Cultural Christianity - Or Forever Changed

It’s been said that the only thing that is constant, is change. Obviously there are several other things that are constant, like the summer humidity in East Tennessee for example, but you get the point. I learned to embrace change from my mom. It wasn’t unusual 3 or 4 times a year to come home to find that she had rearranged the furniture in the living room or in one of the bedrooms. She also liked to change out the bed spreads and the curtains with each season to something new or at least different. It’s kind of hard to keep a fresh look to a 950 square foot, 2 bedroom house but she did her best to try. I assume that was because she easily got tired or bored with the sameness, with the mundane, with the rut, and like to mix it up whenever and wherever she could. Ruts are like that. They have a way of slowly creeping in and eventually taking over our time, our plans, and our lives. What’s sad is that many grow comfortable with the sameness or predictability of things and assume that’s as good as it’s ever going to get.

Have you ever considered that God might have more for you? That what you have experienced so far in a spiritual sense might be just the tip of the iceberg compared to what awaits? One thing is for certain, the scripture is full of change from cover to cover and if we want to experience God’s best for us, we’ve got to learn to embrace the change we have to make in us in order to get to that place. It’s also important to realize that He’s not into changing us just for the sake of doing something different. Instead, He has something eternal in mind when He changes our motives, our minds and our behaviors. He does that because He knows what grows out of a truly changed heart is not another cookie-cutter Cultural Christian, but rather an engaging, contagious follower. Our enemy wants us to just change out the curtains and be happy with that. This broken culture, however, needs desperately for changed hearts to reveal a better way.

Cultural Christianity - Or Teaching His Commands?

Are you the kind of person that takes things at face value, believes what you are told at first report, and generally trusts the information you are getting to be true and correct? Or are you the type that digs a little deeper for what Paul Harvey would call “the rest of the story?” Most of us want to be trusting and want to be able to believe what we are told or taught. But some just have the nature of a skeptic and, though they may not question everything they hear, they always think that there might be more to things than what they have heard or been exposed to. They have an inquiring mind that pushes them find out what they don’t already know.

Teachers, whether those that teach school or those like me that teach the scripture, love to engage those “dig deeper” kinds of folks. Teachers are a lot like a game show host that knows what’s behind door numbers 1, 2 and 3 and knows that they are all good choices but wants that learner to become hungry enough to choose to open the door. They also understand that the move from complacency to any of the 3 doors is almost as important as what’s behind them to be discovered. It’s the “reveal” that turns the crank of every teacher, coach, or parent. That place where the hunger to know is satisfied with the “a-ha” of the discovery.

I think that’s what Jesus had in mind regarding the “third leg” of the Great Commission in Matthew 28 when he followed His instruction on discipling and baptizing with, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” I think He wants believers to see themselves as revealers, exposers, enlighteners of all that He is, to everyone within our sphere of influence. So what are these commands were supposed to obey and how do we teach/expose/reveal them to others? Good questions that you’ll discover the answers to behind door numbers 1, 2 and 3 this coming Lord’s Day.

Cultural Christianity - Or Evangelical?

It’s sad that the references we hear that refer to Evangelical Christians are usually from a secular media that sees us as a voting block instead of a movement or an organism. We are often reduced to a punchline or a group of folks with our heads in the sand and in need of a crutch of some sort. While I do hope and believe we evangelicals do vote and put our faith and trust in the crutch of Jesus, that doesn’t nor shouldn’t define us. Yet when you take an honest look at the position that the church has in our current culture, most of us Christians look more Cultural than we do Evangelical. Evangelicals should, by the very nature of that description, be living contagious lives themselves yet in Knox County, where the corona virus has a current infection rate of less than 0.0225, I wonder if it’s still more contagious than we Evangelicals are.

We all make choices everyday about what’s important to us and what isn’t and if you to ask about any Evangelical if they believe that people coming to know Christ is important, I believe every one of them would say yes. Yet when you ask them whom they have evangelized most would have to think really hard to come up with someone. We can try to blame our lack of a contagious faith on a secular media or on academia or on the current climate of political correctness, but at the core of it all is the real enemy, the one that scripture refers to as the devil, Satan, Lucifer, the one who’s out to shut the mouth of every Evangelical Christian in America and who will use any platform possible to do it. The question is then, are we going to listen to him and to his minions in this current broken and rebellious culture, or are we going to pray what Jesus prayed in the garden just before making evangelism a reality when he prayed to His Father, “All I have is yours, and all You have is mine,”? Being Evangelical should not be seen as a job or an obligation but rather as a lifestyle. Is that true for you?

