What Can We Do?

Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen and Japan

“One of these things is not like the other,” the old song from Sesame Street goes.

But actually, that may not be the entire truth in the case of Mr. Gibson, Mr. Sheen and the nation of Japan.

They have two things in common. One, they are very much in trouble. And two, they can be saved.

Mel Gibson was in court this past week. He was facing a misdemeanor charge of battery. He was sentence to undergo a year’s worth of counseling and sixteen hours of community service.

Charlie Sheen’s life has been well-documented lately. It would seem he’s also going to be in court soon. He’s being a lawsuit against the CBS television network after being fired from his TV show.

And Japan has faced the fifth largest earthquake in the last 100 years. This earthquake resulted in a tsunami that wiped out many of the seaside communities on the eastern shore of the main island.

Until Japan’s news hit the headlines, Charlie Sheen was pretty much on the top of every news outlets’ list of stories. Mel Gibson was, for the most part, flying under everyone’s radar.

But I’ve been thinking about all three today. And I was thinking about what I could do for all three today. And that led me to thinking about what the Church could do for all three today. In fact, what the Church could do for them, the Church can – and should – do for all people. For we are all in need of help.

By “the Church” I mean the flesh-and-blood Church. I mean the men, women and children who are disciples of Jesus Christ and are the spiritual stones that make up the Church.

Mel Gibson has made his public confession of faith in Jesus Christ at the time he was making and releasing his film “The Passion of the Christ.” But after that, he took a turn for the worse down a wild path. The Church needs to reach out to him and help him find his way back to the peace that passes all understanding – Jesus Christ. I’m not saying I think he gave up his faith. But Mel Gibson has had some problems and challenges and faces more consequences in the future.

Let’s not turn our back on him. He is a Christian. Jesus loves him. Jesus died and rose to save Mel Gibson from his sins (just has He has for all of us).

Then there’s Charlie Sheen. I’ve never heard him make a public confession of faith in Christ. What I have heard him say this past week makes me believe that he does not believe in Jesus as his savior. But the Church can’t give up on him, either. It is clear, to me at least, that Charlie Sheen is a lost soul desperately trying to find peace and love. As a Christian, I have the answer for him. Like many others, I’m tempted sometimes to just write him off as a lost cause. So many have written him off. And so many are watching him and waiting for him to finally destroy himself. But God has spoken. He says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV). God wants Charlie Sheen to know the peace and love that only can be found in Him. And it is our duty to share the Gospel with Charlie Sheen – before it’s too late.

Many prayers have been lifted up for the people of Japan. And that is a good thing. But we can do more than just pray for them.

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? (James 2:15-16 ESV)

Now is the time to bring the Gospel to the people of Japan like never before. Good people are there now who have laid the groundwork for the rest of the Church. Pastors, teachers, and missionaries are on the scene right now. Let us support them. Let us join them in bringing the peace that passes all understanding to people whose lives have been literally washed away.

The Church is here for such a time as this. To reach out to these and all others like them. We have a tremendous and powerful message for the Mel Gibsons, Charlie Sheens, and Japans of the world. Now is not the time to sit back and watch from the sidelines or the comfort of our living rooms. We have to get in the game, using the power of the Gospel to reach the world.

Gag Order Lifted

When I was 22, my parents divorced. They told me about it the day after my college graduation party. It was also the day before I was to leave for a summer working as a student minister in Grand Teton National Park.

I didn’t see it coming, although I probably should have. I lasted two weeks out in Wyoming.

But it was several years before I came to grips with my parent’s divorce. I was hurt, confused, and mostly angry with my father.

That is, until I came across this Scripture passage.

³And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?" ⁴He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? ⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." ⁷They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?" ⁸He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery." (Matthew 19:3-9ESV)

This seems pretty straight forward to me. There’s really only one reason for divorce – sexual immorality. But that isn’t all Jesus said at this time in His earthly ministry. Look what He says immediately after this teaching.

¹³ Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, ¹⁴but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." ¹⁵And he laid his hands on them and went away. (Matthew 19:13-15 ESV)

It was about 1991 or so when I read this and something clicked in my mind and heart.

Divorce is not God’s plan for a husband and wife. But then again, neither was sin and death. Yet they are all the reality we have to live with (if “living” is the right word).

The Good News is that God deals with our reality. He dealt with sin and death – and yes, divorce – by sending Jesus Christ to be our savior from sin and death – and yes, also divorce.

Divorce still happens. Yes, it isn’t what God intends. But Jesus tells us to “let the little children” come to Him for healing and love. A marriage could be saved. A soul certainly will be saved.

Divorce is not the unforgiveable sin. It took me years to come to understand that. When a husband and wife divorce God doesn’t hate that husband and wife. He still loves them and wants what’s best for them. Jesus “calls and draws” them closer to him during this very painful time.

