The New America

I live in the New America, the land where we get offended by stuff because someone else might possibly get offended by it. It's only logical that we get offended on behalf of others who may or may not actually be offended. And if you disagree with that, I am offended and I have no problem offending you because you disagree with me. You are just not enlightened enough. Your lack of enlightenment is offensive.

Sound about right? #TheNewAmerica #LandOfTheFragile #HomeOfTheWeak #TwistedEmpathy

May God have mercy on us and restore us. May we remember our covenant with Him and repent of trying to make a nation in our own image and strength.  Blessed is the nation who's God is the Lord.

Does Relationship Determine Truth? Sort of...

Does relationship determine truth? Sort of.  Granted truth is truth (no matter what culture says), however relationship lends weight and trustworthiness to truth.  Think about it...most people are for gay marriage or applauding gay lifestyle because someone they know is gay (or someone they know knows someone, etc. you get the point)  Even teens growing up in church are deeply affected by this type of relational context of truth.  So here's my point then: relational context of truth is true even with God's Word.  Here's what I mean, unlike the shifting sand of what a sinful broken culture says is true or not, God's Word is absolute and eternal.  It is true whether you agree or not, believe or not or are aware of it or not.  BUT, there are plenty of people (including Satan) who know and misapply Scripture. (John 14:17, Matthew 4:1-11)  There are plenty who read it and say "fiction!," "fable!," "just a historical text," "religious instruction," etc. What's the difference?  It is our relationship with Christ that makes this truth come alive...it makes it true not just in an abstract sense, but in a personal sense.  Having the Spirit of Truth residing in our hearts makes THE truth, our Truth because it is all about Him.(John 16:13-14) It is our love for Jesus that causes us to not only believe, but to obey at the cost of everything else...because we KNOW.  To give this some context I'll use the example above, there are several people that I know and love deeply who are living a gay lifestyle, but loving them does not mean that I embrace or celebrate their choices.  Why? Because my heart breaks for them. Their choices will only lead to brokenness and destruction.  Maybe that doesn't answer the question of why I can't affirm their choices.  Bottom line is because I have a relationship that supersedes these others and that relationship defines not only truth but all other relationships.  My prayer is that our younger generation will have such encounters with the Spirit of God that Truth will be made personal and that all other relationships secondary. (Matthew 10:34-37)

   “Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. " (Psalm 86:11, NIV)

Twisted

Let's go deep for a second... At the heart of today's messed up thinking regarding what's true or not is, believe it or not, a sense of compassion.  It's a compassion that has been twisted and perverted by the Enemy so that the individual is exalted above God and becomes the supreme authority. What's at the root of all this? Pride. Inside their hearts people say, "'Well how would I feel if I were in their shoes?' I don't want to be told what I'm feeling is wrong,' etc.  Which, guess what, is another perversion of something holy; the verse referred to as "The Golden Rule" in Luke 6:31.  The enemy has been twisting God's Word since the beginning by asking Adam and Eve, "Did God really say...?"  
The result? 
"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people." (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Broken

Three and a half years ago I resigned as Lead Pastor of a church that I loved and gave my blood, sweat and tears to revitalize. My family and I came to that decision only after months of prayer and repeated confirmations from the Lord. (you can read about it all here)  We left with a sense of excitement and purpose because God had moved so quickly and purposefully.

My wife and I have determined in our hearts to truly hear with the same amount of clarity from the Lord that we had about leaving our church as to where He is leading us next.  Ministry, particularly the Lead Pastor position, is much more than a job; it is a relationship with many parallels to marriage.  With that in mind we have had to say no to many churches because we just didn't have His peace about saying yes.  It made me feel foolish many times.  Even though the Lord has provided for us in many ways, finances have been really tight for us and scary with some big expenses coming down the road.  I have felt this burden more than anyone. It is hard-wired in a man's heart to provide for his family.  Though I am working some side-jobs as well as guest-speaking and doing consulting with churches on church health issues, the income is only enough to pay the immediate bills and support a not-so-secret Chipotle addiction. :)  I have grappled with wondering, 'where is God?' and 'why is it taking so long?' and 'Is He done with me?' and 'At what point do I become a "former pastor"?'  I have had to endure people's speculations about if there is hidden sin in my life, if I am truly called or I have pride issues and whether or not I am truly listening to God's voice. (friends of Job) There have been some truly dark times that I have walked though. But God's grace has been there.