Cultural Christianity - Or True Discipleship?

Is it your goal to blend in or to stick out? It takes all kinds of people and personalities to make a society, a career path or even a church accomplish much of anything but generally, folks will gravitate into one of those two categories. It’s also been my observation that the majority of people would rather blend in than stick out. While there’s not really a right or wrong position to that, especially when it comes to personalities, I wonder if that is supposed to find its way into our faith journey also. Are we supposed to blend in so that we can identify with people’s circumstances or hurts? Or is it better to have a different and distinctive way of seeing life and making decisions so that Christ can be seen and made known?

Well, you’d have to have your head in the sand not to see how divided and polarized we have become as a society, especially in the last several days. And while that’s heart-breaking on a relational or cultural level, it’s really not surprising, especially when you read Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 that lays out a clear cultural divide in the days leading up to His return. A divide that has absolutely nothing to do with ethnicity nor politics but everything to do with morality and truth. Friend, that’s exactly where we find ourselves today. In a divide between a God that couldn’t care less about one’s skin color or political party but who cares deeply about morality and truth and a culture that’s the exact opposite of that. So in between those two places, a question has to be asked and answered of us. Does my Christianity look more like this culture or more like Christ? Or even more importantly, is my life about True Discipleship to Jesus or am I just blending in and marking time until I can get my heavenly ticket punched? Can I be candid with you? When I recognized several years ago what a strong foothold Satan has in our culture, I stopped praying for healing and unity and started praying for repentance and resolve. Cultural Christianity is what we have evolved into. The question is, is that really what we want?

Wishful Thinking - I Think I’m Going to Heaven

If you ask the average man on the street, they would probably tell you that they believe there’s a heaven that people go to when they die. Ask them if they are going and how one gets into heaven and there’s quite a bit more uncertainty in their response. Everybody wants to believe in an after-life, especially if they’ve lived in this one for any length of time and who isn’t hoping for something better, something good, when they have to leave this place? Also, depending on who you talk to, you will get descriptions of heaven that go from it looking like Disneyland to something ethereal or even ghostly, or somewhere in between. You’ve probably heard stories of near-death experiences where people see visions of bright light or of loved ones that have gone on before us. Are those real and can they be believed? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Some folks are just too smart though, for heaven to be a real place. When they can’t get their mind around something that’s beyond the realm of their knowledge or experience, they instantly become a skeptic. Nicodemus, in the Bible, was one of those. An educated man, a thinker who had serious questions about this idea of being “born again.” Perhaps that describes you too.

Well, if any of this is true, and if heaven is indeed a real place, wouldn’t you want to know more about it and what the requirements are for a reservation? Have you made heavenly plans for yourself? If your response is something like “I Think I’m Going to Heaven,” I’ve got good news for you. We can know the surity of those things and whether or not they apply to us. That’s why I’m inviting you to join us this coming Sunday as we put a bow on the series entitled “Wishful Thinking” by examining what the scripture says about reserving a spot for yourself. I’m headed there one day and I want you to join me. Will you?

Wishful Thinking - I Think I’m at the Right Job...

According to a 2012 poll by Pew Research, my dad’s generation stayed at one particular job for an average of 33 years. My generation, the Baby Boomer crowd, had an average of 12 years at the same place and the current generation of millenials’ numbers are at about 3.5 years and that is a currently moving target that is still trending downward. So what’s the takeaway from that info? Well, either my dad’s generation found and stayed with that Right Job early on, or the “right job” wasn’t nearly as important to them as A job period. Either way, it seems that the younger you are, the less inhibited you are about a job change. Now, whether that job change is about the right fit or just more money, or better hours, or working conditions, remains to be seen but statistics are telling us that the moves are happening nonetheless.

So, what do we make of the concept of the Right Job for us anyway? Is that a reality that we can experience or is it pretty much just trial and error? Here’s actually the more important question -- Is the right job more about the job, the work, the task? Or is it more about the people we are working for, with, and around? If the answer to that last question is even slightly important to us then we have to ask this question. If it could be more about the folks than the task, then are there eternal things that come into play with where and with and for whom we work? If we can use the scripture as a guide (and we ALWAYS can) God interrupted and redirected the work, the tasks, the efforts of all kinds of folks in order for them to discover His plan, His will, His design for their life’s work. I’d hate to be standing before Him one day and have Him say and reveal, “Here’s what you chose to do and be, and over here is everything I had planned for you that you could have experienced.” I’m not sure about you but I don’t want to miss that. But if that Right Job, the one God has in mind for us is really out there, how do we find it?

