Top 10 Favorite Scriptures in the Bible

The Bible contains a number of amazing things, unusual, astounding, and just plain weird stuff. For the next ten days, I will be posting a Top 10 list each day of the coolest and weirdest things in the Bible. Even if you aren’t Christian or even religious at all, I invite you to check out these lists. Comment on them, share your favorites, or even just say, ‘Whoa!!!, I didn't know that was in there’

To start, I thought that I would share my top 10 favorite scriptures:

(note - if you hover your mouse over the scripture address, you can read what it actually says)

Number 10

Matthew 7:1-5 – This is the most known and most quoted scripture by people who have never read the Bible. In fact, they always know it in the old King James English, “Judge not lest ye be judged” It is the most known and the most misunderstood. It is not an instruction not to judge at all, but an instruction on hypocrisy, judging others for their minor issues when you have a glaring one in your own life.

Number 9

Malachai 6:8 – James 1:27 – Matthew 25:31-46 – Faith is not a passive thing. Church is not a place to come sit on Sunday. Religion is not for yourself. God calls Christians to action, to work for justice, to give mercy to others, to help out the weak, the orphan, the widow, the underprivileged, the homeless, the needy.

Number 8

John 15:1-17 – Abide in God. If you want to be fruitful in life, He must be a part of all of your life, not just on Sunday mornings, none of this acting one way on Sunday and differently the rest of the week. For the record, I don't care for fake Christians any more than you do.

Number 7

John 10:1-18 – This is a favorite because I spent an entire semester camped out in these few verses during my first hermeneutics class. Who knew that 18 verses, a mere 346 words could be full of so much depth?

Number 6

Genesis 1:1 – This is one of the most important scriptures because it is the first step and core of all faith. If there is a God that created the universe, then it behooves me to find out who that God is and what is expected of me. That's where I started - I saw that the universe was amazing and well ordered from the smallest quark to the farthest flung galaxy. There is no way that could be accidental, so I had to find out who the creator was.

Number 5

Revelation 4:1-11& Ezekiel 1:4-28 – These are pictures of heaven that I can get on board with. There are no sissy angels languishing on clouds plucking harps or boring eternity, but a place of noise, action, and incredible power.

Number 4

Acts 2:42-47 & Acts 4:32-37 – These are a picture of the community of the first church that our modern church would do well to emulate, a group of people daily in community, providing for each other, and living out their faith in such a way that people who don't believe still respect them.

Number 3

Matthew 9:35-38. These verses were my call to ministry. People today live busy, burnout, self-medicated lives, harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Number 2

Matthew 18:5-6. Jesus loves the little children. Whoever welcomes a child in His name is welcoming Jesus. A good argument for adoption.

Number 1

Romans 1:16 & 2Peter 3:9 – God provides hope and salvation for all who believe and he desires that no one perish, but all humankind to be saved. If you don't know God, find out, He wants a relationship with you.

Tomorrow: The Top 10 Coolest Events in the Bible

Little Fella

I performed a funeral this last week. In my line of work, funerals are to be expected as regular fare, but this one was different.

My wife, my daughter, and I gathered around a small hole in the front yard, really nothing more than a single shovel-full of dirt. My little girl was sobbing and gripping my leg as we laid out her beta fish, Little Fella.

Little Fella was buried with full Fishy honors, wrapped in a beautiful white bed of paper towel, (the good absorbent kind mind you). Wrapped up with him in his funereal robe of white was his favorite plant from his fish tank.

My daughter shared a few words through her tears about her favorite times with Little Fella and I said a prayer committing his little fishy soul to the big Fish Bowl in the Sky. We then covered the hole with dirt and went back inside.

Rest in Peace Little Fella 2005-2009.

Little Fella is survived by two cats and by my daughter.

In lieu of flowers, please send love.

Am I Evil?

Am I Evil?

There is a paradox of humanity. Humans are capable of the most incredibly touching acts of goodness and at the same time exhibit the most appalling acts of evil.

A friend of mine recently began blogging, and in his first article, he addresses this paradox of human goodness and evil. (See it here: http://chandler-eric.blogspot.com/2009/08/reflections-on-sunday-morning.html.) As he observes in his blog, humankind is capable of the most amazing acts of beauty and altruism while at the same time being capable extreme acts of cruelty and evil. How can this be?

I too pondered this question and this was ultimately one of the main contributing factors in my choice of religion. (I'll go into the other contributing factors another time.) I searched and studied the religions and philosophies of the world trying to find an answer to the disparity of goodness and evil. Most of the systems that I encountered seemed to describe humans as ultimately good creatures that occasionally did evil.

That just didn’t jive with what I have observed in reality. Let’s be honest with ourselves here. I cannot see into your heart and soul as you cannot see into mine. But we can observe the actions of others and we can see into our own selves.

I know the evil that I am capable of. I am a pastor, a person who has chosen to give his life in service to God and to other people. Yet, through personal inventory and much introspection, I know what is in my own heart. It pains me to say this, but the truth is, there is evil within me: hate to the point of murder, lust to the point of rape, greed to the point of theft, envy to the point of destruction and much, much worse. It is not that I have done these things, only that I know that if conditions had been different in my life, there are times when I might have acted on these evil inclinations.

I believe that each of us has this within us although few would be so brazen to admit it. Calvinists call this depth of evil in all people: ‘Total Depravity.’ I am not Calvinist, but I do believe in almost total depravity.

There is an excellent book called, The Ordinary German in the Holocaust. Though somewhat dry as a historical study, this book disassembles the myth that only a few Germans were actually involved in the death of so many. It shows how impossible the task would have been without the tacit involvement of thousands if not millions of Germans of all walks of life. Thus, the ongoing Holocaust could not have been hidden from the general population. This is not limited to Germans, as if it were only they who have this penchant for evil.

Observe genocides in Rwanda, in the former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Iraq and Sudan.

Observe the mob violence that has occurred in riots worldwide from Watts, Detroit, Iran, France, Zimbabwe, or Los Angeles.

Observe violent government crackdowns in Poland, China, or the former Soviet purges.

Observe the gulags, concentration camps, and the killing fields.

Observe the terrorism of 9/11, suicide bombers and beheadings in the Middle East, of the IRA, and of the various European factions of the 70s.

It is easy to blame these appalling acts on a few, but in all cases, if you add in those who support the evil-doers, those who are too scared or apathetic to stand up against it, and those who benefit from it; the numbers show that evil is not as limited as we’d like to believe. It also shows us that ordinary people are quite capable of being indescribably brutal towards others.

If you are honest with yourself, you have to say, “There but for the grace of God go I” because each of us contains this seed of evil that could bear fruit under the right circumstances.

Now, at this dark point, I must part ways with the Calvinist. This is where the almost comes in.

Humans are also capable of incredible acts of altruism. Watch the news and you will hear stories of people running into burning buildings to save others. Glance at Readers Digest and you can read about a group of frat boys who risked their lives to save a woman whose car was stuck on the train tracks with a freight train bearing down on them. Listen to the radio and you will hear of someone making donations to help the family of a soldier who was horribly injured. Even in our down economy, people are giving to churches, to shelters, and to the needy. Others are volunteering their time to build houses for the poor, dig clean-water wells in developing nations, and taking medicine to those who need it.

This goodness is the spark of the Almighty within us. In Genesis 1, it says that mankind was created in God’s image. God is good and He created within us the capacity for love, and thus the power to do incredible good.

As I said before, Christianity was the only place that I have found that adequately addressed these dipolar extremes. God created humanity in His image and humanity chose to sin, turning away from God towards evil. In this, we see our capability for both ultimate good and terrible evil.

The answer to the question, ‘Am I evil?’ is both Yes and No.

Each of us has the seed of evil and seed of good within us.

Each of us must ask ourselves, "Which will I choose today?"

Don't be a Hater

There is a person who periodically comes up to me at church to tell me the latest of what that “d**ned Obama” is up to and how he intends to destroy our country by making it into a dictatorship. This person is under the mistaken assumption that I am a Republican (because of course, Christian equals Republican, right) and also is under the mistaken assumption that Romans 13:1-2 doesn’t apply to them or to this administration.

There is another person in my life who loves to talk about Sarah Palin and how stupid she is and how she would have destroyed America. Another cornered me periodically over the last few years to tell me what an idiot president Bush was. He loved to speak of George W as if he was a low IQ bumbling fool who was being controlled by dark forces within the Republican party.

