What A Pacifer Does (and what it cannot do)

1. A rubber or plastic nipple or teething ring for a baby to suck or chew on.

2. Something or someone that brings peace.



It may be hard to believe, but these two definitions fit the same word. In the American English Dictionary, these are the definitions under the word pacifier.



The first night my son, Harry, came home from the hospital all he did was scream. He screamed and screamed and screamed some more. He screamed so much I thought my head might explode. My wife, Rachel (a speech pathologist) had heard that using a pacifier before the baby has really taken to the breast can make nursing more difficult. Because of this, she was hesitant to try the pacifier. After the second straight hour of crying, we decided to go for it.



The results were incredible. Silence. My son was indeed pacified.



That's what pacifiers do. They pacify. They bring a moment's peace. And they can be very effective, as long as they are used for that purpose.



The downfall of the pacifier is that the peace only lasts a moment. Maybe two moments. Never more than an hour's worth.



But what if the pacifier was what we turned to whenever Harry cried. Any time he needed to get clean, we gave him the pacifier. Any time he needed to be fed, we gave him the pacifier. Any time he was hurt, we gave him the pacifier. Any time he needed to be changed, we gave him the pacifier.



You know the answer as well as I do. It wouldn't work. A pacifier won't make him clean, it won't feed him, it won't heal his pain or change him. It can only pacify him temporarily. Only an idiot would try to use a pacifier for anything more.



Which proves that we're a bunch of idiots. We feel pain and we turn to alchohol. We feel hungry and we turn to sex. We need to get clean and we hope that good behavior will get us there. We want to be changed and we reach for the right clothes, the right car, the right friends. And we stay hungry and dirty and needy. But, for awhile, we're pacified.



The devil's hope is to keep us pacified. His hope is that if he starts us young on the pacifier, we'll forget where to go when we feel empty. Our only hope is to remember what a pacifier does, and what it can never do.



If we want real change and real fullfillment we have to turn to the one that brings real peace. You see there are two kinds of pacifiers. One is just a weak imitation of what we really need. The other is someone that brings peace. And not just for a moment.



All of us get to that place where we're running on empty. If we ever hope to get full, we have to turn to the source of living water, the one who is the bread of life, the one who lives within us and sustains us; Jesus Christ.

Birth Announcement

Harrison Everett Smith was born 9-22-04 at 6:07 p.m.



He weighed 6lbs 13oz



He was 19in long



He has reddish blonde hair



He is beautiful and perfect.



I am tired and content.



He's sleeping. I should be too. Peace to all of you.

This World Is Not My Home

“You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? That idea of home is gone. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.”

So spoke Andrew Largeman, the fictional main character in Zach Braff’s directorial debut, Garden State. Largeman (also played by Braff) is a twentysomething actor who has returned home to New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. The film is about the time he spends there, the people he connects (or reconnects) with, and the attempts he makes to feel at home again. I found myself riveted through the entire film, rooting for Largeman to make a connection that would mean something, to find a place where he could feel at home.

When the connection was finally made, I was disappointed. His connection comes (as should not surprise anyone who watches movies) in the form of a woman. An amazing woman, no doubt, brought alive through the talents of actress Natalie Portman. This young woman’s name is Sam, and she meets Andrew in a hospital, where she is being treated for epilepsy. Their mutual brokenness draws them to one another and, in just four short days, Andrew has found a soulmate in Sam. As the film draws to a close, Andrew speaks these words, “Safe…when I’m with you I feel safe…like I’m home.” It is the sentiment that says to another “wherever you are, that’s where I want to be…wherever you are, that’s my home.” To be fair, this wasn’t a “you complete me” look at love. This love had depth, and it made me glad for these two imaginary folks I had come to call friends in just two short hours; but it made me sad for them as well.

All throughout the film, Andrew Largeman acts as an excellent example of the everyman on the journey of life. His struggles are our struggles, his search is our search; and so it pained me to see him fall short of his goal. When he spoke of this imaginary place that we all long for, I wanted to cry out “It’s real! That place is real!” When he finally found his “home”, his “safe” place in Sam, I wanted to warn him that this wasn’t the relationship either of them should call home. The home they were looking for is found in a greater relationship; that place we all miss is the Kingdom of God.

Hebrews 11:13-16 speaks of a transient people who are looking for their true home. It ends by stating that this home is found in God, in the Kingdom that is coming and has come. In other words, our home is the place where God resides, wherever He is, that’s our home. Earlier in the same chapter, we are reminded of the faith of Abraham, who was called by God to leave and “go to the place that I will show you.” Abraham showed his faith by packing up and, while living in the world, never making himself at home. The people of God are defined by their desire for something more than this, by their longing to be where God is and their willingness to follow Him wherever He might go.

Christ calls his people to the same place and the same faith. Just as Abraham is called to “leave” and “go”, so we are called to “repent and believe”. When we do so, we begin a great adventure. We become a transient people, longing for that other place. We live “in the world, but not of the world” because we know “this world is not our home.” It is for that reason that we refuse to make ourselves at home. We refuse to get wrapped up in the things of this world. We refuse to get too comfortable with this world's institutions and government, principalities and powers because we know that we are not of this world, and that a better home is being prepared for us. Jesus said to his followers “I am going to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would have told you.”

That doesn't mean we're meant to disconnect from one another and coast along in expectation of heaven. What we are meant to do is to form our connection in Christ and to find our place in His Kingdom. This is the connection that lasts, this is the place that is eternal. Through Him, we find connections with one another that are stronger than any we could have formed ourselves. In Him, we are at home.

In the gospel of John, chapter 14, Jesus says it this way, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.” He goes on to speak of a place prepared, of a home with many rooms, and of the promise that where he is, there we will also be. Jesus understands our longing for home, and he has created one for us. Our home is the place where he resides. It is with him and in him that we feel at home. But will we know the way to get home? Will we worry, as Abraham must have, about how we will get to place we are going? In our case, we have the advantage of knowing Christ. When Thomas asks how we will know the way home, Jesus responds, “I am the way.” Through the gospels this message is repeated, Christ is the way, the door, and the vine. He is the connection that we are all looking for.

But Christ’s message does not end there. He is, indeed, the way home, but there are steps we must take to get there. As chapter 14 continues, Jesus explains what these steps will be. In verse 11, he says that we must believe in him. In verse 15, he says that we must keep his commandments. In verse 23, he says that we must keep his word. But all through this chapter, the idea of home is present. For us to have a home in Christ, we must allow him to make himself at home in us. Though faith is being sure of what we do not see, we will see Christ, because he will live in us; if we keep his word, we will be loved by the Father and the Son and they will come to us and make their home with us.

Andrew Largeman’s journey is our journey, his search is our search; but his final discovery is not our final hope. While we can draw strength from earthly relationships, we know that our home is in Christ. Our longing can only be satisfied when we trust and obey, leave and go, repent and believe. The kingdom of God is at hand, and we must trust in the one who rules over it to make for us a home. We must keep our eyes on the final destination as a way of keeping our focus while here on earth. This does not mean that we keep a pie in the sky attitude towards reality, but that we allow our reality to be reshaped by the one who calls us and shapes us in His image. This reshaping cannot just be something we say, it must be true reformation; it must change the way we believe, the way we act, and the way we speak.

Hebrews 11:14 says that people of faith speak as those “who are seeking a homeland.” Too often, we have made ourselves at home in this world, allowing it to shape us as long as it promises to keep us safe. But we will never be safe here, we should never get too comfortable, because this can never be our home. If it is, then it is the place that we will grasp onto and the things it offers will be the things we struggle to keep. But if we know that this world is not our home, than we can put the phrase “you can’t take it with you” into practice.

In the year 2000, well-known rock band U2 released an album titled “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”. Lead singer and longtime Christian, Bono, keeps home and heaven as a continued theme throughout the album. On one particular song, “Walk On”, he warns of trying to make a home in two worlds. He speaks of the things we try and make for ourselves in order to give ourselves meaning. In one strung out cry he shouts “All that you fashion, all that you make, all that you build, all that you break” and then “all that you sense, all that you scheme, all you dress up, and all that you see” warning his listeners that these things can become “all that you can’t leave behind.” His answer to this predicament is that “home is where the heart is” and that “love is not the easy thing, but is the only baggage that you can bring.”

They are wise words, and they reflect the truth of Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 that speaks in terms of faith and hope, but always knows that “the greatest of these is love.” If we believe in Christ, and have faith in him, put our hope in him, live as he lived and love as he loved, we will find our home in him.

The Question of God

No long post (although I'd love to hear comments from other readers), just want to recommend a book; The Question of God by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr.



Excellent stuff. A must read.

Short post today

Just a quick share and response. I visited with a fantastic church this past Sunday whose elders asked this question: If our church were to suddenly disappear would anyone in the community care or even notice?



This question wasn't meant to make them ashamed, but to simply re-evaluate and has led to some amazing steps in outreach.



It's a question worth asking; if your home church were to suddenly disappear, would anyone in your community care or even notice?

All Signs Point To No

Our church in North Carolina regularly receives copies of The Christian Chronicle, and the cover of one of the most recent issues caught my eye. There was a picture of a church meeting, taken from an outsider perspective (through the window of the front entrance). Two large signs were taped to the glass of the window; one read "NO...CANDY OR DRINKS PAST THIS POINT...Thanks!" and the other "TIP TOE TIP TOE IN GOD'S HOUSE".



