Happy Anniversary to My Darling Wife

It was exactly 40 years ago today that I woke up beside my cousin, Eddie. We had slept in the same bed because the whole family was at our house to attend my wedding that day. I was about to marry Melanie Lee, the only girl I'd ever dated. It had been three years that we dated. My Dad had asked me to "please wait until you're at least 19 to marry." I turned 19 on July 7 and on July 28, 1973, three weeks later, we were about to be married.

At first, I had asked Melanie's parents if I could marry her after I graduated from college, three years later. I had been away to school for my freshman year while Melanie was still home finishing high school. I gave her the engagement ring on her birthday on May 10. The more we talked about it, the more we realized how hard it was going to be for me to leave her to go back to school alone. So back to her parents we went, this time asking to get married right away - in December. They weren't happy about that at all and didn't give an answer right then. (Her Dad loathed preachers.)

A few days later, we came back and said, "We want to get married in July."  Less than two months away. Her mother asked Melanie, "Is there something you need to tell me?" There wasn't. We were are pure as the fallen snow on the day we married (well, I won't promise that was true in my thoughts but it was in my actions) but I'm sure both sets of parents sighed a great sigh of relief when time passed and our chastity was verified. Our first child wasn't born until almost two years later.

Over the past forty years, our life together has been incredible. We've had heartache at times - problems with finances, church members, children, and most recently health. There's much we don't know about other people but believe me, we've shed as many tears as most, if not more. Through it all, God's grace has been sufficient.

The pleasures of life have far outweighed the pain. I was a local pastor for the first 21 years, from the age of nineteen to forty. I wrote *Grace Walk* when I was 40 and it was published the next year. I resigned the pastorate at 40 and began to travel in an itinerant ministry. Since then, Melanie and I have been amazed at the places ministry has carried us and the things we have been allowed to do.

Because of ministry trips we have walked on the Great Wall of China, stood inside the Taj Mahal in India, cruised the Fjords of Norway, seen the windmills and tulips of Holland, saw Buddhist temples in Thailand, golden temples in Japan, watched the House of Commons debate policy in Parliament in London (from the peanut gallery), petted Kangaroos and Wallaby in Australia, stood in the Coliseum at Rome and the ruins of Pompeii, gone on a safari in Africa where we slept outside and ate wild boar for breakfast. The list could continue. We've been on six continents.

The amazing thing has been that we have always had a modest income. The car I drive right now has 160,000 miles on it. Rich, we are not - at least not in money. But we are rich in grace and That Grace has *given* us these experiences.

More important than the things we've done are the relationships we have. We have four wonderful children whom we love dearly and who love us. Our fourth grandchild is due to be born on Christmas Eve.

We have dear friends with whom we love to laugh and play and vacation and share our lives.

Melanie and I have each other, and we often thank God for that. We've both agreed that this past year has been the hardest one of our lives but we have held each other in our arms and felt Divine Love and each others healing caress through it all. With health challenges, despite sincere determination to keep a positive perspective we sometimes hear nagging voices taunting our minds about a possible future that doesn't even exist in this moment. Only Grace-Filled-Agape exists in this moment and He will be with us in every moment. So, we rest and hold each other with faith in Him.

After 40 years, we are still deeply in love and that is a real gift. How are we celebrating this day? That's another miracle. Sufficient funds recently came to us unexpectedly that allowed us to plan this Anniversary Trip.

We sit here in our room now, starring in amazement out the window at the canal and St. Mark's Basilca. This evening, at 6:30, we will board a Gondola for a private tour of the canals of Venice. I will hold my sweetheart's hand as the Gondolier serenades us and I will silently wonder in amazement, "Father, why me? Why would you have chosen to give me such a woman and such a life?"  And I am sure that the answer will gently surface and lovingly whisper  . . . "Grace." 

Grace. That's right. When I wrote "Grace Walk," almost 20 years ago, the Dedication read, "To Melanie, my most precious grace gift in this world." Today, I affirm that fact and thank God for it.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

A scientific study* was done in the 1960s that demonstrates how easily any of us can find ourselves trapped in traditional thoughts and actions that make no sense but are so embedded in us that we don't even think to question them. Although the study was performed with monkeys, sadly the underlying result often manifests itself in human beliefs and behavior.

Five monkeys were placed in a cage together and a ladder was placed in the middle of the cage. On the top of the ladder was a bunch of bananas. Every time a monkey started to climb the ladder to get the bananas, the researchers would hose down the rest of the monkeys with cold water. It didn't take long until every time any monkey tried to go up the ladder, the others would beat him up. After a while, no monkey dared to try to go up the ladder.

The scientists then decided to substitute one of the monkeys. When they put the new monkey into the cage, the first thing he did was to try to climb the ladder. Of course, the others beat him up. After a few beatings, he learned not to try to climb the ladder.

Then a second monkey was placed into the cage and the same thing happened. He went straight for the ladder and the others attacked him. Interestingly, even the first monkey participated in the beating even though he had never been sprayed with the cold water. A third monkey was switched with one of the original five and the same thing happened. Then a fourth and finally the last original monkey was replaced with the fifth replacement.

So, in the end, there were five monkeys in the cage and none of them had ever been soaked with the cold water. Yet they still would beat up any monkey that tried to climb the ladder.

What was the rationale behind the action of these monkeys? Since none of them had been sprayed with water, why did they all act so illogically? The answer is "indoctrination." Each of them, when introduced to the group, had been indoctrinated to behave the way the rest did. The new monkey didn't know why. He just beat up the monkey trying to go up the ladder because that's what he had learned was the appropriate thing to do.

This same kind of indoctrination has happened in shaping the thoughts and actions of many people today who would identify themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. The interesting thing is that the One they want to follow didn't fall into the "monkey see, monkey do" syndrome. To the contrary, He bucked the system so much that it ended up provoking people to kill Him.

To take a contrarian position simply for the sake of being a contrarian is wrong. There is no value in trying to go against "the system" just for the sake of being different. In fact, it's often pride that causes a person to do that.

On the other hand, it's equally as wrong to accept viewpoints and practices simply because others do. This kind of "group think" has led to great atrocities throughout history. The history of the church has not escaped the damage this kind of indoctrination can cause. I suspect that there are many sacred cows that have been embraced as sacred doctrine in the church today because of this sort of group indoctrination. They need to die.

While it is unwise and unhealthy to become a belligerent skeptic who challenges everything from a knee-jerk reaction, it is important to ask yourself why you believe what you believe. The process of maturing in any area of our lives necessitates that we change. Not change for the sake of change, but a kind of change that comes with any growing thing.

