Newton's Laws

MY DAD

2009-02-19T09:37:00.002-05:00

My dad is very sick with cancer and other complications. I have found a flight for next week and will be leaving on Monday to go be with him for a couple of weeks. Due to this I am suspending my blogging for the next few weeks. I am apologize to those of you who read my blog regularly. I will get back on schedule when I get back from Texas. Thanks for your patience and your prayers.

Jack

755 THE NATURAL RECORD; NO CHEMICALS ADDED

2009-02-11T10:57:00.000-05:00

Late last year J. P. Hayes was in the preliminary round of the PGA “Q School” qualifying tournament. This is a grueling process where the top players go on to the final round and then the top 25 are given their tour card to play on the PGA tour for 2009. He was in great shape to move to the final round a few weeks later. Only then did he realize that he not only used a different ball on the 12^th hole of the first round, for which he assessed himself a two shot penalty, but also that the ball was illegal for use in PGA tour events. No one knew. Not even his caddy. He was in the clear. But he knew. He called the tournament officials and disqualified himself for using a nonconforming ball in the tournament. In doing so he lost potentially millions of dollars in prize money and endorsement. He did not however lose his self respect and the respect of golfers around the world. This is not a new phenomenon in golf. Bobby Jones called a 1 stroke penalty against himself in the 1925 US Open. That stroke ended up sending him to a playoff which he lost. When praised for his honesty and sportsmanship Jones replied, “You might as well praise me for not robbing banks.”

Such honesty and integrity have made the game of golf what it is today. Whether you like it or not, golf is the only sport where it is not ok to lie until you get caught. Soccer players dive, tennis players argue with the linesmen, and football linemen devise new ways to hold their opponents without getting caught. It is all a sad commentary on our “ends justifies the means” culture in sports today. It is sad because our children watch their heroes and imitate their actions. “I love me some me,” says Terrell Owens. We wonder why our kids do not understand the importance of teamwork and fairness. Charles Barkley said years ago that he was not a role model for anyone’s kids. He was trying to elude that responsibility and put the onus back on parents. I understand what he was trying to do but now that he has had his own gambling and alcohol problems maybe he would admit that he has more influence than he formerly realized. Recently Michael Phelps was caught smoking pot. Now he is contrite and asking for forgiveness. What about the kids who see that picture of him sucking on a bong and go out and do the same thing? He has his millions already. What about the lives that will be ruined that follow his example? They have no millions to fall back on.

Today a sports figure is counted a hero if they admit their fault. Just this week Alex Rodriguez admitted his use of steroids when he was with the Texas Rangers in 2001 through 2003. He did so only after being caught. What kind of integrity and strength does it take to admit you’re wrong after you have been caught? Years ago Ervin Johnson was hailed as a courageous hero after he made public his medical condition. The fact that he was promiscuous and irresponsible was not even brought up. He admitted his lack of discipline and integrity only after it was going to become public anyway. Is this really a hero? John McEnroe used to argue calls on the tennis court, not because they were incorrect but because that gave him an edge. He was able to rest, keep his opponent off guard, break his opponent’s momentum, and change the focus of the match. None of this is within the spirit of the rules of tennis.

When I was a kid, I idolized baseball players. I slept with my glove in the bed with me. I memorized the stats on baseball cards and read books about the greats of the game. Now we have Alex Rodriguez, who is only the latest in a long line of shame, who have tarnished the great game that I used to love. Andy Petit, Jason Giambi, Raphael Palmeiro, and soon Miguel Tejada are just a few of the players to come contritely before the public and admit their guilt. They did this only AFTER they were caught. Even Pete Rose admitted his guilt of gambling on baseball. This finally occurred years later when he wanted publicity to sell his latest book. What kind of guts does all of this take? I’ll tell you what kind. NONE. It takes no guts to ask for leniency and forgiveness after you have been caught cheating. We would not consider such a request in academics or the business world, but we are supposed to accept it from the sports world. I grew up with a simply childish saying as I played sports: “Cheaters never win and winners never cheat.” You can call me naive but I believe that even today. Does that mean that we cannot forgive? Of course not. Does it mean that sports figures can never make a mistake? Of course not. It just means that when they do, there should be consequences. Those consequences should be fair and consistent. We should not hold up as heroic feats of integrity, admitting what you have already been caught at doing.

I remember as a kid, watching Hank Aaron hit his 715^th homerun to pass Babe Ruth for the all time lead in homeruns. Aaron, who started his career in the Negro Leagues and dealt with the ugliness of the racism of the time, handled himself with class and dignity. In 1974 as I watched him round those bases in that famous homerun trot, I felt that I had witnessed something special and historical. Hank Aaron is a true baseball hero. Barry Bonds, who recently passed Aaron’s milestone of 755 homeruns, is mired in controversy over his continued denials of his use of performance enhancing drugs (cheating). Mr. Bonds may end up in jail after all has been said and done. Do Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, et al belong in the hall of fame? Should their records stand? I think the Olympics have it right. If a person is caught cheating, their records are expunged and their medals are returned. In the Olympics, if a person on a team is caught cheating, the whole team is disqualified. If other sports took this hard line, things would change. If it meant that championships and records were going to be lost, you can bet that the players themselves would make sure that no one on their team cheated.

Thanks to Mr. Hayes, I am going to be watching a whole lot more golf and a whole lot less baseball. When J. P. Hayes does get to the PGA tour (and he will because he is a great golfer) he has a big fan in me waiting for him. I say that the real homerun record belongs to Hank Aaron at 755 homeruns. 755 the natural record; no chemicals added.

THE BOTTOM LINE OF BEING A DISCIPLE

2009-02-02T10:23:00.001-05:00

Do you remember being in love? I’m talking about the crazy goofy silly “in love.” The kind where you do not want to be the first to hang up the phone or the one who finally ends the date. What do you do in those times? You do things for the other person that you love because you are walking “in love.” Therefore everything you do is motivated by and colored by that love. They are not things that you are trained to do. You simply do them because you are in love. Unfortunately those intense feelings wear off. They have to or we would not be able to function correctly. What should not wear off are the actions that love induces. Those actions continue to build the love over time until it is greater than you ever could have imagined when you were “in love.”

Remember when you first got saved? When you realized what a sinful person you were and how wonderful and gracious God is? You did not need someone to tell you to pray. You just prayed; all the time. You did not need a class on the importance of Bible study. You carried it with you and read it every time you go the chance. You were at the church every time the doors were opened. You looked for opportunities to share your faith with others. Why? Because you had the zeal of the newly converted. You loved God so much and you were so grateful to Him for what He did for you. Over time those feelings fade as we spend more time as a disciple of Christ. Unfortunately too many of us have accepted as normal the diminishing actions as the feelings diminish.

Once I met a Pastor who was lamenting this very phenomenon in his church. He led a church that was had a preponderance of retired folks. The church was in a wonderful location and had great potential for reaching their urban community with the Gospel. The Pastor shared that the vast majority of the ministry was actually carried out by the younger families in the church. These families often had little time due to the raising of young children and working to make a living. So most of the work was done by those who were least equipped to do it. The older folks in the church had no interest in teaching Sunday School, being Deacons and Elders, leading in outreach, or even participating in many of the ministries of the church.

