Now That It Is "Over": My Response to the Duck Dynasty Debacle

Picture from newsbuster.org

Well I guess it is all over now that A&E has restated Phil Robertson to the popular TV Show "Duck Dynasty." At least this chapter is over. If the truth were known (which we can speculate on but never truly know), A&E probably made their decision to reinstate Phil Robertson for self-serving financial reasons rather than because they had any sort of change in heart. The point is, the debacle and hullabaloo is far from over. The next time Phil Robertson or any other conservative, evangelical Christian expresses an opinion that is not considered politically correct - there will be an uproar. When that person is a public figure like Mr. Robertson, there will a cry for blood. Exactly how should a Christian respond to this? How should we have responded to Phil Robertson, the liberal outcry, and ultimately A&E? Did we do the right thing by getting all up-in-arms? Should we have defended him or judged him? Should we have responded in protest to A&E (or Crackle Barrel or anyone else that retaliated against him)? Do we rail against the system in defense of our right to Free Speech? I’ve seen all of these things over the last week or so from friends and foes alike. I, however, have said very little until now. Now that things are settling down, I thought I might put in my two cents worth.

I purposely did not make the mistake that Sarah Palin and millions of others made by jumping to the defense of Phil Robertson without having first read the transcript of his interview with GQ. In truth, I still have not read it nor can I find the full transcript out there in the web-o-sphere so that I can read it. However, I have read excerpts that “both sides” have posted about it. I see things he said that I would fully defend, but I also see things that he said that probably should have been left unsaid. The problem is the inability to see the full picture. So anything I say about the situation must be tempered by the fact that a complete assessment cannot be made without all of the facts. That is the mistake that many on both sides of the isle have made the last few weeks. As a result, my commentary on this subject is not going to be about Mr. Robertson's comments one way or the other. Rather, my commentary will be about the Christian response to the whole uproar.

Let’s begin first with the underlying issue itself. Within the Christian community, there is a growing divide over the issue of homosexuality and whether it is – or is not – a condemnable sin. Personally, I think there is no question that homosexuality is a condemnable sin in scripture, but then again, so is every other sin. Homosexuality is no more or less a condemnable sin than being overweight or being a liar or being a disobedient child (see my blog post regarding the similar Chick-Fil-A debacle from a couple of years ago here: http://surrenderdaily.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-acceptable-sin.html). That means any condemnation or judgment that I may have towards those that choose (yes, I said choose) that lifestyle must fall on me first - I was a condemned sinner first before Christ forgave me. So while I may have no right to judge, I can still hold fast to my own conviction that such a lifestyle is wrong and sinful. On the other hand, I recognize that some do not see scripture the same as I do and while I strongly disagree with their interpretation of scripture, I do not see this as an essential belief over which Christians should break fellowship. If you disagree with me and believe that the Bible allows homosexuality, we may not be able to be a part of the same denominational affiliation or members of the same local faith fellowship, but I see no reason why we cannot be in general Christian fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ. Our disagreement with each other on this issue should have no impact on how we live our lives and how we approach the world. We should treat all sin equally – acknowledging that God condemns all sin including our own. As such, we should treat all people with equal respect and dignity – recognizing that all are sinners and that God has saved some while others have not yet come to him in repentance of their sin. Since we are not in a position to judge the hearts of man like God, we are not in a position to judge whether someone is – or is not – in a state of grace. All we can do is look to the deeds of their life to see if they bear fruit consistent with repentance and make some semblance of an assessment – not for judgment purposes, but to know how to respond to them on a daily basis… and trust me, there are plenty of people in the church who have less fruit of repentance in their life than people outside the church.

So, whether you believe homosexuality is a sin or not, how should we respond to the Phil Robertson situation? First of all, we should not at all be surprised. We do live in a country where – at least for today – people are free to speak their mind. That may change soon if current trends continue, but at least today we are all free to speak our minds. Why should it surprise us, therefore, that someone would say something controversial? But more importantly for us as Christians, why should it surprise us that the one who did so in the name of Christ is met with such an overwhelming attack by the world? Whether you agree with him or not, Phil Robertson has been a very public, very outspoken defender of his Christian faith. Much like Tim Tebow, someone who makes such a bold stance for Christ is going to be highly monitored and highly criticized by the world for anything that might make Christianity look bad. This is how Satan works and we should not be surprised by it. Based on what I know about the interview (which remember is incomplete because I haven’t read the transcript) Phil stood up for his Christian belief that homosexuality is a sin which made him a public target for those who disagreed with him. If I were asked straight up in an interview, I probably would have said similar things and have become a similar target. What got downplayed was his discussion about how as Christians we are called to treat everyone with respect and dignity – even if we disagree with their lifestyle. It got downplayed because he also said some pretty edgy and crass things in the process that I probably would not have said. Context is everything and without proper context it is hard for me to judge – so I won’t – but obviously the world has judged those words regardless of their context and thus the feeding frenzy that went so viral and made it more difficult for like-minded folk to stand with him. As a result, everything else that Mr. Robertson might have said in the interview has been marginalized. For this also we should not be surprised. Our response, therefore, should be tempered between the holy and the civil.

From the perspective of the sacred and holy, we should not compromise on our beliefs but we must also acknowledge that the world will always be at war with those beliefs. The freedom we enjoy as Americans today is not guaranteed in scripture. Indeed, we may one day lose those freedoms and be persecuted to the death simply for being a Christian. It has been that way for 2000+ years and exists today in other parts of the world. From a sacred perspective, why should we think that as Christians in America we deserve anything different than a Christian in North Korea or Iran? The differences are civil, not sacred. For today, though, we still can worship and believe relatively freely here in the United States. Therefore, stand true to your beliefs, but anticipate resistance – even hatred and possibly retaliation against you for those beliefs. Just don’t respond in a un-Christ-like manner when it does happen. One thing I can say about the Phil Robertson situation is that (at least thus far), the Robertson's have taken the high ground when it comes to their response to the back-lash. For that, I commend them and suggest we all take note. All of the yelling and screaming in the name of Christ does nothing to advance the cause of Christ and I am pretty sure that Jesus would say that you are not speaking on his behalf. We too often confuse civil rights with sacred ones and this has definitely been one of those times. Mr. Robertson's right to free speech and to state his belief that homosexuality is a sin is NOT a sacred right, but a civil one. NO ONE – not the government, not A&E, and certainly not the media – can take away your sacred right to hold fast to your convictions. That is something God has granted you personally - he even granted you the right to disagree with Him, reject Him, or even choose not to believe in Him. Such beliefs are the sole prerogative of your own soul and ultimately the ONLY one who can judge those beliefs is God Almighty himself. Everything else is just civil rights.

So what about those civil rights? From a civil perspective we must certainly defend our right to free speech and our right to believe and state our convictions about sin. However, we cannot make it a holy crusade or a religious war. Marriage is a spiritual covenant governed by God. As my son put it, only God can recognize a marriage - the state may recognize certain legal and civil benefits and even call such legal relationships "marriage", but until God acknowledges your marriage, it is nothing more than a civil union. So if we want to make this a civil issue, then it ought to be about our civil right to believe and state our convictions without fear of retaliation. Sure, if we want to oppose gay marriage from a civil perspective, then by all means let us do so. But when we do make that fight we must do so with Christian charity and within the bounds of legality. We must not be hateful. We must not riot. We must not break civil law – for there is no law yet in our country that exists which prevents us from being a Christian; only laws that discourage it and make it more difficult. When that happens, scripture has commanded us to disobey that law, but that law doesn't yet exist. And if we lose the civil war on marriage (which we probably will), then we acknowledge it and remember who really approves or disapproves marriages - God.

