Changing My Religion

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Today's news that Americans are prone to change their religious or denominational preference often in their lives comes as no surprise to me. I've long loathed "fast food churchgoing," where Christians flock to the "flavor of the day" or the style that tickles their fancy. CNN.com released a news article today about the finding of a new Pew Forum study. Here's an excerpt.

More than half of American adults have changed religion in their lives, a huge new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found. And there is no discernible pattern to the change, just "a free for all," one of the lead researchers told CNN.

"You're seeing the free market at work," said Gregory Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum. "If people are dissatisfied, they will leave. And if they see something they like better, they will join it."

Many people switch because they move to a new community, and others because they marry someone of a different faith, he said.

Some don't like their ministers or pastors; some like the pastor at another church better.

Fast food churchgoing doesn't honor the Lord and it most certainly does not benefit the Church at large. It's happening in my part of the world right now. In fact, fast food churchgoing is partly responsible for a decline in church attendance at my fellowship. I'm reminded of this warning by the apostle Paul, nearly 2,000 years ago:

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." (2 Timothy 4:3)

Enough commentary. What do you think? Is style a valid reason to change churches? Should the "free market" in America influence who attends church where?

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Some More Reflections

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More random pondering as I recover from a harsh illness...

• Over the course of my young life, I've concluded that spiritual burdens are harder to bear that physical ones. Being sick was tough on my body, no doubt. And I've seen sickness do some wild and unwanted things to people's minds, too. But over the past few months I have had the joy of sharing with people a number of spirtual burdens. Sometimes they just want simple counsel. Other times I have become a prayer partner. But the spiritual burdens weigh heavier than any physical illness because they attach themselves to the hearts within us. My heart is burdened for my friends, loved ones, and colleagues. These burdens I don't consider to be bad. They are, instead, part of the joy of this Christian walk. For we are to bear one another's burdens, Paul writes in Galatians 6:2. Yet still, I find myself needing to be on guard as a minister so that the burdens don't cause me to stumble or lose heart.
  
• The "Crazy Cycle" is an absolute monster. What I refer to is the brilliant paradigm developed by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs that describes how Love and Respect impact the marriage relationship. It goes like this: When a man feels he is being denied respect by his wife, he responds by denying her the love that she most desires. Which causes her to disrepect, which causes him to act unloving, which causes her...etc. Eventually the man and woman are on opposite sides of everything and there is neither love or respect! I've seen some couples near and dear to me go through the Crazy Cycle recently and it tears at my heart. In some cases, the couple is not involved in a community of Christian faith. I experienced the cycle earlier in my engagement and can tell you first-hand that it is not only true that men need respect and women love but it is ugly when one denies the other. And it hurts badly.

That's all for now! Tomorrow, the finacee (whom I love so dearly, and who respects me) and I are going on a Sunday afternoon drive searching for Texas wildflowers to photograph. Photography is our "thing." And we always have a blast being together as we sharpen each other's camera skills.

Be God's!

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Quotable

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“I’m a minister. But I’m a street guy of the cloth.”
(Jerry Cangemi)

My good friend Jerry said this in a conversation last night and it was so good that I hope he forgives my writing it down and using it here! We tend to think of "ministers" as paid professionals with seminary degrees who spend their time studying the Bible and practicing holiness. But if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a minister! Some do have degrees and wear clergical clothes and study the Bible day and night, but every follower is called to be a witness of Jesus Christ in this world and in His Church. We are all called to "do the work of the ministry."

My friend has the right idea. He's a "street guy of the cloth." No flash, no four-sylable words. Just a man following Jesus every day and doing the work of ministry. And you can be just like him.

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Some Time to Reflect

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Being sick this week has given me a lot of time to stop and reflect. What on? Well, life, I suppose — the spiritual life and the physical one. Not much else a guy can do when he can't sleep because of a fever and sinus infection. Oh, there's always TV, but even as I watch television in the evenings I am reminded of spiritual things. I guess I'm blessed that way. Here are a few quick reflections I've had this week...

