Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving holiday was good. Time at the ranch in Kerrville with my extended family, some of which I hadn't seen in years. Watching my kids run up and down the Hill Country with their plastic rifles acting like they were the new sheriffs in town. Feeling the chilly breeze of a good northerner and seeing the tall grass shudder in concert with every gust. Hanging out with my wife and not having to mess with cleaning the dishes, leaving for work or the other things that take away from being with her. Getting home safely after driving in flash flood rains for three hours straight after San Antonio. (By the way, thank you Lord for the state car of Texas - I love suburbans!) Did I mention that Thanksgiving was a good holiday?

And yes...my wife is hot. ;)

Expulsive Power

"The love of God, and the love of the world, are two affections, not merely in a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity, and that so irreconcilable that they can not dwell together in the same bosom. [It is impossible] for the heart, by any innate elasticity of its own, to cast the world away from it… the only way to dispossess it of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one."
- "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection", a sermon by Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847)

These sentences are so pregnant with the truth many churches need to heed today. Being at a seeker-targeted church we've had more than our share of criticism that fellowships of our ilk water down the truth and distance people from true transformation because teaching is predicated on giving people what they want to hear...which is usually not the biblical Gospel. Unfortunately, I think those who've painted seeker-targeted churches with such broad strokes have missed at more than what they've hit - but that's grist for another mill.

With that being said, I believe our pastor-teachers try very hard to make sure we aren't giving our people the "new law" of moralism or trying to paint for them a Christianity which is simply a God-approved upgrade in the American Dream. On the contrary, we vigorously aim to hit the Gospel-mark. We have no choice! I've seen the emptiness of Dr. Phil-esque approaches churches take to life change. I've watched how people will sizzle with excitement of learning three practical ways to change only to fizzle mere weeks later when there is no power behind their ephemeral, consumer-crippled motivations. Thus we call upon all to discover a power which can give a man a new love and new loves. We exhort all to turn to the expulsive power of the Gospel.

So I thank God for recently running across the soul-mending words of the old Scottish divine Thomas Chalmers. They are a good reminder that for those who find themselves hard pressed with worldly infirmities, there is no true medicine which can be found but in Christ's Gospel-provisions. They are also a shot across the bow to all pastors who seek to take others down other paths hewn by the hands of men when only one road to real, expulsive power life change can be found.

“Yeah, I know, I know...Repent.” [Sigh]

Want to bum people out who come to you for spiritual guidance when they have sin in their life which becomes a barrier to their spiritual growth? Tell them they should rid themselves of those sins by turning away from them and strive to follow Jesus. That’s right, call them to repent.

Do that and I can almost guarantee you won’t be the “cool’ pastor in their eyes anymore. It happened to me this week. I spoke with a guy who stumbled into our church and asked if I (and a few others) would pray over him and ask God to “pop” him with the Holy Spirit. “I really need a strong one,” he told me. Apparently he wanted some of the pastors to pray over him and be “slain in the Spirit” or be delivered from the demonic because his life had gone south and he wanted God to intervene. In the past I probably would’ve strategically suggested he try a different type of church but I felt the need to spend more time with him to get to the bottom of where he was coming from.

A lengthy dialogue revealed some serious pockets of rebellion in his life, areas he knew to be wrong but didn’t really want to give up. It was at that point I humbly suggested that in order for him to find greater “deliverance” in his life he needed to turn from those sins which were seriously quenching his spiritual life. I’m not sure that was the answer he was looking for.

Frankly, he wanted something much more “sexy” – some kind of supernatural quick fix that demanded more of God than him. He wanted something to happen to him that would let him see how high the Holy Spirit caused him to jump, but he was much less concerned with the Holy Spirit’s work in how straight he should walk when he hit the ground. I have a feeling he didn’t recommend me to many of his friends because the only guidance I really gave him, outside of connecting with fellow believers for strength, was to repent. Needless to say, he was rather nonplussed by the suggestion. Each time I would call him to repentance he would try to coax me into another route – cast out a demon, slay him in the Spirit, etc., and each time I would give him the same answer.

“I know. Don’t tell me. Repent.” His head buried in his hands.

Sensing his frustration I tried to let him know that I wasn’t trying to be naïve to his situation or calloused to his story, but based on what he had told me, repentance seemed to me the most appropriate path for him to walk. And to each call to repentance he’d reply, “But…” You can fill in the blank. It doesn’t matter, the answer is still the same, “But I still want to do what I have been doing.”

I’ve come to see in the pastoral part of ministry that repentance is the great equalizer. It takes on all who want spiritual guidance and separates the contenders from the pretenders by exposing those who really want to change from those who just want you to do it for them.

Touchdown! (The Other Kind)

Thanks for those of you who prayed for the STS-120 flight. Discovery landed at 12:00PM (CST). The mission lasted 15 days, 2 hours, 24 minutes and 2 seconds. We can't wait to get the skinny from our boys Doug and George on the trip many considered the most aggressive and difficult in recent Shuttle history.

Bella - It's a "Beautiful" Thing

This evening I watched Bella. It is a movie shot in twenty-four days and with a cost of a measly $3 million. However, not only did it have all the trimmings of a regular feature film you would see on any given weekend but it beautifully dealt with issues of substance...and from a robustly biblical viewpoint. I won't tell you the story of Bella, you need to see it for yourself.

I mention the movie because in seeing it I was reminded about how people of faith can make significant contributions to culture that doesn't cheaply imitate secular counterparts (e.g., much contemporary Christian music) but submits original, artistic and God-honoring creations. Bella even won the prestigious People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Not too shabby.

But for as much of a gem this movie is, it lives in rarefied air. All too often some of the best movies dealing with themes (redemption, struggle, meaning, etc.) important to Followers of Jesus are created by those who, if not placing themselves on the outside of Christianity, dangerously tread its periphery. Oh what a world it might be if Christians, once again, led the way in literature, painting, drama and other spheres of art!

Thanks to the creators of Bella reminding us that the arts, like everything else, can...and should bring glory to God.