, holiness and obedience. These concepts fit very handily into the thinking of a modernist generation, and have typically been hallmarks of the Pentecostal church, but in recent years these tenets have come under fire as being old-fashioned, and limiting. Many young adults feel an aversion to these concepts, because they live in a culture that places a heavy emphasis on personal experience and individuality. We have seen a shift in the church that directly reflects the shift in secular culture.

We have to understand that being a Christian is a culture unto itself. It should be free from the influence of secular cultural philosophy. Each side of the spectrum has to be willing to lay aside their world view and embrace God’s way of thinking. Despite your cultural leanings, you cannot follow man, and follow Jesus at the same time. Modernists must become illogical if they are to embrace a peace that passes all understanding, while post-modernists must accept that there is only way narrow path that leads to salvation. To be a true worshiper, truth and Spirit must be in equilibrium in our lives.

Jesus’ Rabbi

Tue, 17 May 2011 12:32:53 -0600

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

I have been doing some studying lately about the ancient Hebrew educational system, and when I say studying, I mean I googled it and looked at the first site that didn’t seem to be shady enough to give me a virus.

In the ensuing twenty minutes, I found out some interesting stuff. All male Hebrew children were required to start their first round of education at the age of 6. They had until they were ten years old to memorize the first five books of the Old Testament. At this point, they either possessed enough mnemonic aptitude to graduate or they were sent home to take up the career of their fathers. I’m going to bet there were a lot more fishermen than second-round Hebrew students.

If they passed into the semi-finals, they would now have to spend the next four to five years memorizing the entire Old Testament. Just to compare and contrast, I have trouble remembering the words to the national anthem. I always seem to get lost after the twilights last gleaming.

It was during this part of the competition, that the students would learn the Hebrew method of teaching through question and answer. They would have to prove their knowledge. One common test was for a Rabbi to read a passage from the scriptures. The student would have to quote the preceding passage and the following passage. There is nothing sarcastic that I can say about this. I am really in a state of amazement. Students who couldn’t memorize the scriptures were sent home to take up the career of their fathers.

Around the age of 14 or 15, if the student felt confident enough, they would go to the Rabbi that they wished to follow, and they would declare their intentions to be his disciple. At this point, the Rabbi would initiate an intense interview process. I’m guessing “How would you bring about world peace?” wasn’t one of the questions.

If the rabbi felt you were lacking, he would, wait for it…send you home to take up the career of your father. If the rabbi liked you and felt that you were one of the best prospects, he would say “come, follow me.” The student would be required to leave his family, friends and, most importantly, the career of his father behind.

This whole process seems to have a little bit of an American Idol vibe going on. Yo dog. That interpretation of Habakkuk was a little pitchy, dog. I just wasn’t feeling it dog.

This is why it was such a big deal for Jesus, who the bible calls a Rabbi, to go to men like Peter, Andrew, James and John and declare “Come, follow me.” They had already been rejected. We don’t know what level they got to, but they had most definitely been rejected.

It also explains why they were so quick to leave behind their fishing careers. Being a rabbi was the top of the food chain in Israel, and here was a second chance to have that life. It was already expected of students to immediately leave behind everything, so for them this would have been an accepted cultural behavior. They were now students of Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth.

Besides being the son of God, Jesus was probably a pretty good rabbi to follow. He was a good teacher. He did miracles. And if they got hungry He provided snacks.

Jesus followed traditional rabbinical techniques. He walked a little, and talked a little. He asked questions. He quoted the scriptures. He went from synagogue to synagogue debating the word of God with other rabbi’s. At its most basic level, the school of Jesus wasn’t that much different than any other Rabbi. Of course, once He started healing the sick, raising the dead, turning water into wine, transfiguring on mountain tops, speaking with dead prophets and casting out demons things kind of went to the next level.

So after studying all of this, I started wondering, did Jesus have a rabbi? We don’t know a lot about the early life of Jesus. After his birth, there is only one recorded episode of His adolescence. We have the famous incident of Him missing the family caravan in order to stay in the temple to have a question and answer session with the priests.

