Free!

“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.”  Moshe Dayan

  Will you bear with me as I share an absurd idea? Last Sunday, we celebrated Easter, can you imagine though for a moment, that after His glorious resurrection, Jesus returned to the tomb and made that tomb His new home? We’re big on Easter and we should be! God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, putting an exclamation mark on the life of His Son. We celebrate, “The Lord is risen! He is risen, indeed!” What we forget though is that as New Testament believers, we are the People of the Resurrection!

  The resurrection was not just about Jesus; it’s about us, too. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:23-24). The resurrection is about God giving us power over sin and death.  

  From the start then, the bodily resurrection of Jesus was seen by his followers as much more than just what happens to us after we die. It was, in a sense, a second creation. In raising Jesus from the dead, God demonstrated His intent to fix His creation, to re-set the world, to do for the entirety of creation what He had done for His Son.

  This is why the Gospel of John begins with the words “in the beginning,” a clear reference back to Genesis 1, and then prefaces its account of the resurrection with, “now on the first day of the week.” John wasn’t just saying that our Lord rose on a Sunday (although He did)—John was emphasizing that the new creation had begun. That resurrection begins in us. That’s why we call it “new life in Christ.”

  Recently, I read a rather unbelievable incident where a young married man forgot that he was married. After returning from their honeymoon, the husband was three hours late getting home from work one evening because he absentmindedly had gone back to his mother’s house instead of going home to his new bride. Just a small tip for young husbands: Don’t forget that you are married! Yet, while that sort of thing is rare in the realm of marriage, it’s  very common among those who are “married” to Christ. We’re joined to Him as His bride so that we are now members of His body. We’re now identified with Him in His death and resurrection.

  The power of sin has been broken. So why do we live like dead people? Why do we choose to live like those who are still shackled and imprisoned? It doesn’t make any sense. Little wonder that those who are still spiritually dead ignore us when we talk about their need for new life in Christ, when we act as decaying and decomposing as they are.

  The resurrection means that we are FREE! We’ve been emancipated, yet so many of us live like we’re still imprisoned. That’s both sad and stupid.

  This morning we’re starting a new study, FREE. Jesus died and rose again to set us free. He promised, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Too many of us fail to live in the freedom that is ours. We neglect this wonderful truth every time that we fall into sin, every time we move back into the tomb of our past life.

  We are free and by the power of His resurrection, we’re to live as free people. That means that we are to have an active role in the new creation. What we do with our life and body in the present matters, whether it’s our vocation, our hobbies, or our worship. Our new freedom should make a difference in our marriage, our care for our children, or just loving our neighbor as ourselves, or even caring for the needy.

  As someone has insightfully said, “It’s all part of colonizing earth with the life of heaven.” This new creation, this divine project was first initiated at the resurrection of Jesus. It’s what it means to be free! God has called us to be part of His divine project of restoration. We’re to be the peacemakers, sharing and bringing peace to a broken world through works of grace, acts of justice, and His word of truth.

  Yet, it’s so easy—too easy, in fact—to identify and decry all the ways that the world is broken. To moan and groan about the stench of death and fail to live in our freedom or share it with those who are still enslaved. We’re to live free and then devote ourselves to freeing, repairing and restoring what sin has broken by offering the freedom that is available in Christ.

  God did not send His Son to the cross and raise Him from the dead for our private benefit. He did it to make those of us who say “The Lord is Risen!,” the light of the world. The Mishnah, the early 3^rd-century compilation of Jewish tradition, uses the phrase “tikkun olam,” which means “repairing the world.” That’s what it means to be resurrection people, especially since in raising Jesus from the dead, God has guaranteed that our efforts won’t be in vain. Our freedom is to be shared and used to set others free.

  The angels who were present at Jesus’ ascension asked an important question: “Why are you looking toward heaven?” (Acts 1:11) It’s a question worth considering. Frequently, we’re more concerned with heaven than with our freedom in the Kingdom of God now. Jesus’ breathtaking sacrifice at Calvary purchased our forgiveness for our sins and our hope of heaven. Yet, resurrection power is not just future, it’s for the present!

  Too many followers of Jesus have limited His work and message to heaven and heaven only. God wants us to be free now! It’s not just tomorrow, it’s for today!

  So are you free? Plan to join us for these next few weeks as we work through what God’s Word says about being FREE and the freedom that Jesus bought for us and empowers us with. It’s time to throw open the prison door and pitch the shackles. We are free!

Hope...waitin' for the light to shine!

 

“Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, I risk my whole eternity on the resurrection.”  Charles Spurgeon

  Our world is becoming more and more hopeless. Talk to someone about nearly any subject, whether the economy, education, world peace, crime, environment, public morality, work conditions, the Church, health, disease, government, marriage and divorce. Have a conversation about any of those subjects (and a host of others) and you’ll soon find that you’re drowning in a sea of negativity and pessimism.

