No Rights. Journal of a Christ soldier.

When Brothers Dwell in Unity

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! (Psalm 133:1-2)

A parent must have written this psalm. I have three children. All boys. Times of unity are rare. A typical day finds my boys fighting over a toy or positioning for attention or just provoking each other out of spite. Any parent of multiple children knows what I am talking about. I am sure David knew. Often times, I am content with them just playing separately because at least they are not fighting. But there are times… brief moments of precious, golden, amazing, wonderful…peace…. when they all play together in harmony, when they all laugh together and work together for each others good. Oh, these are sweet sweet times. These moments warm a parent’s heart!

Isn’t the body of Christ similar? We all tend to behave like children when it comes to relating to each other. We fight with each other, we position for power and recognition, we even provoke each other. Selfishly we all contend with each other over worship styles and petty details in the faith. And Sunday mornings are still the most segregated hour of the week. And the worst part is that we have come to accept this fact as ok… because at least we are not fighting with each other. We have become content with the separation. But it is not ok for our body to be segregated! It is not ok that brothers of different ethnicities are divided. We are family! Unity is what warms our father’s heart, not division.

Jesus prayed for us all to be one in John 17. He gave His life to reconcile us to Himself and to each other. This is our Father’s heart. So why are we not working more intentionally on unity?  Do we see it as unimportant? Are we clueless about how to tackle such a huge problem? Do we care at all?  Are we praying for this? Are we even thinking about it? It is time for our Christ family to start dwelling in unity. And it starts with each of us making intentional decisions to pursue peace within the body! It is time for us to stop settling for division in place of unity. 

(BTW… this is the heart of Biblical Multi-ethnicity)

 

Lessons On Prayer From The Book of Psalms

I have realized lately that my prayer life needs an overhaul. So it is back to the basics for me. Without prayer I cannot do anything well as a minister. The Psalms are full of lessons on prayer. Here are just a few:

 1.    Anxious toil accomplishes little.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to His beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1,2

Maybe the biggest reason that we do not pray is simply because we do not believe in the power or effectiveness of prayer. But we do certainly believe in the power of hard work. So when we get in a bind we naturally look to ourselves rather than God to solve the problems we face. When we wake up in the morning we naturally look to our to do list rather than to prayer because we don’t believe prayer gets anything done…really. But the truth of the matter is that prayer is effective and powerful for the simple reason that nothing gets done without God’s approval. God is the one who is in charge of everything. Nothing can get done without Him. We work in vain when we ignore God. Contrary to our natural instincts, prayer is the best and most effective thing we can do in any and all circumstances.

 2.    The Lord is the one with the true power.

“To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till He has mercy upon us.” Psalm 123:1,2

If we want help then we need to go to the ones who have the power to help us. The truth is that there is no one more capable or willing to help us than God. He is in absolute authority over us and everything else in this world. He can do whatever He wants. So we should seek the Lord, first and foremost, if we want real help.

 3.    Our job is to wait on the Lord.

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning…” Psalm 130:5,6

Waiting on God is difficult. But this is what prayer is all about. Prayer is submission to the Lord’s power, authority and ultimately His timing. We acknowledge through prayer that God is our only hope and we wait for His help. It is not easy but it is simple. Help will come just in time. He knows our circumstances and needs better than we do. So we seek Him and we wait. 

 

Masculine Christianity or Cruciform Christianity?

Of course I want to be manly. Sorry, masculine. I want people to view me as masculine. I am a man, afterall. What guy doesn’t want to be thought of as masculine? But what does this mean? What does it mean to be genuinely masculine? This is the object of heated debate both in and outside of the Christian world.

Christians talk about it in terms of “Biblical masculinity”.  Well known theologians, authors and speakers have all taken a turn at defining it. Great points are made on all sides. To be honest, I’m still a little confused. How would Jesus address this issue? That is my question. And if Jesus didn’t address this issue directly, what does that tell us?  

I have three sons. I want all three to grow up and be the most Biblically masculine men that they can possibly be. But what does this mean? How do I encourage this? And, more importantly, if I had three daughters, how would I parent them differently? Is there overlap? I mean, in order to properly steer my kids toward Biblical masculinity, I have to know what Biblical femininity looks like as well, right?   

The problem for me is this: Every time I try to make a list of masculine traits (both spiritual and otherwise) that I want my boys to embody I find myself thinking that I would want these same traits for daughters.  Hard working, courageous, loyal, responsible, leaders, risk takers, humble, desiring to seek God’s glory…. All of these things that I want my boys to be, I would want the same for daughters. So what is Biblically masculine that is not at the very same time, Biblically feminine? To suggest there are only degrees of masculinity and that all things feminine are simply less masculine is the same as saying that all women are naturally inferior to men. Surely that is not what we mean. 