“I’ve done my time. Let someone else do it,” was their sentiment when asked by the Pastor or others to be a part of the ministry of that church. Even though they had the time, money, wisdom, and resources they were unwilling to use those because they had lost their vision of being a disciple.

Paul told the church at Colossae that they should continue to do the works that they did when they first came to know Christ:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)

Galatians 3:11 also says that the just shall live by faith. Therefore, if we are going to be disciples, we need to continue in those things that were a part of our lives as we walked in faith as a new believer. Jesus is our life source. He is the one that guides our steps and builds our faith. We have to be committed to the actions of a disciple that build our faith so that it can be firmly root and built up in Him.

How do you build a muscle? Do you go to the gym once a week and reflect on your past glories as you go through the motions of working out? That is a feeble attempt and yields poor results. No, when you want to build a muscle you work it every day. You begin to eat correctly so that you allow into your life the things that build the muscle and avoid those things that hamper such growth. Though you often cannot see the progress, each day your muscle becomes stronger and stronger, bigger and bigger. Do you always WANT to go to the gym? No way! But you go anyway because you are committed to building that muscle. Over time your efforts pay off. There are no short cuts and no easy fixes, just hard work over a long period of time.

That is a picture of discipleship. So many of us have convinced ourselves that as long as we show up at church on Sunday we are walking in faith. Not true. We have to incorporate the things of God in our lives daily (Luke 9:23). We have to allow in the things that build our faith and avoid those that hamper its growth. We also have to exercise our faith. That means that we are not just people who believe who happen to do some things. It means that we are people who do everything we do “by faith.” As we exercise our faith, our faith grows and we begin to be the disciples that God wants us to be.

As a man who has been married for over twenty years, I remember what it was like to be “in love.” Though it was wonderful, I would not trade it for the loving, intimate relationship that I have with my wife now. I hope I never get to the point where I accept that it is ok for me not to do those things that I did for her when we were on that emotional high. Why? Because I love her. I also remember what it was like to be a new Christian at the age of twenty five. I am going to work hard to make sure that I do not get to the point where I accept that it is ok for me not to do those things I did when I first got saved. If I am going to be the disciple that He wants me to be, then as I received my Lord Jesus Christ, I must also walk in Him. That is the bottom line of being a disciple.

NO BLOG THIS WEEK DUE TO TOO MANY SNOW DAYS. WE WILL GET BACK ON TRACK NEXT WEEK. SORRY.

2009-01-29T09:37:00.001-05:00

PRESIDENT OBAMA

2009-01-21T09:28:00.001-05:00

When I was a young child, my father was very strict about certain issues in our home. One of those issues was racism. We told lots of jokes but never was a racial joke tolerated in our home. When we moved from west Texas to North Africa, my dad was one of only a few oil company employees who were open enough and willing enough to work directly with the locals as they drilled for oil. I am proud of that heritage. When I went into the Marine Corps we were taught that there is only one color of Marine. There are not black or brown or white Marines. We were all and are all green Marines. I am proud of that tradition as well. After watching the inauguration coverage of Barack Obama yesterday I was overcome with a sense of what an awesome country we have. It is my prayer that we can get past the racial tension that has percolated just under the surface of our culture. It is my prayer that the day will come when we no longer classify ourselves and divide ourselves along racial lines. We are all Americans. That is the bottom line and this is the greatest country in the history of the world.

Having said all of that, I believe that we as Christians have a mandate and responsibility to pray for our leaders. I am committing now to be in regular prayer for Barack Obama; for his wisdom to lead, for his understanding of the times in which we live, for his courage in a time of economic and geo-political uncertainty, for his ability to lead the country and for his ability to continue to be the husband and father that his family needs him to be. I understand that there is much rhetoric in a political campaign and I am willing to give my new president some grace to act in the best interests of the country rather than the best interests of a political ideology. I am however very skeptical of his policies. He is the most pro-abortion and pro-homosexual marriage president that we have ever had. His economic policies are the same Great Society ideas that failed for LBJ and his foreign policies echo the sad and frightening days of Jimmy Carter. My hope is that all of that was campaign rhetoric and that when he gets in office, he will move toward the center rather than further left. As someone who served under the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, I know how the morale of the military can be affected by the person occupying the Oval Office.

I also will pray that President Obama, and all future presidents, are treated with more fairness by the media than President George W. Bush was. I have grown weary of the jokes the character assassination. Though I did not agree with everything George Bush did, I believe that the clear thinking of history will be much kinder to him than the present day media has been. Thank God he was our president on 9-11. I thank the Lord for his courage, grace, and dignity.

On August 28, 1963, when I was still just three years old, Martin Luther King spoke these words in one of the greatest speeches ever to be delivered:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

It is my prayer that we are seeing Dr. King’s dream come true before our eyes and that we will all make judgments based on the content of character rather than the color of skin. It is up to us as Christians to pray for President Obama, diligently and sincerely. I encourage you to commit with me that you will lift him up regularly to the Lord. With God’s help he can be the greatest President this country has ever known. In times such as these we need him to be.

DISCIPLESHIP - THREE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

2009-01-14T13:01:00.000-05:00

The preacher stands in the pulpit ready to deliver a message from God’s Word to his people. He has worked hard at preparing his sermon and praying that the Lord would work in the hearts of the hearers. As he begins to preach he enters that “Zone” that only preachers understand. He is saying exactly what the Lord wants him to say as his sermon goes well beyond his preparation and planning. He preaches a powerful sermon expounding the truth of God’s Word. When he is finished and gives an opportunity for response, there is an awkward stillness in the room filled with blank stares. No one moves from their pew. No one bows their head to pray. No one sheds a tear. Around the room people are gathering their things, checking their watches and planning their quick exit to the parking lot. After the service, the preacher walks to his car with his head hung low. He and his family drive home in silence. He has already decided that he is going to take Monday off.

Is this all there is to modern day Christianity? If so then why bother? I know what the preacher will do the next week. He will be determined to preach a more powerful message. He will read books on preaching, spend more time in prayer, study harder, and prepare more thoroughly for his next message only to see the same results repeated week after week. What he does not understand is that, in spite of all of his good intentions, there is an essential element missing in the disciple making process. In almost any other endeavor two out of three is a good result. If a batter gets two hits in three opportunities at bat in a baseball game, we say he had a great game. This is not the case with discipleship. With discipleship, all elements must be present or the process is incomplete.

The first element necessary for the process of discipleship to be effective is the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. While one might think that this goes without saying, it is often overlooked or taken for granted. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict us of our sin (John 16:18) as well as guide us in all truth (John 16:13). Therefore, there can be no real discipleship without the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who opens our eyes to our shortcomings. We do not like to examine ourselves that closely. We like to assume that we are ok and the fault lies with others. There is no personal transformation in this type of an attitude. It quenches the work of the Spirit in our lives. The Spirit of God is always the power plant for the work of His people in the world (Acts 1:8). He shows us who we really are, brings us to the point of godly sorry, leads us to repentance, restores our lives and empowers us to change the world. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit, discipleship becomes just another self help program or support group. It is foolishness to attempt to accomplish discipleship without Him. Therefore, we must pray, and be filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit for the process of discipleship to be complete.