Our constitutional right to freedom of religion and freedom of speech is under attack and there is no mistake about that, but it is a constitutional issue not a religious one per se. Making this a holy war will only result in escalating the persecution against us. Therefore, we should use the system to our benefit – using every legal strategy to the greatest extent the law allows, but we must do so civilly and with grace and love towards all mankind. Ironically, the most civilly minded out there will defend Phil Roberson even if they disagree with him and hate him for his beliefs (for one such example, see here). They will do so because they know any infringement upon Phil Robertson’s right to free speech will ultimately be an infringement upon their own.

Please feel free to comment on this – even to disagree with me – because it still is, after all (at least for today) a free country. Seriously, your thoughts on the matter would be welcomed.

WHY I WORSHIP

Have you ever been reading a book that you really enjoyed and at the same time couldn't shake the thought that something just wasn't quite right about it? This happened to me while I was reading For whose Pleasure: Confronting the Real Issue as We Gather to Worship by Steve Klingbell.   I started reading this book at the recommendation of two people I know, love, and trust - who both thought the book was fantastic... So I had high expectations for it. I have to admit that it really is a good book about worship that I would recommend all Christians to read.  It does a wonderful job addressing many of the issues our American culture is facing with worship today including the consumer-mentality we see in American worship, getting "me" out of the worship equation, the importance of corporate worship, the importance of truth in worship, and - most importantly - having the right "object" of worship, which is God.  The author treated all of these topics and others like them very well, but even as I read and enjoyed the book, I was bothered by a little twinge inside telling me that something was just a little off.

The more I read, the clearer that twinge became until I realized that my problem was not with the author's treatment of the issues, but with the author's fundamental principle of the book itself - that of pleasing God through our worship.  The author's treatment of pleasing God through worship was thorough, and so I began to have a bit (a small bit, but a bit nonetheless) of a theological crisis.  You see I know that theologically what pleases God is not my actions, but rather the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  I realize and understand that all of my righteous acts are as filthy rags in the eyes of God.  Most importantly, I know from scripture that it is only through faith that I as an individual can please God because without faith it is impossible to please God.  Any good study of Romans or Galatians or Ephesians will prove to you that I can never please God through any actions of my own - including religious acts of "worship." I know that what pleases God is my faith in the one thing that truly pleases Him - the work of Christ.  My crisis, therefore, was in the fact that the author did such a very good job of demonstrating through scripture how our acts of worship can please God that I wanted to believe him, but my theological bias told me that could not possibly be the case.   Pleasing God is a very desirable thing... And I am immediately drawn back in my memory to the old Petra song that said "I wanna be a God-please; Don't wanna be a man-pleaser.."  It is very natural for us to want to please our deity - that is what all religion is ultimately about...but is it theologically correct for Christianity?

What made the crisis more acute for me was the fact that I very much liked what the author said about worship and agreed with his analysis, conclusions, and recommendations about how we approach God in worship.  If that had not been the case, I would have dismissed the book as being completely off base... But because I liked the book so much, I needed to resolve this issue theologically.

I began to contemplate and meditate over these scriptures to try to resolve this crisis in my own mind.  How can it be true that my worship pleases God when only my faith in the work of Jesus Christ really pleases God.  As I did so, I began to realize that in each and every one of these scriptures presented by the author, it was not so much the actions of the individual that pleased God but rather the condition of the heart that led to the actions that pleased God. In fact, much of the prescribed worship in the Old Testament that would please God never actually pleased God because the people of Israel never really committed their heart wholly to God. That made some sense to me and actually fit well into the author's paradigm of the book. The condition of our heart is paramount to whether our actions - be they worship related or otherwise - are acceptable to God.  It also reinforces the reason why much of Israel's worship in the Old Testament was found to be so unacceptable to God "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Isaiah 29:13 ESV).  Perhaps this would be the key that would help me get past my theological crisis with the author's approach to worship on this book.  At least I hoped so...

About that time, The Lord began to impress upon me a couple of important questions.  The first question was fairly simple, "What is worship?"  That one is pretty easy (I've been through this exercise before).  Worship is more than singing...worship is more than praising...worship is even more than service...although all of these "actions" take place as part of our worship of God (or other things).  Worship is, simply put, ascribing worth or declaring that something has value or worth.  In both the Hebrew and the Greek, the word most often used for worship literally means to bow down before and the second most often used word means to serve, but in all cases the concept is about ascribing appropriate worth.  We give value to lots of things every day.  In fact, we give some kind of value to everything.  In that sense, we actually do "worship" - that is, give worth to - lots of things.  Some of that may be appropriate (for example, when we say a car is worth a certain amount of money or when we say that a certain activity was worth the trouble and effort), and so we would not call that "worship" per se.  The problem is when we give something more (or less) value than it deserves.  When we give something more value than it deserves - and especially if we give something greater value than we give God - then that thing becomes for us an idol and we begin to worship that thing in the sense of worship that we understand here.

The second question that the The Lord then impressed on me was this: "Why do you worship me?"  That question was a little more difficult.  The author of this book would say that I should worship to please God.  I think therein lies the heart of what was bothering me about the book.  The only acceptable answer to the question as to why I worship is this: Because he IS worthy - or - because he deserves it and he alone deserves it.  Worship is ascribing worth.  Who is more worthy of worship, then, than the one who has greater value and worth than anything else.  I worship God because he deserves my worship and for no other reason than that.  I ascribe worth to God because he is worthy of my worship.  This immediately brings to mind the many many songs that say exactly that..."Worthy, you are worthy..." We sing "he is worthy" because his alone is.  However, it is not just in my singing that I ascribe worth to God.  All of my life can be worship because all of my life can be carried out for the glory and worthiness of God.

Of course I may choose to "worship" for other reasons, but no other reason for worship is valid and so no other reason for worship pleases God.  It may seem a bit paradoxical to say it, but if I worship to please God he will never be pleased...but if I worship because he is worthy of my worship then he will be pleased.  So where does this leave us with the book, For Whose Pleasure?  I really do not write this to be negative toward the author at all.  In fact, I still recommend the book as a great read for any Christian.  However, I don't want us doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons - even if the primary reason is as lofty as wanting to please God.  The author is saying all the right things we need to hear about worship, but his premise for doing so is so that we can please God.  I get that.  I want to please God not only with my worship but with my whole life as well.  However, I must ultimately recognize that only through my faith in Christ can I please God.  That means I must give worth to God through my worship - not to please God, but because - through faith - I know and acknowledge that he is worthy of it just because of who his is.  As such, as you do read this book (and I recommend that you do) my suggestion would simply be to replace the book's concept of worshipping God to please him with worshipping God simply because he is worthy of it.  When each chapter begins with "Pleasing God by..." replace that in your mind with "Demonstrating God's Worthiness by..."  Likewise, when the author discusses how and why we should seek to please God through worship, remember that while we should desire to please God, it is only through our faith that we really can please God and that all the things he says will bring pleasure to God only do so when they are done in faith for the glory and worthiness of Jesus Christ.

Of course i could be completely off-base with this and and open to a theological correction if it is appropriate. I would love to hear your thoughts on this... Do you agree or disagree with my assessment of our reasons for worship?  Am I over-reacting? Please leave your comments below.

