Memorial Day 2008

Today is Memorial Day in the United States. It is known as the “Unofficial Start of Summer” as most Americans have the day off from work and school. It is common to grill meat outside and have friends and family over; in general, have a good time.


And there’s nothing wrong with this. I’ll be doing this with my family and we all look forward to it every year. We’ll be grilling pork steaks and potatoes, having cake decorated as an American Flag. I’ll probably play catch with my sons, definitely lounge around the backyard and enjoy the day.


But I will also share with my sons what Memorial Day is really for – the reason we have this day in our nation’s calendar.


It began as “Decoration Day” by freed negro slaves in 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina who created a Union Cemetery near the place for many Union prisoners of war had died and were buried in a mass grave. Out of gratitude – it is said – of the soldiers’ sacrifice for their freedom, they reinterred the bodies and decorated the graves with flowers.


The following year cities in the Northern United States began to hold what would become yearly observances of memorial and decoration of those who had died during the United States Civil War. After World War II, Decoration Day became more commonly known as Memorial Day and in the 1960’s it was officially designated as such.


Now in 2008, there are no survivors of the Civil War nor the Spanish-American War. There are no more than three surviving veterans of World War I. The veterans of World War II have reached their middle 80’s and older.


For World War I and all previous wars, they are truly second-hand history for us. World War II and more recent wars are still “memories.”


We must never forget what these men and women did to ensure our freedoms. I say we should also thank God for their sacrifice, especially those who gave their lives during the conflicts. And that is what Memorial Day is for.


Remembering is a biblical thing. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, He celebrated remembrances such as Passover and Purim. In the “Law” as recorded in Deuteronomy, God instructed His people to remember what they have gone through to get where they are now and to pass on those memories to their children and their children’s children (Deuteronomy 6:7).


This is a basic tenant of our faith that we pass on what we believe about Jesus Christ, to teach and confess it to our children and others.


Memorial Day is a great opportunity to do both: to share a bit of the history of our country and to share our faith in Christ. I pray that you will do this and also have a blessed Memorial Day.


©2008 True Men Ministries.

We Learn By Doing

Can we learn about life simply by reading, watching TV or movies?

No. You actually have to live it first. While I believe that many of the lessons that God wants to teach us can be found in the stories we hear, that isn’t the only way that God wants us to learn.

It is important to also go out and live life.

The movie Blast from the Past is essentially about a 35 year old man who is raised in a bomb shelter and the only thing he knows of the world is what his parents have taught him, what he has read in books and magazines (up to the 1960’s) and TV shows from the 1950’s. He’s never seen the sky and has never met another human other than his mom and dad. When he emerges into the late 1990’s Los Angeles, hilarity ensues when he does fit in with real life because what he learned never was real life.

We learn by doing. Many people have expressed this concept – from Aristotle to Freud to Admiral James T. Kirk. But it is more than just a philosophical, psychological or fantastical concept. It is also a biblical concept.

"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." – St. Paul, recorded in Philippians 4:9 (emphasis added).
I’m a “movie” guy. I like to watch movies – all kinds of movies. That shows up in my preaching and teaching quite a bit.

But over the last couple of years, I’ve realized the importance of getting out of the house or the theater and actually living as God intended for me to live. I’ve hiked in Idaho, camped in the mountains and, this June, will be trying rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park (www.truemen.org/mountains). Taking what I have learned about God from books and movies I try to put into practice out in the wild as well as in the wilds of suburbia.

What have I learned that I could put into practice?

To take a leap of faith. God wants me to trust Him. He wants me to trust Him in everything. Like in rock climbing. Trusting in a person that I can see cannot possible hold me up because I outweigh him by about 200 pounds. I can see that he can’t possible take care of me, save me from falling. Yet it isn’t true. It may look true but it really isn’t. Kind of like the movies. I can lean back on the rope and know that I’m in safe hands despite what my eyes see.

There are other things that I’ve learned that I can put into practice, but I’ll save those thoughts for a future devotion.

In the mean time, now that you’re at the end of this email, close it and turn off the computer and step out and live life following God’s leading.

©2008 True Men Ministries.

On Fire - The Passion of the Spirit

It was on this day nearly 2000 years ago that the disciples of Jesus “took it to another level.” They had been called by Christ to “follow” him. They had listened to and learned from Jesus. Some of them had been witnesses to Jesus’ death. All of them had been witnesses to His resurrection. Then 50 days later, they reached the next level.

My brothers and sisters, it’s time! It’s time to take ourselves to the next level.

Jesus Christ has died and rose again. We are His witnesses in this time and place. He sends His Holy Spirit to us.

