Winning Ways: Part of a Complete Sunday

If you grew up on Saturday morning cartoons, there’s a phrase burned into your memory: “Part of this complete breakfast.”

In between episodes of HR Pufnstuf (“He’s your friend when things get rough”), cereal companies pushed sugar-coated wonder foods such as Cocoa Puffs and Trix and Capn Crunch. Before the commercials ended, however, a glass of orange juice, a plate of toast, a pitcher of milk, and some slices of fruit surrounded that glorious cereal. Their product, the commercials told us, was “part of this complete breakfast.”

The entire commercial may have focused on the favorite cereal of a cuckoo bird or a silly rabbit or a befuddled captain, but the last line of the spot reminded us that their cereal was not meant to stand alone.

At Hillcrest, we work hard to plan a meaningful worship service every week, but it’s not meant to stand alone. In addition to what happens in the auditorium, you need to connect with a small group. It’s “part of a complete Sunday.”

For an hour after our worship service, people in your age-range gather to build friendships around Bible study. At Hillcrest, we have two options for these small group experiences:

Sunday School is a curriculum-based Bible study. You are given a booklet containing 3 months of lessons, and each week you're encouraged to read a lesson before attending class. In class, a trained teacher will take you through the material.

Common Ground is a sermon-based Bible study where participants use a written guide to discuss the sermon they just heard.

This April we’re turning the spotlight on small groups with a "Step Up Campaign." It's very simple: Whatever your habit has been with a small group, "step up" in April:

If you haven't been attending at all, come one Sunday.

If you tend to come to your small group a couple of Sundays a month, come three in April.

If you're normally here every week, then "step up" by bringing someone with you.

The youth and children will be encouraged to "step up" in April, too. If you're a parent, you'll want to see Steve and Karen's newsletter columns for more information.

We consider our Sunday morning schedule to be one program in two locations: the auditorium, and then your small group. Each element is part of a complete Sunday!

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 27

Harlem churches see gospel tourist boom on Sundays

 

Cat survives 19-story fall. Yeah, but the dog will just try again.

 

Henry Shrapnel is remembered for his anti-personnel weapon. What will you be remembered for?

 

"Effective World Government Will Be Needed to Stave Off Climate Catastrophe." What could go wrong? We miss you, Michael Crichton, because it sure makes me uneasy when scientists start entertaining such thoughts.

 

Here's an invention that turns household garbage into gas for heating, cooking, and even generating electricity.

 

Playing in the dirt and mud as a kid can protect you later from allergies and germs.

 

Kathleen McAuliffe of The Atlantic has a fascinating article about infectious agents that seem to direct the behavior of their hosts to activity that ensures the pathogen's continued survival. Could it be?

 

Print your own prosthetic limb: 3-D printing is on its way.

 

"Building a bridge to the Muslim community has nothing to do with compromising your beliefs. It’s all about your behavior and your attitude toward them. It’s about genuinely loving people. … Before people trust Jesus they must trust you. You cannot win your enemies to Christ, only your friends. … Besides, it is Christ like to treat all people with dignity and listen to them with respect.” Rick Warren.

 

"A punk rocker and a former Marine reflect the spectrum of backgrounds among the International Mission Board's newest missionaries. The former punk rock skateboarder, who once told his parents "God was a joke," began reading the New Testament and "was blown away by Jesus." He and his wife are headed to East Asia. The former Marine, during a deployment in the Mideast, remembers that people "just had absolutely no hope. I could just see it on their faces, I could just hear it in their voices and in their lifestyle…." The former Marine now is returning to the Mideast as a Southern Baptist worker." (Story Here)

 

This church had its heart stolen. If you're a church leader looking for an offbeat way to illustrate your church's mission, vision, or values (i.e, it's "heart"), well, you're welcome.

 

 

 

 

Great Stories About Not-So-Great People

"How can you believe the offensive Old Testament stories of God's prophets are true? Lot's daughters getting him drunk and having sex with him, Jacob tricking his father, and David committing adultery and then having the woman's husband killed? We reject these stories."

It was a good question, and I hope I answered well.

Diane and I had a wonderful lunch with a Muslim family today. We enjoyed Iraqi dishes and courteous hospitality. The four of us also asked each other questions about Christianity and Islam.

You probably know that many of the prophets and principal figures that are highly regarded in the Bible are also highly regarded in Islam. But Muslims believe the Bible has been altered in many places, and one way they believe it has been altered is where the Bible reports unflattering stories of the key figures. They believe no one used by God would succumb to such unseemliness.

As I said, I hope I answered well. I suggested the couple consider three things.

One: We believe the reported behavior is unseemly as well. In fact, the Bible presents it as tragic. The stories aren't like modern-day racy "romance" novels, told with a sort of breathless excitement while pretending to be scandalized. No, right is right and wrong is wrong, and the Bible often includes the serious consequences to the horrid choices.

Two: We believe that the Bible is the story of God, not the story of men. In other words, the story we find in the Bible is a story of a God who is so great and good that he can even use not-so-great and not-so-good people to accomplish his purposes. For that matter, if he refused the flawed tools in his toolshed, what else would he have to work with? We're all flawed. Jesus said that lust in the heart was as bad as adultery (David's sin). And Jesus said hatred in the heart was as bad as murder (Moses' sin). God is great and gracious, and seeing David's restoration following the sin of adultery gives hope that God's grace can cover the "lesser" sin of lust.

