Encouraging Things...

I was at our seniors’ luncheon on Tuesday and was thinking about the past few weeks and how easily we can allow encouraging things to get drowned out by the discouraging things. So I asked the group to name one thing in the last several months that was an encouragement to them. The first two people spoke of how this church is truly unleashing love both in the Body and in our community. That, in and of itself, was an encouragement to me. Of the several I gave, one was hearing how the Blakkolb family felt so loved by their church family (way to go church!) and the other was a lady who saw me shopping with Micah and asked if Micah was autistic. She then began to tell me of this church right on 306 that ministers every month to her sibling who has a special needs child and what a wonderful church it had to be (yeah!!).

And then I read 2 Corinthians 4:1…

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

We carry the glory of Christ’s gospel in our very bodies, though it is true that these bodies are jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7), prone to break, to endure discouragement, even persecution (4:8-12). But, here is the really encouraging thing: we are hard-pressed but never crushed, knock us down but we’re getting back up again, even in our death, we bring life to others if indeed we are living our worship of Jesus in the world around us!! Be encouraged then, for we are more than conquerors in the end…and yes, even now.

Enjoy Life

I have an addiction I need to confess. Ever since we got a Wii for the family and my son, Josiah, got the “Super Mario Bros.” game, I have found myself waiting until everyone goes to bed and playing that game until midnight a couple of nights a week. I think in my attempt to temporarily escape the sorrow of the last couple of weeks, I logged an extra night this week. And after months of playing with Josiah and by myself, I finally got through all of the worlds, collected all of the “star coins” and conquered all the “bosses” in those worlds. It was a journey of excitement, challenge, frustration (it must have taken me 50 tries to get through one of those worlds!) and finally…fun; fun with Josiah and Jordan who always want me to play with them. And fun because, much like life, there were always new challenges. This has been a tough two weeks. We have been challenged by some real tragedies. We need to stay engaged with the families who are hurting. And we need to be reminded to enjoy life (Ecclesiastes 3:22), to take time with your family and to count your days…all to the glory of Christ. One day, the journey will be over.

The Gift of Life

This past Monday was one of the harder days that I have faced in the ministry.  I am sure it was hard for many of you as well!  We as a church mourn for the loss of life at Chardon High School and the shattered families and dreams that resulted from the shooting.  I don’t think anyone got up Monday morning and wondered whether or not we would re-live the experience of Columbine in our schools.  But, God in all of His genius can take the worst moments and turn them on their proverbial head.  I think He is doing it in little ways already.  As my son Josiah came to the church with me Monday evening to pray for the families in our body and outside of our body affected by this tragedy, I was reminded of the treasure of my own children.  I never send them on the bus thinking that they might never come back.  And as we prayed later that evening, with my hand resting on his slim shoulder, I was given the gift of seeing the life that was all around.  I pray for the moment in which God takes this time of anguish and completely reverses it.  But for now, I grieve with those who grieve…and I also embrace that which I have in my life now, which is all-too-easily taken for granted.

"Nobodies"

I was thinking recently about who can make a difference in this world, especially in light of the high profile of politics these days. I was talking to a friend who registered the frustration of how he felt he could not make any difference since he is a “nobody” in the grand scheme of things. As we continue through John’s Gospel, I am also re-reading the Book of Exodus (which will be our sermon series starting in June) and I was caught by a little detail. We know the names of the two mid-wives who protected the Hebrew children from Pharaoh’s insidious law of infanticide - Shiphrah and Puah (Exodus 1:15). Whose name do we not know? Pharaoh’s name! So never assume that your service to Christ is a little thing. The powers-that-be are nothing in the eyes of God compared to the selfless devotion of the so-called “nobodies” in Christ.

The Story of Christ and a Particular Faith

As we have gone through a sermon series at our church called Five Tough Questions, we got to the question of whether or not it is arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way to God. Of course, the problem really arises when we see Jesus Himself proclaiming that He is “the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

We also looked at the extremity of the cross and asked the question, “If God would go to such an extreme as to humble Himself and become human, die a criminal’s death on the cross, have all of humanity’s sin poured onto Him and then judged that humans might be declared ‘not guilty’, ‘cleared of all charges’, then why would He turn around and give a menu of other options?” The cross is nonsense if it is one of a group of viable options!! Nevertheless, I have had more than a few lingering questions presented to me about the exclusive nature of Christ’s work and faith as it has developed from Judaism, from which Christianity springs. After all, as one diligent thinker wrote to me, if Abraham didn’t know who the second Person of the Trinity was and yet God declared Abraham righteous because of what he DID believe, isn’t that a case study to say, “God will save you based on what you know and believe…and it may not be a full-blown expression of faith in Christ”? Here was my response to that excellent question:

I am what one would call a “particularist”, which is a nice way of calling my position an “exclusivist” position. My position is that, to the extent that God has revealed His plan and promises, we must put our trust in them. So, for Abraham, he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (a paradigm that both Paul and James seize upon!). It is faith! But, faith in what? God in general? No, it would be in His promises! Consider what God has just said to Abraham (who already knows that through his seed all the families of the earth will be blessed - Gen. 12:3). “It will be particularly through your own seed that redemption will come. You will not need to adopt Eliezer as an heir. This ‘seed’ will come through you and will become as numerous as the stars in the sky.” And now our verse - “Then he [Abraham] believed in YHWH; and He [YHWH] credited it to him [Abraham] as righteousness.” But, what does “believe in YHWH” mean? Is it not believing in Him as He has presented particulars of the promises that He will keep?

