I was checking out some of my favorite blogs yesterday when I came across an interesting post Phoenix Preacher. It caught my attention because it’s about preparation for preaching, something that always interests me.

The post is titled, Yet Another Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us and contains very few words!

This one is for pastors only.
Don’t study…STEAL

Those few words unleashed a torrent of comments, so many in fact that I just haven’t had time to read them all, but I did read a lot of them. And that’s what I want to talk about, but first let me digress.

The article in question is about using other preachers sermons as source material for your own. In fact the author, Steve Sjogren contends that this is a good thing.

Borrow creatively from others in the Church world. Some are easier to relate to than others. The one guy who is the most borrowed from in the United States is, no doubt, Rick Warren. Warren’s famous line is “If my bullet fits your gun, then shoot it!” By the way, who does Warren borrow from? He says that he listens to three or so preaching tapes a day! So who knows where he gets his stuff!

So he’s clearly in the let’s all work together and be honest about “borrowing” from each other. Of course this is often condemned by a lot of people, and I can understand why. But on the other hand what’s the difference between using information you got by listening to a sermon and using info gained from a commentary?

None that I can think of!

But, hey, each of us is free in Chirst to do what we think we ought to do. So I have no problem with guys who differ from me in this regard.

Where do I stand on this? Well I believe that we might as well be honest and admit we’re using other people’s stuff, because preachers always have and always will! It’s simply not possible to do otherwise.

Back around 1999 I went to Rick Warren’s first Preaching for Life Change seminar, and started to completely change the way I preach. I didn’t do this because people were complaining far from it! At the time that was just about the only thing someone wasn’t complaining about.

I did it to better reach my community for Christ, and it wasn’t easy! So for the first few years I tended to borrow heavily from Rick Warren and some others. In fact I used quite a few of his series which I experimented with how to prepare sermons in a completely different way than I had been taught a long time ago in Bible college.

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I’ve talked about the way life seems to flow from one kind of season to another before, on December 15th, 2005 and July 10th, 2006.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last several months, and it’s been drawn to my attention again since I returned home from the Marine Raider Reunion in Nashville I attended. I returned to find that the heat had broke, the nights are cool and even the days aren’t really hot anymore (only in the 90′s, which ain’t hot here folks!!)

Of course you can’t really think about the seasons of life and not think about this passage:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)

I doubt anyone would disagree with those wise words. Everyone one of us has gone through distinct seasons of life, and is going though one right now whether we’re aware of it or not.

I can think of several people I know who are in the midst of some seasons right now. One friend of mine is in what I’d call A Season of Blessing. Things that have been prayed over and long for and sought after are raining down – it does my heart good to see the joy all this brings.

Others – quite a few in fact – seem to be in the midst of A Season of Physical Ailments. Either from accidents, or new illnesses or the illness of a parent or loved one, they suffer alongside the one they love as they seek to care for them, or suffer from their own illness.

Still others are in a Season of loss, or a Season of Confusion and yet others a Season of Growth.

I wonder just how aware we are of our own personal seasons, and how important that really is.

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See the world through their eyes.

If you really want to understand someone, or know how to communicate to them, or just want to know how to deal with them, you’ve got to understand how they think and feel.

Until you can look at the world through their eyes, and understand why they believe what they believe you’ll never really know how to deal with them.

Examples of the truth of all this litter our lives. Any marriage is a great test bed for this, as is any work place, politics, group, etc.

A glaring example is our current War on Terror. The disconnect we see between the reality of the situation we face and the proposed action (inaction much of the time) proposed by many people is clear – they do not understand the enemy.

But we must understand them if we are to defeat them!

I didn’t say we had to agree with them – far from it! But we have to understand their world view. To feel the power of their warped ideology before we’ll understand that you can’t compromise with Islamic Extremists.

From their perspective we are evil, and there are two and only two acceptable outcomes as far as they are concerned. We either convert, or we die.

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I read a great post on Jolly Blogger a few days ago that I’m only now getting around to commenting on. Believe me it’s been a hectic week so far! It features a quote from a Tim Challies post on an article by Dr. Powlison called The Ambiguously Cured Soul.
Here’s part of the quote:

“…Sin is its own final reason. Any theory that claims to explain sin actually falls prey to sin’s intellectual effects, and wriggles away from both theological truth and psychological reality. Sin is the deepest explanation, not just one more problem begging for different and “deeper” reasons.”

Of course the phrase that really caught my attention was “sin is its own final reason.”

Wow – there something to think about!

Modern Western thought is absolutely committed to, if not obsessed with, finding the causes for nearly everything people do, don’t do, think, feel or say. It’s actually become a sort of game with a lot of us I think: What Am I Feeling (or Doing or Saying, etc) & Why?

Yet the bottom line is that sin and our old sinful nature drives much if not nearly all of our behavior. Yet that’s rarely discussed in Christian circles today, you don’t hear many well known speakers explain the power of our sinful nature very often and you almost never read about it in popular Christian books either.

Here in the West the Church has largely adopted the psychological explaination of the human soul.

It’s not that I’m against much of what psychology has taught us. I think modern psychology is absolutely brilliant at finding problems in the human psyche and pretty good at discovering some of the root causes of those problems and the dysfunctional behaviors (to use a psych term!) that they cause.

