Radio Excoriator

As a SoCaler, I spend a lot of time on the freeways. Sometimes I listen to Christian radio. Sometimes it truly blesses me. Other times it just ticks me off.

Like yesterday when this radio preacher was screaming and shaming his congregation and anyone tuning in about their lack of commitment in just about every area of the Christian life. What bothered me most as he bellowed his way from one shaming truth to the next, was that he acted like he didn’t struggle with this stuff. He, unlike the peons and maybe-not-authentic-believers he vilified and mortified, had his religious “stuff” together.

Right. Sure. Wanna-bet?

My first thought when I hear these performance-driven sermons is, “I wonder what this guy’s hiding?”

I’ve Got a Secret!

Because he is; count on it.

Most of the teaching in the church is framed around the notion that the button-down, loafered-up, “I-got-it-all-together-and-never-have-any-doubts” Christian actually exists somewhere.

Read your Bible. The only One who fits that description wore sandals, had long hair, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Paul was the “chief of sinners”; Peter denied Christ, and Mark ran from the garden naked like some frightened little puppy.

They all let the Lord down mightily; but the Lord used them mightily.

That’s called grace. I prefer grace to arrogance any day.

I used to be a “camping Christian.” Not a Christian who goes camping–I’m still one of those, but a Christian who divides the Christian community into “camps.”

You know what I mean, you may even use “camping” jargon:

• He’s not in our camp–meaning he doesn’t agree with your interpretation of Scripture, your theology, or your practice of the Christian life.
• They’re a part of that camp–meaning that they just don’t fit into your group.
• What camp are you in? This is a question that determines if someone is on your side.

120 Seconds

I’m too busy and I’m too tired of Christian “campers” to write anything substantive or maybe even profound, so I’m giving myself two minutes, 120 seconds, to say what is on my heart.

I was wrong when I insisted that those who disagreed with me or didn’t follow Christ in the same style I did were outside of my camp.

You’re wrong if you’re doing that now.

Can we disagree? Should we disagree?

Absolutely!

But should we divide into camps?

Absolutely not!

The next time you’re tempted to divide Christians between “us” and “them,” read Mark 9:38-50.

I’d say more, bit my time is up. So I’ll just close with Jesus’ words:

“For He who is not against us is on our side” (Mark 9:40).

How would you feel if your son or daughter enlisted in the military, and the next day the leaders of our country sent them to the frontlines of a brutal war to fight a cruel enemy?

I’m sure you would protest and wonder what the leaders were thinking. What kind of a leader sends an untrained soldier into war who doesn’t even know the basics of soldiering?

Capture that feeling in your heart and you would know how our Heavenly Father feels when church leaders send Christian soldiers into the battle for souls against the fierce forces of evil totally unprepared and untrained. They don’t know how to read their Bible, share the Good News, walk in the Spirit, or even how to recover when they fail.

But the Lord Jesus never meant for it to be this way. If church leaders would just read their marching orders in Matthew 28:18-20 they would know that their first priority is to make disciples—maturing followers of Christ who are battle-ready for the spiritual war that’s been raging since Satan deceived the woman and the man let it happen in the Garden.

This is why we begin every year at Church of the Open Door reminding ourselves of our commitment to the Great Commission—to make disciples of all nations. The day Church of the Open Door forgets this, is the day we become irrelevant to the work of God on earth.

“Invisible kingdoms are at war for the hearts and lives of every human being who walks the face of the earth.” Erwin McManus

No You Don’t!

“I just want to know what God wants me to do,” the man said to me.

His eyes filled with rage at my answer: “No you don’t!”

“What do you mean?” he protested. “I do too; I want to know God’s will!”

As we sat across the table in my office, I reminded him that he had asked me to help him determine God’s will in his finances three times before, over a period of about six years. Each time I brought him to the same conclusion from God’s Word: “God’s will is clear—give to His work. You cannot look past His clear teaching that connects all of His financial promises to your faith in Him. You must trust Him enough to give before you can expect His guidance and blessing concerning your money situation.”

But here we were, going around the same block, considering his same questions, and reviewing God’s same answer.

