Thoughts on “Guilt & Grace”

Amazing Grace is one of the most popular hymns of all time and has been at the top for generations.  It was written by John Newton, a former slave trader who wrote it reflecting on his old life and celebrating the change that God’s grace had made in his heart.  This ship captain, who was involved in the slave trade for many years, eventually became an Anglican priest (minister) and worked with William Wilberforce to eventually abolish the slave trade in England.

“Amazing grace!  How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!  I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.”

When I experienced God’s grace in Christ at 20, I sang that song all the way from Georgia to Texas, driving my 1969 white Chevy van with green shag carpet and an eight-track tape player.  I was going home to tell my family how God’s grace had changed my life.

Grace is pretty amazing because the best way to understand the significance and magnitude of God’s grace — that includes the change it has made in millions of lives, including John Newton’s, mine and surely yours as well — is to know the cost of grace, the price of grace, the value of grace.  I can’t fully understand the nature of sin and forgiveness or the nature of grace and God’s love until I look clearly at the cost.  It is here that we really know God, know ourselves and understand our relationship.

Here we must take a complete look at the cross. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  The holiness, righteousness and just nature of God demands that a slave trader named John Newton and all the rest of us deserve to perish because of the magnitude of and significance of sin, but instead, we are given the fullness of life.  And, it’s eternal because of the greater significance and magnitude of the gift of God’s perfect son Jesus Christ on the cross.  Eyes that were once on sin and guilt are now on grace and freedom in God’s tangible love and sacrifice in a cross.

Grace can not only be understood and experienced, but also seen in a tangible, solid way, a graphic picture and story of God on a cross.

This weekend a new message series begins, Guilt & Grace.  Another way to put it is guilt is satanic, and grace is God.  Our teaching pastor, David Alexander, will be leading in this three-week series.  Here is what he says about it:

“While grace tells us a story about God that we want so desperately to be true, guilt tells us a story that we often find easier to believe.  The question we want to wrestle with is this:  whose story will we choose to believe?”

 “Amazing grace!  How sweet the sound . . .”

Thoughts on evidence of faith

In some of my final thoughts on War of the Worlds, a message emphasis we just completed, I want you to think about a few words that the Apostle Paul wrote near the end of his life, words written from a Roman prison.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day —and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.“ 2 Timothy 4:7-8

These words not only were a reflection of faith near the end of his life but also had been a guide throughout his life.

What guides you and me through our lives?

When I was on the mission trip in Louisiana with our high school kids, I took a morning off from the kitchen and visited some of the sites where our youth were building wheelchair ramps.  Being absolutely unfamiliar with that area, I depended on my GPS.  All I needed was an address to type in, and then the amazing satellite connection would direct me right to the front door of these homes where our kids were serving so well.  The key was putting in the correct address.  Where did I want to go?  What was my purpose?  Which was the right road?  When do I stop?  Once I got the purpose and the address, everything fell into place.

How does the Christian find the way in a world our faith is often at odds with?

What is the evidence of faith?

“We walk by faith, not by sight . . . the just shall live by faith.”

Some teach the evidence of faith is life going well, things happening as we desire, God working miracles for the believer.  There are elements of truth in this, but faith is far more than our vain attempts to manipulate our world.  Faith is directly related to the life that is lived by the Believer.

What is the evidence of faith?

• Conviction: A conviction is what I believe, who I believe in, what I live for, what my purpose is, a standard of faith that guides my choices, decisions and way of life.  A conviction is not culturally-based but based in what I believe; a biblical worldview is how many describe it.  A conviction is not a life spent seeking to manipulate God in a way one hopes will benefit them but a life lived for God because we love Him.  “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12)
• Strength: The strength for the living of the Christian is found in one and only one place — in a growing, developing, serious relationship with Jesus Christ.  Once we are convinced we believe in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, then it is a matter of day by day building that relationship through prayer, worship and community.  We will be as strong as that relationship.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
• Courage: Courage is the willingness to pay the price, to make the sacrifice, to give oneself for whatever and whoever one believes in, for our convictions.  In a very self-centered, consumer-oriented world, the Christian is centered in Jesus Christ and is willing to pay the price, make the sacrifice, give oneself to that cause, a cause lived out in family, friendships, church, community and wherever the adventure of faith leads someone.  The evidence of faith is a courageous life!  “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)

