Open Up in the Name of the King!

In medieval times a loud banging on the door followed by the above phrase would evoke sudden fear or at least worry. Your first thoughts may have been that a Musketeer was outside coming to fetch you to debtor’s prison because of the current financial crisis.

The last thing you would expect is your neighbor using that phrase to make you come out and move your oxcart from in front of their driveway or even the Musketeer asking to borrow some money.

Everyone knew that the only legal reason someone could invoke the king’s name was that they were on the king’s business, and any other use of his name was illegal and might land your head in the stocks or even worse, in a basket.

This medieval example came to mind recently while I was considering how some Christians use the phrase “in Jesus’ name” as some sort of blanket incantation to make their oftentimes selfish or even bizarre requests come to pass. They later suffer shipwreck in their faith when the formula doesn’t work.

However, asking something in Jesus’ name is very powerful when the person who is asking is a servant of the same King and is also on an errand for the King. Any other use of His name is basically spiritual corruption.

When we use Jesus’ name the doors that we are knocking on are the nations and the hearts of mankind. The doors that we close are those that lead to or allow evil. Along the way it is quite safe for us to ask for personal provisions to support us. Musketeers called this a per diem, and Christians call this, “Our Daily Bread.”

It is also safe to use God’s name as did soon to be King David when he stood before the intimidating Goliath, but it is extremely unsafe to use it when we don’t personally know Jesus as in the case of the seven sons of Sceva. Acts 19:11-17

We should never abandon the authority that we have as believers, but the church would find herself in much better shape and amply supplied if she only used the King’s name while on the King’s errand, namely the Great Commission.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:3

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 Jn 5:14,15

The Best Offering Message Ever

All Christians who are serious about advancing the gospel know that it requires money, and the bigger the vision the more money that is needed. Some things of course should never be funded especially when it is really someone’s personal ambition being promoted in the name of God.

However, when we consider the unreached and uncared-for millions of souls on this planet it becomes easier to divide the good goals from the bad ones. Once we determine how much money we need and what we need it for we then have to find out how to get it, and from the very beginning of Judeo-Christian history that method has been the offering.

My first understanding of the offering from childhood was when a group of men wearing the same color sport jackets came to the front of the church during a certain song, prayed, picked up shinny brass or silver plates and then proceeded to follow a simple crisscross choreography of passing those plates from front to back as people dropped in change, checks or envelopes.

My next exposure to the offering was basically the same thing, but this time there were no matching coats, and someone actually taught on the principles of giving. But the more I became exposed to other churches and movements, the more I noticed that some leaders spent quite a bit of time trying to motivate people to give.

Great incentives and many promises of God’s generous reciprocity were used to pry the needed sum from people who were not convinced or motivated enough to give. “Don’t worry, you will get it all back.” was the usual statement to soften the blow of giving. Oftentimes the pressure was greatest and the message longest when the reason for giving was in doubt. You know: theme parks, golden faucets and a faster jet.

The worst offering message I ever heard was from a woman who for some reason altered her voice to sound like a cat in torment when she took the microphone. She screamed some unintelligible hyper-something message for 5-10 minutes. Of course I knew that she was mimicking another screaming-cat preacher that she had seen on TV, and they both probably lost their voices.

But then there is the best offering message I have ever heard, and it went something like this:

“If Christians really understood the pearl of great price there would be no need for long messages on giving.” Wow, that was short!

This phrase resonated in me and still does. This is not only the motivation to give, but it tells us what we should give to. We might get something back, but then again we might not. We can definitely be sure of one thing. If we give something of value then someone else in need will receive something of value. And yes, God will take care of us and meet our needs along the way.

The pearl of great price – and if you haven’t guessed by now it is Jesus - is also the motivation to give one’s life to advancing God’s kingdom either where you are or to go where you are needed. Jesus because of love gave all that He had to get what He valued, us. If we also give because of love others will get what we value, Him. Is there really any other motivation to give?

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matt 13:45,46

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matt 6:21

The Dearly Departed, Former, Whatever We Used to Be

I asked some Ukrainians recently if they consider themselves former Soviet Ukraine or just “Ukraine.” The answer was unanimously “Ukraine”, but the media still frequently refers to this region as the former such and such. This is of course to highlight the contrast from old to new, but it gets a bit old if the past was negative and if you are the one being described as the former: alcoholic, drug addict, felon, dropout, etc.

