Sorry, ya’ll. I know I haven’t posted in a while.

I will need to take about a month off away from the blogosphere. See you in July!

Keelie and I have the wonderful, thrilling opportunity to minister in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Everywhere we go in this area, our eyes are filled with the beauty and power of it all. There are hills and valleys, thick woods and shimmering lakes. Rivers flow through this place, and life flows as well.

It would be a shame and a travesty if hope was ever to be vanquished amidst such transcendence. Nor should heartbreak reign. Yet, even in the hills and in the valleys, in the woods and along the streams, there is despair and shame. Even here, there are people that need healing and rescue.

What loss exists in this abundant paradise!

We aim to find God here. And we also hope to provide God for others.

Sometimes, it seems like Torch Lake is a river, long and narrow. It seems that the lake is the Eternal and our time on these highways and in this woods is but a portage of discovery. It is hard work, but it feels good to place our feet on solid ground, if only for a while.

My Son,

Tonight I prayed. I prayed that God would help me to be brave for you.

I have no doubts about my love for you. I do not doubt my ability to be a providing father to you.  I doubt my courage.

I do not want you to live a life without fear - it is impossible in this  world. However, I do want you to know how to face your fears and overcome them. I want you to learn this from me. May you never see your father snivel and cower in the face of adversity. May you never witness my cowardice.

I hope that you grow to be a brave boy, and a brave man. I hope that you are only aware of your capabilities and not hindered by the insecurity abounding.

May your possibilities be infinite.

This election year, beware the politicians who would use their religion to convince you of their merits.

There is a scene in Shakespeare’s Richard III where Richard is trying to accede to the throne. unfortunately, he is not the direct heir to the dead king. Instead, he must bypass his young nephew to get to the throne. He decides to do this by spreading rumors of his nephew being unholy “bastard” offspring. Then, to top it all off, he appears before a group of citizens accompanied by two bishops.

The people are impressed with this show of religious sponsorship, and the Mayor of London lauds the would be king. Then, Lord Buckingham (a conspirator with Richard) points out what Richard is carrying.

And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,
True ornaments to know a holy man

(source)

Unfortunately, Richard is far from a holy man. In fact, the play is a long drama of deceit, villainy, and murder as Richard tries to grab the throne. Richard is a warmonger who bemoans the end of the War of the Roses. He is a betrayer that backstabs anyone near him.

The people, however, are so impressed with his piety, that they make him King.

We’re making our way through Second Corinthians 5. Previous posts:

• Reconciliation: Context
• Reconciliation: Tabernacle
• Reconciliation: Body
• Reconciliation: selfless salvation
• Reconciliation: perception

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Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

-2 Cor 5:16 (NIV)

In the second part of verse 16, Paul links on to his previous thought. That we should not perceive each other in a worldly way. Then, he says “though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer” (NIV).

The philosopher Immanuel Kant once tried to develop a universal moral rule that would guide every person in every way ethically. One of the rules he settled on was

Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end.

Kant rightly observed that human beings tend to use each other as a means, and he thought that this was the root of evil or unethical behavior.

Paul says that we used to look at Jesus in the same way that we used to look at each other - as a means and not an end. Jesus is clearly an end. Unfortunately we use him as a means. Examples:

• He’s our free cabby to Heaven
• He’s the puppet for our political beliefs
• He’s the weapon for condemning our enemies
• He’s the justification for our own sin

We use each other all the time. We even use our children. I have seen parents try to live out their own dreams through their offspring. I have been on the receiving end of this one sided relationship rubric since people use clergy all the time. I have known people to use friends and lovers to escape some past hurt in their lives. This is the worldly way of having relationship and it shouldn’t be the way we relate anymore.

Paul says that it should for certainly not be the way we relate to Jesus.

As a rule, I don’t like putting lists in order. I’m more of a bullet point kind of guy. However, the recent conversation about the greatest novel ever has peaked my interest. I can’t tell you what the greatest novel ever is, but I can give you the top five:

• The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway
• Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway
• Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Agree/Disagree? Which novels do you think should be in this list?

This is a personal request. So, if you are looking for theological musings, skip this.

I am gathering prayer partners and people willing to receive regular ministry updates about what we are doing in Bellaire. Is there anbody on the blog here that would like to be on our monthly newsletter list? All you have to do is email me: bellairefbc@gmail.com

Or you may sign up by commenting here. Thanks!

