Posts Tagged ‘Faith’

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Three Days That Make Us Different

April 3, 2015

Today is what we’ve come to call Good Friday. I have to admit that as a kid I wondered about that phrase. What’s good about that day? As an adult with thinking skills, I could come up with a lot of reasons to justify calling it good. But still…good?

Good Friday–a remembrance of the day Jesus was killed. Leaders of the day just couldn’t get over their fixation on the way history was supposed to play out. Especially the part that they were to play–that is, they were to lose their jobs. So, they killed the threat.

But, Good Friday leads inevitably to Easter.

Ah, Easter. More than a remembrance. A celebration. Our culture places so much celebration on Christmas. But Easter. Without Easter, we have no faith.

No person of Jewish faith has ever commented on this blog or emailed me directly. But I have had a conversation with a teacher within the Islamic faith.

Within Islam, Jesus is acknowledged as a prophet. Maybe so. I think at that level he was more of a Wisdom teacher than a classical prophet. But then, I’m not a learned scholar. Just a disciple. And he certainly acted as a prophet in several examples.

Within Judaism, Jesus is not recognized. During a recent Bible study, one of the men blurted out (since it’s so obvious to us), “Why don’t Jews believe?”

I found this very consise, rational, scholarly statement from a Jewish rabbi detailing the Scriptures that prove Jesus was not the Messiah. Like I say, thinking people can come up with lots of reasons.

I just finished 1,500 pages of scholarly work showing how Paul (the ex-Pharisee, Jew above Jew) re-interpreted his Scriptures in light of his meeting with the risen Jesus. Jesus, himself, in fact re-interpreted his scriptures.  And he taught his followers to do so. I understand the reluctance to abandon a faith based on what you see as faulty interpretation.

Easter, though, has nothing to do with interpretation of scripture.

Jesus lived. Jesus died. Jesus lives again.

That’s all. Everything else is mental exercise.

Faith in the resurrection is what makes us different. More than that. It’s how lives are changed by the power of God’s spirit when we accept that reality. 

We are different from other religions. But we are also different people. Changed people. That power has been proven over 2,100 years. And it continues to be proven with each new Jesus-follower today.

I cannot help it that so many people claiming the title “Christian” behave so poorly–even to the extent of killing great numbers of people. The power of the resurrection lives in too many of us to deny the fact.

Therefore, I guess we call it “Good” Friday. But it’s all about Easter. Enjoy.

PS. Since my feeble attempts at writing are read around the world, even in places where calling yourself Christian could be life-threatening–my prayers go out to you that you can celebrate the day without fear. And that peace will come to you soon.

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The Possibility of Tolerance

March 4, 2015

I have a friend who is a walking enigma. He was born in India and looks like someone born in India. He was also born into a Catholic family (there is a lot of history in that area of western India that was settled by Portuguese many years ago). He’s also an electrical engineer who founded a company and then sold it.

Jim Pinto wrote articles about automation for me for 10 years. His writings now have broadened into a more general social commentary. His latest blog post is an impassioned plea for tolerance.

He says, “Tolerance is the appreciation of diversity and the ability to exercise a fair and objective attitude towards those whose opinions, practices, religion, culture differ from one’s own. Genuine tolerance is respect for the dignity of others. It focuses more on our common humanity than on our differences.”

The early Christians understood how to live in a diverse society. The apostle Paul once said that what happened to people outside his communities, his ekklesia groups, was God’s business, not his. He was concerned with building the faith and knowledge of those in the community and attracting new people into the faith.

But Christianity eventually became the official religion of the Roman empire, and then of many countries even until today. Many today don’t know what it is like to live in a diverse society. Everyone around them is the same race, color, religion. Sometimes they are intolerant of others simply through sheer ignorance and lack of experience.

I routinely interact with people whose origins are from most places around the world. They may reflect at least a half-dozen religions, not to mention all the varieties of Christian flavors.

