A Christ-follower with a limp: February 2019

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Making Black History

“I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.”

Rosa Parks

Who do you have a lot in common with? Most of us think of our family. After that, perhaps we think of our community. Our political values and party would be on the list that either draws or divides us from others. Economic, marital and family status is another subdivision. Somewhere our church fits in. Our occupation and sports team loyalty is another partition.

The New Testament is clear – believers have more in common with other believers than any other social group, even those of their own biological family, if they are not believers. Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Our unity in Christ is superior to all family, national, political, economic, cultural, occupational, or denominational loyalty. We are first brothers and sisters in Christ. Every other social partition is to be a very far second to the unity we have in Christ.

Believers have something that we do not have with any other, even our own family. We are trusting in the cross and Christ alone for our salvation. With our brothers and sisters in Christ we have the same values, worldview and common blueprint of God’s Word. Ultimately, we have the same Home and final destination.

There is a continual conversation about the growing division in America and really the world. For those who have trusted in Christ alone, there must be no division. Believers trust the same Savior, though we’re from different cultures, languages and even nations, we have more in common than either of us have with our neighbors across the street who have not trusted Christ.

Sixty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made a sad accusation of the Church, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” Jesus died for us so that we’d be One Body in Him. Unity is imperative and of utmost importance to God. Just a sidebar, it’s one reason that at Grace, we have gluten-free communion crackers. Communion is about our unity in Christ. We believe then that it’s vital we symbolize that even in the elements of communion.

February is Black History Month. There are many African-American brothers and sisters that you may be unaware of who, though they may not be making history, are making history in eternity. If you’re a reader, pick up their books. If you’re a listener, find them on the radio or a podcast or even on YouTube.

Tony Evans is the founding pastor of Dallas’ Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, which began in his home in 1976 and has grown to a membership of almost 10,000. He’s the first African-American to earn a doctorate in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. You can hear him on both radio and television. He’s been the chaplain for 30 years for the Dallas Mavericks. He has authored over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.

Jackie Hill-Perry is a writer, speaker and artist. Since coming to know Christ at the age of 19, she’s shared the light of gospel truth through teaching, writing, poetry and music. She released her debut album The Art of Joy in 2014. Growing up fatherless, Jackie experienced gender confusion. She abused marijuana, loved pornography, and embraced both masculinity and homosexuality. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of that, but was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? In her 2018 book, Gay Girl, Good God, she shares her story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Coming to Christ, she came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new…not in a church, or through contact with Christians—God broke in and turned her heart towards Him right in her own bedroom in light of His glorious gospel.

Thabiti Anyabwile trusted Christ when he was 25 years old. Greatly influenced by Pastor Mark Dever, he served as an assistant to him at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in D.C.. Currently, he’s the pastor at Anacostia River Church in southeast Washington, D.C. Our leadership read together and we give his book, What is a healthy church member? to everyone who attends our New Members’ class. His writings as a black believer about peace and racial reconciliation continually challenge me. Let me share just one quote: “The only way to live responsibly in the world is to commit ourselves to the kind of peacemaking that begins with things as they really are. We must learn to cope with the tools of the gospel and the Scripture, and that’s going to require a bunch of humility and faith.”

Priscilla Shirer is an author and conference speaker. As a freshman at the University of Houston, she interned with a Christian radio station. Soon listeners were calling the station, inviting Priscilla to speak at their Bible study groups and other events. She was invited to lead a weekly Bible study at the Zig Ziglar Corporation and join its speaker team. She calls Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, her mentor in ministry. Priscilla Shirer will tell you that she is a wife and a mom first. God used her to launch Going Beyond Ministries and she has authored over a dozen video driven studies for women and teens on a myriad of biblical characters and topics.

There are many others I could add to this list. Will we always agree with them? No. God’s Word is the final standard. We hold without apology Sola Scriptura, the Bible is the only authority for faith and practice. Yet, in a polarized America, a polarization that’s often contaminated the Church, we’ve forgotten that God’s Word is cross-cultural, written primarily by Middle Eastern Jews thousands of years ago. If God can use the Bible to bridge that great divide and bring about unity, there’s no question our awesome God can bring about unity in His family today, if we’ll let Him.

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, February 17, 2019

Time to Celebrate!

“The goodness of God is infinitely more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend.” A. W Tozer

On February 5^th the New England Patriots had their Super Bowl victory parade in Boston. The Patriots won their sixth title with a 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII. This championship is the Patriots’ second in three years and the parade was the 2^nd title celebration in three months for Boston, as the Red Sox celebrated their World Series triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers last year.