How would Jesus answer this question? I suspect that Jesus was quite an amazing man. If there is such a thing as Biblical masculinity then Jesus was and is it. So I think He would invite us to follow Him and live life in the very same manner that He lived it. But would He tell a woman something different? I don’t think so.

Personally, I think we are asking the wrong question when we ask what Biblical masculinity looks like. The question that both men and woman should be asking is this: What doe sit look like to follow Jesus? Everything else seems to be hopelessly entrenched in cultural constructs.

Anyway… the thing that sparked my thinking about this issue was a recent article I read. It is an amazing read on this very subject. I highly recommend reading it: The rhetoric of masculine Christianity

 

 

Blessed Are the Generous

Psalm 112 begins with this comforting statement: “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord…” To be blessed means to be joyful and content. This is good news for all of us who love the Lord and seek to follow Him. David goes on to say in verse 6 that the righteous will never be moved. More good news! However, these statements come with responsibility. To fear the Lord, to live righteously or the way God wants us to live has serious implications.

As David is describing the righteous man in Psalm 112, he refers primarily to the way he uses his resources. In verse 5 and again in verse 9, David tells us that the righteous man is the one who is generous, who gives to the poor and distributes freely. He tells us that the righteous man of God conducts his affairs with justice. Wealth and riches may very well be a gift from God. But they are never given to us without responsibility. To fear God means that we use our resources the way He would use them.

What this psalm teaches us is that generosity and righteousness are inseparable. We cannot be the people God wants us to be and not use our resources in a generous manner. God’s heart is bent towards those who are in need. He is just, merciful and incredibly generous. To be righteous means to be like God. We simply cannot be like God if we do not give freely.

So as we claim to fear the Lord and be His followers we need to ask ourselves a very serious question: Does our checkbook confirm our confession or does it tell a different story? Are we righteous only where it is convenient to be righteous or are we fully surrendered to His way of life? 

(Here is another great Generosity article)

Encouragement Is Not An Option

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up…” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

I have been breezing through 1 Thessalonians again this week. This time around, for some reason (God), the thing that stuck out to me the most has been the concept of encouragement. For Paul this activity of encouragement was absolutely essential to behaving well in the body of Christ. The word encouragement shows up 5 times in 3 chapters of this one particular letter. The concept itself is embedded deeply in everything that Paul did in his ministry to the churches that he planted and worked with. I think the reason this activity jumped out to me in this text is simply because it is not emphasized or practiced much in the American church…at least in my experience.

To me, encouragement has always seemed like a lesser spiritual activity. It is something that women and really emotional guys do. That sounds bad but that has always been my feeling towards this subject. The church has not challenged me on this attitude and it should have. What’s behind my attitude is a false sense of what it means to be a Godly man. After all, Paul was a spiritual giant and encouragement was obviously very important to him. I grew up with the typical American cultural values: We need to be independent, self-made people. Accepting any help or encouragement is weakness. And if I do not need it, then I do not have to give it to others. They should just tough it out. But this whole way of thinking seems so contrary to what I read here in this one single letter of Scripture. 

This morning I had a great conversation with a student that needed some encouragement. Even though I do not have any spiritual gift of encouragement, I was actually able to encourage them! I went into the conversation with this as my goal and it actually worked out. And you know what? It felt great. It felt so right. Both of us left the conversation feeling great. What would happen if all of us in the body of Christ started to do this more and more? We might actually start to develop into the joyful people that God meant for us to be in the first place!

So who will you encourage today?

Sometimes we need the storm...

 

No one wants to go through a stormy time in their life. And I don't think Jesus expects us to want seasons of  tragedy and trial. But sometimes we need the storm. Sometimes we need to be swept out into the deep places where all we have is our faith in a good and loving God. These are the places where we learn just how flimsy our faith really is and just how faithful God is in spite of it. The classic story of Jesus calming the storm is found in Mark 4:35-41. As I reflect on my own trials this passage keeps jumping out to me. As I have reflected on this passage I have made a couple of interesting observations. First of all, there is no reference to the amount of time they spent in the storm before Jesus woke up. I think we assume it was very soon into the storm. However, the passage says that the boat was nearly swamped. Jesus was sleeping through the storm. No wonder the disciples accused him of not caring! I wonder if he wasn't waiting until the last minute on purpose. I wonder if the disciples weren't frantically fighting the storm on their own for a good bit of time before they woke Jesus up. After all, He was not a fisherman so what would He know about boats and storms. Finally, Jesus responds by doing something they never expected. He calms the storm. Their reaction before and after betrays their faith. They assumed He did not care about them in the middle of it. And afterward they are terrified because they never thought He had that kind of power. Flimsy faith. But what a lesson, right? Their faith would never be the same again. The storm was horrible. They were afraid they were going to die. They all probably knew lots of people who had died in similar circumstances. And yet, Jesus takes this tragic situation and turns it into a monumental faith lesson. I think this was the plan all along. We need storms. I think this is exactly what James was talking about in James chapter 1. The testing of our faith is a good thing. Maturity is impossible otherwise.