Toleration does not mean bending my faith. It means, like Jim said, treating other human beings with dignity and respect. It is like Martin Luther King, Jr., said that his dream was that we’d all judge others by the strength of their characters, not the color of their skin.

Jesus related to Jews, Samaritans, Greeks, Romans. But he blasted things such as hypocrisy, self-righteousness–in other words, weakness of faith and character. He’s a good example.

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Are You Unprepared

January 5, 2015

I can still remember walking up the steps to the entrance of the high school. Every morning there were the same deep misgivings in my gut. Once again I had studied many things the previous evenings. But, once again, I had not completed (or even started on) my assigned homework.

I know the sick feeling of unprepared.

Sometimes we are unprepared because we didn’t do the work. We didn’t study. Write the report. Make the call.

On the other hand, sometimes we are not prepared because we have never faced that situation before. We have never created that work before. We have never worked with this particular group of people. Seth Godin, a respected marketing guru who also now writes about life skills as much as about marketing, addressed this type of unpreparedness.

Then, I though of Jesus disciples. When he called them, they were totally unprepared for the experience. They were unprepared first, then they followed and learned, but then when they were on their own, they wished at first that Jesus had prepared them a little more.

They were visited and then filled by the holy spirit. Then they were prepared.

I’ve heard Bill Hybels talk about taking the first step in faith. He called it “help along the way.” First you take a step in faith, and then the spirit will help you.

As you ponder your “great work” this year, don’t stop because you don’t feel prepared. Take the first step in faith. Of course you are unprepared. But help will come as you move out.

Oh, I graduated from high school. And the university. And I learned to prepare when you need to. It was a lesson that if visiting me sooner would have saved me much emotional turmoil.

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Measure Your Priorities in Life

December 22, 2014

Jesus told us to watch what we do with our money, wealth and possessions. Their use is an indicator of the status of our heart.

This is probably a good time of the year to pause our hectic holiday activities and search out what our priorities are.

Where are your priorities? How can we know? This time of year, commercialization grabs center stage. Yet, also, there are opportunities to donate to any of seemingly a million causes. Do you pick some causes important to you or your understanding of mission? Do you donate? Or is your spending ruled by yourself?

Christmas is a boom time for luxury car sales. Those must be presents for oneself.

You can apply this to other areas of life. Take a look at a church budget and divide into two buckets. Take a look at your personal overall budget and put into two buckets. Check out your Christmas budget. Yep. Divide into two buckets. One bucket is for your personal (or the church’s internal) use. The other is for outreach/mission/evangelism/other-focused. What is the proportion of one bucket to the other? If it is greater than 50/50 weighted toward inward/personal, what does that say about you?

Pause, reflect, take appropriate action. Don’t be a Grinch. Help others have a happy Christmas time.

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Pause to Find Self-Awareness

December 19, 2014

Everywhere are conversations among people this week, “Are you ready for Christmas? I have so much to do. Not enough time to do it.”

We hurry from work to shopping to wrapping to parties to work. It’s all a big blur.

We don’t have time to “feel the Christmas spirit” because we don’t have time to notice.

Gene Appel, senior pastor of the Eastside Christian Church in Orange County, California, drew a lesson from one of Jesus’ stories to (and about) his local Pharisees in a message a few weeks ago.

It seems that a man had two sons. One tapped into the old man for a chunk of money and took off for the good life. One day after the money was gone, the friends were gone, the women were gone and he woke up in a pigpen, he “came to his senses.” He became what is one of the hardest things for us to do—to become self-aware.

When did he become self-aware? When he stopped. There was no more hurry. No more drinking, no more women, no more friends, no more hurrying from one party to the next. He stopped. And then he came to his senses.

Perhaps it is time we stop. Just pause and take a deep breath. Inhale until the lungs fill; then keep going until the stomach is “filled”; then keep going until the abdomen grows. Then slowly release the breath. Two or three of those should slow us down until we can become aware of our circumstances, our emotions, our environment.

