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Thoughts from a Motorcycle

On my study leave I got to take my motorcycle out to east Texas. As I was riding early one morning, enjoying the quiet, the fresh air, and the many trees that lined the road; it dawned on me how “Comfortable” I was, and then I remembered what I was like when I picked up motorcycle riding in 2003 after 25 years of not riding. When I got on the bike I consistently asked God to keep my safe, help me not kill myself, and to guide my ability. But on this East Texas morning I had not done that. Why? Because these last few years I have learned to ride well, gained competence and skill, and began to trust in my own learned ability. I was much less conscious of how much I still needed God for everything, to keep me safe, help me not kill myself, and guide my ability. I repented and and asked God to forgive and keep me safe despite my arrogance. As we serve God in the church and in all of life, as we life, work, love, try to make good choices I think the exact same thing often happens. We learn how to do the things we must do, even how to be realitively good Christians. Some of the things that once filled us with fear and trepedation no longer bring us to our knees, asking God for help. We find ourselves simply going through the motions of life without the relationship with God we used to have and without the spiritual undergirding that is so important. We become comfortable with our life habits and skills and leave God out more than we intend. Jesus had a deep peace, but I don’t think He ever became comfortable as he faced the challenges of His life. Bruce Wilkinson whe led Back to the Bible for many years, and also wrote the best seller The Prayer of Jabez spoke of a time of depression and burnout. In reponse to this season of his life he went to see a pastoral counselor in California. The advice was simple, “Bruce, you have competent in what you do and you have always been talented; you have learned to trust this competence and talent more than God, unlike when you began your ministry and asked God for help in everything, and it is killing you”.(Paraphrase) A huge part of being a spiritual person, I believe is constantly being dependent upon God, walking with Jesus, seeking the Holy Spirit, asking God for help and guidance in everything. When we substitute competence and habits for God, we are headed for a fall. We either began to seek God again, or we add greater callings and change in our lives from God that require us to ask for help. If you are feeling “Comfortable” with your competence and life, as I did on the motorcycle, its time to get a little scared again and venture into serious prayer as we share the life and death work together of following Jesus Christ, an adventure with far greater consequences and rewards that just the life and deat adventure on a motorcycle.

The statue of Liberty

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty speaks volumes of our past, and I pray our present and future. “GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BE FREE, THE WRETCHED REFUSE OF YOUR TEEMING SHORE. SEND ME THESE THE HOMELESS, TEMPEST TOSSED TO ME. I LIFT MY LAMP BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR.” The countries of the world have many images and feelings concerning the US, but whether it is Iran, Russia, Zimbabwe, counties under dictators or oppressive regimens, those nations with different religions, and parts of the world grindingly poor, many in those nations observe this nation and covet the liberty and freedom we sometimes take for granted. Daily people do anything they can to become a part of the American dream, a dream of freedom and opportunity, a dream I believe has been given to us by a providential God and funded by the blood and sacrifice of so many throughout our history. Recently, our Vice President led a Citizenship swearing in ceremony in Iraq, for who, soldiers who were already defending the dream of liberty and celebrating in personal sacrifice for the simple inscription this beautiful lady stands for, the only nation in the world with such a Jesus blessed invitation. God bless America.

Understanding the Bible

There are many ways to understand the Bible, and in a small way I am somewhat qualified to have an opinion. I grew up in the Church, have been a pastor/preacher for 31 years, have a BA in Bible with a double minor in theology and history, and have a Master of Divinity Degree. In the last few weeks God has been working on me about Biblical understanding and interpretation and how I sometimes have been reading and interpreting the Bible. There are three typical ways to understand and interpret the Bible. The first is Historical context; understanding the Bible in the context of the author, the time in history, and the people that book of the Bible was originally written to. The second is in textual context; understanding the verse in its place in the text, the verses before and after, the chapters before and after, and in the light of surrounding chapters. The third way is directly; what one verse or section of scripture says directly to me, often without regard to historical or textual context.

Now I would have one or two Bible College professors flinch at the direct interpretation of the Bible and all my Seminary professors would probably want to take back my MDIV.