The Christian and Social Media

IRONY ALERT:  This blog deals with social media and the Christian lifestyle.  Ironically, I am likely to be sharing this blog via social media and in some respects am doing many of the things I discuss here.  It only goes to show you exactly how difficult this issue can be and how fine the line is that we have to walk with it.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the appropriate use of social media for a Christian.  Exactly how ought a Christian to conduct him/herself in the online world and what exactly is appropriate for a Christian when it comes to social media?   Now before I even get started, I have to ask myself how I have been using social media myself – you know, examining the plank in my eye before saying anything about the spec in yours.  So, after a quick review of my “timeline” over the last few weeks I discovered I generally use social media as follows:

• I have cheered on my favorite football team (Roll Tide)
• I posted information promoting the non-profit that I am involved with, Designs for Hope
• I posted pictures of my recent weekend vacation to the beach with some friends
• I “shared” some blogs and articles that I had read
• I “tweeted” some inspirational thoughts and/or re-tweeted inspirational thoughts of others
• I published and shared my blogs, most of which are devotional and/or introspective
• I asked some introspective spiritual questions (didn’t get too many responses to my questions, though)
• I tweeted about a popsicle I ate (really?)
• I shared some videos my son made on his YouTube channel
• I wished my wife Happy Anniversary and a few “friends” Happy Birthday
• I promoted one or the other of the two books I have written in some way (posting a quote from the book, etc.)

That actually sounds about right.  Some of the content or the purposes may vary, but that’s a good representation of my social media life.  The thing is, when I do my “obligatory” daily “scroll” I find a few other uses:

• Parents living vicariously through their children buy posting their exploits online (hey, I’m a proud parent too – I get it)
• The online sharing of one’s free-flowing thoughts about the game, event, or TV show they happen to be watching at the time
• Lots of picture about what people either ate – or want to eat
• Plenty of advertising one’s personal cause (hey, I do that with my non-profit and with my book)
• Vanity pictures (ummm… if you are over 16 and/or not a girl, please don’t post a selfie – its embarrassing for you)
• Bully pulpiting
• Complaining
• Posting about some random things people are doing or are about to do

In addition, I have to think about what I am looking for when I log in and begin my daily scroll.  Am I looking for some good gossip?  Am I looking to keep up with and communicate with people I don’t get to see every day?  Am I looking for a good article to read? Am I a social stalker (always looking but never communicating)?  Or am I just addicted to the scroll and don’t really care what I see, so long as I get my fill of information?

The question is: how much of this is really appropriate?  In many respects, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with social media and there is a good deal of positive that can come from its use.  Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.  Some people either don’t think or don’t care about the implications or the impact of their online conduct.  Some see it as a way to validate their own insecurities.  If they can post something unique or dramatic or shocking enough to get a long list of “likes” or comments then somehow that makes them feel better.

At the end of the day, whether or not any particular online activity is appropriate or not depends upon one’s heart.  In Mark 7, Jesus reminds us that what makes anything we do good or evil depends upon our hearts.

Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

These words apply directly to our online conduct.  When our online conduct is motivated by those things which Jesus says are within our hearts AND are evil, then such conduct is sinful and inappropriate.  Are we being prideful?  Are you angry?  Be careful, because an angry post can easily become slanderous.  Are we being deceitful or envious?  Maybe you just want a platform to complain or to preach from your favorite soap box.  Scripture is very clear that complaining is a sin and there are a lot of folks out there whining and complaining on social media.  Or perhaps we are just being foolish – yes, foolishness is evil – that is (according to the meaning of the original Greek) knowing what is good or smart and foolishly ignoring your own brain’s instructions.

Granted I think there can be a very fine line between appropriate and inappropriate.  Are my picture posts of Patty and me at the beach last weekend vain and prideful or just a courteous way to share with our friends about something we enjoyed? It can be a tough question to answer.  If I were to try to lay out some guidelines for a Christian in how to conduct themselves on social media, I think I would have the suggestions listed below – most of which are prohibitions on certain types of uses.  It may seem like I am being legalistic about this; but when you think about it, the suggestions are mainly just common sense.

Don’t post angry.  Scripture warns us against being angry or doing anything rash when we are angry.  There is a good reason for this because where anger exists, sin is not far behind.  If you find yourself drafting a social media post while you are angry, stop, take a moment to catch your breath, and then walk away.  Give yourself the time to calm down.  Perhaps you won’t want to make the post then and it will certainly save you some regret later on.

Don’t complain. Complaining is a sin. Period.  We all (myself included) need to work on being more joyful and complaining less.  Social Media is more than just a passing verbal complaint.  You are putting it in writing.  Just don’t do it.

Don’t bully pulpit.  Once again, there is a fine line between expressing one’s views and trying to push an agenda across the social media platform.  When the issues are politics or personal pet peeves or the like, I can easily suggest steering away from it.  However, it is harder when we get to spiritual things.  By nature as evangelicals, we believe we should be sharing the message of salvation through any means we can.  Some can interpret our use of social media to spread the gospel as engaging the bully pulpit – especially if you have been engaging the bully pulpit for all your other causes as well.  If we steer away from using social media as a bully pulpit for other reasons, the online world will probably give us some measure of grace on the spiritual things.   I wrote a blog a while back on this very subject of sharing the gospel with social media.  You can read that at "The Gospel in 140 Characters".

Don’t be vain.  Again, the line is very thin between being “social” and being vain.  However, I think you and I both know when we are posting something for prideful or vainglorious purposes.  Remember that 1 Corinthians 10:31 says to do everything for God’s glory – not for our glory.  If you hesitate to post something because there’s something in the back of your mind telling you “this is vain,” – don’t post, because that is your conscious guiding you to purity.

Don’t get your validation from the online community.  Our self worth is found in the fact that we have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ and adopted as children of God.  We don’t need eleventy-seven “likes” to validate our self-image.  We don’t need to look to Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or whatever other social platform to get our self worth.  We just need to look to Jesus.

Don’t waste the time you have been given.  This may very well be the most dangerous of all of the inappropriate social media habits.  Exactly how much time are you wasting in your daily scroll?  The worst part is, the more “friends” we have, the longer we tend to spend perusing statuses.  After all, we don’t want to miss anything “important,” right?  Think about it this way.  We have been entrusted with a precious gift from the master – our time.  We will be held accountable for how we use that gift and if we are not good stewards it, we will have to answer to the master (see Matthew 25, Luke 19, and 2 Thessalonians 3).  Spend the time instead in God’s Word or in prayer or in doing good. 

These are just a few guidelines I thought about – thoughts I had for myself more than anything else, but perhaps they can help you as well.  You may have other thoughts on the subject. I would certainly like to hear them.  Please comment here - or - on my social media link to this blog...  Of course by asking, I realize that I am encouraging your use of social media.  Oh, the irony.

Grace or Truth: The Ministry of Compassion vs. The Ministry of the Word

Most of you who know me well enough know that I am very intimately involved in a non-profit ministry called Designs For Hope (www.designsforhope.org).  Designs for Hope is a compassion-based ministry that designs innovative technological solutions that empower struggling pastors and church leaders in the poorest areas of the world to more effectively spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Recently (last night as I write this, in fact), I was meeting with a pastor at a local church telling him about what all God was doing through Designs For Hope.  My wish was that Designs For Hope could be a resource to that church as they go about their missions activities.  Now I realize that what Designs For Hope does will not always apply in every mission venue and so I would not have been surprised for him to say that his church’s mission objectives did not align with Designs For Hope’s.  However, I was somewhat surprised by the pastor’s fairly straightforward rejection of the very idea of what Designs For Hope was doing.   Don’t get me wrong, he was extremely gracious and Christ-like in his rejection, but there was no mistake in my mind that he did not believe that the mission of Designs For Hope was very beneficial to Kingdom work.  In fact, by his own words, it was fairly clear that he believed our work created not only a mindset of dependency upon foreign help, but also opened the door to envy between the pastors we help and the people we did not (or could not) help.  To put this in its right context, Designs for Hope helps these pastors and evangelists by providing bicycle or solar powered generators so that they can have just a tiny bit of lighting in their small homes.  We also provide water filtration systems so that they can have safe, clean water to drink.  In this pastor’s view – at least as I understood our conversation - mission efforts should be about sharing the Word of God and planting churches, not about handouts and aid.

