Grasping for Grace

Yesterday I talked to our church about the subject of grace. It was a message about the nature and need of grace, and how God gives us grace in order to demonstrate his own goodness in our lives, and how we must receive that grace each day by faith in Jesus Christ. In the middle of all this, I mentioned the biblical example (of what not to do) of Esau. As most of us recall, Esau was the first-born son of Isaac and was to receive the birthright, or the blessing, from his father Isaac. However, in a moment of temptation, he gave into the moment and sold his birthright to his younger brother Jacob. The story goes that “Afterward…(Esau) when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” I believe that this was the consequence of Esau missing the grace of God. It is not that Esau was bankrupt of God ever doing any good thing in his life for the remaining years; it is just that that moment was so profoundly negative that it never lost its effect upon not only his life, but those who became his descendants- the Edomites.

In the New Testament book of Hebrews, where this reflection is found, the encouragement is given prior to this: “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” This indicates that one of the things that might cause us to “miss” the grace of God is bitterness. This is one of the most powerful and sinful forces we know. We have all witnessed its destructive powers unleashed on people who have no idea they were even involved. We have certainly seen this in kids who become adults and eventually unleash their fury upon unsuspecting parents. We have seen this in employees who cave into the personal pressures of life and financial woes only to end up taking their anger out on their co-workers and/or boss in a fit of violence. Bitterness is an occasion to store up pockets of anger and hurt and selfishness until we have a more convenient occasion to unleash them. None of us are free from its grasp. We have all known family members who have struggled with this very thing, and we have all probably at one time or another given into its allure.

As I prepared for this message, as any message, I never prepare it with any particular person in mind. I try to be sensitive to where I am personally, and where the group is collectively to whom I am addressing. With this in mind, something happened yesterday after our worship gathering for which I could not have been less prepared. Sometimes people frustrate each of us beyond what is imaginable, and beyond what we feel we can take. In the aftermath of all of this, I began to reflect upon one of the things I had said, “We can never really say, as followers of Jesus Christ, that this is more than I can handle, because it’s not, or else we would not be experiencing it.” I began to feel that my own message was a message that I needed possibly more than anyone else. I found myself beginning to toboggan down the slippery slope of bitterness, and missing the grace of God in my life.

I began to be reminded that people suck, but so do I, and yet God is awesome to love me and them, and wants me to demonstrate his grace in how I react to the hardships and difficulties of life. Please pray for me during this time, as I seek “not to receive the grace of God in vain,”.

Thoughts on Quitting

Yesterday I read a letter of resignation for my position of pastor at Confederate Avenue Baptist Church. It was one of those surreal moments in life where you almost ask yourself is this really happening? My wife Melissa and I made the decision to leave CABC about two weeks ago. We really believe that God has shut the proverbial doors on our efforts in the Grant Park Community and we have decided to go and become a part of the church called the River located in Milton, Florida. We really believe in this decision and think that this is what God wants for our lives, and we are very excited about our becoming a part of this church planting team led by our best friends Sam and Samantha Crum. I want to say all of that to make sure that my other forthcoming thoughts are not misunderstood.

The decision was a difficult one, because we have labored for three years at this one place, and we have become very attached to the people of the church, as well as the community. We are disappointed, too, because our vision for CABC in the Grant Park Community was never fully realized. We have struggled for some time, also, with the idea of quitting. There seems to be a fine line between just quitting for frustation or exhaustion's sake and stopping because it seems as if God is either done with your role or the church's role. This is obviously not very clear-cut, because there are always things going on within even a declining church that may be interpreted to be the workings of God, and those can be "signals" for us to stay, because God could be potentially about to do something great. The problem, of course, in our situation is that good things have happened all along, but the fundamental make up of our church has not really been altered in a tremendous way. Certainly our worship gathering has been modified ostensibly, but what I mean is that the basic limitations of the church that existed when we came are still largely present. I admit that much of this is probably due to the constraints of my own leadership (Author John Maxwell calls this "the law of the lid").

