Benediction

As Long as We Both Shall Love

One part of my role as pastor of Lakeside Church is dealing with hard issues. This weekend we're dealing with the issue of divorce. Of all the topics that come up in the Sermon on the Mount, this one draws the largest response. Although Jesus also talked about anger, lust, integrity and hatred in his Sermon, his comments on divorce create the greatest stir.

I heard of a preacher once who was officiating a wedding ceremony. As he led the couple at the altar, he altered the traditional promises of marriage. Traditionally couples have vowed to love, honor and cherish one another for "as long as we both shall live." It has been a statement of loving fidelity, of life-long commitment. This pastor altered the vows and dramatically altered their meaning. He led the couple to pledge their lives together for "as long as we both shall love." The difference between the two vows is the difference between choosing to love and falling in love. 

Falling in love is wonderful and amazing. But wonderful and amazing marriages are built by choosing to love even when the falling falls short.

That's part of the conversation this weekend at Lakeside.

Gratitude

I've been learning from my daughter recently. She has been posting Gratitude Updates on her Facebook page. Usually they are pretty funny, because if you read between the lines, you realize she's not all that thankful. But she has chosen to find the blessing in every circumstance by practicing the giving of thanks.

It's the beginning of a new week. In light of everything the Lord has done for us, I wonder if a bunch of Gratitude Updates wouldn't be appropriate...and helpful.

I think my daughter is learning that the practice of gratitude has its own reward. The more we practice gratitude, the more thankful we become. That's because our emotions follow our thinking. How we think determines how we feel. For example, have you been to a scary movie lately? If so, you sat in the theater gripping the armrests of your seat, or the arm of the person next to you. Your heart rate increased as the music grew louder and the impending danger rushed (or inched) closer. You felt the fear. Yet you were seated in a plush, air-conditioned room with 100 other secure viewers watching a story that was acted out hundreds of miles away 12 months ago. You were completely safe, but your palms were sweaty and your face lost color. All because your emotions followed your thinking.

When Paul writes to the Philippians about gratitude, he does not tell them to be thankful. It's unrealistic to command an emotion. Rather, he says, "In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6). He tells the Philippians to practice giving thanks. In the practice of giving thanks, the emotion of thankfulness follows. 

I know Thanksgiving (The Holiday) is far away still. But what can your mind tell your soul to give thanks for today?

The Beginning

Two books of the Bible begin with the same three words: In the beginning.

The Book of Genesis says, "In the beginning God created..." The very first thing we learn about God is that he creates. That is a hint at what it means for us to be created in his image.

The Apostle John writes, "In the beginning was the Word..." John is clearly referring us back to Genesis. In fact, the Word was the means by which God created: "And God said, 'Let there be light.' And it was so." God spoke and light happened. God speaks into our lives and stuff happens.

Of course, John is also referring to Jesus, the living Word of God. I find the principle that when we want to connect with God and his creative activity in this world, we will do it through the Word--through Jesus and through Scripture.

The process of memorizing passages of scripture has been the strongest catalyst to my spiritual growth. I have found that memorizing passages of scripture puts in my mind the mind of the Author. It writes God's Word into my heart.

I decided recently that my next passage of scripture to memorize will be Genesis 1-3. This is the seminal passage of the Bible. If you don't get these three chapters, you'll never understand the story of God. These three chapters contain the foundations for a world view that encompasses God's view of the world. Genesis addresses, in poetic fashion, the work of the Creator and presents a theology of our stewardship of the earth. It peeks at the Trinity. Genesis describes the nature of male and female and tells the heart and purpose of marriage. Genesis tells of the tragedy of sin and the possibility of redemption. It is the story of God in relation to humanity in three quick movements.

So that's my next personal endeavor to place the heart of God into my heart. I hope to own it by Christmas. I'll let you know how it goes.

What's your next step?

The Importance of Seeing God

I walked into a workshop on worship last weekend at Lakeside Church and lost my breath. Gabriel Wilson, Lakeside's Director of Worship Arts, was presenting the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of Worship. As I walked in he was reading this passage:

[God] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:6-7).

I love this statement of God's character. It honestly takes my breath away. God must like it too, because he includes it no less than eight times in the Bible. It may be the single most common description of God.

What Moses heard that day was a recital of the beauty and balance of God's heart in his relationships with us. It is a song of grace and truth. It is a story of mercy and judgment.

I find that we human beings often land on one side or the other of God's character. Some of us love the side of mercy and grace. Perhaps that's because we know how much we need it. We know if it were not for God's compassion, we would not survive--not in this world and not in the one to come.