Don't be afraid to ask "why?" Truth is eternal and can withstand scrutiny. Avoid any environment where your questions are squelched by authority or peer pressure. None of us have a perfectly clear understanding of anything. We are all on a journey. Let's not beat up those who try to climb the ladder just because we've learned to do it that way. We aren't monkeys. We bear the image of our Creator. Let us refuse to become indoctrinated into a static system and instead spend our lives exploring the dynamic reality of discovering more and more of what it means to live in the Divine Life that embraces us.



*Stephenson, G. R. (1967). Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys. In: Starek, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H. J. (eds.), Progress in Primatology, Stuttgart: Fischer, pp. 279-288.

The Garden

It was a warm October afternoon in Hong Kong, where I sat around a table with eleven other men. All of us were wiping tears from our eyes. Some of us had our head buried in our hands and were sobbing. The reason for our tears was because of a song being sung to us by a Chinese Christian named George Chen. Friends from The Bible League had encouraged this stopover on the way to Beijing so that we could meet with George and hear his story.

George began to preach immediately when he became a Christian. Over the next few years, he was arrested numerous times for preaching. As the cultural revolution in China intensified, houses were searched and Bibles were seized and burned. Many pastors died and the lives of the rest were in constant jeopardy. However, this didn’t stop George from proclaiming the gospel.

He continued to preach until the day came when he was arrested and thrown into prison. When the iron gate slammed shut behind him, it was to be eighteen years before he would know freedom again. His notoriety as a pastor didn’t serve George well in prison. To make Pastor Chen an example, the communist guards assigned him to work in the prison sewer. Pots filled with human waste from all the prison barracks were emptied into this giant cesspool.

George’s job was to spend every day in the cesspool, shoveling the human waste onto wagons, where it was taken to fields and used as fertilizer. Yet by the divine enablement of the life of Jesus Christ within George, he didn’t mind. In fact, he came to enjoy his time in the cesspool. George explained to us:

“In prison, you’re never alone. You work beside other prisoners all day, sleep close to them at night and the guards are always watching. This is why I came to enjoy my assignment in the prison cesspool. There I could be alone. The stench of the filth on my clothing and body kept everyone away from me. Nobody wanted to come near me. Not the prisoners, not the guards. Nobody! They all kept their distance.”

George continued, “Since working in the cesspool allowed me to be alone, I was able to pray, lifting up my voice loudly to the Lord. I was able to recite the Scripture verses I had memorized before they took away my Bible. Oh, I would sing! I would sing boldly to the Lord. God’s grace sustained me. The living presence and power of the Holy Spirit encouraged and blessed me.”

As we sat listening to George’s story, one of the men seated at the table asked, “George, what did you sing?”
He answered, “I’ll sing it for you now.” He closed his eyes, tilted his head toward heaven, opened his hands with palms facing upward, and with a smile on his face, George began to sing in Chinese a hymn we all recognized by the melody.

“I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me; and He talks with me; and tells me I am His own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

As George sang, God’s presence in the room became powerfully evident and grown men began to weep. It wasn’t difficult to imagine George in that cesspool, singing praises to God as he shoveled human excrement. George had come to know that when one has Jesus Christ, he has everything he needs. Our God can turn a cesspool into Paradise by His very presence.

I'll Apologize In Heaven

If I have overstated my Father’s love; if there is a dark side of His character of which I’ve lost sight; a Judicial Temperament that will hold me in account for a distorted proclamation of who He is and what He wants us to know; an incomplete or polluted aspect of my understanding and declaration of what I sincerely have come to believe is the true gospel . . . if I have become confused, misled, beguiled or misguided in what I wholeheartedly believe has been a revelation of the meaning of “the finished work of Jesus Christ,” then I will apologize from the bottom of my heart when I get there. I will plead that where I have been wrong, I have been sincerely wrong. Wrong after much Bible study and prayer and soul searching and agonizing with The Truth. I will humbly and earnestly ask to be forgiven for exaggerating His goodness and grace. But I do not believe that will ever happen. My Father’s grace will always exceed anything you or I can imagine. I’m gambling everything on that and it’s a gamble I am confident I will not regret…not in this life or the next. Let the critics say what they will. Let the like-minded stand with me. Eternity will render The Verdict. Let us each be fully persuaded in our own minds and act on that persuasion with boldness. Lay down your life for it, because if it's true, it's worth it.

The Power of Love

What would happen if we showed affectionate love to everybody???? If a person like this finds healing in the expression of love, what would it do if we loved the people we meet in our daily lives? "Love never fails." - The Apostle Paul
(Watch this to the end to understand the point)

Hand Me The Scapel, I'm Going In

Many of you know that, my wife, Melanie has had serious back problems for several years now. She has had multiple operations. The last one was when she fractured vertebrae when she vomited after eating spoiled food in a restaurant. It hasn’t been easy.

Well, the good news is that I think her troubles are soon over. I’ve been reading about a surgery that I think I can do myself. I read on Wikipedia that a doctor in Switzerland developed it. I won’t try to explain it here but it involves making an incision in her back three inched wide and two inches deep. Then there’s tapping the vertebrae back in place with a small hammer, sort of like a geological tool. I read on another medical (well, actually holisitic health) site that there’s a special bone adhesive you use. I can buy the glue from that site. I don’t have every single detail figured out but I think I’ve got the idea well enough that once we’ve bought the necessary supplies, I’m going to take the scalpel and go in! We’d appreciate your prayers.

Are you okay with that? Well, relax. It’s not true. I’d be an idiot to think I can understand back surgery by reading Wikipedia and a few web sites by people who are generally opposed to surgery. Everybody would see through that it in second.

On the other hand, the same can’t be said about theology. I’m amazed by the number of blogs, Facebook posts and comments I read in which somebody professes to be solving problems and giving exact answers about theology that have been debated from the very beginning of the early church. How’d they come up with their definitive answers to age-old questions? Wikipedia. Or their favorite preacher’s blog. Or their next door neighbor’s nephew’s pastor, who reputedly told the nephew the answer before it was passed back up line to them.

And the amazing thing? People buy it. In fact, they repeat it. Like parrots in a pet store, they all start screeching the same thing. They haven’t studied the Bible to come to an answer. Why should they? They learned what Trinitarianism is from Wikipedia! They understand the whole issue of hell because they read online where (insert name) explained it. They heard a guy say that he knew a guy who saw a guy embrace that doctrine and it wrecked his family’s life!

In today’s religious climate there are two dangers, coming from opposite extremes. The first is rejecting something we hear because it is new to us. The other is embracing something we hear because it is new to us. Some people seek to preserve tradition and are threatened by ideas that contradict what they’ve always believed. Others, who’ve been burned in the religious world, impulsively jump on any new idea they believe is a slap in the face to the tradition they have heartily renounced.

