For Want of a Pastor

I was listening to some comments this week from the pastor of one of America's largest churches.  I am not going to name him, but if I did you would most likely know him.  My sense is however that what he said is emblematic of the attitude of too many young pastors in America today.  In speaking to pastor's, this pastor basically said, "I have trouble with the term shepherd.  I am not a shepherd.  That term does not speak to me.  I don't live a pastoral life.  I am a leader."

I do not refute that one of the jobs of as shepherd is to lead.  What I have a problem with is that the term shepherd signifies the kind of leadership that pastors are to have.  It should not matter if we pastor a church in a metropolitan city, we are still called to shepherd the flock of God (1 Peter 5:2).  To say that we should not identify ourselves as a shepherd is to say that the word of God is not timeless.  God chose the word specifically.  There are other words for leader in the Greek language that could have been employed.  But the Bible uses the word shepherd to describe the work of the pastor.   Just because I don't live in a pastoral setting does not negate the truth that I can learn what it means to be one.

Rather than becoming shepherds, too many pastors are becoming leaders.  Instead of learning from the good shepherd how to lead the flock of God, we learning from the business world how to lead "The Church Inc."  Instead of feeding the sheep, we want to lead the sheep to fulfill our vision.  Instead of protecting the sheep, we want to build a big church.  Instead of healing the sheep, we want to discard any sheep who do not get behind our vision.  Instead of serving, we want to our vision to be served.  Jesus reminded us long ago, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,  and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,  even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Matthew 20:25-28

The best book on leadership for pastor's does not come from Peter Drucker or the Harvard School of Business.  It comes from the Bible.  We would see healthier churches and healthier pastors, if we spent more time learning from the Great Shepherd than from any other source.

Idols, Idols everywhere

John Calvin famously said, "from this we gather that man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols."  We in the west would scoff at this quote for most of us don't have little wooden or gold statues hanging around our house.  We Christians would scoff and say that we don't have idols, we worship the true and living God. When we think this, we forget what an idol is.  An idol is anything that we place ahead of God in our hearts.  Our idol can be good things in our lives when we place them in the category of ultimate importance.

What are some of the idols that we in the church have today:

Acceptance and Approval -- when we long for the acceptance and approval of others rather than living in the acceptance and approval that God has given us we are worshipping an idol

Our Families -- when our family takes first place in our lives and put them ahead of God, our family is an idol.  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

Our Church or Pastor, or Favorite Preacher on Television -- when we choose to believe what others tell us the Bible says rather than reading it for ourselves, we set them up as idols in our lives.  We turn to others rather than turning to God.

These are just a few but the list can go on and on.  The good news is that we are not saved by the quality of our worship for if it were, we would fail.  Our acceptance by God is based on the fact that Jesus never had an idol.  He worshipped the Lord perfectly and died in our place.  Take time to check your heart, ask God to reveal your idols.  Then turn from those idols and worship the one true God.

Why we cry at funerals

Over the last several weeks, I have seen friends and family face serious health issues, terminal diseases and the death of loved ones.  I have shed tears and tried to comfort many who are grieving the loss of health and life.  Some would ask, why do you cry?  As Christians we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live.  (John 11:25, ESV)  We believe to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8, KJV). So why would we cry?

The answer to this question is found in 1 Corinthians 15.  Paul remind us that the immortal and imperishable kingdom of God cannot be inherited by perishable mortal beings.  Therefore, when Christ returns, those who are alive will be changed. That is God will transform our mortal bodies into immortal ones, our perishable bodies into imperishable bodies.  At the same time, the bodies of those who have died will be raised and made immortal and imperishable and their spirits that have been with Him, will be reunited with their bodies. Paul says when this happens, "then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

'Death is swallowed up in victory.'
'O death, where is your victory?
 O death, where is your sting?'"

We cry because even though death has lost its fatal sting it still has a sting.  Even though it has lost its final victory it still has some temporary victories.  We cry because death still has a physical sting.  Death can cause so much physical pain that we weep over the hurt that our loved ones face and that we will face one day.  We cry because death has a relational sting.  Death separates us from the ones we love.  The pain of that separation causes us to weep.  Death cannot separate us from God but it does separate us from people we care about deeply.

Jesus understood the pain that death causes.  Even though He knew that he came to defeat death ultimately for all and temporarily for Lazarus, He wept at the tomb of His friend.  He experienced the pain we too often feel, and he cried.

The good news is that as we cry, we cry with hope.  For one day, death will lose all of its sting and will have no victory.  The sting of physical pain will be gone, for our new bodies will be free from sin, perfect and Jesus will wipe away every tear.  When he raises us up, we will have a great reunion with all of our loved ones, never to be separated again.

It is right and normal to cry now at funerals.  Don't be ashamed and certainly never think your tears are a sign of doubt.  Tears are not a lack of faith but a real faith that weep with hope.

A Ragamuffin Father

Tonight, I watched the movie Ragamuffin on Netflix (c).  The movie tells the story of singer songwriter, Chris Mullins.  Chris was different, his talent made it difficult for his father to communicate with him.  Chris' father died without ever really telling his son that he loved him.  This caused so much pain in Chris' life as he longed for his father's love and approval.

What made watching this movie so powerful to me, was reading an article today by Tim Challies entitled, "God, Protect My Girls."  In the article, he says one of the things that he prays for is that God would protect his daughters from himself.  No that does not mean he is abusive, but that we fathers are sinful people who do sinful things.  Our selfishness and pride can harm the people who are closest to us.

But I believe it goes deeper than this. God has chosen to reveal himself to us as our Father.  I recognize that we should never judge our heavenly father by the actions of our earthly father, however, it is very easy to do so.  I have met so many people who find it very difficult to call God their father, because of how their earthly father treated them.

