"Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain": Is What You've Built Headed for Ruin?

"And every one that heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened unto a foolish man, which built
his house upon the sand:

And the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon
that house; and it fell: and great was
the fall of it." (Matthew 7: 26,27).

"MacArthur Park is melting in the dark,
all the sweet, green icing flowing down;
someone left a cake out in the rain,..--
Richard Harris, 1968"


This is a hard one. Earlier this month I
couldn't get that classic piece of
exhilaratingly negative foreboding,
O Fortuna, out of my mind.
It was election month,
what can I say?

Now, it's MacArthur Park.
After several rebukes it still
did not go away so I decided
to make it work for me. Last night I had
a great time in the Word looking
up every instance of "cake" and
"rain" in the bible. Two worthy
studies that I highly recommend.

It doesn't take a theologian or a spiritual
director to tell you that something
has gone terribly wrong with our
responsibility to be true to the gospel.
Lee Grady recently spoke of a
"charismatic meltdown" and his
article doesn't touch the tip of the iceberg.

A "MacArthur Park" type frosting malfunction
in wide layers of the current charismatic
movement, along with many of the other
emerging or receding movements within
Christendom, are indeed, "melting in the
dark" of their own making.

We really need to put out the
"no vacancy" sign with folk who would be
careless or crazy enough to leave
"a cake out in the rain." We honor
people who are dishonor Christ, we
embrace false teaching and a false
gospel and we don't notice the difference.
If this is the kind of people we have
become we can anticipate big trouble
ahead.

As silly as it sounds, we have,
spiritually, left a lot of cakes
out in the rain. We do not really seek
after the lost, we do not really tend to
the lambs, we ignore the basic
things that God has called us to
as believers: forgiveness, reconciliation,
care of the poor, love. Our ideas and
our actions seem good to us now, but what
will hindsight and the judgment of God reveal?

I ask myself this as much as I ask you.
Scripture says "There is a way that seems
right to a man, but its end is the way
of death (Proverbs 14:12)."


The old time Pentecostals, Jimmy Swaggart
I think, used to sing, "Its beginning to rain"
--that song was about the Holy
Spirit coming. I know many people
are expecting a rain of universal
revival but most of that expectation
does not seem to be scripturally
supported. What is promised is
a great "falling away" and also
the saving of the remnant of
Israel, but that not without
unimaginable tribulation.
Somehow we think deception will
happen somewhere else, but what
if it is happening to us and
we fail to notice it? Isn't
that what the Deceiver would want?

Here in the above passage
Jesus speaks of another kind of rain--
a rain so fearsome that it will
level your house if you don't build
it carefully. That kind of rain, and
wind, and flood are starting to get
their storm mojo on, so better check the
footings and board up the windows,
here it all comes.

Brothers and sisters, we all need
to be in our place--we need to be
building where and what God wants us
to build with His building materials
or what we build will most assuredly
melt. In truth it is not we who
build but God and unless He
build it, we labor in vain that
build (Psalm 127:1).

Beloved, lots of things are
being constructed: jerry-built to
high heaven but never capable
of reaching it. Lots of things
look good on the outside but
will never weather a storm.
I'm not talking about things
outside of Christianity, but
INSIDE it, things very close to
you, things you may believe
and perhaps things you practice.

Let's face it, we need to ask
ourselves if we have left our
glorious First Love to run after lesser
things--after signs and wonders,
after prestige, or comfort, after power in
any form, or praise of men, or
the things of this world brought
into our heads and our homes, or the ways
of this world brought into
our churches. The list goes
on and is almost endless.

What we need to do is hold up all
that is being said and done,
both individually and corporately,
under the piercing light of
Scripture and measure it
against the character of our
Most Holy God.

What are we building and who
are we building with? A friend
of mine has been trying, for over
a year, to build a rather large
outbuilding. By now she's hired
a large squad of people, and just
about every last one of them has
completely wrecked his portion
of the work. Even the cement
in the foundation wasn't right,
so you can imagine. Something
that should have taken 3 months
has now taken a year and 3 months.
We need to ask ourselves how are
houses have been built. I hope
they stand up when hell and high
water come.

God says that two cannot walk
together unless they agree (Amos 3:3).
You should not build with someone who
is not of the same Spirit.
Wheat and tares may grow together
until the end but they have two
TOTALLY different agendas and
two totally different destinies.

God does not want us to build
out of our carnality or with
those with whom we are unequally
yoked and that comes in all kinds
of ways. God allows us to
make choices, and He knows we make
foolish ones. He also knows the
consequences: its much worse than
a melted, rain soaked cake.