Stop. Look around. Place your thoughts on Jesus. Rejoice in the celebration.

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Do The Same Thing, Expect Different Results

December 11, 2014

Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
Definition of insanity

A couple of people, maybe more, have entered my life over the past couple of years. They are not encountering the kind of success that they wish for. Yet, they don’t want to change what they are doing.

I sit in my chair reading Scripture and meditating in the morning. The Christmas tree is lit. It’s the same tree as the last many years. It’s a beautifully decorated tree (thanks to my wife, not me). And I’m meditating on why don’t I feel the “Christmas spirit” around me?

Some people are putting up lights. But as I go to the store and hang out at Starbucks, I hear little of “Merry Christmas.”

The economy is good, overall. Yet, people don’t seem as joyful as I remember in the past. Church seems to be going through the motions of the same stuff. Routine.

Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

We need the assurances of traditions (watching “Christmas Vacation” which we have not even done yet this year!), yet we need to bring in new traditions. New ways of building the anticipation.

We know the end of the story. But every story has a beginning. This one is how God revealed himself to the world. A bigger story than Moses. That story led to the Law–which didn’t work. This story leads to the resurrection. That changed everything. We have no Advent without resurrection.

For some reason, I’m in two small groups studying Romans. I’m afraid I might start speaking Latin again. Why Romans? “By faith you are saved through grace.”

Part of this faith is reliving the amazing way that God revealed himself to the world. Totally unexpected. Well, many people were praying and watching for the glory of the Lord to appear. They just didn’t expect the type of Messiah that Jesus was. But it was all so amazing.

Maybe spreading that joy begins with each of us! Merry Christmas.

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Take That First Step in Faith

November 26, 2014

“My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
4 if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.”
Proverbs 2

The situation in Ferguson, MO keeps invading my consciousness, picks at it like a sore you just can’t keep from touching. It is a tragedy on so many levels. There is no obvious quick solution.

On the one hand, we can’t have mob justice and survive in a country based on rule of law. On the other hand, when there is such little respect for the authority of those entrusted to uphold the law, then where is justice?

I came of moral age in an era in the US of police brutality that was either outrightly condoned or at least hidden. And especially toward black and poor. In my all-white community of 1,000, I don’t know why I developed a deep sense of the need for justice for black people. I never had talked to any non-white person until I was 17. But, that’s where I am. So, I have deep empathy for the community—not for violence which is something I abhor—but for injustice.

The distrust on both sides in that community is so high, it will take a very strong person of faith and integrity to break that cycle. And it won’t happen in a short period of time.

Wisdom, the writer of Proverbs, pleads for a heart of understanding. If you seek it, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, she says.

Bill Hybels, founder and sr. pastor of the Willow Creek Community Church, recently talked about how the Bible teaches us to have faith that we’ll get help along the way—you have to take the first step in faith, then God will help. We need those people that step out in faith. Ferguson needs someone to rise up from its community to step out in faith to start a healing.

That brings us to another question. Where do we need to take the first step in faith to bring healing to a situation? Are we seeking Wisdom to guide us toward understanding? It’s a challenge.

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Be Assertive But Kind

October 14, 2014

Proverbs 11: 16b-17 draws two pairs of contrasts. But the pairs also contrast.

The first pair is timid and aggressive. To be timid is a negative attitude and stance toward life. You let things happen to you. To be aggressive (I don’t know Hebrew, but today we might well call it assertive) is to go out into the world making things happen

The other pair is kind and cruel. Kind, of course is the positive attitude and cruel is the negative.

So Proverbs, Wisdom teaching, tells us that we should be strong and go out and accomplish, but we should do it in such a way as to not trample down others doing it.

This sounds much like the teachings of Jesus, who took most of his teaching directly from Proverbs, who expected people to be strong, to be aggressive. But at the same time he taught that we should put others ahead of ourselves. We should think about the other person in the relationship or the situation. What’s in it for them–not what’s in it for us.