  Life for too many has become dismal and dark. It reminds me of a scene from that classic Mark Twain novel, Huckleberry Finn. Huck wrestled with the darkness in his society and his own darkness as well. In his Southern culture, it was a major crime to help a runaway slave, as Huck had done for Jim. So Huck was torn between the attitudes of those who had raised him who were pro-slavery and looked on abolitionists as those “dirty abolitionists,” and his own friendship with Jim, the slave, who had sacrificed for him, taken risks for him, and had been through all kinds of adventures with him up and down the “Big River,” the mighty Mississippi. At this point in the book, Huck sings, “I am waitin' for the light to shine. I am waitin' for the light to shine. I have lived in the darkness for so long. I am waitin' for the light to shine.”

  Isn’t that most of the people you meet, maybe it’s even you…“waitin' for the light to shine.” This world is drowning in a sea of hopelessness. But, if you’re a Christian, this is not your world!

  Apart from the Christian faith, this world and everything we know is hopeless. Only Christianity has a guaranteed hope. Otherwise, despair hangs like a cloud over our culture. Christianity though offers hope, not just in this life, but also in the life to come.

  The power of Christian hope is accentuated by the difference in epitaphs marking the tombs of 1^st century Christians and unbelievers. Along the Appian Way, which runs south from Rome, stand the disintegrating tombs of aristocratic families that fed on the fat of Rome's power. The inscriptions on those tombs reflect the barrenness of hope. The crumbling Latin on one stone reads: “What I ate and drank I have with me; what I have left I have lost.”  Another says, "A cocktail, please, for you and me." Still another: "Wine and lust ruin the constitution, but they make life, farewell."

  Early Christians persecuted by Rome, often martyred in the Coliseum, were frequently forced to live and hide in the catacombs. Excavations in Rome have revealed some 60 catacombs, containing 600 miles of galleries, 8 feet high, and from 3 to 5 feet wide. On both sides are several rows of long, low, horizontal recesses, one above the other like berths on a boat, closed at the front either by a marble slab or by painted tile. Both pagans and Christians buried their dead in these catacombs. But there’s a stark difference in their epitaphs. Pagan inscriptions read: “Live for the present hour, since we are sure of nothing else.” Or, “I will lift up my hands against the gods who took me away at the age of 20, though I had done no harm.” Another says, “Once I was not. I know nothing about it, and it is no concern of mine.” Still another, “Traveler, curse me not as you pass, for I am in darkness and cannot answer.”   

  Yet, when the graves of Christians were opened, there were skeletons that revealed that their heads had been severed from the bodies, ribs broken, bones calcined from fire. What a contrast to heathen sentiments to read the epitaphs on the Christians' tombs: “Here lies Marcia, put to rest in a dream of peace.” Or, “Called away, he went in peace.” Still another, “Victorious in peace and in Christ.”

  What made the difference? Easter! Hope that comes with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. For the child of God, our ultimate hope centers in Jesus Christ, His Resurrection and the Life of the One Who has conquered death and promised us, as His followers, "Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Hope for the Christian is different and must be distinguished from merely waiting with bated breath, fingers crossed. Christian Hope is always a confident, guaranteed expectation. Christian Hope never just says, "I hope so." Because of the Resurrection, our hope looks forward to an unconditionally guaranteed glory, where all evil, sorrow, and pain will be banished forever, and where an unimaginable Heaven and inheritance awaits us.

  Christian Hope then is much, much more than mere aspiration. It’s a settled conviction, joined to faith and based on God's Word. When Paul said that the heathen lived "without hope," he didn't mean that they had no desires. Rather, in the truest sense, they were without hope because they lived without the definite certitude that only comes from faith in Christ.

  Ancient culture at its very best, had no long range perspective, but saw man as a prisoner of this world and of life from which there was no escape. The Christian has a guaranteed hope that is interrelated with Easter, Christ’s resurrection and His second coming. Hope, then in the New Testament, is a joyous expectation of eternal salvation. It’s a confident anticipation unmarred by doubt.

  Man innately believes in a life that survives death. Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, "Almost every person with who I have ever talked in my world travels has believed in life after death." Even Freud called the belief that death is the door to a better life as the "oldest, strongest, and most insistent wish of mankind." Yet, only the Christian who has committed his or her life to Christ, trusting in His sacrificial death on the Cross as the payment for their sins has true hope, not just a “I hope so.”

  Do you know Jesus? Do you have hope? There are many Christian hopes that pertain to this life: hope of answered prayer, the hope of another chance, the hope of God's providence bringing triumph out of tragedy. A  Christian has both hope today and hope for the world to come. It’s what Peter refers to as a “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3-5). Our living hope is founded completely on the resurrected Christ. Earthly hopes often prove vain. The resurrection of Jesus Christ on that first Easter morning launched true hope into its high and confident orbit. Do you have that hope today?