Paul commended the Berean Christians by saying, “These people were more receptive than those in Thessalonica. They were very willing to receive the message, and every day they carefully examined the Scriptures to see if those things were so” (Acts 17:11) Listen to those you respect. Read the blogs. Check out the Facebook posts, but at the end of the day, study the Bible for yourself. None of us are 100% right on everything we say. We’re all in process. We certainly can learn from each other but we each have the duty to study the Scripture and see what The Teacher says to us about the things we’ve heard and read.

I need to go now. Melanie’s back hurts and I have a knife, hammer and glue to purchase.

Standing On My Own Grave

Nothing bridges the imagined chasm of distance between time and eternity like standing on your own grave. I did it today. I stood on the plot I purchased for myself a few years ago and, right there, in Magnolia Cemetery, over the empty ground where I stood and gazed at my parents occupied graves, I remembered again that we were not created for this world. We truly are just sojourners – temporary visitors in a place we sense within is not our true home.

I felt it . . . *the desire* . . . not in a morbid sort of way, but in a way that C.S. Lewis knew:

“In speaking of this desire, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you – the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence.”  (*Surprised By Joy*, p. 16)

Have you ever felt it?  I did today. And I have no fear. None. Only the anticipation that one who recognizes his origin in The Eternal can understand. I think I’ll have a blank stone placed on that plot, for it is a sacred portal. No, better still, it is a promise.  “Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!”

From "The Secret of Grace"

From the manuscript I just sent to Harvest House this week: The Secret of Grace - Release date: April 1, 2014 Harvest House Publishers

Our adoption in Him was the eternal purpose our Triune God had in mind all along. The coming of Jesus into this world wasn’t a reaction to what Adam did in the Garden of Eden when he sinned. The story of redemption doesn’t begin with Adam. It predates Adam all the way back to a time when there was no date! It was our God’s plan to bring us into His family before the first second existed in the human dimension we call “time” When there was no “space” there was already Grace. You were in His heart before the first molecule was spoken into being.

Before Adam sinned, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world had assured your safe delivery into His arms. As numerous theologians have said: “You were found before you were lost.” Your adoption in Jesus Christ is the result of a love set on you long before the first ray of light exploded out of the mouth of Christ and started its race across the universe. The gospel is the good news that you are included in the victory Jesus accomplished over sin and death. You were included even before you knew or believed you were included. Even when you stood in the darkness of unbelief there was a “true light that enlightens every person by his coming into the world” (John 1:9) and you blindly stood in that Light of Love. People without sight can’t see the light but it shines on them nonetheless. You may have lived all eternity with a darkened mind and never have known the Light but He knows you. The light of His love has always shone on you.

Your faith in Christ isn’t the tipping point that causes the efficacy of His finished work to be real. Your faith is a response to a Reality that existed while you didn’t even know what you didn’t know. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness,” God says to you. (See Jeremiah 31:3) Speaking of His crucifixion, Jesus promised, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself" (John 12:32, NLT). “Everyone” includes you.

In Jesus Christ you have been adopted – given the full standing of a son – by the Father Himself. “It is by His doing that you are in Christ Jesus,” Paul told the Corinthians. (See 1 Corinthians 1:30). It’s not because of anything you do. Nothing you do has caused you to be placed into Christ Jesus. That happened as a result of a divine act of grace.

With baited breath, all of heaven watched until the fullness of time came and, in the person of Jesus, the eternal plan our Triune God had held in His heart forever came bursting into time and space like bright rays of sunshine penetrating dark clouds. “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons,” Paul proclaimed in Galatians 4:5. How could such a thing happen to us? “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” Paul explains in Ephesians 1:5.

Does that include you? Jesus died once for all, according to the Scriptures. The Apostle Peter said, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

Get Off The Religious Treadmill

 

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden,

and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

Recently I was told that a pastor I knew years ago had walked into the woods, pulled out a gun and killed himself. The man was known in his community as a busy, sincere and hard working pastor, but behind the scenes he had struggled with self-doubts, emotional and mental fatigue.

Sometimes there’s a short step between spiritual service and a religious treadmill and that short step makes all the difference. Real love motivates authentic service while religious laws power the religious treadmill. Desire leads the first but duty drives the latter. It’s the difference between a tiring sense of “ought-to” and thrilling sense of “want-to.”

Are you on the religious treadmill? Get off. You may find it gratifying in the short run but over the long haul it'll drain you. Driven religious fervor becomes a one-night stand repeated over and over and over again. There may be a shallow gratification in one-night stands, but nobody would ever mistake it for genuine intimacy.

God offers you much more than that. He wants you to experience Him as a soothing rhythm of grace. However, to know that kind of intimacy, you must stop any religious hyperventilating you’ve mistaken for a grace walk, calm down, and do what is born from the expression of Christ within you. God doesn’t need you to break the three-minute mile for Him. He just wants you to enjoy Him, knowing that everything else in your life will flow out of that.

The fact remains, however, that a religious rat race is a tick that slowly sucks the lifeblood out of our intimacy with God.  God didn’t invite you to be His maid, but His bride. Of course you will serve Him, but is to be the natural expression of your love for Him. Otherwise, it becomes a stumbling block in your grace walk.

Well meaning believers often find themselves in a place which can be compared to the man adrift at sea in a life raft. Because he is dying of thirst, he begins to drink the seawater around him. The salt water causes him to become increasingly thirsty and his thirst causes him to drink more seawater. This vicious cycle will ultimately bring death.

This will be the fate of anybody who believes that doing more is the remedy for his thirst.  Sometimes the answer to our deepest need is met when we understand that the best way to advance may be to retreat, remembering that God’s ways are not our ways.

Blaise Pascal said, “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” It isn’t frenzy, but faith that facilitates intimacy.

Don’t allow yourself to be pressured by the religious machinery so prevalent in modern Christian culture. It’s not that you are to become spiritually passive. Christ within you will see to it that no such thing happens.  On the other hand, you are free to step away from any demand to do more than His Spirit is leading you to do.

Don’t let other people manipulate you into doing what they think you need to do. That’s not their call. That matter rests between you and the Holy Spirit. To stand on this fact sometimes requires that you be willing to accept the disapproval of others who try to pressure you into doing what they think is right for you.

Jesus didn’t come to help us be religious superstars. Far from it, He came to deliver us from empty religion, even orthodox, time honored religion. Jesus came to bring us into intimacy with God through Himself. In His earthly days, as in our day, those most offended by Him have been the religionists who have built their reputation around keeping their golden idols polished to a brighter shine than anybody else in town.

