Hesed Now

I'm Moving!

2009-07-20T11:19:00.004-05:00

It's official, my blog has now moved over to our church blog. James Tippit (our senior pastor) and I will be blogging more frequently and switching off. You can follow this blog by going to this link: http://harriscreek.wordpress.com/

Ready to Squall

2009-07-16T21:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday at Lake Day we talked about Mark 4:35-41 and the story of when Jesus calmed the storm (squall) on the Sea of Galilee. Mark points out some important details in the story such as Jesus was asleep with his head on a cushion, the disciples were afraid, and the fact that Jesus has power over nature. But, perhaps the most important detail Mark lays out is that Jesus gets upset with the disciples for waking him up. Now I’m not always Mr. Rogers when someone wakes me up, but I think this goes beyond Jesus being frustrated about not getting his beauty sleep. I believe he is upset because calming every storm that comes in this life is not what Jesus’ Gospel is about. In fact, usually it is something of the exact opposite.

I would say there have been times where I felt like Jesus was asleep when life was storming around me, but what I’ve learned on the other side of those storms is that the storm is not what matters most. What is of the utmost importance is if you have Jesus “on board” with you or not. Every life encounters storms and we will all eventually meet a tidal wave called “death” which is inescapable. And when you reach the shores of eternity after that great adventure, the question of did your life count and make a difference will ultimately turn back to those times you encountered the many storms this world can throw at you. So rather than building a bunker and attempting to avoid all storms (which is impossible, even if you do build a bunker), I believe you should make yourself “ready to squall.” I think you should prepare for the storm that is coming either sooner or later. There are five ways to prepare for the storms of life that may come your way, and these pieces of advice are adapted from advice you would get from sailors that frequently encounter literal storms like the disciples and Jesus did in Mark 4. (Note: These 5 points are adapted from Leonard Sweet, one of my favorite authors/speakers and are not my original ideas in any way, shape or form.)

1. Get out of the harbor.

Times of storms are when you get out of the harbor. The most dangerous place for a boat to be during a storm is anchored in the harbor because it will get battered against the shoreline. What this means for you is that you must go deeper with God during stormy times, not shallower. This is counterintuitive, but it is the safest thing to do when trouble comes. A quote that may help you is one that sits on my desk at work everyday from Oswald Chambers. He says, “If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself—begin to have spiritual discernment. Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been.”

2. Steer into the storm.

This, too, is a little counterintuitive, but the fact is you cannot escape some storms no matter how hard you try. Trying to go around it or away from it will only prolong the inevitable, and it will put you in a position of vulnerability. The best way to describe this is paying attention to difference between how cows and buffaloes naturally respond during storms. Cows tend to leave the herd trying to escape the storm. Buffaloes react just the opposite way and put their head down and persevere the storm. In doing this with the other buffaloes, they greatly increase their chances of survival.

3. Get rid of excess cargo.

You probably have seen this on movies and TV shows, but when storms come to boats at sea the sailors almost immediately begin throwing things overboard to lighten the boat’s load. As Americans, we carry so much baggage. I am the world’s worst; every time I travel I pack three times more than I actually need. Stormy times are not a time to worry about “fringe stuff” in your life. It is actually the time to get back to the basics and the most essential and important things in your life (God, family and friends).

4. Lash yourself to the mast.

When storms got really bad in the old times, you would see sailors do something a little odd. They would chain or tie the captain to the mast of the ship. This, of course, is dependent upon your willingness to “go down with the ship.” As I said, there is one time in every person’s life that you encounter a wave bigger than your boat, but if the storm you are in is not that one, then your best chance of survival is lashing yourself to the mast. This means you need to tie yourself to God’s Word (Jesus) and God’s word (Scripture). Absorbing all that the Bible has to say about who God is through the person of Jesus is your best chance of survival no matter how big or small the storm is.

5. Enjoy the ride.

This last piece of advice boils down to one thing: you know storms are coming, so you might as well enjoy the process when you can. It may be a rollercoaster of emotion, but sometimes you pay good money to go on coasters, so cheer up! Find joy in the small things and know that every storm eventually passes. Also, you may never know what ways the storm has benefitted you from your limited perspective. Just as a tornado can be destructive and terrifying, the rain that comes can be nourishing and life-giving. Take joy in the fact that you are not God, thus you do not have the full picture in mind. If you do these five things when storms come, you will see that God’s grace will carry you through anything on this side of eternity, and His kindness will carry you into the other side of eternity.

Love that Surpasses Knowledge

2009-07-09T23:17:00.001-05:00

In Ephesians 3:18-19, Paul prays that believers a Ephesus “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” This idea of being filled with the “fullness of God” also shows up in another letter written by Paul called Colossians, which our church has been studying this summer. He says, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10)

This is quite a dramatic thought if you believe that God is the Creator of the universe. The Being that spoke and it was so can dwell in His entirety within the confines of your temporal body. Before you start shaking your head, this is what happened with the incarnation of Christ and is why Paul can say that we are to live “in Christ.”

When I read such thoughts by Paul, I struggle with the reality of his words when I look at my life and the lives of those around me. My life rarely, if ever, has felt the fullness of God. But why is this the case? Is Scripture or my life wrong? I cannot tell you how often I hear people’s sin get brushed over in two words and one simple phrase: “Nobody’s perfect.” This is a correct truth, but only a half-truth if you are living “in Christ.” We tend to dwell on Scripture’s understanding of original sin and think far too little of the Bible’s words on the weight of our eternal glory as Saints. Perhaps we rush to say this phrase because we feel inadequate when we look at our lives and the life described by Jesus and Paul in Scripture.

One area in which I know a large number of Christians excel in is knowledge about God and the Bible. This is quite a different thing than knowledge of God. Before, during and after my time in seminary, I have been amazed by the incredible minds that I have run into when it comes to knowledge about God in the Bible. In fact, I can clearly recall just last week at Pre-Teen Camp thinking, “These kids know all of the right answers to the questions we are asking them.” That is why I think by and large we have missed the boat when it comes to what it is that God desires of us. Jesus reminds us of one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament, which is Hosea 6:6, that says, “For I desire mercy (hesed – which means steadfast love or loyalty), not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

As Christians, we live in a subculture that is breeding a mass of people that can say the right answers but fail to embody them outside, or even inside for that matter, the church walls. Is this possibly the reason that we rush to say, “Nobody’s perfect” when we encounter each other’s failures? Is it because so few people who show genuine love and move through life without superiority, insensitivity, or gossip? Or is it because we continue to be impressed by people’s ability to quote philosophy and those who can clearly articulate the Bible as opposed to those who humbly walk in the beauty of Christlikeness by possessing humility and love for God and others? What if we stopped settling for less when it comes to spiritual practice just like we do when it comes to mental knowledge? What would your church look like if less people could win a debate over Calvinists or Arminians, but habitually showed love and kindness to annoying people without even thinking of it as a personal sacrifice? What does someone that knows “this love that surpasses knowledge” even look like? I’m not sure I could tell you. But I know Jesus and Paul would say that it is a sad state of affairs when we know more about God than we do of Him. I believe they would also say we have completely missed the point of being in relationship with God, and I think they are heartbroken over how far we are from experiencing the “fullness of God” in our lives.

How He Loves by Brady

2009-06-04T19:58:00.008-05:00

There is a song called “How He Loves” that the David Crowder Band is putting on their new album titled “Church Music,” which will be released this September. I found out that the song was actually written by a guy named John Mark McMillan the day after one of his close friends named Stephen was killed in a car accident. The extraordinary thing about this story is that John Mark’s friend had prayed to God the morning of his wreck and stated that he would give his life if it would spark a movement amongst the youth in our nation. As I mentioned, that night he was killed in a car accident and people were left feeling as though Stephen was a sacrifice of a lesser kind than Christ.

The lyrics to the song are powerful because it uses terms of desperation and brokenness with words of love, grace, and hope. Here is just a sample of some of the lyrics: “Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy, When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me;” “If grace is an ocean we're all sinking, So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way, that he loves us, how He loves us, how He loves us, how He loves.” This last line changes the entire message of the song and seems to imply that it is about the manner in which God chooses to express His love for us rather than being about the amount or depth of love that God has for us. I believe the imagery this song presents of being broken by love and almost drowning in grace is consistent with the message of Christ.

Out of all of the different and beautiful elements of this song, the most impactful thing to me is the title of the song. The title is not “How He Loves Us;” rather it is “How He Loves.” This song is addressing the way that God loves us, not the fact that God loves us. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus addresses the nature of this life many times. In a famous portion known as “The Sermon on the Mount” he uses birds as an example. He says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:25-27)

To be honest, my wife has had a problem with this verse for a long time and never more than today probably. The lot that our house sits on has seven mature trees and 30 plus bird’s nests in them. This spring alone we have buried seven baby birds that have died, the most recent one being today. Today’s case was different because a baby dove had fallen and was still alive, yet the mother couldn’t get it back up into the nest high above. My wife did what she could to save the bird, but ultimately ants ate the bird alive before she could save it. And in this small fragment of the rhythm of life we see the pain that we experience as humans. This pain comes from what Charlie Hall calls “the beauty of the ash of love.” In short, it is the fact that spring means new life and also baby birds dying. It is a soldier dying when his wife is back home giving birth. These moments are why Jesus can say that to truly live, you must die.

I do not believe it is a coincidence that one of the few other times Jesus mentions birds in the Gospel of Matthew is when he is telling a potential follower what it will cost to follow him. He says, ““Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”” (Matthew 8:20-22) These are undeniably some of Jesus’ harshest words, but he is getting at the root of what Christians believe this life is ultimately about.

Did God grant the request of Stephen and allow him to die because of the prayer he prayed that morning? I’m not sure, but I know beauty was birthed out of this tragedy in the form of a song that has potential to transcend this life. I do know that the nature of God is to allow suffering to happen because of His love for us, not in spite of it. Just like the song says, it is simply “how he loves.” Because “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” And this is the hope that we have as Christians. That God is not some distant deity smiting us by causing us pain and heartache; rather, He is love that chose to enter into this world full of pain and hurt with us, live a life worse than the birds of the air experience, and die a painful death in order that we might have life. And the call to us is to follow him in the way of love represented here: to die in order that we might have life. If we die to self for His glory in whatever way we are called, whether it is social, economical, material or literal death, He will produce something transcendent that is far more beautiful than anything we could create on our own. And that is the promise of Jesus in Matthew: “Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:32) This is the true nature of life found in Christ; this is the how He loves us.

Information vs. Wisdom by Brady

2009-05-19T14:35:00.001-05:00

I recently finished another book by Malcolm Gladwell called “Blink.” He analyzes in his normal, off the wall kind of way, the art of a gut decision. There are several intriguing stories that back up his theories and make for an entertaining read, but his conclusion at the end is what has me thinking right now. He says, “We live in a world saturated with information. We have virtually unlimited amounts of data at our fingertips at all times, and we’re well versed in the arguments about the dangers of not knowing enough and not doing our homework. But what I have sensed is an enormous frustration with the unexpected costs of knowing too much, of being inundated with information. We have come to confuse information with understanding.”

I frequently say it a slightly different way: “Information does not lead to transformation.” The Bible has a ton to say along this same line, especially in the Psalms and Proverbs. “Lady Wisdom” is an ancient Hebrew concept that is described as a person calling out to people in the noisy street looking for someone to listen to her (Proverbs 1:20-21). This reminds me of today’s “Information Age” and the crowded blogosphere world we live in (and to which I am adding to at this moment…irony). If you are on Facebook or Twitter, you know exactly what I am talking about. There are so many gurus and “pearls” out there telling you the key to life, yet it seems like it boils down to two things in Scripture: fear and discipline.

Gladwell says that learning to trust your gut instinct is a no-brainer, but you must learn to train it first. He talks about the obsessive discipline it takes to gain enough understanding to trust your gut. This means that you’ve got to be disciplined when it comes to your intake of information. All information is not equal or equally valuable. All advice is not equally beneficial. The only way to move from knowledge to understanding is to be disciplined in filtering out the bad information and looking for the few important pieces of data that are required to make sound decisions. In our quick-fix society, no one wants to take the necessary time to be disciplined, and certainly no one wants to receive discipline from God. But Proverbs 3:11-12 says, “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes the son he delights in.” Tough words for an undisciplined society to swallow.

The other key to this is, as I said, is fear. This is the ability to take in the brutal facts and important data and learn to use it as motivation. A book by Peter Senge talks about our inability to deal with the truth when it comes to our own life, and our propensity to lower expectations when we are confronted with the brutal facts of our lives. He says, “If the first choice in pursuing personal mastery is to be true to your own vision, the second fundamental choice in support of personal mastery is commitment to the truth.” This means that we must learn to be ok with failure and be willing to confront the facts. It also means that we cannot fear the information we receive, rather we learn to fear (have a healthy respect) for God over all other things.

Malcolm Gladwell closes his book by saying, “The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.” I think all of us hope that our leaders in government and other important positions in our life have wisdom and understanding, but I fear that the majority of us are simply knowledgeable. Rare is the person that seeks out wisdom because it takes humility, discipline and fear. My prayer for myself and others around me is that God will raise up a new generation that is wise and full of understanding about the times that we live in. My hope is that this generation will be able to confront the major problems in our world today with full wisdom and understanding. And I believe that the more information we receive and the necessity for truly wise people rises, that masses will begin to understand where wisdom and understanding come from. It is as Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

To Have Had and Lost by Brady

2009-05-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

With the season finale of Lost being tonight, I think they are going to address a fundamental question of life that many people seem to be asking today. That question is, “Is it better to have something and lose it or not have it at all?” Kate has already asked this in the previous episode when she asked Jack if he was willing to change the future plane crash and not meet her or anyone else from Oceanic flight 815 at all.

What is interesting is that Coldplay and Jay-Z ask the same question in Coldplay’s EP called “Prospekt March.” Jay-Z says the line, “And the question is, is to have had and lost, Better than not having at all?” I would say this is more than a philosophical question that has no answer; rather, I see it as a spiritual matter that determines the way you see the world.

I believe that Christianity offers a way to view the world which allows for suffering because of one intrinsic human quality: love. The world of “religion” is turned upside with one verse from the Bible: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16) John goes on to say in verses 20-21, “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” If you are a follower of Christ or believer in God, this is not really a question for you at all. The answer every single time must be, “Yes, it is better to have had and lost.”

C.S. Lewis addresses this same question after suffering the sorrow of losing his wife, Joy. “Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

I know several people going through searing pain of loss right now. I have family members that have experienced deep loss of husbands, fathers, and children. I personally have experienced that pain as well. But to be Christian is to be willing to love even though you will experience the pain of losing that which you love. Christians (as my pastor James points out, Christians means “little Christs”) are reflections of God in that Jesus is the embodiment of this principle. He had infinity and took on finitude. God could have forced us to follow him, but He chose relationship and freewill instead. We, in turn, are forced to make a similar choice each day: Do we continue to love those people and things that will ultimately hurt us, or do we lock ourselves up in an airtight casket that is impenetrable hoping to avoid the pain of this life? I don’t know what the characters of Lost or Jay-Z will choose, but I would say “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

Christmas and Good Friday by Brady

2009-03-16T16:27:00.002-05:00

We've all seen the iPod commercial that puts Peanut Butter and Jelly, Cookies and Milk, and Hammers and Nails together. But the marketing geniuses at Apple left one out: Christmas and Good Friday. Christmas and Good Friday? What do those two things have in common? For me, it is next to impossible to separate Christmas and Good Friday. At first glance to the casual observer, these holidays have nothing in common. One has a bunny and another a fat man with a beard. One is in the dead of winter and the other on the cusp of Spring. Even in Christianity, one celebrates the birth of Jesus and the other his gruesome death. I guess it could almost seem a little sadistic to tie a celebration of the birth of a baby and the death of that same baby together, but I believe this is what the gospels do for us.

From very early on, the birth and life of Jesus is pointing to one end: the cross. Even when he is being dedicated in the temple by a man named Simeon, this is the prophecy spoken over the baby boy: ““Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”” (Luke 2:28-35 NIV)

I am not a parent, but the word “gulp” comes to mind if this prophecy is spoken over my firstborn. The proclamation begins with a promising and rewarding tone, and Jesus’ parents are overjoyed by this message. But then Simeon makes a U-turn and begins to speak of the conflict that this child will cause. He will cause many in Israel to rise and fall. Not only that, “but a sword will pierce your own soul, too.” The immediate connection is drawn between Christmas and Good Friday, birth and death. I have been told that there is no love like the one a parent has for their child, and it must be paralyzing to hear that your child will pierce your own soul at some point.

One of my favorite songs right now is “O Church, Arise” by Keith Getty. (Disclaimer: It’s not a “cool” song, but the lyrics are deep and true.) Part of the second verse says, “And with the sword, that makes the wounded whole, we will fight with faith and valor.” This statement is a little oxymoronic and is much like tying Christmas and Good Friday together. A sword, by definition, cannot heal wounds, it can only inflict them. But that is the truth that is presented in Luke 2, and it is predicated on the fact that “many hearts will be revealed.” From being in ministry for almost 4 years, I have seen a lot of hearts and all of them have been wounded. Some have been healed from those wounds and others are still gaping wide open, but all are wounded indeed.

In fact, one of the biggest obstacles to overcome in a loving relationship is exposing your true self to someone else. That is why so many people become “cat ladies” or “dog lovers.” It is far easier to give your affection to a fury creature that does not know the depths of your wounds when your true heart is revealed. And because the Bible states that “God is love,” there is no choice but to enter into that wound in order to heal it. The problem becomes that most people would call God vicious or unloving for doing such a thing. A person that would pierce the soul of his own mother has to be vicious! But I have yet to hear someone call a doctor unloving for inflicting wounds in order to heal. No one ever complains about the scars of surgery when that very surgery has given them new life. And that is what God does to us: He is willing to use a sword, to inflict pain and wound us in order to heal us. That is because He knows our condition, our hearts have been revealed, and they need to be pierced.

And that is the connection between Christmas and Good Friday. It is something as oxymoronic as a virgin mother or being born again. But that seems to be the business that God is in. Using great pain to bring much joy. Using our weakness as strength. Sending a king to serve. Causing the first to be last and the last to be first. Such is the kingdom of God. So may you during this Lenten season reveal your true heart to God and allow it to be pierced by the sword “that makes the wounded whole.”

Rhythm, Depth, and the Connectedness of Life

2009-03-03T14:31:00.000-06:00

Over the last two and a half weeks I have been battling a sickness that has been kicking my tail. It started with nausea, led to a 9 point cold on a 10-point scale, and now is in the “cough up your lungs” stage. What I am experiencing is not uncommon for this time of year. In fact, a number of people in our church have a similar illness that they’ve been battling for weeks as well. But what is interesting to me is that I have been sick at least 6 out of the last 8 years around this exact time period. How do I know this? Well it’s not because I track my colds and viruses on an Excel spreadsheet.

Today (March 3) is a day that will always be seared into my family’s memory. In my opinion there are three types of days. There are normal days that you need to look on a calendar or internet site to figure out what happened on “this day in history.” These dates are the majority of our days. Then there are dates that we are supposed to remember and commit to memory. These are birthdays, anniversaries and important dates in history. These days are important in your life, but the very fact that you have to work to commit them to memory puts them in this category. The last category is filled with days that you could never forget even if you tried. I am sure that September 11 is one of these days for a large majority of Americans. And, as I said earlier, March 3 is one that my family always remembers without effort. Eight years ago today my youngest sister was killed in a car accident as a 16 year old. The events that transpired still ring fresh in my memory even with the passing of nearly a decade.