Three: Speaking of grace, that's what these stories ultimately point to. They show us that we need another one greater than Moses, more consistent than David, and more honorable than even Abraham. "All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53). "All...each one." That includes David and Noah and you and me. So, what did the Lord do? He "laid on him the iniquity of us all." On whom? On Jesus, the one who lived more righteously than all but bore--so that he might bear away--the sins of all who would trust in him.

The conversation wasn't a monologue like this. But in the give and take of the visit, I wanted to make these three things famous. Any day I get to do that is a good day.

 

Posted with Blogsy

“What a book the Bible is, what a miracle, what strength is given with it to man”

 

Good heavens, what a book it is, and what lessons there are in it! What a book the Bible is, what a miracle, what strength is given with it to man. It is like a mold cast of the world and man and human nature, everything is there, and a law for everything for all the ages. And what mysteries are solved and revealed....

Fathers and teachers, forgive me and don’t be angry that like a little child I’ve been babbling on what you know from long ago and can teach me a hundred times more skillfully. I only speak from rapture, and forgive my tears, for I love the Bible. Let him too weep, the priest of God, and be sure that the hearts of his listeners will throb in response. Only a little tiny seed is needed--drop it into the heart of the peasant and it won’t die, it will live in his soul all his life, it will be hidden in the midst of his darkness and sin, like a bright spot, like a great reminder. And there’s no need of much teaching or explanation; he will understand it all simply…

The people are lost without the word of God, for their soul is athirst for the Word and for all that is good.

Father Zossima, from The Brothers Karamazov, Book VI “The Russian Monk,” Chapter 1 “Father Zossima and His Visitors.”

LeaderLines: How’s Your Influence?

Today’s LeaderLines will be my last for a couple of months. I’ve added some extra responsibilities to an already-packed schedule, and I’ll need to lay aside LeaderLines temporarily. It will return to your inbox in a few months!

________________

Whatever role you play at Hillcrest, you’re influencing someone. Hopefully your influence goes the direction of the salesman I read about.

There’s the story of a country boy who was hired for a salesman’s job at a city department store. It was one of those massive stores that had every department imaginable.

The boss said, “You can start tomorrow, Friday morning, and I’ll come and see you when we close up.”

When the boss saw the young man the next day at closing time, he saw him shaking hands with a beaming customer. After they parted, he walked over and asked, “Well, that looked good! How many sales did you make today?”

“That was the only one,” said the young salesman.

“Only one?” blurted the boss. “Most of my staff makes 20 or 30 sales a day. You’ll have to do better than that! How much was the sale worth?”

“$227,340 and change,” said the young man.

The boss paused for a moment, blinking a few times. “H . . . H . . . How did you manage that?”

“Well, when he came in this morning I sold him a small fish hook. Then, I sold him a medium hook, and then a really large hook. Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one, and then a big one. I then sold him a spear gun, a wetsuit, scuba gear, nets, chum, and coolers. I asked him where he was going fishing, and he said down the coast. We decided he would probably need a new boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that twenty-foot schooner with the twin engines. Then, he said that his Volkswagen probably wouldn’t be able to pull it, so I took him to the car department and sold him the new Deluxe Cruiser, with a winch, storage rack, rust proofing, and a built-in refrigerator. Oh, and floor mats.”

The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment, “You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook?”

“No,” answered the salesman. “He came in to buy a blanket.”

“A blanket?”

“Yeah, an extra blanket for the couch. He just had a fight with his wife. I said to him, ‘Well, your weekend’s ruined, so you may as well go fishing . . . .’”

Whatever role you play at Hillcrest, you’re influencing someone. You may not think of yourself as a salesperson, but you are. In large ways and small ways, you’re persuading other people at Hillcrest for better or for worse. You do it by the words you say, the level of interest you show, and the kind of example you set.

Because of you, people have decided to trust God instead of giving up. Because of you, people have decided to quit complaining and join the cause. Because of you, people have signed up as volunteers. Because of you, guests have become convinced that Hillcrest should be their church home.

Don’t underestimate the power of your influence. Wield some today!

_____________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

The Point of Old Testament Leviticus--and New Testament Discipleship

Here's a nice little summary of the Old Testament book of Leviticus. It would also serve as a nice little summary of the New Testament goal of discipleship (justification leading to sanctification). John Oswalt:

If God is to dwell among us--indeed, in us--two things must happen. (1) There must be a means of cleansing us from the accumulated guilt of the past. God cannot live in a filthy temple. That is what Leviticus 1-9 is about. (2) God's character mus somehow be replicated in us. As Amos says it, two cannot walk together unless they be agreed (Amos 3:3). That's what Leviticus 10-27 is about.

Oswalt is research professor of Old Testament at Wesley Biblical Seminary, Jackson, MS. From his NIV Application Commentary on Isaiah.

Winning Ways: Eyes Wide Open

Difficulties make us ask, "What am I going to do?" What we really need to be asking is, "What am I going to see?"

That's the point of a remarkable story in 2 Kings 6. It's also the point of our March 31 Men's Breakfast. Are you signed up?

In the Old Testament story, a servant to the prophet Elisha went outside one morning to find they were besieged by hostile forces.

"Don't be afraid," the prophet replied. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." When the servant looked outside again, the hills were full of supernatural "horses and chariots of fire all around."

As men, our first response to a problem is, "What should I do to fix this?" But figuring out the right thing to "do" comes second. Figuring out the right thing to "see" comes first. We need the confidence that God is with us to guide and empower us--and even fight for us. Any decisions we make without that assurance will be based on either fear or arrogance.