The next element in the discipleship process is the disciple maker. The Great Commission tells us to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). Therefore we are not only commanded to be disciples but to make disciples. In order to do that, we have to be willing to pour our lives into another so that they can be the followers of Christ that they need to be. One cannot read the works of the Apostle Paul without coming away with an understanding of his commitment to discipleship. Everywhere he went he found someone with whom he could share his faith and his walk with God. Names like Timothy, Luke, Epaphras, Onesimus, and Barnabas find their way into our lives because Paul poured his life into theirs. The book of Acts is the historic record of the early disciple making process. Those early Christians saw the ministry of evangelism as more than merely getting someone to pray a specific prayer. They had expectations of the lives that were touched by the Gospel. When person in the church had a need, they met the need as a family (Acts 2:42-47). They took discipleship very seriously and were not willing to allow religious games to be played for the sake of appearance (Acts 5:1-11). They were responsible for one another. In our culture today it is an “every man of himself” atmosphere. It takes work to teach another the ways of God. It also takes risk. Risk that you may be hurt. Risk that you may be disappointed. Paul thought it worth the risk. So did Jesus. What about us? What about you? Are you willing to risk being hurt or disappointed in order to impact the life of another Christian and therefore advance the Kingdome of God? How can we say that we are truly disciples of Christ, if we are not willing to obey His simple command to make disciples? You are vital to the discipleship process being effective in someone else’s life. Find someone into whom you can pour your life.

Finally, the discipleship process is incomplete without a disciple. “Duh!” you might say, “Everyone knows that!” Do they? I contend that they do not. That WE do not. We can easily see the splinter in our brother’s eye. We have great and wonderful advice for him about how to rid himself of that worrisome speck. What we fail to see (I contend that we refuse to see) is that we have this telephone pole in our own eye. Discipleship is for the other person, not us. We are ok just the way we are. Or at least that is what we have told ourselves so long that we believe it. We must BE disciples. In order to do that, the other two elements must be at work in our lives. The Holy Spirit as it fills us must be welcome to convict and teach. We also must seek out others who are further along than us in the discipleship process and place ourselves under their authority and teaching. In order to do this we must understand our place in the Kingdom of God and we must be teachable. Each of us, as born again believers in Christ, must find someone to pour our lives into and must find someone who will pour their lives into us. We must put into our lives the disciplines that have proven to build our discipleship and we must learn to be honest with ourselves about who we really are. In doing so we must become accountable to others. There is a great self deception going on in our culture today. As we watch the evening news every day, we can always find someone to whom we compare favorably. As we do this day by day, we convince ourselves that we are fine, and in need of nothing. When we go to church and Pastor strays into talking about issues that are close to our lives, we use them as an excuse to judge others rather than examine ourselves. I learned, many years ago when I was a Youth Pastor, that when I was in church listening to a message and thought, “I wish Mr. Smith was here to hear this. It is exactly what he needs to hear,” that I was actually dodging the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life. If I could make the message be all about Mr. Smith, then I did not have to deal with it myself. I learned during those times to listen more closely and pray for God’s will in my life. I usually came away with an understanding that it was me, not Mr. Smith, who needed to hear that message. In order to be a disciple, we must be teachable. In order to be teachable, we have to admit that there is something missing or in error about our lives. This is hard but it is a vital element in us becoming true disciples of Christ.

Week after week the preacher preaches to the nonresponsive church. Week after week he beats himself up mentally for not being a good (spiritual, wise, powerful…) enough Pastor to his people. Week after week he works harder and harder to provoke some response out of them. He would even be happy if they were mad. At least that would indicate that they cared enough to allow the message to affect their lives. What he does not understand is that the process is beyond his control. He cannot make them want to change. Two of the three elements are present. The Holy Spirit is there working. The disciple maker is there pouring his life into the life of the congregation. The people just do not see the need for discipleship in their own lives. Until they do, they will not find the power, peace, and joy of the Christian walk. In order to make disciples: we must have a disciple who is willing, desirous of change, and teachable; we must have a disciple maker who is also growing in his walk with the Lord; and we must have all this under the power and authority of the presence of God through His Spirit. If these elements are not present, the process cannot be effective.

INTRODUCTION TO DISCIPLESHIP

2009-01-07T11:04:00.000-05:00

In the Great Commission, Jesus told His followers to go and make disciples of all nations. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? Why is that important? The answers to these and other related questions are vital to Christianity today being what Christ intended it to be. As we move into a new millennium, we need to look back at the teaching of the Scriptures, and the example of Christ to see what authentic discipleship looks like.

I remember when, as a new believer, I used to go out visiting people in their homes on Thursday evenings. One particular Thursday proved to be a challenge to me and my visitation partner. We spent almost an hour at the door of a man who had visited our church the week before. This man was argumentative and belligerent. My visitation partner, who was more experienced at “soul winning” as we called it at the time, met this opposition with great persistence. Finally my partner asked the man if he would just pray to accept Christ as his Savior. The man relented and reluctantly followed the lead of my partner in the sinner’s prayer. Needless to say, my partner and I rejoiced all the way back to the church where we testified to this great feat of religiosity that we had accomplished. We never saw that man again. I later came to suspect that the man just said what he thought we wanted to hear in order to get rid of us.

I have to believe that God had more in mind when He commanded His church to “make disciples.” Do not get me wrong on this point. I am not saying that door to door evangelism is wrong or outdated. In the right setting, it may be the only way to reach a particular community. I am also not saying that the man we talked to was not “saved.” We are saved by grace through faith. I am saying I have no way of knowing if he was born again or not. One might counter, “There is no way to ever know if someone is really saved.” I understand the sentiment behind this statement (we cannot ever really know what is in a person’s heart), but is it really true biblically? Jesus said that we can look at another person’s life and see the fruit of discipleship (Matthew 7:16-20, John 8:31, John 13: 35, for example). He also said that we cannot claim to be His disciples if certain things are missing from our lives (Luke 14:26-33, for example).

There is a problem in the church today. We are called to make disciples but we do not know how to do that. Why? This is because many of us are not disciples ourselves. We talk about having a life changing experience but when you look at the lives of Christians compared to others in the community, you do not see much difference. Please do not misunderstand me here. I am not saying that we are saved by our good works. “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5). I am saying that our lives will be different when we accept Christ as our Lord and our Savior. There is a fine line between a biblical belief in a changed life and the legalism of the fundamentalist or the permissiveness of the liberal. Jesus did not come just to give us a new set of laws. Neither did He come so that we could live in the same cesspool of sin that we were in before. He came to give us abundant life. He came to set us free with His truth (as Henry Blackaby says, “Truth is a person.”). If we are going to lead others into this abundant freedom that can only be found in Christ, we must be disciples ourselves. Over the next few weeks we will take a look at biblical discipleship with the hope that our lives will be changed as well as those lives around us. Only when the church takes the call to discipleship seriously, will we be able to fulfill the Great Commission. Remember, He is going to be with us every step of the way. What a shame it would be to refuse to go on the journey.

