An addendum to last week's message...

This past weekend I preached on "How can I claim my inheritance?" and just like so many sermons, I realized that I cannot preach every thought I have about a subject. So I wanted to give you a small portion of the message that I did not include in the sermon, and allow you to think about this and ask questions - here goes...

"...the inheritance you have isn’t solely received by you demonstrating faith only when it is beneficial. You see, our trust and obedience needs to go far beyond receiving only the good things that God has for us. What about trust and obedience – FAITH – that is required in situations that aren’t beneficial to me – like when God tells me to stop sinning – saying, doing, watching, listening to the wrongs? Next week we will discuss this in detail when we answer the question, “what does God want from me?” but I want you to know that God’s blessing, the inheritance, is contingent upon our obedience in every facet of our lives. Don’t try to claim inheritance when you aren’t willing to walk in obedience. – Paul warns us about this kind of thing in Galatians 6:7-8:

Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. (The Message)

You don’t claim an inheritance from God while walking in disobedience. You can fool a lot of people about your walk, but God’s not fooled. If you seek your inheritance while knowingly harboring sin or bitterness or deception, you won’t find your inheritance until you have exercised faith in those areas of your life."

By the way, if you missed it, CD's are available for this message.

To Sir with love...

I read yesterday in an MSNBC article that Sir Elton John said in a newspaper magazine that "religion encourages hatred and produces hateful lemmings," and that he would "ban organized religion completely." Admittedly, as I read what he had to say, it didn't exactly help me be more loving and accepting. It wreaks of Karl Marx's "religion is opium for the masses" statement, indicating that outside of providing some emotional high to deal with everyday issues, religion is useless.

So my immediate reaction was, "How dare he! How dare Sir Elton John would say these things..." To go along with his words, Rosie O'Donnell in October made comments on her new show The View in which she said, "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like the United States." And again, my thoughts immediately were, "How could she say that?! How dare she!"

But before I went and picketed and boycotted and wrote to every major Christian organization to ban the listening and viewing of these entertainers, the Voice of the Spirit within had to remind me of a few things:

• Jesus told His followers, "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first."
• Hebrews reminds us like the old song, "This world is not our home."
• And Paul encourages us in Romans 12 to "not let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good."

We can get mad at the comments - they were ignorant and just as bigoted as a racial slur. They reflect intolerance (a Christian could NEVER say anything like these things and get away with it) and do nothing but spread hatred. The very thing they condemn is what they promote.

BUT we are to not curse them, but love and bless them (Romans 12:14) and show them just how untrue their statements are by the very ways we react to them. If we are people of faith (who trust in and act on what God says...that sounds familiar), then when we are openly scorned, ridiculed, and spoken evil against, we respond by demonstrating love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness to those who do so. Paul calls love a "more excellent way," and it ought to be our defining characteristic.

I'd love any thoughts if you have any...Pastor.

Save the dance...

I have been reading Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala, a great book that corresponds well with our current fall campaign of Discovering the Possibilities of Faith. The book is wonderful (a definite recommendation), but there is a phrase in the book that I have begun using - Jim says, in reference to kidding or fooling ourselves, "Let's not dance with ourselves."

The call to live a life of faith and the life of a Christian is a call to honesty that begins with telling the truth about ourselves, includes recognizing the truth that God tells us, and includes recognizing the lies of the devil. Each one of these "honesty" checks is difficult, but the one that Christians are simply awful at is telling the truth about themselves. As a pastor, when trying to help someone become extricated from a sinful pattern, if that person refuses to acknowledge the pain they are causing to God, themselves, and others, and if that person fails to recognize the ugliness of their sin, than victory is impossible. They are too busy "dancing with themselves."

I even see this with non-sinful issues. For example, for years I would lie to myself about what I could consume and not consume, and how ultimately, I could control my health if I had to. Until I realized that my habits were controlling me - it wasn't that I couldn't stop behaving in unhealthy manners, but it is that I refused to be truthful and recognize just how weak I really was. For me, if there is candy at my desk or chocolate in the cupboard, I was going to eat it, regardless of my "will (or Willis) power." I had to take that stuff away completely so that I wouldn't "dance with myself" and keep adding pounds and bad health.

I believe this extends into our church life as well. Too often, we are a church that "dances with ourselves." EVERYONE knows that EVERYONE has problems (if you've seen our sign - we're "the perfect church if you aren't") and EVERYONE struggles and has issues - R.E.M. reminded us that "everybody hurts sometimes." But our hurts and struggles, rather than being what distances us away from each other, should be the one thing that draws us closer together. If I can find healing for a hurt or a solution for a problem or encouragement for my life mission through others, than why don't I seek that? I think the problem is that we "dance with ourselves" and we don't want to acknowledge that in our church body - from leaders to laypeople - are sin, problems, and struggles. We would rather gloss over that because, in doing so, we can gloss over our own. It becomes a Clinton-like "don't ask, don't tell" policy - and the praise music we play every Sunday becomes just another opportunity not to dance with the Father but to dance with ourselves.

I read this morning on Jesus Creed that the Ted Haggard scandal has really exposed some weaknesses in the way we as the church relate in community, especially when it comes to dealing with our sin and weakness - Journey, something has to change, from pastor to deacon to leader to teacher to layperson; from fathers to mothers, husbands to wives, parents to children, children to friends - all the way down - something has to change in our community for us to really understand what COMMUNITY is all about...

Church - The Journey, if we really are going to be a church that travels "together in community," then let's stop dancing with ourselves and let's start dancing with each other! Let's dance in selfless, engaging, encouraging, inviting, growing, instructing, and relational community - putting away bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander and instead putting on kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness, clothing ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience! Save the dance for your brothers and sisters in Christ, and for the God who rejoices and sings over us.

No more dancing with ourselves and grieving the Holy Spirit. Let's start dancing with each other and letting the fulness of the Spirit dwell in our midst...

In the crosshairs...

I read online last night that Ted Haggard was being accused of having a homosexual relationship for the past three years, and it knocked the wind right out of me. No, not again. I know that there are only unproven allegations (which I hope to be false), but from what a news article on MSNBC wrote, some of the allegations, Ted admitted, are true. What a terrible shame and what a fall of a great leader. I pray for Ted and his family, and I pray that the truth comes out like it should. I pray for his church (New Life in Colorado Springs), and I pray that we church leaders stay pure against the attacks of Satan who is gunning for us...

I feel the deep impacts of this, and if the devil can get Christian leaders to fall (and his attacks are vicious, real, and hit at the perfect spot) then he can nullify the Christian message to many. So much is at stake, and so easily I forget. Christian leaders all over the country are in the crosshairs, and the devil is waiting to pull the trigger when we foolishly leave ourselves vulnerable (I say "we" because I could easily have been taken out many times by my own foolishness).

God, please keep your church leaders pure and protected. Keep us from sin, and keep us from stupidity and pride. In this case of Ted Haggard, may Your goodness shine through in a dark time, and may Your grace be extended to Ted and his family who so desperately need it (as do we all). Father, may You extinguish the fiery darts of the wicked, and may You ultimately restore Ted as he receives instruction, correction, and accountability through his church board. MAY WE CHRISTIANS NOT SHOOT OUR WOUNDED AND LEAVE THEM FOR DEAD! May Your LOVE, which is far greater than any accusations or realizations, be what is evidenced by the world. Forgive Ted, and forgive this other man, and Lord, may Your kingdom come...in the name of Jesus I ask this.