Category Archives: The Church

Recently I came across an article published on whether Christians should vote their conscience. The piece, http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/you-cannot-vote-your-conscience suggested that Christians should not vote their conscience because it isn’t really a guide but a reporter of what God has put there.  The writers’s main point was that we should vote how God would have us vote, and not our conscience.

I think I disagree. The Bible doesn’t give a specific definition of the conscience and in fact is rarely mentioned in the Bible. Most dictionary definitions are probably the most accurate reflection of the conscience with Merriam-Webster giving this as the definition of the conscience:

“the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being either morally right or wrong”

I think most people would generally agree with this definition. The conscience is our mind’s way to help us match our behavior to what we have been taught and know to be right and true. The writer of the aforementioned piece is right that God does put some things into our inmost being, in a sense hard-wiring us to recognize certain things as being true. But we also have many other things we have been taught that activates our conscience that may or not be true. Years ago I counseled a young woman who struggled sitting in church when other ladies in the church wore red. She had been taught that wearing red was a sign of an immoral woman and it seemed wrong to her. Last I checked, there were no prohibitions in the new covenant about wearing any particular color.

Sometimes even things that are biblical can violate our conscience even if it no longer should so. In Peter is told to “kill and eat” animals that under the old covenant would have been considered unclean. His conscience informed him it was wrong even though Jesus had already made it clean under God’s new covenant.

Our conscience is activated by what we have learned, this means not only should a Christian vote by their conscience, they must, it’s the only way to faithfully execute the role God has provided for them. The rub is not whether we should use our conscience or not, but how to best use the conscience we have been given considering the dissonance created by the choices we have in which to vote. We must weigh the various choices we have and decide which best conforms to that which God has taught us. That is really all we can do. The problem comes when instead of deciding what is best from God’s perspective based on what we know is if we decide what is best from my perspective. We will never know exactly what God would want us to do partly because none of us truly has the mind of God. But if we decide not based on what we understand how God would have us vote, but on what we selfishly want then we have violated what God has taught us. As Paul writes regarding another issue dealing with the conscience, that is a problem. “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

Since our conscience is activated by what we know, we must respond to it. However it is very probable that we know about God and how he would have us act is insufficient. The issue isn’t our conscience but what our conscience is given to use. May we endeavor to be given a greater knowledge of God so that we can vote in a way that better reflects Him.

Hamlet Act III Scene 1-

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer the Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,

Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, and by opposing end them:

To die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep, to say we end the Heart-ache,

And the thousand Natural shocks that Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

must give us pause. There’s the respect that makes Calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time, the Oppressor’s wrong,

The proud man’s Contumely, the pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,

The insolence of Office, and the Spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his Quietus make with a bare Bodkin?

Who would Fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn No Traveller returns, Puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.

Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all, And thus the Native hue of Resolution

Is sicklied o’er, with the pale cast of Thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment,

With this regard their Currents turn awry, And lose the name of Action.”

Hamlet utters the words most people who have never read Shakespeare have likely heard,

“To be or not to be, that is the question- “

In this soliloquy he is contemplating whether it’s worth it all to keep hanging in there or if it’s better to just end it all with the quick thrust of a knife. That idea isn’t foreign to the scriptures as Job’s wife essentially told him the same thing in the depths of his despair over the turn of his life.

Life can be exceedingly difficult and frustrating and sometimes it is tempting to want to cash it all in. In the movie, “The Princess Bride”, the hero Wesley tells Princess Buttercup, “Life IS pain Highness. Anyone who says different is selling something.” The first of the four noble truths of Buddhism is that Life is hard (existence is suffering). It seems as this is a universally recognized fact, so why not just end it all? Hamlet answers his own question by saying it is the existence of “the undiscovered country” that makes cowards of us all. The undiscovered country is death and what lies beyond “from whose bourn no traveller returns”.  While life is hard, death is even more frightening and so many people live between the proverbial frying pan or the fire. This is what leads to all kinds of attempts at muting or dulling the pain of life. Because we are afraid to die, we just try to make life more bearable with sex or drugs and alcohol or perhaps something even worse. At that point life is no longer lived, it’s just tolerated. That is the difficulty for almost everyone, as with Hamlet it seems as if life gives us two choices, suffer for no reason or in some way put an end to it all.

Christians know something however Hamlet doesn’t seem to know, the “Undiscovered Country” of death is no longer undiscovered. The basis of Christianity is that someone has returned from that country….his name is Jesus. He has provided an escape, if not from life then from the fear of death, or at least the fear that so often makes life miserable. He has said that he has come to give us “life, and that more abundantly.” Jesus not only has been to that country and returned, the Bible says he has conquered that country and has prepared a better country….or dwelling place.

The writer of Hebrews in chapter eleven tells us that by faith the ancient seekers of God sought not an undiscovered country but a better one. They believed that there was a better place whose “builder and maker was God.”

Even in searching for that “better country” however we still have to deal with the difficulties of life of which Hamlet speaks. Believing that God has something better does not make us immune to the thorns and thistles and pain that come with the curse with which we live in a fallen world. Now some may not have to deal with the ravages of overt, rebellious sin but we still have cancer, difficult relationships, and all sorts of other things that make life so frustrating. But that takes FAITH, trust that God rewards those who diligently seek Him and his promise of something better….Hebrews eleven is about this quality of faith that led the great characters in the Bible to hang in there and follow God. They were motivated to find a better country that they knew was out there because they believed in God. The writer wants us to trust that God is doing something and has done something to lead us to that better country which is not oblivion, and not the best we can make until we die, but something much better, a country built by God, and not by us. This trust is the basis of faith, not just that God exists but that we can trust him with our lives. Faith is essential to being able to hang in there without just giving up, to seek after another choice.