Nevertheless, Melissa and I both do not feel as if we have failed, or if we are quitting on God or the people of CABC. We believe that we have gone as far as we can, albeit not fully where we wanted to go, and we consider God to have used our efforts here to bring people to the kingdom and teach them the way of Jesus. He has, furthermore, extensively and deeply taught us a great deal about people, culture, ministry, and ourselves. Through each of these lessons we have undoubtedly learned more about God, and we have grown in our belief that a life of faith is a journey not a destination. Although these facts are true, the feelings that go with them are real, and leaving is never fun under any circumstances, and these are mild. For those of you who have helped us thus far on our journey we thank you and welcome your prayers and counsel for the next leg.

About the Upcoming Presidential Election

As anyone who lives in the free world knows, a presidential race is upon us. I, as you should be, am very concerned about our nation’s direction. This country faces some of its most severe challenges at the outset of this young century. The fate of Iraq, as well as our American soldiers fighting over there, has been a hot topic in our country ever since the war began, as it should be. There is no question that the presidential candidate who has a clear and workable strategy for our role in Iraq will probably garner a lot of support. Nevertheless, there are many other issues that America faces now that I think are of immense importance, and I want to voice these at this time. These topics, as you will note, may not be the ones that line up with a specific political party. My thought with regards to this is that followers of Jesus should not be captive to the ideologies of any one political party. When our allegiance to one platform becomes so strong that it dims our prophetic voice within the society in which we live, then we have failed to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Therefore, these issues are not pregnant with political candidates in mind, but rather what I, as well as many others see, as problems that need to be addressed in our society.

1. There must be a solution for the Iraq War. I am not suggesting that I know what it is; I am only lamenting the obvious. As has been stated before, “War is hell.” We cannot be unmoved in hearing of the countless stories of American soldiers being killed by car bombings, suicide strikes, and insurgent violence. There will always be casualties in wars, no question. That is what makes the situation in Iraq so egregious, however. It is a war that we entered with skewed intelligence and primarily unilateral involvement. Now that we have, no one would reasonably assert that Saddam Hussein was a good leader. In fact, he was a brutal dictator who was responsible for genocide on his own people. But his removal from power and our occupation of that country is dubious on many grounds. I do believe, as Solomon put it, that there is a “time for war”, but I think it has to be the last resort and I think that it needs to be done with the same principle of self defense. The Iraq War, I think, is probably not a text book reason to go to war justly.

The question before us now, however, is how do we finish this now that we are there? I don’t know. As the administration has already admitted, there have been many miscalculations on the numbers of troops needed for the conflict, but I do tend to agree that some form of troop withdrawal should begin taking place. I do not believe that the Iraqi’s will ever take the helm of independence while we are still giving them full support.

2. We must solve the problem of illegal immigration in our country. Let me offer a caveat to this. I do not ascribe to a one-size-fits-all approach to this, as some staunch republicans do. I think we need a plan that balances the need to protect our borders, as well as show some concern for those immigrants who have been working here in this country for years. Although I disagree with President Bush over many things, I do applaud his recent work, along with Senator Ted Kennedy, with respect to this issue. I think their strategy is the best plan I have seen so far, but it is not enough. There must be a leader to step forward with a comprehensive plan that deals with the many variegated problems of this sensitive issue, as well as strong enough to prevent terrorists from compromising our country’s safety.

3. There must be a solution for the health care system. This is one issue I think actually collects a general consensus from both parties: Our health care system in this country is broken. The astronomically rising cost of health care in our country is a rising problem that is not going to get better on its own. It would be nice if both parties stopped bickering with one another over platforms and power, and came together on this. Perhaps there needs to be a meshing of both ideologies in order to fix this. I have never been a proponent of large and unbridled government, but in this situation, I am not opposed to a government-regulated health care system of some kind. It seems to be working quite well in Europe, and I think it could work here, as well, with perhaps some modifications.

4. We must address the problem of poverty in our country. It is unmistakable that the poor has always been close to the heart of God, and it is also very true that our lives will, in large part, be graded on how we treat the poor during this life time. What is so unfortunate to me is that while many “Conservative Christians” have been so vocal in opposing abortion and gay marriage and promoting prayers in public schools, they have been virtually silent when it comes to the poverty in our nation. Some of the most extreme conservatives have even blasted the poor and homeless and welfare-dependent people of this country as being either lazy or stupid. In a number of studies about the problem of American poverty, this error has been exposed and shown to be counter to the actual, well-documented facts. Are there people who take advantage of this system? Of course, but therein lies the problem. As the old adage goes, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.” I have talked with various mission directors in Atlanta, and they stare this screaming problem in the eyes everyday. They are dealing with people who are now in the second and third generation of poverty, and they don’t know what to do to break the cycle, because they have always lived this way. The Republicans have been trying to stifle the charity and the Democrats have been trying to continue it without any plan to move people from dependence to self supporting, and both plans are altogether deficient. We need a complete overhaul of our welfare system, but we also need to rethink the issues that cause poverty, as well, in our society.