CHURCH FINDER (PART 3) - DOCTRINE VS WORSHIP STYLE

2008-12-17T10:59:00.002-05:00

(NOTE: This will be my last blog of the year. Dana, Leah and I are leaving next week for a much deserved and highly anticipated Christmas vacation. From me to you and yours: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

Several years ago one of my seminary professors said, “Jack, it is easier to change the doctrine of your church than it is to change the music.”

I was incredulous. How could such a statement be made and made with conviction by this man that I respected and admired? Surely people care more about what we believe than they do about what hymns or choruses we sing! After all, doctrine is the core of us who we are and what we do as a church. I soon found out that he was right when our church began to make the slow transition from a strictly traditional worship style to one that is blended. I have never seen such unchristian behavior in my life. Finally out of frustration I handed my Bible to one irate church member who was scolding me.

“Show me in the Bible where God specifies what style of music or what instruments should be played when we worship Him. If you do I will change our direction immediately,” I said.

He simply handed me the Bible back as he stormed out of my office and subsequently left the church. There are many good reasons to leave a church. We may talk about them in future articles. Leaving a church because they do not play the music that you want is shallow at best and sinful at worst. Therefore, when you are in the position of looking for a new church home, there are other, more important factors to consider besides music. The doctrine of the church is what really matters. Some may say that a church cannot have proper doctrine if their music isn’t one way or the other. That is a bogus argument. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

When looking at a potential church ask questions, read their doctrinal statement, and interview the Pastor. This is by no means an exhaustive list but here are some important questions that you should ask about these topics:

GOD THE FATHER: What is His role in the lives of believers? How has He related to people in the past? What are His attributes?

JESUS: What does the church believe about Jesus? Was He really born of a virgin? Did He really do all those miracles? Did He really rise from the dead? Is He a way or the way of salvation? Is He God? What were the purposes of his incarnation, life, teaching, death, and resurrection? Is He coming back? What does He expect of His disciples?

THE HOLY SPIRIT: What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and the church? Has that role ever changed? When does the Holy Spirit become a part of a believer’s life? Of what importance are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? How can those gifts impact the individual believer or the church?

THE BIBLE: What role does the Bible play in the life of the believer and the church? How did we get the Bible? Where did it come from? Is the Bible the final authority in the church? Does the Bible give instruction on how individuals, families, nations, and churches should conduct themselves? If you had to choose between the Bible and your tradition (denomination), what would you choose? If you had to choose between the Bible and your own personal experience, what would you choose?

THE LOCAL CHURCH: How is the local church different from the universal church? What does the Bible teach about church leadership? What is the purpose of the church? How does one become a member of this church? What are the expectations of church members? How is this church financed? How are decisions made concerning the church? Is church discipline practiced? What does the church believe about the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper? How does this church support missionaries and mission work?

SALVATION: How is a person saved? What does it mean to be saved? What happens when a person is saved? What does God expect of saved people? Can a person lose their salvation? What happens to people when they die?

As I said before, this is by no means an exhaustive list of important doctrinal questions that need to be asked. I did not include anything about creation or the end times, for example. There are lots of areas that are important. I listed those above because I believe they are the most important. That is not to say that all of those questions are deal breakers. If a church does not believe in the deity of Christ, then that is a deal breaker. If the church requires a class for membership, or is unique in their methodology of support for missions, those are not deal breakers; at least for me. You will have to decide for yourself. You will not ever find a church that agrees with you on every minor point of doctrine. Determine those that are major and be unyielding on those. If you find a church that has strong biblical doctrine, then you might have the church that is right for you, regardless of its worship style. Prayer comes next.

GOD BLESS THE WHOLE WORLD. NO EXCEPTIONS.

2008-12-09T13:17:00.001-05:00

I want to take a break from the series we are in to examine a bumper sticker that I saw on a car this week.

God Bless the Whole World

No Exceptions

What a beautiful sentiment. But is it really what we want to communicate? I understand the logic but I believe that it is wrong on three levels.

First it is wrong grammatically. When we sing “God bless America” we are not making a command but a request. That wonderful song is a prayer for God’s blessing, which He gives to whomever He chooses. This bumper sticker is almost arrogant in its tone as though we are telling God what to do and how to do it. It should have the word “Please” at the end of the first line, to show that it is not a demand or a command but a humble request. Does that really matter? Yes it does because it has theological and political implications.

Secondly, the bumper sticker is wrong politically. I understand that there are all sorts of political views out there and it is often unacceptable to say that one or the other is “wrong.” However, I believe that this is, at the very least, wrongheaded. It stems from the idea that we cannot just ask God to bless America without also asking Him to bless the whole world. That is utter foolishness. Would we accept that logic if we were living in the time when Hitler was practicing genocide upon six million Jews, or when Stalin was murdering hundreds of thousands of his own people? God bless Hitler. God bless Stalin? See how foolish that is! The belief behind this is that there is a moral equivalence between all nations and all cultures. That sounds nice on paper but it is just not the case. Some forms of government (totalitarian, Nazi, dictatorship, communist) and some cultures (Muslim oppression of women for example) are wrong and in some cases evil. Is it wrong for us as Americans to recognize what we have and to be proud of it? No, because our country and way of life is a gift from God. We should not be ashamed of or apologize for who we are. Are we perfect? Not by a long shot. But I still do not see people flocking to get into Red China or Saudi Arabia. Why do people from all over the world want to come here? I contend it is because God HAS blessed America. I still continue to unashamedly ask for and pray for His blessing.

Finally the bumper sticker is wrong theologically. This bumper sticker makes it sound like we are in control, not God. It sounds like He is little more than a heavenly lap dog waiting for us to tell Him what to do. No! “God bless America” (or anything else for that matter) is the request a servant makes of a master. He is the Lord and we are not. Are we really asking God to bless child molesters, suicide bombers, serial killers, spousal abusers, abortion doctors, and tyrants? No exceptions? While there is no doubt that God loves the world and even loves these evil people, there is also no doubt that God is clear about his blessings. He offers the ultimate blessing of eternal life to whoever will know Him through faith, no matter how bad their past has been, but He will also cast those who reject Him from eternal presence. To ask God, or to demand that God, bless evil doers is to be a Universalist (believing we all will end up in heaven). If that is true then Jesus did not have to come and die because we are all going to heaven anyway. The fact is that Jesus came to do more than just give us a home in heaven. He came to give us abundant life in His Kingdom here on earth. Therefore when God withholds His blessing from someone it is not out of hatred or malice. It is because He desires that person (or nation) to come to Him and find the life that they never could otherwise (in heaven and on earth).

Therefore I proudly and loudly sing “God bless America.” Let us work and pray so that we are not one of those on the outside looking in at the blessings of God. May God bless you and your family this Christmas season and may God bless America.

Church Finder (Part 2) THE CHURCH – WHY JOIN ONE?

2008-12-03T13:02:00.002-05:00

THE CHURCH – WHY JOIN ONE?

“So where do you go to church?” I asked the young man. It was a question that I have asked thousands of times over the years. It is a good conversation starter and often opens the door to sharing the Gospel. The young man with whom I was having lunch had come to our Wednesday evening Bible study. He seemed to know his Bible fairly well for a man in his early twenties and seemed motivated to grow in his walk. His answer to my question was enlightening.

