A College Course Option

When it comes to college education, perhaps you should not listen to me.

• My oldest son is only a senior in high school, so I cannot yet claim to speak from family experience.
• Those friends of mine who have children away at college or are involved in college ministry may not like my suggestion below.
• If you are a college student already living away at college, you may consider the thoughts in this blog out-of-touch and shake your head in sympathy at this uncool, middle-aged guy who just doesn't get it.

Nonetheless, I would like to suggest another option for college rather than the typical sending of an eighteen year-old off to university. Why not consider keeping your son or daughter home for at least another year or two and have them attend a local college? Please realize I am not condemning those who choose to send their high school graduate off to college the next fall. Rather, I'm offering another "course option" for doing college that I have been observing others doing with success. I have three reasons for suggesting this: giving additional time for maturity, avoiding huge costs and debt, and deepening the generational ties.

Additional time for maturity - My history of teaching mathematics at four different colleges or universities over the years has exposed me to a great number of college freshman. Over these years I have found that many underclassmen were simply unprepared for the academic and social pressures one faces at a typical university. Perhaps your child will not fail to the degree that the students in this article did (note that the author then suggests what I am proposing, especially for the financial reasons addressed below). However, I have counseled or heard of many young people in the church who wandered aimlessly through their first year or two of college, wasting much time and resources, or had a major fall into sin or immorality.

A great deal of even natural maturing typically occurs between the ages of eighteen to twenty. A year or two of taking classes from home allows young people time to have their interests cemented, gradually tests their faithfulness and grants them greater independence versus the "all-at-once" approach of sending them away at 18, and gives parents a greater knowledge of what they are learning and the influences upon them at college. Having a young person work before going off to college or while taking classes at home often not only provides financial resources but training and direction. The Lord would only allow those twenty years old and upward to go out to war (see Numbers 1). Perhaps before sending our arrows out into the gates of the enemy (Psalm 127) we should consider more fully if they are sufficiently ready for the battle they will face?

Avoiding huge costs and debts - The cost of higher education has increased so dramatically in the past decade and a half -- up by 63% at public schools and 47% at private -- that more students have to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to attend, ensuring that many of them are paying off those loans for years to come. Many finish college with this enormous debt and/or limited job opportunities, and guess where many of them end up after college graduation? That's right - back home with their parents!

So why not stay home a little while longer rather than possibly having to return later? For it is possible to graduate from college debt-free. Living at home avoids the huge costs of room and board. The tuition from taking classes at a local community college or regional campus of a university often can be significantly lower than a full-fledged university. Working while you are taking classes not only helps you to keep from borrowing money but provides you with valuable work experience and can give ready application for what it being learned in the classroom.

Deepening generational ties - This rationale is more speculative and idealistic than the other two and thus harder to give statistics for or even explain. It certainly is open for discussion, and I am sure some will disagree with me. But here is what I mean.

Our mobile culture, where 60% of Americans move every five years, does not foster strong ties between parents and children anyway. Whereas a century ago as a rule of thumb grown children would often be located near their parents, today that seems rarely to be the case. Much of this can be attributed to economic factors. At the turn into the twentieth century, parent-controlled education, family farms and small businesses created an environment that kept many children near home to continue in their parents' footsteps. Today such things as our technological advances, state-run schooling, formation of large companies and factories, and women entering the workforce mean many venture far from home to pursue education and a career. Though the geographic distance between parents and their offspring is by no means a measure of how close familial bonds are, this modern day tendency to not be located near parents is symptomatic of our individualistic versus family-oriented society. Young people hardly think about whether they should try to stay closer to home, for it is just assumed they have to go where the job takes them. Contributing to this tendency for the generations to be disconnected is the artificially-enforced rule that youth must leave their homes to go to college just because they have turned eighteen.

Waiting another year or two when a young person has become an adult rather than sending him off to college as a child would seem to help deepen generational bonds. The young person, now working and paying more his way through life (versus being at school for two years on loans where he does not really "feel the pain" of how much things cost) will appreciate more what his parents have done for him and the heritage he enjoys. The parent will not only know his son or daughter as a child but will have seen him or her walk through daily decisions and difficulties into adulthood, and will be able to send with more confidence. Siblings would get to spend more time with one another and hopefully strengthen bonds between themselves as well. In our case, my oldest leaving now would mean our youngest child will have only had three years with him in the house. Of course she would not then know him as well or even remember him living here.

Again, I know this approach is not for everybody. An eighteen year-old may be perfectly ready for college and he and his parents can righteously choose for him to stay home or go to college. This blog is merely giving a suggestion. And okay, I will make a confession. I am having a hard time letting go of my firstborn. But with God as my witness, it is not because, full of sentimentality, I do not want to see him grow up. It is simply because I am enjoying watching him do so. As I sat eating lunch with him today while he was on break from a job he has with a local business, I rejoiced at this privilege. When it's time, we'll shoot our arrow. As we draw back the bowstring, we are just trying to be sure that, by God's grace, it will be a straight shot that misses avoidable obstacles, is not weighed down, and remembers the bow from which it was propelled.

Blogpology

Now look carefully at the title. This is not entitled blogology, which would be the study of the history of weblogs and their societal impact.

Neither is it blogistics, which would measure the statistics of weblog sites, such as the percentage of certain types of blogs, number of hits per day, etc.

No, this is a blogpology. This is where the blogger apologizes for the appalling lack of blogging he has done lately to anyone who might care.

A while back I promised to blog more frequently, and not always to make my blogs into articles. Yet I have not kept that promise, so for that I ask your patience and forgiveness. I was trying to get at least one out a week, and thought I was succeeding for a time. Yet when I made that claim recently, a blogging buddy of mine whose regularity and interesting blog I admire challenged me (before I dropped out of the blogosphere like a plane with engines failing), and he was right. I have not even kept that one per week pace. Oops - I have slipped into blogistics. Anyway, to him (you know who you are and with this hyperlink now so does everyone else!) I humbly offer my blogpology.

I could offer excuses. (Be careful here, for I'm actually offering some excuses under the pretext that I am not. Blogpology is a fine art, you know.) For one, I have a hard time writing my blog like a diary. Though on occasion I write about my family or personal experiences, I struggle doing too much of that. I know how I feel when listening to someone who talks incessantly about himself. Maybe I could be convinced that the rules of polite discourse do not transfer directly to blogging, but they still give me pause at the ole keyboard.

Another excuse I could offer is that much of my extra time has been spent lately caring for the affairs of my mother, who spent another four weeks in the psychiatric wing of a hospital and was just recently released. And so although this is on my mind a great deal and I have had some interesting experiences, the private and painful nature of this means I do not want to blog anymore about this than I already have.

Another issue is my pastoral charge. Recently I read of a giant of the faith (I won't even mention who he is so as not to embarass myself by invoking his name in my defense) who spoke of how difficult it is for men fully engaged in the direct shepherding of people to be able to write extensively. He left the pastorate in order to write, and left many books behind as a result. Though certainly some great pastors seem to be able to do it all, writing included, I find my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak in this area. Having an "open study door" policy often cuts short my writing attempts.

But enough with the excuses I could offer :). I blogpologize and move on. Maybe I'll get to the point where I can just write everyday about silly things (like the banana sticker I found on my backside this morning sneakingly placed there by one of my children that read "Perfectly Fat Free!") or realize not every post has to be an article (see how even this attempt just to apologize resulted in one, albeit a poor example?). So for now, I'll just try to get back to some semi-regular blogging at least, and be content with not "falling off the blog" altogether.

Oooh, what a bad pun and ending that I'm sure has already been overused. But hey, what do you expect from a blogpologist?

The Supper of the Lord

Recently a friend who attends our church asked me:

"Would you give me some scripture that supports the church's decision to be so selective in who partakes in communion?...As you know, I attended a church were the sacraments were offered to anyone who wanted to partake."

This is a great question. Should the Lord's Supper be offered to anyone who wants to take it, or are there certain conditions that should be met before one is given the privilege to come? I thought others might be interested in the answer. Here's a few of the things, slightly altered and edited for the blogworld, I shared with her...

