In honor of accomplishing very little, I would like to send along something I was shown by our very own Mike Snow.  You should be Facebook friends with him if you aren’t.  Just saying.

You have to read this, I laugh every time I do and then cry a bit when I realize five more minutes is gone and…

The image is from the committedsardine.com website (I know nothing about the rest of it, this is the only post I have read) AND also happens to very much reflect my feelings.  Albeit in feminine form.

Anyway, enjoi!

Jim

I don’t always agree with him.  But then I cannot think of anyone I always agree with.  But I love several things about him more than I disagree with him in a few theological and practical areas.

1)  I love that he wrote “The Reason for God” while he was a pastor in a church.   I think that writers who are having to walk out the realities of their views in a local church context benefit greatly from those experiences.   What you are thinking about and writing about has to connect with the daily lives of those you are sharing life with.  There are certainly a number of very powerful writers that I truly enjoy that I stepped out of pastoral ministry.  So, my appreciation for Keller’s path isn’t a condemnation of anyone else’s.

2)  I love that Keller’s church, Redeemer Presbyterian is so heavily focused on serving New York City. Hope for New York literally mobilizes thousands of people to serve each year.  I love that.

3) I love that Redeemer Pres. has managed to reach a very diverse group of ages and races.  Personally, I don’t think I have done as good a job of that as Keller has.

Here, Keller speaks as a part of the authors@google series.  He was there soon after the release of his book, The Reason for God, and is speaking to the main reasons why people would find reason to believe in God, and why others would not.  I really enjoyed it.

Hope you do to!  Please let me know if you have any comments/thoughts about what he was speaking about.  I always love to hear what you are thinking!

Peace.

While they were once known as the God Hates Fags people, that hardly seems accurate anymore. Now, they are the God hates the military/victims of natural disasters/victims of manmade disasters/victims of crime people.  But now, whamoo! they have gone too far!

Just for the record, here is Romans 9.13… In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”  I cannot even bear going into it, I will allow my new friend Eugene Cho of One Days Wages to do the “honors” for me.

I don’t know, maybe it would make more sense in Comic Sans Serif?

On the other hand you can easily make it so etherial that it feels almost impossible for someone who is not a seminarian to ever figure any of it out.

Honestly, I have been to both of those extremes.

What is left is a simple question that is not very simple at all.  What is the good news?  What is this hope that we who follow Jesus claim to have access to?

JR Woodward asked 50 people to try to describe what they thought the good news was.  This group has activists, philosophers, artists, blue and white collar workers, authors, and yes, pastors and seminarians.  We are from different walks of life, we are of different ethnicities, and we have different backgrounds.  His question to all of us was the same; could we describe what the good news, the hope of Christ, is like?  But he threw in two caveats; we had to address it as if it were being written up in our local newspaper, and we couldn’t go over 700 words.

Many months later it was thrilling to see the fruits of those descriptions bound up in the first release of Ecclesia Press, ViralHope: Good News from the Urbs to the Burbs (And Everything in Between). Take a look at the trailer, produced by the Brothers Nee.

Just try to… you physically can’t.

If you find you can, watch the vid, then see.

Ukraine 09 – The Orphans from Robbie Poff | Highland Films on Vimeo.

And remember, they are pronounced,  yee-rohs.  Just helping you to not look lame at a Greek place.

Peace, Jim

To quote CBSNews.com in their coverage of the story… “he has long played a prominent role behind the scenes in the social conservative movement: A member of the founding board of the conservative Family Research Council, Rekers has authored books on how to ensure that children grow up straight.

A Baptist minister and former research fellow at Harvard University, Rekers has testified against gay adoptions and is on the board of National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, which “upholds the rights of individuals with unwanted homosexual attraction to receive effective psychological care.”

So, what do we make of ole George?

To me, there really are three questions that matter here.

1) Is he telling the truth?

2) If he is not, what are the implications?

