Every Journey Has a Story - An Introduction (Part 3 of 5)

 

I hope you’re starting to see why I have been filled with trepidation concerning the writing of what was to be a book and is now a blog. The fear is not concerning retribution towards me. It's not because of approaching enemies of the country in which I live. It's not a simple fear, either, like having monsters under the bed. It’s about being a poor example of a slave for Almighty God. Yes, I use the word "slave" because that's the word the Bible uses in so many cases (although our English translations steer away from it for obvious reasons). Like the prodigal son, I don’t feel worthy of even being God’s hired servant or slave, let alone His child (cf. Luke 15:11-32).

However, in the last two to three years, there are two things I’ve learned in diving back into the Words of Jesus. First, God is not in the business of making us happy in the way many preachers explain it to us (more on this later), although happiness in God can be a great and uplifting reality in the life of a believer. Second, I feel like I am the last person on Earth who should be writing this, explaining to others how to live for God. I truly and fully understand now what Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:12-17:

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now, to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen (emphasis added).

The worst of sinners.

If Paul thought that way about himself, because he was an accomplice to murder (cf. Acts 7:54-8:1a) and helped hunt down Christians as an overzealous Pharisee (cf. Philippians 3:6), what does that make me? For over twenty years, a lover of church ministry but not the God of the church? A lover of the promises of scripture, but not the God of the promises? A lover of the gifts from heaven, but not the Heavenly Gift-Giver?

A Pharisee in Christian clothing, to be sure.

Oh, the absurdity.

It is with tears of remorse that I struggle to jot down these words, for I feel I am the worst example of a mouthpiece for God ever created. I understand now how Moses felt. I always viewed that passage in Exodus, chapters 3 and 4, as a prime example of disobedience to be avoided. Now, I see it equally as an example of humility and shame. Afraid you’re not good enough to be used by God because of what a wretch you’ve been. Moses murdered an Egyptian with his bare hands. I had led people wrongly and helped row the church further away from mercy’s shore by not leading the church God’s way. And I did that when I was a “believer”! At least Moses and Paul committed their crimes before they were “saved.”

Conversely, it is also with tears of joy that I write these words as well. For if I’ve learned one other thing, it is that God never gives up on us, and He’ll help you get back on shore. Like Paul said, he gloried in being a “fool” so that “Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”

My life may not be the same as it could have been —because of all the wasted years—had I chosen His path and stayed on it. Moses never got to step foot into the Promised Land because of choices he made (Deut. 34), and I realize I may never experience all that God had in store for me as well. However, for the years I do have left, they can be rewarding, even miraculous. If I abide in Jesus (cf. John 15:4-8).

The same can be true of you as well.

* * *

Thought for This Week:

Do you feel insufficient as a believer? Even unworthy? The Bible is filled with pitiful and inadequate servants, and that’s really how God likes it. He uses the foolish and the unwise, Paul says, to confuse the wise and prove them to be foolish (1 Cor. 1:18-2:16). Of course, we are “foolish” and “unwise” in the eyes of the world, not God. We are viewed that way because of what we believe, and in Whom we believe.

The sad part, in this day and age, is that this “foolishness” and “ignorance” the world sees in us is not solely because of God and His Word. It is largely because of “what else” we believe and espouse. What we have added to the gospel, to God’s Word, and the life of the church in general is foreign to the message of Christ. We’ll talk more about this as the blog posts progress, but please be certain what you preach is Biblical. Be certain that what you profess can be found in God’s Word.

Paul professed to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). You can’t go wrong when Jesus is the focal point, and we aren’t.

 

NEXT WEEK:

We’ll look at a couple of other reasons I write this blog with fear and trembling that help set the stage for the rest of the blog series.

Picture(s) courtesy of  Pexels and the following photographer(s)s:

"Man" by Daniel Reche

 

 

Every Journey Has A Story - An Introduction (Part 2 of 5)

I mentioned in last week’s post that I was in love with ministry, admired the teachings of Jesus, and adored the love of learning. My knowledge had caused my heart to swell with “Biblical pride.” These things made me fall in love with the promise of Salvation, with the prospect of Heaven. The fact that I could be a pastor proclaiming the gospel, teaching others to love God’s Word, helping to build His church, was the ultimate goal.

