Austin Says...

Today I turn 33. Realizing that I'm not on my way to the cross as my savior was when he was this age. Yet I do realize there's nothing else more important in my life than the cross. Thank you God for the extra time you've given me to make disciples...and to eat chocolate gravy.

Pagan Resurrection

Today is my favorite holiday, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, commemorated by egg hunts, Passion plays, and barbecues.

Something I learned this morning while reading the 200 year old book, The Origin of Pagan Idolotry (Faber) is that the pagans, especially in Palestine during the time of Jesus, believed that gods were human souls of departed mortals.  They worshipped those who transcended the challenges and hardships of mortal life on this earth.  "Demons" in the Bible, claims Faber, were the ghosts of these heros.

I can't imagine anything more troubling to a pagan idolater than to see an actual human being coming back from the dead in an actual human body.  Jesus was not a ghost like the heros whom they idolized.  You could touch him and feel resistance.  Therefore today I celebrate our Lord's triumph over pagan idolatry.  Our world, in my opinion, is reverting back to the ancient practice of pagan idol worship.  Now, as much or more than ever, is the time to present our truly resurrected Lord to the heathens who worship false impressions of God.  

Faber said that pagan idolatry always manifests itself in cruelty and obscenity (read: abortion and pornography).  Our world is ever more apparently cruel and obscene.  Pagans worship many gods (planets) in order to explain the truths of God in a convenient, non-judgmental way (example: evolution).  Our population is ever more fearing the destruction of their planet.

Pagan idolatry has been around as long as any other religion and offers alternative explanations for everything we believe.  There are many resemblances between true God worship and false god worship.  This is why we, today, have so much difficulty with the Easter holiday and it's symbols.  Easter is rich with pagan symbolism (the egg, the rabbit, flowers, etc), and all these symbols can easily point one to either idols or Christ.  The direction greatly depends on the messenger.  

Therefore, let's not be too concerned with the pagan roots of the symbols of Easter, but how all these things point to the flesh and blood that walked out of the tomb on Sunday morning almost 2000 years ago.  We worship a man who is also God, who is high above all planets, universes, and hardships of a dying planet.  He desires worship and devotion.  He condemns worship and devotion given to anything or anyone else.

He is risen.  He is risen indeed!

Imagine the Impossible

Imagine President Obama calling you up today.  He invites you to come visit him at the White House.  But it's not just a visit, for he tells you that you will be taking over his duties as president.  And not just that, but while president, you will put an end to all wars forever.  At this point you respectfully tell him that his invitation is generous, but impossible.  His reply is quick, "Congress just passed it into law this morning, and Air Force 1 is on its way.  I've already got your family here with me in DC.  Hope and change, blah blah blah."

Another outlandish scenario for you baseball fans:
Suppose George Steinbrenner calls you later today and says he's decided to put you in pinstripes to play centerfield next season (sorry, Mr. Granderson).  In addition to playing for the Yankees, he tells you that you will break the career home run record*.  In one season.  Without steroids.  You humbly respond to him, "I'm honored, but that is impossible."  He puts his mouth closer to the phone and tells you, "I've already got your locker set up, and I've even got your high school teammates suited up to play with you.  In fact, Terrence is already leading Winter ball in RBIs."

If you really imagine these stories happening, its a lot more fun.  Just one more.  Here goes:

Luke 1:26-37
 ²⁶In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

 ²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. ³¹You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

 ³⁴"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

 ³⁵The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. ³⁷For nothing is impossible with God." 

Nothing is impossible with God.  I feel sorry for you if you don't live every day with that thought in the front of your mind.  Merry Christmas.

He Didn't Raise From the Grave

I admit it -- I watched some of the memorial service for the "King of Pop" today.  There was so much hype that I didnt want to miss out on such a big event. 

Reflecting on the entertainment icon, I thought of an endless list of rumors we used to hear about Michael Jackson -- he was his sister, he molested boys, he was homosexual, he was asexual, he got plastic surgery, he had a skin disease, he lost his singing ability when he hit puberty, he was in love with Diana Ross, ... you get the point. 

Yet despite the rumors, look at how the world loved him and worshipped him.  Just like the real Messiah, he suffered much and seemed to deserve none of it.  And we all must make a decision on how to interpret his life.  Many say, "Whats the big deal?  He was just another celebrity."  Others say, "How dare you exalt that man who molested little boys."  And of course there are the crazy people who are still camping out at Neverland Ranch waiting for his resurrection. 

