3 Songs I don't want to hear Sunday Morning

Warning:  The following may be seen as blasphemous and/or unpatriotic.  Internalizing these opinions may result in you getting strange looks or being called names.  Read at your own risk.

Monday is the 4th of July. It is a great holiday.  We celebrate the freedom we enjoy in this great country... and play with explosives.  It is truly an awesome combination.  I thank God for the ability to do both those things, and for the fact I still have all my fingers.  However.... and this is where you may want to leave... there is something I really don't like about the weekend closest to the 4th. In most churches across this land, people will walk into church and sing patriotic songs.

Let me be clear:  I LIKE OUR COUNTRY AND SONGS ABOUT IT.  These songs are wonderful and I enjoy listening to them, especially with fireworks (everything is better with fireworks).  The thing is:  I go to church on Sunday mornings to sing praise to the King of kings, not my country. Play these songs on the 4th, fine.  Play them the Saturday before, fine.  Play them Sunday afternoon, fine.  Play them at your church's summer festival that happens that weekend, fine.  Play them Sunday morning BEFORE church, fine.  Once the worship service has started, STOP!

So now that you've decided that I'm some unpatriotic nut and that you'll never read this blog again, I'll tell you the 3 songs I most dread hearing this coming Sunday.  Each of these is a song that has been sung in a church I was attending on the Sunday near the 4th of July.

1. The National Anthem. Yes, this has happened. We stood up in the middle of the worship set, and sang the Star Spangled Banner.  For one thing this patriotic song doesn't even mention God.  For another, this song isn't even about our country.  It's about deriving hope from the FLAG of our country.  Singing this song on Sunday morning is about as close to idol worship as you can get, without a carven image or goat sacrifice.
2. God Bless America.  Gets points for mentioning the Big Guy in the title and in the song.  Then it asks Him to bless America.  For those reasons, it will probably be the most sung song in church on Sunday.   The problem is that is all it has.  The rest of the song is about how cool America is.  The more I think about it the more the song feels like a demand that God bless America for it's coolness, than a plea for God to bless America that it may remain humble.
3. My Country 'Tis of Thee.  I really do like this song, but it's not about God.  Oh sure, He's mentioned but He's not praised.  There are some requests made of God, but no reverence and no submission.

Now as an extra bonus.  The special music that I fear will be played this Sunday:  God Bless the USA.  This one has even less God in it than God Bless America.  I won't have to sing it, but I'll be sitting there trying to take communion... and my head will explode!

Would some one kindly bring an extra roll of duck tape to church for me this week?  Oh, and a mop.  Thanks.

P.S.  My current church is actually pretty good about this... but slips have occurred.

Being Still

"Be still and know that I am God"

We've heard it a million times, it is used as the definitive call to stop and spend time with God. People use it to tell you to clear off you're busy schedule and make time for the Maker of time.  It is a very commonly quoted piece of scripture, but I bet you can't tell me where it comes from in the Bible.  Anyone? Anyone?  Bueller?  (Sorry, that's almost funny if you've seen the movie.)  It's from Psalm 46:10

 ¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God;
         I will be exalted among the nations,
         I will be exalted in the earth!
          (Psalm 46:10, New King James Version)

I love my smartphone.  It has this app that puts every translation of the bible in English, Spanish, Somali, and several other languages at my finger tips.  It also pops up a verse of the day on my home screen.  Several days ago this verse popped up.  I love this verse, but didn't know that I had only heard a third of it.  Seems in addition to making time for God, you must worship Him and bring others to worship Him.  Wow! That's pretty cool.  So, I need to make time for God, worship Him, and do things that would make others worship Him.  I've grown as a person just by hearing the rest of one verse.  Too cool.

The other cool thing about this bible app on my phone is it will take me from the verse of the day to the whole chapter.  Of course, I clicked right in... and my head exploded.  See, context is an amazing thing.  The material around a particular verse can bring out unforeseen depth (No, not a kiss. Weirdo!) or  flip the meaning.  Needless to say I didn't expect what I found:

 ¹ God is our refuge and strength,
         A very present help in trouble.
 ² Therefore we will not fear,
         Even though the earth be removed,
         And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
 ³ Though its waters roar and be troubled,
         Though the mountains shake with its swelling.  Selah 
        
 ⁴ There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
         The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
 ⁵ God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
         God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
 ⁶ The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
         He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
        
 ⁷ The LORD of hosts is with us;
         The God of Jacob is our refuge.  Selah 
        
 ⁸ Come, behold the works of the LORD,
         Who has made desolations in the earth.
 ⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
         He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
         He burns the chariot in the fire.
        
 ¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God;
         I will be exalted among the nations,
         I will be exalted in the earth!
        
 ¹¹ The LORD of hosts is with us;
         The God of Jacob is our refuge.  Selah
(Psalm 46, New King James Version)

I expected to see verses 1-7.  They add a little depth to being still:  God will protect you, soothe you, be there for you.  Alright! God is so cool!  Verse 8 gets a little weird, cause we're looking at the destruction God has made.  Verse 9 has God making peace.  Win, everybody loves peace.  The problem comes with HOW He makes it.  Peace that comes from everyone realizing how silly war is, starts with people beating their swords into plows.  God is smashing and burning stuff!  This is not the peace of the convinced, it is the peace of the defeated.  God defeats His enemies, and then destroys their ability to fight Him.  Then you get "Be still...."

Be Still, He has defeated you.
Be Still, you can't fight Him.
Be Still, you can't run from Him.
Be Still, and know He is the ruler.

This verse is not about making or doing.  This verse is about surrender.  Surrender to God.  Stop fighting Him.  Stop resisting Him.  Accept Him as your God, because He is; and He will be exalted, whether you recognize Him or not.

How about that for a verse you thought you knew?

Seeker Sensitive

My local church body is into the "seeker sensitive" thing.  Trying to tear down the walls that might exclude people who don't "get" church, so that everyone might hear the Gospel.  They are trying their best to be "all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." (1 Corinthians 9:22, New King James Version) I find my church to be pretty good at this.  Then again I was raised in the church and began following Jesus young, so what do I know.  Jesus is usually considered the prime example of this, using stories based on everyday things to teach truth.

The trouble is when you run into a story like this one:
 
Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
(Mark 10:17-18, New King James Version)

Here comes a seeker, wanting to know the answer to spiritual questions.  Here was another chance for Jesus to pull out a metaphor or story that would strike this man to the heart and bring him to know God.  So what did Jesus do?  He quibbled with the man's choice of words, "Why do you call Me good?"
Come on Jesus, we all know you're Good.  Other people have called you "Good" and "Teacher." What's the problem with the guy calling you that?  The problem was what Jesus said, "No one is good but ...God."  This is what Jesus had been teaching, and what his disciples continued to teach.  Only God is good, and Jesus was God.  The problem that Jesus had with this guy was that this guy thought he was good too.  Jesus rattles off a few commandments and this guy responds, "yeah, yeah, I know all that."  Then Jesus tells this guy to sell all his stuff and we find out this guy didn't worship God but stuff.  So even though Jesus loved this guy (Mark 10:21), Jesus pushed him away from the kingdom.

Why would Jesus do this?  We find the answer in back in the book of Hosea, where the prophet says of some seekers:

“ With their flocks and herds
      They shall go to seek the LORD,
      But they will not find Him;
      He has withdrawn Himself from them.
       (Hosea 5:6, New King James Version)

Here we go, people bringing everything they have to go find the Lord, yet He hides from them.  Why?  There is ever only one answer:

    I will return again to My place
      Till they acknowledge their offense.
      Then they will seek My face;
      In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
     (Hosea 5:15, New King James Version)

These people were trying to find God on there own terms, not on His.  They wanted to form a truce with God, not admit they had rebelled from Him and surrender to Him.  They weren't seeking God, they wanted to hunt God down and keep Him as a pet.  God hides from people like this.

The guy who came to Jesus seeking the secret to eternal life didn't want God, he wanted to live forever.  Jesus didn't push this guy away, this guy didn't want anything to do with Him.  Jesus just showed the guy what he needed:  GOD!  Most of all Jesus proved to this guy and the world, that this guy wasn't spiritual or religious.  This guy was worldly in the worst way, and just wanted for it to last forever.

What is the lesson here?  Not everyone that is looking for God is seeking Him.  Some of them are hunting Him down as a pet.

Which one are you?  Do you really want God, or just what he can do for you?  Have you admitted that there is none Good but Him, not even yourself?