This is a time for us to make
some serious choices about who
we build with, and what we build with,
and what we are building.
We have to know each other by the Spirit
and we have to know what post we
are meant to stand at. It can't be
a matter of the cake being left
out in the rain and "someone" else,
we don't know who, being responsible.
If everyone is on crack it
doesn't bring glory to God.

As Christians we need to be
accountable to God and to each other.
We need to each stand in our
place just as each family stood
in its place in the time of Nehemiah
while they rebuilt the wall.
All of us, without exception,
cannot assume we are in the
right place. Its time to seek
the Lord so we know where we stand
and where to stand.

You see, the Kingdom of God is
being built and God allows us
to be part of that. Will our
part be found wanting? shabby?
unusable? Will we have compromised
the Gospel? For surely our work will
all be tested by an Inspector
with a keen Eye and the
resources to shake the living
heck out of the foundation
and everything on top of it.

I fear so much of what we, what I,
have built will be quickly annihilated
when the rain comes. We think
things are sturdy but they
are cardboard. We think it is
right, but it is wrong. We
don't build from the building
code of the Spirit, with the
blueprint of Christ, under
the authority of God. We do
not check the written standards
of His Word. We may have set our
standards far too low, or associate with
those who have. Shoddy builders.
Folks who would leave the cake
out in the rain.

How often do we see people
building their house on stilts
by the ocean and then having
it knocked down by the next
"perfect storm?" Do we not learn?
If we build in that neighborhood,
we will undoubtedly share that
fate.

We need to exercise wisdom, we
need to listen to God, we need
to associate with those who are
building wisely. Many will lose
that which they have built on
emotion or feeling or spiritual
thrill-seeking or even good
intentions apart from what
God has asked of them. God is a
God of miracles but Jesus said also
that a wicked and adulterous
generation seeks after a sign
(Mat 16:4). God is a God of mercy,
but He is also a God of justice.

Our building will be tested and
we must be prepared for it. There
is every possibility we can
survive the hour of testing intact,
but so many of us, individually and
corporately, are in danger
of massive wind, rain, and flood
damage. At this point, its not too
late to build to last. It may soon be.

Dear ones, it is beginning to rain,
so if you see, sweet, green, icing
flowing down the outside of your
house, know you are in trouble.
Don't say I didn't warn you.

Oh, and as for MacArthur Park,
named after that noteworthy American
general, for many years it fell
into the hands of drug dealers
and gangsters and was known for
its high murder rate. In recent
years it has undergone revitalization
and is on the upswing.

There is always hope.


knowing God
true and false prophets
charismatic movement
deception
knowing God
heresy
Matthew 7:26,27
discernment
MacArthur Park

Killing The Homeless Man from Berlin

Killing The Homeless Man from Berlin

I have still been ruminating on the whole
stumblingblock issue. Mostly trying to
understand why I have been so aggravated
lately by issues of legalism. Then the other
night I had this dream that I must tell you about.

I dreamt that I was with a friend and
we were in a national park. My friend
opened the trunk of the car and, in plain
view, was a pipe. It was the kind that Sherlock
Holmes smoked. I thought to myself,
“The park ranger is coming around and
I wish my friend wouldn't leave the pipe
out in the open, it will cause the
ranger to think we have drugs.”

Sure enough, the ranger pulls up,
and sees the pipe. Of course my
friend conveniently disappears, leaving
me to answer the ranger's questions. I am
aggravated. The ranger asks what
we were doing with the pipe. My friend
had purchased the pipe the previous day
to “ebay” it.

I told her, "If I told you the real
reason, you wouldn't believe me,"
and I walked away." She continued
to ask me questions and surmised I
was innocent but said, "We need to
ask you further questions so you will
have to come to the center."

Oh, great. She takes me to a center
that is a Jewish Community Center.
It is suddenly December and the people
are decorating for “the holidays.”
The director shows me a picture of
a jolly, red-cheeked, Santa Claus,
circa 1940 or 1950, the kind you
would see on the cover of the
Saturday Evening Post during its
heyday. She points to him and
whispers slyly, "We can't celebrate
Christmas." She points to the Santa.
“We have to call him,
'The Homeless Man From Berlin' so
we can still celebrate Christmas
without controversy or offence.”

Indeed.

We are so willing to make it
easy for ourselves and I am still
struggling with the problem of not
causing others to stumble by my
free actions.

Let's discuss a stereotypical problem
in this area, since meat sacrificed
to idols is usually not available at
Stop and Shop.

I want to have a drink
but the people I fellowship with
don't think alcohol is something
a Christian should have. Ok, so
do I really need the drink? No.
Could I have a drink away from them?
Yes. But then what if I go out
with that nice John Freeman to a
restaurant and we decide to have
a glass of imported wine?
South African. But in walk my
nosy tea-totalling friends
who sit right next to me.

