Every generation of Christians has had its share of weaknesses, and almost all of them can be directly or indirectly traced back to the influence of the culture upon the minds and hearts of the believers. You can see this fairly clearly when look at Christians in the past, or when you visit other cultures. The influence of other cultures is easy to see, however the influence of the culture that you’re in is nearly impossible to detect.

One of these cultural weaknesses that we American Christians have long suffered from is a sub Christian view of death itself, and how we ought to deal with it.  Most people seem to deal with death by avoiding it, not talking about it publicly and in general pretending we’re all going to live forever.

Then, when its obvious death is right around the corner, we adopt our cultural babble about death being a “natural part of life,” etc.   Just to be clear here, the Bible teaches that death is a result of sin entering the world in Eden, and is therefore unnatural when speaking of God’s original plan for the human race.

I’ve been confronting some of my own sub Biblical views on death and dying over the past year and a half, due to my Father’s death and my Mother’s prolonged terminal illness.  Mom is slowly, very slowly, dying right before our eyes.  In the process she’s teaching me a lot about how we Christians ought to view death.  She doesn’t know it, but even at this stage in her life, Mom is teaching me one last critical lesson.

These days Mom will quite often say that she wants to die, she wants to go to heaven, and she wishes God would take her.  Normally talking like this would result in the speaker being rebuked.  I admit the first few times I heard her say that, it rocked me.  But it doesn’t anymore.  Hey, I may be a slow learner, but I am learning!

Now I talk to Mom fairly often about dying.  We discuss it openly, honestly, and – almost – casually.

This I think is good.  Death shouldn’t be the final boogie man to the believer.  Heaven is calling, it’s our real home anyway, and we ought to be completely comfortable talking about it with others, and finally facing it ourselves.
We know that, short of the rapture or the second coming the only going to get to heaven by going through death’s door.  So why not relax, trust God, and when our time comes just let go of this life willingly, so that we embrace the eternal life that’s waiting for us just beyond the grave.

Thanks Mom. You’ve always been a great teacher, and although you don’t know it, and might not remember it even if I told you, you still are!

First the announcement: I’m taking a blogging break as of now!  I’ll probably take a week or so off for the holiday. I’ve been blogging for quite a while now and have learned how important it is to take breaks.  However, if something strikes my fancy I might resume blogging sooner, or just do one off the cuff, you never know!!  Now to a short version of Short Rounds!

News You Need To Know!

Some of the real costs behind “free” health care. Read this, then call your Senators right away!

Tim LaHaye to write new End Times books – okay, you actually don’t need to know this, but I just thought I’d throw it in here for kicks!

Blog Posts Of Note:

3.5 Things To Do When You’re Spiritually Dry

Blight Restored -  You need to read this one

Culture of Simplicity - Very good stuff!

Why We Miss Opportunities

I am one of what must be many sad people who wasted an irreplaceable part of their lives tonight.  I gave up around 3 minutes to watch Bill O’Reilly interview Sally Quinn.  Quinn wrote a blog post about Sarah Palin’s new book, and took the opportunity to try and bash Palin for what Quinn considers her confusing theology.

All she ended up doing was showing that she understands nothing about the very basics of the Christian faith. Here’s an example of this Spiritual Incompetent at work:

In her new book Sarah Palin writes that one summer at Bible Camp she “put my life in my creator’s hands and trust Him as I sought my life’s path.” For Palin, this grand divine plan was “a natural progression.” She writes. And later, “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Which leads me to ask:

What does she believe is God’s plan for her? Does she have any free will or is everything preordained. Can she see something coming and change her mind despite God’s plans for her?

Did God plan for her to become Governor of Alaska. If so, did God plan for her to step down. Did God plan for her to run for Vice President? If so why did she and McCain lose?

Did God plan for her to have a child with Down’s Syndrome?

Did God plan for her daughter Bristol to get pregnant while she was a teenager? Why was she then not thrilled. Did God plan for Bristol to get engaged and then break up, only to be left a single mother, dropping out of school?

I find it all very confusing.

I’m sure you do Sally, and that’s because you are trying to use a faith system you obviously have no clue about as a weapon to bash a political enemy, and all you’ve ended up doing is to look like a fool and a tool!

Even after O’Reilly explained to her several times that you can believe in God’s plan for your life and at the same time believe in free will and choice, Quinn refused to quit attacking Palin for believing what Christians have always believed!