• That the romantic relationship, especially marriage, is a tremendous reflection of the God-man relationship. There is a lot to this one. One thing is that our problems in communication with each other reflect our communication problems with God. We can get into all kinds of communication trouble when we are not on the same page with our Lord! Same thing with our earthly relationships. We aren't hearing what He is saying. And we're not saying what we need to be saying to Him.
• That the human body is a marvelous creation of our almighty Creator. For example, fever is our body's reaction to invasion. It's not a bad thing. For fever burns harmful bacteria into submission, purifying the body. I should know. I've had six straight days of purification!
• That the Lord calls some people to certain places and gives them as much opportunity as they desire to serve. Crossroads has a wonderful ministry to Hispanic residents of Lewisville, Texas, that is fueled by the service of those blessed people. They saw opportunity and dove right in.
  
• That the tender, caring, concerned love of a good woman soothes any ailment. And mine has been such a great blessing to me this week!
• That dating couples who do not share a spiritual foundation are bound for trouble when they get married. Being plugged into the Body of Christ is SO vital to relationship success! For there should be three in every marriage, a man, a woman, and God. When God isn't present, the marriage is weak. I'm so glad my beloved and I are making God a priority in our relationship. And that we both highly value plugging into the Body of Christ.
  

There were more reflections, I'm sure, but one of the side effects of my "purification" seems to be short term memory loss!

Be God's.
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Curse of the Fall

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I hate getting sick. Don't you?

All it takes is one sore throat to remind me that even though I am an immortal being destined for immortality, it won't be in this fallen body. Nope. This body is destined for ruin. For destruction. For sickness, illness and pain. It's the curse of the fall of mankind way back in Eden. God said to the immortal Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life." All the days of your life? God made no mention of mortality until this comment. As of this point, Adam's days were numbered. God continued, "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." This means sickness and illness would now affect the body. The body will break down until it is dust. Sore throats are just reminders of this fact. We are not in immortal bodies — yet. I say "yet" because we have new, regenerated, immortal bodies coming. Since Jesus rose from the dead with an immortal human body, we will also rise from the dead with an immortal body.

But for now we have to suffer the consequences of Adam's sin and the sin of everyone since him. And that divine curse includes getting sick.

Bummer.

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As Time Flies By...

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Las Colinas from David Vinson on Vimeo.

Just wanted to share with you this REALLY cool time-lapse video that my friend David Vinson made recently. It features an afternoon (or whole day) in Las Colinas, smack dab in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. I'm not sure if there is a link on the video player or not, but you can check out a few other videos by David at http://vimeo.com/4138689.

Isn't this really cool?

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The DaBible Code

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A lot of people I know seem to think of the Bible more like a code to break than a book to revere. That it is a great mystery to be solved -- a detective story of the divine kind. What brings this up? Last night, Pastor Mike Messerli completed a course of Revelation he was teaching at Crossroads. A common word that was spoken by his students during the course of the class was "What?" As in "What does this mean?" or "What is this going to look like?" Lost in the battle to discover the "what" was the "why," which is the real question to answer in order to gain spiritual food from the book. The "why" is this: God is on a mission to save mankind, which has been forewarned that continued rebellion will end in suffering and, eventually, eternal punishment. But we don't get caught up on the "why." We want to know "what"!

After all, inquiring minds want to know!

I believe that one of the great hindrances to the spread of the gospel and of the growth of Christian maturity in the Western World is the belief that we can explain everything in the Bible. That, while our doctrine proclaims the incomprehensible nature of God, we can through study, systematic theology, and cross referencing, explain all the major mysteries of God.

We can't. We're not meant to.

There is a reason God says, "My ways are not your ways and My thoughts not your thoughts. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways." in Isaiah 55:8-9. And again, "Who has known the mind of the Lord and given Him counsel?" (Job 42:3; Isaiah 40:13; Romans 11:34), I was Paul in Romans 11, the same Paul we study thoroughly and develop many facets of doctrine from, who proclaimed in his most theological work, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"

Unfathomable?