I'll tell you where the principle
of this matter is going
to stick with me. I am going to
feel like my life is being
hampered by the judgments of
others, others whom I perceive to
be either weaker or, more likely,
annoyingly legalistic. Weaker I
can deal with, legalistic will
make me angry.

So I think to myself, how can I go
the higher route? What am I missing
here besides a nice vintage? God is
holding out an opportunity for
me to go to a higher place,
a place where I don’t feel held back,
a place that is true freedom. If I look
at it this way, I would trade the
nice vintage for a chance to
go higher in God.

I also think that I might gladly
give up something if I thought
someone were just learning and
didn't know the Lord very well.
But I guess that I have just
realized that if I think you
are a legalistic pain you might run
hard up against my cold shoulder.
What kind of help would God
want to offer the legalistic through
me? I wonder. I don’t think I’ve
gotten that far past my annoyance
to ask yet. I do know that Jesus
was holding something out to
Pharisees when he exercised His
liberty in front of them. He was
also exercising His liberty
when He went meekly to the cross.


Enter 'The Homeless Man From
Berlin.' In my dream my
intent was being questioned and
I was sent to a place that thought
it was a center of "spiritual
correctness." I interpret the
Jewishness of the Center to mean
the Law apart from Christ. It could
easily have been the First
Assembly of Christian Pharisees.
I certainly am not singling
out anything Jewish.

The folks in the center wanted to
party and celebrate but
it went against their tradition.
So they changed things to
accommodate the situation so
that no one would be offended.

It is funny, being that it was
my dream, that it was not
a picture of Jesus causing trouble:
it was just Santa causing a stir.
Jesus didn't even make the
conversation. He was so far out
of the picture He didn't even
make a blip on their Christmas
screen. Can you imagine if it
were Jesus? Yes, lets.

Couldn’t we call Jesus, “The Homeless
Man from Berlin?” Think about
it. Did not Jesus come to His
own and His own did not receive
Him? Did He not have a place to
lay His head? And what
might we think of when we think
of Berlin? Nazis!

It wasn't just the Jews that
stumbled over Jesus, it was
the Aryan nation also. Jesus
as He is would not have been someone
that Hitler wanted or would welcome.
The flesh fights against the Spirit.
Oh, does this ever cut across things!

But before you think that I am pointing
fingers, I will point one back at me
for a moment. When I feel my
"Christian liberty" being infringed
upon, is it my flesh reacting, or
my spirit?

Discerning this will help me immensely.
Discerning this might also be a
challenge. Am I innocently and
obediently living as a free person
in the Kingdom of God or is my walking
in the flesh becoming so refined that
I fail to recognize it until it's tell-tale,
touchy nature is aggravated? In claiming
my right to walk in freedom, am
I still walking in the flesh? Am I just
making things how I want them to be and
calling it freedom? Ouch.

Why would the folks in this dream
Center be ok with celebrating
a homeless man from Berlin?
Well, it is something they could
feel in a position of strength about,
a social issue they could rally around.
"Oh, the poor homeless man, let's
remember the homeless on this
holiday, we in our fine homes,
yes, lets remember the faceless
bums who live on some street other
than ours. Let's have someone bring
them a box with some ham and some
yams." That’s really what Christmas is
all about anyway, right?

The spirit of religiousity runs
deep. The flesh runs deep. We need
to take care that the flesh is
being continually dealt with
so that its latent appearance
does not subtly rise up in the
form of a self-constructed liberty
and deceive us.

And Berlin? That which had been
the enemy of our soul and of our
nation, has fallen from power,
(or so we think), so we can pity
it with refugee programs, and not
oppose it strongly. Underestimating
Babylon is a mistake.

We need to oppose the flesh strongly,
especially the most stubborn
roots of it hidden deep within ourselves.

What separates freedom in Christ from
disguised fleshly liberty is the
amount of aggravation that arises
when my freedom is taken away from
me or I feel that I have to "lay
it down." Like I’m making some
big sacrifice. Oh, Please!

I forget so quickly that I am the Lord's
bondslave. Love works in a completely
different way. Period end. Love trumps
any freedom the law allowed me with
an absolute joyful enslavement to Christ.
Whatever technicality of license I might
have eked out of the law pales at the level of
devotion and obedience I can lavish upon
Christ simply because I love Him.
When I feel put upon I must ask
Christ what grace I am missing.

Renaming a holiday to make
it serve me and my purposes
is not my right. Neither can
I rename Jesus to make Him what
I would like Him to be.

