The Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, The Sin of America, The Sin of You and Me

I was just reading Luke 17 and came across something that I have read several times.  Today it hit me what this scripture said about Sodom and Gomorrah and what it did not say.

You remember Sodom and Gommorah, right?  If we traveled back in the Bible to Genesis, chapters 18 and 19, we would see that God has decided to destroy these two cities.  He says that the outcry against these two cities is too great for Him to ignore it.  Abraham begs Godnot to on behalf of his nephew, Lot.  He and God bargain for a little bit, but there is no saving these cities.  Angels of God go down and rescue Lot and his family.  As they travel away from the city, fire and brimstone rain down on those two cities.  Lot’s wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt.

Now, what is the first thing that comes to your mind about why God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?  Might it have something connected to the word Sodom?  Probably so.  That is usually what has always come to my mind as well.  I have always thought that God destroyed these two cities because of the pervasive homosexual lifestyle that was prevalent.  The text certainly seems to indicate that this particular lifestyle was spread throughout the cities.

Now, let’s flash forward several hundred years to Luke 17.  Jesus is discussing His second coming.  He mentions that prior to the Flood of Noah’s day, people were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage.  Then He says something funny.  He says that same thing was going on during the day of Lot.  They were eating.  Drinking.  Buying.  Selling.  Planting.  Building.  And that on the day Lot left, fire and brimstone from heaven destroyed them. 

Did you catch that?  Did you catch what Jesus says was going on?  And did you catch that He did not say what we would think He would say was going on.  He did not say that rampant homosexuality was going on.  Of course, that is not to say that it was not going on.  He just did not mention it when talking about those cities destruction. 

I saw that and did a double take.   Why did Jesus not mention what most of us take as the reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah?

Maybe I know.  Maybe I do not.  But it is something that I have been pondering for the last little bit since it hit me.  And here is why I think Jesus did not mention it.

Homosexuality was not the main reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now, please do not misunderstand me.  I do not believe God was happy with the sin of homosexuality that was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah.  I believe that homosexuality was A reason that God destroyed those cities.  Just not the main reason.  Let me explain.

Notice what Jesus said.  Life was just kind of happening.  Eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting, and building.  Those things seem to have been going on before the Flood as well.  Life was happening.  Everyone was going about their business.  Just normal everyday life.  Except for this.  This is the thing that I think resulted in Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed.  I think it is also why homosexuality became a part of their culture.  I think it was because the people of Sodom and Gomorroah, just like the people before the Flood, gave no thought to God.  I do not think that God was included in one part of their lives.

I believe that lives that do not include one thought or do not include God in their lives result in lives that are lived for the seeking of pleasure only for themselves.

I think this is what is happening here in America.  And elsewhere in the world.  People are living lives without giving God a thought.  People are living lives that do not include Christ.  People are living lives where they are seeking only their pleasure.  People are living lives that are similar to those of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

For Sodom and Gomorrah, this resulted in the sin of homosexuality.  For others, it might be adultery.  Or lust.  Or gossip.  Or gluttony.  Or jealousy.  Or covetousness.  Or greed.  You name it.  Without God, without Christ, you will have a life that includes one or many of these things.

That is the sin fo Sodom and Gomorrah.  That is the sin of America.  That could be the sin of you and me.

So This Is Christmas

You would have to be living in a cave or on the moon to not know that we are nearing Christmas.  Christmas is much more than a day these days.  It is a season that almost begins at the first of November and runs until New Year.  There are so many opinions of what goes on during Christmas these days.  I’m going to go ahead and state mine.

Let’s start with the obvious.  We celebrate the birth of Christ during the Christmas season.  Anyone who wants to study a little and really put forth an effort can tell you that Christ was not born anywhere near December 25.  I know that  pagans originally celebrated other festivals during this time period.  I know that we have no mandate from the Bible to celebrate Christ’s birth.  I understand that the central point of our faith is the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord.  However, there would not be a death, burial and resurrection with the birth.  So let’s pause during this time and celebrate what the birth of Christ was bringing to us and to the world.  Grace.  Peace.  Mercy.  Forgiveness.  Salvation.