But what is faith? Why is faith important? Its purpose?

Ultimately what or who is the object of that faith?

There is a substance of faith- Of what faith consists

There is a purpose to faith- Why it exists

There is the object of faith- Who and what in which we have faith.

The substance of faith- What exactly is faith?

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”  

–3 (ESV)

The writer of Hebrews, whom the Bible does not identify, tells us that the substance of faith is an assurance that there is something better that exists that we presently cannot see. It is the ability to understand the reality of something that hasn’t yet been fully realized or even verified. There is evidence that points to something beyond than what has been verified to know it exists and to take action on that.

The Christian author C.S. Lewis said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy then the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” The fact that there seems to be an expectation that our world should be better is an indication that perhaps there is a better world out there. This longing is evidence that produces in us a conviction that there is a better country out there that can be found “whose builder and maker is God.” But this evidence isn’t blind, it is based on things that can be verified. The Apostle Paul tells us in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans:

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” (ESV)

Some people would object that this kind of evidence isn’t logical but actually modern physics uses this kind of detection to find “invisible attributes” all the time to find various kinds of subatomic particles. The Large Hadron Collider ascertains the qualities of particles to small to be seen by “shooting” other particles at them and observing the results of these interactions.

The assurance of faith is that while we may not know everything about the particle, we do know enough to recognize it is there and we can learn about its properties by studying it. This is what Paul is saying about God. By observing creation around us we trust that there is more than meets the eye at the present moment and what is unknown can be discovered if it is pursued. God’s creation goes beyond just pointing to the existence of another country, it also points to it as a “better country”.

The purpose of faith- Why do we need it?

“By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”  

–6 (ESV)

The writer of Hebrews gives us an example of why faith is important in Abel, Cain and Enoch. Abel was commended as righteous because he gave “a more acceptable sacrifice”. The point that is made here was that he gave a better sacrifice because he trusted that God could provide more for him than he could create for himself. Enoch was blessed because he sought God as his reward rather than what God could give him.

As a pastor a question I’ve been asked many times and have wondered about myself is this: Why does God want us to have faith in the first place? Why doesn’t he just reveal himself so there are no questions? Certainly people would then acknowledge him wouldn’t they?

That would seem to be an excellent solution except the example of Abel and Cain’s parents demonstrates that really doesn’t solve anything. In the book of Genesis the Bible says that Adam and Eve not only saw God, but walked with him in the cool of the day.  When the tempter Satan came in the form of a serpent his challenge to Eve wasn’t that God didn’t exist but that God was holding out on her. Satan was telling Eve that the command to not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil was given not to protect Eve, but to protect God from Eve being like Him. The issue wasn’t uncertainty of God’s existence, but of his goodness. The main purpose of faith is not to trust that God exists, but that the country he has for us is a “better country” than that we can make for ourselves.

In the New Testament the original word that we translate faith has at its heart the idea of belief that incorporates trust. In other words, faith is more than just believing that God exists, it is also a trust in God’s character and his purposes for me and everyone else. This is one of the main purposes of faith. We need to trust that God does love me and has my best interests at heart so that I will follow his directions and learn to love who and what he is. Instead of giving us Eden, we are given a desire for it so we will recognize what it is that God truly wants for us. Both Abel and Enoch realized that God was the key to life and so they wanted to please him.

J.R.R Tolkien wrote a short story about a man named Niggle who was a painter that had been given vision of a grand tree and the whole expanse beyond it. Try as he might Niggle was never able to see in his mind the whole picture, he just had glimpses of it but it captured him so much that he started to sketch it. It became so important to him that he built a shed simply to hang a giant canvas so that he might paint the entire scene. He sketched an outline of the tree and its surroundings but paid particular attention to the leaves. Unfortunately Niggle was interrupted by life and the needs of others so he never made much progress on his tree. Eventually Niggle died and was taken to his special dwelling place in heaven where he saw the entire scene of the tree and its expanse that he had been glimpses of in life. It was more magnificent than he possibly ever imagined.

This is a bit what God does for us in the hope we have for the “better country”. He gives us little glimpses of pieces of heaven. But those glimpses aren’t just for us. If we trust God with the glimpse he has given us others benefit as well. At the end of the story Niggle’s canvas is found and used as an emergency patch for a house after a storm. It was terribly damaged and was mostly useless except for a small corner that was left which had only one leaf remaining of the original work. But that one leaf was one that Niggle had spent a lot of time on and others were so entranced by its beauty that it was given a home in the local museum and many others were given a picture of the expanse that Niggle was painting. It made them long for the same beautiful area for themselves. By holding to the better country ourselves others start to see and long for it as well, instead of living in fear of the undiscovered one. As we learn to trust God it can produce a longing in others to seek out this country for themselves. That leads to the question, “why trust God?”

The Object of our Faith- In who or what do we have faith?