The theme of our Men's Breakfast is "Eyes Wide Open," and its based on this story in 2 Kings 6. If you need your eyes opened to what God has planned for you, don't miss this! We'll enjoy breakfast, worship, and plenty of fellowship from 8:00 a.m. to noon.

The getaway is for men and their sons. I'll leave it up to you to decide how young is too young for your sons to enjoy a retreat like this.

We're meeting at Wellspring Ranch near Blanco, about 80 minutes from the church. You can meet at Hillcrest at 6:30 a.m. and ride the bus. Or map the address in your smartphone (263 Big Sur Dr, Blanco, 78606). We'll e-mail the directions to everyone who signs up. Send an email to my assistant and let us know you're coming (jami@hbcaustin.org). Sign-up deadline is Wednesday, March 28. Cost is $10, payable at the retreat center.

Growing Pains of the Soul: This Sunday we'll conclude this two-month series with a message from Titus 2:11-14. The Bible tells us that the God who saved us from the penalty of sin stands ready to save us from the influence of sin. See you @ 10!

"We have experienced multiple golden ages, and they have not all looked alike"

Yuval Levin says that both conservatives and liberals look back at the two decades that followed World War II as a "golden age" our nation should try to return to. But, he says, that is not where American greatness really is:

There is much to mourn in the passing of that era, to be sure: The searing experiences of the Depression and the war had united Americans as perhaps nothing had done since the American Revolution, and the war and its aftermath (with all of our global competitors having burned each other’s economies to the ground while ours alone stood strong) made possible a series of economic booms that launched into being a broad middle class unlike anything the world had ever seen. Social trust, and faith in government, reached unprecedented heights, while a liberal but generally capacious and tolerant political consensus kept the temperature of our politics unusually low (except when it came to the question of race).

The result was the America of the 1950s and early ’60s: Marriage and childbearing rates were high, religious practice was strong, employment was generally plentiful and rewarding, and crime was low. It was a time of cultural cohesion, economic dynamism, and government activism all at once, and thus a time that both liberals and conservatives can look back to with approval....

All these descriptions of that era are a bit selective, of course, but they are not false. This was an America unlike any that had existed before the immediate postwar years, and unlike any we can expect to see again anytime soon. The left wants to re-create that America by re-creating the activist state and the powerful labor unions that characterized it, but this stands to make economic dynamism very difficult. The right wants to re-create it by re-creating the economic dynamism it achieved, but this stands to make social cohesion very difficult....

The fact is that the America of the immediate postwar years was made possible by an utterly unrepeatable set of circumstances, and setting out to re-create it is not a constructive objective for public policy. What we need to do, instead, is seek for ways to achieve broadly shared prosperity and cultural vitality today—to balance cohesion and dynamism in our own time, which is a time of great tension and change.

That this is hardly the first era of tension and change in our history...should send us looking for guidance in eras prior to the postwar golden age....In other times—in periods of social tension, economic upheaval, mass immigration, and cultural transformation—America’s founding virtues have been under immense strain. But time and again, we have found our way to national revival—cultural, moral, religious, social, political, and economic. We have experienced multiple golden ages, and they have not all looked alike.

Perhaps it is this extraordinary capacity for the renewal of our founding virtues, rather than the particular strength we possessed 50 years ago, that really makes America exceptional.

In Levin's review of Charles Murray's book, Coming Apart.

 

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 20

Why being less of a control freak may make you happier.

 

Studies show that we have a harder time remembering material we read on an e-reader than material we read in book form. A possible reason: "The more associations a particular memory can trigger, the more easily it tends to be recalled. Consequently, seemingly irrelevant factors like remembering whether you read something at the top or the bottom of page — or whether it was on the right or left hand side of a two-page spread or near a graphic — can help cement material in mind." I'm finding that, as I use my e-reader, I make up other associations in order to remember the material. But it's true that in many cases, even 20 years after I've read a book, I can pull it down from the shelf and eventually find the reference I'm looking for. While that's not possible with an e-reader, a few well-chosen words in the search engine of the reader will get me to the passage quickly.

 

Women are reading on e-readers books they'd never want to be caught with in print form. Now, think: If this were a story about men and porn, this article would have been written differently.

 

A former California legislator who now lives in Texas explains why Texas is doing so much better than Caifornia.

 

"The list of slights directed toward [the Baylor men's basketball program] goes on and on — for the players (undisciplined), the coaches (not skilled enough), the town (awful), Drew (unlikable, preachy, fake), the rumors and accusations (surely they cheat) … a list of complaints that seem to circulate despite, at least to my eyes, the fact they bear no semblance to what's there to see if you take a closer look." Bill Reiter of FS Southwest takes a closer look. Baylor men play their March Madness "Sweet 16" game this Friday against Xavier.

 

"Privacy advocates say that, for now, it is legal for a prospective employer, during a job interview, to insist that you log into your Facebook page and then click through your “friends only” posts, photos and messages" (Time).

 

The Atlantic examines the culture gap between the "red state" Boy Scouts and the "blue state" Girl Scouts.

 

Of Academic Respectability and "Biblicism"

Here's an article from Inside Higher Ed about the rising recognition of evangelicals in higher education. It was informative and unhelpful at the same time.

Informative, in that it provides its non-evangelical readers with an overview of the increasing "heft" of evangelical scholarship.

Unhelpful, in that it advises evangelicals to shed our "biblicism" if we want to be given any more respectability than we already have.