5. We must make strides to protect our environment. We cannot afford to ignore the majority of the international scientific community with regards to global warming. I am not saying that their claims should not be taken with a grain of salt, but the preponderance of data to substantiate their reports, even to a scant reader, has to be taken seriously at some point. Our environment is not a left-wing, liberal issue; it is a moral issue that all Christians should take seriously. This responsibility began for us when God gave us the job of taking care of the earth (or Garden) and to work it and protect it. Obviously sin has affected our environment to some degree, “because the whole creation groans for the day when it will be redeemed”, but our charge to keep it has not changed, and for some reason the reckless abandon with which many are destroying our environment, as well as entire species of animals, does not seem to hold a significantly high priority for most believers. We cannot be the servant of God and the presence of Christ in the world until we take seriously our vocation to preserve what God has given us. Not even a Tim LaHaye-like, escapist theology can abrogate that.

6. We must maintain the high sanctity of life in every area. What this means is that the issues of abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and war should all be thoughtfully considered in our perspective of the world in which we live. For many conservative Christians, abortion has been the battle cry for so many years, but if we want to be taken seriously and have a fully biblical world view, then we must also address these other issues, as well. Life is precious, because God has created man and woman in his own image. Therefore, a proper view of the sanctity of life should guide all of our debates. Does this mean that I am proposing a scenario or view that opposes war under any circumstances? No, e.g. I think the Second World War was absolutely necessary, and it was the last resort, and it was, in my opinion, an act of self-defense. The sanctity of life was the reason that we did go to war, although it cost many lives. So, don’t misunderstand what I am suggesting. What I am suggesting is that we hold true to the sanctity of human life in our consideration of going to war after every other avenue of diplomacy has been exhausted, and that we count the cost with extreme deliberation before proceeding.

Furthermore, our view of the sanctity of human life should direct our opinions with regards to capital punishment and torture of prisoners. First of all, let me say that I am not against capital punishment. The biblical ground for capital punishment predates the institution of the Mosaic Law. What I am against is the reckless way it has been administered under our current judicial system. In other words, there have been many cases that are well-documented where innocent persons were executed erroneously, only to be exonerated by DNA or testimonial evidence years afterwards. This is a tragedy that we, as believers, cannot and should not ignore. Either we need to fix our system, or we need to abolish the administration of the death penalty altogether.

It is, also, disturbing to note how many people are willing to “look the other way” when it comes to the torturing of prisoners. Where are the bracelets for WWJD when we consider this debate? Could we really conceive of Christ, who said to “Love your enemies, do good to them who persecute you, pray for them which despitefully use you”, ever condoning our government to torture prisoners (even our terrorist enemies who have persecuted us) in order to achieve a pragmatic goal? I don’t think so.

Finally, I want to say that I am vehemently against abortion, but I also want to say that I think we need politicians who are actually willing to work on issues that lead to abortion, e.g. poverty and poor education. I think we need to oppose abortion, but I think we need to be clear that we are not against the women who are in that situation. I believe we need to find some common ground to try to decrease the number of abortions in our country. The politician who is savvy to how this will be accomplished will get the most attention in our country.


7. We need a politician who is willing to work on balancing the federal budget.
This is not just political rhetoric. This is a real need in our country that will have long-term implications for the generations to come. If we do not get a handle on our government’s deficit, it will ruin our ability to trade with other nations in the future years. We need a constitutional amendment that requires congress and the president to have to balance the budge and live within their means. We have to do so; why should this government not have to? I am convinced that this will affect many more issues, including how to solve our social security dilemma.

Conclusion: Let me state, in conclusion, that there are many more issues that are important to me, but these are some of the biggest that I see. I would love to hear some feedback on any of these, or if you think there are some other big issues that need to be addressed.