I ask you, “What kind of Jesus do you worship?”
Have you given Him a name or a moniker
that does not due Him justice? Is He Jesus,
Merely Meek and Mild? Jesus, Good Teacher?
Jesus, Purpose-Driven Political Preacher?
Jesus, Prosperity Guru? Jesus, Zen Master?

Jesus, Fielder of My Dreams? Jesus, Lord of
My Sunday Mornings? Jesus, King of My
Marketing Ideas? Jesus, Shaman of Mystical
Encounters? Jesus, Power Broker?

Unless He is Jesus, Lord of All and Everything
He is not Jesus at all.


My "christian liberty" frees me to do
one thing: follow Christ completely
without restraint: make Him completely
my Lord, become entirely like Him.
I no longer look in the rule
book to see if I can do something. The
bar is much higher than that.
Now I look to Christ in every and
all circumstances. Legalism gives
way to relationship. Nothing and
no-one but Christ dictates to me
what I can do.

Let God take care of legalism.
He knows just how to do it.
I don't have to cold shoulder it
or flaunt something in its face.
It will self-destruct because
of its own self-righteous inward
pressure.

May my goal to be how to
follow Jesus into a higher
place, even laying down
all and any of my “rights”
to win something far greater than
fine wine: the knowledge of Christ alone!
May I call Him “Lord” and nothing
else.

Dear friends, kill “the homeless
man from Berlin”, and all
gods made in and for our purposes.
Living and True One, come visit me.
Shatter everything that is not true.

brotherly love
grace
stumblingblock
Christian dream interpretation
Christian freedom
Christian liberty

"Bong Hits 4 Jesus" & $67 Million Dollar Pants: The Sad Difference between the Letter of the Law and the Spirit of the Law

Yesterday I listened with horror and incredulity
to two of the lead stories on the news: one
was the verdict of the judge (God help us) who
sued a dry cleaner for $67 million dollars because
they had lost his trousers. He felt they did not
live up to their bargain of "satisfaction
guaranteed" and thus suffered "emotional damages."
If a grown man in the capacity of a judge suffers
emotional damage from losing his trousers, especially
when he wasn't even wearing them, then the measure
of manhood has really gone downhill fast.

The other story concerns a ruling that went
all the way to the Supreme Court of our nation
that argued whether a school principal had
acted past her authority in tearing down
a poster at a graduation at a school she
presided over. The banner said, "Bong Hits
4 Jesus."

So what I am pondering today is the difference
between the letter of the law, and the spirit
of the law, and in our interaction with God,
the difference between law and relationship.

First of all, let me say this, I think we
are in a scary place as a nation because while we
rightly try? to enforce our laws, our
interpretation or re-interpretation of them
is based not on common sense or a sense of
what is truly right, but on the tense and structure
of the words and how others have parsed out
their meaning in other courtrooms and situations.

I remember as an undergrad that for a brief
season I thought of becoming a lawyer. I
ruled it out when I saw that a terribly
guilty person could get off scott-free
because I was, as a lawyer, a very clever
arguer. It seemed that the law sometimes had
less to do with the facts and more to do
with who was best at putting them together
to their advantage. The spirit of the law
was most often missed.

Let's apply this to our relationship with
God. God gave us the Law, for many reasons,
but one of them was so that we did not
go far astray while we were getting to
know who He was and what He was like.
The law was meant as a tutor to bring us
past the point where we needed a tutor:
we would have learned our studies and
would enter into genuine and right
relationship with God (Galatians 3:24, 25).

God's law is not about interpreting itself,
but about looking for what God meant
when He created it. Since we have divorced
God and government, we do not look for God's
mind or will in our law interpretation. This
leaves us only with the body of Law as god so to
speak.

But in spiritual circles we may be no
better. Do we just want to know what
God wants and not truly engage in relationship
with Him? Do we try to get by with the
least amount of relationship with God as
possible? Do we prefer to send Moses (the
leader) up the mountain to encounter
God but wait down in the safety of
the valley ourselves?

How many times have you heard arguments
about how far away from God someone can go
and still be "saved"? To argue and think in
such a manner is to live by the law and
not relationship. Why would you want the
least amount of salvation when you could
have the most? How many times have
I heard hours and hours of argument about
the meaning of a scripture when there is
not a commensurate amount of time
spent seeking God Himself about what
He meant?

When we argue over the meanings of
scripture, we are often looking for loopholes
or to reduce the scriptures to something we
ourselves correctly interpret. Again, where
is relationship with God? If the law is a
tutor, then one day I should not only understand
the letters, but understand the Spirit behind Law,
and that Spirit is not just some metaphysical
principle, but an actual Living Person: the Spirit
of God. He should have a preeminent place in
my heart, should inform my thinking, monitor
my speaking, and show me the Way to the Father.
Until I know how to fully cooperate with Him
and hear His Voice, I need to keep getting
tutored!