“Well I go to “Church A” on Sunday mornings. They have the most awesome praise team and their musical worship is just so Spirit filled. I go to “Church B” on Sunday evenings. The Pastor there is a very good Bible teacher and he is very practical in his application of God’s Word. Let’s see, I go to “Church C” on Thursday evening because they have a huge singles’ ministry. I have a lot of friends that go there and I meet a lot of people each week. The Bible study is poor and the worship is second rate but the fellowship is wonderful. And now I am thinking of attending your Bible study on Wednesday evenings,” he explained.

“Wow! You are really busy but I have a couple of questions. First, where are YOU serving and ministering for the Lord? Second, where is your church membership?” I asked.

The young man looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. He had no clue how to answer my questions. His problem stemmed from a wrong understanding of what the local church is and what its purpose is. Many people in our culture today have the same problem. The local church is one of the most important subjects about which the New Testament teaches.

“All believers are members of the church!” an exasperated lady replied to me as I was teaching on this subject.

“Based upon what teaching in the New Testament?” I asked her. As she stammered and fumbled with the pages of her Bible, I asked everyone to turn to Acts 9:31 (So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.). “Do you realize that this is the ONLY verse in the New Testament that clearly points to the idea or teaching of the universal church?” Needless to say my class was stunned. Most of them thought that the majority of the teaching in the New Testament was about the church being the totality of believers everywhere. Even in Revelation when the word “church” is used it is not in the universal context. In Revelation 19 all believers are brought together for the final feast. There we are referred to as the Bride of Christ rather than the church.

Why then do most people believe that the teaching on the church in the New Testament is mainly about the universal church? I contend that is true because it is easy. In the universal church I have no responsibility or accountability. I am a member by virtue of my faith and that is all that is expected of me. The vast majority of the teaching in the New Testament however, is on the local church. The local church is a body of baptized believers who have committed their live together to fulfill the Great Commission. Therefore, each member of the church is accountable to the body and has responsibilities as well. That means that being a member of a local body is about more than just showing up on Sunday. It begins there but it is about so much more.

The New Testament uses three illustrations to describe the church. The first is the family (Ephesians 3:14-15). Through Him every family in heaven and earth gets its name. That is why we sing “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God.” The second is the body (1 Corinthians 12:12ff, Ephesians 1:22-24, Colossians 1:24). Each of us is a part of the body but Jesus is the head. The third is a building (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). He is not saying that the church is the church building but that the church is like a building. The church is the people of God built together to become something greater than the sum of their parts. In each of these illustrations there are two truths being taught. The first is that church cannot be the church without each of its members. In other words, without the members there is no church. Therefore, the corporate body needs each member. Each member has unique gifts and abilities, given to them by God, that are necessary for the church to fulfill its mission. That is why church attendance is so important. When we are not present for the corporate worship and ministry of the church, the church is a body without one of its parts. It is a building without one of its walls. It is a family without one of its members. Yes it can accomplish some of what it was created to accomplish but not all of it. The second truth is that each member needs the church. “I can get what I need by going to many churches,” one might say. Not true! If church is only about GETTING then that might be the case. The church however is about serving as well as be served. That is a common misunderstanding that we have about the church in our consumer culture today. “What can you do for me? What kinds of ministries do you have for me and my kids? How are you going to meet my needs?” are the usual questions we ask about a new church. While there is nothing wrong with those questions per se, they are incomplete. We should also ask, “How can I serve? Are there opportunities for me to exercise and grow in my own spiritual gifts? To whom can I be a blessing?” It is only in this understanding of a church that we come to realize the biblical picture of the church. It is not and was never intended to be a convenience store that we visit every now and then to stock our spiritual pantry. It was intended to be a family, a body and a building of which we are integral parts. We need the church as much as the church needs us.

The idea of Christian “free agency” is a detrimental one to the Christian culture today. When I was a kid, most ball players spent their whole career with one team. We became attached to those players we saw year after year. Then free agency came into the picture. Now many players change teams every year, often going to the highest bidder. Just when you think you know a player, he moves on to another team that offers him more money. For better or worse, it is the way of things is sports today. We have taken this idea and transferred it to the things of God. Therefore, we can attend three or four churches and not be committed to any. We can use the church to get what we want and never be accountable or responsible to anyone. “Sounds good to me!” you might say. Just remember that there is no example of a growing Christian in the New Testament outside the context of the local church. Even Paul was accountable to the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1-3, 14:26-28) after they had sent him out on his missionary journey. I like to compare church membership to a couple getting married. A couple that is living together without the commitment of marriage may think that they are getting everything out of their relationship with each other. When they get married (even those who have lived together for a long time) they find that they have a different, more fulfilling and intimate relationship with their spouse than they ever could have with their roommate. The same is true of joining a local congregation of believers. You will so come to realize how much you were missing before. The idea of a Christianity that is without accountability and responsibility is not found in the Scriptures.

Why join a church? Because that is the only place you will find what you need to grow as a Christian. It is God’s plan for your personal spiritual growth and for reaching the world. Are churches perfect? Not a one. But God uses those imperfect bodies to accomplish His perfect will. Without church membership, we are merely consumers of a Christian product. But as church members we are part of the family of God and body of Christ. He is the head. He is in charge. That is His plan. Who are we to change it?

Church Finder - Introduction (Part 1)

2008-11-18T09:31:00.003-05:00

“Brother Jack. The Lord is leading me to another church,” said the sixteen year old girl as she sat in my office obviously troubled by the decision that she had made. This was especially hard for me as her Youth Pastor to hear for two reasons. The first was the impact this was going to have on the youth group. This young woman was a leader in the youth group and her absence would be sorely missed. She was a talented singer and full of energy and zeal for the Lord. She was committed to spending time in God’s Word on a daily basis and took the disciplines of the Christian walk as seriously as any teenager with whom I had ever worked. As a leader in the group she encouraged others and also set the example for them to follow. She shared her faith with students at her high school regularly. Every Youth Pastor’s dream! And now she was going. I knew this would leave a hole in the youth group that would be difficult to fill.

My second concern was for her as an individual. This was not the first time in the six years that we had known each other, that she had left the church for another. She always came back a few months later, worse for the experience. That is not to say that our church was the only church in area that was doing the Lord’s will. We were in Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex. The buckle of the Bible Belt. There were many good Bible believing and teaching churches within a stone’s throw of the office in which we sat. But, it seemed that just when she was beginning to do really well in her walk, she would sabotage herself by going somewhere else to start again. Maybe there was a boy in another youth group that she like, or maybe someone at our church hurt her feelings, or maybe she just felt restless. There is something powerful about being faithful in the place where God had put you. As a sixteen year old, she could not see that. In trying to explain it to her, I realized that she was just a product of the times in which we live.