If you’re like most believers today, you’re probably wondering, “What’s wrong with all that?”

So many other pastors were doing the same thing, and I was encouraged to emulate their walk. Strive for their success. A certain pastor would come up with a new way of growing his church. Subsequently, a book would come out, and we would buy it or be given it by our denominational leaders as we all tried to apply that method to our body of believers, hoping for equal, spiritual transference of God’s blessing and a subsequent, similar success, if not more. Let’s face it, if we are truly honest, nobody wants to have the thirtieth largest church in America when you can have the largest (which is another Americanized version of Christianity: Be the best, the biggest, and the most popular).

I eventually fell more and more in love with the idea of pastoral success because that was the ultimate validation. Success was measured in terms of how big a church was—the number of people in attendance, baptisms, people claiming to have been saved, new members, etc.

Questions like these became the driving focus: “Did the data show any trends upon which your leadership team could capitalize? Are there any negative trends that need to be addressed and fixed?”  

Sadly, the church leadership’s emphasis on the Bible and theology took second-place to the books on management and church leadership. Becoming the CEO of your church was touted as being more fruitful than being a pastor-teacher. How you ran your “company” became part of the spiritual litmus test, and to help track success or failure, we counted people and reported those numbers to the learned and wise “higher up the food chain,” as it were. The trail had been blazed for us. Famous preachers and church leaders were leaving the pulpit to start companies, aimed at raising up leaders for the twenty-first century church, and they quickly became the darlings of both the Church and secular organizations.

My preaching was true to God’s Word, so I thought. And even though my church was not “mega” in any way, shape, or form, I was in love with the “what if” of the mega-future.

Therefore, I endeavored to implement some of the ways of the “successful” pastors, hoping one of those methods would be fruitful and multiply beyond anything I could imagine.

And it was going to have to be extremely fruitful, because I could imagine quite a bit.

Of course, as you know, we Americans are big on setting goals and accomplishing them. For me, there was no bigger goal than “getting to heaven” and hearing the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” and I thought, as a pastor, you heard those words by having a “megachurch,” being a best-selling author, having your own radio and/or TV show.

The American dream, Gospel-style.                                      

Or maybe, the Gospel dream, American style.

Either way, oh, the arrogance.

In my desire to be “that pastor,” I felt the continual, internal, eternal struggle. It had always been there but was suppressed by years of being the good little Christian soldier. I wrestled with influences that came across my path, particularly those from within the body of Christ, like the Church Growth Movement of the ’80s and ’90s, the Jesus Seminar, the Health and Wealth gospel, and the rise of the occult being accepted and mainstreamed into the Church at large.

By this time in my life, I had changed congregations after college and seminary, having moved from New York to Mississippi to Iowa in the process. The latest church I was pastoring wasn’t full, either, so after years of struggling to resolve this issue, I concluded that the lack of results were obviously my fault.

I was right, of course, but instead of going back to my child-like faith, seeking God and Him alone, dwelling in His Holy Temple, taking refuge in God, my stronghold, and gazing upon His beauty (cf. Psalm 27), I did what any good little American pastor would do. I thrust myself into more Bible study and more reading of books, even those about church growth (to my chagrin), looking for that key that would unlock my church’s doors and allow God’s harvest to pour into the “heavenly silos.”

I didn’t want to miss out on what God was “obviously” doing in other places. I mean, those churches were exploding. My little pocket of Christianity? Not so much. People weren’t flocking to hear my messages. Yet, they were flocking to those churches and those pastors, thus, I was encouraged to emulate their ways.

In my mind in those days, and many others, exploding churches equaled God’s anointing. The Book of Acts, chapters 2-4 specifically, were oft-quoted chapters as biblical evidence of the divine multiplication of heaven. The churches in Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea were referenced as examples of what happened when the current, popular, church growth methodology was overlooked or dismissed by those reluctant to “get with the program.” That’s what the church growth movement taught. And I can say now, and shamefully so, that I eventually believed it. More so than I believed the Bible’s words in red.

