Trusting God for Results

April 14, 2014April 14, 2014 Michael9 Comments

CC BY-NC-ND, Frits Ahlefeldt Laurvig Flickr

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” (1 Cor. 3:6)

One of my friends has begun attending church again and moving closer to God. He’s found a congregation he enjoys and has even gotten his girlfriend and kids attending regularly. The pastor has drawn close to him and often expressed an interest in his involvement there; however, this started becoming a problem.

Participation was always the topic. There was a place for him ‘here’, an opening ‘there’. “I’m just waiting on you” is how it would be put to him; and that was the problem. My friend isn’t even a church member yet, a step really important to him. Further, whereas he was usually excited when Sundays came around, now he started begrudging the fact.

So he called me. Listening to him I knew the only option he had at that moment was to speak to the pastor and express his truest feelings. I could understand the minister’s excitement about this young man’s budding faith and his eagerness about his further involvement—not desiring to see him leave—yet it was overbearing.

If I know anything, I know that 1) men who don’t care about church aren’t there and 2) they certainly aren’t candid about their lives with the pastor. In fact, many men distrust pastors.

This minister needed not fear losing my friend because he was being edified and wouldn’t be returning each Sunday if he wasn’t. He just needed to be allowed to be his own man and make his own decisions at his own pace.

Get Thee Out of the Way!

I’m thrilled to see the Holy Spirit moving in my buddy’s life. It’s something I’ve cried out to God about for a long time, for both him and his girlfriend; now I’m watching God move in their lives.

As I expressed, I know the pastor’s intentions were good, yet they characterize something I’ve too often observed: well-meaning Christians who won’t let the Holy Spirit do his job.

We’re all familiar with this usually in the form of browbeating preaching or dogma. Folk can hardly get a foot in the church door before being barked at with a litany of orders about how they should and should not look, think, act, and any other unnecessary or premature modification. We only prove how well we’ve missed the point about grace.

I recall a sermon once that really provoked me. The preacher expressed amazement that he can preach one sermon and with it the Holy Spirit is able to preach hundreds of sermons to the people present. Thus, it was his task to be the best preacher and communicator of the Word he could possibly be; but the hard work of changing the heart fell to the Holy Spirit to accomplish.

We’ve got to know our place, which is not supplying God a Hagar thinking we’re rushing the process along. Instead, that place is making ourselves available to folk, plainly discussing faith issues, genuinely befriending people, and storming heaven with our prayers for them. But after that we’ve got to step aside and let the Lord be God in their lives. Results are his job.

Poll: Personal Bible Study

AsideApril 10, 2014August 9, 2014 MichaelLeave a comment

Beware Satan and His Crooked Hoss!

April 9, 2014April 9, 2014 MichaelLeave a comment

One day years ago I had to pick my mom up from work. Never tardy, I started arriving early just to read or listen to the radio. The parking lot was always too full for my liking, so I would park in the grass on the quiet road in front of the facility until I saw workers exiting.

This day I parked perhaps a car length behind a trailer truck; it seemed to have warded off the other cars that usually lined up there. I thought nothing of it and relaxed listening to the radio. What came next, however, shot me straight into a panic. The truck suddenly reversed giving me little time to react. I went to start the car to back up but only managed to blow the horn trying to get the driver’s attention. Didn’t he see me?

Not at all—the truck hit the car and started pushing it…and pushing. I kept calm, still on the horn, but grew alarmed unsure if there was a driver in the truck at all or if the car and I would end in the gully feet to the right, crushed.

Fortunately, it was over in seconds. The truck stopped and then pulled onto the road. The driver never knew I was there.

Satan Goes About…Don’t Go to Him!

I could make arguments about how the trucker should have seen or heard me, but the problem was quite simple: I shouldn’t have parked behind the truck. Or, since there was no place to park in front of the semi, I should have given more space between us and made sure I was in the driver’s view.

In the end, I had badly positioned myself.

That’s something I don’t want to do in life. Who prepares to fail or places themselves in a position to be rescued? Honestly, I don’t think anyone does, even the people who never see how their habitual God-awful choices precipitate their undoing. Moreover, this is the whole reason why people get degrees and retraining and become proactive about their health or parenting. The consequences of bad positioning can be costly.

God tells us the same thing (Rom. 12:21): “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Said another way, Satan’s drives that big rig—and he saw you park behind him. Get anywhere near him and he’ll find a way to run you over.

And there’s the point, robed in church bells and angel voices: don’t go near him.

I Learned Grace in a French Subway

April 8, 2014September 24, 2014 Michael2 Comments

I was a tourist but strode around modest enough to not look like one. Just days into my dream vacation, it was going better than I could’ve imagine. There was much English spoken in Paris, making it easy for the less-than-fluent types like me. Roaming off the beaten path was amazing for the architecture, vintage shops, and museums that disclose themselves to those who dare venture away from common sightseer targets. But when it was necessary—and it always was—the subways worked like a whistle.

Cluny-La Sorbonne Station, Paris CC BY-NC, Sean_Marshall, Flickr — Cluny-La Sorbonne
Sean_Marshall, NC

Each station of Paris’ Métro bears its own unique character. They are discernibly Art Nouveau in style and sometimes littered with incredibly vibrant and creative graffiti. These surprisingly immaculate underground labyrinths invite the very thing you don’t do there, which is hang out. After familiarizing oneself with train tickets and cards, the only task left is to learn navigating stations. Some were small and others were compact cities, like back in Tokyo.

Arts et Métiers CC BY-NC, Steve Calcott, Flickr — Arts et Métiers
Steve Calcott, NC

Statistically, safety was far more a concern here than in Japan. After all, I was again in Western society. I had been warned about subway pickpockets and even discerned a few. They targeted people in the busy vestibules. Usually I’d pass right through those to sometimes be alone in long, tiled corridors and tube platform areas with nothing but Syrian-arched exits eyeing me with foreboding.

In Japan I had relearned fear, which was the strangest thing I ever had to do in life. Being on dark streets at three in the morning is a world of difference in Paris and in Japan—the difference between witnessing car theft and having nothing at all to fear. Nonetheless, I had no problems with people.

The only hiccup I had occurred the day I entered the one station that immediately put me on edge. It was dark and creepy just entering it. I hated the way the attendant’s booth looked the part of a junkie’s lab and the way its neon lights harshly smacked the cold concrete that imprisoned the area. It made the darkness even more apparent. No tourist could feel comfortable here.

Cité CC BY-NC, Talus, Flickr — Cité
Talus, NC

Nevertheless, the routine was the same: feed my card into the machine and pass through the turnstile—but not this day. For some reason, the gate rejected it. I tried it again and it spit it back at me, again. What’s going on, I thought, other travelers passing around me now. That’s when you start re-educating yourself with the basics while mumbling in terse staccato: This is the card. Card goes into slot. Slot is supposed to accept card. And the machine goes “Nuh-uhh!”

Couloir CC BY-NC-SA, Possamai, Flickr — Couloir
Possamai NC-SA

I kept trying while knowing inside I was avoiding the obvious just a few feet behind me. I knew I was gonna have to oil up my French and talk to the agent about the problem. What a novel idea in France! I’ve never been a very confident speaker of French despite diligently studying it half my life. I heard the attendant on her microphone talking to someone, so I avoided the issue a little longer thinking the card might still take.

I was mentally at a loss with this machine. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead because I had now lost my cover and become the dumb tourist. Finally, I turned toward the agent’s window only to be met by her fluster and steely gaze pointed right at me. That’s when I realized she had been hollering at me the whole time.

And, in French, she had been telling me—the one who had spent all this time fighting the machine and worried about his card and dreading French and hating this eerie location—it’s free. And I walked through the turnstile.

Stay Low: A Spiritual Life Lesson

April 7, 2014October 9, 2016 Michael8 Comments

"Suffer the Children to Come to Me" by Carl Bloch, Frederiksborg Palace, Copenhagen (Domain) — “Suffer the Children to Come to Me” by Carl Bloch, Frederiksborg Palace, Copenhagen (Domain)

That Sunday morning was too hot and muggy for anything. But that’s summer in Japan. I and a newly-arrived co-worker had a half-mile hike to the church after a short train ride. Without a cloud in sight, the sun was merciless and exacerbated the strain of the uphill trek; we walked fast to end the baking quicker. This was my first church service since my own arrival two months earlier.

When we arrived, sweating and exhausted, we couldn’t figure out what we were seeing. We had already been met by running water and now we saw why. Everyone was outside standing around a long bamboo chute with water running through it…not the usual Sunday doings. Someone at the upper end dropped noodles in the water, and people with chopsticks—a pair of which I was quickly handed—feverishly grabbed at them to catch and eat. The summer tradition is called nagashi-somen and everyone was having fun.

I knew I was gonna like this church.

Almost immediately I met the pastor, Bo Dellming. He was a tall, jolly fellow, the very idea of the word “parson”. That day was the beginning of a meaningful pastoral relationship with Bo; I continued attending the church from then on.

Good and Faithful Servants

After accepting Christ in his early 20’s, Bo, a Swede, determined that he owed God his life and decided to attend Bible school. Upon graduating—it’s funny to hear him tell it—he discovered an ad in the local newspaper calling for people to serve God on the mission field in Japan. He knew nothing about Japan, but this soldier had found an opportunity to serve. So throwing all caution to heaven, Bo became a missionary in Japan and never looked back.

That’s been over 50 years now.

Kerstin, his wife, also Swedish, hails from a ministry family. Her parents were missionaries in China, and her father was a Bible translator there.

The Dellmings have long since mastered Japanese and have unceasingly forged ministry in the spiritually dark country. In addition to raising their own family, a few generations strong now, the Dellmings have built a devoted congregation and a charming Swedish-inspired church and parsonage complex in Fuji City, which is Takaoka Chapel/Fuji Christian Center.

Stabbed with Love

Pastor Dellming is a compassionate man and it shows in his teaching and leadership. Whenever I was with him, I saw Jesus—plain and simple. No one has emulated Christ more to me. He is certainly a soldier for Christ but the kind devils don’t expect: the ones who love the hell out of people. Don’t discount that type of warfare. It’s real, although the enlistment is small.

Pastor Dellming did something one Sunday so simple yet impressionable to me that it brought tears to my eyes, as it does this moment reflecting on it.

In Japan some churches will provide a small supper to attendants after the service; at Takaoka Chapel this was usually a curry rice dish and at other times it might be a full lunch. Moreover, it was always a pleasant time of fellowship. Thus, once the service ended, all the chairs would be moved to the sides and two long table rows would be created for all who remained to eat.

This particular Sunday there were many people at the supper and lots of children. After Pastor Dellming returned from greeting some outside the church, I recall him walking in beaming like Santa and playing with the small children. He loved them and they loved him.

He looked at me and remarked how they liked to ride on his back; and straightway this not-so-young man dropped to his knees and let the kids hop on for a trip through the open church. What humility!, I thought. I tingled with joy watching it happen and could hear Jesus rebuking the disciples—“Don’t you dare deny them from approaching me!”

You Who Would Be Great

It was one of the best things Pastor Bo gave me, a lesson on humility. No matter how high God takes you, Michael, be like a child. This from a man who would only see how much more was left for him to do for Christ.

Jesus, responding to the disciple’s griping, answered the question of greatness in the kingdom by calling a child over and declaring, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom” (Matt. 18:3-4).

In other words, be teachable. Don’t get caught up in your own hype. We are nothing; God is everything. Divest yourself of empty ambition and seek only to serve him and as fully as you can. Learn that the highest place in God will always be at the feet of Jesus.

† Pastor Dellming passed away in October 2016. His wife Kerstin survivies.

New Testament Trivia!

April 4, 2014April 4, 2014 Michael8 Comments

CC BY-NC-SA, LEOL30, Flickr — CC BY-NC-SA, LEOL30 Flickr

Let’s see how well you fair. Share your comments.

Excitement over what miracle effectually sealed Jesus’s fate? (John 11:45-54)
To whom did Paul likely write a prior epistle that is now lost?
Who was the prophet that accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey? (Acts 15:32)
A portion of what group of religious leaders converted as the gospel spread in Judea? (Acts 6:7)
What church in the province of Asia received a now lost letter that was to be read by the Colossians and vice versa? (Colossians 4:16)
What event marked the first great persecution against Christians in Judea? (Acts 8:1-3; 11:19)
Who was the cause of sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas and was Barnabas’s cousin? (Acts 15:36-40; Col. 4:10)
What was the requirement the 11 apostles imposed in selecting Judas’s replacement? (Acts 1:21-22)
Who was the first apostle martyred? (Acts 12:1-2)
What four languages might Jesus have spoken?

ANSWERS

† the raising of Lazarus; the Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:9, 11; 2 Cor. 7:8); Silas; the priests; the church at Laodicea; the martyrdom of Stephen; Mark, writer of the Gospel; the person must have been an adherent of Jesus’s ministry from his baptism at Jordan to his ascension; James the Greater, brother of John; Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek (most likely), and Latin (possibly)

Showing Grace to Ourselves

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014 Michael17 Comments

POINT MADE ALREADY, YOU SAID? (LOL) CC BY-NC, guccio@文房具社, Flickr — POINT MADE ALREADY, YOU SAID? (Ha!)
CC BY-NC, guccio@文房具社, Flickr

Many people are their own toughest critic. I am. But what’s unhealthy is treating oneself with disdain, and that has been a problem for me at times. I will speak to myself with severe contempt at my stupidity or failure or some other thing.

It wasn’t until the Lord, in his gentle way, checked me one day about it.

What he is teaching me is to not treat myself the way I would never treat another person. Get that: God instructs us to do to others as we would have them do to us, yet I was doing to myself as I would never do to others or allow them to do to me.

I could hear the Spirit within—“Stop saying that.” Then, one day the message became clear: You are a recipient of the grace of God; it dishonors him for you to dishonor yourself. Christ paid too high a price for my well-being for me to side with the Evil One in my attitude about myself.

YOU are Important to God

We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Luke 10:27), or with the same care we show for our own bodies and concerns. The scriptures assume our individual welfare prior to our interaction with others, which is only natural. Paul says, “No one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body” (Eph. 5:29).

Look at common clichés: “Take care of home first” and “Health is wealth”—because if I’m in poor health, or die…

Hear Paul again: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Col. 3:12-14).

So the Lord says to me and us all, why is this any different for you…by you? Cast away fear, regret, worry, and other negative emotions by remembering that you belong to God and are in the grip of his perfect plan for you. He’ll help you sort out the kinks.

More: The Golden Rule and Who Is My Neighbor?

Old Testament Salvation

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014 Michael6 Comments

CC BY-SA, James Tissot, Wikimedia Commons — “Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem” by James Tissot, The Jewish Museum, New York (Domain)

“Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24)

A major purpose of the Law of Moses was to expose sin (Rom. 3:20). The law itself, however, was not evil or bad for this reason or because it resulted in condemnation and death. Rather, Paul calls it “holy” and “good” (Rom. 7:12-13) because it accomplished God’s purpose in the plan of salvation until it was completed in Christ.

An instructive, long-term secondary purpose of the law was to prepare people’s hearts for righteousness by training them in God’s requirements.

The Faith of Old Testament Believers

I find it important to stop and consider the piety of those who lived under the Law of Moses. Christians perceive Old Testament worshipers as possessing an inferior devotion than theirs because they knew nothing of Jesus. Or, we presume they didn’t understand righteousness by faith, which couldn’t be true since the cornerstone of Judaism is Abraham’s righteousness by his faith in the promise God made to him (Gen. 17) that, subsequently, has become all our faith.

Not knowing Christ or the full revelation of salvation does not dismiss their piety or render it disingenuous. These people lived by faith in God’s promise their whole lives, although they never realized it (Heb. 11:13). Yet God mercifully provided them his law by which they could discern his holiness and their own sinfulness until grace should appear in Christ (Gal. 3:15-22).

The law was a precursor to salvation—a mere bicycle for those God was preparing for motocross one day. And although one could never be justified by the law (Gal. 5:4), it was very valuable for instructing the Israelites about God’s moral character (e.g., the Decalogue).

The Promise Remains

Nevertheless, Paul says, “The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise” (Gal. 3:17). Jehovah was strongly central to Hebrew practice and his promise to Abraham was its foundation. The people’s worship and faith were never inhibited but encouraged. This is unavoidable in the Prophets.

Jesus dispels the later Pharisaical notion that God required his Chosen to meticulously subscribe to the 613 statues. How symbolic that is: God sits high in his Heaven and we must climb the rungs to reach him. Yet when we miss one or snap one off, or just tire, we plummet to our deaths. So in breaking one rule, we indeed break them all (James 2:10).

Instead, Christ’s work achieves propitiation and righteousness for all believers, past and present, because it is based on God’s promise, not rules; it is confirmed by faith, not merit. Real devotion…genuine salvation is just that: receiving the promise by faith.

God accepted the worship of Old Testament devotees who served from their hearts in the spirit of the law. Our way of salvation and their way of salvation are the same: by grace through faith.

Rabbi Yeshua Ends U.S. Tour

March 26, 2014March 26, 2014 Michael13 Comments

Boston, MA – Today marked the final public appearance of Rabbi Yeshua on his first U.S. tour. Rabbi Yeshua began his religious crusade in San Diego on June 14^th and for two weeks traveled extensively across the country. His meetings largely included preaching, teaching, and personal ministry.

The popular 30 year-old rabbi from Jerusalem is greatly admired by many but controversial to others. He has claimed to be divine. His ministry has several confirmed reports of physical healings, miracles, and heavenly manifestations.

While in the States, Rabbi Yeshua led a massive preaching campaign about the “kingdom of God.” He claims that he is from Heaven and has come to offer humans forgiveness of their sins and reconciliation to God.

Rabbi Yeshua hosted 16 public meetings that filled the nation’s largest arenas and stadiums. Some of the meetings were broadcast nationally. Two million people crowded the Lake Michigan waterfront in Chicago to hear him last week.

On Friday Rabbi Yeshua was welcomed to the White House by President Bernal.

It was the smaller, unannounced meetings, however, that took many Americans by surprise. Rabbi Yeshua showed up in parks and town squares greeting people and teaching. The Rabbi did announce unplanned events on social media when he was visiting college towns. He has a strong youth following.

Reaction to Rabbi Yeshua in the religious community has been mixed. Many religious leaders believe his message and miracles to be true, but few believe he is the “Son of God.” There are also those who say the Rabbi is a fraud and refuse to believe any of his claims.

Most people say that he is a good person and is very generous to others.

Rabbi Yeshua drew scores of celebrities and politicians to his events. Many have responded positively to him. Most notably, actor Jeffrey Derulis made a public profession of faith in the Rabbi after he says his brother was healed of melanoma by him.

Rabbi Yeshua will address the United Nations General Assembly in September.