Category Archives: Christianity

Just Ask the Gardener

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not really our gardener

There are certain things you get used to.  When you grow up with electricity in every room, and with hot and cold running water, its easy to forget that most of the world’s population does not have those things.  The same is true in ministry.  On any given day, I will have students in my class from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Thailand and South Korea.  I have had students from Japan, China and Russia, but none right this minute.  Most days I don’t even think about it as this is “normal” where I live and work.

One of the blessings of the ministry I work in is the unique blend of individuals God has brought together to do the work.  My wife and I came from Georgia, but we have friends from Colorado, New Jersey and Alaska.  One couple came to serve with us after spending 16 years on the mission field in Nigeria.  Every person that’s here left behind a church that misses them; all of our fellow missionaries were church deacons, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders and such like back home.  I listened to a good sermon tonight about the three parables in Luke 15 delivered by our gardener.  Yeah I know, right?

If one of my students had a question from scripture, he or she could easily ask our campus minister or Bible teacher.  But would you take the same question to a bus driver?  I happen to be an ordained minister and a school bus driver.  Our gardener plants flowers and designs landscapes 6 days a week, and pastors a small Presbyterian church on the weekend.  He is just as qualified to answer Bible questions as our basketball coach – who has also traveled to Rwanda to teach English and to other countries doing medical missions.

Stephen Tracksel said “I am not a great man of God, I am a man of great God.”  The next time you turn on the tap or flip a light switch, try to remember where all blessings come from.  And the next time I wave at the gardener, I will try and do the same.  May we all be instruments of His will.

The Gospel of the Old Testament

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the Gospels in that they tell the story of the life of Jesus.  Jesus preaches in Mark 1 “repent and believe in the gospel.”  More than those four books, gospel means good news.  Jesus died for our sins; he is the way, the truth and the life; he brings the New Covenant, and we are no longer under the Law; all things things are part of the gospel message.  Paul says the Law is bad news; it cannot make us righteous, only more guilty.  But there is more to the Old Testament than the Law, and it’s not all bad news.

The Bible has many stories and characters, but only one message.  (Have you read this?)  The Old Covenant was about keeping the Law and bearing the mark of circumcision.  Paul has many analogies about the difference between the Law and the Gospel; the Gospel brings life, the Law only brings death.  But my point is that there is plenty of good news in the Old Testament as well.  It is part of God’s message. Continue reading →

See You at the Pole

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The nationwide See You at the Pole event is next Wednesday, Sept. 28th.  Below is a short video.  The theme this year is “Converge.”

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The See You at the Pole website (syatp.com) says the event began in 1990.  I swear I remember doing this in middle school in the late 80’s.  Must have been a local thing.

I teach at a private Christian school.  We have daily chapel, and my wife and I sponsor BCM.  Our students frequently worship together and hear the gospel message.  We still observe See You at the Pole because on that day thousands of students nation wide – and now even worldwide – meet together to pray.  At our school staff and students can meet and pray together, but in the public school setting the events are entirely student led.  We wouldn’t miss the chance to agree with those kids in prayer for anything.

*BCM is Baptist Campus Ministry.  The name changed in 2005 from BSU, Baptist Student Union.

Christian Tech

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How Steve Jobs Accidentally Changed the Persecuted Church appeared at Don’t Eat the Fruit .com back in April.  I read the article, copied the link, and then filed it away.  Read the full article here.

In a nutshell, Jobs never set out to change the way the Gospel is spread.  In Steve Jobs own words the iPod “changed everything.”  The biggest change was storage space; we now measure mp3 capacity in gigabytes.  How does that affect the church?  Countries that stop Bibles at the border usually don’t care about mp3 players.  People groups that do not even have a written language can listen to the Word, and recharge the device with solar power anywhere on earth.

Next the iPhone set the standard for video formatting.  You can record video in mp4 and be pretty sure any device can render it.  Now it’s the iPad.  With the widespread acceptance of ePub (also used by Nook) instead of just a digital Bible a user can basically carry an entire seminary worth of information.

Steve Jobs never set out to enable the Christian church.  I’m not saying Christians around the world use Apple technology to spread the Gospel.  Jobs drove the state of the art forward, and created industry standards that the church can use to everyone’s advantage.

An Interview with Phil Vischer

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I didn’t interview Phil Vischer, even if the title implies otherwise.  The Sept. 24th edition of World Magazine has a lengthy interview with Phil Vischer, creator of Big Idea and Veggie Tales.  Read the full article here.