And that takes me back to my sickness. My personality is one that usually buries emotion and hides weakness. But this terrible habit of mine usually catches up with about this time every year. Now I may get sick around this time of year because my immune system is lower in the winter and more susceptible to illness. But somehow or another my body has become worn out and fatigued at this exact day almost every year for the last 8 years. I also usually become a little more irritable and moody. All of this happens even without me consciously anticipating the anniversary of her wreck. I’ve got to admit, last Tuesday I did not sit around and think, “only one more week until March 3.” In fact, two days ago I couldn’t have told you it was coming up. It is not something I have to cognitively dwell on to have it affect me. My body responds and reacts because it is engrained in my rhythm. I also believe that it reacts because we are so intimately connected with the created world around us. When we experience the death of something we love, a piece of our lives will also forever be gone with that person or thing.

And that reminds me of what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”

Paul begins by talking about the nature of life and how fragile we are as humans. He describes life as one where we are troubled, deeply saddened or in despair, and even stricken with illness. He goes on to say, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” And this speaks to how intimately connected we are with one another. This is the glory of the Gospel, which is truly Good News: that we must die in order to have life. It is also the true meaning of being a Christian. Not that we just “believe in” Jesus’ death and resurrection, but that we actually “identify with” Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is why Paul can say in Galatians 5:24, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh.” And that is why he can go on to say in Romans 6:3-5, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”

To me that is what Lent is about. Going through a 40 day “wilderness experience” and letting parts of your life die so they can regenerate into something new and holy. And that is why I will embrace the sickness in my body that I carry around in part because of my mourning. To know Jesus in his death is to know him in his resurrection. I am aware that Jesus has risen and remains alive during Lent, but this is a period for Christians to experience a connectedness with God in his suffering. This is my only hope during times of deep grief over my sister or other friends and family that have passed away: that God took it upon Himself to be subjected to suffering and death so that we might have life. And there is a time to celebrate this life as Christians, and that is Easter. There is also a time to celebrate my sister’s life, and that is March 4 and June 28 (her birthday). But today, just as in the Lenten season, we mourn and experience the depths of the pain of death so that we can experience the heights and joy of eternal life. Because we know that “if we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”

Lost by Brady

2008-11-18T09:59:00.001-06:00

I am enjoying this season of The Office, but I must admit that I am looking forward to the 3-hour season premier of Lost this spring. A couple of my friends and I were talking about the show and rehashing the storyline, and it made me start thinking about the appeal of the show. Even though a couple of seasons have been far inferior to the first one, my friends and I all agreed that we couldn’t give up on watching the show now because we have invested too much into it. In fact, I would go as far as to say that there is a cultish following of the show, and I am completely caught up in it. Last year I registered on some weird Dharma website that kept sending me junk e-mails, and they started freaking me out a little bit so I requested to be removed from the list. But in this cultural phenomenon known as Lost, what is it that is causing so many people to get sucked into this quasi-Sci-Fi plot?

I think that it is the fact that Lost is the definition of a postmodern show. There are deeply “spiritual” or “supernatural” things that go on with the characters on the island, but none of it is exactly orthodox when it comes to faith. There is also the element that the audience is not aware of the full story going on, and we are only getting pieces of it episode by episode. This is a distinguishing characteristic of postmodernity, in that the majority of postmoderns do not feel connected to a story that is larger than their own lives (it is called a loss of metanarrative). But the thing that I think that is most telling why people are so intrigued by the show is the battle between good and evil is distinctly postmodern.

The show has a cast of characters that are dynamic and “round” individuals. I overheard some people a couple of months ago talking about the show, and one guys said, “I hate Jack. He’s so self-righteous.” Only in a culture as jaded as ours would a show’s primary “hero” be as unimpressive as Jack Shepherd. Sure he’s a spinal surgeon, he’s good looking (so I hear), and he’s decisive, but he’s also an alcoholic, narcissistic, noncommittal, and schizophrenic at times. The person we should all be cheering for is not innately good or evil. He is a conglomerate of both the best and worst of humanity.

But this doesn’t stop with Jack. Benjamin Linus, the show’s main antagonist (by the way, Michael Emerson is doing one of the best acting jobs on TV in this role), has qualities that evoke empathy from the audience at times. I find it hard to hate him like I do other villains in movies and TV shows. His childhood makes you feel sorry for his upbringing, and I am still not 100% sure he’s the true “bad guy” in the show. After 4 seasons, the audience still does not know what or who the evil force is, but that does not mean the show has lacked in drama or nerve-racking moments.

All of this is characteristic of what is going on in Christianity today. One of my favorite emergent church authors to pick on is Brian McLaren because I think he is nearsighted in his doctrine, and he is too bold when it comes to pushing postmodernity into Christianity. The root of my major complaints with him is that he rarely filters out society in an attempt to redeem it; rather, he usually slurps up our current cultural climate and tries to make Christianity fit into that box. In his book called The Story We Find Ourselves In, the character that represents the postmodern culture named Neo (pointing towards his neoorthodox theology) discusses the issue of evil and the person of Satan. He says, “You know, if you go back into the most ancient parts of the Old Testament, there is no concept of Satan. That idea comes along much later. It seems to have been borrowed from the Zoroastrians, actually. Maybe it’s no sin to think of Satan as a metaphor—a horribly real metaphor for a terribly real force in the universe, mind you.” (Pg. 145) Does this metaphorical force sound a little similar to the forces at work on Lost? And my other question is, if Satan is merely a metaphorical evil force, then what makes God anything more than a symbolic good force?

What is it about the world today that makes us doubt that anyone or anything can be purely evil or purely good? It concerns me when people justify Adolf Hitler because of his upbringing or mental conditions, but not because I think Hitler is the embodiment of all things evil, but that I think that this is a roundabout way of denying pure evil and unsullied good. I personally believe there is an embodiment of evil and he has a name: Satan. This word makes most people in society cringe, and I think that it is only a matter of a few years that people will cringe when God is mentioned. We are all much more comfortable with donating a couple of bucks towards AIDS relief rather than dealing with the cause of the disease in the first place. We all want children to have clean water, but we do not want to square with the reason that poverty exists in this fallen world. In spite of this growing trend in culture, we cannot escape the fact that we are drawn to the drama that unfolds between good and evil as humans. This is because we all know in the depths of our being that there is an originator of all things good and beautiful; there is also a being that started all things evil and rebellious. Until you come to grips with this reality, chances are you will feel a little lost.

Politically Correct Me by Brady

2008-10-30T22:47:00.003-05:00

This campaign season has been a little too much for me to handle. Both presidential candidates have spent more time and money on this campaign than any other before. They also have had their every move covered by the media. But in the midst of constantly waiting for one of them to slip up, it has become apparent how politically correct our culture has become. We all made fun of China during the Olympics for not allowing the press to report certain issues, but we have instituted our own form of censorship. For example, Larry King asked John McCain if he feels like he has gotten a fair shake from the press, and he answered yes. You could see on his face that he was only saying that so a firestorm was not started 6 days before the election. Barack Obama also was forced last night to tout Bill and Hilary Clinton last night in front of a crowd in Florida even though he blasted her in the primaries. This, however, is not just a political issue, but it has also become a religious one as well.

One of my students a couple of years ago told me a story about when he went to a mall in Dallas around Christmas time and was on a crowded elevator with a mixture of holiday shoppers. There was the inevitable awkwardness of being in close quarters for 30 seconds with complete strangers and standing in complete silence. There is not enough time to start a conversation, but there is just enough time to make you start sweating due to the discomfort in the cabin. In the elevator was a group of thuggish looking guys, and one of them spoke up. He broke the silence by saying, “How’s everyone doing?” Everybody remained silent and stared at the floor feeling the tension of the situation. Not to be denied, the ringleader presses on. What he asks next throws everyone for a loop. He asks, “Y’all go to church?” Again, no response from the crowd, but he and his friends don’t really care that they are breaking all sorts of social rules of political correctness.

This guy and his friends were breaking all sorts of social etiquette rules that are unspoken in today’s world. Rule #1: Do not step into an elevator if you are going to cause people to give up personal space. Rule #2: If you do break rule number one, do not talk on the elevator. Just stand silently until you reach the desired floor. Rule #3: Do not under any circumstance discuss matters of faith in public, especially to complete strangers.

I have not even mentioned the fact that most people had already pre-judged this group of “gangsters” before they opened their mouths. But, the ringleader pressed through the thick air and said something incredible just as the group reached their destination. He said, “I just want y’all to know that God loves you, and you should think about going to church sometime. Merry Christmas.”

This situation, which really happened at a local mall, challenges me personally in so many ways. There are rules which we all follow which can be best described as being “politically correct.” Caucasian, not white; Portly, not fat; Vertically challenged, not short; Mentally challenged, not retarded. I could go on even further, but even my typing of certain examples would raise red flags for some of you. The point is that our society is drowning in a sea of political correctness and we are producing more posers than ever before. People are pulled off of TV for racial or sexual comments all of the time (which they rightly should be), but rappers sing about some of the worst stuff imaginable and no one does a thing to stop them.

The truth is that most Christians are being muzzled by the fear of political correctness. I am not a big proponent of the bullhorn preacher (for all of you Rob Bell disciples out there), but I am also not going to say that he or she does not have an important role to play. To be honest, I hide far too often behind the statement: “It’s not my style.” But in a culture where Sesame Street has hurt people’s feelings, it might be time for a dose of reality. The problem is not people using certain politically incorrect words in public, but it is the mentality behind it. In an age where Christians are usually portrayed as dummies unless they are talking about global warming, it might be time to forget worrying about being politically correct in the sense of American politics.

As one of my professors always says, being a Christian is making a political statement between heaven and earth where you stand. I believe that we are to be more concerned with being Kingdom Citizens than American Citizens. The politics that really matter are not between red or blue, but light and darkness. The more you read Jesus and Paul, the less they seem to fit our mold of political correctness. I think the whole point is that you may start becoming less concerned with being politically correct and more concern with being spiritually correct. Watch less of Fox News or CNN and actually learn the names of the 12 disciples. I am not suggesting that anyone should make racial or sexual degrading comments (if that’s what you heard, you do not read very well), but I am saying that you may think about calling someone out who is living in sin or sharing with a non-believer why you follow Christ.

Just as the guys broke every mold we have created, I pray that we begin to live in such a way where the love of God confronts people enough to shock them out of their comfort zones which are protected by a fence of political correctness. I pray that I say or do something in the next week that someone feels the need to politically correct me.

Are You Emergent? by Brady

2008-10-23T13:16:00.002-05:00

“You might be an emergent Christian: if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings, and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N.T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D.A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu; if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity; if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage; if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about they myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty; if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life; if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant; if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found; if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count); if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naïve, and rigid; if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic; if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us; if you disdain monological, didactic preaching; if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian.”
-from Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

Love God and Love Others and... by Brady

2008-09-30T12:36:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I was involved in a conversation about what it means to be a disciple. First we said that a disciple is someone who knows and believes certain things. Quickly we saw that this in itself could not be the sum of what it means to be a disciple. If you simply believe correct doctrine about Jesus without any action, you can hardly called be a disciple of Christ. So we added that a disciple is someone who also does certain things in addition to knowing correct things about Christ. But what we came to in the end is a “yeah, but” answer.

In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus is answering a series of “test” questions from religious leaders in Jerusalem. They are trying to put him on the spot and get him in trouble. He is approached by a scribe and is asked the most important question anyone could ask God. This is how the story unfolds: “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”

What is odd to me is that Jesus reduces a life of faith down to only two things: Love God and Love Others. He is basically the first person to combine the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18 that says to love others. But even when this religious leader agrees with Jesus and affirms his answer, Jesus still tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This was the “yeah, but” that we threw in yesterday in what it means to be a disciple. Yes you need to know certain things about God and love him, and yes you need to love others and do things for them. But, you cannot say that is all there is to this life of faith. It is much deeper than that. If there is not a dynamic relationship, then you are just going through the motions and are not actually a disciple at all.

The best way I can describe this is from an illustration my senior pastor used yesterday. I am married to Becca and we have been married for just over a year now. But what is it that makes me married to her? Is it that I believe that we are married? No, because Becca’s mom and dad love her, yet are not married to her. So, is it that I perform certain functions that would result in us being married? Just because we share an apartment, bank account, and bed does not mean that we are now qualified to be married. There is something more that makes us married, and I would argue that this other ingredient is hesed. It is a steadfast covenant, a commitment to never leave or forsake one another. It is the promise to be there through thick and thin. And it is that we love each other and share a bank account. So to be a true disciple, you must believe certain things and do certain things. But this will only get you close to the kingdom of God. What will get you in the kingdom is a steadfast love and dynamic, covenant relationship with the Creator and his created beings.

Vertically Challenged by Brady

2008-08-26T23:24:00.001-05:00

Oswald Chambers once wrote, “If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble.” In this election season, I keep hearing which party is more devoted to the causes that benefit humanity. Whether it is healthcare, energy, climate control, abortion, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, each party is asserting that they care more about humans than the other party does.

An instrumental part to the word hesed is that the vertical relationship we can have with God ultimately affects our horizontal relationship with others. But what I see many people in my generation doing is glossing over the vertical components of this word. In an attempt to “fix” the Christianity our parents have passed on to us, we have forgotten that you cannot love horizontally adequately without the vertical changing our lives. So we march forward building social institutions that are going to change the world and create heaven on earth, only to invoke the name of God when it can advance our cause. This is the reason I believe you see organizations such as Invisible Children blowing up in popularity and church attendance shrinking at alarming rates. Is it possible that our attempts to correct our horizontal image, we have become vertically challenged?

I think it is humorous that my generation believes it will eradicate hunger, disease, and war, yet it obsessed and paralyzed by consumption, acquisition, and greed. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach would say this is due to our lack of development on the vertical side of life. He says, “Incurable insecurity, Prozac, and Paxil are the rewards for a generation that has learned to define its very being through material and professional success—productivity—rather than through being G-d’s children, whose value is immutable and immeasurable. No wonder then that we thirst endlessly for more money, bigger homes, faster cars—anything to obviate the inner feeling of worthlessness that haunts us at every turn. Since we have failed to develop vertically by acquiring more depth and sublimity, we compensate by increasing horizontally, through acquisition and consumption.”

Not only do we struggle with vanity in the material sense, but also by believing that we can change the world. We can cure all diseases. We can solve all political conflict. We can reverse climate change. Yes we can! To me, there is nothing more vain or self-absorbed than the idea that an institution or human willpower can solve the world’s problems. No wonder there is no room for the doctrine of sin, depravity, and a need for forgiveness in popular Christianity today. If you look around, the majority of the popular and well known preachers are famous for either preaching self-help formulas peppered with verses from Psalms and Proverbs or social remedies camped in selective stories from the Gospels.

My pastor told a story a few weeks ago that I thought drove home this point really well. It was about a pastor of a small congregation who had a wealthy rancher who would attend his church every once and a while. One day, the pastor went out to this man’s ranch to visit him and got a tour of his land. They drove all over the property and the rancher bragged endlessly about his commodities. As they reached the top of a hill on the land and parked the vehicle, and the pastor confessed that he has been worried about how the rancher is doing. The pastor and rancher both stepped, and the rancher said, “Pastor, look around you in all four cardinal directions.” The pastor went along with him and followed his instructions. He went on, “No matter where you look, I own land as far as you can see. I would say I am doing pretty well.” The pastor thought for a moment and said, “I am not worried about how you are doing in this direction,” as he pointed around horizontally. He continued, “I am worried about how you are doing in this direction,” raising his hand and pointing towards heaven.

When you are growing and maturing physically, it is important to grow both horizontally and vertically. If you only grow vertically, you will be rail thin and not capable of normal physical activities. If you only grow horizontally, you will become overweight and not able to function properly either. And if you don’t grow at all, you will eventually die. My hope is that my generation does not becoming vertically challenged while attempting to save the world.

Purpose Driven Gospel by Clint

2008-08-21T17:03:00.000-05:00

I recognize that I am probably one of the last confessing Christians on earth who has not read The Purpose Driven Life or The Purpose Driven Church. Especially considering I am a pastor, that is especially terrible. Apparently, Rick Warren has sold over 83 billion copies of each. I’m just joking- I made that number up, but he has sold a lot of copies of both books. I began thumbing through The Purpose Driven Church a week ago. The church I am pastoring is looking at starting small group ministries. In addition to that, we are a relatively new church, and we are looking to define our mission and purpose. The main point that Warren keeps hitting on in defining a church’s purpose is that it needs to be short (a sentence or two), it needs to capture the heart of your ideals, and it needs to be just vague enough that there is room to imagine and innovate. Using these guidelines, a church can define a statement that is motivating and easy to remember.

In studying the Gospel, I see that Jesus is the originator of this tactic of which Warren teaches. When posed with difficult questions, such as “how can I inherit eternal life,” or, “which is the greatest commandment,” Jesus often gives memorable and relatively simple answers. For instance, a brilliant scholar in the law who was also a Pharisee asked Jesus the question, “which is the greatest commandment.” The man who asks was one that debated all aspects of the Old Testament all day long. He knew rules upon rules upon rules. He certainly expected a long monologue from Jesus that was complicated and wordy. However, Jesus responded simply with, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Everyone must have left that encounter with those words ringing in their ears. After all, they only had two commandments to remember. After that, everything would just fall into place. One of the beautiful things about Jesus is that he came to fulfill the law and prophecies of an infinite God, but he made it simple. If we do these two things, we are fulfilling the greatest of God’s command.

We forget this, though, and we make things very complicated. We set off on personal conquests and vendettas. We get sidetracked by new philosophies and trendy teachings. We get enamored with cultural arguments. Of course, there is right and wrong, and we are not to live as the world lives, but what happens when you really focus on those two commands? I think the Spirit leads you in finding purity, seeking righteousness, finding wisdom, and striving after the ultimate prize- following Jesus to eternal life.

Hesed Now T-shirts

2008-07-20T23:45:00.002-05:00

We are excited to now have official Hesed Now t-shirts available to you with our new logo on it. The logo has arrows that span the globe pointing both vertically and horizontally (i.e. "Becoming Vertically Horizontal"). The best news is that these shirts are only FIVE American dollars (even with a slumping economy). If they need to be shipped, then we will ship it at cost, and not a penny more. We only have adult sizes available at the moment (S, M, L, XL). There are five color combinations to choose from and you can check them out on our t-shirt page. So think of it this way: you can buy five different shirts for the amount you get other t-shirts in stores. Please support Hesed Now by purchasing a few for family and friends. We are trying to use these as a way to promote our site as well as to promote hesed. You can order a shirt by emailing info@hesednow.com or by writing to our address at Hesed Now Ministries, PO Box 23164, Waco, TX 76702. Thanks in advance for the support!

Unsung Heroes by Brady

2008-07-17T23:03:00.001-05:00

Have you noticed that all of the recent superhero movies lately are different from the ones 20 and 30 years ago? New movies like Hancock and Hellboy 2 have the protagonist being slightly less than our memories of Christopher Reeve as Superman. Even the new Spiderman and Batman movies seem to be darker and have the main character always doing deep soul searching, wondering if they should continue fighting evil. I think this phenomenon is happening in more places than our local theater though; I believe it is because we continually ruin the reputation of any who might be able to achieve this status. There is also a blurring line on who the actual hero is and who the villain is. The students we work with are in desperate need of a few heroes, and I truly believe the ones that have the power to play this role are the people they live with. In this day and age, if you are involved in your kid’s life, working hard to provide for their needs and teaching them the truths about God, then you are doing something truly heroic by not settling for mediocrity. There is a real enemy and an actual struggle, and it is one that needs a heroic effort from you. Rest assured that your work is being watched, and your consistency in the daily grind makes all the difference in the world.