Next, let’s think about the Christmas tree.  There has been a lot of controversy over the Christmas tree in history.  One pastor in 1851 was condemned of pagan practices for putting up a Christmas tree and decorating it.  Most likely it had its origins in pageants and festivals in Germany during the Middle Ages.  Regardless, when I look at the Christmas tree, whether a cedar, spruce or other evergreen, I think of the work of Christ in removing the curse from the world.  Granted we have not seen the full result of His work, but we certainly have the promise that it will happen.

When I see the lights at Christmas, whether on the tree or on houses, I think of how Christ described Himself.  He said, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”  The world may just see pretty lights.  I see reminders of Who the Light really is.

Most of us will receive gifts and presents this Christmas.  It is wonderful to give people something because you care about them and love them.  It is wonderful to receive something for the same reason.  We received the greatest gift of all when Christ was born.  We received our King.  He came, lived, died, was buried and was resurrected.  He gave us the gift of life.  He gave us the give of grace.  He gave us the gift of mercy.  When I see all of the presents, I think of His great gift.

When I hear someone say, “Merry Christmas!” to me, I join them because of the joy I have received through Christ.  When I hear someone say, “Happy Holidays!”, I join them because I am happy in Christ and the holiday I celebrate is based on Christ.  When someone says to me, “Season’s Greetings!”, I join them because the season I am participating in is based on Christ.

So this is Christmas.  I hope you have a wonderful one.  I plan to.

Death and Dust

I mentioned in my last post that the Jehovah Witnesses came by the other day.  One of their objectives was to tell me their doctrines about life after death.  As so often happens, some of the best answers I could think of came after they left.  So, here is what I wished I had said when they brought this subject up.

While they never said it quite this way, Jehovah Witnesses do not believe in life after death for those who are not believers.  The only true believers are, of course, Jehovah Witnesses.  They believe that non-believers simply cease to exist.  The particular person on my doorstep explained it that when God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate from the tree in the Garden, He meant that they would return to the dust and cease to exist.  He said that when Satan told Eve that she would be like God if she ate, that this was a great lie that we all still believe today.  I asked him if he meant that people are simply annihilated when they die.  He said yes.  Things got very interesting at that point.

I asked this gentleman about the story Jesus told of Lazarus and the rich man.  He explained this away by saying that this was just a parable that Jesus made up to explain the truth he was trying to get at.  He went as far to say that the rich man represented the Pharisees.  When the rich man asked for a drop of water and for permission to go tell his brothers that what was really being communicated was that the Pharisees had watered down the truth.

On the other hand, I happen to think that Jesus was relaying a true life event that He has witnessed in order to communicate the reality of life after death.  Another thought I thought of later was how did the other Lazarus come back to life?  I imagine they can explain that one away too.

Something I wish I had asked them about was Ephesians 2:1.  Here Paul says that before Christ we were all dead in our trespasses.  Were dead.  Past tense.  Meaning that now we are not dead in our trespasses.  Which seems to indicate that we are alive.  Which again seems to indicate that when God told Adam and Eve they would die, there was more to it than just a physical death.

Some other Biblical reasons to not buy this thought from the JW’s are a couple of other things Paul says.  Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ.  This would run counter to their claim that when a man dies he essentially lies in an unconscious state until he is resurrected.  I don’t about you, but this would run counter to Paul’s argument that to die is gain.  I don’t think Paul would have been looking forward to death if the result was going to be an unconscious state.

There is much to commend the Jehovah Witnesses.  They are certainly more dedicated to their beliefs than many people who claim Christ.  However, their beliefs do not match what I see as the truth in the Bible.

The Central Question

Last Saturday some Jehovah Witnesses came by the house.  I’m just going to admit it right off.  I blew it.  Not because I let them get the best of me.  Not because they proved to me that they were right and I was wrong.  No it was because I didn’t ask them the one question I should have.  The most important question.  The central question.

