7 things about Sutherland Springs

More than two dozen people died during Sunday worship at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. A man killed them. Hundreds weep. Millions wonder why.

As a follower of Jesus and a pastor, I am feeling a deep mix of emotions and thoughts related to this shooting. What a senseless loss of life. What a tragic theft of liberty. What a disorienting blow to the people of the church, the pastor, and everyone who has found themselves swept up in the aftermath of this horror.

Allow me to process with these seven responses to the Sutherland Springs shooting:

1. This shooting is nothing more or less than murder. Murder is wrong. It is an offense to our laws. It is an offense to laws of the Creator God who makes every human being unique and infinitely valuable.
2. My heart goes out to the grieving family, congregation, and friends of the victims in Sutherland Springs. I can’t stop seeing their pain-twisted faces illuminated by candlelight. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
3. Don’t send thoughts or prayers to the victims. They are ok. They are in the eternal embrace of their Savior. Their deaths are tragic, but they are at rest and in peace. Pray, instead, for those left behind. Pray for the families, friends, and the community. Pray for those who live among us in such darkness and pain that their minds are susceptible to the notion that ending the lives of others can give meaning to theirs.
4. The day of the shooting was also the International Day for the Persecuted Church. Millions Christians around the world suffer violence for no other reason than that they worship and serve Jesus. The kind of violence we see on our screens, newspapers, and news feeds today happens every hour of every day but is unreported and invisible to us. Usually, persecution is distant. Today, it is all too near.
5. God allows believers to go through hardships and persecution so that others can see Christ displayed through them. Every follower of Jesus has been entrusted with the life-giving message that the only hope for our broken world is for individuals to be made new at the heart-level by the power of Jesus. We believers carry this message through life in our fragile bodies. Why? As Paul explains, “This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”
   
   How could this be the way to share the message? As if sensing our doubt, Paul continues: “Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you” (2 Corinthians 4:7,11–12 NLT). Our persistent hope in the face of hopeless situations, violence and injustices underscores the brevity of this life, the brokenness of this world, and the beauty of the eternal life that awaits all who trust in Jesus.
6. Fear and bitterness are not a long-term option for followers of Jesus. My emotions, right now, are a churning mix of anger, worry, and confusion. It’s only human to react this way. But, the work of God in my heart captures those thoughts and calms them.

   In the face of fear, I know that God is in control. In the face of anger, I remember the true nature of this conflict is spiritual. We have an enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. If he can twist and torment the souls of human beings to pull the trigger, he will. However, no matter how murderous, people are not our enemy. “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 NLT).

   Our implements of war don’t fire bullets. We do battle for the sake of our families and neighbors with truth, justice, the good news of peace, faith, a mind that knows Jesus is our only rescue, and a heart saturated in the promises of God in his Word.

7. I am praying non-stop for every believer connected to this tragic event at every level of community leadership that their words and actions will represent the God the shooting victims loved and worshiped.

Filed under: church, culture, reflections Tagged: persecution, response, shooting, sutherland springs, texas, violence

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diseases of the spirit

American religion is conspicuous for its messianically pretentious energy, its embarrassingly banal prose, and its impatiently hustling ambition. None of these marks is remotely biblical. None is faintly in evidence in the gospel story. All of them are thoroughly documented diseases of the spirit.

— Eugene H. Peterson

Filed under: church Tagged: books, business, church, quotes

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Starry-eyed Wise Men

So while we’re on the topic of Magi, because Magi come up all the time, we have a bit of a Christmas navigation problem to solve. It’s a small problem. But, you’re probably going to celebrate about 70 Christmases in your life, so getting the bugs worked out of your grasp of the story isn’t [...]



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the monday after sunday

Bunnies, brunches, candy and crosses. Easter is a nice spring holiday we celebrate. It’s also the memorial date attached to an historical event.

Question is, what do we do with that event?

There are some things you can just shrug about and move on without forming an opinion. The resurrection of Jesus isn’t one of those things. It happened or it didn’t. It’s either a crazy myth or it’s a paradigm-shifting historical event.

The idea that Jesus is God and literally came back to life is a lot to swallow. I have my reasons for why I believe this to be true, but I’m not coming down on those who doubt.

It’s the believers I’m worried about.

