@ the crossroads

Surveying the cultural landscape of America will reveal a bent toward hype, excess, and glitz.  The more we indulge, the more we need to indulge because our threshold for hype continues to rise; this is the law of diminishing returns.  This tendency can even become a temptation to the church in an effort to attract people to Jesus.  The thought is that the church must constantly be energized with something new, unbelievable, “better than ever,” and ”glitzy” in order for excitement to be unleashed.  The word glitz means “ostentatious showiness; flashiness.”  This morning, I read these words from Matthew 20:17-19:

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.  They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.  On the third day he will be raised to life!” 

At this point in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is gathering his disciples and revealing to them the mission that lies ahead.  I can just imagine the intensity in Jesus’ tone as he looks his followers in the eyes and tells them about the stark reality of God’s mission.  The focus of Jesus is not on aesthetics, image, flash, or even being relevant.  The vision is one of  faithful, unyielding obedience, even when confronted by the hellish experience of physical suffering and torture.

The center of our faith revolves around the cross, an instrument of execution and a tool that was not known for its flash and flare.  The wood caused splinters and discomfort to the skin, even before the nails were driven into the criminal’s body.  The cross sobers us to the costly price of our freedom from sin and promotes ongoing meditation on the radical love of Jesus for us. 

However, lest we focus only on the somber aspect of the cross, there is another part of the gospel message, namely the resurrection, and the cross would be incomplete without this half of the combo package.  The resurrection is Jesus’ reward from the Father for faithful obedience.  This resurrection of Christ has changed the course of history and now makes the impossible possible and opens up the door for lives to be forever changed.  “On the third day he will be raised to life!” Jesus said, and this wasn’t hype, it was bedrock truth that cannot be denied. 

Everything is different now because of Easter and because people over the centuries have been faithful witnesses to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The church won’t make a lasting impact in the world by trying to outdo the glitz and hype of the culture; the eternal differences will be made in the faithful living and communicating of the good news about this Jesus who died and is now alive!  Those who are living apart from Christ need to see consistent, faithful lives devoted to the One who can save; may those lives be ours. 

Crossroads has been through many facility renovation projects.  The biggest lesson I have learned as a result of the projects is this: There is always more involved than meets the eye.  When a wall is taken down, wires are exposed and the elecrical system needs to be reworked.  When pipes are removed, water leaks may result.  When drywall is hung, the seams still need mud, the surface still needs texture, and the wall still needs paint.  “Gutting” a building is not a quick fix; it is a process.

In his book, Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard writes, “the greatest need you and I have–the greatest need of collective humantiy–is renovation of our heart.  That spiritual place within us from which outlook, choices, and actions come has been formed by a world away from God.  Now it must be transformed.”  Spiritual growth is like a major facility renovation.  Over time everything is transformed into something new and beautiful.

One great question to ask is: “Am I allowing God to renovate my heart?” 

How is the project coming along?

I recently ate dinner with my family at a local restaurant called Peeble’s BBQ.  From the outside, this eating establishment is not only unassuming in appearance, but could possibly be considered “a dive.”  There is nothing in the physical appearance of the building that speaks to the hungry stomach and says, “pull over and eat here.”  However, when one ventures inside, the perspective is drastically changed as the human senses are overwhelmed with the sight, smell, taste, and textures of delicious barbecued beef, pork, and ribs.  Something truly significant is happening on the inside!

We live in a society that is image-saturated and image-driven.  There is nothing inherently wrong with images, but the danger with image-inundation is that it propels us into a mode of evalutating people and things strictly from an external perspective.  A purely external evaluation based on how someone or something appears can create false realities.  If I had judged Peeble’s from the “drive by” appearance of the restaurant on Saturday night, I would have taken my family somewhere else to eat.  

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is extremely concerned about the outside-in living of the Pharisees and teachers of the law.  They chose to develop an external image based on the written (Torah) and oral (Talmud) Law that missed the heart relationship with God.  The substance of faith was lost in their attempts to portray perfect obedience to the minutia of human tradition:

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?  They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” (Matt. 15:1-2)

Jesus then replied to this question about image with these words:

“And why do you break the commands of God for the sake of your tradition? (Matt. 15:3)

Notice how Jesus presses beyond image to substance.  He moves from the tradition of men to the commands of God.  The commands of God reveal God’s character, his heart.  Jesus gives us the truth about substance in our lives; it is found in deep heart connection with the Father, not in blindly following human traditions, but rather in an inside-out approach to discipleship and spiritual growth.

