Heaven, Hell, and Resurrection

Have you ever thought about where your views and beliefs about God, Jesus, salvation, and the church have come from? We can idealistically say our views on spiritual subjects comes from the Bible but the reality is that our spiritual views are shaped by many sources.

A couple of years ago I taught a September through May class exploring the foundations of our faith. The premise of the class was to explore foundational elements of our faith to see how much our view of spiritual subjects was consistent with the Bible. The class turned out to be a massive research project that brought about a transformation in my own personal view on a number of subjects.

When I was growing up I watched Road Runner cartoons every Saturday morning. Inevitably the Road Runner would get squashed, flattened, or obliterated in the cartoon- good wholesome fair for a 9 year old! What happened next? He got wings, he floated up, and ended up sitting on a cloud playing a harp. My Saturday morning cartoon reflected what I had been taught about heaven. Heaven was a non-physical existence that was seperate and apart from this world. In church I would continue to learn intermittently that we would go to heaven after this world had been literally destroyed by fire. I also intermittently learned something about the Baptists's believing in something to do with 1,000 years but I shouldn't believe in the 1,000 years- whatever it was.

As I grew up and entered into ministry heaven was where we were headed after we died but it was something that was not discussed very much. I would teach about heaven in generalities; it is a place where we are with God, it is the opposite of hell... As I continued in ministry I still did not know much at all about heaven or that 1,000 year thing. Then in 1999 I entered Denver Seminary and had a professor encourage us to dig into the word of God. He told us that the Bible is the word of God preserved for us through the power of the Holy Spirit and throughout history God's people have poured through the Bible seeking to understand God. He encouraged us to do the same and gave a personal example of why he had come to the views he had about the 1,000 year of reign of Christ after exhaustively digging through the word of God. He went on to tell us that our view of the 1,000 year reign would not get us into heaven or keep us out of heaven but the importance was pulling our sleeves up and digging through the word of God.

I was intrigued because this was the first time in my life I had ever heard anyone talk about the 1,000 years and end times. My antennas were up! However for the next few years life and ministry stayed fast furious as Michelle and I raised 5 and then 6 kids while we both worked full time jobs. But the spark of interest about end times and rapture and heaven and hell were still on my radar which was one of the primary passions leading me to develop a class exploring the foundations of Christianity.

Through the course of research I was turned onto a New Testament scholar named N.T. Wright. His background is the last place I would have thought to find a New Testament scholar, the Anglican Church of England. As I read more of his writings I was startled to discover that his teaching was most consistent with what my Biblical research was producing so I asked a friend of mine who is a Greek/Hebrew/ Old Testament/ New Testament scholar and he affirmed that N.T. Wright was in fact the real deal and in his view spot on with his understanding of the New Testament.

His views on heaven were radically different than the Bugs Bunny cartoons I had grown up on. But then it occurred to me... maybe it's a problem that my theology of heaven and hell was primarly shaped by Bugs Bunny cartoons instead of the Bible.

Here is a link to N.T. Wright talking about heaven... Enjoy. 

Sticking In There

I just finished riding the first day of Bike Around the Bay. This is a 180 mile bicycle ride that completely circles Galveston Bay. Today I rode 94 miles. That's all good until you realize that all but about 10 miles had either a 17 mile per hour head wind or cross wind. That's what you call challenging conditions.

My favorite kind of riding is a tail wind going down a hill. You can go fast without much effort. It's fun. Riding into a strong wind for 84 miles is not always alot of fun.

One positive thing about the tough day of riding into the wind is that it gave me alot of time to pray and talk with God. I spent time praying about me, my family, alot of people, and Sugar Grove. As I prayed God gave me a thought. We like things to be fun. We like things to be pleasant. We don't like to be challenged. We don't like a strong head wind in our life, our marriage, or our church.

When our life gets tough there is a temptation to find a way to escape to something that makes us happy- for a litle while. When our marriage is not alot of fun there is a temptation to seek out something that makes us happier- for a little while. When church does not make us happy we are tempted to switch churches to find one that "fits us better".