Musings about Open Communion

My blog today has to do with the particular element of worship called communion, or the Lord’s Supper. Let me say at the outset that my position has dramatically changed during the past few years from what it was while I was going to college. Therefore, this position, to me, is a fairly recent one, but is certainly in good company with many other believers throughout church history including Samuel Goddard, the grandfather of the more famous Jonathan Edwards, who by the way did not agree with me or his grandfather.

The position that I hold to now is the position of open communion, which is of the persuasion that all present at the worship gathering should be invited to participate in the communion. Now, for some this may sound rather strange, since they will immediately conclude that the Lord’s Supper is a time of worship for believers. Before I give my reasons for believing that this is the best and most Christ-honoring way to do communion, I would like to give a couple of clarifying remarks.

First of all, I do not believe as some Roman Catholics do, that there is justifying power in the elements of the communion, or that any work or deed we perform can make us righteous in the sight of God. The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus that it is “not by works of righteousness we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us…” He also said in his Ephesian letter, “For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” And Paul writes to the Roman Christians that believers are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement for our sin.

I am not opposed, however, to the use of the term “sacrament” to identify the communion, because of the fact that it does accurately represent what communion is and does for the believer. A sacrament is something that contains an element of saving efficacy in it. Now, as we have already stated, we are justified in the sight of God, i.e. made righteous and declared not guilty, through the death of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, our salvation is not complete, and we are not fully saved. God is still in the process of saving us. For those who are committed to the Baptist adage “once saved, always saved” this will not mean much. But for others who believe that salvation is secure, yes, but also believe that true believers will continue in the faith, and if they don’t, then they were not ever true believers, this will make sense. In other words, Christ is the one who saves us, but anyone who has ever struggled with his or her own wickedness knows that he must be saved, in a sense, every day. Does that mean that he loses his salvation? Again, we are not talking about deliverance from a final hell, but rather a deliverance from a spiritual hell on earth each and everyday. We must get up everyday and fall on our knees in fresh repentance and brokenness and cry out to Jesus to save us from ourselves, so that we can be involved in redeeming the world in which we live.

So, if we realize that we are BEING saved, then we must also realize that God uses various tools in our life to point us to Christ, who was, is, and shall be our salvation. Those tools are in our lives as the means of grace to us so that we will experience more of Jesus and his love, and it will cause us to renew our dying in him. There are many, the Scriptures, the community of Christ, baptism, giving, singing, fasting, praying, loving, and, of course, communion. Each of these things can be called sacraments if we understand them to be means of God’s grace in the process of our ongoing salvation from sin.

Secondly, I do not believe that the unleavened bread and the wine are the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. I, also, do not believe that the presence of Christ is in the actual bread and wine, although I am not adamantly against this Lutheran concept altogether. I do believe that Christ’s presence is with us as we celebrate the communion, as the Bible clearly teaches. This subject is a blog in and of itself and does not fit my purpose here, other than to clarify what I do not believe, so criticism of my position might be more aptly directed to the core of my blog.

Now, why do I believe open communion is to be preferred over close or closed communion? As I see it, this answer is to be given in the context of the three basic reasons for communion. What that means is that Scripture gives some specific reasons for the giving of these elements, and those reasons are not contradicted by the practice of open communion. On the contrary, I find the practice of open communion very consistent with what the Scripture gives as its reasons for communion.

Firstly, Jesus explicitly states that the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine should be done “in remembrance” of him. In other words, this is an opportunity for us to worship Christ and revel in his person and his actions on our behalf. This reason may entail many components, including personal scrutiny whereby the believer examines himself. Paul wrote about this in the corrective portion of his first letter to the Corinthians: “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” Now this section is a rebuke for the professing believers who were abusing this worship element by indulging themselves. The punishment that is spoken of here is not in reference to unbelievers. I have heard others use this text before to refer to people who take the communion “unworthily”, and then say that unbelievers should, therefore, not be allowed to partake of the communion. This is the theological equivalent of comparing apples with oranges. Let’s look at the passage in question for just a moment.

First Corinthians 11:30-32 says, “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (i.e. died). But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.” This whole discussion is obviously given to believers. That is why he contrasts the believers’ punishment with the unbelievers’ condemnation. The fact that unbelievers are condemned is an assumed fact that Paul contends for. Jesus said the same thing in John 3:18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” So, if an unbeliever is already condemned to Hell, then how can he be more condemned if he takes the communion? The answer, of course, is that he cannot. It is like trying to distinguish between a dead person and “a really dead” person”. In other words, if a man is already condemned, he cannot become any more condemned than he already is.