“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

–10 (ESV)

As we have seen, faith is simply a belief and trust in something or someone else.  Since belief is about trust, there needs to be an object worthy of that trust, and when it comes to life the only object that is worthy is God. This trust is the only thing that makes our current situation bearable, we trust what happens will ultimately lead us to something better. As Hamlet rightly points out, we are very dependent on things that are beyond our control, and that can be incredibly daunting, but there is one who can help us to navigate those things. We are given two examples of faithful people who were faced with some very difficult decisions, and yet, because they trusted in God to give direction were greatly blessed. However, they were only blessed because the one giving the direction could be trusted to lead in the right way. Noah was instructed to build a boat in circumstances that went against all logic. Abraham was told to go to a place he had never been to gain an inheritance he had never seen. But because the one giving the directions was trustworthy their lives were extended and expanded.

There has been a tremendous amount of confusion about the nature of faith. Many people believe the key is the amount of faith I have, but that will not do. I can have a tremendous amount of faith in something, but if whatever I have faith in isn’t sufficient to the task no amount of faith will be enough.  Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City has said, “Strong faith in a weak object is fatally inferior to weak faith to a strong object”. What he means is that the key isn’t the amount of my faith as much as the object in which I have faith. This is an important point, faith, or trust, is only as good as that in which I have faith. Faith of its own really has no power, it simply puts us in a place to receive from that which does. In the last Star Trek movie with the original cast, interestingly subtitled, “The Undiscovered Country”, Spock tells his protege Lieutenant Valeris, “You must have faith that the universe will unfold as it should.” According to Spock then, the universe has a destiny that is intended for it. But if it has a destiny then it follows that it needs to have a designer that sets the intended destiny. That is a powerful amount of trust in something or someone that isn’t mentioned since it is the intention of the designer that is key to the trust. I can want the universe to unfold “as it should” all I want, but the “should” is only as good as the one who decides what should happen as it unfolds.

Years ago, when my wife Dorinda and I were first married we were in need of a new car but had very little income. We went to a local car dealership that sold a car that had newly come to America and was very inexpensive. The salesman who showed us the car was very enthusiastic about it and demonstrated not only its features but also what he termed as its “fine craftsmanship”. Its price seemed affordable to our budget and the salesman’s in the car faith sold us on its value….unfortunately it was a Yugo. This brand has become famous as a lemon since then and our car was no exception. Almost immediately we had problems with it and eventually had to get rid of it. No amount of enthusiasm and “faith” would make it a good car because the maker of the car wasn’t committed to making it good or had the skill to do so.

This is why faith isn’t nearly as important as the God in whom we have faith. It’s seems as though this what Jesus meant when he said we could move mountains if only had faith the size of a mustard seed. Our faith isn’t the power, it’s God who supplies that power, our faith only puts us in a place where we can access His power. But it doesn’t take a lot of faith to put us in the place to access that power. Both Noah and Abraham obeyed God’s directions because they trusted him as one who was worthy of their trust. Instead of being satisfied with the world that they had made, they wanted a better designer and builder.

Another option, trusting in God and his “better country” (Nice)

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.  

–16 (ESV)

All of us have experienced the frustrations of life. It can be so good and yet at the same time so painful, why can’t it be better?  Our society seems to be coming to the conclusion that the best option when life becomes too difficult is that we should just check out. The increasing prevalence of Euthanasia in Europe and Assisted Suicide in the States seem to confirm this hypothesis. Hamlet sees only two choices, the rest of the world seems to only see these choices, but this is a false choice

There is a better option, having faith or trusting that God does have a better solution for us,  a “better country” asi it says. As we saw above, Adam and Eve had that better country but they rejected it for a place of their own making…and that hasn’t worked especially well. God through Jesus has provided us the opportunity to return to his country, a heavenly one. Some would say, as a friend has suggested, that’s the problem with Christians, you let the world fall apart looking to the next one. I would suggest this “heavenly one” isn’t just heaven, but a country born out of heaven. We take our goals and values from the heavenly kingdom because our new country is born from there. This provides us hope, not only from a better ultimate destination, but a better current country as well. By living in faith and trusting God we no longer live only for ourselves but also in love for others, which leads to fewer of the things in which Hamlet laments. In God’s new kingdom we no longer have to fear the “whips and scorns of time” because we know we are destined for something better. But also have fewer “oppressor’s wrongs” and “proud man’s contumely” as we live according to God’s character as expressed through his son, Jesus Christ. When we live for God’s ultimate country we find a better country here as well.

Now the question has been raised, if the new country is better, why not just ditch this current country? Why bother with a country that has so many problems? That’s where faith comes in as well. God has given us a life here, we must have faith or trust in his purposes, even if it is difficult. It may very well be that part of that purpose is so that we might be “Niggles” and help others to recognize this new country.

We have seen the elements of faith, its substance, its purpose, and its object leads us to the decision for which country we are looking. Hamlet was afraid of “The Undiscovered Country” so he had painted himself into a corner of misery and frustration without hope for anything better in the future. God has a better country for us if we will trust in him, like the people of faith of old, our job is simply to seek him.

Understanding good Biblical Interpretation

A question I’ve been asked recently and have found to be of concern almost as long as I’ve been a Christian is this: “What’s the proper way to interpret the Bible?”

Technically, Bible scholars call Biblical interpretation “Hermeneutics”, but this is in many ways a very controversial question as historically the church has interpreted it in many ways. I have found the best way to interpret it consistently is an approach called Authorial Intent. Essentially Authorial Intent is reading the text of scripture in the way the human author and God intended it to be read and look for the plain meaning that was intended. This is the model in which I have attempted to read scripture for many years and which is gaining in popularity in Pastoral circles.

To understand Authorial Intent however we need to be aware of a few things that  may complicate the plain meaning of the text.

