Politics And Ministry

I love the passage in Joshua 5 where, in the midst of battle, Joshua meets the Preincarnate Christ (called an Old Testament Christophany)and asks him His political opinion: "Are you for us or our enemies?" The answer the Lord gave Him is staggering and particularly relevant in today's polarized political environment.

Look at the biblical text at the bottom of this article.
Question: "Are you for us or our enemies?"
Answer: "No."

Jesus doesn't come to take sides. He comes to take over. Our hope is not in a political party or system. Our hope is in Him. May we remember that regardless of our political views. Regardless of who holds political office, our only Real Hope will be realized if we "bow down" before Him.

Joshua 5:13-14 "Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries ?" 14 He said, "No ; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down..."

How To Write A Book

I'm often asked how to become an author. Here are a few catchy phrases to get you started :) I got these from a blog that was copied from another blog that linked to the original source that was a dead link that didn't have any info. (How's that sentence?) So, I can't credit the original author but whoever he/she is, it's a person who has my admiration :)

1. Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.
2. He was as tall as a 6′3″ tree.
3. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
4. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
5. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
6. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
7. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
8. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
9. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
10. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
11. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
12. The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.
13. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
14. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
15. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at asolar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
16. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
17. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
18. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
19. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
20. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
21. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
22. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
23. Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it hadrusted shut.
24. He felt like he was being hunted down like a dog, in a place that hunts dogs, I suppose.
25. She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.
26. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
27. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
28. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
29. “Oh, Jason, take me!” she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.
30. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
31. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
32. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
33. The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.
34. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
35. Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall Man.”
36. The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
37. The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
38. She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
39. Her pants fit her like a glove, well, maybe more like a mitten, actually.
40. Fishing is like waiting for something that does not happen very often.
41. They were as good friends as the people on “Friends.”
42. Oooo, he smells bad, she thought, as bad as Calvin Klein’s Obsession would smell if it were called Enema and was made from spoiled Spamburgers instead of natural floral fragrances.
43. The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.
44. He was as bald as one of the Three Stooges, either Curly or Larry, you know, the one who goes woo woo woo.
45. The sardines were packed as tight as the coach section of a 747.
46. Her eyes were shining like two marbles that someone dropped in mucus and then held up to catch the light.
47. The baseball player stepped out of the box and spit like a fountain statue of a Greek god that scratches itself a lot and spits brown, rusty tobacco water and refuses to sign autographs for all the little Greek kids unless they pay him lots of drachmas.
48. I felt a nameless dread. Well, there probably is a long German name for it, like Geschpooklichkeit or something, but I don’t speak German. Anyway, it’s a dread that nobody knows the name for, like those little square plastic gizmos that close your bread bags. I don’t know the name for those either.
49. She was as unhappy as when someone puts your cake out in the rain, and all the sweet green icing flows down and then you lose the recipe, and on top of that you can’t sing worth a damn.
50. Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
51. It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
52. Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets T:\flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung by mistake.
53. You know how in “Rocky” he prepares for the fight by punching sides of raw beef? Well, yesterday it was as cold as that meat locker he was in.
54. The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.
55. Her lips were red and full, like tubes of blood drawn by an inattentive phlebotomist.
56. The sunset displayed rich, spectacular hues like a .jpeg file at 10 percent cyan, 10 percent magenta, 60 percent yellow and 10 percent black.

Come Out of The Cave

In The Republic, the philosopher Plato presents a story told by his teacher, Socrates. It is known as the "Allegory of the Cave." Socrates used the story to illustrate the meaning of various degrees of knowledge and belief, but the analogy beautifully illustrates how God has worked with me to reveal Christ as life. As you read this story, watch to see how it may apply to your life.

"Imagine a cave, says Socrates, very far underground and with a long passage leading out into the daylight. In this cave there are men who have been prisoners there since they were children. They are chained to the ground, and even their heads are fastened in such a way that they can look only in front of them, at the wall of the cave. Behind the line of prisoners a fire is burning, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a roadway. People walk along this road and talk to one another and carry things with them. The prisoners would see the shadows of those people, shadows thrown by the light of the fire on the cave wall in front of them. And, supposing the cave wall reflected sound, the prisoners would hear sounds coming from the shadows. Since the prisoners cannot turn their heads, the only things they will see and know are shadows; and so they will assume that the shadows are real things, for they cannot know anything about the fire and the roadway and the people behind them.

Now, suppose we unchain one of the prisoners, and make him turn around. This will be very frightening and painful for him; the movements of his body will hurt him, and his eyes will be dazzled by the fire. And if we tell him that the things he now sees are more real than the shadows, he will not believe us, and he will want to sit down again and face the wall of the shadows which he understands. Now, suppose we go even further than this, and forcibly drag him out through the long tunnel into the sunlight. This will be even more painful and frightening for him; and when he arrives above the ground he will be blinded by the sun. But slowly, let us imagine, he will get used to it. At first, he will be able to look at the stars and the moon at night. Later he will look at shadows thrown by the sun and at reflections in pools of water. Finally, he will be able to see the trees and mountains in full daylight, and he will recognize that these, not the shadows in the cave, are the real things. And when he has become accustomed to looking around him, he will at last realize that the light which makes all this possible comes from the sun."

The cave in this allegory represents one's frame of reference. I spent twenty nine years of my Christian life living in the cave of legalism. Then the Holy Spirit lovingly began to take away those things that provided a sense of security for me — visible results in ministry and a sense of satisfaction in my Christian life. I now realize that those things which I so desperately clung to at the time were in reality nothing but chains which kept me from the light. In spite of my pain and fear, He drug me away from what was familiar to me, and pulled me into the light of God's grace. After several years, my eyes are still adjusting to the resplendent glory of grace. I am seeing more and more that routine religious performance is just a shadow. The substance of life is not in the shadows, but in the Son!

Once one has been freed from the cave, he can never interpret the shadows in the same way again. There is a whole world of grace to explore. Every day is an exciting adventure. Socrates contends that if the former prisoner were to be suddenly brought back into the cave,his eyes would be unaccustomed to the darkness, and he would no longer be able to recognize the shadows. His fellow prisoners would say that his experiences had ruined him, and they would consider him a fool for going out into the light. Be prepared for the fact that as you leave the cave of legalism, not everybody will rejoice with you in your new-found freedom. Legalism has never walked peaceably with grace. Those who find their identity in religious performance bristle up at the suggestion that performance is only a shadow and not substance. To suggest such a thing is perceived to be an attack on their very identity. Just remember, you are free! Walk in the light and enjoy your faith! While some will resent your freedom, others will be drawn up out of the cave into the light as they see the joy you experience there.

