At The Gathering, we are in the middle of a series on Covenant.  One of the basic covenantal institutions in life is marriage.

If you are married or think you ever will be and hope you’ll never be divorced, this is a very important short, 5 minute video for you to watch.  Timothy Keller, John Piper and D.A. Carson talk of the importance of emphasizing covenant for a healthy marriage.

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A study in temptation and delayed gratification.  Of course, since delayed gratification doesn’t really exist in our society, a definition of the term might be in order. 

So, what would YOU do?

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In the opening of Isaiah, God says something that, to me, is astounding.  He calls the readers to do something that sounds, well, unreasonable.  He says, “Come now, let us reason together.”  Crazy, right?  No, think about it:  The sovereign Lord of all that is, who created by the power of His Word, who controls all that ever was, who speaks and no one can respond, who, with the power of a thought can build up or destroy, whose ways are higher and thoughts deeper than anything that could compare, calls us to reason with Him.

Be Reasonable

Here’s the backstory: The Father has just laid out a grievance against Judah, that they have come to Him with acts of worship, but filthy hands and hearts.  Rhetorically, He has asked them where they got such an idea.  Do you think I like this?  Has anyone told you to do this and act this way towards me?  Do you think I’m stupid?  Did I say that I like for you to make a mockery of worship? (Yeah, a little bit of paraphrasing there). He then tells them what He wants them to do (which we’ll get to in a minute) then calls for them to be reasonable in their response.  Look at how He lays this out (so easily a baby could just about reason through this):

1. Your sins are disgusting   —->  they’ll be cleansed like snow.

2. If you’re willing and obedient  —->  I’ll bless your socks off.

3. If you refuse and rebel  —->  you’ll lose your socks. (look how strongly the Lord states this:  “you shall be eaten by the sword.” Gives the idea of complete consumption/destruction, no?).

4. I said it. That’s it. No other options. (“…the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”)

Simple, right?  So, the reasonable response is……?  Of course, any reasonable person would do what God says.  OK, so…..do we?  Do you? 

What God Said

Isaiah 1: 6-7 tells us what we’re to do that, in doing so, will lead to the blessings of God:

1.  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil. 

2. Learn to do good. (personal experience - it is a process.)

3. Seek justice.

4. Correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

So this is what God said. Now, what did He mean?

In summary, He tells us to separate ourselves from sin (repent) and do works in keeping with repentance. These were the words of John the Baptist in Matthew 3:8. 

How does it work?  Simple.  In our context (A.D.), it is coming to terms with the blood sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, who, having made peace with the Father on our behalf (that is, since He was pure and had no need to have His own sins purified, He could, in perfection, stand in and trade His purity for our impurity by dying the death we deserved, bearing the penalty of sin for us, absorbing the wrath of God towards sin so we don’t have to eternally and then rising from the dead so that Death is defeated forever), and repenting. That’s the “Gospel” or Good News in a nutshell.  In my opinion, when you think of what’s at stake and what is gained, “good news” is an understatement!

The repenting part is the application of Christ’s pardon on our lives. If I don’t repent, I don’t get the benefit.  It’s like getting a coupon for a free meal at a restaurant:  Somebody is paying for that meal, though I get it for free. However, I actually need to redeem the coupon in order to receive the meal.  Repentance (that involves not only being sorrowful over sin, but actually turning away from that sin and believing what Christ has done) is that act of faith where I believe “the meal” has been paid for and is mine for the enjoying.

Now the rest is the outflow of what has flowed in.  Christ has given me salvation, called me to Himself, broken me over my sin, applied the ointment of healing through forgiveness as I repent, and sealed my soul for eternity with Him. Now, if that is real, I see the world differently:

• I see injustice and I want to fix it.
• I see people hurting and I want to help them.
• I see people broken and I want to heal them.
• I see people lonely and I want to comfort them.
• I see people treated badly and I want to defend them.

Though I may have been blinded to these things before, being absorbed by my selfishness, empty religion, or short-sightedness, now Christ has given my His own eyes. I begin to see the world as He sees it and want to doing something about it. This is a natural process brought about by the indwelling Spirit of God (note: many people do these things who are not followers of Christ…keep reading).  