Do you know much about celebration? Do you think the average Christian knows much about celebration? How about the typical church? I don’t think so. I know that I don’t.

Most of us celebrate about as often as the Chicago Cubs do after winning a World Series title, not very often. When the Cubs won the 2016 National League Championship Series and then the 2016 World Series, it ended a 71-year National League pennant drought and a 108-year World Series championship drought. Both are record droughts in Major League Baseball.

The Patriots’ February 5^th celebration wasn’t only about celebrating the Super Bowl, it was a celebration of thousands of hours of sacrifice, practice and effort. It was the celebration of millions of Pee Wee football high school and college moments of blocking, running drills, passing and catching. It was a celebration of Moms making time to drive a son to practice. Or, Dads dragging themselves out to the backyard after a hard day at work to throw and catch passes. All of that was represented in those moments of unbridled celebration.

Americans know little about celebration. Some of us celebrate a New Year or 4^th of July. We may remember our anniversary (hopefully), yet other than a major milestone like a graduation or a wedding, we rarely celebrate. And in the Church, we’re not much better. We barely give a nod to a celebration and then our nose is back to the grindstone.

Yet, Celebration is very important to God! Included in the Mosaic Law were seven annual celebrations. It’s not that God is such a party animal, though He’s certainly not the fuddy-dud some imagine. It’s that God has designed celebration as a memory tool. For example, the 4^th of July isn’t about fireworks and grill-outs, it’s a celebration of our hard won freedom and how important it is. America has a unique history. When we forget the importance of freedom or the high price paid for it, we begin to lose it.

God didn’t want His chosen people to forget the high price that had been paid for them. God owed them nothing. Everything that they had was because of God’s grace and mercy, and when you read their history in the Old Testament, you have to wonder why God didn’t wash His hands of them. They’re known as the “children of Israel.” The “brats of Israel” would be more accurate.

God designed for seven annual celebrations for them. Passover was a time to remember an innocent lamb was sacrificed as God delivered them from the bondage in Egypt. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminded them to rid themselves of sin, as leaven in Scripture typically symbolizes sin. Unleavened bread eaten over a set period of time symbolized a holy walk with the Lord. During the Feast of First Fruits the Jews acknowledged the fertility of the wonderful land that God gave them. They were to offer a portion of the early crops of their spring planting (1^st fruits) at the Temple. It was a reminder to trust God, not the land or seed. The Lord was worshipped with the first fruits, literally a portion of the seed they’d otherwise use for the remainder of that seasons agriculture cycle. It demonstrated their faith and dependence on God to provide the harvest. The Feast of Pentecost was to take place exactly 50 days after the First Fruits and celebrated the summer harvest. Two “wave loaves” of equal weight were baked with leaven, representing human sinfulness. It was called “first fruits” because it represented a redeemed people. It was prophetic in that after Jesus’ cross, the Church would be comprised of two parts, Jew and Gentile. Pentecost took place in Acts 2 as some 3000 people repented and committed their lives to the Resurrected Christ. Today we continue the celebration of Pentecost by continuing to sow the gospel and cultivate lives in this world, as we trust God for a great harvest of those who will commit their lives to Christ as marked by the next feast. The Feast of Trumpets was a memorial of blowing of trumpets. The trumpet blowing was a signal for the field workers to stop harvesting and to come immediately to worship at the Temple. During the Feast of Atonement the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice on behalf of himself and the nation. Once in the Holy of Holies, he sprinkled the blood from the sacrifice on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. It, too, prophetically represented Christ, who as our Great High Priest offered Himself once as the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind and satisfied divine justice, making it possible for us to be reconciled to a holy God (Hebrews 4-5). Finally, the Feast of Tabernacles was to remind them that God provided shelter for them in the wilderness. Each year they were to build small shelters outside their houses and worship in them.

The bottom line is that God wants us to learn to celebrate! It’s important for us to continually remember God’s goodness and blessings on us! The Sovereign of the universe owes us nothing.

It’s why we’re celebrating this 1^st Anniversary of being in our new building. From a human perspective the numbers and events that got us here, just don’t make sense. It’s miraculous that we’re here and we must never forget that. Grace Church is truly an act of God’s great grace! He gets all the credit! So, let’s celebrate and remember how blessed we are!

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Hello! My Name is "Lonely."

“Loneliness is the ultimate poverty.” Pauline Phillips

I met a girl named, “Lonely.” No, I’m not attempting to write a song. I really did. Recently, I was at Panera grabbing a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. The young lady’s name tag who waited on me, had for her name, “Lonely.” I asked about it and pointed out, how could she be lonely when she was surrounded by people, BUT the truth is, she could be.