Wishful Thinking - I Think My Marriage is Okay

My mom was a very modest woman, as was true for most of the ladies in her generation, and PDA was definitely a “no no,” for her. That didn’t stop my dad from trying to steal the occasional kiss or hug from her anyway and though often discouraged by her, he would continue to try nonetheless. I never doubted their love for each other when I was growing up but if that determination was made on physical affection alone, one could takeaway that there could have been some issues there. My mom, however, never saw that kind of affection growing up since the bulk of her childhood took place without her alcoholic father in the home and her mother had to be everything for the 8 children under her roof. That wasn’t a weakness necessarily, just that her point of reference was skewed when it came to affection. She was loved well by her mom and she loved well as a mom but one can’t magically replace what they’ve ever experienced.

My parents’ marriage was worthy of modeling and I have indeed tried to do that but it wasn’t perfect, and neither is mine, and for that matter neither is yours, nor anyone else’s. However, as I look at the scripture, I don’t find the acceptance of mediocrity anywhere. “I have come that they might have life and have it to the full,” Jesus said, and that applies to every relationship but it think especially to the marriage relationship. Sadly though, most couples look at their relationship and say, I Think My Marriage is Okay, and are either perfectly fine with that or have Wishful Thinking. And, in comparison with their parents or their friends, they’re probably right. But the reality is that the enemy is coming after marriage in general, and yours specifically. Good marriages, though - Godly ones, the ones worth modeling yours after - don’t get that way without dedication and commitment, without some work. But how do we know what to work on?

Wishful Thinking -

I Think I’m Making a Difference

As a kid, I grew up thinking I could draw pretty well and was somewhat artistic. That is until third grade and I saw one of Debbie’s drawings and it gave me a new perspective on my abilities. It didn’t make my artistic interests fade away but it definitely raised the bar in my mind regarding what was good and what wasn’t. Before seeing Debbie’s work, I was comparing mine to everyone else in the class and was feeling pretty good about myself. But when the standard changed, my perception of good had to change along with it.

A lot of us walk through life like that. Thinking we are making a difference, thinking we have a good marriage, thinking we are at the right job, thinking we are happy... that is until the reference point changes and we have something different to measure things by. Until then we are going through life feeling pretty good about ourselves, especially when compared to him or to her. But when we are faced with the truth that we aren’t all that, we have a choice to make. We can either raise the bar, first in our minds and then in our marriages, careers, etc., or we can choose a lesser standard to compare ourselves to, so that we don’t feel so bad about ourselves.

This coming Sunday will launch us into a new teaching series for the month of May entitled “Wishful Thinking,” where we’ll examine our cultural perceptions about things verses what the scripture actually says about them. Because I don’t know about you but I at least want to know where the bar is, even if I can’t reach it yet.

Then God... - Returns

There’s a lot of talk now about returning to “normal,” whatever that looks like, and it’s probably going to be defined differently from one person to the next. That’s because of our desire for some level of comfort and predictability to return to our lives. There’s also plenty of banter going back and forth about the timing and methodology of that return to normalcy as it pertains to states and cities “opening back up” and folks getting back to work. At the core of that banter, I believe, is a deeper argument/discussion, and it’s about whether we value liberty over safety, or safety over liberty. Let’s face it, whether we like it or not, the post 9/11 world we live in has caused us to grapple with the balance between those things. How far can the government, in a free society, tell us, or in some cases force us to go and is it my responsibility or theirs to keep me and my family safe? I guess the answer to that depends on our perception of the importance of government and the role it should play in everyday life. The pendulum is going to swing differently for each of us and mine is always going to swing heavily toward the liberty side of the equation but there are no absolute black or white answers to the liberty vs. safety issue. I can say unequivocally though that every inch we move in a “safer” direction, we are losing freedoms at an equal or even greater pace.

Certainly every believer with even a semi-serious walk with Christ would take a look at this world, in light of the promise of His return, and wonder if we are not in the season that will experience that very real and literal promise. Could ours be the generation to see the many prophecies, promises, and signs that the scripture points us to, could they be fulfilled in our lifetime? If so, is this crisis another sign and is my life in order? Am I ready to meet Him? What about those around me?

It’s my prayer that this crisis causes us to never return to safety, predictability, or comfort, to never return to “normal.” Instead, let’s ready ourselves for His return and get the warning out to our culture to do the same.