So, a couple of questions:

1.  What is your attitude towards sin?

2.  What is your relation to Jesus?

3.  What is the condition of your soul?

4.  How do you see the world?

5.  What are you doing about it?

Doing “justice” for the sake of justice may be noble (and many people are doing just that), but if not prompted as a natural result of what Christ has done in your life, it is ultimately meaningless.  You can make a hungry person full for a while but they’ll hunger again.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, however, will change the world (and you) both now and for eternity.

If you’d like to explore this Good News further, shoot me a message.

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Every. Decision. Matters. 

I posted that phrase earlier on my Facebook page and started thinking about it more.  Do you realize the truth of this?  I’m not sure any of us do.  I think we feel like many of our choices are essentially in a vacuum.  I don’t know that that’s ever true.

Usually, even the small choices we make have some kind of affect on any number of other people in our lives…even the insignificant ones (choices, not people).  Even if the choice seems as if it will only affect us, think about how many people YOU affect.  So, if a decision affects you, it in some way, small or large, changes you, therefore, impacting how you interact with those people with whom you have influence.  Make sense?

Reading some of the stories surrounding the sex scandal at Penn State brings that point home so clearly.  While this assistant coach is the one who did the dirty deed (understatement!!), look at how far reaching it’s impact is, to the point that the storied career of famed coach Joe Paterno will probably come to an abrupt and tarnished end very soon.  This wasn’t his choice.  Or was it? 

If the accounts are to be believed (and it’s hard to see how they aren’t), Paterno had knowledge of at least some of what was going on.  Did he report it?  Seems so.  Did he stop it?  Apparently not.  He made a choice…a decision, and that decision will probably cost him his career.  Worse, though, that decision led to the ongoing abuse of kids who desperately needed his help.  He chose to look the other way for reasons we can only guess, but are probably pretty evident.  He chose…poorly. 

Every decision really does matter.

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Yesterday, for Orphan Sunday, we had the privilege of hearing J.T. Olson speak at The Gathering about Both Hands Ministry. Take 16 minutes and educate yourself on this amazing ministry.

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Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney denied that Obama had perhaps gone too far by dragging the Almighty into a fierce political spat.
 
“I believe that the phrase from the Bible is ‘the Lord helps those who help themselves,’” Carney said.
 
“I think the point the president is making is that, you know, we have it within our capacity to do the things to help the American people.”
The White House was later forced to clarify however that the phrase Carney used, though often mistaken for scripture, was not in fact biblical.

I wish politicians would just stick to politics.  Or at least actually read the Bible before {mis-}quoting it.

Source: Yahoo! News article: Obama: God backs jobs plan

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Just discovered a little tidbit about one of the scariest “Halloween” movies of all time, The Exorcist.  Turns out it was never intended to be a horror story (Wha?! No, really.) but a story to encourage faith in God.  Seriously.  Here’s what the author, William Peter Blatty, said in his own words:

[T]he humiliating God’s-honest truth of the matter is that while I was working on “The Exorcist,” what I thought I was writing was a novel of faith in the popular dress of a thrilling and suspenseful detective story – in other words, a sermon that no one could possibly sleep through — and to this day I haven’t the faintest recollection of any intention to frighten the reader, which many will take, I suppose, as an admission of failure on an almost stupefying, scale. 

Yeah, well, intentional or not, he did scare the Linda Blair out of all of us…that is, if you saw it, which…of course…I never did. ahem.

Blatty went on to explain the motivation behind the madness by saying that, though he participates in the fun aspect of Halloween, he really wishes more people would get it.

Oh well, sure: every year on the date I put out the pumpkin with the cutout eyes and nose and face and the basket full of Snickers and Mars Bars beside it; but I do keep wishing – oh, ever so wistfully and – let’s face it, hopelessly – that “The Exorcist” be remembered at this time of the year for being not about shivers but rather about souls, for then it would indeed be in the real and true spirit of Halloween, which is short for the eve of All Hallows or All Saints Day. 

It seemed to all start for Blatty while in college at Georgetown, hearing about a real account of demon posession, decided that, “Someday, somebody’s got to write about this, because if an investigation were to prove that possession is real, what a help it would be to the struggling faith of possibly millions, for if there were demons, I reasoned, then why not angels? Why not God?”

