A Christ-follower with a limp: July 2017

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Legal does NOT mean Ethical

“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.” Potter Stewart

During our recent local flooding, I was called in to a situation where, though most of the community now had electric power restored for several days, this family did not. They were tenants in an area where there were other rental properties. The house next to them faced the same situation but there the landlord provided a generator for his tenants.

The law does not require landlords to provide generators even if there is a power outage of several days. Because it wasn’t legally required, even though his tenants had been without power for nearly a week, this landlord refused to rent a generator. So, the landlord next door, out of kindness, allowed them to run extension cords from the generator that he’d provided his tenants and paid for the fuel to run it…even though they weren’t his tenants. As you know, our entire community was pulling together to help each other. Yet, here was one hardhearted landlord who just because he wasn’t legally obligated, refused to help, or be gracious and show mercy.

Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it is right. It’s a scene all too common. Unless someone is legally obligated, they refuse to do the right thing. It’s why laws are added upon laws. The erroneous thinking is people can somehow be legislated into ethical behavior. Sadly, it won’t work.

In my opinion, we have such a scene playing out on the national stage. Donald Trump Jr., responded with great interest last year to a proposed meeting with a Russian lawyer, who claimed to have documents from the Russian government that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign and be “very useful” to his father’s Presidential campaign. Trump Jr. told an intermediary, “[I]f it’s what you say I love it” and arranged for a secret meeting on June 9, 2016 with this Russian lawyer.

In spite of all the political histrionics from the media and Democrats, was it illegal? Probably not. Was it unethical? Absolutely! One does not partner with an enemy of their country, even if the outcome is a major political win like the Presidency. It may not be illegal, but it’s certainly unethical.

Nothing is free. Were policy concessions also discussed, such as a lifting or softening of sanctions to this adversary of America, in return for campaign help? Doesn’t such a secret meeting put the Trump team in a position to have a hostile foreign government politically blackmail the administration later, though there is currently no evidence suggesting such blackmail happened? This meeting definitely opened up the possibility. While it may not be illegal to meet with an American adversary for help in defeating a domestic political opponent, it’s unquestionably unethical.

The politics are insignificant. The ethics are everything. Just because something is legal does not mean it’s moral. Yet, the rationalization is one made all the time. It’s a tit-for-tat. “The Democrats do the same thing.” Reportedly some Democratic Party officials met with Ukrainian officials to help the Clinton campaign, including the area of opposition research.

If it’s unethical, it’s unethical. Even if an opponent rationalizes sloppy ethics, it doesn’t mean I can justify it. Often ethics in our culture, whether they’re tenant/landlord or political ones, are similar to a cage fight – anything goes. As Christians, we’re citizens of another Kingdom. Philippians 3:20 reminds us, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Something may be legal but that does not mean it is moral, or more importantly for a believer, it may not be righteous.

The Bible clearly teaches moral absolutes. Ours is a relativistic, pragmatic world and ethics are fluid. The thinking is that while something may be wrong for you, it’s right for me. If it is pragmatic or works, that tips the scale that it must be right. God’s Word teaches transcendent moral absolutes. Wrong is always wrong and can’t be rationalized away. Nor does the end, as in winning an election, justify the means.

For example, stealing is stealing whether it’s an armed robbery or taking home a box of staples from work. It’s not the amount that makes it wrong, it’s the biblical fact that the Bible commands us to not steal. Exodus 20:15 does not qualify it but simply states, “You shall not steal.”

Cultural acceptance is not a justification for violating moral absolutes. Though a high percentage of taxpayers believe it’s acceptable to not report all of your income or to be paid off the books, it doesn’t make it right. Though 74% of men and 68% of women would cheat on their spouse if they thought they could get away with it, it doesn’t make it morally right. There are probably no statistics for being hateful to your spouse or child, indolent at work, jealous of a neighbor, shading the truth, or telling off-color jokes. While all of these are culturally accepted, they’re still wrong.

Morals may be fluid and subjective in this world, but there is a God in heaven who sees and knows everything. He’s a just Judge and the God of moral absolutes. His standards do not change with time or culture.

Those who are part of His Forever Family, in love to Him for the great sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, are to be distinctly different. We’re to be the most ethical of people. The standard is not friends, a changing culture, or even how we feel about something. It’s God’s Word. The believer is to live to please an audience of One. We know that someday, even if it is “legal” in the courts of earth, there will be an accounting in heavens courts. We must live in a way that pleases our Heavenly Father. We must determine to be ethical, always doing the right thing, even if it means standing alone.