Christ is your life. Grace and truth come through Him! Yours is a life of grace. How can a life of grace be summarized? To summarize grace is to try to reduce the life of Christ to a few pages — impossible! But there are three characteristics of the grace filled life that each of us should desire above all else.

(The article above is an excerpt from my book, Grace Walk, available in Christian book stores or in my online store at www.gracewalkresources.com)

How Can I Keep From Singing?

My life goes on in endless song
above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear it's music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?

While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness 'round me close,
songs in the night it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,
while to that rock I'm clinging.
Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth
how can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble in their fear
and hear their death knell ringing,
when friends rejoice both far and near
how can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile
our thoughts to them are winging,
when friends by shame are undefiled
how can I keep from singing?

I've always loved Enya's music and this one is particularly beautiful . . .

Contrary to the opinion of some, our God loves fun! In eternity past the three Persons of the Trinity all enjoyed intimacy with each other. It was a private party among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There, before the foundation of time, God determined to host a huge party. He would create man for the purpose of sharing His life with him, thus bringing him into the eternal party taking place in heaven. The Holy Spirit has been sent to extend the invitation to the party to us today. Christianity is nothing less than a party celebrating Jesus Christ and we've all been invited to participate by dancing to the music of His grace.

There is no bigger party pooper than legalism. It causes people to relate to others with a condescending attitude, judging them by the standard of their own lives. A legalist's performance may look good, but inwardly he is wasting away because his rules-driven lifestyle has robbed him of authentic joy in the Christian life. He has no time for music and dancing; there’s work to be done! The devil never takes a break, why should he? A legalist is never a genuinely happy person. When he sees others dance to the music, he can’t stand it.


The older brother of "the prodigal" bore the chief characteristics of a legalist. First, he separated himself from his brother because the younger brother didn’t live up to the standards embraced by himself. He refused to be involved in the same party as his brother, but resolved to “come out from among them and be separate.” Second, his whole relationship to his father revolved around doing the right thing and not breaking his commandments. He said, “For so many years I have been serving you, and I never neglected a command of yours...” (Luke 15:29). He knew no intimacy with his father because his whole focus was on behavior. Finally, he resented the grace which his father showed to the prodigal. He pointed out his own faithfulness and said, “but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.” Legalists sometimes find it hard to even call one a brother who doesn’t conform to their own standards. The elder son called him “this son of yours.” He probably believed it would be liberal to unconditionally accept a sinning Christian. After all, he might think you are condoning his behavior!

The heart of the prodigal’s father seems to parallel that of our Heavenly Father. He loves a party! Faith and fun are not in opposition to one another. Even under the old covenant, God made provision for the people to celebrate.

"And you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of all your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first-born of your herd and your flock, in order that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. And you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household" (Deuteronomy 14:23, 26).

The father of the prodigal said, “But we had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live . . .” (Luke 15:32). When a dead person comes alive to his inclusion in the finished work of Jesus Christ, that’s a reason to throw a party!

The activity of the early church revolved around fellowship. The Greek word is koinonia. It wouldn’t be inappropriate to use the word "party" as a contemporary paraphrase of the word. Many contemporary parties celebrate life. A birthday party celebrates the years one has lived. Anniversary parties celebrate a couple’s life together. A graduation party celebrates the start of a new life for the graduate. Parties are focused on and full of life.

Doesn’t that description describe New Testament Christianity? It’s essence is a celebration of divine life. You are alive in Christ! It’s appropriate to “shout joyfully to the Lord” and to “serve the Lord with gladness” (Psalm 100:1-2). In other words, it’s time to rise up and have a party! Since we are immersed in Eternal Grace, celebration is the order of the day.

Resting Can Be Testing!

It is amazing how the default setting in contemporary Christian culture tends to oppose the concept of rest when that is exactly what Jesus promised to give those who follow Him. (See Matthew 11:28-30) Just as God called Israel to a land of rest, we are being called to that today. This concept requires a new mind set for most people, especially in western culture. We live in a society where people go on vacation with their cell phones, I-pads and laptops. To rest in Christ, trusting Him to express His life through us sounds lazy and negligent after having lived in the wilderness of rigorous religion for such a long time. Many mistakenly think of rest as some sort of passivity, which it is not. Rest means to trust Jesus Christ as our Life-Source, depending upon Him to empower our actions with His strength and direction.

It took Israel forty years to enter Canaan because they refused to believe that God had simply given them the land and that all they needed to do was receive it by faith. For forty years, “we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19). While they struggled in the wilderness, God’s desire was that they enter His rest. The book of Hebrews refers to Canaan as a type of the rest believers have in Christ (See Hebrews 3:11,18; 4:1,3,8-11).


As a legalist, the concept of rest was so foreign to me that I couldn’t comprehend it. I didn’t know rest was a gift from God. I thought it was a sin. I sincerely believed that the only time we would find complete rest was when we died and went to heaven. There was a verse I used to read at funeral services to give comfort to bereaved families. I would share Hebrews 4:10 with them: “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”

When I shared this verse, I would tenderly point out that our beloved friend who had died “has now entered into God’s rest and ceased from his own labors.” I talked about how heaven is a place where there are no more struggles. It is a place where we simply rest in Christ and enjoy Him forever.

Entering into His rest and ceasing from our own works. It sounded like dying and going to heaven to me. Then one day I read the next verse in the passage — Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall down through following the example of disobedience.” What? Be diligent to enter that rest? Now I was in trouble. I had always taught that rest means dying. Now here I was being confronted with the verse that says to be diligent to enter that rest or else I would be disobedient to God. I knew I had better go back and reexamine that verse again and hope that my interpretation had been wrong or else I was in serious trouble! I didn’t know at the time that I had already died with Christ and was able to cease from my own works.

“I understand that salvation is a gift, but when we become a Christian we do have certain responsibilities in living the Christian life, don’t we?” Kelli asked. “We don’t just sit back and coast to heaven with no obligations in the meantime.” Kelli’s concern is common. Her statements reflect a belief that if we don’t take ownership of certain things that we must do for God, we may become passive and lazy. The fact is that the challenge to us to rest can be a test for our hyper-driven mindsets today!

What is our responsibility toward God? The disciples once asked Jesus about the works they were to do for God. “They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall we do that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29). When asked what we are supposed to do in order to do the work of God, Jesus gave one work. Believe. If we are to take the words of Jesus at face value, faith is our sole work (and even that is a gift from Him — see Ephesians 2:8). That fact doesn’t mean that nothing else will be done, but that nothing else can be done unless it flows from the abiding relationship of faith in Him as our constant Life-Source (See John 15:5). As we trust Him, we will discover the reality of the truth that “Faithful is He that calleth you who will also do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, KJV.) Our part - rest. His part - He does it!

Crossing Over To 2012

"The land into which you are about to cross to possess it, [is] a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, [it is] a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year" (Deuteronomy 11:11-12).