This coming week is Valentine’s Day and many couples and married folk will be celebrating it. One underlying and often acknowledged reason that they celebrate is – they’re not lonely. They believe that they have someone.

I’m always staggered by that first statement in the Garden, when our Creator made the first negative statement in the midst of all of the wonder of creation – “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 3:18). Then, our loving God created Eve as the marriage partner for Adam. Our kind Creator gave to us what the Godhead already possessed – community. It’s what we know theologically as the Trinity. In the Trinity, God exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t just God that created us; the Godhead created us. In Genesis 1:26, there’s a conversation within the Godhead, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Do I understand the Trinity? Can I even adequately explain it, “No.” I’m a finite human being who will never fully comprehend an infinite God. There are many other things that I also don’t understand, like love or loneliness.

It wasn’t a long conversation, so I don’t know if she was truly lonely, or if it was a joke. I do know that we are surrounded by lonely people. The Beatles hit a societal nerve with their mega-hit song, “All the lonely people.” Some lonely people are more obvious – a single person, divorcee, widow or widower can be lonely. So can a teen or college student, which is one reason that depression is epidemic among both.

Yet, there are many other categories of loneliness we’re often oblivious to. For example, there’s the loneliness of suffering. Many around us carry great burdens that they carry alone. The suffering is painful and loneliness only adds to the weight of the burden. Perhaps it’s a disease or an emotional malady. My pastoral experience has been that it can often be the loneliness of a hurting marriage. From the outside (and posts on Facebook), they appear to be a Valentine couple, but they’re not.

Or, sometimes it’s because of unresolved marital issues. One of the loneliest marriages to be in is where you know the Lord, yet your spouse is an unbeliever. You can’t share the greatest part of your life with them. You carry the heavy burden that the one you vowed to love “til death to us part,” is doomed, unless they come to Christ to a tragic eternal destination.

As a church family, when we learn of someone in those circumstances, we need to partner with them, praying with them that their spouse comes to Christ. We must continually encourage the regenerate spouse, reminding them that they’re not alone and we’ve got their back. There are many on my prayer list from our church family that I continually pray for and that their spouse will accept God’s glorious gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

The loneliness of suffering can be a wayward child. Many close friends, many of my friends in ministry, have one. Sometimes it’s a child who has rejected Christ and the faith. It’s a heartache that’s nearly impossible to share. It can be a child who’s imprisoned or enslaved to addiction, or who despises Christianity. It’s the loneliness of suffering with a heavy heart.

One that most never consider is the loneliness of leadership. Every pastor understands it. There are some burdens that you can only share with your Heavenly Father. Probably one of the loneliest individuals you know, yet probably don’t have a clue that they’re lonely is your manager or boss. I can assure you that the CEO of your company, in spite of all of the apparent trappings of success, struggles with loneliness. Because when you’re a “success,” you wonder who your true friends are. Are they your friends because you’re successful or truly your friends? Sometimes it’s only when life tumbles in that you learn who your real friends are.

What’s the cure to loneliness? I believe that it’s first a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As a believer, I have promises that I’ve anchored my life to. The Lord promises every child of His, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Jesus’ last words were, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). Those are the promises that will carry you even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of the death after the loss of one dearest to you. It’s His promises that carried me when as a boy, I lost my mother in a tragic car accident. And if the Lord should take one of those dearest to me, they’ll carry me again.

One of my favorite quotes about loneliness that’s encouraged me countless times over the decades is, “Loneliness becomes our friend when it forces us to enjoy the fellowship of God as much as we would the fellowship of others.” At periods of my life when I’ve felt so very alone. I am confident that I am not. The sweetness of my Heavenly Father’s love for me has so comforted me…and it will comfort you too.

Personally, I have found that one of the best cures for loneliness is for me to care for and serve others. God designed us for relationships. When I care and reach out to someone else, my own soul is filled with joy.

As believers, we must continually look outward to others. We’re commanded, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). The most miserable people are those who think primarily about themselves. God designed us to be rivers through which His love flows, yet when we focus primarily on ourselves, we become cesspools.

So choose to be God’s Valentine to those around you this week! Look for someone lonely that you can encourage. Let’s help downsize the number of all those lonely people so no one has to wear a name tag, “Lonely.”

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Thanks Colin Kapernick!

“You don’t watch NFL so if you don’t like the kneeling just ignore it, like you do racism and police brutality.” Colin Kapernick

This is one time when I probably should attach a caution label: “Proceed at your own risk.” You may disagree with me. I only ask that you not discount my words because it violates your personal values. At least take the time to think it through and evaluate if there’s some (or perhaps a lot of validity) in this blog. Let’s put it right out there: I’m thankful for the NFL controversy of players kneeling. Here are some reasons I feel this way.