The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as:

Wind

Breath

Fire

In John 7 Jesus adds another element – the Holy Spirit causes rivers of living water to flow out of us.

I think we can take this analogy to the beach.

Waves. Surfers “catch” waves. At least those who want to surf successfully do. The waves come no matter what. A successful surfer will “catch” the wave. The surfer will be “pushed along” by the wave, riding the board in front of the wave and moving along.

The unsuccessful surfers – those who are not ready or not paying attention – miss the wave. The wave goes over them, under them, passes them by.

Healthy churches – which we are, by the way – catch the wave of the Holy Spirit. They don’t let the wave wash over them and pass them by.

Healthy Christians – which make up healthy churches – do the same thing.

The Holy Spirit moves us along, to new places, but using the “same old,” changeless Word and Sacrament of Christ! The challenge is that we don’t do things just because “we’ve always done it that way.”

Look, there is nothing wrong with doing some things “the way we’ve always done them” – things like the Sacrament of the Altar, parts of worship, the Lord’s Prayer. The important things are to not apply that thinking to everything and to know why we are doing them.

We have a promise from Jesus that when we have caught the wave of the Holy Spirit that “streams of living water” will flow out of us.

That means that we will be “on fire” with passion for Christ and the mission of the Church – which is to reach, teach, and nurture a thirsty world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And we’ll know when that has happened. Things will be happening to us and through us. In Acts 2, the disciples began to speak in tongues. This can mean several different things – different human languages or a heavenly language of some kind. An important point here is that there is also a reference to this happening in the OT – in our lesson for today, Numbers 11. I want you to note that while it happened, it didn’t happen continually.

I think we can also identify rivers of living water in other things. Our faith in Christ through the Word of the Apostles (NT), the confessions of our church, our hymns, prayers, sermons, being a congregation that gathers together around Word and Sacrament.

But it is vitally important to note the “order” of such things. Jesus promises that this will happen in John 7, but something else must first take place – His death and resurrection. As one commentator put it (Lenski,The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel, page 580)

“And that Spirit would make rivers of living water flow from the believers throughout the New Testament era. [Yet] no believer was ready or able to function as Jesus wanted him to function as long as he did not understand the sacrificial death of Jesus and his glorious resurrection.”

That’s the key. We have to understand and believe that Jesus Christ died for us and that He rose again from the dead. That isn’t the end of the mission, that’s the beginning.

So, I’m going to start a new series of messages this summer to help us understand how the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is used by the Holy Spirit to take us to the next level. We’ll explore the “whys” of what we do – prayer, offering, the Lord’s Supper, missions, and the like.

Right now, I ask you to spend a few minutes in silent prayer, asking God to make you ready for this wave of the Holy Spirit.

Authentic Faith

Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia was a Christian monarch who left a lasting legacy in that Northeast African nation. By the time he ascended to the throne – after years of delay due to espionage, civil war, kidnappings, imprisonment, and a jailbreak that would make a great Hollywood screenplay – he was on track to leave footprints that would stabilize the nation for generations to come.

During his reign:

Ethiopia’s first modern bank

First postal system

A nation wired for telephones

Paved roads for cars

Cities plumbed for modern efficiencies – whether they existed or not.

He lowered the crime rate by installing an electric chair. Not to be used as intended, mind you. The country had no power plants at the time to actually hook the thing up. Rather, he used the electric chair as his throne and it had the effect of discouraging crime!

Menelik was a successful ruler. We might call him “authentic.”

And he was a Christian. But his Christianity was not so authentic.

For the King’s Christian faith was not based in the Bible but rather in the pages of the Bible.

Menelik believed the Bible had the power to cure illnesses and therefore every time he felt sick he ate a few pages from God’s Word. After suffering a serious stroke, Menelick prescribed for himself a strict diet of 1^st and 2^nd Kings. He ate both books, page by page which led to internal complications resulting in his death. It was an authentic idea … but he should have stuck with Jell-O.

Authentic Christians – that’s what I’m after. I want to be real, just as Christ is real. And I think this is what Christ was praying for in John 17. Our text ends with the prayer that we all be one. One of spirit, heart, mind, and soul. Believing in Christ as our only savior.

This past week I heard of a lot two different kinds of churches, and of at least two different kinds of Christians.

But Christ wants us to be one. He tells us that He’s the only God. We’ve heard from Jesus that He’s the way, the truth, the life. If there is only one Christ, then it makes sense that there’s only one way to be a Christian, only one way to salvation.