Or maybe we just never liked rules in the first place, so mercy seems more important than judgment.

On the other hand, some of us seem to delight in the judgment of God. Perhaps that's because we see the injustices in this world. We know first-hand how cruel the world can be. And we know that judgment doesn't always come soon enough to bring correction. So we love the idea that God will eventually judge, and the wrongs of this world will be righted.

Or maybe we're just rule-keepers and can't tolerate the rule-breaking of others. 

If we land off-balance on either side, we have missed God's heart. God proclaims loud and clear his character: compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. He maintains love and forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin. That means he is ready to bring grace to everyone. Hallelujah! I have hope.

However, God also declares his intention to punish the guilty. In some way this judgment even passes down to the children and grandchildren. Perhaps this generational judgment happens because generational sins get passed down--alcoholics beget alcoholics, abusers beget abusers, liars beget liars. Sin produces like-minded sin in the next generation. At any rate, God is the Judge. It is his character and his prerogative. Whoa! I have fear.

In this description, God calls me forward. He motivates me, both through hope and through fear.

Of course, followers of Jesus will recognize this description of God from the Gospel of John. In different words, John describes the same character of God as it was displayed in Jesus:

We have seen his glory, the glory [character] of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

He Must Increase

I ate lunch recently with a good friend. He is a pastor. We talked about church. The questions: Why do some churches grow while others don't? How does a pastor handle it if another church in town grows at a faster pace? (What, you didn't think pastors feel these things?)

The question of church growth always makes me wonder. I believe God is sovereign. He gets to decide how his kingdom grows and at what pace and in what place. But humanity is involved in the equation. Human leaders influence growth and movement. Or why do we have leaders?

My friend reminded me of John 3. After Jesus' famous encounter with Nicodemus comes another story. It seems John the Baptist and Jesus are both baptizing people in the Jordan River. But John is told that Jesus is baptizing more people. In fact, everyone is going to Jesus. The stream of people dried up for John.

How is John to handle that? I mean, he is known as The Baptist! He should be baptizing more people. Maybe Jesus should find a different river.

Here is John's response: "A person can receive only what is given him from heaven... He [Jesus] must increase; I must decrease" (John 3:27, 30).

I can receive only what is given me from heaven. Jesus must increase; I must decrease.

Talk about that over lunch...

Understand Before Disagreeing

President Obama has nominated Elena Kagan to be the newest member of the Supreme Court. Three thoughts:

1)    Politicians, pundits and talk show hosts have already staked out their positions for or against her nomination, largely along the lines of their political party.

2)    I do not know enough about her yet to have an informed opinion. That is what the Senate confirmation process is about.

3)    But I do like this: When the president put forward her nomination, he declared that Kagan is "one who seeks to understand an argument before deciding whether to disagree."

That's one good application of "love your enemies."

How do you love your enemies?

Twice as Much

Mark Twain said, "It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that scare me; it's the parts I do understand." Actually, both parts scare me a little.

Do you ever avoid the scary passages of the Bible? Matthew 23 has some scary thoughts. Jesus is announcing woes on the religious leaders of his generation. When Jesus says, "Woe is you," I think I'd better pay attention.

Matthew 23:15 contains one of those woes. Jesus says, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."

I know Jesus was talking to the Pharisees. I know those guys were legalistic snobs with long noses down which they looked at others. I know hypocrisy characterized their lives and teachings. But I wonder if Jesus doesn't look at us the same way, at least sometimes?

I'd go a long ways to make a single "convert." Would my life and teachings make him a son of hell? Twice the son of hell I am?

The point to reflect on is the arrogance of our own confidence. Certainly the Pharisees believed in their own righteousness and the accuracy of their teachings. Yet they were off track. Jesus' followers today often display a spiritual self-confidence equal to that of the Pharisees. If we are true to Jesus' warning, at the least we will humble ourselves enough to ask: Could I be wrong?

Now, for the record, I believe strongly in what I teach. And because I believe all of it, including the warnings of Jesus, I present myself and my teachings humbly to him and to you. Or woe is me.

The End of Lent

Lent is the time of year when many followers of Jesus give stuff up. The motive is to honor him for his sacrifice for us, and to advance one's spiritual life by self-denial. Matthew 16:24 is the context for this: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Last year I gave up desserts and television. I believe I grew through the process. It focused my attention on Jesus through those six weeks.

This year I gave up desserts. (Yes, I wanted to see some March Madness this year.) I found my journey through Lent was different this year. While I wanted to pursue Jesus more intimately, I found my attention was focused more on wanting dessert. The practice of giving up dessert did not help me draw near to Jesus.