Who is Jesus?

I don’t know why I did not get around to asking them.  The simplest answer is that they got me off on some other issues and I did not think to come back to this central question.  I think this is the mistake that many or any of us can make when dealing with the JW’s.  They want us to focus on what they consider errors in our Christian churches.  That is mistake I made.

Here is what the JW’s believe about Jesus.  They believe that He was the first created being.  They believe that He then created everthing else.  They believe He existed as the angel Michael before his being born in His earthly body.  They believe Jesus was killed on a stake rather than a cross and consider any likeness of Jesus on the cross as idol worship.

One of the  scriptural arguments that the JW’s make is from John 1:1.  The translators of their scriptures add the article a and say that the Word (Jesus) “was a god.”  Our Christian scriptures sayt hat the Word “was God.”

I have taken basic Greek, so I cannot say that I am an expert.  But I do know that the Greek does not contain this article.  This is inserted outside of the Greek text.  What the Greek  text does say is that the Word and God are equal and share the same attributes.

The bottom line is that the JW’s and we Christians will answer the central question differently.  The JW’s will say that Jesus is a created being.  We say that Jesus is the Creator.  How we answer this central quesiton is the most important answer we can give in our life no matter who we are.

Number 100

Wow!!!  I have written 100 of the little blog entries.  I want to take just a little bit of time to reflect upon these first 100 and then look forward to where I may be heading in the future.

Let me say that I really wanted to write for a long time, but never would sit down and do it.  Until I figure out that there was such a thing as a blog, I would just kind of dream about it.  It makes me wish that I had taken writing and my English classess a little more serious in high school and college.  Now, I cannot imagine NOT sitting down and blasting out my thoughts in written format.

Looking back, I have various emotions over what I have written.  There are some that I really like.  I am quite fond of several of these musing of mine.  There are some that, quite honestly, I wish I had never written.  Some of them were not written with the best frame of mind.  Some of the things I have written do not even square up with what I really believe.  I may have wanted to take a certain position in writing that is actually opposite of what I really believe just to see if I could write from outside of what I really, truly believe.  Sometimes what I have actually done is think while I am writing and maybe I have moved on beyond certain thoughts or ideas.

Going forward, I plan to continue doing this.  I have plenty of material coming up.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses came by the other day and I can easily fill up five to ten just out of that visit.  Christmas is here, so should I write something about Christmas.  Do I always have to write about faith?  I have written a personal one or two that have more to do with who I am that the faith I follow.  Should I talk about my passion for the University of Tennessee sports?  How about the Tour de France next year?  How about my fitness goals for the coming year?  I gave up caffeine over the last few weeks.  What other changes will I make?  And doesanyone really care.

Thanks for taking the time to read some of these musings.  Comment and debate with me.  That helps me formulate my thoughts.

Come back.

Feed Yourself

My friend and co-worker, David, made a statement recently about someone he knows. This persona was unhappy in their particular church situation. He believed that he was not being fed. From what I gathered, he was frustrated about this and prayed about it. The answer he seemed to feel in his spirit was this: “You’re a big boy. Feed yourself.” Quite honestly, I understand this person’s feelings. I think we all do. We have all been in situations where we might not have been fed. We may use that excuse for any number of things including, but not limited to, finding another church. We might feel like we are not being fed. We let that feeling grow within us. We grow bitter and disappointed. Ultimately this affects our maturity in the Lord and relationship with Christ. What is the answer? I think we can find it in John 6.

In this chapter, Jesus feeds the multitudes. He begins with five loaves and two fish. He ends with twelve baskets full. In between, everyone eats their fill. Jesus goes off by himself because the people seem to want to make Him king. The disciples hop in a boat and go to the other side. A storm comes and scares the disciples. Jesus calmly walks across the water, tells the disciples, “It is I.”, and calms the storm.