I have to admit that there is a great deal of nobility in that desire, though, as Blatty himself has admitted, it didn’t seem to work. Nevertheless, for those of us who have an understanding that the greatest reality is the one we cannot see (yet!) with out eyes, we know that demons are, indeed, real, but that more powerful than even the strongest demonic spirit is the almighty God that Blatty was trying to encourage people to consider.  Even so, I am thankful that I can declare that “He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) What a great comfort whether I’m watching a movie about the reality of demons or experiencing the results of their work in the world around me, I need not fear…Christ is enough.

Happy Reformation Day! ;-)

Full article here.

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If you’ve posted a note on one of my posts and I’ve not responded, I’m sorry but, like many other users, I can only see that I HAVE notes but can’t actually see them.  If someone knows how to fix this, I’d appreciate you letting me know how. 

Just don’t put it in a note.

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Rarely do I teach a class or deliver a message that hasn’t already penetrated my soul and taught me first.  I think that the only way a message is really exceptional is if the Holy Spirit has brought the hammer down first in the teacher/preacher’s life so that the passion can come from a place of real, deep conviction.

Last night, however, as I taught on really believing the Gospel (*see below for explanation of “Gospel”), the real weight of that came at that point and later as I reflected on it more and more.

I taught about how we say we believe the Gospel and and we do a lot of things that would be considered right for a disciple to do and yet it seems we tend to battle with the same surface sins over and over.  Why is that?  I say surface sins because those are the ones that we can see.  However, usually the surface sins indicate something much deeper: what Bob Thune and Will Walker, authors of The Gospel-Centered Life, call “Idols of the heart”.

Here’s the example we looked at last night - gossip.  Everybody knows when they gossip, right?…usually.  Anyway, so we realize we’re gossiping and so we feel convicted by it and repent.  Then we run along and gossip somewhere else. Doh! Why can’t we break that?! What’s going on that I keep gossiping when I know it’s wrong and don’t really want to (or do I?)

The question we explored last night was, “Why do we gossip?”  Here are some reasons suggested by the above-mentioned authors listed as “heart idols”:

• »  The idol of approval (I want the approval of the people I’m talking to)

• »  The idol of control (Using gossip as a way to manipulate/control others)

• »  The idol of reputation (I want to feel important, so I cut some-one else down verbally)

• »  The idol of success (Someone is succeeding—and I’m not—so I gossip about him)

• »  The idol of security (Talking about others masks my own in- security)

• »  The idol of pleasure (Someone else is enjoying life—and I’m not—so I attack her)

• »  The idol of knowledge (Talking about people is a way of show- ing I know more)

• »  The idol of recognition (Talking about others gets people to notice me)

• »  The idol of respect (That person disrespected me, so I’m going to disrespect him)

What’s the problem?  I haven’t really believed the Gospel to the point that I don’t need these idols to make me feel successful, validated, accepted, respected, etc.  I haven’t realized that IN CHRIST, I am complete so that my validation, acceptance, respect and on and on are found in and completed in HIM.  I don’t need to serve and/or be held captive by these idols IF I TRULY BELIEVE THE GOSPEL and so I am freed from fear, anxiety, low self-image and all the other deep-seeded problems that are MANIFESTED through actions like gossip, lying, etc.  Make sense? 

So, I’m left with the question of whether or not I truly BELIEVE the Gospel.  If so, it should have an absolutely RADICAL affect on my entire life.  As we said last night, my whole life and everything in it should be leveraged for the sake of the Kingdom of God. That includes my family, my stuff, my money…everything.

Are you content to give lip-service to your “belief” in the Gospel of Christ?  Do you feel the same level of conviction I’ve felt?  If so, it’s time to do some spelunking of the soul and figure out what idols are living why down deep in caves and crevices of your heart.  Ask God to shine the helmet light on them and start breaking them down.  Clear them out! Be free from fear, depression, anxiety, anger and all the other manifestations that come with failing to believe in the deliverance and power of the Gospel. 

