Empty Tombs & Stolen Promises - Resurrected Things

Ever had anything stolen from you and felt the violation that comes with the knowledge that someone has something that should be in your possession? It’s bad enough when it’s something tangible but can be even worse when something like a promise or a trust is stolen away, especially if you learn that person never intended to honor what they said in the first place and you were lied to from the get go. Deception is indeed a slippery slope because when they have to continue to lie to keep the deception covered up, it can quickly become a lifestyle that doesn’t bother them anymore because they’ve been at it so long they’ve lost any sensitivity to the fact that it’s wrong. Consequently, the truth becomes harder and harder to locate through the clouds of deception. It becomes relative instead of absolute.

One of the most ironic elements of the resurrection story is that the deceivers, the liars, aren’t the ordinary folk, the government types or even Satan himself. It’s the religious guys, the church leaders, the ones a person would hope they could trust to tell the truth in any situation. You see, they heard the promise of His dying and being raised in three days and they were taking notes. So they’re making covert deals to try and keep it from happening and to try and cover it up after it does. Why, you ask? Simple really, they were losing or had lost their platform, their influence, and were doing literally anything to try and get it back.

So that begs two questions; If you can’t trust the church leaders, who can you trust? Fair question, and we should be able to trust the leaders God has put in place unequivocally. But the bigger question relates to all of us. How far will we go to make ourselves look good, look right, look like we’ve got it together? Far enough to head down perhaps a lifelong path of deception? How long can one keep the plates spinning overhead before it all comes crashing down? The resurrection really did occur and has solutions to those questions.

Family Matters... Everybody is Somebody’s Child

I don’t think, when it was released, Aretha Franklin had any idea how much the song “Respect” would strike a chord with situation after situation, generation after generation. In fact, as we addressed earlier in our Family Matters series, it’s what the heart of every man is searching for. So why, according to a study done by the Pew Research Center, is the respect for our parents decreasing with each passing generation? I believe there are two glaring reasons for that, that we’ll explore the Biblical remedies to on Sunday. First, in the last 30 years, we have transitioned into a child-centered culture where most, if not all, family decisions are made on the basis of what’s best for the child. Now, while there’s nothing inherently evil with that approach, why is what’s best for the parents not also what’s best for the children? Second, when couples in their thirties are noticeably paying more honor and respect to their children than they are their parents, what are their kids and our culture going to take away from that?

There really should be a book to help is deal with these challenges. Oh, wait a minute - there is! Let’s crack it open together on Sunday as we wrap up our Family Matters series with Everybody is Somebody’s Child.

Family Matters... Parents: Tough Guys or Softies?

Whether you are in favor of or opposed to corporal punishment, each of us can certainly agree on the overall need for discipline. Without it you have a continual moving target for right and wrong and the resulting cultural chaos that follows in its wake. Speaking of discipline, have you noticed how gradually and incrementally that the word discipline is disappearing from our cultural vocabulary? It’s being replaced with terms like redirect and intervention. Somehow discipline is slowly becoming a bad word in our nation, in our schools and even in our homes. Why? Probably because several psychiatrists and psychologists began telling us in the early eighties that there was a better way than cause and effect, than misbehavior and consequence, than disobedience and discipline. Well, a society in twenty-five years of moral and behavioral decline has shown us that they were wrong. Again. Most parents want to raise children who know how to behave appropriately, they’re just not sure any more what disciplines to put in place to get there. And, depending on the home you were raised in and what your friends tell you that they are doing with their kids, it can all be a little confusing to figure out what works best. As always, the scripture has the answers.

Family Matters...

Is There a Parent In the House?

The way most moms and dads see their jobs as parents is probably along the lines of, “I’m not sure what I’m doing is necessarily the right way to do this, but I’m just trying my best not to mess it up.” Consequently there’s usually not a lot of intentionality to what most parents do. Many look to the home they grew up in as a starting point and to their peers, who are parents also, for comparison along the way to what they’re doing. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that, there is a better way.

