Thankful for Giving at Thanksgiving

Emmanuel Enid receives offerings in our four morning worship services the old fashioned way - we pass plates. Since coming as pastor of Emmanuel in 1992, it has been our standard practice to invite people in the auditorium to either give to the offering or receive from the offering. When we pass the plates we encourage those in financial need to take from the offering if they have genuine need. We only ask that they take the cash and leave the checks and the envelopes because those are checks made to Emmanuel, and they couldn't cash them anyway. We also typically announce that if there is not enough cash in the plate to meet their need, they can see us after the service and we will see what we can do to help them financially. There are no restrictions. Members and guests are invited to take from the offering plate. Money can be taken by the same person every week for fifty-two weeks. We mean what we say, and we have many stories of people who have been helped through our offering, sometimes in surprising fashions. One young lady who was in college stopped me one Sunday with tears in her eyes. She was an only child. Her only surviving parent and grandparent, her father, was dying of cancer. She was driving sixty miles one way from Stillwater every weekend to relieve her father's caregiver. She could not afford the gas, and for the past several weeks she had been faithfully taking her gas money from the offering plate. Her father was not a believer in Christ, though she was, and after she told her dad what we had said about the offering, and what she was doing for gas money in order to get home to care for him, he said, "If that is what Christians are all about, then I want to be one." Anyway, you can understand her tears.

 

Last Sunday a friend of mine told me at lunch that the lady in front of him took her hand and scooped up almost the entire offering, cash, checks, envelopes--everything. Obviously, that presents a problem, particularly if people are giving to Emmanuel in the form of checks. The problem is not so much that we will not receive the money (the Lord ultimately is in charge of meeting our needs, and we trust Him), but that we don't look real professional if we have someone who has written a check and we have no record of receiving it and they have no record of it being cashed. On occasion we have had different individuals unsuccessfully try to cash checks at banks, and of course, we don't press charges because we just assume there is a misunderstanding of what can and cannot be taken from the offering plate. It's almost worth the adventure just to see the expression on the faces of bank employees when they are told that worship attenders at Emmanuel are encouraged to take what they need from the offering plate.

 

Anyway, Monday's offering count was the lowest it has been in many months. Emmanuel takes no giving commitment cards. We do not emphasize the "tithe." We tell people to give what the Holy Spirit leads them to give. For the past eighteen years in a row we have exceeded our church budget in receipts. Last year we exceeded it by a quarter of a million dollars. Around Thanksgiving however, we are always behind in budget receipts, sometimes to the tune of $200,000 to $300,000 dollars. Emmanuel has no guarantee that we will meet budget by the end of the year, and we make no special emphasis--but somehow, someway, God has provided.

 

After my friend told me about the woman who emptied everything from the offering plate, and after I received the news of the low offering this past Sunday, I found myself thinking through our practice of encouraging people to take from the offering plate. After a little reflection, I came up with the reasons why we will not change a thing.

 

(1). God is quite capable of meeting our needs as a church ministry as He sees fit.

(2). If we ever fall short in our missions and ministry budget, we will cut our budget to reflect the giving we have received (or not received). The people of Emmanuel, having been filled by the Spirit, will give precisely what the Spirit leads them to give and take what the Spirit leads them to take. The answer is not for leaders to demand more, but for leaders to trust more.

(3). Trust in God involves trusting Him to work in the lives of those who give to and of those who receive from Emmanuel. Sure, people can abuse the offering, misuse the church's generosity, and take money from the offering plate for things that some might not consider appropriate, but our God is big enough to handle His people. He neither needs our control or demands our micromanagement.

(4). Thanksgiving reminds us not only to give thanks, but to be thankful for giving. Too many of us are so accustomed to being on the receiving end that the concept of churches being the initiators of giving has been lost.

(5). In time, the lives of people are changed by the love involved in giving, not the control needed in taking.

 

I close with a Thanksgiving Facebook message I received this morning from a woman impacted by Emmanuel. I have left off her name and current living location to protect her identity, but I believe her message was only a confirmation from the Lord that it is far more blessed for Emmanuel to give than to receive.