False Prophets by Clint

2008-07-08T11:38:00.002-05:00

Lately I’ve been fascinated with false prophets. I am aware of the fact that’s a strange way to start a blog, but it’s something that has been troubling me lately. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus states, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matt. 7:21-23) This text is a startling text. It is one of those scary texts in scripture in which you read it and say, “uh-oh.” How can I know God, or how can God know me, when He doesn’t even know those who are prophesying, exorcising, and using His name? Like most, I have never cast out a demon, and I haven’t ever really tried my hand at prophesying, either.

Lately, I’ve come across some videos on the internet of certain preachers and evangelists doing some pretty crazy things. One video had a man baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and ‘Bam!’ I don’t know what ‘Bam’ is, and the video was very strange and unbiblical. The sad part is, many treat such leaders as true prophets and true voices of God strictly because of their charisma and showiness. Such leaders are certainly invoking the name of God in everything they do, but is God truly present in their activities? Psychologists would tell you that the sense of belonging and the power of suggestion can drive people to do all sorts of things. Furthermore, emotional experiences can captivate people and convince people of all sorts of things. False leaders prey on such manipulation. Certainly faith is emotional, and beautiful worship comes from a passionate heart, but faith is rooted in obedience and truth. Paul writes, “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.” (2 Cor. 9:13, emphasis mine) When Christ teaches the disciples how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, the emphasis of the prayer is God’s will. Jesus was faithful to pray in God’s will, even in facing death. In the Lord’s Prayer, we see that God’s will is for us to need Him. We need His forgiveness, and His daily bread. Being obedient to God is following His law through Jesus Christ AND being dependent on Him. God is not to be portrayed as a name or being that we use so we can do things for our glory.

Have you ever known a “name-dropper?” You know, the guy or girl that insists he or she is really close with someone popular or well known. They always drop the name and say, “Yeah, we’re really close.” Or, “Yeah, we used to hang out almost every day.” I get the image of high school freshman claiming they hang out with the star senior quarterback in the summer. The thing is, the quarterback might not even know the freshman’s name. So when Jesus says, “I never knew you,” what does that mean? It means that a person can do all sorts of things in His name, and a person can claim to have His blessing and His power, but it doesn’t mean He knows that person. In examining the gospels, you get a clear picture of the people that Jesus knows. He knows people who clearly need Him. He knows people that are honest about their brokenness. He knows those who are humble before Him and do not seek Him for earthly power and prestige. He knows the hurting, the sick, the weary, the broken, the honest, the thief on the cross next to him. And yes, Jesus does know those who prophesy and do great things in His name, but He knows them as they come before Him in need of grace. And those who do things in His name with their own gain in mind while manipulating the faith and hope of others, they are just name dropping for popularity.

Wake Up! by Brady

2008-07-01T19:21:00.002-05:00

“Sleeping is giving in, no matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, so lift those heavy eyelids.” These are the lyrics to a song by a band named Arcade Fire. What in the world is this band trying to say? Let’s suppose that you are one of the lucky ones that gets to live the average 27,058 days (or 74.1 years) on earth, that you will spend 8117 of those days (or around 22.2 years) sleeping. To be honest, I am one of the world’s worst when it comes to sleeping in. I love sleeping so much that I would probably choose to sleep 12 hours a day if I could. But recently I’ve started to realize that this affinity for sleep may be an escape route built into my life that I need battle. I’m beginning to think that, no matter how much I need and love it, sleep actually might be a tool of the enemy.

Paul Valery, a French poet/philosopher, once said, “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.” But maybe the problem with most people today is that we have lost our ability to dream while we are awake. I’m not sure if it is because we do not believe that we can make a difference anymore or if it is because we are all gradually losing our belief in a transcendent God, but we all are guilty of attempting to numb ourselves to the world’s pain around us. All I need to point to is America’s obsession with one of its favorite pastimes: golf. Ronald Sider points out that it would take $27 billion spent over eight years to prevent 30 million people from becoming infected with HIV/AIDS. This figure is far less than what we spend per year on golf alone. I have seen far too many people become absolutely obsessed with hitting a straight shot on lush grass because they can forget all of their problems while they’re out on the course. While I play golf every once and a while, how many people do you know that play recreationally and don’t let it dominate the majority of their thoughts and time?

Another way I believe that we are “sleeping in” is by the amount of time spent watching TV. The average American spends 4 hours a day (108,232 hours or 12.4 years of your life) wasting time watching TV. Again, while I do not believe TV is the “demon box,” how sickening is it to lose 12 years of your life to inactivity in front of a lifeless screen! We will spend time at work or school thinking about who the bachelor is going to give a rose to (and then not even date after the show is over), but we won’t let the thought that over half of the world lives on less than $2 a day enter our minds. How can this be?

There is an age old question that asks, “What do you give the person who has everything?” In a society where our poor are actually rich comparatively, the answer is “any mindless entertainment which will numb me to the surrounding world.” In “The Broken American Male,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach says, “The absence of intimate relationship and an inspiring institutional structure explains why deadening ourselves to life has become the all-American pastime, embraced by all strata of society. We’re just not very happy with ourselves or with our lives, so we choose various forms of escape, the drugs of choice being TV, movies, alcohol, marijuana, the Internet, pornography, impulse purchases, and celebrity gossip.” (pg. 61)

As a society, I believe we are all collectively at a crossroad. We are a point which Zechariah reached when he said, “Then the angel who had been talking with me returned and woke me, as though I had been asleep.” (Zechariah 4:1) As a nation, we are the person on the reality TV show about to eat our own feces so someone else can benefit from our stupidity for 5 minutes of entertainment. Someone needs to snap us out of our idiotic ways and we need to wake up so we can see what is happening in the world around us.

The Bible provides us a different worldview, a greater reality to live in, and calls us to live life to its fullest. In Ephesians 5:14, Paul says, “for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”” He is saying that if you take the risk to get out of your spiritual bed, Christ will help you live out this deeper reality. Or maybe Jesus and the Bible are too archaic for you; in that case, Arcade Fire says it this way: “People try and hide the light underneath the covers.” So awake, O sleeper; this is your wake up call. It’s time to get out of bed so that you can start dreaming.

Emerging or Diverging? by Brady

2008-06-12T15:14:00.001-05:00

I’ve got to admit that the new Mac commercials are a brilliant piece of marketing. Apple ® is doing such a good job at this that their computer sales are actually up 54% from this time last year. The commercials feature a young, scruffy, quasi-Emo guy and a nerdy, overweight, middle aged man. Of course the young guy represents the Mac and the old guy represents the PC. One of my favorites is the newest one with the support group that contains four other nerds and the one that begins to repeat, “I’m pleased to report that I’ve been error free for nearly a week.” What Apple® has done is market to a younger, hipper audience of trendsetters and it has translated into success across the board.

If you are involved in church life at all right now, I think another commercial could be made with the same characters but having them representing “Traditional Christianity” and the “Emerging Church.” Right now, the Emerging Church is led by people such as Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones and Erwin McManus who have a “Hipper-Than-Thou” attitude and are in touch with the cultural climate. What the Emerging churches are doing, at least the one I have had extensive involvement with, is defining their churches by what they are not instead of what they are. Most leaders and members of these churches would say that they have been scarred by “Traditional Christianity.” Christian bookstores, church structures, and even the “fruits of the Spirit” are made fun of as disgusting to these new trendsetting churches.

The problem I am growing to see with the theology being put out by this movement and taught in these churches is that they are overcorrecting problems and diverging from orthodox Christianity in many cases. C.S. Lewis was quoted once saying that Christians are like drunks, who get up from one ditch only to fall into another ditch on the other side of the road. I believe this is happening once again as the pendulum begins to swing back the other way in Christian practice and thought.

For instance, Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis that he believes, “I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it's true, it belongs to God.” This sounds cool and was actually appealing to me personally for a while until I examined this train of thought rationally. Roger Olson explains better than I could why this is incorrect and actually damaging. He says in The Mosaic of Christian Belief, “If “Christianity” is compatible with any and every truth claim, it is meaningless. It would then be indistinguishable from, say, Buddhism or atheism. Truly it would be chaotic, shapeless and devoid of identity.” So, while saving enough money to build a house in order to not incur debt is a good principle and a Muslim practice, it does not need to have Christianity’s stamp on it for you to practice it.

What tends to happen with guys like Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt and Brian McLaren is that they use the argument that “blank” word never appears in the Bible. I have either read or heard both of these men say that the words “personal relationship,” “spirituality,” “second coming,” “Trinity” and “eternity” as a timeless state are not in the Bible. (Side note: neither does the word “recycling.” While I am going “green” more and more daily by downsizing to a car that gets 34 mpg and recycling, I can do this in the name of being a responsible citizen and human rather than because God commanded it in Genesis. It’s just funny that they will throw out the second coming or eternal life, but say that the Bible tells you to recycle. See my blog called “Changing of the Guard” for more on this topic. Side note is now over.) In fact, it has gotten so bad that one Emerging Church leader reportedly called the Trinity B.S. This is what happens when Scripture is not the lens through which you gauge experience, reason, and tradition. What I fear is that the Emerging Church is actually a Diverging Church. This is no more obvious than in McLaren’s book title called Everything Must Change. Really ? Everything? And just listen to other titles by Emerging authors: The New Christians, A New Kind of Christian, and A Christianity Worth Believing. That sounds a little drastic and more than slightly arrogant to believe that in 2000 years of Christian history, our forefathers and foremothers have screwed up everything.

So the question becomes, what do I do as a Christian who wants to stay sound biblically and traditionally while also being relevant to the current cultural climate? I’m not talented enough to be like Paul, “all things to all people.” So I guess the only other option is to be the dorky PC guy from the Apple® commercial because I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater while also being a compromising letdown to the fundamentalists on the other side. Or maybe there is a group of Christians who will rise up that will continue to follow orthodox Christianity while reaching the world around them with the love of God. I believe the guiding principle of people like this will be what a mentor of mine told me once: “It is better for your ministry to be warm instead of cool.” Is that what you believe?

Heaven on Earth? by Brady

2008-06-03T10:45:00.001-05:00

There are things I have to do as a minister that are just part of the cross I must bear, and one of them is living in Waco, Texas. My brother and sister-in-law live in Vail, Colorado, and my sister and brother-in-law live in Laguna Beach, California. I am actually visiting my family in Vail as I write and looking at some of the most gorgeous mountains in the entire world. The reason Becca and I are up here is to see our new niece who is now two months old. All around me is incredible scenery and loving family. Signs of new life in creation and my niece are capturing most of our waking moments. But in the midst of these incredible moments, I can’t help but let my mind wonder to the idea of heaven on earth.

In many Christian circles, especially amongst “Emerging theologians” such as Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, there seems to be a push to promote the idea that we as Christians are called to bring heaven to earth. While I fully understand their motives and completely affirm not checking out and watching the world go to hell in a hand basket, I still cannot get beyond the problems which arise out of this “progressive” line of thought. N.T. Wright sums up this belief system when he says that heaven is “a further dimension of our world, not a place far removed at one extreme of our world. It is all around us, glimpsed in a mystery in every Eucharist and every act of generous human love.” (Following Jesus) Wright goes on to say that we are reminded of it when we see beauty in God’s created order.

So is this idea of heaven on earth correct? Is heaven achievable and capable of being found on earth by embracing beauty and doing acts of love? As incredibly beautiful the scenery is here and as much as I would love to spend every moment connecting deeply with family and friends in community, the reality of the world still seems to me that we will never be able to achieve heaven on earth. I cannot simply believe heaven is earth without wars, violence, and sin. I know that I, personally, am too easily dissatisfied with the world as it is even when I am experiencing little “pieces of heaven on earth.” You may believe that this is due to my sinful nature, but I tend to follow C.S. Lewis’ line of thinking that we long for something more because we were created for something better. Lewis says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” He goes on to say, “These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited . . . Here, then, is the desire, still wandering and uncertain of its object and still largely unable to see that object in the direction where it really lies . . . Heaven is, by definition, outside our experience, but all intelligible descriptions must be of things within our experience. The scriptural picture of heaven is therefore just as symbolical as the picture which our desire, unaided, invents for itself . . .” (The Weight of Glory, emphasis mine)

Heaven on earth also seems to be a ludicrous idea because of the depravity of our own lives. I believe that wars will not cease on this side of eternity because we cannot even stop warring against our own selves. Even if we stop sabotaging our own personal, spiritual and emotional lives, a disease called cancer can set in that pits our physical body against itself. The bottom line is that humans have been attempting to play God since the fall of creation. We see this today in how we create video game worlds, are attempting to clone animals and humans, and also believing that we can actually create heaven on earth. The beauty of the cross is that there is nothing we can do about our own salvation. Our redemption comes solely through God initiating relationship with us.

The Bible lays out a clear description of what heaven will be like in sections such as Isaiah 11 or 65. These passages show a total DNA change of both humans and animals. The wolf and the lamb will coexist and children will be able to crawl amongst poisonous snakes. Babies, like my niece, will no longer cry for no other reason aside from a deep dissatisfaction that is inborn at conception. The only way I see this happening is by Christ’s return, from somewhere where we are currently not inhabiting, and making all things new. The only way I believe heaven can and will be achieved in my life is by Christ’s return or my death, whichever comes first. Maybe I am checking out by saying this; perhaps I am just partaking in oppressive religion by hoping for a future kingdom that is not here and now. But I will let Paul’s words in Romans 8 be my hope concerning this subject. “And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)” (Romans 8:23-25, NLT, emphasis mine)

Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown by Clint

2008-05-27T14:37:00.001-05:00

I often try and imagine what the world will look like in a given number of years. For instance, where will we be in 25 years? How different will our world look from how it looks now? Back in 1983- no one could have imagined the impact of the internet, nano-technology, 9/11, and the war in Iraq. These were things that just couldn’t be predicted, or at least the magnitude of the impact of these things could not be predicted. So, as much as we know now, and as best we try, 2033 is going to look different from our best predictions. Kind of scary isn’t it? It’s even more scary thinking about 2033 in terms of where our culture will sit in relation to faith. One cannot help but notice that the place of faith at the American table and certainly the European table is getting pushed farther down the row. Is it possible that soon we will find ourselves at the kids table, while other philosophies and world views sit at the adult table?
Brian McLaren, in his book Everything Must Change, draws the world into two categories. He splits the world into the colonizers and the colonized. The colonizers encompass most of Europe and the people of the world who have directly benefited from the European colonization of other lands. The colonized are those who have lost land and power and sovereignty to the control of the colonizers. The colonizers brought the Christian faith to the new lands, along with abuse, disease and guns. Up until recently, the colonizers represented the majority of the Christian faith. However, recently, the numbers of growth in Christian faith is marked by the group which would be labeled colonized. Christianity is growing rapidly in places such as Africa, places in which people have had little power and no ability to colonize others. On the other hand, the impact and influence of Christianity is shrinking in the places of the colonizers. In most of Europe, Christianity is rapidly shrinking. Thus, the nations with the power to colonize seem to be turning from faith, as the ones who had no choice but to receive visitors looking to find gold, fertile land, and other resources are receiving faith in great numbers. The face of belief is changing.
In the Coldplay song, “Viva la Vida,” Chris Martin’s lyrics appeal to the vainglorious nature of power. His words speak to castles made of pillars of salt and sand, he even asks, “Who would want to be King?” Earlier he expresses the view of one who had the power of a king. “Seas would rise when I gave the word, now I sweep alone, sweep the streets I used to own.” In this humiliation, though, he expresses strength. In this loss of power, he finds power. This is a beautifully true expression of real power. Christ shows the truth in this. As Paul expresses in Philippians,
Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Where has our humility gone? Should it be surprising that faith is exploding in nations in which people are humbled by daily needs? Is it really shocking that people are turning to Christ in places where they have been trampled on and humbled? And in our culture, we feel entitled to everything- material and behavioral. So, as we imagine what the world will look like into the future, know that faith will still be alive and well. Christ promises that even the gates of hell will not prevail over the church (Matt 16:18). But, unless the current course here is changed, the church may be thriving in a place a little farther from home.

Drive for Show, Putt for Dough by Clint

2008-05-13T22:10:00.002-05:00

I have been attempting to play golf lately. I emphasize the “attempting” aspect of my golf playing. I think I’m struggling because I am so used to a baseball swing, and that just doesn’t carry over to the golf club. Don’t worry; I’m not going to continue boring you with the issues of my golf swing. In my recent golf obsession, however, I have noticed interesting things about people who play golf, which probably translates over to people in general. Golf people are all about looking the part. It’s not okay to go out to the course, even if you’re not very good, in just any old attire. You really need the right golf shoes and the right Nike Dry-Fit golf shirt. And don’t forget the glove. You have to have the left hand glove. I don’t feel comfortable with the glove for two reasons.
1) because I’m not good enough for it to be making any sort of difference, and 2) I can’t wear just one glove without feeling a tad bit like Michael Jackson circa 1985. I’m sorry but I’m either wearing two gloves or no gloves- who wears just one sock, for instance? After the shoes, shirts, and glove(s), comes the clubs. I got an Intech driver for my birthday, and I ordered a set of used Callaway irons of Ebay. I like my clubs, but they aren’t up to par with everybody else’s. First off, every year you need to get a new driver which is always larger than last year’s and is starting to look more and more like a metal detector. Also, there are always new irons and putters to get as well. Toss in a professional looking golf bag, towels, tees, and Pro V1 golf balls and you’re good to go. But chances are, with all this, most of the people out on the course can’t honestly break 95, maybe even 100.
Surfers and skaters have a great term for people who look the part but don’t have the chops. These people are “posers.” As a kid, the last thing you wanted to be was a poser. It was shameful to look like you were good and weren’t. Golf is a sport where basically everyone is a poser. Almost everybody wants to look better than they are. There are certainly exceptions (Do a youtube search for John Daly playing golf shirtless and shoeless—it is simply amazing. He looks like he has no business even working at the course and yet he has won the British Open). But if you go out to the local public course or country club, you will see a plethora of posers.
Jesus had no tolerance for posers. He had no tolerance for people who lived as though they were completely different from what was in their heart. Jesus expresses this when he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34, NRSV). Jesus expresses that in denying ourselves, we actually find truth. Attempting to save ourselves on our own accord often leads us to posing as something different from what we are. In saving ourselves, we avoid honest community. By honest community, I mean opening up and confessing our troubles and sins with others. We avoid this kind of community which is a real journey, and we hide things within ourselves which is covered up with the perfect exterior. We might be double bogeying every hole, but at least we look like Tiger Woods. The loneliest people in the world are those who look like light on the outside yet live with darkness on the inside. It’s like turning the porch light on, but leaving all the lights off in the house.
True community begins when we break down the barriers of self aggrandizing. True community and a true healthy walk begin by denying our instincts to pose and becoming humble before God. “And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5, NRSV). Out on the golf course, you don’t want to be the guy or gal with the best equipment but with the worst game. You don’t want to be that guy or gal with the right expressions and right responses but with little faith and little light.