Now, as the OT history unfolds, there are expansions to the promises. He will come from the line of David. So now your object of faith is more developed than it was in Abraham’s time. It is more particular. By the time we arrive at Jesus, it is full-blown developed. In fact, the Pharisees who still cling to Abraham’s promises to the exclusion of the now more-particular promises of God through Jesus stand as condemned (John 8:31-59). What was adequate for saving faith in Abraham’s day (since he certainly would not have known who the second Person of the Trinity was) is no longer adequate because of the expansions.

This, I believe, is why we see Cornelius’ faith in Acts chapter 10 (as Keith Melugin so faithfully pointed out to me even this morning) being rewarded with the whole enchilada, so to speak. He has faith, but because the kind of faith that saves is now a faith in the particulars of what God has currently revealed - Jesus, crucified, dead, buried, risen again, with salvation in His hands for all who would believe - God is faithful to His own character to get an angel to prepare Cornelius; to alert Peter to go to Cornelius (through a preparatory vision and then the voice of the Spirit) and finally, to lay it all out for Cornelius and his household.

It is also why I believe Paul could write so pointedly in Romans 10:9-15 that…

9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.   11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.  13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”

14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

Isn’t Paul unavoidably direct with what does (doesn’t) save? I believe that the Bible will not allow us to escape the fact that all is now under Christ and a realization that one is guilty or that God exists is not enough. Christ is the hub that brings God’s glorious plan/story to its conclusion/its climax! The cross is the axis mundi that all of the other religions were merely hinting at. Anything short of this is to tell an incomplete story, to give only partial advice to a critical (all-critical) question. The point of the cross is to exalt God through Christ by displaying the fullness of His grace and love and justice and to make Him the center of our worship (Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-20). And this is where I must trust in the character and omnipotence of God to get the message to those whom I (nor anyone else) can reach, even as I reach out to people to whom I can get the message.

A Tale of Two Robertsons

I don’t normally call people out in public forums since I don’t believe we know all that has happened in any given particular situation where someone has acted badly (nor do I want to be plucking out splinters from eyes when I have “plank” issues of my own). And I usually don’t seek people like atheist Christopher Hitchens to give me inspiration on what to do or say. He is an “angry elf” who hates religion (particularly Christianity) with a breathtaking vehemence and thinks people like me are the worst kind of blithering idiot.

Nevertheless, Hitchens made a convicting statement in his book God Is Not Great that has been hard to shake for me. He noted how Christians have too often stood on the sidelines when they should have denounced something…especially if it comes from within their ranks. Well, I have stood silent for too long after Pat Robertson gave televised advice to a viewer who asked about a friend whose wife has Alzheimer’s disease. He is bitter at God for allowing this condition and is seeing another woman and believes he should be allowed to divorce his wife. Robertson’s advice? Here is what he said, “I hate Alzheimer’s… That person is gone, they are gone. What he says is basically correct. I know this sounds cruel, but he should divorce her and start all over again. But, he should make sure she has custodial care and someone looking after her.” Robertson’s co-host started to prod, “But, isn’t that what we vow…for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health?” Robertson responded, “Yeah, if you respect that vow…But this is a kind of death.” If you respect that vow?! Here is a link if you want to see it with your own two eyes.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pat+robertson%2c+alzheimers&mid=1BA2B2BC99A1DF3E93E21BA2B2BC99A1DF3E93E2&view=detail&FORM=VIRE5

Compare that with the statements of another “Robertson”, Robertson McQuilkin, who was the president of Columbia International University until the time when his wife of 40 years, Muriel, regressed so badly with Alzheimer’s that he chose to resign his post. The board had arranged for a companion to stay in the home so he could go daily to the office. But, during those two years, it became increasingly difficult to keep Muriel home. As soon as he left, she would take out after him. The walk to school was a mile round trip. She would make that trip as many as ten times a day. Sometimes at night, when he helped her undress, he found bloody feet. When he told his family doctor, the doctor choked up. "Such love," he said simply.

Here is a close paraphrase of what McQuilkin said in his resignation address,

“Lately Muriel cannot speak in sentences, only in phrases and words, and often words that made little sense: ‘no’ when she means ‘yes,’ for example. But she can say one sentence, and she says it often: I love you."


“I have had many difficult decisions to make over the years, but this one is simple and clear. Muriel is almost always happy when with me and almost never happy when not with me. She becomes fearful…sometimes almost terror. And when she cannot get to me, there is anger and distress. So I must be with her at all times. You see, it is not just that I promised ‘in sickness and in health, til death do us part’ (and I am a man of my word). But, as I have said, ‘She sacrificed for me for the last 40 years. So, if I cared for her the next 40 years, I would still be in debt.’ But, it is much more than that. It is not that I have to, it’s that I get to. I love her very dearly. She is such a delight. It is such an honor to care for such a wonderful person. One blessing is the way she is teaching me so much - about love, for example - God's love”.