I recently had lunch with another Pastor who was telling me about his struggling ministry that was on decline. He told me that most of the new members in his church were transferred in from other churches. “I don’t really like swapping members,” he said. “But right now I am thankful for them coming no matter how they get here.” In America today, churches are viewed as easily changeable as the channels on the TV. Over the years, I have heard some very flimsy reasons given for people leaving a church. This is not a positive development. The purpose of this series of articles is not to perpetuate the cycle of “church shopping” that is so prevalent in our culture, but to look to the Word of God for teaching that will help us faithfully serve in His local body. Many Christians find themselves, for whatever reasons they may have, in the position of looking for a new place of worship. It is my prayer that these articles will help them to take a biblical approach to this problem and may even cause them to return to the place that they have left. In taking this approach they can then find a place, Lord willing, where they can serve for many years.

In order to find a place of faithful service, we must understand the importance of and the need for such a place. The first few articles will be a short course on the importance of the local church. This is a subject that has long been neglected and disparaged in American culture. If the church is unimportant, then why bother? Many people have had negative experiences at church. Regrettably that fact cannot be denied. But, are those negative experiences going to be the basis of our theology of the local church? Let’s hope not. There are sound reasons for leaving a local body and finding another. However, not all reasons are sound reasons. The Bible plays the chief role in helping us determine the difference.

Having a good understanding of the local church, does not mean that we will never be in need of finding a new one. The Lord may lead us away from the church we are presently serving for one reason or another. What then? How do we find a church? What criteria do we use? How do we discern God’s will? These are all good questions that the last few articles will help you answer. The approach is biblical first and practical second. Where would we be if William Carey looked at missions from a practical point of view only? Where would we be if Martin Luther approached the protestant reformation from a strictly practical perspective? Our approach must uphold the authority of the Scriptures. If we truly believe that God’s Word is applicable in our world today, then it is able to lead us with authority as we develop a view of the local church and our role within it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a Southern Baptist Pastor. I understand that I am coming toward this problem from that perspective. I do not believe that there is a “Baptist” solution to help people find and stay in a local church any more than I believe that there is a “Methodist” or “Presbyterian” or (insert denomination here) solution. As Christians, we have to discover what the will of God is and then obey Him. The place we must start is not with our denominational traditions, nor our experiences (good or bad), but with the clear teaching of the Word of God. It is my prayer that through the reading of these articles many individuals and families will find a church home where they can faithfully serve the Lord and His people for years to come.

You Are Welcome Here As Long As You Look (Dress, Act) Like Me

2008-11-10T13:29:00.004-05:00

YOU ARE INVITED

TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY

WHEN: THIS SUNDAY AT 11 AM

WHERE: THE TOWN MEETING HALL

COME JUST AS YOU ARE

ALL ARE WELCOME SO BRING A FRIEND

Imagine if you invited all of your friends to a birthday party. As the big day approached you got more and more excited about seeing old friends and introducing them to your new ones. Let’s say you rented a hall, hired a band and a caterer, and set up all of the tables and chairs. Finally the big day is here. You are anxiously waiting in the hall for the guests to arrive. Soon they begin to filter into the hall and come to wish you a happy birthday. You are so happy! After all, it is your birthday. However, you notice that only those who are wearing suits and ties or formal dresses are entering the hall. You see a few people stick their heads in the door and look around the room. They get disappointed looks on their faces as they duck out. This leads you to investigate. You walk out to the foyer and to the front door. There you see a group of your friends who are beautifully dressed talking together. Another friend, dressed in blue jeans, is walking toward the hall. He sees you and a smile comes across his face. Then he looks around at the group standing guard over the door. They are glaring at him as though he has no business being there. No one says a word to him. They do not have to. He gives you an apologetic look and returns to his car and drives off. How would you feel? You told them to come as they are but that was not good enough for some of your friends. How would you feel? In many of our churches we are doing the same thing to God and to the people He invites to worship Him.

We have an unwritten and unspoken rule in many of our churches today. It goes something like this: “In order to fit in here you must dress like we do. You must wear what is acceptable and appropriate.” This unwritten and unspoken rule applies whether you go to a church that is very causal or formal. I recently heard a sermon of a pastor who was called a “sell out” by a woman in his church because he dared to wear a dress shirt and tie to their Christmas Eve service. There are other churches that would be apoplectic if the pastor showed up in jeans or did not wear a tie. The problem with this unwritten and unspoken rule is that no one can tell you where to find out what is appropriate and acceptable. They also do not tell you who makes this important decision. This leaves many people feeling unwanted and out of place. It causes many others to turn around and never come back to our churches. All of this stems from the fact that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of worship and authority.

Worship is God’s “party” not ours. He commands us as his people to meet together (And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. - Hebrews 10:24-25). He invites us to come to Him and He will give us rest, fulfillment, purpose and peace (Matthew 11:28-30, John 10:10). When we come to worship, God is the focus. Pleasing and glorifying Him is our goal. That is why petty arguments over dress or music are so out of order. They miss the fundamental purpose of worship. The bottom line question we have to ask about our worship is: “Is it pleasing to God?” What if it is pleasing to God but not to us? Then we need to remember why we are present. We are not there to please ourselves. We are there to please God. What if it is pleasing to us but not to God? Do I really have to spell it out?

The next question naturally follows: “Who decides what is pleasing to God?” The answer is simple; God does. We must understand that He is the authority. He has shown us what is important to Him in His Word. So does God set a dress code for Christians? Well we have to start in the Old Testament and the Law. In all of the Law (over six hundred laws in the Old Testament) God does not show a preference about one style or fashion over another. In fact the prevailing passage on the subject is found is 1 Samuel 16:1-7. When Samuel is commanded to anoint another king to replace Saul, he goes to the house of Jesse and the son of Jesse that catches his eye is Eliab. He must have been the kind of guy who “looked” like a future king. God tells Samuel His heart concerning His treatment of men. (When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him." But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart," Verses 6-7). What is important to God? It is not the outward appearance. It is the heart of man. Where is our heart when we make judgments about others based on outward appearance? When we do we are not following God or His example. When David was caught in adultery and murder he wrote his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51. In that passage he states that God is not interested in our outward acts of religion but rather the state of our heart before Him (Verses 16-17). He will not reject us when our heart is honest and desirous of Him.

“That is all Old Testament law and it does not apply to me. I am a New Testament believer and Paul tells us in Galatians and Romans that we are not under the law but under grace,” one might reply. This may be true and a good point for further discussion at another time, but it is most definitely not a reason to become MORE legalistic. When we set up rules (written or unwritten) that are not found in the Word and we place them on the same level as the Word and make them a determining factor in fellowship and conduct within the church, we have become legalists (Real Christians don’t …). Jesus had very little positive to say to the legalists He encountered. Matthew 23 is a sobering example of this. In this passage, Jesus even criticizes them for their emphasis on their clothing. He calls them whitewashed tombs and children of hell. Are these really the examples that we want to follow? In fact, you cannot find a passage in the New Testament that embraces legalism. So then are there no standards or guidelines by which we can rule our conduct? Of course there are. They just have to be God’s standards and not ours. Remember, He is the authority.