Months ago an opportunity opened up that, if it worked out, would make all the dashed hopes and frustrations make sense.  It was the kind of thing that brought past, present and future into focus. Surely, this was the moment and the setting where all the prophetic words that God had spoken to us would come to pass.  We stood on His promises. We were confident that even though I am the underdog (as always) God would open the door that no man could shut. Recently, we found out that the door was shut with no opportunity to even have a conversation.  It's ok, I wasn't owed anything, but to be sure I was gutted over it.  

Not even sure why I am writing this (or if anyone ever reads these things!)  apart from some cathartic need to get it out. Perhaps it's just a way to tell myself that I choose to continue to trust in the Lord.  Even though He has not done what I thought He would and what I wanted Him to, He has saved me and is with me and there is no better thing.  If my time of serving Him in ministry is done, He is still good.  Though my dreams are lying broken at my feet, I will still praise Him.  I'm a blessed man with a wife I don't deserve and great kids that love and serve the Lord.  At times I feel guilty for not being more appreciative of that.  My heart just yearns to be productive for the One who gave it all for me and I feel impotent to do anything.  I don't have the faith to talk about the future right now, so I'll just concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other and trust Him with the rest. 

This song hits the mark:

Blogger Fail

So, I am a bad blogger...  but I tweet a lot.  If you're interested in that I'm @pastoreric or twitter.com/pastoreric if you prefer.  Here are some tweets as examples.  (I will still blog occasionally when 140 characters just doesn't cut it.)

• The pastor's relationship to the church is more than a job; it's more like the covenant relationship of marriage and should be respected
• The measure of a man is not his successes, but rather his struggles and the fruit that they bear
• If the focus is always on the positive, people forget the big negatives of why Jesus had to die a gruesome death in our place #Ransom
• The epitome of God's mercy is the cross. The epitome of God's grace is His Spirit within us

• It's bad when churches are nothing but a sea of gray hair. It is equally bad if it is nothing but styled hair and skinny jeans.
• Effective leaders know how to celebrate victories as well as defeats.
• If you don't fear God, you've made Him much smaller than He really is

• Worship leaders: don't let passion breed arrogance in your heart. Your role is only one piece of the #church life puzzle #LoveYourPastor
• Integrity in ministry doesn't mean perfection; it means truthful

Batman saves the Jews!

For the most part, I like the fact that there are movies attempting to bring forward biblical stories and themes the last few years.  With the success of movies like the Passion and the History Channel's tv mini-series "The Bible," Hollywood is waking up.  However, there are some challenges to this new direction....

So there's a new "Exodus" movie coming out next month starring Christian Bale. The title is "Exodus: gods and kings" the description is "One man against an empire." In other words, "Batman saves the Jewish people." 

However, the only hero in the biblical story of the Exodus is God. Moses was a broken old man who was a "has been." He was someone who grew up with privilege and even though he had empathy for his people, he still lived in the palace. He was 40 when he killed a man mistreating the Jews and then he ran. He lived in the wilderness as a shepherd for another 40 yrs as God stripped away all vestiges of his former life. He was humbled and undone. At the age of 80, a new beginning at a burning bush that he was reluctant to embrace. He was too old and too broken to rely on his own plans and his own strength anymore; perfectly positioned to be used by God. The next and final 40 yrs of his life were spent putting to use his training as a shepherd (though I'm sure he didn't perceive it as training at the time). He dealt with a bunch of whiny temperamental sheep...I mean people, leading them through the same wilderness.