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. "

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Persecuted Christians in America???

“Christ’s followers cannot expect better treatment in the world than their Master had.” Matthew Henry

Does broad brush labeling bother you? Do you hate it when someone accuses you, just because you’re a Christian and have a certain worldview, of being “hateful” or “phobic”? One has to wonder – do those outside the Church really believe that Christians don emotional hazmat suits because we’re petrified that we might encounter someone who is a “sinner”?

It’s frustrating when we’re caricatured by untrue broad brush labels like “hateful” and “phobic.” Yet, I find that we Christians do the same thing. We throw out broad brush terms. One that I believe we far too easily use is the word “persecuted.” It is true that things have changed in America and Western Culture. Religious freedom that we’ve taken for granted is being attacked. Personally, though, I have a hard time calling it persecution…maybe marginalized, but not persecuted.

Do we really believe liberals, feminists, those in the media or Hollywood are all the “enemy?” I don’t. I have Christian friends who’d probably be classified as liberals or feminists. Though I don’t personally know anyone in Hollywood, I know that there are Christians there, people who love Jesus just like you and I do. Do I believe that some of those who would be classified “liberals” are wrong? Yes, and when we get to Heaven, God will straighten them out (just kidding J). My point is that there are those who love the Lord and who are committed Christians in nearly every career field with various ideologies. They don’t all dot their “i’s” like we do.

Yet, sadly, you’ll hear Christians, particularly in the “Christian” media whine about how Christianity is under attack and we’re being persecuted. While I’d agree that “persecution” is taking place in some isolated places in America, to be called a “naughty” name isn’t exactly what Scripture means when it talks about persecution. We need to stop saying that liberalism or other ideologies are a threat to Christianity, because they’re not. A threat to what? To somehow make Christianity untrue? Do we really believe Christianity or biblical truth is built on some sort of strawman and needs us to protect its validity?

Too many Christians are paralyzed by fear. We talk about how liberalism or Hollywood are threats to Christianity. Compelling cases are made for why Christians should devote money, time or other resources to protect Christianity against these growing and seemingly innumerable threats.

First, truth does not fear scrutiny. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the TRUTH, and the life” (John 14:6). Evil men who have sought to destroy God’s truth, repeatedly find themselves crushed underneath its weight. His truth is inescapable. Even our conscience has His truth stamped on it with a sense of what is moral, and what is right or wrong (Romans 2:14-15).

Second, fear is not of God. To be afraid, to view that anything could be a threat to Christianity implies that, somehow, Christianity could be put on some type of “endangered religions” list, or that Christians could become extinct altogether. It’s a lie fueled by hearts which have made power and influence idols.

Christianity’s dominance in Western culture is not what legitimizes it. While it’s true, Christian dominance is being overshadowed by other religions and worldviews, the Christian faith is not dependent on cultural dominance to prove its validity, but by the dominion of our eternal, glorious God. God has not called us to be Crusaders, but rescue workers. When we claim some individual or group is threatening Christianity, it’s an insult to our omnipotent God. For God, competing worldviews are nothing. Christianity doesn’t have to be a popular worldview to be the right one.

Personally, I’d have a hard time in heaven looking fellow believers in the eye who were beheaded by ISIS and then complain I was persecuted because I was called names or treated like I was some wacko. It’d be hard to complain that the Supreme Court taking away the right to pray or have a Bible study in a public school is persecution to believers who whispered songs in their worship services so they’d not be heard and arrested.

Persecution is when the government, as we find in North Korea and other communist countries, seeks to control all religious thought and expression as part of a comprehensive plan to control all aspects of life. These governments regard religious groups as enemies of the state because they hold religious beliefs that contradict political ideology and challenge loyalty to the rulers. Persecution is when basic human rights are taken away, when Christians aren’t allowed freedom of expression, assembly, religious belief and movement. It’s when believers are executed for their faith, detained or tortured. As has been the case since the birth of the Church, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ live under governments who restrict or abuse religious freedom. Christians suffer deeply and are denied basic freedoms that all human beings should be entitled to.

It is rare for us to face real persecution in Western culture. Being unpopular is not persecution. We need to develop some spiritual backbone.

Personally, I am amazed and humbled that fellow believers facing persecution rarely ask us to pray that their persecution will end. Instead, they beg us to please pray that they will be faithful and stand strong for Jesus through the persecution. They’re primary concern is not to be delivered, but instead to persevere in the trials they face in a way worthy of King Jesus. It’s time for us to stop whining and follow their example!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

"Blessed are the peacemakers"

“One day I would love to turn on the news and hear,

‘There’s peace on earth’.”

