Join Me This Sunday to Explore the Wonder of Pentecost

Posted on May 18, 2013

Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday. Christians celebrate it seven weeks after Resurrection Sunday. I usually speak on the third Sunday, and when Pastor David made a point of the day, I thought maybe he wanted me to stick to the theme, but I think I misunderstood. I didn’t have any better ideas, but I thought it would probably be a dry, academic sermon more like a college lecture. However when I started to look into the significance of Pentecost I was overjoyed to see how it was that God fit everything together so that we would have no doubt that Jesus is the promised messiah and His Holy Spirit the sign of our relationship with Him. We’ll read from the second chapter of Acts and also explore what it means for us today. I’m excited to share it with you and I hope you will come and be blessed! Join us at Bartimaeus Baptist Temple at 2:30pm. You don’t even have to get up early.

Posted in Local | Leave a comment

Destructive Shame

Posted on April 27, 2013

When shame is deserved, it’s a good thing. It can cause us to renounce that which we should be ashamed of and make better choices in the future. But too often it is unjustified, and that’s when it becomes a destructive force. We can be free even from deserved shame by the cleansing that is available to us when we turn away from our sin and to the lordship of Jesus. He paid the price for us and took our shame.

Sometimes it’s the undeserved shame that is harder to purge. Because I know people who struggle with it, I’ll specifically address that which many feel related to their disability. I can because I’ve been there. For me it came because I believed that I was supposed to be healed. For others it may be because of the way they see disability or the way they imagine (not always without foundation) that others see them.

Shame is completely inappropriate when its basis is something you cannot change. It makes no more sense to be ashamed of disability than it does to be ashamed of, say, being of average height. I’ll ad since I am not that being ashamed of below average height is no more reasonable. On some level we probably all know that, but knowing it doesn’t help much. We still feel ashamed.

I wish I had a secret formula that I could share with the world to eliminate needless shame, but I don’t. In my own life it took decades, and when I get into awkward situations, it still shows up. What I do hope I can provide is a little incentive for anyone struggling with it to find ways to overcome it. Again I write from the perspective of disability because it’s what I know.

My wife and I have set out to minister specifically to the needs of people facing disability. We want to give from what we have been given. All of my life I have been affirmed and encouraged and never allowed to develop an attitude of disability or entitlement. This has allowed me to succeed in the working world. The more important parts of my life took a little longer to mature and I’m still growing.

The key for me was and is learning to trust in God. We repeat that until it becomes little more than a Christinese cliché, but we shouldn’t lose the truth of it. When I finally realized how little depended on me and how faithful God is to complete what He started despite my failures, I began to experience true freedom. I wrote that Jesus took our shame. He did this through His sacrifice on the cross. I was thinking of deserved shame that comes from guilt, but it is more than that. Jesus takes all of our shame. It is not through our own effort that this happens.

When we realize how much depends on God and how little on us, we realize that we have nothing to be ashamed of. At the root of unmerited shame is pride. When we are focused on ourselves, we think about what we can and cannot do. When we turn our focus to Jesus, we know that there is nothing He cannot do. His power is perfected in our weakness (2 co 12:9) and we can do anything He requires of us by His strength (Php 4:13.)

We all have a purpose. God has a mission for you, whether or not you are facing a physical disability. It may be that God wants you to share what He has given you with someone else facing the same or similar challenge. Often the best people to lead us through are those who have been there. But if you carry shame, you will not be very effective. It will cover you like a soiled garment, and it is all others will be able to see. Shame changes our behavior. We may retreat into ourselves. We may become anxious, defensive and unpleasant to be around. Why would anyone want to follow that? Throw away the worthless shame that hinders you from being all that God intended. Let Him take it from you. Live in the freedom and purpose that comes from being in harmony with Yahweh.

Posted in Christian life, Disability | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What Do You See?

Posted on April 18, 2013

On Monday we watched in disbelief as terrorists set off bombs at the Boston Marathon. Wednesday night right here in Texas a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant has killed several, injured many more, and destroyed or damaged property for 5 blocks around the plant. Why did this happen? Why does any bad thing happen? Eventually we may learn who set off those bombs and what happened at that plant, but we’re asking deeper questions. We might be asking more specifically, “why did God let it happen?”

Just Monday morning I read Psalm 34. We are told in the introduction that this psalm was written during a time when the future king David had fled his own country to avoid being killed by the jealous King Saul, whom he had faithfully served. He was hiding out with Israel’s mortal enemies, the philistines. He was afraid of that king too so he pretended to be crazy. That way the king would not consider him a threat.

