Author Archives: trawlings

I have been a musician nearly my entire life. I began taking piano lessons when I was five years old. As most children do, I despised having to practice and gave up the piano for a brief time in my early teens. Once I hit high school I began playing again on my own. It was different playing under my own rules. I could practice or not practice. However, once I joined a rock band in high school, I discovered that what I really wanted to do was to play the guitar.

I eventually picked up an off-brand guitar and began teaching myself to play. In my 20′s I was able to purchase a Fender Strat and began trying to learn some lead licks off the radio. I never became proficient on guitar until about 3 or 4 years ago. After a lot of years of just playing around with the guitar I began really trying to play. I purchased a book and DVD that gave me some lessons, and then two years ago I realized my dream of owning a Gibson Les Paul guitar. It’s a beautiful Silverburst, has a great tone and feels wonderful. I’m still not a professional guitar player, but I have come to know the joy of playing guitar.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to tour Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. I’ll admit that I am not a huge Elvis fan, but I do like history, and touring Graceland was a pretty cool thing to be able to do. We toured the main house and grounds, the racquetball court, which is now full of trophies, and Elvis’ trophy room, which is a separate building. As we viewed the many displays of Elvis’ costumes and memorabilia, something caught my attention. It was a beautiful 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar. As a guitar player, I thought the guitar was beautiful. In fact, my first thought was “What a beautiful guitar!” Then I realized where it was: behind glass. My first thought was quickly replaced by “What a shame!”

I envisioned a Disney-esque scenario where the guitar could speak and could express emotion. I imagined that this guitar was created in a factory that made similar guitars. After its creation, it had dreams of being played by someone great; on a stage before thousands of people. When it was purchased by Elvis, it had its dreams realized as Elvis played it in his concerts. It felt a sense of well-being and accomplishment. It felt pride at being played skillfully and also at how well it sounded.

After the death of Elvis, the guitar was eventually put on display. At first, I imagined that the guitar said to itself “Look at all of these people coming to see me!” This went beyond that guitars dreams of being seen by thousands of people. Now it had millions of people coming to view it behind the glass. Eventually however, I imagine that the guitar began to get a little frustrated. No one was playing it. It was created to make music, not to just be viewed from a distance and be kept behind a glass enclosure. Did the guitar pride itself in its appearance? Sure it did. It was a great looking guitar. But it was not created with the intention of only looking good. Its appearance was secondary to its purpose. Now I imagined the guitar becoming angry, dejected, suffering from depression and eventually dying behind that glass enclosure. Why? Because it was not doing what it was created to do. It no longer made music.

I’m sure that it’s not difficult for most of you to figure out what I’m getting at here. You were created for a purpose. For some of you it was also to make music. Some of you were created to talk to others about the Gospel. Talking comes easy for you. For others, it may be hosting those who are comfortable talking. Hospitality comes easy for you. You’re comfortable putting together events and gatherings. Some of you were called to preach or teach. And yet you’re stuck behind glass. You may even have a title or position at church. At first, it was nice. You received recognition. People knew your name. But now, you’re realizing that you were created for a purpose. And this isn’t it.

At some point, nearly all of us will come to the realization that life isn’t what we imagined it to be. Like Jimmy Stewart in It’s A Wonderful Life, we had plans. We had dreams. We had a purpose. And unless you are one of the few fortunate people who grew up to make a living doing what you enjoy doing, you have experienced some level of disappointment at how your life turned out. You’re stuck behind glass.

I had a dream of entering full-time ministry, yet even after realizing that dream, I came to the stunning realization that being in the ministry was not what I had envisioned all those years. My purpose was to touch people, which didn’t necessarily mean that I had to be in full-time ministry. Or even part-time for that matter. I had misconstrued ministering with ministry. I thought that in order to touch the most people, I had to be in a position. Have a title. And yet, even after I had those things, I was stuck behind glass.

After many years of internal struggle between what I thought I wanted and what my purpose is, I made an important discovery: my purpose. You see, I am not a preacher. But I am a teacher. I’m a trainer. I’m an encourager. And I don’t need a title, or a position, or a platform to be those things. In fact, my specific purpose is really to be a missionary to the church. What my position taught me is that there are multitudes sitting in churches all over the country every week who have no idea what it means to be a Christian. To live a Christian life. To have faith in God. To trust. Don’t get me wrong. They believe. Or at least they believe that they believe. But they don’t really know why they believe. They’re stuck in religion. They don’t understand how to relate to God outside of rules or ritual or without someone telling them specifically what to do. My purpose, as daunting as it seems, is to help Christians discover God apart from religion. To really know God for themselves. To become self-feeders of the Word of God. To grow in their knowledge, faith and relationship with God. Now that I know my purpose, I have come out from behind the glass. I’m content. Not always happy, often frustrated, but content nonetheless.

