What if it's too late to ask forgiveness?

When I was a young boy, I had a babysitter in the little town of Santa Rosa, California.  I stayed there most of the day after school till my mom arrived to take me home.  There were other children there as well.  One day one of the boys took me out to the front yard to show me something.  He pointed to a boy on a bicycle across the street.  He whispered to me, "that kid's blind!"  I didn't believe him, because he was riding (or at least sitting on) a bike.  Then my friend said, "I'll prove it!"

Then he took a rock and threw it near the boy, and the boy's head jerked towards the noise.  But it was clear he could not see us from across the street.  While probably not completely blind, he was definitely legally blind.  Then my friend egged me on, "throw a rock, and see for yourself!"   I hesitated because it didn't seem right or kind, but finally I did it.  Who would know?  I threw the rock and saw the boy's head jerk around.  It looked funny.  He couldn't see me, so it seemed "safe."  Then my friend and I proceeded to throw more rocks near the boy, his head jerking back and forth, fear welling up in his eyes.

When the little boy realized what was happening, probably because we were laughing across the street, he called out plaintively, "Stop it!  You aren't being very nice to a blind boy!"  But we didn't stop.  We were young and thoughtless and being incredibly cruel.  Then, suddenly, I felt a vice grip on my shoulder and the husband of my babysitter twisted me around and said sternly, "What do you think you're doing?  That's just mean!"

And all of a sudden, I knew it.  I had never felt good about doing this cruel thing, but the desire to have fun and get away with something wrong was stronger than my young conscience.  He lectured us both sternly and made us apologize, but the worst punishment was the conviction of my conscience.  I probably did a lot of bad things as a kid, but I remember this 50 years later.

It was a cruel, heartless, mean thing to do.  I was one of those people who had scarred him for life, ruined his trust in people.  I wish  now that I could go back and really apologize for what I did, but it's too late.  I never saw the boy again, we moved away.  I never even knew his name.  But as a Christian I realize that every sin I commit is first of all a sin against God.  God told me I was to love my neighbor as myself, and I had broken His law by doing what I did.  My youth was no excuse, I knew full well what I was doing was wrong.

There are some sins it is too late to apologize and receive forgiveness for from people, but since all sins are sins against God, it is never too late to find forgiveness from the One we have truly sinned against.  And Jesus is the friend of sinners.  Even sinners like me.

Is Visionary Leadership all its cracked up to be?

It is almost like a knee reflex for pastors, we must have and be able to constantly articulate a "vision" for our church and our ministry.  If we don't, something is wrong with us (or we're just ignorant, uneducated, or backwards).  I've always identified a bit with George Bush Sr. when he was campaigning for a second term as President and was questioned about what his vision for America was.  He said he wasn't sure he really understood "this vision thing."  He came off looking bad and without any plan for the future, but I, for one, empathized.  I can't help wondering if this "vision" thing is often more of a curse than a blessing, more like handcuffs than a road map.

The idea is that the pastor (or leader) is supposed to have this divine compass that knows precisely what direction the church should go in to fulfill its calling.  How we're supposed to have come by this ability is beyond me.  I echo the feeling of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who warned in Life Together that "God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious.  The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself.  He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly...He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together.  When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure.  When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash.  So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself."

I speak from experience as the church I am now pastoring had languished for a number of years with no pastor before I showed up.  I teamed up with a guy with 20+ years of successful pastoral experience, and I had the same.  We had a vision of what the church should be.  We communicated that vision many different ways in different settings.  The church bought our vision and dove in.  Then it all tanked.  Nothing worked.  No one was being brought to Christ, disunity was ripe, confusion was rampant and despair was palpable.  I was tempted to put the blame on the stubborn people who were in the church, or the leaders I had inherited, or that God Himself was just through with this church, and finally, that I was just an unmitigated failure, thus fulfilling Bonhoeffer's words, "first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself."

I guess I'm not really against visionary leadership, only finding that vision within ourselves.  After all our failures, our little church went back to the basics: what is a church, and what are we here for?  About 5 years later we are averaging over 10% conversion rates in all ages, children, youth, and adult.  We are beginning cutting edge ministries in our little hamlet that reach out to our urban barrio.  The church has grown, unity has replaced disunity, and we are really enjoying ministry and fellowship.

We found our vision: Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.  It wasn't original with us, but we decided that piggy-backing on that vision was a pretty safe way to go.  When we did that, doors opened up that have never closed.  We dared to assume that as Jesus said, "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."  So we began seeking ways to reach the people we believed God was already leading to Himself.  Those cutting edge things we tried came about not from me being a "visionary" but from all of us adopting the heart and mission of Jesus.  Our mission statement is predictably simple: to help people find their way back to God.  It is also responsible for dozens of new lives in Christ, and a new passion for a once old dying church.

My advice to those struggling with finding their "vision?"  Chuck it.  Chuck the whole idea of it.  When you start doing what Jesus is doing, He will show you myriads of ways to reach people.  When you sit and try to pontificate a "vision" you will only get a bad case of balloonius headius.

Jesus and Aragorn!

            Most people who know me are aware that I am a J. R. Tolkien fan.  I absolutely love the Hobbit, and the trilogy, the Lord of the Rings.  One of the main characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a man named Strider.  He is a Ranger from the north, tall, lanky, quiet but with a definite authority about him.  He is fearless, but not a bully.  The Hobbits call him Strider because of his long legs.  When he enters the story, no one is really impressed with him.  He seems a bit suspicious, a bit strange, but he knows a lot about what is going on in the world, and he seems much older than he is. 