What this is in reference to is the attitude that should be lived out in the way we take communion- a sacred remembrance of Jesus and a solemn, introspective examination in light of Him. The pertinent question for us is how does this relate to our taking open communion? The short answer is that our taking communion does not directly have any bearing on those who are unbelievers. All of the prescriptions that are given by Paul to the Corinthian Church are only applicable to believers and how their worship should be conducted. What is conspicuously missing from this is any reference to unbelievers whatsoever. In fact, when Paul speaks about the controversial subject of spiritual gifts just three chapters later, he addresses the issue of unbelievers who were assumed to be present during the worship setting. If Paul was so concerned there with the propriety of believers’ worship with regard to their speaking in tongues in the presence of unbelievers, why is he not equally concerned with whether or not unbelievers might take the elements of communion?

To be quite honest, there could be a number of assumptions made with different explanations in view, but the truth is we don’t know, and Paul didn’t address it. You could make the general assumption that they only served the communion elements to believers, but then why not make other assumptions that they only took offering monies from believers, or that only recognized Christians were allowed to share in the singing time, or perhaps they withheld fellowship or food from those who did not know Jesus Christ? Perhaps, you say, that I am being absurd or argumentative, but I think these are nonetheless fair questions, because even if you argue for inclusion in those other things because they are means by which we can proclaim the gospel, then how is it different when it comes to communion?

This brings me to the next reason given for communion, which is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. This doesn’t even seem necessary to defend, because the meaning of communion itself presents the elements of the gospel. This is one of the most powerful examples in Scripture of an object lesson of Jesus’ love for humanity- the shed blood and ravaged body of Jesus Christ given for the sins of the world and their forgiveness. What could be more compelling than that? If there is any doubt that this is in mind when we take communion, listen to Paul again elaborate: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Communion is such an awesome time of worship for me and it, as all authentic worship should be, is also an opportunity to spread the good news about Jesus Christ and his death and his forgiveness for sinners and his love to be experienced through the cross.

On the other hand, what if we keep an unbeliever from taking communion? Have we benefited them any? No. In fact, we may have done great harm to them by not welcoming them and asking them to participate with us in this experience of loving God? Now, if someone is to suggest that we teach people what communion means, then certainly I am in agreement with them. Nevertheless, I think often times we batter people with the banner “now this doesn’t save you” so much to the point that we may actually hinder them from getting saved through it, because, after all, it is the gospel- both preached and experienced. This is why I go back to the word sacrament in this discussion. If by sacrament you mean that taking the communion can save someone, then no, I don’t believe that. But, if you mean that this is one way through which Jesus Christ is seen and treasured and loved and surrendered to, then, yes, I do believe that this can, in the strictest sense of the word, be called a sacrament. As Samuel Goddard believed, I believe, also, that communion has a converting element to it.

For the record, I do believe that communion is also the New Covenant equivalent of the Jewish Passover, i.e. it is the New Passover. As for our discussion now, I think it is similar to what has already been said. Obviously only true believers will worship Christ and fully appreciate the meaning and experience of the communion. Nevertheless, I do think there is great value in sharing it with others who might be brought to Christ through its means.

Finally, let me say that this is the way we have chosen to practice communion, and I am not trying to suggest that everyone should do it this way. What it does mean is that we find this way the most biblically inclusive and the most Christ honoring way to practice communion. In other words, we find the fulfillment of Christ’s command for our lives in this, i.e. by practicing open communion we succeed in loving God and loving our neighbor as our self. I am hoping that this might open up some ideas and a healthy dialogue of disparate views that could hopefully deepen all of our communion experiences.

Conversations with God

I wished that my spirituality was of such depth that I could talk with God as a man talks with his friend. Almost always, though, it is me who is doing all the talking, and less frequent that I would want to disclose does God actually do the talking (I have a sneaky suspicion that it has more to do with my lack of attentiveness than it does with his speaking). I do try to have a quiet time with God in the mornings, because I still think there is something to the quality of King David’s experience with God, when he cried, “Early have I sought you.” I do not always fulfill this ritual, and I am learning that it is okay if I can’t do that every single time, because my acceptance is not based on what I do or how I perform. Knowing this gives me encouragement and freedom to return to a place of meeting with him.