The idols are their own particular rules of the religious road-race that must be observed as they speed down the highway they call “Christian living.” Their display case is filled with the specific idols that most easily fit their own personality and temperament. They judge everybody else by whether or not they live up to their own personal standards. People are incidental. What matters is how you are behaving.

The fact is that even Jesus wasn’t a good churchman by the standards of the religionists of His day. He didn’t live up to what they thought He ought to be. To them, He had no convictions. He appeared to compromise the purity and integrity of their values by doing things like healing people on the Sabbath, by eating with the crooks (Publicans) and party-animals (sinners) of His day. He was a friend of the hookers and homeless. He didn’t separate Himself far enough from the riffraff, as every good churchman knew one should do. Consequently, He lost His testimony with the Pharisees, an incidental matter which didn’t seem to bother him at all. Jesus cared more about relationships than reputation. He still does.

A legitimate grace walk gently flows like water along a riverbank, refreshing all who happen to stumble upon our banks. It isn’t a flash flood of activity that honors God. He doesn’t lead us that way, but instead He has chosen to make “[us] lie down in green pastures. He leads [us] beside the still waters [where] He restores [our] soul” (Psalm 23).

Get off the religious treadmill and just put your eyes on Him. He will do "the rest" in you.  Do the things God asks but don’t confuse His voice with the demanding voice of dead religion.

Taken from The Grace Walk Devotional. To get the book, click here

Rethinking What We've Believed

            I want to tell you a story – this is “a big story.” I think you agree after you’ve read it. 

           One of my adult children has a friend who, while she was in our home, broke something very valuable in my house. As much as I hated it, I had to tell her that she owed me for the cost of the thing she had broken. It wasn’t a pleasant situation for anybody but she broke the thing and it is what it is.

            Months passed and she wouldn’t pay. Finally, I took the necessary steps to recover my loss legally. Before the day came for me to recover the debt she owed me in court, my own child came to me and said, “Dad, I don’t want you to sue her over this. I know she owes you, but this is my friend, somebody I love.”

            “I know, but she owes me the money. To pay it back is only fair,” I answered.

            “Yes, but this is my friend,” my daughter answered.

            While I appreciated her compassion for her friend, the situation was what it was. In the end, my daughter paid me what her friend owed me and I forgave her friend’s debt. The odd thing is that the “friend” of my daughter never even thanked me. Can you believe that? I was that kind to her and she didn’t even appreciate it? So much for showing her mercy.
            Okay, let’s stop. I can’t continue. I'm feeling disgusted even writing about that. Here’s the truth: It never happened. I made up that story to illustrate a point.

            What kind of feelings did that story evoke in you as you began to read it? Did it affect what kind of person you perceived me to truly be? Did you think it was horrible for me to take a legal approach toward a problem in which the relationship should have been the most important thing to consider? Did you see the foolishness of me saying that “I forgave her friend the debt” when, in fact, the debt had been paid by my daughter? Did you think it was ridiculous that I would even suggest I showed her mercy?

            Why is it that we can see the absurdity of this sort of thing when it comes to people but, on the other hand, have no problem believing these very things about God? Here’s the beliefs of many, many Christians today:

1.     Mankind broke something important to God (His command not to eat from the forbidden tree) and as a result owed God something for it.  God hated that but, “it is what it is.”

2.     Humanity had to pay God for what we did. “That’s only fair.” (We’re told that somehow God’s “justice” demands payback.)

3.     Jesus steps up on behalf of the friend (mankind) and pleads our case, finally paying back God what He was owed so that we no longer owe the debt and God will be satisfied.

4.     Now, we’re supposed to thank God for His kindness and mercy for forgiving the debt that Jesus paid.

It’s insanity. Some offer their parroted response, “God’s ways are not our ways.” It the description above was correct, that response would be true. And I’d respond to it by saying, “You’re right. God is meaner than I am.” But it’s not true; not at all.

This Western World theology of retribution has created a concept of our Father that is totally demonic. Think of it: Satan has been able to cause much of the church world to believe that, although Jesus is a nice guy, His Father is one demanding deity who was so ready to fling His rage into us with a vengeance that He couldn’t rest until He could discharge (get it out of His system) that anger in some way.

There is another way to see God the Father. It’s how the early church saw Him before Anselm came along at the end of the 11^th century and detonated this blasphemous bomb of penal substitution – the idea that God punished Jesus instead of us.

Jesus did take our place and was punished by sin, not His Father. As I’ve said, “there is another way to see God the Father.” It is a theology of affection. It would be a great thing if we all were willing to consider that there may be another way of seeing things – a way that is consistent with the teaching of the Bible and the understanding of the early church.

Sometimes this sort of post can trigger an instant reaction from the “Save The Sacred Cow” group, but remember this: “Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish”  - Proverbs 18:13. Most people have never seriously studied or considered views that contradict what they’ve been taught and believed all their lives. Do we want to know the truth, or not? Don't take anybody's word for it. Study. Pray. Learn. You have the Teacher who will guide you into all truth. What is He saying about the Father of Love?

Charity In The Midst of Diversity

The first half of the 1950’s was a time many Americans are still embarrassed, if not ashamed about in terms of our historical blunders. “McCarthyism” took the stage front and center during that time because of intensified fears about Communist infiltration in this country through institutions and influential Americans.

The Online Dictionary defines “McCarthyism” as:

1. The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.
2. The practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism.
As time passed, the term came to be associated with reckless, uninformed and unsubstantiated accusations. During the McCarthy era, many Americans were falsely accused and aggressively scrutinized by those who had already passed verdict in their own minds concerning those who were being accused. Despite assertions under oath concerning their innocence, many people lost their jobs, saw their reputations destroyed and some were even imprisoned.

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party? was often nothing less than an accusation posed as a question. Undoubtedly, there were those whose allegiance to the United States was exposed but, in the process, many others were unfairly persecuted to the point of great personal loss.

The irony of the ugly tactics sometimes used during that shameful time in American history is that it was carried forward under the banner of “the fight for America.” While “the Red Scare” may have turned over rocks and exposed some, the fear-based passion among many left other innocent people with the tag of “Communist Sympathizer” even if there was no basis for such a judgment. 

Regardless of ones political predisposition concerning American politics today, almost all Americans readily recognize the excessive and unfair abuse of many people during the fifties who didn’t deserve to be judged and found guilty using such spurious claims against them.

This is the kind of thing nobody is surprised about when it comes to the steely, cold hand of politics. As deplorable as it is, this sort of thing goes on across the world in governmental offices, agencies and committees every day. It’s “the nature of the beast.”

Sadly, this same calloused witch-hunt seems to have moved into the church world. The modern “Fight for Othodoxy” has often brought forth the same kind of tactics employed by those in the “Fight for America” six decades ago. The sad thing that is simultaneously amazing and horrifying is that it often exists among those who profess to belong to “the grace community.”