 

___________

 

Pastor Wade

 

I wanted to take time to tell you how much I miss Emmanuel. I had no idea how important and significant Emmanuel was in my life. Now that I have moved to _____, my new husband and I are looking for a church home. We have been to the Baptist Church here 3 or 4 times and it isn't even close to being the church for us.... I wanted to thank you for teaching me what God's Grace is. Grace is God! God knew what He was doing when He called you to preach His word. I have so many examples of how you and Emmanuel have touched my life but there are three that really stand out to me.

 

1....One Christmas Eve the girls and I were at the candle light service and afterwards you just randomly came up to me and handed me a voucher for $75 in groceries. You couldn't have known how much I needed that...but God did.

 

2. I had surgery in 2009. I was to be off work for at least 6 weeks which turned into 11 weeks. I had the surgery of state,  and I had asked if the church could help me with a donation to "Kathy's House" which is a place for patients to stay who are in the hospital for medical reasons. The donation is what they accept as payment. Well, not only did the church write a check for the donation but they paid my bills for a month. That was amazing! Thank you!

 

3.  EBC helped me raise my 3 daughters and keep God in every part of their life. I pray that God sends my husband and me to a special church like Emmanuel. Please pray for us. Thank you!

 

__________

 

 

Wade and Rachelle Burleson

 

 

 

 



Criticize Your Pastor and Bring God's Curse?

With a hat tip to my friend and fellow pastor Tyson Wynn, I share Creflo Dollar's recent message where he opines the person who criticizes his or her pastor on Facebook or Twitter brings a curse from God down on their own heads. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Dollar and suggest that any of the members of the church I pastor who wish to criticize me publicly or privately are free to do so. I take the position of David who said, "Let them alone. God has bidden them to speak." (II Samuel 16:11)

When Methodology Is Crystallized, the Mission Is Sterilized

"I have become all things to all people in order that I might win some ..." (I Corinthians 9:22 NIV). When speaking to Jews about Christ, Paul emphasized his Judaism. When speaking to Gentiles about Christ, Paul emphasized his Roman citizenship. Paul adapted his teaching delivery to the thought and the culture of the people that were around him. The message of Paul never changed, but the method through which the message was delivered adapted to the times, the people and the situation.

Jesus comissioned us to "make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you"  (Matthew 28:20). A good fisher of men understands that you must change your methods if you are going to make catch peoples' interest and make them disciples of Christ. The message of Jesus never changes, but the manner in which people hear His message must change.

Thirty years ago I came to First Baptist Church, Holdenville, Oklahoma from Baylor University. I was introduced as a new staff member to Oklahoma at the annual Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma in November of 1982. Since then I have served in about every capacity one can serve in the BGCO. This week I attended the 2012 BGCO. I noticed something interesting. The crowds are much smaller, the heads are much greyer, and I am much older. Our leadership at the BGCO is more progressive than many state conventions. I know they work constantly to change, adapt, and stay relevant to today's culture.

It is not easy.

The church tha refuses to change its methodology in reaching people is doomed to a day of decline. We are on a mission to make disciples. Every staff member, every pastor, and every church member ought to be asking the question, "Is what we are doing today fulfilling our mission?"  I think we would be amazed at the number of things that are done because "that's the way we have always done it."

Dan Heath and Chip Heath, in their  #1 New York Times bestselling book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, write:

Two professors at Harvard Business Schook, writing about organizational change, say that change is hard because people are reluctant to alter habits that have been successful in the past. 'In the absence of a dire threat, employees will keep doing what they have always done.' 

Dan Heath, yokefellow at Harvard, believes that an organization needing quick, specific and immediate change, must used negative emotions as needed (i.e. fear, anxiety, etc...). However, most of the time, organizations are dying a slow and diseased death rather than a sudden and catastrophic one. Organizations must have people who are creative, flexible and ingenuious in order for change to be built into organizational structure. Good organizations are filled with people who have positive emotions such as joy, self-fulfillment, and personal contentment. These postive emotions broaden the interest and desire of everyone in the organization to investigate new things and adapt methodologies. Employees who carry negative personal emotions such as fear, anxiety, and anger, will find that these negative emotions narrow their minds and limited their abilities to fathom how or why change is needed, much less comprehend the steps that must be taken to effect that change.