The vital separation of churches & the IRS

“I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is I could be just as proud for half of the money.”   Arthur Godfrey

  Would it make a difference to you? Imagine that you’re driving through some unknown city late in the evening. Inadvertently, you hit a pothole and blow a tire. It’s dark. You don’t really know where you are or what kind of neighborhood that you’re in. As you’re surveying the situation, you see a group of a dozen or so young men coming your way down the street. So would it make a difference to you if they were coming from a local video arcade or if they’d come from a Bible study at an area church?

  The answer is obvious. You’d feel safer if you knew they’d just left a Bible study. In fact, the odds are greatly increased that if they were coming from a Bible study, they might even stop and offer to assist you.

  This coming Tuesday (April 15^th) is D-day. We file our income taxes. Corporate taxes are due a month earlier, March 17^th. Though our church is incorporated, our church is tax exempt. For generations, churches have been exempt from both income and property taxes. In Wisconsin, we’re also exempt from sales tax. Since the birth of our country, when it comes to churches, it’s hands-off for income taxes, property taxes and more.

  As our culture becomes more Post-Christian, that greatly irritates many anti-religious individuals and groups. They insist that since churches benefit from services provided by the government (police & fire protection, etc.), it’s not fair that they pay nothing for those services. The argument goes that it’s not fair that everyone else has to pay more taxes to take care of the non-taxed church. They see it as an inequality protected under the law. Ask any governmental leader, it’s also a constant topic of debate as government looks for new sources of revenue.

  Let me say that first of all that tax exemption for churches or a lack of tax exemption is not a biblical issue. As New Testament Christians, we have a new citizenship, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). While Jews under the Old Covenant had a Theocratic government, in that God was their King, and lived under a Theocracy, in that the civil leader had direct personal connection with God, that’s not the case for us under the New Covenant. 

  Then, Christians live and have lived under every type of government: Democracy, Dictatorship, Communist, Socialist…to name a few. We are responsible to obey our government and faithfully serve the Lord whatever the political environment (Romans 13:1-7).

  While we are blessed in America, in that we are given tax credit that we can write off for financially giving to our church, it’s an American right, not a biblical one. Some day, too, we may lose it. Christians will then have to choose to be obedient to God and still give even if there’s no tax benefit. Christians are commanded to be faithful and generous managers of the money God has given them and give to their local church no matter what.  

  But while tax exemption for churches is an American right, it’s also fiscally responsible for government to not tax churches. Why?

  Churches encourage committed marriages. Marriage is the foundation of a healthy society. The church discourages divorce, adultery, even lust. It encourages commitment and martial problem-solving, rather than bailing out of the marriage at the first sign of trouble. Other groups or institutions in society don’t typically do that. This commitment to marriage is beneficial to government in that married people are better taxpayers because they usually earn more. Studies show that they tend to be healthier, both physically and mentally, than their non-married counterparts.

  Churches promote healthy families. The Bible commands parents to love their children, to provide for them, discipline and be responsible for them. It commands healthy parent-child relationships (Ephesians 6:1-4). Study after study shows that children living with both a Dad and a Mom do better in school and are healthier socially and emotionally. Rather than being a burden on society, they’re more likely to be a blessing. There’s a greater potential that they will become contributors themselves to society.   

  Churches advocate a strong work ethic. Scripture commands us to work and use the abilities God has entrusted to us as a stewardship. We’re not to be indolent or depend on others to care for us. Work and creativity are a stewardship of our gifts from God. Since the Reformation, the Protestant work ethic has helped define society. It's a vital concept in theology, sociology and economics that emphasizes hard work, frugality and diligence as a testimony of one’s salvation and the reality of their faith.

  Churches encourage literacy and education. The first book ever printed was the Bible. Many universities and colleges were founded by Christians. The Bible is a book that’s to be read, contemplated and thought about. Nearly every place where missionaries have gone, literacy increased and schools were founded. Historically, the church has also been one of the greatest promoters of the Arts.

  Churches encourage compassion for the poor, disabled and disenfranchised. Christians are commanded to take care of their own aging parents. That alleviates some of the financial burden from the State. The church helps and takes care of its own poor. Addiction and substance abuse are discouraged in the church. Counseling, mentoring and emotional support is often given to those seeking to break the cycle of addiction. Nearly every social organization that helps the disenfranchised was started by Christians. Compassion for others is commanded throughout the Bible.  And studies have shown that committed Christians are typically more generous than non-believers. They also tend to give to causes outside of their faith more consistently and generously.

  The reality is that some day churches may lose their tax exemption. Those in political power are often very shortsighted when it comes to the innumerable benefits of social revenue in their often insatiable quest for more fiscal revenue. If you think taxes are high now, can you just imagine how much higher they would be if the government had to provide all of the “services” that a local church does every day as part of its mission?