When we are tempted to project an image of our external selves to those around us this week, may we remember that God desires our lives to operate as an overflow of what’s on the inside.  Spiritual substance and purity begins on the inside and works itself out in all areas of our lives.

By the way, the aroma of Peeble’s BBQ infiltrates the surrounding community; the influence of a modest facility is significant due to what is happening on the inside.  As we give careful attention to our interior lives, may the substance of the work God is doing through his grace permeate the people around us. 

BBQ anyone?

Here are a few quotes from George Barna’s book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions:

One of the lessons that wiser parents than I have learned is to remember that God cares a lot less about what we achieve that draws applause from the world, how many consecutive profitable quarters we led the corporation to amass, how clean and organized we kept our home or how many educational degrees we piled up than how we raise our children. (p. 89)

By the age of 13, your spiritual identity is largely set in place. (p. 34)

Having devoted more than two decades of my life and all of my professional skills to studying and working with ministries of all types, I am now convinced that the greatest hope for the local church lies in raising godly children. (p. 49)

This Sunday we will be highlighting the children’s ministry of Crossroads and letting people know how they can become involved.  This ministry is growing rapidly and we can use more people on the team to mentor children in the faith and model the Christian life before them.  If you love Jesus and are passionate about seeing children grow in Christ, I want you to consider helping out on Sundays.  Of course, Crossroads does have a screening process for all children’s workers that includes:

*workers must attend Crossroads for 6 months prior to working with children

*all workers must fill out an application, provide references, and undergo a background check

These procedures are there to help us provide the safest possible environment for children.  Applications are available on the Crossroads website.  They will also be available this Sunday at the Welcome Center.

When I reflect on my childhood years, I can remember a group of faithful people who invested in my life and modeled the life of discipleship.  I am where I am largely because people cared enough about me to get involved in my life.  They helped form my spiritual identity.  Will you help a child in the spiritual formation process?

One of the amazing things about being a part of the church is witnessing how God provides for the needs of the body through the giftedness of the members.  Every follower of Jesus has been given gifts, or ”talents” as Jesus describes them in Matthew 25, to be used in building up the church and making a Kingdom impact in the world.  We either use these gifts and discover more fully our God-given purpose in this world, or we lose these gifts through inactivity, apathy, or self-centered living.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus describes a man who had received one talent to be invested for his master but instead of using the gift for the benefit of the master’s business, the one-talent individual “went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money” (Matt. 25:18).  When the master asked for an accounting of the talent, the man said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground.  See, here is what belongs to you” (Matt. 25:24-25). 

The one-talent guy perhaps “played it safe” with his gift for a few reasons:

1) Laziness–the man found it easier to bury the money than invest it.  What talents are buried in our lives?

2) Fear of Failure–how many times have we held back on investing our gifts because we believed the lie that we would simply fail in the endeavor?  Fear paralyzes and prevents forward movement.

3) Insecurity–perhaps the man looked at the one talent and thought that it couldn’t make much of a difference anyway.  Can such a small amount really accomplish anything significant?

4) Using a misrepresentation of the master as an excuse–the man described the master in a way that was unfair and untrue.  He created a false identity for the master that could be likened to a harsh taskmaster and an abusive father who is simply waiting to judgmentally pounce on a helpless child.  Our distorted views of God can also have a similar effect on our lives.

Jesus ends his parable with these sobering words:

Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.  For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.  Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (Matt. 25:28-29)

In other words, use it or lose it; serve or sink; invest or implode–you get the picture.  God’s gifts are lavished upon us so we can be a blessing to others and so we can be signs pointing to back to Jesus, the Ultimate Gift.

Have a wonderful time using your gifts for God’s glory!

The wind is howling outside my office window, the traffic on Thornhill Road is exceptionally busy on this Tuesday, my computer is running some type of cacophonous scan, and I can almost hear the cheers from Washington D.C. on this Inauguration Day.  Life can be noisy. 

The Bible discusses the issue of hearing quite often; Jesus tells his disciples to “listen.”  Is it just me, or does it seem to be getting more difficult to put ourselves in a position to hear the still, small voice of our God?  My cousin has a PhD. in Bioengineering and works at the Miller Laboratory which is located in the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis.   One focus of my cousin’s research is how a noisy environment affects hearing and comprehension. 