How can we know what that way is? The answer is the Bible. Genesis to Revelation – in its original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts – are the inspired, inerrant Word of God. It is how we know of Christ. But unlike Menelik, we don’t need to literally eat the Word to receive its power. We do read, learn and inwardly digest the Word of God, but we do that by living the Word, doing what it says, not eating its pages.

As you do this, I think you will find that the Bible draws us together into One Holy Christian and Apostolic Church, it doesn’t fragment the people of God into white Christians, black Christians, Indonesian Christians, German Christians.

Recently in the Thursday morning True Men Study we looked at the part of the Book of Revelation where John sees the Church at the end of time. People from every nation, tribe, and language. This is authentic Christianity, this is the result of authentic faith.

A word about authentic faith. Authentic faith is to believe in Jesus Christ, who was born in Bethlehem, lived a perfect life without sin, was punished and killed because of our sin, and rose from the dead. And the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us the power to live the life that He calls us to live.

Living an authentic life is a desire that is deep inside all of us. We want our lives to have purpose, to count. At the end of our lives, we want it to have mattered that we were here, that we made a difference. That’s a desire that is deep down inside of us. Don’t worry if you don’t feel that desire quite like that, though. People like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Susan B. Anthony, Condoleezza Wright, these people didn’t do what they did because they had some overt sense of wanting to make history. I mean, they didn’t wake up one morning and say to themselves, “I will become father of my country because I want to live an authentic life.”

That isn’t usually how it works. Rather, a person that wants to live an authentic life tends to wake up each morning and face the day with prayer and giving glory to God, with words like, “I yours, Christ, do with me what you will. I will live this day to your glory, in the power of your resurrection.” Maybe not those exact words, but that spirit.

Being an authentic Christian means not “eating the pages.” That is, it means not being one in name only but making your Christian faith a part of your whole life – and this is key – for the glory of God and not the glory of yourself. Of all the news reports that I’ve seen in the last week – giving reverends a bad name – it seems to me that the problem is that what is being said has been about self and not about Christ. This is nothing new and won’t end with this current news cycle. As people we are inherently selfish. After all, the original sin was about “me” and “my feelings, wants, and desires.”

But an authentic Christian faith transforms. Menelik was transformed by eating his Bible – he grew constipated, nauseated, and finally died because of it. But when we are transformed by the Word of God living rather than eating its pages, we become new men and women. We become True Men and True Women – what God originally meant for us to be. It doesn’t happen overnight. George Washington didn’t become the father of our country immediately – he went through 20 years of character transforming as a junior officer in the British Army and then leader of the Virginia Regiment –a part of the British Army in the French and Indian War.

Abraham Lincoln didn’t just show up to be president in 1861. He went through hard character transformation which included many failures.

The keys to this character transformation that is part of Authentic Christianity, is that God’s Word has a prominent place in your life. Making it a part of your everyday living. Another key is that you don’t go through transformation alone.

The Christian Church – of which Redeemer congregation is a part of – is a family that helps implement the transformation. Word and Sacrament is what we sometimes call it. Being a part of a family of believers, reading and discussing God’s Word (in small groups), and partaking of the gifts of Christ in the sacraments – these are all part of authentic Christianity that leads to transformation

There will be set-backs. There will be disappointments. Transformation to an authentic faith and life means that some things have to be “torn down.” An authentic life and faith is an “extreme makeover” of our lives by the Law and Gospel of God. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is one of our favorite TV shows at our house. What’s the first thing they do after they send the family to Disneyland? They tear down the existing house!

There are times when in our quest for the authentic faith and life that it will seem like we’re taking two steps back for every one step forward (which doesn’t move you forward at all). Don’t be discouraged. This isn’t going to be easy. Life is hard. As Wesley says in The Princess Bride, “life is pain. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.” And that’s so true! The “Prosperity Gospel” is a lie – if only you believe enough God will give you everything you ever wanted. “Liberation Theology” leads down the wrong path, because it focus is on liberation from oppression and not liberation from sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You will fail. That’s for sure. You’re going to make mistakes. But make sure your family is around you when you do make those mistakes. They can help turn you around, pick you up. And family, help those who fail around you, help pick them up, carry them home – what a great example of that we had in women’s college softball this past week.

That’s what our family is for. To help each other get back up after we fall and to encourage each other to carry out our mission to bring the gospel to the world.

Inez Bjorkman April 21, 1923 - April 21, 2008

At the top of this page, next to Inez’s name are her birth date and the date of her death. In between is a “dash.”

I can’t let Inez’s life be summed up by a simple dash, because God puts a lot of love, grace, and blessing in that “dash.” And that was certainly true for Inez, as all of you could willingly attest to.
Inez’s “dash” includes many wonderful memories, songs, travels, family and friends. The “dash” of Inez’s life is to be celebrated and remember by us – it is her legacy to us.