2012 is new territory for us all. It is a land of grace and living in the Land of Grace is never dull. Egypt is a flat land. A person can travel one mile or a hundred and the landscape never changes. Canaan, on the other hand, is a land of diversity. There are mountain peaks and valleys, ups and downs.

That’s how life will be in 2012. There will be happy days and hard days, but all the ups and downs of our lives are controlled by our Loving Father because our “steps are established by the Lord.” Your Father loves you so much. Take that truth with you each step of the way through 2012. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, (He says) thoughts of peace, and not evil, plans to give you a future and hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

The year ahead will be a year of divine supply. In Egypt we had to dig our own irrigation ditches, trying to produce life from the labor and struggles of our own hands. In the Land Of Grace, our Father sends what we need from heaven. Our part is to receive by faith all that He wants to give and wants to do.

2012 is a Land of Grace, and it is our land. It is a land about which “the Lord your God cares.” Every square inch and every millisecond of time during the coming year is what He wants to share with you. Let’s claim it by faith! Let’s march into the new year, free from fear and full of hope. Let us go into it with the deep settled confidence that victory is ours, that there is nothing left to fear and that there is power and glory awaiting us!

May you and your family realize His rich blessings in 2012. Thank you for journeying with us on this grace walk as we continue to share His life and love with the world.

Do We Each Have An "Evil Twin?"

Before I understood my identity in Christ, I often experienced self-condemnation in my life because of the sins I would commit. I was an easy mark for the enemy because it took so little to cause me to feel like I must be basically evil. Perhaps it would be that I had become impatient with my children, started an argument with my wife, had a lustful thought, or a thousand other sins that could cause me to go into the “God, what is wrong with me” mode. I felt like I had a split personality, desiring at times to live a holy life and at other times wanting to act any way but holy.

I knew I wanted to follow Christ, but felt that at the core of my being there was something evil. I was completely sincere in my spiritual life, but I saw this “evil twin” lurking within me waiting to get out if I didn’t keep a tight grip on him at all times. I thought that in some way I was my own worst enemy. I sometimes heard it reinforced by Bible teaching which referenced that oft-quoted “theologian” Pogo, in saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” I believed every word of it. After all, my experience certainly seemed to validate that I was my own worst enemy.

Maybe you feel the way I have described and even believe that way, but I hope your beliefs will be changed. Otherwise, you’ll remain in the same bondage of self-condemnation that I often experienced. The truth which will set you free is this: You are not your own enemy. There is nothing wrong with you. There is only something wrong in you, which is indwelling sin. Have you felt evil at times? That doesn’t mean you are evil, but only points to the presence of indwelling sin which is inside you.

Paul boldly affirmed, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good” (Romans 7:21, emphasis mine). He did not say that he was evil, but only that evil was present in him. Twice in one verse he cites the location of this indwelling sin, saying, “but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members” (7:23, emphasis mine). Paul said the power of indwelling sin was in his body.

Friends of mine once discovered that the wife had cancer. The husband continually kept those of us who are friends updated on her progress through email. He often described the cancer as “that invader” and “that bastard,” a word not to be taken in a profane sense, but used to describe an illegitimate life, just as the word is used in the Bible. The cancer is an invader which threatened her health (and ultimately took her life) and had to be attacked with a vengeance by medical professionals.

So it is with the power of indwelling sin, which is in our body. It is a “disease” which every one of us inherited, going all the way back Adam. It is a “bastard” life which will only be overcome as we continually receive the ministry of the indwelling life of Jesus Christ. Paul made an interesting observation in Romans 5:10: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” In this verse he speaks of two aspects of salvation.

On the one hand, he affirms that we have been reconciled. He says that the cause for this reconciliation was the death of Jesus Christ. It is by the death of Jesus at the cross that we have been forever delivered from sin. However, Paul doesn’t stop there, but goes on to say that “we shall be saved by His life.” Not only have we already been reconciled to God by Jesus' death, but we also shall be saved by His life. From what? From the power of sin. It is by the indwelling life of Jesus Christ that we are continually saved from it. Jesus is the miracle cure for the cancer of indwelling sin, which is in our body. We all have received the remedy for sin by the death of Jesus Christ, but many aren’t taking advantage of the ever-present cure for the power of sin in our lives. That cure is the life of Jesus Christ within us.

As we apply by faith the sufficiency of the life of Christ over the power of sin, we will walk in victory. He has come to cause the sin of our lives to go into remission forever. Peter declared that, “. . . whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” Acts 10:43, KJV (In the King James Version, note the promise of the remission of sins in Matthew 26:28; Mark 1:4; Luke 1:77, 3:3; 24:47; Acts 2:38; Romans 3:25). Sin has no power over us as we rests in the sufficiency of Christ.

You don't have an evil twin living inside you. The key to living the life for which you were created is to recognized your identity in Christ and live each moment out of that identity, as your authentic self. Any other approach deprives the rest of us out of all you have to offer the world as a unique expression of Divine Life.

Beautiful Savior

"Beautiful Savior" sung by the St. Olaf Choir
With the exception of The Hallelujah Chorus, this is the most beautiful choir anthem I've heard. For years, it was one of the songs I listened to every morning at dawn.

Believers & Unbelievers

Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity

I've often spoken of the differences between how Christians in the Eastern world understand some things in contrast to how those same things are generally understood in the west. This interview with an Archbishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church touches on some of those differences.

It's important for each of us to remember that just because something we hear is new to us and different from what we've been taught doesn't necessarily mean it is wrong. I've been amazed by the opposition I've received from some "grace people" for saying the very things this man is saying, (although not nearly in such an articulate and scholastic way). To summarily dismiss a teaching we haven't heard as "false teaching, heresy, unorthodox,"etc. when, if we're honest, we've never seriously studied the topic being addressed is intellectually lazy at best and hypocritical at worst. Not every body believes like you do. And they hold their views with the same love for Christ, the Bible, academic study and reliance upon the Holy Spirit as the rest of us have.

Hear this man with an open mind. He explains how we've jumped the track in many ways in the Western Church world.

Chapter One from my book, "Grace Walk"

CHAPTER ONE
MISERABLE MEDIOCRITY


It was on October 6 at 1:00 in the morning. I was lying on my face in my office crying. God had used the previous year to bring me to a place of absolute brokenness. I had prayed for God to make me stronger, but He had a different plan. He was making me weaker. So here I lay, broken and hopeless. In seventeen hours I would have to stand in my pulpit on Sunday evening and face it. God, why did I tell them that I would
give a "State of the Church Address"? I knew I would either have to build a straw man of success or else tell the truth. I didn't have the strength to pretend or the courage to be honest. So I prayed and cried. When I finished, I prayed and cried some more.

