Wine and Spiritual Drift

We live in a world where drifting has become the norm. Young people (I guess we’re calling them “Millennials” now…) drift through middle school, high school, and college. People drift in and out of jobs like they are changing clothes. Statistically speaking, most people will hold between ten and fifteen different jobs in their lifetime. An August 14, 2012 article by Forbes magazine stated that job-hopping is the new norm for Millennials. Millennials (people born between 1977 and 1997) expect to stay in a job no longer than 4.4 years on average. Adults are ineptly raising their kids with little to no moral code. There is a pervasive attitude among a lot of young people that causes them to refuse to commit to much of anything unless they decide that they have nothing better to do. Even among adults, conversations are non-committal. “Can you come to our neighborhood party? Well, let me check and see...” There seems to be an expectation of a lack of stability in life today that is a little frightening. It is almost as if INSTABILITY is where Americans find peace. If life is expected to be transient, then lifestyles will become transient, as well. Digging a layer deeper, can we really expect values such as truth and integrity to remain solid core values if trust and integrity are so transient (am I saying “transient” a lot?). Why hold to a solid set of values? According to today’s common thought, if your values don’t work where you are, that shouldn’t be a problem. Just change what you believe to match your context. Problem solved, right? The default setting for a lot of people today is comfort and not integrity. There is a drift, of sorts, happening in the church today. It isn’t necessarily a drift FROM values, per se, but a drift from the traditional. This drift (which I cleverly call “religious drift”) can be both positive and negative. I think there has been a certain amount of disenfranchisement happening with the younger population regarding spiritual things. The negative drift happens when people just give up on church. The positive drift happens when people decide to find a new context that better fits their personality. In Virginia where I live, there are churches on just about every corner and they represent just about every denomination or flavor of faith you can imagine. Where I live just outside of Richmond, I would say that the older, more traditional church outnumbers the contemporary church, but this is changing. There’s a change in the air around here that is really refreshing. Katy and I resigned our post a few months ago at New Bridge (actually, she resigned about a year ago to reenter the school system as an elementary autism teacher). In these few months of waiting for God to open up an opportunity in the local church for a senior pastor position, we have had an opportunity to visit a number of churches. Some of these churches are church plants. Most of these churches have extremely contemporary elements to include the worship, are COMPLETELY FULL with the young people whom I thought were leaving the church for good, and the fact that the one preaching doesn’t feel compelled to wear a suit is pretty validating for Ol’ Dave. Did you know that it’s possible for a man to deliver the word of God in jeans, Vans, and a collared shirt?! Heresy to some, but merely a change of context to others, but I digress. Here’s my point. At one time, I thought young people were drifting FROM church in general. I think I have realized that young people aren’t drifting FROM church. They are drifting TO a church context that is healthier for them. Even the ones who gave up on “church” for a while seem to be finding what they are looking for. According to some Lifeway research I read, for the first time in what feels like a really long time, the church is starting to gain ground (in 2014 there were about 4,000 church plants as opposed to the 3700 that closed. Maybe not MUCH ground, but at least it’s not much in the right direction!) It isn’t gaining ground in the form of the traditional church doing the same thing it’s always done. Older, more established churches CAN grow and reach young people, but they will not likely do that by not changing the way that they do things. We visited an older church in the area that brought in a new pastor a few years ago. They changed a few things they were doing and they are really killing it on their side of town! New wine in old wineskins or something like that? Where have I read something like that before? Hmm…not really sure…oh, well (psst…over here…that’s in Matthew 9 and Mark 2…go look it up…). So what’s my point? Well, I guess I would say to those who have been feeling marginalized by church that you should take heart. Get out there and look around. There is a church for you. If you’re in a church that has gone way too contemporary for you, there is no shortage of traditional churches. If you’re in a traditional setting that just isn’t speaking to you, DON’T GIVE UP ON THE CHURCH! If you’re thinking of just giving up on the church and not going, I have three words for you: that is stupid. There are a LOT of churches popping up all over the Richmond area, and evidently across the country that are speaking to different contexts. You might find one if you look, but you have to be willing to put yourself out there and be the “new guy” again. Don’t be afraid to visit around. The thing is that there is a church out there just waiting for you! You’ll know it when you find it. If this is you, I can tell you it is an exciting time of spiritual discovery in your life. Get out there and find that new wineskin!