You might think at this point that David would be angry and discouraged. We know from other psalms that sometimes he did feel that way, but that isn’t what he expresses here. This psalm is an expression of praise to Yahweh from beginning to end. David could have looked at his circumstances, but instead he chose to focus on the Lord.

There is a lesson here for us. David acknowledged that troubles abounded, but he knew the One who was able to deliver him. He says in verse 19, “Many are the distresses of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.” (LEB) I would be delighted if you joined us at Bartimaeus Baptist Temple on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 to look at this wonderful psalm together and see what we can learn.

Posted in Local | Leave a comment

Singing without Thinking

Posted on April 6, 2013

I’ know I’m not alone, though sometimes it feels like it. I remember standing next to someone in church who sang a different word than the song called for, obviously in disagreement with the lyric. I happen not to like that song either for a similar reason if not the same one. Do we even think about what we’re singing? Is it any better to sing a lie than to just speak it? Maybe it’s worse because of the power that music has to influence us.

Some lyrics are just weird. “There is a fountain filled with blood?” Really? Christians understand the symbolism in that phrase, but how does it sound to someone with no knowledge of the faith? To them it’s just disgusting. Frankly, I agree with them, and it’s not true. Jesus paid for our sins with His blood. It is good to memorialize that sacrifice in song, but thank God there’s no bloody fountain we all have to dive into.

Then there’s just plain bad theology. A specific example isn’t coming to mind at the moment, but if you pay attention I’m sure you will spot it. We can find it in the hymns and we can find it in our modern worship. Maybe it agrees with that of the church where we’re going or maybe it doesn’t. The latter is probably true more than we would like to think. The trouble is we don’t think. We just sing. Maybe we even like the song because it makes us feel good.

The songs that get to me the most are those with narcissistic lyrics. Two in particular come to mind. Whenever I sing them I leave out the offending word and phrase. These are the songs that over personalize what Jesus did on the cross. I don’t dispute the idea that if only one of us needed saving He would have done it just for the one. I think that’s true, though if there’s anyone for whom I might doubt it, I am that person. But he didn’t give his life “just for me.” He gave it for everyone who would call on His name. He didn’t think of “me above all.” If anyone was “above all” it was our Heavenly Father. Was He thinking of us? We can get that from scripture. After all, it was us for whom He died. We can take that very personally, but let’s keep to the truth in His word. Let’s be sure we are glorifying Jesus rather than ourselves.

Do you think about what you’re singing? Have you ever refused to sing something that you didn’t believe to be true? Do you think I’m just a legalist? Write me back.

Posted in Christian life | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

You Think I Hate You

Posted on March 28, 2013

You think I hate you. Maybe people have told you so or maybe someone who claims the same faith as I has hurt you. I don’t know the specifics, but I’ve heard you say it. You think I hate you because of who you are. You say you were born that way and cannot change. In a since you’re right. We are all born sinners, and without the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, we cannot change.

I hate what you do, but not for the reasons you might imagine. I hate it for the same reason that God does. I hate it because I love you. I hate it because it will ultimately destroy you. All of us have a tendency to pursue things that we think will make us happy but that God knows to be death to us. Sexual sin of any sort is particularly destructive. It corrupts the relationship that God intended to be the foundation of all that He would show us of love. All of the loving relationships that spring from it show us aspects of the loving relationship that He wants with us. From our parents and from our children we learn of the Father’s love. From our spouses we get the smallest taste of what He means by calling us His bride. He is jealous for us and has a right to be so. He gave it all for us. That is why he hates sexual sin and especially homosexuality. It corrupts the best gift he gave us for understanding and experiencing all of the love that He has for us.

Because we’re all born sinners, often these relationships don’t measure up to the standards He set. Lovers fight. Parents abuse their children. Sexual sin is not the only way we ruin the beautiful things that God gave to us. Perhaps your experience has been thus. For me to speak of love as I have rings hollow for you. It grieves me to know this, and I want you to know that it grieves God too. He did not intend it so, but we made our choices ad did those who came before us.