See, people who don’t believe do a really good job of reflecting their view of the resurrection in the way they live. They go all out, stay in the moment, and live like there’s no tomorrow. Because, let’s be honest. If Jesus didn’t come out of that tomb under his own power there really isn’t any tomorrow. I get it.

On the other hand, those of us who do believe in Jesus’ resurrection seem to have a hard time reflecting that belief in our moment by moment conduct.

For the religious crowd, it’s easy to project the meaning of Easter to the far-off future. We know the resurrection means that we’ll see our loved ones again and that we’ll live forever in the sweet by and by. However, we forget that the message of Easter is firmly attached to the here and now.

When Paul crafts his remarks about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, he wraps up his discussion with a concluding statement. He’s talked about the historic event, he’s theorized about the what ifs and he’s expounded its eternal benefits of the resurrection.

Then comes the short conclusion. It’s short, but it packs a punch.

Paul doesn’t say, “Since Jesus is alive, hole up somewhere until he returns to take you out of this crummy world.” He doesn’t give us believers a free pass to day dream about heaven all day or to cluck our tongues at sinners who will get their just reward when an angry Jesus returns to kick butt. Far from it!

What Paul does say is “so what” of Easter. It’s the very practical bottom line:

“So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord”
(1 Corinthians 15:58).

One way or the other, Easter isn’t just something we celebrate — it’s something we do. How we live the Monday after reflects how we really view the Sunday.

The hope we have isn’t just a distant insurance against death — it’s a very present assurance that what we do in this life matters now and in eternity.

Easter is the kind of hope that makes you roll up your sleeves on Monday “knowing that your labor is not in vain.”

This Monday, let’s be outstanding…what do you say?

Pew Research Study: Young adults as religious as ever, but are less interested in church

Check out the article below from a recent USA Today...

Contrary to what we hear from today's church leaders, today's youth are no less spiritual than previous generations. The problem is Church - today's young people are much less interested in Church than the youth of yesteryear. Is it possible our "post-modern culture" that church leaders claim is the problem with America...really isn't the problem? If contemporary young adults are just as interested in religion as their parents, but less interested in attending church, then maybe church is the problem.

Every generation and every culture presents challenges to evangelism and discipleship. Let's complain less and work harder to find out what people need from church. We might have to make changes, but that's ok because we're not out for our own gain, right? Right. :)

the other side of the fence

the other side of the fence, originally uploaded by thewildpeople.

The worst thing about growing up is that as you get bigger, the world gets smaller. The world, and everything in it.

A few days after Christmas, I revisited the old neighborhood. My fuzzy blond head peeked up behind this white fence for the first twelve years of my life.

My chin once strained to rest on the top of the slats as my blue eyes elevated in search of the ice cream truck. It never occurred to me that all the other chins and eyes on the fence were brown. Or that most of of the treats on the truck were Mexican candy.

Now, the fence ends at my waist. Now I have no difficulty seeing over it.

The yard offered plenty of room to shoot water guns, practice soccer kicks, and shove paper balls of gunpowder down ant hills, light them and run behind a tree to wait for the victorious snap. Now, the truck I'm in rumbles past the entire ramshackle estate in less than a second.

Don't blink or you'll miss it. Unless you want to miss it. Then, go ahead and blink. I couldn't decide which I wanted, so I closed one eye, squinted through the other and took this picture.

In my memories, the fence, the yard, the house -- the world -- all seemed so much larger. I think I liked Big World. More space for possibilities. More room to run. And back then, I didn't know why the rich kids from church on the north side of town never wanted to come over.

The world's smaller now. And everything in it.

Feat or Flop?

It's the clash of two titans: Ethics vs. Curiosity.


If someone told you they broke into a sacred site and filmed what they saw, what would you think? What if the site has never been filmed before, and the video footage will answer people's questions or strengthen their faith? Do they have a right to keep these places under lock and key...or do we have a right to know?


In my latest article for crosswalk.com, I talk with documentary producer and host Brandon Trones about his guerilla filming techniques in the Holy Land for his new documentary...and about what the 40 day pilgrimage and fast he performed while he did his filming means to him and to us.


Holy Land Pilgrimage Goes Extreme in The Road Less Traveled


Read it and tell us what you think about these kind of extreme religious behaviors. Is it a feat, or a flop?

"Beam me up, Jesus!"