Don’t Ask If You’re Not Willing

It’s dangerous to ask God for directions unless you are willing to follow them! When the wicked idolaters who had fled to Moab and Edom as the Babylonians poured into Jerusalem returned to try to wrest power from the puppet king, they asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for them. When Jeremiah told them that the Lord wanted them to stay in Jerusalem, stop their idolatry, and submit to the Babylonians, they accused him of lying, took him prisoner, and forced him to flee to Egypt with them where they worshiped their “Goddess of Heaven.” (Jeremiah 41-44)

The Father tires of those who are simply curious about his will or come to him only in a crisis to see if he offers a pleasant option for deliverance. This is the state of so many Christians. In the merry-go-round of their lives, they just repeat the same mistakes and live under the same pathology year after year. They sometimes ask God what to do, especially when these pathologies cost or hurt them. Then, they decide once again not to do what God says and to return to their idols of career, materialism, and recreation.

How sad, but the Lord wants better for His children…for you!

When He directs, follow. I believe that too many refusals just cause the Father to know that we are not really serious about doing His will. So He stops speaking, as He did to the unbelieving generations of Israel and Judah.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

This is the second half of a piece I read to the church on Easter of 2011: the raw truth about Church of the Open Door.

We’re Here to Tell You

We’re here to encourage you by telling you over and over again that the life you’ve been living is not the life Jesus wants you to have. To help you believe that you are worth far more than what the voices of this world tell you you’re worth.

We’re here to tell you that life is more than the weekly lineup of reality shows, the vacations you go on, the restaurants you eat in, the fine wine you drink, the golf courses you play on or the sports teams you follow.

We’re here to tell you that your worth is not limited or even defined by the car you drive, the home you live in, your fitness factor, your significant career, your education in a prestigious university, your political party, or your status in some sick codependent performance-based religious tradition.

We’re here to tell you that you do not need to medicate the pain of life with booze, drugs, exercise, materialism, portfolios, education, career, control, or even theology.

What We Know!

We know that we live in a world where few people keep their promises or remain faithful to anything or anyone. We want to introduce you to Jesus, who does keep His promises and will remain faithful. And we beg Him to strengthen us so that we can become the exception to your experience by keeping our promises to Him, you, and one another.

We know that you need a new vision for your life. We know from God’s Word and from personal experience with Christ that you do not have to hang onto this hurtful world with the death grip of someone who isn’t aware of a better option.

We know that you may feel like the better options are for others.

Donald Miller, in one of my favorite books, Blue Like Jazz, tells the story of a group of hostages taken by terrorists in a remote corner of the world and held there in a dark room for over a year. When the Navy Seals got to the building, opened the door and announced, “You’re rescued; you’re free. Come out into the light!” Not one of the hostages, huddled in a mass on the floor, moved a muscle. They had been in the dark for so long they didn’t believe in the light anymore. Or, like most of those who live outside the grace and mercy of God, didn’t think it was for them. So one of the seals took off his gear, got down on the floor, wrapped himself around the nearest hostage, held onto them tightly, whispering over and over and over, “It’s all right. You have been rescued. You’re safe. You’re free. You can walk out into the light.”

What We Want To Do

Continue Reading…

Vision of a Church: The Choice

This is the time of year when a lot of pastors feel the pressure to announce some big vision for the coming year. I used to do that. But I stopped it a few years ago. It’s not that we don’t have plans and dreams. It’s not that we don’t have a theme for 2012. As I’ve written before in this blog, it’s bible.cod–studying every Book of the Bible in 2012-13. We even have a promise to go with it: You give us two years, and we’ll give you the Bible.

But does a church really need a vision in the same way a bank or a hospital needs a vision? What we need is the truth.

Leaders of churches have a choice. We can try to impress people by describing our church in glowing nuanced terms that present a picture of what we think people want to hear or what we secretly wish were true about our church. Or we can just tell the truth and trust God for the results.