Now, I'm not looking to pick on a specific church since I have met at (worshipped with and worked for) churches with a similar message (if not the specific sign). My question for all of us is this...where was the WELCOME sign? I understand having some rules about food and such, but do we want that to be an outsider's first (and maybe last) interaction with us? If someone visits my house I may ask them to take off muddy shoes or not to sit on the arm of the couch, but it isn't the first thing I say to them. Hopefully they pass through my door with a hearty "Welcome" and feel it is sincere.



My follow up question would be this; are we doing enough to make our guests feel welcome? I'm not even talking about seeker services or a complete overhall of worship styles, I'm talking about making them feel welcome to visit and participate with us in what we do. Does the guy walking in off the street feel welcome?



My fear is that all signs point to no.

Neither Do I Condemn You

The teachers of law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

The teacher bent down and, when they continued to question him, said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first one to throw a stone at her.” At this they began to drop their stones on the ground.

The teacher picked up one of the fallen stones. “We may not be without sin,” he said, “but if we only allow perfect people to enforce the law then the law will soon be dead.” And he lifted the stone over his head and drove it into her skull.



The teachers of law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

The teacher bent down and whispered to the woman, “The man you were with is a friend of mine. This will all work out.” He then stood up and said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first one to throw a stone at her.” At this, they began to drop their stones on the ground. The teacher continued, “None of us is perfect and all make mistakes. We cannot expect perfection from one another, but must accept each other the way we are.”



Do you see yourself in either of these stories? “The law must be preserved at all costs!” Crunch. “My friendships must be preserved at all costs!” Shrug. If I’m not careful, I can see both of these stories in myself. One place you won’t see these stories is in the Bible. John's gospel tells a different story.



If you want to get to the heart of Jesus’ mission, John 8:11 isn’t a bad place to start. The heart of the gospel revealed through these words of Jesus –“Neither do I condemn you.”



Imagine the power of these words. To do that, you have to put yourself in this woman’s situation. Put yourself in the position of someone living a life of secret sin and suddenly having that sin exposed.



We have all fallen victim to sin. We have all known the struggle of temptation and the sorrow of giving into it. Many of us have also lived with the fear that this woman was living with –the fear of being found out.



Why is the confidentiality of a priest or a therapist so sacred? Well, there are many reasons, but a main one is simply the fear that if others knew what we thought about or did in our darker moments they wouldn’t want to know us anymore. The Christian band Pedro the Lion has a song that exposes this fear. Its title is “When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run.” This is the fear that many of us live with every day.



That is the fear that the woman in this story is now forced to deal with. Her sin has been exposed for all to see. Look at verse 3 –“They made her stand before the group.” Imagine the humiliation. Imagine her anxiety. Some part of her must have hope that, if they were going to kill her they would do it quickly.



If that is her hope, then these teachers of the law are only too happy to oblige. The law is on their side and says that she must be killed. They ask Jesus, this great teacher, what he thinks they should do. Prepared for the answer that will hasten her death, imagine how surprised she must have been at his response.



“Let the one who is without sin throw the first stone.” It must take a second to register, but she begins to see that the spotlight has suddenly shifted. These teachers are forced to deal with their own sinfulness. Who among them has never sinned? The answer is obvious, and those stones which were meant to destroy her drop to the ground instead. One by one, the men walk away.



But the story doesn’t end there. There is still Jesus. There is still one man she has to answer to. The one man who IS without sin. The only man in a position to cast that first stone. Perhaps in an effort to help her take in what has transpired, perhaps a little tongue in cheek, Jesus turns to her and asks, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she answers.



Now hear these words from Jesus. These marvelous words. Ask yourself if you have ever had a time when you feared you might be found out. Look into your own heart to see if you have been hiding out, putting on a good face, terrified that your own life might be laid bare for all to see. You stand face to face with the perfect son of God, the one man who can still bring about your destruction, the one man who can still despise you for your sin and turn on you because of your worthlessness. Hear the words that he speaks to you in that moment. “Neither do I condemn you.”



“YES!” Your heart cries out. You are going to live. You are going to be OK, more than OK. You have not been condemned. This is the Christ that stands before you, the one who said he did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. The one who came not to destroy, but came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. “Neither do I condemn you,” he says, and sweeter words were never spoken.



The fact is that we are all looking to be found out by someone who will still love us. Any of us who have ever lived with secret sin or struggle have also experienced the burden that can be. Part of us fears that we will be found out, but our true fear is that those who find us out will no longer love us. My grandfather, who is a policeman, has said of most people who commit crimes “most of the time they want to confess, they want to be found out. I just have to help them.”



Christian author GK Chesterton says something similar:

“[Christ is the only one who] ever attempted by system to pursue and discover crimes, not in order to avenge, but in order to forgive them…[his] specialty…was this merciless mercy; the unrelenting sleuthhound who seeks to save and not to slay”



Most of us who live with sin are sick of living with it. We want to be exposed, but we fear what exposure might mean. So we take part in a cover up, unwilling to have our true selves exposed. But Christ knows all. He has found us out. And the good news is that he does not condemn us.



But that isn’t the end of the good news. While Jesus’ isn’t willing to condemn us for our life of sin, he isn’t willing to condemn us to a life of sin either. His forgiveness isn’t simply a “we all make mistakes” shrug of the shoulders. Christ knows that would only condemn us in a different way. If Jesus’ makes light of our sin and allows us to “be ourselves” then he condemns us to a life lived in sin, a life as destructive as a rock to the head, just a lot slower process. If he were simply to let us go our way, he might as well take a rock to our heads and get it over with.



But Christ has come that we might have abundant life, and life can only be abundant when it is lived according to his will and purpose. So, his last words to this woman are just another way of saying “neither do I condemn you.” His final words are a challenge to her –“Go and sin no more.”



Does he mean that this woman can’t ever make another mistake? Obviously not. None of us could pull that off. But he has called her to repent, to change directions, to start taking a different path. A difficult path, but one that leads to abundant and eternal life.



Christ’s words to us today are as powerful as when they were first spoken to that woman around 2000 years ago. “Neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more.” They are words meant to reveal to us Jesus’ unconditional love and his desire for us to live with him and like him. They are words of freedom –the truth is exposed, but it has set us free. If you are someone who is tired of hiding, tired of pretending, if you have never lived life abundantly, but would like to begin, if you have never heard Jesus words “Neither do I condemn you” but are willing to accept them today, if you want to turn from old ways and start in a new direction, Christ invites you to do just that.

For My Wife, On the Eve of Our 6th Wedding Anniversary

How Sweet The Sound



They sang Amazing Grace

The day that she was born

With eyes as green as clovers and hair like silk of corn

Her parents must have wondered then,

But God could surely see

That she would be the blessing that she is to me



They sang Amazing Grace

The day that she was saved

An old soul given new life

An old life in its grave

Her family was to thank for the faith which she was from

But only God could know the blessing she’d become



They sang Amazing Grace

They day that we first met

I’d known my share of friendly girls

But had not known love yet

It didn’t take me long to see the grace that was inside

And only slightly longer to know that she would be my bride



They sang Amazing Grace

The day that we were wed

She vowed to share my life with me,

My faith, my fun, my bed

She became my mate and lover, my partner and my friend

And promised that our days together would not reach an end



I sing Amazing Grace

That saved a wretch like me

I give thanks for the Savior’s love and know it’s all I need

And so I stand in wonder that He’d also give me her

To make the people we’d become better than the ones we were



I see it in her service and I see it in her smile

I hear it in her voice, all goodness and no guile

I’ll thank the Lord in heaven ‘til He puts me in the ground

And every time I hear Him speak through her I’ll think “how sweet the sound”

A Certain Uncertainty

I launch today's little nugget on something from Oswald Chambers' April 29th entry from "My Upmost For His Highest". He comments that "certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life." For guys like me, this is not always good news.



I was talking recently with a newfound friend about our mutual control freak tendencies. About the fear that comes with a lack of ability to control. Think about the things you fear the most, and they almost always hearken back to some kind of lack of control. Death itself (what most people most fear) is the ultimate example of a lack of control. Its a scary proposition. Or it would be if God weren't involved.



In C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", Lewis uses the character Aslan, a lion, to represent God. There is a moment toward the end of the book when two human characters, Susan and Lucy, are wrestling playfully with Aslan; him tossing them about in his enormous paws. The picture is a pleasant one until you think about the fact that these girls are wrestling WITH A LION! Earlier in the story, when the humans first hear of Aslan one asks "Is he safe?" to which a talking beaver (read the story, it makes sense) responds "Heavens no he isn't safe. But he's good."



And so is the news of this uncertainty. While we are uncertain of our next step, we are certain of the one who goes on ahead of us, the one in whose footsteps we are following. This should bring with it a sense of awe and a breathless expectation. We are on a journey with God. And with God, all that we might fear disappears (although, we're human, so it will return along the way) and our life becomes an exciting adventure. We take the hand of God like a child would a parent and are, as Chambers states, "certain in our uncertainty"; confident that we don't know the way, but that God does. Jesus calls us not to simply believe in things about him, but to believe in him in such a way that we would put our whole life, and all our control, in his hands.

Thoughts on Forgiveness

Well, I was visiting my half.com account today (for those of you who aren't familiar, this is a part of ebay where people buy and sell movies, music, etc.) to make sure that my rating (given by other customers) was still good. I also happened to be checking on the rating of someone I had purchased from. He had made an unfortunate mistake with his catalogue and so had a long listing of complaints (some very cleverly worded). One of these complaints read "To err is human, but to err constantly is NOT!"