Lesson learned. Every spiritual discipline is a tool intended to move us closer to Jesus. But as with many tools, not each tool is suited to every task. You would not try to turn a nut with a hammer. (Well, some of us might.) Not every tool in the spiritual discipline toolkit is equally helpful all the time. For me this year, skipping dessert was simply an exercise in self-restraint. While that is a good thing, it still did not move me toward Jesus. I stuck it out because I am a stick-it-out kind of person (a.k.a., a rule-keeper), but my spiritual life might have benefited had I jettisoned the original goal and focused on something different, for example, morning prayer or fasting.

Perhaps you have tried certain spiritual disciplines and become frustrated because they don't "work" for you. On one hand, that might be an indicator that you need more work in this area. On the other, perhaps you get discouraged because you think you are just not good at living this Christian life. That might not be true at all. If you are growing in love for others and in the knowledge of God's word and in the gift of generosity, for example, maybe this one area of discipline is not where God is moving you today. Perhaps down the road it will be helpful to you. Perhaps not. At any rate, the goal of practices such as Lent is to move toward Jesus. Practice what achieves that goal.

See you at the resurrection celebration. Then I'm having a cookie.

More on Musing (or Moron Musing)

A few days ago I posted a blog called End of the Year Musings. I wrote the blog on my MacBook Pro while sitting at Panera Bread in Redlands, California. I knew I only had a few hours, so I didn't take my power supply cord with me. No problem; plenty of time for some writing.

Only suddenly--after three or hours--my time ran out. Which meant my energy ran out. Which meant I had to hurry. Which meant problems.

I rushed to save my content, and mostly succeeded. But then I tried to publish a Facebook/Twitter update so my friends and followers would know I was posting the blog. I wrote a brief update including my blog address. Unfortunately, I wrote the wrong blog address, in fact, a non-existent one. So if you clicked on the link you ended up at a blank computer page. (Perhaps you thought I actually had nothing to say in my end of the year musings.)

Then I tried to fix the problem with another Facebook/Twitter update. But in this one, when I posted the link, I did it wrong and the link, which was accurate, was not actually linked to my blog. If you clicked it, you got nothing. (Perhaps you thought your computer malfunctioned.)

I wanted to take a third swing at the problem, but the computer closed me out. Time's up.

I once heard John Ortberg say that we should ruthlessly remove hurry from our lives. Jesus never seemed to rush. (This caused a lot of frustration for certain sick people whose time was running out.) As this new year begins to roll, life is about to hurry up again. Resist the temptation to join the rush.

Musing is best when not saved for the last minute.

End of the Year Musings

I turned 50 this year. That means a treadmill test, which I passed, and other tests, which I passed but won't describe here.

My wife turned 50 this year too, and she's proud of that. We spent some great time together this year: hiking Half Dome (twice: once wet, once dry), beaching in Hawaii (and flying an ultralight), and driving the coast of California. Donna has been the love of my life for 30 years, and it's still getting better.

One daughter moved from Folsom to Sacramento, then to LA. The other daughter moved to Riverside, then back to Folsom. Our son visited when he could, and just arrived back from his final tour on the USS Ohio. My nest expands and contracts with ever-greater ease and rapidity.

Lakeside Church, my vocation and avocation, continues to grow and change. We suffered some staff losses this year--those are painful even when they are good transitions, which they were. We celebrated some staff additions this year--those are risky even when they are good transitions, which they were. Our staff is enjoying a time of peace and growth together. This buoys me.

We experienced our biggest Christmas outreach ever. Over 5000 people joined us for Christmas Eve and Eve Eve. I believe the stage is set for the church to grow stronger and healthier this next year.

My ministry outside Lakeside grew as well. I never know exactly what the Lord wants to do through me, and through Lakeside, as I have opportunity to represent the church in a broader context. I was asked to coach church leaders in Canada with Bill Hybels this year. That was a ministry highlight for me--and I hope for those church leaders. I have been mentoring a church in southern California, and I got to speak at a couple of men's retreats, one for Lakeside and one for Bridges Church in Fremont.

And finally, I was invited to serve as the Transitional Director for Next Gen Churches. For the next season of my life, I will seek to lead the churches of our association forward on mission.

For all of you who read this blog, I am grateful. You encourage my life. For all of you who are growing as passionate and productive followers of Jesus, I am grateful. For all the Lord has graciously done for me, especially in this last year, I am grateful.

See you next year. Grace.