Teachings that shaped and challenged my thinking came from people I trusted instead of my Lord Jesus. I thought, “If they are successful at this ‘pastoring thing,’ then maybe I should listen to them, model them, follow their ways…to an extent, of course.” I also had to make it my own, you know? Allow God to use my “style” to show how He can work through anybody. And then, of course, I would boast about it, in a “humble manner,” so I could possibly get one of those book deals.

Oh, the folly.

My efforts to be a major player in helping “build the Church” were nothing more than vain pursuits, however. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He would build His Church. I and countless others had lost sight of that monumental truth. If our efforts are not aligned with Jesus’s blueprints, all we build is a house on sand (Matthew 7:26-27). It won’t stand, regardless of testimony of the church growth experts.

* * *

Thought for This Week:

How does your church “do church”? Is it elevating God to His rightful place? Or is making Church comfortable for the “seekers” its primary goal?

I saw a t-shirt not too long ago that said “God is Dope.” In our current, hip-hop culture, “dope” means “cool.” Those who grew up in the ’70s would have a much different understanding of that phrase, however. 

Are we more concerned with conforming God to the culture, or having the culture conform to God? That’s really the question we must ask ourselves whenever we reach out to the lost, start a church program, slap a bumper sticker on our car, or whatever it is we do in the name of Christ. Culture must conform to God and His Word. This includes the culture inside the Church as well. We are not to conform any longer to the patterns of this world, according to Paul (Romans 12:1-2). When we try to “fit into the culture” while attempting to remain “Christian” at the same time, we turn Paul’s words on their head and make “culture” king. When we do this, culture then dictates to us how we should live and how we should preach. Instead, God’s Word should dictate that.

Culture cannot be our “king.” Popularity cannot be our “king.” We cannot attempt to marry an evil culture to Christianity, and thus serve two masters. Jesus said that never works out well for the slave.  (Matthew 6:24; cf. Luke 16:13).

NEXT WEEK:

We will continue with Part 3 of this “chapter,” and look at how we can get back on shore.

Pictures courtesy of  Pexels and the following photographers:

"People Worshiping" by Josh Sorenson

"Bible" by Johnmark Smith

 

      

Every Journey Has a Story - An Introduction (Part 1 of 5)

It is with fear and trepidation that I write this blog. Not the kind that makes your knees buckle and your lip quiver at the sight of an advancing army. Not the kind that causes you to hide under your covers at the thought of monsters lurking beneath your bed. It’s the kind that comes from a humble servant, realizing with ever-increasing awareness that he is standing on the holy ground of his King.

And his shoes are still on, which is a sacred mistake.

Although I have since removed my shoes, as it were, and have fallen to my knees, and then to my face, I feel the trembling in my limbs. I feel the rush of adrenaline as my situation is as real as reality can ever get. Even though they are closed, pinched shut actually, it is as if my eyes are being opened again for the first time.

I once knelt before God as I do now. Many years ago. Why I ever chose to get up, put my shoes back on, and walk down the side of the mountain, believing God was directing my path is a sad mystery to me. Why I didn’t remain in His presence in those early days is a regret with which I now have to live.

Forgive me, Almighty Father, for the years I have wasted.

There are several reasons why I feel this way.  However, the main reason is rooted in my personal relationship with Almighty God. The truths contained in these posts are truths I believe the Holy Spirit was teaching me years ago as a new believer. I had that child-like faith we all long to keep. I took God at His Word. I just believed His Word. If anyone argued against it, they were wrong. If any system of belief attempted to usurp the Word of God’s authority and believed itself to be a better way, it was to be shunned. If any human platitudes or self-help gurus were touted as the equivalent of the Paraclete, to come alongside God’s Word and help “make it better” or accomplish more by adding to it, they were to be analyzed through the lens of God’s Word so their falsehoods could be exposed.

As the years progressed and I felt God’s call on my life to join the ranks of pastoral ministry, I did what I had to do: I went to college and studied scripture, among the other subjects needed, to acquire my Bachelor’s degree in Bible, along with a minor in theology. I did all this while shepherding a small country church in the middle of a large tract of state land with my wife and our then two small children. Daughter number three would come along later, three years into my four-year college student-slash-pastor experience.