“Are you now or have you ever been a Universalist?” “Do you or do you not believe in a literal hell?” “Is it your viewpoint that everybody has already been saved? These type questions seem to be the order of the day for many. A forthright and avowed denial of such accusations is often still met with the cold verdict of guilt or, at the least, the lingering murmur that those in question surely are “Universalist sympathizers” if not themselves Universalists. It doesn’t matter that the accused affirms confidence in the Scripture and in the historic stand of the church on these matters. If the accuser can’t fit it into the religious, cultural boundaries of his own background and experience, no amount of clarification or explanation is enough. To the contrary, the accused is deemed guilty without even an opportunity for a fair hearing. Then the guilty verdict is spread through the rumor-mill under the guise of concern for the accused or those who could potentially be exposed to the teaching in question. Statements are lifted out of context or refitted into a contextual format for which they were never intended.

Reckless accusation abounds. State that you believe every person was included in the finished work of Christ and that you believe the benefits of the cross are already efficacious for every person and you will likely find that no amount of explanation in the world will cause some to believe that you are not a Universalist. Tell somebody you don’t agree with the Augustinian understanding of the nature of hell, and they may well then announce that you don’t believe it hell. Fail to give adamant, ironclad, dogmatic answers to questions that have been debated for millennia and you run the risk of being called a heretic simply because you don’t express politically correct certitude on the matter. The unforgiveable sin in the Gracestapo today is to leave a question open-ended. There can be no unanswered questions. It’s all perfectly clear to those for whom it is clear.

I cannot count the times I’ve heard Rob Bell called a Universalist despite his repeated insistence that he is not. Answering the straightforward question "Are you a Universalist?" posed by Newsweek's Lisa Miller Monday night, Bell said, "No, if by Universalist we mean there's a giant cosmic arm that swoops everybody in at some point whether you want to be there or not," he elaborated. Despite his answer, many (including a great number who have never even read his book) insist that he is a Universalist to this day. Evidence, schmevidence. "The man’s a Universalist and a heretic." So goes the momentum.

I’ve seen that tactic myself. One “grace teacher” even said that Steve McVey is a Universalist in the same way that one is a legalist even if he doesn’t know it. My response was that his accusation impugned either my integrity or my intelligence. The accusation suggested that I was either lying about my views or else that, unlike my better-informed critic, I don’t know even understand what Universalism is.

This is the climate in which we find ourselves and it’s unfortunate. No, on second thought, it’s tragic. While we get bogged down in sectarian arguments over things that neither deny the supremacy of Christ’s finished work nor the necessity to believe it in faith, the rest of the world is starving to taste the love of God.

Ignorance is a curse, regardless of which position we take on a matter. In some instances, modern Evangelicalism is no different from the very cult groups we have often criticized or condemned. We have a position and that position cannot be reexamined, questioned and certainly not renounced without serious repercussions.

Truth never changes. It is an absolute that stands the test of time. On the other hand, our understanding of truth does evolve. There was a time when the church accepted slavery, misogyny, the lack of civil rights, and other unbiblical positions that we now know were wrong. It is unrealistic to believe that there still may be areas of truth that need further exploration while maintaining complete trust in the Spirit who will guide us and holding a high view of Scripture which will instruct us?

Show me a man who becomes angered by a different viewpoint and I’ll show you one who is insecure in his own position. If truth can’t withstand scrutiny, examination and the give and take of varying interpretations then truth isn’t all we’ve had it cracked up to be. But it can. Truth will outlast all our discussions and debates.

In my own journey, the greatest surprise has been the ungracious way some “grace people” have responded when others spoke something that contradicted the party line. Pejorative labels have been assigned. Integrity has been questioned. People have been renounced, expelled and shunned by those who fear that exposure to the person they believe has erred may lead people astray.

These words may sound self-serving but what I’ve witnessed reaches much further than my own experience. I could list names of others who have become castaways to those who once professed to be fellow laborers in the gospel, if not friends. These expulsions often have happened without so much as a word. Read a blog. Ask somebody else who doesn’t know the facts either. Have your opinion validated. Pass verdict and sentence. Done. End of discussion. Attack.

It feels and looks like McCarthyism all over again. None of us have a corner on the truth, but are all in a process of personal growth and development. If a person hasn’t changed his view in any way in twenty years, I submit that that he hasn’t grown. Growth is impossible without change, but that’s a scary proposition to those who have become comfortable in their existing paradigm.

Some who want to continue to grow in their understanding of grace have learned that Bilbo Baggins was correct: “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." (The Fellowship of The Ring) It’s so true that once you are willing to submit your journey to The Wind and give up your own footing, you can’t know where He may carry you.

I submit a proposal to each of us who love the grace of God. Let’s not vilify each other, not even with cunning words cloaked in a gracious tone and vocabulary, couched under the pretense of concern.  If we have a problem with each other, let’s talk about it with each other and not to others. Let’s agree to trust the Holy Spirit with His people and realize it’s not up to us to protect them from one another. Let’s realize that we may be wrong in some of our existing views, admitting that we each are where we are in our understanding after sincere and heartfelt study, prayer and confidence that His Spirit is leading us. Let’s not take offense that somebody else's view contradicts our own and let’s not feel a need to respond every time we read or hear something we disagree with. Let’s each proclaim the love of God to the extent and within the framework of what we believe the Bible teaches. Let’s not distance ourselves from each other over style, mannerisms, personality or methods by which we share the truth but instead appreciate the value of the Treasure we each are seeking to share in our respective ways. Let’s respect each others sincerity and embrace each others hearts even when our heads can’t quite make a connection. Let’s feed those who are starving to taste true Agape. Let’s lay aside offended pride, bruised egos and the urge to react to somebody just because we know we can win the argument. Let's not try to build ourselves up by bringing somebody else down. Let’s love. Because if we fail to do that, the rest of this is just a big pile of “dung” (KJV) that nobody except us even cares about.  They just want Jesus and, in that way, they are ahead of all the rest of us who would rather spend our time denigrating, dissecting, and debating.

    I offer my sincere apology to those who would contend that I, myself, have failed in this area. I have, but this is where I am at this point. By God's grace, I hope to stand here. Will you join me?

(For those who don't even know what all this is about, thank God for having shielded you from some of the ugliness among His people.)