Right now the country is divided over the meaning of marriage. You may be one of those fighting to be allowed to marry someone of the same sex. We stand opposed, suddenly finding a zeal for “traditional marriage” that too many of us don’t exhibit in our own lives. If you are aware of the statistics, we must seem hypocritical to you. Traditional marriage is not just one man and one woman, but one man and one woman for life. We leave out that last part. The divorce rate among so-called Christians is no better than among those who are not. I think that statistic is skewed by those outside the faith who never marry in the first place, but it is perception we’re dealing with here. We don’t treat marriage as particularly special, so why are we upset because you want to do it too? It’s not an unreasonable question, and I’m ashamed to have to answer it. The best answer I can offer is simply that we are wrong not to place the same value on marriage as God does. I’ve already said that we all start out sinners, but once we make the decision to follow Jesus, things should change. If they don’t, we need to examine ourselves to see if we are really what we claim to be.

But we still must make a stand. My hope is that by this letter you understand why we feel so strongly about it. I do not hate you. I love you. So does Jesus. He wants to free you from the destructive lifestyle you have chosen. He wants to show you what real love is. No human substitute will ever be its equal.

Posted in Christian life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

He Is Risen!

Posted on March 26, 2013

This Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. At Bartimaeus Baptist Temple, we’ll be celebrating with a time of communion, special music, and a light dinner after the service. I hope you can come and join us. I’m going to be sharing from 1 Corinthians 15:1-14. Here Paul explains how crucial Jesus’ resurrection is to the message of the Gospel. Without it, he says, our faith is worthless! Most people don’t have any trouble believing that Jesus was a real person. They will usually agree that He was a good person. We have historical record that He was crucified by the Roman government, so most people can accept that. The problem comes when we talk about the fact that he was also raised from the dead three days later. This is no less true for its incredible nature, and as Paul points out, there were many who saw Him after He was raised.

This Sunday, I would like to share with you two things. First we will talk about the necessity of the resurrection to our faith. Then I’ll give you some information that you can use when you share your faith with others and the question of His resurrection comes up. Let us proclaim with boldness and confidence, “He is risen!”

Posted in General | Leave a comment

You Are What You Think

Posted on February 17, 2013

I was sitting here in my office one day after getting back from a visit to Linda while she was in the hospital. I was trying to process all that was happening and how we should be thinking about it. We trust the Lord always, but sometimes it’s hard to hold on when your world is shaking around you. How much will she recover? What will we do? Can we cope with the new reality? The Lord had already been dealing with me about what I spend my time thinking about. It was time for the next lesson.

When I set out to post the introduction for this week’s sermon, I planned a rather straightforward exhortation about how we need to renew our minds by focusing our thoughts on the things of God instead of the things of this world. Romans 12:2 will remain the key verse from which we will launch our study, but I see now that I was going to take it completely out of its context. It’s important for us to realize when we read the Bible that it is not a collection of disjointed snippets that we can cut and paste together to fit our fancy. It’s a collection of historical accounts, poetry, prophecies, and letters; divinely assembled to give us the instructions we need to live as God intended. The book of Romans is one of my favorite books to pull from, but it is a single letter and really should be read from beginning to end. However, we can’t really tackle that in 30 minutes, so we’ll try to extract the sense of certain parts without violating the meaning of the whole.

I would be delighted to have you join us today at Bartimaeus Baptist Temple at 2:30 as we look into Romans chapter 12 and maybe just a bit of 11 so we can see what the therefore is there for and see what Paul meant when he said that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. I look forward to seeing you there because I expect God to show us great things!

Posted in Bible Study | Leave a comment

Instant Messaging Madness!

Posted on January 11, 2013

It became a problem almost as soon as instant messaging spread across the Internet. Every tech company you ever heard of and quite a few you never will developed their own protocol and client to get in on the rage. Naturally each one attracted its own fan base, and of course none of your friends use the same one you do or even the same one as any of your other friends.

Assuming you really want all your friends to be able to contact you whenever it pleases them, how to you juggle all these connections? Load up every possible instant messaging client and you’ll find your PC not much good for anything else. That’s where multiple client programs come in handy. They will allow you to consolidate all the services you want to connect to in one place so that you don’t have to run a separate program for each one. My current favorite, primarily because of its accessibility, is a donation supported lightweight program called Miranda IM.

However, I’m finding fewer and fewer people using all those other services once so ubiquitous in the online world. I just dropped the AIM plugin from being loaded because I don’t remember the last time I talked to anyone on AIM. MSN is officially going away soon. I have one friend on Yahoo Messenger who refuses to get on Facebook and one person I actually speak to on Skype, my wife, who’s usually doing it from the next room. Everyone else I know who chooses to communicate by electronic means at all primarily uses Facebook.

