Monday, August 29, 2011

Trust and Delight in the Lord

Psalm 37:3&4- Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I am going to be honest with you and say that right now I am having a very hard time making that verse mine. As most of you know, when I write on this blog I talk about things that I am going through or have made it through. Usually I write about what I have made it through with the hope of encouraging people, but today I am writing about what I am struggling through.

It is hard because after four years of seminary and doing what I feel God led me to do, I have found nothing on the other side. Having loans that are due, I need employment fast and I have nothing to speak of except part time jobs.

As much as I want to trust in God, I am having a hard time hearing him. I try to listen to the quiet voice that I normally hear, but in the mix I hear very loud voices telling me to fix all of the situations in my life. Whether it is getting my Navy career straightened around, being a better employee, finding employment, being a better boyfriend, being a better friend to people, figuring out whether to go back to school or go after hospital chaplain training, whether to move or to stay, God's voice is lost in the mix.

So if you were to ask me what the desires of my heart are right now, I want peace. Hearing someone say, "trust in the Lord" does not make sense to me at times. What I have found is that I need to spend more time enjoying the presence of the Lord. I am beginning to realize that as a ministry person, sometimes God stops being enjoyable. I love God, don't get me wrong, but I do feel burned out after being pulled so many directions. Honestly, in ministry, people get pulled too many directions to the point where ministry becomes a chore rather than a joy.

So today I am going to try to be better at delighting in the Lord. I need to find ways that I connect with him better and that some sort of ministry task is not attached to it. I also need to be better at rejoicing and giving thanks when things are going well and when things are going bad (paraphrasing 1 Thes 5:16-18). I am not the type to get mad at God or expect too much from him, but I sometimes wish that he would give me a little bit more to work with.

In closing, I hope that you are able to take a few things away from this Psalm. When I heard it at church yesterday it definitely hit home with me. It is hard to trust and delight in the Lord when there is so much uncertainty, but I need to do a better job in both circumstances. I hope that this verse inspires you too as you continue to live out God's calling in your life.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Pendulum thinking gets us nowhere fast

So yet again, I was invited to another cult meeting when I was at work today. As I was helping a customer look for new clothes, I received a personal invite from this man to attend his classes. He wanted me to see parts of Christianity that the Bible does not tell me about and to further explore the metaphysical side. He told me to check them out online, and I did, and strangely enough when I typed in the title on yahoo search, the word "cult" was attached to it before I could finish the sentence. Hmm...

I can't help but think of my church history class in which I was introduced to stories of movements that started out with good intentions but somewhere they went off the beaten path. It is not a matter of deciding the age of baptism or view of charismatic gifts, these have to do with complete violations of scripture.

So where this brings me today is thinking about the church today. For instance, there was a movement in church history called the Montanist movement. I will give a brief outline, but you should read up on it if you are interested. In this movement, a charismatic man circumvented the church and its rigid rules to become a leader when he was roadblocked by the rules. He gave power to women by having prophetesses. He allowed for the practice of spiritual gifts, which were suppressed. All of these things sound good. Balance was needed, until you realize that all of these qualities were abused and the movement was very extreme.

How does this work today? People still go to the furthest extreme, whether they realize it or not. Recently, I have heard my peers talking about throwing out teaching from our services in favor of prophetic worship, wanting ordination requirements to be simplified to the point that unqualified people can lead freely if they feel led, and that Apologetics should not be practiced since we should not need to defend our faith and instead by more concerned with sharing the gospel. Yes, these views draw attention to needs in the church... the need for prophetic worship, more opportunities for people to lead, and the need for a stronger effort in evangelism. My word of caution is not to be reactionary and completely throw out concepts because they have flaws, instead, integrate them properly.

