It bears repeating...

Sometimes I think I am simply over being “nice”. It has become synonymous with “weak” and “masked” and “false”. Thus, the compulsion to “be nice” whether internal or external results in an inability to say anything of real value in my writing.

This is not to conflate “nice” with “loving” which is something completely different and also very necessary. We are commanded in 1 Peter 3:15 not only to be prepared to give reason for the hope that is in us as believers but to do so with gentleness and respect. That attitude of love behind our words is of immense importance but take a look at Peter’s words and actions throughout the book of Acts and you will find the man knew how to call sinners to repentance and when “nice” wasn’t going to cut it.

I often find myself trying so hard to clarify and protect against being misunderstood that I never actually get to say anything. Or I think through all the nasty things people might say and I clam up. That is part of why you don’t see me blogging anymore. That is part of why I have been off of social media for the better part of the last year. Who can dare to raise their voice for truth in a culture that insists that we tailor our speech to avoid any form of offense?

Well as I said, I’m over it. I am so far from perfection and certain that some of my thinking is flawed but God has seen fit to give me a world of experience and education so who am I to sit on that and stand by inactive for fear of exposure?

I have traveled the world, spent three years living in Europe, taken a mission to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and served for a full year in Afghanistan. I have years of experience as a non-commissioned officer in the United States Navy. I have two master’s degrees and I am generally well read. I have created art on stage and have served as CEO of a $5M/year non-profit ministry. I am a published and produced playwright and most importantly a husband and father. I have sinned and received grace and I have been sinned against and learned to forgive.

I’m just saying, I have some things to say.

Foremost is this and I hope I can express this every time I sit down to write: None of my experience, accomplishments, or goals mean anything apart from my identity as a child of God.

I believe the words I read in the Bible and in God’s Word I learn that I am a sinner. That there is a standard of holiness to which I have never matched up, not even from the moment of my birth. My sin disqualifies me from existence in God’s presence for how can what is impure withstand before the Holy?

God is sovereign and omniscient. He knows all that was or ever will be. He knew man’s heart would continually turn to rebellion to His commands and yet he still proclaimed it “good” to make man in His own image. God’s “good” clearly transcends man’s common understanding of the concept.

What is overwhelming to me each time I consider it is that God, in His divine decree provided a way of atonement for sinful man from the outset. Genesis 3, moments after the fall of man, God gives the first messianic prophecy. The first chapters of Leviticus, a book often criticized as legalistic when quoted, are God explaining the way of atonement for the inevitable times when His people will mess up. It brings God glory to bring man into communion with Himself. He does not leave us to our sin.

And when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, his own self—Jesus to be the ultimate fulfillment of the law. The ultimate atonement for the sins of man. The fulfillment of Old testament prophecy. He bore the consequence of our sin on the cross and became the final sacrifice for our sin. Having no sin of his own, death could not hold Him, and he rose victorious over the grave and reigns over heaven and earth.

Two thousand years before I was born, Jesus bore my sin on the cross. That through the salvation of sinners like me, undeserving of grace, glory would be brought to the Father. I have value only because the Creator of the Universe loved a wretched sinner like me and offered redemption when damnation was my due.

And this is not good news for me alone, it is good news for humanity! Man’s search for meaning is culminated in finding our identity in Jesus Christ. Only in Him do we find true love, true joy, true hope and true peace.

If we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, God has promised to save us, to wash our sins away and redeem us. With such a confession we are called to turn away from all that separates us from God and walk in the light of truth.

Life on earth is still hard. There is still illness and injustice. It is a world marred by sin. But as followers of Jesus our joy rests in the knowledge that our reward is in heaven and that we can endure all things through Christ who strengthens us.

The hardness, the “not nice” of this message, is that if we take Jesus at His word, and we must, then there is only one truth, one way to salvation. We can’t work it out on our own or get there by another path. And in placing our trust and faith in Him, we must die to ourselves. Put off the old man as it were. Yes Christ paid the ultimate price for our sin, but to follow him still requires us to walk away from our own desires and take up our cross and follow Him. People don’t like hearing that, but it is a vital matter we must work through to let go of control in order to truly know Him.

I invite you to seek the truth of Jesus Christ for yourself through the scriptures and to place your trust in Him. Connect with other Christians and join me on this narrow path as we die to self in order to be alive in Christ.