First, as I mentioned above, the interpretive model of Authorial Intent is based on the idea that there is in a sense two authors; God and the human author. God is the ultimate author as he inspires the human author to communicate a message to His people. The human author uses his own words and cultural norms to communicate that message to God’s people, sometimes first verbally and then in written form. The human author writes the ideas that God has inspired him to write, but often from his own perspective. We see this in almost every book of the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. For example David in the Psalms writes down his prayers and songs, even poetic forms of his personal frustrations. We understand this to be inspired but they are David’s thoughts, not necessarily God’s. In many of Paul’s epistles Paul writes greetings to the people of the churches he is writing. This is inspired but Paul isn’t dictating God’s thoughts in these letters.

It seems to be also true that God can inspire the human author to write about things he really doesn’t understand fully, and sometimes at all. In many places in the Old Testament we see allusions to The Messiah and events that can point to the Messiah in ways that the human author doesn’t seem to be aware. These kinds of allusions happen throughout the Old Testament but maybe especially in the books of the Prophets such as Isaiah. Isaiah in of his book speaks of a child that will be born that seems to happen in his lifetime, but later talks of events that can only refer to the Messiah; Jesus. Sometimes as in Jeremiah, the Lord uses two different authors for the same thing. He inspires Jeremiah the Prophet to speak his message but uses Baruch as the secretary to physically write down the words. The essential message is given to Jeremiah, but God must also inspire Baruch as he does the actual writing.

Sometimes finding the intent can be a challenge as the context and circumstances of the human author is usually much different from our own. We can read the text for the plain meaning as we would read our English translation and actually totally miss the point of both the human author and God. That is because there are many places the human writer uses euphemisms that would have been understood by the local audience (the audience contemporary to the writer) but which in the passing of time has fallen out of use. There is also the change of culture and words that can radically affect how we understand what was intended. To address this problem scholars often use a process call the Grammatical-Historical method to understand what  was the author’s original intent. This entails research into the language, culture, and historical situation of when the passage was written so that what the author was speaking about can be more easily understood. For example, if you’ve ever read or heard a Pastor explain what the original Biblical word in the Greek meant he was using the Grammatical method. If you’ve ever heard someone explain who the Pharisees were in more detail than the Bible gives they were using the Historical method.

Sometimes people become concerned when the level of detail necessary, in order to gain a more complete understanding, is revealed. The question often becomes then for the average Christian how much can they really know about the scriptures if they don’t have the resources needed to gain the proper understanding. Of course anyone needs at least some education in order to read the Bible for themselves. Without the ability to read at all the amount understood will be severely limited. However, much of the Bible is written in such a way that the basic meaning of the text is available without deep research. A person doesn’t need to be highly trained or a scholar to get these basic meanings, but that is why the Lord has designated some to be Pastors and teachers. While even a novice can understand the basics, we need to have the humility to be aware of our limitations in understanding the scriptures and be willing to be taught by those whom God has gifted with the knowledge and ability to to gain deeper insights.

There is much more that could be said about this but hopefully this will help us understand the best basic approach to reading, understanding and interpreting the scriptures. Next time we will address proper approaches to application. Knowing the scriptures is incomplete if that knowledge isn’t properly applied.

“I have some questions about the Bible and I was wondering if you would meet with me for breakfast and give me your thoughts about it?” The man who asked that question was Eli Keeran and it seemed utterly ridiculous to me he would ask such a thing. Eli was a board member of the church I had grown up in and had recently started re-attending. He had been a missionary in South America for a time many years ago and had led Bible clubs at the local High School. For him to want me to help him with HIS questions about the Bible didn’t compute, and yet I wanted to know more about the Bible, and he WAS offering to pay for breakfast; yes seemed the obvious answer. Little did I realize that would be the beginning of a relationship that would become more important to me than any other relationship I had outside of my wife and family. Eli influenced my understanding of what it meant to be a Christian in such a dramatic way that he will forever be part of the fabric of my life.

Eli Keeran was much older than me, in fact nearly 40 years older. He and his wife Billie had been missionaries for a short time in Brazil early in their marriage until they decided to settle down and have a family in our little town. He settled into the position of Math teacher at Cottage Grove High School for many years, and in fact was a teacher when I attended the High School ten years earlier, but had recently retired. He had led the school Bible club in a generation when that was permitted, had been on the board of our church for many years and attended several non-denominational Bible studies around town. Eli was representative of a rare breed of Christian man whose life was based on living out his faith in every way he knew how. He would visit elderly shut-ins and do menial chores for them on weekends. There was one elderly woman who lived in a house behind our church that he would regularly help. He would do anything she needed done but she never once thanked him for his help but that didn’t matter, Eli still visited her at least once a week for many years. He would be the guy behind the scenes providing groceries for poor families, leaving the bag on their front porch early in the morning before anyone had risen for the day so they would not know who had been the angel of mercy. This was the man from whom I would learn over the next 15 years.

It seemed to be an awkward fit for him to take on the task of discipling me, and yet it was HIS idea.  We started to meet together for breakfast every week at a local diner and at first just talked about his “questions”. As I said I really didn’t understand at first why he would want to know what I thought about the Bible, he obviously knew a lot more about it than I did. Eventually I came to realize that it was his way of discipling me. But instead of me knowing he was teaching me, Eli made it seem like I was the expert! He didn’t need his ego to be padded with my deference, he simply wanted me to grow in my faith. One day he asked me to “help” him with his scripture memory, giving me some cards with the verse he was memorizing that I was to read while he recited the scripture to me. Eventually I realized he didn’t me to help him, he had memorized the scripture years before, it was just his way of getting me interested in memorizing scripture. Over the weeks we started talking about the basics of the Christian faith and the charade of his needing my opinion on the scriptures fell away, but he never assumed a superior attitude.. He always treated me as an equal, something I have always appreciated.