Thoughts on life

“Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and He’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!” 1 Peter 4:7-11, The Message Bible

Billy Graham may have led more people, probably millions, to Christ by personal invitation than anyone else in history and has preached and taught as America’s pastor for 60 years. Recently in a Newsweek article he made some serious statements about faith and belief:

• There are many things I don’t understand.
• Sincere Christians can disagree about the details of scripture and theology.
• We can grasp only so much; “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
• As time went on, I began to realize the love of God for everybody all over the world.
• With Jesus’ death on the cross some mysterious thing happened between God and the Son that we don’t understand.  But there He was alone, taking on the sins of the world.  I spend more time on the love of God than I used to.

I have had two dramatic experiences the last two days. My first was visiting with Wendy Sardella’s family, her husband Dave and children Kelly and Nick. She served on our staff and was a longtime member of our church. As we were planning her memorial service, I was remembering what a bright, funny, dynamic and giving person Wendy was.  We all miss her.  Then today I visited with Gary, a member who has been hospitalized several months with a debilitating illness with an unknown cause.  Gary is married to Gabby and has two small children. He wanted some more “God Is Big Enough” wrist bands to give to the nurses. He always wants prayer; he worries about his family, and yet is so considerate of those who have taken the time to travel to Dallas to see him. Both with Wendy and Gary, I understand something about life and the verse above from Peter.

• Everything is about to be wrapped up.
• Take nothing for granted.
• Stay awake in prayer.
• Most of all, love each other.
• Love covers everything.
• Live, love, serve, give, and be generous.
• Give credit to Jesus.
• The end of time is just the beginning for the Christian.

Thoughts on Unified Celebration Weekend

I am excited that our church has partnered with Bethlehem Baptist Church and Dallas Baptist University in planning Unified Celebration Weekend, a series of events over three days that will celebrate our community’s diversity and mark the historic journey from segregation to integration.  The weekend kicks off with a showing of a documentary about John Howard Griffin, the author of Black Like Me, in our church’s Chapel.  After the documentary, I, along with other community leaders will take part in a panel discussion.  I hope you will join me as we come together in a common goal of strengthening Mansfield in the years to come.

Thoughts on War of the Worlds

I have just begun a message series, War of the Worlds, that will continue for the next few weeks. Last Sunday I shared the first message.  I am offering a synopsis of that message here because I think it is a very important message for many reasons, and it certainly is the critical entry point into the rest of the series.  If you heard the message, I hope this is a good review for you.  If not, I hope you will spend some time with me grappling with the tension that exists between anyone who has chosen to follow Christ and the world that crucified Him.  Yes, folks, there is a real war of the worlds.
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In 1953, the year I was born, a movie came out called War of the World. It came from an   H.G. Wells’ book written some 50 years previously.  The movie consists of Martian invaders coming to destroy the people of the Earth so that they can take it over.  As the Martians seem to be winning, the heroes of the movie and many others gather in a high-steepled church.  A pastor is praying at the pulpit as together they pray parts of the Lord’s Prayer, turn to God for help and wait for a miracle.  A miracle comes as the Martians begin to die from the common cold.  The Martians had not developed immunity to Earth diseases, so the smallest of God’s creations on Earth wins the war. Movie, war of the worlds, color, aliens, at the end, in a church praying, pastor leading the prayer, germs, God — and God’s creation wins the war.

In 2005, a Tom Cruise remake of the same movie, War of the Worlds, came out.  The Martians still die of the common cold at the end, but God and the church’s place in the movie are extraordinarily different.  At the beginning of the movie aliens burst on the scene, and the first building they destroy is a church.  The viewer watches as a high-steepled church, much like the one in the 1953 movie, is destroyed and crumples to the ground.  It seems like slow motion as the historical icon of America and every American city becomes a moot point in the story line.  It is the last time the viewer will see any prayer or hear anyone ask God for help or mercy.

These movies are a simple, yet powerful, microcosm of the war the believer and follower of Christ is really in.