As a point of clarification, I know enough about this pastor to have a considerable amount of respect for him  – enough respect that I took his words very seriously and to give them significant weight and consideration.  Indeed, I have to admit there is truth in what he said. In the past 50 years or so there has been billions of dollars in foreign aid sent Africa with little or no impact other than creating a greater dependence upon foreign aid.  To make matters worse, we have actually experienced some of what he alluded to in our work at Designs For Hope already.  As an organization, we have to work very hard not to be just another handout, but to truly empower church leaders in their gospel ministry.  We are also very diligent about making sure that we create opportunities for the Word of God to be taught and preached as part of what we do.   Even still, we have experienced the politics this pastor mentioned - politics associated with the pastor receiving such amenities while the flock still struggles.  Our goal is not to give them a handout that sets them above the congregants, but rather a help-up that enables them to serve the congregants. Admittedly, that is a difficult task and so his words lingered in my thoughts all evening.  Is it really true that mission efforts that focus on compassion are a waste of kingdom resources?   No one wants to be accused of throwing good money after bad, or worse, being poor stewards of what God has entrusted to us.  These thoughts were even more exaggerated by the fact that my own personal passion is preaching and teaching the Word of God – compassion ministries come very hard for me, but the ministry of the Word comes very easily for me.

It is a good thing to have your motivations and your mission challenged every now and again.  As I prayed over this, a number of scriptures were brought to my mind that reminded me that we cannot focus too heavily on one approach versus the other.  Yes, my greatest desire is for God to instill faith in every person on the planet.  The truth of the Word of God is so important and the temporary comforts brought about through mere altruistic endeavors will do nothing to forego eternal pain.    In my meditation over this, however, I was reminded of James chapter two.

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (ESV)

Similarly, 1 John 3:17-18 says: 

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (ESV)

“Sharing” our faith is an essential part of every mission effort.  If we do not have this, we are nothing more than a Social Gospel.  However, we cannot just focus so exclusively on the gospel that we ignore the very real and urgent needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ – especially of those who are doing Kingdom work.  Those of us who live in the “first world” have been richly blessed by God.  Even the poorest among us are wealthy in comparison to the millions and millions who live on daily wages that would not even buy us a cup of coffee.  Why has God given us those blessings if not for the purpose of blessing others?  Did not Jesus tell the Rich Young Ruler in Luke 18 to sell his riches and give to the poor?  Did not Zacchaeus in Luke 19 do precisely that?   I’m not saying that God necessarily wants you to sell everything you have and give it away (although you should not make the mistake of presuming that he does NOT want that for you).  What I am saying is that the ministry of the Word of God cannot be separated from the ministry of compassion.

The first chapter of the gospel of John tells us that Jesus was the WORD incarnate.  The Word of God is crucial and essential in all mission efforts.   Without the Word of God, there can be no faith.  Paul asks in Romans 10 how they can believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  He then says that faith comes by hearing and that hearing comes through the Word of Christ.  However, the first chapter of John also tells us that Jesus was filled with BOTH grace AND truth.  Jesus was not solely about being the incarnate WORD of God, he was also about being the incarnate NATURE of God.  A simple examination of his life and ministry is evidence enough that compassion ministries are a vital part of the Christian mission and true to the very nature of God.  In the ESV version of the English Bible, the gospel speaks specifically nine times of the compassion that Jesus had for the people.  Three more times it speaks of how he was moved by the people’s circumstances. At other times it says he took pity on them.  In each of these situations, his compassion and pity led him to take action to relieve their suffering.  These actions were not without the same kind of risks that my pastor friend warned about – and not always were they directly tied to a spiritual lesson.  When Jesus fed the 5000, the spiritual lesson was not for the masses, but for his 12 disciples. For everyone else, it was just a miraculous dinner.  In fact, the impact on the 5000 was exactly what my pastor friend warned about – the crowds just sought Jesus all the more – what can YOU do for ME - and, in John 6, Jesus has to rebuke them for seeking him solely to be fed physical food.  Those risks did not stop Jesus from showing compassion and they should not stop us either.

The purpose of this article is not at all to malign my pastor friend (he probably will not even read this and most – if not all - who do read this will have no idea who I am talking about anyway).  As I said, I have great respect for him and gave very serious consideration to his words. In the end, however, I think that in some respects he may have been right, but that in other respects he was wrong.  Yes, I agree with him.  There is a risk and a responsibility associated with compassion ministries.  It takes great effort to make sure that such ministries are being faithful and true to the gospel and not just mere benevolence.  That is why Designs For Hope partners with organizations who are engaged in the evangelistic efforts, and that is why Designs for Hope’s Partnership Covenant lays out clear expectations that its products are to be used as a tool to advance the gospel and not for profiteering.  However, I don’t agree with him that engaging in compassion ministries is hurtful to the people.  if Jesus could engage in compassion ministries even with the reality of it being misused by some, then I think we ought to consider ourselves open to those ministries as well.

A Response to the Alabama Baptist Newspaper

The following is an article written by my good friend, Adam Brewer - pastor of Glory Fellowship in Jasper, AL.  I support what he says wholeheartedly.

“The Wrath of God was Satisfied”:

A Biblical Response to Dr. Bob Terry & The Alabama Baptist Newspaper

            One of the songs that we often sing at Glory Fellowship is under attack.  Related & more importantly, a vital aspect of Christ’s atonement is being minimized, if not outright denied, even in some Southern Baptist circles. Here’s some quick background on this centuries-long controversy that has again come to the forefront in our own backyard.  Recently, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) made an attempt to change the lyrics of the song “In Christ Alone” from “till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied” to “till on that cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified.”  The writers of the song, Keith Getty & Stuart Townend, refused to allow those lyrics to be changed (Good for them!).  Therefore the hymnal committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) refused to put the song into its new hymnal.  Now, Dr. Bob Terry, president & editor of your Alabama Baptist Newspaper, has engaged in this controversy by writing a tragic editorial that at best minimizes, and at worst completely denies, the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ (Aug. 8 edition pg. 2).

             If you’ve attended Glory Fellowship for any length of time, you know that I often preach that God’s love, demonstrated most vividly in Christ, cannot be fully & rightly understood apart from God’s wrath. However, let’s again go over what penal substitution is & why is it so vitally important. Theologian Wayne Grudem offers a clear definition for us, “Christ’s death was ‘penal’ in that He bore a penalty when He died. His death was also a ‘substitution’ in that He was a substitute for us when he died…This has been the orthodox understanding of the atonement held by evangelical theologians, in contrast to other views that attempt to explain the atonement apart from the idea of the wrath of God or payment of the penalty for sin.”[1]

            Those who, like Terry, argue against penal substitution often base their position on the love of God.  They would say something like what Dr. Terry says in his editorial of this week’s Alabama Baptist Newspaper, “Sometimes Christians carelessly make God out to be some kind of ogre whose angry wrath overflowed until the innocent blood of Jesus suffered enough to calm Him down. It is the ultimate ‘good cop/bad cop’ routine where God is against us but Jesus is for us…But God is not the enemy. He is our seeking Friend. That is why I prefer to focus on His love evidenced at Calvary rather than on His wrath.”[2]

            As one author labeled it, this perception of God’s love is a “squishy love.” This understanding of God’s wrath (an ogre, really?) is flawed, which makes the remainder of his argument flawed & dangerous. The powerful promise of Romans 3:26 doesn’t occur without Romans 3:24-25!! God cannot be “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” unless “God puts forward (Jesus Christ) as a propitiation (“covering & wrath-bearer”) by his blood.” Well-known pastor and theologian John Stott beautiful & powerfully intertwines God’s love and God’s wrath, “It is those who cannot come to terms with any concept of the wrath of God who repudiate any concept of propitiation… It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated, God himself who in holy love undertook to do the propitiating and God himself who in the person of his Son died for the propitiation of our sins. Thus God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it his own self in his own Son when he took our place and died for us.”[4]

In short, the “love of God was magnified” on the cross because “the wrath of God was satisfied.”