We can be both intentional and effective as moms and dads when we recognize that the Scripture has something to say about how and why we are to raise children. Children that are a blessing and grow up to be Godly parents themselves. There are a number of reasons that Jesus didn’t come to earth as an adult, ready to tackle the world and reveal Himself as Messiah. One of those reasons, I believe, was to hold up the home as the most pivotal learning ground in a person’s life and to emphasize what a sacred stewardship parents are entrusted with when God blesses them with children. Short of God’s Holy Spirit drawing us into relationship with His Son Jesus, nothing is more powerful or more important than parental influence. Nothing. In fact, if our culture is to be reclaimed, morally, socially and spiritually, that reclamation will not happen with education or legislation, it will happen because moms and dads will want it so deeply for their children and grandchildren that nothing else will matter. But it won’t be enough to just tell the oncoming generations what they need to do, we’ll need to show them. Are you up to it, mom and dad? It’s never too early or too late to put a new game plan in place.

Family Matters... Is There a Woman In the House?

I’ve never picked up one to read it, but as I’ve passed by the magazine rack and noticed the magazine entitled Today’s Woman, I’ve often wondered what a “today’s woman” is supposed to look like. I would imagine that she is supposed to be advancing in her career, be a happily married wife and mother of 2.5 children who are all straight A students because of how much mom helps them with homework, have a workout regimen three days per week, cook a mean pot roast and look like Cindy Crawford all at the same time. Oh, and her house is neat and dust free and the laundry is all done and put away too. Ok ladies, sound like you? I didn’t think so, but that’s an awful lot of pressure and expectation that “today’s woman” could never live up to. Yet many women feel the pressure to be all those things on a consistent basis. Why? Because many women have believed the lie that says that’s what fulfillment, what happiness, what “having it all” looks like.

Ladies, if you’re frustrated at your inability to be all that, there’s good news regarding God’s design for you and what real happiness, real fulfillment looks like. As our Family Matters series continues this week we’ll uncover the truth about women’s roles and expectations, and not from the editor of some magazine but from the designer Himself. You see, women weren’t liberated in the twenties when they were given the right to vote or in the sixties when they began to seek equal pay, they were liberated when the God who died for them brought them, in scripture, to an elevated place being compared to the very bride of Christ. Why is that such great news? Because women, and all of us for that matter, will always discover much more liberation and freedom in who we are rather than what we’re supposed to do or be.

Family Matters... Is There a Man In the House?

Several weeks ago, while digging through the $5 DVD bin at Walmart, I heard a dad, rather excitedly tell his 12-13 year old son, “Hey look, here’s a cool John Wayne Collection!” To which the son replied, “who’s John Wayne?” Really? Who’s John Wayne? The Duke? The Man? The Legend? Why, he’s only the man who killed every bad guy in the west and every Japanese and German soldier in World War 2 for heaven’s sake! You ask every guy who grew up in the late 60s and early 70s who John Wayne or John Unitas was and I’ll guarantee you they can tell you.

I wonder though, who young boys look to as male heroes and role models today. Peter Parker? (Spider Man) Lebron James? 50 Cent? C’mon. We’re living in a culture of ever decreasing morality, in no small part because of ever decreasing manhood and that’s due to the redefinition of who or what a man is supposed to do and be. Not that long ago, boys wondered if there was anything their dad couldn’t do. Now boys wonder where their dad is.

Families are under attack in our world and the attacker is winning because too many men are caving to the greying of lines between genders and to the pressure of political correctness. Family Matters- “Is There a Man in the House?” will remind us from God’s Word that our wives need us to be the man... our sons need us to be the man... our daughters need us to be the man... our friends need us to be the man... the kingdom needs us to be the man. For heaven’s sake, be the man!

Family Matters… Marriage - a Holy Covenant

Are there any distinctives in your marriage that make it different, any better, any more solid than any of your friends marriages? Marriages in your extended family? How our culture looks at marriage?

The discussion of marriage in the good old US of A, in recent years, has sparked quite a lot of debate and has become fodder for TV sitcoms, TV and radio talk shows, even the news networks. “Can those evangelical Christians really be so closed minded as to believe that marriage is still regarded as an institution exclusively between men and women? That it is something designed and instituted by God? That it is really somehow something spiritual and is consequently a sacred union? A Holy Covenant?”

Opinions are all over the place but the evidence is something undeniable. As the divorce rate has risen in America, both outside and inside the faith community, in the last 30 years, several other things have been documented to have risen along with it; Poverty, incarcerations, government subsidized housing, abortions, the prescriptions of anti-depressants and other physcotropic medicines, homelessness, obesity, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, I know, I know, stop already! Can there really be a correlation here? The Pew Research Center and The Barna Research Group think so, and so do I.