Authority and Distraction

Just some thoughts I journaled as I wrapped up my study of Hebrews 1:5-14... Hebrews 1:5-14 can be summed up by saying that it refers to and exposes the writer’s belief that Jesus is a superior being on an equal plane with God. He says that Jesus, while being temporarily lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:7, 9; we haven’t gotten there, but be patient!), has risen to a status that is now far superior to them. In a day and age when religion is so watered down with feel-good philosophy and New Age heresy as related to angels and human wisdom such, how do we define authority? Even Christians (myself included) look to popular authors, speakers, and conferences for wisdom and inspiration. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but books, sermons, and conference lineups are all rooted in flawed man rather than in the Word of God. Even in a sermon, a pastor is giving me HIS interpretation of Scripture. How many pastors in the last five years have fallen in one type of disgrace or another? So the question is, “Why would I give them more authority in my life than the Bible?” In the time of the early church, angels were given very high regard. They had reached what appears to be near mythical proportions and were so highly acclaimed that even the worship of angels began to surface as a new heresy. Angels have been popularized in movies and television shows like “Touched By An Angel”. I know people who collect angel figurines. I have talked with people who talked non-stop about their guardian angel (I’m not disparaging the idea of guardian angels. Some people approach angels with a worshipful attitude, though.) George Guthrie notes that angels are clearly both popular and big business in Western societies. The question is, how should the church respond to this cultural trend? Keeping in mind that the author of Hebrews uses his first audience’s respect for angels to speak to their need for a higher opinion of the Son… In Hebrews, it’s possible that some of the people for whom this sermon was intended had been having a problem with Spiritual authority and the writer may have been using an inflated view of angels for his jumping off point for a discussion of where they should be placing their trust and focus. Angel worship isn’t the problem that it once was, however Christians do end up worshiping at the altar of personality way too much. How do we avoid venerating people while respecting them? For example, I am a big fan of Matt Chandler, who is the pastor of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. He would probably tell me to go look somewhere else for an example of Godly living, because that’s the kind of guy he is. Anyway, I listen to his messages, subscribe to his podcast, and I even watch how he preaches for pointers on style. I really respect the guy and if there is a person I follow in contemporary church culture, it’s Chandler (Francis Chan is another one, but he isn’t as active as Chandler, but I digress…). The question is this: “How do I glean from a man and avoid venerating his word as Gospel? How do I respect him, but avoid putting him on a pedestal that would cause his voice to supersede the word of God?” How do I let him be AN authority without allowing him to become ULTIMATE authority? The secret is that, first of all, it isn’t a secret, and secondly, it isn’t that hard. 1 John 1:1-3 (NASB95) 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. Here’s the problem: many of the people in whom we see the world placing trust and whom we allow to have spiritual authority are NOT Christians. I’m not calling any specific individual out here. I am, however, addressing how it happens. I have been asking teenagers for years now how they know if I am telling them the truth. The answer always seems to go back to that one passage when Paul was in Berea and they searched the Scriptures to be sure that what he was saying was true. What is it that we’re looking for, though? Yes, we want to be sure that the doctrines are accurate, but how many of those doctrines fall completely apart without the centricity of Christ in our lives? Can I NOT murder and still not be a believer? Can I NOT steal and still not be a believer? If a guy preaches on not murdering and not stealing, does that make him a solid teacher if that’s what we find in the Bible? My question would be, “Did he mention the name of Jesus at ALL anywhere in his message?” I think hype can distract us. Sometimes I feel like guys go out and get into ministry and they can’t WAIT to write and publish their first book. It’s almost like today’s clergy is trying to make a name for itself instead of making a name of Jesus. Is the person whom I am following (i.e. Matt Chandler) trying to make a bigger name for Jesus than for himself? Is he confessing that Jesus is God and not himself or herself as God? I think that’s how we test the spirits. It’s not some sort of vague spiritual entity that we are consulting with. We don’t go get a Ouija board and start asking it questions to get guidance on whom to follow and whom not to follow. We test the spirit of the man or woman in question. Does the life match Scripture? More specifically, does that life match what the Bible says about Jesus? It’s a challenging question. It’s a question that causes a bit of fear and trembling in my own life and ministry. As Katy and I enter a season of searching out our first pastorate, I hope that this reality continues to humble us and keep us real.

Three "ism's": You DO need air to survive!