It didn't make sense. Had God brought me to this church only to deliberately set me up for failure? Couldn't He see that I was doing everything I knew to do for Him? I couldn't imagine what more He expected from me than that I do my best. And I had done my best. God, what more do you want from me? Silence. At this moment He seemed light years away. The weight of failure was suffocating. Not just the failure as a pastor. I felt like a failure as a Christian. If dedicating my whole adult life to Him to do His work wasn't enough, what more did He want?

I had left a church in Alabama where I felt very successful. The people there loved me and affirmed me often. Our church had been recognized for its numerical growth. We led our denomination in baptisms in that county. I had received recognition from the Jaycees for being an "outstanding young religious leader." I had served on various denominational committees and held office in our minister's conference. For five years, the situation had met my emotional needs and caused me to feel that I was successful.


Then one Saturday afternoon the telephone rang. "Would you be willing to allow our pastor search committee to attend your church and hear you preach? Then we would like to have lunch together with you and your family after the service." I had declined this kind of invitation numerous times in the past few years. Yet I sensed during the first conversation with the chairman of this pastor search committee that I should let these folks come and see what would happen.

After many weeks of contact with each other, I decided that God was indeed bringing us together. A few months later, Melanie, our four kids and I found ourselves following a moving van across I-20 toward Atlanta. The church we were moving to had been declining in attendance for several years. But every church where I had served had consistently grown. I unpacked my books, my sermons and my church growth programs, anxious to get started so that with God's help we could get this thing underway. I had moved from a small town to the big city and there were lots of people just waiting to be reached!

I pulled out my box of sugar stick sermons and previously proven programs and went to work for God. But what happened was surprising. Nothing happened. This was a new experience. I was puzzled by the fact that attendance wasn't growing. I reassessed the situation, prayed harder for God's help, took a deep breath and launched
my second wave of church growth plans. We had sanctified pep rallies with our Sunday School teachers, strategy sessions with church leaders and long range planning discussions with our newly formed Dream Team. But as the months passed, the dream began to look more like a nightmare. As I approached the end of my first year as pastor, I had told the people that I would share this "State of the Church Address" on my first anniversary. Now in examining the measurable progress during the past year, it seemed that our church was in a sorry state. For the first time in seventeen years of being a pastor, a church I served had declined in attendance during my first year there! I was appalled!

There is a dull pain that can't fully be described when one feels like a failure, especially in a culture that places so much importance on success. A line from the movie City Slickers really hits the mark for a lot of people. Mitch, the character played by Billy Crystal, is talking to a friend at work on his thirty-ninth birthday and says: "Do you ever reach a point in your life when you say, this is the best I'll ever look, the best I'll ever feel, the best I'm ever gonna do, and it ain't that great?" If you have never felt that way, you're made of something different from the rest of us. American culture demands that we be successful. People often measure your significance by what you have accomplished with your life. From the time your parents applauded your first step until now, you have been conditioned to seek approval and acceptance from others by what you do. That fact puts unbelievable pressure on you to succeed.

This demand to be successful doesn't stop at the doors of the church. Many Christians are struggling to make their life count for Christ, only to discover that the Christian life somehow just isn't working out like it's supposed to do. They have been sincere about their commitment to Christ and have given it their best effort. Yet, if the truth were told, they are frustrated because they can't live up to what they think a Christian ought to be. They have concluded that their spiritual life is about as good as it's ever gonna get and it ain't that great.

There Must Be More Than This!

Charles Trumbull described his spiritual frustrations this way:

There were great fluctuations in my spiritual life, in my conscious closeness of fellowship with God. Sometimes I would be on the heights spiritually; sometimes I would be in the depths. A strong, arousing convention, a stirring, searching address from some consecrated, victorious Christian leader of men; a searching Spirit filled book, or the obligation to do a difficult piece of Christian service myself, with the
preparation in prayer that it involved, would lift me up; and I would stay up — for a while — and God would seem very close and my spiritual life deep. But it wouldn't last. Sometimes by some single failure before temptation, sometimes by a gradual downhill process, my best experiences would be lost, and I would find myself back on the lower levels. And a lower level is a perilous place for a Christian to be, as the Devil showed me over and over again.

Sound familiar? Doesn't this describe the way we have all felt at times in our Christian life? It may describe the way you feel right now. I became a Christian at the age of eight, but Trumbull's description of his Christian experience pretty much parallels the way mine was for the next twenty nine years after I trusted Christ. I don't think I've been alone in that experience either. Many who have professed Christ as their Savior have secretly wondered, "Is this all there is to it? Surely the Christian life is meant to be more than I am experiencing!" We all know that we are supposed to be experiencing some sort of abundant life that Jesus described. Yet many find themselves living a life of mediocrity instead of victory. How to get from here to there is sometimes foggy.

The problem isn't that Christians aren't interested in a victorious Christian life. Most just don't understand how to experience it. Matt was a young man who struggled
with an addiction to illegal drugs and to alcohol. I had given him all the pat answers about reading the Bible more and praying harder. But here he was again sitting in my office, wanting my help. "It's not that I don't want to live for God," he said. "I pray for Him to help me and I really mean it, but things just never seem to change." I knew he meant it. His sincerity was obvious. That's what frustrated me. I had told him the same answers over and over again, but they weren't working for him. In a way, I could see a caricature of my own life in Matt's experience. I wasn't addicted to drugs or alcohol. My sins were far more respectable than that. But in spite of all my efforts to be free, I could still point to areas of my life where I felt enslaved. Until God revealed the key to enjoying victory in the Christian life, I did a lot of things to try to experience victory. I have come to realize that Matt and I weren't alone in our frustration. Maybe you can relate to some of these efforts to find the sense of fulfillment you have hungered for in your own life.

If At First You Don't Succeed. . .

We live in a culture that commends effort. From childhood each of us learned that we shouldn't give up. Don't be a quitter. Keep trying until you accomplish your goal. One company even advertised a motto which said, "We try harder!" In the natural world, trying harder is commendable and often effective. But God's ways really aren't
our ways. Sometimes they seem to be opposite from ours. In the spiritual world, trying harder is detrimental. That's right. Trying will defeat you every time.

No Christian has a problem with the previous paragraph as it relates to salvation. If an unsaved person were to suggest to you that he is trying hard to become a Christian, what would you tell him? You would probably make it clear to him that a person is not saved by trying, but becomes a child of God by trusting. You would tell him that there is absolutely nothing he can do to gain salvation. It has all already been done. Salvation is a gift to be received, not a reward to be earned. If a man tries even a little bit to gain salvation by his own works, he cannot possibly become a Christian. Paul said about salvation: "And if by grace, then it is no longer works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work" (Romans 11:6). In other words, it has to be either grace or works. Christians are saved by grace and trying hard has absolutely nothing to do with it.

