A Pastor's Thoughts

I posted earlier this week about the importance of relationships.  It keeps coming to mind how vital these relationships are in our lives.  Last night we had a great family in our home for dinner.  It was great for our children to play together afterwards and the “adults” sat and talked for 4 hours after dinner.  It was great to share what the Lord is doing in our lives and hear what He is doing in the lives of others.  It still amazes me when people say something like, “you can be a Christian without going to church.”  Theologically this is correct, but practically it is tough.  Jesus had so much instruction for us regarding how we live with our fellow believers.  If you are not a part of a local body, you have to ignore (read disobey) much of Jesus’ teachings.  You also miss out on the blessing of seeing Him work in the lives of others.

For the past month there has been a group from our church meeting to discuss college ministry.  We have shared many ideas and thoughts.  Last night I decided we had talked enough and it was time to simply pray.  We did.  There were about 10 of us and we had a great time in prayer together.  We prayed for the students that the Lord will send, we prayed for the believers currently on campus, and we prayed for our congregation.

It was a beautiful time of seeking the Lord.  I feel like we accomplished more in the time of prayer than in the few hours of talking that we have done over the last month.  I am looking forward to meeting again next week so that we can pray some more for this work!

A good friend posted on his blog concerning relationships.  I think he is right in his observation about how we crave relationships with people.  We desire to be connected to one another.  Many of our technology gadgets these days tap into that hunger.  Between Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Texting, E-Mails, and Blogs, we can all be connected to one another.  It’s great that I can follow friends on Twitter.  It may not be interesting to know where there are for lunch, what they just ordered, and then how it tasted.  The trouble with these gadgets is they become a barrier to real relationships.

When I moved to Durham I got a new phone.  I picked up a Blackberry.  I like it, it is certainly convenient.  The salesman was telling me that I could e-mail, text, Instant Message, use Twitter, use Facebook, etc. on the device.  He said “it is great for staying connected to other people.”  I said jokingly, “can I also talk to someone on it?”  As if all these mediums of communication the device allows are the primary reason to have it.  I wondered what ever happened to having a conversation?

Many of our young people today (and older people) don’t know how to communicate with each other in face to face conversations.  They are together, with earbuds in, cell phone in hand, and are texting to their friends.  They don’t turn off the music and put away the phone long enough to speak to each other face to face.  They love being connected to each other, but these electronics hamper real connections.

I have been praying about things for our church.  Looking at ways of reaching our community.  Two needs stand out in my mind.  People are looking for relationships and they are looking for truth.  We all crave genuine relationships with others.  The busier our lives get the more we need these real connections with one another.  Not Tweets or Texts, but talking with each other.  People are also looking for truth.  We hear so much opinions and debate about weighty matters.  People want to know the truth.

It is in the Christ that these can be found.  When you follow Christ, you are connected to Him and connected to millions of new brothers and sisters around the world.  You come to know Truth when follow Jesus.  Then you should become part of a local group of Jesus followers.  There, you can develop genuine relationships with others.  Jesus told us to love one another.  In a local church, you can hear truth preached and taught.  It is the place Jesus has given us to meet two of these basic needs in our life.

I am thankful for the technology that allows me to share this in a blog, in Facebook, and an e-mail!

Our family has been blessed to be a part of Cresset Baptist Church.  The Lord has called us here and we are excited about His Kingdom work in this place.  For over 30 years Cresset has had a wonderful ministry in Cresset Christian Academy.  Each year the Academy performs a musical in the Spring.  This year, they are performing Les Miserables.  Last night was the first of five performances.  It was amazing.  I have seen this show once before when a Broadway Touring Company came to Virginia when I was in High School.  I have been looking forward to Cresset’s production for months now.  It did not disappoint.

I have the opportunity to share a few words after the performance.  Last night, it occurred to me why this show is so popular.  The music is great, the set is fantastic, but the story shows many people from different walks of life all looking for hope.  They are looking for redemption.  They are looking for a new life, a better life.  These themes resonate with each person in the audience.  Who doesn’t want their past sins forgiven?  Who doesn’t want a new start?  Who doesn’t seek the hope of something better?  We all do.  The great thing is that we can have each of these.  Not through our own effort, or even desire, but through Jesus Christ.

Last night after the show, I shared with the audience one of my favorite passages of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ He is a new creation.  Old things have passed away and behold, new things have come.”  We can have newness in Jesus Christ.  He is the one who forgives our sins.  He is the one who provides the hope and promise of an abundant life and eternal life with Him.  He is the One who makes us new creations.  He is the one who restores our souls.  He redeemed us, He bought us, He paid with His very blood to purchase our lives for Himself.