As for the secular part of this, what we
have to face as Christians is that up until
a few years ago you could talk about
Christian values and American values and
at least put them in the same family tree,
but that is less and less the case and we
need to be careful not to forget the
growing rift between the two.

Still, where is the spirit of the Law?
The bong poster case (the right for
the young person to display this
poster at the graduation) lost by only
1 vote. Do I believe in the right
to free speech? Yes, but only
to the degree that God does. God
allows man free will: the freedom to
do what he wants, at least for a season.
But God also warns that some forms of speech
are hurtful and many forms of speech are
inappropriate.

In the world, yes, the ancient world
I grew up in, it was the duty of parents
to show young people where they were
going wrong, not to support their
attempts to disrupt, mock, or outright
disdain authority, religion, or the
rights of others to engage peacefully
in the normal events of life.

Only a few decades ago if this had
happened, the young person responsible
would probably have been grounded
or should I say, get the biggest
whipping of their life for disrupting
a school graduation with inflammatory
signs and for shaming the name of the
family. Now it goes all the way to the
Supreme Court and loses by only one vote?

Even if I am only using common sense,
should I not come to the conclusion
that $67 million dollars retribution for
a lost pair of pants is idiocy, or
that my darling, by still morally
challenged teenager, should not be
allowed to disrupt public events
for no real reason other than a
a good laugh? Young people can't see
where life might take them if they
are not properly schooled in both
moral as well as academic subjects.
Paris Hilton probably has a slightly
different take on things then she
did a few months ago. Life lessons
are often costly ones.

When the Law of God is separated from
its Maker, or in secular government,
separated from a clear sense of
moral obligation, concern for well-being
of my neighbor, and the long-term common
sense of a nation, and replaced with
the selfish agendas of power-arguers, or
the insane, then there is sure to be trouble.

There already is. Be prepared for more.
Be prepared, also, to turn back to simple
relationship with God. Start there. The
rest will take care of itself. God is able
to direct all who ask Him for direction.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and
instruction (Proverbs 1:7).

current events
the spirit of the law
God's law
faith in America
knowing God
bong hits for Jesus
supreme court rulings
the letter of the law
<

The Centrality of Preaching the Gospel of Christ

The centrality of Christ needs proclaiming in
New England. I live in New England and we are
not currently known for having strong
preachers of the gospel.

But that was not always the case. New England
witnessed incredible revivals under the preaching
of such men as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield,
Charles Finney, James Redfield.

I attended a meeting here in New England the
other night where a guest preacher from the
southern United States let it rip. It was what
southerner's call "down home preaching."
It wasn't the stereotypical screaming preacher
you hear late nights on the radio. This man
was scriptural, educated, witty, and still
could drive the point clean to the center
of your heart with the two-edged sword.

He kept at it for a politically incorrect long time.
He kept at it when we missed his cues to shout
"Amen, preach it, brother!" back it him. (We
northerners can be slow to shout in the middle
of sermons.) He was the kind of man who would
keep at it if we were throwing rotten eggs at
him or had a gun put to his head. May God
increase his numbers.

I sat there thinking how crucial the uncompromised
preaching of the gospel is to the gospel, to New
England, and to our nation at this ever-darkening
hour.

I just saw Mark Driscoll on YouTube.
It's refreshing to see a man stand up for the
preaching of the gospel and to call men
to present Jesus as He really is. Jesus was not a
naive hippie who advocated aromatherapy
and peace marches as a cure for the world's sin
besotted state. (No offence intended toward
hippies in general or aromatherapy in particular).

Jesus is the Lord of Lords and calls all people
to follow Him completely and without reserve,
even unto death. He calls for men with the
gospel of God burning in their bones to stand
up and preach it without reserve. How
societally incorrect.

Paul said that the gospel is the "power of God
unto salvation" (Romans 1:16). He also asks,
"How can they call on Him in whom they have
not believed, and how shall they believe in
Him who they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach unless they be sent? (Romans
10:14,15.

When was the last time you really heard
the thunderous message of the gospel
preached to you, regardless
of where you live? Let us implore
heaven to ensure godly preachers get to
preaching and then, keep preaching.

Jesus went about preaching, teaching and
healing the sick. He was not known to
hold back. His disciples covered the world
with his message, each dying martyr's
death, save John, who was still probably
preaching in his 90's. John, the one who
left us the Book of Revelation to chew on
as his farewell tome. Not exactly beach or
bedside reading.

We will not have revival, we will not
even have healthy churches, biblical
conversion, or even understand what God
demands of us if the uncompromised gospel of
Christ is not preached from our pulpits
and street-corners.