To believe that we can "decode" all of the mysteries of the Bible is to place ourselves as being able to ascertain God's wisdom and ways. That we have the keys to ALL knowledge and mysteries. That the Bible is like one big detective story that involves us as its ace sleuths.

But we don't have access to the inner thought pattern of God, even though we have God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Will the Spirit explain some things to us? Most certainly! Second Peter 1:2-3 says the Spirit gives us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He reveals Christ to us and shows us how we can walk with him in abundance and joy.

But the answers to some mysteries God reserves for Himself. Revelation is filled with many of them. Others involve such things as the Trinity and Holy Communion. We are not meant to know the answers to every question. What we ARE meant to know is that God has given us all we need to prosper in life and faith and love. And He has promised to take our wondering minds into His loving arms and give us assurance that He knows the answers and will reveal them when He is good and ready.

Be God's!

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Barna Poll: Confused Christians

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The newest survey released by the Barna Company reveals a continued confusion in areas of doctrine and practice among Christians here in North America. Some of the confusion centers on the very nature and personhood of God, the identity of the devil, and how to deal with other religions.

Basically, folks, I fear the American church is failing the American people. We've focused so much on teaching lessons in morality (feel-good lessons) that we've abandoned the God-given call to preach sound doctrine. And when it comes to combating unbiblical ideas and philosophies, we have chosen the path of compromise instead of the path of truth.

Here is a sampling from the Barna survey of how confused many American Christians are:

Inconsistencies Noted

The study also identified a number of instances in which people’s beliefs seemed inconsistent. Among those were the following:

• About half (47%) of the Christians who believed that Satan is merely a symbol of evil nevertheless agreed that a person can be under the influence of spiritual forces such as demons.

• About half (49%) of those who agreed that the Holy Spirit is only a symbol but not a living entity also agreed that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches, even though the Bible clearly describes the Holy Spirit as more than a symbolic reference to God’s power or presence.

• About one-third (33%) of the self-defined Christians who agree that the Bible, Koran and Book of Mormon all teach the same truths simultaneously contend that the Bible is totally accurate in its principles, even though the three sacred books have very different ideas about truth, salvation, and the nature of God.

Isn't it sad? You can read the rest of the survey here, if you'd like.

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Easter

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Happy Easter, everyone! I hope that your day was filled with worship, joy, celebration with family and friends, and rest. Mine was spent between my three wonderful worlds: church, my family, and Megan's family. In all, it was a busy, yet wonderful, day.

He is risen! (He is risen, indeed!)

-- John

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Incredibly Isaiah

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Last night at Crossroads we had a very powerful Good Friday service. Meg played her flute beautifully on a version of the classic hymn "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" and Pastor Steve Hixon read through Isaiah 52 and 53 with the congregation. I was near tears as he read this hallowed passage of Scripture. No matter how many times I've heard it, it still amazes me today.

"He was crushed for our transgressions..."

Isaiah probably had little idea who he was describing in his prophecy, some 700 years before Christ. Yet the words described to a "t" the suffering and substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord in or around 33 A.D. It's really eerie. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1949, the words of the prophet became even more so. For dating to 100 B.C. was the entire Isaiah scroll, including the prophecy about the messiah. It could not have been forged or created after Jesus. It was written in stone (err... animal skin). And no one of Jesus' day disputed his suffering. He suffered. He was crucified.

For our transgressions. Not his own. For he had none for which to atone.

Incredible, Isaiah. Incredible.

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Church in a Bar

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I hate to post two videos from the same source two days in a row, but this short story from Little Rock, Arkansas, caught my attention. There is a great debate ongoing in the church about whether or not the "traditional" church building and "traditional" church service is hindering church attendance, especially among the younger generations. The argument is that instead of waiting for people to come to the church building, the church should go to where the people are (and meet their needs where they are). This seems to be the "Jesus model" of ministry, though it must also be noted that our Lord spent His fair share of time in the synagogue, which was the "traditional church" of the day.