Luke chapter 2 informs us that the priests were amazed at the abilities of this 12 year old. At this point in His training, Jesus seems to be at the head of the class. It makes sense that He would know the word, given the fact that He was the word.

It is probably a safe bet to assume that He had Rabbi’s clamoring to be His master. He would have been the first pick in the draft. If he were a college basketball player, he could have easily spent his one year at Syracuse of Kentucky, and made the leap to the big show. But did he?

The truth is we have no idea. The romanticized version of the story would be that he chose the Spirit of God that was in Him to be his Rabbi. That he spent the next fifteen years wandering the countryside, learning from the Holy Ghost and honing the gifts of the spirit. This self-inspection would’ve lasted until the day that He stepped foot on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and called some stinky fishermen to be His disciples.

The other way the story could go, is that He submitted himself to a rabbi and continued the traditional learning process. I tend to favor this theory. Why? Because Jesus wasn’t a weirdo, that’s why. Why was personable, nice, friendly and compassionate. These are all attributes that are developed through interpersonal relationships. Spending fifteen years alone in a desert would kind of warp you a little, and make it really hard to spend the next three years hanging out with a bunch of other dudes.

One argument against this theory is that nowhere in scripture does anyone speak up and say, “Yeah, I’m the guy that taught Jesus everything he knows. You see that guy teaching thousands of people? I’m his rabbi.”

I would’ve done that, but maybe his rabbi had more sense than I do. Or maybe his rabbi had already gone to that great seminary in the sky. Regardless of what did really happen, one thing is for sure, Jesus did not go back and start building bookshelves. He was destined for a life of fame and fortune as a rabbi. (I should warn you. I got bored doing research, so I don’t really know if being a rabbi brought you fame and fortune.)

If Jesus had followed a rabbi, would that be a bad thing? It wouldn’t have changed who He was. It couldn’t have changed the Spirit that was in him, but it may have affected His methods. Maybe he picked up tips or tricks from His rabbi. Maybe when He was teaching, he thought in the back of his mind, “Wow! That parable totally sounded like something Rabbi Jeremiah would’ve said.”

If Jesus had a rabbi, it would mean that at least some level he would’ve been influenced by that rabbi. His teaching style and methods would not have been uniquely His. He would have been a product of those that had influence over Him. This thought would actually be quite liberating to us, as it would mean that we are even more like Jesus than we realize.

We live in an atmosphere individualism that, at the same time, creates pressure to be unique but also creates the illusion that this is possible. As one bumper sticker said “You are special, just like everybody else.” With a limited number of reasonable options and large population, statistically speaking, there is probably someone out there who has remarkably similar tastes as you. Unless you go to extremes, you probably wear the same clothes, eat the same food, drive the same car and listen to the same music as a lot of people.

Think of tattoos. It seems that everyone and their mom (I mean that literally) is getting a tattoo. One of the big motivators is that it makes you unique to have your skin inked, so everybody is doing the same thing to be unique. If you really want to be unique, you have to do something that nobody else is doing. Try dunking yourself, every morning, in a big vat of Easter egg dye. That would be unique!

Is it such a bad thing to admit that we are not entirely unique individuals? We are a composite of all the sources of influence in our life, whether that is family, friends, church, Facebook or television. I remember looking for an apartment in Chicago. Every place we looked at my wife rejected. I finally asked her what she was looking for, and she admitted she wanted a place like they had on Friends. As silly as it may sound she was influenced by Rachel and Monica. You may think I’m being cynical, but most of us fall into several very well-defined social roles. Most of us are not originals; instead we draw on social constructs to tell us who we are. I’m an intellectual. She is a girly-girl. He is a jock.

So if Jesus could, be influenced by people in His life, and we are influenced by people in our lives, then it stands to reason that we should be careful about the influences we let in our lives. This may be a total “duh” statement to us, but if it is so obvious why is it so hard to put it into action?