Jesus Loves Strippers

2008-04-21T10:50:00.003-05:00

For the last couple of months, we have been praying about what Hesed Now should do as a practical ministry . Yes, we have materials, a podcast, and have helped a lot of churches with resources, but we have really prayed hard about having a practical and tangible way of showing hesed to those around us. In comes Brett and Emily Mills who have a ministry called Jesus Said Love. They are worship leaders who live in Waco, but they also have a ministry to strippers. Instead of building a well in Africa (which is obviously good), we have chosen to support this ministry because it is local and it reaches one of the major "unreached people groups" within the borders of our own country. So, some practical ways you can support Hesed Now and this outreach ministry is to buy the "Jesus Said Love" or "Jesus Loves Strippers" (you'll get some looks with this one) shirts. You can also support Hesed Now by donating to their ministry, because this will be a ministry we will support in the coming months. If you want to know more about this ministry, watch the video on our blog or go to www.jesussaidlove.com. And don't forget to check out the shirts on our t-shirt page.

Oprah's Doctor on Theology by Brady

2008-04-06T22:25:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago my wife tricked me into doing something I thoroughly despise: watching Oprah. It was an episode with all males in the audience and she gave over her stage for the first time to “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, who I think is a frequent guest on her show. I thought it was interesting that she would give her stage over to a doctor, which I have written about before doctors being the new priests in white robes instead of black ones. But that is not what I found fascinating in the show. Towards the middle of the program, Dr. Oz said something along the lines of, “We have the knowledge to cure almost all diseases, but it takes a transfer into daily life.” What he was implying is that if you would eat healthy, exercise daily, get enough rest consistently, not smoke, and get regular checkups, that we would live longer lives and be able to curb the onset of almost all diseases in the world today.

What he was essentially saying is that you can have all of the knowledge in the world, but unless there is a change in your life, it won’t matter a bit. Now I must admit I am a fan of people getting properly trained and educated before they become working professionals. I think it is funny that we would never go to see a doctor that did not complete their entire training process, but we will get spiritual direction and diagnoses from anyone and everyone. My vocation is especially guilty of putting undertrained and undereducated people in charge of a group of people without batting an eye. Some of these cases are ok when people are leading small groups or other areas such as these. I would compare this to your mom being able to take care of you when you are sick as a child or when you fall down and get hurt. What you would not do though is want a parent performing major surgery or even regular checkups on their kids. This is the same in ministry.

In fact, I read a book for class the other day that was debating whether you should pay a minister more nor not based on the level of degree which they have completed. The book concluded that you should not, and I was losing my mind about it. Only in ministry would an organization not pay more based on a degree when you are trained in so many essential areas during seminary. So as you can see, I am obviously a fan of edu-ma-cation.

But with that being stated, there is a tendency in our Information Age that says knowledge is the answer. The internet has revolutionized the way we see our world around us. Suddenly everyone is an expert on every subject. It is pretty annoying to sit in class with laptops when a professor mentions something in passing, a student Googles it and then corrects the professor. Education and knowledge, as useful as it can be, without values seems rather to make man a more clever devil. But hopefully the Postmodern era will prove yet again that we cannot fix the mess we’re in with more of anything produced by man.

The Modern era brought a hope that technology would eventually progress to a point where we could achieve our own return the Garden of Eden. But we all watched I-Robot and had our dreams shattered of this idea. But now it seems that the Postmodern era is putting the emphasis which was once on technology, now more on education. “If we can just educate about AIDS, then we can get rid of it.” I would say American’s are pretty educated and yet we still have thousands of people every year who are new carriers of the horrible disease.

I am all for making the world a better place and actually working to see this happen. I 100% affirm a holistic view of salvation that says the complete person must be redeemed by Christ, as opposed to handing out a 4-spiritual laws and my duty is done type of salvation. But even with that, I cannot fully buy into humans being the redeemers of this world. This teaching is popular with a lot of the popular Postmodern preachers, and yet I have a hard time seeing how it fits biblically. So I’m in a weird spot of not being happy when natural disasters kill thousands of people because it is a sign of the end times, but also not being able to square with the fact that God’s kingdom will be established on earth in this age.

In fact, I will take this even a step further. I am not certain that if every person in the world became a Christian that all of the world’s problems would be solved. The reason I say this is that I go to school with all Christians, and that place is far from heaven. I say that because I myself often do not respond to situations in a way that fits with my beliefs as a Christian. This pervading hope that screams if we can just make everyone “believe” what we believe then our mission is accomplished. But as Dr. Oz has told us, you can memorize all of the Bible verses you want or explain theology with the best of them, but if there is not a transformation happening in your life then it is all meaningless. The brutal truth is that the Gospel is incredibly simple in theory, and ridiculously hard in practice. I say that if every person gets transformed by Christ, then his kingdom will finally come to this earth.

Religious or Spiritual? by Clint

2008-04-01T22:11:00.000-05:00

The other day, I overheard a guy having a conversation with a girl (I was not eavesdropping, they were just talking loud!). It was fairly obvious that he was trying to impress her. He kept talking about how he was spiritual but not religious. He didn’t go into much detail about what this meant, but he kept saying it, thinking that it would certainly intrigue the young lady he was attempting to charm. I thought a little bit about what he was trying to get across by saying that, and I also contemplated the fact that I’ve heard that expression before; it seems to be almost a buzzword in our society. Everyone wants to be spiritual and forego the religious aspects. In a way, I understand this. Often, religion is viewed only in a negative sense: Bigoted, intolerant, authoritarian, and sometimes even hateful. People’s minds often drift to those unappealing adjectives upon hearing the word “religious.” But my problem with saying, “I am spiritual but not religious” is that it is such a nebulous comment. Anyone can pronounce themselves as spiritual. Spiritual in our 21st century context can be any of these things: artistic, poetic, quiet, introspective, yoga-practicing, emotional, green-tea drinking, etc… Certainly I do not have an issue with any of these things (Yahoo says green tea is good for your complexion), however are they really spiritual?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian theologian during the time of WWII. He wrote about a costly faith, a faith that involved truly following Christ even at a high cost. He practiced what he preached, as he was executed by the Nazi regime at the end of the war for his involvement in an attempt to overthrow Hitler. While he could have left the country and taught theology in New York, he stayed in Germany to suffer with the people and preach against the hatred of the Nazis. One of Bonhoeffer’s more interesting theological assertions was one of a “religionless Christianity.” In this, he spoke that following Christ goes way beyond the safer man-made boundaries of religiosity. In these man-made boundaries, he found people hiding behind an easily defined legalism, a system of piety which boiled faith down to rules of life which would most likely never really cost anyone anything truly valuable. He called believers to go beyond these safe boundaries and enter into a suffering world, carrying the gospel of Christ, and taking the risks of entering into challenging relationships. He did not view this as a loophole for living a hedonistic lifestyle, though. The spirituality of living out the teachings of Christ in a hurting world would not mesh with a sinful, worldly lifestyle. But, the point is that faith and discipleship goes so far beyond just religion and attempts to make people think you’re not naughty but nice. Bonhoeffer seemed to support this idea of “I’m spiritual but not religious,” but the context for spirituality was completely Christ-centered. There is no other spirituality but through the Holy Spirit and through discipleship in Christ.

In examining Jesus’ life, he had aspects of one who was religious. He observed Jewish holidays (John 13) and he spent time in the temple (Luke 2:41-49). However, he was not satisfied with religion, but he pointed to something greater. He pointed to true spirituality which rests in two focuses in life: Love God and love your neighbor. In this, everything hangs in the balance (Matthew 22:36-40). Jesus did not come to earth to just start a new religion. Jesus Christ came to teach and show the one truth of God. He came to bid those to follow him and live a life of spirituality, a life in relationship with God through discipleship and faith in Christ. I guess its ok to be spiritual and not religious, but this is only possible in Christ Jesus and in Christian fellowship. And any proclaimed spirituality outside of Christ is actually just an empty religion.

Face the Music by Brady

2008-03-22T16:43:00.002-05:00

Last night Becca and I rented a movie called ‘August Rush’ which stars Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard, and Robin Williams. It is a modern fairy tale movie about a kid who is following music that only he hears to find his birth parents. I am not usually a huge fan of sappy flicks, but this one is really good. This movie is a great testament to faith and the way a fundamental belief in something can change the world. It epitomizes the life of a Christ-follower in a modern context because Evan Taylor (played by Highmore) is a child prodigy who is constantly “hearing music” and chasing dreams which are not altogether realistic. He is a little odd and is always picked on by kids in his half-way house. In fact, I must admit I would have probably wanted to beat up a kid like him during my younger years.

Evan says at one point about the music he hears, “It's like someone's calling out to me, only some of us can hear it.” Wizard (played by Williams) replies, “Only some of us are listening.” Those of us that live the life of faith in Christ are constantly faced with realists who claim they found the tomb of Christ or that a biblical worldview is not relevant today. We feel something calling out to us, but it is like we are the only ones who can hear it. We also have this deep desire to be found and known by something too. Later in the movie, Wizard is trying to give Evan a new stage name and asks for his input. He says, “If you could choose any name in the world. Any! What would you want to be? Come on, kid. Any.” Evan says, “Found.”

This Easter season, I challenge you to turn (another word for repent) and face the music. Think about the possibilities if Christ did in fact rise from the dead. Think about how much this would change the world you live in, the shift that would break your current tunnel vision and expand your possibilities. Think about the deep reality you could live within even though those around you can’t hear the music. It’s as Evan says, “The music is all around you, all you have to do is listen.” The music is calling out to you and me on Resurrection Sunday, will you turn and face it and choose to chase it no matter the cost? This is important because “You got to love music more than you love food. More than life. More than yourself.”

Do You Like What You Worship? by Brady

2008-03-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

Last week I was given some “constructive criticism” by one of my leaders at church about the way I preach and how it is perceived. Apparently something I said in the last couple of months struck a chord with a student or two, and they think my teaching is too much of hell, fire, and brimstone. A secret about all pastors and preachers is that we all want to be liked, and liked by everyone. So I won’t pretend this just rolled off of me, but I really am content with this kid’s analysis after reflecting on the last few months.

One thing I realized is that I have yet to use the word hell, Satan, or preach a sermon on judgment to the youth group. If you were to sum up my messages in the first few weeks, they could be categorized as messages of change more than anything. I believe it is time that Christians actually practice their faith, realize their spiritual life is more than a church service once or twice a week, and truly attempt to follow Jesus of Nazareth. But that just might be the problem with my message.

This may sound harsh, but I truly believe that many Christians today would not even like Jesus if they actually met him, much less choose to follow and worship him. Jesus to most people is nothing more than a teddy bear who is incapable of saving them from much of anything aside from a stock market crash or having to park further away in the parking lot. I believe Jesus came preaching a message of change which led him to ultimately get crucified.

David Kinnaman has authored a book that every Christian should read called unChristian. After 3 years of careful analysis of the culture today, Kinnaman and the Barna Group draw many conclusions about the state of the Church in America. One part of the book talks about the culture today creating God in their own image rather than vice versa. He says, “Some Christians respond to outsiders’ negativity by promoting a less offensive faith. The unpopular parts of Christian teaching are omitted or deemphasized. They hijack the image of Jesus by portraying him as an open-minded, big-hearted, and never-offended-anyone moral teacher. That is an entirely wrong idea of Jesus.” (Pg. 32-33)

This comes from a man who is hardly a fundamentalist. In fact, the entire book is about the failures of the church today and how we need to reform the church structure so that we can reach a new generation which is influenced by relativism and pluralism. The main problem is, we are more in the business of self-help, feel good messages than truthful teachings these days. I am sure I sound like a black and white fundamentalist, but if you cannot preach about living a life worthy of the call of Christ, then we live in a watered down Christian society. Kinnaman even goes onto to say, “The church desperately needs more people who facilitate a deeper, more authentic vision of the Christian faith in our pluralistic, sophisticated culture.” (pg. 16)

The truth is, I am not sure if I would have liked Jesus’ teachings, personality, or demands all of the time if I lived in the 1st Century. I am sure he would have stepped on my toes many times, and would have made me angry with his words at times. After sorting through some of this, I still boil down my faith to the core belief that my only hope lies in a 1st Century Galilean carpenter. For better or worse, I’m with the guy who told his followers they must eat his flesh and was perfectly secure with his message that he even challenged the 12 disciples to leave with the crowd (John 6). I’m with the guy who brought a whip into the biggest church around and caused chaos (John 2). I’m with the guy who referred to a Gentile woman as a dog (Matthew 15). In fact, I actually like Jesus more because of these stories, because he challenges me to decide who really is Lord in my life. What I’m not sure about is if this is the same Jesus most Christians would say they like, much less admit they worship.

Glad You're Back by Clint

2008-03-08T17:12:00.001-06:00

In preparing for the Easter season services for the church where I pastor, I came upon an interesting text that I had forgotten about. It happened as I was re-reading through the accounts leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and the accounts of his resurrection in the Gospels. At the very end of Matthew, chapter 28, verse 17 says, “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” Wow. The very ones that saw Jesus crucified and then saw him raised from the dead are looking right at him but still doubting! They got to see, talk to, touch, and eat with the resurrected Lord, and yet some of them doubt. Do you think they expressed their doubt to Jesus’ face? Or, did they wait and discuss their skepticism after being alone with the other disciples? And how many doubted? The text doesn’t tell us. Faith is not easy, and the resurrection is a difficult concept. I was having lunch with Brady, and we were talking about the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. This happened as a sign of Jesus’ power and coming resurrection. Our conversation turned to the response of those who knew Lazarus before he had died. They probably were a little scared of post-death Lazarus and maybe even a little reluctant to be alone with the guy. After all, he had been dead. Where do you even start in conversation? “Hey man, glad you’re back.” And there is no way that Lazarus was the same person after coming back. “Lazarus, ever since you died and came back, you haven’t been the same guy we used to know.” Surely they were frightened by Lazarus’ return, and Jesus’ return must have had the same affect. If the very disciples that saw him raised from the dead doubted, then we can be sure that even for them the idea of someone defeating death is hard to grasp. Often times, faith is expected to be easy. It’s not. Many would like to believe it is, but the disciples are there watching these events, struggling with the meaning of it all. But the importance of Jesus’ resurrection cannot be ignored or taken for granted. The Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 15:14, “and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” Our faith in God hinges on this belief in the resurrection. Believing resurrection is difficult and faith is difficult, but this is a good thing. Do you really want to put your faith and life and belief into a God that only does regular, everyday, boring things? Do you really want to follow and worship a Savior that made everything easy and overly predictable? The fact is that in Christ’s resurrection, we see that there is eternal life. In this, there is glory and perfect truth. The challenge of faith is the beauty of faith. The difficulty of these things is where its substance resides. Our finite minds are so programmed to stop at death. We are so limited to thinking in the realm of mortality; we must be reminded that what God has prepared beyond death will truly be glorious beyond measure.

Pray For Their Troops by Brady

2008-03-03T17:36:00.001-06:00

How Christianity relates to matters of the “state” has been a longstanding debate within the church. I would hope you have suffered long and hard over the idea of what it means to be a citizen of Heaven and an American citizen. The earliest Christians certainly struggled over this same topic. You have Jesus’ famous phrase saying “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s.” You also have Paul who says we should subject ourselves to the laws of the land. N.T. Wright has actually done a lot of work to show how the Gospels may actually have been extremely subversive towards the Roman Empire. You even have Revelation which when reading it in its proper context appears to be against Rome as well. So overall, how we live in the world while not becoming consumed by the world is not new in any way, shape or form.

The more I think about the direction of the church lately, I think we are having an identity crisis and are trying to figure out who we actually are as the Body of Christ. We had a pastor running for president and a debate on whether it would be ok to vote for a Mormon. We also hear that if (fill in the blank) gets elected, the whole world is going to end. The overwhelming state of mind in America is fear when it comes to politics today. Commercials prey on our fears (side note: this goes way beyond politics, just see any insurance commercial) and exploit our doubt.

But even beyond the presidential primary race, I have been thinking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the popular slogan “pray for our troops.” Now, let me be clear. I am not an anti-patriot. I actually think it is extremely noble and worthwhile to pray for the troops in the war. But what I am confused about as my Christ-following life clashes with my American mindset is, shouldn’t our slogan also include “pray for their troops, too.” In Matthew 5:44-45, Jesus says, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” He goes on to say that even the most conniving people pray for those they love and care about the people on their own team. Why wouldn’t they?

I would argue that this statement by Jesus could really sum up the Gospel in its entirety. You may disagree, but this is the most typical thing that Jesus consistently did during his time on earth, and it is the most atypical thing usually taught by other faiths or value systems. Jesus completely revolutionized the way we see the world, and this is one of the main ways he turned our world upside down. This statement is, in fact, distinctly tied to Jesus Christ and what it means to be his disciple.

So, there is where the head-on collision takes place: is a catchy American slogan or an ancient teaching of Christ more important to follow? A couple of weeks ago, I said in one of my sermons that America is not the savior of the world, Jesus is. Barack, Hilary, McCain, Bush, or anyone else you can think of is not going to save you from much of anything. Somewhere we have got to start thinking outside of our normal mode of American orthodoxy and get closer to the actual teachings of Christ. The truth is that it is biblical to pray for Al Qaeda or Iraqi soldiers (and praying that they die doesn’t count either). They are the very definition of our enemy today, and Jesus told us to not only pray for them, but also love them. Now that’s tough teaching in light of the times. And that is exactly the kind of teaching that got Jesus nailed to the cross. Do you still want to follow him? I hope so…

Bigger Than Basketball by Clint

2008-02-22T08:03:00.001-06:00

The night before last, I was crushed. I couldn’t believe what I heard on the radio. Now is a good time to mention that I am a huge Baylor basketball fan, especially this season. I can’t exactly explain it, but for various reasons, I am really emotionally attached to this year’s team. I have watched or listened to almost every game this year. By the way, when you listen to an entire regular season men’s college basketball game on the radio, it either qualifies you as a dork or a die-hard fan. I hope I fall into the latter category. Anyways, the last two games have been devastating. We lose in the most heartbreaking ways- I’ve coined the term, Bear-ly losing. It’s not just tough losses, they’re losses that come down to the final seconds and games that we are right in position to win. The loss last night against Oklahoma was too much to handle after coming back against UT one game earlier to only throw the game away. I won’t go into all the details with the Oklahoma game, but it involves overtime, winning by four with fifteen seconds, and missed free throws. As mad as I was, I thought about the game, the season, and the past few years for Baylor men’s basketball, and I got a little needed perspective.

You probably remember the events that happened to the Baylor men’s basketball team in the summer of ’03. There was a tragic murder and a terrible scandal. The entire program had blood on its hands, as the coach and others were part of a cover up to make the victim, Patrick Dennehy, look like a drug dealer. The head coach was fired and banned from coaching in the NCAA until 2015 (He will certainly never coach in college again). Baylor’s athletic director resigned, and the school rightly imposed harsh sanctions on its own program along with the sanctions levied by the NCAA. Our program was as good as over. Realistically, it would take over ten years even to start to compete in the Big 12. The whole events were utterly tragic, and it was another black eye on a school that desires to promote Christian values and ethics.

Two days ago, I read an article about the resurgence of the Baylor men’s basketball program. The article spoke to the miraculous turn around of the program. We have competed and even beat top 25-ranked teams this year, and are in the top 6 of teams in the Big 12. The rebuilding process was one of sacrifice and hope. When Scott Drew came to coach the team, people told him he had lost his mind. When Aaron Bruce left Australia to come play for Baylor, his friends did their best to convince him not to go. They both explained why they came to Baylor. Their responses were the same. “I wanted to be part of something bigger than basketball.” And they certainly have been. Along with them, Coach Drew has had great success recruiting, and Baylor has a bright future. But even more than recruiting success and winning games, they have blessed one person more than they might ever know. Brian Brazabon, the stepfather of Patrick Dennehy, watches every game he can. He still has his son’s old jersey and he roots his heart out for Baylor as one of the only BU fans in Nevada where he lives and works. The success and sacrifice of those in the Baylor program have given him a chance to cheer for something and a chance to replay precious memories of his son.

We often forget we are part of something bigger than the work we do, the hobbies we are good at, and the people we know. We sell ourselves short and say, “Well I’m just ….” One of my favorite stories in scripture is when Peter is restored by Jesus after Jesus’ resurrection. Peter probably looked at himself as a lowly fisherman who had betrayed his friend and failed as a disciple. Yet Jesus tells him that he will feed and care for the flock, meaning he would lead those in the early Christian church. Jesus tells Peter that he will be part of something bigger than he could ever imagine. Peter must have been scared, and he must have known the road would be extremely difficult. But he wanted to be part of something bigger. In faith, if you realize you can be part of what Jesus is doing in the world, if you believe that faith can still move, you can be part of something bigger than you even know. Believe in that, and take steps of faith for the Lord.

The Schizophrenic Church by Brady

2008-02-16T22:19:00.001-06:00

Few people who have worked on a seminary degree would argue against the fact that it is one of the hardest things to accomplish. The hardest part of seminary is that it lasts so long (a 93 hour Masters degree) and is grueling physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I would say, without trying to be overdramatic, that I live with a tension within me most days. Maybe I should “let go and let God,” but the truth is that it is hard to wrestle with the tough questions in Christianity while also dealing with the day to day grind of balancing family, school, work, and social life. I do not think it is seminary students alone that live with this tension I am talking about, because I think it is a societal issue present in many people today.

We are in the midst of a dramatic paradigm shift within our civilization today. We are moving from the Enlightenment way of thinking called Modernism to a Post-Enlightenment age called Postmodernism. But anytime a massive shift like this takes place, it is never quick and easy. Within our faith, we have people who are operating fully on the Modern paradigm, those who are attempting to function fully on the Postmodern paradigm, and the rest of us being pulled between the two. This pulling actually creates great stress on individuals as well as institutions. David Bosch says in Transforming Mission, “This (shift) produces a kind of theological schizophrenia, which we just have to put up with while at the same time groping our way toward greater clarity. Scholars in all disciplines are overtaxed, and yet there is no way in which we can evade the demands made on us.” (p. 188)

One place this change in paradigms is particularly stretching is the Christian Church. Bosch goes on to say, “the Christian church in general and the Christian mission in particular are today confronted with issues they have never even dreamt of and which are crying out for responses that are both relevant to the times and in harmony with the essence of the Christian faith.” This is the stress I feel spiritually in my ministry. How can I be relevant to the world while remaining true to Christ? Another way to put it is “What does Jerusalem have to do with Waco?”

Maybe you are unlike me and do not feel this tension or maybe have not even heard of Postmodernism. All I can say to that is you are either operating on the old paradigm, live in a community sheltered from the outside world (which is not always a bad thing), or are ticking a lot of people off and you don’t care or aren’t aware of it. But either way, the shift is happening with or without you, and it is your job to make yourself aware of the culture you are living in. You may be wondering, why in the world would I want to live with this spiritual tension in my life? The answer is simple.

First, you are called to be a follower of Christ in one of the most important times in Christian history. I truly believe that the Christian Church, especially in the West, is on the ropes like it has not been in hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But there is another reason as well. Living with tension can create something beautiful for the world to ultimately be a better place to live. If you like listening to music, how good would a guitar sound if the strings were not full of tension? Maybe you’re an avid tennis player, so how well would your racket serve you if the strings were not wound tight with stress? Girls, you are the biggest fans of stress because diamonds ultimately would not be produced unless they were put under high pressure and heat naturally by the earth. My point is, stress can either kill you or produce something great. This is where we stand as the Church today.

Some sources today say Christianity has over 38,000 denominations and I would say each one believes they have the full revelation from God. This Church must decide what it will be to the next generation. Whatever it decides, there is one fact that remains: A single individual that lived in Israel in the first century has utterly turned this world upside down with the Good News he brought to us. During this time of change and uncertainty, my prayer is that we rest firmly in this reality.

Pit-iful Experiences by Clint

2008-02-07T16:12:00.001-06:00

About two weeks ago, I went to the Foo Fighter’s concert in Dallas at the America Airlines Center. The show was awesome, and I was fortunate enough to land tickets in The Pit. The Pit is the area right in front of the stage on the floor. It’s usually really claustrophobic and hot, but it is a really fun way to see a show. I don’t think they officially call it the pit anymore, though. A few years ago I went to a concert and on my ticket it said, The Pit. This time, on my ticket it just said “Floor.” I was a little disappointed to be honest. Labeling it The Pit kind of encapsulates the experience. I guess they changed the terminology because “pit” just has so many negative connotations. I guess it’s too grungy a term to put on the ticket stub. Besides using it as a label for concert seating, I can’t think of any positive things relating to a pit. Some of the ladies reading this might say Brad Pitt, but that doesn’t count. Pits just aren’t good things. It makes you think of expressions like “bottomless pit.”

I meet with the youth at my church on Wednesday night, and I was trying to relate to them the story of Joseph. I think the point that hit home the most with them was Joseph’s experience of being thrown into a pit by his brothers. It connected with them because we’ve all been in personal pits. We’ve all had moments where we feel like we are at the bottom. We feel as though we are in a place where there is no getting out of. Before being tossed into the pit, Joseph was on top of the world. He was young, had a great relationship with his father, and he was even having dreams of being powerful and successful. Things took a sour turn, however, when Joseph tells his brothers his dream of them bowing down to him. Being the baby of the family may make you a bit spoiled and naïve, but he should have known better than to tell his older brothers about his dream. Some dreams you just keep to yourself, and this was one of those. So one moment Joseph is on top of the world, and the next he is down in a hole, betrayed by his own family.

Something that jumps out at me in this story is that the brothers were going to kill Joseph first and then throw him in the well. They were going to use the well as a grave. They don’t end up killing Joseph, but they still throw him into what would have been his grave. Joseph, in essence, was buried alive. How often do people say things like, “My life is over!” Or, “I’m done for.” It is easy to pronounce ourselves dead when there is still so much living to do, and so much that can happen. Joseph could have easily thought that he was done for. All his plans, his hopes, and his dreams (remember his dreams from Gen. 37:5-9) surely were at the bottom of that well with him, never to get out. It’s hard enough to look forward from ground level, it’s near impossible to do so from the bottom of a hole. Why didn’t God keep him out of that well? Why did Joseph have those dreams that got him into trouble? God, though, was with Joseph at the bottom of the well. God was still working in the life of Joseph. Even when the situation went from bad to worse, as Joseph was taken out of the well to be sold as a slave to Gypsies, God was still working in him. As you may know, Joseph went on to be a great leader in Egypt. He was reunited with his brothers, and he played a major role in the narrative of his people. When life lands you in a pit (and like Joseph, it may even be the work of those close to you), know that God still won’t abandon you. But there aren’t always promises of an easy escape. Some people battle pits their whole life. But the hope is that God can work good out of pit experiences. In faith, no pit has to be a bottomless one. Don’t pronounce things to be over before they are. God is a God of Hesed, meaning He is loyal and merciful. A good parent doesn’t over-protect their child from every scrape, bump, bruise, and hardship. A good parent, though, offers support and concern in those times. God is a good and gracious Father. He won’t abandon you in a pit when you call to Him.

Even More On Hesed by Brady

2008-02-04T16:14:00.001-06:00

I have been talking recently about the importance not only believing the right thing, but also doing the right thing when it comes to being a disciple. In my last blog, I talked about how Western Christianity puts more stress on orthodoxy (right belief) than orthopraxy (right practice). I wanted to take an example a little further than I used last time in order to get us thinking about hesed and what it means to become vertically horizontal.

I suggested last time that most people choose their church and decide if they like a preacher based on their orthodoxy rather than examining their orthopraxy. In fact, the majority of churchgoers often wonder what exactly it is that their pastor does during the normal work week. To add to this, our education system has trained us that we must learn by sitting and listening, and that this practice will somehow change the way we interact with the world around us. The only field I can see that does an above average job of continually breaking down this paradigm is science. At least students are forced to dissect actual animals and complete chemistry experiments in order to better understand the study of science.

The funny thing is that we have allowed the Western way of learning to greatly influence how we do church. We turn following Christ into a passive activity such as listening to a sermon and then feel like we are magically further along the road of becoming a better follower/disciple of Christ. I am not sure that you can “disciple” someone in a Sunday School room. Don’t get me wrong, I love preaching and teaching and it is how I make my living, but this cannot be the sum of the Christian life. Jesus was a Rabbi and he used common rabbinical techniques in order to teach about the kingdom of God. He taught in parables and on the streets where all of the action was. Today, it is culturally unacceptable to teach on the streets where people actually live. These types of preachers are seen as condemning and seem to have a social disorder.

But Jesus taught on the streets to the common, everyday person and he used genius techniques in order to get his point across. Even his teaching was the embodiment of hesed, perfectly blending the horizontal and vertical. He used ordinary and tangible examples in his parables when he preached. In fact, the illustrations he would use would sometimes be so “earthly” that the people would get confused on what the heck a seed has to do with God (see Matthew 13:1-23). Another example is the famous parable known as “The Good Samaritan,” when Jesus left the crowd baffled with a normal, universal story about what it means to be an actual child of God (see Luke 10:25-37). In fact, Jesus ends the parable in Luke 10:36-37 by using the Greek version of hesed, which is eleos. ““Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him eleos.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.””

The truth is that you should judge a preacher on their orthodoxy and what they believe. In fact, I believe that the more technology plays a dominant role in our lives, the harder it is to maintain the attention of the congregation. This means we preachers are going to have to use more creative methods to teach the proper orthodoxy in coming years. But, I have a suggestion for you before you choose a new church, buy a Christian book, or watch a preacher on TBN: Find out if they live out their faith daily! Too many prominent pastors are getting busted living lifestyles that no more reflect Jesus than I reflect Tom Brady on the football field. The reason these “pastorpreneurs” can have thousands upon thousands of people reading their books and listening to their sermons and then get busted embezzling money, doing drugs, or having an affair is because we don’t take the time to check out their faith in action. In some cases, we would rather not know if they live their faith out as long as we can benefit from their teaching.

Is it possible that we have put too much emphasis on our vertical relationship with God that we have reached an unhealthy balance when it comes to faith and practice? Is it possible to be spiritual but not be right with God? When do we reach the point that we have checked out on those around us in the name of “serving God”? It is probably when we reach the point that Jesus describes in Matthew 23. “Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer…Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’” (Matthew 23:1-3; 6-7 from The Message) We must decide if the state of the Western Church is maintaining a proper balance when it comes to the call of embodying hesed. May we all become Hesed Now.

An Atheist and A Flood by Clint

2008-02-02T16:14:00.001-06:00

I have no business immersing myself in the world of Psychology. I know little to nothing about the field; however, I was a psych major at Baylor, so I do feel entitled enough to read Psychology Today magazine occasionally. Some of it’s outside my interest –or maybe just over my head- but a lot of it is really fascinating. In the recent issue there was an article entitled, “Atheist in the Pulpit.” Naturally, being in ministry, I grabbed the magazine and flipped right to the article, very curious as to what the article would say. As I read, I found the account of a minister who had been struggling with his belief as he continued to preach, pastor, and comfort people in the hospital. He finally got to the point where he renounced his faith, and now he is in “recovery” from religion. In reading his words, his loss of faith was a slow process. I could tell that it began with his loss of touch with God. You’re probably saying, “Good work Sherlock. Of course that how loss of faith begins!” But I couldn’t stop thinking about how the former minister talked of the way that this loss of faith crept up on him. He was even still preaching every Sunday after he had personally renounced his faith. He expressed that all of this happened over an extended time, though, and it started with his loss of passion in relation to God. It is easy to fall into the trap of going through all the motions with the programmed form of a robot. It’s like muscle memory: I had a baseball coach tell me that if you do the same thing 20 times, 20 times a day for 20 days, your muscles will store that action and you can do it without even thinking about it. And going through that form may look good, and you may think you’ve got it down pat. In worship, however, getting into a pattern of always just going through the motions isn’t good enough for God. God wants spontaneity. God wants heart. God wants true passion and loyalty. Think about it in terms of relationship- if you did something nice or seemingly heartfelt for your significant other, and they asked, “What is this for!?” How would it go over if you replied, “We are in a relationship. I am supposed to do little things to make it seem like I care. I got this idea from a commercial.” That would probably land you back into the dating world, and with that level of sensitivity, good luck! But being perfectly honest, how easy is it to pass off our relationship with God by going through motions.

Back to the preaching Atheist- he lost touch, and he started going through the motions. A relationship just cannot survive without the true heart behind it, especially a relationship with God who is pure love. So, when God tells the Israelites that he is sick of their burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6), he is telling them that the robotic stuff just isn’t working. In Genesis, Noah makes an offering to God after the flood, and the aroma is pleasing to God. After landing on dry ground after all the trauma and devastation, I’m sure Noah’s offering was passionate and honest. The flood account has been on my mind lately because I feel like there is trauma and devastation all around us now in 2008. It is difficult to read the paper or watch the news. Few things are more chaotic and uncontrollable than a flood. Things seem pretty messy and uncontainable right now, kind of like a flood. In all that, don’t become jaded. Don’t become a worship robot just going through the motions. Show God Hesed- covenant loyalty. Show the people around you Hesed- mercy. Amongst the floods in your life, let your offering to God be fragrant.

More On Hesed by Brady

2008-01-28T00:04:00.001-06:00

I often think about the differences between what it means to follow Christ in today’s culture and what it was like to follow him in the 1st century. In some ways it is easier to follow him today, and in other ways following him now is much more difficult. For example, today we are not going to suffer persecution in America for being a Christian. Christianity is also more institutionalized, and many Christians can be nominal followers of Christ and still claim to worship him. In other ways, though, it is harder today for believers. In the 1st century you either followed him around or you didn’t. You would know exactly what he looks like, smells like, and what he said. Another difficulty is our language barrier, because some words from the Bible simply don’t translate properly from the original Hebrew and Greek. Hesed is an Old Testament word, but another intriguing example of the language barrier is a New Testament term which has changed meaning over time as we use it today in the English language.

The word dikaiosyne is usually translated as “righteousness” in our English Bibles. When we think of the word as Western Christians, we usually think of it referring to justification (God’s mercy declaring us acceptable) or righteousness (a spiritual concept dealing with a quality we receive from God). These attributes are rightly attributed when we come across the word dikaiosyne, but only partly correct. There is also an element of justice (the right conduct in relation to fellow human beings) that we have missed out on. We have an obvious bias to hear dikaiosyne and think only of piety and not of integrity when it comes to dealing with others. David Bosch in Transforming Mission suggests “we should translate it with “justice-righteousness”, in an attempt to hold on to both dimensions.” (p. 72)

Perhaps part of the reason we miss out on what this means, as we also often ignore the horizontal aspect of hesed, is because Western Christianity is more focused on orthodoxy (right belief) over orthopraxy (right practice). But one website says that hesed, in regards to us as human beings, means 1 of 4 things: (1) doing favors and benefits for others; (2) kindness extended to the needy; (3) affection or love of Israel to God; (4) lovely appearance. I don’t see anything in there about our ability to theologically debate someone.

However, the normal Sunday routine for most of us is to sit and learn and then feel like that has automatically gotten us a step down the road to becoming an improved disciple of Christ. I can’t tell you how many preachers are either loved or hated for having a different orthodoxy (“He’s not a Calvinist”) than the person in the pew. How many times have you heard people get upset that the pastor is not serving at a soup kitchen on Wednesday mornings. This plays out into our normal practice of what it means to become a Christian in the first place. Many people walk an aisle, pray a prayer, get dunked, and then they have the much needed “fire insurance” promised by the pastor. Even if elements of this are absolutely central to faith, notice they all deal with proper orthodoxy rather than having a component of orthopraxy involved.

If the Western Church is going to recover from the giant difficulties it is currently experiencing (decreasing numbers, lack of participation, other religions growing substantially, etc.), I suggest we reevaluate our orthodoxy of no orthopraxy. What I am saying is that we should stop compartmentalizing our faith to church only. The reason other faiths are growing so quickly in the West is because they actually demand something of the followers. I can name at least 4 other major faith groups outside of Christianity that demand a total change of life if you are to be a true follower. They require you to change the way you eat, dress, act, and worship. They require daily prayer and submission to a higher authority. The fact is, the call to follow Christ is demanding. It is our interpretation of it that has watered it down to an hour on Sunday morning.

There is an urgent need to return to the belief that our vertical relationship with God affects how we interact with others horizontally. It’s as Bosch put it later in his book, “To become a disciple means a decisive and irrevocable turning to both God and neighbor.” (p. 82) Something changes in all of us when we go beyond cognitively learning the Gospel, and we advance into doing and being the Gospel. The truth is, as much as I devote myself to being correct in orthodoxy, Christianity is much more than just a set of doctrinal beliefs. “Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matthew 22:37-40 from The Message)

From No to Know by Clint

2008-01-25T16:15:00.001-06:00

The other night, I was hitting up Luby’s for dinner. Fried chicken was on my mind, and also there’s no better mac & cheese than what they have at Luby’s. I pulled in and went inside, planning on grabbing the styrofoam to-go box and taking dinner back to my apartment. When I jumped in line, there was a group of about eight elderly couples in front of me. Another older couple got in line right behind me. I was feeling relatively outgoing and talkative, so I smiled at the gentleman behind me and said, “this must be a church group” (they just had that look about them). He started to say yes, but then hesitated and added that they were actually retired ministers that get together once a month. At this point, we had now found ourselves in a full on conversation. I commented that I was in seminary at Baylor and pastoring a country church. Most of them had gone to Baylor, and they had once been seminarians, too. He then invited me to eat dinner with them. In that split-second decision time, I thought about the fact that I had already planned to get the food, jet home, and see what was on T.V., but I found myself saying yes to his offer. Me, with my hair somewhat faux-hawked (would that be a faux-faux-hawk?) and in more metro-style clothes than I normally wear at the table with five 70-something couples. It might have looked peculiar to everyone else in the restaurant. I’m telling this story because I ended up having a blast sitting with them. They were very kind, interesting, and funny. I noticed an intriguing peace that all of them seemed to have. They were living in that moment, and they were content with seemingly everything. I was able to gain a lot of wisdom from that one dinner, but I’ll never forget the answer to one of my questions. I asked one of the old ministers, “What’s the biggest blessing to a life of ministry, and what’s the most difficult thing about a life of ministry?” He began to answer, but his wife cut him off. She said, “The biggest blessing is definitely the people. The biggest challenge, though, is definitely…the people.” I thought her reply was funny and wise, and it applies to everyone, not just ministers. A major part of the Hebrew word Hesed is the relational aspects. In community and in fellowship, we can bless and honor God. Christ said the two most important commandments are loving God and loving people (Mk. 12:28-31). Talking with folks that had faced the challenge of people because of their love for people made me realize the fulfillment that can be gained in relationships. God desires us to be relational. And most of us have the innate desire to be relational. However, because of the challenging aspects of relationships, we often put up walls, and close ourselves off from people that might be a bit risky to get to know. When the old minister invited me to dinner with his whole group, he took a little risk. What if I had terrible table manners? What if I was rude or insensitive? What if I dominated the conversation? I could have ruined their monthly Luby’s reunion, but he took a chance seeing that I might learn from them, and they might learn from me. Also, I almost said “no” to the offer! Going home and watching T.V. almost took precedence over eating a meal with great people. I realized that I needed to rethink my mental programming that immediately wants to say “no” to opportunities. When Christ approached two brothers wrestling with fishing nets, and asked them to follow him, I wonder if their first inclination was to say “no”(Mark 1:16-20). What a blessing that they didn’t! Their lives were certainly never the same. Theologians have a term called the “divine Yes.” This is that God said “Yes” to us as He is willing to love us and provide a Savior for us from sin. So, it seems as though we should be willing to say “yes” not only to Christ but also to a willingness to form relationships with those around us, even if they will be challenging.

D-Now Curriculum

2008-01-24T16:16:00.000-06:00

Are you planning a Disciple Now in the upcoming months? Are you a little behind on the planning and need to get things together quick? Do you need affordable curriculum because your church does not a have a huge youth budget, but you still need quality materials that meet your kid's needs? Are you out of time to write your own stuff and still have time for friends and family? Then you've come to the right place.

Be sure to check out our "Resources" page for any Disciple Now needs. We have themed weekends totally planned out which are fully customizable to any church or group. T-shirts are also available and ready to print for these weekends. We are confident that Hesed Now is doing something no one else can do for you in providing engaging and impactful materials which are fully customizable, while also affordable. If you are looking for a seamless weekend which has a theme in place, quality curriculum, creative t-shirts, engaging games/activities, and even speakers available all at an affordable price on any church budget, then you need to check out Hesed Now. Order any combination of these materials by e-mailing info@hesednow.com.
You can also use this curriculum for Bible studies or as Sunday School material. There are discounts depending on how many books you order, or you can always purchase the rights to print the material for a flat fee of $75. As a service to you, we also have talk sheets offered for free on the "Resources" page, so please take advantage of this material. Let us know if we can encourage your ministry in any way.

Buying Toilet Paper by Brady

2008-01-21T00:01:00.001-06:00

The other night I was in Wal-Mart shopping for a few things and wasting time while a prescription was getting filled. I happened to remember that we were running low on toilet paper so I decided to pick some up while I had the time. Little did I know it was going to take 30 minutes to get out of the store and I would be carrying around this bulky load of toilet paper for the majority of the time.

I don’t know why my mind works this way, but it does and I can’t help it. I started to get a little embarrassed about carrying toilet paper around and I felt like people were looking at me like I was freak. I get extremely awkward in these types of situations. I especially get uncomfortable during church camps when kids forget certain hygiene products and I have to go make their purchases for them. But I had a spiritual revelation during my time in Wal-Mart brought on by buying toilet paper.

I started thinking about the state of the church today and the moral failures many prominent Christians have had in recent months. I also couldn’t help thinking about people in the church that I know struggle with things but always act like things are ok. When asked how they are doing, the proper response is a smile and a “just great!” This goes on even though their marriage may be falling apart, they may be addicted to a certain habit or substance, they are depressed, doubting their faith, or they are stealing from their work.

I do believe that a sin is a sin in God’s eyes, but what I have learned in the last couple of years is that all sins are not exactly equal. All Sin (capital “s”) separates us from God, but certain sins carry different consequences than others. But even though I do not believe there is much scriptural evidence to make a blanket statement declaring “all sins are equal,” I do know that we all struggle with darkness in our lives because we live in a sinful world.

So why is it that we have our own junk in our lives, but also we carry on in church life like we’re not dying inside? It is as stupid as me getting embarrassed about buying toilet paper. I quickly got over the awkwardness in Wal-Mart when I had the revelation that we all buy toilet paper. In fact, if you don’t buy toilet paper you’re worse than those of us carrying that 4x4 plastic square around in public which screams “I go to the bathroom” to the world.

Derek Webb, a popular Christian singer, once said that the best thing that could happen to any of us is if the 7 o’clock news would broadcast our deepest, darkest secret to the entire world. Then we could stop devoting so much energy to protecting our image and the lie that is as foolish is saying you never go to the bathroom. Think about how much of your life you devote to covering up secret sins and dark thoughts. One of the most refreshing spiritual experiences I have had in recent memory happened this morning at church when my pastor opened up the altar for prayer. Dozens of people flocked to the front, but this happened only after the pastor and his wife went on their knees first. It was different than the other times I’ve seen altar calls happen where everybody stands by waiting to see who is going to admit that they actually “go to the bathroom” and the pastor waits on this sinner to come confess in front of everyone. Of course, the congregation only watches in anticipation so they can pray for this poor soul during the week.

So why is the body of Christ not more honest with each other about our shortcomings and doubts? First, I’m not convinced most churches have the spirit and grace to allow such honesty from its members. We too often talk about each other’s shortcomings as though we do not have a plank in our own eyes. Also, I think we’ve all been trained by our Christian culture to act like we have it all together. I also believe our system teaches us that we are only accountable to ourselves, but the reality is that when we give our lives to Christ we give away our right to complete autonomy. Finally, I’m not sure most churches have the spiritual maturity to give the proper grace and discipline needed in these types of situations. I do know this though, it is only when we are open and honest with others about our sin that God will fully heal us from our fallen nature. But hey, I may be wrong here and maybe this type of “bathroom talk” is no longer acceptable today.

Newness by Clint

2008-01-17T00:00:00.001-06:00

You might laugh at me for this, but I am obsessed with the band, The Killers. I don't care what anybody says, they are the best band out right now, and I am confident in my musical tastes. Sidenote: I saw them live in Austin, and they were really good live, too. Anyways, because of my incessant listening, I had completely played out their last album, "Sam's Town," and it had found its way to the nether regions of my IPod. I was moving on to new horizons until I downloaded their album of B-Sides called "Sawdust." It's all I play in my car right now. I know, though, that in about five days, I'll start playing out this album, too, and I'll get sick of it. It's funny how that happens. It can be with food, music, books, even activities. When we latch on to something we tend to overuse it, and it gets old, quick. And it's kind of sad when that moment of realization hits when you know something you love has just lost some of its magic. Scripture tells us that eternal life is in no way like this. Eternal life and the glory of God never get old. A close reading of the book of Revelation speaks to the limitless glory and beauty of being in God's presence: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children (NASV Revelation 21:1-7)." The kicker of this passage for me is, "See, I am making all things new." 'Making' is in the present tense, telling us that dwelling with God is constant newness. He will continue to renew and continue to give life. Being in God's presence and dwelling with Him will never get old. We are so used to things getting old, though. We are so accustomed to relationships that turn sour, hobbies that lose their intrigue, and passions that fizzle out, that it is extremely hard to wrap our minds around the concept of constant newness. Trust that God can give that constant newness that is eternal life. Know that our worship now is to be a reflection of our hope for dwelling with our Creator. The challenge is to find newness in worship and let that integrate into all other aspects of your life. So, when you download that next song on iTunes and it gets old, be reminded that our songs and praises in God's presence never will.

Fearing the Unknown by Brady

2008-01-14T23:59:00.001-06:00

Fear is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. I think it would be interesting to chart and graph how much of our daily activity is actually driven by our fears and worry. The funny thing is that most of us are too prideful to admit it when we are crippled by fear because we do not want to show any signs of weakness. So this is when we begin to say things like, “I am just a little anxious or concerned,” rather than confessing full blown fear.

In the last month or so, I have had two experiences where actual fear has come over me without a doubt. One instance was when I was driving back from my church in Waxahachie, and Clint called to tell me that there was a church shooting in Colorado. I asked him what happened and for more details, but he really couldn’t give me much more information. Because I work in a church environment, I had this sense of fear and sadness for the situation at this church. The fear sat with me for a couple of minutes until I had the thought, “when I get home I’ll check out the news and I will be able to make more sense of the situation.” Why is it that so often our fears are driven by the amount of information we know about whatever is terrifying us?

Another example from my personal life where I have experienced fear has come recently from moving to a new ministry at a different church. Most people recognize that changing jobs is one of the more stressful activities in life, but why is this? I believe the largest reason it is so nerve-racking is the fear of the unknown. We aren’t sure how things will turn out and are scared of making wrong choices that will affect our future. I believe this is one of the main reasons people fear death as much we do.

Death is seen by many people in our culture as the ultimate equalizer and as the absolute end of a person. It is also the one thing that no one can experience with a partner. In the movie The Notebook, the final seen gets so many people teary-eyed thinking about how romantic it would be to die in bed with the one and only love of your life. But the truth about that scene is that both Allie and Noah, the main characters in the film, entered into death on their own. There is no standing before God with your husband or wife, pastor, or best friend. To add to our fears, we have never met anyone who has died and come back to tell us about it (unless you buy into Bill Wiese’s book 23 Minutes in Hell).

With all of this fear, there is one thing most people generally do not fear today and that is God. I can’t tell you how many times my youth ask me, “Why does the Bible say we are to fear God?” This is because many Christian circles, especially the one I run in, only teach 1 John 4:8 and that God is love. While this is an accurate description of God, God’s scope is bigger than just this. Jesus addresses many of the fears I have discussed in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 12:4-7 he says, “‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Jesus is saying that we should not fear people who take innocent lives, we should not fear new jobs or situations in life, and we should not even fear death because it is not the end of your story. He is saying that we should fear a God who has the power to control our eternal destiny. This fear is a respect for God, and the respect is shown primarily through how we spend our time on earth. We know that God cares for us because He created us and He is the embodiment of love. Jesus says He even knows the number of hairs on our head. But He is not blinded by this love so much that He can remove His holiness and allow us to have communion with Him when we are in sin. There should not fear the “unknown” things in our life, but we should be frightened by being fully known by the Living God. I know the Bible teaches perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18), and it also teaches that it is a terrible thing to be caught in the hands of the Living God when we are due His judgment (Hebrews 10:31). This is a tension as Christians we all must learn to deal with, but whatever we choose to fear, it should ultimately bring reverence to our hearts for the all-powerful, creator God.

Enligthened Idolatry by Clint

2008-01-10T23:57:00.001-06:00

When I read in the Bible about people worshiping idols, I find it somewhat strange. The temptation to worship other gods and idols seemed so strong for the people of the biblical time, even those who had seen God’s work in their lives (Exodus 32). I read this and think, “I would never be tempted in such a way.” Or, “What’s up with them worshiping stuff like golden calves? Honestly, why worship a golden calf?” The whole idol thing sounds so unsophisticated and archaic. The scary thing is that I’m not so sure we are as far removed from all this as we might think; it’s just taken a different, more sophisticated form. I think there are just as many or probably more things in our lives now that distract us from God or tempt us away from Him. We allow ourselves to be so busy and plugged in to so many things that God can become distant to us very quickly.

I thought about this the other day: I went from my apartment, where the TV and computer were on, to my car where I quickly adjusted the air conditioning and radio, to a class I’m taking in which I was on my laptop most of the time (not to mention I was checking my cell-phone voicemail on the way down to my car). We are so digitized and electronified. It’s getting out of control. I’m thinking that this over-reliance and over-exposure can be like a sophisticated idolatry. Now, we can’t shun progress, and it’s not smart to be ignorant and avoidant of technological progress, but I feel confident in saying that we’re beyond the saturation point and most of us are guilty of this saturation. It becomes almost impossible to hear God’s voice when we are constantly tuned in to the voices and influence of media, music, blogs, television, emails, 24 hour news, youtube, and the list goes on and on. All of these things when overused or over-relied upon can become an enlightened idolatry. It doesn’t seem like idolatry because it’s sophisticated and new, but it might just be our biggest hurdle to healthier relationships with God. Again, these technologies can add to productivity and make communication easier. They offer a lot. But it is easy to let ourselves stay so bombarded with stimuli that we sacrifice our ability to hear God’s voice in our lives.

There’s a song by the group Incubus called “Talk Shows on Mute.” The point of the song is that we have become so plugged in to media that it is molding us in the image it desires. How often do we see destructive things on TV? At least in my case, I would say too often. How are those things impacting us? The song I just mentioned reflects sadly on how so many people’s realities are being molded and shaped by producers and media moguls looking for a “new shocking moment” to get rich by. God made us in His image. With all the un-godly images flashing into our brains, it is easy to forget that.

Secret Crowds by Brady

2008-01-06T23:55:00.001-06:00

The word explosion carries with it an idea of something loud and boisterous. The actual definition of explosion is “a violent expansion or bursting with noise.” If something explodes and you are near it, you cannot help but be affected by it. If a Dr. Pepper explodes and you are near, you can bet that things are getting sticky quickly. Or like one of my favorite episodes on Lost, a character named Arzt is carrying nitro glycerin with a few of the other main characters and it explodes unexpectedly. As they walk on after losing another person on the island, one of the characters is told that he has “a piece of Arzt” on him. This is the idea that goes along with the word explosion.

Many sociologists would agree that Christianity exploded in its formative and early years faster than anything that can be described as “normal” by our modern standards. What started out as a small group of people who followed Jesus around grew into the dominant religion in the Roman Empire by 325 AD. Before this date, Christianity was a movement driven by an underground agenda with subversive elements going against the Roman Imperial culture. When Constantine became the “first Christian Roman Emperor,” the movement was already being transformed into dominant status as opposed to being the constant underdog. Think, for the majority of Christianity’s first 300 years, our forefathers and foremothers underwent persecution and faced opposition by culture at large. Even though Christianity was exploding during these first 300 years, it was a quiet explosion.

Today in our culture, there is no such thing as Christianity being quiet. I know most people wish some Christians would do that very thing: be quiet. And maybe we should take a hint from our culture and do what they are begging us to do, return to our roots. I am not attempting to romanticize the early church because I know things were extremely difficult for the first believers in Christ. We now have 2000 years of doctrine, tradition, history, and examples to follow, all which we should take advantage of. What I am suggesting is that the time is coming where Christians will be forced out of certain arenas we have become accustomed of dominating. Maybe this will not happen tomorrow, but the world at large is becoming progressively “Anti-Christian” as we speak. As this happens, it is not something to fear, but to embrace.

I believe the Good News of Jesus is exploding all over the globe as we speak. I believe it is exploding in people’s hearts as you read this. If your faith is dry and your passion is mild, I do not think it is because God is stale or that Christ is not alive. I would tend to feel that it may have more to do with your personal life or situation rather than God. God is living, active, and fully engaged in His world. His message, brought through Jesus, cannot help but explode on a daily basis. So, if you are waking up feeling dispassionate or dreading life, I would say you need to experience the explosion of Good News afresh once again in your life. I would personally move myself and do whatever it takes to be where God is moving. This does not mean life will always be easy, fun, or blessed. You will not always feel close to God. There is not one single aspect of life where we remain fully engaged 100% of the time. But, when you do have a moment that wakens you to the fact that you need to engage more, I suggest you do it.

There is a new song on Angels & Airwaves’ I-Empire CD called “Secret Crowds.” The lyrics to the song correspond beautifully with the message of the Gospel and where I believe God is taking His church in the coming years. This song uses a phrase that says “to spread love like violence.” It goes on to say we need to “watch our words spread hope like fire,” and then “secret crowds rise up and gather, hear your voices sing back louder.” The whole idea is that violence is naturally reactive. If someone hits you, you want to hit back. Love also demands a response. If you spread love violently, then people must react. Look at Jesus and his life. His whole life was marked with love, and he is actually the one that coined the idea of not hitting back, but returning love with hate (see Luke 6:29 or Matthew 5:39).

A new group of people who follow Jesus are rising up, and this movement is yet again a subversive one. It is rebelling against culture, violence, oversaturation of sexuality, poverty, oppression, and dead religion. Secret crowds are rising up and gathering and these voices are beginning to sing back louder. Do not be mistaken though, this singing can only be heard if you have the ears to hear it. This explosion is silent, but just like every other explosion in the world, people around it cannot help but be affected by it. Will you be the next one to spread love like violence?

Change Will Happen by Clint

2008-01-01T00:02:00.001-06:00

Holy Cow, it’s 2008. When midnight rolled around and we moved into the New Year, I had trouble wrapping my mind around that. I always do, though. I remember when the year 2000 marched into our lives. It was weird to think that we were living in the 21st century. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love New Year’s. You can never cram too much college football into one day, and it is definitely exciting to think about the changes that might await in the coming year. However, I also cant help but think about that line from the old U2 song that says, “and nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” I don’t usually have Bono’s voice running through my head, so I’m not crazy, but I think the point is well taken. We are so quick to be optimistic on one day then pessimistic the next. We live in a rut all year, and we get so frustrated about so many things for 364 days, and then on one day, we act as if everything might arbitrarily change. I promise I’m not the Grinch who steals New Year’s, but do things change on New Year’s Day? Imagine living day to day in such a way that when New Year’s rolled around, the exciting thought was having another year in the blessings that you have. There is nothing wrong with resolutions, its just I don’t ever see them last past February. A different day will never bring about change itself. Change comes from a commitment to living one’s life in certain pattern day to day whether its January 5th or August 27th. In the movie Chariots of Fire, the main character says, “Where does the strength come to finish the race to its end? It comes from within.” So, where does the strength come from to change your life? It too comes from within. That inner strength is gained in spirituality, in walking and living in God’s presence. I’m tired of trying to convince myself I can eat healthy or work out every day on my own self-discipline. Even if I could, I’m wise enough to know that even if I kept my list of three or so resolutions, I might have new problems elsewhere in my life that would need changing. My thought is that starting with your faith relationship is the key. Like a row of dominoes, the best way to make them all fall is to start the first one in line. Start with your devotion to faith and see what else changes. That doesn’t mean everything will be easy or there will be no problems, but change will happen.

A Waste of Time by Brady

2007-12-28T00:13:00.001-06:00

Everybody knows that children reach a stage in life where their parents are no longer “cool” to be around. Early on, your parents are the most important thing to your survival and well-being. There is not even a formulated idea of “cool” or “uncool” in your world, and even if there was, your parents would definitely be cool. But then the stage sets in where you are asking to be dropped off around the block from school. You also begin to hate normally fun activities such as family vacations. You are at the beach, but you wish you were there with your friends instead of your lame parents and siblings. It doesn’t help that your dad is wearing pink sun block on his nose which he, of course, pulled from his JanSport fanny pack.

When kids enter this stage, usually 1 of 2 outcomes eventually occurs. The kid can rebel completely and never recover, or they can rebel but later in life realize how important their parents are to them. It seems that America is in this stage right now in respect to Christianity. It is hard to get around the idea that America as we know it was founded at least with Christian principles. I am not trying to blend politics or religion, nor am I saying all of our founders were professing Christians. Yes, I am even aware that the Native American Indians were here before us, but I am talking about the United States of America as it stands today as a country, not North America. The truth is that America was founded by people who wanted to practice their religion their own way instead of being told how to worship.

Today there is still great freedom to do this very thing. In fact, Baptists were one of the leaders in the formative years in our country that fought for separation of church and state if you go back and study history closely. But the truth is, America is becoming increasingly anti-Christian. This attitude is growing at a steady rate with the current President being so vocal about his faith. America is acting like the middle school kid who is rebelling against their uncool parents. Whether or not we will completely rebel is something only time will tell.

If you think I am being over dramatic or I am flat out wrong, look at a recent bill our House of Representatives passed and how it played out. A Republican-sponsored resolution was up for vote which called for “recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.” This bill was a response to two resolutions which called for respect for Ramadan, the Muslim holiday, as well as Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Both of these bills passed with no negative votes, but the Christian “Christmas Bill” passed with a vote of 372-9. Nine representatives felt that their districts opposed Christianity more than Islam or Hinduism. On top of that, many talking heads on TV suggested that Congress passing this bill was a “waste of time.”