We can read about Jesus first instituting the Lord's Supper in Matthew 26:17-29 (it is also in the other gospels). To answer this question, we must recognize that this first communion took place at the time of the Passover (note verses 17-19). The Passover was the meal the Jews ate to commemorate God's deliverance of them out of Egypt through the blood of the lamb. As you might recall, only those who had this blood on their doorpost were saved from the angel of death. In God's plan, Jesus was put to death at this Passover time to show He was the true lamb of God who can take away people's sins. Just as the Jews had to believe God by putting the blood on their doorposts to be saved, so we must trust in Christ's shed blood to be saved. That is why He lifted the cup and said "Drink from it, all of you, for this is the blood of My covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins" (Verses 27-28). So the first condition we find in Scripture is this: Just as only Jews could eat of the Passover meal, so only those who are Christians (i.e disciples of Jesus) are to eat of the Lord's Supper.

This is seen in that Jesus only had the 12 disciples with Him in the upper room. Very clearly the Scriptures say that He broke the bread and "gave it to the disciples" (verse 26) and took the cup and "gave it to them (i.e the disciples)" (verse 27). He did not offer this meal out in public indiscriminantly to all in the streets of Jerusalem; instead He gave it to His followers. This same pattern is seen in the rest of the New Testament. In Acts 2:41-42 we are told it is those who were baptized that were devoted to the "breaking of bread." In I Corinthians 11:23-33, where Paul gives instructions about the Lord's Supper, he is obviously writing to the church at Corinth (those that had professed faith and been baptized) on how to practice it. The second condition then is: Only baptized members of the church are allowed to partake. A Buddhist, Muslim, or atheist should not be able to walk into a church service and just take of the Lord's Supper if they so choose. To have a person who does not believe Jesus is the Son of God take of His body and blood would be to desecrate the meal. Having unbelievers eat and drink of the body and blood of the Lord would be to say that the gospel does not have any true power or meaning. Communion is a meal of fellowship with Christ and His people.

A third condition we find is this: Taking of the Lord's Supper is to be done carefully and in a holy manner. Paul makes this point in I Corinthians 11:27-32. If we do not come to this meal by true faith or we come while living in sin, Paul says we will be judged with weakness, sickness or even death. The Jews who mishandled the blood of the lamb in Egypt would have died; the Bible warns that mishandling the blood of Christ is even more severe (Hebrews 10:28-29) because eternity is at stake. So we must come to the table, where His blood is represented, in a worthy manner. That is why we are called to examine ourselves before we come.

Now the question arises, "Who is to be sure that the people who come to the table are 1) Christians who are 2) members of the church and 3) living holy lives?" A final aspect to answer the question is this: Christ has appointed elders to shepherd the flock of His people. They are called to teach and manage the church (I Timothy 3:1-7), exercise oversight and be be examples to the church (I Peter 5:1-5), and guard against harmful influences (Titus 1:7-11). The people in the church are to choose godly men to that office and then submit to them (Hebrews 13:17). Jesus gave "the keys of His kingdom" (see Matthew 16:19), i.e. the responsibility to bring in or release from membership, to the leadership of the church. One of the ways that we are to shepherd God's people is to be sure that these three conditions listed above are being met by those coming to the Lord's Table. That is why if people are not members of our particular congregation we ask that they meet with us so we can hear of their faith in Christ, be sure they are members of a true church somewhere, and are walking rightly before the Lord.

Some could see our practice of watching over the communion table as a prohibitive, legalistic, power-grabbing move. However, our desire is to honor Christ and His table, and that is the reason for this practice. Please understand that we are not seeking to exclude anyone; rather, we are inviting people to come in the right manner. Communion is the supper of the Lord, who has given the church the privilege of hosting it. The Lord Jesus told a story of a man being thrown out of a wedding feast for coming improperly clothed (see Matthew 22:1-14, especially verse 12). Our practice is simply His way of reminding people to come properly prepared. Afterall, if I Corinthians 11:29 is true, then taking communion is one of the most dangerous things you can do. It is only right for the church to help those wanting to come to see that.

A Reminder to the Youth

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."
-I John 2:15-17

When speaking a year ago to a youth conference regarding guarding against the world's influence, numerous questions arose about how to know whether you should or should not watch a movie, buy a CD, or visit certain internet sites. Christians cannot simply apply stickers to certain movies or music that claim they are "God-approved." However, certain Biblical principles such as the ten that follow can guide us into applying wisdom in making these decisions.

1. If it cannot bring glory to God, it will not bring joy to you. “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (I Corinthians 10:31)
2. If you cannot honor your parents by participating in it, it is forbidden. “Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her rejoice who gave birth to you.” (Proverbs 23:25)
3. If it is not the right thing for you to do, don’t. “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)
4. If it keeps you from obedience to a clear command, it is illegal. “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)
5. If it will make you stumble, forsake it. “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29)
6. If it will make others stumble, forsake it. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.” (Mark 9:42)
7. If it lacks redemptive qualities, give it up. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)
8. If it is produced by a non-Christian, be careful. “Walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind.” (Ephesians 4:17)
9. If it is produced by a Christian, check it for leaven. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Matthew 16:11
10. If you can do something better, do it. “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” (Matthew 22:37)

Remember, young people, you are to live in God's economy, where:

• honoring a parent is more valuable than honoring a movie star.
• seeking God is commanded more than seeking leisure.
• caring how your actions will affects a friend's walk is more important than caring about what you want to do.
• where dying is living and living is dying.

In other words, don't let love for the things usurp love for the Maker and Ruler of the things.

Media by Us

Almost every newspaper or news magazine likes to tout that they are unbias and objective in their reporting. Yet all of us, when retelling events we have witnessed or researched (which is at the heart of news reporting), shape the account for our readers or listeners by the way we report it. We cannot help doing so, for our hearts and minds, indeed our very being, are involved in the process of writing. We will always have "media bias" because media is done by us. One reason I appreciate World magazine is they honestly admit right up front the perspective they use in reporting the news.

I thought of this recently as I found myself being quoted in a local paper regarding our church's struggle with the library board and what transpired at their last meeting (you can read the article here). In large measure, I appreciate the Kokomo Perspective for bringing this issue to the public's attention as the library's decision will affect not only our congregation but the entire community. I sense the columnist may be somewhat sympathetic to our plight. Where he quotes me, he is using the words I uttered.

However, the columnist's own perspective cannot help but influence his piece. In this particular article he packaged the information in a way that could confuse those reading about what has truly happened. So for the sake of journalistic accuracy, I offer these three clarifications:

1) The subtitle of the article, which is likely from an editor and not the journalist, says "Church pastor asks that his property be removed from consideration" (emphasis mine). Since the church property does not belong to me, I would never refer to it as mine and did not at the meeting. I merely represented the church, to whom the building belongs. Statements like this can make it look like this is an issue between the board and an individual.

2) The article states that "York said if the library decides to build on the church's ground, it would be 'very unsettling.'” That statement is too obvious to make, as of course we would already be unsettled if we were without a building. What I actually remember saying is that the way the library board has handled this situation thus far has already been "very unsettling" from our perspective. I had already made that statement in a letter written to the library board prior to the meeting and reiterated it that evening.

3) Later on a paragraph reads "York had earlier declined to be interviewed, and said he did not want to add to the library's controversy. But he made his plea in the board's open meeting." Perhaps I'm misreading this, but the way it is worded sounds like the reporter thinks I am being hypocritical by declining to be interviewed but then going public in an "open meeting." Please note the following:

• This reporter should remember our earlier phone conversation. When he himself requested an interview in early December, I asked to defer getting together until after the elders had spoken to representatives of the board directly on December 7. I thought he might contact me after that time to see what had transpired, but he never did. After the meeting on December 19, I was introduced to the reporter by a board member but he never asked me any questions about what has happened. Why did he write it like he did above?
• My point in even raising the issue that I had declined an interview before meeting with the library is not that I am above or against doing so. Rather, I am trying to stress in this situation that the righteous way to handle conflict between neighbors is to go directly to them. Our frustration is that we were never approached about these plans before they were made public, and then the initial contacts by library representatives had threatening overtones. Neighbors are to approach one another directly and honestly.
• Finally, what other option did our church have but to state our concern at their open meeting? The board deals with the expansion issue primarily in executive session, and I obviously was not invited. The elders of the church believed that it was important that the board hear from us face-to-face and not just in letter form.