We’re making our way through Second Corinthians 5. Previous posts:

• Reconciliation: Context
• Reconciliation: Tabernacle
• Reconciliation: Body
• Reconciliation: selfless salvation

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So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

-2 Cor 5:16 (NIV)

Being a part of the ministry of reconciliation means that we no longer look upon people in the same way that we used to. Think of the way we used to view people. It seems like people view total strangers with total negativity. We view them with jealousy, suspicion and cynicism. Now, what if you happen to know a rumor about this person or some indiscretion that they may have committed. Do we view them as sinful and dangerous, or do we view their potential and beauty?

It seems to me that our insecurities dominate our perspectives of others. How many stories have you heard about some church getting all up in arms about the new young people coming into the church and taking up all the pastor’s attention.

At my last church, the senior pastor was mentoring some younger kids, and helping more and more with the youth and children’s departments. This was tolerated for a couple of months, and then that was enough. We had several deacons start complaining about all the time pastor was wasting with the kids when there older people who needed his time. I asked one of these deacons what the old timers wanted the pastor to do with them and he wasn’t sure. The fact is, they just wanted to make sure that they weren’t put on the back burner.

That is exactly the problem. That is worldly thinking. That sort of competitive, jealous paranoia is the sort of junk that belongs outside of a faith community. There is plenty of that crap in the marketplace and in messed up families. We are supposed to be the cure for that and not the cause.

Change the way you view others. Leave the insecurity at the door and accept the perspective of grace. It’s not all about you, for Pete’s sake! It is about the care and compassion that has been given us by God to change the world. So, let’s change it, not mirror it.

Strawberry pie always gets my attention, but I haven’t been paying a whole lot of attention to the Southern Baptist Convention going on this week which is partly due to the fact that I am too busy looking up lyrics to Cake songs, and partly due to the fact that being a Baptist is not decided by some group of old white dudes meeting for a week, because if it were up to them, I would have to listen to Bill O’Reilly and memorize Sweet Home Alabama which Cake has yet to do a remake of, and if they did, it would probably be awful like “I Will Survive,” listening to which will make you want to stick a pencil in your eye or attend the Southern Baptist Convention, which I have never attended despite twenty years of being a part of Convention churches which I have always fit into well with what they tell me is a Midwest accent, though I can’t figure out what in the world a “Midwest” accent is, in the same way I can’t figure out how I could possibly be a “Southern” Baptist above the 45th parallel which reveals another great reason to change the name of the convention to something cool and relevant and non-geographic like Cake or or Strawberry Pie.

We’re making our way through Second Corinthians 5. Previous posts:

• Reconciliation: Context
• Reconciliation: Tabernacle
• Reconciliation: Body

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Paul continues his letter to the Corinthian church by reminding them of what it means to fear the Lord.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

-2Cor 5:11-15 (NIV)

Why evangelize?

Lately it seems like Evangelicalism has become little more than a collection of recruiting centers. We do things like become “seeker friendly” or purpose driven in order to bring more and more people into the faith. But why? What are we bringing them into?

Paul finishes his thoughts on being the renewed body of the Church. He says that we are the people that fear the Lord. We know what it is to fear the Lord. In addition, it is our responsibility to teach others to fear the Lord.

Now, usually in a sermon, the preacher at this point will stop, and explain what fearing the Lord is. He will say things like “Fearing the Lord is having holy reverence.” But, let’s take a look at what fearing the Lord is in context:

• v. 11 - self honest. Fearing the Lord is being honest with who we really are without all the superficial equivocations. Fearing the Lord is learning to live with what you are.
• v.12-13 - transcendent. To fear the Lord is to tap into transcendence, to rise above the thinking and perspective of the grounded. Fearing the Lord means you live by a different set of rules than those that people so often enforce. That is because their rules and their thinking have both feet on the ground, while the new thinking and the new rules rest in someone beyond our world.
• v. 14 - selfless. Those that fear the Lord are selfless. Paul writes, “those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them.” So, fear of the Lord is not something that we trumpet to make ourselves look spiritual or to make others feel inferior. Instead, the fear of the Lord is something that we lose ourselves in.

Have you ever spoken with a person that is humble? Not the fake churchy humble (I’m just a poor sinner…). I’m talking really humble. Ever knew a person like that? Were they so humble, that they were aware of who they were more than anybody else? They were so humble, that they were delightful?

Did this person also operate on a different level than anybody else? This person was beyond the petty selfishness of this world. He was on a different plane, a different world.

Did this person also seem to do everything for others? Did they seem to be sacrificial to an extreme?

If you’ve ever known a person like this, then you knew a person that feared the Lord.