This bill was and was not a waste of time. In one sense, America is based on the principle of being able to worship how you wish. In light of this and how society is turning on Christianity, this bill did not waste time at all. This bill is necessary in America for the same reason Leonard Sweet reported in Soul Tsunami that a Jewish lawyer named Michael Horowitz represents Christians because he believes we could be the Jews of the 21st century (see Soul Tsunami, pg 62).

On the other hand, this bill was a waste of time because legislation will never solve the world’s problems. Passing a bill is not going to change the growing cynicism towards Christianity. Congress will not and should not be allowed to stop people from wearing “Jesus Save Me from Some of Your Followers” t-shirts. The rebellion is underway, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

As Christians, the most important thing to realize is that this wave is coming. We have been warned numerous times over the last decade or so, and when the full brunt of the wave hits there will still be many caught by surprise, sadly. A new era is underway in history, especially in American history, but this time can be met with an array of attitudes. You can meet it with fear, apprehension, denial, disgust, or excitement. I am choosing the latter. Christ has called you to be instrumental at one of the most exciting and challenging times in Christian history. He has called you to minister in a world that wants nothing to do with Christianity, but is thirsty for Jesus. As Leonard Sweet says in his book already mentioned, “You can be the last of a dying breed of ministers, those left standing on a burning platform. Or you can be the front-guard of a new breed of ministers.” (Soul Tsunami, pg. 55) Our message is essential to life, our culture is in need of Jesus, our society is hostile to Christianity, and our media is telling you how to think. Respond to the call, and please do not be surprised when the wave’s full force is felt.

Survival Mode by Clint

2007-12-23T00:12:00.001-06:00

One of the hardest parts about faith is the times when you may feel distanced from God. Those times are difficult for many reasons, but much of the problem is that they seem to happen at random. For a few weeks, everything is seemingly fine, and then you realize one day that you feel far from God. And even more troubling, that feeling can creep up on you and become part of the everyday routine. It can happen to church-goers, seminary students, pastors, and faithful devotees. It certainly happens when you stop putting work into your discipleship, but it can also happen when it seems as though you are faithfully seeking after God.

A helpful way to look at these times is to see them as “wilderness times.” I know the imagery of wilderness is pretty broad, and it can bring thoughts of the Alaskan Tundra, the rain forests of South America, or the deserts of Africa. That’s one of the reasons I love the show “Man vs. Wild.” First off, the guy’s name is Bear Grylls (pronounced Grillz). To have that name, you have to either be a rapper with gold teeth or just hard-core in general. Bear is hard-core in general. He served around 20 years in the British Special Forces and knows just about everything regarding nature. But getting back to my point, he is dropped off by helicopter into wildernesses of all types. They drop him into jungles, mountain ranges, even Hawaii volcanic terrain. No matter where they drop off our friend, Bear, he knows how to stay alive. He uses his head, his skills, and his passion and heart to fight through all circumstances. The dude killed a rabbit from 20 yards away and drank water squeezed from elephant dung (almost as bad as Waco-water…you Baylor students/alumni know what I’m talking about). His whole focus is to get out of the wilderness he is in and get back to civilization. Something I’ve noticed about his survival mode is that he never panics. When they drop him off, he never goes sprinting off in a hurry. He gathers himself and starts to make his way in the right direction. A lot of times, he spends a night or two out where he is. He proceeds with his wits about him, not making his situation any worse.

When you find yourself in a wilderness time, recognize where you are and what your situation is. Don’t panic and have a faith crisis. Don’t start closing in on yourself, making survival less likely. Don’t fabricate a false spiritual health that tricks you into thinking everything is perfect. Work through the place you are in. Share your troubles with those that you trust. Take your time and use your head and heart to get back to a place where you feel like your discipleship is on track. And don’t feel guilty about being in a faith wilderness. Mother Theresa experienced wilderness. And guess what… Jesus experienced wilderness. Right after John the Baptist baptizes him, Jesus goes into the wilderness alone (Mtthw 4; Mk 1; Lk 4). During this time, Satan comes and tempts him away from God’s will. Jesus holds to teachings of Scripture and his devotion to God’s will.

When you are in wilderness, don’t use that as an excuse to slip into lifestyles and actions that further you from God. Don’t be bitter. Resist letting your heart harden. When Bear is dropped off into wilderness of all different sorts, he uses all of himself to get out of there. When Jesus was sent into a wilderness, he used all his strength to continue to honor God. God desires that we love him with all our heart, soul, and strength (Deut. 6:5, Mark 12:29). Let that be the case even when you find yourself with wilderness all around.

Silent Night? by Brady

2007-12-19T00:11:00.001-06:00

By far and away the most popular Christmas carol of all-time is Silent Night. It is a song that has been translated into over 300 languages and dialects since being written originally in German. It was also actually the song sung in unification during World War I on the day known as the Christmas Truce of 1914. Both German and American troops sang the song because it was one of the few carols both sides knew by heart and in each other’s languages.

Why is this famous song so well known when the text actually never even speaks directly to the night of Jesus’ birth being “silent?” One of the reasons I believe it has made such a deep impact on humanity is the fact that we are all either consciously or subconsciously aware that God moves deep in us when the world is silent around us. There is the famous account of Elijah on the mountain and God speaking to him in a whisper, or literally silence, in 1 Kings 19. The deafening silence of Jesus as he bore our punishment on the cross also rings out. But perhaps the most important moment when God moved in silence was the night of the incarnation, or the coming of God in human form.

God could have chosen any way He wanted to reveal himself. He could have been born in a throne room on a plush pillow. He could have been born in front of a cheering crowd. He could have been born out of a cow if He wanted to. He even could have ridden a lightning bolt and appeared out of nowhere. But instead, he chose silence. And who were the first ones to see the babe? It happened to be shepherds sitting under stars in silence. And even the person who would clear the way for Christ, John the Baptist, through loud preaching was preceded by silence. Luke 1 talks about Zechariah, John’s father, being muted by an angel until the day John was born. There is a theme developing here in the birth narrative of Jesus.

What I think is ironic is that we have turned Christmas into the exact opposite of what the first Christmas was actually like. We have made the celebration of the birth of the most selfless man to ever live about consumption and greed. We have made the Good News of the season into the Bad News of the in-laws overstaying their welcome. And most importantly and rarely discussed, we have made the pristine and deafly silent night into crowded parking lots and busy malls.

Frederick Buechner wrote this about the noise in our lives: “What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continuously engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort, as the huge monk in cloth of gold put it, than being able from time to time to stop that chatter including the chatter of spoken prayer. If we choose to seek the silence of the holy place, or to open ourselves to its seeking, I think there is no surer way than by keeping silent.” (Listening to Your Life, pg. 332)

The other night I was attempting to talk about this very subject with my youth, and you would not believe how impossible it is to achieve complete silence. The most disturbing part was the fact that I was trying to retell the story of God coming to our rescue, not to mention the person they all claim to worship, and it was almost impossible to get the noise to cease. Before you jump on the “they’re just teenagers” copout, you need to know that this is the same generation of kids who cannot sleep unless music is playing or the TV is on. We are officially training ourselves to never have a moment of silence. The biggest problem with this growing trend is that we are never truly confronted by ourselves if we never escape the white noise.

God came on a silent, holy night. The first announcement of The King was not to a band, newscaster, or tabloid reporter, but some shepherds who happened to be available to listen. My prayer is that you push back. Push back against society. Push back against yourself. Jesus came to save us from sin, but He also came to save us from ourselves. Turn off the noise; sit with your complete self, no matter how bad it hurts, and then, and only then, will you possibly be available to hear the angels proclaim the Good News. May you push back, experience a silent night for yourself, and in turn finally be able to sleep in heavenly peace.

Neo-Leo by Clint

2007-12-16T00:10:00.001-06:00

His name is Leo. Girls, you know you’ve always liked him. Ever since he played the world’s most romantic stow-away on a sinking ship, you’ve loved him. Guys, it’s ok, too. It’s safe to admit that you’re a Leo fan. No longer must you hide your fan-dom in fear. Ever since Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Gangs of New York and The Departed, suddenly it’s perfectly socially acceptable for guys to say, “Leo was awesome in that movie!” Saying that after Titanic would have resulted in male ostracism along the same lines as saying, “dude, turn the channel back to Lifetime!” Now that neo-Leo has arrived, though, I feel safe saying that I was actually ahead of the curve on this one. I became a Leo fan after the movie The Beach came out when I was a senior in high school. I remember a lot of people panned that movie, but I thought it was pretty good. I remember thinking that it was getting at something pretty deep, deeper than I think people gave it credit for. I’ll spare you the long run-down of the movie, but basically, Leo stumbles upon this secluded paradise island while on a vacation by himself. On this island, there are people there who have set up a standard of life and a quasi-civilization. The island is the most beautiful place you could imagine, the people are great, and it is just like what most people would imagine as paradise. Everyone is tan, there is little work to do, and much of the day is spent playing beach soccer while the evening is spent telling stories and relaxing. The movie pulls you in to this perfect paradise. As you watch the characters slip into this lull of island comfort, suddenly the rug is pulled out from under them. One of their friends, a man living on the island, is attacked by a shark and dies. No one knows how to respond. The dream is shattered, the paradise is lost, reality has returned. You see Leo flip out as people walk away from the tragedy, forcing it out of their minds and pretending it didn’t happen. They try and put it out of sight and out of mind in order to protect the paradise they had. In the whole-hearted pursuit of comfort and ease, they’ve lost touch with the pain of others and the delicate nature of life. In many ways, I think this aspect of the movie speaks to our culture.

I know that many live far from a paradise, and life is a daily struggle. However, many of us are living in a way in which the goal is to make this life as much of a paradise as possible. In a world in which the happiest people are assumed to be the ones on MTV Cribs that have escalators instead of stairs, we must be reminded that nothing created or bought can protect from the harsh reality of passing time and life’s mortality. Death is tragic, and my saddest days have been at funerals, but is it possible that we are losing touch with the fragile nature of life? In the movie, it is incredible how quickly they are willing to push the sad things out of their minds so they can try and recreate paradise. Our search for perfect comfort here in our everyday life has pushed us farther from recognizing how limited life can be, and that pushes us farther away from God our Creator. Our #1 goal in life should not be a comfortable retirement or the acquiring of all the best stuff. There’s more to our purpose and existence than that, especially when suffering is everywhere around us. And to be honest, I think it’s healthy to acknowledge how fragile life is. It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling invincible. God designed birth and death, and He has offered true paradise after death for those accepting the grace of Christ. One may ask, “If we’re so close to paradise here, getting whatever we want when we want it, what’s the need for a paradise later?” I feel that this scripture answers the question perfectly.

“All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8; I Peter 1:24-25)

Defensive Faith by Brady

2007-12-10T00:09:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite things about the Holiday Season is that there are some of the best movies are on TV. Many of them are movies I give little thought to during the other 11 months of the year, but I love watching around Christmas time. One of these movies is Elf starring Will Ferrell. I know this is not an old movie, but it is one that is hilarious to me and I don’t think about it until it comes on TV in lieu of the Christmas Season.

If you have not seen the movie, this is probably not going to make much sense to you. The whole movie surrounds the character named “Buddy the elf” played by Will Ferrell. He is a human being that was adopted by an elf in the North Pole, and is encouraged to go find his real father in New York City. He is one of the only humans to have ever seen Santa’s workshop and to have been involved in the toy-making process at the North Pole.

The comedy is mainly found in him being in a city like New York, dressed ridiculously, and interacting with cold New Yorkers. One part of the movie Buddy is told that Santa is coming to a department store the next day. He freaks out yelling “Santa is coming!” Buddy spends the entire night decorating the department store getting it up to shape for the coming of Santa. The next day, “Santa” comes out and is the normal mall Santa Claus. He smells like beef and is wearing a fake beard. Buddy keeps insisting in front of the kids that he is not the real Santa. This is because he has actually seen the real Santa. Buddy eventually freaks out and pulls his beard off screaming that he is a faker. All of the children are horrified seeing the elf and Santa fighting and knocking over store displays. On top of this, their faith in Santa could be ruined because Buddy has exposed this imposter.

At this point I think it can relate to many Christian’s faith. I have heard many times concerning my negative attitude for people preaching a watered-down gospel, “What harm are they doing?” You could ask the same of the Santa situation from Elf. What harm is it doing to the kids to see a “fake Santa” as opposed to the “real Santa”? What Buddy has done seems to destroy faith as opposed to building it up. The only thing is that Buddy has seen the real Santa, and this guy is not him. He doesn’t have to be convinced that Santa exists because he actually knows Santa.

I see folk-Christians (see Questions to All of Your Answers by Roger E. Olson) all of the time defending aspects of our faith in order to not destroy other people’s faith. Health and wealth is fine as long as it’s bringing people into the church. This style of worship is appropriate as long as it “works” and attracts outsiders. All of this is out of what I believe is a defensive faith that is not firm in the fact that we have the truth as Christians. After all, if you actually know there is a God and His Son is Jesus because you have met him, would this not change the way you worried about who believes and who does not?

At the end of Elf, Santa is forced to use an engine on his sleigh because it was formerly flown by belief. Belief in Santa had dwindled over the years, and so he was forced to use other means so he can do his good deeds on December 24th. His engine breaks down in Central Park and he is unable to fly unless the people begin to restore their belief in him. While this part of the movie is corny, it does provide some insight as well. One of the kids asks Santa why he doesn’t go out and show himself, and Santa responds that it is about belief, not visual proof. He says, “In fact, the paparazzi have been chasing me for years.” Maybe this is where God is today with us.
In the gospel of Mark, it is said that Jesus was unable to perform any miracles in his hometown because of the people’s unbelief. “And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.” (Mark 6:5-6 NRSV) There are additional accounts of this story in the other gospels, but this particular recounting of the story says the people had the power because of their unbelief.

These people knew Jesus better than anyone and did not believe in His authority. Perhaps they couldn’t see the forest for the trees, but nonetheless they missed the messiah completely and he grew up among them. In football there is a saying that goes: “The best offense is a good defense.” This is probably the case in Mark chapter 6, because verse 3 says “And they took offense at him.” The people of Nazareth were suffering from a defensive faith at the fully human (yes he was also fully God, but also fully human) nature of the present Messiah. While stopping short of psychoanalyzing these people, it is safe to say that Jesus was rarely what the crowds expected from a messiah. In defense of God they chose unbelief rather than the opposite.
Today it is still an option to try to bend over backwards to make our faith appealing and more acceptable to the masses. Let’s not talk about sin or becoming a disciple. Let’s not require church discipline or steps of accountability in order to be a member. Let’s not talk about certain issues because they divide Christians from popular society. All in all, a defensive faith is much easier than a reflective faith. I challenge you to examine the meaning of this and to begin to ask which group you fall into. I challenge you to live as you know the messiah, if you have truly met Him.

Fight, Flight, or Light by Brady

2007-12-03T00:07:00.001-06:00

The other day, I read a very upsetting article in the Dallas Morning News. It was about how in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, business owners and citizens were leaving the city in large numbers. The problem for most of them is heavy taxes that are imposed. Now, you might be thinking, “I know all about taxes, and we all just have to deal with it.” The old saying goes: there are two guaranteed things in life, death and taxes. But, the taxes imposed on the Nuevo Laredo businessmen and women were not levied by the government. These taxes were put on by drug gangs that basically run the town. If you want to live and operate in Nuevo Laredo, you’re going to have to shell out the bucks to such gangs as the Zetas. Think Chicago in the era of mobsters but even worse. It might be hard to imagine, but these gangs are more ruthless and their drug industry is king. The citizens of Nuevo Laredo are fleeing because they see no hope. They are leaving because they do not want their families, or themselves, in danger. They are certainly tired of being bullied, but they look around and no one is coming to the rescue. It seems that everyone is scared and hoping if they can turn a blind eye to the problems, they might just go away.

Amongst many other feelings and thoughts, the article made me realize that goodness and righteousness just doesn’t happen by itself. The pursuit of goodness is just that, a pursuit. The problem in Nuevo Laredo started out small, and people certainly said, “this will go away.” They were afraid to do something, but nothing was yet out of hand. After a while, though, the problem became huge and people were really stuck and scared with no way out.

As a believer in Christ, I see certain problems and issues arising. I see people afraid to speak up in their faith. I see Christianity becoming almost a taboo idea in many ways. I see a shift in the understanding of things spiritual. Instead of spirituality and faith being intertwined with selflessness, truth, and ethics, it is becoming intertwined with self-gain and relativism.

I am not railing against things secular. I am not making a “we’re going to hell in a hand basket” kind of statement, either. I am stating that there is darkness in the world, and it seems that people are scared to speak up and claim truth. I see many people that are half-heartedly claiming a shallow faith based more on personal opinion and comfort rather than truth. Even the idea of “truth” itself is under question. (that’s a whole other blog topic)

Jesus Christ came as our hope in a world of darkness. He said He was the light (John 8:12), but He also said we are the light of the world, too (Matthew 5:14). I don’t blame the citizens of Nuevo Laredo for fleeing town. They are in a terribly difficult situation. In terms of faith, though, we cannot ignore the troubles around us. We cannot flee the world and hide out in a half-hearted personal faith. If WE are the light of the world, we must live that light in community in the community around us. People everywhere are desperate and hurting because they look around and see only darkness. May we be lights in the darkness, imitating the love and strength of Christ. When all the candles are taken out of a dark room, what’s left? But even if just one candle remains, the darkness cannot put out the light.

Newness is Fun

2007-11-30T00:06:00.000-06:00

There is very exciting news for you faithful Hesed Nowers out there. We are happy to welcome Clint Dobson to the ministry team of Hesed Now. Clint is a student at Truett Seminary and will be graduating in August. You can check out more of his information on the bio section, and I suggest going there just to see a picture of his smiling face.

Adding Clint to the umbrella that is Hesed Now is exciting because he is the first addition to the team, and he has a vision that matches up with the goals of this ministry. Clint will be contributing to the site through sermons on the iTunes podcast, by blogging on the site, as well as helping with the writing of new materials. He truly has a minister's heart and is going to bless those who come in contact with his work. We are very excited to say the least.

While we are on the subject of newness, keep an eye out for new materials coming soon. There are new booklets in the works that will be on a variety of different engaging topics. We are also updating the site weekly with new blogs, so keep checking in on us. Sometime next week the website will be updated and the blog format will allow for comments and feedback. Please chime in on the conversations and let us know what you think and how you are growing.
As always, you can e-mail info@hesednow.com with any questions, comments, concerns, or jokes of the day. We really appreciate the support and prayer, and our hope is that many will come to know the truth of the Good News through this website. May your life demonstrate Hesed Now.

**Podcast Notes**

The power of the unknown is a potent force in our universe. It is like when you broke up with the love of your life in 10th grade and wondered if they thought about you half as much as you thought of them. As you sat on the couch fabricating the date they are on at that very minute in your mind, they sit in their bedroom alone waiting for you to call and are crying because you have obviously moved on.

I say all of that to say this: if in your warped mind you started to believe that any of the sermons on the podcast were a big deal, please do not let the power of the unknown fool you. We are very humble ministers with very humble positions, and the recordings will often reflect this very thing. We are not speaking to thousands of people on the weekends and there are probably 100 better podcasts you can download on iTunes. I'll even give you a list of them if you want them. The primary reason for even creating the Hesed Now podcast is in hopes that maybe someone will encounter the risen Christ through our teachings.