I look back now and recognize how I drifted away from Him. It was a slow drift, mind you. Caught on the currents of life, like a raft on the sea. Just a mere hundred feet off the shore in the beginning, like so many other rafts around me in those days, I could see land plainly. I had an anchor. I had oars. I even had a compass. What I didn’t notice, though, was how my anchor dragged along the sandy bottom of those shallow and non-threatening waters. I never noticed how far down the coast I had traveled in those four years. Before long, the shoreline was nothing but a speck, but I wasn’t afraid. I knew there were other lands to explore. Other lands to conquer. More knowledge to obtain.

♪ For the Christian liberal arts college tells me so. ♪

Oh, the ignorance.

I followed man’s ways of becoming “Godly.” That’s never a good thing. The system of higher learning has its flaws, as one would expect. Many pastoral leaders wishing to follow in the footsteps of Jesus have to acquire debt to earn their degrees in order to be ordained. In many of these cases, a liberal arts format is used in the acquisition of a bachelor’s degree. Classes on subjects unrelated to the Bible, like “Literature of the Western World,” for example, cover many writings, few of which have much to do with scripture or anything righteous, for that matter. Other classes, ticking the boxes of the liberal arts requirements, like three credit hours of “Modern Math” (which never used a number, only symbols) and “Music Theory” seem innocuous enough. As a result, time and money is spent, all in the name of a well-rounded, “liberal arts education.”

Now, just so we are clear, I’m not advocating the dissolution of the college and university systems, nor am I bashing them, per se. I’m also not beginning an “anti-intellectual” diatribe, urging everyone to run away from “learnedness” and stop earning various degrees from said colleges and universities. I actually learned a great deal going through the process. One of the things I value the most was how the college I attended taught a person “how to learn,” which was not a skill taught much in the K-12 public school system of my day.

I’m simply asking this: Are these systems God’s way of training pastors and leaders for His Church, or are they the world’s way of training, jammed to fit into God’s way (or maybe it’s vice versa), like the proverbial square peg in a round hole?

Prodded by my desire to know more about God’s Word, and how this world interacts with it, the lure of education encouraged us to climb the ladder, literally, by degrees. Of course, in such a system, why would it not? The world tends to listen to “Doctor So-and-so” much more willingly than someone who only has a high school diploma or even a bachelor’s degree.

The Church is no different. We like our “rock stars” too.

Having said that, I understand that in certain areas, having the extra training and letters behind one’s name is important, even comforting. The field of medicine is one such area. Very few people, if any, wish to allow just anyone to operate on them. They want the best. They want someone who has spent the time studying in that area. And more importantly, that doctor had better possess a Doctor of Medicine degree. If he or she is a “specialist,” so much the better.

Unfortunately, we translate that philosophical reasoning to all fields, believing someone with a doctorate has more to say than someone with a lesser degree or no degree at all, particularly when it comes to that word being “authoritative.” Yet, in so many cases, this simply is not so. The degree doesn’t make one worthy, and having an “education” doesn’t always bode well in every field. We see it all the time. We wonder “how that person ever got the job,” or why “that person hasn’t been fired yet,” due to incompetency, despite their learnedness. It’s the “Peter Principle” coming to life before our very eyes.¹

Interestingly, things really haven’t changed that much over the centuries. In the days of Jesus, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, the scribes, and ruling religious groups called the Pharisees and Sadducees would have been the “D.Mins” in pastoral ministry and the “Ph.Ds” in religion and theology. They were the experts on the Old Testament, and they wrote the “books” on religious living for the people of Israel, called the Talmud and the Mishnah.

Jesus, on the other hand? All He had was a diploma from Nazareth Technical High School, specializing in carpentry.

Hence, the arrogance of the teachers of the law and the chief priests that we see in scripture. How dare a hayseed from a town where no good can come challenge the learned and wise teachers of Israel (cf. John 1:46)?