Why do we spend hours on Facebook only to get angry that someone you haven’t seen in years disagrees with one of your witty observations on modern culture? (Do you hear that dripping sound? That is the sarcasm falling from the word witty.) Why will we reject the advice of trusted pastors and elders, but take to heart the words of a country music song? Why will someone give an ear to Oprah, but not the word of God?

Jesus may or may not have had a rabbi, but if He did, He would’ve chosen one that was a good influence. We are unique because of who we allow to influences. We are all unique combinations of outside influences, mixed with some original thoughts. If we consciously filter out the bad influences, whether they are real people or media based, then in the end we will better people because of it.

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

The Other Side of the Stone

Fri, 13 May 2011 10:00:00 -0600

*This is the written form of the message that I preached to my church this Easter. It is probably a little more coherent than the actual message, and I got to add all of things that I wish I’d said! This isn’t the 20 page monster blog that I have been working on. That may end up being a 180 page book! Enjoy.

Mark 15:42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.

Setting the Stone

On Easter, much is said about the stone being rolled away from the tomb of Jesus. Sermons are inspired by it and songs are sung concerning it, but have you ever stopped to consider how the stone got there in the first place?

Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath, and since the Jewish people were forbidden from working on the Sabbath there was a hurried rush to find a tomb and respectfully bury Him. A man named Joseph took the lead in this endeavor. He went to Pilate, obtained the body of Jesus and placed him in the tomb. Finally, after making sure that the body of Jesus was respectfully cared for, he had a large stone rolled in front of the mouth of the tomb.

However, Joseph wasn’t alone. He had an audience during this process. Mark 15:47 lets us know that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched this burial process. They saw where Jesus was laid, and they saw the stone placed over the mouth of the tomb.

Two Days Later

It was with anxious minds and eager hearts that they waited through the Sabbath until they could get to the tomb, to express their love for their fallen teacher one last time. As the day broke, the female followers of Jesus were already wide awake preparing the spices that they thought would be used to anoint His body. But in all of their preparations, it was only after they got underway that anyone stopped to think about the stone. They knew the stone was there, but the knowledge of who was on the other side of stone had their attention.

Divine Distraction

The ladies that were on their way to the tomb weren’t thinking about the stone when they made plans for their pilgrimage. They were thinking about who was on the other side of the tomb. It wasn’t the obstacle that had their attention it was their rabbi.

They were distracted by love. They loved Jesus, and they wanted to be near Him one last time. It was that love that drove them to minister to Him, even in death. To them the stone was an afterthought, because who was on the other side of the stone was the important thing. When we truly love Jesus, and have our relationship with Him as the main goal for our lives, then the obstacles don’t matter.

If they had focused on the stone, they might not have ever started out that day. It would have seemed foolish to buy the spices and go through process of preparing what they needed to anoint Jesus, if they thought they couldn’t get into see Him. Many people focus too much on why they feel they can’t have a relationship with Jesus. To them, the stone seems impossible to bypass, so why even try? Maybe they feel they have seen and done too much. Maybe they feel they would have to give up too much to follow Jesus. But if they could ever, truly know what it means to be in love with Him, they would realize that there is nothing that can stop them from knowing Him. The stone can’t intimidate you when you stop worrying about it, and start thinking about who is on the other side of the stone.

What are you looking at?

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

When we are looking unto Jesus, we can lay aside the obstacles that get in our way, because we understand that there is nothing so important that it is worth giving up in our pursuit of Him. If the obstacle in your life is laying aside sin and burdens that cause you to stumble, it may be because your focus is entirely on laying them aside. If your focus is on avoiding sin, then it is not on Jesus. If your focus is on Jesus, then the sin and the burdens will lose their hold on you, and become something that you can lay aside. The stone can’t blind you, if you are looking to who’s on the other side of the stone.