Did the Perspective article contain honest mistakes or pokes at me? Regardless, just remember whether you read a newspaper article or this blog, a perspective or bias is already present. For media, by its very nature, is by us.

Now You Know Why

Last post (see below) I explained how I suffer from Celiaism. I know how annoying people can be who insist on telling you about every ache and pain of their condition, but bear with me as I offer an anecdote from yesterday that will help you sympathize with me better.

Yesterday in our church service I had the privilege of baptizing a big bear of a man named Greg. As he testified to before the congregation, Greg was formerly a bouncer who loved to fight and was afraid of nothing, until God brought the fear of the Lord upon him and led him to where he heard the gospel. As I was about to apply the water to this man who must weigh 300 pounds or more, my wife said to Celia, "Look, Daddy is about to baptize Greg." Celia, obviously thinking of the many babies she had seen baptized, looked up at her mom and asked, "How is Daddy going to hold him?"

I'll try to refrain from now on saying anything more about my condition, but then again remember I can't help it. It's my Celiaism kicking in.

Celiaism

I thought I would use this blog site to announce that recently I have been diagnosed with a condition known as "Celiaism." Perhaps I should have called each of you personally to break the news more gently, but then again if you have observed me lately you already knew. Celiaism is a disorder that takes an otherwise sane, healthy man in his early 40's and renders him googly-eyed, weak-kneed and unable to say "no" without severe stuttering. They tell me it's a genetic issue caused by being the father of an adorable, precocious, attention-grabbing three year-old girl who (ironically come to think of it) is named Celia. They also tell me remission can occur over time but usually only lasts until grandchildren arrive, where "Celiaism Relapse" is probable.

Anyway, as hard as I have tried to overcome my Celiaism, I struggle and fail. I pledged that I would treat all of my six children the same as I raised them, and I know they were all just as cute at this age. Yet there's something about being over 40 and living in the same house with this chattering doll with curls that just makes it impossible to fight. So please don't laugh at me when you observe me sneaking into the church kitchen trying not to be seen by her mother and then giving her another "lem-o-lade in a big girl's cup" (that's just how she says it). Remember, I cannot help it. For consider some of the other symptoms of my Celiaism.

Blabbering speech - I go around saying such things as "hip-po-PO-MA-ta-mus," "cheer-chos", "pot-chick" and "purple-E" to describe the African water animal, common breakfast cereal, stuff you put on your chapped lips and her toothbrush (so named for teaching her to say "eee" in order to brush her teeth). I have developed almost a strange dialect, putting the ending "ey" on way too many words. I say such things as "birdey," "doggey," "huggey," "kissey," "lappey," "nappey," and "sockey," when one syllable would be just fine.

Uncontrollable fixation patterns - I wave and blow kisses at my front door EVERY time I drive away because she's standing there, which has caused more than one neighbor to wonder about me. EVERY time we brush teeth I play "Dentist Chair," where she gets on my lap as I sit on the floor and my nose button is pushed, automatically causing my legs to draw up behind her so she can recline while we brush. When done, she pushes the nose button and the legs proceed to dump her sideways. EVERY time I play "Go Fish" I cheat so she can win. EVERY Sunday I struggle whether to raise my hands while singing, not because of some deep charismatic urge but what do you do when that golden-haired beauty is standing on the back of the pew in her mother's arms smiling and waving at you?

Infantile behavior reversions- I play with dolls. I ask grown men if they need to go potty. I crawl around on the floor acting like a horse (my favorite part is bucking). Today I'm wearing a little kitty, giraffe and lion stickers on my dress shirt pocket so "we can match," for she has the same ones. I get under the blankets on her bed and hide because I imagine dinosaurs are coming. I enjoy watching Madeline and Goofy cartoons.

Is there any hope for me? The bad news is that my wife says it's incurable (actually, she says I'm impossible but I know what she means). The good news is that I have found many others suffer from Celiasm as well, though it is often called by other names. And, fortunately for me, the Lord has helped me to adapt to my situation so well I cannot remember life any other way.

The Axe Handle Applied

My last blog (see below) told the story of the missionary Boniface. He cut down the Oak of Thor in the Middle Ages to remove the superstitious idol from among the Germanic people to whom he was ministering. The theme of wood was used to tell the story, most obviously by the towering oak being reduced to a Christian chapel.

Yet the story was given the title “The Axe Handle” because it was also made of wood. This handle was what gave Boniface the leverage he needed to accomplish the task at hand. As the prophets showed (see Isaiah 44:9-20) wood can be used to fashion idols or to glorify the God who gave it to us to use. Boniface, like Elijah who built laid wood on a stone altar to challenge the false prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, or like Gideon who had to cut down the wooden idol Asherah in front of his father’s house before he could face the Midianites, had to challenge his generation’s veneration of an idol. By using a wooden-handled axe, he employed the very substance the people worshipped to bring down their idol and glorify the Lord.

Some thirteen hundred years since Boniface, perhaps trees are no longer idolized in the Western world (tree huggers excepted), but nothing is more venerated in our generation than our technology. From palm pilots to i-pods, from DVD’s to DSL, people are awash in the “technology tsunami” that has hit us. Our young people are especially turning to it constantly not only for the entertainment it encourages, but for the knowledge and relationships it gives as well. The problem is that so many lack the wisdom needed to handle the technology, and consequently like the people of Hesse they have worshipped and served the created thing rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). This past year in my ministry one constant theme has emerged in all my counseling situations: in one way or another, the people coming have become ensnared in the sins and the illicit relationships that the “see-what-you-want-whenever-you-want” nature of technology encourages.

The New York Times recently reported the story of Justin Berry. As a thirteen year-old boy, he learned about webcams from a friend at school. Being naturally shy, he purchased one and, without his parents’ knowledge, set it up on his computer in his bedroom and opened up his own website, thinking he could make friends over the Internet. Make friends he did, for it was not long afterwards that he was approached by a new “friend,” i.e. a pedophile, offering him $50 to take his shirt off while the webcam was on. Reasoning that he took his shirt off at the pool and others saw him, and that this would give him some spending money, Justin complied and was paid through an account set up with PayPal.

One thing led to another, and it was not long until Justin was making thousands and thousands of dollars doing all sorts of grotesque things beamed to his payers through the webcam. When his parents started wondering where he was getting all this new spending money, Justin deceived them by saying he had set up a website consulting business. His parents had no idea that the child they thought was extremely talented and entrepreneurial was instead becoming immersed in a life of secret, sexual perversion. Fortunately, Justin became sickened by his lifestyle and, wanting to come clean, at the age of nineteen he turned in his records to the Justice Department. The most sickening aspect of this story is that Justin learned that not only had his friends lied to him about their identity but that many were in child-related work fields, such as teachers, daycare workers and pediatricians.

Perhaps you will not fall to the degree Justin did. But this story highlights what Neil Postman explained in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. Media is not neutral, for it has the power to shape our souls. The technology quickly goes from being controlled by us to controlling us. Under its powerful allure, we start believing that we need to see and know and experience everything available. Falling to the ancient lie of Satan, that by tasting all these things “we will be like God,” actually accomplishes what it always has. Instead of becoming more like God, we become more carnal, superstitious, lazy, deadened, even animal-like. Entertainment becomes our god, and how this technological tsunami has rushed into the church as well.

Recently an acquaintance of mine was describing their new, sprawling church complex to me, explaining how they had huge screens beaming the church service into the coffee house part of the building so that people could “watch church.” Is the God of heaven, who revealed Himself to us through the written word, really pleased with His people sipping vanilla lattes while watching a Christian drama on a wall-sized screen? Does the church in my town that too has just such a coffee shop, called “Jehovah Java” of all things, really not understand they are blaspheming the name of the Lord? Are we not to be those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, not cappuccinos? And is it not common barn animals who are supposed to be content with their feedbags on? Media has shaped our souls, indeed, and we reflect more the image of the fat cows of Bashan than the glory of the Son of God.