What is your purpose? Are you stuck behind glass watching the world pass in front of you and knowing that this is not what you were created to do? Few of us will hear God call us like He did Samuel. How do you discover your purpose? First of all, pray. It seems simple, but ask God what His plan for you is. Then listen for an answer. It may come through reading the Bible, or through a friend who notices something you do well, or even through watching a movie or TV show. God is not limited in how He communicates with us.

Second, take a spiritual gifts test. There are several available online and I would suggest taking several and comparing the results. Something to remember is that your spiritual gifts will probably not surprise you. If you are stingy with your money and time and your spiritual gifts inventory says that you have the gift of giving, something is wrong. Retake the test and answer the questions honestly this time. On the other hand, you may not recognize that a spiritual gift is a gift. It will be something that comes natural to you. My wife, Penny, is an organizer and has the gift of hospitality. It’s easy for her to put together a party for 200 people without giving it too much thought or effort. It comes natural. Her gift of hospitality was not  recognizable to her because she assumed that everyone could do what she does, given enough time and training. The fact is, if I attempted to do what she does, people would leave the party early and hungry. It’s a gift, not a talent.

Third, ask others. Your gift may not be easily recognizable to you, but may be to others. Especially those who are closest to you. Ask friends and family what they think you do well. Remember that these are opinions and should only be used to reinforce what the first two steps already support. Again – don’t rely heavily on the opinions of others, but use them as a resource on your journey to discover your purpose.

My hope is that each of you who find yourself behind glass will find the courage to break the glass and step out into your purpose. If that guitar could, I’m sure that it would choose to be played rather than be displayed. Step into your purpose and begin to make the music that God intended for you when He created you with a purpose.

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among Christians recently. Well, actually I guess it isn’t all that recent, but like trolls on the internet, the trend has become much more vocal. Perry Noble recently tweeted several tweets that on the surface sound very… well… noble. 
He starts off well. In fact, I retweeted this one. “If people are obsessed with their own goodness rather than Gods goodness then it’s not the Gospel!” True. I would even go so far as to say that if people only stress our own goodness instead of God’s goodness then it isn’t the gospel. Then he continues: “If a church does not care about people far from God then they do not care about the Gospel!” While I would agree with his premise, I wonder how many churches there are that would say “We don’t care about lost people. We only care about ourselves.” And while I’m sure there are churches who have lost sight of their mission, I have to question the reason for his post. What is he hoping to accomplish? Will people in those churches suddenly realize that they don’t care about lost people? What criteria should we use to determine if our church is one of those churches?

Finally, he again tweets: “If someone is about proving their own intelligence rather than proving Christ then it is not the Gospel!” Huh? I believe that Paul covered this in his letter to the Philippians.

“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.  But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.”         ~ Philippians 1:15 – 18

If Paul wasn’t all that concerned with motive, should we be? After all, isn’t the gospel really being preached even if someone is about proving their own intelligence?

A friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook that echoes the sentiments of some Pastors I’ve heard recently as well. The picture had a quote by J.C. Ryle: “There is a common, worldly kind of ‘Christianity’ in this day, which many have – A cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice – which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.”  This is a quote from his book Holiness which was written in 1877. The quote in itself, may be accurate, but what did the author have in mind when he penned those words in 1877? Seeker-sensitive churches? Not in 1877. The Azusa Street Revival wouldn’t be for another 29 years either. He certainly wasn’t thinking of Pentecostals.  It must have been the Baptists.

See, posts like that will have self-righteous Christians everywhere up in arms because our brand of Christianity is better than your brand.  That’s the problem. What does this apostate Christianity look like? How do we identify it today? To say that it exists and then not define it is like saying that there is a deadly disease going around and then not describe the symptoms.

I asked my friend the same question. What does this look like? Can you describe it? In fact, if you asked 100 Christians to define this type of Christianity, chances are that some of them would describe you!

I heard a preacher recently bash “these seeker-sensitive churches” because they didn’t “flow in the Spirit” presumably like his church did. Likewise, I’ve heard preachers bash the “tongue-talking” churches because they could never reach lost people like the ‘seeker-sensitive’ churches could. Can’t we all just get along? Again, I have to question the motives of those who so vocally trash a church who does things differently than they do. Is it because they’re afraid that members of their congregation will leave to go to one of ‘those’ churches? Is it because they want to alert their congregation of the degraded state of Christianity? If so, who is to determine what state Christianity is in? The question becomes does different equate to wrong? The answer is no.

Statistically, “seeker-sensitive” churches are the fastest growing churches in North America. Does fast growing equate to right? No, but neither does it equate to wrong. I suggest that we all stay in our lanes and do church the way we think that God is leading us to do church. If someone is doing it differently than you would do it, treat that person the way you would want someone attending your church who thinks that you should do things differently to treat you. With grace. With respect.