I never hear of the US still referred to as the former colonies although this was probably the case in Great Britton for at least a century after our independence. Of course, there are a few die-hard anachronistic types who still call us the colonies.

In a funny way my country’s national Independence and our spiritual rebirth – salvation through Christ - were a little like immigration in that we moved from one jurisdiction to another, but we moved legally without getting on a boat or plane.

Paul – formerly Saul the persecutor - tells us in several places that the spiritual change was so drastic that the old person – who we were outside of Christ – is actually considered legally dead, and we have new lives in a new kingdom. If this is the case we should adopt the customs and identity of the new kingdom, namely of the King Himself, and renounce the old ways of the old world.

Now considering the former there was a time when it was inconceivable that the status quo could pass away; case-in-point, the former Soviet Union. But it is gone. Someone believed that it could pass, and it did. Then there was Saul the aforementioned persecutor. Well, I am sure the first church held out little hope for him at the time, but God also changed that in a moment.

The same could be said for friends who we now consider former atheists, former substance abusers, former Muslims etc. There are even now nations like Iran that we may consider to be both national enemies and a collective enemy of the gospel that are at the tipping point of becoming something altogether different with regards to God, something better and maybe even something good.

In all of this the celebration of a New Year is a good place to reset the compass of what faith can do, but the real change in nations begins with a change in hearts, and that change can take place in one moment for an individual. The change can be so profound that the hint of the former will eventually become a distant memory. So “Out with the old, and in with the new” can be a statement of faith after all.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Cor 5:17

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor 6:11

A Message from Christmas Past

Jesus, Dawkins, Santa & the Tooth Fairy

Believe it or not this is my Christmas post, and all these names have something in common. Richard Dawkins is a world-renown scientist who is also known as Darwin’s Rottweiler because of his radical position on Darwinism. He is also vehemently opposed to any hint of deity being involved in the here-and-now or the hereafter.

Dawkins and his supporters also frequently parrot something like, “Sure, people have the freedom to believe in God, and we do not want to take this away. They also have the freedom to believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy.”

Well Mr. Dawkins, let’s solve the simple controversies first. The Tooth Fairy is an early European myth, and some think that it came from the tooth mouse that had more or less the same mission. No one really believes in this person into adulthood. There are no theological or philosophical books written about him or her, and there are no temples devoted to worship. This character never existed.

Santa on the other hand did sort of exist. He does not live at the North Pole despite Hollywood’s never-ending attempt to make us believe. Nicholas of Myra – no relation to my wife who is also Myra – lived in what is now Turkey which is a little further south. He usually tried to forego using reindeer to crash-land on roofs, but he was known to have done much for humanity in the name of God simply by walking on foot. Many aspects of his life are worthy of emulating even from a secular perspective.

Dawkins is a contemporary figure who is quite brilliant even though I believe his presuppositions are extremely prejudiced. You really need to have your ducks in a row – or primates in ascending order – to hang with this guy in a debate. I would however ask him why he stands so firmly against the God that Nicholas followed in a desire to do good, and I would ask him what moral questions he has against a man, namely Jesus, whose life brought about the greatest positive change in human history and whose birth and death have come to define our cultural landscape.

When it comes to the aforementioned names it is better to focus on just Jesus and Richard Dawkins for the sake of comparison and contrast, but Saint Nicholas without the reindeer is still worthy of mention having made a significant impact on natural history because of what he believed and did.

The final question is this. Does what we do or don’t believe about Christmas cause us to make a significant positive contribution to the moral evolution of our species, or do we just adhere to survival if the fittest in a hurting and needy world?

Pepsi and Original Sin

Everyone who has ever met me knows that I have a significant scar on the left side of my chin. When I meet new people I can tell they are looking at it, so I just want to tell them it is a war wound or that I was bitten while wrestling with a shark. But that would not be true. I actually did it to myself.

When I was 10 years old I was walking home from a friend’s house and stepped on a Pepsi bottle that almost made me fall. In anger I picked up the bottle and threw it across the road at a large stone wall which made it shatter. A split second later the wall sent me a response.