To get a handle on all of this, remember Boniface’s handle. What the world bows before to satisfy its own lusts, we must take and use as leverage to chop down the idolatry. Young people need training in wisdom from the mature on how to guard themselves from the dangers of the Internet while at the same time being shown how to use it for Christ’s glory. Rather than doing Google searches to see the latest shenanigans of a movie star, the church must be searching out the wisdom and knowledge now available at its fingertips like it never has been before. Instead of blogging turning into a display of idleness and empty words for which we’ll be judged come the last day (Matthew 12:36-37), Christians must use it to get someone out there in cyberspace to really think about something important for a minute. Just as the Gutenberg printing press was used to spread the Reformation through literature, we need to cast out the gospel over the Internet to bring in a worldwide catch. So just for inspiration purposes only, take your keyboard, lift it high overhead, cry out, “Glory be to the God of heaven and earth!” then get to work. For much chopping, sawing, fitting and hammering needs to be done.

The Axe Handle

(At a college dinner the other night, I read the following story with the title above.)

With his boots crunching the fallen leaves beneath him, and the early morning mist beginning to fade as the sun rose, the missionary walked determinedly toward the crowd that had gathered in the opening of the woods. The people, having been summoned from the surrounding villages the day before, stepped aside into huddled groups, some hiding behind the forest trees. They grew silent as they looked in horror at the missionary, who with clenched jaw and furrowed brow did not meet their stares. Instead, like a soldier marching into war he peered straight ahead to the object of his concern, his right hand tightening around the thin wooden handle of the axe he carried. Before him like a tower stood the great Oak of Thor, the tree of the god of Thunder, which had been worshipped for decades by the ancestors of the people now standing beneath its huge outstretched branches. As the missionary reached the base of the tree, he kicked aside the offerings of food and the crude, handmade artifacts made by this generation’s worshippers. He turned to face the crowd, the axe lifted high over head for all to see.

With the thunder of Elijah in his own voice, the missionary cried out, “People of Hesse, listen to me! The only true God of heaven and earth has sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, into this world as I have told you many times. Jesus died on a cross to take away your sins as you have heard, and from the grave in which He was laid God raised His Son up on the third day to grant a true power to live rightly for Him. He is not pleased with your veneration of this oak. His prophets mocked gods made out of wood and iron, and today I mock the god Thor. You live in ignorance and in the fear of the power of this false god. Today let it be known to you and all the tribes throughout this land that the true God, who created both trees and thunder, has defeated Thor through a lowly, simple servant. I dare Thor to stop me, and I laugh at my own dare, for like this tree he cannot hear me, and like this tree he will now fall.”

As the missionary turned to apply the blade of the axe to the thick trunk of the oak, the people cowered in fear. One brave soul, thinking he was showing compassion to the wayward missionary, called out, “Stop! Do not bring the lightening of Thor upon you!” Yet the warning only emboldened the missionary. He quickly pulled the axe back over his head, and with Gideon-like tenacity he swung, the sharpened blade of the axe digging deeply into the bark and flesh of the tree. Without pause, swiftly he jerked on the handle and drew the blade out again, and as fast as lightening chop after chop began to rain down on the unresisting tree. Chips from the tree began to form a small pile on the ground below an immerging v-shape cut in the trunk.

The longer the missionary swung the axe, the more tense and fearful the crowd grew. Any minute, they thought, and surely Thor would respond with a bolt of lightening from the sky. Yet the further into the tree the axe hacked, with more strength and fierceness did the missionary swing. Only once did he pause, removing his robe and wiping his perspiring face, then with new resilience he tore back into the work at hand. Where once small chips flew, now larger chunks were spit out by the hungry blade of the axe. As the morning wore on, the rays of sunlight from the strengthening globe above worked their way through the canopy of leaves above and seemed to cast radiance on the scene below. When the hollow space created by the axe passed by the halfway mark, and the tree began to creak its objections, a change came over the crowd. Still drawn back with fear, their curiosity transitioned from waiting to see the missionary struck from heaven to anticipation of the oak falling to the earth.

At last the missionary stopped, drawing great breaths as he leaned momentarily upon his axe. At least three –fourths of the trunk was now gone. With beads of sweat cascading down his face, he wiped his brow with his sleeve and, with a voice hoarse from the strain and emotion, he again spoke to the crowd. “Stand back and witness the fall of Thor! Glory be to the God of heaven and earth!” And with that, he approached the tree from the back side of the cut and again applied the axe with vigor. In a few moments the tree’s protests grew louder, as it groaned like an injured warrior and began to lean. Finally, a swing from the axe found the decisive chink in the tree’s armor, as a wedge flew out and the great tree started slowly its descent from above. Rather than running, the missionary merely took a step back and again rested on his blade’s handle, a growing smile beginning to cross his face. As the mighty oak leaned more and more earthward, it picked up speed. With a crack like thunder, the trunk broke. The tree roared one last time as it came to earth, its tremendous branches like a drowning man’s arms catching other limbs and small trees and bring them to their death with it.

The missionary, seizing the ensuing silence, leaped upon the remaining stump and for the third time lifted his voice. “Thor is dead! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved! Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins! Join me, for we will take this tree and make a house of worship to the true God! Help me, and here in the sanctuary of God’s forest you will have a chapel in which you can hear the great things of God.”

Over the next months, the missionary, with a growing band of newly baptized disciples, sawed and planed, hammered and fitted, the oaken wood to create a beautiful chapel. And set neatly upon the roof of the chapel was a wooden cross from the oak, a reminder to the gathered worshippers underneath what they heard from the missionary, that the only tree that can give life is the cross of Jesus Christ.

__________________________________________

This short story is a historical fiction account of the missionary Boniface (the details of the actual felling of the tree have not been preserved). Formerly Winfrith of southern England, Boniface was born in 675 A.D., raised and disciplined in an Augustine monastery, and ordained (and renamed) as a priest in 705. Boniface went to the Germanic tribes in central Europe, and spread the gospel in places such as Frisia, Hesse, and Bavaria. This story of his cutting down the oak of Thor near Geismar and Fritzlar occurred in 722-723, and marked the beginning of a time when thousands professed Christ and were baptized.

In my next blog, I'll offer a modern application. But for now, answer two questions.
1) How is wood used as imagery in the story?
2) What two Old Testament figures are named, and what do they have in common with Boniface?

The Fast Lane

"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." -Matthew 6:16-18

Though fasting is not widely practiced in affluent American churches, it is a spiritual discipline in which the Christian should regularly be engaged. A quick survey of Scripture will show that such things as times of trouble, urgent desires, and missionary expansion are all perfect opportunities to meet with prayer and fasting. The practice of deliberately withholding from your body normal foods, drinks and pleasures, known as fasting, done correctly, opens up an avenue to the Father's heart.

I emphasize "done correctly." I speak not so much of how often or how long or what type of fast, but the audience you seek. Jesus' words above tells us that if the attitude of our heart when we fast is to be seen by others, then we will get a reward. What is it? Well, simply that we get what we want. Others will see us, i.e., our hunger to be noticed will be satisfied when we seek the attention of men. Men will notice us, but is that really what the godly should yearn for?

No, when we fast let our hunger drive us to seek the attention of the Father. With joy on our faces and anticipation in our hearts, let every hunger pain or unmet desire be redirected toward getting the attention of the Father through prayer. For if our heart's hunger is to be noticed by God, what does Jesus say will be the result? Again, we get what we want. He will notice and will reward us.

So if you are in a trial, have gone too long with an unfilled desire, or want to see others reached for the gospel, give some time to fasting and prayer. Those who take a few trips on "the fast lane" are never disappointed in the end, for they ultimately arrive into the very presence of the Father Himself. And when we are there, even if the answer to our prayers does not come in the manner or timeliness we want, our every desire will be fulfilled in Him.

If you want a wonderful, comprehensive treatment of this subject, read John Piper's Hunger for God.

Silent Night I Understand, but Silent Morning?