As the years passed our relationship became very close, becoming much more than simply a discipleship meeting. He was a friend, a confidant (although there were some topics we never ventured), eventually becoming like another father to me. He paid for breakfast every time, even when I tried to pay I would later find my money in my car, or in my mailbox or some such place until I gave up. He would always have the same thing; oatmeal and toast with a cup of plain hot water (he didn’t want to become “addicted” to anything, even caffeine) to drink. He was one of the most disciplined men I’ve ever met, but he would never trumpet that discipline, he just was.

Eli’s quiet mentorship slowly transformed my understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus. When we would meet he would ask questions, rarely making declarative statements. Without question he was leading me in a certain direction but it was such that I would find the answers myself and so take direct ownership. But he also helped in many other ways. As I grew in my faith I was given opportunities to lead a Bible study. Eli volunteered to attend the study as a way to support my attempt at leadership. He never questioned my leadership but simply encouraged me every step of the way. When we would meet for our weekly breakfast he would ask me what I thought about how things were going and would respond to my questions but was never critical.

Eli later became close to my family, becoming another grandfather to our children, especially after my father died from cancer. He built a chicken coop for my wife, helped my son Andrew with his Math homework, and taught my other children building skills when he would work on projects for us. Often he would show up at the house after hearing my wife voice a desire or a frustration over a particular issue with our house ready to help in any way he could. His desire to serve in any way possible became an example for me that I’ve attempted to emulate all of my life. For me he was the example of what Jesus’s command to love one another meant.

We moved to The Dalles, Oregon in the fall of 1997 so our weekly meetings stopped but Eli and I stayed in close contact until his death in 2003. I still think of him often, many times regretting that I no longer have his wisdom to continue to guide me when things get difficult. But I thank the Lord often that I had the privilege to know and be mentored by such a wonderful servant of the Lord.

Recently while watching an episode of “Call the midwife” I became aware of something a particular segment of the show had produced in me; the recognition of a beautiful moment. In the episode a baby had been born extremely malformed and would certainly die soon after birth. Some of the hospital staff placed the baby uncovered by an open window as a way to hasten the baby’s death through exposure rather than actually euthanizing the baby intentionally. A Nun who had participated in the delivery of the baby but had not been charged with it’s after-care discovered the baby by the open window, shivering and gently crying, and alone. Quickly assessing the situation the Nun wrapped the baby in a blanket and started to quietly quote scripture describing God’s care for the infant.

Watching the event unfold in the story produced in me several different emotions; anger at the staff for perceived callousness, sadness at the pain the infant must be feeling without having any understanding, but more than anything else something I recognized as beauty flooded my soul. The Nun’s love and concern for the baby could only be described as beautiful in that moment.

When we think of something as beautiful we might normally describe it as something that is aesthetically pleasing. A physical object like a flower, or scenery, or even a person that has the right combination of physical attributes that seems right to us, but more than right, in fact just right. This is true of other physical productions such as music, which isn’t really visible but still produces the right combination of sound senses that strike us in just the right way.

This is also true of other things as well. Scientists often use elegance or beauty as kind of signposts to lead to new discoveries or formulas. Beauty or elegance seems to be just the right combination of things to lead them to recognize how things are best described or work together. Brian Greene in his book, “The Elegant Universe”, talks about how this quality helps scientists to recognize new solutions to problems.

Beauty or Elegance seems to be something that is inherent in the created order. I believe it may be something that God has built into our creation so that we may better appreciate and understand it. But as the episode of “Call to midwife” illustrates, beauty goes beyond just the material, physical world. There is something about kindness and care, in other words Love, that can only adequately be described as beautiful. We identify that in God when we sing, Oh Lord you’re beautiful”. Since God can’t be seen as he truly is, there is no physical attributes to which we can ascribe “beauty”, yet we describe him as beautiful. These attributes aren’t physical, at least in the way we understand them. Instead they are perfect blend of moral and personality characteristics that are just right, in other words, beautiful. When these characteristics are displayed in people their beautiful qualities resonate with us spiritually just as surely as physical beauty does.

This is why the Gospel can be described as beautiful. The perfect alignment of love, care, sacrifice, grace and other right moral qualities produce a resonance with our spirit that can be identified. This identification leads us to understand that it is the “right” formula just as scientist can recognize the rightness in a beautiful equation.

Beauty isn’t the only way to identify the rightness of the Gospel but it is a good marker. It’s also a marker that God has placed in everyone so that we use it to help others to identify the rightness of the Gospel. I’ve come to see beauty as one of the fingers of God in his creation and very much to embrace it. If you are looking for God’s activity in this world, that’s a good place to start.

If you’re around my generation you probably remember that Neil Sedaka popularized a song years ago called “Breaking up is hard to do”.  Well as true as that statement might be, and personally I wouldn’t know since I married the only girlfriend I ever had, its not nearly as hard as growing up. Last Sunday I preached a sermon on growing spiritually and as often happens there was a lot that I wasn’t able to say, but with the restart of the blog I can here.