It’s an anniversary year. Not all anniversaries are good and this one isn’t. There are some anniversaries that most of us, particularly if you lived through these terrible events, would love to forget.

This year is the 25^th anniversary of the Los Angeles riot that started on April 29, 1992. The riots lasted six days: 63 people died, more than 2,000 suffered injuries. It’s the 40^th anniversary of the Detroit riots. Detroit residents rioted for six days beginning on July 23, 1967. At least 43 died with another 2,000 injured. More than 2,000 buildings were burned down. Famed Detroit Tigers left fielder, Willie Horton, an African-American who’d grown up in the riot area, stood on a car in his uniform amidst the rioters and pleaded with them to go home. The rioters ignored him.

On July 17, 1932, a riot in what is now Hamburg, Germany, involved 7,000 Nazis and perhaps that many Communists. It became known as “Bloody Sunday” and left 18 Germans dead. It also killed freedom, the Weimar Republic and its free elections. Three days later an emergency decree curtailed liberty in Prussia which opened the door for the beginning of Hitler’s dictatorship the following year.

Over the last five years there have been race-based riots in Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, and other states following the shootings of African-Americans by white policemen. The more recent April 15^th riot in Berkeley, California, received less attention, but involved 500 to 1,000 demonstrators, including alt-right and anti-fa (“anti-fascist”) brawlers. Six were hospitalized and there was one stabbing. A greater tragedy is perhaps when riots become so “normal,” they’re no longer newsworthy.

One of the terrible aftershocks of the Fall is that human beings like to fight. Our bent is toward conflict. We especially like to fight and win. It’s part of how we deal with our consciences and guilt. If we can win, judge someone else wrong, then we feel better about ourselves. Like Adam and Eve, our own arrogance sets us up for continual conflicts.

Recently, Pastor John Burke (Gateway Church, Austin, Texas), wrote very transparently about himself: “I watch the news and condemn those ‘idiotic people’ who do such things. Most reality TV shows are full of people I can judge as sinful, ignorant, stupid, arrogant, or childish. I get in my car and drive and find a host of inept drivers who should have flunked their driving test—and I throw in a little condemnation on our Department of Public Safety for good measure! At the store, I complain to myself about the lack of organization that makes it impossible to find what I’m looking for, all the while being tortured with Muzak—who picks that music anyway? I stand in the shortest line, which I judge is way too long because—‘LOOK PEOPLE—it says ‘10 items or less,’ and I count more than that in three of your baskets. What’s wrong with you people?’ And why can’t that teenage checker—what IS she wearing?—focus and work so we can get out of here? Judging is our favorite pastime. Judging makes us feel good because it puts us in a better light than others.”

Our judgmental spirits and pettiness make us vulnerable for arguing and fighting. Too many of us live in a state of perpetual conflict. What makes that particularly sad is that we all want desperately to live in peace, to live a life free of conflict. Yet, we do many things wrong that cause even more conflict. While most of us don’t go looking for a fight, too many of us don’t put forth much effort to be a peacemaker or even a peace-keeper.

Peace-making requires divine power. True peace and lasting peace is impossible apart from God’s intervention. No one can produce what they don’t already possess. You can’t spread peace if you’re at war inside.

The only way to have inner peace is to first have personal peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. God is the source of all genuine peace. Scripture repeatedly tell us that God is a peace-loving, peace-making God. One outcome of that means that believers should be the most peace-loving and the greatest peacemakers. But are we? The 3^rd fruit of the Spirit is peace. Is that fruit evident in your life? Would your family say that you’re a “peace lover?” How about your church family? What about your co-workers? Or, sadly, are you known as a pot-stirrer?

You’ve no doubt heard of Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel was one of the world’s wealthiest men of his day. He invented dynamite. Yet, one morning in 1888, Alfred Nobel woke up to a terrible horror…he read his own obituary. A careless reporter had mistaken the inventor for his brother, who’d actually died. The shock for Alfred Nobel was overwhelming.

For the first time in his life, he saw himself as the world saw him – the dynamite king, the distributor of death. It was only for destruction that he would be remembered. And at that point, Alfred Nobel changed the course of his life. He determined that he would not be remembered in future generations as the merchant of death. So in his Last Will and Testament, he left his vast fortune to be awarded to those seeking world peace. We know it today as the Nobel Peace Prize.