Inez loved life and loves Jesus Christ. I say “loves” because even though Inez is not here with us now, she is living with Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ loves Inez with an everlasting love, a love so deep and profound that He died on a cross so that Inez could live forever. And Inez does lives forever now in the place that Christ prepared for her, where Christ prepares a place for all of us who have faith in Him.

From practically the beginning of her life, Inez knew the love of Christ in her life. Her mom and dad loved her as did her brothers and sisters. That kind of love can only come from God – unconditional, profound and deep. You see, the love of God is known to all of us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His love for us is the mold, the model, the preeminent example for our love for each other. Inez could love because God first loved her. God’s love for us in Christ makes us who we are and fills our “dash.”

I was honored to know Inez only during her last days of sojourn here on this earth. But even in that short time, I could see passion and joy in Inez’s life.

One of her passions was travel, as some of you shared with me. Travel through the United States and Europe were highlights of Inez’s “dash.” She never let obstacles get her down and I think that was because of the love of Christ. She didn’t worry about things. Wherever she went, her joy and her smile shared the love of Christ with other people.

She lived the love of Christ – as summed up by Emily Smith - “Treat others the same way that you want others to treat you. Surround yourself with family and friends, because they are the ones who will share your joy in the good times and comfort you in the hard times.”

Inez’s “dash” included a lot of good times and hard times. Living through the Great Depression and World War II included some of those “hard times.” But the good times far outweighed those hard times, good times spent with family and friends – laughing and loving, even while eating lutefisk!

Music also was a large part of Inez’s dash. We have sung some favorite hymns of Inez already this afternoon. George and faith shared with me a song lyric that especially sums up Inez’s “dash”:

I will come to you in the silence; I will lift you from all your fear
You will hear my voice, I claim you as my choice, Be still and know I am here.
Do not be afraid, I am with you. I have called you each by name.
Come and follow me, I will bring you home; I love you and you are mine.

Music touches all of our lives in many and various ways. What is Christmas without the song “Silent Night”? What is the Fourth of July without the “Star Spangled Banner”? For the World War II generation, the music of Glenn Miller plays a special part in their memories of that time of their lives. Each of us has a “soundtrack” to our “dash.”

The music that was so loved by Inez and such a large part of her “dash” was music that sung of her savior, Jesus Christ! God’s love for Inez was shown in so many ways, but so powerfully in music. And that is what she is enjoying right now.

God promises us that we will see Him face to face in heaven and that song will be a large part of the heavenly experience. In the Book of Revelation – the Apostle John’s glimpse into heaven – there are seven songs that he hears sung by the citizens of paradise. I don’t believe that is all that we will do in heaven, but it is certainly a part of the heavenly experience and one that Inez looked forward to.

I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you that Inez also loved her work. She spent nearly half her life at Graber Olive House and considered the people she worked with not just fellow employees, but family. This, too, is part of the love of God for us. For God created all of us to enjoy “work” – doing things with our hands and lives, taking care of creation. Inez was able to do this in a very special and satisfying way at Graber’s.

Travel, music, work. All these made up the “dash” of Inez Bjorkman. And we have been given a legacy of love and grace from God through Inez’s “dash.”

It may seem like just a simple thing – the dash between the dates of our birth and our death. But to those who know us and love us that dash means a lifetime of love, faith, and grace. It is my prayer that Inez’s “dash” will be a source of blessed memories and grace to you as you live out your own “dash.”

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled

Remember when you got married, when it was all fun and games? You were in love, you felt good, someone depending on you to take care of them.

Then kids show up. Now there’s less time. Certainly less money.

Then the job goes away. And with it, your pride. Ok, you’ll start over. You get a “do over,” a chance to follow a dream that maybe got sidetracked when the kids came along – or a dream you never knew you had.

Things are looking up.

Then your spouse gets sick. It’s bad. Things have to change completely. You have to take on more responsibility while your spouse recovers from surgery and therapy.

Hey, you didn’t sign up for this! You wanted a happy, fulfilling future!

Then life happened.

Now what are you going to do?

What are you going to do?

You need to make a decision. You need to make a choice.

This isn’t a game. This is real life.

This is the way it is.

This is the truth of the matter.

This is the life you are called to live.

Take a look at John 14 with me.

Jesus promises to “go and prepare” a place for us. Thomas hears one word, “go.”

Go? Where are you going? How can we follow you?

Jesus backs up His claim by equating Himself with the Father. Philip hears a word that piques his interest, “Father.”