Anyway, an Arkansas pastor is seeking to take church "to the people" by holding services in a bar. Here's the short story from CNN.com. Feel free to comment below.



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Cat Nabbing

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For your humorous enjoyment comes this video story from CNN.com. Of course, a Scripture comes to mind...

"Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, [but wait] until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of hearts..."

Enjoy!



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Quotable

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This great quote from C. S. Lewis comes courtesy of my pastor, Steve Hixon.

"The things Jesus says are very different from what any other teacher has said. Others say, ‘This is the truth about the universe. This is the way you ought to go,’ but He says, ‘I am the Truth, and the Way, and the Life.’ He says, ‘No man can reach absolute reality, except through Me. Try to retain your own life and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away and you will be saved. Come to Me everyone who is carrying a heavy load, I will set that right. Your sins, all of them, are wiped out, I can do that. I am Re-birth, I am Life. Eat Me, drink Me, I am your Food. And finally, do not be afraid, I have overcome the whole Universe.’ That is the issue."

-- CS Lewis, God in the Dock

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A Creative Challenge

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One of the most difficult things about having a creative job is that it requires creativity. No joke. Most artists only have a limited creative well to draw from and when that well runs dry, the artist's work suffers. Writer's block sets in for authors. Painters see only the same shapes. Graphic designers end up creating the same document over and over again.

That's one of the things about art this side of heaven: it's limited. It does not go on and on for every artist. There will always be dry spells. I think I'm in one right now. Everything I look at right now has the same shape, so to speak. Every design I create has the same look. I cannot come up with anything original, so I borrow from the work of others in hopes of finding a new path of creative inspiration. It works every now and then. But not always when I need it to work.

How can an artist recapture his or her inspiration? What is the trigger to fire the gun of fresh creative thought?

We'll just have to see!

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Scratch That One off the List...

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From the "I think I've seen it all" file comes this doozy.

"Scientists have shown scratching helps relieve an itch as it blocks activity in some spinal cord nerve cells that transmit the sensation to the brain.

However, the effect only seems to occur during itchiness itself - scratching at other times makes no difference.

While it is widely-known scratching relieves an itch, the physiological mechanisms for how this works are little understood.

The University of Minnesota study appears in Nature Neuroscience"

Yes, folks. Scientists have figured out how scratching fixes an itch. Isn't the human body amazing? Now if only they can figure out how to ignore an itch, I'll be totally satisfied.

Here's the rest of the article from the BBC.

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Suffering in the Seasons

.Well, today is another wild weather day here in North Texas. On Saturday, we had a high of 83 degrees. Today it is 58. Yep. a 25-degree change in 48 hours.

Is it just me, or are you, too, getting tired of these temperature swings? How about this wind? Over the past few weeks the wind has been unrelenting here. I'm thinking we all could save a lot of money by installing wind turbines on our roofs. Or save on airfare by strapping a hang glider to our backs. Let's see... the wind is from the south today.... Kansas anybody?

Everyday it seems the weather reminds me of who is in control and who is not. I watch the weather guys on TV and kind of chuckle, first of all, because the thermostat is going up and down, but secondly because they may have weather degrees but what happens in the future is just an educated guess and not a certainty. No one knows the future but the Lord and those to whom he chooses to reveal it. So we live in faith.

Whenever I encounter an inconsistency in the weather (which is every week) I'm reminded of these simple words in Daniel 2:20-21:

"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons..."

It's all God.

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What Brings Peace?

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"When He approached [Jerusalem], He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.'" (Luke 19:41-42)

What brings peace?

We're all looking for a little peace in our lives -- from the mighty to the meek. We put up fences to make peace with the neighbors. We trim our lawns for peace with our HOA. We obey our bosses in order to have peace at work. And we look for the path of least resistance at home so we have pace within our own marriages and our own walls.

