Paint

I don’t know if this is really significant or not.  But I think there HAS to be an illustration here someplace.  So a little stream of consciousness here, but let’s see if we can come up with something…

A year ago I painted two walls of my house.  A year later, portions of one of the wall need to be repainted.  Yes they were washed.  Yes they were scraped.  Not all the wall, mind you.  Just one portion.  This produces frustration obviously.  Its money and time to paint.  Its not something I enjoy.  And I don’t like getting my clothes covered with paints spots and streaks.  Its inevitable. It will always happen.

And it always happens that so  me times I would come home from the church, still dressed in something “decent,” and I would try to paint.  After all, “I will be REALLY careful THIS time.” 

Haha.

So I started changing into clothes that were more work type clothes.  But I still splash on them.  And pretty soon I look like some renegade from a clown nuthouse.  So not only is there a time investment in painting, and a money investment, but there is also an investment in extra shampoo (for getting it out of my hair)  and clothing and shoes which can never be worn for anything except other paint jobs.

I am sloppy with paint.  I spill it.  A year ago I was painting in the church and spilled some outside of it.  And wouldn’t you know it, that paint is still there.  Not peeling.  Not flaking or chipping.  Not washing away.  If deliberately put it on my walls, it will peel.  Spill it on the pavement, and its NEVER going away.

A few years back I was painting the garage at the church...just touching up a couple of bare spots.  White paint.  Some little kid (I don’t remember who) came by, got his/her hands and feet in it, and walked across the old school yard in the back.  Even after walking across the yard, he/she was still leaving prints on the sidewalk and the road...ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GREEN AREA!!!

At that point, he/she dropped down, and put some nice hand prints on what then was a brand new sidewalk laid down by our fine public works man, Tom B.

The hand prints are still there and look like they were put down yesterday.

There are still foot prints out there.  Not as strong as the hand prints.  But still there.  But put the paint on my house (or for that matter on the church garage) and there she goes.  I think there is a layer of teflon on my garage and house that does not exist on sidewalks.  Maybe they should spray it on them.  “No stick sidewalks.”

Here are some spiritual applications.

1) We leave a mark where ever we go.  What kind of mark are you leaving behind?  Do you want a mark that leaves a fond memory of you?  Or are you leaving the kind that people want to scrape away when you are gone?

2) No matter how careful we are, we will find that there will be “mistakes.” When Jesus comes into our lives, he scrapes off the old paint mess, and paints us up in Him.  His paint does not chip, soil or fade.  The Father sees us in Him, and deals with us gently as sons.  He will never call us out based on the old paint job.   And no matter how careful we are, we will get the paint dirty.  But Jesus will clean us up if we ask Him to do so.

3)There is a really cool product out right now.  Its called 3M paint protection film.  It goes on your car, and keeps the rocks and other things that can come at you as you are driving, and keeps your paint safe.  Its even self repairing to an extent.  

Jesus is like that for our lives.  He covers us.  He keeps us safe.  He fixes the chips.  And He WILL present you complete and whole in Him when He comes in His glory.

A Case for the Small Church

One of the great heartaches of ministering in a small rural church is seeing people leave over the limited number of “amenities” a small congregation can provide.  It happens when young people grow up and discover there are other churches out there that have youth groups or ministries that cater specifically to them and provide them with opportunities for fun.  It happens when young adults decide they want to get married, and want to look at other churches because they offer dating programs, or ministries for “college and career.”  It happens when parents look around and want more services for themselves or their kids.  Consumerism comes to Christianity.  

The small rural churches are left with a greying congregation, and the people who leave say “There was something wrong with that church.”

I would like to submit that such people have it the wrong way around. They were the problem all along.

We had another family stop (dare I say “Shop”) into our church not long ago.  They abandoned the home church they had been attending for years because the youth group was not big enough at the previous church.  I bumped into one of the members of that family not long ago.  They were now attending a budding mega church not far away; they found a bigger buffet.

I don’t blame the larger churches for offering such opportunities.  I do blame them for not discouraging transfer growth on these flimsy excuses alone.  Such Pastors and ministry leaders ought to be telling such people, “Go back to your home church and start a ministry there.”  Yeah, I may as well wish for a million dollars while I am at it.

When I first saw this family, I have to admit that I was willing to contribute to the problem.  Yes, I began to try to sell them on the “amenities” my church offers.  Shame on me.  I was just another shill for faith based services.  Contrary to my typical practice, I was inviting them to come to youth group and talking about all the ministries our church offers.  