The next day the people realize Jesus is not there, so they find Jesus and the disciples on the other side. Jesus tells them that what they really want is to continue to have their bellies filled. They want Jesus to satisfy their need. Jesus responds by saying, “I am the Bread that has come out of heaven.” What Jesus is telling these folks, I think, is this. He is saying that yes, He gave them something to eat, but that is not what He is all about. He is saying that yes, He is their King, but not in they way they imaging or want. He is not just a belly filling Kings. He is not about doing something for them. He is about being something for them. His followers will not just hunger and thirst for food and water. They will hunger and thirst for righteousness. He will be the Living Water that quenches their souls thirst. He will be the Bread that satifies their souls hungers. Nothing else will do.

 This is not much different that what He told the woman at the well. He told her that He had this Living Water so that she would never thirst again. It’s not much different from what He told Nicodemus. He told Nic that he had to be born again, not of the flesh or water, but of the Spirit. We must be born again, drink of the Living Water, eat of the Bread of Life. Nothing else will do. Not the first birth. Not water from a well. Not even the miraculous food that comes from five loaves and two fish.

So to any of you who, like my friend’s friend, who feel like they need to be fed, listen to what I have to say. Why? Because I feel that way sometimes. For those of you who feel like they need to feed themselves, here is what I have to say. Jesus is the source for everything you hunger and thirst for. Drink deep of His Living Water. Eat your fill of His Bread of Life. That is the only way for you to be truly satisfied.

What’s John All About?

Something I do from May through October is lead a worship service at a local campground.  It is one of the most enjoyable things I do.  The reason is that these people are on vacation, but they want to take their time to gather together with fellow believers and look at God’s word.

I did something different this year.  I began the year in John chapter 1 and just kept going each week.  I made it through the first 5 chapters.  In the spirit of John Calvin I’m going to pick back up with chapter 6 next year. (John Calvin was preaching verse by verse when he was exiled from Geneva.  Three years later he came back and picked back up where he was when he left.)

I’ve spent much of the last year just reading and looking at what John has to say in his gospel.  What I came to realize is that through it all, he has one basic point.  He even tells us what that is.  I never really got it, but if you spend most of your time looking at a fish you will see all kinds of details.

John, near the end of his gospel, tell us that he has written these things so that we, the reader, will believe and live.  Check it out.  It’s in John 20:31.  John’s aim is that we will believe in Jesus Christ and obtain the life that this belief brings.

This belief that brings life is what John is talking about when he writes that Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again.  This belief that brings life is what John is talking about when he writes that Jesus tells the woman at the well that He has Living Water for her to drink so that she will never thirst again.  When Jesus deals with individuals, belief in Him brings life.

Reading and studying John with this thought in mind over the past few mnths has had an impact on what I think about evangelism.  What?  You believe in evangelism?  Indeed, I do.  Just as I believe in the sovereignty of God.  Evangelism is the vehicle in how God reaches people.  However, I view a little differently now.

Let me give you a couple of examples of people trying to evangelize me in the past.  Well meaning example, of course.  The first was when I was in high school.  A pastor’s daughter sat next to me in a class.  She passed me a note.  In the note she asked me if I was a Christian.  My reply was that, yes, I was saved.  I had walked down the aisle at a revival, been saved and was baptized.  End of discussion.  At that time I was no more saved that the man in the moon.

Another time, after I actually had become a follower of Christ, a man approached me.  Andrew, my son, had just been born a few hours before.  I was looking at him in the nursery at the hospital.  This man began talking to me about my son.  Suddenly, like a machine gun, he rapidly fired this question: Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?  Stunned, I replied yes.  Even more stunned, I watched him move on, looking for someone else to “witness” to.

Quite honestly, I’ve been a part of my fair share of evangelizing that is similar to these episodes.  And here is what I wish I had done instead.  I wish I had approached those people and said, “I love you.  I care about you.  I want you to live.  The way to do that is to believe in Christ.  Not just believe He existed.  But believe in who He is.”