Finding Absolute Truth on the Internet

Across the terrain of the cyber world today, we all have a piece of the property and are free to build anything we want on it. Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest,, MySpace, Google + . . . pick your plot. The acreage available for raising our own theological constructs (or any other kind, for that matter) is free for the taking. The opportunity to have voices equal in volume all over the Internet is up for grabs, and it doesn’t have to be orthodoxy that puts you at the top. After all, we live in a culture that loves TV shows where Master Chefs scream, swear and belittle the wannabes who will take that crap just to get their chance at being the head-spaghetti-cooker in a fancy restaurant in a big town. A culture where anorexic models or hissy-fit-pitching tailors stake their future lives on the opinions of judges whose own sane connection to the real world is highly dubious. A culture where that which is grotesque, vulgar, garish, and ridiculous is likely to have a higher TV rating than something classic, of substance, and proven to be life giving does. It is to *that* contemporary culture that we’re trying to break in and speak theological reality, i.e. “the truth about whom God is.”

A guy can eat a slightly spoiled pizza, have a fitfully sleepless night in which his hyperactive thoughts runs all over the theological playground of his unconscious (and uninformed) mind and wake up the next day convinced he was shown a perspective on who God is that the world needs to hear about and, in a matter of minutes, it’s out there for everybody on FaceBook or Twitter to see. It’s a *revelation!* When his friends on Facebook who ate the same pizza give him the high-five, that’s all the validation he needs to now turn this revelation into a revolution that only “those who understand” can understand. The rest of we unenlightened ones just don’t’ get it.

Absolute truth still exists among us, as has been the case throughout history. The relevant question is, “How do we know that truth?” In a world of contradicting, clamoring voices, how do we know which voice to heed? Is it the voice based on rationale? The one based on religion? The one that’s based on rites and ritual?

The answer to that question isn’t a complicated solution. The way you can trust in knowing Absolute Trust is none of the options listed in the paragraph above. The key to knowing the truth is relationship – a dynamic, present-moment, relationship with the Spirit of God who lives inside you.
It’s amazing to see how much theology today is embraced secondhand. Somebody respects somebody else and that somebody else says so-and-so, thus the respecter embraces the theological viewpoint of the respected and now clings to it to the point that he will even argue that viewpoint with others.

There are two completely trustworthy witnesses to The Truth. First, there is the Scripture. Some, having realized that they have wrongly held the Bible in a place equal to God Himself, have now overreacted by discounting or even dismissing the place of the Bible in the life of the believer. While *the Word of God* is Jesus and not the Bible, don’t let the enemy of your soul steal away your Bible.

For the record, I have a high view of Scripture and don’t embrace the views of those who insult the Bible. I’ve repeatedly said that it is Jesus who is the Word of God, not the Bible, but don’t mistake that assertion as a slam on the Bible because it’s not. It is, rather, to give Jesus His preeminent place and the Bible its secondary place as a testimony to Him. The Bible can be called “the word of God” (small “w”) in the sense that it is the inspired communication to us about Himself, but it is the witness to Christ not a co-Christ. Some speak of “the living Word and the written word” as if they are on par with each other. Such a comparison is an insult to the One who inspired the Bible. When John said, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” you can be sure he wasn’t talking about a Bible. That doesn’t diminish Scripture, but exalts Jesus. Jesus doesn’t have a twin Savior called, “The Holy Bible.”

The greatest teacher of grace who ever lived had this to say about our Bibles: “All Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable…. “ There is nothing grace-filled about rejecting the Scriptures that our loving Father has given us. To the contrary, to reject the Scriptures is to cut ourselves off from one of the greatest grace gifts we have available to nurture and encourage us in our walk with Jesus. Don’t trash talk the love-letter given to you by the One who is the very topic of the Bible.

The primary reliable witness to Absolute Truth is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that when came He would “guide us into all truth.” You have the Holy Spirit as your teacher. It’s not up to you to figure out the truth through intellectual pursuit. Study is important, but the tipping point in knowing the truth is inspiration and revelation that can only come from the Spirit. Study, pray and ask Him to teach you and He will. Don’t take your favorite teacher’s word for it. Study, pray and ask The Teacher *and He will* show you.
Overconfidence in a human teacher insults The Teacher who has come to guide you into the truth. Trust Him.

Does that mean that it’s wrong to learn from human teachers? Of course, it isn’t. People sometimes say, “I don’t need a teacher. I have the Bible and the Spirit.” That’s true, but I wonder about these things. Does that person go to the doctor? After all, God is the healer. Does she gain help and comfort from friends in times of pain? God’s Spirit is the comforter. I wonder if that person receives anything from anybody since they know that it’s God who is their ultimate source in everything.

The point is that our Father has designed community for a purpose. Do we need each other? That question misses the point. The wonder of His grace is that *we have each other.* We are gifts to one another. Need has nothing to do with it. As the old saying goes, “We are blessed to be a blessing.” You can benefit from others and they can benefit from you. Isolation is not the way of the Triune God who exists in community and has brought us into His shared Community of Love. If God’s nature teaches us anything, it teaches us that we are made for community, not isolation.

How, then do we learn Absolute Truth? By encountering Him in relationship. By engaging with Him through the Scriptures. By seeing and hearing Him in each other. Beware of the isolationist mentality and be wary of those who seem to define themselves by the criticism of others. There is a time for all of us to speak out against error but many speak from their own hurt. Deeply wounded people don’t make capable leaders. They need to heal first.

Grace speaks from love and, as such, lifts and leads others into the gentle embrace of the One about whom it speaks. This is something I’m still learning and I hope you are too. We all are where we are by the grace of God. None of us have determined the direction in which we would grow anymore than the tree outside my window made that decision. Let’s each seek truth, learn truth and teach truth based on that fact. “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind,” the Apostle Paul wisely admonished.

“What is truth?” Pilate once asked while Truth was standing eighteen inches in front of his nose. Don’t miss Truth. He isn’t a proposition or a principle, but a Person.

Ask yourself when you read theological opinions on the Internet, “Will this cause people to more clearly see the love of God? Does this build up or tear down? Does it come from a place of help or hurt? Is this what Jesus Himself would say to me? Does it cause me to love Him more and to love others more?” If we were even remotely as concerned about being sure people see God’s love as we are about making sure they get “the truth” as we understand it, things would be different on so many levels.

None of us need to feel that we must be exactly right on everything. Let’s just share where we are in our own understanding and leave it at that. (If that sounds New Agey or Emergent Churchey to you, it may be helpful to look up the word “humility” in your dictionary.) Nor do we need to protect others from those who differ with us. I had lunch with a “long time friend” some time ago who told me that he now cautions others about my ministry because they might be led astray by my understanding of the cross. While I was troubled by his arrogance, the Spirit in me soon reminded me that I’ve done the same thing with others. I’ve found myself rejecting those who have rejected me and, worse than that, hoping others will reject them too. I know, it’s messed up, but please try to remember that we all hold this “treasure in *jars of clay.*” At least I see it and don’t want to feel or think that way. I hope they will too. **What are we so afraid of???** The Kingdom of God is not going to crumble because we didn’t do a good job of policing it. His Kingdom will do fine whether people love or hate us.