Messianic MJ

No matter how you react to MJs death, one thing remains clear.  He is still in the grave (unless he faked his death).  Only one celebrity has ever risen from the grave, and that makes all the difference in the world.  Reflect on the greatest artist who ever walked the earth--Jesus.  Consider his life, contribution to society, his words, his image.  He invented the moon, which is a lot cooler than the moonwalk.  He actually did heal the world.  Then, after you draw your conclusions, consider that he raised from the dead.  That rumor is true, and if you deny it you are denying a historical fact based on your own ignorance

Jesus alone is worthy of the kind of worship shown in the last week of entertainment news.  When you finally get tired of listening to the Michael Jackson playlist, your Bible is there and those stories never get old.  You can even hum the tune of "Beat It" while you read. 

Another One Takes the Juice

Not at all surprisingly, Sammy Sosa is reported to have tested positive for steroid use in the now infamous, questionably legal, survey of MLBers in 2003.  You'll recall that A-Rod was also recently outed based on the results of this survey. 

The list of juicers is slowly being pieced together like a puzzle.  Without getting into my feelings about ballplayers who cheat, I think the real opportunity here would be for Michael Lewis (Moneyball), Jose Canseco (Juiced) and Dan Brown to get together and write a mystery novel about the hidden secrets of Major League Baseball a la The Da Vinci Code.  Right now, reporters are writing one book at a time as new names are revealed.  Unfortunately, copies aren't selling.  What would sell, however, is a pseudo-non-fiction story of a reporter finding compounding clues that lead him/her to the secrets that pope Bud Selig doesn't want us to know.  

For example, the holy syringe containing Roger Clemens' DNA, when held up to the light, shows the face of Alex Rodriguez.  Or, perhaps a photo of Manny Ramirez reveals that his dreadlocks spell out the name of Sammy Sosa.  All these clues will lead to Babe Ruth's grave being excavated and discovery that his testosterone levels were too high.  Finally, the book would culminate in the revelation that the Yankees and the Red Sox are really one franchise owned by the Masons.  

I'd read it.  In fact, maybe I'll write it.  Anyone want to publish it?   

Kobe's Will is Imperfect

Now that the NBA finals are upon us, I'm starting to get annoyed by the media coverage of said event.  I hear very little about the content of the games or the plays that got each team to the finals.  Instead all I hear is the endless chatter about how great Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard are and how LeBron James failed somehow by not leading his team to a championship.  As if the player with the greatest desire to win will take his team to victory.

It reminds me of the great historical matchup between Saul and David back in Ancient Israel.  Saul will forever be known as the king with a weak will.  He won many battles with the enemy, but many of his attempts failed, such as trying to kill David multiple times.  Even when he had a free throw opportunity to spear an un-armed David (in the cave), he was persuaded to retreat by David's plea for mercy.  Great strength, but a weak will.  Kind of like what people are saying about King (LeBron) James right now.

On the other hand, David had the will of a champion.  He won every battle with cunning and strength.  He overcame great odds to defeat Goliath with a rock and his simple faith in God's will.  Yet even David's will failed when he was voyuering the contents of his neighbor's bathtub.  Nobody, even David, can will his team to perfection.
 
I have no idea who will win the finals this year.  I know that Kobe Bryant's will is stronger than any other player's on the court.  But I also know that while the human will can win championships, it is also very weak compared to the simple faith of a child.  I'm rooting for the Magic in 7, simply because I hope it proves my point that even the strongest will on the court is imperfect.

The human will can accomplish amazing things, but it will always fail.  Which is why I subscribe to the faith of David.  No matter how amazing I am as a person, I still have the opportunity to win a championship every single day.  Since there is no enemy that can defeat God, therefore being on God's side ensures perpetual victory.

The Parable of the Easter Eggs

I'm certain I'm not the first to notice this, but it became clear to me this weekend that our current federal government's ecomonic policies resemble an Easter egg hunt.  Let me describe the event that happened at the park yesterday, and then I'll let him who reads this understand the obvious for himself.

At 10:30 am, we got there just in time to witness a man with a megaphone announce to hundreds of families, "We have over 5000 eggs, so every kid should be able to find plenty.  PLEASE encourage the older kids to pass up the eggs in front and go to the back of the park.  GO!" 