I would highly recommend the book Switch. It will turn the lights on for you regarding the necessity of institutional change at your organization in order to fulfill your mission. If our churches and conventions crystallize our methodologies and refuse to change, and if there is no reproduction of spiritual life in the making of more and more disciples, then there is nobody else to blame but us.

 

We Christians in the West Are Soft

We who name Christ as our King and are immersed in western civilization and culture have little concept of what it means to suffer for "Christ's name's sake." Our church buildings are beautiful and comfortable, our worship services are moving and meaningful, and our lives run like clockwork. Think back to how you felt the last time the lights went out during a storm. Were you irritated? Lost? Or do you remember your reaction the last time your 4G phone service went off-line? Were you frustrated? Perplexed? When our greatest discomforts in life revolve around electricity and electronics instead of challenges to our faith and discipleship of others, we American Christians have become too soft. Don't misundersand: This softness isn't a moral dilemma for us; it is simply a meaningful description of us. We didn't ask to become soft, our culture has made us soft.

This is why a knowledge of history, geography, and current events is so important. When Christian kids in the west feel the greatest disappointment for them during the holidays is in not getting just the right number or kind of gifts, then we are doing a disservice to them by not helping them become interested in the world at large and the world of the past. For many centuries, Christians have been persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Christ. Sadly, Voice of the Martyrs tells us that more Christians have been killed or martyred in the last century than in all of the previous centuries combined. We don't know about this because it doesn't happen in the west. That's why it is important for us to open the eyes of our kids to the world outside of modern western civilization. When the Burleson kids were growing mom and dad read to them Fox's Book of Martyrs during our morning devotional. It made their cereal and oatmeal more difficult to eat as we read, but is sure helped them understand that many Christians have not lived as cushy of lives as we.

Today, I was moved by reading a letter from Pliny the Younger to Roman Emperor Marcus Trajan. Pliny was the governor of Bythinia in northwest Turkey in the early second century, and he considered Emperor Trajan his best friend. The letter, written about AD 111, vividly describes to Trajan how Pliny deals with the Christians in Bythinia, people Pliny considered enemies of the Roman Empire for their refusal to ascribe deity to the Roman Emperor and say, "Caesar is Lord."

Pliny writes,

"I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and a third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist in avowing themselves followers of the one they call Christ, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished...

The sum total of their guilt amounts to no more than this: they meet regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and they also bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery...

This has made me to decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they call deaconnesses. I find them to be nothing but a degenerative sort of cult carried to extravagamt lengths."

Next time you complain about the carpet in your auditorium, or the comfort and style of the chairs that you sit in at church, or the lack of funding for your special church programs, remember those two Christian deaconnesses from Bythiania and the torture they endured so that Pliny could get to the truth about this cult called Christianity. Those two women endured something you may never face in your lifetime, but we can sure learn from them. Christianity to them was life, not convenience. The only thing that will harden us up in the west without facing persecution ourselves is a vocal acknowledgement that much of what we get attached to in church are those things that are comfortable and make us feel wonderful instead of those things that are missional and make us very purposeful.

On Dog Poo and Politics: A Metaphor

I woke up this morning, the day after the re-election of President Obama, very excited about the next four years. The writer of Hebrews says that we Christians are "foreigners and strangers on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13) . We belong to another country (Gr. patrida, literally "the Fatherland"). We have a home in an eternal city "with foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10). 

I believe our world is about to be shaken on several fronts. The coming fiscal cliff, the impending Israel/Iran war, the Russian and Chinese push to switch to the Yen as the world's currency, and a host of other foundation shaking events are just months away. However, that is a good thing. Too many put their trust in this world's systems, governments, and political leaders. We are foreigners. Foreigners' votes never count because there is no stake in the election.

I realize many in America disagree with me this morning and are excited about America's future. They trust that the President will usher in a period of prosperity and peace. They have hope that Obama's re-election will ensure our country moves forward.  Their love for our country cannot be questioned, but I wish my friends to understand we are about to step in poop (pastors use purified words for excrement) of our own making. Let me explain.