However true Christian character is developed through endurance, not through seeking out something that makes us happier. Happiness is about us. It is what makes me feel good. Endurance is seeking what God desires. Instead of simply assuming that unhappiness or disatisfaction means we should switch to something that makes us happy we should start by seeking God's guidance.

As I was riding it was so tough I started singing a song... "In the name of Jesus I can do this. In the name of Jesus I can do this." Sometimes its good to be in a situation where the only option we've got left is the power of Jesus. Not pleasant, but good.

So Who Are You Voting For?

 So who are you voting for? This is a charged question that has enough emotion attached to it to get even the best of friends in a fight. Have you noticed that there are Christians on both sides of the political aisle? A news article recently ran about 2 people from my undergraduate alma mater, ACU, who were both serving in Congress- one was a democrat and one was a republican.

When you speak to Christians on both sides of the political spectrum you will discover each person has a distinct reason growing out of their faith for the position they take. But how can Christians be on both sides of the political spectrum? Don't the Christians on one side have to be correct and the Christians on the other side have to be wrong? It is easy to pick a side and say my side is right and the other side is wrong or even evil. It is much more difficult to consider the possibility that both sides of the political spectrum have some truth.

Did you know that prior to the civil war the prevailing political attitude in the United States was that the compromise that was worked out between the two sides was the correct position- not the position held by one side or the other? It was assumed that together we produced a perfect unity.

That's tough to comprehend in our current political environment where so many are out to make sure the other side is obliterated. However it's not too hard to make a connection into church.

What is church but a varied collection of people who span the spectrum brought together by the blood of Jesus Christ? Are any of us perfect? No. Do any of us have all of the right answers and ideas all of the time? No. Together we are transformed into the bride of Christ.   

What would happen if we began to consider that God can use anyone he chooses to accomplish his purposes- not just 'us'? What would happen if we began to watch for the hand of God at work regardless of where it might be?

National Night Out Follow Up

This past Tuesday evening October 2nd the street I live on had a National Night Out Gathering in the park across the street from my house. It was a great deal of fun. The mayor of Missouri City came and spent time with us. A ladder truck from the local fire station showed us around their fire fighting apparatus. And then a pair of policemen on bicycles spent time with us.

Between these appearances all of the people from our street had a good time interacting with each other. I met the 3 families who have moved onto our street in the last few months. I was able to catch up on the health problems my next door neighbor had earlier this year. I learned the stories and backgrounds of many of my neighbors. We all talked about what an amazing diversity of people our street has. We literally have people from all over the world; China, Philipines, India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, Germany, England, Jamaica...

I helped organize this event because it is good to know our neighbors and as a Christian it is a great opportunity to be a light for Jesus on the street where I live. Our goal as Christians is not to isolate ourselves from anyone else in the world but instead to live among the world without being of the world. When we sequester ourselves from the world we become focused on ourselves and what we do. When we live as a light in our community we don't have time to be self focused but instead must continously listen to God and recognize how he desires to use us at any given time.

We are already planning for National Night Out 2013!

National Night Out is Tuesday October 2, 2012

Do you know your neighbors? Quiet often we are so busy that we don't know who our neighbors are. However there are a number of reasons why it is good to know our neighbors. Yesterday evening I spent a couple of hours with some of my neighbors knocking all 62 doors of everyone on our street inviting them to National Night Out which is Tuesday October 2nd. It was alot of fun meeting all of our neighbors and welcoming 4 new families who have recently moved to the street.

National Night Out exists to help neighbors meet each other to help reduce crime by building community bonds. But events such as National Night Out are also an opportunity to live out our walk with God outside the walls of the church building. It is an opportunity to be a light for Jesus through our actions and attitudes right where we live. It is a chance to allow God to connect us to someone who is seeking Him.