I ran across some thoughts in a commentary that really made me start to think deeply about three “isms” that we run across almost daily and are at odds with one another in almost every way. The three “isms” are theism, modernism, and postmodernism. Theism is the belief that there is a god or gods out there somewhere. We typically run into theism in a form that believes that a god of some kind created the universe. Theism has many flavors, but it can basically be boiled down into polytheism and monotheism. The opposite of theism would be modernism. I don’t want to oversimplify modernism as it has far reaching cultural implications, but as it relates to religion it pretty much rejects the supernatural in order to give way to science. So we have theism at odds with modernism right out of the gate. One says, “Some god exists”. The other says, “No god exists”. Both of these worldviews are very dogmatic, meaning that they both think that they are the truth. If that’s the case, then they are mutually exclusive of one another meaning that no person can hold these two truths simultaneously and not be looked at as a total moron. I can’t think up is both down and up at the same time. It’s either one or the other. To believe otherwise relegates me to the aforementioned realm of the moronic. Now let’s take a look at postmodernism. Again, I don’t want to oversimplify postmodernism, but for the purpose of a short writing here, let’s just say that postmodernism believes that everything is relative. While theism would say, “Some god exists”, and modernism says, “no god exists”, postmodernism would suggest that “your god exists and my god exists”. On top of that, the postmodern view of religion would further suggest that everyone’s god, whether they exist or not, can all coexist peacefully. Now, we know that this is just crazy. There are way too many religions out there that would argue this point literally to the death. No devout Muslim would agree with this. No serious Christian agrees with this. So what is it that postmodernism is trying to do here? Well, I am of the opinion that this postmodern outlook on religion is simply trying to help people relate to one another peacefully. So a Christian who takes on a postmodern way of thinking, believing that nothing is concrete and that all is relative, would suggest that Jesus is that Way, the Truth, and the Life, but this isn’t necessarily the truth for everyone. Those who don’t believe in Jesus, well, they’re okay. It’s fine for them to believe that Jesus isn’t God since that is what is true for that person. I would like for you to imagine someone trying to spike a postmodern volleyball over a net. Now, I would like for you to imagine a solid Christian jumping up, blocking that spike so hard that the person spiking the ball falls to the ground crying in pain, horror, and humiliation while the blocker screams, “Get that weak garbage out of here!” Christian postmodernists need to grow a spine. Why in the world anyone thinks that it is appropriate to stand halfway between theism and modernism is beyond me. Is it okay for a Christian to think this way? I would submit to you that it is not and I will explain further (if it’s not self-explanatory already) why I believe that. The postmodern Christian is caught between two worlds: the dogmatic and the pragmatic. Dogmatic people stand on what is true. Pragmatic people stand on what works. Does it “work” for Christians to just try to get along with others? Well, I suppose that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but is it okay when truth gets watered down? If Jesus is the way, truth, and life and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus, then is it okay to say that this truth is okay only for those who want to believe it to be true? Is it less true if someone chooses not to believe it? Here’s the problem Mr. Postmodern Christian: if a person chooses to not believe it as a dogmatic truth, Jesus is still the Way, the Truth, and the Life and nothing changes the fact (not even unbelief) that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. I can believe all day long that oxygen isn’t necessary for survival, but I can’t make that true. If the “rule of three’s” is true, after about three minutes without oxygen, I will become very, very dead. So, if some guy claims that he can live without oxygen and puts a plastic bag over his head, am I okay to just let him suffocate since we all know that he will die? Wouldn’t I try to stop him from doing something that will result in his own asphyxiation? At least poke a hole in the bag, right? If I allow him to have his own postmodern way, he will die. His truth is going to kill him. The dogma that is the human body’s need for oxygen will win over his hard headed and hard hearted belief that he doesn’t need air to survive! Let’s say that I allow him to hold this view and act on it and he dies. What now? Am I now responsible for his death since I didn’t do anything to prevent it when I could have? I guess the courts will decide that one, but the obvious parallel here is that in the life of a Christian, some things are just true and they are DEADLY true! Those who don’t believe that Jesus is God and that trust in Him is essential for salvation are putting a plastic bag over their heads. If I just say, “Well, that’s what is true for him, so I shouldn’t step on his rights”, then I am basically saying, “I don’t believe my own truth enough to do something about it”. When does it end? When do we take a stand and just live out lives like we REALLY believe this “Jesus stuff”?