This does not take away from teachers
and encouragers and those called to
other forms of service. We are all
called to LIVE the gospel and preach
it by any means possible. The kingpin
I speak of here is the verbal proclamation
of the gospel through anointed preaching.
And the punchline of that preaching has
to be Christ crucified, resurrected and
reigning supremely in our lives--not just
in theory but in incarnational truth.

If we preach a gospel that is unclear or
substandard we sound a trumpet
with an unclear message. Noise is
heard but not as a call to repentance,
not as a message requiring utter
obedience to God, not as a herald of the
singularity of the saving work of Christ.

The prophet Jeremiah knew what
it was like to have the word of
God shut up inside him. He knew
what it was like to HAVE to preach.
The word of God should be like a
fire shut up inside. Fire burning
in one's bones (Jeremiah 20:9).

I known at least one world-class,
big-league preacher. He is not
the kind of man who would be
sitting around on a Saturday night
thinking, "Gee, I wonder whatever
I could preach about in the morning?"
The fire is burning within. People
like this get sick or explode
if they can't get the word out.

But so often "another" gospel is heard
and preached in our pulpits. It is the
gospel of politics, or the gospel of
self-improvement, or the gospel of
financial success, or the gospel of
popularity or the gospel of American
values, or the gospel of how we hope
religion could be. The list is endless.
But there is only one gospel and it
is God's gospel and that Gospel
is all about the kingdom of our God
and of His Christ and His imminent
reign for ever and ever.

Can somebody say "amen"?

Our hearts will not get to the place
where they need to be unless the
gospel is preached to us. Not just
to "accept" Jesus, as if He needed our
acceptance, but to make Him
absolute Lord over every area of
my life and yours. Have you heard
that kind of preaching lately?

If you haven't, then start praying
for the preaching of the gospel to
be raised up in the place where
you go to church. If you are ever
in New England and hear preaching
coming from the ground, it is not
the rocks crying out. It is the fiery
spit of gospel preachers who have
gone before us, preachers who did
not know the meaning of the
word compromise, rising up from the
ground. If only for their sake's
the gospel of God is sure to rise
up again here in New England.

"Preach the word, in season and
out of season" (2 Tim. 4:2). It is
certainly what it necessary to the
salvation of our very souls, and it
is certainly out of season.

In the next post or two I will be
talking about impediments to
the preaching of the gospel.
I hope you'll stop by and have a
look.


preaching the gospel
spiritual ignorance
Jonathan Edwards
Mark Driscoll
revival in New England
preaching
the gospel in America

Whatever Happened to Relationship with Jesus?

I wonder what someone would look like, sound like, be like if they were just about "being with Jesus" and not about "everything else" in the culture of Christianity, or even Evangelical Christianity or especially even charismatic or postmodern or emergent Christianity. Hey, if I'm about to spread buckshot, I might as well spread it evenly! :)

In the blogosphere, as well as in Christianity at large, it seems important to have a niche and be properly labeled, like it used to be in high school. Only now we don't grow out of labeling, we develop it until it glows supremely in the dark. This makes some folks "in," some way "out," some "slithering reptiles," some "adorable rodents," some just regular folks and some, well, "wascally wabbits." Y'all are just too funny.

Where would the apostle Paul land in today's dog pile? At http://mars-hill.blogspot.com? Where would John? (I guess they never did get a decent ISP on Patmos, which left him lots of time to experience and record the Book of Revelation... I begin to rest my case!) More importantly, where would Jesus be found as He waits for His Bride without spot or wrinkle?

As I have tried to make my way into the exploding world of the Christian blog sphere I find it a not-so-miniature and completely ready for prime-time version of modern day Christianity in all its vast (dis)array. I find unlikely bedfellows everywhere: little bubbles of people here, large balloons of people there with cross alliances that put the cast of Survivor to shame. I see lots of politics and faith: Republicans and "of course" kind of faith; other-than-Republicans and "we're Christians, too," kind of faith. Sorry, I just "calls them as I sees 'em". But wouldn't it be a great testimony to have one long, long blogroll of people who "just follow Jesus wherever He goes", no further labels?

I see people who once were A's and then became Z's now becoming reformed M's or maybe Emergently Reformed AMZ's which is nothing like the AoG (Rich?) because of their more "modern" redemption theology which puts them all the way back to being nearly Catholic because of an alliance made with the ZMA schism which broke off of the Episcopal sector, American side, that is.

I'm suddenly humming, "What if God were one of us, .... just a stranger on a bus, trying to make His way"....well, around what everyone is claiming to be His kingdom or His blogdom. It is very easy to try and make God in our own image. But God is an Image Smasher and a good One at that. "And you thought I was just like you" (Psalm 50:21).