We live in a post-Christian America.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are millions of Christians in this country, worshiping, serving and loving God.  But the culture does not submit to God, God’s way or God’s will.  One author put it very simply, “God has become weightless.”  Even though 90% of Americans believe in God, few allow God to influence their choices, values and way of life; this is certainly true of the culture as a whole.  This means that those who do want to live for God and churches that want to influence the world from a biblical standpoint will experience a tension, even a sense of being at war with the very world they live in.  The good news:  this is most often where God works, just as He worked in Christ who loved the people of the world, the very people that eventually put Him on the cross.

In a recent survey of Americans, George Barna discovered that only 9% of Americans have a biblical worldview and only 19% of evangelical Christians do.  A worldview is how we see the world, see ourselves, even see God, and how we interact with God and the world we live in.  It is how we experience life, how we decide our values, how we feel, even how we think.  Everyone has a worldview — some a cultural one, some a biblical one.

The simple definition of a biblical worldview as defined by George Barna, the premier church expert, is based on surveys of Christians.  Those who have a biblical worldview believe:

• Absolute moral truth exists;
• The Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches;
• Satan is a real being, a real enemy;  tangible evil exists in the world;
• A person cannot earn the way to heaven, faith in Christ is the entry into salvation;
• Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth, existing as the Son of God;
• God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world.

With this information in mind, all it takes to be at war, to experience tension in a war of the worlds, is to have:

• A standard of faith;
• A standard of practice;
• A standard of belief;
• A standard of behavior;
• A standard of life.

If I have a biblical standard of practice, behavior, belief and life, the battle lines are drawn immediately:

• When I say I believe in God;
• When I say Jesus Christ is my Lord;
• Whey I say the Bible is my book;
• When I say this is right, this is wrong, this is good, this is bad this is love, this is evil.

The war begins and how I interact with the world changes when the tension starts because we live in a world with a different god, a different lord, different books, different rights and wrongs, different good and bad, a different standard for interaction with the world around them.

“I say these things while I am in the world so that they can share completely in my joy.  I gave your word to them and the world hated them, because they don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t belong to this world.  I’m not asking that you take them out of this world but that you keep them safe from the evil one.  They don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t belong to this world.  Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me in the world, so I have sent them.” (Jesus) -John 17:13-19

“See to it that nobody takes you captive with philosophy and foolish deception, which conform to human tradition and the way the world thinks and acts, rather than Christ.” -Colossians 2:8

1. Pantheism Impersonal Divinity                  There is no center.
   God is everything — creation itself, the world, humanity, the universe, etc.  God is not identifiable or personal, has no character, purpose or central being.  God is only a spiritual force, and all that is part of that spiritual force.  There is no center, no absolutes, no purpose and no direct contact with any god, much less that Christians celebrate.  Many in our culture believe in a spiritual force calling this “God,” but their god, with teachings, absolutes and truth, is not the center of their worldview.  Many, many Americans have this worldview, and many are in the seats of churches around the country.  With this worldview, there is no center; everything becomes a moving target.
2. Philosophical Syncretistic Divinity                  Humanity is the center.
   People here get to pick and choose, developing their religious or spiritual beliefs and gathering information and ideas from many religions, spiritual ideas, etc., from all kinds of sources.  The Bible might be one of these sources, and Christianity might be one of their ideas, but in the end, their belief system is defined by a “pick and chooses” method that leaves them with much less than a biblical worldview.  This leaves the person at the center, setting their own beliefs, standards and faith, developing whatever works or whatever they like, often looking for spiritual principles that help them either achieve their goals or help them in life.
3. Christianity Jesus is the Son of God.                  God is center.
   There is a standard of truth, an absolute truth that is the Bible, the person of Jesus Christ, the example of Jesus Christ and the teaching of Jesus Christ.  As the Gospel of John says, a truth that works to form and shape the follower of Jesus Christ by truth, “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.”  Jesus is “the same yesterday, today and for ever.”  This unchanging standard works to create a worldview where God is at the center and the believer continually turns toward God.  We are accountable to God, need God, must accept God and our energy must be turned to know and experience God’s will.

Any worldview we have will dictate how we understand ourselves, understand God and interact with the world.