And if the disciples in Matthew 19 represent the “one Holy Christian and Apostolic Church” (and I believe they do), then the Church needs to let even these children – divorcees – come to Jesus for love and healing.

My thanks to Anne Jackson who reminded me today that this is a neglected topic in the Church.

LiveJournal Tags: divorce,Jesus,Love,Scripture,Matthew 19,healing,salvation,savior

A Prayer for the Pacific Nations

Psalm 77:1-2, 7-15

¹I cry aloud to God,
   aloud to God, and he will hear me.
² In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
   in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
   my soul refuses to be comforted.

⁷"Will the Lord spurn forever,
   and never again be favorable?
⁸Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
   Are his promises at an end for all time?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"

¹⁰Then I said, "I will appeal to this,
   to the years of the right hand of the Most High."

¹¹I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
   yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
¹²I will ponder all your work,
   and meditate on your mighty deeds.
¹³Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
¹⁴You are the God who works wonders;
   you have made known your might among the peoples.
¹⁵You with your arm redeemed your people,
   the children of Jacob and Joseph.

Almighty God, merciful Father, Your thoughts are not our thoughts, and Your ways are not our ways. In Your wisdom You have permitted this disastrous earthquake and tsunami to befall us. Keep the people of Japan and the other Pacific nations affected by this disaster from despair and do not let our faith fail us, but sustain and comfort us. Direct all the efforts to attend the injured, console the bereaved, and protect the helpless. Deliver any who are still in danger, and bring hope and healing that we may find relief and restoration; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

No One Gets Out Alive

Tomorrow I’ll be reminding people – and be reminded myself – that “to dust you are and to dust you shall return.”

This reminder will be in the form a little cross of ash on the forehead. The palm branches and leaves that ended the Church Season of Lent last year have been burned to ash and are now used to begin this year’s Church Season of Lent.

This dust – and all dust – reminds us that we are mortal. We will die someday. Well, probably. I mean, Jesus could come back before we die – and then there will be no more death for those who believe in Him as savior.

But the reality that I live today is that I will not get out of this life alive. And that’s ok, because for me, death is not the end. Jesus’ death was the end of my death. When my body ceases to live – when my heart stops beating and my brain stops waving – my eyes will close to this world and open to see Jesus. I will see – and live in - the new heaven and new earth. I will be with all those who fell asleep in Jesus.

In the mean time, I have been given a promise of life from Jesus Christ. He warned that “the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.” But Jesus also promised us, “But I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10 ESV)

The ashes remind me that this life is not all there is. There is more to have, more to come.

The whole Season of Lent is a microcosm of life for the disciple of Jesus. We begin with a reminder of our mortality (and a great reminder to teenagers and young adults that we are only immortal for a limited time).

Then we quickly move on to a reminder that in this world we will face temptation. Many temptations, in fact, but they all come down to the same thing. We will be tempted by the devil (yes, he really exists. Jesus faced him down in the wilderness – recorded in Matthew 4). We will be tempted by the devil to question who we are and whose we are.

When the devil tempted Jesus he started two of the three temptations with the same words, “If you are the Son of God.” Right away, the devil was trying to cause doubt to rise in Jesus’ mind that He (Jesus) was who God said He was. A little over a month before this temptation, Jesus was baptized and heard the words from His Heavenly Father, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” But Jesus hadn’t had anything to eat since then. He was tired, hungry, exhausted to the point of collapse (as I’m sure I would be if I hadn’t eaten for 40 days).

That’s when the devil strikes. When we are riding emotional highs and also at the point of exhaustion, the devil will tempt us so that we try to convince ourselves that we are not really a child of God, we are not saved, we are not worthy of God’s love, and on and on.

But Jesus didn’t give in to this temptation of the devil. The weapon Jesus used to fight off this temptation He gives to us.

“It is written….”

The Word of God. The Sword of the Spirit. This is the ultimate – and only – weapon we have to fight the temptation of the devil.

Pick up your sword, and get ready to fight … and win!

Sun Shine

Will winter ever end?

Friday night I fell asleep to the sound of rain on the roof. It was a welcomed sound of spring. But when I woke up, shuffling down to make my Saturday morning coffee, I caught a glimpse of the backyard – once again covered with snow. Sometime during the night, the rain changed over to snow.

Just when I was beginning to get in the mood for spring, winter made an appearance to remind me that it isn’t quite time yet. Baseball is coming. Spring training games have begun for the MLB. And my oldest son begins his first season of high school baseball next week.

But then there was that snow on Saturday. It was, in a word, “frustrating.”

The sun came out today, though. After a great morning of leading a Bible study and then worshiping, I was lounging in front on the TV this afternoon watching a baseball game and the sun started shining through the window.

My beagle immediately found a spot to take a nap in the sunshine. He’s got the right idea.