We have had cycles of preaching throughout the 2,000 years of Christendom that has told people, especially poor people, to be timid, meek, humble (in the sense of servitude, not the sense of strength yet putting others before us). That teaching has led to some horrible revolutions in the past. It’s a teaching ignored by the terrorists who call themselves part of Islam.

Is it an attitude we have? There are many today who believe in aggressive in its negative connotation and cruel, at least in attitude toward others. I’ve met several.

I pray we cultivate having a strong personality–one that’s so strong and confident that we can gladly put others before us.

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Temple, Exile, and Messiah

October 3, 2014

Temple. The Jewish writers who chronicled the time of Solomon talked of the Temple filled with the glory of God. It was also affiliated with a king who ruled over a not-insignificant empire.

But the lineage of Jewish kings was weak. They strrayed from their God. The nation was defeated by the Babylonians and the Temple was destroyed. The people went into exile

We’ve read about Ezra and Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the Temple under the Persians. But writers never referred to that Temple as filled with the glory of God. And it also never signified the seat of a powerful King.

I am 40% through book one (out of two) of N.T. Wright’s, “Paul and the Faithfulness of God.” Three chapters. Almost 300 pages. So far we’ve gone through the background scholarship and worldview of the times. Already I’ve learned a lot.

By the 200s BC, there was a tremendous longing in the Jewish people for return from exile, a Temple filled with the glory of God and a strong political leader–just like the times of Solomon. Several men claiming to be the Messiah of God appeared. They all failed and died.

Then comes Paul who reinterpreted the entire scenario in light of Jesus.

That was from Wright. Now I’m contemplating what is to come. The Temple is no longer a building where God lives. Our bodies are the Temple where the glory of God lives.We are in exile through sin and find a Messiah who reveals God’s grace

And Paul went back to all the many Scriptures that pointed out that salvation was not only for the Jews. But that they were to be the light to the world. The guides toward God’s salvation of the world.

With that legacy, why do we not try to re-connect with that God. To seek his indwelling Spirit through reading His Word and prayer?

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Why Are Some Of Us So Thin Skinned

September 29, 2014

Where I grew up, if you were quick to take offense or if you were sensitive to critical comments or opposition, you were called “thin skinned.” The idea is that an emotionally healthy person develops a “thick skin” to ward off opponents’ comments.

What puzzles me for most of my life has been the thin-skinned nature of so many American Christians. They are always looking for ways they are being “persecuted” or for signs they are not in the majority (hint: this type of Christian is not in the majority, but living in a rural area, I know many).

They are not really being persecuted. Not like the Christians living in many lands these days. Or even like we persecuted black people, native peoples, Jewish people, Catholics (yes, they were a persecuted minority for a long time in America), and “foreigners” (even unto this day).

It’s almost like an attitude of weakness, not of strength. I remember being 9 or 10 and reading and hearing about the Soviet Communist menace. And how those godless atheists were going to take over the country. And I remember thinking, if our God is that powerful, why do we fear those who have none? Why do we think they will be able to do away with God entirely.

Christians for the first 300 years of the movement lived as a minority in every city in which they existed. They learned to live amongst those whose beliefs were different. That didn’t stop them from worshiping their God through the revelation of Jesus. In fact, the way they lived was so powerful that the very way they lived attracted others to them

When one of the plagues swept Rome and the brave, strong men all fled to the mountains in terror, Christians stayed behind. They came out from their hiding places and helped the sick and dying. Once again, the way they lived even as a minority among pagans attracted many to Christianity. That time became one of the fastest growing in the movement.

I follow a powerful God. If I’m not in the majority as a Jesus-follower, even in America, that just puts me in the company of much of the movement. I wish my fellow followers had such confidence.

Jesus counseled us not to worry. We just go about our business of living correctly in the Spirit. I’d advise reading not only the Bible but also stories of the early church. Take advice from how they lived.

I wish my friends would concern themselves with how they live their lives and not worry about whether everyone around them agrees with everything they believe. Show by your life the power of God.

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