I still want to know what someone would look like if they just worked on developing mature, deep and intimate relationship with Jesus? You know, just loved God with all their heart, soul and mind? No politics except those of the Lord's Prayer, not able to discuss theology until it had been made flesh in them: simple, unadorned relational faith. You know, "hearts strangely warmed." A radical, seemingly quaint thought, and one that might produce poor blogshares ratings and no feed subscriptions at all. :( When Jesus returns, will He find faith in the blogosphere?

God deserves our wholehearted attention: every ounce of who we are. Maybe we all won't, and aren't meant to, look exactly the same cloned way once we give Him our "all and everything," but maybe we all would look a bit more like Him or what He is looking for in His Bride. I'm hopelessly old-fashioned, I know. But God never changes and that makes Him more eons more old-fashioned then me. He seems keep telling us, "Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God" (Micah 6:8). What do you think?

Jesus Christ
Christianity
relationship with Jesus
Christian blogging

More Forgiveness: Heaven & Hell Amongst the Amish

Ok, while I was composing the last blog entry on forgiveness, I decided to talk about something else that bothers me. First off, the families of those dear little Amish girls that were murdered have my complete and total sympathy. The young girls who stepped forward and said, "Kill me first" acted completely as Christians. I hope that would have been my reaction in the same situation. What a witness to the world. How warmly must they have been embraced in our Father's loving arms as they too quickly left this world to meet Him.

I guess what I want to talk about is how we glorify the Amish lifestyle wholeheartedly without really knowing that it has a darker side. People pour millions of dollars into Lancaster County to go and see what they think is a pure, simple lifestyle. The sad fact is that human nature is human nature and no matter how much you try to escape from the evil ways of man, you can't do it.

For at many of those the lovely Amish farms, apparently glowing with peace and godliness, are untold horrors in the barn. It is a well-documented but little known fact that the Amish run some of the most inhumane and hellish puppy mills in the United States. Just type "Amish puppy mills" into Google and see what you find. Click on these to get started:
Heart United for Animals
Humane Society,
New Jersey Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse;
Puppy Mill Articles and TV Reports;

Read them and weep. These poor animals are kept in atrocious conditions, abused and living in nothing short of a hell for the sake of greed. Is this the picture of the Amish that you have? Perhaps we all need to look a little deeper. I am not saying that all Amish are like this. But the facts speak for themselves.

There is no excuse for what happened to those innocent girls. There is also no excuse for what is happening to thousand upon thousand of innocent animals in Amish communities. God sees all. Nothing escapes His notice. Nothing in anyone's religion, much less Christianity, would find this conscionable. We are meant to be caretakers of the earth, not pawnbrokers, torturers, and murderers! Pray for God's mercy and the end to such atrocities. I'm going back to my article on forgiveness and work on it doing it some more. May God have mercy on all creatures, great and small.

Amish
puppy mills
forgiveness
current events

Pirates, Pluralism and The Gospel

Have you noticed there seem to be a lot of pirates springing up lately? I thought we were worried about illegal immigrants but we seem to have a homegrown group of buccaneers springing up on the American landscape. I'm wondering how they will fit into an already crowded horizon of organically odd blossoms. Perhaps our soil is going off. Perhaps too much fertilizer.

It was an easier day when freedom of worship, and liberty mostly did not conflict with one another in such cataclysmic ways. While many of the early Americans where Christians of some sort, I am not sure that they had a clear sense of how challenging it would be to be American and Christian in the 21st century. After all, those fathers were dealing with an infant nation, not a teenage one.

If push comes to shove, were our founding fathers Christians first, or worshippers of freedom first? I am not trying to be controversial but the American Revolution was a rebellion against authority. We wanted our freedom and we used guns and force to get it. Granted, we wanted to worship in peace, but the bible seems to say, "Obey those that have the rule over you" (Hebrews 13:17) and "Honor the king" (2 Pet 2:13) a command that seems to be only circumventable if those authorities ask you to worship someone other than God. The Boston Tea Party, as I understand it, was about taxes and fair representation not religion. It was about doing what you want on your own terms. Talk about a little "pirattitude."


I'm wondering how far America can stretch herself in making room for others on a moral level and how American Christians fit into that. How far can we, as Christians, stretch the very fabric of the gospel itself before it splits in our attempt to be tolerant? What will happen when Al Qaeda terrorist sleeper cells start asking for health care benefits and retirement plans? Are we not forced at some point to choose between our committment to our country and our committment to Christ?

What I am really asking is whether America is going to decide to define herself primarily as a free nation that offers tolerance to all, even those who would prove harmful, or as a Christian or Judeo-Christian nation that has a moral responsibility to God to allow freedom within reasonable, moral, and biblical boundaries?