If only it were so. And yet, I find that my humanness (at least one side of it) has me erring on a fairly regular basis (for example, I'm not sure that is the correct spelling or erring, or if erring is even a word). This is not to say that we must "go on sinning so that grace may abound"; a flawed logic and a sickness of the heart, but it does mean that we rely on a forgiveness that goes for 70 times seven and forever and ever amen. I wouldn't want to encourage people to make mistakes or to feel OK about making them, but I would say that to err, even constantly, is something we do. Praise God for His infinite grace. Not a cheap grace that simply allows us to get away with sin, but a convicting and costly grace that teaches us to get it right in an entirely new way. The world offers us the extremes of unapologetic sinning on the one hand and a casting of stones in the other. Christ's alternative was to offer forgiveness...and a call to sin no more.



Anne Lamott has a great quote which goes, "Not forgiving someone is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die." So easy to say and yet so hard to comprehend, let alone practice.A bit of a confessional here. My brother and I have not always gotten along. In fact, our relationship got so volatile that, at one point, we stopped speaking for 8 years. Not a pretty place to be, but such was our reality. About four years into this 8 year hiatus I was studying as a theology student in college. On one particular day I received back an ungraded essay with only one remark left by my professor; "you are more cynical at age 20 than I have ever been in my life." I thought that was a bit unfair, so I went to see my professor. We talked for quite awhile and I discovered that maybe he was right, and that maybe there was a solution to my problem. And that, like most Biblical answers, it would be ridiculously simple and incredibly complex. I would have to forgive.



God says that we cannot love Him and hate our brother. For a long time I thought of this as an arbitrary rule. My sophomore year of college, I discovered that is less a rule and more a reality. Its not that God won't allow it, it simply can't be done. Trust me, I've tried it. The more I harbored hate for my brother, the less room there was to love God. I clung to the rules that God had given, but without the relationship, I came up empty.



I hate to admit it, but when I made this discovery I almost gave up on being a Christian. I was willing to concede that I couldn't be a God lover and a brother hater, but I wasn't sure I could let go of the hate I had. If there was even a chance my brother might end up in heaven, I wasn't sure I wanted to go there.Getting over this was not an easy process. The first step was the hardest and the most important. It wasn't a step like in a 12 step program, it was simply the first step towards home. I assumed that I had been "slaving for God all these years" but I didn't realize that until I joined the party I wasn't any closer to home than my brother was. So I took that first step.



I began to pray for my brother. This was an amazing experience in the power of prayer. I had always believed that prayer that isn't pure cannot be heard. My initial prayers were perfunctory, I didn't love my brother any more than I ever had and I didn't want to see him change or believe he could. Of course, it wasn't him who changed. Little by little, through nothing more than daily prayer (to use the words "nothing more" is almost blasphemous) I began to have a change of heart. The actual phrase "change of heart" took on new meaning. It was like a surgery, my old heart pried out and replaced with a new heart, Christ's heart. With his heart pumping I could see with his eyes, hear with his ears, move with his spirit. It was a powerful transformation.



It was also a long and slow one. This wasn't overnight. It wasn't over weeks. This was at least a year, and it was bits at a time. Patience was just one of the fruits of the spirit that grew in me. God's love and kindness brought me joy and peace. One led to another and I became a new man.And patience begat patience as I forgave my brother but discovered that our lost contact meant lost addresses and lost phone numbers. I was ready to forgive my brother, but couldn't find him.



What I didn't know was that he was undergoing a similar transformation and was not yet ready to forgive or be forgiven. But within a few years, we were put in touch through a random meeting between a mutual friend that the world would call coincidence.



My brother and I speak on a weekly basis now. We still have things we work through with each other and in our own separate lives. But we don't carry around the burden of hate and resentment and life is easier because of it. When Christ says that his yoke is easy and burden is light, he isn't kidding. The cross he would have us take up every day is a relief compared to the sinfulness we might try to possess and find ourselves possessed by.



I read Anne Lamott's quote this week and thought "this lady speaks from experience, she understands that forgiveness is work but to not forgive brings death." When you swallow poison, the purge can be painful, but its a welcome substitute to holding it in. If you find yourself far from God and have someone you need to forgive, swallow your pride and upchuck your poison and see if you don't feel better when you're done. Christ has come that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Why would we choose to stay sick instead? Given the choice between what's human and what's divine, go with what's divine. That is, after all, what we're created to be.

The World Has Made A Monkey Out of Me

“Enoch found himself facing a life size four color picture of a gorilla. Over the gorilla’s head, written in red letters was “GONGA! Giant Jungle Monarch and a Great Star!! Here in person!!” At the level of the gorilla’s knee, there was more that said “Gonga will appear in person in front of this theatre at 12 a.m. today! A free pass to the first ten brave enough to step up and shake his hand!”

Enoch turned and asked the nearest child what time it was. The child said it was 12:10 and that Gonga was already ten minutes late. Another child said that maybe the rain had delayed him. Another said, no not the rain, his director was taking a plane from Hollywood. Enoch gritted his teeth. The first child said that if he wanted to shake the star’s hand, he would have to get in line like the rest of them and wait his turn. Enoch got in line.

In spite of himself, Enoch couldn’t get over the expectation that something was going to happen to him. It operated on him all the rest of the day. He had only a vague idea what he wanted, but he was not a boy without ambition: he wanted to become something. He wanted to better his condition. He wanted, someday, to see a line of people waiting to shake his hand.”



This is an excerpt from a short story by famed southern writer Flannery O’Connor. It draws from events in the fictional life of a young man named Enoch. Enoch is impressionable and ambitious. He is wants to be appreciated, longs to be accepted, and is desperate to be loved. When he realizes that crowds will gather to shake the hand of a man in a monkey suit, he hatches a bizarre plan; to kill the man and steal his suit, so that people will shake his hand.

Enoch’s story is familiar even if the circumstances are extreme. All of us long for some kind of acceptance, all of us want to be appreciated, all of us need to be loved. We may not be willing to kill to get it, but all of us have been tempted to put on the monkey suit.

We live in a world that is based on image. As a college student who minored in communications, I spent a year taking a couple of advertising classes and I can testify to this. But you don’t have to take advertising classes to know that the world wants to sell us something. Just open your mailbox (real or computerized) and look at the junk. The world promises us love and acceptance if we will simply be willing to buy its product, take its image, put on the latest version of the monkey suit. This world that is based on image, longs to make us in its image. It promises a look, a talk, a walk, an attitude, a lifestyle that will set us apart and elevate us.

The monkey suit has been altered over time, but the basic struggle remains the same. Thousands of years ago, Hebrew men sought after the same status and respect that we desire today. Hebrew women may have too, but they had so little place in society, their wants and desires hardly mattered. In fact, a common prayer among Hebrew men went this way:

“Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe who has created me a human and not beast, a man and not a woman, an Israelite and not a gentile, free and not slave.”

Galatians 3 responds to this prayer. To those who sought status based on being a man, a Jew, or free God has spoken a scandalous truth; there is no longer any male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free. Not for those who have clothed themselves with Christ. Those things that were separate have been brought together. Those who were lowly have been raised up. Those who were raised up have been laid low.

Of course, we aren’t a society separated by slave or free or Jew or Gentile. As I said, our monkey suit has been altered; but we are still defined by our image. In a modern context, this passage might read “no rich or poor, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, American or Iraqi.” For those whose labels aren’t so definitive, it may simply be a matter of “cool or uncool, acceptable or unacceptable, churched or unchurched.”

I don’t know how you define yourself, I don’t know what image or persona you have chosen to take on. You might be wrapped up in wearing the right clothes, driving the right car, going to the right school, and getting the right job. It might be economic status or geographic location. It might be skin color or gender. God says enough of that. God’s only concerned with one image. His image. The image he created us in. He is only concerned with one persona, and that is the person of Christ.

Romans 12:2 states that we should “no longer be conformed to the likeness of this world.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 promises that we who are in Christ are “being transformed into the same image.” God’s call is not to be conformed, but transformed. It’s time to take off the monkey suit and clothe ourselves with Christ. As a people who are defined by the image they put on, God calls us to put on His. God can demand this because His acceptance is all that matters; His love is all that fulfills.

The world will promise love if you will try this drug, drink this beer, drive this car and you can get this girl. But this house and the neighbors will envy. Wear this suit and the people will line up to shake your hand. The only problem is that, in the end, the world can’t deliver on its promise. The world will promise greatness and then turn its back. Only Jesus promises never to reject you as long as you follow him and put him on.

So what happens when a person clothes themselves with Christ in the way that Paul talks about? What does that look like? I recently had an opportunity to work with a group of ministers and their youth groups at a camp in Virginia. One of the ministers working there was obviously not someone concerned with how he clothed himself every day. He sported a mustache that was popular in the 70’s, glasses that were chic in the 80’s, and the kind of salmon colored polo shirts that peaked somewhere in between. To complete the look, he was never without a cap that read in bold letters “WORLD’S GREATEST DAD!” And yet the teenagers he worked with, an age group that advertisers know to be notoriously obsessed with what is “cool”, followed him around like he was the Pied Piper. They laughed at his jokes, listened to his stories, asked him for advice, and generally enjoyed his company. Now what was it that had these teens defying social norms to be around this man?