But is peace guaranteed?

When Jesus approached Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, he saw the city walls, the temple, and the crowds gathered to welcome him as messiah and king. But his disposition was not one of joy and pride. It was sorrow. After all, he was a "man of sorrows" (Isa. 53). What troubled him was that the people who lived in the city didn't know what brought true peace to their lives. And in five days they would reject the peace that Jesus brought into Jerusalem's walls. They were too busy looking for peace elsewhere. Perhaps many saw peace at the end of a sword. Maybe others saw peace as obedience to the scribes and Pharisees.

But the only lasting peace is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our Lord told his disciples in the upper room, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful (John 14:27)." Why? As he would explain over the next few chapters, peace comes in the knowledge that Jesus has overcome this world and its systems of war. He has overcome temptation and in a few days he would overcome death. And through our relationship with him, we, too, can overcome this world and have peace. Not in a militant way, mind you, but a spiritual way. We need not fear this world.

But the inhabitants of Jerusalem weren't looking to Jesus for peace. So he wept for them. And I weep for my neighbors who strive and struggle for peace in their hearts but fail to find it because they have not turned to the Prince of Peace. It truly is sad.

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To Be "Growing Young"

You know, we often talk about our spiritual life in terms of age. We say things like "growing up" and "mature" to describe a positive direction in our spiritual lives and "infant" and "babes" to talk about an immature path. And those are all fine and dandy and biblical. But perhaps developing a better spiritual life not only helps us "grow up" but also helps us "grow young."

Growing young is the recapturing of innocence lost; the losing of reason and logic for the gaining of childlike faith. In Matthew 18, when Jesus was asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" he pointed not the old and wise but to children. Why? Because children still retain an element of innocence in their lives. They can still believe without having to hear a reasonable explanation first. They see Jesus and go running straight to Him.

Rich Mullins was one of my biggest influences as a young adult. The singer-songwriter-poet-philosopher had a knack for turning the complex truths of faith and life into simple declarations of everyday truth. He wrote a song back in 1992 about this concept of growing young. Of recapturing what had been lost in his life as he had "seen silver turn to dross" and "have known so many secrets I wish now I did not know."

I don't know about you, but I long for that innocence. I long to forget things I've learned in life, things that have caused me pain and not joy. Even though I know I can learn things from the pain and hurt, I wonder what it would be like to not have had those experiences. What it would be like to be young again. I wish I could remove images and sounds, feelings and thoughts, anything that had taken my innocence away bit by bit, chunk by chunk. But it's hard.

However, the longer I walk by the Spirit, the easier I find it is to remove those stains on my life. They will never go away this side of heaven, but they can become less of a burden on my heart and in my head. Indeed, the longer I walk by the Spirit the younger I grow. And, maybe, if I walk long enough, I can be young again.

Don't you want to be "young" again?

Here's Rich's song.

GROWING YOUNG

I've gone so far from my home
Seen the world and I have known
So many secrets I wish now I did not know
'Cause they have crept into my heart
They have left it cold and dark
And bleeding, bleeding and falling apart

And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry
Well I've been around enough to know that was the lie
That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons
Well, we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watched down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms
And be growing young.

I've seen silver turn to dross
Seen the very best there ever was
And I tell you, it ain't worth what it costs
And I remember my father's house
What I wouldn't give right now
Just to see him and hear him tell me that he loves me so much

And when I thought that I was all alone
It was your voice I heard calling me back home
And I wonder now, Lord, what it was that made me wait so long
And what kept you waiting for me all that time
Was your love stronger than my foolish pride
Will you take me back? Take me back and let me be your child?

Cause I've been broken now, I've been saved
I've learned how to cry and I've learned how to pray
And I'm learning, learning even I can be changed

1992, Rich Mullins & Beaker, from the album, "The World as Best I Remember It, Vol. 2"