The teachers of the law and the chief priests thought their religious status, their religious education, and their religious upbringing somehow etched a special standing in God’s list of chosen people. It is evident in many of the dealings they had with Jesus throughout the four gospel accounts.

I know a little of this because I once believed as those teachers of the law and chief priests did. So much so, that I chased the Americanized version of this educational dream too. I allowed influences to steer me away from what I knew in my heart to be true and right concerning God’s Word. To lure me, away from what I know now was terra firma—a terra firma in which God planted me—and into that raft I mentioned earlier. I willingly uprooted myself to get in the raft with the oars and compass of learning. A raft with no captain because God wasn’t in those plans. Instead, they were plans designed to follow a path that all good Christian pastors are supposed to follow.  Plans to go to seminary. Get more education. Learn more about culture. Learn more Hebrew and Greek. Understand more theology. It all sounded biblical. It all sounded right. It all was approved by every denominational headquarters in the land. So, how could I go wrong?

I’ll tell you how.

I had supplanted my love for God with a different kind of love. I was in love with ministry. And the idea of ministry. In love with serving others. I was also in love with the teachings of Jesus. And the truths they contained. Additionally, I was in love with learning. The knowledge I had acquired made my heart swell with “Biblical pride” (which I know is an oxymoron, for sure, but we have it more than we care to admit). These things made me fall in love with the promise of Salvation, with the prospect of Heaven. The fact that I could be a pastor proclaiming the gospel, teaching others to love God’s Word, helping to build His church, was the ultimate goal. I know it all sounds good on paper, but without a proper focus, even the best cameras in the world only take fuzzy photos.

* * *

Thought for This Week:

Have you ever supplanted God with anything? Or anyone? It didn’t have to be a rebellious, God-hating, anti-Christ action on your part, like bowing down to Baal or rejecting Christ in front of a crowd. It could have been a very well-intended, “godly” endeavor that looks like anything you’d find in a body of believers today. Subtlety is one of Satan’s best weapons. He uses it against everybody. He can take the best God has to offer and twist it into something damning (cf. Gen. 3). He can make something ungodly seem very holy (like false religion, for example). He can make something holy seem perverted or out of touch with society (like circumcision or attending church, for example). He’s in the business of lies and confusion because it is his very nature (John 8:42-47)

Regardless of the intent of our hearts, however, if the thing or the person takes the place of God, then you’ve broken the very first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;…” (Exodus 20:3-5a). 

It can be very subtle. It can even be applauded by folks who attend church. It can look, smell, taste, sound, and feel very Godly. However, Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:13-14 and 7:21-23. There will be many who think they are “on the straight and narrow.” However, they will be unrecognized by Jesus, and their good deeds will be rejected. Why? Because their relationship with God is all wrong. Somewhere, in the path they chose, they took a wrong turn. They looked at the wrong map.

Broad Road?

 

Narrow Road?

Which one are you traveling? Is your life right with God in every aspect? Or have you fallen prey to one of Satan’s subtleties? Examine your path. Examine God’s Word. Seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). You do not want to be one of the “evil doers,” one of the “workers of lawlessness,” mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 7:23. If you hear those words, it will be too late to change the outcome. 

NEXT WEEK:

We will continue with this “chapter” and examine our thoughts on how we “do church.”

 

_________________________________________________

 

ENDNOTES

 

¹ “The Peter Principle,” a theory and 1969 book by the same title was put forth by Canadian sociologist Laurence J. Peter, who claims that people in an organization are promoted up the proverbial ladder, based on their success and competence in a previous position. However, as they move up the rungs, they eventually reach a position for which they are not suited, thus they become incompetent, and in many cases, remain there because they are not able to continue the climb toward the top of their field. Therefore, the Peter Principle dictates that at some point, unless employees vacate their positions within the organization making way for others to climb, the entire organization will be run by a bunch of incompetent people who have maxed out at their job.  

Pictures courtesy of  Pixabay and the following photographers:

"Man Praying" by JKitchen.org

"Jesus Teaching in the Temple" by Algemeiner.com

"Broad Road" by Islandworks

"Narrow Road" by Tama66