A Metaphor

Last night my wife Rachelle and I came home after a nice dinner in Oklahoma City. Rachelle could not eat all of her steak, so we brought the leftovers home to Gracie, our massive great dane. We love our dog. We expressed our love to Gracie by giving her steak. Bad idea.

This morning, rising at 5:30 a.m. for my morning workout, I went downstairs and stepped in a load of poop. Those of you with little dogs have no idea what I am talking about. Those of you with great danes know that the phrase "stepped in" is an understatement, similar to saying "I stepped in some quicksand." I tried to clean up, but the task was insurmountable. I left the house and went to my work out and did my exercises. Unfortunately, I carried on the bottom of my shoes remnants of our lovable dog. It's never a good idea to run in place and then do pushups after you have stepped in it. I was miserable, but the misery was of my own making. I chose to feed our dog steak.

Here's the parallel. There is no doubt that Americans who believe government is responsible for creating jobs, and that government is responsible to care for its citizens, and that government is the solution for every problem we face, love America. But once you feed government what government shouldn't be eating, the load of poop that's coming cannot be avoided. And when that load is dumped, the country will stink to high heaven for a long time.

But stepping in poop isn't all bad. It forces us to change our behaviors. I guarantee you, Gracie has had her last steak. The reason that I am excited today is because what I see coming to America will eventually cause more Americans to see that the only real solution to life's problems is trusting in the Unchangeable Person and entering into His Unshakable Kingdom! Governments fail; Jesus Christ reigns forever.

That's a very good thing. It's a great day to be alive!

An Old Earth and a Local Flood: God's Word May Well Teach Both Are True

I had lunch today with a geologist who credits me with giving him an understanding of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This man heads the exploration department of an oil company that has grown under his leadership to be one of the largest resource firms in the world. His mind moves as fast as an Intel processor, and one can almost hear his neurons firing as he thinks. He's a smart man who has studied the earth's rocks to find uranium, gold and now oil. He believes the earth is old and Noah's flood was local; and he believes this because of his geological expertise.

He knows that I believe the Bible to be inspired by God. He asked me what I thought of his views of an old earth and a local flood. I could tell he was a little hesitant to share his views with me because he was under the mistaken notion that all evangelical, Bible-believing Christians must be young earth creationists and global flood adherents.

He was shocked when I told him I felt I could prove from the Scriptures (not science) that the earth is millions of years old and that Noah's flood was local, not global. My friend is quite convinced he can prove these two things to others from scientific evidence and logic, but he was dumbfounded to hear his Bible-believing evangelical Christian friend state that these views also can be proven from Scripture. Now, before too many of my fellow evangelicals get all bent out of shape, please know that I have taught young earth creationism and a global flood. However,  I have no qualms with saying to others that I could be wrong in my views. Here's why:

Five Textual Reasons Why Noah's Flood Could Be Considered Local

(1). Genesis 7 says the flood fell on the "earth" forty days and forty nights. The Hebrew word eretz is  translated into English as "earth" in the Genesis 7 flood account.  The author of Genesis 7 used erets a dozen times to describe the extent of Noah's flood. For example,  "And the rain fell on the earth [erets] for forty days and forty nights" (Genesis 7:12 NIV).

When we Christians in the west hear the word "earth," we immediately think of a global sphere, the globe we call earth. However, when a Hebrew heard the word eretz, he would never think like us. Erets simply meant land.  This is the way the word is used throughout the Old Testament:

The Lord said to Abram, 'Leave your country [erets], your people, and your father's household and go to the land [erets] I will show you. (Genesis 12:1).

I [God] am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth [erets] to seize dwelling places not their own. (Habakkuk 1:6). 

"See how the waters are rising in the north; they will become an overflowing torrent.  They will overflow the land [erets] and everything in it, the towns and those who live in them. The people will cry out; all who dwell in the land [erets] will wail. (Jer. 47:2).

In this last example, Jeremiah used the exact same language that Moses used in Genesis 7, yet no interpreter of Scripture suggests that the flood in Jeremiah's day was anything more than a local flood. The Hebrew text implies Noah's flood was also local.

