Nothing Happy or Holy About Halloween

Driving around today, I passed a number of signs on houses whimsically proclaiming, "Happy Halloween"! It started me thinking that there really wasn't anything happy about Halloween, unless of course you like ghouls, goblins, ghosts, witches, severed heads and mutilated body parts, and keeping dentists employed - don't get me wrong, I have nothing against dentists.

Historians suggest that Halloween had its origin with the Celts who believed that, at this time of year, the border between this world and the netherworld became thin allowing both evil and good spirits to pass between the two worlds. Don't laugh - people today believe some really bizarre things (reference Thetans and Scientology)

In addition to being dubbed "Happy", somewhere in history Halloween also became a holiday - meaning holy, set apart. It is certainly holy and set apart if you happen to be a member of the Satanic Church. Halloween is considered the high holy day for Satan worshipers. It is a day for animal sacrifice, suspected human sacrifice, and orgiastic rituals to Satan.

By the way, enjoy your candy!

Hold On Loosely!

So...what constitutes discipleship in the Biblical sense of the word in a Christian context that seems to make discipleship optional?

We know that when Jesus called His followers to discipleship then, it primarily meant to go with him, to observe, study, and imitate. They were in a very real sense apprentices learning to be little Christ's in the school of "on-the-job" training. His disciples knew what to do and what it would cost. Discipleship had a very clear and straightforward meaning. Today we cannot be "with Him" in the same sense that the disciples were with Him. But we can have the same priorities, intentions, and heart attitudes. Williard suggests that "the disciple is one who, intent upon becoming like Christ and so dwelling in His faith and practice, systematically and progressively rearranges his affairs to that end."

Too many in today's church have other priorities such as security, reputation, fame, power, sensual indulgence, "personal peace and affluence"...you get the picture. "A mind cluttered by excuses may make a mystery of discipleship, or it may see it as something to be dreaded." I often times do not see a significant difference between the lives and priorities of Christians and non-Christians. I do not see Christians living lives that indicate their citizenship resides in the Kingdom of God - who live in the world but are not of the world. I am too often guilty of the very same problem. I hold too tightly to the things of this world and that is counter-productive to living the kind of life that leads to Christ-likeness.

"Examination of our ultimate desires and intentions, reflected in the specific responses and choices that make up our lives, can show whether there are things we hold more important than being like Him." Idolatry then seems to be the biggest hindrance to Biblical discipleship.

(Thoughts on the Introduction to Dallas Willard's book, The Great Omission. I encourage you to join me in reading the book and interacting with me as I blog through it. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Omission-Reclaiming-Essential-Discipleship/dp/0060882433)

On my way to and from work I pass a sign that reads "Butler is a Worshiping Community". I get annoyed every time I pass it. As I look around the community in which I live, honestly, I am hard-pressed to see the evidence that backs up the sign's claim. Does the problem lie in what is being worshiped or in the worshiper?

"There is an obvious Great Disparity between, on the one hand, the hope of eternal life expressed in Jesus...and on the other hand, the actual day-to-day behavior, inner life, and social presence of most of those who profess adherence to him." Dallas Williard, The Great Omission.

What is the problem? Put simply, we, Christians, "have not given ourselves" to Christ and Christianity "in a way that allows our lives to be taken over by it." When Jesus assembled his band of world-changers, how did he call them to himself? "Follow me." He called them to an apprenticeship, to discipleship, to a way of life that took on His teaching, His way of life.

Willard asks, "Who, among Christians today, is a disciple of Jesus, in any substantive sense of the word 'disciple'? A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice, a practitioner. In that context, disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom to every aspect of their life on earth."

The Great Omission in the Church today is the assumption that we can be Christians forever and never become disciples. Therein lies the reason for the Great Disparity. The church is busy making converts, many times to systems of doctrine, rather than fulfilling the Great Commission and making disciples of Jesus. Jesus' aim was to establish earthly embassies where His ambassadors might live out Kingdom priorities wherever they lived and worked. He likened His followers, His disciples, to salt and light - both of which have a permeating effect in the things to which they are applied. Salt flavors and preserves; light dispels darkness.

The Church doesn't need more converts, better buildings or programs, more education, or more prestige, more churches. In fact, Jesus did not call His disciples to plant churches. While that may happen as a good and necessary result, that was not the point of His call. "All it needs to fulfill Christ's purposes on earth is the quality of life He makes real in the life of His disciples." This is the kind of life Jesus referred to when he said He came to give us life and life to the full. He came to give us a Kingdom life not simply in heaven but in the hear and now. This is the kind of life that should be contagious to those lacking it. Sadly, that is not the case. "...the greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as 'Christians' will become disciples - students, apprentices, practitioners - of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from Him how to live the life of the Kingdom in every corner of human existence."

That is true discipleship!

Amusement Park Faith

It amazes me how much the culture of amusement effects our faith. All too often we, like Peter, want to stay on the mountain top, flitting from one spiritual high to the next.  I think it's this spiritual "disease" that motivates church hopping; that enables us to troll the ever growing "self help" section of the Christian bookstore looking for just the right book that will allow us to divert responsibility for our spiritual malaise onto someone else; and that accounts for the popularity of Joel Osteen and those like him preaching a prosperity doctrine.   The whole notion of entitlement, a religious entitlement so to speak,  has crept into our faith demanding the right to be spiritually fat, dumb and happy.

We don't function very well when there is a lull in our spiritual fervor, when we sense a growing boredom in our relationship with Christ, when we no longer get goosebumbs, the certain sign of the Holy Spirit moving in a situation, circumstance, song or sermon.  We don't know how to live with boredom and we certainly don't know how to live in the valley.