Of course there are people that do leave churches for very legitimate reasons.  Sometimes they leave because of error in the pulpit.  Sometimes they leave because of abuse in the church, or  because they were systematically shut out of the inner circle, and not welcomed into ministry.  If a church does not preach the word of God, or if they won’t let you use your giftedness, or they shun you, etc., then that’s different. We have some such people here in our church.  There really are legit reasons to leave.   I find that most people who leave churches don’t have such things in mind.  Moving to a new church because you changed addresses?  Legit.  Moving to a new church because the music isn’t moving you? Not legit.

Now, normally, if a person is church shopping, and they are leaving another local church to do it,  usually I try to be a little more discerning.  I have even discouraged some folks from coming to our church i the reasons are flimsy and at the least I tell them that in order to come to our church they have to at least contact, by letter if necessary,  their old Pastor and church to tell them Biblical reasons why they are leaving.  Needless to say, I have not seen much transfer growth for flimsy reasons here at BCC.  But I really don’t want someone else’s problem here at this church.  

This one particular family did not come back again.  At first I was really disappointed.  But I remember this last week God tapping me on the shoulder and whispering to me, “You didn’t want them here anyway.”

There may be a variety of reasons God would say that to me.  But certainly the fact that they would leave a church because their youth group was not big enough says that the problem was really with the family, not the church.

Congregations ought not to exist or be enticing because of the smorgasbord of activities they provide. They ought to exist to preach the word and make disciples.  Disciples are made when they take up the Word and start serving on their own.  Churches ought to be enticing because of the practice of love they show across the generations.  They ought to be places to go where I,..me, myself and I have an opportunity to use my spiritual gifts and become a disciple.  If all the ministry is handled by professionals, and I don’t do anything but soak it up, you are not really at the church. You are at the theater.  You are not a disciple; you are a mere consumer of religious goods.

If you are feeling like moving on to some other church because they don’t offer enough programming, the problem isn’t the church.  Its you.  You are the one called to stay and make a difference.  Stay.  Get plugged in.  Build the congregation.  Use your gifts.  YOU go and make that ministry that you feel your church is lacking.  You won’t get the opportunity to influence others for Christ at the mega church like you will at your small home church.  

Or are you just another Consumer of Faith based products like most people in our culture?

To the Pastors who sell their churches on the basis of “Amenities” rather than disciple making  I will tell you that you will never know the joy of watching someone grow from a baby Christian to being a passionate Bible Student or Sunday School Teacher or mission trip participant.  You will always have to be worried that you need to offer more or better “amenities” than the big church in the town next door.  If they start something new, then you’ll have to as well.  If they add one screen you will have to add two.   I’d rather make disciples, thanks.

Number 5: Noah

Hero Number 5: Noah

The fifth person I want to meet in heaven is Noah.  But there is a different dynamic at play in this meeting than meeting with the other Biblical people I have already mentioned.  The reason: he’s my ancestor. 

Certainly there are things that I want to ask him about that are questions meant to fill up my gaps in understanding of the accounts we have in the Bible.  Perhaps most of these will have been answered if and when God the Father holds his “History 101” class for us all.  There certainly is that hunger to know what life was like as he lived and dealt with the critters we know of today as Dinosaurs.  How did he build the ark?  What exactly is “gopher” wood?  How close was he to the other patriarchs that he knew as his ancestors? What are his perspectives on parenting?  What’s the deal with that “Curse on Canaan” thing;  His perspective on the epic of Gilgamesh, and if Nimrod and Gilgamesh were one and the same.

Yet the approach to such a person must be different than an approach to the other people I mentioned.  He is a forbear, THE Progenitor.  From him, all humanity after the flood are descended.  Would he be deal with me in a Fatherly sort of way?  

My ancestor would be Japheth.  What was he like as a kid and a young man?  How old were they before they weren’t a “kid” anymore in that culture?  What stories does he have about “dad?” 

He is also the archetype of the preacher who preached and did not get any results. What did his preaching message look like?  How did the crowds respond? Anger? Laughter? Poor Noah.  If he was a preacher in a lot of our churches today, he would probably be fired.  Yet the results he got certainly were not his fault!  How does a man preach for 120 years to repent and “get into the boat” and not get discouraged?  What was his secret?

Most of all there is just the enigma that this man is.  For a short time, all of human history hung on the thin thread of his life.  Yet we really know so little about him!  There are legends that he eventually moved to what we know today as Lebanon but returned to the area of Urartu (Ararat) to be buried.  The name of the city is Nakhchivan, a name which is even derived from its association with Noah. 

So set me up for my appointment!  I am ready to meet Noah!

Youtube!