The idea of "inerrancy" is the bogeyman in this story. And, while the authors note the dangers should evangelicals move forward with looser doctrinal statements in fawning attempts to court worldly approval, in the end I can't see the authors advising anything other than exactly this. (It's always curious to see someone "note" the dangers in adopting his or her point, without suggesting concrete steps to avoiding such dangers should the point be adopted.)

But if evangelicals have begun to be recognized for serious academic scholarship despite what the authors call this burden of "biblicism," I think we'd do best to ignore the authors for their unnecessary advice on how to be more respectable.

Good Question! Did God Really Abandon Jesus on the Cross?

I have an occasional feature on this blog answering good questions sent to me (when I'm given permission to share the exchange). You can find previous entries here. Here is the latest "Good Question!"

Q: I have a question raised by you comment in Sunday's sermon that God abandoned Jesus on the cross so that we would not be abandoned. I understand the point you made but I was wondering if there is a specific scripture that supports this doctrine or if it is it based on several scriptures that when considered together support the doctrine.. We discussed this point in my Sunday School class Sunday following the sermon.

Is Jesus comment on the cross quoted by Matthew and Mark, "My God, My God,why have you forsaken me?", the scriptural support for your comment? I know that Jesus was quoting Psalms 22 where David posed the same question. The Jews present would have been familiar with this scripture but also would have known that God did not in reality abandon David it was just David who thought he had been abandoned.

A discussion of this point was a segue into a discussion of 1 Peter 3:18-20 concerning where Jesus' spirit was during the three days His body was in the tomb. The Apostles creed indicates He descending into Hell to preach to those who "formerly did not obey". We were wondering what your take is on this verse.

Our lesson for the day was from Deuteronomy 27 to 30 but mostly we discussed the points posed above. your thoughts will be appreciated.

My reply:

Interesting discussion!

The abandonment of the Sin-Bearer is a separate issue from the 1 Peter 3 question. So, as to the second part of your email: The Apostles’ Creed only says he “descended into Hades” and does not describe what he did there. And to say he “descended into Hades” is just another way of saying he really did die: Not a swoon or a play-act. I know there have been imaginative ways of answering the question of what Jesus did between his death and his resurrection, and 1 Peter 3:18-22 has been cited as support of those views. I’ve attached a sermon I preached from 1 Peter 3:18-22. As you can see from the sermon notes, the text is best understood not as a 3-day preaching tour through hell, but as a proclamation to the demons in the act of resurrection: “I’m alive and I’m coming for you! There’s no plant or planet you can hide behind!” Or, as one of our songs puts it: “Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes!” (Blog Note: The full sermon, "Why He Died; Why He Was Raised" can be found below, or click here.)

As for the first question, though, it’s utterly vital that we kneel awestruck upon hearing that Jesus, the Second Person of the Godhead, experienced the abandonment of His Father—and on our behalf. Anything short of that falls short of the awful (and awe-full) truth of substitutionary atonement. He really did take our place, and he really did bear what we deserve (the abandonment of God). Golgotha was not the stage of an elegant Passion Play where Old Testament lines were delivered on cue; it was instead Ground Zero of the Suffering Servant’s darkest hour. Of course, Psalm 22 originated with David, but ultimately was not about David. There’s really nothing in the psalm that terminates in any experience David ever had. This, like Isaiah 53, points to One beyond the horizon of the writer’s ability to see. Jesus quoted Psalm 22 because it best fit his actual experience (piercing of hands and feet; dividing of garments; thirst; and, yes, divine abandonment). Anything short of God actually abandoning the Sin-Bearer unravels the whole presentation of gracious atonement in the Scriptures. I’ve attached my Good Friday sermon from a couple of years back that covers this (Blog Note: The full sermon, "What Wondrous Love Is This," can be read below, or click here.).

Agree? Disagree? Click the Facebook "Like" button on this page and join the discussion the the "Get Anchored" Facebook page.

WhyHeDied Sermon



What Wondrous Love is This

Review of Montefiore’s “Jerusalem”

You’ve met that guy at a party who impresses you with his authoritative confidence about various subjects—that is, until he wanders into an area you’re keenly familiar with. It’s then that you want to interject into his pronouncements, “No, wait, it’s not quite like that.” And you begin to doubt the accuracy of his pronouncements on the other subjects you were less familiar with.

I met that guy in the pages of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Jerusalem: The Biography.

It’s an ambitious and sweeping review of the passions and claims over Jerusalem from earliest history to the present. Montefiore often entertains, but I lost confidence that he could inform me of aspects of Jerusalem’s history I did not know since he so often got wrong aspects of the city’s history I do know.

For example, no, it is not true that “David seized the Ark of the Covenant, the emblem of God’s favour, and then abandoned Jerusalem” (p. 29). Having just completed a sermon series on David, I know the story is quite the opposite. And Muslims may be surprised at Montefiore’s claim that “Jews and Muslims believe…Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac” (p. 32) when in fact Islam teaches it was Ishmael who was spared in this story. Furthermore, there is no biblical reference to “three” magi from Persian heralding the birth of Christ (p. 53), though this is a popular and forgivable misunderstanding.

Most disappointing, though, was how badly he re-presented the story of Jesus. He says of Jesus’s capital trial, “The traditional account of the sentencing does not ring true" (p. 111).

So there you go.