Knowing is proclaiming!

"O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come." Psalm 71:17,18

I would like this to be my new theme verse. I am growing old. I certainly have gray hairs. And yet, I  long  to proclaim God's power and love to another generation! Why? Because God's love and power is great news. Its that simple. Honestly, I do not understand how Christians (including myself on most days) can  know about/believe in God's supreme power and yet at the very same time keep it such a secret. I am normally very bad at keeping secrets. I tried to keep our honeymoon destination a secret from my wife but ended up spilling it a month before we left. How come I can be so good at keeping God's power and truth a secret? Surely this news is better than where we will go on vacation, right?

Knowing is proclaiming. It has to be. Evangelism is not something we are supposed to do in order to be good Christians. It is the natural result of knowing God...or at least it should be. Still there seems to be a kind of evangelistic entropy in the Christian life as we grow further and further away from the day of our conversion. We seem to grow cold and unconcerned about God's universe creating power as if it were as ordinary as traffic on the way to work. But God is far from ordinary!

Personally, I am tired of seeing all the gray haired older believers setting such a poor example in this area. We seem to dismiss new converts as naive in their passionate proclaimation. And we yawn at the idealistic passion of our youth. But this new generation needs our leadership in proclaiming God's power to the world. Its time for us to wake up and start setting the example. God is not ordinary. His love and power is worth the telling.

The Foundation of Great Leadership

"If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine."

GOD

What does God really want from us as leadersin His Kingdom? Is it our time? Our money? Our abilities and assets? Is it all of the above? I am in the middle of leading a 4 week training course for up and coming student leaders. So this question is fresh on my mind. The answer to the question is the absolute foundation of what it means to be a leader in the body of Christ. It is the key to effective and healthy leadership.

The answer to the question can be found in Psalm 50. In this Psalm, God rebukes His people, but not for their sacrifices. It seems that they were fulfilling the letter of the law when it comes to their sacrifices. God's rebuke has to do with their posture before Him. They were not living in dependence. And they were not thanking Him for sustaining them. What God wanted from them was simply to call on Him and lean on Him rather than themselves.

Before we dismiss this passage as yet another time the Isrealites failed in the Old Testament, we need to look to our own lives. Who do we look to for help 9 times out of 10? Do we try and tough it out and solve our own problems? Do we rely on our friends and relatives? Or do we first and foremost depend on God to save us and sustain us? Personally, I really struggle with this. I find myself regularly trying to solve my own problems and help myself. Going to God is not my first reaction when trouble comes along. But He is the only one who can and will give me the perfect help that I need. 

Independency is so common in the world of leadership. We are concerned about our image. We want to establish ourselves. We think more highly of ourselves than we should. We don't want to burden others or God with our problems. So we don't ask for help. We do our jobs with our own resources. We view dependence as weakness. And yet we are surprised when we burn out? In a very true sense, dependence is strength in the Kingdom of God because God is strong. The most effective leaders in God's Kingdom live their lives in dependence on God and live out of His resources rather than their own. They call on Him in their day of trouble and He delievers them. And God gets the glory for delivering them. This is how it is supposed to work. When we try and deliver ourselves we are trying to claim the glory for ourselves. 

This passage reminds me of my two year old son. He is completely dependent on my wife and I. He has nothing to offer us. We do not need anything from him. But he depends on us for his life. Yet he tries to take care of himself all the time. He tries to get a drink by himself and spills it all over the floor of the kitchen. He tries to climb up our bookshelf to reach that toy on the top shelf and falls. All he has to do is ask. And we will help. All we want from him is to ask us for help and be thankful. We want his love and trust. This is how it is with God. All we have to do is ask Him for help. We must recognize that we need His help and that He has all the resources that we need. He will help us in the way we truly need help. And He will get the glory as He does. All He asks of us is that we depend on Him and then give Him thanks when He helps. 

Dependence and thankfulness...these are the foundation of great leadership in God's Kingdom.

 

Matthew 25:31-46 (New Student Outreach Version)

31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the student leaders one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was feeling lonely and you took time to talk to me, I was nervous and you made me feel comfortable, I had nothing to do and nowhere to go on a Friday night and you invited me to your party, 36 I needed friends and you introduced me to your friends, I was confused and lost and you took time to show me around, I needed to go to Walmart and you took me.' 37 "Then the righteous and faithful leaders will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you lonely and talk to you, or nervous and make you feel comfortable? 38 When did we see you without anywhere to go and invite you, or needing friends and introduce you to ours? 39 When did we see you without a way to get to Walmart and take you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these new student children of mine, you did for me.' 41 "Then he will say to those student leaders on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was lonely and you did not talk to me, I was nervous and you passed me by, 43 I was alone on Friday and you did not invite me, I needed friends and you did not have a place for me, I needed a ride and you did not have time for me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you lonely or nervous or without anywhere to go on a Friday or needing friends or needing a ride, and did not help you?'   45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these new student children of mine, you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous leaders to eternal life."   (NSOV)

Yeah, Jesus Might Have Gotten A Tattoo

  A response to Chuck Colsen’s article:  Would Jesus Get A Tattoo?  

