Monthly Archives: June 2013

Those of you born later than 1970 may not get the title to this weeks blog. To the rest of us, it will make perfect sense.

There is a section of verses in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 where Solomon begins to rehearse some of what he has discovered is true about life. He starts out by saying “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:” We tend to accept this at face value (as we should – it is the Bible after all) without giving it much thought. OR, we tend to focus on what we perceive as the positive aspects of this scripture. I have come to realize that we may be missing at least part of what wise old Solomon may have been trying to get through to us. He says starting in verse 2 that there is “a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Wait a minute? There is a time to kill? There is a time to give up? There is a time to hate? I think some of us may have missed those when we read this the first time. What are those times?

In his book Necessary Endings, Dr. Henry Cloud explores the possibility that we sometimes hold onto things that we should not hold on to. Sometimes we miss the future because we are still clinging to the past. I think Solomon is saying this in these verses. Sometimes, we have to allow some things to die so that there can be a birth. Sometimes we need to allow something in our lives to be uprooted so that something else can be planted. There are times when we need to tear some things down so that something better can be built. We like the idea of something being birthed in us, don’t we? We get happy when we talk about something being planted, or something being built. We’re usually not so enthusiastic about something dying, being uprooted or torn down. And yet, that’s exactly what Solomon is saying here. It’s right there in the Bible. There is a time… to die. There is a time… to uproot. There is a time….”  

Solomon also says that there is a time to weep and a time to mourn. Killing things in our lives is not always joyful for us. Uprooting destructive behavior may not be pleasant for us. Tearing down structures that we have built over years or even decades may not be pleasant for us, but God assures us through Solomon that there is a time for being sorrowful. Notice however, that in verse two, the being born comes before dying. Planting comes before uprooting. In verse 3 and 4, the order is reversed. There is a time to kill, but then a time to heal. After killing off some things that need to die, there is a time to heal. Healing usually takes time. I nearly cut my finger off in October of 2012. After nearly 9 months, it’s still healing. It didn’t heal overnight. Most of the time, when we have to do some killing off of things, it takes a while for complete healing to take place.

There is a time to tear down, then a time to rebuild. When we tear things down, they have often taken us quite some time to build. This often leads to the time of weeping or mourning that Solomon says will occur, but the time of rebuilding is usually so rewarding that it’s worth the pain of tearing down. Have you ever lost something in your life that you thought was irreplaceable, only to have it replaced by something better? I remember when my 8-track finally died. It was my friend. Then I discovered that the rest of the musical world had moved on since I had last purchased an audio device. Cassettes were now the rage, and I could even fast forward or rewind to a specific place in the song if I wanted. Of course, Cd’s came along, then mp3 players. How foolish would I be to still have an 8-track in my car?

After weeping and mourning come laughter and dancing. Most times, destruction, even of destructive behaviors, attitudes or actions, will cause us to mourn their loss. Unfortunately, we come to love some of the things that are the most harmful to us. I have learned though, that mourning the loss of something that has been destructive to my life has always been followed by the realization that I am much better off without it.

In Verse 6, Solomon says that there is a time to search, and also a time to give up. Now, I’m not a quitter, but I have also discovered that some of the things I have been searching for need to remain hidden. Some of my pursuits in life are not ones that would keep me in a position to do what God has called me to do. I would not fulfill my mission on earth if I were to discover some of the things that I have spent many years searching for. What are you looking for that you just need to give up on and trust God? A husband or wife? A better job? Sometimes, there is a time to give up and allow God to work it out for you. As Solomon says, there is a time to search. This may be your time to continue searching, but you must realize that there also comes a time when a continued search will only drain resources that you don’t have. There is a time to give up.

I may continue this in a future post, but let me end with a time to keep and a time to throw away. Some of us have met hoarders. Some of you may be hoarders. Hoarding comes from the thought “I may need this someday”. And so nothing is ever discarded because of the perception that it may be necessary in the future. What are you holding on to that you need to get rid of? What are you “hoarding” in your life with the thought that it may be necessary someday? Is there a relationship that you feel may come in handy in the future, but in the present it is clogging up your life? Is there an activity or even a hobby that you are holding on to because it may be useful in the future, but in the present leaves you with little time to engage in your purpose in the present?