I am an avid listener of talk radio when I am driving. I bounce around the dial, trying to catch multiple sides and hear the differences in how they understand issues (not just listen, but to actually hear). I try to listen to them all from Randi Rhodes to Rush Limbaugh and just about anything in between. For the record, I prefer those in-between. I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat, although I have both during periods in my voting life. I am an independent and truly believe that both parties are poor representatives of our country because of the radical polarization that has occurred.

As I listen to talk radio as well as the well-intentioned people around me, I have become more and more convinced that this polarized hatred for the other side prevents any really useful dialog. These people speak of the opposing political party with venomous hatred, as if the other side is actually an enemy and not just fellow Americans with a different point of view. There is this sense of disbelief and anger that someone just might have a differing opinion and still be an American.

I have observed that there is even a pattern to this. Those on the conservative or ‘right-wing’ like to attack someone as if they are evil-intentioned and out to turn America into a dictatorship, like some sort of modern day Darth Vader. They like to show themselves as strongly moral and protectors of all that is right with this nation as if they were Captain America. Left wingers like to attack the intelligence of the other side as if they are all wide-eyed, bigoted bumpkins who cannot tie their own shoes, like a cross between Jed Clampet and Archie Bunker. They try to bring themselves across as well educated saviors of the little guy, kind of like Jesus if he went to Harvard. The problem with all of these characterizations is that they are one-dimensional and never really address the real people or issues involved.

As I listen to President Obama, I have to conclude that he is well intentioned and truly believes that his policies are best for this nation. I cannot believe that he has some evil plot to destroy America. I am not a fan of many of his policy ideas but I cannot fault him for his sincerity.

I also am not a fan of George Bush. I believe our entry into Iraq was wrong, but it wasn’t all his doing (lest we forget all those congressmen and women who voted to go in also). However, he is obviously not an idiot. In fact, I have to believe that he is a very intelligent person. I do believe that he purposely uses his southern accent and colloquial manner of speaking to disarm people and make them underestimate him. But, there is no way he could have the education that he has or reached the position he did if he really was truly that dumb.

In debate, these types of insulting attacks are called Ad Hominem attacks. Ad Hominem is a weak tactic used by those who are unable to clearly discuss the issues at hand. It is only effective when your audience is not educated on the issues. This type of attack is unfair and below us as a society.

It is time for us as a nation of people to stand against this. If you are a Republican, fight the issues, present evidence, but don’t resort to outlandish conspiracy theories and innuendo. If you are a Democrat, argue your point, show them where they might be wrong, but don’t use childish name-calling. Both sides need to also point out what is right with the other and present options when they disagree. Even more, voters need to educate themselves and actually vote with their beliefs and not just party-line, even if that means you vote for a candidate who is (gasp) of the other party.

Let’s bring our political ideas out of grade school and remember that ‘sticks and stones my break our bones but names will never hurt us’

P.S. I have said it before in my blogs and to anyone who discusses politics with me. I believe the ideal setup for our government that will benefit all Americans is as follows:

A congress that is made up of every part of the political spectrum from the far right to the far left and all the shades in between.

A president that is of the opposite party than the one that is currently in control of Congress

A supreme court that is very strictly constitutional and very cautiously conservative on how they interpret the constitution. (That’s conservative as in careful, not conservative as in Republican).

This setup keeps our politicians in check and allows every position to have their voice heard without one group overwhelming the other.

Now, get out there and vote for what you think is right, but vote educated and actually take the time to listen to the other side.

And don’t be a hater.

War Stories

I take my own life in my hands to write this blog entry, but there are times when you have to stand up and share the truth though it endangers your very life. I risk upsetting the most dangerous and unpredictable of human beings…

The pregnant woman.

There is no more deadly beast.

Pregnancy seems to be a right-of-passage for women, without which, other women who have been through it don’t consider you “woman-enough.” As a man, I watch as a disinterested, uninvolved party; I am the narrator on the Discovery channel watching another species, trying to understand the unusual behavior that they are observing.