I’m at the stage in life where I’d rather tell the truth. The truth is that a “perfect” church is not a healthy church because we all suspect what the leaders and God know—there’s a lot of stuff they’re not telling us. Spiritual health, by its very definition, insists on truth. Healthy churches admit that we’re struggling toward spiritual maturity together—that it’s a messy but wondrously redemptive process.

So, you want to know what’s really going on in the healthy community of faith we call Church of the Open Door? Here’s the raw truth—in all its messy glory!

The Raw Truth—What You’ll Discover

Continue Reading…

Promises, Promises

I vividly remember riding my bike home after an adolescent sinfest and promising God I would never do it again, if He just wouldn’t send me to hell.

Of course I didn’t keep my promise. A few years and about a million broken promises later I figured, “What the heck? I mean if I’m going to hell anyway, the best plan is to have as much fun as possible along the way!”

But the guilt and shame just got worse.

Then I met Jesus in the Jesus Movement of the 60s and 70s. As I grew in my awareness of His perfect work on the Cross and His love, mercy, and grace, my self-esteem grew. Not because I had made myself better, but because He had remade me into a better person.

Authentic self-esteem doesn’t come from within. It comes from Someone else.

His name is Jesus.

And when He tells you He loves you so much that He died for you, that He delights in you, and that you are not who you used to be, you know that you have been delivered from the religious mythologies that tell you to “get your life together for God.”

Question: Are you tired of trying to keep your life together for God?

The Holy Spirit in Sanctification

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you forever” (John 14:16-17).

These words from the Lord Jesus raised the expectations of His discouraged disciples. Something new and wonderful was about to happen. In just a few days, when the Spirit would come, He would live inside them. Unlike their Master who was about to leave them, the Spirit’s presence would be permanent. This had never happened before. Note even with the greatest leaders of the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit’s ministry in our lives can be confusing. The religious lingo seems so unfamiliar—indwelling, sealing, baptism, gifting, filling, walking. How do you know if any of these have happened? When should I expect it? How will I know?

Dividing the ministries of the Holy Spirit into three primary categories helps us appreciate their importance in our Christian experience:

¨      The Holy Spirit and eternal life—indwelling and sealing.

¨      The Holy Spirit and everyday life—filling by and walking in the Spirit.

¨      The Holy Spirit and body life—baptizing and gifting.

When it comes to everyday life, an understanding of the filling of the Spirit is absolutely critical to experiencing the joy and confidence of living by (walking in) the Spirit

Here’s the link to the sermon, study notes, and discussion notes from my exposition of the Holy Spirit and Everyday Life:

The Holy Spirit Filling and Walking

Not Analytical But Synthetic

I love teaching through a Book of the Bible analytically—a verse-by-verse exposition of the text. In the almost sixteen years I’ve been pastor of Church of the Open Door we’ve studied the following Books analytically, usually devoting an entire year to each individual Book: Philippians, Ephesians, John (chapters 1-12), 1^st John, 2^nd John, 3^rd John, Acts, Romans (2-year study), the Minor Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, 1 Peter, Colossians, and Galatians.

But there’s another way to teach the Bible. It’s called synthetic teaching. A synthetic treatment of the Bible is more of a big-picture view of a Book or section of God’s Word.

We’re going to devote the next two years to the synthetic teaching of the entire Bible, all 66 Books! I hope to deliver on the promise I made to our congregation on Sunday, January 1^st, when I introduced this new series—bible.cod:

You give us two years and we’ll give you the Bible!

Many people, even serious Christians, have never read through the entire Bible. They may know a verse from Isaiah and some stories from Genesis or Luke, but they couldn’t really place the verse or the story in its historical, geographical, and textual context.

So beginning February 26^th we will march through the entire Bible together. On that day I will cover the structure, geography, and message of the entire Bible. Then we’ll do the same for the Old Testament and the Pentateuch (1^st 5 Books), and then it’s Genesis and we’re off—a book a week!

Here are 3 Reasons Why I’m Teaching This Series

1. Every word of every book was written to change our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
2.  To rekindle our desire to read through the whole Bible.
3. To equip us to understand God’s Word in context.

I hope you’ll join us!

Question: What is the primary reason most Christians have never read through the entire Bible?