I love history. To me, it is fascinating how things like technology, country borders, and fashion change, but the basics of who we are as people, and the questions we face about life have changed so little. I was just reminded of that fact as I finished throwing up another post on my other blog called BibleDig about how the Jews in the years leading up to the time of Christ struggled to understand how to respond to the world around them and still keep their faith in tact. One of group of Jews, called the Essenes, decided the best plan of action was to remove themselves from all things pagan and basically wait for God to wipe out all the unrighteous people around them in monastery-like communities. (It's a little nerdy, but if you want to check out was I'm talking about so this post makes sense, here it is.)

Even though they lived over 2,000 years ago, there are a number of striking parallels in the challenges the Jews in the time before Christ faced as they grappled with how to live inside a culture generally opposed to their beliefs and our own challenges as Christians living inside an unfriendly culture. We can learn from how they responded.

Like these Jews, remaining distinctive inside a go-with-the-flow society is critical to our identity and our mission as believers. Like these Jews, we must respond to the pressures of our culture in a way that is informed by our faith and our understanding of the Scripture. And, like these Jews, we are presented with the option of withdrawing from the mix of ideas and beliefs and building our own sub-culture as a coping mechanism.

While our places of worship may stand in close proximity to the culture at-large, in practice we create communities of our own far from the evil influences of pagan life where we can read, interact, speak, dine, watch, listen, and attend events - yes, even wear clothing - that indicate our disinterest in mingling with the world. Like the prophet Jonah, we seek a high and mighty vantage point from which we wait for the fire of God to fall.

It's true that we are not to be "of the world." However, we are expected to be "in the world." Jesus' prayers for his disciples and for those who would follow after them (Jesus prayed for me!) specifically requested that we not resort to isolation as a method of responding to the challenges of our times:

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. (John 17:15-18)

How did God send his son into the world? As a person. A real, live, flesh and blood person with emotions and with a body that was not immune to fatigue. Jesus "humbled himself" and "made himself low" without thought for himself. And he hung out with a rough crowd in a backwater, far-flung speck on the Roman map. And he stuck it out until the time came to lay his life down. And he laid it down. He "emptied himself." That is how God sent Jesus. That is how Jesus sends us.

Jesus does not pray that we will construct elaborate alternatives to the evils of culture so that we can prevent all contact with the unwashed masses. Jesus does not pray for us to be safe from the world, but that we'll be safe in it. Jesus does not pray that we will be isolated from the world, but that we will be insulated from the eroding influence of sin by the truth. The truth from God about our purpose for being alive and about the unhappy ruin caused by living our lives for the passing pleasures of sin with no thought of the eternity that awaits us just beyond our final breath.

On one hand, it would have been nice if Jesus would have prayed that God would do a little, "Beam me up, Scotty," the moment I trusted Christ so I wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of living in this body in this world. On the other hand, that kind of living -- living with something more than satisfying our own thirst for entertainment, ease, and recognition in view -- will, as Jesus prayed, "set us apart." That's so different, it's other worldly.

How many people do you know that really live that kind of life, yet still manage to be friendly, interesting, compassionate, and engaged in the real world around them? Now that's different! So different, dare I say, it might even be something like a city on a hill? That sounds a lot like Jesus.

Would you like to talk more? Follow me on twitter and join the conversation.

Hope: Flip the Switch

We crave hope like bugs crave porch lights.

Barack Obama's book title, The Audacity of Hope, and the favorable response by many Americans to this book -- and his entire campaign for that matter -- illustrate the human being's magnetic attraction to anything resembling hope.  While the hope many speak of is synonymous with a loosely defined “dream” (as in “American Dream”, rags to riches, etc.) for a better future, the true nature of hope is more concrete, more demanding, and more powerful.

We Christians are to blame for the confusion. The church does a wonderful job of telling our culture where it is going wrong.  Not even so much how it is going wrong - as in, an explanation of the defect in terms that define it and propose correction - just specific instances of wrong, like a referee blowing the whistle when the ball goes out of bounds.  Appraisal of this kind is one function of the Christian faith in a individual and in society at large. However, Christ did not come merely to point out the flaws of fallen humanity.  That was only half his mission. 

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:17)

Christ did much more than merely highlight the shortcomings of sinners.  Christ offered what every longing heart craves. A rescue.  Redemption.  If we are to address our world as Christ did, then we must not neglect to offer hope.