The fact is that it isn’t up to any of us to protect God’s people. He’s been doing that a long time before we got here and I suspect He’ll keep on doing that after we’re gone. Our role is to proclaim His grace to the extent we can see it and leave the results up to Him.

There’s a lot we can differ about, but one thing is certain: The very essence of our God is Love. Let’s agree to focus on that, because anything else is a distraction and *that* is the Absolute Truth.

Sweet Tea: Heaven's Vintage

(In the past 23 years I've been teaching grace, this is *by far* the most popular illustration I've shared...)

The most loved and delicious beverage in the southern part of the United States is a perfect metaphor for the union with share with Christ. It is a delectable treat that all self-respecting southerners enjoy without restraint or embarrassment. It is a vintage worthy of The Marriage Feast of The Lamb. Surely, the River of Life in heaven must exist as the main ingredient in this holy tonic.

What is this nectar of heaven? This wine of the angels?
It is "Sweet Tea." I'm not talking about iced tea with sugar added at the table. That is a sad and abominable substitute for the nectar of heaven I will describe here. *Note:* For sweet tea to be authentic, it must be properly made. Follow this recipe and you'll thank me for the rest of your life (even if it is shortened by diabetes).

Step 1: Boil 2 family size tea bags in a pan of water.
The first step in making sweet tea is to turn up the heat so that the water will boil. The sugar and tea won’t permeate the water unless it is very hot. This is the same way that God works in a person when He is preparing to create something wonderful of his life. Have you ever noticed how much more receptive you are to God when the heat is turned up high in your life? When we are in hot water, we usually get in the receiving mode fast! If you have ever asked God to use your life, don’t be surprised when trouble comes. God may turn up the heat in our circumstances to prepare us to experience His life. The glory of having Jesus expressing His life through us requires that we pass through the fire that destroys self-sufficiency. It’s not pleasant while it is happening, but when the process is complete the finished product is quite a treat!

The Apostle Peter said:

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Peter 4:12-13).

The fire may be hot, but don’t despair in your troubles. God often orchestrates the events of our lives to bring us to the end of confidence in our own ability so that He may readily complete His recipe for godliness within us. “The revelation of His glory” that Peter mentions is not a reference to heaven, but to the discovery of the sweet truth of our union with Christ. However, it is impossible to make sweet tea without hot water.

2. Add Two Cups (2) of Sugar And Stir
Unlike cold tea, hot tea and sugar are totally compatible with each other. In fact, the sugar quickly dissolves when stirred into the hot tea. Once the sugar has dissolved into the water, the very nature of the liquid is changed. The tea and sugar have become one and cannot be separated again. Their distinct elements have merged together in such a way that they are now one new entity. This isn’t the case with iced tea. It is impossible to get sugar to dissolve into tea once it has been served over ice. No matter how much you stir it, the two just won’t mix.

When God prepares to manifest the sweet presence of His Life within us, He uses heat to cause us to be compatible with Him permeating our being. He will often stir things in our lives when He turns up the heat. Then we don’t resist His sweet presence like we would when we are spiritually cold. To recognize His life within us is to see that our very nature has been changed. Just as the sugar and tea have become one, we have been united with Him in His Incarnation and can never again be separated from Him.

1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” There is no longer my life and Christ’s life. Jesus lives in us and has changed our very nature so that one may say quite literally that Christ is our Life.

I was teaching this truth in a Grace Walk Conference once and a man whose field of study was chemistry said, “It is a fact that tea has its own distinct chemical composition and sugar has its own unique chemical composition, but when you put the two together in the way you have described, a totally new chemical composition is created which is neither tea or sugar.” Do you know what it is called? Sweet tea!

Because of Christ within us, we have a new identity. When have you ever heard someone refer to tea as “water with tea and sugar in it”? It’s nature has been changed, therefore it is identified by its new identity — sweet tea.

3. Fill The Pitcher With Water

Once the sugar has been placed into the tea, the pitcher must be filled with water, then the tea is ready to be shared with others. Water is a type of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. The Bible says that the treasure of the life of Jesus is contained in the earthen vessels of our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:7) Yet we must be filled with the Holy Spirit if people are going to be attracted to Christ within us. (Ephesians 5:18) To be filled with the Holy Spirit means nothing less than Jesus Christ consuming our total being and expressing His life through us.

It is the Holy Spirit who dwells within our spirit. That same Spirit is the very spirit of Jesus. His presence has given us a new nature. We possess the nature of God. By the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has created a new race of people who possess His nature. 2 Peter 1:4 says that through the Spirit of Christ we have “become partakers of the divine nature.” Our new nature is a holy nature.

4. Tea With Sugar Just Isn’t The Same
I enjoy sweet tea, but I don’t like tea with sugar in it. Some may ask, “Isn’t it the same thing?” Not at all. When I’m traveling, I sometimes order iced tea and put sugar in it, but the tea never gets sweet enough for my taste. I sometimes have a glass of iced tea on the table with a half inch of sugar settled at the bottom of the glass. That is tea with sugar, but it’s not sweet tea. It is only when the sugar has dissolved in the tea that it receives a sweet nature.

Some people think in terms of Christ being in their life. However, the finished work of Jesus didn’t simply facilitate Him being in our lives. He has so filled our being that the Bible teaches that Christ is our Life. The very essence of our being has been changed through this supernatural union with Him through His finished work on the cross.

If I held up a glass and declared it to be full of sweet tea, someone might argue that it isn’t the tea that is sweet, but it’s the sugar in the tea. I would disagree. The sugar has so diffused its life into the tea that the nature of the tea has changed. Yes, the tea is sweet.

The Bible teaches that because Christ is in us, we have been made righteous. Some may argue that it isn’t we who are righteous, but rather it is only Jesus within us who is righteous. This is a mistake. We are righteous because of the presence of His Life within us.

Paul said, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21) If a person perceives his own identity only in terms of Jesus being present in his life, he will fail to understand the radical transformation which took place through the cross. God didn’t simply improve you by His finished work. He created a brand new you — one like Jesus!

Many fail, however, to understand the reality of the righteousness which has become ours through Christ. Because they don’t feel righteous, they interpret what the Bible says about the matter in a way that falls short of the truth. It is vital for us to recognize that God took away the unrighteousness we possessed in Adam. In Christ, we have been given His righteous nature. Those who fail to understand this gift are doomed to a legalistic lifestyle, always trying to achieve righteousness by their works and dead to the reality of what He has accomplished.