For such a heavily-footnoted book, the absence of any footnote to substantiate this assertion is telling. But it’s not the only biblical account that does not ring true for Montefiore. Neither, apparently, does much in the New Testament before or after the account of the sentencing. Jesus did not believe about himself the things later followers claimed, Montefiore asserts: “He did not call himself the Messiah, emphasizing the Shema, the basic Jewish prayer to the one God” (p. 107). In fact, says Montefiore: “The Gospels were vague about Jesus’ nature and his relationship to God. Was Jesus a man with some divine characteristics or God inhabiting the body of a man?” (p. 152)

On the contrary, Jesus and the Gospel writers had very definite views on this subject. Everything Jesus did and said pointed to his claim to be the longed-for Messiah, and his commitment to the Shema has to be incorporated into the whole if you want to understand Jesus’ understanding of himself. Fully God and fully man: The creeds would later codify this view, not invent it.

Of course, it is Paul (it’s always that pesky Paul) who is to be blamed for enthusiastically transforming Jesus the common itinerant teacher into Christ the cosmic savior:

An unmarried, puritanical loner, Paul endured shipwrecks, robberies, beatings, and stonings on his travels, yet nothing distracted him from his mission—to remodel the rustic Jewish Galilean into Jesus Christ, the saviour of all mankind who would imminently return in the Second Coming—the Kingdom of Heaven. (p. 123)

Well then.

Of course, Paul’s wasn’t the only view circulating at the time. And so we are informed that “Christianity was not so much a single religion as a bundle of different traditions” including Gnostics. And presumably everyone got on harmoniously until enforced conformity to orthodoxy meant Gnostic texts “were probably hidden in the fourth century when the Christian emperors started to crack down on heresies” (p. 146).

Paging Dan Brown.

Thus, with this view that earliest Christianity was really a hodgepodge of Christianities, it’s no surprise to read Montefiore’s reassurance that, though Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus, “this seems more an attack on Trinitarianism than on Christianity as a whole” (p. 192). In fact, there is no such thing as New Testament Christianity that is not Trinitarian.

It’s as if Montefiore attended a session of the Jesus Seminar in the ‘80s and depended exclusively on that for his presentation of Christianity.*

I am less informed about Jerusalem’s history beyond the Old Testament and New Testament periods. In fact, that is why I bought the book. But with Montefiore’s mishandling of the parts of Jerusalem’s history I was well acquainted with, I spent the rest of the book always half-skeptical as to how accurate his entertaining stories were.

I certainly found some of the stories sad and tragic: violent crusades, gullible pilgrims, brawling priests, persecuted Jews, and unholy hucksterism at holy sites. And yet, each time I would begin to get emotionally engaged in these accounts, I would recall his mishandling of stories I was familiar with, and I would draw back in doubt as to how accurate Montefiore’s reporting really was.

Out of five stars, I give the book two: one for how entertaining it is, one for how ambitious it is. Let’s leave it at that.

____________________

*If you’re wanting more information on the reliability of the New Testament for accurate information about what Jesus really taught about himself—and the unreliability of Gnostic alternatives—you should read N.T. Wright, Larry Hurtado, Darryl Bock, Richard Bauckham, or start with the popular-level book, The Case for the Real Jesus, by Lee Strobel.

Doubling Down on a Bad Bet

Texas Planned Parenthood is being accused of six million dollars in fraud, and the CEO of a Texas PP Association has been arrested for indecent exposure. Not a good time for the Obama Administration to decide that, because Texas won't give state money to PP, the Administration will deny federal funds for the health care of Texas women.

 

Winning Ways: Our Enemy's Most Effective Tool

When the Hayden Planetarium in New York City issued an invitation to join the crew on the first journey to another planet, eighteen thousand people applied.

A panel of psychologists found that the majority of applicants were disappointed with their lives here and hoped they could find a new life somewhere else.

Ah, Discouragement.

There's an old fable that says the Devil once held a sale and spread out the tools of his trade on the table. Hatred, envy, lust--all the weapons that everyone knows so well. But off to one side lay a harmless looking odd-shaped instrument marked "discouragement." It was old and worn looking but it was priced far above all the rest. When asked the reason why, the Devil replied, "Because I can use this one so much more easily than the others. No one knows that it belongs to me, so with it I can open doors that are tightly bolted against the others. Once I get inside I can use any tool that suits me best."

That's why the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians is one of my favorites. It both begins and ends with a rejection of discouragement. In verse 1 Paul wrote, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.” And then as if once was not enough, he says it again in verse 16 before closing the chapter, “Therefore we do not lose heart.”

What's remarkable is what's in between this opening and closing line. Paul says he and his co-workers were "hard-pressed on every side," "perplexed," "persecuted," and "struck down." But they didn't lose heart: He wrote that though they were hard-pressed they were "not crushed." Though they were perplexed, they were "not in despair. Though they were persecuted they were "not abandoned." And though they were struck down, they were "not destroyed" (verses 9-10).

Someone once said, "You can define the greatness of a man by what it takes to discourage him." If that's the case, I'm afraid I don't have a lot of greatness, because sometimes the things that send me reeling are so petty.

What about you? Do you need to find your heart for life again? Join is this Sunday @ 10 for an encouraging look at 2 Corinthians 4. It's another installment in our series, "Growing Pains of the Soul."

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 13

Facebook's automatic efforts to connect users through "friends" they might know recently led two Washington state women to find out they were married to the same man at the same time. Story.

 

Why I probably won't forward the Kony2012 video to anyone.

 

Charlie Sheen once bought 2,615 tickets to a single Angels’ baseball game, hoping he’d be able to catch a home run ball. (story)

 

Video games overtly tie violence to religious convictions, according to a study.

