Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Reppazent, y'all!

Thoughts from study of Hebrews 2:17-18 V.17-18 speak of Jesus identification with mankind. If I were going to truly try to help someone in an inner city project or in a place where there is little food, water, or other basic resources necessary for survival, could I do that if I did not go to that place? Of course, I could hear about it and send those resources, but would I really be able to help all that much if someone didn’t go there? How do you stamp out the root of the problem that causes a shortage of those resources if you don’t go and investigate in order to put a solution in place? The situation with Jesus becoming our sacrifice is a little like that. The major difference is that Jesus wasn’t just providing a resource for our survival. He WAS the resource. As we know, the OT sacrifice was an animal of some type. This animal was never going to be a complete sacrifice for mankind as it was simply not the same trade. The trade was simply blood for blood. In the OT case it was animal blood for human blood. If the sacrifice were to be truly complete, it would have to be human blood for human blood. Furthermore, it would have to be perfectly sinless human blood for sinful human blood. Animals can’t sin as they have no will to defy God, so it is true that a bull is a sinless sacrifice. However, as I just said, the bull can’t represent a human. Even some humans can’t represent other humans. You would never send a Chinese national who had never been to the United States in his life to go to the UN to represent the interests of the United States. Neither could God, at the end of the day, say that all humans on the planet could be redeemed by the blood of something that was not human. “But doesn’t this mean that God supports human sacrifice?” Well, I would agree with that if God ever allowed a mere human to be an adequate sacrifice for our sins, which He has never done in history. The one “human” that died for sinful mankind wasn’t JUST a human being. He was the God-man. He was human, but ALSO divine placing him in a class set apart from humanity. He linked humanity to the divine, but he was separate from humanity as well. So we have Jesus represented here as the sacrifice and as the High Priest who offered the sacrifice. As our high priest, Jesus offered Himself for us. Jesus was made like us, His brethren, in all things (V.17) so that he could perfectly represent us in all things. The way that Jesus represented us on the cross was as a substitute. Jesus stood in the gap for you and me. He basically said, “Yes these people are guilty. They are sentenced to death. Something has to die. That something will be me.” Death as separation from God has always been the penalty for sin. In the OT, when a person sinned, something had to die. It was either the person who sinned or an animal. An animal was not always going to work (3.5 billion people on the planet today X the number of sins committed daily = not enough animals to go around; therefore people would have to die for their sins for a literal lack of enough animals to die for sin). So what’s the answer? One final sacrifice for all forever. We don’t rely on death after our sin in order to be made right with God. We rely on a death that happened a long time ago. The problem FOR death is that death didn’t work on Jesus. He didn’t STAY DEAD! So now, instead of putting our faith in the blood of animals, we put out faith in the blood of Jesus, who overcame death. I won’t pretend to yet understand all of what happened when Jesus overcame death, but I will say that when Jesus overcame death on the cross, he became the sacrifice to which we could look and put faith for salvation. I think that the death that Jesus overcame was the necessity for any further death on the part of any animal or human to die for sin since He did it for us. I mean, we all still die. Jesus’ death didn’t make us all immortal or something crazy like that. It just means that His one death was the final one that was necessary for salvation if we decide to place faith in Him. The difference between believers and non-believers, even in the OT, was whether or not they placed their faith in the death of something to atone for sin. If a person let an animal be the sacrifice for sin in the OT or if they let Jesus be the sacrifice today, they are still putting faith in a system that God put into place for them.

Monday, June 20, 2016

I Hope You Die!