3) Am I free to come to my own conclusions regarding homosexuality or does the bible speak into it?

As for question one, Is he telling the truth? my natural cynical default becomes a real issue.  Now, realize that I am not calling myself a cynic.  The definition of cynic from thefreedictionary.com -if you can believe anything is really free - defines a cynic as someone who believes that people are essentially cold, calculating and out for their own selfish interests.  By that definition I would be a recovering cynic.   I would categorize myself as more of a skeptic at this point.  I can doubt things and people pretty easily,but it isn’t my default any longer. I am actually learning how to trust more people, more readily.  That skepticism doesn’t mean I never believe anything that is tough to believe, it just means that to do so I need to feel like I have a reason for overriding my doubt.  My doubt-button is easily pushed, if you will, sometimes helping me to see the truth through misleading stories, and sometimes causing me to question or reject what is actually true, just tough to believe.

Suffice it to say my doubt-button has been pushed on this one.  What is tough here is that, in many ways, this feels like former Idaho Senator Larry Craig’s “I have a wide stance” type of story.  A public figure that is caught in a damaging situation and comes up with an explanation that seems too far-fetched to really be true.  Probably all of our doubt buttons were lit up and blinking over that one.

But that doesn’t mean that everything that is tough to believe is wrong.  It just means it is tough to believe.

Right?

Sure, it could be true. Rekers probably does need some help with luggage and whatnot, but getting help from a travel companion that advertises the ways he can help on Rentboy.com?  I, probably like everyone else, look at that with more than a bit of skepticism.

As a follower of Jesus, and as one that hold the scriptures to be an authoritative voice, I am called by God to believe the best of others.  Jesus challenges me to let my yes be my yes and my no be my no in my interactions with others and to try to believe that they are doing the same with me.  That doesn’t mean I automatically take everyone’s word on everything they say (other sections of the scriptures, in particular several in Proverbs, wisely call that foolishness).  So, I try to give the benefit of the doubt, as much as I can.  My goal has become trying to see the world through God’s eyes.  Trying to look more and more at things from his perspective and realizing, after reading this section of Matthew, how different his perspective and mine really is.

1 One day as the crowds were gathering, Jesus went up the mountainside with his disciples and sat down to teach them. 2 This is what he taught them: 3 ”God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them. 4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them. 6 God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will receive it in full. 7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. 9 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. 10 God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. 11 ”God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted, too.

That was one of the first times that I realized that, not only could my take on what I am experiencing not be right, but that I might completely miss that it is wrong.  That my perspective was more about self-protection than about truly interacting with those I am around.

Honestly, it wasn’t until I started trying to live in that way that I realized just how little trust I was willing to give anyone.  How much I expected them to be dishonest with me.  As I have been trying to live in a more trusting way towards others, a few things have happened that I didn’t expect.

I have become more accepting of others, regardless of how much we agree about or how well we get along.  My cynicism caused me to have an almost constant internal sneer towards others.  Internally I pitted myself against them, was always looking for their angle, was waiting for the thing they were hiding to come into the light.  As I have walked away from that, I find I am much more interested in the people I am around.  Much more accepting and open to hearing from them and learning from them.

Now, there have been a number of times that I have been taken advantage of as well.  The process hasn’t always been rosy.  But through those and through a continuing pursuit of God, I have been trying to re-calibrate my skepticism.  Not get rid of all of it, we don’t live in a world that allows that, but to allow it to speak into my decisions when it is right to do so and not allow it to drive almost all of them.

All that being said , it seems very hard to believe that nothing was happening.  Either way, I am wanting to pray for George Rekers.  Either he has inadvertantly stumbled into a situation that is almost impossible to believe could be truly innocent, and as a result is suffering for something he never did; or he has just had a part of his life and soul that he clearly has been trying to cover be exposed.  Both would be horrible to live through.