The answer is simple. This was a man who got up every morning and clothed himself with Christ. When teens spent time with him, Christ was who they saw; someone who cared for them, accepted them, and loved them unconditionally. This was a man who had turned in his monkey suit and put on the image of Christ. And these kids were lined up to shake his hand.

The call of Christ is a challenge and an invitation. First of all, many of us have put on church, but never really put on Christ. Others of us see ourselves as a “good” person and don’t realize that this is just another kind of monkey suit. It isn’t wrong to be good, it isn’t bad to be “churched”, it just isn’t the way we should define ourselves. Others of us think we can wear the monkey suit at work and the Jesus suit at church; the Jesus suit at home and the monkey suit with friends. It's time to pick a suit and wear it. Let Christians be those who have put on Christ and not just people who have sewn the label onto another outfit. To do otherwise isn't just silly, it is sin.

People living in a monkey suit look in the mirror and don’t like what they see. Jesus is offering another way, a better way. Christ invites us to take off the monkey suit and put him on in baptism, become a new person and begin a new life.

The Legalism of Opposing Legalism

Well, if it isn't one extreme its another. I think it was Martin Luther who used the analogy of a drunk on a horse. He falls into the left ditch and vows that next time he'll fall in the right one. It never occurs to him to try and stay on the horse.

Last night we had a class discussion on Sabbath. The meaning of Sabbath. The importance of Sabbath. The command of Sabbath. It was incredible to hear how naturally we kick against this command. We immediately went to work trying to find an out ("we don't work as much as they did back then", "we don't need more free time"), hoping against hope that we wouldn't be forced to take a day and dedicate it to God. Arguement after arguement failed until the point was made that a strict observance of Sabbath was "legalistic".

Legalism. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Of course, I am as against legalism as the next guy, but I am sick of the legalism of being against legalism. We want to know what the rules are, we find out they're hard, and we cry legalism in order to get out of them. And we become as legalistic as the worst of Pharisees.

GK Chesterton is famous for stating that "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried." Let us all cry guilty. But many members of the church have discovered a solution. Don't like to read your Bible? Shout about how the memorization of scripture is legalistic. Don't pray enough? Anyone who tries to make you feel guilty for that is a legalist. Can't seem to pause from your busyness (even when we aren't working, few of us ever pause)? No need. Those 10 Commandments? Those are Old Testament law. And anyone with half a brain will tell you, the law is legalistic.

No doubt it can be and has been. Jesus himself refused to bend to a legalistic approach to Sabbath which would keep him from healing someone. But this same Jesus often went off by himself to practice Sabbath. To not do so, to ask "do I have to?" is as legalistic as you can get.

Imagine if on my wedding day I had interrupted the vows to ask "Do I really have to honor her? Do I have to be faithful? Do I really have to love her as Christ loved the church?" Imagine if I refused to get married if marriage was going to have "legalistic rules" like "you can't cheat on your spouse".

Freedom from legalism means that we move from rules to relationship, it doesn't mean the rules cease to be important. Freedom from legalism means we move from "have to do" to "get to do", it doesn't mean there isn't still something "to do". I heard a guy say once "If I talked to my wife as much as I talk to God, she'd leave me." I'm not suggesting a legalistic approach that has you comparing time spent with wife to time spent with God, but I think its time to remind ourselves of the importance of this time. Sabbath is more than a principle, it is a practice, a practice that makes us perfect. It is a time to rest, reflect, remember and rely. Let's get back to doing the things Christians are called to do and stop avoiding them by crying "legalism".

A Mighty Wind

Today marks a holiday celebrated 50 days after Passover (For us 50 days after Easter). The name of the holiday is Pentecost - meaning 50th. From the time of Moses, this day was one of the high holy days of the Jewish faith. It later became a holiday uniting the Jewish world after the exile, for people would come to Jerusalem from east and west and north and south to worship and celebrate this feast. But when the people gathered to celebrate after Christ’s resurrection, no one could have guessed what it would become.

In preparation for this day, I googled the word “Pentecost” hoping to find what others in the faith had to say about this epic day. I discovered a sermon that had been preached by the head of an association committed to non-violence. Disturbed by the imagery of a mighty or violent wind, he spent most of the sermon down playing the violence and succeeded in taking the wind out of God’s spirit. At one point he assured his listeners that “the sudden rush of the Spirit strikes witnesses as violent, yet it does not violate consciences and lives.”

So begins our effort to domesticate Pentecost. It was only a matter of time I guess. Christmas has become a rather benign image of a sleeping baby, not a God who invades the world. Easter has more to do with bunnies than it does with an empty tomb. And the violent wind of Pentecost isn’t something we need concern ourselves with, it will not “violate consciences or lives”. It’s hardly an image that shakes us up or should give us cause for concern.

Until we look to the Bible. Since the time of Abraham, God’s involvement with His people has caused upheaval in their lives. Abraham is called to uproot a comfortable existence for a life that he cannot imagine. All that he had is swept away and God creates a new people.

Since that time, God’s people have expected upheaval and known that it might even be unpleasant. The prophet Jeremiah complains in chapter 20 that “you have overpowered me”. Another way this can be translated is “you have violated me”. So much for a Spirit that won’t “violate consciences or lives”. When God gets involved with His people He doesn’t just involve He invades.

This does not mean that our God is a mean and angry God. Just because something is invasive does not mean it isn’t good for you. If you have a tumor, an invasive surgery can save your life. This violent wind that moves as Christ’s spirit is the same breath of life that God breathed into us in the beginning. So, only a new act of creation can create us anew. Jesus, the new Adam, gives us his Holy Spirit; the mighty wind that created the world is, at Pentecost, creating Christ’s church. And creation isn’t a gentle process. Anyone who has witnessed the birth of a baby can testify to this. In creation there is strain and upheaval. So it is when Christ creates his church. We are reshaped and reborn and forever changed.

As the Holy Spirit moves through Acts we continue to see this dramatic change. And the change is dramatic and physical. Paul is blinded when he encounters Christ. The Philippian jailor finds God in the midst of an earthquake.

In fact, earthquakes abound when God shows up. The church in Acts prays for boldness and the building is shaken. Christ’s resurrection causes an earthquake. And the Hebrew writer speaks of a time when all will be shaken apart and only that which is of God will remain. When God is at work, things get shaken up. The Holy Spirit makes a clean sweep –we try to cling to certain things, but God sweeps it all away.

Wind can be awesome when it is out of control. Imagine the power of a hurricane. It can destroy everything in its path. We hide from the wind because it can destroy us. And yet, in a single day, a hurricane can release the amount of energy necessary to supply all of the United States' electrical needs for about six months.

Only God can harness the power of the wind, the power of His spirit. So, to try and gain access to this power apart from God is futile and dangerous. We cannot harness this wind or bend it to our purpose. We cannot use this wind to go where we want to go. We can only be blown away by it, caught up in it, and trust that it will take us where we most need to go.

That is not to say that God’s Spirit is out of control, it is simply out of our control. Only through relationship with Christ are we able to see some control of the wind. Remember, Christ is the one who calms the storm when the wind seems out of control. God, who controls the wind, can harness its power and use it to supply our need.

God takes everything from us so that we can receive back from Him what it is we truly need. But that doesn’t mean that we get to pick and choose what gets taken away. Think of how the Jews have to rethink their approach to the Gentiles. Their entire way of thinking about “chosen people” is shaken. In a more modern context, think of our own prejudices and preferences. Or the relationships we might try to cling to. Think of the son who goes off to college only to find Christ. What will his unbelieving girlfriend or parents think when he returns home for the holidays? Or, one that hits all of us close to home, our schedules. We are caught up in a whirlwind of activities and find no time for God. God comes in like a whirlwind and makes us make time. When God gets involved in our lives His spirit sweeps everything away, not just our sin, but our very lives.

Pentecost is meant to be the day that blows us away. Out of this chaos, the God of all creation begins a new creation, not by destroying but by transforming, by the changing wind of the Holy Spirit.

Because of its power, God's wind changes everything. It is up to us to choose our response. We can open our hearts and celebrate this amazing gift or in our fear we can work to control it.

If we do open our hearts to it and allow this mighty wind to sweep away all that we might give devotion to, it is amazing to see what remains. As we see in the end of Acts 2, at the end of Pentecost “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” By allowing God’s Spirit to be at work within His church, these people discover an entirely new way to be and they are made into a new creation. We can participate with them as members of Christ’s church. And when we do, we will see God work in amazing ways, adding to our numbers every day those who are being saved.

A Brief Sports Analogy

Anyone who knows me well would be surprised to find the words "sports analogy" attached to anything I might write. There is a simple explanation for their surprise, I know next to nothing about sports. I can play sports (basketball and football for a bref stint in middle and high school) but I don't follow specific teams or players, I can't quote statistics, I don't watch ESPN. It isn't that I am anti-sports, it's that no one has ever taken the time to explain to me why they love the games (teams, players) they love and why I should. I'm a guy who loves to have stuff explained to me, I love to get sold on something, I like to know why others like what they like even if they don't sell me. But no one has ever attempted to explain their love of sports to me. Most folks want someone who is already a fan, someone who already speaks the language, not somebody they have to explain things to like a five year old.



I don't bring this up as an angst ridden rant (I am, in fact, content to remain clueless about sports until someone takes me on as a project) but as an analogy to how many of the "churched" approach discussions on faith. Too many of us are looking for someone who already knows the lingo, someone who is already sold on the game. We don't want to have to take someone through the process if it means getting down on their level.