In 1940, Germany invaded France.  The German ideology we know as Nazism was maybe the most evil, anti-God and anti-people philosophy in the history of the world.  Yet Hitler was able to hijack a nation, mobilize an army and turn on the world.  In just a few weeks, 1.8 million French soldiers surrendered, most without firing a shot.  History says the country, and especially the army, was divided, depressed and defeated long before the blitzkrieg across the Maginot line.  I sometimes worry that Christians look at themselves, and then at the world, and surrender, thinking it is too difficult to fight to live for God and even more difficult to fight against the evil, injustice, pain and hurt of the world we live in.  This the church and the Christian can never do.   As Jesus said, God sent Him into the world, and He has chosen to send the church into the world.  This is you and me, engaging and interacting with the world around us in the context of biblical truth, the power of the Holy Spirit and the good news of Jesus Christ.  The Christian can’t lose!

If you have a life centered in God, you will be at war with a world that is multi-cultural, pantheistic, syncretistic and agonist.  The set of rules that you follow will be at odds with the rules of the world.  Tension will set in between you and the world.  The temptations you deal with and the decisions you will have to make every day need to be filtered through a biblical world view.  Just as God works in this tension, a Holy tension, between his followers and the world, so God also works in this tension between the church and the world.  A church that gives, love and serves but also stands for a biblical way of life will be at war with the world.  But this same tension will call the world to the Christ that gives it.  When Jesus came to the world, many followed, but many did not.  But as time went on, that initial war of the good news engaging the world changed that world.

In this different kind of war, everyone must make a decision:

• God does or does not exist;
• God does or does not care;
• God is or is not involved;
• The culture is Lord or Jesus Christ is Lord.

In a biblical worldview, we believe that God is, and we are accountable to this amazing being responsible for our existence.  We are convinced God cares for us, that in the coming of Jesus Christ we know that God so loved the world.  We have no doubt that God is personally present among us, involved in the world, the church and even in our lives in ways defined by His love, His wisdom and His power, all far greater than our own.  We are committed to the truth that we are not to be in abeyance to wherever the changing culture is at a given time, but we are to bend the knee to Jesus Christ to whom “all knees will bow and all tongues confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the father.”

Which worldview do we choose?

Thoughts on going into summer

For our church, summer officially begins this coming weekend, a season that is rich and meaningful, starting with our June message series, War of the Worlds.  This important series will help us understand what it is to live as a follower of Christ — as a Christian — in a world that often espouses different values and celebrates a different kind of life than the one Jesus taught.  Each day we make choices to look at our world and our lives through the lens of a biblical worldview or through the lens of the culture, a culture that is often at odds with the way of Christ.  I hope you will join us in worship at one of our weekend services, Saturday at 6:00 p.m., Sunday at 8:15, 9:30, 11:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary or The Well at 11:00 a.m. in the Chapel.  We also have a great Celebrate Recovery worship service each Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the Chapel.

I believe a tension exists between the church and the world and often between the Christian and that same world.  I also believe this tension is where God is at work!

I also ask you to join me in prayer for two other very important events in June — our senior high mission trip to Louisiana and Vacation Bible Camp.  These two ministries alone will involve almost 1,400 children, youth and adults.  The Louisiana trip will be to Lafayette, and the VBC theme is Big Apple Adventure.  When we add these missions to our ongoing life and ministry, June alone will be an impactful month that multiplies as the summer continues.  As is always the case at First Methodist, summer is not a slow season but a time we ramp up the difference we make in the world.

We will also be sending lay delegates and pastors to Annual Conference next week.  They will represent our church as we seek to influence the ministry and mission of all the United Methodist Church.  Our church has grown to have a worldwide impact, and this conference is a part of that.

Finally, I know summer is also a season of vacations and moments of rest.  It is also a season that our mission and life is vibrant and full, but due to summer vacations, our giving can decline.  Please help us stay on track as we under gird our life with our gifts.  Know that you can always mail a check in, but even better, there are cards available in the pew and chair holders that allow you to define your giving through EFT (electronic fund transfer).  This is a great way for each of us to fulfill our purpose in a consistent, helpful way.  Rhonda and I long ago made this step, and it is a blessing to us to know that our gift to God and His Church is the first to go out each month.