When the sun shines, I feel better. When the Son (of God) shines on my heart I feel better, too.

Today at church the theme was the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Jesus showed His divine glory to Peter, James, and John. It blew Peter away!

He showed them this in order for them to get through the next month or so – which would end with the death of Jesus on a cross. Not really an end, though. Three days later Jesus would rise from the dead.

When Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, He told them to not tell anyone what they had seen until after He rose from the dead. I think that Peter’s immediate reaction was a very good reason for this admonition. He was practically babbling because of what he saw.

But after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Peter and the rest of the disciples-turned-apostles would turn the whole world upside down telling the Gospel story.

Jesus shined on that mountain briefly. But He would shine through the apostles’ lives for the rest of their lives and others – including you and me – would come to faith because of the Holy Spirit working through their message.

The sun was shining through my front window today and it warmed me up.

When Jesus is shining in my heart, He is also shining through my heart into other people’s lives, and maybe the Holy Spirit will use me to bring the warmth of salvation to them as well.

Do What You Love

What is contentment? What does it look like? How do you know you’ve found it?

Well, one thing it is not is “settling.” This is a concept I’m still working out. I’m reading a book called “The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs” – the co-founder of Apple computers. I think that sometimes settling for something can feel or look like contentment. But it isn’t really. It can begin as contentment. But if what starts out as contentment doesn’t move you to carry out your mission in life, then it ceases to be contentment and degrades into settling. Here’s a quote from the book:

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know it when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” (Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford University, quoted in The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by Carmine Gallo, page 21).

It would be easy to dismiss because Steve Jobs is a multi-billionaire. The perception is that he must be greedy – the opposite of contentment. But if you do a little digging into who Steve Jobs is, you will find that he really does epitomize contentment instead of greed. He found something he loved and did that with his life – not to make gobs and gobs of money but because he simply loved to do it.

And Steve Jobs didn’t stop with the Apple ][ computer, but moved on to the Macintosh. He didn’t stop at the Macintosh but continued until the iPod was introduced. He didn’t stop there but continued with the iPhone and then the iPad. He doesn’t need the money – which is easy to say now that he’s got billions. But Steve Jobs was content with having nothing, as long as he was able to do what he loved.

Like I said, I’m still working through this idea but so far it seems to be a good illustration on contentment versus greed.

Where Is God?

Sometimes people run away from God. They are basically good people. They were brought up by faithful parents, when to church and youth group all through high school. They may even have felt a certain calling from God.

But then they get scared and they ran from God’s calling.

Like Jay.

Jay was a good man. He was financially secure. He paid off his mortgage and financially was able to do just about anything he wanted. He also was a godly man. He worshiped God regularly. He tithed willingly. He prayed daily. He thanked God for blessing Him. He prayed for his friends and family. He asked God to forgive him when he sinned. He talked to God every day.

One day God answered back.

He told Jay to go to a far away city and tell the leaders and people of that city that they need to change their ways or God will destroy them.

This did not sit well with Jay. He did not want to do it. So, instead of going to this city, Jay booked passage on a ship going in the opposite direction. Jay was a godly man, but he didn’t want to do this. Even though God asked Him to do it. So he ran away.

God found him.

God sent a storm, threatening Jay and everyone on the ship. Jay didn’t even wake up from a nap.

God made it so Jay was thrown overboard. A giant fish swallowed Jay whole. And Jay had three days in the stomach of this fish to think. To really think about where his life was at that moment.

And Jay prayed to God:

I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me….

Jay tried to run away from God. But God found Him and Jay ran back to God. He went on to do what God asked Him to do.

There are other people who feel like God has run away from them. They are also good people. They may even hear a calling from God and answer that calling. But there comes a time, maybe even a season of time, where it seems like God has run away from them.

But everything I’ve read in the Bible tells me that this isn’t the case. Not for those who are men or women seeking the will of God, seeking to be after God’s own heart.

God never runs away from a person who seeks Him.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…. (Acts 17:26-27)

So cry out to God – like Jay did. If you have trouble finding the words, use the Book of Psalms.

Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. Psalm 5:2

Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit! Psalm 17:1

In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Psalm 18:6

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! Psalm 27:7

Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Psalm 28:2

To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy…. Psalm 30:8

God will answer you. How do I know this? Because this has been my own experience. I have cried out to God when it has seemed like He has abandoned me and I found that He’s been here all along. Why didn’t I see Him? Why didn’t I experience His peace? Maybe it was because I was so caught up in my own troubles I wasn’t looking to God all the time. Yes, I was praying. But maybe I was praying in such a way that I was mouthing the words but just going through the motions. Maybe I wasn’t praying in faith that God would actually do something.

That’s been my experience. God has broken through to me to show me that He is here, that He was never really at all far away.

And He has shown me that He has a plan for my tomorrows and the rest of my life.