            Many people treat him with disrespect and disdain, but the longer this Strider is around the more you become impressed with him.  Slowly throughout the books you learn that this weather beaten Ranger, is actually Aragorn, the rightful heir to the Kingdom of Gondor.  At the end of the book, He comes to Gondor to claim his rightful kingdom, but the Steward of Gondor, the man who was reigning until the rightful king should return did not want to believe that Aragorn was that man.  He wanted to hold on to his power, he didn’t think Aragorn was worthy of the position.  So there is a conflict of Kingdoms, the Kingdom of the Stewards who had been entrusted with leading the kingdom in the absence of the King, and the rightful King who returns to receive His Kingdom.  It’s a great picture of Jesus coming into our world, and I’m not sure that Tolkien, a Christian, didn’t have that in mind. 

            When Jesus returned to the world He had made, He had the same kind of problem.  He came off as poor, unlearned, without any social standing and yet He was the rightful King come to inaugurate a new Kingdom.  But the people in power, the religious leaders who considered themselves the stewards of the Kingdom didn’t welcome Him.  His authority challenged theirs, His claims angered them.  And we see that the story of Jesus is the story of Kingdoms in Conflict.  A new Kingdom is being inaugurated by Jesus, but this new Kingdom challenges the old one, resulting in constant conflict.  

             But that's not the end of the story--because we experience the same things in our lives.  Each one of us are our own kingdoms, and we reign over them, we’re the Kings and Queens of our little fiefdoms.  And then along comes Jesus claiming that He is King over us, and we balk, we hesitate, or we strike back in anger.  Our kingdoms are also in conflict.  

             Aragorn wins his kingdom back, and so will our Lord.  For us, the question we need to ask is: does Jesus have to win His kingdom back from me, or will I gladly hand it over?  Am I being a good steward of the "Kingdom of Dan?"  Will I give Him the keys to my kingdom?  Will I truly allow Him to rule over my kingdom, or try to keep part of it back?  We enter His peace when we surrender, we enter His joy when we give up what we cannot rule effectively anyway.  

When God Just Isn't Good Enough

           CS Lewis, in his book, God in the Dock, answers a question about Jesus this way:  “What are we to make of Jesus Christ?    This is a question, which has, in a sense a frantically comic side.  For the real question is not what are we to make of Christ, but what is He to make of us.  The picture of a fly sitting deciding what it is going to make of an elephant has comic elements about it.” 

            The reason Lewis brings this up is that most of us do believe that what we think of Jesus is the most important thing.  For all the irony this thought entails, we do judge God.  We decide whether or not He is worth believing in, whether or not He lives up to our expectations of what our God should be, whether or not He is moral enough, powerful enough, relevant enough.  It’s really a rather tragic farce.  For many people, the honest truth is that, to them, God just isn’t good enough.

            When you begin to talk to people about God, listen to them talking about God with others, you get the clear impression that God just isn’t good enough—at least the God of the Bible.  It’s an interesting statement isn’t it:  God isn’t good enough.  The Bible tells us that God visited our planet to help us to understand Him better, and to rescue us from our sin and the judgment it entailed.  So God came to visit us in the person of Jesus—and when He did, we deemed him not good enough.  Perfect God walked the planet as perfect Man and we deemed Him not good enough for us to believe in, and worship.  Hell will be filled with people for whom God wasn’t good enough.  They will have heard of Him, learned about Him, perhaps even called themselves religious—but Jesus was still just not good enough for them.

            They wanted something different.  They wanted something more.  They wanted someone tamer.  They wanted someone more PC.  They wanted something and someone…else.  Fredericka Mathewes Greene, a writer, and Christian intellectual wrote a book called At the Corner of East and Now: A Modern Life in Ancient Christian Orthodoxy.  In it, she recalls how she came to faith, more importantly, how she at first resisted and dismissed Jesus and Christianity. 

“Back in my college days I was pretty dismissive of Christianity.  To be more accurate, I was contemptuous and hostile.  Though raised in a minimally Christian home, I had rejected the faith by my early teens.  I remained spiritually curious, however, and spent the following years browsing the world’s spiritual food court, gathering tasty delights.  The core of my home-made belief system was “the life force;” the raw energy of life, I’d concluded, was the essence of God, and the various world religions were poetic attempts to express that truth.  I selected among those scraps of poetry as they pleased me.  “My senior college year I gained a startling insight: I realized that my selections were inevitably conditioned by my own tastes, prejudices and blind spots.  I was patching together a Frankenstein God in my own image, and it would never be taller than 5’1. "

Greene finally realized that she was making a god of her own.  Eventually she met Jesus and gave her life to Him.  He was so much more than she had thought He was.  Initially for her, and for so many others, God just wasn’t good enough.  When Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth, the placed He grew up, everyone was impressed and excited He was back.  They heard Him speak, make some amazing claims, and were still impressed.  Then, quickly, the script changes and He is chased out of town.  Within a few moments the friendly welcome is gone and the wheels fall off their relationship with Jesus.  It happens so abruptly it’s disconcerting.  What in the world happened? 