I don’t know if my experience is unique, but I suspect it is not. Social networks and mobile platforms have largely taken the place of the dedicated instant messaging services. Those that are thriving are so doing because they are well integrated with mobile platforms or were built with that in mind.

I’ll be taking my AIM and Yahoo info out of public view though I’ll keep running the Yahoo protocol for my one holdout friend. I’ll keep running Skype for the convenience of my beloved and maybe go ahead and put that on my profile. It’s interesting how things change, and I wonder how they’ll change again in another decade, assuming we’re still here to find out.

Posted in Technology | Tagged | Leave a comment

Better Off Dead?

Posted on December 30, 2012

I was going to put this down in the form of a poem, which quickly evolved into a song. When I got started I realized I just wanted to lay it out. I don’t have any delusions about the quality of my attempts at literary prowess, so why subject you to it? I couldn’t sleep this morning and for some reason started thinking about how the world changes if someone isn’t in it. I’m sure with the Christmas season just passed It’s A Wonderful Life was in the back of my mind somewhere. Most of us don’t live such dramatic lives, but all of our lives are precious.

Depression seems to be epidemic in this country and if my layman’s information is correct the situation is the same across the western world. We all struggle with times of sadness and difficult circumstances that bring us down for a while, and we say we’re depressed. It’s become part of our common vernacular. Then there’s the persistent depression we call clinical depression and dispense medication for. I don’t want to dismiss any real conditions that might cause chemical imbalances in the brain that lead to depression with purely physical causes, though I do wonder which comes first in some cases, the imbalance, or the spiritual and emotional dysfunction. I am speaking in terms that might be considered cold and clinical; maybe ill-informed and unfeeling. If that’s the impression you’re getting, read back over some of the other things I’ve written in this blog. I think you’ll see the evidence of the struggle in my own life. I speak from personal experience and as one who is still on the journey.

Now to answer the question, yes! I am better off dead. I am better off dead to the sin that draws me away from the life that is found in my Lord Jesus and into a death from which there is no salvation. That’s the symbolism of Christian baptism; the death of the old and the birth of the new. I am better off dead to my own selfish desires, which will only lead me deeper into depression. They can only do so because I am not the source of life. Yahweh is the source of life. His Holy Spirit lives within me, but if I will not listen to Him, I will not have the benefit of the only true Counselor.

I believe the best thing we can do to fight depression is to get the focus off of ourselves. I don’t think it helps much to merely contemplate the state of someone worse off than ourselves. We’ve got to get in there and actually help. That’s when things start to change because that’s when we’re doing what God made us to do. We’re made in his image. We’re not going to be healthy unless we’re doing what we’re made for. So are you depressed? You really are better off dead! (See Romans 6, Colossians 3:1-17.) Leave off worrying all the problems you have, serious though they may be. Focus instead on helping someone else solve theirs. I’ll bet you that if your problems don’t get better, your perspective on them will.

Posted in Bible Study, Christian life | Tagged | Leave a comment

Reflections on Fear

Posted on December 29, 2012

All of us know it. Some of us have conquered it. Others it rules. It can protect us, or it can stop us at every turn. It can be guided by reason or slay all reason in its path. A step becomes a precipice. A mouse becomes a lion. No one wants to be pitied, but there is nothing so pitiful as one imprisoned by insubstantial bars of unreasoning fear. Woe to those who would help such a one. Like a wounded animal who cannot distinguish between friend and foe, he or she will strike out at these kind souls and no one will be the better.

What is the solution? It has been said that faith is the opposite of fear. Maybe that is true. Certainly if one trusts in God he need not fear, but I believe that something else comes first. John the disciple says that “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…” (John 4:18.) Yes, I’m robbing the context a little and I generally don’t like to do that, but I think the point I want to make is safe. Trust begins with love. That same passage says that we love God because He loved us first. We learn to trust him because He took the initiative.

When we observe someone who is trapped in fear, we need to first show them love. It’s going to be hard and it’s going to take a long time. But over time we will begin to build trust and then maybe we can start to deal with the issues at the root of the fear. I write as if I know something about this. These are reflections based on observation and trying to walk through my own life in a way that is pleasing to Yahweh. I’ve had limited experience trying to put them into practice. We’ll see what I think of them in a few years.

Posted in Christian life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment