Reflections on Father's Day

       I was thinking today about how much time we spend in our thinking lives defining ourselves by what we do. In the west it is how we begin to introduce ourselves and infact it is how we classify each other. I mean that in the sense of which class in society we belong. So as an example when we meet someone perhaps at a party or other communal gathering one of the first if not the first question we would ask is "what do you do?". We are in fact defined by what we do.. Joe the Busdriver, Steve the Maintenance guy, Jeremy the Screenprinter etc... This leads us then to classify these folks into careeers or jobs. Well that guy makes a lot of money and went to school therefore he has a career where that other guy did not go to school does not make a lot of money therefore he has a job.
     This thought process led me to think "how do I define myself"? So the conclusion that I came to was that I or me am made up of three (there are actually more as I relate to other people) seperate people that function within one body and in the best integrity that I can muster I am the same person in each and every area in my life. None of which by the way are defined by my profession (the way I make money). My three seperate functions of self are: Husband, Father, Pastor.
     A little definition is in store because a lot of you will say that "I" am not in there. I am all three of these things and I cannot be defined outside of my relationship to other people. Even if I just say I am me that is only in me not being you or someone else... deep enough for you? lets get back to the topic at hand shall we?

HUSBAND
     This is my most important role. It is how I function in the context of my Wife MJ and how I function in the context of every other woman on the planet. You see I am MJ's constant companion, lover, soul mate, one flesh... that is how we exist together. To the other women on the planet I am MJ's husband therefore I am not their husband and cannot function with or toward them in any aspect of that role or term.

FATHER
      This is how I interact with not just my three sons, but with every other child I come in contact with that does not have a Dad of there own. I believe specifically in the context of the church that younger people are to look to older people for guidance. I do not expect every child I come in contact with to call me Dad or treat me as if I am their Dad. I expect only of myself to treat them as if they need the same love that every child needs from their father. Sometimes that is stern warnings and sometimes that is a gentle word.

PASTOR
     This is a title that in Scripture means overseer or shepherd. It is an aspect of my being that I did not realize until I held the position in a local new testament church. Since holding that position it is a title that I still use for myself even though technically I do not hold that position in my current church. You see as I began to live out this role of my being in the church context it truly became part of who I am. I do not know how to function outside of this role. In every area of my life I am looking out for the spiritual well being of everyone I know. Even if they are not aware or are unconcerned with spiritual matters.

     So on this Father's Day as I think of myself as Derek, Cody, and Sam's Dad and the son of Al I am content with the world as it is. Regardless of all the struggles that are overtaking all of us I find no better place than to be defined not by what I do but by who I am... a Husband, Father, Pastor.

- The Pastor
  

Infected by Enculturation

     So this week I was reminded of a problem that we have in Christianity. So a caveat for this article it is directly aimed at my Christian friends but for those of you that are not Christian there is truth here that you can apply to your own belief systems.
     I am talking about enculturation. The problem with Enculturation and Christianity is that it is the very nature of Christianity to be able to fit in and be effective in every culture in the world. The problem arises when Christianity fails to have an impact on the culture and the culture succeeds in impacting Christianity.
     Christianity has several checks and balances in place within it structures and organizations that keep the culture from infiltrating its teachings. What happens to Christianity and Christians is that these changes are subtle and when asked a Christian will deny their belief but in practice their heretical belief shines brighter than their Christianity.
      So let me give you a simple illustration. If I were to ask you what God the Father looked like most people would describe to me a large older white man with a grey beard and a robe sitting on a throne. They would describe his attributes as one that watches over us with intent to protect but also to punish, and that punishment can come in the form of striking you dead usually with a lightning bolt and while you are in the church building no less. The problem with this description is two fold. First there is no description of God the Father in scripture, in fact Jesus said that He was a Spirit. So a well learned and studied Christian should say we have no idea what the Father looks like. Secondly the description given is actually Zeus the greatest of all gods in the Greek polytheistic system. How did this happen? How have Christians been duped into understanding that their God is actually not the God of the Bible and is in fact a false deity? It is enculturation and it happens very subtly.
     The illustration I have given you is a very simple one and for the most part has been completely removed within the church of active, personal Christians. What I see taking place today in Christianity is an influence of new age mysticism. The Scriptures have warned us about it. Paul wrote about it to the church at Colossae and Ephesus. That in the latter times that there would be an influx of false teaching from within the church. These kinds of things never happen overnight, it happens when we fail to recognize when it is happening to us and when we do not pay proper attention to the things that we say.
      So to be specific, enculturation begins when we allow certain terms and words to enter our vocabulary and do not correct. We know what we mean when we use the term but younger Christians do not  and then they hear someone from another faith use the term and believe that the two terms are the same. This is how heresy creeps into the church. The preacher gets up and preaches a sermon straight from the Bible but the terms he is using have been corrupted by the culture and do not mean the same thing that his audience hears him say.
      A perfect example of this is the term "the universe". This term made a great influx into Christianity by way of Oprah and the film and book series The Secret.  The Secret uses the term the universe as a replacement for the word god or God. I have seen and heard many Christians whom I know to be good Bible believing personal Christian use the term in the place of God. this is very dangerous and we should steer clear of it because even thought we know what we mean the next generation will not know what we mean, and their Doctrine will be corrupted.
     Perhaps you feel that I am overreacting but if we do not speak plainly when we are teaching and discipling we will raise a generation of Christians that will not believe in the God of the Bible but will instead believe in a god of their own creation. Consider yourself warned.

- The Pastor   

Some Conversation Starters

EDUCATION

     Last time we spoke I wrote about poverty. In that conversation I talked about liberal education degrees. So let me expound on that a little bit. I believe that we need to overhaul public education in our country. Here is what I would do. 1) Remove all standardized testing or remove Individual education plans. 2) Calibrate high school education so that a high school diploma is equivalent to an AA degree 3) make all public Universities an optional continuation of high school. Therefore they would be free of charge and not mandatory and two years completing courses would result in a BA or BS in a chosen field. I believe this system would set up a lot more people for success and would reduce a great portion of debt in this country.

GENERATIONS

     I read a great article about Generation X, of which I am a member. It was very insightful about why my generation is reluctant to take up leadership roles. I had never given it much thought but for the most part those people that are of my generation are the not the ones out front but are behind the scenes. So the big picture I pulled from this article was that we the children of the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers were and are responding to a family life that was in total upheaval. (I personally did not experience that my parents have been married for over 50 years and worked at keeping a stabilized home.) We have a tendency to seek after peace and stability over all. This can be seen in our reaction to events. It’s why our children have to wear helmets for bicycles and stay in car seats far longer than any other generation. We are trying to regain control over our lives. I won’t take the time to speak about the economic impact that the past 4 decades has had on my generation.

RELIGION

     This is just a short reminder to all of my ministry friends that we cannot quantify our “success” in ministry. Attendance and the number of Baptism causes pastors to become CEO’s and our membership to become product. If we don’t produce we are failures if we produce we are successful. However in our common society we, pastors, have learned to manipulate our numbers just like big business does, if I grow a large church rapidly I am a success. Most likely it makes me a thief. Having stolen my congregation from other usually smaller churches looking for consumerist Christianity. Just be careful my brothers that we don’t lose sight of what we are trying to do.

An Essay on Poverty

     I have never considered myself an academician. Throughout different parts of my life I have had desires to obtain the higher degrees. Throughout my life’s path there has always been this one sincere desire to know more. From a very young age when I began to read the fiction novels, not of the masters, but those of the horror and fantasy writers like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Tolkien and Lewis. This voracious desire to read led me to the great writers, Hemingway, Salinger, Fitzgerald, Kerouac and others. Although the reading had led me to discover who I was becoming, they did not call me to look at the world around me. Looking at the world around me came from my desire to actually live my life. It is this University of Life that has brought me the “higher” degrees that I had dreamed of in my younger days.

     What does all that have to do with poverty you ask? Well in my time in the UL I have come in contact with many impoverished people. I believe that one of the greatest problems we face in this country today is poverty. There are many theories on how to vanquish poverty. The Neo-Left would have us throw off the shackles of capitalism so that all of could share equally in the great harvest that is the American dream. The Righteous-Right would have us create opportunities for all of us to get up and go to work and invest ourselves in creating that great harvest. I am however not convinced that either of these options will in fact help in the repair of a nation that is not so slowly becoming a nation of the impoverished.

     So what then is the answer? As with most problems in the world the symptoms are not the problem the problem is the problem. So in my studies in life as I work and live with the impoverished, I have found that for the most part there are two type of impoverished people. When we can help people to identify what type of person they are, then they can begin to change their circumstances. The two types of the impoverished are the poor in pocket and the poor in heart.

The Poor in Pocket

     The poor in pocket are perhaps the largest group of the impoverished. I relate most closely with this group of people perhaps because I too am part of the poor in pocket. This group, as Jesus predicted, has always been with us. This group has only expanded in the aftermath of the economic collapse that reached a crescendo in 2008. This is a group of people that has been marginalized by the Neo-Left because they don’t fit the image that is needed to push their true agenda which is to collapse capitalism and instill a socialistic order. This group is ignored by the Righteous-Right because they appear to be able to help themselves if they would just work a little harder or just not be so lazy.

      The big problem with the poor in pocket is that they are the working poor. The working poor are not going to be helped by raising their wages, which is a very popular idea right now. They will not be helped by getting more jobs. This group needs two things that will help them to step out of their poverty. The first thing they need is education. Now I lean toward a Liberal education, by that I mean a broad education not necessarily a job training education. I feel that a liberal education broadens the mind and helps to create people that are thinkers not drones. The second thing that most of the working poor could use is free medical for their children, and access to good healthy food.

     What hurts the working poor and keeps them from gaining access to programs that already exist is that they make too much money. So they are trapped. This trap keeps them from qualifying for federal, state, and local assistance. It creates in them a struggle to stay financially where they are hoping that perhaps they will get a raise or that a better job will come along.  Or it creates in them the second group of the impoverished.

The Poor in Heart

     The poor in heart are much more difficult to help. They are in need of a change of heart and a change of mind. The easy way to “fix” this group is to remove all help and aid. That however would only cause desperate measures and riots from a group of people that have made careers out being impoverished. Removing the aid would create in them a desperate need to survive, however because they are so entrenched in a system that keeps and enslaves them in their mind and heart they would actually not rise to the occasion but they would wither and die. Now to some in Righteous-Right that would be an acceptable outcome. To the Neo-Left this group is fodder for the cannons. Mostly minority by race, this group is in fact the poster child used to make the white wealthy feel guilty and to continue to pour money into systems that are actually enslaving the group making these well-meaning liberals the new plantation owners of this generation.  

     This group, the poor in heart, unfortunately live up to their stereotypes. They are the people that have no source of income save the welfare that they receive and will move around the country to take advantage of states that have easier or “better” systems of assistance. They buy all of their foods using food stamps and although they do not eat as well as the middle class or the rich they eat far better than the working poor. Most of the frustration you hear about this group comes from the working poor simply because they cannot receive the same assistance that the poor in heart receive.

     So what is the answer for this group? That is a tougher question. They don’t need a hand up, they don’t need a better education. What they need is a change of societal acceptability. Fraud needs to be curtailed not by jail time, that would only overwhelm our prison systems but by enforcing the standards that are already in the system. This group needs a change of heart, they need to understand that they are worthy humans capable of great and wonderful things. They need to understand that their financial status does not define who they are.

The Big Picture

     In this essay I do not attempt to solve the problem of poverty. I do not come to you like Jonathan Swift with a Modest Proposal. I do come to you and hope that you can better understand that the problem of poverty is only partially a problem of finance. If we do as the Neo-Left ask us to do the poor in the heart will become the majority ruled by an elite class. If we do as the Righteous-Right proclaim there will be conflict and wars and rumors of wars. So the answer does not rest in the hands of the political pundits or their croneys. The answer rests in the hands of the writers and educators, the priest and the preacher. We must change the hearts of men so that they strive to better themselves not because they can make more money but so they can make a difference. Our heroes need to be those that look out for the needs of others more than the needs of themselves. Our heroes do not need to be defined by their G6 or the size of the Escalade, 0ur heroes need to be the Lover’s not the famous.

 

- The Pastor

Noah

MJ and I went to see the film Noah last evening so I thought I would weigh in on the subject. I have seen several articles about the movie on facebook. I have also had several friends say they would never see the film and others say they saw no problem with it. So I thought I would tell you what I thought after actually having seen the film and not just read about it.

First:
     We must always remember and never forget that the US Film Industry does NOT make movies with Christians in mind. They are not Christians they are story tellers. Ask any writer how they really felt about the film adaptation of their book. Even if they were Christians they are probably not Christians like you and their take will either be too evangelistic or not evangelistic enough. Remember what Lincoln said... you cant please all of the people all of the time... So if you're going to the movies for a Sunday School lesson you're missing the point.

Second:
       The Story of Noah is not a Christian story. I know what you're thinking "but it's in the Bible!" It is in the Bible the Old Testament part, the part before God called Abraham. The part where mankind was worshiping God by the Adamic covenant. We interpret and apply it from a Christian perspective (rightly so) but the story does not belong just to us. Every culture in the world has a deluge story. I'm going to say that again so you really get it. The story of Noah goes so far back in the history of mankind that every single culture in the world tells a version of the flood story.

Finally:
     Ok so let's get to it, let's talk about the film. I read an article that the director and writer of the film used the Jewish texts and a form of Jewish Mystical Homiletic to derive the story from the very few verses that are actually dedicated to the story in the Torah. In other words they read into the motives and actions of what is actually written in the Bible.
     So here's what I loved about it. There were several things that really rang true to me. Adam and Eve are in the film, Noah is telling his family the story of creation and the fall and we are shown Adam and Eve in their perfection and they are glorified beings... beings of light... until sin. The other thing I really liked was the Nephalim, in the film they are supernatural rock giants that are "fallen angels" that assist Noah in his mission to build the Ark. Now I know that's not in the Bible but I thought it was cool, and remember the Nephalim are in the scripture look it up.
     Here are things I don't like. Noah is an impossible character to like he starts out good and you want to root for him but by the time the flood starts he is not a nice guy. He believes that they are not supposed survive the flood and they are not to procreate but just die. It gets pretty emotionally brutal at this point and its hard to watch. I also don't like that God is not a personal God that speaks to Noah, but a God that shows Noah vague dreams and visions that Noah is left to figure out with the help of his Grandfather Methuselah. This is ultimately what leads to Noah's misinterpretation of God's intention. I also don't like that they don't talk about the Covenant aspect of the deluge (after all the Noahdic covenant is the next step for us dispensationalists).
     Here are the things that I like. The film makers bring a real humanness to the characters, from Noah to Tubal Cain (the bad guy) to Noah's wife and three sons. I like the dynamic that Noah and his son Ham have all the way through the film it makes the sin and the curse later in Ham's life kinda make sense. (that stuff is in the film also) What I like most is that the real story of Noah is kept in tact. All through the film we are shown how mankind is filled with evil and sinful (albeit sometimes they hit way too heavy on environmentalism) and that they deserve the judgement and punishment that God is about to dish out. They make this world so evil you are rooting for the rain! However in the end when it is all said and done it is Noah's daughter in law (Shem's wife) who points out to Noah that God has shown them Mercy and Grace and Love. And that is the real story of Noah... not that God kills people but that God saves people. That is something that is a message in the film that would allow me to tell a friend that is not a Christian about the love of God and His son Jesus.