How to tell when your vision stinks

So what do we do in a culture that demands that we NOT commit to anything? I have been involved with my wife in young adult ministry in our time in service and I can tell you that none are less willing to commit to anything than today’s young adult. It seems that they just aren’t sure what they are going to be doing on any given night. They seem to be afraid of making solid plans out of fear that a “better plan” may come along. “I can’t commit to going to a small group because someone might want to hang out.” “I guess we can go to our young adult group since we don’t have anything else to do.” Of course, this doesn’t describe ALL young adults, but it certainly does seem to be a pervading attitude. Also, it doesn’t just describe young adults. It is bleeding into adult attitudes, as well. However, have you noticed that once today's young adult population DOES commit to something, they are ALL IN? Not just partially supportive, but ALL IN! How do we build into people a commitment to the word of God? Is that even my responsibility? How do we take folks who are marginal or even nominal followers and help them to develop a real hunger for deep things? I think it’s about planting a compelling vision in the hearts and minds of believers. I am a firm believer that people don’t give their time, money, or talents to other people or organizations. They give all of those things to a compelling vision. A vision compels when it’s going somewhere. It compels when we can see progress. We don’t have to be winning necessarily. The vision just can’t be a stagnant pool of non-moving garbage! Maybe most importantly, vision is compelling when it is participatory. I don’t think most people, and I am particularly speaking of young adults here, want to just give their money to an organization and watch the work happen. I think people want to give themselves away to a cause and be USED in the effort! Maybe this is where church is going wrong today. Maybe we aren’t about EQUIPPING people enough. Maybe we are just communicating, “We don’t really want YOU. We just want your MONEY so that WE can do good things for Christ. You just sit over there and clap when we sing, okay? We the, ‘professionals’, will take care of the sick and hurting.” This is exactly the attitude that stagnates a church. It stops people from NEEDING to develop faith. Stagnant people means stagnant vision. After all, if I’m the only one who is going to do ministry in my church and the average congregant never has an opportunity to share faith, why is there any need to DEVELOP faith! There is no vision for that person to MOVE in faith, so he or she just sits still in worship and wonders why he or she is even there. People become stagnant when there is no expectation to do anything with what they are taught about faith. So what do they do? They wait for something else to come along that will speak to them. If we aren’t careful, the world will plant vision in our congregation. They will begin to fall away from the vision that God set forth in Scripture and begin to chase after meaning elsewhere. Today’s young adult was not built to be stagnant. They were built to keep moving and growing. Maybe we need to stop complaining about a lack of commitment and start really re-evaluating whether or not our vision is worth following?

Satan's "innocent" alternatives...

1 And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. 2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; 4 they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Re 13:1–4. There is an intrinsic power in worship. There is also an intrinsic spiritual nature in man that engages in worship, even if the worship engaged is secular in nature. This is both good and bad. Man wants to worship and adore things. Take a look around at the number of entities that gain the recognition and adoration of people. We idolize sports teams, athletes, musicians, bands, politicians, preachers, models, The problem is that Satan knows this, too. One of the things that Satan is absolutely best at is mimicking good things. He does this in order to provide substitutes to those things that are holy. Think about it. Satan provides alternatives to love so as to pull us away from God’s true desire for love. He provides alternatives for justice so that we are pulled towards our own brand of justice and away from Gods desire for pure justice. He presents us with alternatives for hope. Is it any surprise that Satan provides us with an alternative to faith, as well? If he can just get us excited about ANYTHING that has nothing to do with Jesus he can begin pulling us away. It all seems innocent enough at first, right? I mean, I constantly struggle with my anger. Why not give in to it just a little and feel the power of rage? Why not give my heart to a football team so that my heart is pulled away on Sunday? Church will always be there, right? Why not just sit and keep staring at the woman who isn’t my wife? She’s pretty and I like pretty things, right? Subtle pulls away from true worship are what cause us to fall into sin. I’m only processing this for myself at this point, but I really feel like when I am focusing on the Lord and worshiping Him and Him alone, my worship of the worldly is eliminated. The struggle is real, folks!

Religious Pluralism: All Religions Don't Lead To Heaven

Just some thoughts from my Bible study of Revelation 2:18-29...

So what does this all have to do with you and me?  We have discussed the dangers of assimilation with the world in order to fit in with other groups.  There is also a danger of religious pluralism that seems to surface here.  Religious pluralism is that belief that two or more religious systems with competing views are equally valid.  Do all roads lead to heaven?  In other words, if I look at the sky with my wife and say it is blue and she says that it is red but we both belief that the other’s view is as valid as our own, that is a pluralistic view.  When it comes to religions, it would mean that a person believes that every religion on the planet is equally valid and true.  They all lead to either heaven or nowhere.  People who proudly display the “Coexist” bumper sticker on a vehicle are supporting religious pluralism.  The problem with the “Coexist” bumper sticker is exactly the fact that no world religions can coexist with any other world religion with the exception of Hinduism, which actually believes that all religions are valid as a part of its basic belief system.  This belief renders Hinduism illegitimate for a number of reasons.  There isn’t space or time to enumerate those reasons here, but I will just address one major issue with some common religions and why they are completely incompatible with Christianity and why they simply cannot “Coexist”. 