So, you have been warned. In the coming weeks and months there will be some low quality recordings of sermons on the podcast and they will be marked with an asterisk at the end of the title on iTunes. Feel free to disregard any of these sermons, or at least prepare yourself beforehand. If you want to get good recordings and crowd dynamics from the ministers on Hesed Now, I have a suggestion for you: e-mail info@hesednow.com and ask one of us to come speak at your church. Spreading the Good News is our favorite thing to do and we are eager to go anywhere possible if there is a need.

iChristmas

2007-11-26T00:15:00.000-06:00

My wife Becca, her mom, and I were all watching the news in Houston on the night of Thanksgiving. One of the biggest stories of the evening news happened to be the lines at stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. These lines began forming days before Thanksgiving so these people could get the “door buster” deals. So our obvious reaction was to go down to Best Buy and see what it was like. To be 100% honest, I was thinking about staying outside for a couple of hours to see if I could get a new laptop for a cheap price, but when we got to the store the scene was worse than I even suspected.

In the parking lot was a make-shift soccer game going on. Then there was a series of families who had small children, even an infant in one case, bearing the cold elements and camping out for who knows how many hours. Most of the ones in the front of the line had to have spent at least the entire day of Thanksgiving there in order to be towards the front of the line. Overall, there were anywhere between 50-75 individuals in line 10 hours before the doors were set to open in 45-50 degree weather mind you.

The news had also reported that some of the malls were not even waiting until the standard 4 or 5 a.m. opening times, and they were going to open the flood gates at 12:00 a.m. As I said, there were some tempting deals for the people who got through the doors first. But as I started to look at the situation with spiritual eyes, I became even more aware how far we have gotten away from the message of the season. Even more than that, there must be something more than a great deal driving people to cut Thanksgiving short (or even out all together in some cases).

In the book of Amos, the prophet has a message for the people from God about their consumption habits. He says: “’In that day,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!’ Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?’—skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: "I will never forget anything they have done.” (Amos 8:3-7 NIV)

God is upset with the people of Israel because they cannot even celebrate festivals without salivating at the idea of getting back to the marketplace and ultimately taking advantage of the poor and needy. Sound anything like our culture today? I’ll promise you one thing: there is no way the lines at all of the stores were filled with rich people like the CEOs and the owners of these respective businesses. So we have people waiting for days outside of stores in order to get a good deal, and at times even making their entire family sit on pavement in the freezing cold during a holiday in order to get more items from the “door buster” deals.

Our society thrives on consumerism and “dishonest scales” in the marketplace. On top of that, we have allowed the day after Thanksgiving shopping spree to be a bigger holiday than Thanksgiving itself. How is it that the season of Advent, which symbolizes the coming of our Savior who taught us how to be self-giving people, has turned into the season of iEverything. Apple is genius, to be honest, because they have created a list of products that typifies America. iPod, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and even iLife. Until our souls scream “ENOUGH!” and push back against what we have developed into, the vicious cycle will continue (unless God intervenes as He did in the book of Amos).

My age group is the most entitled generation to walk the face of the earth in a long time, if not in the history of the world. The attitude is more and more pervasive that we “deserve” everything. We deserve a Playstation 3. We deserve a new cell phone. We deserve new clothes. We deserve a holiday. All of this is not contained only to the month of December as it was 20 years ago, but it is common all year around. I deserve new clothes because it’s tax free weekend in Texas. I deserve new skis because it’s winter. I deserve new sunglasses because it’s summer. What is scary is thinking of what we actually do deserve.
This Christmas season (or should I say Holiday Season to be more politically correct), I invite you to join me on a journey to start pushing back against our culture. I invite you to scale back by a fraction this year as a way of creating a starting point. I ask you to question if you truly believe less is more. I encourage you to begin a new tradition that points to the message of the season through our actions, and, in turn, maybe we will find our own salvation.

-Brady Herbert

Changing of the Guard by Brady

2007-11-21T00:16:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite TV shows and movies growing up was Dennis the Menace. The movie with Walter Matthau and Christopher Lloyd was based on the 1950s comic strip and TV sitcom about a rambunctious, blonde-headed boy who was always getting in trouble. I related to this show on several different levels to say the least. But if you watch movies like this or sitcoms from the early years in television, you’ll see a drastic difference between the 1950s and now. I know the obvious thing to point out as a Christian minister is the sex and violence, and yes there is more of that on TV today, but I’m talking about something different. Have you ever noticed how much Dennis is allowed to run around alone with no parental guidance anywhere in sight? This is the same way with Timmy from Lassie and Tom in Tom Sawyer.

I am not an expert on Post Modernism (or Post Modernity for the scholars out there) and its culture, but I do know that our culture’s social norms have shifted drastically in the last 40 years. It would seem that the rebels from the 1960’s are now largely in control of most of the major universities, and there is this idea that our society is much more free and tolerant than the 1950’s. But have we really become more tolerant, or are we just exchanging one set of norms for another? For instance, one of the quickest ways to ostracize yourself academically is to suggest a woman should be more like June Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver. Have we replaced one train of thought with a new set of beliefs? Has merely a changing of the guard taken place as opposed to true “progress” culturally?

David Brooks hits on this idea beautifully in a book called Bobos in Paradise. He says, “We feel we are less strict with our children, but in fact we intervene in their lives far more than did parents in the 1950s. In Tom Sawyer, for example, Aunt Polly may have tried to civilize Tom with beatings and strict table etiquette, but she also allowed him hours of unsupervised time to wander and adventure. Today we don’t adhere to that etiquette, but we don’t allow much wandering, either. Instead, we shepherd kids from one adult-organized activity to another.” (pg. 197) What a valuable insight!

No wonder youth ministries were almost non-existent in the 50s but are essential in today’s culture. Kids today may be allowed to pass gas (I couldn’t think of a better way to say that?) at the table, but they are also not allowed to go anywhere without supervision or at least a cell phone. Brooks also points out other ways this plays out in our culture. For example, we can now tolerate sexual jokes in our culture, but ethnic jokes will cause you to come under fire in a heartbeat. It is not culturally acceptable to make fun of homosexuals, but Christians are fair game to blast (see the Kathy Griffin at the Emmy Awards or read this article http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/oct/07101004.html). We can actually talk about sex in any venue today while we are as strict as possible on anything that could be deemed sexual harassment. Tattoos and body piercings are allowed and expected on college campuses today, but fraternal rituals and parties which would have been deemed modest in the 50s are now not tolerated. So why does the “old way” seem so stuffy to us enlightened Post Moderns?
The truth is that the code is changing and has now changed when it comes to permissible and impermissible behaviors. Freedom is a concept that I believe haunts every American. I think this is because we see everywhere phrases such as “Land of the Free” and believe we are unchained individuals. This is the reason I drive an SUV by myself most of the time. I’m free, unattached, and feel that I am accountable only to a few individuals. This is not true though.
Obviously you cannot murder someone and hold onto your freedom. Same goes with social structures in our culture. We aren’t going to throw out rules and social order EVER, no matter how many hippies say we already have.

The problem comes for me in the fact that it has begun to affect the Church as well. As always, we are the “quick ones” who react 30 years later, but it has begun to change in Christian circles everywhere. In the 90s abortion and homosexuality were the fights worth sacrificing for. This is still the case for many today, but the shifting or emerging culture would deem these groups as archaic people with a sort of “radio-orthodoxy” (see Brian McLaren’s work). So the question is: If our emerging church culture is not fighting abortion and homosexuality, what are we fighting? Things like the environment, poverty, and Africa (the ONE campaign or Invisible Children are HUGE right now) have become the new mantra of this culture. These issues are decidedly less divisive and are obviously worthy of any Christian’s attention.

For the record, I recycle at home and started a program at my church, Becca and I have a Compassion child, our youth do service projects frequently, and I am very interested in what’s going on in Africa. But instead of making these issues the new boundary to gauge if you are truly worth listening to, or even worse, if you are truly “Christian”, is no different than the groups emerging leaders disdain. If you dismiss someone because they are a Republican and fight against abortion, you’re not much different than the very people you disagree with, nor are you more inclusive. Creating a new code of entrance qualifications is no more Christian than saying a homosexual joke. Creating a new set of boundaries based on global warming or Africa is no different than basing it on abortion or other issues. Wiping out norms and social etiquette is also not possible either. Maybe the best solution lies in less debate over red and blue issues, and unifying the Body to fight vehemently for kingdom issues. You say that it is impossible to be a kingdom citizen and not involve yourself in government affairs like abortion rights or global warming? Maybe that is so. But it appears that Jesus lived in a time period that had “hot button” political issues, and he cleverly answered these questions while keeping a kingdom focused agenda (see Matthew 22:15-22). We are arguing as family members, and hopefully no one else is listening.

Are We Missing the Point? by Brady

2007-11-16T00:19:00.001-06:00

The latest news gathering headlines for Christianity has some TV ministries and televangelists reporting earnings upwards of $69 million dollars for one year in response to a Senate investigation. One particular minister was given a Rolls Royce by the organization (or “church”) and this group paid close to $30,000 for a conference table alone. This is probably just the beginning of such reports dominating news stations in the following weeks in light of the ongoing investigation.

I have always been a little suspect of televangelists begging for money when they are jet setting in personal, private aircraft all over the world. But before we jump all over these preachers of the prosperity gospel, I think we need to see how deep this mentality actually runs in our own personal theology.

Christianity is enamored by the mega-church movement and has been for decades now. We use popular trends and demographics in order to create the next big thing. Using demographics alone is not wrong or evil, but usually our mentality is to be the biggest and the best amongst our Christian brothers and sisters rather than to reach the lost. I do not know the statistics and I am not George Barna, but I would like to see the health of local churches that are in areas around mega-churches to see if they are still thriving. It would be my guess that most of these mega-churches are growing by people joining the congregation from other churches because they have better programs, more elaborate buildings, and the infamous celebrity factor. Also, these churches allow people to slip through the cracks when it comes to discipleship and growth in the other direction, which is deep rather than wide.

But the prosperity gospel reaches my personal theology even more than having the desire for the best graphics on a screen during the praise singing portion of a worship service. Even people who I know are exactly opposite of what we would call “prosperity gospel disciples” still have a form of this belief in their personal theology. The culture has never been more aware of hurting places in the world such as countries in Africa. Many people believe that we are closer than ever to wiping out world hunger and extreme poverty, which is an amazing thing to think about. But the common assumption when Thanksgiving and Christmas rolls around is that we will minister to others by bringing them toys and other trinkets.

This Christmas I will gather with my family, never go a second without access to food, and will receive more presents than I know what to do with. I will give thanks for all of the things God has blessed me with. I will even pray for people who are not as fortunate. Does this sound close to the prosperity gospel to anyone else? What I am saying is that I am more fortunate in worldly terms this holiday season, but am I better off spiritually? Why is our common assumption that the people without toys are worse off than we are? Why do Americans haughtily believe that we need to bring Africa into the 21st century with technology (ironic side note: many churches, including my own, will sing worship songs with graphics of the sky or a river in the background, while we could just go outside and see the real thing.) Why is the mentality present in most of us which believes we do not have anything to learn from the way people in 3rd world countries live their lives? Or even a better question is why verses such as Matthew 19:23 do not scare us as Americans, no matter what tax bracket you fall into? Why do we not truly believe Jesus in Luke 6:20 (NRSV): “Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”? Why do I push back at the thought of selling all I have in the name of Jesus? Is it because I want to give my kids more than I ever had (as if that is possible), or is it because I believe in the practical, American Christianity diet that people have been selling me my whole life over Jesus’ demands in Matthew 8:20 and Luke 9:58?

The truth is, when people see Christianity today, they see the prosperity gospel in almost all of us. They see churches like the one which a friend of mine affectionately calls “Six Flags over Jesus” because of its similarities to an amusement park. We are inadvertently, or maybe purposefully, portraying Christ as an American CEO rather than the humble, impoverished Rabbi which he actually was. I am as guilty of this as the televangelist driving the Rolls Royce.
Is it wrong to minister to a child this Christmas season via buying him or her toy? I don’t think so. It is however wrong to believe that we have it better off than they do. I don’t believe Jesus or Paul were as tied to here and now as we are. We would certainly not call Paul of 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 “healthy” by any stretch of the imagination. He would need at least two episodes with Oprah or Dr. Phil to sort out his unhealthy lifestyle choices. So would Jesus. We would be offended by the demands Jesus of Luke 18:18-29. So the question is: Are we missing the point?

America's Daddy Issues by Brady

2007-11-08T23:47:00.001-06:00

Do you remember the first time you realized your parents were not in complete control of life and they could not protect you from every harmful thing that comes your way? This happened to me on December 4, 1986 when I was 4 years old. My family landed upon some hard times financially, and I remember sitting outside of the family business as the FDIC came in and shut it down. I remember my mom crying and the next months being filled with many changes. We were forced to sell our house and move into a new one. There was not the level of extreme luxury and comfort that our family was used to. There were many tense conversations between my parents on how we would make it financially with four kids. This experience is one of the earliest memories I can recollect.

Incidents such as these shape us dramatically as humans. They cause us to build up walls for security measures and to look for a place to put the blame for having been hurt so badly. I am sure almost everyone has something similar to this experience that has dominated their past and shaped their future.
Culturally we work through these incidents as well. There are times when corporately we feel disillusioned by our government, church, or any other authority which has let us down. The government has particularly failed us numerous times as Americans, but rather than being open and honest about its limitations, we have created a world of unrealistic expectations for our leaders. This in turn causes candidates to create false images of their capabilities. To put it quite simply: America has daddy issues.

Our collective society experienced this frightening realization in the 1960’s and 70’s. Even though I was not alive during this era, my generation continues to feel the aftershocks from these decades even today. It was particularly the Vietnam War and Watergate which caused us to doubt how smart we are to place full trust in our government, especially the office of the president. This era has dominated our country’s past and is continually shaping our society’s future. Now the climate is railing against any authority at all, including God, because we have built up a wall in order to protect ourselves from being hurt again. You don’t believe me? Why is this war with Iraq constantly compared to the Vietnam War? Why have the last two presidents, one democrat and one republican who were both reelected, come under so much fire that impeachment has been the word of the day? The only reason people don’t want to impeach the current president as they did the former one is because we are more frightened of the vice president running the show than anything else.

So what am I getting at by talking about all of this? I think Scott Peck has hit the nail on the head about our country in a book called The Different Drum. He says, “The macho image of the president as a kind of superman has been created and maintained because the people have wanted it. We have wanted a Big Daddy who has all the answers, who will take care of the bully down the block, who will not only give us a safe and secure home but one that is luxurious and where we will be protected from all hard knocks. The American presidency is the reflection of the task-avoidance assumption of dependency, a creation of our own childish fantasies.” (p. 314-315)

We are the same way with God as well. Why does the culture today generally not believe in absolute truth or a supreme God? It is because we have been burned, and this is our natural defense. We see too much heartache and have felt too much loneliness to believe that there could possibly be a God who is both all-powerful and good. Somewhere the true gospel has been lost in our churches which dawn the American flag in an attempt to synchronize The American Dream and the Good News of Christ. One of the earliest Christians pushed back against this mentality in 1 Peter. He says, “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.” (1 Peter 4:12-13 MSG)

God’s job is not to be the “Big Daddy” who gives you all of the answers you want to hear at the exact time you want to hear them. His job is not to give you a safe, secure, and luxurious home. He is not interested in protecting you from all hard knocks. If He were, I think He would have protected Himself from the cross. Rather, we should start working through some of our Daddy issues and “consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds.” (James 1:2 NIV) Maybe life is not all about living a safe and lavish life. We should not expect our government or our God to be the blame for everything that goes wrong. After all, “This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.”

The Prognosis by Brady

2007-11-01T23:42:00.001-05:00

My family is dramatic. The Herbert family is never short on excitement by any stretch of the imagination. I like to think that my grandmother, mom, and sister are where the drama queen genes begin and end, but others would disagree. If I do have a trace of this trait in my blood, you can see it come out in me when I get sick or hurt. There are some of my family members that call me a hypochondriac, which I totally deny and slightly resent (ok, so I had a neck ache and thought I had meningitis once…big deal). But one thing is for sure; when something isn’t right in my body, I call a doctor. The only test I use before calling the doctor that will give me enough peace of mind to not set up an appointment is the “other side” test. If I feel a bump and I have the same lump on the other side, then I can go about my business and not worry too much. That is about as sophisticated as I get when it comes to diagnosing myself.

Now let me be clear: I like doctors. My doctor could be the world’s best at what he does. He is incredibly smart, generous, caring, and talented with numerous gifts both in and out of the medical field. He plays the violin at our church and went to my alma mater, which scores him points in my book. On top of that, one of my best friends is in medical school, my mother-in-law is a nurse, and my wife and I have another close family friend who is also a nurse. These people are working my personal rotation. Sore throat? Well I called my mother-in-law last time, so I’ll call my friend who has plenty of time to diagnose me between his busy medical school schedule and being a newly wed.

A while back, though, I heard an interesting quote that went along the lines of this: we still have priests today, but instead of wearing black coats they wear white ones. I don’t think this speaker was talking just about doctors, rather I think he was saying that we go to the sciences for any authoritative answers in our lives over faith these days. A fact of life is that people will always have authority in their lives. In fact, people will always seek to have authority in their lives. It just happens that today the proper authority will tell you to exercise and eat healthy rather than to not sleep around. We still live in an extremely strict society with moral codes, but the code is shifting. Why is it that our morals are based on health conscious issues rather than spiritual disciplines? For instance, it is morally wrong to smoke a cigarette while you’re pregnant, however some feel it is ok to sleep with your girlfriend as long as you practice “safe sex.”

Much of it also has to do with the fact that Americans are more concerned with temporal things. The new boat, the new house, the new car, the new nose, even the current temperature in the car…the list goes on and on. The only problem with this is in 5 years the boat is old because it just sat outside most of the time, the house is too small, the new car was 3 cars ago, and the nose needs to go back to the shop for some repairs. It also has to do with the belief that is prevalent today that says no one religion can have absolute truth.

Chances are if you watch any morning show like The Today Show, afternoon talk show like Oprah, or evening show like Larry King Live you will have seen about a quadrillion doctors on there talking about how to live a healthy life. If two things are “in” right now it is this: going green and living healthy. One thing you are most likely not going to see is a minister on TV talking about sin and how it affects our life. Why is this? Most of the reason this doesn’t happen is that our culture says ministers are closed-minded nincompoops. Now are there some dumb butts out there who are ministers? Absolutely. Are there also some dense doctors out there who I would never let give me a diagnoses? Without a doubt.

In Jesus’ day, people considered sickness to be related to sin in your life. Today this idea is absurd to our post-modern minds, and maybe it should be. I am not suggesting the next time you get a cold or even worse, someone gets cancer, it is because they have sinned. What I am saying is this, the next time you get sick, maybe you and I should pray before we go to the doctor and our prayer should be more than “guide the doctor’s hand and help the equipment find out what is wrong with me.” Perhaps your pastor could help you as much as your doctor can the next time tragedy hits. Most doctors are incredibly smart and gifted, but they are not infinitely smart and gifted as God is. And we need to sit with the words my doctor told me the last time I went to his office: “We’re not getting out of here alive.” Perhaps it is time to return to the belief that we only have a short period of time on earth and what we do matters. Maybe today you need to stop a sinful habit more than you need to eat a salad. And you just might need to realize that today could be the last day you have to show someone the love of Christ on earth.