            Dr. Terry’s unbiblical understanding of the atonement, and the fact that is presented as truth in a Baptist arena, is repulsive and demands action on the part of Alabama Baptists and our leadership.

Walking with Christ,
Adam

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI: 1994) pg. 579.

Dr. Bob Terry, The Alabama Baptist Newspaper, Vol. 178. Ed. 31. August 8. 2013.

Griffin Gulledge, “Squishy Love at the Alabama Baptist,” (Aug. 8, 2013) http://griffingulledge.blogspot.com/2013/08/squishy-love-at-alabama-baptist.html

John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 167, 172

What I learned in Uganda about Faith

It is interesting what I learned about FAITH during my recent trip to Uganda with Designs for Hope (www.designsforhope.org).  What makes it so interesting is that my primary responsibility on the trip was to provide pastor/discipleship training and my topic of choice was the significance of our faith.  In fact, I am actually in the process of writing a book based on Paul’s letter to the Romans that, among other things, speaks to the significance of our faith – primarily how all of a Christian’s life should be about living in faith.   This is an important topic to me not so much because I consider myself an “expert” at faith, but quite the opposite – because faith comes so hard for me.   I am very much a critical thinker, so I need answers!  I want answers to everything.  The problem is that God does not give us all the answers in the world.  God only gives us what we need in order for us to trust him in faith – and the first 5 chapters of Romans explains to us so clearly why we must come to God in faith and not through our own merit, works, or critical thinking.

Going to Uganda seriously tested my faith… but being in Uganda taught me a great deal more about faith than I ever anticipated.  To begin with, we really had to have faith in God that he would be sovereign over all the agents of travel.  As part of our mission, we needed to get 50 12V gel-cell batteries to Uganda.  The transportation industry is VERY particular about the types of batteries allowed in the baggage compartment of passenger airlines.  The list of prohibited batteries is very specific.  Likewise the list of permissible batteries is very specific.  The problem is that our batteries didn’t fall into either list – so were they prohibited or permitted?  The answer depended upon who you asked and ultimately is the decision of the cargo manager at the airline.  We worked for weeks trying to get a definitive answer as to whether we could pack the batteries in our luggage; and by the time we realized we were not going to get an answer, it was too late to ship the batteries so that they would be guaranteed to be there in time.  So in faith we both shipped them and also put another set in our checked luggage.  It was so encouraging when we were sitting in the airport in Ethiopia, waiting to board the last leg of our journey to Uganda, and we could look out the window and see the bags with our batteries being loaded into the cargo bay of the plane…  God was faithful…

…but then we got to Uganda and discovered we had 4 other bags missing – and there were critical components to our mission in those bags.  We didn’t need them until the 4^rd day in country, but for 3 days we prayed and “argued” with the airline about the status of our bags.  In the wee hours of the morning of the 4^th day… the courier showed up with the bags.  God delivered again just in the nick of time – not too soon, but not late either.

These were tests of our faith, but they weren’t faith-tutors.  In reality, it was the people of Uganda who were my personal faith tutors.   To see the overwhelming poverty in which so many Ugandans live was difficult enough, but to hear their prayer requests was even worse.  We may think we live by faith here in the states, but how many mothers do you know whose main prayer request is that God would provide food so that her babies do not starve?  In Uganda, you either live by faith or you live in hopelessness.

Unfortunately, I saw more hopelessness in Uganda than I did faith – and that was also a faith tutor for me.  I realize I was only there a few days, so impressions here could be overly generalized, but those impressions were pretty clear to me.  Uganda is 98% “Christian” but I dare say the number of people who had real saving faith was only a small fraction of that number.  As I was preaching about the difference between simple belief and a faith that saves… and about the difference between a belief in Jesus and truly following Jesus… I was struck by the number of people who didn’t have a Bible – perhaps for many it was because one simply was not available, but for most it was because they could not read.  As I watched them worship and as I taught, I wondered whether there was any real difference between their tribal religion of 100 years ago and their tribal “faith” of today.  Were they “worshipping” God because they had faith in him or were they simply going through the religious ritual that had become the norm for their tribe or village – a ritual replacement for their old tribal religions.

I thought a great deal about the number of people wandering the streets (and jungle paths) everyday living in hopelessness – desperately trying to sell bananas or “meat on a stick” or even toilet paper to the passers by so that they could feed their families.  I contemplated how many people literally lived from day to day not knowing where their next meal was coming from or whether they would survive to the next season.  These things taught me about faith.  They taught me that without faith, life truly is hopeless.  In their difficult and perhaps even miserable circumstances, so many Ugandans could either live for Jesus with a purpose despite their circumstances or be distraught without him.   They could either hope in eternity… or they could hope that someone brings aide so that they don’t starve to death.  They could hope in the resurrection… or they could hope in a false picture of Jesus painted by the liberation theology that is so prominent throughout Africa.

These things also taught me that my life is far too comfortable to say that I actually understand what it means to live by faith.   Sure, there are lots of things I have to take by faith every day.  There is much about God and the Bible that cannot be “proven” that must be taken by faith – and for a critical mind like mine, that is extremely difficult.  Frankly, I truly believe that is the way God designed it – so that we all come to him in faith in one way or another.  However, God wants us to trust him for everything – not just to trust in the unanswerable questions, but also to trust in Him for every breath we breathe, every step we take, and every word we speak.  That is why he only gave the Children of Israel enough manna for one day.  That is why Jesus taught his disciples to pray “…give us this day our DAILY bread…”  That is why many of our struggles seem like they have no way out – until God delivers us through them and we see he was in control all along.

So I come home from Uganda with this dichotomy:  The world in which the Ugandans live is so incredibly different from ours that it is ridiculous to even try to compare them.  Yet at the same time, there is an eerie similarity between the plight of the Ugandan people and the plight of the American people. 

Our differences are firmly established in the physical world.  We live in unprecedented wealth.  Even our “poor” are wealthy compared to the world’s standards.  They live in abject poverty.  We have access to every modern technology and medical advancement.  Most of them do not even have the basic “needs” we take for granted such as electricity, clean running water, or simple medicines.  We are as different as night and day.

Our similarities, however, are grounded in the spiritual world.  Both cultures appear to have a great misconception about faith.  For decades, our country has been “culturally” Christian, just like the Ugandans are today.  Now, our culture seems to be drifting from that culture into an “any kind of faith goes” mentality. Their culture seems to be drifting into a “trust Jesus and you will get money” mentality.  In both cases, there seems to be a great need to understand real, saving faith.   Sure, there are legitimate, dedicated and committed followers of Jesus in both cultures, but there appear to be so many others in Uganda who are worshipping the “god” of their tribe or village rather than the God of the universe. Likewise, there appear to be many of us who are worshipping a “god” of our own design – a god that makes sense for how we want to live – a god after OUR own image.  I saw many people singing to Jesus, but very few who appeared to be actually following him.  I see the same thing every day here.  This similarity was reinforced when one of the Ugandans approached me after one of my sermons and said, “It is good for them to hear you preach this.  They need to know that you [that is, Americans] have the same Jesus we have.”  They need to make their faith personal and their own and fully surrender to Jesus.  We need to make our faith personal and our own and fully surrender to Jesus.  We are exactly the same.