          What happened is precisely the same thing that has been happening ever since.  We can see here: The Anatomy of Rejection.  Few people start off hating Jesus and what He says.  Something makes it happen.  
           In Luke 4:14-30 we can see the Anatomy of a rejection through the actions of his home town.  It starts off good, and everyone is excited, until Jesus starts talking about things that aren't complimentary to them.  Here is the downward progression.  

Good Vibes:  The reputation of Jesus attracts me (v.14-15)
Enticing Ideas: The words of Jesus fascinate me (v.16-22a)
Troubling thoughts: The claims of Jesus bother me (v.22b)
Unwelcome Realities: The truths of Jesus insult me (v.23-28)
Ultimate Rejection: The Jesus of the New Testament repels me (v.29-30)

          Jesus told them the truth, even when He knew how they would respond to it.  That's why today, most people are both impressed and skeptical of Jesus.  They can't help being impressed with what He did, but can't help being offended by what He says about them.  This helps us to understand why Jesus is both admired and reviled in our world.  

           God is good enough.  It just seems strange to have to affirm that kind of a truth.  

Jesus--the Rosetta stone of our faith

Scholar Richard Niebuhr once compared Jesus to the Rosetta Stone.  For years Egyptologists could only guess at the meanings of the hieroglyphics. Then one day they found the Rosetta Stone, and on this stone they saw the same text reproduced in Greek, ordinary Egyptian script, and hieroglyphics.  By comparing what they knew of the other languages they could finally decipher the hieroglyphics.  Now they could know what they could only guess at before.  Niebuhr said that Jesus is like that for us.  When God is confusing, when we’re not sure what He’s really like, or what He really wants, we can gaze steadily at Jesus, because He’s the image of the Invisible God, the Rosetta Stone of our faith.  

Who is Ernest Digweed, and why did he leave so much money to Jesus?

One of the greatest questions of our time is: who is Jesus, anyway?  So many people have so many different ideas about who Jesus was.  In 1976 a man named Ernest Digweed, a retired teacher from Portsmouth, England, left a rather strange will.  He left $44,000 for Jesus Christ “on the occasion of His return to this earth.”  But, in order to claim it, Christ had to return in the next 80 years.  He must return specifically to “reign on earth” and He must prove His identity to the British Government.  Mr. Digweed’s probate attorney said, “I certainly anticipate we are going to have a lot of trouble, particularly with cranks.”  And he asked anyone who might be listening, “Who can tell who is the real Jesus Christ?  Different people think different things.”    

            Noted American author Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets.  He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there.  Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”  So, to Emerson, he was a prophet.  Gandhi described Jesus this way, “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom for the world.  It was the perfect act.”  Gandhi saw no divinity in Jesus, but a great and willing martyr.  Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet political leader claimed that Jesus was “the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.”  So Gorbachev saw Jesus as a social activist!

A historian named Philip Schaf tried to describe the enormous influence Jesus had on history and culture.  “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science…he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effect which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.” 

Today, everyone seems to have a different idea of who Jesus was or is.  Ironically, the ONLY way anyone can know about Jesus is through the New Testament documents.  Yet, the vast majority of people with strong opinions about who Jesus is have not even read the New Testament account.  Their ideas about Jesus come from sources which cannot really shed light on His true identity.  Some people’s opinions are strictly based on what they’ve heard someone else say, which was precisely why Luke wrote his gospel.  Who is Jesus, anyway?  A great way to find out is to begin reading the New Testament accounts, and I highly suggest the gospel of Luke. 

A Disneyland Christmas?

Last Sunday my wife and I visited Disneyland.  We had been told that Disneyland had a Candlelight celebration of Christmas that was truly Christian.  Wanting to see for ourselves we got there and stood in line a loooong time.  It wasn't a line to get in, it was a line to get close enough to the Candlelight service to see and hear.  We were in time for the 5:30 "show."  It began with the lights dimming all over Main Street, and a choir consisting of about 500 choir members from High School and church choirs.  Singing traditional Christmas carols, carrying their electric candles, they walked towards the train station steps.  It was an incredible scene.

Then they filled the stairs of the train station, with colored lights beaming on them, and began the Candlelight service. Lou Diamond Phillips read the Nativity story from Luke 2 between carols, while the conductor led the choir and orchestra in the most beautiful Christmas music and service it has ever been my privilege to attend. At several points, soloists gave performances that still move me.  At one point a young man sang Silent Night in Spanish, then, moving over to another part of the stage, invited everyone (in flawless English) within earshot to sing Silent Night with him.

Then, in the public square (Disneyland), praise to God rose from the throats of total strangers gathered together, some aware of the program, some caught totally unawares.  Yet, they sang, together.  No words were put up to read, everyone knew the words.  Everyone.  And God was blessed, and we were blessed.  It was indeed, a holy night.  A surprisingly holy night in a surprising place.

At the second program two hours later (which I stayed to watch) I noticed something I hadn't the first time.  Many people at that time were leaving the park, while many were jamming Main Street to see the Christmas Candlelight service.  Two crowds reacting to the same thing.  One crowd just intent on getting back to their cars after a day in "the happiest place on earth," totally oblivious and uninterested in the celebration of Jesus birth.  The other crowd caught up in praise and thanksgiving to God for His glorious gift to us, His entrance into our world, His taking on humanity, His humility.