But many Christians who understand that trying is detrimental to becoming a Christian somehow think that it is essential to walking in victory after salvation. A later chapter will demonstrate in depth that victory is not a reward, but a gift. But let's go ahead now and hit the nail straight on the head by saying that a person does not experience victory in the Christian life by trying hard to live for God. It just won't
work! I know because I've tried it. Have you tried to live for God? Did your efforts cause you to experience real victory? I rest my case . . . temporarily.

I lived many years of my Christian life trapped in what I call the motivation-condemnation-rededication cycle. From the earliest years of my Christian life I had a mental picture of what I thought I should be. But in my mind there was always a wide gap between where I ought to be and where I was. Sometimes when I was especially motivated I would feel that the gap had narrowed a little. When I was winning people to Christ or spending a lot of time praying and studying the Bible, I felt that I might actually one day be able to achieve my goal of being a victorious Christian. But inevitably the time would come when my motivation level would diminish and my fury and fire would die down. That always led to a sense of condemnation. Even when I had really done nothing wrong to cause the condemnation, I would often feel guilty for not doing all the things that I believed I should be doing. The devil would have a field day with me during this phase. Sometimes I would become spiritually indifferent. I often wondered if I would ever be consistent in my Christian life. I would wallow in my misery until I couldn't stand it anymore, then would finally rededicate myself to God, confessing my sins and spiritual slothfulness. I would pray, and with genuine contempt for my inconsistency, would ask God to help me to be more consistent. I would promise to read my Bible more, pray more, win more souls, whatever I thought it took to get back on course. I resolved to try harder than ever to live for God. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I never experienced real peace about my Christian life. If I read five chapters of the Bible, I felt that I should have read ten. If I led one person to Christ, I thought it should have been two. My wife, Melanie, used to tell me, "You'll never be satisfied." I was a classic Type A personality trying hard to do something for God. It was a miserable ride on a spiritual roller coaster!

Many people have acknowledged that their experience is much like the one I have just described. They live in this vicious cycle, moving continuously from motivation to condemnation to rededication. Does this describe your spiritual life? Constantly spinning around and around in this circle will make you sick after a while. But I want to give you hope. There is a way to get off this ride! It may sound unbelievable, but it's true. I know because I jumped off this nauseating roller coaster myself and I can't begin to describe how wonderful I have found the Christian life to be since then. We will talk more about this later. In this first chapter, I just want you to see whether the problems I have experienced in my Christian life fit your situation.

You Know The Rules!

An important cornerstone of a civilized society is law. Without laws to govern
the behavior of its citizens, a nation would live in chaotic anarchy. The dictionary defines law as: "a rule or order that it is advisable or obligatory to observe." We have all been taught throughout life that if you don't obey the rules, you will be punished. Whether it's a child sneaking cookies before dinner or an adult driving seventy in a fifty five mph zone, if you get caught breaking the rules you pay the price. Living in a world where we are taught from the cradle to the coffin that we must obey the rules, it is a natural process to transfer this system of law over into our Christian life.

The law of God is good because it accomplishes an important function. But many Christians have misunderstood the purpose of the law. The law was given to cause men to see their own absolute inadequacy to live a life that glorifies God. The Law in the Old Testament revealed to Israel the righteous standard that God demands. The story of the Hebrew people chronicles their repeated failure to live up to God's laws. Remember that God is omniscient and knew before He even gave the law that they wouldn't keep it. Through the law God revealed that righteousness cannot come from external regulations. We all understood that at the time of our salvation, but somehow many seem to believe that the rules change after a person is saved. Some people who are quick to point out that keeping religious rules won't cause anybody to become a Christian have come to believe that keeping certain rules will help you grow in your Christian life. These folks generally spend their lifetime trying to improve their spiritual performance.

Vicki came after the service one Sunday morning with tears in her eyes. "Steve, can I talk to you a minute?" We walked downstairs to the office area and sat down. Nervously fidgeting with a crumpled Kleenex, she began to cry. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I have rededicated myself to God over and over again. I'm reading my Bible, although I don't seem to get much out of it these days. I set my clock to get up early and spend time in prayer. I even agreed to work in the children's church so that I could serve the Lord there. But I still feel empty. I've asked God if I'm unhappy because of some sin in my life, but I can't think of anything. Why don't I have the joy that Christians are supposed to experience?" Vicki is typical of many Christians. Instead of experiencing joy in Christ, she was trying to find fulfillment through her Christian lifestyle. Her lack of contentment caused her to believe that God must not be pleased with her.

I can certainly relate to her experience. For many years I thought that God accepted me more when I served Him like I thought He wanted me to do. I knew that he always loved me, but felt that He probably didn't really like me sometimes. I pictured God sitting up there keeping His patience like a parent whose anger is about to explode if the kid's conduct doesn't improve soon. So when in the motivation phase, I
would do as much possible to gain His approval. I remember one time agreeing with a good friend that we wouldn't eat until we led someone to Christ. We started out visiting hardened "prospects" and gradually worked our way down as we became increasingly hungry. We finally got a kid on a bicycle in the park to pray the sinner's prayer and immediately made a bee line to McDonalds! Sometimes I would fast and pray for hours and hours. Once I spent three days in my office without coming out. At the end of my "time with God", I was starving, smelled bad and had bad breath, but didn't feel any closer to God! Don't miss my point. I am not suggesting that it is wrong to witness to unsaved people, or to fast and pray. I am saying that it was ridiculous to have thought it was somehow possible to behave in a way to cause God to accept me more than He already did. Since God already fully accepts us in Christ, there is nothing we can do to score brownie points with Him!

I have talked with many Christians whose lives are like mine has been. I can't count the times that I have heard people describe a lack of fulfillment in their Christian life and then conclude that the answer was to get back in church, or witness more, or start tithing, or pray more, etc. Take it from a man who did all those things and still felt unfulfilled, polishing your performance is not the answer! Some of the most miserable people in the world are folks who are drowning in a sea of religious activity. The sad part of it is that they are absolutely sincere in what they are doing. Can you relate to the kind of attitude just described? If you can, stay tuned, because I've got some good news for you!

Why Can't I Be Successful?

Some people might think that ministers should have it all together, but I'll go ahead and let you in on a secret. Sometimes I haven't had it all together. In fact, at times I've felt that it was all falling apart! Preachers are just like other people in many ways. Our son, David, had a friend come home with us after church one Sunday afternoon. He went back home that evening and told his mother, "They're just like us!" It's good he figured that out early in life. Pastors don't speak King James English at home. We sometimes yell at our kids and argue with our wife and worry about our bills. Sometimes we act like idiots, laughing at silly things. Some of us are Trekkies. We know about Indiana Jones and Rambo. We might even have an opinion about David Letterman moving from NBC to CBS.