In the New Testament, the ones who were probably the best dressed were rejected by God because they placed their trust and importance on the outward appearance (the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes). In doing so they rejected God and made a god of themselves. The one that Jesus said was greater than all others in His kingdom was John the Baptist. Did he worry about his outward appearance? No. He wore camel’s hair and a leather belt. He did not fit in with the legalism of his time. He did not look the part. In 1 Peter 3 and 1 Timothy 2 we find that God does have a standard for our apparel. We are not supposed to find our worth and standing before God by what we wear on the outside. We are to cloth ourselves with good works. You should “let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious,” Peter says to the women in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Is this a principle that only applies to women? I do not think so. God desires to change us all from the inside out. When we provide an arbitrary and false regulation in order to determine “rightness,” we show that our hearts are not where they need to be in our own relationship with Him.

So what can we say about the issue to dress in the church today? There are a few biblical principles from which we can draw:

1. The condition of our heart is ALWAYS more important than our clothing.

2. 1 Peter 3 and 1 Timothy 2 both tell us that we should be modest in our apparel. This is so that we will not cause a weaker brother or sister to stumble. We do not want to draw the admiration or desire of those around us. Both of those belong to the Lord only. Does this mean that if a woman in a low cut blouse shows up at church we ask her to leave? By no means! We share the Gospel and the Truth of God’s Word with her in love and we trust the Lord to change her. The truths taught in these passages are intended to apply to what we wear all the time, which would include worship attendance.

3. We do not judge a person’s walk with God or acceptability within the church by what they wear. If a person is dressed immodestly out of ignorance, but their heart is right before God, then He will show them how to dress through the preaching and teaching of His Word.

4. We do not judge our own walk with God based on our outward appearance. It is just not biblical.

5. We must realize that if our legalism causes some to stumble in their faith or others not to come to faith at all, we will be held accountable by God for our heresy.

6. Worship is about God and not us.

7. Legalism is never a substitute for a proper relationship with God.

8. Love (1 Corinthians 13) is the bottom line in our relationship with God and with others.

We sing the song that says “Come just as you are. Hear the Spirit call. Come just as you are. Come and see. Christ the King. Come and live forever.” Do we really mean it or have we set a higher standard than God Himself has? I say, “Come just as you are!” I hope I see you in church.

An Open Letter to the Chairman of the RNC Robert M. Duncan (Subtitled: January 20, 2009 the Beginning of a New Error)

2008-11-06T09:56:00.006-05:00

Dear Mr. Duncan,

First of all let me introduce myself to you. My name is Jack Newton. I am an evangelical Christian and a conservative Republican. I have had forty eight hours now to digest and peruse the events of the past two years, culminating in the election. I am a Baptist pastor in a state that is overwhelmingly Democratic and did not expect much in the way of campaigning for the presidential election near or in my state. I am however, capable of keeping up with events on a national scale. The reason I introduce myself is because I feel that you and yours have forgotten about folks like me who are your base. I am sick and tired and I feel taken for granted and used.

Before I get to the crux of my communication, I want to congratulate Barack Obama on a masterfully run campaign. I am honored that I live in a country that is willing to elect a person of color to the most powerful and important office in the world. I have been told for decades, by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton that the US is far too racist to do such a thing. I am sick because it appears that many made their decision (pro and con) about whom to vote for based solely on race. I hope that one day my children can live in a country where people are judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. I understand that as a white male, I am not supposed to talk about such things. Just call me a maverick.

I am sick about the prospect of the next four years. I do not claim to be a prophet, and I hope that I am wrong, but I fear we have four years of economic and foreign policy struggles ahead of us. We have elected the most liberal and least qualified president ever to serve in that office. I am old enough to remember Jimmy Carter and his failed policies. Barack Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like a conservative. The place that I am most concerned is in the issue of life. We have elected a president who has no conceptual understanding of the sanctity of human life. Babies are a political problem to him. This breaks my heart and drives me to my knees to pray for this country. I am sick because we are now also weaker and more vulnerable to attack from our enemies.

All of this you know and it makes me tired. I am preaching to the choir. The reality is that I do not blame the Democrats for this loss. Does a football coach blame the other team for a loss when they are more prepared, have practiced more, and are in better physical condition? The Democrats raised more money than us, were better organized than we were, and communicated to the American people better than we did. The problem lies in the Republican Party. I am tired of you taking your conservative base for granted. You have assumed that we would be there no matter what. The pundits have told you that we have to move to the middle because that is where the voters are that will make the difference. We saw Clinton do it so that must be the pattern for success, right? Foolishness! The liberals have to hide who they are because their policies are failed, wrong, and in some cases even evil. When are we going to realize this? Character matters. Issues matter. I am tired of us trying to cloud these issues in order to become more acceptable to the mainstream. Well we saw Tuesday night how well that worked.

I am tired of excusing the lack of character in our midst because we feel we are right on the issues. We’ve had Bill Bennett writing a “Book of Virtues” and then spending the profits at the tables in Vegas. We’ve had Newt Gingrich telling us how awful Bill Clinton was for having an affair in the White House while Newt is having affairs of his own. We have Rush Limbaugh on the radio telling us what to think, only to find out that he is a junkie, hooked on pain pills. We have had Trent Lott with the leadership philosophy of capitulation and appeasement. All of this makes me tired. I know that you are probably thinking that most of that is in the past. True, but then we have a supposedly conservative president (one I have supported for eight years and still support) who just signed a bailout bill that is nothing more than a step towards socialism. Is it any wonder that we lost the election? People don’t know who we are or what we stand for. We don’t know who we are or what we stand for.

My first presidential vote was cast in favor of Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. I had just finished reading “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayne Rand. It was as if she was able to see into the future. The things she wrote about were coming true before my eyes. I saw the lines for gas and felt the double digit inflation. I was a US Marine at the time and felt the shame of having American hostages in a foreign land and doing nothing about it. Ronald Reagan did not run away from who he was. He stood up and proclaimed it boldly. Reaganomics worked not because it was Republican but because it was right. His stances on abortion, gun control, the family and other issues were right too. He did not shy away from them. He proclaimed them. That is why he is one of the greatest presidents our nation has ever seen.

As a Marine, I support and admire John McCain, but let’s face it. He spent most of his campaign telling us the he was not Barack Obama. That is not good enough. We need a true conservative. One that is not ashamed to state what he believes, even if the mainstream media does not agree. We have got to stop whining about the inequities in the media. They are liberal. They will always be liberal. We have to circumvent them. Talk radio is a start but we have to make better use of the internet as well. We are right on the issues. The only way we can lose is if we do not do a good enough job of communicating those issues. We have to state unashamedly our economic and social beliefs and get back to being the party that is for smaller government, life, and the family. We have to energize and appreciate our conservative base rather than just assuming they will go along with whatever we throw at them.

As for me, I have not lost hope. I am a man of faith and understand the God is in control of all things. I will continue to pray for this country and for Barack Obama. I will encourage the members of my church to do the same. “There is nothing new under the sun,” and God has yet to come across a problem that He could not handle. We Christians will have an opportunity to live out our faith and show the world the love of Christ. I am praying that God will lead a dynamic leader to the forefront in our country who will lead us back to a state where liberty is prized and government is not seen as the solution to all of the problems of the culture.