The dissonance between the two crowds was pronounced.  The reactions typical of any Christmas celebration at any place.  I was reminded that no matter how many ways people try to shut down the Christmas story, it will always find an audience, and God will provide it in the most amazing ways.  I was also reminded that no matter how glorious the message and celebration, many will be totally disinterested. Their Christmas will be filled with Santa, candy canes, and iPad 2's.

 I highly recommend the Disneyland Candlelight service for you and your friends and family.  It was nothing short of inspiring.  It was, perhaps, all the more inspiring because it wasn't being held in the "safe" confines of a local church, but in the grand public square where everyone could see and hear, even if they chose not to.

Merry Christmas.

Join the Song!

Every Sunday countless Christians sing songs of worship in their churches.  Each of these songs were written by someone trying to express their deepest feelings and emotions in response to what God had done for them.  As we sing along with these songs we, in essence, join them in their song.  Their words and thoughts about God become our words and thoughts about God.  In joining their song we are, in effect, saying "Yes, this is also my song, these are also my feelings, this is the same praise I want to offer to God."

In the Nativity story we read a beautiful song written by a young Jewish teenager about something God had done in her life that was so powerful, so amazing, so incomprehensible that she just had to express her praise.  We don't know if she ever put it to song, but others down through the ages certainly have.  It is called "The Magnificat," the song of Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1: 45-56).

This Magnificat of Mary's was--at the time that she wrote it--the most wonderful secret in the history of the world.  Besides heaven, only Joseph knew about it until Elizabeth was told.  Down through the ages, powerful, intelligent, and influential men and women have pontificated on Mary's Magnificat, but they are discussing the thoughts and emotions of a Jewish teenage girl of lowly station in life.  Up until that moment Gabriel appeared to Mary, there was absolutely nothing for which history would remember her.

Mary's secret, however, was not to last long.  Soon wise men would show up with expensive gifts and an amazing tale of following a star, followed by excited shepherds talking about angels appearing and lighting up the Judean sky with light and singing -- and the sign of a baby born in a manger.  But not yet.  Not yet.  For now, this amazing secret was literally Mary's alone.  These words, though they speak to many, and of many, are intensely personal.  This is her articulation of the miracle unfolding within and around her, and her emotional response to it all.

So she wrote a song.  It was Mary's secret song.  If you study it carefully, you will find it has five wonderful parts.  It is the song of those who believe (Luke 1:45), the song of the lowly touched by grace (v.46-48), the song of the grateful (v.49-50), the song of the humble and humbled (v.51-53) and finally the song of fulfilled promises (v.54-56).

It is Mary's song, but each of us also has a song.  God has done great things for us as He has done great things for Mary.  If you are a Christian, the Creator of everything that exists has called you and taken up residence within your life.  He has adopted you into His family, given you His name, filled  your need for meaning and purpose, forgiven you of your sins, and promised you an eternal home forever, and one day a new heart without sin.  So the only questions is: what is your song, and how will you sing it?

In words?  In poetry?  With music?  In conversation, in service?  How will you exalt the Lord for what He has done to you?

And if Jesus is not yet your Savior--you have no song yet to sing.  As long as your song is only about you and what you have done, you have no song worth singing.  As long as the only thing your soul can exalt is yourself, you have yet to enter the Great Song.  But if you will invite Christ to be the Lord and Savior of your life, you will have your own Magnificat, and you will know precisely why we exalt the Lord and not ourselves.

Mary had her song.  I have mine.  What is your song?

Life isn't all about you

     Last year there was an uproar in the central California city of Modesto when a 41 year old high school teacher quit his job, left his wife and children, and moved in with an 18 year old student.  The mother of the daughter waged a battle to get her daughter back and it made news.  The 41 year old was interviewed by the Modesto Bee.  When asked about why he made the decision, the man said, "In  making our choice, we've hurt a lot of people.  We keep asking ourselves, 'Do we make everyone else happy, or do we follow our hearts?'"
    This is a refrain we hear over and over in our world.  Just follow your heart!   Most people view life, naturally, as if it's all about them.  The only thing that really matters in the grand scheme of things is that they are happy, full, and protected.  So the majority of their lives are spent in what we Americans call "the pursuit of happiness."  It is seen as the highest good.  We view every experience, every event in our world in only one way--how does it contribute to my pursuit of happiness?  

     Is this new law going to hinder my happiness?  Is this new circumstance  this new relationship, this new technology, this new philosophy, this new scientific finding, this new government going to affect my happiness-my world?  We see everything only in terms of how it will affect us.  As we get older we grow to also care about how these things will affect our descendants, but while we may bemoan and make noise about what's being done to others, it does not come close to approaching the level of concern we have if our own happiness is impinged upon.  

     In the beginning of the Nativity story we find a remarkably revolutionary idea: life is not primarily about us.  The Nativity story dares to suggest that in the grand scheme of things--only one things matters--and that is Him and your relationship with Him.  

     It is a startlingly exclusive and narrow idea for which an apology is not even attempted.  In fact it becomes clear that heaven, earth, and life itself exist for, and only for, the glory of this Jesus forever.  Luke is absolutely convinced that this one birth of this one child changes everything and everyone forever!  God willed it to be so.  God engineered it to be so.  God guaranteed it would be so.  

