Church Kills

Don't know if this church sign is a blooper, funny on purpose, or even if it's for real...but I do know it's true.

No, I'm not saying that attending church services will kill you. Though I've been in some that almost put me in a coma.

It's dying to self that I'm alluding to here. It's getting rid of the bad past and stepping into the good future.

It all relates to what the Apostle Paul asked in Romans 6:2, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"

Or even more to the point, hear the words of Jesus:

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:24-26 NIV)

Truth is...as long as my life is all about "I, me, me, mine," I will be prone to worry. It would be much better to, as Petra put it in the following song, "kill my old man" (figuratively die to my old way of living). And yes, involvement in a church can help with that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3X19x5Zt8M

We Are The Reason

It was the summer of 1981 and even with a beautiful wife and a baby daughter, my life felt like it was going nowhere fast. I had a job at which I excelled, but which gave me no sense of satisfaction or accomplishment. The only spark of joy outside of my immediate family was being a volunteer with the high school students at my home church.

That summer, at a week-long conference run by Christ In Youth (I was attending as a chaperone/coach for the teens), it seemed like the only message that came across to me, no matter what the actual topic of the workshop or sermon, was, "You could do more, Dewey. Your life could have more of an impact."

And then somebody sang the David Meece song, We Are the Reason.

 https://youtu.be/jpy3TDviiNY

All of a sudden, it all came together for me.

We are the reason that He gave His life.

We are the reason that He suffered and died.

To a world that was lost, He gave all He could give

To show us the reason to live.

Thirty-four years later, there are a few nit-picky things in the lyric I would change if I were recording a cover, but at the time, that song was the soundtrack for a whole new direction for me.

Truth is...it still rings true. Jesus gave His all. How could I ever desire to do less?

This Word...I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

I can't know this without a doubt, but I'm pretty sure that when God wrote The Ten Commandments He didn't include any redundancy. The thing is, the way a lot of people talk about them...including a best-selling author or two...Yahweh apparently slipped up a bit.

Specifically, I'm referring to the first and second entries on God's Top Ten. Put succinctly, they are: 

1. No other gods.
2. No idols.

A lot of folks – okay, I'll take the gloves off and just come out and say it – Kyle Idleman, in his book, gods at war, equates idolatry with putting other gods ahead of Yahweh...as if the first and second commandments are the same thing. I quote from godsatwar.com:

There are gods at war within each of us. They battle for the throne of our hearts, and much is at stake. This is why idolatry is the most discussed problem in the entire Bible. Behind every sin struggle that you and I have is a false god that is winning the war in our lives. Don't give in to the myth that gods are only statues that people of other cultures or long ago worshiped. Pleasure, romance, sex, money, and power are just a few of the gods that vie for our allegiance in today's society.

Now, take a look at the actual wording of the second commandment: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them." (Exodus 20:4-5)

At first glance it might seem like "Have no other gods before me" and "make no idols" are different ways of saying the same thing, but think of these two commandments in this way: Commandment number one tells us to worship the one true God, and then commandment number two partly answers the question, "How am I to worship the one true God?"

It is one thing to worship the correct god. It is another thing to worship God correctly. The golden calf incident (see Exodus 32:1-6) was not breaking the first commandment...they were attempting to worship Yahweh, the God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt. The problem was, they wanted something physical to focus their worship on and settled for a statue of a calf, made from their melted-down earrings and bracelets.

Truth is...God desires a personal relationship with His children. When we let a sculpture, or a symbol, or a catchy phrase, or a book (even a Holy Book - gasp!) take the place of a real relationship with a real being, we miss the mark. We fall short of the goal. We break the second commandment. 

Fare Thee Well, Andrae

Music in general, but gospel music in particular, lost a pioneer on January 8, 2015.

Andrae Crouch was vitally instrumental in bringing gospel music out of the churches and into the streets. His album, Live at Carnegie Hall, was the second "Contemporary Christian" recording I ever owned. He proved that music by people of faith wasn't inferior in quality or secondary in significance.

Crouch brought Gospel to the masses and the masses to the Gospel. He was musical arranger for the films The Color Purple and The Lion King, had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and won seven Grammys.

But it was never about Andrae Crouch as an entertainer or personality or celebrity. It was always about the music and the message that the music conveyed.

