Raindrops and Coffee

Central Ohio has seen gray clouds and drops of rain for the past 2 days.

It hasn’t stopped. It just keeps coming.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it is not a monsoon, it’s not the second great flood or anything like that.

It’s just... rain.

And I wish it would stop.

I was drinking a cup of coffee this morning, thinking about the rain. And I stepped outside to check out what our backyard looked like.

It looks like it’s in transition. As if, the rain is just temporary.

And, if we think about it, the rain is always temporary. Yesterday, I was talking on the phone to one of the our church’s retired pastors. We were making small talk about the rain, and he said, “Yeah, without the rain we won’t get any flowers.”

He’s right.

Sometimes the rain just seems to pour down on us for days. Sometimes it feels like the reality of the rain is all we can remember.

I realize that I’m slightly melodramatic, but on the second or third day of rain, I forget what the world looks like as the sun shines on it.

The rain becomes my reality.

But the great thing about being a Christian is that we have a God who can see past the storm. We have a Father whose reality isn’t the rain. We have a Savior who weathered the ultimate storm.

And that brings me hope. So, even on day two of this rain, even though I can’t remember what my backyard looks like as the sun shines on it, we need the rain to see the flowers.

So, send the rain.

Love Wins.

Twitter and the Blogosphere are up in arms today about a new book by one of my favorite authors, Rob Bell. The book is called “Love Wins” and he’s released a video promo to go with the book.

John Piper and Josh Harris, also authors, have publicly criticized the notion behind the video.

Pastor/Author Mark Driscoll has subtly made comments about the book/video.

Justin Taylor, who I never heard of before this made a great comment on his blog about this video and book.

My friend Travis has made a comment about the comments regarding the book and video.

Someone on my facebook commented, “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Someone else mentioned the narrow gate and the deception that would lead people astray.

And some people, myself included, have said, “I want to read the book first.”

So, I preface my thoughts with that, I want to read the book first.

However, the video is worth talking about. Yes, some of the questions that Bell is asking are rhetorical, and I wouldn’t argue that some of the questions he’s asking are meant to have “yes” answers and some are meant to have “no” answers.

The age-old question that we’ve been talking about for centuries is this: what happens to us when we die?

The Bible makes it clear. There is a heaven. There is a hell.

Some people will go to heaven, most will not. There is no in-between here. There isn’t a third, middle-ground eternity. Either you’re in, or you’re out.

The problem is that this type of thought has come under fire as non-inclusive, divisive and hate-filled. Because, how can a God who loves everyone send people to hell? This is a question that Bell asks in his video, and one that is echoed by throngs of people who don’t want to believe that they could possibly be heading for eternity in a place of torture.

Can I just put it bluntly? If everyone gets to go to heaven, if nobody has to go to hell, then Jesus death was for nothing. The sacrifice that Christ made on the Cross is useless without that fact.

We live in a world that is bathed in sin. We see it every single day. Every single one of us is born into a hopeless, sinful existence. Every single person.

But God’s grace is so much that we don’t have to receive what we deserve.

God’s love always wins. And God’s grace always wins.

But Jesus is extremely clear, not everyone who thinks they have received God’s grace has actually received it.

There are thousands, millions of people on this planet who are believing a lie.

Rob Bell, you’ve always come at us like you were painting Christianity with a different brush. This was a movement that I’ve always been for. We don’t need to look the same as we did 50, 100, 1000 years ago. We just don’t.

But the Bible is truth, friend. Jesus, Peter, Paul and the Church Fathers all told us these things. There is a heaven. There is a hell. Some make it to heaven. Most don’t.

It’s the harsh reality of the condition of sin.

Do. Not. Compromise.

We do not need to compromise the truth. If the book is anything like the video, Rob, I’m out. I hope I’m wrong and that the points in the video are meant to stir up conversation and get people talking about the book so that when people read it you point people in the right direction.

Galatians 1:8 - “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.”

Let’s be cautious in what we accept and we we tolerate from Christian leaders. Sin is always sin. But, God’s grace is so much bigger than all our sin.

(God’s) love (always) wins.

Marriage is like...

19 days from today, I’m getting married. I’m very excited, and naturally, a lot of my thought over the past few days/weeks/months has been about marriage and how marriage relates to everything else I’m doing in my life.

The infusion of “Holly” into my bachelor-pad has been an interesting transformation. I’ll be honest, the place looks better, and it probably smells better too. She’s added some of her own touches to the apartment over the past few weeks as she prepares to completely move in and make it her place too.