Some Megachurches Close for Christmas - How do you like that for a title? I'm not making it up. Look for yourself at the link. How can it be that some of the super-sized churches in the land are closing their doors on the biggest Christian holiday?

To try and understand a confusing turn of events, I've tried to outline the logic for you below:

1) Megachurches have church services for the unchurched. This comes straight from the horse's mouth, as Cally Parkinson, spokeswoman for the megachurch pace-setting congregation of Willow Creek Community Church, said, "If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?" she said. Did you get that? In case her tongue-twister passed you by, what she is saying is that church services are for the unchurched. If that is still confusing, I'm sorry, but it only gets worse (By the way, notice she is a spokeswoman. Is this a cabinet level position with the Pastor?).

2) The unchurched would not turn out significantly enough on Christmas Sunday to make market resources worth expending. Ms. Parkinson (Blogger's note: I'm really not trying to pick on this lady, as her position as spokeswoman for Willow Creek means she has to be an extremely nice lady. To see that other trendsetters are doing the same, Andy Stanley's North Point Community Church is also closed for Christmas. ) said further that church leaders felt that it would not be an effective use of church resources to hold Sunday services on December 25th. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday in 1994 "only a small number showed up to pray." See, it's the numbers that help us to start making sense of this. This simply would not be "an effective use of staff and resources" says Cally.

3) Thus, therefore and consequently, management notes that church will be closed for Christmas so families can spend time at home together for the holidays. Another megachurch spokeswoman, Cindy Willison of the evangelical Southland Christian Church, said "at least 500 volunteers are needed, along with staff, to run Sunday services for the estimated 8,000 people who usually attend." Thus, they won't be open for Christmas so they can enjoy the holiday with family. If this sounds much like an announcement from some major corporation like Wal-Mart, now you know where these guys are getting their ideas. Someone else before me has called a megachurch a "Wal-Church."

So there we have it - churches closed on Christmas. So though you still may not understand them, at least now you can understand my blog title. Some other fun titles for this blog would be:

• I'll be Home for Christmas
• Since We Have No Place to Go, Let It Snow
• O Stay Home All Ye Faithful (or should it be Unfaithful?)

Can you add your suggestion to the list?

But I need to get to my real point. To be honest, as a Reformed Presbyterian type, Christmas on Sunday poses a problem for us as well. Believing that the Bible does not teach us to honor Christmas as a special holy day (where we get the word "holiday" from, by the way) and holding that we are only to do that in worship which God's Word commands, we can feel a bit awkward when normally churched, or unchurched people for that matter, show up Christmas morning. People come expecting special sights, but we do not have trumpets, Advent wreaths, manger scenes, etc. They may want to sing Silent Night but instead hear acapella psalm singing. Not following a liturgical calendar we may not even have a particularly Christmas-y homily. Might it be to our advantage, to increase Reformed profit and market share, to close our doors as well?

Well, that's where we must revisit the first assumption the megachurches make as outlined above. The church services are not for the unchurched, nor are they even primarily for the churched. First and foremost, the service is for God! By virtue of His Son being raised from the dead on the first day of the week and God's command to make this the true "holy day," we are invited to gather to honor our risen King each and every Lord's Day or Sunday (for the Biblical rationale, see Chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession of Faith). Though many of our Christian brothers view December 25th as a special holiday, and it is not my point here to criticize them for it (Romans 14:1-5), in fact we should see each first day of the week as a holy day. Those truly familiar with the Christmas story should know that the Lord who was born in an obscure carpenter's family, who was lain in the dirtiness of a manger, and whose birth was announced only to lowly shepherds, is not all that interested in pomp and ceremony nor mass marketing. Rather, where He sees the humble of heart seeking Him in word and prayer, that's where He will reveal Himself as Immanuel - God with us. On each Lord's Day we should want to be with God in His assembly, because He desires to meet with us.

So this December 25th (and December 11th, 18th, January 1st, Super Bowl Sunday, etc...) let's go eagerly to the house of the Lord. If other assemblies choose to remain at home, people want to open presents or watch TV with their families, or visitors are not all that impressed with our simplicity in worship, what's that to us? We have an engagement with the King. Let us humbly seek to honor Christ with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

Come As You Are, But Don't Leave That Way

On Sunday evening, November 20th, our family was heading home after a wonderful Thanksgiving Psalm Sing in Lafayette, our hearts full of the grace and wonder of God. As we drove east on SR 26, I noticed ahead a car off the right side of the road with headlights pointed at us. As we passed by at 45 mph (slowing to try and see in the dark what was going on), we realized this car was down in a ditch about five feet below the road. We stopped, turned around and drove back. Jamey and I hopped out of the van into the cold, dark night to investigate, while Miriam took the wheel to try and position our vehicle more safely on this two-lane road.

We came upon a Chevy Malibu with its tail end wrapped around a telephone pole. In the dark it was at first difficult to see if anyone was in the car, but as we dropped down into the ditch and started yelling the passenger door opened and out stumbled a man about thirty years of age, the door closing behind him. He was dressed in boots, blue jeans and a leather jacket, with five ear rings adorning his left ear, and he was cursing up a storm. We found out his name was Rob and inquired if he was all right. He assured us he was uninjured. He again cursed and used the Lord's name in vain at having wrecked his stepfather's car. It was only then that we heard cries from the back seat. We realized children were in there.

They were Rob's five year-old daughter and eight-year-old son. At first it seemed that Rob was just going to leave them in there, but when I pointed out that the pole had crushed the back of the car between them and that they were sitting on shattered glass, he swore again and then worked to extricate them from the car. Fortunately, from all we could see they had escaped injury as well. His adorable, sobbing daughter sat on my lap as we struggled to find and get her coat and shoes on in the dark. His son stood there sullenly, and I could see from the headlights of our van now pointed over the scene the look of distrust and disgust that should not be present on any son's face as he watches his dad.

As Rob called his stepfather on his cell phone, who lived nearby, to come to bring them home, we put the shivering children in our van to warm up as they waited. In the process of helping, two, open, sixteen-ounce beer cans between the front seats confirmed the hunch the wrecked car, Rob's demeanor, and his son's look had given me. Rob had been headed east, lost control in his drunkenness, done a 180, and then walloped the back end of his car around the telephone pole. As we waited for the help to arrive, and as many passing cars slowed down or stopped as people offered help which Rob declined, I confronted him.

I told him that he had been drinking and had nearly taken his life and his children's in the process, which he acknowledged. As he stood there lighting up one cigarette after another, it was clear that he was not so drunk as to be completely unaware of what was happening. I explained that I was a pastor, and that his swearing at God was blaming the wrong party and offensive to God. Rob told me he was returning from having picked up his children from his wife, who had left him for another after ten years of marriage. He had also been to church that very morning, the "Harley-Davidson Church," that makes bikers like him feel welcomed by telling them "come as you are." The way he explained it, his going to church and his drinking were for the same thing - to help him get over losing his wife.

On the roadside I told Rob that God certainly welcomes all to come despite their appearance, but if they do not leave inwardly changed by their encounter with Christ, which was obvious in his case, then something is dreadfully wrong either with the one preaching or listening, or both. I told him that the Lord of heaven had sent a preacher along right then to call him out of the mess he was making of his life. As we looked at the totaled car, Rob heard that it's one thing to come to God with your life a wreck, but it would be foolish to leave it that way.

As we parted, I prayed for Rob and his family's salvation, and tell you this to ask you to do the same. And let us join together in telling sinners that they can come to Christ as they are, wrecked lives and all, but they certainly cannot leave that way, for far greater judgments await those who spurn His salvation.

The Law of Naboth's Vineyard

The encroachment of government on personal rights and responsibilities is the result of our increasingly godless society. As man trusts the Lord less, he puts his trust in other men, particularly rulers, more. How a few recent examples have made me painfully aware of that lately!