I am a data nut and it can be seen statistically that many of us don't know our neighbors and consquently don't have much impact for Jesus Christ upon our neighbors. An analysis of guests to Sugar Grove during 2011 revealed that most of the guests attending a Sunday morning worship assembly did not live where most of the Sugar Grove members live. In other words we are not connecting with those who live around us.

Is it easy to connect with those who live around us? No. Of course not. We live in a multi culturual community that represent faiths from around the world as well as people whose 'faith' is an active belief that belief in anything is a waste of time that is causing all of the problems seen in the world today. This means that being a light for God is not simply a straight forward invitation to come to church next Sunday but a much more spirit-led effort that involves a continous devotion to being a vessel for God in all situations and all places in our life.

Do you know your neighbors?...

Are you offering yourself as a vessel to be used by God?...

Prayer Triggers

In previous posts I have mentioned how I have situations that trigger me to pray such as when I can't sleep at night and when I am riding my bicycle. Lately I have been chewing on developing objects as prayer triggers. Triggers? Something that reminds you about something like a string tied around your finger or a song you sing.

Prayer is an invitation for God to work in our world. A lack of prayer is a hand held up to God saying "Stay out, I've got this, I can do this on my own"- which is generally not a good thing. Consequently inviting God to work in and around us is very important so discovering things that promote time spent with God in prayer is good.

What if we associated things we see in every day life to prompt us to pray for specific people or situations?

The last few weeks I have been playing with this idea and have found it rather productive in my prayer life. For example every time I see a bag of sugar I am reminded to pray for a specific person who has been upon my heart for a while. The power of prayer triggers is the capture of what might have been wasted time and transforms it into a time to pray. Pushing a grocery cart down the aisle at a grocery store can be a mundane task until a bag of sugar comes into view and BAM! I am reminded to pray.

Try it out. Figure out something you will see from time to time that is associated with the person or situation that needs prayer. Then every time you see that item let it be a reminder to briefly lift that person or situation up in prayer.

Committment

When I was in ministry in Colorado there was a couple who I grew to love and respect as they taught me by their example about committment to the body of Christ. When I arrived in Colorado they had just retired and had begun to 'winter' in Arizona and 'summer' in the Colorado mountains while keeping an apartment in Denver. This couple was hospitable and loving to everyone at church. And whether in town or out of town they were supportive of the church and made sure that their contribution check made it to the church office each week.

As the years went by and I got to know this couple better I realized their theological views very rarely matched the views of the leadership of the church. The husband came from a background that viewed paid ministers and buildings as an addition to the Bible that was not always beneficial. The wife came from a background that was rich in the heritage of reuniting the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ. The church I was ministering at had a building, employed ministers, and struggled to view anything other than a Church of Christ as acceptable. However you would not know how significant their differences were with the leadership of the local church unless you sat down for an extended conversation and pulled this information out of them.

One day I finally asked them why they continued to consider the church we were at together as their home church and be both financially and emotionally supportive of the church and its leadership when the church quiet often violated their theological understanding of the Bible. Their response started me on a journey of transformation. They explained how that they had committed years earlier that this would be their church home. They explained how that committment is not something to be taken lightly- if they jumped from church to church looking for a perfect match in all areas they would demonstrate to their children and all around them that they were committed only if they got their way. And they explained how that if God placed the leadership of each local church in place then whether they agreed or disagreed with the leaders their integrity in following God demanded that they respect and follow the spiritual leadership of that church.

And you know what? These two people are some of the happiest and most content people I have ever known. They decided it was their job to committ to the local church, develop deep Christ centered relationships at church that continued through thick and thin, and continuously seek how God desired to use them.

Through the years it has occurred to me that their committment to the local church we were together at in Colorado was an example of how God loves us. God does not break his fellowship with us when he disagrees with us. God does not move on to someone else when the relationship is not all that he had hoped it would be. God continues to provide and bless us even when he should withhold everything and starve us until we get it right. And above all God sticks with us through thick and thin, through good and bad... We would do good to imitate this kind of committment.