Get the picture? I'm just a regular guy like you. There is something else I suspect we have in common. Probably you and I both have had the desire to be successful in our spiritual life. The popular belief is that success comes by commitment and hard work. That's true in the business world. If a person dedicates himself to
accomplish something in business, he has every reason to be optimistic about his chances in our free enterprise system. But it doesn't work that way when it comes to our spiritual life.

The criterion for measuring success in the world is production. If a person produces impressive results in business, he is considered successful. Successful people have learned what to do to accomplish the desired results. But here is where we get into trouble in the Christian life. Christianity isn't built around performance and production, but is centered on the person of Jesus Christ. When we transfer a worldly approach to experiencing success to our Christian life, it won't work!

You may not be a pastor, but I want you to see how this faulty understanding of success has infiltrated the modern church. When Paul met the brethren, he greeted them with the words "grace" and "peace." Today pastors sometimes greet each other with words like, "How many are you running now? What's your budget? How many baptisms did you have last year?" I am embarrassed to admit how often I have asked these questions in the past. My concept of success in the church was tied to production and performance. I had the same understanding of success in my personal life. I thought that to be a successful Christian, I must read the Bible enough, pray enough, do enough evangelistic outreach. More production and performance. My whole life was wrapped up in rules and routine. Have you experienced this in your life? It was a thrilling day when I finally came to understand that Christianity has nothing to do with rules and routine. Christianity is a relationship! God never intended for our focus to be on performing and producing. He only desires that our focus be on the person of Jesus Christ!

There is a generation of Christians today who measure the success of their spiritual lives by whether or not they live up to religious rules. Their focus is on their performance. They want to live up to the standard they set for themselves, but can never do enough. No wonder there are so many who feel defeated!

When any Christian tries to live by rules, the outcome will be the same as it has always been. He will discover that he just can't measure up, regardless of how hard he tries. The law is intended to leave you saying, "I just can't do it. I've tried and tried, but I just can't live a successful Christian life." If that's how you feel, then you might be closer to enjoying success than you know. Your sense of failure may be the catalyst that God wants to use to bring you to a new understanding of the meaning of success. By the time you finish reading this book, you just might find yourself beginning to have a different understanding of spiritual success.


For a long time I thought that to experience success in my Christian life, it was necessary to work harder. But I have discovered that the key to enjoying success is not strenuous work, but spiritual rest. This is a paradox in Scripture. We must rest while we work! Many Christians have the problem of feeling like a spiritual failure. Satan knows that as long as he can keep you feeling and thinking like a defeated failure, you will behave like one. But there is a way you can enjoy a successful Christian life every day! I'm not talking about sinless perfection, but I am saying that there is a quality of Christian living that I didn't know existed until twenty nine years after I was saved. I don't blame you if you don't believe it yet. Just don't close your mind to the possibility that there might be more to the Christian life than you experience right now.

I was sincere all those years I struggled to do something for God. And God graciously gave me some wonderful times in my Christian life and in my ministry. Then came the days when He began a work in my life greater than anything I have ever known since I became a Christian. But it wasn't a happy process. In fact, God's work in my life had brought me to this place where I lay on my floor wondering whether or not I would continue in the ministry. My feelings were beyond disappointment or even discouragement. I felt despair. God, if this all that ministry will ever be, I want out. I just want to quit. I know now that God must have smiled. That's exactly what He had been waiting to see happen. Now what He would do in my life would make the former days look mediocre at best.

On sale now for ten dollars at http://gracewalkresources.com/item.asp?cID=0&PID=33 Over 250,000 sold in English and approaching a half million in print in eleven languages.

The Vice of Values

I've really begun to enjoy life since I gave up my Christian values. For many years my life was built around those principles which I believed embodied the essence of the Christian life. I thought it was a noble cause to boldly defend those values. I lamented the fact that our country has abandoned its Judeo-Christian ethics. But discovering how to walk in grace has totally reshaped my perspective. I now recognize that no value system, Christian or otherwise, can express the essence of Christianity. The end result of a life built on Christian values is only a caricature of New Testament Christianity. It is not God's purpose that our life be built around a system of values. It is His desire that our life be built on the person of His Son. Value systems may influence behavior, but God is not interested in systems of living. He is interested in relationships. An intimate relationship with Him will produce a godly lifestyle. However focusing on behavior will never create intimacy with God.

Two Trees In The Garden Of Eden

The basis of a lifestyle built around a system of right and wrong originates with the dawn of man. God's purpose in creating man was that He might enjoy mankind, expressing His loving nature to him and through him. He lovingly placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and gave them reign over the garden and all that was in it. One aspect of freedom is choice. Where there is no choice there is no real freedom. Consequently, two trees were placed in the garden from which man could choose to live. The choice made by Adam and Eve would not only determine their own destiny, but the destiny of all future generations.

Genesis 2:9 describes the trees in the garden:

"And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

It is not coincidental that these two trees were in the center of the garden. The tree that Adam and Eve would eat from was to determine the standard which would be central in controlling their actions each day.

The Tree Of Life

The tree of life is a picture of the Lord Jesus. A basic principle of biblical interpretation is that the Old Testament is understood in light of New Testament revelation. The New Testament affirms repeatedly that Jesus is Life. The reason a person possesses eternal life when he is a Christian is because Christ lives within him. To receive Him is to receive Life! Jesus said that he came so that we might have life (John 10:10). As we abide in Him, His life flows out of us like rivers of living water. It isn't a flow of Divine Life that we struggle to produce. His life just naturally flows out of the Christian who is abiding in Him. God intended that Adam and Eve should live by His life all their days. As long as He was the only source they had in this world, questions of right and wrong would have never arisen. Eating from the second tree is where the trouble for mankind began.

The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil

God placed a multitude of trees in the garden. There was only one tree from which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The prohibition was for their own good. Remember that God created this tree and gave them a choice because without the choice there could be no freedom. God wanted man to choose Him. That choice would provide eternal life. But Adam and Eve were told that in the day they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. So the choice was clear — life or death. They could either continue to live in total dependence on God or choose independence from Him. Satan came along and convinced Eve that God was withholding something good from them and she ate from the forbidden tree. Adam did the same and suddenly their eyes were opened. For the first time they became conscious of good and evil. From that day forward every deed of their life would be evaluated by a value system built around the concept of right and wrong. However that was not God's original plan. His desire was that they simply allow Him to be the source and authority of their life.