(2). Genesis 7:20 says, "The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered" (Genesis 7:20 NKJV). A Hebrew cubit was the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the fingers, an average of eighteen inches, or a foot and a half. Fifteen cubits is somewhere between 20 and 30 feet, but no more. The English word "mountains" is the Hebrew word har, which is often translated "hills." The Hebrew text itself indicates a local, albeit devastating flood. Noah took the animals native to his land, not the entire earth, and gave them safety in the ark God told him to prepare.

(3). Prior to the flood there were Nephilim, "heroes of old, men of renown" (Genesis 6:4). If the entire world's population was destroyed during Noah's flood, as a global flood requires, then there is difficulty explaining how the Hebrew spies "saw the Nephilim" in Canaan, generations after the flood (see Numbers 13:33).

(4). The author of Genesis ascribes specialization of labor and technological advances to Cain's descendents--Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain--who were "the father of all those who dwell in tents" and "the father of all those who play the flute and harp" and "an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron" respectively (Genesis 4:19-22). The author of Genesis assumes that specialization in musical instruments, metallurgy, and shepherdology existed continuously from before the flood to the present day. Were the descendents of Cain all drowned in a global flood, then the "fathers" of these technologies would be the sons of Noah, not the sons of Cain. Further, a simple reading of the Hebrew chronologies from Genesis 5 to Genesis 11 places Abraham's birth less than 300 years after the flood. Many in Noah's family, including Noah himself, were still alive in the days of Abraham. With that said, how is it possible for there to be numerous peoples and numerous national identities by the time Abram left Haran to come to Canaan, a scant three generations after the flood?  For example, Hagar came with Abraham from the empire of Egypt (Genesis 16:1) and Eliezer came with Abram from Damascus (Genesis 15:2). The flood of Noah seems to be God's judgment against the apostasy of His chosen people, the family that would eventually be called the Hebrews.

(5). After the flood, Noah offered a blood sacrifice (see Genesis 9). This sacrifice represented the future coming of the Messiah, the Lamb of God, and his death at Calvary. Through blood atonement, Noah and his family found peace with God. God gave a sign to Noah of the peace covenant--a bow. Most people say "rainbow," but in reality, it was a bow. But not just any bow. A bow is an instrument of war. It is a picture of death. When your enemy uses his bow, he aims to destroy you. But God promised Noah that through the blood covenant of peace, He would not destroy His people. Look at His bow.

The bow of God gave to Noah was  (1). Hung in the sky and pointed away from Noah's land, and (2).the bow had no string in it so it was unusable, and (3). the bow was unbent, perpetually picturing for Noah that God was at peace through blood atonement.

Generations later, the Hebrew people would reject the Lamb of God, "trample under foot His blood," and turn their backs on the only Sacrifice that God provided for sinners. In response, God took up His bow against the Hebrews, and broke covenant. In Revelation 6:1-2, the bow of God is taken up against Israel as the Lamb rides a white horse, holding His bow, and comes in judgment against His people Israel. In the same manner that God destroyed the land of Noah for the apostasy of His people during the days of Noah, so too He destroyed the land of Israel (Jerusalem, the Temple, etc...) in AD 70 for the apostasy of His covenant people.  God's wrath against sin is either born by the Lamb and escaped by those who trust Him, or it is born by sinners who trample under foot the only sacrifice God will ever provide for sinners. The Old Covenant way of worship is over.

The New Covenant shows us the God of all grace who provides for us the Lamb. The message to us all is "Trust Him!"

__________________________________________________

Next time you feel tempted to draw a line in the sand and refuse fellowship with those believers in Christ who hold to an old earth and a local flood, think twice. It very well could be they, not you, are closer to understanding the sacred text.

In addition, since Russell Crow is playing the lead in the epic 2014 Hollywood film Noah, it might be wise to brush up on your Bible knowledge lest you be tempted to get your theology from Hollywood.

The worst thing any Christian could be is cocksure of non-essential theology and miss the importance of Jesus Christ and His covenant of peace with those who trust Him.

Whether you are and old earth advocate or a young earth believer, whether you believe in a local flood or a global flood, remember this: Christianity is all about intimacy with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

My friend learned salvation by grace through faith in Christ from me. Thank God he's smart enough to realize all other doctrines are secondary.

The Rise and Fall of the United States: The Rule of Law No Longer Matters

Last week, eccentric New York billionaire Donald Trump offered to donate $5,000,000 to President Barak Obama's favorite charity if the President would reveal his college transcripts and passport application by October 31st. Donald Trump believes that Obama's college transcripts and passport application will show that the President attended Columbia University as a foreign exchange student. In addition, Trump believes that the records will show that Obama was later able to enter Harvard Law School because of foreign aid and scholarships given to Obama, based upon Obama's applications that list him as a foreign student. Trump also believes that Obama's U.S. passport application will show that he applied for it as a foreigner.

It can be debated whether or not Obama was born in a foreign country. What can be clearly proved is whether Obama ever applied for a U.S. passport or college financial aid as a foreign citizen. We live in a culture saturated with deceit. From Lance Armstrong to Bernie Madoff, America's greatest sports, business, and political heroes have lied in order to get ahead. Lying and deceit seems to have become the norm, so no one should be surprised if a man running for President is guilty of deceit.  Though even the desire to deceive was once considered immoral in our culture,  as generations have passed, Americans have become more tolerant. The cultural attitude has become, "Everybody cheats to win, and if you are not willing to cheat and then lie about it, you lose. Just don't get caught." What has caused this change in attitude? Maybe the act of deceit is like wormwood; a falling star poisons culture, and we have had way too many falling stars.

The shocking thing to me about Trump's $5,000,000 challenge is the indifference that the American people have to the Rule of Law. People have mocked Donald Trump's hair, ridiculed the politics of his announcement, and paid little or no attention to the principle at stake. The Federal Constitution of the United States of America states in Article VI states that, “This Constitution … Shall be the supreme law of the land.” The Constitution also declares "that no person but a natural born Citizen" shall be America's President. That is the Rule of Law.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was considering a bid for the Presidency, Republican lawmakers considered either a Constitutional Amendment or Federal legislation to negate the Constitution's natural born citizen clause. It is the right for every American to seek to change the law through the legislative process. What destroys a Republic is allowing anyone, including a President, to deceive others in order to avoid the Rule of Law. Most Americans do not know if this is actually happening in Obama's case, but every American should care to find out--unless one's politics supercedes one's view of the Rule of Law.

The Forum accurately explains the Rule of Law:

"This means that no person, however powerful or talented, can be allowed to act as if he were superior to the law of the land. Public decisions must be made upon the basis of law, and the laws must be general rules that everybody obeys, including those who make and enforce the law. A law that violates the Constitution is not a law and is not, therefore, enforced. This was the principle that Marshall followed in Marbury v. Madison."

The problem we have in America is not another four years of Barak Obama. The problem we have in America is not even the polarization between Democrats and Republicans. The problem we have in America is that very few people care anymore about the Rule of Law.

That marks the end of a once strong Republic.

A Message of Hope for All Us Crooked Sticks

After many decades of pastoring, I've come to realize that Christians often function very poorly in relationships. Dysfunction in relationships is so normal that when subnormal relationships become normal, they almost seems abnormal.

For example, we Christians often struggle to comprehend our full identity in Christ. It's difficult to understand that our performance in life does not define our personhood. Every one of us is a crooked stick, but none of us wishes to admit our crookedness. The flesh believes acceptance comes from our perfection. This is a lie that encourages us toward self-preservation, but in the Kingdom of God, whoever tries to save his life will lose it. God's grace will eventually enable us to crucify this desire for self-preservation, but the act of dying to self is a process, not a point in time, and it can be quite painful, rarely pleasant. "Take up your cross and follow me" is not nearly as enjoyable of an event as "Take up your picnic basket and join me." Jesus called us to the former, not the latter.

Dying to self involves the dysfunctions of our soul surfacing so that we can crucify them. Here's the good news:

Real love is best experienced in the midst of the agony of our dysfunctions dying.