Paul writes to the Jewish Christians in the book of Hebrews that there is much that he would like to say to them that he can’t because they are “dull of hearing” ( ESV). What does he mean by that? They can’t receive what he would like to say because they’ve never gotten past a juvenile approach to their faith. They don’t have a good grasp even of the basics, let alone to be able to follow a more developed understanding of the scripture. They’ve never understood deeper concepts of discipleship because they never bothered to grow in a better understanding of scripture.

I have found this to be a major problem in our day as well. Most Christians gain a basic understanding of scripture that is usually limited to the teaching of a few well known radio or TV Bible teachers, and even that rarely progresses beyond a very simple understanding. Most people stay in areas that entertain or highly interest them, such as Prophecy or Spiritual gifts. What’s ironic is that in the passage stated above the greek word translated “dull” can mean “not shiny” or new. It may be that part of the idea that Paul is addressing is a lack of interest in things that aren’t spectacular or especially titillating to them. Part of growing up in any area is recognizing the need to develop in areas that not only aren’t entertaining, but to push on into areas that are hard or very uncomfortable. In training in any area there is the need to do repetitive actions in areas that aren’t fun. When I was learning golf from a professional years ago I was very excited to learn how to hit the golf ball a long ways and straight. I was very eager to get started with that particular lesson. But he often wouldn’t even let me hit a ball with all my strength, instead focusing my attention on the mechanics of my swing, repeating actions over and over, often taking our entire instruction time with that lesson. He would also tell me to practice that on my own time so it would train my body to react in the right way without thinking about it, developing muscle memory so my swing would be unconscious. Most Christians think of their development as Christians only in ways that are like the “big swing”. They want to see instant changes and results instead of doing the hard work that actually develops change.

Most people only develop enough faith to deepen their comfort level. They serve just enough to make them feel better about themselves and even in their “service” they really just volunteer to assist in an area. This limits their responsibility so that they present evidence of doing something without actually serving. True service means to put yourself at the disposal of someone else, so they direct your efforts, and not you. Most people attach strings to service, either physically (limiting what I will do) or emotionally (expecting some sort of reward or thank you in return). This means that it isn’t really serving, its really just an exchange of action for payment which isn’t really mature at all. 

But there is another area of spiritual development that is perhaps even more concerning to me; the lack of emotional maturity in many Christians. There are many people who take offense at some of the most superficial slights, hold grudges over the most trivial kinds of things, and generally act like children when confronted with difficult events. Instead of considering things from other people’s vantage points everything revolves around their feelings and their life. I am convinced that proper spiritual maturity will also produce proper emotional maturity in people. If I grow in my faith in Jesus I also grow in my understanding of other people which helps my own emotional maturity. Maturity is obtaining the right perspective on how to react and relate to things around me. Having a mature spiritual understanding will help me understand how to react emotionally to events and circumstances in my life.

So what is a proper course of action to develop my spiritual growth?

1. Commit to a deeper understanding of scripture and how it should impact my life. There are many great programs and courses that will help increase my understanding in many areas of scripture. But may I suggest talking to your Pastor. Everyone is in a different place of understanding and level of comprehension. Pastors have dedicated their lives in helping the people of their church become better disciples but also usually know the people of their congregation better than anyone else. The reality is these are the kinds of things most Pastors dream of being able to do for their people, it’s just few people are willing to ask. Pastors are busy, but no Pastor is too busy to help their folks. Don’t expect your Pastor to meet with you personally every week, most are responsible for too many people to do so, but they can put together materials or suggest books and other media that will help you gain a better understanding.

2. Ask your spouse or close friend to give a frank assessment of your spiritual and emotional maturity and suggest areas of growth. Be advised, this will be very painful and many people will be hesitant to be as frank as they should, most probably would like to stay your friend. But the scriptures declare that “faithful are the wounds of a friend.” You must be prepared to hear not only painful things but to receive them not defensively but as welcome. This truly is one of the biggest tests there are for our maturity, both spiritual and emotional. As we wrote above, one of the indicators of maturity is the desire to do hard things because of the recognition of their value.

3. Pray that God will reveal areas of growth that are needed. God knows our heart better than even ourselves. If we are sincere in our prayer (and even if we aren’t) God will reveal things to us that are the most important since he is our Father and wants the best for us.

4. Seek a spiritual mentor. Find someone you admire spiritually and let them pour into your life. Some people balk at this, thinking that we should only admire Jesus since all other men are sinful. While that is true, finding someone who has learned to apply scriptural teaching well in our current culture is also very helpful. Finding someone who can help you to make proper application in your life is one of the best ways to grow.

5. Lastly, practice dying. The best way to grow spiritually is to die to myself on a daily basis, there is no substitute for this most basic of Christian disciplines.

No, I’m not becoming a TV cowboy, but I am going to try to blog again…

It’s been almost three years since I produced a new entry for this blog. I nearly died last year from the advance of my cancer and its influence on my body but the Lord lead me to a new clinical trial for my particular type of cancer that has been absolutely miraculous. I am feeling terrific and so I have the opportunity to revisit some old places.