I have uploaded a new sermon for my Youtube channel.  If you don't like your J-O-B perhaps this sermon will help to light your fire, and feel differently about it in the future!

Edit: I also added another one today!  May God bless you!

Hero #4 Baruch the son of Neriah

Baruch is another man who I really want to meet when I get to heaven.

You may not remember Baruch.  He is very much a secondary, though very important, figure in the life of Jeremiah the Prophet.  Indeed, we might not have Jeremiah’s prophecy without his work as a scribe!

Baruch was a man destined for stardom.  Being a scribe, he had important skills which would get him noticed, and hired, by important people.  He was educated and well connected.  He held an important role in King Zedekiah’s palace.  For him, there was great opportunity, great responsibility, and a chance to become quite wealthy.  A seal was found in Jerusalem a few years ago with his name on it.  It is an amazing find because it is tied to this biblical character.  Its a doubly amazing find because it also preserves a finger print, likely his, which is found on the upper left of the seal.

Then he met Jeremiah.

Baruch was not an ordinary man.  He was not an ordinary skilled man.  He was not an ordinary man of his day.  He was a man of faith and devotion to the one true God.  But he also lived with the common wants and desires that every man has.  He wanted to make money, put some away, make purchases, have the material goods of this world, and experience success.  He looked forward to a life one day in retirement, perhaps even working as a scholar.

In his working and dealing, somehow, he and Jeremiah became linked.  He was the prophets junior by several years.  Perhaps he was fresh from scribe school when they became acquainted.  He was charged with the task of writing down the words of the prophet.  They were not “happy words.”  They were not words which would bring comfort.  Rather, they were words that spoke anything but confirmation of Baruch’s bright hopes for his future.  One could say, Jeremiah told Baruch things that “wrecked his life and dreams.”  This is what Jeremiah said, when he listened to and wrote the words that Jeremiah dictated to him: “Ah, woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest (Jeremiah 45:3).”

How would you respond if a prophet revealed to you that the next 18 years of your life would see the destruction of pretty much all you loved?  How would you react if you were told all the life you had dreamed of would all go up in smoke, and that you would be hated and hunted for standing with the one true God?  Baruch’s reaction, as much as it reflected disappointment, is a reaction born out of faith.  He believed God!  He did not discount God’s words through Jeremiah, as most did.  He did not become angry, threaten or leave God’s spokesman.  He believed.  And God promised the reward to Baruch that he was giving to all those who were faithful:  his life would be preserved wherever he went.

I sympathized with Baruch even as a high school student.  I thought of myself then as a young hot shot.  I had big dreams and big ideas.  Study of scripture convinced me, however, that I will probably see Jesus’ return in my life time.  His return “interfered” with my big plans.  Like Baruch, God was telling me:

 “Behold, what I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to uproot, that is, the whole land.”  5  ‘But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek [them]; for behold, I am going to bring disaster on all flesh,’ declares the LORD… (Jeremiah 45:4-5).”

He would read God’s prophecy in public to a people who did not want to hear messages of doom and gloom, and rejected it.  He would be forced to run and hide from a king who refused to believe.

He is regarded as a hero of Judaism to this day.  It was a hard message, but he believed, and embraced the message and the messenger.  He became a support to his friend, the prophet.  According to tradition, he later went to Babylon from Egypt, where he delivered the book of Jeremiah to others.  His work would be read by Daniel to cause him to pray for his people (Daniel 9) resulting in one of the most important visions in all of the Old Testament.  

#3 Paul

The third person that I want to meet when I go to heaven is Paul.  

Now as I am sure you can guess by now, one reason why I might like to meet Paul is because I want to clear up some things which, to my mind, are not clear enough for me in my thinking as a western philosopher/theologian, or just details which I am not sure really sure of.  For example, that “thorn in the flesh” that he refers to in 2 Corinthians.  What exactly was that?

Many of the theological examples of “unclarity” may already be cleared up by the time I meet with Paul.  I certainly do hope that God holds a “Theology 101” class, taught by Himself, where He teaches “how it really is.”  But whether God has or has not, it certainly will be interesting to get Paul’s views of other things, like our formulation of the doctrine of inspiration, or the Calvinist/Arminian controversy.  

I don’t know how those things will work, when we get to heaven.  I do know that we will be having fellowship with each other and praising and worshiping God.  I am sure a big part of that will be listening to testimonies.  And I want to hear Paul tell and describe Jesus’ visit with him on the Damascus road.  I want to hear about his visit to heaven, and what he heard on that visit that he could not tell about.  I want to know what the “Bodily ailment” he suffered was when he saw the Galatian people.  