But it’s Quinn herself who exposes what a theological neophyte she truly is.  She talks about Rick Warren and praises him and his book the Purpose Driven Life, and says how unChristian Palin is when compared to Warren.  She even paraphrases the first line of the book.

Which leads me to wonder if she’s ever read the book she praises so much?  Because it’s a foundational part of the book that God has a plan for us! That’s the whole point of having a life of purpose Sally!

How on earth did she miss that?  Or is her blindness only temporary due to political necessity?

I believe it’s almost certainly the latter.

You’ve got egg all over your face Sally, and the really sad part is you put it there all by yourself.  Maybe from now on you’ll stop trying to use people’s faith as a club to bash them with, and start seeking God and His grace and salvation yourself.  I for one sincerely hope so.

Yesterday I blogged about the need for more Shrewd Christians, then the Phoenix Preacher put out a post that not only put mine in the shade, but gives the perfect example of what I was talking about! Follow the link and check it out.

I had a very interesting conversation with my Associate Pastor Brian today.  It rambled a bit, which is what our conversations usually do!  But one thing we talked about has still got me wondering.  Here’s a few of the question I’ve been thinking about since then.

• If you stripped everything away from our faith and church practices that isn’t found in the New Testament, what would you be left with?
• Does the fact that Christianity has many of the same practices and traditions as other religions do (like singing, praying, celebrating “holy days,” etc.) make it harder to reach the lost or not?
• How much of what we do and say as believers and churches obscures the Gospel in the minds of unbelievers?

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while also.  It’s based on some reading I’ve been doing, and the discussions I’ve had about this with the Staff and Elders here at KCC.

In a complicated world, full of complicated cultural changes and ever more complicated legal and ethical issues, all of which is framed by complicated technology, should the church simplify itself and focus on preaching the simple Gospel?

If we did that, would it make us more or less successful in reaching our culture for Christ?

ONE FINAL THOUGHT (OBSERVATION ACTUALLY!):

The new Star Trek movie is out on DVD - AND IT’S AWESOME BABY!

Sunday I preached on lessons from the story of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16. This is a parable that has long bothered me and a whole lot of other people as well. In fact I had some interesting discussions about it yesterday too!  I wanted to expand on this just a bit today.  Here’s one of the key verses in the story:

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. Luke 16:8 (NIV)

Jesus isn’t saying we ought to be dishonest or anything like that in this parable. What he is saying is that we need to be shrewd.  I defined shrewd as being able to figure out how to make your means meet the ends that lie before you.  Shrewd people are people who figure out to make things work when there doesn’t seem to be a way to for that to happen!

Or to put it another way, Shrewd people are strategic thinkers who understand how to live the Christian life in their unChristian culture. Jesus is urging us to be wise to the ways of the world, so that we won’t be either taken in by them or overwhelmed by them.

Sadly today we find a whole lot of non-shrewd believers! Christians are largely viewed as ignorant saps, who are easily conned and taken advantage of – hardly the reputation of the shrewd! We deserve this reputation all too often, for over and over again, Christians fall for the same old thing.

I can’t tell you how sick I am of hearing these kind of things from Christians.  Here’s just a sample of the kind of things we fall for because we disobey Jesus and don’t learn how to be shrewd.

• Christian Radio and TV is going to be shut down – by the long dead Madalyn Murray O’Hare no less!  Every few years I get the e-mail, complete with the phony FCC case number, and have to go through the same old thing – and this happens over and over and over again!
• Some new technology is the number of the beast!  Ahhhhh!
• Some silly new book predicts the day of the Second Coming, and people panic!

I’m sure you can add to this sad little list.

My point is simple, let’s wise up people!!

No more Tinky winky, not more of this silly, stupid stuff!

Let’s get shrewd and there by help win the world for Christ!

I was driving to church yesterday when I heard an interesting PSA (public service announcement) on the radio. It featured two dingbat sounding girls, calling the party they were at (or something like that) “gay.”  Then a guy comes up to them and tells they shouldn’t say at as it’s “not very nice.”  The aforementioned dingbats are chagrined not because of the morality of the situation, but because that guy is a handsome football player who now thinks they are bad. (I would say “lame” but then that might insult people who really are lame!)

But it’s the little speech football guy makes that grabbed my attention.  He informed the dingbats that gay originally met happy or excited, and then it changed to describe homosexuals (he didn’t use that word, just said gay) and that “somehow it changed to mean things that are bad.”