      It's all about Jesus, and that's why His birth was/is such a big deal.  He is God, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe come to rescue us from our separation from Him.  Life isn't about your job, or your success, or your reputation, or your accomplishments, or your self-esteem, or lack thereof, or your difficult background, or your many advantages.  It's not about governments or movements, or political parties, or scientific or technological advancements.  It's all about Him . If you want to finally find peace and fulfillment and joy (even as a Christian) you must join the triune God in His love relationship.  

     Most people live dreary boring lives, occasionally interrupted by happiness or excitement, or pain and sorrow, because life is all about them.  It's a recipe for misery.  Life is about Jesus!  That's the message of the Nativity, the message of God's entrance into our world.  

     You may think that life, and specifically your life is all about you.  The simple Christmas story says you couldn't be more wrong.  And frankly, when you come to terms with that, it's an incredibly freeing thought.  

The 911 Gospel

Whenever we have an emergency in our culture that requires assistance, we send police, and/or firefighters, or paramedics to the scene. But they don’t sneak up on us; they come with great attention drawn to their coming. Colored flashing lights and loud sirens communicate that a rescue of some sort is being staged. Someone is in distress and needs emergency help.

 But what if the whole world needed rescuing? Who would we call? Who could handle the job?  We have learned that our world, even trying to unite in a United Nations, cannot solve worldwide problems, in fact, they can rarely solve even local problems.

In our favorite stories, there is always some kind of hero that comes to the rescue. Today, superheroes are all the rage. There is Iron Man, Spider Man, Super Man, the Green Lantern, Thor, and others. In one way or another, they come to rescue the world, or a city from imminent and terrible danger. In fact, recently there was a new movie out, called The Avengers. In this story, the enemy and the danger is so great that no one of these heroes alone could save the world despite their great powers, it took all of them working together, and then the world just barely escapes. The idea is that without these heroes, without their intervention, our world would be lost.

In the New Testament, we read the story of a world that was in need of saving, and so God sent His Son, Jesus, on a divine search and rescue mission. Today, we have been trained to call 911 if there is a real emergency. The Gospel of Luke will point out that an emergency had arisen that threatened the whole world, and that we needed rescuing. As the story begins we have bright lights, angels appearing miraculously, and our super hero rescuer suddenly and dramatically appearing in the mighty form of a …baby!

 It seems strangely anticlimactic. He seems almost the anti-hero. He has supernatural powers—but never uses them to force anyone to do anything, never uses them to keep Himself from being belittled or attacked. He uses His power only to heal and help others, never to protect Himself against the bad guys. In fact, in His greatest battle with the world’s mortal enemy, Satan, His only weapon is God’s Word, the truth.

 But His mission is not to win by overcoming His enemies; because as we learn, the only way to ultimately win this epic battle is by dying at their hands. He is, we are aghast to find out, on a suicide mission. However, unlike those being practiced today by religious zealots—the only One harmed in the explosion—is Him…and all the forces of Hell.

If He had acted like a typical human hero—he would have vanquished the enemy in a great battle and then faded gloriously into the sunset. But He didn’t, because our great enemy wasn’t some powerful external enemy threatening us, it was something inside of us, infecting us. We were being destroyed from the inside out, and like the alien science fiction movies, an alien substance had contaminated not only our world—but every human being. At first we welcomed this strange infection, thinking it would set us free, only when it was too late did we recognize the danger. It’s called sin. It was so deadly that the presence of it in the Garden of Eden was enough to force an eviction—an eviction we are still experiencing.

 We tried everything against this alien invasion infection down through the years, because we all recognized it. We tried self discipline, religion, asceticism, laws, governments, philosophy, science, psychology, but nothing worked. Sin was here to stay and wherever sin was, humanity deteriorated further. We eventually began to believe there simply was no solution; we would just have to learn to live with this contamination.

 Until one day a strange and compelling star appeared in the East. Wise men followed it to see what it was all about. Then angels suddenly appeared to a group of shepherds, lighting up the dark night sky with light, sound, and spectacular supernatural activity. And a baby was born in a way no baby had ever been born before. It was born without the alien infection. The Holy Spirit conceived a child in the womb of a young Jewish virgin. And our hero had come. The rescue was on.

BOOK REVIEW: The Call of Zulina--by Kay Marshall Strom

To be honest, when I first picked up The Call of Zulina, I had no idea what to expect. The beautiful young woman on the cover made me wonder if I hadn’t accidentally gotten hold of a romance novel (not my thing). But here, the author takes her character, Grace Winslow, the daughter of a mixed marriage between a salty white English slave trader, and a stern imperial African princess, to the most unexpected of places. Grace, who has been raised only in luxury due to the fortune her father made in the slave trade, suddenly finds herself one of them—won’t tell you how, read the book! But the slaves are not alone, one man stands ready to help—but will he be in time? Fortunately, it’s not a white man always bad, slave always good type of book. Slavery was complex, with both African and white man involved, and Strom brings this out. Grace, the main character, has to navigate both the white world as well as the slave world she is suddenly thrust into. This is one of those, got to read the next chapter even if I’m tired books—because she really ratchets up the suspense. I’m not sure what riveted me more, the fascinating and painstaking historical reality of slavery that Strom writes about, or the fascinating story line and characters she has developed. It’s just a really good read that happens to teach you something important, about slavery, about the human condition, and about faith struggling to remain afloat in the midst of it—all without coming off the least bit preachy. Can’t recommend this book highly enough, and am eager to read the next in the series. Do yourself a favor—read the book. This is the first book in the Grace in Africa series.