We have a lot more stuff now, than we did, most of that is the result of three bridal showers in a two week span. The sheer amount of gifts that we received from our biological families, church family, adopted families and friends has been absolutely overwhelming.

Enough about that, though. I was thinking about marriage and sanctification. Yes, I’m such a Nazarene that even when I’m thinking about marriage, I’m thinking about entire sanctification and holiness. It really is in my blood, I think.

A few weeks ago, at our weekly prayer breakfast on Tuesday morning, Pastor Izzy and I were talking to a guy in the group about holiness. He had some misinformed thoughts on the doctrine of Entire Sanctification, and Izzy and I were working with him to help him better understand the doctrine.

So, how do they match-up? What are the similarities?

Well, I’ve given it a lot of thought and here’s the big one.

Every morning, when I wake up, I have to make a choice. I choose every day to love my fiancé. In the same manner, I choose every day to love God.

I think holiness is all about loving God. Just like marriage is all about loving your spouse. When I say “love” here, I’m not referring to an emotional response; I’m talking about a choice, every day.

Every day, we need to make a choice to love God more than we love everything else. Just as when you made that commitment to your spouse, you committed to love her only and nobody else.

So, in being holy, I love God more than I love everyone else. I’m going to say Yes to God, and No to everyone else.

In 19 days, I’m making an eternal commitment to Holly. I’m not only saying Yes to her. I’m saying No to every other female that ever comes my way. Although, in my defense, it’s not like females have ever been beating down the door for me.
Holiness is exactly like Marriage.

Every day, you have a choice to make.

Every single day.

What’s your choice today?

Random Monday Post - Marriage Advice

So, Holly and I had two wedding showers this weekend (and one more this coming weekend). It’s been an interesting adventure, this whole process of being engaged and especially this past month-or-so of wedding planning.

To be completely honest, I never realized how much went into planning a wedding! I guess, though, in my defense I had basically just showed up to all the weddings I went to. I was in two of them, but wasn’t a part of the planning of those weddings.

There is a lot to think about as we’ve been getting closer and closer to the wedding. There has been so much preparation for the wedding, and, well, it’s slightly overwhelming. Truth be told, I wish we had just “taken the money and ran,” which was some of the first advice we got. But, my congregational view on life wouldn’t allow me to not invite my church to celebrate the marriage of one of their pastors to one of the girls they’ve seen and known since she was in diapers. As I say on Sunday mornings, we are a family. The “I’s” become “We’s” on Sunday mornings. So, we made the choice to celebrate together. We invited our family and friends and as much of the church as we possibly could to celebrate together with us.

Yesterday, we had a wedding shower, and part of the festivities of that involved all of the people (mostly ladies) in the room writing down their marriage advice to Holly and I. There was so much good advice.

The most common form of advice was to never go to bed angry. Followed by closely by one word advice, “Communication.”

I find it to be a blessing in my life that there are so many people who are willing to give me marriage advice. It truly is something I count as a blessing in my life that there are people who are willing to come alongside Holly and me, in order to teach us how to be married.

So, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned the most in our 9 months of engagement. Of all the experiences, all the thoughts, tears and laughter, what stands out as the most teachable thing I’ve learned since I rose up from my knee after hearing her barely audible “Yes”?

I guess, the most important thing I’ve learned is that I do not always have to be right. For those of you who know me, you know that I absolutely love to be right. I worked extremely hard at college so that I would be able to say the right things. I don’t want to preach bad doctrine to my teens or my congregation. I never like to have to come back and say, “I was wrong when I said…”

This has always been one of the things I struggled with the most, but I absolutely don’t like being wrong.

Now, there’s always some jaded married person, generally a man, who says “Well, get ready, because once you’re married you’ll never be right again.”

Maybe that’s true, and I’m just not experiencing that yet because we’re not married. But, in my nine months of being engaged, I’ve not experienced always being wrong.

But man, when I’m wrong, I’m never just a little wrong. It’s like a plane crash of wrong. I mean, I do something wrong, and I feel like… well, I feel terrible.
So, the lesson for me is that, I’m not always right. And when I’m wrong, I need to work to make sure that I’m not wrong anymore (about that). I guess that’s my advice.

When you’re wrong, learn from it.

What’s your advice to an almost-married couple?

A New Way to be Human?

I’ve been putting the finishing touches up on my sermon for Sunday morning. Let me start by saying that I absolutely love preaching, it is, by far, my favorite part of being a pastor. I usually don’t let people know when I’m preaching, but since Bret announced it on Sunday morning, I’m letting people know that I’m preaching at HSN this week. As usual, I’m pretty excited!