Some notes from my study of Hebrews 2:14-15... So Jesus destroyed the power of death, which is defined as the devil, or Satan. Well, what does that even mean? Clearly, Jesus hasn’t annihilated Satan. People still die, so death hasn’t been completely erased. If that’s the case, what is it about death that Jesus has destroyed? What is the true power of death? Well, when is death a bad thing? When does death have a negative power over people? Death has power in a couple of ways. First, it has the power to separate those who aren't believers from eternal life in Christ. Second, death has power in the fact that so many people are afraid of it. The power of death that I want to discuss here is the human fear of death. Death only has power over people who are afraid to die. People who aren’t afraid to die are sure about a number of things. The most important thing about which they are sure is their final state. Atheists believe that there is no afterlife. They believe that this life is all that there is. Christians believe that there IS an afterlife and that the afterlife is spent eternally in a place called heaven. Here’s the problem with atheism, though: I have never met a self-proclaimed atheist who was 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt, completely sure that there absolutely cannot be a higher power behind creation (which isn’t atheism. That’s agnosticism, but I digress). Some atheists will even concede that a higher being is possible, but they just don’t see that the evidence leads towards God. In other words, in the deepest of atheism, there is still doubt as to the final repose. I do not mean to demean what atheists stand for as I believe these to be people of great faith in their viewpoint. In fact, a lot of atheists have better reasons for believing what they believe than some Christians. However, it is the Christian who can have true confidence of what happens after death. In that confidence, there is no fear. To live is Christ and to die is gain. It’s a win-win situation. For the atheist, to live is to live and to die is…well, I’m not really 100% sure. My question is this: to whom is the self-preservation instinct more important? Of course, I’m not going to go out and do stupid things that will get me killed just because I know where my eternity will be spent nor would I ever suggest that an atheist can’t do selfless acts that could get them killed, either. Defending a child and acts of patriotism, for example, are some powerful motivators towards potentially lethal courses of action. I will say this, though. (Opinion Alert!) The man or woman who has settled his or her account with God is much less likely to fear death than those who have not. If someone attacks my wife or some other public place where there are people, I don’t have the fear of losing my life at all. I can defend life and not fear losing my own because I know what’s at the end. It’s not even a consideration. I don’t have to rely on my own training and/or willpower to overcome fear nearly as much as if I had no assurance of eternal life in Christ. Training and willpower aren’t wasted on the debate over whether or not a situation is worth my life. I already gave it away in trade for an eternal one. This is what the Bible means when it speaks of “dying to self”. My life isn’t my own anymore. I can defend someone I don’t even LIKE without fear or without having to weigh how much I like or don’t like that person. More than that, I can put someone else’s needs before my own because I am less concerned with my own needs and desire than those of others. Here’s my point: in this lack of fear, there is freedom. I don’t have to make decisions based on what will preserve my life. I don’t make decisions based on what will keep me comfortable. I can actually live my life without being slave to the possibility of death. Speaking for myself, I can say that this freedom from fear of death lends itself to a larger perspective. The larger perspective that the freedom from fear of death brings is an eternal perspective on life and faith. The bottom line is that I am going to die. One day, in some way, I will die. What will I do with the last thirty or forty years that I have on this planet? Will I spend my life on others? Will I decide to seek pleasure or comfort? Will I use those years to be sure others know WHY I have no fear of death? With a freedom from the fear of death, I can now look beyond today with no fear. I have accepted my own death and my eternity. I think that this new eternal perspective means a new outlook on how I will live this last half of my life. It means that I can make decisions that move beyond comfort and selfishness. To live is to accept death and to die to self. When we live our lives dead to our own flesh and desires, the physical end will be much easier to accept. So, at the end of the day, I guess I hope that I can continue to die daily. In fact, I hope you die, too!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Hope, Pumpkins, and Snotty Noses