And the Two Become One Flesh

This coming weekend is my anniversary.  I've been married for 11 years to a woman who still blows my mind.  The love my wife has for me is only exceeded by the love of my God and Savior Jesus Christ.  I still marvel at the chain of events that God used to bring her into my life and make her my bride.  The marvel of my wife's love, Jesus' love, or  what Jesus did to bring me my wife; none of these cause as much marvel or wonder as what happens in a marriage.

Now I'm not talking about any part of the wedding itself, but what happens when two people are married.

 ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
(Genesis 2:24, New King James Version)

First, we were two separate people.  First, we had separate goals, plan, and desires for life; then those goals, plans, and desires began to meld.  I yield some things to my wife, and she yielded some things to me.  At other points we found our two separate desires blending into a single thinking that neither of us expected.  Then we found only one person; two bodies, two minds, and two hearts working as one.  We've now been blended thoroughly that it would be impossible to separate us.

Now don't get me wrong on this one:  we are not always perfectly one.  We disagree, we argue, and occasionally there is yelling.  However, we strive for this perfect unity.  For we have the guidance of scripture to tell us how to do this.

 ²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
 ²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
 ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:21-33, New International Version)

The first step, often missed, is submitting to one another.  This isn't letting my wife walk over me, or me walk over her.  This is me putting my wants aside for my wife's needs.  It is the two of us thinking about what the other needs, first, before everything else.  There is another layer to submitting, it is preferring the other person.  I prefer Jesus to myself, so I would rather do what Jesus wants than myself.  I prefer my wife, so I would rather do what she wants.  We submit by putting our wants behind the other's needs, and preferring the other's wants to our own.  Again, we're not perfect here, but we try.

Verse 25 now sets a high standard for the behavior of husbands.  How high?  The highest!  Husbands are told to love their wives the way Christ loved the Church.  How did Jesus love the Church?  Jesus was beaten, spat on, nailed on a cross, and died.  All this to wash His Church from its sins.  That is how much Jesus loved the Church.  Men, are you prepared to die to give your wife what she needs?  Well, you probably won't have to; but you may have to give up guys night, that tool/toy you "need," or an hour of sleep.  Are you prepared to step up?

Now women, verse 22 is probably the most maligned verse in the Bible, unless it's verse 23.  Let's understand what it says, nothing.  Verse 21 told us that every Christian should submit to every other Christian.  Verse 22 says to do the same thing for your husband as for anyone else.  Your husband should be laying down his life for you, like Christ did, every day; and you can't take advantage of that.  Now verse 23 provides the second bemoaned statement, the husband's headship.  Start off by reading Mark 10:35-45.  Here Jesus describes what leadership should look like:  serving.  Again, your husband should lead you by serving you, and you can't take advantage of that.

I know what I'm going to get from some women, and some men too.  They are going to say, "I will do that when he/she does his/her part."  The Bible doesn't give you that option.  No where does it allow the husband to give himself up after his wife has submitted.  No where does it say the wife only submits when the husband act like Jesus.  If he waits for her and she waits for him, it will never happen.  We do our parts first, especially if the other is falling down on the job.  Remember, Jesus died for you before you repented of your sin.

There you have it:  the greatest mystery of marriage and how to keep it. So what happens when we don't take care of a marriage.

When you don't foster your marriage, your heart becomes hard toward your spouse.  This hardness starts as ignoring your spouse, then it becomes being mean toward your spouse.  Then your relationship falls apart.

² The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.
³ And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
⁴ They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”
⁵ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. ⁶ But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
(Mark 10:2-9, New King James Version)

What is required to split a marriage: spiritual violence.  You can't sign a piece of paper and be separate. This melding of two people is deep, so deep that you cannot pull two whole people out of a marriage.  If you separate them, you are left with two broken people.  First the relationship must be mangled, smashed, and crushed.

The good news is that we worship an awesome God, "who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did." (Romans 4:17b, New King James Version)  He can rebuild anything from nothing.  He can make something dead live again.  He can take two broken people and make a marriage from them again.

Are you willing to give Him a shot and trust Him?
Are you willing to do what a marriage needs?
Are you willing to love first?

One final note:  Dearest, I love you.  I promise to strive to love you the way Christ loves you.  I will fail, but I will strive.