Here is some of the recorded speech from Robertson McQuilkin’s resignation so you can hear with your own ears and compare the voice of a faithful servant to one who is not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pX1phIqug

And so, given what Christ calls us to - the call to pastors and teachers to identify false teachers when you see them (Acts 20:28-32); the fact that the Christian community said almost nothing when Pat Robertson’s ties to Liberia and dictator Charles Taylor (so he could mine for gold) were surfaced; and in the clearest of comparison and contrast to “a man of his word”, another “Robertson”, Robertson McQuilkin, giving us clarity in the confusion - whether it is in my rights to do so or not, I publicly renounce Pat Robertson as a faithful teacher of the Christian faith. Shame on you, Pat Robertson!

Revamping Our Imagination

Last night, I had an unusual conversation with my middle child - Micah. Desiree and I got back from an evening out together, paid the babysitter and then headed upstairs to pray with the kids who were already in bed. Josiah was pretty much out. Jordan pretended to be asleep, but as soon as I bent over her to pray, she jumped up and gave me a kiss goodnight and told me she loved me (she is so sweet like that!). When I slipped into Micah’s room, it was completely dark except for the small bit of light from the hallway nightlight. And that’s when my unusual conversation with Micah began. “Go away”, he announced. Now, the reason that is unusual (aside from the obvious offense that most parents would take from their kids telling them to “go away”) is that Micah says almost nothing. Many of you are either familiar with my blog or familiar with my family, know that Micah is profoundly autistic. His sentences are typically limited to, “I would like ___, please.” So that he would tell me to “go away” told me- a) “Hey, he’s talking more!” and b) “He’s doing something he doesn’t want me to catch him doing.” I found that he was doing a puzzle instead of going to sleep in his bed. So Micah was escorted to his bed where he made another statement unprompted by me. “OK, night, night. NIGHT NIGHT!!” which seemed to be his way of saying, “OK, get out my room so I can go back to my puzzle.”

That night, I had this weird dream. I was sitting on Micah’s bed with him and Keith Melugin, our High School Pastor at the church where I serve. And Micah was sharing with Keith all about his day. Keith would ask a simple question and Micah would just go on and on about what he experienced and what he was thinking and so on. I woke up this morning, pondered the dream for a moment and then jumped into my daily routine- took my shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed, kissed Des goodbye, headed to work, answered my voice and e-mail messages and headed to our staff meeting.

We now have two staff meetings per week instead of one. The Wednesday staff meeting is going through the business of the church. The Tuesday meeting (this morning’s meeting) is about developing community and spiritual formation on the pastoral team. And the starting point for our discussion was Ephesians 1:15-23 where Paul spring boards from this amazing doxology of the magnificence and grandeur of God’s redemption plan, to this prayer for the church. And what does Paul pray for the church? To have more money to do missions? To have more workers to do more evangelism? To create more Bible studies? Those are all good things, make no mistake!! But, Paul prays that God would give us wisdom and revelation “so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe.” In short, of all of the things Paul could pray for the Church, he prays that God would renovate and expand their imaginations!! Having just told us in 1:3-14 of all of the amazing things God has done and is doing; how His all-encompassing plan is to draw all things stained by the curse together as one again, under the sovereign rule of Christ; how He plans to renovate heaven and earth and redeem it all…Paul feels the strong need to pray that our imaginations can catch a glimpse of the way things will be. It’s apparently crucial to our ability to participate with this kingdom overhaul to have our sense of wonder and vision overhauled first!!

This past Saturday, a couple of our elders and pastors joined the pastor at Bethel AME church in Chagrin Falls Park for a prayer walk. And as I walked down the street praying and looking around at the despair and poverty that afflicted this community, it was everything I had in me to try and imagine a place under the rule of Jesus. I need to have my imagination redeemed and expanded!! And I know how I do it for other things, like my physical senses. I often go to the parks and sit in the beauty of nature. I need places like that in solitude since my physical senses have been dulled. Having boxed for a couple of years and sustained four broken noses, my senses of smell and taste have been dulled. I am also colorblind, so my ability to see the vibrancy and subtleties of color are muted. I look for places where I can overcome having those senses dulled and have them reinvigorated again; places where I can see and smell and feel things more boldly and more powerfully.

That’s Paul’s prayer for us and that’s why we need to pray. There are only so many things we can do to expand our spiritual imaginations. But, ultimately, it is a gift from God that we ask for and pray for and have others pray for us!! Last night, I didn’t just have a weird dream about my Micah talking as though his little mind had been completely healed. I was given a gift from God, a way of seeing what I cannot see because my spiritual senses are dull and need revamping. I was given insight into what God wants for me, wants for His church, wants us to know from Ephesians 1:15-23 and how it can change the way we live life, do ministry and embrace the “spiritual blessings” that God has endowed upon us in this world to come that is here in part; a world we can scarcely imagine!