Awesome quote from Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

"Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes--
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries."
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Maybe that's why so often Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear..." The Heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1)

BOOK REVIEW: Finding God Beyond Harvard, by Kelly Kullberg

Last year, in preparing to begin a new ministry within our church called theMANSION (www.themansionsb.com) I read a number of books dealing with how to reach the 18-35 year old. Many of the books were good, but this book, recommended by a friend, was literally transforming even though it was not specifically about the 18-35 crowd.

Kullberg is the founder of the Veritas Forums, conferences held at colleges worldwide where Christian thinkers, philosophers, scientists, etc, can come and present a Christian world view in a secular environment. This is the story of how these came about, and the riveting drama that God used in Kelly's life to bring it to fruition.

There is a story she tells in Chapter Six, (Road Trip: Living in skin) about speaking in an incredibly hostile college environment at Albany University in New York quite unexpectedly. In this story we see vintage Kelly, compassionate about Christ, and compassionate about the students seeking truth in the wrong places. The thing I liked about this chapter was that it epitomizes the approach a real Christian takes towards those who are hostile and condescending and seemingly beyond being reached. Her thoughtful, gentle responses, and her penetrating insight were inspirational. Thought so many of the students were trying desperately to provoke her, her responses are truly educational--and far more importantly, truly Christlike. This book is worth buying just for this chapter.

Too often I find well meaning Christians trying to engage the culture about them that is decidedly hostile and anti-God in a confrontational manner. Fighting fire with fire. Not only does this not work, but it takes the focus off of Jesus, where it needs to be. In every case in which Kelly is attacked, she is able to bring the person back to Jesus, what He did, what it meant, why it changes everything. A gentle answers turns away wrath.

More than any other book or resource, this book helped to form our missional identity as we began our ministry of outreach. Our goal was simply to help people find their way back to God. Did it work? We began almost a year ago, targeting and engaging non-believers with the simple truths about Jesus in a non-judgmental and non-confrontational way. They came and listened very respectfully. When you talk about Jesus, they don't even blink--they are absolutely riveted. So far six people have given their lives to Christ, ex-agnostics, atheists, gang members, and religious people in search of a real relationship with their God. What most impressed me was so many of them sharing the same thing, that one of the things that helped draw them to Christ was the love and non-judgmental atmosphere of theMANSION. How powerful the love of Jesus through Christians can be, how damaging the hostility of Christians in the name of Jesus can be.

I can't possibly recommend Kullberg's book high enough. It will change the way you think about hostile anti-god students, the real way to reach out to them, and the importance and centrality of Jesus in the entire process. Veritas is latin for truth, and Finding God Beyond Harvard is truly the quest for Veritas. Good reading!

GREAT QUOTE

"We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it." (Madeline L'Engle quoted in Finding God Beyond Harvard, by Kelly Kullberg).

This is so true.

He CAN prepare a table in the wilderness

Psalm 78:19-20
“Then they spoke against God; they said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, He struck the rock, so the waters gushed out, and the streams were overflowing. “Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?”
I have this verse written on a faded and old 3x5 card, stuck inside a Bible by my computer. It wouldn’t mean much to anyone else; in fact they’d probably never understand its significance to me. It was a question the nation of Israel asked God in the wilderness when it appeared He would not provide for them. It was the same question that, 10 years ago, I asked God in a much more humble and contrite state. It was a prayer really. About 10 years ago, I was running out of money, hope, and ideas. I had left my pastorate, begun a new vocation that hadn’t panned out as I expected it to, and I felt certain that I had led my family into the wilderness by my actions. I was as low as I had ever been in my life. When your (apparent) mistakes affect others, the pain is magnified exponentially, especially when you love your family like I love mine. I was desperate.
I had no ideas, no resources, no hope, and a bank account that was almost gone. Sound familiar to anyone? Reading through the Psalms I happened upon this passage and was gripped by the three questions being asked by the children of Israel. Can God? Can He? Will He? I knew God could provide our needs, I wasn’t so sure about whether or not He would. My theology was in a struggle with my present circumstances which seems to always be the case. A man who once knew exactly where he was supposed to be and precisely what he was supposed to be doing was now rudderless in a leaky boat in the fog. A man who could once provide for his family was now facing the unthinkable.
Yet, at the last moment, literally, God provided not only provision, but direction. Ironically, it was the last direction I wanted to hear, the last place I wanted to go. I don’t remember a more humbling time in my life. I saw no hope. Fast forward 10 years. God has not only given me and my family abundant provision, but more importantly, He has shown me where He wants me to be, and precisely what He wants me to be doing—which brings me back to the passage. It took awhile for me to see it, but God CAN prepare a table in the wilderness, He CAN give bread also, and He WILL provide for His people.
I am currently on a sabbatical from a pastorate I have come to love deeply, and am sitting in my new office in a house of our own that God has miraculously (and I do not use that word lightly) provided. I can provide for my family, for others, and have seen for myself that “the waters gushed out, and streams were overflowing.” Did I make mistakes? Maybe, I’m not quite sure. God was sovereignly moving me where He wanted me, though the means were unconventional. There were things I needed to learn, important, life changing things. I don’t learn very quickly, and I tend to resist a truth if it does not appear instantly attractive to me. But I learned a very important thing: God is a GOOD Father. Perhaps coming from a broken home where three fathers turned around and walked out of my life never to return made that lesson a bit harder for me than for most. Good Fathers don’t love their children only when they deserve it, but especially when they don’t. That’s when they need love the most.
I just want to glorify God for all He’s done for me. I never spoke against Him as the children of Israel did, but my heart could find no assurance in his care when it should have. He has confirmed His character to me in a marvelous way. If I lose it all tomorrow, I am still blessed to have what I have today. He is a GOOD FATHER. He CAN prepare a table in the wilderness, so if you’re there I encourage you to find the rest it took me much too long to enjoy.