Separation Anxiety

Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we read this passage of scripture we generally think about how awesome the love of God is. We read these scriptures as “the love is God is so powerful, that nothing can stop it”. The love of God is strong and there is nothing that can stop it, but there is another way to read this scripture. We can also read it as “the love of God is so great, that there is nothing that can stop me from getting to it”. What stones are stopping you from experiencing God’s love in its fullness? Is it a hurt from childhood that makes you distrust the love of a father? Is it an addiction that keeps your mind focused on short-term pleasure? Whatever it is, if you make up in your mind that your goal is to have a right relationship with Jesus Christ, those things can’t separate you from His love. They become powerless. The stone can’t stop you, if you are in love with who’s on the other side of the stone.

He started it

Mark 16:9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

Mark 16:9 tells that they Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first. It also informs us that Jesus had cast out seven demons from Mary. The reason why Mary didn’t care about the stone was that she was in love with the man that loved her when no one else would. When she was possessed, rejected and ostracized Jesus reached out to her and freed her. She had seen firsthand the power of His love. She loved Him, because he first loved her, and there was nothing that was going to keep her away. Seven demons couldn’t prevent Him from loving her, so why should she let a big rock thwart her from getting to Him? When the words of 1 John 4:19 become a reality to us, our perspective changes. The stone becomes insignificant, when you realize the power of who is on the other side of the stone.

Stone, what stone?

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

So paying no heed to the obstacles, the women set off on their pilgrimage. Their profound sense of loss undoubtedly caused their emotions to be obvious. Maybe after the concern about the stone was raised, it became a source of worry to them, but regardless they kept walking to the tomb. As they neared the spot where they had seen Him laid, one thing become very obvious the stone was no longer in their path. Jesus went ahead and moved it out of the way for them.

You see, the things that we fear will prevent us from having a relationship with Him, are the very things that He came to remove from us. You can’t remove the hurt on your own, but if you will draw near to Him, He will remove them for you. You can’t break your addictions yourself, but if you will fall in love with Him, He’ll do it for you. You can’t forgive yourself, but if you will submit yourself to Him, He will do it for you.

Jesus loves enough to enough to move the obstacles that we see as insurmountable, but we have to set our hearts on the other side of the stone.

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:03:20 -0600

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

- Psalm 4:8

Sanctuary

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:02:57 -0600

The last couple of weeks have been a blur for me. Last week I had the pleasure of being the Illinois Youth Convention committee chair. It is a duty that I dearly love, but it does require a significant amount time and energy.

We got home from IYC late Saturday afternoon, and immediately began getting for our Easter service and the family dinner that we were hosting afterwards. My wife was cooking and I was studying, it was good but there wasn’t much time for reflection.

This week has continued the break neck pace. I’ve had to work overtime this week to make up for missing last week. My wife had her first art show and I’ve been dealing with church stuff. These are all blessings in one way or another, but they still exact their pound of flesh.

Yesterday I spent 14 hours at work, and had some tough situations come across my desk. So it was with a very heavy heart, and sore back that I poured myself into my beat up Saturn and set off for home. With all the flooding, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it or not, but I was so tired that I was willing to sleep in my car if I had too. Fortunately I made it home.

That is when I felt it. I opened the front door, like I’d done thousands of times before, and I was greeted with a wave of peace that was almost overwhelming. It felt as though God had been waiting for me in my living room. I know that this feeling is the direct result of the time my wife and I spend in prayer in that room. I teared up as I felt the peace and security that emanated from each corner of our little house. I know that we are supposed to feel God wherever we go, but I love that we can create sanctuaries of peace in our homes. If we fill it with prayer and guard it from evil, the home can be one of the most soothing places on earth.

I am thankful for a loving God that gives us peace and security. I am thankful for a wonderful wife that prays over me and our kids. I am thankful for a home that does more for me in a few minutes than two days of vacation. I am thankful for my little man that is spilling over with excitement because he got a new baseball glove. I am thankful for a princess that gives magical hugs.

It may be small, the gutters may be falling off and it may be bright yellow, but there is no place like home.

Pslam 4:8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Olly Olly Oxen Free

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:36:07 -0600

I don’t want to burst the dreams of the in-betweens and the drama queens, but the plan of the man with scars on his hands is for us to have dirt under our nails.