Back To The 1990's

Now let's jump back into the twentieth century. As a result of Adam's sin, his descendants today still live by the choice he made. Building one's life around a value system defined by right and wrong is prevalent in every culture, from the most primitive to the most advanced. Every society defines right and wrong according to its own standards and people's lives are judged on the basis of conformity to those standards. Yet God's purpose for man today hasn't changed from His design in the garden of Eden. He still wants our lifestyle to find its source in His life, not in laws dictating right and wrong.

When a person becomes a Christian, he possesses the divine life of Jesus Christ. His life is ours. As we abide in Christ, His life flows out of us producing a righteous lifestyle. If we aren't abiding in Him, actions become irrelevant. Before I understood that Christ is my life, my whole lifestyle was characterized by an obsession with right and wrong. Yet if one is not abiding in Christ, every action is wrong. To abide in Him is to walk in faith while to fail to abide in Christ is to walk after the flesh. Any time a Christian does things on his own, it is sin regardless of how his actions may appear. This is exactly what Paul meant when he said that "whatever is not of faith is sin." Sins are not the root of the problem when we fail to abide in Christ. They are the symptoms. The real issue is that we are living out of our own sufficiency. It's living independently of Him that is real problem.

Contemporary Christians are involved in endless debates over questions of right and wrong. Is it wrong for a Christian to drink wine? How about a daiquiri? Can a Christian listen to rock group Guns n Roses? How about country singer Garth Brooks? Should a Christian attend R-rated movies? How about PG movies with bad language? The list is never ending. When we realize that the heart of the matter is that our lifestyle should be an expression of the life of Christ within us, we come to realize that we have been asking all the wrong questions!

We must recognize that even good behavior which isn't an expression of Christ within us is a sin. Remember that the tree was of good and evil. Christians are quick to acknowledge that the deeds of human goodness demonstrated by one who isn't a Christian means nothing to God. Romans 8:8 says that "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Why? Because they are living out of their own resources, not by faith in Christ. The Bible teaches that "without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 6:6). God isn't impressed by human goodness. Human goodness is nothing more than self righteousness. Even if one is a Christian, when he lives from his own resources, his good deeds are nothing more than self righteous behavior. Do you see the problem? His fruit comes from the wrong tree.

Ask The Right Question

The definitive question in the life of the believer is not, "Would it be wrong for me to do this?" The appropriate question is, "Am I trusting in Christ at this moment, trusting Him as my very Life Source?"

(This is an excerpt from my book, Grace Walk, published in 1995. The book has been printed in 12 languages. You can get a copy here: http://gracewalkresources.com/item.asp?cID=0&PID=33 )

The Deer's Cry

Lisa Kelly (Celtic Woman) sings this song beautifully. I couldn't find a video that shows her singing it but this one gives the lyrics. It's my favorite of all the Celtic Woman music.

The Voice

Lisa Kelly has an angelic voice... I love this song, which points us to THE VOICE which calls us to Himself so that we might find peace through His wounds. It's sad to think that some can only hear the Divine Lover's Voice if He speaks in a religious dialect.



"The Voice" Lisa Kelly of Celtic Women

I hear your voice on the wind
And I hear you call out my name

"Listen, my child," you say to me
"I am the voice of your history
Be not afraid, come follow me
Answer my call, and I'll set you free"

I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice that always is calling you
I am the voice, I will remain

I am the voice in the fields when the summer's gone
The dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow
Ne'er do I sleep thoughout all the cold winter long
I am the force that in springtime will grow

I am the voice of the past that will always be
Filled with my sorrow and blood in my fields
I am the voice of the future, bring me your peace
Bring me your peace, and my wounds, they will heal

I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice that always is calling you
I am the voice

I am the voice of the past that will always be
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice of the future
I am the voice, I am the voice
I am the voice, I am the voice

Robert F. Capon On Grace

Here's an excerpt of an interview Tim Brassell, pastor of New Creation Community Church, in Portsmouth, Virginia, did with Christian author Robert Farrar Capon and published in Grace Communion International's magazine, "Christian Odyssey."

If you aren't familiar with Robert Capon or with Grace Communion International, you'd benefit from knowing both. Capon's books can be found on amazon.com and you can find GCI at www.gci.org


RC:"Nothing separates us from the love of God." We think there must be some breaking point where God would give up on us. "Well, what about if we…?"

Sin is not a problem with God. God solved all his problems with sin before the foundation of the world, in the beginning—and it’s done. The iceberg that lies under the surface of history is the Son of God; redemption is the mystery behind all history. Sin is a permanent irrelevancy. And God is the one to say, "Look, I have taken away the handwriting that was against you."

I like the translation in Matthew, "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." What do we do when we don’t forgive somebody else’s debts, or literally, their sins? We carp on what they owe us. We look at the chits that we have saved. This is what you owe me and you haven’t given it to me. There is an IOU I hold against you, and I gotta have this…. Well, it’s not that way with God. With God, it’s done—there is no handwriting against us. It’s done. He’s not holding IOUs.

TB: So why do we have such a love affair with legalism?

RC: It’s something that’s afflicted the church from the start. Humans have a hard time believing that God doesn’t hold IOUs. But Paul says the law cannot save. He says, "He has made him to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

TB: Have you found an effective way to present the gospel to a legalist?

RC: No (laughter). The reason I say no is because all that you’re going to do is present it and shock them. If you try to do it in a winsome way, which I always do, and try to do it to show them the freedom of it, then you’ve got a chance. A small chance, not a big one, but you’ve got a chance—because, when it happens—people go, "Wow!"

I was made visiting professor of something or other in religion at the University of Tulsa for the fall term back in the ’80s or ’90s. I had two classes. One was a 39-week beginning course. I taught the parables, and I had, I would say, everybody against me. All these youngsters were against me because what I was saying was against everything they had ever heard. I pounded and pounded and pounded for 39 weeks. I went through every parable.

One young lady came up to me at the end and said: "You know, when I first came here I didn’t like anything you said, because it contradicted everything I knew. But, you have done something. For the first time in my life I see that it really is good news" (laughter). They thought the gospel was bad news! That’s what legalism does to people.

Tim Brassell: Can a pastor take grace too far?

Robert Capon: No. A pastor can’t take grace too far. That is, not unless he claims that sin doesn’t matter. If he claims that, he’s abusing grace, because sin does matter. It matters to me, the sinner. It matters whether I leave myself stuck in it.

Suppose a mother has a kid who comes in all muddy. She just washes off the mud. She loves her child and doesn’t wait to see whether the kid decides if he wants to live with mud all over him. She just washes it off. And if she is a faithful, true mother, she will continually take that mud into herself and say, "Well, this is my son, and I will stick with him."

TB: Mothers are like that.

RC: Yes. The point is that sin is mud. It’s a cover-up or cover-over of your true being as a person. And Jesus has washed it away. He’s erased the sins. He’s washed them away.