I know from personal experience that noise can be an enemy to true hearing.  We live in a culture that is being affected by noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).  According to a Washington Post article from January 17, 2006:

Audiology experts agree that hearing loss is increasing in the United States…the number of Americans age 3 and older with some form of auditory disorder has more than doubled since 1971, from 13.2 million to about 30 million today.  Of those, one-third are said to be people with noise-induced hearing loss.

Jesus knew the importance of the hearing process for the assimilation of truth and so he told his disciples to listen carefully to the mother of all parables, the parable of the sower.  Here are some thoughts on how hearing intersects with God’s word being planted in people’s lives:

*Immediate hearing problems may be caused by Satan’s influence. 

When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart (Matt. 13:19). 

*Gradual hearing problems may be caused by the troubles of this life.

…the man who hears the word and once receives it with joy.  But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time.  When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

*Gradual hearing problems may be caused by prosperity.

…the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

Jesus then goes on to tell his disciples what characterizes those who hear well–they are people who produce fruit.   Those with ears that truly hear are receptive at the heart level to the power of God’s word and they embrace its truthfulness and transformative character.  Hearing leads to understanding which, in turn, leads to the ongoing renovation of the heart.  

Are you placing yourself in a position to avoid the excessive noisiness of life so you can hear the life-changing word of God?

We all have expectations in our relationships with others.  These expectations include how we perceive people should act in various situations.  John the Baptist had expectations as to how Jesus should respond to him because John had the “inside scoop” on Jesus’ ministry.  After all, John served as the forerunner of Jesus and was the “Elijah” predicted in the closing pages of the Old Testament to be the one paving the way for the Messiah (”See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes” [Malachi 4:5]).  John the Baptist also baptized Christ and this event served as the inaugural event of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  On top of all this, John was a member of Jesus’ extended family and John made great sacrifices for Jesus along the way, such as living in the wilderness, eating strange food, wearing uncomfortable clothing, and speaking prophetically to a ruler (Herod Antipas) for his adulterous activity.  On the surface, it would seem as if Jesus would reward John’s obedience with earthly comfort rewards.  However, Matthew 11 tells us that John was not in a place of personal comfort but rather struggling behind prison bars:

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.  When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”  (Matt. 11:1-3)

The main problem for John was one of unmet expectations.  He was under the impression that Jesus would set things right…right now.  For John, this setting things right included deliverance from prison.  I’m sure at the initial stages of his imprisonment John was saying to himself, “Come on, Jesus, it’s time already for you to come through!  Let justice roll like a mighty river!  Call down your judgment fire on those who don’t love you and let these prison doors fly open!”  After several days or weeks in prison John probably began thinking… “Jesus, should we expect someone else?”  Unmet expectations…

Jesus responds to John’s questions with these words:

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.  Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. (Matt. 11:4-6)

A couple important notes about Jesus’ response:

1) Jesus is quoting phrases from Isaiah but he leaves out the part from Isaiah 61 that talks about proclaiming freedom for the captives.  In essence, Jesus was telling John that he wasn’t getting out of prison alive.  John would be executed at the order of Herod Antipas.  God’s plan was different than John’s assumptions of God’s plan.  Yet in a powerful move of hope, Jesus adds a phrase not included in Isaiah 61–the dead are raised.  In other words, Jesus was communicating to John an ultimate hope beyond the present painful circumstances.  The picture at the top of this post is a photo of Machaerus, the fortress where the First-Century historian Jospehus tells us that John was imprisoned and eventually executed.  Machaerus was near the northeastern coast of the Dead Sea, an extremely desolate and isolated place.  In the middle of this desert region John receives news about resurrection.  Even the worst perceivable outcome (in John’s case, death) does not and will not have the last word.  The life of Christ has the last word for those who come to him in faith.

2)   Jesus says something very powerful to those in a Machaerus situation: Blessed are those who do not fall away on account of me.  In other words…

Blessed are those who do not give up believing on account of me

Blessed are those who do not get disappointed and offended on account of me

If you find yourself frustrated with God because He seems to be ignoring your cries, just remember that He is up to many things that we cannot fathom from our perspective.  John’s life served an important role in kingdom ministry; I’m sure it was different from anything John would have originally conceived, but it was God’s agenda to allow things to unfold as they did.  John’s responsibility, like yours and mine, is to faithfully and radically trust.  The writer of Hebrews put it this way: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1).  It requires faith from Machaerus to see that God is faithful and true and life-giving. 