Would Jesus get a tattoo? Chuck Colsen seems to know the answer. And I disagree! (Especially since I have a tattoo!) I never thought I would find myself disagreeing with the likes of Chuck Colsen. So much of his writing has been a great help to me personally. However, I think he has fallen short in his recent blog about Christians and tattoos. In his article, he seems to present 4 arguments against Christians getting tattoos. I think all four arguments fall short. Here is my response….

1.    First off, Colsen argues that Christians should avoid mimicking pagans or unbelievers in this world. God wants us to be set apart. And further we should not “carve graffiti” on our bodies as our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Of course, I agree that we should be set apart. However, Scripture is clear that this difference is meant to be displayed in our lifestyle not merely in our physical appearance. (James 1:19-27)

And where is the line when it comes to mimicking pagan culture. Can we listen to the same music? Can we dress like them? Can we talk like them? Can we drive the same kind of cars? Or is everything in our life supposed to be different? Does God really want us to create what amounts to a Christian culture that is so different from the world that any unbeliever could spot us a block away? I seriously doubt this is God’s desire even though many believers seem intent on doing this very thing.

The apostle Paul seemed to also disagree with Colsen on this point. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul suggests that we adopt some of the practices of the unbelievers around us in order to win them over. He does not mean that we adopt blatantly sinful practices. He means that for grey area issues we have freedom to express ourselves like that of the culture we are trying to reach in order to win them over. It is a pragmatic missiological strategy. It is hard to reach a group of people if they cannot relate to you. So if getting a tattoo will somehow enhance our ability to share the gospel with this generation then we should all be getting tattoos according to Paul.

Ultimately, this issue of tattoo’s (and body piercing) falls into the category of culture. Culture changes. So believers have the freedom to change how we adorn ourselves. In fact, we should change. If we don’t we risk irrelevancy in the mission field. Colsen mentions a savage with tattoos in the book Moby Dick.  The question that Colsen has to answer is this: Would that same guy been viewed as a savage if he were walking down the streets of New York today. My guess is that he would fit in nicely.  Put a latte in his hand and no one would even notice him. I also suspect that if that savage in Melville’s book came to faith, God would have gladly used his tattooed body to display His love to all the other savages around town.

2.    Colsen goes on to argue that tattoos point to things in which we place our identity. I find this to be a real stretch. I wear a Bass Pro hat almost all the time but I do not find my identity in Bass Pro or even in fishing. Just because someone has a tattoo of a flower or dragon on their body does not mean their identity is tied to that thing. Most people understand this to be common sense.

3.     For Christians who get Christiany tattoos, Colsen calls us to live it out rather than to carve it onto our bodies. He tells us (and rightly so), “…the marks of a Christian ought to be spiritual…” I agree with him completely when it comes to living out our faith. But this is not really an argument against tattoos. I agree that the one thing that should set me apart the most is my lifestyle. However, this does not mean that I cannot also have a tattoo. Colsen seems to present this issue as an either/or argument. Either you live out your faith or you get a tattoo. But this is ridiculous. Of course we can do both. If I am living my life like Jesus, what difference does it make if I have a tattoo on my arm? And who knows, we might actually have a good conversation about our faith with unbelievers as a result of our tattoos (As I have had already…starting with the tattoo artist who did my tattoo). 

4.    Another argument Colson seems to make here refers to God’s preference. Colsen believes that God would prefer we not get tattoos. Colsen is using God’s preference as a trump card for lack of Biblical evidence in my opinion. It is an incredibly arrogant and foolish thing to presume God’s preference about something that has no Biblical backing. Colsen claims that he is not a legalist in this article. But this is the very heart of legalism; presuming God takes pleasure in ever more conservative interpretations of His Word. A legalist thinks along these lines: In order to be safe we should avoid. But Jesus thought along these lines: In order to love we should enter in.

So would Jesus get a tattoo? In the end I am not sure. However, I do know that all the religious leaders in Jesus day were furious with Him because he constantly broke away from religious culture in order to be with unbelievers. Jesus went to them. He spent time with tax collectors in their homes and he cared for prostitutes. He touched lepers. I have a feeling that Jesus would have gotten a tattoo if that is what it would have taken to reach even one single lost soul. In the end, Colsen’s article sounds more like the heart of those Pharisees than it does the heart of Jesus.