 The greatest intimacy with others and with God comes during those times you stop hiding your desires to be perfect, admit your crookedness, and embrace love--risking the rejection of others who relate to you based on your performance. If you are rejected in the midst of your honesty and transparency, you were relating to someone who has never fully comprehended the difference between personhood and performance. Those who reject you should feel your pity, not your anger.

It is always healthy to not hide your problems in life. In fact, I propose you should embrace them. It is in the embracing of our personal struggles and sometimes ugly stories that we really begin to be spiritually refreshed. God's love is like an artesian spring. It is never pulled by the object being loved, but flows naturally, pouring itself forcefully into the sinner He loves. It is a faithful statement and worthy of your full acceptance that Jesus Christ came to love sinners. The more you embrace your dysfunctional and crooked life, acknowledge it for what it is, and then learn to open up yourself to His unconditional and everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), the more healing your soul will find. The reign of God through Jesus Christ in you is the only answer to your feelings of helplessness, lack of identity, absence of security, and loss of control.

When it comes to relationships, we crooked Christians need to learn to be honest. Real honesty and transparency is difficult because we struggle to try to get our acceptance, signficance and security from other people, rather than God's reign in us through Jesus Christ. How do we know if we are getting our sense of worth, identity and signficance from our performance and from other people's acceptance rather than from God and His love for us through Jesus Christ?

There is a test. A good one. Ask yourself this question: "Am I attempting to control the perceptions and opinions that people have of me?"

When you are attempting to control what people think of you or how they perceive you, you will use language like: "I just  really want you to think that I'm ...." or "I really don't want you to feel that I'm..." or "I  am praying that don't perceive me as ...."  I could give you hundreds of other statements that are clues to where you are finding your worth.

In addition, you can know you are trying to control others when you are afraid to say anything because of "How others will react." So, we are in very dysfunctional relationships when we are never honest about our feelings, our thoughts, and our thinking. Dysfunction is charactized by a paralyzing fear.

Interestingly, the people whom we desire to control the most (i.e. to control "what they think, what they feel, what they perceive") are the people we believe can hurt us the most.

Give it up. The One who counts already knows every wart, knothole and bend in the crooked stick that is your life--and He loves you. Rest in Him.  Follow your call to be a servant to others and stop trying to control others. Only then will you find true health and freedom.

The Treasures of Egypt and the Reproach of Christ

The life story of Moses is fascinating. Born 1400 years before Christ, the infant Moses was placed in a basket of bulrushes by his Hebrew parents and set afloat down the Nile River. The Pharaoh of Egypt had ordered all Hebrew boys killed to cease the growth of the Hebrew nation.  Moses' parents had sent their son down the Nile to escape certain death. When Pharaoh's own daughter found Moses' ark floating in river, she took the Hebrew baby boy home and raised him as her own son. Most people know that Moses became the leader of the Hebrew people in their eventual exodus from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, but few comprehend the privileged and plush childhood and teenage years of Moses. The writer of Hebrews says, "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." (Hebrews 11:24-26). What were the treasures of Egypt?

As the adopted son of Pharaoh's daugher, Moses would have been considered a noble of Pharaoh's court. To understand the treasures of Egypt and the riches of Egyptian nobility, one need to look no further than the wealth of the Egyptian King Tut. The Pharaoh called Tutankhamun reigned over Egypt a couple of hundred years after Moses. King Tut died when he was only eighteen, and his abbreviated reign came in the declining days of Egypt’s glory. Moses' adoptive grandfather, Pharaoh Ramses, would have been far richer than King Tut. Explorer Howard Carter, the discoverer of King Tut's tomb, describes his initial view into the ante-chamber (just outside the burial room) which housed many of Tut’s treasures:

[A]s my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold (Rapport and Wright 1964, 195).

Carter was the first man in thousands of years to lay his eyes on some of the treasures of Egypt in Tut's tomb. There were over 5,000 articles of pure gold, including "golden beds, gold-covered chariots, carved walking sticks and bows with inlaid gold, and a throne, encrusted with gold, silver and jewels." In the Pharaoh's chamber, there were three coffins fashioned in Tut's likeness. The innermost sarcaphogas was solid gold and over six feet long. In addition, there were six small gold coffins (fifteen inches high) containing Tut’s internal organs. Each small coffin, if melted down today for the gold, would be worth over $500,000.