Random thoughts after studying from Hebrews 2:5-9... So you have this passage that speaks of Jesus in two separate “times”, if you will allow me that. We have Jesus “a little lower than the angels” (VV. 7, 9), referring to His sojourn on earth as the God-man. We also have Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” (V. 9), referring to His exalted state. As both Creator and future Conqueror, Jesus is ruler over the earth and all of creation. In the exalted state, I would like to focus for just a bit here on his future return. In that, we have Jesus represented in what I like to call a Lamb vs. Lion contrast. Jesus was the Lamb of God in His humanity as He came to die on a cross. He will return as the Lion of Judah when He comes to conquer and reclaim what is His rightful inheritance. In a nutshell, you have Jesus existing on two entirely different levels. Honestly, they are almost polar opposites if you think about it. Of course, we can say that in His sacrifice He is a conqueror, but I’m looking at this in a bit more raw form and I want to keep these two “activities” of Jesus separate for the time being and to make a point. When you look at Jesus as a suffering servant in the past and as a warlord in the future, we find a certain tension. It’s a little like the tension I feel as a pastor and as a man of peace, yet I carry a gun and humbly consider myself ready to use it if the need arises. The tension when we consider the power of Jesus in His current state is different though. We aren’t talking about a person making a choice and balancing out beliefs here. If we’re being honest, don’t we sometimes ask ourselves if God/Jesus is so all-fired awesome and powerful, why don’t they just come on back now and get rid of evil and take us all home? Why all of the suffering, evil, war, and death RIGHT NOW? Why does evil HAVE to exist right now? The so-called Problem of Evil is one that has plagued the minds of Christians and atheists for hundreds of years. In fact, this is a major detraction by atheists from any belief in God that they may have. Atheists say that if God is so loving and compassionate, He would do something about evil in this world, right? I have a confession to make. Get ready for it. Are you sitting down? Here it goes: I see their point. It’s actually a PRETTY good point, if you take it at face value. The problem with this approach to the compassion of God is that it doesn’t go very deep. It’s one of those questions that only asks the questions and doesn’t wait for the answer. Are there answers to this question? Yes, there are. Do Christians sometimes give really stupid and vapid answers to this question? Yes, they do. (Disclosure: I just Googled the word “vapid” to be sure I used it correctly in a sentence…seems legit). So how do Christians often answer this question? The absolute dumbest response (even though it’s true) is to say something like, “Well, we aren’t God, so we can’t question God’s wisdom.” Okay. While I agree that this statement is technically true, there is a measure of laziness in it for some people that I just can’t get around. It’s a lot like saying, “God said it, so that settles it”. So what would be DEEPER answers to the question that might go beyond this watered-down, hippified, bumper sticker theology (yes, “hippified” is a word. It might be a Dave-ism, but it’s a word). Can we just have a little real talk here? I mean, let’s just be totally honest and take a look at the answer to this question with a dose of reality. Parenting today is not what it used to be. There was a day when parents let kids play in the dirt without bathing them in hand sanitizer. There was a time when parents told their kids that they didn’t get a trophy in soccer this year because their kids really weren’t very good at soccer (well, maybe they didn’t say THAT, but they certainly told their kids that others deserved the trophy more). There was a time when parents weren’t concerned with what music was playing at the moment of birth so as to create a less traumatic birth experience (I have never given birth, nor have I witnessed it, but I hear it’s pretty brutal, particularly for fathers who are within arm’s length of mom). There was a time when we gave our little pumpkins (sarcastic term for children) the truth. Today, we have to be sure everyone gets a trophy and that no one gets their little feelings hurt and that no one has to have any consequences for behavior. We live in a world in which parents live so vicariously through their children that they actually believe that a child’s behavior is a direct reflection of the parent’s own soul, desires, beliefs, and choices. We have created the greatest generation of entitled little pumpkins that the world has ever known. Is it any surprise that the entitlement mentality has bled over into the Christian world? Entitled Christians often ask the question about evil, just like atheists. There are a lot of great ways to answer the Problem of Evil, but I want to just focus on one here. I want to answer the question with a question: Since when did God exist to provide ANYONE with comfort? If we all agree that parents can create an entitled generation of Americans AND we agree that this is NOT a good thing, why do we think that an entitled generation in the Church is any better? We live in an in-between time right now in the church. Jesus’ first coming is the “already”. Jesus’ second coming is the “not yet”. Salvation history is in motion and it is sanctifying this world in preparation for Jesus to return for His bride. The bottom line is that in this time between “already” and “not yet” there are troubles. We have to remember that. Without darkness, how would be know the Light? Without hate, how would we know love? Jesus own words in John 16:33 give us hope. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Take heart and remember that an age of hope is coming on the horizon. It absolutely dwarfs the pain of the present. Hang in there.