I think it is significant to understand that even though extreme measures are needed at times, we must remember that extreme measures are harder to recover from. This is why many sports teams fail to succeed. When I look at my home team, the Cleveland Browns, they have been bad since they change coaches too frequently, and they tend to go with complete opposites with their coaches. One guy is a dictator, the next is too buddy buddy, the next is arrogant and aloof, etc. They all are opposites. This sets the team back for years, especially when the roster gets purged by every new coach to bring in their guys. Churches are similar... if we drastically move back and forth from ideas emotionally, we can often times go so far the other direction that it turns to heresy.

Just because we may not agree 100% with something, we need to sit and find the good even if there is a lot of bad. From there, you can weed out the bad and create a better concept. If we continue to go to the furthest extreme instead of creating balance, we will attract extreme people who are either too passive or too destructive... thus creating issues. A church full of aggressive people will be far too combative and impatient, while a passive audience will languish if not properly motivated. This is why balance is needed, because it keeps us safe from extremists taking over.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

When you get pounced on by evangelists...

Earlier this week, my girlfriend and I were walking around Town Center (area in Virginia Beach, for those not from the area) and we were flagged down by these two young people. At first I thought the girl was drunk because she flailed her arms at us like she was trying to flag down a car. Thinking they were drunk, we kept walking until they caught up to us and started talking about God with us... like we never read a Bible before. After we established that we were Christians, they still talked to us like we were ignorant. They were sharing the message about Mother God coming down soon and that she would gather the believers with her. Bottom line, it was a misinterpretation of scripture that was a message that pretty much said, "join our club, and you will get a ticket to heaven!" We declined their invitation to come to their church, and after some fruitless discussion we found that they were regurgitating Revelation as a sales pitch (their pastor probably had them memorize specific verses). Mind you, it is a dangerous business trying to interpret Revelation, and those that claim to know it should think long and hard before they talk about it because it is one of the most difficult books of the Bible to understand for various reasons.

This is not to criticize these two kids for doing what they believed God told them to do, but instead I am talking about this an example what not to do so that if you ever take a leadership role that you will know what not to do. It seems that they were trained by someone who did not have sound training in the Bible. So this is how I feel about people who feel led to teach...

1. Do your homework! They mentioned Revelation 21:9-10, but gave a literal interpretation... the New Jerusalem was a real city, and that it was the bride of the lamb. They mentioned that it made no sense that Jesus would be married to a city so it must be a real person. They also tried to explain Jewish marriage tradition, but not enough to make sense. When we think of successful characters in the Bible, such as Paul and Jesus, they knew the scriptures and were able to prove things to people. Much like that today, if you want to be influential, you must understand how to connect to the culture and not be abrasive about your knowledge.

2. Don't belittle people. People have different levels of conviction towards their beliefs, so you should never talk to them like they know nothing. Some of the most educated people on Christianity are not even Christians, which shows you never know what you are dealing with. This is why we should treat all people fairly. Unfortunately, these two evangelists talked to us like we didn't know anything and it was very off putting. I can only imagine what someone with a different religious preference would feel about Christians after such an encounter!

3. Have a sober respect for God. When I chose to go into the ministry, I memorized James 3:1. If you don't know it, it is worth your while to look it up. James was writing to an audience to let them know that there is a stricter judgment for teachers, because ultimately they are responsible for the disposition of the messages that they give. So if I lead people astray by telling them something that is not true, I will be held accountable for that. These two seemed to run around telling everyone that they saw to be aware of the coming of God... Well, that has been mentioned for years. There is a reason that he will come like a thief in the night, because if the thief notifies the house owner than the owner will be ready for the robber. Its common sense. Sometimes people just need to realize that being abrasive just pushes people away, and they need to have a little bit more reverence for the message that God gave them... if God gave it to them.

So I guess what I am saying today is if you feel called to teach (which in some capacity we teach others constantly through out our day), always remember James 3:1. I know that the context is a little more complicated, but it is a succinct way of remembering that we need to be careful with the messages that God gives us. We must also remember to give messages in love and work towards building people up rather than making them feel threatened or condemned. So that was my adventure with evangelists, and please remember if anything sounds funny to you, look it up in the Bible and ask other Christians. Don't let someone else tell you something that is strange and lead you astray. It never hurts to ask! And if you are a teacher, don't fear saying the wrong thing, but be as educated as possible so that your words will bring life and that you may live beyond reproach.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Speaking your mind?