At the end of the day, what I learned about faith is how universal our need for it really is.  As different as we all are, our shortcomings ultimately are the same.  We are all in need of a savior.  We all need to place our faith IN him… and then live by faith every day.

You Won't See THAT in America...

In the aftermath of the recent Designs for Hope mission trip to Uganda, I thought I might share with you some of the things we saw that you will never see in the United States.  Now these are not the expected things, such as lions and elephants - which technically you can see in a zoo in the states and, besides, we never saw a lion - although we did see elephants.  Rather, these will be things that were, generally speaking, unexpected.

Rhino Crossing Sign - we might have expected to see a Rhino, although we didn't. Besides, you can always go to the zoo to see a Rhino.  However, when we saw the Rhino Crossing sign, we were somewhat taken by surprise.  Here's a question... what do you do when a Rhino crosses the road? Somehow I think an animal as big as a Rhino always has the right of way.  On a related note, we also saw a Zebra Crossing sign in downtown Kampala, but we are still debating whether it really meant that Zebra cross there.  I'm in the camp that says...hmm...no.

A Mother Breast Feeding in Church - OK, I will admit that in our culture we are overly sensitive and averse to a public display of that wonderful thing which has kept our babies alive since the beginning of time.  And while, to the dismay of some overly prudish folk, those taboos are beginning to crumble in our culture, it can still be quite disturbing (not to mention distracting) to the preacher (uh, that would be me in this case) when a two year old sitting on the front row decides he can't wait for the buffet at Denny's - not that there would be a buffet at Denny's...or a Denny's for that matter...in Uganda.

Rocks Used as Construction Cones - That's right, hundreds and hundreds of breadbox sized stones all lined up in neat little rows to keep the crazy drivers of Uganda from killing the road construction crew.  The manpower involved in setting these construction cones out must be staggering...

Traffic in Kampala - Speaking of crazy Ugandan drivers, I've been to some places where traffic and driving were downright scary.  Quito, Ecuador comes to mind for instance.  None of them hold a candle to what we experienced in Kampala or all of Uganda for that matter.  Stepping behind the wheel (or stepping off the curb for that matter) literally means taking your life in your own hands.  Cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians all follow one simple rule: "I have the right of way - unless you are a Rhino."  There were traffic cops around, but I honestly have no idea what they did.  On more than a few occasions we were looking face to face playing chicken with another crazy Ugandan driver. I know we clipped another car - mirror to mirror - on at least one occasion and I am pretty sure at one point we actually hit a pedestrian.  By the way, honking your horn in Uganda means "Get out of the way; I'm coming thru and I'm not slowing down!" Oddly enough, the honking of the horn is a kindness - because they really aren't slowing down!

Hover Toilettes - I've heard and experienced that bathroom conditions outside the US are bad, but I can't think of anywhere in the US where males and females share the same hover toilet.  As one of the ladies on our team said, "I'd rather go in the woods."  The guys agreed.

Genuine Selfless Hospitality - I live in the South where hospitality is a staple we are proud of.  However, I've never experienced the level of genuine selfless hospitality we experienced in Uganda.  I would go as far as to say it was a little uncomfortable.  Knowing how little they have, I felt guilty being on its receiving end.

Kids Excited to See a Beach Ball - all kids like beach balls, but the kids in some of the villages we visited not only have never had a beach ball, but didn't have a ball of any kind.  For them a beach ball was cause for pure joy...and a soccer ball was downright rapturous. 

Kids Cutting Grass at School with a Machete - Speaking of kids, what do you think would happen if you took all the kids at your school out to the playground and gave each of them a machete.  I'm pretty sure the outcome would be dicey and I have no doubt DHS would have a thing or two to say about it.  In Uganda, that's just part of the normal school day and how the playground grass stays cut.  Believe it or not, no one gets hurt - that is, until one of the kids hits a hornet's nest hidden in the grass (which we saw happen while we were stuck waiting in the crazy traffic).

Toilet Paper Street Vendor - OK, so being harassed in our van by street vendors selling everything from peanuts to  papayas to plantains to meat on a stick was expected... The funniest thing we heard all week was a distracted street vendor lamenting the fact that we were not stopping at his intersection as he exclaimed (give it a Ugandan accent) "Wait! Some meat!". I guess you had to be there.  But a toilet paper street vendor?  That was truly unexpected. I guess when you gotta go you gotta go... and you might need it for that hover toilet (shudder).

Here's a couple of slightly expected things we saw that you won't see in the US.

Phone Charging Stores - this one would only be expected because part of the Designs for Hope mission is to free pastors from this bondage - so we knew they existed.  However, we never expected to see so many of them - several per block it seemed - .small stands with 25-50 plugs charging cell phones at 500 Shillings (20 cents) each.  That might not seem much to us, but to the African, having a cell phone is a life-line and for the African living in the bush with no appreciable annual income, 20 cents every time your cell phone dies is substantial.

Thatched huts - Although not completely unexpected, it was still amazing to see the stereotypical grass thatched huts still widely used throughout the bush.

Women Balancing Large Heavy Loads on Their Heads -  They still do this?  Apparently, and its more impressive to see in person than on TV or in pictures.... Just how do they do that?  Color me impressed.

Miles and Miles of Slum Markets - I expected to see slum markets... What I didn't expect to see were literally miles and miles and miles of them.  How many papayas and plantains are there in Uganda anyway - and who is going to buy them?

Cactus Trees - Perhaps if I thought hard enough I might have anticipated this one, and maybe there are some cacti out West that might qualify as trees, but these were some of the biggest cacti I have ever seen.

Ant and Termite Hills the size of Houses - just one word... Freaky. It is the stuff nightmares and bad horror movies are made of.

Baboons on the Side of the Road - got a banana?  That's what they were asking every car that passed.

And saving the best for last...

A Pastor Driving a Motorcycle... in a Suit... Through the Jungle... in the Dark...with two other people riding on the back of the bike - I promise you will NEVER see that in the US, but kudos to Pastor Alfred - the sole member of the Rescue Committee.  Pastor Alfred was not part of our "in country" team, but no matter where we were ministering, he always seemed to show up and was gracious and kind and helpful to our work efforts.  And when we got stuck in the mud, he appeared literally from nowhere to help get us out, including some fairly impressive suit-donning trailblazing through the jungle at night to get us back to "civilization."  The two other riders were locals who showed him the way through the jungle "pass".  If only our pastors understood Servant Leadership as well... It was certainly a lesson for me!

Reflections on Uganda 2013

As I write this, I am sitting in the airport in Entebbe, Uganda waiting to board Ethiopian Airlines flight 810 - I am coming home from a week of missions work with Designs for Hope (www.designsforhope.org).  I sit here trying to decide exactly how I would describe the past week.  If I were being "Super"-Spiritual, I would say that the week was awesome and fantastic.  There was great Kingdom-work done.  We installed 47 Designs for Hope Bicycle Generator kits for pastors and church leaders in the many villages surrounding Lira, Uganda.  We also provided 48 water filtration kits capable of providing 1,000,000 gallons of safe, clean water each - that's 48,000,000 gallons of clean water.  We preached the Word of God to hundreds of Ugandans.  In conjunction with a local nurse, we treated many hundreds of Ugandans with basic medical needs and medicines.  We passed out eyeglasses, read Bible stories to kids, colored with kids, played with kids, and visited a ranch where Ugandans are schooled as children and vocationally trained as older youth.  We have made many new friends, as the people were absolutely fantastic, putting Southern Hospitality to great shame.  They were genuinely glad that we were there and showed us so regularly. The work had both eternal value and practical value.  They were blessed by our work and we were blessed by their love and joy.  What more could you ask for in a mission trip?  Wait, I know...salvations! Despite the fact that this trip was primarily to love, serve and minister to the Ugandan church, we actually saw five salvations.  If I were "Super"-Spiritual, this trip would have been a grand slam. The problem is, I am not super-spiritual and if I said this were the case, I would only be telling part of the story...