The hope we offer is only as good as the hope we ourselves enjoy.  Why is the Church not offering hope to people in our culture? One reason is because individuals in the church are living without hope themselves.  Upward mobility / “Be all you can be” is such an ingrained value to our American society that this vague American Dream has replaced the robust notion of hope that our faith espouses. When we speak of God giving us hope or of having hope we seem to be thinking more of a Barack Obama-type “If God were president (or king, or “lord” or whatever), then he might make things better for me” dream.  Or the “If I just have faith, things will work out in the end” idea.

May I suggest that we don't have dreams, we practice hope. Hope is not something we have. Hope is something we do.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:10-12)

An old commentator of yesteryear puts it this way: 

Hope is...made up of an earnest desire for an object, and a corresponding expectation of obtaining it. The hope of heaven is made up of an earnest wish to reach heaven, and a corresponding expectation of it...The full assurance of that hope exists where there is the highest desire of heaven, and such corresponding evidence of personal piety, as to leave no doubt that it will be ours. (Barnes NT Commentaries)

People are drawn to hope like bugs to a porch light. So while some are huddled in their homes peeking out their curtains at the scary shadows they see scurrying around in our dark world, let's you and me flip the switch, and let the light shine.

Hope starts with us.

A page from my blog: http://owildman.blogspot.com

How's This for a Diet?

I’m on a diet. Sarah isn’t making me. I’m doing it because even though I had my last growth spurt as a freshman in high school I’m still a “growing boy” if you know what I mean. I’m going the no carbs / no sugar route.

 

The problem is, I really like food. But, a sermon has me doing some new thinking about this whole dieting thing. Like, maybe I’m missing the point of this whole breakfast, lunch and dinner thing. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever eat the same way again. There will be the same hunting down my next meal, chewing and swallowing...but there will be a new addition to the routine.

 

Today’s sermon at church by Chuck Swindol was about the cross and Christ’s humble submission to a cross-like death. The cross, we learned, was such a horrific, ghastly method of execution that even the word itself was a curse word in polite society. Christ didn’t only submit to limiting his omnipotent powers and shoe-horning himself into the confines of a frail human body. He didn’t merely agree to willingly lay down his life for the sins of the world. God the Son consented to a cross kind of death.

 

We took communion today. The bread and juice were distributed among the crowd. Chuck reminded us of Jesus’ admonition to observe the Lord’s Supper, “in remembrance of Me.” And we ate and drank.

 

Some churches take communion monthly or quarterly. Other traditions encourage a daily observance of this symbolic act. But, as I tasted the wafer of bread on my tongue I wondered, how often did the disciples eat bread and drink wine? When Jesus, in that intimate moment before the storm of suffering and sacrifice, asked his small band of friends to remember him, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,” exactly how often was that? Perhaps more often than we think.

 

Bread and wine were the staples of first century diets. Bread was inexpensive and filling. Wine sanitized squalid water and made it more palatable. When Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life” he was saying, “I am the staple of survival. Without me, your souls go hungry.” The taste of bread was a sensation the common person experienced every time they were lucky enough to eat.

 

The Passover meal Jesus shared with his friends was a special experience - but eating and drinking weren’t. So, when Jesus said, “As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of Me,” maybe he was not saying, “As often as you have this yearly, special meal” or “as often as you have your monthly communion service.” When our Savior, who had shoe-horned himself into a human body and was willingly consenting to a death so horrible that polite Romans -- who relished the cruelties of the Colosseum as entertainment -- would not dare to even mention the word “cross”, asked his disciples to remember him “as often as you do this” maybe he was asking them to reflect on his sacrifice and servant-heartedness every time they raised bread or wine to their lips.

 

Imagine how differently we would live if we reflected for a moment on the example of Christ every time we lifted food to our mouths. How would it dull the taste of sin to us if we pictured our Savior’s humility and sacrifice for an instant whenever liquid touched our tongues? Gratefulness would lead to compassion. Sorrow for sin would motivate holiness. The picture of humility would prompt imitation.

 

As we thank God for life-sustaining food, let’s thank him for the cross and embrace it as our own. As we eat, may we be reminded that it is Christ - the Bread - who gives us life. As we drink, may we remember it is Christ who satisfies our thirsty souls.

 

How’s that for putting our me-first selves on a restriction? Now that’s a diet.