God has also been gracious in showing me that although a place and a time is important in an ongoing dialogue with God, it is equally important to acknowledge God wherever and whenever I go throughout the course of my day. Many times we assume that God is in the steeple or the sanctuary or the pew or the sermon, when sometimes he is in the father and his child in the park, or he is in the cashier at the convenient store, or he might be in the sudden downpour of rain as we jet across the parking lot. This means that I have learned that God is at work in our world in all kinds of different ways, and sometimes we miss this, because we are looking for the specific box in which we have placed God, and he is living and moving and breathing outside of it.

I know that for many years I lived under the assumption that only a small pocket of people in the world had the truth of which I was an honorary member. And then my box grew to include a few more, and now during the past couple of years God has completely destroyed my box, and for the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I don’t know what God wants from me, but I am ready to give it, and I know that he is at work in my life and my family’s life.

I was driving in the van today muttering to God about so many things in my life with which I need direction. At one point during the monologue I cried out to God with tears and told him this: “God, I wished I could sit down with you and have ten minutes of your time. I wished that you could tell me everything you want me to do (all in succinct bullet points, of course). The decisions that I have to make in the coming weeks are of such tremendous magnitude, and I want to see these people come to know you, and I want to honor you and I want to live out your design for my life. God, please speak to me, and do not hide your face from me.”

Fortunately and unfortunately God has not chosen to make this world so simple. It is beautiful and ugly all at the same time; it is a very difficult world, and if we pretend to know the work of God in it, then we commit a grievous sin against his greatness. We commit the prejudice that the friend of Job committed when he accused Job’s children of sinning as the reason for Job’s suffering. And when we want to know everything, we have to be careful that we do not act as the disciple Thomas, who would not believe until he had seen. I may not always understand, but I must always trust God, and know that he is at work in my life, as well as others.

A Prayer Request

I have been at this pastor thing now for about two and a half years, and I feel like I know less now than when I started, although I know more about what I am not. I want to take this time to say “thanks” to all those who have helped me along the way in praying for me, as well as for my family and my church. I also want to take this brief time and ask each of you (or all two of you… is it really that many?) to pray for me and CABC during the next few weeks especially. Our leadership is really searching to find clear direction for what we are doing, and there are a lot of “irons in the fire”, so to speak (whatever that means).

Seriously, I am very thankful for all that God has done in my life, and I am very grateful for his ongoing mercy that endures forever and keeps back what I deserve and does not consume me for all of the stupid things that I have done in my life and all the stupid things that I have wanted to do but couldn’t. God is so unbelievable to continue loving me despite my great faithlessness, and so magnificent in that he chooses to use a trashed vessel like me. I thank God for all that he has allowed me to go through, because I know that without that, I would be even more proud and stubborn than I am now, and I thank God for all that he has kept me from (even blessings at times). As I write this, I have an excruciating desire to be great, and yet I know now that through God’s Son that this is not a misdirected passion. I want God now more than ever to set the people of Grant Park free. But, I know that he has to set me free first. I am longing for his goodness to infect those around me to obtain the prize of Jesus Christ.
Please pray for me now more than ever, as I will soon be taking a first-ever hiatus (a very short one) to determine what I am doing. Thanks

A Personal Reflection On Promptings from the Holy Spirit

About eighteen years ago, when I first became a Christian, I began to get involved in learning what the Bible taught, and I tried to become regular at having a daily “quiet time” with God, although I was inconsistent at best. I remember, however, in those early days of the faith how tender I was to the Holy Spirit, often tediously taking notes of sermons, soaking up every morsel of biblical information I could possibly obtain, as well as often responding to sermons by going to the altar and confessing sins. I, also, recall how I had such an intense desire for God to use me and to do something amazing with my life, and that would often result in my involvement in various ministries of the local church.

One of the most vivid memories I have of God working in my life in those early years of following Christ was his Holy Spirit, on various occasions, prompting me to act in some specific way. I recall one such instance of God intensely prompting me to pray for a dear friend who, at the time, was away from the Lord. I shared the prompting with several of my other friends, and we committed to pray for him for several days, and he soon after came back to the Lord, and resubmitted himself to Christ. I also remember, when I lived in Jacksonville, how God impressed me to witness to a stranger carrying groceries and how he came to trust Christ, through a bizarre series of events. I know there were several other occasions I clearly remember of how God brought to my mind things to say when I was encouraging a believer, preaching a sermon, or witnessing to an unbeliever. Unfortunately, my promptings of the Holy Spirit began to diminish as I became more educated in doctrine.