 

A Bachelor's degree for $10,000? Texas A&M makes it possible.

 

Does the color pink exist? Scientists aren't sure.

 

The folks at mbaonline provide a snapshot of what happens in one day on the Internet. Are we any wiser?

 

Nomophobia: The fear of being without your smartphone. Probably something the youth are experiencing right now on their Spring Break trip.

 

Internet Outages from Solar Flares Could Force People to Interact with Other People, Officials Warn

 

Sweating, Shaking Man Never Going to Spend A Little Time With His Thoughts Again

 

Ebooks are often more expensive than their dead-tree editions--even paperbacks. Did publishers collude on their pricing structure to protect their traditional model? The Justice Department thinks so.

"Creativity is not magic, and there's no such thing as a creative type. Creativity is not a trait that we inherit in our genes or a blessing bestowed by the angels. It's a skill. Anyone can learn to be creative and to get better at it. New research is shedding light on what allows people to develop world-changing products and to solve the toughest problems. A surprisingly concrete set of lessons has emerged about what creativity is and how to spark it in ourselves and our work." Jonah Lehrer explains. Creativity comes from time not thinking about the problem (Einstein once declared, "Creativity is the residue of time wasted"). It also comes from time thinking about nothing but the problem (The legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser, creator of the iconic "I Love New York" design, engraved the slogan "Art is Work" above his office door). The brain seems to know when to work hard on a subject and when to go take a long walk. Also, diverse interests and friendships stimulate new associations and connections. The article concludes with 10 quick creativity hacks. Good stuff.

 

The NYT has a piece on the rise of Baylor sports: The journalist even slipped in a Vitek's reference: "The awakening started before rock bottom, one piece at a time, as numerous elements converged like a Gut Pack, the infamous meal (brisket, sausage, beans, cheese, onions, pickles and jalapenos, over a bed of Fritos) served at Vitek’s BBQ." Vitek's Gut Pak...m-m-m....

 

"God help you, what will happen when one of the great crashing dispensations bursts in your life?"

In this morning's message, I mentioned A.J. Gossip. In 1927, at the age of 54, the Scottish minister's wife died suddenly and unexpectedly. When he returned to the pulpit shortly after the tragedy, he decided to preach a message on his loss. It became his most famous sermon. His text was Jeremiah 12:1-5, where Jeremiah complains to God and God replies (NIV), “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?” Gossip's comments:

Here is a man who, musing upon the bewilderments of life, has burst into God’s presence, hot angry, stunned by His ordering of things, with a loud babble of clamorous protest. It is unfair, he cries, unfair! And frowningly he looks into the face of the Almighty. It is unfair! And then suddenly he checks himself.... For after all, he asks himself, what is it you have to complain about so far? Nothing that everybody does not share. Only the usual little rubs and frets and ills of life that fall to everyone, no more. And if these have broken through your guard, pushed aside your religion, made you so sour and peevish and cross towards God—God help you, what will happen when, sudden as a shell screaming out of the night, some one of the great crashing dispensations bursts in your life, and leaves an emptiness where there had been a home, a tumbled ruin of your ordered ways, a heart so sore you wonder how it holds together?

I have the sermon in a book, but you can find it in full online here.

My sermon is online here, entitled, "When You Feel Like a Bug on the Windshield of Life."

 

 

The Choir Loft and the Post-It Note

The Post-It Note was conceived in a choir loft. Jonah Lehrer:

Consider the case of Arthur Fry, an engineer at 3M in the paper products division. In the winter of 1974, Mr. Fry attended a presentation by Sheldon Silver, an engineer working on adhesives. Mr. Silver had developed an extremely weak glue, a paste so feeble it could barely hold two pieces of paper together. Like everyone else in the room, Mr. Fry patiently listened to the presentation and then failed to come up with any practical applications for the compound. What good, after all, is a glue that doesn't stick?

On a frigid Sunday morning, however, the paste would re-enter Mr. Fry's thoughts, albeit in a rather unlikely context. He sang in the church choir and liked to put little pieces of paper in the hymnal to mark the songs he was supposed to sing. Unfortunately, the little pieces of paper often fell out, forcing Mr. Fry to spend the service frantically thumbing through the book, looking for the right page. It seemed like an unfixable problem, one of those ordinary hassles that we're forced to live with.

But then, during a particularly tedious sermon, Mr. Fry had an epiphany. He suddenly realized how he might make use of that weak glue: It could be applied to paper to create a reusable bookmark! Because the adhesive was barely sticky, it would adhere to the page but wouldn't tear it when removed. That revelation in the church would eventually result in one of the most widely used office products in the world: the Post-it Note.

 

From an article on how creativity works.

 

LeaderLines: Prayer Points

“Church ministry makes hitting a baseball look easy.”

In his writing and speaking, John Ortberg has a clever way of starting off with an amusing anecdote and heading into touching or thought-provoking territory.  The start of college baseball season reminded me of a 2009 article of his called “Hitting a Baseball and the Other ‘Hardest’ Things.”  He recalls the time when, after leading a chapel service for the San Francisco Giants, he was asked if he wanted to take batting against the same pitcher who threw batting practice for Barry Bonds.  For fun, the pitcher even wrote up a scouting report on Ortberg:  “Took ten minutes of batting practice.  As a hitter, John makes a good pastor.”