It has been long enough

Since the last post we have packed up a house, driven from Jacksonville, FL to Miller, SD, unpacked into a new house, adopted a dog and started adapting to civilian life. Yes, the whole family has to adapt. People fail to understand that the family is just as much in the military as the parent or spouse who is wearing the uniform.

Well, let me say that it is amazing to be a civilian again. I get to be home for lunch every day and if we have a rough night with the kids I currently have the flexibility to kick around the house a while longer. More amazing though is the experience of being a pastor. God placed us in a great church in rural South Dakota. The people are supportive and loving. Pray for us as we take steps every day to expand our reach for Christ in the community.

Obviously with so much going on and getting into the swing of pastoring and sermon prep, this blog has taken a break. Not that it was booming before, but I hope to change that now. I should have a good deal of material to adapt and play around with on here after my first 3 months of preaching. So if you are one of my church members—sorry there might be a lot of repeats, but you said you liked it the first time, so I am assuming you will love it the second!

Today I have just a brief post-Christmas thought to share. And yes I shared something similar both last Sunday and last Wednesday.

This week I was taken aback at the thought that over 2,000 years ago God made the most significant move in the history of His creation. Consider the impact the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus has had to date. I defy you to name one person who has impacted history to the same extent. We might be able to think of a few people who acted in ways that have changed life as we know it. Or we ask the question, “If you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you do it?”

Men, women and events have certainly shaped our history, but our history would have been shaped either way. To the colonists the greatest evil was King George. To us in recent years it has been the likes of Usama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. But Jesus impacted the 1700’s the same way he impacts our generation. But how many in our generation even remembers that the American Revolution sported George as its antagonist? In 200 years will Bin Laden or Hussein carry the same gravity when they are mentioned?  Probably not. But Jesus has and always will hold weight and significance to the creation of God.

Traditions of Santa and Christmas trees may fall out of style one day. Christ will not.

Merry Christmas to you and peace in the New Year!!

The Boat is a Lie

Matthew 14:23-33 tells us the familiar story of Jesus walking on the water. When I was in Sunday school this story had a very simple moral. "Jesus walked on the water." Which really didn't teach me anything to live my life by, but served as an example of Jesus's diety...but then I didn't know what diety meant at that age either. In an adult Sunday school class the lesson probably shifts focus a bit to Peter and says "If I keep my eyes on Jesus I can walk on Water" (cue Audio Adrenaline...GO!)

But other than these two true yet basic answers I think we gloss over this passage to a great extent.

Consider that this is the second time recorded in the Gospel that the disciples are in a boat with a raging storm all around them. Only this time around the one person they know who can calm the storm is back on the land praying. I think we ignore the storm in this story to focus on the miracle itself. If this was only about Jesus proving His power, He could have the made the same point on a clear day.

The disciples have put their faith in two things. The wind and the boat. The wind is described as "contrary" so they have already lost on that front. All they have left is the boat and they can't even control the direction that it will move becaues of the wind. We often put our faith and trust into material things that cannot truly provide support when the going gets tough.

Jesus appears on the water and Peter seems to determine that no matter how windy it is and no matter how choppy the water is, it surely must be safer out there with Jesus than it is in the boat. It is then while Jesus is accomplishing the impossible through Peter, that he begins to doubt and starts to wonder how he could possible control the elements to keep himself from slipping. And as Peter thinks hard about how not to sink, he finds himself doing just that.

It is notable that no one jumps in after Peter, and Peter doesn't try to swim for it either. The conditions on this water are such that an experienced swimmer like Peter realizes that he cannot rescue himself but must call out to Jesus. When he does, Jesus wastes not a moment. Jesus doesn't scold Peter and THEN save him. He saves him and then convicts him for his lack of faith. Jesus then returns a much humbled Peter to the boat and the storm ends.

This is not the last storm that Peter will experience either literally or figuratively. But he will make it safely to shore due to Jesus.

So often we try to control our surroundings and situations when all we need is Jesus. People go to God in prayer under two conditions--1. Things are going great, 2. Things are going poorly. I tend to err on the things are going great side of it. When things are going poorly I often take it upon myself to fix it and all I do is make a mess. When I call out to Jesus is when I find peace.