Power, Dominion and Politics

I have recently been preaching through the book of Daniel in my church, and found myself perusing again the first few verses of Daniel chapter one. As I did, I came across something I had missed before. As I read again how Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon captured Judah (as Jeremiah had foretold by the Lord would happen) and King Jehoiakim after besieging the city, I read how Nebuchadnezzar took the vessels of the house of God (the temple)and deposited them in the treasury of his own god's temple. I was struck by the awesome power of God who can allow such an affront to His majesty without intervening.

This seems such a small innocuous statement, yet how much we learn about God. The Almighty, all powerful God allowed a human king to remove the sacred vessels of His temple and take them and deposit them into the treasury of a god that did not even exist. I am reminded of the amazing humility of our God. The incarnation (when God became a man) was not the first example of God's humility, His willingness to allow puny human beings to insult His glory. Here we see another amazing example. But it wasn't God's powerlessness being thrust into the spotlight, but His omniscience and sovereignty. He had already been preparing Daniel and his three friends for an amazing display of God's power that would have the powerful king Nebuchadnezzar and the powerful Babylonian empire as a background. Like an artist preparing a beautiful work of art, God was preparing the background upon which He would work. Later we will see God respond when Belshazzar (Nebuchadnezzar's grandson)abuses and commits sacrilege with the same vessels. The writing on the wall and the fall of Babylon would be the result. And each leader was reminded that their position of power had not been achieved on their own, but given to them by God.

Recently I was sent an email by concerned Christians that a coin was being printed without the words "In God We Trust," upon them. I, for one, am not bothered by that fact since the majority of those who use the coins will not truly trust in God. I am reminded, however, that God often uses people's and governments that seek to dishonor Him to display His greatest acts of power. In America we are prone to think that our democracy is sovereign, and the vote is the ultimate power in the country. Neither in a monarchy (Nebuchadnezzar) nor a democracy, has God abrogated His sovereignty. His will and power are not thwarted through candidates, votes lost or won, or laws passed or blocked. The book of Daniel is a book the church in the west needs to reexamine.

Regardless of who is in office, or what laws are passed, God is sovereign over the affairs of men and works His will with none to stop Him. Daniel reminds us that kingdoms will rise and fall, as prophecies foretell, but the Kingdom of God remains and grows ever larger and greater. Let's regain some perspective and put our efforts into those Kingdom goals that Jesus set us to. If you are feeling a little shaky about this, reread Daniel. It will help you gain an invaluable perspective.

Autumn in Yosemite

Since it is now officially Autumn, and Annette and I have plans to camp in Yosemite again on Halloween weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to share a short article I wrote a number of years ago for FamilyFun magazine. The subject was Fun Fall Outings. I was asked to share our favorite family fun memory. It wasn't hard. I hope the article communicates the joy and fun we've had over the years.

Our Autumn in Yosemite

By Dan Schaeffer


I plant my beach chair firmly in the clean white river sand, shoulders aching from carrying approximately 3,000 pounds of necessary supplies along dirt and pine needle trails. We are half a mile from our campsite in Yosemite Valley and a world away from our home in the Southern California suburbs.
Each fall we pilgrimage to this one special spot in the valley. We come for decompression. The millions of people who visit Yosemite Valley leave it nearly deserted in fall, and the Merced River is part of our prescription. An emerald colored body of rushing river in the spring, it is now quiet, tired, and content to flow gently by.
Christi, our oldest, dashes to the icy clear water. Putting her foot in, she shrieks in mock horror. Andrew, her brother, and Katie soon join her and before long they are laughing and splashing about in the shallow water near shore, skipping rocks across the surface, and making sand angels. Mom and Dad watch the whole scene from our beach chairs, doing precisely what we came to do, exactly nothing.
Every year we return, because we want our kids to know that somewhere there is a place where every square foot is not covered by asphalt, houses, crowds, or shopping malls. Here they create memories and learn important lessons of childhood. Everything that is really fun to do doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Living in America is an incredible blessing. Life doesn’t have to be lived at warp speed, and Dad will catch whoever splashes cold water on him in the middle of his nap and tickle them until next Tuesday.
As the hours drift slowly by, they frolic in the raft, splashing each other with paddles as wild Mallard Ducks fly by so close to the water that they touch it with their wings. As the sunlight fades we trudge back to camp.
After dinner, and much pleading, I allow Andrew, under very careful surveillance, to start a fire—in the fire pit. Nearby, Mom assembles the makings for S’mores as the kids race for the coat hangers. Soon three children are sitting in front of a crackling campfire roasting marshmallows. Roasting is perhaps too mild a term. Many become flaming torches, melting into gooey black muck.
The fire blazes warm, comforting, and serene. But the smoke, controlled by an erratic mild breeze, appears magnetically attracted to wherever mom chooses to sit. At least that’s what she claims. As Andrew searches for twigs to toss in the fire, Katie, sitting on my lap, gazes up with me into a veritable sea of stars, stars not visible in the light polluted town where we live.
“Look at them all,” she murmurs. “I never knew there were so many.”
“Why can’t we see them at home?” Andrew asks, and I explain the problem of light pollution. We turn off the lantern so that the only light visible is the soft glow from our campfire. While mom makes hot chocolate, Christi points her flashlight up one of the many nearby trees so tall that the beam of her flashlight cannot reach its topmost branches. Suddenly, Katie announces that she has dropped her gooey S’more on my sweatshirt, eliciting giggles all around.
As the night grows still, our kids stare sleepily into the fire. Somewhere it may get better than this, but I can’t imagine how.