Knowing this I try my best to be a good dad, but I know I am at heart a "ragamuffin."  I am a sinner, I make more mistakes than I could ever count.  And so I pray God protect my daughters from me.  Help them to know that even if I fail them, you never will.  Even if I let them down, help them to know You never will.  And so I not only pray, I have to make sure I tell them that their father loves them, but he has and will continue to fail.  I am a sinful man, but I have a heavenly father who loves me and He loves them too.  I have to ask them to forgive me and then point them to the one who loves them perfectly.

Today's Supreme Court's Non-Ruling and What it Means to You

The Supreme Court today refused to hear cases involving appeals by states who had their bans of Same Sex Marriage overturned.  Unless they take up a future case which seems unlikely, every ban of same sex marriages will be overturned and homosexual "marriage" is effectively the law of the land.  What does that mean for Christians?

1.  We must teach by precept and practice, God's definition of marriage.  Our children and our children's children have and will continue to grow up in a society where the definition of marriage is radically opposed to God's definition.  God's definition of marriage is that our marital unions should picture the union between Christ and the Church.  That is marriage is to picture Chris,t the groom, loving his bride, the church, so much that he sacrificed everything for her, and his bride, the church, responding to that love.  Obviously we cannot model perfect marriages, but we can model marriages of love, respect, forgiveness, and patience, where a man and woman work through their differences and struggles to forge a life long marriage.

2.  We must recognize that even though we may hold up God's standard for marriage, we fall short of holding up all of God's standards.  As Jesus said, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone."  It is not my job to condemn those who support or live in a same sex union.  It is my job not to agree but to love.  I realize that often times is a hard position to take in our culture.  Too often, people believe tolerance is not simply agreeing to disagree, but having to support and condone their behavior.  While we cannot condone, we can in humility and love genuinely care about people.

3.  We must recognize that in the end same-sex marriage leads to brokenness and hurt.  This is true not because it is "same-sex" but because it is a violation of God's standard.  My sins, which are many" lead to brokenness.  My brokenness was healed by a God who says, you don't have to meet all my standards because I know you can't.  So I have met them for you in my son Jesus.  Believe, trust and find healing now and complete restoration one day.  The Bible says, there is a way that seems right to men, but in the end it leads to destruction.  The more our society condones sinful behavior, the more people will be hurt by it.  The good news, there is a healing balm for our wounds, and we as followers of Christ must put ourselves in a position to bring that healing to hurting people.

Measuring the Right Things

As many of you know, I have begun walking in preparation for participating in a 5K event.  As I walk, I use a pedometer to keep up with how I am doing. Since my goal is to run the 5K and not be in last place, I have to measure myself against certain criteria.  If all I measured was distance, I would not achieve my goal.  I have to also measure my time.  I want to make it 5 kilometers but I also want to run it faster as I progress in my training.

In the Christian life, too often we measure our success by the wrong things because we are not clear in our goal.  We measure how much we read the Bible, how long we pray, how well we witness, how often we attend church.  These are admiral measurements, but a person can do all these things and still not achieve the goal of the Christian life.  The goal of the Christian life is not to develop Christian disciplines.  The goal of the Christian life is to love God and enjoy Him forever.  One can read their Bible every day just to say they did it, without their Bible reading helping them love Jesus more.  One can pray and check it off their list of things to do each day, without it helping them to fall in love with Jesus.  One can witness, attend church or develop any other discipline but fall in love with the discipline rather than fall in love with Jesus. 

Reading our Bible is good, but every time we read it we must ask ourselves how does my Bible reading help me to love Jesus?  I can read the words on the page without falling in love with the person the book is about.  When I pray, am I praying to get to know and love Jesus more?  When I witness, am I telling people about the one that I love more than anything else in the world?  When I attend church, am I falling in love with Jesus more and more?

The goal of our discipleship is not merely to obey commands, but to love the one we are following all the more.  After all Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.  So how do I measure my love for God?  How can I tell if I am loving Him more and more each day?  Jesus said, by this all men will know you are my disciples by your love one for another.  The Apostles John said, “How can you say that you love God whom you can’t see, if you can’t love your brother that you do see.”  The measure of how much I love God is how much I love my brother.  Think about it.

Satan's Best Weapon

When I looked at Facebook© this morning, I saw everyone responding to responding to Victoria Osteen’s recent comments.  I especially enjoyed this video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00-6OyXVA0M 

As I heard her comments I wondered why so many people are fooled by her words.  The answer is that Satan’s best weapon is a half-truth.  There is some truth in her words, being obedient to God does bring us joy.  Jesus promised us both joy and abundant life.  Stephen Nichols said, "We were made for God, made with a singular purpose, to glorify Him. And as we glorify Him and as we live for and live toward Him, we find our soul’s true joy."

Victoria Osteen’s problem is that she makes the byproduct or result of living out our purpose, the goal and purpose itself.  God wants us to have joy, obedience brings joy so be obedient not for the glory of God but that it brings you joy.  We are obedient to God because it is right to be obedient and it is our purpose to bring Him glory.  If I do it for my joy, I become God and ultimately lose joy.  If I live for his glory, I recognize Him as God and in the end I have joy.

 Satan twists the truth by taking a kernel of truth out of context and makes it the whole.  We should know that this is his modus operandi, for this is what we see in scripture.  When Satan tempted Jesus, he quoted Jesus.  Satan pulls scripture out of context and twists it for his purposes.  He still does that today and as a church we must be careful to know the whole counsel of God so that we will not fall for half-truths.