Am I minimizing or over-simplifying deliverance from things like depression, anger, etc? Absolutely not! Many, if not most of these things require some help both in identifying and removing them.  Seek Godly, qualified help and accountability if you are wrapped up in these things, but I encourage you to follow my example on this and start addressing it today. Stop saying you believe the Gospel but living as if you’ve never even heard it.

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* In this post, I am referring to the Gospel (which literally means “Good News”) as the revealed message of the work of Jesus Christ to bear the wrath of a just God towards sin and, thus, serve as a substitute for sinners in order that they can then be at peace with God, having been cleansed and adopted by God Himself. The only proper response to hearing the Gospel is to believe it and repent of the sins that evoked the wrath of God and precipitated the sacrificial death of Christ.  For more information on the Gospel, feel free to email me.

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Yesterday, I taught on Letting Marriage Be Held in Honor from Hebrews 13:4.  If you want to hear that message, visit our audio page here.

One area I didn’t cover I want to talk a little about here because it deals with one of the most prevalent practices in modern Western culture: Cohabitating.

OK, just turned a large segment of the population away right there.  That’s cool. For the two of your who do choose to finish reading this, I do want to say that I’m not approaching this from a moralistic perspective or even, necessarily, a biblical one right now.  I want to share some scientific info that you should at least have so that you can make informed decisions in your “present” that are going to inevitably affect your future.

This past week, I read an article that raised the question of the benefits of cohabitating before (or instead of) marriage.  The author raised a very valid question: If we think it is beneficial to try out all types of merchandise before we make a commitment (e.g. cars, computers, clothes, etc), wouldn’t it make even more sense to “test drive” a relationship prior to making something as important as a life commitment? 

OK, Biblical instructions aside on why that’s a bad idea (and there are a lot on the subject), I think that makes sense.  Yeah, I said it…it makes sense.  It seems pretty logical, at least if you’re hoping to stay with that individual for the rest of your life.  I get why many young adults would see that.  One problem: it doesn’t appear to hold up to statistical evidence to the contrary.

Glenn T. Stanton, the author of the article, Cohabitation & divorce — there is a correlation, points out that there is a “Grand Canyon sized chasm between what many young adults believe and the proven reality of their experience.”  He points out that there is “a massive body of robust, diverse and conclusive scientific research on this question that leaves no doubt about whether cohabitating is helpful to marriage.” 

Here is a sampling of what sociologists from the Universities of Chicago and Michigan (two leading schools of Sociology) report in an excerpt from Stanton’s article:

[T]he “expectation of a positive relationship between cohabitation and marital stability … has been shattered in recent years by studies conducted in several Western countries, including Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, and the United States.”

Their data indicates that people with cohabiting experience who marry have a 50 to 80 percent higher likelihood of divorcing than married couples who never cohabited. A Canadian sociologist explains:

“Contrary to conventional wisdom that living together before marriage will screen out poor matches and therefore improve subsequent marital stability, there is considerable empirical evidence demonstrating that premarital cohabitation is associated with lowered marital stability.”

Stanton goes on to say that “if couples wanted to substantially increase their likelihood of divorcing, there are few things they could do to so efficiently guarantee such an outcome than live together before marriage. In fact, this is such a consistent finding in the social science research that scholars have coined a term for it: “the cohabitational effect.”

It makes sense, really, and those of us who have been married for any real length of time can vouch for the logic.  The article explains it like this: 

This finding has become a truism partly because the process of cohabiting itself is shown to influence couples to learn to communicate, negotiate and settle differences in ways that are less healthy and honest than do couples who didn’t cohabit   before marriage. This is probably because without a clearly defined relationship, the cohabiting couple can learn to be more controlling and manipulative with each other. And this leads to relational resentment and mistrust.

Further studies showed that between married couples who cohabitated compared with those who did not, those who had lived together experienced a greater likelihood of “aggression and negative interactions and were more likely to face divorce” while those who had not cohabitated experienced more “overtly positive interactions and…more positive communications.”

Now, all of this can be followed up with one pastoral point (since, after all, I am one of those guys): It makes sense that if God created man and woman, as the Bible says He did, and if He gave guidelines as to how things should function (much like any other set of instructions), doesn’t it make sense that things are probably not going to work out very well if those instructions are not followed?  Doesn’t it seem reasonable that God may choose not to watch over and take care of those relationships that snub their noses at Him and His guidelines? 