Why are so many people afraid of Bibles?

I was recently reading an article on AOL about a town in Frisco, Texas that was up in arms because the Gideons left Bibles for Junior High and High School students at unmanned tables designated for that very purpose. You can read it for yourself at: http://news.aol.com/article/gideon-school-bibles/490719

It got me thinking. Why are parents so afraid that their Junior High or High School students would be reading Bibles? Even more frightening was the reasoning of one parent who said, "They should be giving those items wherever they worship. School is a place to learn, not a place to worship," Michael Baier, the parent of a high school student, told Fox. So...reading the Bible and what it has to say isn't learning? Why are the parents so afraid of their children reading Bibles? My wife teaches Junior High in Central California. She teaches 7th grade World History. Teaching about the Protestant Reformation is REQUIRED by the state. California realizes that it is impossible to understand history in the middle ages without a knowledge of the role the church played in it, and as a result the scriptures. The Protestant reformation was based on scripture and its interpretation.

It used to be the left wing of our country that was adamantly opposed to banning books anywhere. Now we have parents worried that children might actually be exposed to a...drum roll...book! Ironically, I know a Gideon who hands out Bibles at universities in our town. He tells me how many of these students have NEVER READ A BIBLE. They are eager to get their hands on one. How can they tell if they believe, disbelieve, respect, or disrespect the book WITHOUT READING IT? Since Bibles are as easy to get as a cold in America, why haven't these kids been able to get their hands on one?

What are people so afraid of? Would these same parents have been afraid of a book on the virtues of Darwinism being left on the tables? Books are meant to be read and assessed and then either believed and followed, or discredited and discarded. Furthermore, reading the Bible is not an act of worship as atheists and agnostics do it all the time (for research) in the same way that Christians read Origin of the Species by Darwin, or the Koran, or any other book.

If the Bible is just a book, no one is in any danger in reading it. No one. If the Bible is more than just a book, and if it effects people in a very powerful way, then there actually could be some danger in reading it--if a changed life and world view is considered dangerous. Of course, then you would have to ask yourself, what is in a Bible that would radically change someone? What makes it so different? Why is it far and away the world's best seller of all time? And why, why, why would someone be afraid their teenager might get their hands on one?

The Decline of Religion--an interview

Not long ago a local Central California reporter and a cameraman walked through the doors of our church and asked if I'd be willing to do an interview on a recent report on the decline of religion in America. Though hesitant, I said yes. Here you will see the entire video that the reporter did including a short interview with me. Overall I thought the interview was very fair and honest. They say that we each get 15 seconds of fame! If that's so, I still have about 7 1/2 seconds left!

While they asked me a lot of questions, they only had time for a short part of what they filmed. Ironically, when the reporter asked me what denomination I was a part of, and I answered, "The Evangelical Free Church of America," her eyebrows went up and she said, "Well, actually, that's one of the few denominations that is growing!" The entire interview was worth that moment! Enjoy the interview by copying and pasting this link.

http://www.keyt.com/news/local/41230257.html

The Divine Whisper of Spring

I was sitting on my back veranda one day not long ago gazing over our beautiful Santa Ynez Valley countryside. It was barely spring, and as I was looking at a row of trees that line my neighbor's long driveway I noticed something that seemed amiss. One tree, amid a cluster of old brittle leaves that had still not fallen, had one single solitary bloom. We have some powerful winds that blow on the top of our hill and it amazed me that the old leaves had not yet fallen off. For some reason, the old leaves stubbornly resisted leaving, but that couldn't stop the new life from appearing.

Over the next few weeks I noticed that more blooms were appearing, but still a number of old leaves refused to abandon the branches. I couldn't help thinking of our human natures, mine at any rate. While God is causing wonderful new things to grow in our spiritual lives, blooms like patience, kindness, and a hunger for His Word, older leaves, old habits and sins still cling stubbornly to us. At any given time these two realities struggle within us; the new man and the old man. It can be so very discouraging to be the host of two competing powers, the power of death and sin and the power of new life.

Today I look out at the same tree and the old leaves are gone, they finally had to fall. Only new blooms and the green tender leaves they produce are visible. One day this will be what happens to those of us who are in Christ. The old leaves of sin will no longer have a host, they will have to fall away. Only new life will be found in me, fresh new life that finds its source of power and life in God. In that Better Country that I will one day enter, the leaves will always be green and alive, and death will have been destroyed forever. Spring is God's eternal whisper that death and sin cannot prevail.