I was excited to share that with the audience last night.  I know there were many believers there, people who are associated with the Academy.  But there are also unbelievers there.  People who need to hear the Gospel of Jesus.  People who may never step foot in a church.  I am praying for God to open people’s hearts each performance so that they can hear about Jesus.

It is not the job of the Christian preacher to give the people moral or psychological pep talks about how to get along in the world. When that is needed, someone else can do it. But most of our people have no one, no one in the world, to tell them week in and week out, about the supreme beauty and majesty of God.

This quote from John Piper’s preface in “The Supremacy of God in Preaching” has stuck in my heart. There is much I can do when I stand before people week after week. There are many things I could say. What is most pressing? What are they needing? What is my role in this process? I am called upon to tell them of the greatness of God. A wonderful thing happens when God is lifted high, everything else takes second place in our lives. God is not a small thing. What damage can I inflict when I present  Him as a small helper in our lives?  Too often we hear how God wants to make little improvements in our lives. We talk of Him as if He were a strong partner in our lives that we call upon when life gets hard. That is simply not who He is. We cannot make Him smaller than He is. In fact, we cannot make Him as great as He is, we cannot comprehend that level of holiness and greatness. More often we make the mistake of bringing Him down to our level, making Him some sort of super-human figure that is around to solve our problems.

God has called me to proclaim Him. Not other things, but Him. Lord help me to be faithful. I love to preach. God has called me to this task. It is my responsibility, it is my place to obey…or take the easy road. In taking the easy road, the view that God is only around to serve us at our beck and call, are we not like the spoiled child who mooches off of wealthy parents? You know the type. They don’t care to love their parents or honor them. They only care about what they can get from them. What new car, what shiny electronic device is coming down the pipe next. When we don’t lift Jesus high, are we more like the spoiled child than the child who loving depends on his parents for life?

It is no easy task. Nothing is easy in the Christian life. If it were easy we wouldn’t need His Spirit to fulfill our ministries. We could do it all ourselves. I want to be faithful, I want to take the difficult road. The road of putting words and ideas around the Truth of God and His greatness. It is a difficult road if I want to travel it alone. Praise the Lord, I don’t have to. He has promised to carry me, if I let Him. Lord, carry me along this path of proclaiming your truth, your news.  I want to be faithful to share the glory of God.

In January 1985, Madonna took the world by storm with her song “Material Girl”.  In it, she said, “we’re living in a material world.”  The point was she was only a product of the world in which we live.  I agree that we are living in a material world, but we are also living in a spiritual world.  I have been reading a couple of books lately on ministry within post-modern culture.  It is hard to define post-modern culture, so ministry within this culture is evolving.  A book on the subject from 3 years ago is nearly obsolete today.  Thankfully God’s Word is never obsolete on the subject.  In Acts 17, Paul makes this statement, “Men of Athens, I see you are religious in every respect.”  That culture was spiritual.  Our culture is spiritual.  One of the aspects of our postmodern culture is that people are spiritual.  Their spirituality may or may not involve the church.  It may come from Oprah, Buddha, or a tree.

I took a break from my reading today to meet someone from my church over lunch.  We had a great conversation.  I overheard from 2 tables nearby, conversations about the Lord.  Walking through the lobby on the way to my car, I heard someone talking about the Lord.  I then drove to Target to pick up a few items and while I waited for my coffee at Starbucks, I heard to guys talking about Paul’s letter to the Romans!  It was such a reminder to me that we live in a spiritual world.  People are talking about spiritual things.  It is on people’s minds.  I pray that the Lord would give me opportunities to share the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus in these contexts.  I pray that He would give you those opportunities as well.

I was reading one of my favorite passages today in the Gospel of John.  In comes from chapter 18, verses 4-9.  It is where Jesus is arrested.  Verse 4 says, “Jesus, knowing everything that was about to happen to Him, went out and said to them, ‘who is it you are looking for?'”  I love that it says He knew everything that was going to happen.  The next 12 hours were going to be horrific, and He knew it.  Yet He still stepped forward and initiated the conversation with the soldiers.  This is not how we would respond.  After some humorous reactions from the soldiers (they bowed before the One they were there to arrest), Jesus says in verse 8, “I told you that I am He.  So if you’re looking for me, let these men go!”  The Romans soldiers could have easily, and probably would have, arrested the followers of Jesus.  But the didn’t, because Jesus told them not to!

Don’t you just love that!  Jesus went forward and allowed Himself to be arrested so that the disciples could be let go.  The word used there is the same word that is translated “forgive” in other places.  It is a picture of His substitutionary death on our behalf.  It is the atonement in action.  Jesus is the one who will be arrested, tried, crucified, and die.  We are the ones who are let go, released, not punished, and forgiven.  He gets death so that we can get life.  Wow.  This passage brings me to tears.  He suffered so I could be set free.