Solomon says that there are different seasons in our lives. This may be your season to plant. It may be your season to uproot. It may be your season of birth. It may also be your season to kill something in your life. It could be your season to build something new, or, it could be your season to tear something down. What season are you in right now? Don’t be afraid to kill, tear down or uproot because there are also seasons of birth, building and planting. What needs to die in your life so that something can be born? What do you need to uproot so that something better can be planted? What needs torn down so that something better can be built in its place? It’s time to live in your season.

I’ve seen a lot of articles recently on the state of the church. I’ve seen statistics that say that the church in America is growing at a rate faster than other religions. I’ve seen statistics that show that the church is declining faster than at any other time in history. I’ve seen statistics that show that while the number of new churches outnumbers the number of churches that close their door each year, we are still not keeping up with the population growth. So while the church in America is theoretically growing, it’s not growing at a pace that is in line with the growth of the overall population. Regardless of which camp you belong to, I think that most Christians will agree that the church is in trouble. Most of us know someone personally that has become disillusioned with church and no longer attends. That’s a statistic that didn’t exist a few years ago, but has grown to the point now that we should start to pay attention. There have been whole books, such as Exit Interviews, by William D Hendricks , written about the mass exodus from American churches.

One of the interesting things about this phenomenon is how strongly some Christians feel about the religious aspect of Christianity. A recent article on churchleaders.com spoke about the need for the church to repackage the message of the gospel for both a new generation and a new culture. Some of the responses from Christians:

“Thank you for your article and the time spent on writing it. However, I feel these points are exactly why some churches are now social clubs instead of hospitals for the sick. Majority of pastors are concentrating on quantity when they need to focus on quality. When we turn back to following the word of God, we will see tangible results in the lives of true children of God.”

“I find it interesting that the … premise of the article is that the culture is shifting, therefore, the church needs to change with the culture. Sounds like the tail is wagging the dog. Seriously, how about an article that investigates what the New Testament tells us how to do church?”

“What matters is to let the Word of God dictate how we “do” church. If we believe that Scripture is the sole rule of faith and practice, then why do some look to the world for how we do church?”

Isn’t it interesting to see how some Christians will hold dogmatically to areas of perceived “truth” so fast that they will watch people die and go to hell before they will admit that we may need to change the way church is done? Sure, we can do church the way we have always done it, but if fewer people are attending to hear the life-changing message that we say we have, the real question is: why would we? Why are we so opposed to change? By “we”, I mean WE. Myself included. I’m not saying that Christians are the only ones opposed to change, but I am focusing my discussion here on the church. From the comments above, I would have to conclude that these people believe that the sacredness of the process outweighs the potential for reaching more people with the gospel, although I’m sure that they didn’t intend to say this at all.

The fact is, the scripture doesn’t really tell us how to “do church”. There are no rules for how we should conduct a church service. Sure, there is some instruction to the church in Corinth about order, but the Bible doesn’t tell us when (or how) to take up the offering, what type of music should be played, whether we should or shouldn’t permit any type of media (drama, video etc) in the service, what topics should be preached on and which should be left alone or even what preaching style works best at making disciples. You would think that Jesus would have given some specific instruction on that wouldn’t you? “I’m leaving you now. Go into all the world and make disciples. You’ll find that expository preaching works best with a blend of old and new musical styles. And don’t push the offering too heavily. People don’t like it when you talk about money. And for heaven’s sake, make sure that people don’t enjoy themselves! We don’t want to be labeled as entertainers.”  No such instruction exists as much as we wish it did sometimes. It would make things a lot simpler if we just knew what we were supposed to be doing. At least how we were supposed to be doing it.

I suspect that God knew what He was doing when He chose the vehicle of The Church to deliver His message. In fact, the church has not been exempt from conflict regarding style or message since its inception. Remember that little incident regarding allowing non-Jewish races to join the church? Some people (basically everyone) felt that the gospel had been presented to the Jews exclusively. It took God showing up to Peter personally on a rooftop to get that change to be reflected.