I don't mean that we should condescend or approach people like projects, but we should be more ready to explain why it is we're so sold on this Christianity thing. Hopefully (and this is step one) our non-Christian friends can see that it is important to us, we need to be ready to explain to them why. That means having some understanding ourselves and a genuine and sincere love for what we're sharing. Then it means going back to the basics and patiently explaining what they mean. Like the sports fanatic who takes time to teach his son to throw a ball, this practice can often bring us back to why we fell in love in the first place.

The Crutch of Christ

A few years back, when my wife and I were living in Abilene, Texas, we were a part of a young adults group made up of singles, marrieds, and those with young children. On Sunday mornings, members of the class took turns teaching. One of these Sunday mornings the focus was on the story in Luke 18 of Christ and the little children. Our teacher started the class by asking us to describe traits that we associate with children. The singles and marrieds volunteered words like “innocent” and “precious” and “honest”. Then one of the members of the class who actually had children raised his hand and said “stupid”. Our teacher was a bit taken aback, but he recovered and said “Well, maybe, but for the purposes of this class, let’s focus on the good qualities.”

That’s the temptation that faces all of us, isn’t it? To focus on our good qualities and try and pretend that the bad ones don’t exist. After all, if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all. Where’s the harm in putting on a good face and “faking it ‘til you’re making it”?

There was a group a few years back who were working to get the wording changed in one of the hymns we sang this morning, Amazing Grace. All they wanted to change was one word so that the first verse would be: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved someone like me.” Not so bad, right? Someone like me. I’m not some wretch; I’m just someone. Much better. I can work with that.

As a college student, I took a class entitled Counseling Adolescents. During one of the classes, the professor asked us to think back on what life was like during our middle school and high school years. Now, this may surprise you, but I was not the incredible physical specimen you see here before you when I was in junior high school. I was what was then called a nerd, which may be an outdated term. I was not surprised to discover that many of my college classmates had shared a similar fate.

What did surprise me was a guy in the class named Kyle. Kyle was the kind of guy who had picked on guys like me. But the story he shared was very similar to mine, he talked about being lonely and anxious and out of place and pressured. He ended his thoughts by asking something that I will never forget; “Why did we all feel the need to put on such a show in school? Why didn’t we all just come clean?”

The problem is that this is the last thing the world tells us to do. The world functions on keeping up appearances, the TV ads tell us to “never let them see you sweat” and we as a church have slowly bought into Satan’s lie. We’re going to pretend like everything is OK, and the last thing we’re going to do is come clean.

Why? Well, if I can play with phrase a bit, it probably has something to do with the fact that no one comes clean. We come broken, and dirty, and dead. Our lives don’t make sense, our mistakes are catching up with us, and even the best things in our lives, our families, our friends, cannot fulfill us. And coming into the presence of God doesn’t make us less aware of that fact, but more aware of it. Many of us have set ourselves apart from relationship with God and when we find ourselves in His presence we join Isaiah in shouting “woe is me.”

So, what can be done? We suck, now what? For a long time in our churches, the message ended there. But the Bible’s message does not. It only begins there. The Bible speaks to us like a doctor might, “there’s bad news and there’s good news.” We got the bad news first, and it is bad. We are dead in sin. But now comes good news and it is the only good news that can boldly claim to be THE good news, the gospel.

The good news is that while we do not come clean, through Christ, we can BEcome clean.

Comedian Dennis Miller states that his problem with Christians is their insistence on being “born again”. His comment is this; “excuse me for getting it right the first time.” We are here today to proclaim that no one gets it right the first time.

Going back to the story in Luke 18, Jesus says that we must come like little children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. The teacher from my young adult class wanted to focus on the good stuff, because he thought that is what Christ was focusing on. Except it wasn’t. The way in which we are meant to model children is not in their innocence, which we lost a long time ago, but in their incompetence. In their flat out, can’t tie their own shoes, can’t feed themselves, neediness. We must come to Christ that way, or not at all.

There are those, like Dennis Miller, who will look down on the idea of being “born again”. There are those who will refer to Christianity as a crutch. There was a time when that would have offended me, but I have come to a stunning realization in recent years. Christianity IS a crutch. What I had missed was that I was a man in need of a crutch. We are a world full of broken people and when Christ offers us a crutch we should take it.

In Matthew 9:1-7, we see Christ tie these two things together. In the same instant that the paralytic’s sins are forgiven he is also given the strength to walk. The one who has come to save us from sin has provided a crutch so we can walk again. Jesus reinforces this in verse 12 when he states that “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” We don’t have to come clean to Jesus, in fact we cannot. Jesus looks at our brokeness and our neediness and our incompetence and says, “I can work with that.”

Thomas Merton once said that “A saint is not someone who is good, but someone who has experienced the grace of God.” We aren’t any good folks, none of us are. We are wretches. But because of God’s grace we don’t have to be. Only with God’s grace can we avoid it.

My first job in youth ministry, I worked with a kid named Travis. He had lived a pretty hard life for a high school student and when he decided to give his life to Christ, he still had some habits he wanted to break. He came to me before being baptized and said that maybe he should wait until he had quit smoking to get baptized. What Travis had trouble understanding was that we don’t become Christians because we’re good enough to be, but because we’re too bad not to be. As his dad dunked him in the water, his mom looked at me and said “remember what creep that kid was?” I did indeed, and I also knew that he would still be a creep, but was being made perfect everyday from that day forward.

What is offered to us in Christ’s death and resurrection is justification by grace through faith. Justification is to be in right relationship with God again, not to suddenly be without flaw. During my growing up, the relationship between my brother and I was fairly hostile, bordering on volatile. So much so that for 8 years we lost all contact and didn’t speak to each other. 4 years ago, by the grace of God, we were able to set things right, and reestablish our relationship. Does that mean that there aren’t still times when I forget to return a phone call? Absolutely not. Can I do harm to the relationship if I go a month without speaking to my brother? Definitely. Do I need to worry that I could lose the relationship I have reestablished with my brother? Never. The same goes with our relationship with God. If you go a week without praying or cracking open a Bible, don’t be surprised if God seems distant; but please don’t think that your salvation is in jeopardy. Christ’s blood has justified you, and no amount of getting it right on earth is getting you into heaven.

But what about those who have received the call of salvation and obeyed it? What about those who continue to take up our cross daily, who continue to wrestle with God and, like Jacob, wind up with a limp for our trouble. The answer is that the cross is not what burdens you, but what props you up. The cross was Christ’s burden, but it is our salvation. The crutch that is offered to us in salvation is not taken away as we continue the journey. The crutch of Christ continues to hold us up as we walk through life and it will not be taken away until he has taken us home.

What this means is that the church has a responsibility to outsiders, to our children, to each other to lean on the cross when we find ourselves in trouble. Not on our connections, not on our education, not on our money, none of these can save us. It means that prayer must be our first inclination and not our last resort.

At the age of 82, near death, John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace” spoke these words; “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior.”

We are great sinners in need of a great savior, and we have been invited to leave behind our old life, to take up the crutch of Christ, and to be washed clean in the waters of baptism.

Every Pooper Needs A Party

In my fourth grade year of elementary school there was this annoying kid in my class. You’ve probably met someone like him. Always does what he’s told, and loves to point out when others don’t. This is the kid who reminds the teacher about the homework assignment, the kid who complains that his class project partners never contribute enough and that he could get more done on his own. But there is one thing this kid does that he enjoys more than anything else. When the teacher has to leave the room, she will ask a student to take down the names of anyone who misbehaves. In my fourth grade year of school, there was only one kid my teacher ever called take on this responsibility. That kid was me.

I am an older brother. Technically, I have a brother who is 9 years my senior, but he would be the first to say that, for all intents and purposes, I was the older one. The responsible one. When it came to the mistakes of my siblings, my parents’ didn’t even need to ask, I was taking names. Without anyone having assigned me the job, I took it upon myself to lay down the law. And while a lot has changed since we were growing up at home, old habits still die hard.

This last weekend I went to Chicago to see my brother, Scott. It was the first time for me to see him in a few years and the first time he and Rachel had ever met. At one point during the weekend, he mentioned that he and a high school friend of his had been discussing my visit. His friend had said “You better be on your best behavior, you don’t want him calling mom and dad.” It was a painful reminder.

The Gospel of Luke 15:11-32 is best known as The Parable of the Lost Son or Prodigal Son. But I would suggest that it is a story of two lost sons. One who left home and one who never felt at home. I believe that all of us have felt like at least one of these brothers at some point in our lives.

The younger brother is the main focus of the story, and us older brothers sigh in frustration. Once again, the bad kids get all the attention. The younger brother asks his father for his share of the inheritance, in a sense saying to his father, “I wish you were already dead.” His relationship with his father is all about what he can get from him. The younger son takes his father’s money, moves far away, and goes on the bender to end all benders. What he wants most is that life be one big party. And, for awhile, it is.

Many of us have been this younger brother. Seeing relationships as a means to an end, we squander all that we are blessed with and keep asking mom and dad to send another check. Eventually, the well runs dry and the party ends.

This is what happens to the prodigal son. Not only does the party end, but the people who he partied with are nowhere to be found. The younger brother experiences firsthand what the old blues song meant when it said “nobody knows you when you’re down and out.” The prodigal takes the most miserable of jobs and it is while he is working that he has a sudden epiphany. He knows that his father would never let him come home, but perhaps he would give him a job. The son decides to head home and ask for just that.