Hmmmm.  Isn’t it interesting that to the makers of the PSA it’s perfectly okay for the word to be changed from happy to homosexual, but it’s bad for it to be changed again? One change it good, but the other is bad.

Why?  Obviously  because one change reflects their worldview, and one doesn’t.  So the first change if good, and the second is bad.

Kinda makes you wonder if these people have ever heard of a dictionary doesn’t it?

Maybe the real issue here is the completely arbitrary way we redefine words today. If a group we like decides to redefine something, that’s good and should be welcomed by all, and must be respected by all.  However, if someone changes something in a way we don’t like, well now that’s different!

And it’s not just the “progressive” people who do this either.  I know of several churches who’ve decided that it’s bad to have potlucks, because Christians aren’t supposed to believe in luck, but to trust in God.  Therefore, they now have – wait for it – Pot Trusts!

Kinda makes you wonder if these people know that sounds like a marijuana party to the average non-Christian doesn’t it?

Maybe we ought to just let the dictionary define things, and try and master our language instead of reinventing it to suit our whims?

I want to startoff today by asking all of you to pray for a friend of mine.  His name is Jonathan Markham, he’s the Pastor of New Life Christian Fellowship in Pacifica, CA.  I got to know Jonathan through my good friend Maggie when she married him!  And believe me, anyone who could make her as happy as he has is quite a guy!

They’ve just learned that Jonathan has melanoma cancer and it’s in the third stage. Oddly enough they first found it on his heel!  It has entered the lymph nodes, and on November 30th they’ll be taking out all the lymph nodes in his leg, and then starting him on further treatment.

Would you please pray for this man of God?  He is truly a godly person, as is his wife, and I hope you’ll pray for God to do a marvelous work and a wonder in his life through all this.

Short Rounds #138

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News of Note:

Vanished Persian Army Found – Amazing story.

Great Interview & New CD from Stephen Curtis Chapman, in the shadow of his child’s death – Read this one.

Dobson To Leave Focus On The Family Radio Show – end of an era.

Blog Posts Of Note:

Transition from Pastor to “Real World” – I don’t agree with everything here, but he makes some very good points that we ought to pay attention too!

Is Your Church a Religious Cushion? – Good stuff!

Letting Go of What People Think - you just gotta do it!

I Told You So – and so he did!

Five Questions Leaders Should Ask – good ones too!

Whose Approval Am I After? - Nuff said?

Four Random Questions I Wrestle With - If the step over toe hold if all else fails go for the Stinger Splash!

Volunteer Expectations – Oh, these are just so very good! I love them!

This post is coming out of some of the reading I’ve been doing lately, and some things the Staff here at KCC has been talking about as well.  But I’m sort of tweaking it a bit too, so as always, what follows only represents me and my opinion, nobody else’s.

How many different insights into Scripture can you take in a week’s time?  Okay, I know that sounds odd, but just stop and think about it for a moment.  Insights into Scripture can come from many sources, sermons, lessons, discussions, your personal Bible study, and even lyrics from a song that you happen to hear.

You have that “Aha!” moment, and then what?  Well you have to take some time to process what you’ve just realized. You have to think about how it applies to you, and then of course you have to figure out how you’re going to live out the insight you’ve received.

Once all that’s done, then all you have to do is actually live it out!

Whew!  Sounds a bit time consuming and more complex than we usually think it is when you actually break it down doesn’t it?

So, how many times in a week are you going to actually work through that process?  Once? Twice? Five times?

I seriously doubt that last number. I think that most people are going to be doing very well to do one or two, and no more than that.  I mean you can only do so much in any given period of time.

If that’s right, it has serious implications for the way we’ve traditionally done church in America.    This was first pointed out to me at a Pastor’s conference by (now don’t faint!) Rick Warren. Saddleback had canceled their hugely successful midweek service for just this reason. People are on overload and piling Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night messages on them only serves to complicate matters.

So they simplified things, focused on small groups, and as a result are more successful in building disciples.

Do you need to simplify things in your life, to focus more on less so that in the end you get more done, grow more rapidly and prove the old adage that less is more?

Let me know what you think.

I suppose a lot of people think that the world needs another post on fellowship like I need another hole in my head!  And who knows, they may be right!  But I’m going to do one anyway!