Paul also wrote extensively on the legalism that had crept into the early church. Some felt that unless you were Jewish physically, you could not become a member of the church. That had to cut down on the number of men who attended the early church. The point is that the church has always had differences of opinion on how to do things. While we have usually agreed on what to do, we have not always agreed on how to do it. While we have mostly agreed on what to say, we have not always agreed on how to say it. Jesus used parables. Paul used preaching, or expository speaking to get his message across. The thing is, we’re all different. Some people will respond to preaching, while others like myself will respond better to teaching. My mother senses the presence and power of God in hymns. I don’t. I am drawn into God’s presence through more modern musical styles. Still others experience God’s presence in prayer. We don’t all connect to God or to others in the same way, so why do we expect everyone to be like us? Of course, if everyone were just like me, the world would be a better albeit rather boring place. We’re not the same, and you know what? IT’S OK. Different does not equate to wrong. You like liturgy and ritual in worship? That’s OK. You like loud music and a pastor who wears jeans and a T-shirt? That’s OK too. It may not be me, but it’s OK if that’s you. See, the message we have does not change. God created man in His image to be in community with God. Man broke that community by disobeying God. That broken relationship has been passed down to each of us when we are born. However, although we deserved to die because of our disobedience, God had a plan to restore the broken relationship He now had with mankind. He sent His Son, Jesus, who had never broken God’s law, to take the punishment for our wrongdoing. Although Jesus did not deserve to die, He willingly came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, and allowed Himself to be killed for a crime He did not commit. Three days after His death, God brought Him back to life. All that we have to do to be in community with God again is to accept the relationship that He offers each of us. That’s the gospel in a nutshell. Does it matter if it is presented through liturgy or with loud music and flashing lights? No. The message doesn’t change.

Can people really experience God by singing 300 year old songs? Sure they can. Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. Can the gospel be shared by using modern examples, like Superman? Sure it can. Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t. See, it’s really not about you in the end. It’s about God. God wants a restored relationship with every man, woman and child on the planet. Every one. Of course, that includes you. Everyone should find a church where they can connect with God and with other Christians. If modern music and a teaching style of presentation are what connects you to God, for heaven’s sake find a church that has modern music and a teaching style of presentation. But don’t get hung up on the little things. There are no perfect churches. Because churches are full of imperfect people. Like me. Like you.

The truth is, we don’t have a lot of time left to present the gospel. We don’t have time to get hung up on whether someone else is presenting the gospel in a way that appeals to us or not. As long as the gospel is being presented, I have to go along with the Apostle Paul on this one. “…the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.” ~ Philippians 1:18. We should be glad that the gospel is being presented with enough variety to appeal to a broad spectrum of people. Let’s remember our mission. Make disciples of all people. Even those who are a little different than we are.

Earlier this Spring, my wife and I stopped at Graceland on our way farther West. We toured the house and grounds, and, while I’m not a huge Elvis fan, it was very interesting to step into his life for a couple of hours. Toward the end of the tour we left the trophy room and went outside. As we rounded the corner of the trophy room on our way to Elvis’ grave, I noticed several ants running through the crack of the sidewalk. They were busily going about their everyday business, completely oblivious of the multitude of tourists stepping over them. One of my first thoughts was that I had paid to get into Graceland and here they were running about for free. I know that’s rather shallow, but that’s just the way I think sometimes. These ants had no idea that they were on the grounds of one of the most famous landmarks in America. Graceland has over 600,000 visitors each year, is one of the five most visited home tours in the United States, and is the most famous home in America after The White House.  And here were hundreds of ants just going about their business without once giving any little ant thoughts to where they were.

I think we do the same thing sometimes. As Christians, we live in another world. At the risk of sounding spooky, we live in another dimension. A spiritual dimension. We sometimes live as these ants do. We go about our daily routine without even once stopping to consider where we live. We take for granted that we are children of God. We take for granted the special privileges that we have because of our relationship with God. It’s become second nature for us. We’ve lived here for so long that we no longer stop to consider who we are or where we live. I’d like to take a couple of minutes to remind us ants of some of the privileges of living at Grace-land.