Peter recognizes his condition as being unstable, so he leaves the boat. He falls to his own control issues and has to cry out to Jesus to save him. Jesus does so and changes Peter's life. This does not mean that Peter's life on earth was perfect, but it was changed.

We must also recognize that a life apart from Christ is unstable. Jesus has come out onto the water in the midst of our life's storm and he is saying, "Come". I challenge you, step out of the psychological safety of the boat, set your eyes on Jesus, let Him carry you across the stormy waters, cry out to Him when you sink, be saved and let Him change your life.

Prayer Time

Time and time again we see Jesus doing miraculous things followed by a pharisee asking him for a sign to prove he is the Messiah. Check out Luke 11:14-16.

It seems we are never looking for the sign we are actually given. I prayed for rest to come to my wife and child one night and before I knew it I was rocking the little guy to sleep at 2am while my wife got some much needed slumber. This was an answer to my prayer, but not what I had anticipated.

I was once told to never pray to God for patience unless I had time to sit in traffic. He doesn't just grant these things, it would appear that He gives us opportunity to grow in the area we pray about. Embracing this hard fact is paramount to seeing how God has answered some of your prayers.

We tend to want our prayers answered, but at no personal cost to ourselves. But personal sacrifice is where it is at! This whole rigamarole started when God chose to share His universe with us. He sent His only Son into the world not only to teach this principle, but to offer himself up as the ultimate sacrifice to atone for our sins.

But my Dad was a Christian!

A very kind elderly gentleman at a Baptist church in central London explained to me quite simply a primary difference between a Baptist and other lanes of Christianity.

“We aren’t particularly popular among the masses for the very simple reason that we ask people to make a choice for God. We ask them to make that commitment to Jesus and they feel it should simply be given freely with no effort on their part. It’s the choice. The choice is what sets us apart.”

How many people do you know who feel their place in Heaven is assured simply by believing that there is a God? I know many. I know some who feel their salvation is imminent because their parents were Christians.

“I don’t know if there is a god, like THE god in the bible, but I do believe there is a higher power who watches over us. I can’t say that it is the Christian god for sure though.”

This type of comment is typical of those who wish to have the belief without the effort. They want fire insurance but do not care for the personal sacrifice that it will take to let Jesus be real in their lives. They want a faith that will not offend.

It has almost become cliché for pastors to point out how offensive our faith truly is to

nonbelievers—but it doesn’t make it any less true. Our faith says that many will go to hell. And that offends people regardless of how true it is.

 Let’s face it: It is hard to give up sin. It is hard. Sin is fun while we are engaged in it; it only stinks afterwards when we face the consequences through guilt, a spiritual deficiency and possibly physical ailments.

Must we actually make a choice for God? Or is the choice made for us?

I sit in awe as I read Genesis and see how it outlines the early dealings between God and man. By the time we get to Abraham, God has a plan, but man is still learning how to deal and interact with God. God manifests himself to Abraham both from the Heavens and in human form. He gives Abraham opportunities to follow him. God goes so far as to ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son. And then guess what? Abraham chooses to obey him.

God reveals Himself to Abraham and promises the impossible in return for Abraham’s faith. He reveals Himself also to Isaac and Jacob but for each of them a faith in God does not seem to be an inherent trait that they are born with. God proclaims His promise to them and they in turn choose to follow.

All three of these men sin. Each of them fail to live up to God’s standard and yet they remain in God’s grace. Abraham twice presents his wife as his sister out of self preservation. Isaac does the same. Jacob deceives his brother and father and neglects his wife. But God still fulfills his promises to them because they have chosen to follow Him. They choose to live where God wants them to live and take the wives God wants them to take.

Perhaps it all relied to some extent on the willingness of these men in the early stages of the Bible to choose a life that would honor God. There could come from this a great debate about free will versus predestination. But I believe all of these men throughout the Bible had a choice. A choice to follow God or follow man. A choice to live for God’s glory or for their own gain. By choosing the way of righteousness they accepted their role in God’s plan for the Salvation of Man.

God could have and surely would have used others of course had these men fallen to the wayside, but they didn’t and He didn't. And because of the choices made in these early years of history a prophecy was given and fulfilled through our Lord Jesus Christ in whom we find our salvation.