I also want to listen to him as a thinker.  What does he pounder, and how?  How much of his theology was he taught from God, and how much of it did he come to realize by his Holy Spirit enlightened intellect.  How much did he engage with the Greek Philosphers, like Socrates and Plato, and his thoughts on what they wrote.  I hope that he will also be able to show me the world as he saw it through his own eyes.  And if we have the opportunity, visit some of the ruins of the world of his day, gain his impressions of them, and also see if he will show us where he walked, and where he stood when he appeared before Gallio, and of his visits to the various agoras; agoras that you can still see the fallen columns and stones today.

He was a thinker, and a man of great passion.  I would ask him “How do those things work together while still living in a sinful body?”  

#2 The Man Born Blind: John 9

Here are my five Bible heroes that I want to meet when I get to heaven.  The first, scroll down, that I wrote about was Joshua.  The next is the nameless blind man from John 9.

The Man born blind

In His travels, Jesus comes upon a man who is likely to be begging.  He was blind.  There were no government resources for people with Handicaps in Jesus’ day, and money was tight for everyone.  It was considered a religious obligation to give to people with such needs in order that they might live.  But for the most part, they were shut out of society.

Bad things have always happened to people both good and bad.  But majority opinion in Jesus’ day was that if something bad had happened to you, it was generally because someone sinned.  Jesus and his disciples were aware that this was a man who was born blind. Unlike many that become blind, even at an early age, this person was born completely without the ability to see.  For this, fault must be assigned.  There were two possibilities: The parents sinned and this was their punishment; the child had sinned in the womb.

Can you imagine the kind of pressures this brought this family?  The pain?  The soul searching and sorrow?  

Unless you have been raised in a family that is long on blame and short on grace, you probably can’t really enter into that kind of sympathetic feeling.  And, here there really was no one at fault!  Jesus gave the final definitive “no” to those ideas.  There are other reasons why people have disaster fall on them.  Here was one of them:  It was for the demonstration of the glory of God.

God’s glory.  Some might thing that seems hard.  Yet this man, because of what he went through, brings great glory to Jesus Christ and to His Father for what he experienced.  He experienced the power of God to restore his sight.  He experienced the grace of Christ who welcomed him as a disciple.  Bear in mind that the man was a sinner, deserving of Hell, just like you and me.  But he got double grace: a healing of the body and of the soul.  But that’s not all.  He is a trophy of God’s greatness.  But this man is yet more.

Keep this in mind: to cross the leadership of your town/village was basically to cause yourself to be out cast in your community.  And they had already made it known that to identify yourself with this prophet from Nazareth was to be “put out of the synagogue.”  That meant that you were cut off from good community, from your business ties, from good people who gave alms, etc.  You were alone.

This man, when called to account for the healing (just think about that for a moment) testified to what he experienced with the Christ.  He stuck with it.  There was a powerful incentive to not own Christ. The pharisees themselves give him an opening to deny Christ.  They ask him, “What do you say about him?”  The man could have said “I don’t know” as apparently another man (the one healed by Siloam) Jesus healed did. He said, “He is a prophet.”

He simply follows reason:

I was blind

Now I see

I don’t know if this man (Jesus) is a sinner or not

God does not listen to sinners

God listens to godly men

Nobody has ever opened a man’s eyes who was born blind

He must be from God or he could not do it.

Therefore: He’s a holy man/ prophet.

Today, we might quibble a bit on who God can or does listen to. It does not matter.  He follows the assumptions he has been taught by these same men all of his life.  The inescapable conclusion is that Jesus is a holy man and a prophet.

He tells this boldly to these men who by now in this process have become very hostile.  Its so strange to see this hostility!  The Blind man has done nothing!  He was the recipient of a benefit, and that’s it.  Instead of questioning their own assumptions about God and their doctrine, they accuse him of wrong on the basis of the assumption about the connection between sin and his blindness.  They throw him out.

This is a brave man.  He is my hero.  I have stood with my knees shaking when people have begun talking about faith in God, and questioning my faith.  I have felt the doubts and fears I think everyone experiences when confronted about what I believe.  Here is a man who has only met Jesus once apparently, has not been grounded in his faith, and he is so firm in his conviction about what he has seen and heard that he cannot be induced to lie about it...even to the point that he is cast out of the synagogue.  And community life.

He is a brave man. He is a warrior in the soul.  

I don’t know why he remains nameless.  Perhaps he dies soon after this incident. Perhaps John seeks to protect the family of the man.  I don’t know.  All I know is that this guy is incredibly brave.  I look forward to meeting him in heaven.