Honestly, I don’t have to argue this point. Just look around. Evidence is everywhere.  Check the divorce rates; the abortion rates; the depression, suicides, substance abuse and on and on.  Are there examples of Christians who mess things up?  Absolutely.  The reality is there are a bunch of messed up people inside and outside of the church (which is why we all need a Savior), but that doesn’t discount the fact that there are millions of couples who’ve followed the instructions, taken God at His Word, and are living very happy married lives with less grief, less heart-ache, less guilt and less frustration.  Heck, many of the people who fill up churches are there because they made some of these same mistakes and are trying to overcome the consequences of their pasts while charting a new course for their futures.

Alright, so let me wrap up by making one thing as clear here as I can: This post is in no way an effort to call for a moral clean-up in order to “take America back!”  This is just one dude’s effort to point out how personally destructive our choices can be and ask you to just consider that maybe, just maybe, choosing to “feed the need” now is going to bring a whole world of hurt in the future.

You can’t afford to get this wrong.

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Here’s a great example of why it’s important to know what you believe and why.

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A song for the wilderness.

I talk a lot about “The Wilderness.”  All of us experience it and often we have no idea why we’re there or how or when we’ll ever get out.  We ask a reasonable question: “If God loves me, why doesn’t He deliver me?”  Well, I’ve often said that God is the God of the wilderness.  It’s one of the places His voice His heard most clearly because it’s the place where all of the other noises are drowned out and we get to a place of desperate listening.

Laura Story (writer of the hit song, Indescribable, recorded by Chris Tomlin) has written a song in the midst of walking through a wilderness of her own with her husband, Martin, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2006.  She has found the God of the Wilderness to be faithful even when all the questions aren’t immediately answered.  Does God bless in the wilderness?  Is there more than meets the eye?  Are blessings only related to prosperity and success?  Listen to Laura talk about her own journey in the wilderness and then watch Laura sing her song here.

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This is perhaps the most incredible video I have ever seen.  I cannot encourage you enough to watch it.  It’s well-worth the 33:03 you will invest…and watch it to the end!  You are encouraged to share this with as many people as possible.  There are some scenes that are graphic in nature so be advised.

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A California couple is being fined for conducting a Bible study in their homes.  Admittedly, it is a rather large Bible study on Sundays with up to 50 people.  The city has determined it should considered a church and, thus, should apply for permits and provide ample parking and handicap access. In short, it comes down to what they consider zoning issues.  What do you think?  Is this right or are they being denied their rights to peaceful assembly in their own home?  Do you think the same issues would come up if others decided to have weekly meetings in their homes with large numbers of people if there were no complaints from neighbors?  It’s an interesting development given the increasing intolerance towards Christians in America.

Full story here.

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Whew! Been a while since I wrote here. Not sure why exactly. So busy, I guess. With my son playing football and me helping coach (probably pretty laughable), our time as a family seems so limited. I suppose the last thing I’ve wanted to do was sit in front of a computer longer than I have to and write.  An attempt at balance, though, is certainly called for and I’m hoping to get back to regular or at least semi-regular posting.

I did want to share something that might be a benefit to some. At The Gathering, we are trying really hard to make life-changing connections. Everybody wants and needs community and in our technological age, that can be both easier and harder at the same time.  While (as I’ve already pointed out) sitting in front of a computer for hours on end can rob you of valuable time spent with those with whom community could be built, it’s also a good opportunity (if approached cautiously) to help connect.  I think we have all been doing this techno-thing long enough that we know how this works…or doesn’t.

Having said that, along with our regular Facebook page where we connect, we’ve launched a Facebook Prayer page.  If you have some special needs that you’d like somebody to pray for, head over to Facebook.com/GatheringPrayer and post. If someone hits the like button, you know it’s been prayed for.  Also, share updates and comment on other requests (just know that it’s monitored and abuse of any kind will be deleted and blocked).  Hopefully, this will fall into the latter column of “helpful” in building an online community that can translate into real, live and meaningful relationship.  Oh, and please take a minute to go ahead and “like” that page so you can stay updated.

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