We have an opportunity in the next four years to take back the White House and the legislature. It will not just happen. As I said before, you do not know me. You have taken me for granted for too long. Now, you need me and the millions like me. What are you going to do? Character matters. Issues matter. Lives, in America and around the world, are depending on what you do in the coming months. I don’t know about you but I am tired of being sick and tired.

Sincerely,

Jack E. Newton

Lifelong Republican

The Election

2008-11-03T15:18:00.002-05:00

As I sit here on the eve of an important election that will be historical no matter what the outcome, I wonder if we are in a good place in America today. We are about to have either our first female vice president or our first African American president. Yet, neither one of these milestones seems all that important to me. Admittedly, I am in neither of the aforementioned demographics, but that is not the reason I am less than excited about the prospects ahead of us. Ones gender or race should have no bearing on the competition one way or another. Yet we Americans have taken a step backwards in many ways. Martin Luther King gave his world changing speech “I have a dream” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial over 45 years ago. Yet I do not think we have fulfilled his dream. I understand that I, as a white American man, am not supposed to talk about things such as race and gender in our time and culture. I also understand that by doing so I run the risk of being called a racist or a chauvinist. So, let me state unequivocally, that I too dream of the day when my children “will not be judged by the color of their skin (or their gender) but by the content of their character.” Nothing, I repeat, nothing will atone for the injustices perpetuated on African Americans in this country over the past centuries. I cannot go back and undo the problems of slavery, segregation, or discrimination. Neither can I change the discrimination that women have suffered over the history of our nation. It is foolishness to try. We can look back and never forget but we cannot allow ourselves to live in the past. So I have done my best to raise my family with a “color blind” attitude toward all people. I hope that I have done my part to make this world a more equitable place.

I recently heard talk show host ask his audience to call in and tell him which issue was causing them to vote for Barack Obama. After an hour of frustrating conversation, it was clear, at least for this one show, that issues were not that important to those who were going to vote for him. We live in a day where words have no meaning and perception is more important than reality. That is why “boxers or briefs?” is seen as an acceptable question to ask a presidential candidate. That is why it is more important for our candidates to appear on the Tonight Show or Saturday Night Live than at the conventions or news programs. After all this I wonder how many votes will be cast tomorrow, pro and con, because of the color of Barack Obama’s skin? Surely we have to be better than this. Here are a few of issues that each one of us should consider in these unsettled times in our history.

First, the economy. If you believe Senator Obama is only going to tax the rich (over $250k), and I do not believe him (remember “read my lips no new taxes”), what does that mean for those of us that Mr. Obama does not consider rich? I am no economist, but this is simple to understand. Let’s say for a minute that I am one of those evil rich business owners. Let’s say I own a factory that makes ball point pens. I have worked hard to build my business and now employ 100 people and provide 10% of the nation’s ball point pens. Now Mr. Obama is going to take my profits and “spread them around” to others in the country who have not been as blessed or industrious as I have. Let’s say my taxes are going to go up by $5,000 per year. That seems fair right? Who is going to pay for that tax? Well first of all my 100 employees are not going to get their Christmas bonus this year and they may only get a 2% raise instead of the 5% I was going to give them. I may even have to lay a few of them off. Next, I am going to increase the cost of my pens by a nickel to offset the tax. I will not pay one cent of this tax out of my own pocket. I will pass it on to others and the middle and lower class will end up paying.

The way to encourage growth in an already stagnant economy is to encourage me to invest more, produce more, and lower my prices. This is done by lowering my taxes not raising them. This class warfare of Barack Obama is going to plunge an already weak economy into further recession or even a depression. Does anyone remember Jimmy Carter? Barack Obama’s economic policies are even worse than Carter’s. When I was a teenager, my brother gave me a book entitled “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayne Rand. This book, though fiction, was instrumental in forming my understanding of political and economic issues. Though it was written decades ago is still applicable to the situation in which we find ourselves. Ayne Rand was way ahead of her time. We cannot allow the logic of illogic to rule in our society. Barack Obama is wrong on the economy.

Second, the war. If I told you that I was against littering but I supported those who litter or that I was against abortion but I supported those who kill babies in the womb, you would say I was crazy. You can’t support someone and yet not support what they do! Yet we let Barack Obama and many others off the hook when they say “I support the troops but not the war.” That is utter foolishness. It is detrimental to the moral of our troops and our reputation in the world. Yesterday, I participated in a Veterans’ appreciation service. As I looked around the room of about 300 veterans and their families, I was nearly overcome with emotion. The sacrifices that these brave men and women made for our freedom brought tears to my eyes. They were not looking for support, or gratitude. They did their duty because of who they are and what they believe. We owe them gratitude and support however. We can debate whether or not we should have gone into Afghanistan and Iraq in the first place (I think we did the right thing) but that does not change the fact that we are there now. To pull out now as Barack Obama wants (or even to set a timetable for withdrawal) would be disastrous for the world situation. We have to finish the job. We have to give our troops on the ground the resources and support they need to complete their mission. Mr. Obama would not do this. If there is one thing that Mr. McCain has a firm grasp upon, it is the needs and objectives of the military. As a marine, I will sleep a lot better with a war hero like John McCain in the White House. I have yet to mention the terrorist ties that Mr. Obama has in his past. All of this will serve to make America weaker with Obama as president.

Finally, life. Barack Obama is the most pro-death candidate this country has ever seen. He not only supports abortion all the way to the ninth month of pregnancy, but he supports killing the baby even when it is not in the womb. His support of partial birth abortion is not enough. He has supported legislation that would prohibit a doctor from rendering aid if the baby happens to be born alive. I know that the prevailing wisdom of our day is that we should not be a one issue voter. I am a one issue voter. A few years ago I voted for the republican candidate for governor of Maryland even though he was pro-abortion. I saw him, once elected, sponsor slot machine gambling, medical marijuana, and stem cell research. It all goes back to the value one places upon human life. Mr. Obama could appoint up to three Supreme Court Justices that would continue the holocaust of child killing in this country.

Though I believe an Obama presidency would be disastrous for the country and world, I also know that not everyone agrees with me. People in our culture make their choices on their perceptions and feelings rather than the issues. Assuming that the polls are right, and I have no reason to assume that they are not, we are in for at least four years of an Obama presidency. So what do we do? Well, one thing we cannot do is wait for the media to set things straight. They love Obama and his liberal policies. We have to continue to remain educated by reading blogs and listening to talk radio. The mainstream media is not now and never will be fair and objective when it comes to politics. That is established. Let’s stop whining about it and look for alternatives to the mainstream media. We also have to get past our apathy. Complaining is easy. Doing something about it is hard. Start a blog, write letters to the White House, start petitions, write books, and take action. It is time for conservative Christians to wake up and do something. The hope for this country does not reside in Washington, no matter who is elected tomorrow. What most people forget is that Martin Luther King was a Baptist preacher long before he was a civil rights activist. I feel a certain brotherhood with him. He understood that the solution to our social ills resided not in the White House or the Governor’s Mansion but in another throne room. He said in that most famous speech, “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” If we are ever going to see this country change, then we Christians have to start living our Christianity every day. As we take up our cross daily and follow Jesus Christ, He will use us to change the world. Maybe, just maybe, God will use this whole political situation to bring a revival that could not come any other way. Let’s pray.