March Madness: When NBC dropped the ball

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.”

Mark Twain

  Rare is the individual (or group for that matter), who’d have the candor of Mark Twain, to admit they’d missed it and blown an opportunity. There’s just something about opportunity that makes it unfortunately much more obvious after the door has closed.

  Great opportunities push us out of our comfort zone. Often we miss opportunities because our world is too small. We’re more comfortable playing it safe, sticking with the known and familiar. Sometimes it’s because our rear view mirror is so huge that we can’t see out the front windshield. We’re looking at how things were, how they used to be. We succumb to being so nostalgic about the past, we’re out of touch with the present and unprepared for the future. Then, sometimes we’re so into ourselves and our own world, we’re virtually unaware there’s another one out there. For some, it seems that the theme song of their life is, “It’s a small world after all.” Oftentimes their world is not much larger than the tip of their nose, or their own family and circle of friends…who all essentially think, act and live just as they do. Because their world is small, it has very little, if any room for growth, risk and opportunity.

  Monday night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship on CBS is a historic example of an individual who missed a phenomenal opportunity. Because he wouldn’t stretch out of the familiar or his own comfort zone, it greatly cost him and his company.

  If you know anything about television and media history, you may recognize the name of Fred Silverman. In many portions of his life, Fred was a genius. He was sharp and on the cutting edge. Yet, when he had to stretch out of his comfort zone, he was dimmer than a burnt out light bulb.

  For nearly forty years, he was a one man media genius. At some point, in his career he worked for all three major networks. He had the foresight to bring to TV such popular shows as The Waltons, All in the Family, Charlie's Angels, even Scooby-Doo. It was his genius that was behind some of the first great TV miniseries like Roots and Shogun. He had an uncanny ability to spot burgeoning hit material. He reintroduced game shows to the network's daytime lineups, including an updated version of the 1950’s game show, The Price Is Right, that’s still on the air some four decades later. He revitalized the news division of the networks. Yet, amazingly, as talented, brilliant and connected as Fred Silverman was, he was obtuse when it came to sports. He didn’t understand how vital they were or how much they were a part of American culture.

  When he was president of NBC, all he cared about was whether something was profitable in the present, not its potential worth in the future. When it came to the opportunities presented by sports, a former associates described him as “myopic.” For example, during the 1979 World Series, it was bitterly cold in New York. Bowie Kuhn, the Baseball Commissioner invited Silverman to sit in his box during Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Even though Silverman was president of NBC which had the rights to the World Series, he balked and had to be cajoled into attending and sitting with the Commissioner during the game by Chet Simmons, who was then president of NBC Sports. Simmons pointed out to him that if NBC wanted to keep the rights to the World Series, Silverman needed to do some serious schmoozing. Afterwards though, Silverman chewed Simmons out, telling him, “If you ever do that to me again, I’ll fire you.”

  The reason March Madness is on CBS instead of NBC is that when NBC had a two year contract for the Tournament, the NCAA gave NBC an option for a four year contract. It took Fred Silverman less than 10 seconds to turn down that fantastic opportunity. Even when all of his other executives and sales staff wanted to jump at the opportunity, even when one of his top executives begged him to reconsider, Silverman still said no.

  Though NBC had had the rights to the Tournament since 1969, this shortsighted decision so irritated the NCAA that when NBC’s contract was up, the contract was given to CBS…and the rest is March Madness history.

  For the believer, an opportunity is any favorable occasion when we have the opportunity to make a decision that could have a positive impact for the Kingdom. Opportunities are a gift from the Lord. Yet, like short sighted Fred Silverman, too often we let them pass us by, failing to recognize that they’re gifts and that our heavenly Father sent them to us.

  Think about this. Isn’t it amazing that even in this post-Christian age, billions of people around the world celebrate Easter? Sure, for some it’s little more than eggs and bunnies, but they’re still thinking about it. What an opportunity for those of us who know the real meaning of Easter! Since they’re already talking about our holiday, what a fantastic opportunity to graciously share the real Easter story.  

  Our greatest enemy is Death. It represents our sin and guilt. It stands for hopelessness. Yet, Jesus conquered Death. Jesus wasn’t resuscitated, He was resurrected, never to die again. Because of Jesus, Death is now little more than a toothless lion with no claws.

  Ephesians 6:15 says, “And, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” The idea is for us to be ready at all times to share the gospel. As believers, we’re on duty 24/7 because you never know when an opportunity will open up to share the gospel with someone. It's the idea of being ready and willing to move at a moment’s notice because opportunities to share the gospel frequently come when we least expect them.

  Are you watching for those opportunities? They come quickly, often unexpectedly. The Lord Jesus is passing us the ball. Please don’t drop it!