All this is not to say that Moses wasn't a great man, but I'm just betting the emphasis in the movie is upon the man rather than the God who made, called and empowered the man.

Looks like it will be an entertaining flick though and I'll probably go see it.  The only danger is that with this movie and movies like Noah with Russell Crowe is that the stories are becoming so twisted around so that they are completely missing the point.  I think we all expect a certain amount of creative license when movie scripts are made, but we live in a biblically illiterate culture and therefore truth is lost in the adaptation.  Those that watched the movie Noah are likely to walk away with the message that God destroyed humanity because we were bad caretakers of nature.  What it does is undermine the credibility of these events recorded in the Bible and turns them into myths and fairytales.  I wonder what message will be delivered with this latest movie. 

Maybeeee this one?

KAPOW!  BLAMM-O!  

Thou Shalt Judge

**WARNING!!**  This posting is not Politically Correct.  Not even close.  :)

Did you know that it is not only ok, but biblical to judge?  (see Mt. 7:15-20; John 7:24; 1 Cor 5:11-13...just to name a few) )  Today you are absolutely condemned if you stand up and say that something is "Wrong."  Groupthink says that things are never wrong, just different. (unless of course you disagree with this post-modern philosophy; then you are...wrong)

But Christians DO have the biblical mandate (that is so often misapplied and thrown in our faces) to "Judge not, lest ye be judged." (Matthew 7:1).  So are we to never stand up and say what's going on around us is wrong?  Let's bring this home by looking at the two most prevalent examples in our world right now:

Are we unloving to say that homosexuality is sin?  Are we wrong to declare that homosexual "marriage" is destructive not only to the immediate people involved, but also our country?

What about Islam? Are we being prideful, ignorant and narrow minded in saying that it is a false religion that is deceiving millions of people around the world?  That it is the most common factor behind the horrible acts of terrorism happening around the globe today? Are we wrong to take a stand against Sharia Law both here and abroad?  Isn't that culturally insensitive? Intolerant? Bigoted?

Well, we have been told so. And many Christians I know are confused and stay silent because have adopted the "live and let live" philosophy of this world.  But a Christian who understands a biblical worldview knows that adopting this philosophy is more like "we'll live, but we'll let you die."

So how do we walk this biblical line?  Is it possible to love, serve and respect someone who you totally disagree with?  Is it possible to stand against an agenda that someone you know and love wholeheartedly supports without shattering the relationship or at the very least continue loving them?  Does love mean (as we are being told today) that we never rebuke? Does it mean that we have to approve and embrace everything someone does?

Paul gives us the key when he says in Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  
How does this help?  Because Paul shows us the distinction that the PERSON is different from the spirit/idea/philosophy/culture/etc. influencing them.  

It is not only ok, but it is right to continue to preach God's Truth in a world that is rejecting it.  There is still only ONE way, ONE truth and ONE life and that is through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  (Jn. 14:6) It is absolutely right to stand up and judge something wrong or evil if that is what God's Word says that it is, even if it offends or hurts someone's 'feelers.'  The warning Jesus gave about "Don't judge or you too will be judged" was followed by the words "with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you."  I'm ok with this!  I use God's Word, not with self-righteousness or a sense of superiority.  In fact it is the "Measure" that every human in existence WILL be measured by. I'm a wreck in need of a Savior!  I fall upon His grace all the time! And by that grace I am slowly becoming more free and more like Him.  

We have permission to judge according to God's Word, because it is not the standard of our own selves or our own performance that we are using.  There is certainly the accompanying mandate to "Speak the truth in love..." (Eph. 4:15) We don't have to be insensitive jerks when taking a stand or disagreeing, but my whole point in this post is that it is not unloving to judge evil as evil. We are saying "This is what God says..." and then we love as we have been loved.