I pray for the day…

(Buckle your seatbelt!)

A pastor in Toronto writes…

“I pray for the day when transvestites [and other gay people] can walk through our church doors and be greeted with genuinely warm smiles and Christian love. But before that day is likely to happen, they will need a Christian friend whom they have grown to trust; a person they know would never invite them to a place where they are going to be hurt or embarrassed publicly; a place where everyone is on level ground before the cross of Christ because all are sinners; a place where no one person’s sin is made out to be more repugnant than another’s; a place where all sinners can sit under the uncompromised preaching of holy Scripture and hear of the world’s only Savior and salvation in his name alone.” Tim Challies

I would add

“No one changes permanently except in the presence of love. That is the message of John 3:16. That is the testimony of the early church….

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor. 6:9-11

update on Eloise

Our granddaughter, Eloise, is doing OK, as you can see by the pics. She faces more open-heart surgery in the near future, but that does not slow her down! She is living proof that half a heart does not prevent a whole-hearted life.

Unbelief – and Faith

Unbelief says:

Some other time, but not now;
some other place, but not here;
some other people, but not us.

Faith says:

Anything He did anywhere else He will do here;
anything He did any other time He is willing to do now;
anything He ever did for other people He is willing to do for us!

With our feet on the ground, and our head cool,
but with our heart ablaze with the love of God,
we walk out in this fullness of the Spirit, if we will yield and obey.

God wants to work through you!

The Counselor has come, and He doesn’t care about the limits of
locality, geography, time or nationality.

The Body of Christ is bigger than all of these.

A. W. Tozer

The True King

“In the greatest display of obedience (and love) that will ever be known, Jesus took the full chalice of Man’s sin and God’s wrath, looked shuddering, deep into its depth and in a steel act of his will, drank it all”. Kent Hughes

More on Michael

So the king is dead. What a sad end to a sad life; a pathetic end to a pathetic life (by which I mean to use pathetic in its true sense as “arousing pity and sympathy). I don’t know that I have ever seen, in one man, such a combination of self-love and self-loathing, shocking narcissism combined with equally shocking self-hatred….

Jackson was in so many ways a product of this sick celebrity culture (that he helped create) that will never rest satisfied until it has both created and then destroyed the newest celebrity. We want our celebrities to start strong and finish weak, to begin with a bang and then fizzle, pop and sputter, all for our enjoyment and entertainment (Susan Boyle stands as the most recent example of this). Jackson gave us so much to talk about, so much to enjoy. More than any other celebrity he embodied the “vanities” of Ecclesiastes. He was at one time known for what he did so well and then was known for being a freak; he was at one time fantastically wealthy and then utterly broke; he was once loved and then despised. He had it all and yet, it seemed, he had nothing. All of it was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Tim Challies

To see Jackson over the years is to see the chronicle of a man who did not take his pain and sin to the Cross, and instead of experiencing God’s regenerating grace, attempted his own handmade makeover. It was sad, tragic, and painful to watch….

What Jackson did to himself is what we all do to ourselves outside of Christ. The difference is that Jackson’s failed attempts were all worn obviously, in public view, on the changing tapestry of his face, while we may mask ours better. Dan Phillips

Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson

He had it made. She did as well.

He was world-famous. She was world-famous.

He was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness and converted to Islam. She was reared as a Catholic.

He was a brilliant musician and showman. She was a beautiful and successful actress.

He was the envy of so many. She was the object of lust of so many.

He was one of the Jackson Five. She was one of Charlie’s Angels.

He was an abused child. She played an abused wife.

He was married to Elvis’ daughter, divorced, and had a child by an unknown woman. She was married to a the Bionic Man, divorced, lived with and had a child by another famous actor.

He died today at age 50. She died today at age 62.

His story is incredibly sad. So is her’s.

Our culture both created – and destroyed – both of them.

As far as we know – he died spiritually lost. As far as we know – she died spiritually lost.