For the rest of us, I suggest we should do four things in the midst of all this.  First, remember to be praying for George and in particular, his family.  Second, to allow this to be a cause for pause.  A time to reflect on how skeptical/cynical we are towards those around us.  Third, to seek to live lives that are fully known.  To have at least a couple of people that we have no secrets from.  And fourth, to only use family members as luggage-hefting travel companions.

Please tell me your thoughts on all this.

In a few days we will discuss what the implications would be for a Christian, reparative therapy advocate to be found to have been involved in at least one homosexual sexual relationship.

Peace, Jim

The first three centuries of the early church’s life saw this trend continue. There were several seasons in those first three hundred years in which those that followed Jesus were hunted, arrested, and potentially taken to the arenas to be killed as entertainment. Obviously, this caused a continued diaspora. Those who were scattered faced the challenges of beginning life again. New jobs, new clusters of friends, new patterns of life. Those who remained behind, faced their own challenges. For them, little had overtly changed, but still much had. They may have lived in the same places, they might have kept their own jobs, but things were different. Many of their relationships had been fractured by the diaspora, their traditions and customs; their rhythms, had to change as well.

When James, started his letter, his greeting was to the diaspora. Peter’s first letter was started the same way.

What happened as a result of this regular spreading and returning, spreading and returning, is those who left, by desire or under coercion, took their understanding of God with them. Those who left after Jesus’ death and resurrection, took their awareness of that.

We are just now beginning a season of spreading in [nlcf]. Obviously we don’t face the dangers that many who have come before us faced, indeed many of us who are leaving or staying are doing so out of our own will. But many of us are now in different places, some are now there for good. For those of us that remain, Blacksburg is a different place. Even if we don’t live in Blacksburg, we can notice the change.

What is interesting is that the letters that were most clearly intended to be distributed to those impacted by the diaspora were very focused on how you live your faith in light of whose you are, not where you are. When you read Peter’s first letter or James’ you hear it again and again; because of your connection with Christ, live a particular way. Whether it is Peter’s concern that you remember the purpose of the difficulty we are all going through and keep it in perspective or his challenge to always be ready to explain why your hope isn’t tied to the difficulty you are going through, or James’s focus that we push away the worldly desire to sit back and watch the suffering of others – especially the defenseless. They remind us that we have been cleansed, we have been forgiven, that we serve a God who is generous and loving.

And that God is calling us to do the same to those around us.

This summer, [nlcf] has been dispersed, we are the diaspora, if you will. Regardless of where you are. We know that the temptation will be great to pursue our own comfort over living out of the covenant that God has made with us. That we can get ourselves settled, get into a rhythm, and not make our relationship with God and those around us a central part of how we go through our day.

Jesus gave us our example. He came from heaven and accomplished his mission. He lived and showed us how to live. He died with the collective weight of all our sins on him. He came back to life because even death isn’t strong enough to keep him under its control.  He walked around and taught his disciples and others to adopt his mission and to keep it after he left. He told them he would send the Holy Spirit to be with them as they lived a life focused on the same mission that Jesus was focused on.

Matthew records Jesus’ call to us this way, “… I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28.18-20
Jesus had lived his earthly mission and now he was telling those who were with him to do the same. Not do more than their part, but do their part. Live out the relationship they have with the Father, through the example and sacrifice of the Son, empowered by the Spirit. This is the mission they had. It is the mission we now have as well.

This summer, we need to live that mission together. Let’s call ourselves the Diaspora and let’s live like those who have been dispersed, that have been sent. Each week, we will focus on reflecting on something together, praying for something together, doing something and sharing our stories.
This isn’t intended to be a huge, time commitment type of deal. Sometimes we might ask you to cluster together if you can. I might challenge you to meet up in the next several days, with at least two or three other people that are part of the Diaspora, if you are near any, and pray for God’s will to be done among those you live around and then to ask him to allow you to be a part of seeing that happen.  Other times we will do other things together, still others will be focused on reflecting on who we are…

The main thing is that we are reflecting on who we really are as sons and daughters of God, praying for God to shape us and to use us to see the mission Jesus was so focused on advance in our lives. To do things together to see that happen and then to share our stories. We will need to be talking about what God is doing to encourage and challenge one another, and it helps us to stay focused on our mission as well.