Blogging has always been a bit of a mixed bag for me. There are times I would like to say something but I often convince myself that another opinion isn’t necessarily that important on the web. But I’m a Pastor, and part of my job is help others think about Christian approaches and responses to the events and circumstances in the world around us. Especially now as our culture is changing so fast that it is often difficult to know how to make sense of the changes. I will endeavor to analyze many different things involving culture, science, media, and almost anything else that interests me from how I understand the Christian perspective. Hopefully this will allow me to tackle things that I might not feel is appropriate to address from my weekly opportunity to speak on Sunday mornings at our church. Since we are committed to Biblical exposition for Sunday morning sermons it isn’t always easy or appropriate to address the daily, almost hourly situations that all of us are required to navigate in our world. This will be my attempt to act as a navigator using our Lord and the Bible as guide.

I have to admit, I am really starting to love Duck Dynasty.

I first saw an episode at my Mother-in-Law’s house and only grudgingly watched because she wanted me to see it. At first it seemed to confirm a lot of personal biases I have against the Southern culture…Red Necks hunting, being dumb and tacking on just enough faith to make them feel good. However, shortly after that I saw a blog post on The Gospel Coalition website about Duck Dynasty that revealed something much different than my short exposure. The faith of the family is real….and deep….and actually pretty sophisticated. While I still don’t identify with some of the Louisiana Bayou culture embedded in the show, I am developing a real appreciation for them. I recently watched a series of short videos that interview or spotlight most of the primary members of the family that star in the series. I was not only pleasantly surprised, I was amazed at their depth of character and universal commitment to Jesus Christ.

But what surprises me the most is that it actually seems to further prove that there is no basic formula for God using people. He has taken a genre of TV I generally hate (Reality TV) and is using it for tremendous good. He has taken a culture I very little appreciation for,  and it is drawing me into it.

We often think that in order for God to use us we have to be different than we are. I imagine that there will be a whole bunch of new TV shows imitating aspects of Duck Dynasty because they have found the right “formula”. There will be many Christians that will try to emulate the family life of the Robertsons in order to duplicate their life. But I think that is missing the point. In an interview with Jase Robertson, one of the sons on the show, he pointed out that their family strength was developed not on the TV show, but in years of simply following Jesus.

Most of us want to be used by God in some profound way, but we rarely can choose that. What we can do is simply follow Jesus and let him use us as he wills. That isn’t as popular a method because it rarely gives us what WE want when we want it. However if we trust the Lord and walk in the direction he leads us he will use us in the way HE has designed. That is after all what it means to follow Jesus, isn’t it?

When I was a little boy, the word church had two basic definitions, we went to services called church and there was a building where we met called the church. Sometimes we went to the church to go to church, which for a little guy could be a tad confusing. Occasionally we would meet with other churches for a sing together, which made it even more confusing because inevitably the pastor would say something like, “it is such a blessing to bring the church together.” What church was he talking about: our church, or one of the other churches that was there? I remember asking my mom which church he was talking about and she really confused me when she replied, “Oh, all the churches. We’re all the church.” At that point I gave up trying to understand until I had become an adult and I started helping a parachurch ministry called Campus Life. At one leadership meeting, the club director said he appreciated seeing the Church band together to reach kids for Christ. I started to understand that besides local churches, there was a larger expression of these churches called the Church.  What are the meanings of church? Where do we find the term church in the Bible and why do we have so many definitions that we use?

Part of the problem with our trouble defining the word church is because of the English translations of the Bible. The New Testament has a couple of different words in its original language of Greek that is translated into the English word church. The word church is transliterated from the Greek adjective kyrialos, or the noun kuriakon, which refers to that which belongs to the Lord.  This word from the Greek became kirche in German and then church in English and it primarily meant a building used for Christian assembly. It eventually was also used to translate the Greek word Ecclesia into english which meant in the New Testament most often the assembly of Christians that came together. In the New Testament this word was used by Jesus to describe the assembly of his disciples in the larger context in , when he referred to the Ecclesia that would be built. In the book of Acts, these assemblies were used to describe Christians that came together in certain locations, such as where it described the assembly of Christians in Jerusalem. Paul used the word to describe local expressions of the church in several places in his letters, such as and . Despite the many uses of the English word church, the main meaning biblically is the assembly of people who gather together as disciples of Jesus and ultimately the entirety of his disciples.That is the basic definition we will work with as we continue to explore this issue.

While these are the definitions of the word we use for church, there are also illustrations that the Bible gives us for the church that can also be helpful in defining it. One example is that of a family. In Jesus was told that his family was outside wanting to speak with him. He replied,

“Who is my mother and my brothers? Stretching his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my  brother and sister and mother.”

This means those who consider themselves disciples of Jesus are now members of a new family that assembles together on a regular basis. Not every family member may be able to get together at every gathering, but because they are a family they usually have the desire to do so. However, like most families this family also has the strange uncles or aunts that make the gatherings sometimes interesting, to say the least. But because they are part of the family, we can overlook the eccentricities because there is a deep connection that we want to maintain. It has been my experience that when the local expression of the church is healthy this family dynamic becomes very evident.

Early in our marriage my wife had to have abdominal surgery to remove her Gall Bladder. This was before some of the more modern Laparascopic surgical techniques were being commonly used in our area and so her surgery would require two weeks of home convalescence. We had two children at the time, including our son Quentin who was only 4 months old. I was working 3 jobs, one full-time and two part-time, in order to produce enough income to make ends meet so I was away from the house at least 12 hours a day, every day of the week. We had no idea how we would be able to take care of our children let alone help my wife during her convalescence. At the time our family was not attending church regularly and we had no close friends in the area as we had recently returned from overseas military duty. We really had no idea what we would do, when the Church sprang to life. A close friend who was part of the church in which I had grown up came to our house the day before the surgery and informed us that she and some other people in our church had arranged for someone to come to our house during Dorinda’s convalescence and would not only attend her but care for our children. In addition they had arranged for meals to be brought over twice a day for the entire TWO WEEKS. We were amazed. After my wife recovered I asked our friend how she was able to arrange for so many people to help and she said something to the effect of, “That’s what a church family does.” That episode obviously had a major impact on how I understand the church functions best.