Anyway, I was working on my sermon a bit today. I was reading a commentary on the story of the Prodigal Son. To be precise, I was reading William Barclay’s commentary on the Gospel of Luke. I like Barclay’s commentaries; they’re usually full of nice tid-bits that preach well. He has a solid theological head on his shoulders, and he’s not so intellectual that he’s unapproachable.

So, in my studies this morning I came across a small passage in his commentary that absolutely floored me.

“Jesus paid sinning mankind the greatest compliment it has ever been paid. ‘When he came to himself,’ he said. Jesus believed that so long as a man was away from God he was not truly himself; he was only truly himself when he was on the way home. Beyond a doubt Jesus did not believe in total depravity. He never believed that you could glorify God by blackguarding man; he believed that man was never essentially himself until he came home to God” (204).

Jesus didn’t believe in total depravity? Now, let’s be clear about something. As Nazarenes, we are not Calvinists. We don’t believe in the TULIP the way the Calvinists, however, in my theology classes, I was taught that we do believe in total depravity, in some form. We were taught that prevenient grace was the only thing that kept us from making the sinful choice every single time we had a choice to make. That is, in essence, absolute and total depravity.

However, what if Barclay is right? Aren’t there some serious theological implications in noting that humans aren’t totally depraved? Does it leave a cop-out excuse? Does it change the way we preach salvation?

If we aren’t truly human until we are on our way to God, then what are the implications?

Did I sin, or did a lesser version, the non-human version of me sin?

Does my past include life as a sinner, or am I something else entirely?

Maybe there’s some good in this concept, the idea that we become new creations when we’re completely cleansed by God. Behold the old has gone the new has come. However, does it close the door to a theological perspective which allows for the possibility of backsliding into sin? If someone is truly experiencing my human-ness for the first time as a Christian, then what does it say when that Christian backslides?

What do you think?

Our own Cake Boss experience

Holly and I were asked by my family to make a "snazzy desert" for my family's Easter get-together this year. I wasn't sure what we were going to do, but... I finally thought of something great. One of our favorite shows is Cake Boss, we love Buddy and we love watching the cakes he makes. So, taking inspiration from him, we decided to make our own Cake!

So, we set about to make a larger-than-life Easter cake! The day started off with a delicious breakfast, courtesy of her parentals. Then, we made our way to Hobby Lobby and Crafts 2000 for Cake building supplies. After that, we traveled across the way to Wal Mart. Let me explain something to you... don't ever go to Wal Mart on the first Saturday of the month. No matter what you need, it's NOT worth it. We made our way through Wal Mart for the couple things we needed, and eventually went home to get started.

I should interject here that I ended up making my way into the ghetto Kroger on the South Side of Springfield... twice. But, that's okay. So, we started making our cake. We used a home made recipe from Holly's grandma. We were using 9x13 pans, and we were making a double-decker cake. So, we had to make a triple batch of the recipe. It started off with sugar and crisco (Yep, it's going to be a healthy cake!) We creamed the two ingredients, making a huge bowl of a heart attack!

We finished the recipe, adding flour, egg whites, milk... and some other stuff. We made the two cakes, and then let them cool. We cut them down, and started the process of stacking them. Let me add, that at this point, we have surpassed my previous experience with cake making. Usually I just use a box and make a cake, then I ice it. We were cutting the cakes and stacking them with a layer of icing in the middle.


So, this of course, is what the cake looked like after we stacked them. We used Holly's grandma's icing recipe as well. We've watched so much Cake Boss that we knew what to do next. We needed to dirty ice it and put it fondant on it! However, one problem, fondant is nasty. Neither of us like the taste, so, we decided to go without the fondant. So, we had our icing plan, but had to decide where to go next...


Cereal Treats! What's a Cake Boss cake without some Rice Krispie Treats? So, for our Easter-themed cake ala Buddy, we wanted to make a tomb of Rice Krispie Treats. So, we melted the butter and cooked the marshmallows into it. Then dumped that hot mixture into the rice krispies. Yeah, this wasn't easy. Those aren't easy to make! At this point, the pictures are going to continue as I switch gears on this post.


We continued our production of this cake. As I did, I started to get a little worried. You know, my family is awesome, but they are not Christians. They do not follow Jesus, and I'm not sure that they fully "get" Easter. So, I'm worried that the idea of an empty tomb cave will be somewhat lost on them. But, I thought about things, and I couldn't resist the chance to make a cake that was about the real Easter!


So, the proverbial icing on the cake had to be something else besides the empty tomb. I decided to take another page from the Cake Boss book and use modeling chocolate. Well, there's one problem, neither Holly nor I had any idea what modeling chocolate was or where you could buy it. We thought maybe it was like fondant that you could just buy and then use. Turns out, that's not the case. You have to make modeling chocolate!