Alfred Nobel wanted to be remembered as a peacemaker – not a peace breaker. How do you want to be remembered? More importantly, how will you be remembered? “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Based on your commitment to being a peacemaker, based on your character – would those around you know that you are God’s child, that you have a personal relationship with the Prince of Peace?

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Marriage: who are YOU listening to?

“Let the wife make her husband glad to come home
and let him make her sorry to see him leave.” Martin Luther

What’s your resource for having a healthy marriage? What’s your source for marital wisdom? I’ll never understand why the crowd with the worst record when it comes to marital fulfillment is our most trusted resource.

Most of what we believe about love, marriage and sex comes from Hollywood and romance movies. We forget that they’re acting. The actors and actresses rarely have the love in their own lives that they act out on the screen, yet we trust the ones who know so little about it. It’s like asking President Trump for advice on exercising self-control on social media.

A healthy marriage requires trust. All the flowers, gifts, romantic escapes, or sexual intimacy can’t overcome a lack of trust. Honesty is essential for a healthy marriage. The very first person I must be brutally honest about is ME. Finger pointing and fault finding about my spouse is like a terrorist bomb for a marriage. Instead, I must look in the mirror of God’s Word, submit to the Spirit and seek godly counsel about the sinner in me that contaminates my marriage. Most couples, if they see a marriage counselor, hope the therapist will take their side and fix their spouse. They’re wasting their money. The only one I have control over is me.

And my sins are not little. They’re big. My sin is horrific enough to require Jesus’ death to pay for it. God’s grace has power to overcome my sin and that same grace is available to fight sin that is poisoning my marriage. As God loves me in spite of my mess, I’ve been given the opportunity to love and forgive my spouse as I have been forgiven.

Ephesians 4:15 commands us to “speak the truth in love.” Marital success begins with me being honest about me, then forgiving my spouse’s sins.

A healthy marriage requires practicing problem-solving skills. “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:26). Most people lack problem-solving skills. It’s why there’s rampant divorce or why though there may not be a divorce, the marriage is little more than a shell. It’s why people quit jobs, break friendships or leave churches. Much of it goes back to maturity. Immature children stomp out, slam doors, take their toys and go home. Adults calmly confront issues and seek to bring them to a resolution.

Most of us fight like our parents did. Yet, when you became a Christian, you received a new Father. We’re going to disagree and fight. There is no rational for a Christian to become angry and fight in a sinful way…and we must clean it up. Often it’s left unresolved and merely buried. Like lava beneath the earth’s surface, the heat is still there and will eventually erupt.

A healthy marriage requires encouragement and continual positive affirmation. “A wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain” (Proverbs 19:13). King Solomon wrote those words. As he had 1000 wives and concubines, his perspective would be that this is a feminine problem. It’s not. Some of the pettiest, most negative individuals you’ll meet are men. It’s more fun to have a root canal than to hang around them. Most of those who are negative don’t even realize it. They may rationalize that they’re realists or only trying to help. Sadly, some of the pettiest individuals are believers. But when they are negative, they’re disobeying Scripture. Philippians 4:8 commands us, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Add to that, it’s impossible to build from weakness. You build from strength.

If most couples were honest and you asked them to give a percentage of what really bothers them about their spouse, it’d be less than 10%. But what do they focus on, what do they talk to their mate about – that silly 10%. Do you want a fulfilling marriage, then focus and talk about that 90%, that same 90% that probably attracted you to them in the first place?

I’ve observed this far too many times. A couple has had fairly minimal problems that they’ve allowed to become huge to them. Something tragic happens and those harsh thoughts and words can never be retrieved. There is great regret for them but it’s too late. So if your spouse died tomorrow, would all that petty stuff that’s got you all wound up today really matter? Are those the last words you want to say to them? Because you never know when your last day together will be.

A healthy marriage requires kindness and thoughtfulness. The validity of our Christianity is best demonstrated in our relationships, particularly with our spouse and children. It’s also the greatest evidence of the fruit the Spirit is producing in our life. It’s where we show the authenticity of spiritual growth. No relationship reveals this more than the marriage relationship. Our tendency is to demonstrate kindness as we’d like to have it expressed to us. True kindness though is expressing it in the way that’s most meaningful to my spouse. For example, some people love affirmation while others want time. Study your spouse and give them the gift of kindness most meaningful to them, not what should be meaningful to them…or is meaningful to you. Giving your spouse the wrong kind of kindness is like giving a jazz lover a Phish album. It just doesn’t work.

Our world longs for authentic love. Marriage demands love, commitment and perseverance. We have something a lost world doesn’t have to enable us to have a healthy marriage, God’s Word and His grace. Is your marriage a testimony to a lost world that God’s Word, His love and grace are real?