Thoughts about life

I was preparing for a denominational church meeting the other day and began to think about the way people, groups and especially institutions often think about life.

Sometimes:

• We idolize the past;
• We complain about the present;
• We fear the future.

It can be remarkable how people remember the past with a different reality than it probably was.  I might remember my family’s early years and sometimes want to go back, but when I really think about it, who wants to live without money or air conditioning, no sleep and a car that often broke down.  It is so easy to complain about the present.  It always seems to me like it could be better than it is; I notice the problems and flaws and details that could be improved.  It is easy to fear the future, for the future is uncertain, out of my control and a mystery that could include all kinds of trouble.

But the real reality for the Christian should be just the opposite. I think we should:

• Remember the past with thanksgiving and grace;
• Give God thanks for the present, live in gratitude;
• Trust God for the future, live into the will of a loving God.

The Christian life is lived in thanksgiving and defined by the future — not the past, never the past — but always by what God is doing, what the will of God is, trusting in God’s love, a love framed by a cross and empowered by the resurrection.  God is redeeming us from sin and death and transforming us into His people, His person, His son or daughter.  God is all about the relationship and faith in Jesus as the defining truth of the Christian life.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, the future which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  1 Corinthians 2:9

Executive Council quarterly report

As is often the case, I like to share my quarterly report to the Executive Council with everyone, so here it is.  It gives you a pretty good update on some of what the “Big Enough” God is doing in and through First Methodist.

On a second note, we have our Senior High Mission Trip coming up June 12-19 to Lafayette, Louisiana, with 100 or so kids going.  We are still in need of a few more adult sponsors.  If you want to impact the world and impact kids who will change the world, this is your opportunity.  No experience required!

Report to the Executive Council
First United Methodist Church of Mansfield
May 17, 2011

At our First Connections (new members and visitors) Class this month, we had a remarkable group of people.  We offer this class most months and can have 30 people many times.  This class had around 20, including a women with health issues who wants to be baptized, a young mother who is a nurse and also escaped the killing fields of Cambodia as a small child, a retired Army couple coming from the Disciples of Christ, another couple from a nearby Methodist church, a family of Presbyterians, a single woman who is a professional counselor and also has a domestic partner, a blended family with five children, a woman with a cane who is definitely in the winter who moved away some years ago and recently returned, and a couple who said “we finally found a church that helps us connect to God.”  This is just a small representation of the 270 or so folks who have officially united with our church since January 1.

Our Confirmation Class this year had 95 kids in it, a record number for us.  Our average attendance the first few months of the year is around 2,370 (when we moved into our expanded Sanctuary a few years ago we were running 1,550), our giving is ahead of last year at the same time even though the economy still moves slowly, a group recently returned from Mexico where we helped dedicate a church that we helped build, and the God Is Big Enough campaign has taken on a tangible reality of God moving into peoples lives, schools, hospitals, military, sports teams, other countries, other languages and other churches in an exponential way.  It has become a phenomenon and will continue to expand.  People are hungry for good news, and it is wonderful to be a part of a church sharing that good news in tangible ways, from evangelism to worship to mission to blessing people of all ages as they grow in faith.

We hope to move our new children’s Zone worship space in the A&E Gym online soon.  The audio visual department is hard at work getting it ready as the construction part is now completed.  There are now new video screens and sound in the foyer by the Chapel, and this summer the Student Center will be renovated.  We have added new visuals for Saturday night worship which will also be used for Sunday night worship when it begins in the fall.

God continues to work in and through this special church family, a church with a spiritual core that leads us to engage the world with good news as well as serve one another in faithfulness.

We look forward to a new Sunday service in the fall, the kick-off of “The Journey” and continuing to develop ways to be faithful to God.  I also ask you to pray for two recently begun endeavors, our Thursday Celebrate Recovery service.  This service is stable at around 45 in worship, but we feel like there is still much more potential.  We are also working on our new La Ventana worship service now running as a Bible study.  Pray we will have the wisdom and the right leadership to know when to step it up into a full-time worship service for our community.

Thank you for all you do as leaders of First Methodist Church.