I continued home, and as I entered the bathroom and looked in the mirror I was in shock as I saw that I was covered in thick blood from my chin down and caked around my neck and all over my shirt. Unbeknownst to me that wall had sent the bottom part of that bottle back to me as a token of my impulsiveness, but I only felt a slight bump when it happened. Most people would curse out something like, “Stupid wall”, or “Stupid bottle!” But in my case it was just stupid Mike. I think I also prayed the sinner’s prayer as best I could because I thought that I had cut my throat and was dying.

Very often in life we find that we are the victims of our own immaturity. We walk around mad at something or someone, and we are then surprised when someone is all of a sudden mad at us. I mean, who started this thing, Adam & Eve?

This is life, but every so often we have to make a difficult decision that, even though we may be correct, will cause us and maybe others some degree of pain. In these cases we need to make sure there are no rocks or Pepsi bottles nearby – namely in our hearts - that we can use to express our unique individuality, aka self-centeredness & immaturity. We will then find that the fewer things we throw around in frustration, the fewer ammunition others will have to throw back at us.

I still have that scar and always will. Maybe that is the real reason I drink Coke.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Pr 15:1

The First Steps of Leadership

I was talking with a pastor friend the other day in Kiev about the lack of a leader for his youth ministry as well as a problem that I solved in our new church meetings. My problem is that since we are small and getting started I was leading every aspect of the meetings. I opened the meeting, I lead worship, I made announcements, I preached & then closed the meetings. At the same time I noticed that the whole meeting had an awkward feeling that one of our team said was like being in school.

My friend was doing the same thing with his youth because he did not have anyone experienced enough to lead. After an hour of discussion, the root as well as the solution was uncovered. It is true we did not have anyone as experienced as ourselves to lead the team or the whole meeting for that matter, but we did have people who could lead individual parts of the meetings.

I had already decided to divide up various roles at this point so that I would not be seen as a schoolmaster or even worse, the church master. Our team had a great creative staff meeting where they even decided the topic that I would preach. Another guy helped me choose the songs, and since he plays guitar, he will also play a few.

In the end it was decided that my only role in the meeting would be to preach for 15 minutes, and our team was encouraged and empowered to have been a part of the whole process.

So who was the leader in all this? I lead our team, but I lead them to lead. The first step in my leadership is to help and encourage my team to take the first steps in their leadership. We have experienced full-time leaders on our team, but we also have volunteers who are just getting started. It is unrealistic to think that we will simply find someone among the untrained volunteers or new believers who is born with the full package for leading a meeting.

I am not the only one who is leading leaders either. We pass this principle of first steps on to everyone with whom we are working. The result is that we will have a happier team and less boring meetings, and as they grow in confidence and ability God’s kingdom will not simply grow but will multiply.

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Tim 2:2

Relationships: Becoming Sticky Again

In my last post I talked about how relationships before marriage can damage us and make our marriages less cohesive (sticky). Of course, it is great to enter into marriage as pure as snow, but the reality is that many – including Christians – come into marriage with a lot of unwanted baggage, including some photo albums in our heads that we can’t seem to get rid of. How can we remedy this?

As with tape or glue, we need to remove the residue of old relationships, and this starts with restoration of our souls in Christ Jesus. The very first thing needed is repentance, the removal of guilt and a subsequent clean conscience.

Another important step is to repent of the idolatry of relationships. Memories of old relationships are often so sticky because we have placed that person or that experience at the center of our lives. When a marriage goes through a difficult period, an unrenewed mind can become untethered and drift to so-called “better things”, and if that better thing is an old memory we are on a dangerous road. However, when Christ is the center He is the “better thing” and the anchor of our souls during stormy seasons of life.

The last point is that there is no better surface for tape to stick to than another piece of tape. This is why a man and a woman – unfortunately it is necessary these days to specify genders – with Christ as the center of renewed hearts and minds have the best chance of sticking together in a world where many forces seek to tear us apart. Therefore, don’t marry an unbeliever, and make sure you are spiritually prepared for marriage. (clean sticky surface again)

This may all sound oversimplified, but when anyone has overcome a difficult past to build a strong marriage they will look back and see that they have more or less done these very things.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Cor 5:17

Relationships: Sticky, Stickier & Stickiest

Just last year my wife, Myra, and I lead a small group at a local university, and the topic was relationships. We posed a simple question, “Do multiple relationships before marriage serve as good practice for marriage, and do you want your future spouse to be experienced sexually before you get married?” What would you say?