I am hoping that this post does not turn into a rant, because it could actually turn into one =) With that, I am going to start with a qualifier: this is something that has been bothering me for the past few years and I feel that I need to talk about it because I am not quite sure who else will. So if I come off as harsh or convicting, I apologize in advance, but I will do my best not to be condemning.

When Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, he was speaking to a group of people that would act holy and claim that they had it all together, but in reality they were broken inside. How did he know this? Their words. Read Matthew 12:33-37, Jesus is explains how he knows that they are evil inside.

-A good tree produces good fruit
-From the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks
-Good men bring good things out of the good stored up in him

What is the common denominator here? Words come forth from the heart. So what does this say to us? How are our words impacting others? Are the words we speaking coming from a place to give life to one another or are they taking life away from the person?

When I read this verse a few years ago it really motivated me to consider what I say to people and to be more deliberate about what I say. I found that it went a few different ways. I realized that some of my joking was a bit harsh at times. Not as bad as what I heard from people close to me growing up, but none the less it was not exactly life giving. I was used to being called slurs and other insulting terms that were not true, but when I reacted and tried to talk about it they would say, "It was a joke. Stop being so sensitive." It was not funny and I realized that even though it rubbed off on me a bit, I did not like it and did not want to do it to other people.

Fast forward to today, and I still hear people that think they can get away with it. It may not be a direct insult, but it could be someone telling an embarrassing story or criticizing/joking something that is trivial. Just the other day, I heard someone telling an embarrassing story about me to someone who did not really know me nor needed to know about my embarrassing moment. It did not hurt me, but I could not help but wonder what the heart motive was behind it.

When considering heart motives, another interesting phrase that I hear outside of "I was just joking" is "At least I am being honest." Honesty does not destroy another person, nor does it demean someone. Rude people just need to get that phrase out of their system. Honesty is meant to help guide someone to make better decisions, not make them feel stupid or inadequate. That is what rude honesty does. This is why I feel that sarcasm and rude words do not belong in the church, especially with church leadership.

Unfortunately, I have become less enchanted with the church because of the fruit that many pastors produce. When I hear their words, whether it is in their sermons, in their conversations with me, or watching them interact with their leaders, I have learned a lot about their hearts. I hope that you would take the time as well to consider the fruit that you are eating from your spiritual leaders.

I guess the question that I have to ask is why would you eat rotten fruit? If my "tree" is producing bad fruit, why would anyone want to go to me? I hope that you wouldn't. This is why I have limited the amount of people I spend time with. If we eat good fruit from each other, then everything is fine. But if i am spending my time with negative and condescending people who produce bad fruit, it will make me sick.

In closing, I want to share the last two verses and how they impacted me. Jesus tells the pharisees that they will have to give an account for every careless word they spoke, and it is by their words they will be acquitted or condemned. This stunned me, I know that Jesus was saying this to the Pharisees, but I think it is a sober reminder to me that I need to be careful of what I say.

This taught be two things...

1. This is why I have learned not to talk more than I have to. When I speak more than I have to, I start getting into territory that makes people the butt of my jokes or I say something stupid that gets me in trouble. I have learned to be comfortable with not saying anything and being quiet if I do not have anything meaningful to say.

2. As a Christian leader, what am I if my words bring judgement and death to people? I am no different than the pharisees, and
ultimately I am not doing my job.

That is why I have to spend time with God and spend time in the word to make sure that my heart is in sync with God's heart. I do it because I want to be closer to him and I want to understand him better. Through that, I am able to positively impact others and give words of life to others.

So today, my challenge to you is to take the time to see if your heart needs healing. If you need to change circumstances, do it. I would recommend it because I found that when I engaged life in a way to try and give life to others rather than speaking negatively of others, I found that i felt better about myself and others felt better around me. Lets be a community that builds others up, not tears them down.