But, as daunting as it was to swing against a pro, Ortberg still finds pastoral ministry tougher.  “It would be fascinating,” he writes, “to do a survey and find out which aspect of congregational leadership is the single toughest challenge.”  And then he lists some aspects of ministry.  As you read his list, pray for those of us who serve as pastors:

There is the challenge of trying to preach fresh, creative, substantial messages that reflect the best in increasingly complex scholarship and are integrated into the preacher’s soul.  And to do this when people compare it to whomever their favorite international preacher is.  And to do it again next week, and the week after that, until you grow old and die.

There is the challenge of casting a vision of what might be done tomorrow, when you feel the gravitational pull of human nature to slide backwards into less challenge, less sacrifice, more comfort, and more inward-focus.

There is the challenge of resolving conflict.  People keep having problems with other people.  They keep trying to assert influence, grab power, get their way, and resist change they did not initiate.  There is the temptation to try to ignore it, smooth it over, stomp it underground, or run away.  Having the patience and strength to untie the knots is a Herculean effort.

There is the challenge of acquiring and developing the right talent on the team.  Finding the right people with the right gifts and putting them into the right lanes to run the right race in alignment with the big mission is a major league challenge.  And the job is never done.  Someone’s always in the wrong lane or pulling a hammy.

There is the resource challenge, which is currently rearing its head in almost every ministry I know.

There is the worship challenge, which involves not just worshiping God with integrity and honesty but doing it in a way that resonates with an increasingly niched and diverse population.

Then there is the volunteer challenge, the change-navigation challenge, the technology challenge, the evangelism challenge, the assimilation challenge, the infrastructure challenge, and the pastoral care challenge.

There is the 1 Corinthians 9:27 challenge, which is tops on my survey:  “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

If that list doesn’t prompt you to pray for every pastor you know, I don’t know what will!  Thanks for your prayers.
__________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: When You Feel Like a Bug on the Windshield of Life

Warren and Andre Byrd were in three headline-grabbing disasters within the span of three years.

Do you remember the 1989 stories of the San Francisco Bay earthquake? The Byrds were there. They felt the shaking at their home on Travis Air Force Base, but no possessions were damaged.

Do you remember the 1991 stories of the volcano, Mt. Pinatubo, destroying Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines? The Byrds were there. They had been transferred from San Francisco to the Philippines, just in time for the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The volcano buried their Buick and all their household belongings under volcanic ash.

As if that weren't enough, do you remember the 1992 stories of Hurricane Andrew that devastated Homestead, Florida? The Byrds were there, too. The Air Force moved them from Clark Air Base to Homestead Air Force Base just in time to meet Andrew. The hurricane crushed yet another of their cars and demolished their home.

Wherever the Air Force moved them next, I image their neighbors decided to take out extra insurance!

What are the odds of being in the middle of three headline-grabbing disasters in the span of three years? And each disaster just turned out to be a training ground to get them ready for the next crisis!

While still in the early years of his ministry, Jeremiah faced stiff opposition. But when he complained in prayer, God responded (Jeremiah 12:5), "Kid, this is just the scrimmage; the real game's coming up!" Gently but firmly, God told the complaining prophet, "If you cannot learn to trust me during this crisis, what hope is there that you will trust me in the more severe circumstances that will come upon you?"

Phillips Brooks, that pastor most famous for giving us the Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, said something very profound about the troubles of today. He said:

Some day, in the years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now…NOW it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer.

Join us this Sunday @ 10 and prepare to build faith now for whatever is in store for you later.

_________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

“We seem to cultivate either the skill of deep reading or the skill of scanning”

As we cultivate the skill of scanning screens, many of us find it more difficult to read a book word by word and line by line. We seem to cultivate either the skill of deep reading or the skill of scanning … but it is difficult to maintain both skills.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt publicly worried about the effect this kind of reading—and about the impact of the Internet as a whole: "I worry that the level of interrupt, the sort of over-whelming rapidity of information—and especially of stressful information—is in fact affecting cognition. It is in fact affecting deeper thinking."

A good portion of the Christian life requires the ability to concentrate and focus on ideas over long periods of time. Spiritual depth requires the ability to pray for more than a few minutes, to read and memorize Scripture—not to search for it online, and to love God with our hearts and our minds. This means that we must be careful to cultivate and retain the skill of deeply reading and deeply contemplating the things of God, something the Internet and digital technologies do not seem to foster.

—John Dyer in From the Garden to the City: the Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology (Kregel, 2011)

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 6

Time magazine explains why affirmative action at the University of Texas has the opposite effect the university intends.

 

Since customers can leave their own reviews of Amazon products, the results can be hilarious. Here's another of Fast Company's Top 10 Amazon reviews. I liked "Knitting with Dog Hair" and the inflatable basted turkey.

 

Gamers will pay poor people to play video games as their proxies in order to move through the lower, more repetitive levels more quickly. Here's the story.

 

Trusting your feelings, Luke.

 

The WSJ introduces the nation to Fred Luter, Jr., the African-American pastor who is likely to become the Southern Baptist Convention's next president.

 

They're calling it "after-birth abortion" and they say that anyone who opposes it is a "fanatic." If you're pro-choice but say a mother's choice ends at birth, explain.

 

Related: Doctors and the public may pull back from "after-birth abortion" for now. But "selective abortion" is practiced regularly in the world of IVF. This father explains what "selective abortion" really is. Heart-rending stuff to read.