Here it is in a nutshell: How do you know when you’ve reached a real level of commitment, friendship and fellowship with people? I ask because all over this country ( and maybe around the world) Christians leave churches on a regular basis, and when they do, not only do they not tell their Pastors, they don’t even tell their “friends” there that they’re leaving!

This quiet vanishing into the night is a real indictment of what passes for fellowship and commitment in the American Church!

I used the words fellowship and commitment together for a reason. I have a theory that the reason we have such shallow, vapid and lame fellowship in our churches, is because most of us refuse to add commitment to it. We say we love people all the time.  But we don’t want to really commit to them, certainly not in any kind of formal or specific way.

That’s one reason (among many I freely admit and understand) why a lot of American Christians don’t like the idea of membership in a local church and fight it.  Of course the fact that it’s not mentioned in the New Testament helps not only their argument, but also makes it seem as if they are really spiritual by sticking to the Word!

Of course the New Testament also fails to mention a few other things most of us love like church buildings, pot lucks, youth groups or any kind of sub-group within the church like groups of men, women, married or single people, young adults, retired folks, etc. There are no bathrooms in the New Testament that I’ve found, no hymnals, no PowerPoint, and in no New Testament either, since it was still being written!

I confess freely that the New Testament doesn’t talk about local church membership the way we do. But I still maintain that it’s both Biblical and needed!  Why? Because it confronts us with real commitment that’s why!

If we could just get people to understand that all this talk of unity in Christ isn’t just a nice sentiment, it’s spiritual reality baby, then they’d change how they act, and the church in America (every single one of them!) would be far better off as a result.  Even the Sheep Stealing churches would be better off because it would force them to focus on building up the Kingdom instead of swiping sheep from other near by pastures!

Here’s the truth, and it’s a painful and uncomfortable one: You can’t just walk away from your brothers and sisters without saying a word without sinning against both God and man!

Yes, I believe fellowship is that important.

The bottom line is we should either start walking all our talk about love and fellowship etc.  Or we should just shut up!

What do you think?

If there’s one thing we don’t lack in today’s church, it’s studies about the church. They are everywhere, often in book form, and they all tend to keep repeating the same basic, seminal truth over and over again, even though they tend to say them in different ways.

These studies exist because we are trying to figure out what we need to do differently to reach out culture for Christ. And of course, they often look to churches who are growing and evangelizing as role models for this kind of information.

I’ve known several people who are active members of well known Mega Churches. I love talking to them about their churches, because I always seem to learn something from them. One of the most interesting things about nearly all of them is that they are fairly open about their disagreements with some decisions made by their church.

They’ll say things like, “Yeah well, Pastor Big Guy (not his real name!) said we are going to to move in this direction, but I”m not so sure about it.”  Or, “I wasn’t happy at all when the Pastor and the Youth Pastor announced they were going to cancel this program and start another one!”

Unlike the stereo type these people don’t always agree with their well known Pastors every single time a decision is made.  But I have noticed several things that are true about nearly all of these Mega Church Members who I know:

1. They stayed in the church.
2. They continued to support the Pastor and church by inviting new people etc.
3. They continued to financially support the church.
4. They are active in at least one, and often two, ministries.

So what? Just this. In spite of their problems with the direction their church might be taking, they choose to be Team Players, and to keep on working for their team whether or not they liked every little thing about the church.  This is a real sign of spiritual maturity.  They are willing to lay their ego down, for the greater good of Christ’s Kingdom and Gospel, and not demand that they have their way.

You see this all over larger growing churches.  By contrasts you don’t see this every often in small, stagnant or dying churches.  Smaller churches tend to be full of people who think they know exactly what must be done, and refuse to give way to any other ideas.  They are the opposite of Team Players, and in fact are disobeying Christ whether they know it or not!

Their disobedience isn’t in disagreeing with their Pastor or other leaders. You can do that all day long and that’s fine!  It’s not in their expressing their opinions either, that is also a good thing as long as it’s done in love.  So where’s the sin?

The sin is in not laying down their big fat ego, and follow Jesus even when the leaders in his church dare to disagree with them! What else do you think Jesus was talking about when he said,  Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Mark 8:34-35 (NIV)

Imagine that!  Jesus isn’t arranging everything in the church to make me happy!

Shocking I say, shocking!

“Lord, help me to lay my big fat ego down, and put following you and building your Kingdom ahead of my own thoughts, opinions and ideas!  Amen”