Prayer. Something so simple, and yet something so powerful, that we often take for granted. Personally, I’m not one of those guys who can pray for hours at a time. But I do pray consistently throughout the day and usually never stop to consider what it means to be able to communicate with God. I can personally talk to the creator of everything, and guess what? He even communicates back with me. How awesome is that, and yet, I tend to take prayer for granted. Ancient civilizations had all kinds of rituals that they hoped would allow them to communicate with their gods. Some relied on prophets to mediate between them and their gods.  The ancient Maya practiced bloodletting as a form of communication with their gods. All we have to do is speak. There is someone with the power to do anything that is asked of Him. And I know Him. And I ask a lot. What a privilege to be able to communicate with God.

Worship. We tend to place a lot of emphasis on celebrity in our culture. An opportunity to actually meet a celebrity in person is an experience that emotionally overwhelms some people. Yet too often we take for granted an opportunity to meet God in our worship. Those of us who have had the experience of discovering the presence of God in worship are often left hungry when our Sunday morning worship experiences fail to take us where our previous encounters have. And yet, we have an opportunity to come into the presence of God every day if we choose. We don’t have to wait for a Sunday worship service. In fact, some of my most memorable times of worship have not been in a church service. How often do we overlook the opportunity that we have to spend time with Almighty God? Do we realize what a privilege it is to be able to spend time with Him in our worship?

Grace. Grace is misunderstood by a lot of people because it’s not an intuitive response for many of us. Justice says we get what we deserve. Mercy says we don’t get what we deserve. Grace says we get what we don’t deserve. For a Christian, that means that not only do I not receive the punishment for my sin that I deserve, but I receive good things that I don’t deserve. I receive favor. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield. Psalm 5:12. Favor, according to the dictionary, is an attitude of approval or liking. What that means to us Christians is that God treats us as though he likes us, not just loves us. Those of us who have been married for a while can relate to this. While we were dating, we did everything right, because we wanted to impress our dates. We bought cards to send her for no reason at all. We bought her flowers just because. We took her on dates where she wanted to go. Even as newlyweds we treated our new spouse as though we not only loved them, but we liked them.  We did things for them that we didn’t have to do. We could get by with McDonald’s, but we opted for Olive Garden. We held hands. We watched shows on TV that they wanted to watch. Over time, as the newness wore off, we tended to become a little more selfish. We started to watch what we wanted to watch. We no longer buy flowers just because. We remember to buy cards the night before, or maybe the day of, our anniversary. Grace never wears off. God’s favor means that we get “flowers” for no reason at all. Maybe we get physical flowers, or maybe we get the parking spot right in front of our destination. Maybe we need a TV and find one that was ordered and never claimed and is being sold at half price. Maybe we drop a jar of mayonnaise from the top shelf and it hits the floor and doesn’t break. Maybe we deserve to die because of our sin and instead get to live forever. Grace. God’s way of giving us what we don’t deserve.

Hope. The best that a non-Christian can hope for is short-term successes.  I’m not saying that non-Christians are not successful. Most of the world’s richest people are not Christians. But what hope do they have for a future? None beyond themselves. Christians have hope beyond ourselves. And yet we tend to take it for granted. We will never die. Eternity is something that we can’t get our heads around, but we have hope because of it. We have hope for things that are beyond ourselves and our own abilities. The Bible says that “…we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” How often do we consider the hope that we have? How often do we consider what it means to have hope. We tend to take for granted that we do have a hope for not only our future, but our present.

There is so much more. The Bible. Consider that we have the Word of God readily available to us today more than at any other time in history. Church. A place to be challenged and loved. A place to worship with other believers. Peace. The knowledge that God is in control of every situation. Even those we don’t readily understand. God has our back.

Too many of us have lost the wonder and awe of being Christians. We’re no different from those who don’t know Christ. We complain about what we don’t have without realizing what we do have. We take for granted the presence of God. We take for granted communication with God. We take for granted life with God. We get so used to His favor, that we don’t even realize that it is favor anymore. We almost have an entitlement attitude.  How often do we go on about our lives without once thinking about where we live? We’re living in Grace-land. A land of God’s grace. We have been adopted by God. We are His children. Let’s get back the wonder and awe that is Christianity.