This is not to downplay the importance of doctrine in a believer’s life and faith, because it is foundational to his health, but when knowledge begins to puff one up, the learning of doctrine can be devastating. The problem in my own life was my reading of men who valued the Scriptures so much that they thought any adherence to something subjective was an attack on Scripture itself. The tragic thing is that I not only became convinced of its teaching; I became closed to the working of the Holy Spirit in my life. That is not to say that the Holy Spirit did not do anything else in my life during this period, nor does it mean that I received no promptings from the Holy Spirit. In fact, I continued to receive convictions of sin through the Holy Spirit and the preaching of Scriptures and other believers; I continued to be moved to action at different times in my Christian life, but I always dismissed these occurrences as non-subjective, because they were in some way connected to the Word of God.

I am a pastor of a church in Atlanta now, and God has been teaching me some amazing truths. This morning on the way back from studying at my favorite coffee shop I confessed to God my lack of tenderness and sensitivity to the person and work of his Holy Spirit these past few years. I confessed that during this time I had even rationalized away the authenticity of some of the experiences I described above. I admitted that I had squandered many opportunities for God to work in my life, because I erroneously concluded that my sensitivity to those promptings was a danger to the sufficiency of Scriptures in my life. I confessed that I now believe that God primarily speaks to believers through the Scriptures, but often through other prophetic revelations, as well.

Now, some of you who read this (all two of you) might have agreed with everything I have written up to this point, but now you would disagree with my classification of these promptings as prophetic revelations. That is okay, I guess, but it is important that you are, at least, open to God’s workings and promptings in your life. But, more on this later…

Isaiah, a.k.a. Dr. Death

I have watched enough medical dramas, as well as witnessed real life episodes, to know how devastating it is when someone gets the bad news about their “condition”, their “disease”, their “inoperable brain tumor”, etc. Doctors, of course, don’t go to medical school for all those years to articulate the miseries of suffering and death; they go to school so they can help people heal and get better. No one dreams about being by the bed side of someone who has no chance of cure, and having to tell them that. They may have grand visions of performing the miraculous surgery to save someone from cancer, but not the other way around.

It is so much more interesting, then, when we consider the mission of Isaiah in chapter six of the book he wrote. He had a vision, also, and he made himself available to become a missionary: “Here am I ,LORD, send me.” But perhaps he didn’t have a chance to sit down with his guidance counselor or recruiter for an adequate amount of time, because it wasn’t exactly, perhaps, what he had envisioned. God told Isaiah essentially that he would be delivering the bad news to the family. He would be telling the people of Judah there is no hope; you have a disease; and you’re going to die. To make matters worse, God tells Isaiah to prevent them from hearing; keep them (spiritually) blind; make their hearts calloused. Why? “Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” What? Isn’t that what we are supposed to be here for? Are we not supposed to be involved in healing people? When someone has cancer, don’t we want to tell them how they can be healed? Not so in this passage, where God appears not to want them to repent, so that they can be led into national desolation and exile.

I must admit that this is a difficult text to swallow, because of the apparent implications that God is merciless and unloving. The reader of the fact that God here does not want these people to be healed, nevertheless, has to extrapolate several other points from this text:

(1) Up to this point, God has been very longsuffering and loving with Judah. Time does not permit me to elaborate on the history of Judah, but suffice it to say, there has been much mercy and love and forgiveness poured out on this people. Not only that, but God entered into a covenant with this people, and the deal was if they broke the covenant he would break the covenant and judge them for their disobedience.