We’re starting right out of the blocks in our 8 week series entitled Family Matters with addressing what marriage is and what it isn’t. Not as defined by Hollywood or some piece of legislation somewhere, but by the Author of marriage himself as defined in His Word. There is definitely a blueprint for success.

Turning Pain Into... Promise

As the early settlers arrived here to forge a new life in a new world, they began to use a phrase with each other as well as the Native Americans who were already here. The phrase was, “I give you my word,” which was their way of making a solemn promise. They brought with them only what they could carry and, as such, didn’t have much of anything to serve as collateral or anything of value to offer as insurance that their promise would be kept. Consequently, all they could offer a person was their “word.” It was kind of their way of saying that all they were and all they had was worth nothing if their “word,” their vow, couldn’t be trusted. There are few absolutes when you are starting anything from nothing, and sometimes all you have to place your hope, your trust in, is the word of someone with the hopes, dreams, and vision to make it happen. In those kinds of situations, your plans, your goals mean nothing whatsoever without your integrity to back them up.

In the life of Job we find a man of prominence, of persecution, of pain and of promise, all rolled into one. His circumstances became a test to see if the the persecution and pain would cause him to panic and run or to stay and stand in the promises of his God. There are so many lessons we can learn from the life of Job but the greatest among them, I believe, is this process of Turning Pain Into Promise. As I’ve already said a number of times throughout this series, a life without pain is impossible. That’s why it’s essential that we understand, in the life of a believer, pain ALWAYS has a purpose. The key then is not our moving away from the pain but moving toward the purpose for it.

Turning Pain Into... Perfection

On May 18, 2004, Randy Johnson became the oldest pitcher in Major League Baseball history to pitch a perfect game. A perfect game is when no batters from the opposing team reach base, every hitter either grounds out, flies out, or is struck out. I remember flipping through the channels that day and catching the last few innings since it was against the Atlanta Braves and I happen to be a life-long Braves fan. Naturally I was pulling for the Braves to get a hit and ruin the perfect game for Johnson but I must admit, part of me was curious to see if he could actually pull it off. Perfect games are really rare because, in addition to great pitching (and Johnson was certainly that) you have to have some great defense behind you and obviously a few lucky breaks as well. While I was watching that, I was wishing that I had a perfect hot dog to go along with it. By the way, the perfect hot dog (for me at least) is an all beef frank from Benton’s in Madisonville, on a steamed bun with a little yellow mustard, some K.C. Masterpiece barbeque sauce, and topped off with slaw. (preferably home-made but the in-store-made slaw from Sam’s Club is a pretty good runner-up) Now... there is a perfect game with the perfect hot dog... is your mouth watering yet?

Your definition and mine as to what might be “perfect” or not is probably going to differ here and there and is certainly a subjective matter for sure. But what if I told you that God has designed perfection for you and set you on a course, even before you were born, to move you in that direction? The scripture, as it always does, spells out the game plan for how to get us to that perfected place, the place where every turn we take and every decision we make is the right one, where we can see the hand of God going ahead of us Turning Pain Into Perfection. We won’t need great defense or any luck at all to get there, just the desire to surrender everything we are and have to all He has designed for us.

Turning Pain Into... Progress

A couple of years ago I had shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and some bone spurring that has gotten worse over the years. The doctor said he was hopeful that he could do the procedure arthoscopically instead of having to cut me open. He also said that the difference between the two procedures would mean 6 months of rehab with the knife vs. 6 weeks with the scope. I was voting for the scope! He was able to do the job arthoscopically and I began rehab a week after the surgery. I experienced almost zero pain after the surgery and figured I would breeze through the 6 therapy sessions, perhaps even cutting them down to 4 or so. Wrong. The scar tissue that had built up in the shoulder with time had not been painful but had definitely limited my range of motion and my physical therapist wanted me to get that range back. We set some goals to reach as we began the first session. The therapist said he wasn’t concerned about how fast I got to the goal but that I would make more progress if I did the exercises he was sending home with me. Homework? He said it wasn’t about the prize, it was about the progress. Well I did do the work at home and got to the strength and range of motion goals a little quicker than expected. Oh, and in case you were wonderiing about the prize when I got to the goal... he reached into his pocket and poured me out a couple of tic tacs.

Physical therapy isn’t the only facet of life where progress matters. I wonder how you would guage your spiritual progress from the time you trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior until now. How about over the last couple of years? Sure, sometimes the pains of life can affect our progress but what if the progress was dependant on the pain? What if the pain was designed to motivate us toward the progress?