Let’s be clear; I’m not talking about apostate teaching here. I’m talking about methodology. So what if another church plays a different style of music than you do? Who cares if one church focuses on preaching to lost people and another church focuses on developing growing Christians? Again, Paul said that he planted (preached to lost people) and Apollos watered (developed growing Christians). We all have our place.

When Jesus said that the eye cannot say to the hand ‘I don’t need you’ he wasn’t only talking about the local church. He was talking about The Church. We need each other. We need churches who can reach younger people better than our church can. We need churches who can reach people of different ethnic groups than our church can. We need churches who can reach lost people better than our church can. And we need churches who can develop growing Christians into mature Christians better than our church can.

Jesus said “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” What would happen if all of us as Christians embraced our differences instead of ‘one-upping’ each other with our own way of doing things? I say it’s time to realize that we’re all heading to the same destination, we’re just taking different roads to get there. And we’re traveling there with people who are just like us. And that’s OK.

I came across a couple of things this week that I thought were interesting. The first was a Facebook page on biblical inconsistencies. The second was a web page on biblical inconsistencies. Both sites were touting the ignorance of Christians who believed a Bible that they didn’t even know. Unfortunately, I had to agree with them on some level. Most Christians don’t know their Bible. At least not in the way we should. We know the major stories and the basis of our belief system, but do we really know the Bible? Enough to answer the critics who call us ignorant? Enough to answer the questions of a Google population? The Bible says that we are to “…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”

Some of the discrepancies mentioned were discrepancies in the number of women who visited the tomb after the resurrection, (John mentions Mary Magdalene, Matthew says Mary Magdalene and another Mary, Mark mentions the two Mary’s and Salome and Luke just mentions that they were women – no names) whether the stone was rolled away from the tomb before or after the women arrived on the morning of the resurrection (Mark, Luke and John say yes, Matthew seems to indicate that it may not have been) and even whether God created man or vegetation first (Genesis 1 says vegetation first, Genesis 2 says that no plant of the field was yet in the earth when God formed Man).

Could you provide an argument for any of these discrepancies? Maybe. Did you even know there were supposed discrepancies between different accounts of the same event in the Bible? Probably not. And that’s OK. However, when a question about biblical events or doctrine are brought up to you, can you provide an answer? As Christians, we’re supposed to be able to. One of the reasons that this is so difficult for so many Christians is because we rely on someone else to do the Bible reading for us. We come to church on Sunday mornings expecting to be fed by the Pastor. After all, that’s what we pay him for, right? Not exactly. The problem with this line of thought is that we can’t possibly absorb all of the biblical knowledge that we need to sustain us in our Christian life by feeding from a specific person once a week. That’s like saying that we will only eat food once a week at a specific restaurant. All of us, no matter how spiritual we are, eat more than once a week.

We have to grow spiritually just as we do physically. All of us at some point were fed by our parents from a bottle. From there we progressed to baby food, and eventually to more solid food and again at some point we even began grabbing the food and feeding ourselves. Eventually, we matured to the point that when we were hungry, we sought out our own food source and fed ourselves and that’s how most of us are today. The exception to this rule would be those who are not physically or mentally able to care for themselves. The same is true of Christians spiritually.

When we became Christians, we needed someone to point out spiritual truths for us which we then absorbed. Eventually, we progressed to deeper spiritual truths and some even began grasping some of them for ourselves as we were taught. That’s where a vast number of Christians stop in their spiritual growth. We don’t ever get to the point where we discover spiritual truth for ourselves apart from our Pastors or mentors or the guy on TV who we watch because we like his voice. We don’t become self-feeders.

The other problem with this is one that I mentioned previously. You cannot possibly absorb enough spiritual truth to sustain you in your life by listening to a guy talk about the Bible once a week. That’s why so many of us have problems actually living the Christian life and the reason why so many of us are slandered for our lack of biblical knowledge. Because it’s true.

My challenge to you is to become a self-feeder. Does that mean you no longer need a Pastor? No. A Pastor should be one of the places, and for some it will be the main place, that we learn spiritual truth. But it should not be the only place we feed spiritually.  The majority of Pastors are healthy, good people who have your best interest in mind and will feed you good food. However, Jude tells us that in the last days, there will be Pastors who look good, but are actually not good. This is the verse where we get the saying “Wolves in sheep’s clothing” from. How will we know the difference? By knowing the Bible for ourselves. By reading our Bibles at home. By finding someone – even someone on TV – who we can learn from. By feeding ourselves. A great way to do this is by reading things or listening to people that we don’t necessarily agree with. You’ll soon find yourself being able to validate your faith without even trying.

By the way – Plant life was created first, the stone was rolled away before the women got to the tomb and there were several women who went to the tomb that morning, although only 3 are mentioned by name. Do you know who they were?