In Galatians 3:24 we read “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified through faith.” The prodigal son is ready to submit himself to the law. But he finds that his father has other ideas.

The son explains to his father what he hopes is a fair deal, but the father isn’t hearing it. His son is home! This is a time to rejoice, to celebrate, to party! The law served its purpose in getting the son home, now the relationship can begin again.

This is as good a time as any to say that I have seen this story play out. As I have said, my brother was the trouble maker. He looked in a lot of places trying to keep the party going. But what I remember is one party in particular. The welcome home party that my parents threw after my brother returned from the Army.

What a bitter memory. Everyone seemed so happy for him to be coming home. Didn’t anyone remember how much trouble he had been? Didn’t they know that some things never change!? Well, I did and I wasn’t going to celebrate.

My mother used to have a saying for times that one of us (oftentimes me) would sulk at a party. “Every party needs a pooper, that’s why we’ve invited you.” It’s a theme song for older brothers. The older brother in this story is no exception.

Here comes the older brother after a hard day’s work. He is tired, he is achy, but its all good, because he understands that life is about hard work. He may be tired, but he is also responsible. He is good. He may be basking in just this thought when he hears the sounds of a party.

I have to wonder what he thought as he realized that a party was going on. Was he so much like me that he thought maybe his father had finally decided to recognize all the hard work he had done? Did dome part of him think “finally I am going to get the recognition I deserve”? Whatever he may have been thinking or hoping, those hopes were soon dashed. The party wasn’t for him. The prodigal son was home.

Now we know exactly what the older brother was thinking. He expresses it angrily. And one phrase in particular stands out. “All these years I have slaved for you”. I don’t know how you see this moment, but I always imagine Steve Martin’s character in Parenthood when he shouts at his wife “My whole life is have to!”

His father pleads with him not to be a party pooper. He begs his son to join in the celebration, but the son folds his arms and sulks. And misses the party.

Returning to the end of Galatians 3 and the beginning of chapter 4, we see a discussion on slaves and sons. Those who are slaves to the law only until they have clothed themselves with Christ in baptism. Then they take their place as sons and come into a full inheritance. This is a story of slaves and sons and inheritance. One son squanders his inheritance and is willing to become a slave, but finds himself reinstated as a son. Another chooses to slave for his father rather than be his son, and so ends up squandering his inheritance as well. Both sons come dangerously close to missing out on the party. The prodigal goes in search of a party only to discover one waiting for him at home. The other son longs for a party, only to discover he could have had one at anytime.

The gospel for the prodigal son is one that has been preached many times and one that I would echo. For those of you who have seen God only as a means to an end, but never as one to be in relationship with, for those who have experienced the emptiness that comes when the well runs dry, you are invited to take on Christ in baptism, to gain access to a well that never runs dry and to claim your proper place as children in Christ’s kingdom.

But there is grace for the older brother as well. For those of us who never had a “drunk in the gutter” story. For those of us who have always made faith about how well we behaved ourselves, for those of us who never left home but have never really felt at home, there is gospel for us as well. We have fooled ourselves into believing that we show maturity when we live by the law. But Galatians says just the opposite. The law is for those who are still children. We show maturity when we are willing to lay down the law. Christ has already taken our burden, why are we still trying to carry it? Christ says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. That doesn’t mean that there won’t still be work to do for all of us who put on Christ. It simply means that the work can be done as a part of a relationship, and work that is done as sons is far easier than work that is done as slaves. And that those God calls to work hard, He allows to play hard too. Its time to join the party. Every pooper needs a party, that's why He invited you.



One last thing. It has been said that the job of a good prophet is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I’m going to do just a little bit of that right now. We as the church will always have people among us who have made mistakes. I should say that we have all made mistakes, but some mistakes are less easily hidden. When I was working my first job in ministry, there was a girl in the youth group who got pregnant at the age of 15. And when she did, there was a woman at the church who had long stated that we should not have baby showers for babies born out of wedlock. She changed her mind when this baby was born, because the baby was her great-granddaughter. What changed was that it became about a relationship and not a rule. Too many of us are still taking down names for the teacher, thinking that when God gets back He’ll want us to give an accounting of everybody who misbehaved. But scripture teaches that love keeps no record of wrongs. We’re not trying to say sin isn’t important, if it wasn’t then Jesus wouldn’t have died. But he did die, and when he did so did the power of sin. If Christ has lifted that burden from us, he has lifted it from all of us. We older brothers need allow ourselves some grace, but we need to extend that grace to others as well.

Running On Empty

“We buy books because we believe we are buying the time to read them.”

–Warren Zevon paraphrasing Schopenhauer



I’m a music guy. Actually, I’m a music, movies, books, and entertainment guy. I’m the guy that read Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity 5 times and then saw the movie 10 times simply because I related so well to the musical minutiae that the characters consumed (and because the Boss had a cameo). I would have purchased the soundtrack if I hadn’t already had almost every song on some other album. I used to spend hours quoting movie lines with college buddies in a movie club (yes, we had a movie club and a very specific set of rules) and am still likely to list Dylan among my favorite poets (though most would mean Thomas and I would mean Bob). So, it isn’t surprising for me to be inspired by a songwriter and find wisdom in his words. Unless those words happen to come from the mouth of Marilyn Manson. Imagine my surprise then, when I heard Manson make the following statement about the state of our society; “(American entertainment and media) is a campaign of fear and consumption. And that’s what I think it’s all based on: it’s the idea that (you) keep everyone afraid and they’ll consume.” The truth of Manson’s words can’t be denied. The advertising classes I took in college support it. The billboards and commercials that we are inundated with bear it out. The idea is to “never let ‘em see you sweat.” Fear drives so much of what we do and almost all of what we consume.

As I work on a daily basis with teens, I’m reminded of a quote from well-known comedian, Dennis Miller; “many of our kids are having sex like there’s no tomorrow, maybe because we’ve convinced them that there isn’t one.” We have what St. Augustine referred to as a “God-shaped hole” and in the absence of a gospel message, many of us are attempting to fill it with whatever we can get our hands on or whatever a consumer culture is willing to put in our hands. Even more disturbing is the way in which those of us who have received the gospel message are responding. We have books that are bestsellers in Christian bookstores whose core message is that we no longer have to feel bad for building bigger barns. We should ask God for more stuff and expect that, like a cosmic Claus, he will grant our every wish and whim.

John DeGraaf’s book “Affluenza” addresses this problem from a purely secular perspective and comes up with one fundamental truth for Americans in the new millennium, we are both richer and unhappier than we have ever been. It is an unhappiness born of anger, an anger born of fear, and a fear born of emptiness; an emptiness than we are trying to fill with all the wrong things and in all the wrong places.

Manson isn’t the only musician who speaks to this problem. One of this year’s rock n’ roll hall of fame inductees (and one of my personal favorites) Jackson Browne, has been speaking to this problem for years. In his song, “Running on Empty”, he lays out his life as a parable for others who find themselves flying down life’s highway. Perhaps his most compelling (and disturbing) line is found toward the end of the song: “Look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through, looking into their eyes I see them running too.” It is a predicament almost as old as the world itself and a road that started with the first step out of Eden. Humanity feels empty and wants to get full.

This desire isn’t a bad one. It’s the prodigal’s empty stomach and empty life that gets him on the road back home. Our problem comes in how we try to fill that emptiness. If we are imitators of Christ, then we are imitators of the one who emptied himself for the sake of other, refusing to grasp that which he had a right to. Instead, American Christians are as concerned with our rights as we have ever been; an idea that is very American, but not always Christian. Recently I read an article about a Christian lawyer who has begun suing on behalf of students who were being ridiculed at school because of their Christian beliefs. One of his clients was an elementary school student who was forced to endure taunts of “Jesus freak” at recess. Instead of taking a golden opportunity to teach their son about the persecution we might face as Christians, instead of pointing to the one who endured persecution for us, they hired a lawyer. Because that’s what Jesus would do.

How did we get from expecting persecution to suing over name calling? Do we really think this is going to fulfill us? The fact is that we want what we want whether it’s our rights, our stuff, or our right to our stuff. In a culture of lawyers, guns and money people will sue who they have to sue and kill who they have to kill to get what they want to get. But why are Christians embracing this culture? Why don’t we resist this culture instead of buying in? Haven’t we been given a better way? Why would we return to the law of the land instead of the law that God commanded to be written on our hearts?

The problem started innocently enough. It’s the problem Christianity faces any time it is embraced by the culture, the natural instinct is to embrace back. Instead of heeding the warning to “beware when others speak well of you” we ate up the fact that society seemed to be on board with everything we believed. After all, we are a people told to anticipate persecution, so doesn’t it feel nice when we don’t have to? Being in the world is so much easier when the world isn’t trying to lock you up or kill you. But being of the world gets a lot easier too.

The situation makes me think about how my mom used to encourage me to label my toy cars anytime I was going to play with a group of friends. At first, it’s easy to remember what belongs to whom, but after a few hours the labels come in pretty handy. The absence of a clear marker can make retrieval a lot more confusing when its time to go home. A similar problem faces us culturally. We mix in with the world around us, but forget to keep Christ’s mark clearly on us and on everything that is ours. What happens when Christ calls us home and we can’t remember what goes where? What happens when we have to face the fact that we’re a lot more “of the world” than we ever intended to be? The same thing that happens when the salt loses its saltiness, it becomes worthless. The conscience that the church is called to be is no longer there to keep the world honest. Instead of going back to Christ to get back what we lost, many of us simply give in. We’ve lived so long under a culture that validated our beliefs that we’re allowing our beliefs to reflect our culture. The world made us feel at home in a place that was never our home and, somewhere along the way, we started playing by the home court rules.