To our surprise the girls said that more relationships were better, and they wanted their husbands to be “experienced”. The guys were a little more conservative.

Next we pulled out a piece of paper and some scotch tape. We applied a piece of tape to the paper, and then carefully removed it. “Is the tape still sticky”, we asked? They replied that it might be, but barely. We asked why not, and they replied that the tape removed some of the paper. We all agreed that you might be able to use that same piece of tape 3 times, but afterwards it would be useless.

I then explained that relationships are like that. The emotional and physical bond that occurs is deeper than we can realize, and when we break this relationship it damages something in each person. Each consecutive relationship is less sticky and the breakup is easier each time.

Finally, by the time we get married the only so-called “experience” that we have is how shallow relationships can get and how easy they are to break. We are left with the memories of others which further pollute the bond that we desire to have with our spouse.

Again we asked the students the same question, but the answer was different this time. “It seems that it is better to wait for the right person”, they replied.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Gen 2:24

Note: There will be a part two to this post on restoration and how to become sticky again. There is always hope!

Christianity: What Not To Wear

Nose rings, cup holders in our lips, tattoos, ties or a tattoo of a tie? Not long ago I had a conversation with a friend about Christians who have piercings and tattoos, and it seems that for some this theological question is the biggest thing on the heart and mind of God. Of course we were talking about young people and not our grandparents. What should church policy be on these issues?

Believe it or not I had faced the same theological dilemma over 30 years ago at my first baptism. (I have been baptized 3 times, but that is a hitherto unpublished post) My pastor at that time was a very godly preacher, but his short sleeved shirt on baptism day revealed a tattoo of a woman in a bathing suit dated to the 1940’s. He got it I think in the Navy during WW2. As a newborn 10 year old theologian I was shocked but have gotten over it. He went to be with the Lord last year, and he had a great influence on my life. It turned out that he was able to be a pastor and a Christian with that tattoo after all.

As a somewhat progressive church planter I am willing to try almost anything to reach the lost. I dislike ties except on formal occasions, and I have no desire or need to get a tattoo unless it is my phone number which I can never remember. I reach gothic kids now and try to dress a little cooler, but there is no need to dye my hair black unless it starts to turn gray. I considered wearing a spiked collar to fit in with the Goths, but at my age it might be misconstrued for the aberration of a more dominant lifestyle. I try to be myself, but I know others who for the right reasons are a little more progressive than I am. I lose no sleep over this.

From a cultural perspective the question of what to wear and what not to wear can be complex, but from a biblical context it is simple. All women in the US have seen the show What Not to Wear, and if you are a married man you have also been forced to watch it. Some poor soul is submitted to this show by his or her friends and family who think that they could use a change. Their unique daily dress & grooming styles or lack thereof are secretly filmed for a few days, and they are then presented with the evidence and an opportunity to change. BUT, they must get rid of the old, and some people religiously hold on to 20 year old styles, mullets and the like. It sounds like a few archaic church styles that I know of.

The concept of this show is not new. The spiritual version can be found in God’s Word:

What to take off: Eph 4:25-29

• Take off worldliness
• Take off selfishness
• Take off bitterness, unforgiveness, etc. 2 Tim 3:1-4
• Take off a religious spirit. 2 Tim 3:5

What to put on: Rom 13:12

• Put on the new self. Of course this means to take off the old self. Col 3:1-7
• The armor of God. This is a big one, but I would like to emphasize the footwear here. Eph 6:10-20
• Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. This means to look like Jesus and not like us. Rom 13:10-14
• Put on love. Of course, a lot has to be removed to put this on.

Ultimately, God is concerned with the style of the heart and not the style of the clothing, hair or what part of our face we hang our dad’s extra fishing tackle. It is the heart that ultimately shows our life’s purpose or who is at the center of our lives. A heart that is properly clothed and focused on the will of the right person, namely Jesus, is prepared to be what Paul stated:

…I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. 1 Cor 9:22

What determines your personal style, Kingdom purpose or just personal expression? The two sometimes line up but sometimes don’t.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:27-28