To do that you really have to dig in and get to know people.  You can’t just approach strangers or pass notes or show up on someone’s doorstep because it’s the time your church has set aside for visitation.  You have to establish some relationships with people.

On top of that, you have to have the belief and life that John is writing about.

This One’s Hard

I want to get personal for a minute.  Not personal for you, but personal for me.  I have this problem and I really just realized that it’s been happening most of my life.

When I was young, about 12 or 13, this really bad thing happened.  My mom got sick and it affected my life and my family’s life.  I didn’t really know how to deal with it, so I just kept it inside.  To a big degree, I just ignored it.  I didn’t really talk about it with anyone.  I just kind of shut down about it, compartmentalized it and went on.  I remember bits and pieces, but for the most part, I don’t remember much about it.

After a while I thought I was over it and that part of my life was over.  Everything was hunkdory.  Except it wasn’t.

Around 1997 or 1998, my grandpa got sick.  He slowly deteriorated until he finally died about a month after my son, Andrew, was born.  Here is the sad thing.  I didn’t even know what he died of.  A few years later my dad mentioned what it was and it was like I didn’t even know.  And here’s why.  I just kind of shut it down while it was happening.  I compartmentalized it.  I ignored it and moved on.  And I barely remember anything about it today.

Just a few years ago, my grandma got sick.  And as I look back, I realize that I did the same thing.  I compartmentalized it.  I ignored it.  And I barely remember it.

Now, my mom is sick.  And I find myself doing the same thing.  Trust me I don’t want to.  But I find myself having these, well, the best word for is panic attacks.  I don’t know how to describe it.  But I can’t pick up the phone.  I can’t talk to her.  I can’t talk to my parents about it.  I can’t talk to my sister about it.  Jan knows.  But it scares me.  I’m afraid that 10 years from now, I won’t remember any of this.

Please don’t beat me up about it.  I do enough of that myself.  Please don’t tell me it will be ok.  I know you mean well, but that doesn’t really help me.  Please don’t tell me to get over it.  That doesn’t work so well either.  I’m embarassed and ashamed enough about this.

I’m thinking that I might need to talk to somebody it to help me and give me some pointers on how to overcome about 30 years of behavior that I don’t particularly like.  I know that I don’t want this to continue.  I don’t want this to be the way I act now or if something happens to my dad or my sister or Jan or the kids.  I’ve got to find some way to overcome this.

Thanks for listening.

5 Reasons Churches Should Add More Services

Two of my last couple of posts were reasons why a church should cancel their Sunday morning or their Sunday night services.  Today I’m going in the opposite direction.  I want to give you 5 reasons why a church should add more services.  These 5 are in no particular order.

1.  Strong pastoral leadership.  Here a pastor is modeling the life all of  his congregation should live.  Is he perfect in it?  Obviously not.  But he is loving God with all he’s got.  He is loving his people with all he’s got.  He is not afraid to admit that he doesn’t have all the answers.  When someone in the church is hurting, he is hurting with them.  He is spending time with his people.  They know that he cares for and loves them.  He builds credibility with them, to the point where he can say the hard things to them and he is able to maintain the relationship.  He protects them as a shepherd protects his sheep.

2.  Strong preaching.  This does not mean speaking loud and stomping around.  I have heard preachers who did this and then heard someone proclaim that they really preached that day.  What I mean is that they preach the whole counsel of God.  You can tell that they have spent time with God and the text they are preaching.  They give you the context of the passage.  They give you the meaning of the text.  They give you an application.  Most importantly, they have led you in worship during their proclamation.  They have magnified, glorified and honored God.  They haven’t given you some homily or self-help platitudes.  They haven’t just given you some powerful points that will help your life.   They have helped you meet God within the scripture.

3.  Strong people.  I believe that if you have strong pastoral leadership and strong preaching that each come from biblical authority, you will end up with strong people.  People who are not coming to church to be entertained by the song service or that sit there expecting the preacher to wow them with his oratorical skills.  No, they are participants along with the choir and the preacher for the true audience, God Himself.  They will join themselves with those leading the service in worshipping the Creator of the universe.  They will be like the Bereans, who carefully listened to Paul and made sure that what he was saying matched scripture.  They are not simply passive participants.

4.  Strong priorties.  Let’s face it.  We all have many things competing for our attention.  Most of us work.  I usually get my 45 to 50 hours, depending on the week.  If we have children, there are many things they are involved in.  If most are like mine, there is plenty of homework going on.  There are plenty of chores to do.  I don’t get them all done during the evening hours.  They spill over into Saturday.  Many of my Saturdays are taken up with various projects.  Throw in any number of other things that are going on and little time is left.  One of the greatest illustrations of the need for priorities is found in various forms.  Take a jar.  Put good sized rocks in it.  These are the important things.  Put smaller gravel and pebble in next.  These are less important.Then put sand in.   Even less important. The jar is full.   Then take water and pour in.  If you had done this the opposite way, what you put in would not fit.  Another variation is a cup of coffee to share with friends.  That one doesn’t work for me since I don’t drink coffee, but you get the point.  For us who follow Christ, He will be our priority.  The biggest rock.  “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

5.  Strong pursuits and passions.  Christ said that we should seek first the kingdom of God.  Psalm 37 says to delight ourselves in the Lord.  When we do that, when we make God our pursuit, when we make Christ our passion, everything else falls into to place.  Our goals.  Our dreams.  Our priorities.  Our desires.

If these 5 things were found in our churches, how incredible would be what happens?  The three normal services we have at our church would not be enough.  We might return to the days when Luther and Calvin were producing sermons each day.  Our people would be gathering corporately.  Our people would gather together in small groups during the week to worship, study, fellowship, pray and go on mission together.  Christ would be seen in our lives and in our churches.

Who Would Be My Pallbearers?

I read something recently about a man that is called to full-time ministry.  He asked his wife who his pallbearers would be if he died.  When they sat down to list them, they could not really do it except for a couple of people.  This list did not include his brothers, who would have to show up to his funeral anyway.

This gave me great pause as I thought about the question myself.  When it came down to it, I could think of maybe two right off the bat.  Don’t get me wrong.  I know plenty of people.  I’m talking about those guys who I have been through it with.  Guys who I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I can count on.  I’m talking about those guys that I am close to.

None of them go to my church.  None of them are from the town I live in.  Well, there is one guy at my church that I am closer to than the others.  He and I get along well, but I can’t say that we are especially close.  And no offense to him, but his age will probably be a factor when I die.  That is not to disparage any of the other guys at my church or in my town.  It’s just that I am not close to them.  I don’t know if that will change or not.  I’ve lived here for seven years now.  I’ve been in my church and taught Sunday school basically for longer than that.  But would I call on them?  Would I want my wife to call on them?  Not based on anything that has gone on before or is going on now.

I left my town for a year and moved to another state.  One man in my church told me to let him know if I ever needed any help.  The thing is, though, that I never spent enough time with this man, nor he with me, to make me comfortable asking for help during that difficult year.  It takes being pretty close to someone to actually ask them for help.

Much of this idea hit me pretty hard this year.  Last winter I went to the funeral home.  I realized a couple of guys in my Sunday school class  were much closer than I realized.  I realized that I am not close like that with anyone in my church.  I saw it again this past Sunday.  Several people in my Sunday school class were absent.  The other folks that were there knew where everyone else was.  I had no clue where any of them were.

How does this make me feel?  Lousy.  As I examine my life, I realize that growing up I didn’t have any close friends.  As a teenager I didn’t.  I had a couple during my late teens, but we drifted apart.  I have had one or two here or there since, but we have always drifted apart.

I have a couple of choices.  I just accept it and go the rest of my life without having close friendships in my church.  I can just maintain the one or two friends that I feel would be my pallbearers now.

Or can I start trying to build friendships and invest myself in friendships with other guys like Christ would and did.

After all, I’m going to need some pallbearers someday.