But what happens when this world isn’t making us feel as at home as it did in the 1950s? What happens when the culture doesn’t reflect our beliefs the way it used to? Some of us simply give in. The culture overcomes us and we can’t tell the difference between our political party and our religious affiliation. Instead of facing the fact that we’ve lost our anchor, we float along with the latest trend, tossed about by whatever the latest pop philosophy might be. We form political coalitions that will speak on our behalf. Others of us pull away in fear. We want things how they used to be –or how we remember them being- prayer in schools and the Ten Commandments in a courthouse. But the answer isn’t prayer in schools, it’s prayer in homes. It isn’t the Ten Commandments outside a courtroom, it’s the Ten Commandments inside our bedrooms and living rooms. We point to pop icons like Eminem and Britney Spears to pin our problems on. But the fault, dear reader, lies not in the stars but in ourselves.

G.K. Chesterton is famous for stating that “the Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.” No matter how difficult the rat race might be, the race the apostle Paul ran seems harder. Even though it might be hard earn cash, it’s even harder to learn contentment. Christ showed us that it may be difficult to follow the rules, but it’s even harder to follow him. So we look to those who would sell us the latest palliative or bookstore remedy and then are surprised when we are still as empty and fearful and angry as ever. In our attempts to accumulate more stuff we find ourselves possessed by those things which we would possess.

So, that’s the bad news, but is there any good news? Our response to the world around us should be a resounding “yes”. We have a gospel to offer to those who are running on empty, those good friends who are good people, but not God’s people. The Jones’ built a pretty house and were surprised when it didn’t make them happy. We know that the wise man was wise, not because of the house he built, but because of the rock he built his house upon. We have something to offer the Jones’, if we have the faith to put our weight down on the rock and to ask them to do the same. The only way to stop running scared is to repent in the most literal sense of the word, to change direction and begin running towards the only one who can truly fulfill us and calm our fears. The good news is where it has always been, in the gospel itself, the only message that has rightful claim to being “good news”; the gospel of the love of Christ, the perfect love that casts out fear. It brings with it a life of sacrifice that runs counter to everything the world is selling, but allows us to be possessed by Christ and, because of that, to cease being possessed by anything else. This good news forces us to face the truth that nothing we posses can fill that emptiness. Only God can provide the fulfillment we need. Only His “grace is sufficient.”

When we embrace the true gospel once again, we will find a great burden lifted off of our shoulders. It’s true that we are called to take up a cross, but we are called to put down everything else in the process. We cannot carry both. Comedian Steven Wright puts it this way, “You can’t have everything, where would you put it?” We can carry the world on our shoulders or we can carry the cross. We cannot do both. As we take up our crosses daily, we will find that they are light compared to the burdens we were carrying. Ultimately, we will discover that we are truly free and truly full for the first time.

For my graduates

Well, you’ve done it. In a matter of days you will be high school graduates. In a matter of months you will be college students. It must have felt, at times, like this day would never come and now it’s here. You should feel a sense of accomplishment about the past and a sense of excitement about the future. I know I felt those things when I was where you are (it wasn’t so long ago that I can’t remember). I was a mix of feelings, ready to leave home while knowing I’d miss my family, nervous about starting something different while energized by starting something new.

My advice to you tonight carries with it that same mix. Some of it is cautionary, some of it is challenging, some of it encouragement, and some of it reminders. Much of it is borrowed and a lot of it is Biblical, so I can’t claim credit for it and it’s less likely to be wrong. Most of it is about wisdom, which combines knowledge with love. All of it, I hope, will be a help to you as you begin a new phase of your life.

You are still young. “Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth…in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.” “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” At the same time, your youth means there is still much for you to learn. I would encourage you to always, regardless of age, “trust in the Lord with all your heart and not lean on your own understanding.” Use your time in college to gain knowledge and enthusiasm for life. “Enthusiasm without knowledge is like running in the dark." Be sincere. Be conscientious. But remember that sincerity and conscientiousness are not enough. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” “A fanatic is nothing more than someone who redoubles his efforts when he has forgotten his aim.”

In your pursuit for knowledge don’t forget that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.” I can speak from experience. I knew a lot more as a freshman ministry major in college than I did after a year in ministry. Make sure that when you learn something, you are wiser for having learned it. Remember that “knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn't, it's just a disgusting waste of time”. Have integrity. “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.” “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” Learn the difference between listening and waiting to talk. “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.” That isn’t to say that you should always remain silent, but that your silence and your speaking should have purpose. “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” Know that it is OK to question, but that there should be reason in your questioning. “The wise man questions the wisdom of others because he questions his own, the foolish man, because it is different from his own.”

Be adventurous. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Be kind. “Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.” “Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t allow other people to be reckless with yours.” “Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.” Get to know your parents. They can be some of your greatest friends and allies. “Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.” Respect your elders. Remember that the “self-made man” is a myth. We are all “fearfully and wonderfully” made, all of us by God’s hand. Batman was once quoted as saying, “I do nothing that a man of unlimited funds, superb physical endurance and maximum scientific knowledge could not do.”

Take time for lightheartedness. “Keep away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bend down for children.” Take time for pleasure. “There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.” My senior year of college, my roommates and I watched Tommy Boy once a week for the entire year. I never once thought of it as time wasted. While I’m in a more lighthearted part of my speech, I’ll share some more lighthearted, and even silly, advice “It is a truly wise man who does not play leap frog with a unicorn.” If you can’t stand the heat then, by all means, avoid setting yourself on fire. Remember that there is a fine line between the flirtatious smile of a stranger and the awkward grin of a homicidal maniac. “The pen is mightier than the sword, and infinitely easier to write with.” “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

“Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.”

You may have read in a book, seen on television, or heard on the radio that we live in a post-modern society. This has its advantages and its disadvantages. There is openness in post-modernism that allows for the hearing of different opinions and a melding of good ideas. I experienced this in college more than I ever had before. Remember to keep an open mind, but never so open that your brain falls out. There are absolute truths, and they are wrapped up in the God we follow. Don’t fear scrutiny, the great thing about absolute truth is that it stands up under scrutiny. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know.” Don’t be content to remain ignorant, but know that you always will be about something. Don’t be afraid of being afraid, there is no courage without fear. That’s why comic book writers invented kryptonite. Without kryptonite, Superman isn’t courageous, because you can’t be courageous if you can’t be hurt. But Superman is fiction. God is real. Find your courage in Him. Know that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.

“Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.” Learn from these things. Grow from them. “Know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Go to church. Read your Bible. Pray. Have faith. “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.” For I am “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

A Lasting Impression

I was at a youth conference a few years back during which the main speaker made a reference that the church has long been familiar with. He spoke of the youth as the “future of the church.” A parent that was with me asked if I thought this was good news or bad news. My answer was yes.

For I am a true prophet, a man who has glimpsed both futures in the hearts and minds of our children, and there is bad news, and there is good news. And the bad news is this –the youth are the future of the church.

It isn’t their fault, really. Not yet. They are simply at the age which most studies reveal as one of the most impressionable. If they are going to pick something up and have it stick, it is most likely going to happen before they reach adulthood. Those same studies show that the group that leaves the greatest impression will be their parents and their peers. One way or another, they will pick up values from us, and what they are picking up isn’t necessarily good. You and I don’t always make the best impression.

The reason for this is that we are society increasingly impressed by the wrong things. We say that Jesus comes first, but it’s too often just something we say, not something we believe or put into practice. The things we are impressed by are good grades, a good school, a good degree, a good job, a good house, a good salary, and so on. We look at someone who has achieved those things and we are, in a word, impressed, and we pass on that impression. We show our children what is good.

Many of us think the problem is that Christians too often allow society to influence religion, instead of religion influencing society. The Christian response is to fight to get prayer back in public schools; it’s why many Christians rallied when a judge posted the Ten Commandments outside his courthouse. We see the importance of religion in the creation of good citizens.

But that is still part of our problem, I saw it when I taught at a private Christian school, many of us are still more concerned with creating good citizens of this country than of God’s kingdom. Even if we can see past of some of the trappings of success, our loftiest goals are to create solid citizens with a strong moral compass. These are the kids we are impressed with, the kids with good grades and good behavior.

Now, most of this would read this and wonder “why is that a bad thing?” What is wrong with wanting kids to get good marks for academics and behavior? Why is that too much? And that’s the problem; it isn’t too much, it’s too little. Our loftiest goal should never be to raise “good” kids, at least not good defined in those terms.

Not that you should stop being proud of these things. Not that we shouldn’t be proud of good grades, but we should hope our kids pursue them because they work for the Lord and not for men. We can still be proud of Harvard, but we should hope our kids are going in order to make a difference and not to make more money. And if they do end up making good money, we should hope that they will use it to further God’s kingdom and not to build impressive looking barns.

Even in the terms of morality, we shouldn’t settle for “good” kids. Of course we want out kids to wait until marriage, to be kind to others, to respect authority, but don’t we also want them to care about why? Its not that I think we’re shooting too high but too low. If our standard is good kids instead of godly kids, our future is in jeopardy. The devil is always suggesting that we compromise our calling by substituting what is good for what is best.