Jesus took Peter, James and John up on that mountain - Mt. 17:1-9 - not to get a religious fix.  Jesus took them up on that mountain so they could experience a genuine understanding of who Jesus was.  Knowing God, the Creator of the Universe, the One who desires an intimate relationship with His creatures that bear His image, rather than knowing about God, ignites a true pursuit of God.  

I find it somewhat ironic - the more God reveals Himself to me, the less it seems I really know about Him.  I'm OK with that.  I'm getting more comfortable with those dry times, those down times when the needle on the spiritual compass is spinning in cirlces, in my journey. I don't ever want to get to a place where I think I've got God figured out.  I think that's where boredom begins.  

So what do you do when you find yourself dealing with a little spiritual boredom.  Hold on!  Hold on to an intimate pursuit of God.  He rewards those who earnestly seek Him...with more of Himself.

We Are What We Love

Where do kids get their quirks and mannerisms?  Some of it is obviously written into their DNA which accounts for the fact that vastly different kids can come from the same parents.  The rest...I have to believe is learned behavior.  You've heard it before, "He/She is a chip off the old block!"  In my neck of the woods I usually hear that phrase when my kids have mirrored one of my negative characteristics.

Can that phrase be turned around and used positively?  Let me put it like Colton, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."  Colton is saying essentially, we act like the person we want to be.  Go to any little league field or hang out in a middle school hallway.  Kids act like their favorite sports figures and celebrities, all to often imitating their stupidity.  We become what we idolize! Come to think of it, isn't idolatry a form of worship?

What about our relationship with Christ?  While loving Christ cannot be categorized as idolatry, can imitating Christ be considered worship?  I think yes and I think it goes beyond consideration.  Let me rephrase Colton, Imitating Christ is the highest form of worship!  We are what we love!

Resurrection Hope

I find myself drifting between two dyametrically opposed positions - a pendulum between despair and elation.  Don't get me wrong...it's not the degree of despair displayed in New York and Pittsburgh this past week.  My faith does not rest in the gov't to bail me out, nor do I hold conspiriatorial perspectives that would drive me to tha kind of paranoia.  We do live in uneasy times though.  Times in which I see my personal freedoms threatened and my children's futures burdened with tremendous national debt; at least that seems to be the way things are playing out.  If my life and the life of my children were not tethered to the Anchor of my soul - I certainly would be capable of unthinkable stupidity.

I am more grateful today, given the circumstances all around me, of Christ's sacrifice than I have been in past years. Don't get me wrong...I am throughly amazed and awed that the sinless Christ would die for a sinful people.  It does seem that difficulty and struggle and doubt force me to ponder that reality in a much different light than normal.  I have real hope; hope that is made more certain because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In fact, Peter says that my hope is "living hope" which indicates to me that it is a hope that produces real life change that is so much more than wishful thinking.  This is where the elation comes in - this hope has nothing to do with me, my performance, lack of performance, white privilege (which I believe is a myth), economic status or lack thereof, popularity, or any number of "isms" that I might be tempted to pad my life with.  My faith is not Christ + anything.  

I must be honest though...I am tempted all the time to attach hoops or conditions to my confidence in the work of Christ.  Day to day, I struggle for approval and a better seat at the banquet table by adding daily Scripture reading, church attendance, faithful adherence to doctrine, good works, being a devoted husband and doting father, and a host of other good things to my faith in Jesus Christ.  Yet, I know that road has been traveled and has left its sojourners unfulfilled.  The rich young ruler tried and failed, Martin Luther tried and failed, the Judaizers tried and failed...(they're still trying and still failing in a number of religious twists on the Judaizer's heresy even today.)

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

-Edward Mote

I pray you find the same confidence this Holy Week and may it stay with you from now until eternity.  More than that, may it radically transform how you approach the next difficulty.

Corem Deo!

I Want God!

So, why do you pray?  What motivates you to get up before the sun rises or stay up long after the family is off to bed?  Is it a comfortable life, free from distractions and worries?  Or is it simply to spend time with the One who loves you more than you know?

For much of my Christian experience, I would approach God when I needed something; my kids were sick, I was experiencing a family crisis, the car needed fixed, or I lapsed back into the same old pattern of sin.  God was kind of like a lucky charm, a fuzzy rabbits foot; when things got tough or beyond my control, I would wear out my jeans.  Perhaps this is a better picture of my prayer life; putting a quarter into a vending machine and out comes my desired answer.  I never once thought about how God viewed the whole exchange.  I knew how I felt when people befriended me for what I can bring them.  

When I was new to pastoral ministry a good friend taught me a valuable lesson.  For a whole year our relationship was based on contact and conversation revolving around my need.  If I needed help with a computer problem, I would call my friend.  If I needed some help around the house or a tool, I would call my friend.  On a particular day, I must have called him 20 times.  I was getting very frustrated.  Late into the evening I finally got ahold of him.  After telling him why I had been calling him, he very firmly told me, "Don't call me anymore if you want something from me.  Don't be my friend because of what I can do for you, be my friend simply because you like me and like being with me."  Honestly, I was hurt for a few days.  But, he was right!

I hardly think that God feels this way, then again, maybe he does.  What will it take for us to finally understand that God wants us to love Him not for what He can do for us but for who He is; and He isn't our spiritual sugar daddy.

I think true prayer begins when we approach God simply because He's God and has demonstrated His love for us rather than to get something from Him.  God told Abraham, after making incredible promises to him that he would be the father of many nations, that God himself would be His very great reward.  That's what Abraham put His faith in - a relationship.

I want God!  I don't want Him for the things He can give me, (although His mercy are new every morning)I want Him simply for who He is.  That's when we truly begin to pray - when we come to God because He's God and not for the things He can give us or for the jams He can bail us out of.

Enjoy lingering in His presence - in fact, I dare you to linger without words, it's Biblical, "Be still and know that I am God..."