May you know the resurrection power of Jesus, even if you are in Machaerus.  Christ will see you through…

I came across this quote & decided I must pass it along…

Get on fire and they’ll come and watch you burn.   ~John Wesley

Most people I talk to have pretty high levels of anxiety in their lives caused by a wide variety of things: jobs (and lack of jobs), fragile marriages, rebellious children, plummeting retirement funds, unrealized dreams, and chronic health problems to name a few.  Jesus talked about anxiety in his famous Sermon on the Mount; according to Jesus, anxiety often involves our stuff:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:25-27)

According to a recent study by the World Health Organization, the odds of a person developing an anxiety disorder have doubled in the past 40 years.  In 2000, the financial cost of anxiety in the United States was $42 billion per year (this is a conservative estimate).  The most prosperous nation on earth sure does struggle with anxiety.

Jesus tells us that at the foundational level, anxiety is a lack of faith and trust in God’s ability to provide.  There is a direct correlation between anxiety and one’s desire to store up earthly treasures.  The more we focus on stuff, the more stressed out we become because we begin placing our trust in things that cannot save.  Jesus tells us that “the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt. 6:32-33). 

I recently read an article about a group of Somali pirates who had hijacked a Saudi supertanker at sea.  Once the pirates had received the $3 million ransom, they headed toward shore.  Five of the pirates ended up losing their lives when their boat overturned in the rough waters.  One pirate’s body drifted ashore and there was about $58,000 found in his pocket.  What a dramatic picture of what happens when we ruthlessly chase after earthly treasures! 

Are you trusting God to provide for your daily needs?  Or are you chasing after the “latest & greatest” and experiencing chronic anxiety?  In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard writes:

Anxiety is just groundless and pointless.  It occurs only as a hangover of bad habits established when we were trusting things–like human approval and wealth–that were certain to let us down.  Now our strategy should be one of resolute rejection of worry, while we concentrate on the future in hope and with prayer and on the past with thanksgiving.

The greatest cure for an anxious life is a profound trust in the God who promises provision and peace.  Will you trust him today?

In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke these words:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt. 6:19-21)

Our treasures are our priorities in life, the very things that drive us and motivate us each day.  They may be material possessions, physical appearance, jobs, or even a consuming desire for human approval.  Jesus’ words seem to focus most on material possessions because the lure of wealth can spell disaster for the life of discipleship.  It’s just plain hard to be rich and madly in love with Jesus. 

One of the problems with seeking security outside the kingdom of God is that we end up investing our time and energy in projects that don’t have eternal significance.  Life can easily turn into a game of collecting and hoarding.  Jesus tells us that if we stock-pile earthly treasures, we end up empty in the end because insects, rust, and cleptomaniancs have a way of diminishing our stuff.  Life in the kingdom of God is a paradox: when we lose our lives we find them; when we surrender our possessions and our dreams to Jesus, we begin to discover what life is really all about.

In Lord Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon write:

A woman in a little village in Honduras trudges up the mountain each day to gather and then carry down the mountain the sticks for her cooking fire.  She then goes back up the mountain to fetch water for cooking the food.  Then she grinds the corn her husband has raised, cherishing every kernal, hoping that this season’s corn will last through the winter.  The tortillas are made in the palm of her hand.  She drops them in the pan, cooks them and feeds them one-by-one to her children, the only food they will have that day to fill their aching stomachs.  That woman undoubtedly prays, “give us this day our daily bread” differently from the way we pray that petition.  For us, we ought to pray “give us the grace to know when enough is enough.”

 In an American society that has an overabundance of most everything (even in a recession), our prayer should be “give us the grace to know when enough is enough.”  When we store up treasures in heaven, we are on the lookout for people in need and seek to meet those needs with our abundance.  St. Basil the Great (a 4th Century bishop) wrote:

The bread that is spoiling in your house belongs to the hungry.  The shoes that are mildewing under your bed belong to those who have none.  The clothes stored away in your trunk belong to those who are naked.  The money that depreciates in your treasury belongs to the poor!

Here is a great question for the day: How can we use the resources God has entrusted to us and make the greatest Kingdom impact today? 

Have fun storing up treasures in heaven!