I was reading 1 Timothy 1 this morning.  In verses 15-17 Paul talks about being a rotten sinner before coming to Christ.  He says in verse 16 that he received mercy so that in him, Christ would demonstrate His patience with us.  He says this may be an example to unbelievers.  We often talk about being a witness for Christ, that others see Jesus in us.  This is an interesting angle on the whole matter.

This passage is teaching us that God gives us mercy and displays His patience so that lost people would see His patience and be drawn to Christ.  Many unbelievers think Christians are hypocrites (many are).  But do they see God’s patience within the “imperfections” of believers?  We should live our lives in such a way that we are growing closer to Christ.  There must be a distinct difference in how we live now compared to how we lived before coming to Christ.  So that the world (specifically the unbelievers who know us) can see the difference Christ makes in our lives.  It does no good to complain about the criticisms leveled by unbelievers.  If they knew believers personally who are living to grow closer to Jesus, then perhaps they would think differently about Christ.

So often we think that God is patient with us for out benefit.  We feel good about ourselves when we reflect on His mercy and decide it is given to make our lives easier.  This passage is telling us that God grants patience and mercy for the sake of unbelievers, that they would see Jesus.  When this happens, Jesus is glorified.  Too many times our Christian life is introspective.  Here, Paul reminds us that God is working in our lives to change us so that unbelievers are brought to faith in Christ.  Our role is to walk in obedience to Him so that He can display His mercy and His grace and His patience in and through our lives.

I received word last night that a 23 year-old young man was found dead.  This news causes me sadness.  I am also rejoicing because of who this man was.  His name was James.  James was one of our translators when we went to Ethiopia in November.  He was found dead a few days ago.  He may have been murdered, we’re not sure.  James was a shining example of a life devoted to the gospel’s sake and the glory of God.

James was from the Burji tribe.  He spent several years in Kenya while in school.  His English was very good.  He also spoke Amharic (the Ethiopian National language), Burginia (the Buji’s tribal tongue), Orominia (the language of the Oromo people), and Swahili.  James wanted to be used of the Lord in any way he could.  Our team was to be ministering among the Burji people.  Some from our team were going to the neighboring tribe, the Guji’s.  The Burji’s and the Guji’s have been warring and fighting for decades.   Fighting even started while we were there in the fall.  Several Burji were murdered by Guji men.  Dave and BeckyLynn Black have been working as missionaries in Ethiopia for about 5 years now.  They had never done any work with the Guji people.  We weren’t sure if we would be able to send some from the team to the Guji people because of the fighting when we arrived.  One of the biggest hurdles was finding a translator.  This would have to be someone who 1) spoke English and Orominian, 2) was willing to put his life on the line being a Burji going amongst the Guji peoples, and 3) did not look like a Burji.  James fit these qualification.

I remember talking with James the night before they were to head out to the Guji’s.  He was burdened about how he had lived his life.  He was a good young man, but his question was, “has my life meant anything for the Gospel and for Jesus?”  I encouraged him simply to be obedient.  I told him the Lord would use him as He desires.  The next morning, they headed out for the Gujiland.  They were well received.  They met church and village leaders, distributed seeds, showed the Jesus film, and preached.  We know of one person who received Christ during their time there.  God used those few days to open the door for more of His work.

God is directing His work in Ethiopia to begin Bible distribution among the Gujis, they have no Bibles!  God is also bringing together believers from the Burji people and the Guji people to have a Peace Conference in May.  They want to show their tribes that Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, can bring peace to their peoples.  There is no telling what God will do as this door is opened to work among the Gujis.  God could have done this any way He desired, but He used the life of this 23 year-old man named James to bring His Word to the Guji people.  It was a dangerous mission.  If the Guji’s had found out that James was Burji, they would have killed him.  Things got so tense that they had to cut short their time with the Gujis as war had broken out again between these tribes once again.

God has opened the door for ministry and for the gospel among the Guji people!  I must say, “James, your life  meant much for the gospel.  I look forward to seeing you again.  I am sad that you are not here, but I rejoice because you are with Jesus!”

I was reading this morning in Acts 6 where the 7 Deacons were chosen.  After the passage about the need and the role these men would play, verse 7 says, “so the preaching about God flourished, the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.”  That is growth.  As the people of God served the Lord b His appointment, His Kingdom grew.  It works the same way today.  As each child of God serves Him faithfully, His Kingdom expands.

Every believer can be a part of God doing His work, as we each do our part.  God does not have to use us, but He has chosen to.  It is His desire that we are a part of His Kingdom’s expansion.  Each of us was created and gifted to serve our King.  Only you can do what God calls you to do.  No one else is made and equipped in the same way you are.  What a unique opportunity each of us has to serve Jesus.  We can be a part of His Kingdom’s expansion, as we are faithful to Him.