The biggest task of this cake boss extravaganza for me was to make a modeling chocolate figure to put on the cake. This meant, however that I first had to learn hot to make modeling chocolate. We learned how, and I set to work making a small Jesus figure to put with our empty tomb. The simple fact is that an empty tomb could mean any number of things. You could argue that the disciples stole the body. Or you could argue any number of things.

However, don't forget that Jesus literally rose from the dead, and not in some sort of zombie movie fashion. He literally came back from the dead and was alive. The Bible tells us that lots and lots of people had a chance to see him after his resurrection. Jesus walked away from the tomb, and because He was able to overcome the grave, we don't have to completely be held hostage by the power of death.


I'll be honest, there's a decent chance that this cake is considered kitsch. Christian kitsch, even. I suppose it might be, but Holly and I had a great time today making a cake, doing something that I knew she'd love doing. So, after buying ingredients and spending an entire day working on this cake, we're thrilled about how it looks. We can't wait to show it off to my family for Easter, and I'm excited to maybe get to explain who that goofy guy with a purple snake around his neck is. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the images and the story as much as we enjoyed making it.

The Importance of Being Evangelical

I learned a few things in my first year of ministry. Some of them were things I want to carry on with me, and some things I learned were how not to do things. I would argue that neither lesson was any more valuable than the other, with one major exception.

I had spent an evening talking about servant evangelism and how we should be servants to those around us. I spent a lot of that evening talking about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and making sure that we were doing our part to love our neighbors. I had just finished reading one of Shane Claiborne’s books and was really “feeling it.”

I felt really good about the message that night, my teens had really seemed to receive it well. They were, at least in my opinion, completely tracking with what I was saying. I was letting them know that it was our job to make sure that we were taking care of the people around us. It was one of few moments in that first year I really felt like the ministry was going well.

On the way home from church that Wednesday night, I called one of my adults to chat about the evening. I still do this; I like to hear what other people thought about the time with the youth and make sure that we are all on the same page.
We were not on the same page that evening.

I spoke with my friend, and he told me that the message was good, but he asked me a very important question. He said, “why?” Why should we feed the hungry? Why should we clothe the naked? In the grand scheme of things, what does it matter if we love our neighbors?

I prepared my verbal assault as he was talking. “What do you mean WHY? Jesus told us to love our neighbors.”

I could tell he was wrapping up his critique, and so I was ready to jump in, but he stopped me dead in my tracks. He said, “If they don’t know Jesus, then what difference does it make if they feed the hungry?”

This doesn’t happen to me often, but I was completely speechless.

He was right; I had neglected to tell them that they had to know Christ before any of this was worth anything. If we feed the hungry, but don’t know Christ, then we’re still in the same boat as someone who doesn’t know Christ and doesn’t feed the hungry.

This challenge from my friend was an absolute wake up call for me. Did I stop preaching a social gospel? Absolutely not. I still believe that we need to feed the hungry. I still believe that we need to clothe the naked. I still believe that we need to make sure to do our part to love our neighbors. However, even more than that, I believe that we need to lead people to Christ.

Since that moment, the Sinner’s Prayer has become an integral part of my ministry. I don’t do much without including it. I cannot imagine calling myself an Evangelical and not preaching people to Christ. How can we call ourselves Evangelicals when we don’t present the Sinner’s Prayer every single chance that get?

Hero

A number of years ago, Michael Tait, the frontman for the Newsboys wrote and starred in a Rock Opera called “Hero.” I confess, I’ve never seen or heard Hero. Confession number two: I have no real desire to either.

I watched the first three seasons of the TV Show Heroes. I always enjoyed it, but I quit watching it. I’m not 100% sure why.

The anthem of the summer, for me, was Skillet’s single “Hero.” I still love smashing the drums while I listen to that song. It’s a sweet song, and I thoroughly enjoy turning it up as loud as I can.

I have a tattoo of Superman’s logo on my right arm. He’s the ultimate hero.

In fact, while I was sitting here writing this, my friend walked into my office and started talking to me about VBS this year… It’s called “Hero Headquarters.”

Here’s the simple truth, everyone wants a hero. Those who don’t want a hero want to be a hero. We buy shirts with other people’s names on them. We have posters of heroes from movies. We go see movies about heroes (Iron Man 2 comes out in a couple months).

I am feeling saturated with the idea of heroes. But I have a problem. My heroes all seem to let me down.

For one reason or another, I find myself wanting more when I really get to understand my hero.