• The problem of increasing costs of local government coupled with an accounting error to the tune of $10 million in our city's budget in a previous year left local leaders with a great shortfall in income. The solution? Our property taxes were increased by 40%.
• Our church building sits kiddy corner to the public library in downtown Kokomo. For over a year now the library board has been considering different plans for expansion and renovation. One of the plans we recently discovered on their website, in the area labelled "demolition," involves the "removal of the Presbyterian church." That's us! To this date, no one from the library or city has yet to contact us.
• I've had to oversee my mom's healthcare, and she is turning 65 in a few months. So I've been trying to figure out Medicare. Despite the claims of the Medicare literature (complete with colorful drawings and tables) that they are making it easy to understand and decide on the best option, even with a few math degrees I'm struggling to make heads or tails of it. A recent cartoon captures my experience so far. An elderly man is holding up some bottles of pills to his adult daughter and he says, "This one's for a good night's sleep and this one's for the headache I get trying to understand the new Medicare drug plan."

Though there will be a great crisis caused at some point because there will be too few workers to fund too many retirees' medical needs, at least for the moment Medicare is more a nuisance to me than anything. Certainly I detest paying several hundred more dollars per year in taxes, but at the very least I can hope (I'm not holding my breath) that the increased property taxes are only temporary until the crisis passes. As much as these other examples concern me, it is the middle example above that has me the most concerned over the arrogance of government when they no longer fear God. The library has stated that it hopes that it will not have to pursue "eminent domain options," but with the recent Kelo decision by the Supreme Court local governments have been emboldened. Our local officials have not even had the courtesy to ask the Presbyterian church if it would like to be demolished, and some involved have made bombastic statements in public meetings as to how "easy" it will be to expand our way.

These things remind me of a story from the Old Testament about a king named Ahab. Seems that Ahab wanted a certain vineyard adjacent to his own royal gardens that was owned by a man named Naboth. When Ahab found Naboth's vineyard was not for sale, a plan was hatched by his seductive wife Jezebel. They ended up holding a sham trial against Naboth with false witnesses, sentencing him to death, and then after he was executed - voila! - they seized his property. The "Law of Naboth's Vineyard" then is this: What rulers want, rulers can have. If they want more of your income, they can have it. If they want your property, it is ultimately theirs. If they want to take care of your doctor's bills, they can do that for you. What rulers want, rulers can have.

However, there is one thing rulers may want to keep in mind. Ahab and Jezebel found this out the hard way. The Law of Naboth's Vineyard is universal. In other words, the Lord of lords and the King of kings can employ the same rule. What the Lord wants, the Lord can have. The only difference is that unlike arrogant government officials who apply this law to seize things to advance their personal power and political purposes, God applies this law to execute justice and protect the poor. When He pronounced Ahab and Jezebel's demise (you can read about it in II Kings 21:19-26, but be warned that it is not for the squeamish), the Lord makes it clear that He wants their lives and properties because they had taken Naboth's.

So rulers, pause before you seize. You can apply the Law of Naboth's Vineyard, but there is a great King to whom we can pray who also operates by the same law.

Group Counseling

Having been exposed a great deal recently to psychiatric wards, waiting rooms and mental health counselors (Clarification: Not for myself), I have been amazed at the number of people seeking counseling. The wards and waiting rooms are full. Prescription drug sales for depression are at all-time highs. The patients speak of their psychiatrists and counselors with awe and reverence.

So you can understand why as a preacher I was both amused and encouraged by a recent quote by Jay Adams about preaching:

"Preaching is nothing but group counseling...(and there is) no difference between counseling and preaching except that the latter is louder."

Few view preaching this way, as large group counseling. Few pastors would think this as they take their place behind the pulpit. Yet preachers are to proclaim the word of God to the congregation as counsel from the Lord. Every time the congregation comes and sits under the preached word they are to be, according to II Timothy 4:2, "reproved, rebuked, exhorted, with great patience and instruction." Sounds like counseling to me! The preacher is to see himself as a pastor or shepherd (the Greek word translated pastor means "shepherd") being used by the Lord to guide the entire flock to the green pastures and quiet waters where people's souls can be restored (Psalm 23).

The reason so many are seeking the word of counselors is that they have forsaken the word of God. The reason so many are filling their mouths with pills is because they are not being filled with the word of God. The reason so many revere the word of the psychiatrists is that they speak with more authority than preachers do who have the word of God. Only when ordained preachers begin to see themselves with the authority of God's license upon them to speak directly to the ills and needs of the people, and then faithfully guide them, will the authority of the false teachers (i.e. Christless psychotherapists) be exposed.

In his book whose title gives its outline, PsychoBabble - The Failure of Modern Psychology and the Biblical Alternative, Dr. Richard Ganz, former psychologist turned pastor, states "The key to Biblical change is often confrontation." Until pastors can boldly or (remembering Adams' quote above) loudly start confronting their listeners with truth in their weekly times of group counseling, and also equip their congregations to serve those hurting in their midst as Ganz also outlines, we will continue to see the shriveling of souls and the inability to cope with life that is so present all around us.

Does this suggest a new way to invite all these psycho-dependent people to church? "Where you going?" they ask. Then you say, "To group counseling. Want to join us?"

Two Blogs for the Price of One

Perhaps you have noticed I have not blogged for over a month. Yet today I'm offering two blogs (see below). What's the deal? Two brief explanations.

First has been that the trial with my mom has taken time away for extras. The past two months have been filled with multiple moves, hospital admittances and visitations, appointments for legal, financial and medical counsel, etc. Recently Mom has been showing some signs of stabilizing, though we continue to be greatly concerned for her spiritual state. Last night we moved her into a studio apartment at the assisted living place. Though she still has a long road to go for true recovery, we hope this place will be long-term for her and the dealing with emergency-like situations will cease. In the midst of the struggle and pain, it helps to keep a sense of humor. Celia asked last night, "Why did we put Nanny into a little compartment?" Unlike what this suggests, she has very comfortable surroundings, Christian care, and many people showing her God's love. Please pray she could receive it.

Another reason I'm writing today is that I'm changing somewhat the nature of this blog. So far, I have been putting Biblically-based essays here that take quite a bit of time for me to write. But as I learn more about blogs, I'm seeing that short comments on a variety of issues are common, and I think will fit in well with what I want to do here. So I've decided to update this blog more frequently by writing on what I can rather than just when I am able to do an essay.

I hope that's agreeable to those who take the time to read this. If not, I guess you can ask for a refund!

Amongst the Lambs

My wife and I decided to teach the primary class in our Sabbath School program at the church this fall quarter. As the pastor, I must confess I have thought on more than one occasion that "I am too busy with more important things" at the church than to teach 3-7 year-olds. Yet in the few weeks we've been in there, I have been reminded how important time with the lambs can be.

For consider some of the lessons the Lord is teaching not them but me:

Explain the Scriptures simply - Our church is memorizing Psalm 40 this quarter, and I have been singing it (poor kids!) and then having the children fill in words when I pause. As the psalmist speaks of God bringing him out of the pit, one line says the Lord brought me "out of the dungeon mire." When I asked what "mire" was, one girl said, "That's the store where Mommy shops." We laugh at these things, but I have had adults who have had no Scripture training make similar comments. Pastors and teachers need to work hard to explain the Scriptures simply. When I asked them if they would like to be down in a deep, dark hole filled with icky mud at the bottom, a resounding, unanimous "NO!" filled the classroom, and they took another step in their understanding of salvation. This brings me to the next lesson God is teaching me.

Tell stories with excitement - It amazes me how these children, wiggly after sitting in church for 90 minutes plus, hungry for lunch, excited to be with their friends, will grow quiet as you tell them a Bible story with enthusiasm. Huge grins develop as you show them different animals God created. Eyes widen in horror as you tell them about Cain killing his brother Abel. Hands shoot up in the air to answer questions. I have been reminded how at the Banner of Truth Pastor's Conference I attended last May, Pastor Stuart Olyott of Wales had a sanctuary of grown men captivated by his child-like telling of gospel stories of Jesus. Whether preaching, leading family worship at home, teaching Bible studies, counseling or evangelizing, there is nothing like a parable or story to bring truth home. Is that not how the Bible is written? Is that not how Jesus preached?