Prodigal Son

So I've been thinking about the story of the prodigal son lately.  I've run into one or two in my time.  For starters you better go re-read it here.

Now the most important part of the story, everyone agrees, is that the son repents of his behavior and he returns to his father.  The father, seeing his son's repentance, rushes out to gather his son up and bring him home.  This is so important, because it describes our relationship with God.  We are the son, who has run from the father trying to hide in the pleasures of this world.  When we come to our senses and repent, God comes sweeping down and scoops us up and takes us home.

It is the most wonderful story in the whole Bible.  In fact, this story is the summary statement of the whole of scripture.  However, that is not why I've been thinking about it lately.

As you get to the end of the story, the "loyal" brother finds out that dad let the prodigal boy back home. Does he celebrate that his brother came back to his senses?  Of course not, the "loyal" brother pops a gasket.  He can't accept that his brother could just be received back like that.

So who is this "loyal" brother in the story:  why, me!!  I'm the one who stayed behind serving God faithfully,  while others have gone and partied and squandered their lives away.  Now I see these prodigals trying to return to God's household.  Of course there is a key difference, I've read the story and know I need to check my pride at the door.

This finally gets me to why I've been thinking about this story.  God can receive back a repentant sinner because He knows their hearts.  I've not yet been granted that power.... and don't expect to be.  So, how do I know when to receive  a brother back?

The answer, I think lies in the story as well.  In the story, the human father sees his son coming home from a long way off.  There it is, the answer.  The father was watching for his son, watching for a return.  That is what I need to be doing:  watching.  I should be watching for the first sign of return, no matter how far away.  Then I need to run out and embrace them.  If they receive that embrace and return with me, then I receive them back.  If they insist on returning to their sin, then I must go back to watching and waiting.

So if you're the "loyal" brother like me, you have 3 jobs: watch, wait, run.  So you'll need to stay in shape for that 3rd one, it's tough but worth it.

So, It's still not over...yet

 Right, so the fact you are reading this means you weren't raptured yesterday.  I'm not surprised.  This was not my first predicted rapture... unfortunately, I don't think it will be my last.  People love to predict the end of the world:  some get "visions from God," some find the secret buried in scripture, some find it in the prediction of some ancient civilization, and some see science indicating a huge disaster.  Despite their differences, they all have one thing in common:  they are all wrong.

 ³² “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. ³⁴ It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. ³⁵ Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— ³⁶ lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. ³⁷ And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 13:32-37, New King James Version)

People try to say they know when the end will come, but Jesus said that even HE did not know when the end would be.  Talk about arrogance, claiming to know what not even the Son of God knows!  Why doesn't Jesus know when the end would be?  Because it doesn't matter.

Now you would think it would make a difference if the world was ending tomorrow.  You'd think there would be things that you would need, or want, to do.  That is the logic of procrastination!  If you do what needs to be done every day, then there is nothing that needs to be done before the end of the world.  This is the command of Jesus: be ready and watch.  If we are ready and watching, Jesus can return any day and we can rejoice.

The final problem with saying that the Jesus will return on a particular day is that I may die first. If my plan is to be ready for Jesus to return on Thursday, I won't be ready when I get hit by a truck on my way to work tomorrow.  I am promised nothing about the span of my life.  I am not guaranteed to live until Jesus returns.  I have to be ready for Jesus to call me home...Now!

Are you ready for Christ to Return?  Are you ready for Him to call you home?  Get to it, you don't know how long you have!

How I love Easter!

I love Easter.

Is it the bunny? NO!
The candy? No.
The Chocolate? No.
The Cadbury Cream Egg? Really good, but no.

I love Easter for one reason: it is the day Jesus rose from the grave.

³ For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. ⁶ After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. ⁷ After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. ⁸ Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
(1 Corinthians 15:3-8, New King James Version)

Why am I so jazzed about the Resurrection?  There are many reasons, but are best expressed here:

  
²⁰ But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. ²³ But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵ For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. ²⁸ Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:20-28, New King James Version)

The Resurrection is a proof that Jesus was more than another man, more than another teacher.  Jesus' death did something special and His Resurrection shows that it was real.  Also, Jesus' Resurrection is a down-payment on the promise that I will too.  That should be enough to get anyone excited.

So think about that while you chomp your chocolate egg, especially if it has a cream filled center, yum.