I have been aware of Veggie Tales for years, and have seen several episodes.  I watched Jonah (after it came out on DVD).  Now with a 2-year-old in the house I have seen a lot more Veggie Tales… over and over again.  I recently made this observation: all the stories revolve around Old Testament characters.  There is always a moral to the story and a Bible verse at the end, but for all intents and purposes the whole thing could be just as Jewish as it is Christian.  My wife pointed out they have an Easter Carol, but that’s the exception to the rule.  A pretty recent exception at that.  I’ve listened to church pastors do basically the same thing as Veggie Tales cartoons, and that’s use Old Testament Bible stories to teach a moral lesson.  That’s why this statement from Vischer in the interview really popped for me:

I looked back at the previous 10 years and realized I had spent 10 years trying to convince kids to behave Christianly without actually teaching them Christianity. And that was a pretty serious conviction. You can say, “Hey kids, be more forgiving because the Bible says so,” or “Hey kids, be more kind because the Bible says so!” But that isn’t Christianity, it’s morality.

Vischer’s new project is called Jellyfish Labs.  It features puppet characters instead of cartoons.  He describes it as “Muppets gone to seminary.”  The interview is more about the failure of Big Idea than what Jellyfish is doing next, but I’m still looking forward to it.  It apparently takes a long time to wear out a DVD.

UPDATE: Visit the Jellyfish Labs website and see what Phil’s been up to.

What Christians Are Looking For in a Church

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Shaun King resigned earlier this month from Courageous Church in Atlanta.  Internet Monk has all the details here.  In short, he realized after loosing a lot of members in his attempt to build disciples that what his congregation really wanted was the Sunday morning show.  This got me thinking about what most Christians are looking for in a church.

King had followed all the advice given to him about building a congregation when starting a church.  He now says that he sold his soul for attendance and never quite felt like he was able to get it back.  He began preaching sermons and taking steps to get Courageous Church away from it’s Sunday morning focus and make the shift toward small groups, building disciples, and engaging the community.  He lost 85% of his membership.   Continue reading →

God is a Collector

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Stamps, coins, baseball cards… all things that get collected.  Perhaps Barbie dolls and firearms could be collectible.  It takes a special type of person to collect exotic sports cars.  What collectors have in common is the desire to gather, catalog and/or display as many of a particular item as can be obtained.

God is a collector, too.  What could God possibly collect?  He created the heavens, the earth, and all that exists.  He owns the cattle of a thousand hills.  What could be of such importance to God that he pays careful attention to gather, store with care, and perhaps one day put on display? Continue reading →

Eyes Are NOT the Window to the Soul

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“Eyes are the window to the soul.”  It’s a well known phrase, and so old that no one really knows the source.  It’s very poetic, just not scriptural.

Jesus, in Matthew 12:34, says that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  What is really inside of a person comes out of their mouth.  You will know the tree by the fruit it bears.  That’s a more reliable indicator than a person’s eyes.  He says in v.35 ” The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”    In Matthew 15 Jesus is responding to the accusation that his disciples eat without washing their hands.  He says what gets eaten goes into the stomach and is later expelled; it’s what comes out of a person mouth, not what goes in, that defiles.  What comes out of the mouth shows us what a person is really made of. Continue reading →

What Is A Blogger?

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People that don’t blog probably have a pretty negative image of what a blogger is.  Computer geeks, emo girls, tree huggers and every single personality on G4 all come to mind.  Many blogs are driven to generating profit, whether for the entertainment industry or marketing products and services.  But then there is the other type of blogger; enter the world of the Christian Blogosphere.

Michael Spencer, the original Internet Monk, introduced me to blogging.  He was neither 24 years old nor living in his parents’ basement at the time.  The internet is a tool, just like books, radio and television.  There are some Christians that will never let a t.v. in their house but there are also some good Christian programs on it.  There are Christian radio stations and Christian book stores.  The internet is neither inherently good nor evil but could be used for either.  And some of us are using this tool to reach people and places with the Gospel that wouldn’t let missionaries or a case of Bibles cross the border.

I recently added Meeting in the Clouds to my blogroll.  My mother is 71, and knows how to push the space bar to pause Netflix.  That’s the beginning and end of her computer literacy.  Cloud Watcher is 74.  Notes from a Retired Preacher is authored by former pastor Jack Weaver.  His is a spry 82.  He uses the Internet to reach the world that he is no longer as capable of physically getting around in.  We may not agree on everything (if we did one of us would need to stop blogging) but he is not short on passion for sharing the Gospel.

Whatever a “blogger” looks like, the Christian blogger is sometimes a whole other animal.  In a sense, blogging is all about saying “Look at me!”  The Christian blogger is saying “Look at Jesus.”

Is Anything Too Hard for the LORD?

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God had first spoken to Abram when he was about 70 years old, promising him many descendants and lots of land.  Abram didn’t hear from God again for about 15 years, but when God reminded him that he would have his very own son, Abram believed him.  God counted his faith as rightousness, making Abram the first person made righteous by faith.  God explains that although his descendents will be innumerable like the stars in the sky, they will not be given the land for 400 years.  God’s schedule is not our schedule; he will speak to Abram again in another 15 years. Continue reading →