Sometimes I might ask one of you to guide our reflections, prayer and challenges for a week. It can be nice to hear from others as we grow together.

First steps…
If you are in, comment back here and tell us that you are. You may have heard me share about this group if you come to [nlcf] or listen to the talks on the web. You may have just come across this on my blog or have been referred to it. You may also feel free to invite others to join our little club.  No problem.   The only thing I ask is that if you say you are in, you mean it. That isn’t to say that all of us won’t drop the ball over the course of the summer, but I feel like we can only fully realize what God would have us be this summer, if we are all dedicated to being in.  I don’t care if six people say they are in or sixty. But tell us who you are, where you are living now and what you are doing there.

Second, if you haven’t seen it before, go to iamsecond and watch any two of the testimony videos sometime over the remainder of this week. This is something I want to do each week to remind myself how much God is doing to draw people to himself, and how important our role is in that.

So… comment back and tell us you are in. Take a look at two iamsecond vids. By my next post on this we will have some scripture that we will be collectively reading to guide our reflections. Many of you already have scripture reading you are doing. My goal isn’t to stop that, just to have something that we are marinating in together.

Until then, don’t just focus on where you are, but remember whose you are.
Peace, Jim

That last part is really key.

I get razzed quite a bit for a few things in [nlcf].  I get razzed because I am functionally bald, because I am turning the corner on forty and primarily because for the last eight or nine years, I have driven a minivan.  Three of them to be exact.  Now I claim that our new Mazda 5 isn’t really a minivan – I mean, it was driven by a bad guy in 24!  But no one is buying it…

So, being the mature adult I am, I tease back and tell them that while my minivan days are on the wain, theirs haven’t even begun yet.  This is when I inevitably hear the mantra… We won’t drive one of those, we will get an SUV.

Now, realize this, I am around A LOT of people that go through the early married years transition to the been married a bit longer and now have a few kids phase.  Off the top of my head I can only think of ONE family that has stayed the We’re going to get an SUV course.  Ryan and Lisa Hartsook, you get the prize.

Most couples follow this trajectory…

I will never have a minivan

Hmm… that is kind of a sweet looking minivan

Wow, you mean you fit the stroller, the playpen (excuse me, play garden as they are now sometimes called – say what you will, it has sides, it’s a pen), the booster seats and some toys back there?

Then the final step… you mean they can’t reach each other to fight?

When that happens, hang your heads cool people, cause a minivan is coming for you!

I have recently been razzing another [nlcf] staff couple who live two doors down from us, Steve and Amy Englund.  They absolutely deny they will EVER own one.

I am not buying it.

My point in this whole rant is that, in six to ten years, this will be the Englunds.  Mark your calendars.  Steve and Amy, start saving up for your own personal Swagger Wagon…

We rock the SE not the SUV…

Our school lost.  But that isn’t important.  What is important is that the concert consisted of the Jets lip-syncing two songs and then leaving!  My point?  That is how the Westboro demonstration felt.

Please understand, I am grateful that we only had five or six protestors show up.  I am also grateful that the counter-protests at the site stayed very calm and were mostly light-hearted.  Take a look at some of the pics I have stolen from my good friend Franklin…

So, even though the Westboro turnout was low (unfortunately because several protesters shifted plans and were headed to West Virginia to protest at the site of the mine collapse), it was still upsetting.  One of the most upsetting parts was seeing the kids from Westboro holding such terrible protest signs.  Please join me in praying for the children that were a part of the Westboro protest group.  I cannot even imagine what expereinces like they are having must be shaping them.  Always having people yell back and ridicule you must only further serve to drive them deeper into the false theology and world of Westboro Baptist Church.  I am truly afraid for them.

If you are interested and able, I did a short interview with WDBJ-7 (our regional CBS affiliate).  Should be on tonight at six or 6:30.  If I can get a copy of the story I will post it here.  I primarily spoke about how they are misrepresenting the bible for their own purposes.  How they are simply now a protest organization and should be seen as such.  That I believe they no longer (if ever) deeply seek the Lord, willing to do whatever he wants them to do.  I think they find a tragedy, make a sign and then hit the road.

And so, a tough start to what for many will be a tough week begins.  Please pray for all those affected by the shootings, both here in the New River Valley and beyond.   This week, more than most, we need God’s hand to give us peace.

Jim

Virginia Tech N. Main St. & E. Roanoke St. (SW Corner) WBC to picket Virginia Tech to connect the dots. God sent the killer because of your proud sin! You raise your kids to believe they can disobey God with impunity, and that His commandments are all on the table to be disposed of whenever you please. That’s why they think fornication, adultery, and sodomy are all just in good fun (instead of the filthy practices they are), and that’s why the wrath of God is on them. God is cursing you by killing those same children that you have lied to all their lives. VA Tech was just GodSmacked — another of your students murdered — and you still refuse to heed and obey the standards of God. Woe unto you! “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…!” Isa. 5:20. You’re going to Hell, and you’re taking your kids with you.

Ahh… if it wasn’t so offensive and if it didn’t deal with such painful memories, it would almost be funny.

As the fact that they were coming has settled in, I, and many other leaders in NLCF and other local churches and ministries, have been asked what our response is going to be to the protest.  The suggestions have ranged from completely ignoring the whole deal to some things that verge on the illegal.   The question, are they accurate in their perspective of why these horrible events seem to keep happening here? is easily answered with a very loud NO. Understanding how to respond in a Christlike way to them is a bit more difficult.  We need to reflect carefully to come up with a response that blends the purity of God with the love of God.   Obviously, the best blending of qualities that we can look to is Jesus.

Three different possible responses to their protest have received the most attention, so here are my thoughts on each.

On the issue of aligning with a plan that will raise money for groups that are not specifically Christian groups.

The most widely accepted plan for responding to the Westboro protestors is to put up a table near each of their protest locations, then raise money for the groups they are protesting.  Personally I love this idea.  It takes the opportunity they are creating to produce something good.  Love it, love it, love it.

Some that I have spoken with are concerned because the groups we will be raising money for are not Christian groups.  When reflecting on an issue like this one, I think that we look to how Jesus interacted with non-Jewish people or those who weren’t following the Jewish code in his day.  Clearly those people were doing things that God didn’t want them to do, just like any of us.  But Jesus went straight for them.  Now we don’t know what jokes he laughed at when he was at the parties that earned him the label of friend of drunks, and which ones he would have turned away from, but we know that the people at those parties liked him. They sensed an acceptance from him.  To me, that is important.  I feel compelled by this to be as involved with as many groups as we can possibly be.  There are many groups that are pursuing aspects of the reality God is calling us to be a part of, they just aren’t doing it out of devotion to him.  I believe we should look to see where we can link up in cases like this, certainly there would be reasons that would make that desire impossible, but I haven’t seen anything in what we are raising money for that rises to that level in any way.

Also, the shootings were a very communally felt moment for us all.  I feel that to come together in responding to this protest is the right thing for us to do.

On the issue of concern about sending a thank-you note to Westboro Baptist Church.

An additional component of the raising money plan was to potentially send WBC a thank you note.  The note would thank them for giving us the opportunity to raise money for those groups and give them the amounts we were able to raise.  Obviously, there is a bit of sarcasm in there, and personally, I like the idea.  But I have been hearing very good points that it is an unnecessary slam on them.  That it seems cruel.