 

On the other hand, if I were being unspiritual, I would say this was the worst mission trip I've ever been on.  The trouble began when we arrived at the airport in Entebbe only to find that not only had the airline lost four bags that contained very critical components to our mission, but also our driver was not there as planned.  In fact, he thought we were coming in the next day so we had to wait at the airport for three hours till he got there.  Then what was supposed to be a two hour drive to arrive at our first venue at dinner time turned out to be a 5 hour drive that did not arrive at our destination until 11:30 pm.  We left Birmingham at midnight Friday and did not arrive at our locale until 11:30 on Sunday (3:30pm Sunday Bham time). It was absolutely brutal! In fact travel in Uganda was never as expected.  If a trip should reasonably be expected to take an hour, the Ugandan would say plan for two, but in reality it would inevitably take three.  Our schedules for the week were completely in turmoil at every stage. We spent more time in the bus than we did ministering. In fact we missed several meals as a result. Add to that, one of our team members became deathly ill the second day of the trip...and I am not kidding when I say deathly.  We were very concerned for a while and he was completely bedridden for three days.  During the course of the week, several of our team members became sick with one ailment or another..some milder than others..so that on our last ministry day roughly one-third of our team was impacted. The conditions were difficult - dirty, hot, and third world.  There was garbage everywhere! The culture was equally difficult - there were so many expectations placed on us and we were constantly tiptoeing to make sure we did not offend them...which I am pretty sure we did on a couple of occasions.   Once we got stuck in the mud and spent over an hour pushing our van through the mud - followed by an interesting journey where the van four-wheeled through the jungle on a walking trail because that was the only way to back track the van to a real road.  One night our hotel lost power during a very nasty thunderstorm, which was especially rough on me since I haven't yet lost enough weight to have weaned myself off of my CPAP sleep apnea machine.  Plus, if I were taking a critical view of things, I cannot say with certainty that the bicycle generator kits we installed will be used as we intended for the purpose of advancing the gospel.  Because of tribal politics, several received kits who I would suspect are not directly engaged in evangelistic efforts.  If I were unspiritual then I would have to question whether this trip was a success at all.

 

Fortunately I am neither super-spiritual nor unspiritual, but rather a spiritual realist if you will.  So I would have to categorize the trip as challenging but rewarding.  It was a test of both our determination and our faith - and God proved that he is trustworthy every step along the way.  Whenever something bad happened, God showed up to make it right.  Our bags arrived just in the nick of time to be used as planned.  All sicknesses were overcome, no one died, and there really was great work done for the Kingdom of God.  The culture was challenging but the people truly were amazing.  I don't know whether the hospitality was genuine or just a response to the fact that we came bringing hope, but it certainly seemed genuine enough. While it was difficult to see how hopeless the vast majority of Ugandans appear to be, it brings us great joy to see that many villages will have clean water for the foreseeable future.  I really do believe lives were...and will be... saved and enriched because of our efforts. We have seen God be faithful, so we have faith that the bicycle generators that were funded by so many of you will be used as God wills them to be used. We have learned much in the last week, and as a spiritual realist, I hope to take what I've learned home and use it to evaluate our Designs for Hope mission and strategy, so that the next trip will be even better.

 

We are all tired, but encouraged.  We are glad to be going home, but sad to leave behind new friends who are also brothers and sisters in Christ.  This was our (that is Designs for Hope's) coming out party, and I think it was a very good one... With many more - even better ones - to come.

India anyone?

The Present Inaccessibility of Indescribable Joy

Note:  I know that this is a longer post than normal for me, but I encourage all those who may be struggling with joy this day to read this blog in its entirety – persevere to the end.

After having written a book titled Indescribable Joy, one might expect that the author of said book would have the subject firmly in his grasp.  Unfortunately, writing a book that outlines the principles of joy from the book of Philippians – God’s own primer on the subject – does not make the author immune from the things that tend to rob us of that prize.  Quite recently, I have suffered myself with being able to find the joy that I speak about in my book.  It was rough there for a few days.  I hate to admit that I have not been following my own advice, but over the last week or so joy of almost any kind – much less indescribable joy – had been somewhat inaccessible.  I am not exactly sure what that makes me, but hypocrite is probably the first word that comes to mind.  How can I write a book about joy and so completely fail in maintaining it myself?  But God has helped me through that and I thought it might be helpful to share with you how I overcame it.

There are, of course, reasons… and then there are excuses… and many times the difference between the two can become indistinguishably blurred; but I suppose that I can venture to offer some reasons/excuses for why joy has seemed to be allusive to me despite being a self-proclaimed (by virtue of having written a book on the subject) joy expert.  My reason/excuse for being joy deficient these days had to do with the overwhelming intersection of multiple life initiatives.  I live in four different worlds these days.  Normally, these worlds remain compartmentalized and, if anything, complement each other quite nicely.  In recent days, however, they are neither complementary nor have I been very successful at compartmentalization.  The result is a whirlwind of conflicting objectives, competing priorities, conjectural actions, and a growing fear of unsatisfactory results in all four realms (note: That last sentence sounds much more profound if you read it with a British accent).

First, there is my secular job.  I work at least 40 hours a week at a job that pays the bills and (hopefully) puts my kids through college.  It’s a great job that I hate, but I am grateful and thankful that I have been blessed with it.  Generally speaking, it stays out of the way of the other 3 worlds that I live in and is the means by which the other 3 ends are enabled.  Fortunately, there is nothing extraordinary about what is going on in that secular world right now, but as the other 3 worlds come into focus, one can imagine how proper compartmentalization can be difficult at the moment.

Then there is my writing.  Writing is one of my two great joys.  The other is preaching.  The beauty of writing is that I can do it just about any time.  When I catch a minute after eating lunch, I can write a few lines.  When I retire to my bed in the evening, I can write a few lines.  On rare occasion when I have more time available than normal, I may get the joy of writing a number of lines.  In the process, I have managed two books – the afore mentioned one on joy and one on the practicality of our faith, based on the book of James – Faith Beyond Belief: Understanding True Faith from the Book of James. Neither of these will ever make me rich and while I would strongly suggest to the reader that they purchase and read both of them (obviously I would recommend that – but in reality they are excellent resources on joy and faith), I have not invested the time and resources necessary to make them anything more than a hobby.  The purpose of that hobby, however, is not just personal enjoyment, but the fact that I can use my God-given passions, desires, and gifts to bless and edify the body of Christ.   I get my joy not in the writing itself, but in knowing that the writing may be used by God to bless others.   I am working on a third book as well, but with the demands of the other 3 worlds, I just do not currently have the time available to finish that particular project.  It’s just sitting there… waiting… calling out to be finished but not receiving its answer.  Oh… I also do the occasional blog, as you may have noticed.  Taken together, these generally satisfy my passion to write, but in recent days that calling which cannot be answered tends to be a bit disturbing – and less than satisfying.

The third of my four worlds is a fabulous start-up non-profit organization called Designs for Hope.  I will not endeavor to go into the details of what they organization does.  You are welcome and greatly encouraged to look into that one yourself and see how God is using the natural and supernatural gifts and talents of some of his people to help others of his people. I am privileged and honored to be part of the coming out of this organization as it begins its emergence from concept to reality.  That emergence is coming to a head next week with the organization’s first fully sponsored product distribution and mission trip to Uganda.  Again, I am privileged to be a part of that, but as one might imagine, the effort associated with planning and organizing such a trip can be overwhelming.  I am not the primary organizer, but even the pieces for which I am involved and responsible are not insubstantial.  I take those responsibilities very seriously.