The death mask (pictured above left) weighed twenty-three pounds and was made of gold and inlaid with semiprecious stones; it covered the head and shoulders of the mummy. The mask was fashioned by goldsmiths just after Tut died, and it respresents how Tut looked when he died. The 5,000 articles in Tut's tomb illustrate the ancient Egyptian saying that in Egypt, “gold is as common as dust.”

Prof. E. M. Blaiklock writes of these vast treasures:

If the tomb of a boy king could produce the beauty, wealth, and art which has so astounded the world, what must the palace of really great pharaohs such as Ramses II have been like? (1983, 459).
 

Indeed. Further, the writer of Hebrews said that Moses turned his back on the riches of Pharaoh Ramses' court "for the reproach of Christ."  Contrary to what many Christians think, Old Testament saints were very familiar with the Messiah. The sacrifices typified Him, the prophets proclaimed Him, and people of faith believed in Him. Moses deemed it more important to turn his back on the treasures of Egypt, experiencing the scorn and ridicule of his Egyption peers because he became a follower of the Messiah and believed in blood atonement, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

Hmmm.

Next time you get too caught up or bent out of shape over the politics and economics of America, ask yourself if you have helped others experience and enjoy the far more important Kingdom of Christ and His reign in our lives!

Looking by Faith for a 'Better Country'

Hebrews 11 is a chapter sometimes called The Hall of Faith. Over thirty men and women are named by the writer of Hebrews as examples of people possessing deep faith in God, faith that never wavered, even in the midst of difficult and troubling times for them. During their lives, these people of faith never became settled in this world. They were sojourners and pilgrims (v. 9) in this life, and they considered themselves foreigners and strangers (v. 13) to this world. For this reason, they never got too down when things were tough, nor did they get to high when things were good. Hebrews 11 is a great chapter for people of faith to study, particularly those of us who live in the very polarized and politically charged United States. The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that believers "seek a better country" (v. 16), a country having"a city with foundations, whose Builder and Architect is God" (v. 10). Further,  people of faith declare openly and plainly to those around them that they are "seeking this country" (v. 14).

The word translated "country" in Hebrews is the Greek word patrida. The Greek word pater, the root word of patrida, means Father. Patrida is best translated Fatherland.  Our eternal home is the land of our Father. This land is alternately called His Kingdom, Heaven, or the earth where the curse has been reversed.  When Jesus said "The meek will inherit the earth," He was describing that time when people of faith enter the Fatherland.  All of history is moving toward that time when the Kingdom of God within me becomes the Kingdom of God around me. Christ reigns in my heart today by faith, but one day I will be living in a land where Christ reigns by sight. This is the country to which we should keep our eye of faith focused upon.

The Germans misused and abused the term Fatherland. The enemies of God are always producing counterfeits, and Hitler's vision of a Third Reich is a corrupt and twisted application of the beauty and simplicity of Christ's eternal reign in the Fatherland. Faith in the Fatherland is what allowed Abraham to live in a tent for seventy-five years (v. 9). Faith in the Fatherland helped Moses forsake the riches of Egypt (v.26). Faith in the Fatherland allowed Joseph to order his bones not be buried in the pyramids of Egypt, but carried to the Promised Land of Canaan, which is a type of the Fatherland (v. 22). Faith in the Fatherland helped people of faith endure torture and not accept deliverance (v. 35), experience beatings, imprisonment, and cruel mockings with triumph (v. 36), and find their lives ending in stoning, hanging, or by the sword (v. 37).

The writer of Hebrews closes by saying "this world is not worthy of them." (v. 38).

Next time you get bent all out of shape because somebody opposes your political viewpoint, or next time you read a book that convinces you that the world is going to financially collapse in the next five years, or next time you take a look around and see that you don't have a great deal of possessions accumulated from your decades of living in this world, remember Hebrews 11 and remind yourself that it is far better to store up for yourself treasures in the Fatherland (selfless love in all your relationships and intimacy with God), than it is to get too disconcerted about the things of this life.

A 'better country' is coming.