Friday, June 10, 2016

The Almighty F-150 and Consumer Commitment

We live in a fast food world. In fact, we live in a consumer driven world. Today, no one who produces goods really drives any market. It is the consumer who determines the worth of anything on the planet. Think about it. A car dealership can tell you how much they are charging for a vehicle, but if not one single person on the planet is willing to pay that much money for a car, then is it really worth the price the dealer is asking? If no one buys it or even wants to buy it, isn’t it’s worth exactly ZERO DOLLARS?! Buying a car, just like any other purchase, is about commitment. If I am willing to commit to an F-150, I will do whatever it takes to purchase (consume) that product. If enough people are buying F-150s, then the dealer doesn’t need to change the price. The dealer and the manufacturer both know that they are turning out a product that the general population (at least 6’4” rednecks from Texas like myself) are willing to go get and bring back home and drive around in. On a side note, what is it about an F-150 (by the way, it is called a PICKUP. It’s not a TRUCK! It’s not a PICKUP TRUCK! It’s a PICKUP! Get it straight, people! You get your man card pulled in Texas for foolishness like that!)? Anyway, I’m getting way off of the track here. So we were talking about commitment and consumerism. Christians are no different, really. I wrote a blog post yesterday (or was it the day before…) that talked about spiritual drift. I think that this spiritual drift is linked, in its own way, to a consumer driven church. Now, the consumer mentality of churchgoers isn’t necessarily all bad. It can be very informative for those church staff members astute enough to notice when people stop coming to their church because they will ask the question, “Why is this happening?” Here’s a bottom line in this life: we maintain commitments to products, values, and institutions as long as they fulfill our needs. As long as Ford keeps making a PICKUP that is as cool as the F-150, I will have one. As long as churches fulfill our needs for worship and discipleship, we will attend them. Now that I think about it, I suppose it depends on my needs when it comes to church? Sissies can drive pickups, right? I’M not a sissy, mind you, but you see what I mean. A guy can buy a pickup just for the image that it produces in the minds of other people. A guy can attend church for the same reason. The thing is this: the sissy in a pickup has to get out of the pickup eventually. He has to face the fact that he was unchanged internally by that pickup and find some other way to be changed. He bought the pickup for the wrong reason. The Christian who is attending a church for the looks eventually has to face the fact that he or she is either disciple or he or she is not. They have eventually leave the building. That person is attending a church for the wrong reason. Now, let’s just say that the church is turning out a product here (just as an analogy. I don’t mean to disparage the church or suggest that it’s just about business). Let’s say that the church is meaning to produce the gospel as its product. The goal would be to turn out as many products as possible, right? This particular product (the gospel) gets “bought” by the consumer (the average churchgoer). How do you know that the product is actually sound? In the case of the churchgoer, I would say that the churchgoer either matches the source of the product (the Bible/Jesus) or the churchgoer does not. How does the church consumer determine the worth of the product? Well, it’s by how easy/convenient it is to live out that faith. For some, it is easy to live out faith if there is absolutely no sacrifice or discomfort as a result of living out faith. For others, the ease and convenience of the product is found in knowing that the gospel is being lived out according to the source (the Bible/Jesus). So what’s the difference? The difference is how well the consumer KNOWS the source, in my opinion. Does the average churchgoer KNOW whether or not the gospel being preached in the church matches the source (the Bible/Jesus)? This is exactly why Martin Luther and the printing press were the absolute BANE of the church when they hit the planet in their time! When the common man could actually read the Bible in his own language, he could see for himself what the source said about the gospel. Now, they know what they are committing to! Now they can really decide to go all in for the gospel. In the church today, people will float from church to church looking for the right worship, the right Bible study, and right place for kids and teens, and the right outlet for ministry. They will look for places where they are comfortable and/or they will look for places where they can live out what they think is their best estimation of how the Bible/Jesus says to live life faithfully. The question that I leave this particular train of rambling thought with is this: what is the church presenting as the product? Sound theology or man-made, sissified, watered down, feel good, kumbayah, “let’s all hold hands and hug a tree” theology? People will find a church that meets their needs. Some just want to feel good. Some really want to live well for the gospel. I want to be in a church that produces the accurate gospel and not just feelings and good intentions.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

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!