Monday, July 3, 2017

A Grace Driven Approach to Incarceration

“Going to prison is like dying with your eyes open.” Bernard Kerik

There are two phrases from Jesus’ first public words of ministry that weigh heavily on me:

“He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives…
to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

Twice we find the word “liberty” as part of our Lord’s purpose and ministry – liberty for captives and liberty for the oppressed. While the oppressed may be somewhat qualified, captives is not. It’s a broad term. What did Jesus mean by captives? To be a captive means you’re a prisoner of someone or something. You’ve been captured, taken hold of, put into chains and bondage – with or against your will. Obviously, Jesus was speaking first about freeing those in bondage to sin. Yet, I don’t think it excludes those who’ve been physically enslaved or judicially incarcerated.

If there’s any area of ministry that the Church for the most part has failed, it’s for those imprisoned or incarcerated. For me it’s become a great burden, though I certainly have more questions than answers at this juncture of my life.

Our church used to support The New Man Project. This ministry’s purpose was to provide employment for recently released prisoners, paying a family-supporting wage to enable them to become healthy citizens. The primary goal was to share the Gospel. True change occurs in a community one person at a time and only comes as we’re transformed by God’s grace, repent, accept by faith Christ’s sacrificial death for us, becoming a new person. Sadly, they had difficulty finding financial support to maintain this ministry and are currently in hiatus, seeking new funding for a re-start.

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration. While home to only 5% of the world’s population, we house 25% of the world’s prisoners. Criminologists have coined the term “mass incarceration” to describe the 500% increase in the prison population in the U.S. over the last 40 years.

Our judicial and incarceration system is a failure. The philosophy of just building more prisons to lock up more people is ludicrous, even from a fiscal perspective. Keeping just one inmate incarcerated, on average, for a year costs over $30,000.00. Yes, we must lock up violent and sexual criminals, but what are we truly accomplishing when we incarcerate shoplifters, addicts, those convicted of fraud or drunk drivers? Wouldn’t it be better to have a system of restitution and rehabilitation without incarceration? Should a shoplifter really be locked up with a rapist?

Please understand, it doesn’t excuse it, yet many repeat offenders grew up in homes where they themselves experienced terrible trauma in the forms of neglect, abandonment, sexual or physical abuse. Punishment for them then is seen as something to endure, not a learning tool. Planning or thinking in life-skill categories isn’t part of their life. They live in survival mode. Think about it, who plans for the future when there probably isn’t one? Trauma during those early years increases the likelihood of criminal behavior, mental illness or substance abuse later on. Those of us from relatively stable homes just don’t think the way that they think.

Jesus has called us to be incarnational. We must seek to understand and even enter their world, just as He entered ours. Those who have been incarcerated are often bruised, broken and wounded. If you take those who are physically broken and wounded to a hospital, shouldn’t you take those who are emotionally broken and wounded to a spiritual hospital, to the church? Shouldn’t our church be the place for healing and transformation?

As Paul Tripp writes, “What is the church? A well-led successful organization or a hospital full of diseased people? Everywhere you look, you will find couples who are struggling to love, parents who are struggling to be patient, children who are attracted to temptation and friends who battle the disappointments of imperfect relationships. This is 100% of the church’s membership! The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center.” The church is to be a wonderful, healing place! You don’t have to be perfect or good or even pretend. You can be a mess because Jesus loves to fix messes. That’s why Jesus died…for messes like you and me.

I don’t have all the answers but I know the One who does. At Grace, we’re not about us, our wants or needs. God has called us to be a lighthouse of hope to our community through astonishing, sacrificial acts of compassion. As others see Christ’s love manifested in us, not just talked about, they’re more open to listening to our message. We must be a church known for deeds of love, mercy and compassion. Our world will never accept Jesus until they first see Jesus in us. It means loving those who humanly speaking we may be repulsed by, like the incarcerated. Our Savior reached out to us though our sin was an abomination to Him. Then He died so that we could be free! Surely by His grace, we can show love, sharing acts of compassion for the incarcerated and those who are sin’s prisoners.

God may have brought someone into your life who, humanly speaking, you wouldn’t walk across the street for. We’re motivated by a higher calling to walk across a bridge for them, the bridge of the Cross. We must share God’s love, that there’s forgiveness, hope and restoration. Will you walk across the bridge of the Gospel to set a captive free? Will our church be a place of hope for those society considers hopeless? Are you in? I am!

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.