My original hero was Dan Marino, and he got so broken down and bad at the end of his career that I could hardly stand to watch him.

I started watching baseball in college and loved Andy Pettite. Then he admits to using performance enhancing drugs.

And so-on and so-forth.

My heroes always seem to let me down.

I find myself screaming with John Cooper, “I need a hero! Save me now!”

I went for a run yesterday, praying to God to help me understand why I face this problem with my heroes. Why can nobody seem to live up to the mantle of Hero?

Then it came to me.

We are, inherently, flawed. We, as humans, are not worthy of being heroes. We do not deserve to be revered. We do not deserve to be followed and mimicked like a hero. So, what am I supposed to do with that information? If we aren’t supposed to have heroes here, then why do we have heroes?

The reality is that there’s only one hero. It’s not Dan Marino. It’s not Jim Tressel. It’s not Andy Pettite or Derek Jeter. It isn’t Dave Ramsey and it’s not Rush Limbaugh. It’s not Barack Obama and it’s not Sarah Palin. It’s not your mom and it’s not your dad.

There is only one hero, his name is Jesus.

“Lord, help me to realize that you’re the only true hero. You’ll never let me down.”

Can you or can't you?

Sorry, I missed last week! I'll catch back up on the series I am working on for Tuesdays. So, here's a special Monday post that has no relevance to the series I've been working on!

I've been doing my daily devotions through Oswald Chambers' magnificent daily guide called My Utmost for His Highest. If you've never picked this book up, I highly encourage it. He's a brilliant thinker and he really challenges me sometimes. Today was one of those occasions. There's a sentence right in the middle of the reading that got me thinking.

He says, " If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in us."

He prefaces this statement with a paragraph about the servant saying to his Master, "I can't" and "You expect more than you give me the power to do!"

Aren't you glad that it's not like that with God? In my ministry here at High Street, I'm realizing that I am trying something that is big! I realize that God has called me to do something huge.

There are some days where I leave this place and feel like saying to God, "You expect more than you give me the power to do!"

It's on those days that I fall on my face before my Master and beg for his forgiveness, because I am positive that I am absolutely wrong.

Today is a good day for me. I've been extremely encouraged in the past week by the people around me. If you're working around a youth pastor, let me tell you, there is a lot of value in encouraging that person. She will thrive on your encouragements. Take some time this week to send her an encouraging note, letting her know that you appreciate what she's doing with the youth in your church.

So, in light of the fact that I'm having a good day, let me tell you, it's clear to me that the things that are happening here at High Street are because of God. I usually take the blame for failures, but give all the praise to God after a success.

Right now, I feel successful.

Back to the original statement from Chambers. Have you received the Holy Spirit? Does your life manifest Holy Spirit-work? The Holy Spirit is a power-bringing entity.

If you have received the Holy Spirit, you have no right to say to God, "I can't." Because, with the Holy Spirit, you can. If you feel like you can't, ask God to remind you of who He is, and just how big He is. You won't be disappointed!

Day By Day

In my pursuit of God, I search for Holiness. Because of my neurosis, I live my life in the fear of falling apart. I live my life in a constant state of unease and worry. I am constantly worrying that my failures are going to keep me from Heaven.

I do continue to wrestle with whether I think perfection is attainable in this life. Jesus called the woman caught in adultery to “Go and sin no more.” Why would he call her to that if it was an impossible goal? He didn’t say, “Okay, go, try your hardest not to sin anymore!”

The early church fathers also believed that it was possible to not sin. The earliest Christian works are ripe with calls to perfection. They believed that after baptism, people would stop sinning.

Let’s be honest, it is much easier to be a Christian when we don’t believe that we have to be perfect. Is this why we have such a difficulty with Christian Perfection?

And you can see why I am crippled with fear. I don’t understand.

Here’s what I do understand. I am fully aware of the fact that I am supposed to give everything I have to God. I’ve always made these commitments to God. The most popular one for me is, “I’ll commit to reading my Bible every day for the rest of my life!”

I’m so sincere. I really want to read my Bible and practice intimacy with God. But I always fail.

Seriously, I have yet to make it through that commitment.

So, what’s my problem? Am I not holy enough? Am I not perfect enough? Have I not been Entirely Sanctified?

Perhaps it’s a daily commitment to God.

Lord, I commit to practicing intimacy with you, today.

Tomorrow, I’ll make a similar commitment.

Is that what holiness is?

Maybe they were right when they said that the three things to pray daily were to see God more clearly, to love God more dearly and to follow Him more nearly. Perhaps that’s true holiness, doing it each and every day.

These three things, I do pray, day-by-day.