What a waste

From one younger Southern Baptist

Those of you who have various versions of autocratic church governments that never give the ordinary hoi polloi the microphone may look down your noses at allowing people to make motions to ban books, adopt flags and boycott Pepsi, but our circus has a lot to commend it over your imitation of the Vatican. Public perception has to go out the window, but meaning what you say about congregationalism, messenger representation and cooperation from the ground up outweighs the spectacle. No one will ever stand up in most of your churches and say something really stupid, and that’s a shame, because the pastor shouldn’t be the only one who gets to have fun.

Read more here.

Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin…

“No, Aleck, no! The danger of ruin to Methodism does not lie here. It springs from quite a different quarter. Our preachers, many of them, are fallen. They are not spiritual. They are not alive to God. They are soft, enervated, fearful of shame, toil, hardship. . . . Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth.” John Wesley

Our greatest danger

“Your danger and mine is not that we become criminals, but rather that we become respectable, decent, commonplace, mediocre Christians. The twentieth-century temptations that really sap our spiritual power are the television, banana cream pie, the easy chair and the credit card. The Christian wins or loses in those seemingly innocent little moments of decision. Ray Ortlund

Zombies…

Top Ten Ways to Ruin Young Pastors.

One of the greatest gifts to the church of Jesus Christ is the emergence of so many gifted, passionate and Gospel-loving young adults in ministry leadership.

One of the responsibilities – and joys – of older guys – like me – is to encourage, cheerlead, run interference for and guide young leaders.

Truthfully, I’ve learned so much more from young leaders than I have taught!

Sometimes, the established church demotivates, disenfranchises and disillusions young leaders.

Jason Stockdale, the Worship Pastor at Hope Church (a young pastor!) shared the following link with me.

Sadly, I believe the comments are on-target in so many churches. Gratefully, these tendencies can be guarded against and reversed.

Here are the Top Ten Ways to Ruin Young Pastors.

10. Promise big things in their interviews, and then pull back on those promises once the family is on site.

9. Do not bother mentoring them or investing in their personal or professional development.

8. Ask them to reach new people, but force them to think the same way as the existing staff.

7. Ask them to bring change, but do not allow them to do anything different.

6. Young Pastor’s Concerns = Never Valid. Member’s Concerns about Young Pastor = Always Valid.

5. Give them responsibility, but do not give them the authority to accomplish those things.

4. Give them greater workloads than other pastors, but also less respect.

3. Say one thing in private meetings, another thing in staff or elder meetings, and another thing in Sunday Worship.

2. Reject their ideas, tell them how to do it, and when it does not work … blame them.

1. Allow your personal insecurities to interpret the young pastor’s words and deeds as attempts to mock you or steal your job.

This post was inspired by some of my past experiences and the tragic stories of a number of friends who have entered vocational ministry with passion and commitment, only to be beaten down by leadership of their churches. Some of them have left vocational ministry, all of us have considered that exit. While these friends were not perfect in every situation, none of them were slackers, whiners, heretics, immoral or insubordinate.

Danny? We thought you said…

The children begged for a hamster; and after the usual fervent vows that they alone would care for it, they got one. They named it Danny. Two months later, when Mom found herself responsible for cleaning and feeding the creature, she located a prospective new home for it.

The children took the news of Danny’s imminent departure quite well, though one of them remarked, “He’s been around here a long time. We’ll miss him.”

“Yes,” Mom replied, “But he’s too much work for one person, and since I’m that one person, I say he goes.”

Another child offered, “Well, maybe if he wouldn’t eat so much and wouldn’t be so messy, we could keep him.”

But Mom was firm. “It’s time to take Danny to his new home now,” she insisted. “Go and get his cage.”

With one voice and in tearful outrage the children shouted, “Danny?! We thought you said Daddy!”

Why planes crash

Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, has a fascinating explanation of why planes crash. There are so many parallels to why teams fail, why ministries get sidelined, and why marriages run into problems.

Plane crashes rarely happen in real life the same way they happen in the movies. Some engine part does not explode in a fiery bang. The rudder doesn’t suddenly snap under the force of takeoff. The captain doesn’t gasp as he’s thrown back against his seat.

The typical commercial jetliner — at this point in its stage of development — is about as dependable as a toaster. Plane crashes are much more likely to be the result of an accumulation of minor difficulties and seemingly trivial malfunctions [emphasis mine].