Your life is a divine treat that offers Jesus to a thirsty world. Our joy is to declare, "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8)

Influences In My Life

During my 20 plus years as a local church pastor, I read three books a week every week, every year. (Now, I take some of that time to write instead of read.) Who are the writers that have greatly influenced my thinking? Moving from many years ago until today, here are some of the key people: Early ministry during my 20s' and early 30's: R.A. Torrey, Charles Finney, E.M. Bounds, B.B. Warfield, Charles Spurgeon, F.B. Meyer, J. Sidlow Baxter, Leonard Ravenhill, Carl F.H. Henry, Loraine Boettner, John Owen.

Mid-years from my mid-30's to 50ish: Hudson Taylor, Hannah Whitehall-Smith, Watchman Nee, Andrew Murray, Bill Gillham, F.J. Huegel, Ruth Paxton, Roy Hession, Amy Carmichael, Norman Grubb, Jessie Penn-Lewis, William Law.

The past decade: Robert Capon, Baxter Kruger, Thomas F. Torrance, Karl Barth, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Richard Foster, Jürgen Moltmann, N.T. Wright, Dallas Willard, Athanasius.

I'm sure I've left out some who may have been more important to me than these names. I don't agree with all these authors wrote, nor did I agree with everything when I first read them. However, they are people who influenced my thinking at the time I read their works.

Some people say we should only read the Bible. Personally, I think that's an immature approach. Our Father has put us in community with a purpose. One aspect of that purpose is that we might learn from each other. None of us "have it all" but as we humbly consider what others have to say, we are able to learn - to grow.

The most important piece of practical advice I could give to anybody, particularly younger people, is to READ. I have four degrees beyond high school and heartily affirm formal education, but I can say unequivocally that the things I have learned from books have educated me in an exponentially greater way than what I've learned in a classroom.

I'm thankful for all these writers I've listed and many others too. Whether I agree with them on every point or not, they have helped to shape me and each is an element of who I am in my mind and ministry today. Who are the people whose writings have most influenced you?

Starting From Idleness

In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, there is an intense scene where Captain Ahab’s whaling boat presses through a churning sea in pursuit of the great white whale, Moby Dick. One can almost smell the salt air and feel the ocean spray as Melville describes the chase. For the sailors onboard at that moment, nothing else exists apart from the pounding waves, violent winds and the great sea monster beneath the water.

Bulging muscles are taunt and determined minds are irrevocably resolved to do whatever necessary to triumph in this cosmic battle between good and evil. The swells of the ocean waves lift the whaleboat high above the water’s surface, only to slam it back down again. But the morally outraged Captain Ahab will not give up. Everything that matters is in the balance at this moment. No energy or determination can be spared. The boat may break apart, but to forfeit the fight is out of the question.  The demon beneath must be destroyed. As Eugene Peterson notes:

"In this boat, however, there is one man who does nothing. He doesn’t hold an oar; he doesn’t perspire; he doesn’t shout. He is languid in the crash and cursing. This man is the harpooner, quiet and poised, waiting. And then this sentence: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.”

Nobody would dispute that a cosmic battle exists today between the forces of good and evil. We see this struggle on the sea of humanity in every culture of the world.  Pastors and churches urge us to not give up the ship, but to labor on, to fight at all costs to ensure victory. Recruiters appeal to our sense of what is moral and right to enlist us in the struggle.

Every Sunday in churches across the world, sincere Christians rededicate themselves with a renewed determination to become more involved and consistent in the battle against evil. Their hearts are in the right place. They feel the need to do something, but where can they be most effective in the boat?

The majority are determined to become better oarsmen who will work harder. A few are sure they sense the calling of Captain Ahab on their lives. They express their intent to attend a religious naval academy where they can learn to be the skipper of their own boat. They want to lead other sailors and together conquer the demon of the depths. . . . thus goes contemporary church life in the world today.

The problem isn’t that there’s something wrong in the scenario described, but that something is  missing. Where are the harpooners of the 21st century church?  How are we supposed to overcome the demons of the depths?  In many instances, we often don’t even know how to strike a death blow against the carnality of our own behavior, much less admonish others about theirs or lead others like ourselves into battle. Note Melville’s statement again: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.”

Idleness? When a violent storm is raging; when our enemy is so close that our very lives are in danger; when everybody else around us is frantic with hyperactivity; idleness is not a natural  response. Yet surely it is indeed to an “idleness” of sorts that we are all called.  For the person who wants to know triumph in the struggle, this idleness is indispensable. Those who are weary with fatigue are in no position to strike the fatal blow against the enemy. It is in a certain idleness that we find our strength. It is the spiritual practice of sitting still, silently staring into our Father's face. It is from that place that we find the strength we need to face the tasks life presents. It is from that place that we move into action out of supernatural power. Indeed, it is from that place that we find our very identity and destiny for time and eternity. 

A Great New Book By Frank Viola

A New Book That I Highly Recommend – Get 25 Free Gifts If You Get It Now By May 7^th

My friend Frank Viola has just released a new book called God’s Favorite Place on Earth that could literally change your relationship with God, help you defeat bitterness, free you from a guilty conscience, and help you overcome fear, doubt and discouragement once and for all.

This is a book that will jar you out of your "Christian rut" and give you new eyes for looking at EVERYTHING. It’s a quick, inspiring, and entertaining read.

In addition, if you get the book between May 1^st to May 7^th, you will also get 25 FREE GIFTS from 15 different authors including Leonard Sweet, Jeff Goins, Andrew Farley, Steve McVey, DeVern Fromke, Pete Briscoe, Frank Viola himself, and many others.

Over 47 Christian leaders have recommended the book, including me.

Here is my endorsement for “God’s Favorite Place on Earth.”

“Frank Viola has a rare gift for helping us all to understand the intimate union we share with the Father through Jesus Christ. God’s Favorite Place on Earth will stir your emotions and empower you to open yourself to be a ‘Bethany’ where Jesus feels right at home. This is one of those books you’ll read twice and then share with a friend.”

Steve McVey, author of Grace Walk

 

The premise of the book is simple and 100% Biblical: when Jesus was on the earth, He was rejected everywhere He went . . . from Bethlehem, to Nazareth, to Jerusalem. The only exception was the little village of Bethany.

The curtain opens with Lazarus, who is now ready to die, telling the incomparable story of Jesus’ interactions with him, Martha, and Mary. God’s Favorite Place on Earth blends drama, devotion, biblical narrative, and first-century history to create a riveting book that you’ll find difficult to put down. Within each narrative, the common struggles Christians face are addressed and answered.

Go to GodsFavoritePlace.com to claim your 25 FREE GIFTS, read a Sampler of the book, and watch the gripping video trailer.