 

Jerusalem Syndrome is a psychiatric disorder that "affects an estimated 50 to 100 tourists each year....Severe cases can lead otherwise normal housewives from Dallas or healthy tool-and-die manufacturers from Toledo to hear the voices of angels or fashion the bedsheets of their hotel rooms into makeshift togas and disappear into the Old City babbling prophecy." Most of the cases have had psychiatric breaks in the past. (Wired)

 

If you still think the battle line in our culture wars is drawn between "religious" people and "secular" people, you're not paying attention. The line is between conservative religious people and progressive religious people.

 

"A 10-minute review of a Facebook profile can give a hiring manager clues about your personality type and insights as to how you’ll fit into the company’s work (or not) and succeed on the job (or not). It’s no surprise, then, that more employers are reviewing Facebook profiles when screening potential new hires. The trick for job seekers is to make sure they’re presenting their best, most employable self on Facebook. Dan Shawbel for Time's Moneyland explans how to do that.

 

A 7,000-word Sports Illustrated story on the rise of Baylor sports? Yes, please.

 

Review of "I Am Second"

The book, "I Am Second," is a written description of videos available online presenting personal faith testimonies. Of course, it's always worthwhile to read how God's goodness was discovered and embraced, and especially from personalities like Josh Hamilton, Brian "Head" Welch, and Bethany Hamilton. However, it seems a step backwards to turn compelling online video first-person accounts into a third-person description in a dead-tree edition. My advice: Skip the book and go online to watch the great stories as told by the subjects themselves.

 

LeaderLines: Called

All God's people serve--or we're supposed to.

Some of God's people serve by leading--and that includes most of you who read LeaderLines.

And some of God's leaders serve by pastoring--and that's what's on my mind as I write LeaderLines today.

You'll have to indulge me in this edition of LeaderLines, because this has been a nostalgic week for me. Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of my ordination, and I spent the end of the week at a conference in my birthplace, Montgomery, Alabama. (And that's pronounced "mon-GUM-ry" if you ever visit.) After the conference I stopped by the house of my first 11 years of life, and even dropped by the church my family attended. I sat in the pew where God called me to himself, and thanked God for my salvation and for my parents who were committed to making disciples of their kids.

My mind has been on Isaiah 40:6-8 this week (NIV84):

A voice says, “Cry out.”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All men are like grass,

and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God stands forever.”

God gives both the call to preach and the content of the preaching.

First, the call: "A voice says, 'Cry out.'"

No man can survive the ministry without this call. When the going gets tough, he has to be able to reach back into his own history with God and say, "But I was called to this!" And when the problem is not what's around him but what's within him--in other words, when he's tempted to immorality, or laziness, or despair, or fear, he needs to be able to say, "I will be held accountable for how I followed God's call!"

I was called to preach at the age of 12. In February 1974, my family was coming to the end of my father's 2-year assignment at the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. The English-speaking church we belonged to was holding an attendance challenge for a special event, and I brought 8 or 9 seventh-graders with me and won the contest. A few days later I received a letter from the pastor--and from God.

Okay, that requires some explanation.

The pastor wrote to thank me for my inviting so many people to the event. I appreciated the note, but what jumped off the page was the printed footer on the pastor's stationary. It was a quote from Paul: "For Christ Sent Me to Preach the Gospel."

In an instant, I had the strongest impression that the "me" in that phrase meant me: "For Christ sent me to preach the gospel." It was thrilling and scary at the same time to suddenly know what I would do with the rest of my life.

Some pastors have vivid and dramatic calls while others recount quieter experiences. Some will say they knew in an instant while others will say that the conviction gradually grew on them. But every preacher can testify to the same thing the prophet heard in Isaiah 40: "A voice says, 'Cry out.'"

When God calls, though, he commands not only that you must preach but what you must preach. In Isaiah 40, God said, "Cry out!" And the rest of the passage tells him what he should cry out.

I remember when I first began preaching at 19. Diane and I were newlyweds, college sophomores, and every Sunday we drove the 45 minutes from our Waco apartment to the little farming community of Travis.

When I was 12, God has said, "Cry out!" but it was when I was responsible for a weekly sermon that, like Isaiah, I asked, "What shall I cry?"

I started with the book of Ephesians, and it was in the weekly pressure of pouring over the text that I began to understand what J.B. Phillips meant: While working on his famous Bible translation he said he felt like an electrician working with wiring while the power was still on! The Book really was living and active and sharp.

When God said, "Cry out!" and I responded, "What shall I cry?" God said, "Proclaim my permanent, abiding, ever-relevant word to your generation."

It's the same thing God told the prophet in Isaiah 40: "All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field....The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

The preacher is to bring a permanent word to an impermanent world, and Simon Peter said life will come from that exchange! The Big Fisherman quoted Isaiah 40 about his own ministry. He said in 1 Peter 1:23-25 (NIV84)--

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All men are like grass,

and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;

the grass withers and the flowers fall,

the word of the Lord stands forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

What seed does, God's word does.

I love stories about new life from old seeds. A couple of decades ago I read about some seeds found in a treasure chest of a sunken boat. Scientists found the seeds sealed and protected from the seawater, so they planted them just to find out what would happen. And though the seeds were 300 years old, life sprang up from them. A couple of years ago, a horticulturalist was given date palm seeds from an archaeological dig in Masada. Again, though two-thousand years old, once they were planted they yielded date palms. But the most recent discovery in Russia takes the cake. Scientists found seeds preserved for 35,000 years in the frozen tundra, and once planted, yes, ancient blooms broke through the soil and opened to the sun.

I'm grateful God has made me one of his horticulturalists, planting good seed in open hearts!