Here is the revelation. Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul seemed to interpret the Bible with the direct interpretation, without regard to either history or context. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John interpreted it the same way. So did John Wesley, Martin Luther, and more often than not Billy Graham. They did not approach the Bible as course work; they approached it as the inspired Word of God that speaks directly to the reader with the breath of the Holy Spirit making application from what is a living word, not a word stuck in the mud and glue of history and context. When Jesus faced the Devil at the temptation He used the scripture very directly; when Matthew used the Old Testament to prove Jesus was the Christ, he used it directly. When Paul preached the Gospel using the Scripture, He used verses directly and often out of context. Now this does not mean that God does not speak and it is not of value to understand the bible in History and context, this is a great way to study and rightly divide the Scripture. But those who want to experience a living God in a living word must read it in the light of a more direct voice of God. It is too easy to allow ourselves to be insulated from a word that God intends to pierce the heart and soul.

The so called, Biblically educated elite have often used the “out of Context” argument to debunk the great preachers and even the great movements of Christian history, both the preacher and the movement where God is working, saving souls and lives and changing the world. The Bible is not just a historical book speaking of events and ideas that unfold in history, it is a Book that is the living, breathing word of God than is God’s way of directly interceding in whatever circumstance, culture, or time in any of our lives, Churches, and world; a word that is both inspired by the Holy Spirit but equally interpreted in a living way by that same Holy Spirit. Often it’s the ears of faith that best understand the Bible over the ears of the Biblically educated. The open heart understands far more of the bible than the closed mind.

the Lexington

visited the aircraft carrier The Lexington; here standing in front of an A-4 one of the jets my squadron in the Navy Flew…its a museum piece now…I wasn’t on the Lexington, the Independence was larger, but it reminded my that I would not want to be stationed on one again…hit my head twice. We saw a Jet like John McCain flew in Viet Nam as well as one like George Bush Sr was shot down in in WWII

Standing in front of an A-4 like one in the squadron I served in in the Navy, now a Museum piece

leadership

For Pastors Leadership may be one of the hottest topics of the day. I have been to innumerable seminars on the subject and have taught a few myself. For many years it wasn’t a big deal in ministry, preaching, teaching, and pastoring was the name of the game. Since I have had a few days to walk on the beach I have had some thoughts on it. What kind of Leader was Jesus?
First, he broke most of the leadership and management rules that I hear about. Often he was way too forgiving and understanding, he would let people walk all over him sometimes. But on other days he could be very harsh, demanding, and unrealistic, and often way too inconsistent. There were times He would send the Disciples out to do amazing things and times he would tell them to stay close and quiet. There were golden opportunities to step up and change the world that he would let slip by and when it seemed the better part of leadership valor to not step up he might surprisingly lead them into great trouble and danger.
Jesus also picked poor staff and lay leadership. Peter was inconsistent and self focused. James and John could not control their temper. Thomas was a doubter. None of them could be depended on. In fact the best of the management lot might have been Judas who was the groups treasurer and occasionally gave what seemed to be pretty good advice, advice Jesus ignored.
Jesus built people, but never really built anything.
Jesus idea of leadership was showing people what it looked like to walk with God; showing them what it was like to love God, showing them what it was like to love their neighbor, showing them what life could look like for those who put God and others ahead of themselves, who were willing to forgo what the world might deem as success, for what the world would classify as failure, for the sake of the Kingdom of God and pleasing their heavenly father. In leading them to failure, at least as His culture and probably any other in history would define failure, He lead them to the greatest success of all. He also gave His life for them. Just what does Christian leadership look like, a leadership that transcends this worlds definition of success and failure as well as leadership.