Obsession with sports has supplanted other more worthy endeavors. The protests have caused many to consider whether they want professional sports to have such a big part of their lives. My main concern though is for Christians and the Church. Sports for many believers are an idol. Something becomes an idol when it gives us greater joy than Christ, when it becomes more of a focus in our lives than He is, when it’s what I think and talk about the most, when it’s what I most love spending time and money on…or, if the outcome of the game greatly alters my attitude.

To me, it’s a poor way to address racism. Racism is a problem and a sin. Personally, I think this is a foolish way to address it. It has little hope of making real change with more symbolism than substance. 75% of NFL fans are Caucasian. 25% make over $100K annually, so it tends to polarize rather than provoke change. Add to that, 40% are over 55 years of age, and tend to be the most patriotic Americans. That demographic is more concerned about the American flag being disrespected than any other.

It also seems disingenuous when the average player’s salary is $1.9 million annually. It’s hard to believe someone at that economic level can empathize with the average black person experiencing racism. Then, there’s blatant hypocrisy on the part of the media who mocked Tim Tebow for kneeling because of his faith, yet kneeling during the National Anthem is defended and celebrated by these same elitists.

The timing is poor for the sport of football. Football continues to lose popularity because of the fear of head injuries. The day may come when it is about as popular as dog fighting. It’s my hope that some of this shake-up will be a wake-up call for believers, causing them to re-evaluate their over the top loyalty. With that being said, there is another side of the biblical worldview as related to athletics and sports.

The Bible isn’t, nor should the Church be anti-sports. Scripture repeatedly uses athletic terminology. While the Old Testament contains allusions to running, throwing, shooting and other physical activities, it doesn’t appear that organized sports were part of the culture. In the New Testament era, it’s very apparent that competitive sports were a major part of life. Both the Olympic Games and Isthmian Games took place in that era. The Apostle Paul frequently uses athletic examples to illustrate spiritual truth. Scripture never condemns sports. If Paul believed they were sinful, he wouldn’t have used them to illustrate the Christian life.

Sports can teach us much about the Christian life. They can instill respect for those in authority. An athlete must have confidence that the coach’s decisions are right and trust, as well as obey the coach. In the same way, church leaders often can see the bigger picture. Their goal should be to develop each member’s gifts, so they serve to the best of their ability.

As an athlete perseveres to win, Christians are to persevere in the faith. When we’re knocked down, we must get back up, set goals, and keep a positive attitude.

Sports teach teamwork. Winning teams learn to play together to win. They realize each player, though at a different position, is vital for a positive outcome. The same is true in the church. There are no insignificant “players.” Athletics can teach us how to love and respect others, to win and lose with grace, and to encourage others in their “game,” too.

How do I know if sports have become an idol in my life? An idol is when “the thing or person is loved more than God, wanted more than God, desired more than God, treasured more than God, enjoyed more than God. It could be someone we’re dating or even approval from others. It could be success, or a hobby, musical group or a sport or team we follow. The first two of the Ten Commandments challenge us. God knows we’re easily distracted and fail to remember Who truly deserves our worship. We have a long history of misdirecting worship away from God and turning it toward the things of man, from the Creator to the created (Romans 1:21, 25).

Sports can become a family idol. It’s easy to be swept along by sports fan parents. We run at an ever increasing speed, with little evangelism or discipleship taking place with our own children. Sports become the greater focus than that which makes an eternal difference. Often the results don’t reveal themselves until adulthood when there’s a disinterest in spiritual things because it wasn’t cultivated during those formative years.

Sports have become an idol when ministry and worship is preempted. It can be a normal part of common grace to unwind watching sports. But if you’re dead tired for Sunday worship, something is out of sync. If there’s always time for the game, yet little time for serving, it’s become idolatry.

Sports have become an idol when my emotions are contaminated. How do you feel if your team loses? Being a bit bummed is normal. Some though need a bigger perspective. It’s only a game! Caring about your kid’s scrimmage is no excuse for berating other grown men, let alone a child.

Sports have become an idol when it’s difficult for a conversation to go deeper than sports. Sports are a great entry point for conversations. It’s more interesting than the weather and safer than politics. Believers though must learn to move past sports. Don’t be that “guy” with only one question: “Did you catch the game?” Press on to more important matters. A man or woman who cares only about sports doesn’t care about nearly enough.

So enjoy sports as one of God’s many good gifts! Keep their temporal importance in balance in light of eternity. Make sure your worship is on the only One who is truly worthy of our worship!