Don't dim enthusiasm for prayer - Adults have much to learn from children when it comes to prayer. The children, unencumbered by tradition and protocol, pour out their little hearts in honest prayer. These can range from the humorous, little details of life such as "Please help Jack's daddy's green car go faster" to those with eternal-weight in them like "Please help Daddy come to church like he promised." Why is it that the simple prayers of children or young believers always excite me as I listen, but so often the petitions of older believers, including my own, lull me to sleep? Where is the faith to ask God to meet the details of life as well as to conquer the impossible?

Rejoice in small, tangible blessings - The children were absolutely fascinated with the pet lizards we brought to class (a visual for "the creeping things that creep on the earth" from Genesis 1:26). They ran, held hands, and shouted during a walk around the block as they pointed out what God has made. A couple of crackers and juice have been received like some great banquet is being served. One gal joyfully took out of her purse a walnut she had found on a walk with Daddy in order to show the class. Every week they give their offering for a Compassion child in the Philippines with tremendous excitement and joy. Yes, it helps we collect it in a toy dump truck (I kept forgetting to get a basket), but still how often my heart is dull to the daily blessings God sends my way by the truckloads. Rejoicing with the lambs is helping me see God's green pastures more clearly.

Show affection warmly - My wife has no problem with this. She is a nurturer, and how quickly these young ones run to her for a hug or a lap to sit on. And how quickly, once they know and trust you, they want to show affection. I, on the other hand, have often been too reserved during my ministry to extend a hug or show affection. As one young fellow, who is not my own child, crawled on my lap this week to help me tell a story, I saw how these young ones are breaking down my resistance and are confirming something I've been feeling in my bones as I am becoming an older pastor. God's people need the personal, fatherly touch, be it a heart-felt handshake, a welcoming hug, hands laid on in prayer, or a sympathetic pat. Certainly boundaries of propriety exist that must be carefully maintained, but we need also to be careful not to be overly constrained. We are, are we not, the body of Christ?

So if you hear me getting really excited when I pray, get surprised by a hug from me, or just come upon me looking at a walnut with fascination, now you know why. I have been playing and learning with the lambs, and "out of their mouths pour forth God's praises."

The Thoughts of God

"For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." -I Corinthians 2:11

Lately I have been going through a trial like I have never experienced with my mother. Having remarried following my father's death, these last few years have seen the marriage turn bitter, Mom fall into deep depression to the point she no longer wants to live, and divorce papers served. I will avoid speaking of the myriad of details and struggles we have gone through this summer trying to minister to her, but to give you an idea of how deep the waters have become: Just this week I had to seek court-appointed guardianship over my mom as she has quit eating and drinking. The doctors are contemplating inserting a feeding tube so that she will not take her life through self-starvation. Since mom would resist this, I needed the authority to keep her from committing what I'm calling "passive suicide."

My next blogs were going to be on doctrinal matters, but I felt the need to write about this real life issue this time. I have hesitated for several days to write publicly about this out of respect for my mom, but the Lord has given me freedom to do so for several reasons. This has become so public, with doctors, lawyers, and even judges now involved, that there is no place for secrets about what is happening. Also, the church I pastor and ministry friends have been incredibly involved and supportive of me, and desiring to encourage the people of God is another reason I thought writing might help. For currently I know of other people going through their own great struggles, and as I'm repeatedly asked, "But how are you doing?," I wanted to share one of the chief ways the Lord has and is sustaining me at this time. For though I have had times of weakness and struggle in knowing what to do, I want everyone to know the source of the strength I am finding.

I recently began a preaching series I'm calling Heart Songs of the Savior: The Psalms in the Life of Christ. One of the key themes I'm seeing in the Scriptures is the ultimate purpose God had for writing the Psalms, the 150 songs that form the "hymnbook" of the Bible. Surely God the Father had many reasons for recording these songs to help His people, but His greatest intention with these psalms was to give His one and only Son the comfort and guidance He would need when He left heaven and became man. God knew His Son would suffer greatly as He entered into this world of brokenness as the Son of Man, so He prepared songs of love, strength and encouragement to sustain His Son through His earthly life and ministry, particularly as He knew it would lead to the cross. As I will be showing the congregation, that the Psalms were constantly on the heart of Jesus can be seen in His teachings, actions and prayers. We hear in these psalms the love and conversation flowing back and forth between the Father and the Son. The gospels give us the teachings and miracles of our Lord; the psalms help us know what He was thinking at the time. The Spirit of God is revealing to us what was in the heart of our Savior, and seeing what Jesus thought during His difficulties has helped me in mine. Just as my spirit is telling you what's in my heart through these words, God's Spirit reveals what's in the heart of God through His Word, and it is especially in the Psalms that we see this.

For instance, that Psalm 22 was on Jesus' mind as He hung on the cross is no secret, for He quotes from it (see verse 1) and the description of His suffering, be it the wagging of the heads of His persecuters, the nakedness He felt, or the gambling over His clothes, is detailed explicitly in this psalm just as it is verified in the gospels. But we also have then the thoughts of Jesus recorded in the psalm which are found nowhere else. To meditate on Jesus' thinking and prayer to His Father as He hung there, "But You, O Lord, be not far off; O You my help, hasten to my assistance" (Psalm 22:19) helps me enter His sufferings more truly which, in turn, assures me He hears my same cries for help. O how close He is to me! How He understands all pain and struggle! What an intimate Savior I have!

Thank God He has given us in the Psalms the words of prayer and solace we need to be completely honest about our pain and sorrow in His presence. And thank God He has shown us how perfectly He understands us by giving us the very thoughts of Jesus. May He then comfort you with the very comfort of Christ.

Why I'm a Freewill Presbyterian

I know only Baptists and a cute boy in a politically correct movie are supposed to be the "free willy" types. Far be it from a Presbyterian to be labelled such. But I have become utterly convinced that the Will is free and not corrupted by sin, perfectly capable of making choices that will affect all eternity. The Will makes decisions, and because of the freedom of the Will some go to heaven and some go to hell.

Oh, by the way, did I mention the particular Will that I am speaking of is the Will of God? I'm a "God's Will is Free" Presbyterian.

Please forgive me if I'm being too "in-your-face" with this pronouncement. But if churches can put their love for man's freewill on their signs and in the names of their associations, then do I not have the same right to proclaim my love for the free will of God?

Freewill teaching, the belief that fallen man has the freedom of will to believe upon Christ or not, is historically known as Arminianism. This doctrine is named after the Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius who died in the seventeenth century. Arminians believe that though man has been affected by the Fall, sin has not so altered what constitutes man's soul that he is left unable to choose Christ. They teach that free will, given to man at creation, "was not lost in the Fall," to quote a Freewill Baptist website. Often the motivations touted for this belief are that we must protect God's reputation against charges of being capricious or unjust. In other words, if man is not free to choose Christ, then God is unfair, for He chooses to favor one with eternal life and yet not another for no apparent reason.

What the proponents of freewill teaching do not see, in the words of the famous title of the book by Martin Luther, is the "bondage of the will." Man can no more choose life with Christ than he can his time of birth or nationality. Perhaps reading familiar verses with emphasis can help us see this. John 1:12-13 states, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." Unless God enlivens a heart to respond to the offer of Christ in the gospel, man will not come. Indeed, man cannot come, for sin has bound his will to be enslaved to its lusts. Each man is constantly choosing death over life and, except for the intervening grace of God, would continue to do so. If God be not free to choose whom He will to be in His heaven, no man would be there.

Just as the Lord of heaven and earth determines where and when a particular man will be born into this world, He also determines those who will be born into the kingdom of God. God chooses for you what natural color your hair and eyes are. The fact that you may dye your hair and wear tinted contacts may change the outer appearance but not the natural, intrinsic color you possess. So men also may go to great lengths to say they have changed the fundamental dispositions of their souls, but God's Word tells us they are incapable of such. As Jeremiah stated, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil" (Jeremiah 13:23). Only the Lord can remove the leprous, spotted covering of our sin from us. And only He can decide to do it in His sovereign time and grace.

J.I Packer, in an article entitled "Arminianism" from the fifth volume of the Puritan Papers, asks, "How can Arminiansm be cured? Only God can finally set men's heads right, just as only He can set our hearts right." May the Spirit of God set our heads right, for the wondrous truth of the gospel is that through it God Himself sets the sinner free. Heaven is the ultimate place where our minds and wills, completely freed from every lust and evil desire, will only want what God wants. We will will to give Him complete glory, and what thinking will accomplish it? Saying "Praise be to me, I chose Christ," or "Praise be to God, Christ chose me?" (See John 15:16 for the answer.)