One of his biggest "hits", if you can call it such a thing, was also one of his simplest compositions...proclaiming the simplicity of Jesus being the answer for every issue faced by any individual throughout the world.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKHpweGR7Bs

Truth is...Jesus Is the Answer is an old song, but the message is 100% fresh and current. Thank you, Andrae.

Holy Sweat Part Two: From the Mouths of Others

Previously in Truth Is..., I shared some stellar words from Tim Hansel's book, Holy Sweat. Now, the revelation that this book is not only full of good thoughts and catchy phrases from his own pen...Mr. H also does an excellent job of passing down quotable quotes from others.

• Those who believe in God can never, in a way, be sure of Him again. Once they have seen Him in a stable, they can never be sure where He will appear or to what lengths He will go, to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation He will descend in His wild pursuit of man. If holiness and the awful power and majesty of God were present in this least auspicious of all events, this birth of a peasant's child, then there is no place or time so lowly or earthbound but that holiness can be present there too. And this means that we are never safe, that there is no place that we can hide from God, no place where we are safe from His power to break in two and recreate the human heart because it is just where He seems most helpless that He is most strong, and just where we least expect Him that He comes most fully. (Frederick Buechner)
• Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there. (Will Rogers)
• He who has learned to laugh at himself shall never cease to be entertained. (John Powell)
• God doesn't ask us to give till it hurts - he simply asks us to give it all. (Bill Milliken)

Truth is...with so much good stuff out there, I sometimes wonder why I write anything of my own at all.

Holy Sweat

I do not regret for a single moment the years I spent as a youth minister. They were the most fulfilling years of my life, filled with a sense of being used for a greater purpose than earning a paycheck.

It was also a time of being exposed to some great people. For instance, when I heard Tim Hansel speak at a National Youth Leaders Conference, I was introduced to a great guy, who has written a few wonderful books, one of which is Holy Sweat. Tim's explanation of the title: "HOLY reminds us of our highest calling. SWEAT is what it takes to get there."

Here's a little taste of the gems included in this tome...

• I believe it is more important to live one word of Scripture than it is to memorize volumes. (From the chapter, "Turning Our Theology into Biology")
• We are, in a sense, walking Gospels as we re-present Christ to the world through our "fifth Gospel."
• The Bible does not give us much reason to believe that being saved is in any way to be equated with being safe. For instance, we often hear that Daniel's faith got him out of the lion's den, but we forget that it also got him into the lion's den.... God doesn't promise a carefree life; he promises peace and joy in the midst of the trouble (John 16:33).
• The greatest act of courage is the first step.
• It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than it is to think your way into a new way of acting.
• Stop worrying and start believing. You can't worry and praise God at the same time.
• I'd rather make my days count than simply count my days.
• We don't get a free detour around problems when we become a Christian; we get a guided tour through them.
• Which would you rather have - a Christian reputation or Jesus Christ?
• I believe the world gets to know what Jesus looks like by looking at us, God's people. So I say, let's give them a good look. Let's live a life so powerful, so unsettling, so wonderful, so joyous, so giving, that our lives wouldn't make a bit of sense if God didn't exist.

Truth is...sometimes cleaning off your shelf can be a glorious thing.

Next week: Hansel lays down some great quotes from others.

Who Will Speak Up For The Little Ones?

During the mid-to-late eighties, I spent my fair share of time on picket lines outside abortion clinics, protesting the loss-of-life taking place inside those walls. At the time, it was the standard approach for the pro-life folks among us.

But now, it is so much more satisfying to be able to say that I've spent the last 15 years speaking in high school health classes about the advantages of abstinence before marriage...and doing so on behalf of Amnion Pregnancy Center, a place where women and men can get non-judgmental counseling and support to help them through the difficulties of an unplanned pregnancy.

In honor of the upcoming Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, allow me to offer a song by Phil Keaggy that has been a motivator for hundreds of pro-life efforts for the past 30 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvLWxGKaBk

Truth is...it is far better to offer help and hope, than merely to speak up against something. Phil's song does a little bit of that. The hope lies in "though all on Earth forsake you now, yet He'll never forsake you," and in the recruitment of people who will speak up for the benefit of those who have no voice.

For the record, here are a couple prior pieces I've written in my personal effort to speak up for the little ones:

On Abortion
Murder or Medical Procedure?