(2) The “until” in Isaiah 6:11 indicates a renewed opportunity of repentance that would occur. Isaiah seems to be as beleaguered as we are at the thought of delivering the message of doom and gloom, and questions “For how long, O LORD?” Surely this is only temporary, since Yahweh is a loving God and this is his covenant people. The answer he receives is not much comfort for the one in his shoes, however, but it does give some comfort to us, as well as insight into the character of God. The word “until” introduces the happenings of the Babylonian Invasion, in which King Nebuchadnezzar would sweep in and destroy the city of Jerusalem and lead the inhabitants off to Babylon as exiled slaves. The amazing thing is that judgment upon Judah ,in retrospect, was one of the greatest acts of mercy God could have ever shown the world, because it forced Judah to be “the Light to the nations” that it was designed to be. Therefore, Isaiah’s quest to become a missionary seemed very disappointing, when in fact he played an integral role in the nations coming to know the true God of Israel, by Judah’s dispersion into their regions. As they were exiled, many of them repented and were used to bring many others into a relationship with Yahweh, and eventually there was a collective repentance that took place.

So, what is the lesson from all of this? (a) God sovereignly works the events of history for his ultimate glory, (b) God is holy and just in all that he does, (c) Repentance is solely the work of God, and (d) God’s abundant mercy many times precedes abundant judgment, nor is it always an assumed given. Therefore, we must humble ourselves and take heed to the words of Dr. Death.

From Life to Death with Anna Nicole Smith

I am a pastor, so I have been preaching through a series in the Book of Ecclesiastes about “the Meaninglessness of Life”. In this series, we have talked about the futility that is contained in the things of life, not things that suck, but good things that were designed by God to be enjoyed. We all enjoy good food, like a Steak Diane from the Cheesecake Factory, or a piece of chocolate cake from Dailey’s. Those are things obviously to be enjoyed. We also enjoy good sex (those of us who are married). Although some of us might cringe when that word is mentioned, the truth is God has created it to be a beautiful thing; the world and our own wicked hearts have perverted it, so much so that we can’t even read the Song of Solomon without blushing, or if we do we buy into the incredulous idea that somehow the Shulammite woman’s breasts refer in some way to the church. We enjoy the satisfaction in accomplishments or the labor to which we give ourselves. Especially those of us who can be given to being a workaholic know how enjoyable work can be. We also enjoy the taste of good wine (especially white wine), because it was “made for the gladness of man’s heart”. We also enjoy friendship. I have really basked in the friendships God has given me in my life. I feel like a fool for squandering some of the ones I have had in the past, but still cherish the few valuable ones that I have, because they are priceless, and they make the world a safer place for me to live in. I also enjoy wisdom. I have been to school and to college and I still enjoy reading a theology book like nothing else. I enjoy learning and becoming more knowledgeable of the world in which we live. I love music, as well. I enjoy listening to good Christian rock as well as good secular rock, and I have learned to glorify God in both. I also enjoy laughter. Wow, my life is so stupid sometimes, I have to laugh. I have to give myself permission to laugh at the crazy things that take place at times. That is the world in which we live. I could go on and on about the many gifts that God has given each of us, and they are great and they are to be received with thanksgiving and enjoyed.

But they must never become the pursuit of our lives. They must become the bed of roses on the path to our goal. They are certainly beautiful to look at and to smell, but we must never pitch our tent in the bed of roses and make that our dwelling place. That is the thing that Solomon found out about life. Life has a lot of fleeting joy; it always leaves you wanting something more. It’s like drinking a Coke; you enjoy it when you’re thirsty, but it has a tremendous after taste that makes you want something purer, like water.

Life was designed by God to be like this. Our hearts have been fashioned in such a way to give us a longing for something greater, for something more long-lasting, for something more eternal, for something more divine…like God.

If we fool ourselves into thinking that this world will satisfy our starving hearts, we will die miserable. It reminds me of the news story I heard today about Anna Nicole Smith dying. Thirty-nine years of age. Table dancer, Playboy’s Play Mate of the year, Marilyn Monroe look-alike, widow of half-a-billion dollars-oil tycoon, star of a reality t.v. show, model, etc., etc., etc. And now she is dead. What is all that to her now? But don’t be so hard on her. We all have our own repertoire of things we value in this life. They’re certainly not as impressive as Anna Nicole Smith’s, but they are all the same nothingness.

The same way her life ended is the same way our own life will end- with the breath going out and our lives’ pleasures not meaning anything. Our challenge from this is to see our life as part of a grand purpose that God has for us; a purpose that is not fully known, but is manifestly acknowledged and submitted to. We are not here for ourselves, but for the glory of God, but our happiness depends upon God. Not the temporal, shallow happiness that goes away with the gift, but the deep, radical, God-centered happiness that is never-ending, because it is fixed on the Giver.