You can imagine what happened after that.  In about 2 minutes, all 5000 eggs had been taken by the school-agers who had stuffed their makeshift "baskets" tight.  The toddlers had no idea why they were even there.  So some of the organizers quickly threw candy and toys on the ground in front of the faces of the toddlers to make up for what had just happened.  Minutes later a sweet little girl with a contractor bag full of eggs came up to my 2 year old saying, "You didn't get any?  Here you can have some of mine."  She filled D's basket with eggs, and just as I was commenting about how sweet that girl was, I realized this was happening all around us.  Baskets were being filled not by the toddlers' own hands, but by the generous hands of an older child.  I'm sure some of the school-aged children were passing out what parents were calling "Donor Eggs" out of compassion, but most I'm convinced were doing it out of guilt.  Either way, my son, and hundreds of others his age, did not experience an Easter egg hunt that morning.

We're going to try a private egg hunt today and see if it goes better than the government sponsored one.

Depravity is Underrated

I've begun studying Romans, and it's got me thinking about how corrupt our world is.  Do you ever think about why people are so depraved?

If you are liberal you might think about the evil of oppressive governments and profit-driven corporations.  You resent that innocent village people and peaceful Tibetans fall victim to capitalism and industrialization.  If you are conservative you may be concerned about fatherless families and media-driven lust.  You condemn the poor for their laziness and wish they would educate themselves out of poverty instead of fattening up on food stamps or joining a terrorist cell.

Either way you are concerned, like me, about the depravity of the world.  Unfortunately, we usually only notice depravity in extreme groups of people and not ourselves or our friends.  You read about the people in Romans 1 (29-31), those "full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless," you know THOSE people.  If you are like me you don't see yourself in that disgusting collage of corruption.

Yet to remove yourself from that category is as horrible as the sins the passage describes.  In the previous sentence, the author describes how the world fell in the first place as a simple shrug of the shoulders.  God gave us the air we breathe and the sun that warms us, yet we ignored it and decided it was unimportant.  "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity." (Rom 1:28-29) 

I certainly am aware that I take God's grace for granted, and it trembles me to think that there is no middle ground between ignoring God and radical corruption.  Also, I recognized two problems with pretending my friends and I are not corrupt:

First, if I think my friends are nice people who work hard and show respect to others, then I'm not motivated to share the gospel with them.  Why would I?  Their lives are fine the way they are.

Secondly, if I think I'm not corrupt, what power does the gospel have in my own life; and therefore, why would I share it?

Dalai Lama

Although it's wonderful to celebrate the goodness in people, it's dangerous to assume that their lives are fine.  I watched Seven Years in Tibet last night, and it struck me that the Tibetans were portrayed as perfectly behaved people.  Is that really how Tibetans are?  Is there no crime in Tibet?  Does the Dalai Lama ever stop smiling?  C'mon.  I've known a couple Tibetans, and they were super nice, but what's the price of feeling pressure to be nice all the time?  I'd like to see statistics on the nervous breakdown rate in Tibet.

Gollum

The point is that even the nicest person you know is eventually going to break.  By God's grace he or she is being sustained until the breaking point.  Even amidst the smiles and helping hands that you see, there is a slow deterioration into a Gollum that you can't see.

Now aware of the hidden depravity in myself and the ones I love, it makes a whole lot more sense to be "not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." (Rom 1: 16)

 

The Solution to our Problems

The town in which I now live is one of the most desirable places in the country.  It has a ski mountain, professionally groomed mountain bike trails, world class rock-climbing and fishing, 300+ days of sunshine, a nice mix of tree-huggers and red-necks, and an overall sense of optimism.  However, the unemployment rate finished the year above 11%, nearly double the national average.  Behind the optimism is a lot of fear and frustration. 

Lately I've been praying and searching the Bible for some direction.  I have a new job, a new house, a new environment, a new church, but I'm bored out of my mind because I don't have any type of ministry going on. 

However, the other day in my morning time with God, I received a nudge of compassion for my neighbors.  I began to realize that the solution to all our economic problems will come from creativity, intelligence, hard work, and wisdom--all things of God.  Either in conjunction with government stimulus plans or despite them, people will have to get off their butts and turn to the Father if we want to prosper again.  A recession should be a motivation to repent and to evangelize.

Whereas before I viewed evangelism as a duty, I see it today as a necessity.  I don't want to see my neighbor suffer, and only the good news of Christ offers hope.  On the cross, he paid the price already for the mistakes we've made, and he offers abundance through a resurrected life lived in him.  What more could anyone desire?