In Conclusion:
     To make a long post short, if you're looking to Hollywood to tell you a truly Biblical account in a film that leads people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ... stop. They are not going to make that film, I'm not even sure anyone can make that film. If you want to see an entertaining and interesting look at a familiar story you're in luck, Noah hits it out of the park in that arena.

- The Pastor

A Few Thoughts

First Post on this new Site:
     Some of you will notice but most will not that this is a new blog site for me. I retired the old one because it was attached to the church that I pastored when I was in Florida. So I wanted to keep my blog site for myself and not have my thoughts or actions or posts adversely effect the ClayHouse Church in any way. So I begin this new site with a few thoughts about what has happened on this day, and some things that I have been thinking about lately... I hope you like it.

Fred Phelps Dies
     I know what you're thinking, you're thinking... thank God he is dead. I will admit when I heard the news I was a little glad. You see he is the image of everything that everyone hates about Christianity. I can not count how many times I have had to "defend" Christianity in the face of this man's actions. I have even had to defend my tradition of Christianity (being a Baptist).
     I would like to take a different spin on how we ought to think about Fred and the Westboro Baptist Church and the people that still adhere to this band of heresy. I personally never revel in the death of another human being. Scripture says that we are "... fearfully and wonderfully made" that means all of us the ones we love and the ones we don't love. So what should we think? We should think and hope and pray that through all of this that God will receive the Honor and Glory from Fred's life and death. You see his death is only powerful to us in our lives because his life was so disgusting to us. So my prayer is that many people will see the Love of God in the reaction by God's people to the death of one man.

The Doctrine of Total Depravity
     I have a friend that posted on her Facebook page: "I'm a good person who sometimes makes poor choices. Thanks for understanding.". Now I know what she is saying and I think that we would all agree with that statement. We are generally "good" people that occasionally make the wrong choices that harm ourselves or others either spiritually, emotionally, or physically. But you guys know me and you know that I have to be that guy that takes the statement and dissects it and looks for the theological truth that we all must deal with.
     So here is a couple of Biblical facts that we have to deal with and when we come to grips with these facts then we can begin to understand the purpose of Jesus coming to earth and the sacrifice that He made for us. By the way if the these couple of truths are not truths then Jesus sacrifice was for no reason whatsoever and He wasted His time and His life.
     Truth #1   For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God Romans 3:23 So what does that mean? What that means in a nut shell is that we are all messed up. It means we are at heart selfish, loathsome creatures. If people could read our minds they would think we are the most horrible people in the world. And I don't mean that we walk around thinking evil, murderous thoughts all the time (although some probably do) I mean we are so self centered that even when we are being altruistic we are doing it for selfish reasons. It also means that no one I mean no one is immune to this statement. We are all sinners!
   Truth #2  Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned Romans 5:12 This is a little trickier to understand but I know you guys are smart so you'll be able to handle this. The "one man" that the verse is talking about is Adam, you know the first man... well he blew it back in the garden and that's why we were separated from God. You remember that whole forbidden fruit deal. So because he sinned then we are all born with the propensity to sin. But I know how your baby boomer minds think. You think that means that it's not your fault you were born that way. Not so fast my little blame shifting friend the verse also says, "because all sinned", yep you're culpable. You can't blame this on anyone but yourself.
     So what do these two truths mean? First it means that we are not good people that occasionally do bad things, it means we are bad people that occasionally do good things. Second it means that the propensity to sin (we call that a sin nature in theological circles) is what keeps you from having a fulfilling and eternal relationship with God. So in His infinite wisdom He became a man (that's Jesus) and died and paid the penalty for all our sins. So all we have to do is repent of our sins (that means say your sorry and turn away from that lifestyle of sin) and accept the sacrifice that Jesus made as payment for your sins. That's what we call being saved.
     If you want more detailed information on being saved (becoming a Christian) please contact me. I would love to speak at length with you about my favorite subject... Jesus.
 - The Pastor