He Took It Out of Us And Into Himself

Here's a wonderful picture of the atonement of Jesus Christ. In this clip from "The Green Mile," John Coffey (J.C.) draws the lethal toxins from her and into Himself. He shattered the dimension of time and took into His own body that which was causing her to perish. She was helpless to do anything for herself and needed only to "be still" and trust in his work. Taking it away from her, he made her whole and radiant with beauty.

Make You Feel My Love

I know I've posted it before, but I so love this song. Can you hear The Voice behind the voice?

Have You Heard of Confirmation Bias? It May Be Blinding You.

WAIT! DON'T WATCH THE VIDEO YET...READ THE PARAGRAPH BELOW IT FIRST...



There's a point about understanding biblical truth that this video illustrates very well. For you to really get the full impact of the point I'm making, you'll have to work with me on this and follow these instructions:

1. Start the video and watch it until the eight second spot and then immediately pause the player there. Go ahead and do it, then come back to this point.

2. What do you see in the video? The frame of a box? Are you sure it's a box? How sure are you? One hundred percent? Fifty percent?

3. If you stop here and go no further, you'll forever be convinced that what you've seen is a box, but it's not. You have not been watching a box frame on this video. You may be fully convinced you're seeing the image clearly, but you're not.

4. Press play now and watch the rest of the video.

What you've just experienced is called "confirmation bias." It's a psychological mindset which causes us to connect mentally to evidence that reinforces what we already believe while dismissing any evidence that would contradict our existing beliefs. You can google this subject and find out all about the early tests done in the 1960s that revealed the bias and find many examples on the Internet about it.

The reason I'm bringing it up here is because I find confirmation bias is a strong deterrent that keeps people from seeing some truths in the Bible. There are things we have believed for a long time, maybe even all our lives. But what if some of the things we believe are wrong? What if there's another way to look at it that would still recognize the Bible to be the authority on our understanding but would be a completely different viewpoint?

There are some things I believed for a long time that I don't believe anymore. I now see those things differently. Sometimes, when I share those topics, people will say, "But the Bible says . . . !" Of course, I already know that the Bible says what they're telling me. It's not that I don't know what the Bible says. The point is that there may be another way of "seeing" (interpreting) the text than what these folks have previously considered.

The thing about confirmation bias is that it's hardwired into our psyche is such a way that we often have a knee-jerk reaction against any evidence that contradicts our current viewpoint. In other words, we simply will not hear it. We know what we know that we know and we don't want to be bothered with information that goes against what we think we know.

So we react without giving the other viewpoint any serious investigation or sometimes even without a fair hearing. We hurl our stockpile of Bible verses that we already know which (to us) supports the view we currently have. There may be another way to understand those verses, but if we are confronted with a different way of seeing it, we often abandon that verse and flee to the next one that we think will support our existing view.

It's as if when we read the Bible, the verses that support what we already believe seem to be highlighted or italicized while the verses that might disprove and dismantle our current belief are skimmed over, almost as if they are invisible. Our bias serves to reinforce our view by causing confirming evidence to jump out at us while blinding us to any evidence that might threaten our current view.

It's important to see that bias in yourself. We all have it. Recognizing that fact can do a couple of important things in us. First, it can cause us to realize that, despite the fact that we may be very sure about our view, we could be wrong. We would all benefit from holding our viewpoints in humility. To say, "I just believe what the Bible plainly says" is often an arrogant cop-out. When we make that statement, are we implying that the other person is ignorant? That they don't really believe the Bible? It's not a weakness to possess humility when it comes to our understanding. Despite the western world's demand for ironclad, definitive, it-can't-be-any-other-way answers, there is a reason sincere, God-loving, Bible-believing, educationally-equipped students of the Bible have differed throughout history. Maybe if we recognize confirmation bias in ourselves we will be more respectful to those who differ with us.

The second thing it can do for us if we recognize the reality of confirmation bias in ourselves is to open our minds and hearts to learn truth we haven't known. To be open isn't to be gullible. Of course, we are to examine truth in light of the Scripture but instead of doing that we sometimes slam the door of our minds shut the moment we hear something that's new to us. If we aren't changing, we aren't growing. It's that simple.

What if there are some truths the Holy Spirit wants to teach you that contradict what you believe right now? Are you open to that? To replacing something you believe now with another belief the Spirit teaches you? Are you willing to change? Sometimes I encounter people who actually become angry when they are confronted with teaching that is new to them. Their anger shouts of their insecurity in their beliefs.

Others are too heavily vested in the religious culture where they live to change. There's a price to pay when we go against our religious culture. I've learned first hand that when we change, we will encounter rejection from some who don't agree with us. Go with the flow of grace and it just might carry us out "outside the city gates."

Sometimes when we think we are defending the truth, what we're really doing is frantically hugging our sacred cows. Our bias has caused us to idolize our traditions and our traditions have galvanized our inability to learn truths that are new to us.

Don't be gullible. Don't believe what anybody teaches you without studying the Bible for yourself. Many who are wary of teachings that are new to them have never considered that the things they currently believe are held by them because their religious culture indoctrinated them without their having seriously studied the subject for themselves. They have learned by religious osmosis, not by Spirit-led instruction.

I was speaking in Mexico one time and learned that many of the people there had been told by their pastor, "Don't listen to him!" When I stood to speak on the first night, I said, "Your pastor is right. You shouldn't listen to me, but you shouldn't listen to him either. Listen to the Bible. Listen to the Holy Spirit. If what he or I say is biblical, then listen to that. But don't take our word for anything - neither of us."

Who are you listening to these days? Your tradition? Your denomination? Your family upbringing? Maybe it would be a good idea for all of us to recognize and admit that we indeed do have a confirmation bias that causes us to unconsciously connect to the things that affirm we are right and we bypass anything that would suggest otherwise.

May His Spirit cause each of us to hear His Voice and to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," even if it means that we have to admit that we've been wrong -- very wrong about some things. Don't be so sure you're seeing a box. Sometimes we need to look further into the matter to know what's really there.

A Wideness In God's Mercy

Hymnwriter, Frederick William Faber wrote this in 1854. It's called "There's A Wideness In God's Mercy." Great lyrics!

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth’s sorrows
Are more felt than up in Heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings
Have such kindly judgment given.

There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior;
There is healing in His blood.

There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In that upper home of bliss.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.

’Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
It is something more than all;
Greater good because of evil,
Larger mercy through the fall.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.

Souls of men! why will ye scatter
Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts! why will ye wander
From a love so true and deep?

It is God: His love looks mighty,
But is mightier than it seems;
’Tis our Father: and His fondness
Goes far out beyond our dreams.

But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.

Was there ever kinder shepherd
Half so gentle, half so sweet,
As the Savior who would have us
Come and gather at His feet?