Two authors [Merton and Irene Strommen] studied parents of teenagers all across the US. They asked them to share their main concerns about their teens, and their relationship with them. They discovered that these parents shared five common concerns:



1.They longed to understand their teenage children, and they longed to be understood by them.

2.They longed for a close family.

3.They strongly desired outside help.

4.They truly wanted to see their teenagers live a highly moral life.

5.They longed for their teens to have a solid faith.



None of these are bad things; they are just in the wrong order. Number 5 should come first and should inform all the others. Without a solid faith, a genuine relationship with Christ, the close families, the understanding, even the moral life, are a waste of time. We don’t become Christians to have good families and good kids with good behavior. That may be an added benefit, but it is not our ultimate goal. Christ should make a greater impression than that. He should be someone that turns our world upside down and redefines priorities. It isn’t enough that Christ comes first on our list of priorities, he should be the one writing the list.

Robert Coles, an expert in children’s faith development, expresses strong opinions as to why this disconnect exists. In an interview with the magazine, U.S. Catholic he commented:



I think that what children in the United States desperately need is purpose, and a lot of our children here aren't getting that. They're getting parents who are very concerned about getting them into the right colleges, buying the best clothing for them, giving them an opportunity to live in neighborhoods where they'll lead fine and affluent lives and where they can be given the best toys, go on interesting vacations, and all sorts of things....

Parents work very hard these days; and they're acquiring things that they feel are important for their children. And yet vastly more important things are not happening. They're not spending time with their children, at least not very much.



One example that springs immediately to mind is one that will undoubtedly step on some toes, and that is in the arena of extra-curricular activities. I watch parents push their kids to be involved in sports. They make sure they’re at every practice, every meet. They wouldn’t think about allowing them to skip out of practice for church. They sign them up for private lessons, start them out young. They’re going to wrestling, or swimming, or soccer, or drama six days a week, an hour to two hours every day. This is a major investment of time and energy. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m all for activities, but when activities replace the priority of spiritual development, and becomes a higher priority than a kid’s walk with Christ, something is wrong.

Do we display the same level of intensity when it comes to spiritual formation? Just consider the basic foundation of worship on Sunday morning and Sunday school. How often does the family just ditch church, giving in to tired kids and simply letting them sleep in? If it were a wrestling match, or a soccer game, they would kick them out of bed, regardless of the whining, and make sure they were there. And, we’re just talking one day a week, not to mention mid-week opportunities for study. This is a critical area that Christians need to evaluate. We impress our priorities onto our youth. For better or for worse, our kids are becoming impressed with that which impresses us.

Now, that isn’t to say that some of them aren’t rebelling. If the most we are shooting for is good behavior, stability or success, our kids will see the futility of these pursuits and seek others. Sure, some will embrace the things that impress us and will simply pursue what they’ve been trained to pursue. Others will rebel against that emptiness and seek more immediate sources of fulfillment (alcohol, sex, drugs, etc) Now, I hope and pray that our kids don’t pursue these things because they can be very destructive, but they are, ultimately and eternally, no less fulfilling.

Don’t believe me? Ask someone who has attended the right schools, someone who got the degree, made the money, but doesn’t know Jesus. Ask a man like Chris Felder. Chris is one of the members at our church in North Carolina, and 10 years ago Chris was not a Christian. Still, Chris had all that we would call impressive, a degree from Yale, a law degree from Duke, a successful business, and so on. Chris’ life changed when he encountered someone upon whom Christ had made a lasting impression. He saw Jesus in them and he was impressed with what he saw. And that is why, when I look at Chris, I don’t see Yale or money or a booming business. I see Christ and him crucified.

According to research 68% of parents who attend churches express strong interest in “how to help my child develop as a follower of Jesus Christ.” 85% of parents believe that they have the primary responsibility for teaching their children about religion. Which brings us to the good news, and that is this: the youth are the future of the church.

No wonder Moses instructed the Israelites to talk about the Ten Commandments with their children when they got up in the morning, as they went about their daily routines, and as they went to bed at night. No wonder we were given this morning’s scripture as a command for our lives. It begins, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” We are to love God with every fiber of our being. God calls for our full devotion. He deserves our highest allegiance. A.W. Tozer puts it this way, “we are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.” We are to long for Him more than anything else in life—more than work; more than money; and, more than our kids and our families. This love for God is an exclusive love. We are to give God first place in our lives. In the New Testament, Jesus reaffirmed the primacy of this command. The Pharisees, thinking they could trick Him into giving a wrong answer, asked Jesus which was the most important commandment in the Law of Moses. Jesus simply quoted verse five, and said afterwards, “This is the first and greatest of all the commands.” [Matt. 22:38]

Not only are we to love God with all of our being, we are to pass down this love from one generation to the next. Someone has said that the Christian faith is only one generation from dying out. This is true. Unless we pass on the faith to the next generation, it will die out. And to whom does God entrust this generational transmission? Whose job is it to pass down the faith from generation to generation? Verses 7–9:



7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.



Sunday school class and Bible study in the home. What do these two things have in common? Not much. According to a recent study by the Barna Research Group, about two thirds of parents in the U.S. with children under the age of 13 attend church only once a month. The majority of those that attend don’t spend any time during a typical week discussing faith matters with their children.

Who teaches your children about God, Jesus, and the Bible? Ask yourself: when was the last conversation that you had with your child about who God is or what Jesus means for their life or read with them from the Bible? Relying on Sunday school classes, Bible camps, or even Christian school teachers to do the majority of Biblical training is a dangerous habit to fall into. My job is to back up what you have already taught. The Lord commands parents to teach their children to honor God. This is a person-to-person task that God entrusts to parents. The first and most impressions are made in the home.

That word “impress” is based on a Hebrew word for “sharpen” as in sharpening a knife. That is, you take a knife to the whetting stone to grind it, and sharpen it. Then you repeat that process, and repeat it, until the knife has a keen edge on it. Same is true with parents teaching children. It is a repeated process of continual teaching and training...morning, noon, and night. Parents shape the faith of their children, for good, or for bad. If your family is a Christ-centered family, your children will be strongly influenced to grow up as people of faith. It is to be done on a daily basis in the routines of everyday life: when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up.

One elder of a Christian church has devoted himself to a fifty-year study of Christian and non-Christian families. He says that in American culture today, most young adults following Jesus Christ either come from non-Christian homes where they were converted to Christ in their teenage years through a dynamic youth ministry. Or they come from homes where they grew up in love with Jesus because mom and dad were so in love with Jesus that love permeated their lives. Very few believers come from homes where there was nominal church involvement but an indifferent and apathetic commitment to Christ.

This gets us into the “so what?” the nuts and bolts and practicalities of this. What does this look like? First, let me say that the answer is not to get prayer back into schools; it’s to get prayer back into homes. It is not to have the Ten Commandments posted outside our courthouses; it is to have them posted in our own houses. Faith begins at home. So ask yourself this question, does your family’s schedule reflect your family’s commitment?

If it doesn’t, then insist that your kids spend time with God the way you would with athletics. Insist that they study God’s Word they way you would want them to study for math. That doesn’t mean that we teach our kids to approach scripture with the same sense of boredom they might approach homework, but we should give it at least the same (and really a greater) sense of importance.

Make a family commitment to attending church on Sunday mornings together—worship and Sunday school. Make it a priority as a family.

If you took the excuses people use for not going to church and applied them to other important areas of life, you'd realize how inconsistent we can be in our logic. For example:



10 Reasons Not to Wash

1. I was forced to as a child.

2. People who make soap are only after your money.

3. I wash on special occasions like Christmas and Easter.

4. People who wash are hypocrites—they think they are cleaner than everyone else.

5. There are so many different kinds of soap; I can't decide which one is best.

6. I used to wash. It got boring, though, so I stopped.

7. None of my friends wash.

8. The bathroom is never warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer.

9. I'll start washing when I get older and dirtier.

10. I can't spare the time.



The excuses don’t make sense, so let’s stop making the excuses. Go to church. Read your Bible. Let your kids see you reading it and read it with them. Discuss essential truths with them. Pray together, and take turns leading in prayer.

I heard a story recently of a minister who looked in on a children’s Bible school class and saw their serious faces and asked, "Why do you love God?" After a moment a small voice came from the back: "I guess it just runs in the family." Ask yourself if the love of God runs in your family. Ask your kids too. Ask them to look around your life and tell you what they think you value. Remember that the things you do and the faith you pass on will leave a lasting impression on your kids and on your family. Remember that all of us, parents or not, are a part of the family of God and take responsibility for the youth as if they are your own family.

I’ll close with a story about someone in my own family, my Uncle Norman and my cousin Ryan. My cousin Ryan is an impressive athlete. As a junior in high school, he has led his football team to numerous victories over the last few years. My Uncle Norm recently recounted an encounter he had with his son, Ryan’s coach after a game. The coach said “I want to brag on your son a bit.” Norm knew what was coming; his son was a great athlete, he had a killer instinct, the team would be nowhere without him. So Norm was surprised when the coach said “Ryan is one of the kindest, gentlest, most encouraging people I have ever met.” My Uncle Norm said that he has never been prouder of his son. The image of Christ had made an impression on Ryan, and the impression Christ made on Ryan had gone on to make an impression on Ryan’s coach. The future church will be a group of people who pass on a lasting impression, but that will only happen if we have allowed Christ to make a lasting impression on us.