Finding God’s Will

People often look for God’s will the wrong way, through circumstances and events. We look for signs or signals that tell us what to do, hoping God is speaking through affirming circumstances, open and closed doors, or just difficult or pleasent relationships. If this was the way God spoke then Jesus would never have left Nazareth much less have entered Jerusalem the week He was crucified. Even though circumstances said get out while you can, God must be speaking through the negative response of so many, Jesus found a place in a Garden where He spoke to God and then prayed, “Not my will but thine be done”!. We find God’s will through 1. knowing God, 2. Conversation with God, 3. and then obedience to God. Moses found God’s will at a burning bush and went to face Pharaoh even though he did not really want to or even think he had the talents to do such a thing. Abraham found God’s will in his back yard as God told him to leave his homeland. Paul found God’s will on the Damascus Road and later in a prison cell.
Finding God’s will is almost always surprising, unexpected, , and not easy, but it is always Amazing.

memorial day

Every culture, society, is built on something. America may be the most unique nation in the world, a nation built upon ideas of freedom and justice for all. But those ideas don’t nor can they stand in a vacuum. The reality is that our nation is built upon the blood and sacrifice of men and women who, since the revolutionary war, gave their lives or their loved ones for those ideas of freedom and justice, ideas built into the fabric of America. For me it is impossible to understand or know the blessings of being an American without understanding and remembering those sacrifices, realizing that this is what an American is, yes one who celebrates freedom, but knows they stand on the lives of those who sacrificed for that freedom. In our Memorial Day celebration today we had a great deal of family with us. We also had our youngest daughter and her two children with us, a daughter who would have loved to have her husband here cooking the bratwurst, sour kraut, and onions he always makes; but he is at camp Victory in Baghdad missing his lovely wife and growing children. We marked his sacrifice and remembered the many others who are and have done the same. The very nature of the Christian faith is sacrifice, Christ’s sacrifice for us and God’s call for us to sacrifice for others. It is as close to holiness as any of us will ever get, meeting Christ at the point of His sacrifice and responding to sacrifice so much for others. Military men and women have been laid to rest in cemeteries around the world having touched that holiness with their own blood. Most of us can’t do much, but we can remember.

Success and Failure

We are not the sum of our failures nor or we the product of our successes. Our worth is instead evaluated by the standard God has chosen, His death on the cross; (for God so loved the world He gave His only begotten son). We are each the value God has placed on us which is the only worth that counts, after all God is the creator and Christ is the Savior, we are the creation and the saved. In a world where value is decided by success and failure, God decides value in His love for us and simply asks for us to love in the same way. We can’t let our culture decide our value by its squirrely definition of success and failure. We are not the sum of our falures nor the sum of our successes, we people who God loves.

The Kingdom

Jesus often taught about the Kingdom of God, but He most clearly showed us what it was by His life, what he lived for, and most importantly what He died for. The book of Romans records these words, “The Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. This sounds simple but when we live in a culture that is overwhelmingly about “Food and Drink”, and more and more stuff that we are told we have to have to be happy, have to achieve to be significant, have to be to be of value; security we can buy if we make enough money, then these verses take on a whole new light. Do we struggle for righteousness and the fellowship with God it opens our lives up to, do we understand that peace with God Himself is the only real peace, and that Joy is in belonging to our creator and loving our savior; do we spend our limited time and energy focusing and growing here; for most of us we really don’t….we live frantic frenzied lives pushed around by the demands of life that we often have placed on ourselves. Why don’t we learn? God saves us with Amazing grace! But the lives we live we create for ourselves and the kingdom we live in and for is up to us. Jesus invited, “Come follow me!”.

thoughts on quitting

I remember listening to Tom Landry, the legendary coach of the Cowboys, a Christian man and also a Methodist, speak after an amazing come from behind win over the Washington Redskins, I still remember what he said, “They were just hoping the clock would run out before they got beat!”. And did they ever get beat, the Cowboys were four touchdowns behind to begin the second half. They won because they didn’t quit!
The only way to lose as a Christian is to quit! I will say it again, the only way to lose as a Christian is to quit. In the light of God’s amazing grace, His unlimited power, His unending love, His rich promises and faithfulness, those who trust Him will always eventually win, even if they are behind four touchdowns as they begin the second half. Too many people have a quitters gene, having created a lifelong habit of taking the easy road; when God saves us and calls us and challenges us to pick up our cross and follow Him, one of the things His spirit is working to do is to root out that gene. The Christian life is about overcoming, overcoming anything in the name of Jesus Christ. The only way to lose as a Christian is to quit; it takes us out of the game.
Mike