I also think psychology is lousy at actually bringing lasting healing to the human heart and soul! And myriads of studies back me up on that.

So what we’ve ended up doing is using our search for causes as an excuse for the behavior. Knowing nothing of the forgiveness that Christ gives us through His Cross, we’ve decided that people are “sick,” that they have a “disease” and that therefore they are not responsible for their actions!

Bunk!

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My recent first experience of being a Chaplain for the Raider Association got me to thinking – always a dangerous thing!

In particular on the flight back home I began thinking about the relative importance of symbols and symbolic acts in particular. A Chaplain is a symbol and acts in symbolic ways at certain occasions like Memorial Services, the beginning of important meetings, deaths, etc.

So too many Pastors act in symbolic ways in their community. From praying the invocation at city council or county board meetings, to performing weddings and funerals, there’s lot of symbolism involved in the ministry.

I have to admit, I’ve always disliked that quite strongly.

Maybe it’s my causal nature, or being a Baby Boomer with delusions of radicalism traipsing through my brain, but when I start in the ministry I chose to be involved with as little of that as possible.

Of course you can’t avoid weddings and funerals, and even in my tradition you end up doing a certain number of baby dedications (we only baptize believers, so we don’t christen babies, we “dedicate” them on request – which of course isn’t dedicating them at all – we actually dedicate the parents – but that’s another story!).

But through the years I’ve avoided praying at “offical” occassions as much as possible. After all, what good does it do?

Does anyone actually think people are going to be more honest, or act in a more Christ-like manner just because some guy stands up and offers a prayer?

Not likely.

But in the last few years I’ve begun to change my tune. My agreeing to become the Raiders Chaplain is, in a very real sense, a culmination of this process.

Part of what got me here is the realization that symbols really do have tremendous power. Of course I’ve known that for years, and have tried to use that in my ministry, but somehow failed to apply it to this particular part of my life and service.

All you have to do is look at a swastika to see what I mean. What do you think of when you see one? I’ll bet every single one of us think of Nazi Germany before we think of anything else.

Or how about the Golden Arches, or the Eagle, Globe & Anchor of the Marine Corps. And then of course there is the best known Christian symbol – the cross.

What do you think of when you see a cross burning in someone’s front lawn?

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As you may know I’ve been gone to the U.S. Marine Raider Association Reunion in Nashville. I’m back now and it was a very well run reunion, and an interesting experience for my personally.

This was my first Reunion as the Association Chaplain. Their former Chaplain, had to resign for health reasons. He served with the Dad during WW2 and has a great heart for God.

Needless to say, I was nervous about speaking to these old warriors, since I never served in the military. So after some great advice from my Dad, here’s what I said at the Memorial Service. I changed small parts of this as I spoke, but this is the written copy I spoke from and is nearly word for word what I said.

Marine Raider Reunion, 2006
Memorial Service Thoughts
By Louie Marsh, 9/10/2006

The Raiders are bonded in a special way.

Present day Marines go out of their way to shake hands when they see you wearing the Raider Patch, sometimes crossing the airport to greet you.

It is my belief that it is not due to honors and decorations Raiders have received but because the Raiders have a unique character that they recognize and want to honor in any small way that they can.

The term esprit de corps is thrown around a lot now days. The dictionary defines it as “A common spirit of comradeship, enthusiasm, and devotion to a cause among the members of a group.”

You Raiders embodied the true meaning of that term during WW2, and continued to do so during the 61 years since the war has ended. That’s why young Marines today revere not simply your accomplishments, but Raider Spirit that enabled you to overcome all obstacles that threatened to stop you from fulfilling your mission.

This Raider Spirit is symbolized by the Patch you wore and continue to wear today. You Raiders earned the right wear it proudly.

I, and all the other Raider Kids, have not earned that right, yet we wear it proudly as well. Not in a vain attempt to claim your glory as our own, but to honor your sacrifices, and to keep your legacy alive in the minds and hearts of your fellow countrymen as long as the nation endures.

And so this service is not a time to simple mourn those who have gone on before us. It’s also a time to remember and honor all Marine Raiders, living and dead. And for we who are your children, grandchildren, friends and family, it’s a time we give thanks to God for your service and sacrifices that have given us the lives and the freedoms we now enjoy.

It is also a time for us to say two simple words, however inadequate they may seem.

Those two words are: Thank You.

God bless you all, God bless the Marine Corps, and God bless America!

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And I ain’t talkin’ about the Oakland Raiders either!

I’ll be gone for about a week. I leave for Phoenix today to spend time with my Mom and Dad. Then early Wednesday morning I’m off to Nashville to attend this year’s United States Marine Raider Reunion.

No, I was never a Raider, I’m not quite that old! But my father was, and as they transition the association to the next generation I’m a board member and just last month was appointed as their Chaplain.

If you want to know more about the Marine Raiders, visit my Dad’s site – the first site on the Net devoted to the Raiders and still the best IMHO!!

I’ll be posting again either next Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I return. Till then God bless everyone, and without any new posts, why not check out my nearly two years of archives?