Another illustration that the Bible uses is of the body. In the book of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul uses it as an example of how the church corporately has similar elements to a human body.

 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”                       1  Corinthians 12:12–13 (ESV)

As Christians we are part of a larger body, a body that has essential parts that are needed to function properly.This is one of the reasons why not being part of a local expression of the body in a local congregation hurts the cause of Christ. We become part of the local body so that we might fill a role needed in order for that body to perform correctly. The members, like the human body, can only do what they are intended to do if they have the rest of the members around with which to work. Those members need one another in close proximity in order to function properly and without that they can’t perform the role assigned by the head, Jesus Christ. As Paul points later in the same passage:

“If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 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.”              –21 (ESV)

In defining the church though it might be helpful to also look at trends in the approach to the weekly gathering of Christians that don’t seem to have any biblical examples. One current definition or illustration that seems to be popular in the western church right now that doesn’t have any biblical example is that of a business, and one that perhaps most closely resembles a restaurant. It seems part of the western church culture has turned the weekly gathering of Christians into a consumer driven event rather than a gathering of a family or the operation of a body as the Bible illustrates. In our next segment we will explore this trend and a few others to see why and how this has happened.

I ran into a friend I had not seen in nearly 30 years at my high school reunion. As we reacquainted ourselves with each other all the years we were apart melted away as we remembered why we became friends in the first place. It pleased me to find out he was a devoted Christian who was active in several different ministries. But when I asked him what church he was currently attending he told me, “I’m not doing the church thing anymore; everywhere I go it ends up blowing up on me. I’m just listening to sermons online, doing a small group Bible study and serving Jesus where I can.” He went on to tell me some of the misadventures he experienced as a member of various church bodies over the years. Most of the stories were too familiar: A popular pastor fell into serious sin but tried to retain his position and authority which led to strife within the congregation. A worship leader of a growing body felt constrained under the senior pastor’s direction and decided to “follow God’s leading,” instead of the pastor’s. A disagreement over some church furnishings led to a large segment of the body deciding to start their own body that would be more “focused on Jesus instead of wasting money on unimportant things.” My friend simply had enough of the games and decided to forego trying to engage in another congregation; he would follow Jesus on his own.

In actuality my friend is simply a compilation of people and their stories that I became acquainted with since identifying as a Christian, the stories however are true. It seems that I have met more and more people who would consider themselves Christians who simply gave up on the organized church. As a pastor, and maybe more importantly as a Christian, I have become more and more concerned with a trend that does not seem to reflect what Jesus intends for his body. As Paul writes in , “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”(ESV)

While the ideal of unity in the body of Christ seems not only scriptural but actually commanded, the reality is elusive. Almost anyone who has been part of an evangelical Christian congregation for any length of time can recall situations where unity has been difficult to maintain, if it has been achieved to any degree at all. For more and more Christians, it seems as if even the command to not forsake the assembly of one another has become too difficult to even try, leading to more pain than it is worth. Yet the command still stands.

While church involvement can be difficult, many can recall positive moments; a local congregation that truly cares for one another, a place where grace is truly encouraged and practiced, which instills a deep desire to see the ideal achieved. There is a church in the southwest United States that has built a Christian School and Clinic that provides services completely free of charge for everyone who comes. A large church in the Northwest that had a complete leadership change and yet instead of division the founding Pastor has provided an atmosphere of unity. As one friend put it recently, the negative examples get a lot more press but the Lord is still in control and many good things are happening.

So what is the purpose of this congregation of believers? Besides the command to assemble, is there any real worth in bringing together people of different economic strata, ethnic and cultural groups, and ages? When we call something “Church” do we even mean the same thing, and is it the same the Bible means? Is there any way to bring people together without creating a climate of intimidation and fear?

For most people who have grown up in the Western Church, the idea of church can have several meanings. We can talk about belonging to or being members of a church, which usually means being a part of a local assembly of Christians who meet together in an organized way at specific times for the purpose of worshiping God together, ministering to others in a local community and learning about what it means to be Christians. We can decide to go to church, which usually means attending services put together by an organized body of Christians. We can mean a building that has been built specifically for the purposes of a local congregation of believers. Biblically though the meaning of the word Church are simply those those who have identified with Jesus Christ as the one who has reconciled them with God. All of these different meanings have a part to play in how we understand the Church and whether and how we decide to meet together at all.

Each of these differing elements determine what our expectations are when we meet with other Christians and what those meetings should look like. Our understanding what God’s expectations are also has a significant part to play in how we meet together as well. Since the Bible talks about Christ being the Head of the Church, satisfying Christ is often the goal of most groups who assemble together and differing understandings is often at the heart of many disagreements. The problem is learning to satisfy Christ while meeting together instead of satisfying ourselves.

Over the next several weeks, we will seek to find out how we might do that very thing, satisfy Christ in our meeting together as the Church. But hopefully we will also be able to learn to satisfy each other as we come together as the body of Christ. And maybe, just maybe, we can not only find unity, but live in harmony, as Jesus intends.