There is some free willing worth proclaiming!

An Unapologetic Apologetic

Among all the threats and attacks on the gospel currently in the world, is there any more formidable than that posed by Islam? Whole nations lay under Islam's sway. Christians in lands such as Indonesia and Sudan are regularly persecuted and driven from their homes, while Muslims freely migrate and populate Western nations. Given that the birthrate among Muslim women tends to be double and triple that of those in the Western nations where Christianity has historically been strong, one wonders how these nations will look in the next few decades? Since the London bombings, Muslim clerics have become further emboldened to declare that the fault for these crimes lies not at the feet of the ones setting off the bombs or those who inspired their hatred, but the British government for supporting the war in Iraq. They are predicting more acts of this nature. If you are in the U.S. or Britain, you should feel a sense of a looming crisis coming our way.

George Grant believes the conflict of Islam is the greatest of the church's battles. The author of the book Blood of the Moon (Understanding The Historic Struggle Between Islam And Western Civilization), Grant posted this on his blog the day of the London bombings: "The reality is that the greatest human conflict of the past century has not been between Communism and Democracy. It has not been between Liberalism and Conservatism. It has not been between Socialism and Capitalism. It has not been between Rich and Poor, Proletariat and Bourgeoisie, Industrialism and Agrarianism, Nationalism and Colonialism, Management and Labor, First World and Third World, East and West, North and South, Allied and Axis, or NATO and Soviet....The most convulsive conflict of past century—and indeed, the most convulsive conflict of the past millennium—has undoubtedly been between Islam and Civilization; it has been between Islam and Freedom; it has been between Islam and Order; it has been between Islam and Progress; it has been between Islam and Hope; it has been between Islam and the Gospel. While every other conflict pitting men and nations against one another has inevitably waxed and waned, this furious struggle has remained all too constant. The tension between Islam and every aspiration and yearning of man intrudes on every issue, every discipline, every epoch, and every locale—a fact that is more evident today than perhaps ever before."

Yet perhaps what makes Islam particularly threatening to the gospel currently is the sympathy the faith of Mohammed enjoys. Even in the countries where Muslims have carried out terrorist activities, leaders such as Bush and Blair continue to maintain that Islam is a good and peaceful religion. How can one explain that while court decisions have removed Bibles from public schools and are removing the Ten Commandments from our public places, that same government can supply Korans to Islamic militants being held in Guantanamo Bay? How is that attendance at mosques is increasing in the U.S? Bottom line, why is Islam being looked more favorably upon in many quarters in our land than Christianity? It has to do with apologetics.

The science of defending the Christian faith is known as "apologetics." Apologetics comes from a Greek word that means "to speak on one's own behalf," such as the defense offered in a courtroom. Simply speaking, just as countries have failed to protect themselves from the bombs of the Muslims, all-in-all the church has failed to defend itself and promote the gospel against the Islamic insurgency. Though many others, the aforementioned George Grant being one of them, have much more to offer in way of apologetics against Islam than I, please allow me to stress here the need to practice apologetics within the Christian church. Islam is making great inroads in the West because professing believers, spending more time watching the evening news than reading their Bibles and history, do not see the true dangers of the religion of Mohammed. I offer the following apologetic point with the hope it may help some within the sleepy, evangelical church to awaken by shining some light on the darkness of the religion symbolized by a sliver of a moon. In my mind this point may be the only one that carries enough threat to awaken fellow Christians.

Remember, before, during and after the Crusades there was Jihad. If you have ever spoken to a Muslim who is trying to show you the superiority of Islam over Christianity, he will quickly bring up the Crusades as evidence of the church's hypocrisy in its abuse of Muslims. One only needs to consider the timing of the movie Kingdom of Heaven to see how the Islamic apologists have won the culture war here. Why did Hollywood produce a movie portraying the Crusades, the regrettable action of the Catholic church to take back militarily the Holy Land from the Muslim Turks in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, during a time that Muslims through the 9/11 attacks, Madrid and London bombings, Sudanese and Indonesian wholescale persecution of Christians, etc., are clearly the ones on a "jihad" or holy war? Don't hold your breath waiting for the movies showing the beginning of Islam.

We need to remind the people sitting in the pews that Islam began with tribes devoted to Mohammed warring against and defeating the inhabitants of Mecca in 630 A.D. This was then followed by waves of fierce Arabic warriors devoted to Mohammed sweeping into power over Christianized lands in all of Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe over the next century. In every place they conquered, the inhabitants were forced to recant the Christian faith and swear allegiance to Allah and his prophet Mohammed or face the sword (Note: My apologies for this misrepresentation - in some areas they spared you the sword and let you practice Christianity if you paid a tribute to Allah). Only the victory by Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D. prevented the complete conquest of Europe by the Muslims. So while we can acknowledge the abuses and misguided nature of the Crusades, let us remember that Islam began by jihad, and those following Mohammed 1400 years later continue it upon the "infidel" lands of our day.

Those in Western government and media who have kidded themselves into thinking that Islam is peace-loving and Muslims want democratic rule need to point to one nation where Muslims have been or are in power these past fourteen centuries and that has been the case. Think of it - in Iraq we are trying to force upon them by military might freedom of democratic rule, a political fruit that our largely Christian forefathers yearned for and bore. We may have swept out one demon in Iraq named Sadaam, but time will show that seven more wicked will go in and live there, and the last state of Iraq will be worse than the first (see Matthew 12:45). Surely many individual Muslim citizens exist that are not terrorists, but as the "nice laddies" who blew up subways in London showed, Islam as a worldview is an oppressive and violence-spawning religion. "By their fruits you shall know them," the Lord said.

The average American Christian needs to wake up, for not a movie but a war is coming to a neighborhood near you unless God intervenes. George Grant predicts in the same blog article cited above that unless something miraculous happens, what took place in London will become a common occurrence in Dallas, Atlanta or Chicago. How many more suicide bombers have to kill our troops, or will have to explode in our neighborhoods, before we recognize this truth about Islam?

In another attempt to get your attention, one glorious day we will see the Lord Jesus Christ cast the false prophet Mohammed, who dared deny the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord, into Hell where he will burn in torment forever. If that thought does not absolutely delight you but rather offends your interfaith sensibilities, I cannot apologize but merely point out that it proves you have already been lost in the apologetics war. Go read Psalm 139:19-24 over and over again until you can truly pray and sing it sincerely. I just hope it does not take someone you love sizzling in a terrorist (i.e. Islamic) attack to get you to do it. Until the Christian church starts praying with far more earnestness for Islam's absolute demise, the crescent moon will continue to rise.

The Night Dad Died

Note: Recently I drove past the hospital where my father had died. I realized that the day was the seventeenth anniversary of his death. My mother, who has yet to recover from the loss of my father, was in the car with me. Thoughts such as these whirled through my mind.

The night Dad was to die,
He was hundreds of miles from me away,
And so did my childhood then seem.
With memories already fading like a dream,
We jumped in the car and drove all day,
Reaching the night Dad was to die.

The night Dad was dying,
I arrived as he was taking life's last breaths,
The one who had seen me take my first.
Each of us seeing in the other the pain of the curse,
That life is just a gasp, and then comes death,
Grieving the night Dad was dying.

The night Dad lay dying,
His earthen hand in mine began to yield,
When, with sudden grasp, concern for my infant son arose.
Later, with tiny hand 'round my finger wrapped, "How," I pose,
"Quickly death follows on birth's heels,"
Pondering the night Dad lay dying.

The night death came to Dad,
He struggled to speak his love for me,
A body broken the key to a long-closed heart.
How his words tore me apart,
Bringing forth tears so hot, so free,
Feeling the night death came to Dad.

The night Dad died,
His departing soul touched mine,
Impressing upon me the mortal that I am.
Putting in me the longing for the land
Where I will be, by promise divine,
Forgetting the night Dad died.