Talking to postmodern leavers

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:42:29 -0600

One of the books that I am currently reading is Generation Ex-Christian, Why young adults are leaving the faith…and how to bring them back, by Drew Dyck. I highly recommend this book to all pastors and young adult leaders.

In one passage, the author discusses some lessons he’s learned in talking to postmodern leavers. These are young adults that have grown up Christian, but have left the faith, instead choosing to adopt a post-modern mindset. These are lessons that he says that he learned through trial and error.

1. Tell your story

In the postmodern culture there is distrust for meta-narratives. A meta-narrative is and overarching story that everyone is expected to fit into. Christianity is an example of this. We believe that the gospel applies to everyone, but postmodernists do not. While they are skeptical meta-narratives, postmodernists hold the personal experience sacred. This gives us an opportunity to share Jesus through our testimony. The common trap is to use our testimonies as a sermon. Postmodern leavers are familiar with church, and can smell a canned testimony coming a mile away. We have to be willing to be honest about our struggles and our triumphs in order to create an atmosphere of honesty. Tell them what Jesus did for you, and the process He brought you through, but include defeat as well as victories

2. Re-enchant the gospel

Postmodern leavers often have a very stale grasp on the word of God. They have reduced it to a handful of threadbare arguments. It is up to us to present the gospel as a beautiful and vibrant story of love. In order to do this, we need to know more about the scriptures than they do! The sermon on the mount, Jesus’ parables, and the accounts of Jesus’ relationships with believers and non-believers all give us plenty of opportunities to share the love of God while at the same time presenting the word in a fresh way. Remember that these are former church kids, and they are familiar with the process of salvation. They need to be reminded of the love of Jesus, which, hopefully will lead to a renewal of salvation. We must be passionate about our relationship, before they will take notice.

3. Build trust

Trust, or the lack thereof, is a crucial issue in the minds of many leavers. Many have been hurt through experiences that have happened in church. The C.S. Lewis quote that I blogged before this article, is used by the author to make his point. The image that many postmodernists hold of Christians, is one of ambivalence. In short, they think that we don’t care about them as people, that we just want to convert them so that we can fulfill some type of cosmic quota. The old saying that my grandfather used many times was, “They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” This statement has never been more applicable. We have to be willing to reach out in compassion and build a bond of trust with postmodernists. They know how to argue against every one of our tenets, but they can’t argue against love. Examine the teachings of Jesus and you will find a consistent principle of love. This love is the simple thing that has been chosen to confound the wise.

4. Invite them to serve

Post-moderns prefer to discover truth through experience rather than reason. Most also have a strong social conscience and a willingness to serve the poor and oppressed. This gives us a perfect opportunity to use their strengths and at the same time help them to rediscover Jesus. Traditional evangelism has placed belief before belonging, but when it comes to serving the world this order doesn’t have to be set in stone. We understand that it is important to protect and honor the doctrines set forth by the bible, but Jesus made the statement “Follow me”. He took 12 men, who knew nothing of Him or His doctrine, and asked them to follow Him until the truth was revealed to them. Postmodernists are perfectly suited to be plugged into the service ministries of your church. If your church doesn’t have service ministries, start some. Help them re-discover the love of Jesus, by being the love of Jesus to others. Not only will they be doing a great ministry, but they will also feel more connected to your congregation and therefore more open to instruction

Jesus did all of these. He told beautiful parables, and communicated the truth in vibrant and passionate ways. He invited people to follow Him, and learn from experience. He built relationships and forged bonds of trust with his followers. Culture may have changed, but the relevance of our Savior never will. Post-moderns don’t have to be written off as unsalvageable. We don’t have to just resort to praying for them in secret, hoping that they have an epiphany about God’s love. These strategies are also good for helping to ensure that our young adults stay in church! We can be proactive in our quest to regain the lost.

This article only reflects a portion of the book, so don’t feel like you don’t need to read it since I gave my two cents. I haven’t gotten much farther than this passage, but I like what I’ve read so far. I look forward to hearing from anyone who reads it. Let’s do something great for God.