            Many world religions believe in God.  This actually isn’t an uncommon belief, however Christians understand that, just as their name suggests, the identity of Jesus is what matters to their faith.  Many other world religions actually believe in Jesus, as well.  There is a problem with these other religions’ belief in Jesus, however.  I have said many times that the one belief that sets Christianity apart from literally every other competing world religion is the belief that Jesus is God.  To say that every single religion on the planet is equally valid is simply false and ignorant because too many of them have divergent views as to who Jesus actually is!  To say that Islam and Christianity are equally valid is an example of this ignorance.  Muslims do NOT believe that Jesus is God!  Christians absolutely believe that Jesus is God!  They are 180 degree, polar opposites in their view of what matters to eternal salvation.  The only way around this is to say that none of these other world religions are correct, or to say that truth only matters to that person who holds to it.  In other words, Islam is true to Muslims and Christianity is true to Christians.  To say that a person gets into heaven by holding A belief is simply false.  What sort of higher power would allow a person to enjoy eternity side by side with a person who held an opposite belief?  Why would that eternity even matter?  Why would I want to serve or spend eternity with any god who said that my beliefs and character basically do not matter?  I could hold to atheism and say that this is my view on religion and decide that living an ethical life is my religion.  I don’t have to follow ANY god in this case!  That would certainly be the easy way to go, and it would make it easy for every person on the planet to go to a blissful eternity, so what is the problem with that view?  The problem is that you just can’t change truth!  You can’t change what truly IS!  I can’t redefine truth to be an arbitrary, individual preference.  If that were the case a pedophile could say that his or her truth includes the belief that raping children is okay and actually healthy.  Objective truth exists and there is nothing anyone can do about it.  To say that all I have to do is believe SOMETHING and I’m okay with some cosmic higher force is simply avoiding the truth that truth exists and the when some views directly oppose one another that makes one of them a LIE.  A thing cannot be both true and false at the same time.  The sky is either red or blue.  End of story.  

Do YOU interpret God or Does God Interpret You? The Message to Smyrna

Just writing my Bible study for Sunday morning based on Revelation 2:8-11.  Some more reflections as a result of that study:

So a LOT of questions come up as we think about human suffering, particularly when we think about the suffering of a people who serve such a powerful So how do we understand Christian suffering?  Why does it happen?  Where do I put the fact that God allows suffering to happen to His people?  Why doesn’t he just rescue us?  In all of these questions, I believe that the focus is backwards.  In these common questions, we are trying to understand God in light of our own circumstances instead of trying to understand who we are in light of God’s revelation.  I’m not saying that we are to NOT try to understand who God is, but I do think that it is dangerous to interpret God through worldly interactions and happenings.  Should we be defining God or should God be what defines us as believers?  I think that it is God who tells us who we are.  When we pursue a line of questioning that ONLY seeks to make sense of God and define who God is in our minds by analyzing the world around us, we gain only a narrow view of who He is.  We must balance that out with a healthy dose of accepting that God has authority over certain things and begin to place ourselves into His story and realm rather than placing Him into our own context.  Is it okay to ask and ponder who God is?  Yes, I certainly believe that it is.  Should we ALSO ponder our reaction to who God is in light of the fact that He is eternal an unchangeable?  Absolutely!

Here’s what I mean.  Let’s say a terrible car wreck happens on a very public street.  There are twenty witnesses, including those in the car, who can relate just what happened.  Depending on the level of involvement, there will be at least twenty different accounts of what happened.  All twenty stories will be told with varying levels of emotion that depend on personal experience and proximity to the car crash.  Some of the details of the eyewitness accounts may even contradict one another.  Here’s the deal though: not one story or even contradiction change the fact that the car wreck happened.  There are certain things that are unchangeable about the situation.  Twenty people will tell their version of events based on how they interpret it and that interpretation will be based, in large part, on that person’s individual experience.  The fact that will not change is that the car wreck happened and it had an impact on the people surrounding the event.  Each individual witnessing the event will be changed in some way as a result of the event.  The event is not changed in one minor detail as a result of the interpretation of witnesses.

Our interpretation of who God is does not change who He is.  God simply is.  When we apply our own experiences and personal victories and tragedies to our story of Him, we begin to apply a very subjective slant to that story.  The question must then become, “Who is God and who am I in light of that truth?”  We cannot simply stop at the point of human understanding and apply our own version of truth to a God who is the very definition of truth.