In a typical crash, for example, the weather is poor — not terrible, necessarily, but bad enough that the pilot feels a little bit more stressed than usual. In an overwhelming number of crashes, the plane is behind schedule, so the pilots are hurrying. In 52 percent of crashes, the pilot at the time of the accident has been awake for twelve hours or more, meaning that he is tired and not thinking sharply. And 44 percent of the time, the two pilots have never flown together before, so they’re not comfortable with each other.

Then the errors start — and it’s not just one error. The typical accident involves seven consecutive human errors. One of the pilots does something wrong that by itself is not a problem. Then one of them makes another error on top of that, which combined with the first error still does not amount to catastrophe. But then they make a third error on top of that, and then another and another and another and another , and it is the combination of all those errors that leads to disaster.

These seven errors, furthermore, are rarely problems of knowledge or flying skill. It’s not that the pilot has to negotiate some critical technical maneuver and fails. The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication [emphasis added]. One pilot knows something important and somehow doesn’t tell the other pilot. One pilot does something wrong, and the other pilot doesn’t catch the error. A tricky situation needs to be resolved through a complex series of steps — and somehow the pilots fail to coordinate and miss one of them.

“The whole flight-deck design is intended to be operated by two people, and that operation works best when you have one person checking the other, or both people willing to participate,” says Earl Weener, who was for many years chief engineer for safety at Boeing. “Airplanes are very unforgiving if you don’t do things right. And for a long time it’s been clear that if you have two people operating the airplane cooperatively, you will have a safer operation than if you have a single pilot flying the plane and another person who is simply there to take over if the pilot is incapacitated.”

10 persons a pastor should fear

1. The guy who “subtly” reminds you how much he gives to the church.He thinks he is buying influence, and because some of his money pays your salary, he thinks he is buying more access to you and more pull with you than others have. Relieve him of this illusion if necessary.

2. The young guy who likes it when you rant against stuff or preach angry. Beware of pleasing young men too much. Young men are notoriously stupid. (I know, ’cause I am one.)

3. The guy or gal who doesn’t like it when you rant against stuff or preach angry. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. If you’re sincerely and reliably preaching the Word, toes are going to be stepped on from time to time. If you’re not being self-indulgent about it and you are speaking the truth, beware those who think you should be more “positive” like those fellows on TV.

4. The lady with the unbelieving or spiritually unsophisticated husband who emails you a lot.
Danger, Will Robinson.

5. The person who finds you right after the message to point out something you got wrong, quibble over a minor point, or mention some other criticism. You are tapped out right after your sermon, and this person will just crush your heart with one soft blow.

6. The person who likes every single one of your sermons.
You ain’t that great, and you know it. Don’t get puffed up.

7. The guy on the theological hobbyhorse. His spiritual energy revolves around the rapture, paedocommunion, Calvinism or Arminianism, evolution, what-have-you and he thinks yours should too. These are distractions especially tempting for nerd pastors like me.

8. The podcast sermon connoisseur who thinks, “You really oughtta listen to what John Piper says about that.” Etc.
This person is a close relative of #5 and sometimes #2.

9. The worship leader who has CD’s of himself. Always use a less talented guy with a submissive heart over a more talented guy who sees his role as a stepping stone to somewhere else.
This is closely related to the pastor who has written books.

10. God

Originally appeared here

President Obama at Notre Dame

I’ve debated within myself whether to give my thoughts on the President’s speech at Notre Dame. I have hesitated, because I am neither Catholic nor a fan of the “fighting Irish.” Rudy is my only real exposure to Notre Dame.

Today, I came across a brief article that sums up my own thinking. Brian Paulus writes…

For a major Catholic University to bestow an honorary Doctorate of Law degree on a pro-choice president is tantamount to a major Planned Parenthood agency honoring Randall Terry for his achievements–totally inconsistent with its stated purposes.

The long-term damage this does to the pro-life movement could be monumental. A huge message has been sent forth to Catholics everywhere, and that message extends beyond the issue of abortion. It’s a statement that says, “prestige over principles, and popularity over morality.” Somewhere along the line, the administration of the Fighting Irish quit fighting . . .