“Show us the Father!”

I get the impression that Thomas and Philip are still thinking this whole “Jesus” thing is a game. Things are going well. The popularity of Jesus is at an all-time high and they are part of inner circle. Great “signs” are happening – people are being cured, the hungry are getting fed, the dead are rising to life.

But Jesus puts a stop to this. This isn’t a game, guys! This is real life and it’s about to get serious. Since Adam and Eve bit into that fruit, the plan has been moving unstoppably to this moment in Thomas and Philip’s lives. Jesus is about to die for their – and our – sin.

And this is good news. Because Jesus’ death means we can now begin to live. Really live.

Recently eight children were baptized on one Sunday at Redeemer. It was great, right? Sure it was.

But this is just the beginning. They have begun a new life. A life with God. A life in God.

It won’t be easy. That’s why their baptisms were just the beginning, not the end. Life is going to happen – in all its glory and in all its pain (here on earth). We’re going to need Christ to show us the way, to tell us the truth, to give us the Life.

What we need to do is step out in faith.

And Jesus tells us – as we step out in faith – “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.”

I know you’re scared. Life is scary. How can we make the next mortgage payment? How can I afford to send my son to camp this year? How can we make ends meet in our school ministry? How will I be able to live and raise these kids if my spouse isn’t around? What will happen if we have to move? These are all honest questions. They are hard questions.

These are life questions.

Truly, our lives depend on the answers we get, don’t’ they?

“Let not your hearts be troubled.”

I know you’re scared. But you can get through this. You can live. You can live again. Because the one we follow knows exactly what we are going through. He’s faced it all – even that gaping hole of a grave! He’s “been there, done that.” And he is the rock that doesn’t move! Life is an unstoppable force. But life meets its match in the immovable object that is the Rock, Jesus Christ our risen Lord and Savior!

So what happens now? What are you going to do?

We’ve got some questions to answer, don’t we. In our families. In our lives. In our church.

“Let not your hearts be troubled.”

That’s what Jesus said. Then some twelve or so hours later, He’s dead!

“Let not your hearts be troubled.” This is inextricably connected to the death of Christ. And here’s how. Jesus’ death takes away what brings us trouble! His death is our life. His death removes our sin. His rising from the dead gives us His power to live.

Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us our identity.

“What is your identity is Christ? Before you make one more choice in life, you need to be aware of that identify, and you want it to be strong—just as past winner of Olympic gold medals know that they will forever be identified as Olympic gold medalists. This explains why these fabulous athletes devote years and years of training to a ten-second sprint, a two-minute floor exercise, or a five-minute program in figure skating. Who they are and what they want to become fuels the desire to sacrifice in training.

It is also why a man will practice all his life to perfect the art of playing a violin, knowing that he might one day sit in a row with other violinists on a world-class stage and play a piece of music written by someone else centuries ago. Being a violinist is his identity.

Intuitively, we know that to perform anything at a world-class level means that we cannot have a divided-heart commitment. And yet many people, who understand what it takes to succeed in sport or business or the arts, are perfectly content to go through life with diluted or marginal spiritual outcomes.

Why? Because of fear. [Every Man God's Man, Stephen Arterburn, Kenny Luck, Mike Yorkey, 2003, page 24]

“Let not your hearts be troubled.”

Follow the Leader

A man doesn't like to be called a "sheep." At least this man doesn't. As one of my friends once said "sheep are smelly and stupid." I don't know a lot about sheep, but I do know they are smelly. Stupid? I don't spend a lot of time around them to know about that. But I really don't like to be compared to a smelly, small animal that gives its fur up for clothing.

But that is what Jesus calls us in John 10.

Sheep.

What good is that? I don't want to really be known as a sheep. I know that I do want to be a follower of Christ. But why does He have to call me a sheep?

I much rather be called something like a "trooper" - like one of the 17 men that follow the jump master out of the C-47 in the U.S. Airborne.

But maybe that is pretty much the same thing. The 17 men that followed the jump master did so like sheep following a shepherd. They didn't know what could happen once they went out the door, they only knew that the men around them were counting on them to jump.

Christ is our leader. He calls Himself the "Good Shepherd." That would make His followers "sheep."

So that's what I'll be. I may not like the analogy, but it fits. I'm going to follow Christ wherever He leads because He's counting on me and the troops .... that is, the sheep, around me are counting on me and I don't want to let them down.

I will follow Christ. He knows where He's going. And He's leading from the front. He's the first one out the door. He's been there before. I may be afraid, but there's no reason to really fear because I know my Leader, my Shepherd, will get me through.