 

When to Church Hop

Within the last year every member of my immediate family, including myself, has left a church to join a new one.  We each have a unique reason, but as I reflect I wonder what the Bible says about church hopping.

For starters, I left my church in Massachusetts to join one in Oregon.  The rest of my family members left a church only to join a different one in the same town.  Naturally I assume that I had the best reason.  But my hunch is that Scripture gives guidance and a healthy rebuke to all those who trade flocks.

I searched for "Church Strife" in my Bible study guide, and I got a list of verses from 1 and 2 Corinthians.  Apparently, the church in Corinth was a mess.  They had the whole gamut of problems starting with competing allegiences to mega-church leaders like Apollos and Cephas.  The problems ranged from petty arguments to people sleeping with their parents.  If you were a member of that church would you have left?

Of course there is no record in the Bible of anyone switching churches for good reason or bad.  People just didn't do that in ancient Palestine (unless it is recorded outside the Bible).  In all cases Paul's pleas were for humility, unity, and perseverance.  As an apostle, he viewed all the Christian churches, even the defunct ones, as his responsibilty.  He urged them to remember that they are "mere men" (1 Cor 3:3), and for those who think they are wise to become "fools" (1 Cor 3:18).  The point is that all problems can and should be worked out; just like in a marriage.

But times are different today than in the 1st century.  We are fortunate now to have more than one church in a town with many qualified pastors to lead us.  In the spirit of healthy competition, our churches are pressured to improve just by knowing that the church down the road has more comfortable seats.  So when one pastor preaches sermons that lean the wrong way, you have the freedom to go to the other pastor who preaches more in line with Scripture.  This serves to rebuke the inferior pastor while edifying the body of believers...or does it?

In the New Testament, there are cases of false teachers who were to be heartily rebuked (Tit 1:10-13).  But what about the teachers who were true believers led by the Holy Spirit, just a bit inexperienced and mistaken on occasion?  Turning to 1 & 2 Timothy is helpful in finding the answer.

The reason we have these two letters in the Bible is because Timothy needed them.  He was wonderfully gifted and anointed by God to lead the church and preach the gospel, but he was inexperienced and imperfect.  Paul loved Timothy as a son, but he kept close watch over him so he wouldn't mess up.  Paul parented Timothy in simple ways, like, "Stop drinking only water," (1 Tim 5:23) and instruction on how to rebuke an older man (1 Tim 5:1).  But the bottom line is that Timothy was in charge, and if he screwed up he screwed up.  There was no plan B.  Paul never told Timothy that if he failed the church would fall apart.  That is because the church can not fall apart (Matt 16:18).  If you think a church can fail, you are wrong. 

I've seen many churches trade members with others, including my own.  In every case the reasons were avoidable but real.  I've witnessed church hopping because of adultery in the congregation, accusations of child molestation, frustration with the pastor, boredom, and lack of connection.  I've never seen anyone go to a church that was any better than the previous one.  More friendly or more entertaining, yes, but not better.  All churches are churches full of sinful Christians who lack wisdom.  The church as we know it is not the way God knows it.  He looks down and sees his children as one church divided by man-made differences.  It must seem so silly from his perspective to watch believers trade churches, passing each other on the road all the time.  There is no perfect church.

On the other hand, God leads us various places for various reasons.  Often there is a need in one church body that can be filled by a member of another church.  Missionaries do this all the time.  Are you a doctor with some free time?  Does your church need medical care?  If not, why not use your talents in a church that does--perhaps in Africa?

Other times, there is a partnership that needs to be formed, so God orchestrates transition of believers.  Maybe God has a ministry planned for you and someone in another church.  Maybe your future spouse is at another church.  Maybe there is a mentor for your child at another church. 

If you think God wants you to switch churches, you are most likely wrong.  But there are occasions, and I commend those who have the courage to leave their church family and go to another.  Just be sure your motives are selfless, loving, and humble.  If the leadership has been misled, you should pray for them and encourage them.  If their views have gotten so off base that you can't take it anymore, that is not a reason to leave.  Most likely, it is a test of your faith. 

Jesus is the head of our church; none other.  If you left your church for any other reason than to serve different members of the body (Php 2:3), you should repent.  If you are a pastor that welcomes church hoppers, you should keep a keen eye on who you are welcoming.

"...so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." - 1 Cor 1:10

As always, comments are encouraged and welcome!