Will Christians go back to being a minority, or, for those who sense we already are, how will we stand our ground? Do we lock ourselves in the gospel fort battening down the hatch against our enemies? Do we invade the new cultures and christianize them? Perhaps plant a Christian Pirates Gospel Association? If one feels called to piratry, perhaps the best we can do is hope to make it a civilized "christian" piratry. What would Jesus do if America was His? I wonder.

This morning, Good Morning America had a segment on the movie, Jesus Camp, the highly debated movie looking at one way of fighting back the moral confusion and, dare I say it, sin, facing us today. One of the GMA hosts, Chris Cuomo, I believe, said something to the effect of "I grew up as a Christian but Jesus was talked about in terms of love then." Indeed. Now He is becoming "Jesus, Mean and Wild" and folks don't know what to do with it.

We as Christians better use this time to make up our minds. I'm not giving up on America but it is really up to us as individuals to decide what God would have us do. How can we best love God and love our neighbor? Should we be involved with politics or retire to the hills? Step forward and be seen as militant or step silently and fight from the prayer closet? We have some decisions to make. Some may be made for us. Two that will always be personally mine to make are "Am I loving God above all else?" and "How can I best love my neighbor, even if he is a pirate?"


Tags:
christianity
Jesus Camp
pirattitude
prophetic
charismatic
current affairs
news and politics

Dorothy, Toto, Poppies and The American Dream

(A prophetic vision)

Dorothy was holding her little dog, Toto, in a scene similar to the one found in the field of poppies in the Wizard of Oz. She was looking at a field of poppies with a look of dismay on her face. The poppies surrounded a typical American-style suburb. There was no one in sight as everyone had fallen asleep just like Dorothy had in the movie.

I asked, "What caused them to go to sleep?" I saw four causes: I saw a television with its sound on.... the sound from the television had caused people to go to sleep. Next, I saw a preacher in the pulpit, it was kind of a stereotypical preacher, his words also had lulled people to sleep. I saw a supermarket and saw that people had overeaten and fallen asleep on their couches. I saw a swimming pool, and people in their backyards with motorcycles and sports gear, etc. I thought, "What is wrong with a swimming pool?" I heard a voice say, "People are spiritually asleep because they have pursued 'the American Dream" and have not pursued first the Kingdom of God. "

my commentary:

I believe the television represents the effects of television, and the larger effects of our culture on our spiritual lives. It steals our time, negatively effects our perception, dulls our sensitivities and offers a world view that is often not in line with God's ways.

It was disconcerting to see the preacher as a cause of people's going to sleep. Yet, in our pulpits what is being preached? How much of it is just psycho-babble, or the theology and reasoning's of men, or sweet nothings lacking power and truth? How much is all wrapping, and no content? Even in evangelical churches the very idea of what the atonement means is being re-worked to better suit our modern sensibilities.

And what of our sinful excesses of the flesh? We overeat to cover our emptiness. We try to quiet the still, small voice of God by swallowing enormous portions of french fries and ice cream and cake far in excess of what is necessary or healthful either physically or spiritually?

And what of the very basis of our society? How many of us worship at the alter of "the American Dream?" I don't think God has a problem with us living in a house and enjoying things, including our swimming pools. But if we put pursuing those material things first (and although we say we don't, we do by the way we use our time and resources) there is a problem. On any given summer Sunday are more suburban folk at their children's soccer games or at church? watching football or serving the poor?

The other part of this vision concerns the poppies. We say we are fighting the war on terror, but the largest cash crop in Afghanistan is poppies (opium) harvested for drugs to be sold largely to the suburbs and cities of the western world in the form of heroin. Don't tell me that a lot of that money does not end up in the hands of the very people who are seeking to destroy us. Through illicit drug use we are opening the door to our own destruction and the destruction of our children and bankrolling our enemies while we are at it. Of course if they were the defenders of God that they claim to be they wouldn't be doing this, but that is another story.

In the original Wizard of Oz, The Cowardly Lion says this, "If we leave her here she will die," said the Lion. 'The smell of the flowers is killing us all. I myself can scarcely keep my eyes open, and the dog is asleep already.'

It was true; Toto had fallen down beside his little mistress. But the Scarecrow
and the Tin Woodman, not being made of flesh, were not troubled by the scent of the flowers."

Not made of flesh. Ah, but we are, and the ungodly but alluring smells and influences are killing us. Toto, representing the younger and smaller of us, even our CHILDREN, are already asleep. Jesus tells us, "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:41).

Put some spiritual coffee on and wake up. Turn the tv off and pray with your kids. Live the way you know you should. Honor God. Watch and pray.