Lastly, but by no means least, is my ministry in the church.  As an Associate Pastor of Youth and Children in a small, older, otherwise aging church that is striving to regain its vitality, one can imagine the difficulties that would be present under normal conditions.  Scare financial resources and even scarcer human resources make building a youth and children’s program from what was previously non-existent quite difficult.  Add to that the fact that the church itself is located in an area that, while still considered suburban by tradition, is growing more urban in its culture on a daily basis; and is itself struggling with issues such as commercial revitalization, declining income, and the like.  I have no doubt that God has called me (and my wife) to this church to make an impact in the community for Jesus Christ - to help this church in its revitalization efforts and to bring Christ back to the community.  To that end, this week is Vacation Bible School.  To those who have been involved in the preparation for VBS, I need not say more.  To those who have not been so involved, nothing I can say can adequately explain the effort involved – that is, if you take such an effort seriously.  I have seen churches who do not take VBS seriously and am personally appalled by it.  VBS is a very serious thing.  There will be children come through the church doors during VBS week who may NEVER come through the doors on any other occasion.  For those children, it may be the one and only time they hear the gospel the entire year.  To not take that seriously would be a grotesque abuse of stewardship.  VBS is probably the single most important evangelistic opportunity a church will have in the entire year.  Every night this week – when I should be in preparations to leave the country – I am graciously making a fool of myself in front of myriad of (hopefully) gleeful children… preparing the way, laying the foundation, and (again hopefully) opening the doors for that moment later this week when they will be invited to meet Jesus in a personal way.  This weighs heavy on my soul as a very important task.

As I said earlier, the four worlds normally do not intersect in such a way as to present too terrible a difficulty for each other.  However, the present rise in activity in at least two of the four has been causing quite the disturbance in the aggregate.  I cannot deny that together there is a level of furor that rises to near manic proportions – giving further rise to questions as to whether any of the four are being afforded their due effort and attention.  Then there is the obvious question as to why under God’s blue heavens am I taking the time out of such a taxed and fatigued schedule to write this particular blog.  The answer lies in the indubitable fact that such is necessary to maintain my sanity.  It is necessary in order for me to outline the reasons for my own failure to attain the level of joy that God desires and to remind myself how to reacquire it – and in so doing perhaps grant the reader some exhortation towards similar situations they might experience as well.  And so to help myself rediscover my joy, I took it upon myself to remind myself of some of the principles necessary to maintain joy.

I needed to remind myself of the principle of prayer.  In the frenzy of the last few weeks, I have found it quite difficult to keep up the normal schedule of spiritual disciplines and I confess that openly in repentance. I have realized in the last few days that while my prayer life has not been non-existent by any stretch of the means, during this time of increased stress my prayers have been more abbreviated in nature.  If joy truly requires communion with God, then during such times of distress one would anticipate an increase in prayer activity rather than an abridged one - and so I committed myself to be in more of a state of continual prayer than I had been in recent days.

I also needed to remind myself of the principle of purpose.  There is no doubt in my mind that the stresses of the present moment are all related to activities whose sole goal is the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it is not just the anticipation of the gospel activities associated with VBS and the upcoming mission trip that should be bringing me joy.  Indeed, I find some shame in the fact that I have been having difficulty maintaining my joy when, during the last two weeks, God has graciously allowed me to participate in leading two young adults to a saving and life-altering knowledge of the gospel and experiencing new birth in Christ.  That alone should be enough to keep one’s joy at a fevered pitch for quite some time.  Indeed it was… for a day or so anyway… but then the difficulties and pressures crept back in all of their unavoidability.

Even the definition of joy that I proclaim became a reminder to me.  Joy is the state of being glad.  It is not just an emotion and it certainly is not always reactionary.  I am indeed glad for all of the things going on in my life and despite the stress they are creating I know that they will be used greatly by God (going back again to the principle of purpose) to advance his purposes.  That enables me to choose to be joyful about all that is happening even though my emotions at the moment may not be what we would call “happy.”  And so I took it upon myself to "choose" to be joyful - that is, to be grateful and glad that God was allowing me to serve in such capacities - although the emotion of it was still no where to be found.

Because of that that I remind myself of yet another of the principles of joy – the principle of perseverance.  I may not feel the joy, but I know that through perseverance, joy is present.  It cannot be denied that the last several weeks have been very difficult.  It likewise must be acknowledged that the upcoming weeks will also be equally difficult.  But as Paul encouraged us, so we must encourage each other.  We must forget that which is behind and press on forward for the prize to which God is calling us.  That prize or “reward” – our eternity with him – has many way-points along the way and I know that his intention for us is to experience great joy at such times.  Those way-points are themselves a reward of sorts as we see his work competed through us.  I have no doubt that will be the case in the coming weeks as these difficult days come to completion, and so I encourage myself (and you) to persevere – to remain faithful through the difficult work of the next few weeks to the next way-point of rest – to choose to be joyful even when I might not feel joyful.

This whole journey of introspection, though, has at its conclusion an unusual and unexpected twist related precisely to the type of “reward” I am hopeful for in the coming weeks. In my book, I all but promise that making a conscious choice to "be" joyful even when you don't "feel" joyful is an act of obedience to scripture that will not go unrewarded.  For me, that is precisely what happened.  I am referring to an encounter that I had with a co-worker combined with a devotional that I had written several weeks ago for the Uganda mission team.

The co-worker is a believer and is one of the few people I know who actually purchased and read Indescribable Joy.  In her own words, she said that she dreamed about the principles in the book all night and that the result was – life changing.   At first, I had mixed feelings.  I was thrilled that the book meant so much to her.  That is, after all, one of the “joys” I get from writing.  However, I also thought that it was a little bit strange – dreams… about my book?  That is so odd...and a little creepy perhaps... However, the more I thought about it the more I realized how perfectly timed her encouragement was to me in this moment of need.  Why else did I write the book if not to change lives and encourage others to experience joy in a way intended by the Savior?  I have no idea what she meant when she said that she dreamed about the contents of the book, but the fact that God used the book in her life is more than enough encouragement for me today.  Her words of encouragement came at exactly the moment I needed it most - and it changed everything for me as well.  I started to actually "feel" joyful again.

Then came the devotional (http://www.surrenderdaily.blogspot.com/2013/07/designs-for-hope-uganda-mission.html), which spoke of the "food from heaven" that often comes when we are obedient in service and ministry.  This is precisely the word I needed - to be reminded that tiredness and weariness are not always a sign of stress, but simply of work well done - furthermore to be reminded that God will grant us the strength we need to actually persevere as required.  Having read this devotional which I wrote myself several weeks ago, I could look back over the last few weeks and see how God has indeed strengthened me at exactly the times I needed Him to in order to persevere.  Indeed that is exactly what he was doing at the present moment. 

To receive a gracious gift from the Heavenly Father at my exact moment of need – isn’t that just like Him?  To be provided the gentle nudge of not only physical strength but also spiritual vitality that is needed to help us persevere yet another day on this journey - that is itself a source of indescribable joy.  Oddly enough, that was the last principle I outlined in Indescribable Joy – the principle of Contentment – the fact that joy requires faith that God will provide and meet our needs.  Indeed he will provide precisely what we need, when we need it, in order that we can persevere.   He is faithful in our weakness to make us strong.  I can honestly say that I am once again content and have that joy that just a day or so ago I THOUGHT was inaccessible.

I encourage each of you who may be struggling with joy to persevere.  If you can get and read my book, I know that it will be a great help to you.  But if not, then know that God will strengthen you as you need it.  He will not leave you or forsake you.  BE GLAD AND REJOICE that he is your strength and your rock.  Be obedient to choose to be joyful... and he will be faithful in return.