All I can say on that one is that the arguments against sending the thank you note are very solid.  Because we are cooperating with what the university’s student government is doing,  we at NLCF don’t control whether or not it is sent anyway.  Ultimately I am cool either way.  In a great book, The Humor of Jesus, many of Jesus’ puns and one liners are brought more to light.  I think Jesus took little shots here and there to make his point.  He never did it passive aggressively, he was always moving towards an overt point and the zingers were used to make the point another way.  So, I can get behind the letter as that zinger, and I can respect the opposing viewpoint.  I am cool either way.

On the issue of showing love to the protestors.

Some have suggested that if we really want to show counter-cultural love to WBC, we should seek to serve them in some way.  Give them water, food… all Ex-Lax free.  :)   Personally I love the question of how do we love them, as we are called to love our enemies, but I disagree with this way of doing it.

The more I reflect on it, the more I sense the Westboro protestors should be seen as modern-day Pharisees.  They are sporting a very false righteousness and in the process, they are almost completely missing what God is doing.  Jesus told the actual Pharisees that they picked up on some parts of truth and missed others entirely.  Very much what the WBC people are doing. So, if we look at Jesus’ response to them, he tended to express grace towards them in other ways.  As I have reflected on the gospels, I tend to notice that he goes after them in response to their accusations, their attempts at entrapment.  It doesn’t seem like he seeks these moments out so much as he responds what they are trying to do to him.  So I don’t think we should plan to go after them verbally or otherwise.

While I like the concept of handing out water to them, and LOVE the fact that the question of how do we love our enemies in this context is being asked, I would suggest we not do that.  One reason is that Jesus’ strongest words seemed to be reserved for those who were misrepresenting the truth about God.  People that should know better.  He said it would be better to tie a stone around your neck and drown yourself than intentionally mislead people about the faith.  He called the Pharisees one of the most unclean things they would have known in their day.  He referred to them as nicely painted tombs,  places where bodies were decaying. His point was that they way they were calling others to be clean rendered them unclean.  They were focusing on an outward show and missing the centrality of inward humility and faith.  Strong stuff.

One thing we need to understand is, that was grace.  Jesus was showing them grace by speaking very directly to what was warring against their souls. Hatred and arrogance like the Pharisees and the WBC folks demonstrate is not neutral to your heart, it tears them apart.  Exposing that for what it is, is love.  I think the other way Jesus showed grace was by allowing anyone (for example Nicodemus,) to come and be helped.  He didn’t say, “You are one of them, get out of here!”  He would allow ANYONE to come to him if they came with a heart of humility. That is why you see him talking to prostitutes, alcoholics, blue collar workers, white collar workers, people from the lowest strata in society to the very highest, and also to Pharisees.

But, if you challenged him in arrogance, whatever you were: a rich young ruler, a scribe, or one of his own brothers, you got the challenge right back.

Jesus also had very challenging words for those who used the power they had been given wrongly.  He truly cares about how we use the power that is available to us.  I don’t believe that the Westboro protesters seek God in faith and humility before they decide to protest every site they travel to.   And I don’t think they would be willing to speak to those they have hurt with any sense of godly love.

I believe they have become what they claim to be against.  I believe they have become a protest organization that claims it speaks on behalf of God, whether he would have them speak or not.  They are not open to being in community with other churches and they are not willing to submit to the broader body of Christ.  I believe they protest simply because that is what they do.  I feel that they have become a protest organization.

The way I think this works out is like this…  We don’t come with water or any other affirming gesture, or with aggressive posturing.  If any of the WBC people show a desire to speak or come to us in humility and honesty, we should be prepared to respond with love.  If anyone else in the crowd begins to attack them, if the police aren’t there, we defend the Westboro people.  We pray for them in faith that God is capable of showing them the error in what they are doing.

It would also do us well to make sure that we aren’t the same type of person that they are.  Are we willing to allow others to speak to the deep parts of our lives?  Are we willing to allow others to show us how our lives could more reflect the love and life of Christ?

God, please be with us as we go through this.

Jim