It is interesting to watch the herd behavior when a young woman becomes pregnant. She shares, with excitement, the amazing news that she will now be involved in the miracle of life. The matriarchs of the herd begin to gather around this new pregnant woman shaking their heads, moving into place as part of an amazing and unusual instinct.

Each woman takes her turn in a carefully orchestrated ritual, as old as time itself: the telling of war stories. First, one woman tells her story of pain and horror, speaking of hours of labor, blood, sweat, and pain. She is usually the youngest, the most recently pregnant, and the one who has little experience in telling her story.

Then, the next woman goes, telling a slightly worse tale, each woman topping the previous story. Somehow, by instinct, they know where there story fits among the others so that each has a turn increasing the terror of the poor new mother. They put Navy Seals to shame as they recount their tales of tearing of flesh, muscles cramping, screams of pain, and blood gushing.

Finally, the last woman, the one with the most gruesome story takes her turn. Any men who may have stayed for a story or two have long since run away in squeamish shock and revulsion. We just aren’t strong enough to take this kind of pain. The new mother is beginning to look green and is reconsidering whether she wants to be part of this awful experience. This final story will be the worst of all, a tale of woe that would terrify the stoutest of hearts. With relish and a careful use of all of the dramatic storytelling tools, this final Queen of the Matriarch shares her account of struggle in the trenches of the birthing room. Nothing is left hidden, all is fair game. Bodies are torn apart, deep scars are left, death is approached. Listeners are left bereft of hope, shell-shocked with fear and emotional exhaustion.

You have to wonder why anyone would go through this, and yet most of these women have more than one child.

As a man, I have observed this behavior time and time again. I have to wonder why they don’t encourage each other. “It’s hard, and it will hurt, but you’ll make it through, we did.” It’s no wonder that so many women have epidurals despite the potential for harm to both mother and baby.

Maybe someone could suggest to these women that there is a better way.

Of course the narrator on the discovery channel never sits down with a group of lionesses to suggest a better way of finding food.

I’m not brave enough or stupid enough to challenge a group of moms. I know they can smell fear.

I think I’ll just stick to observation from the jeep.

Eavesdropping

7:00 am. Sitting in an almost empty classroom with several other students trying to study for a Biology midterm in half an hour. Two young girls in their late teens sitting somewhere behind me begin talking.

“My boyfriend asked me to marry him, says Girl 1.

“You’re not gonna do it are ya,” says asks Girl 2

“Na, Marriages fail over half the time and I just don’t want to go through that, I just wanna move in, that way, when it doesn’t work out, no one gets hurt,” replies Girl 1.

“Makes sense,” observes Girl 2

I try to continue focusing on my upcoming Biology test, but my brain hurts from the incredible lack of thought contained in that short conversation. These poor girls are a product of their generation, but it still pains me that they have learned so many wrong lessons so young.

Even worse, Girl 1 will be living a self-fulfilling prophesy. She will experience marriage failure and relationship breakups because she wrongly believes that life just happens to you and there is nothing you can do about it.

It saddens me that she will probably give her heart to man after man, losing a little bit each time a relationship dies. Living together married or unmarried; broken relationships destroy a little bit of your heart each time, ultimately leaving you cold and cynical.

I wanted to tell these girls that it doesn’t have to be this way. A lifetime commitment is still possible, even in this day and age. It just takes the right tools.

I didn’t say anything to these girls, but I should have. I’m not sure they would have listened or even appreciated the input, considering I was eavesdropping on their conversation.

This is a cultural issue in America today. We don’t take marriage seriously enough. I just listened to the interview with Kate from John and Kate plus Eight. She was speaking about how people change, about how she meant her vows back when she said them, but things are different now. It is as if she was completely helpless to events unfolding.

Study after study has shown how important a stable marriage is to the mental and physical health of the couple as well as to the mental, physical, and emotional health of any children involved. We must take this seriously as a society.

Marriage must not be a lark, something you jump into because of giddy feelings of puppy love. It must involve some work by both parties as well as families and friends supporting them. If you are considering marriage, get educated, get premarital counselling. Observe your spouse-to-be around their family and friends. If you don't like something about them at that time, they won't change after the wedding. After the marriage, join a married couples group and talk out the issues before they get personal. Marriage is fun, but it does take work. The tools are out there, we just need to unpack the toolbox.

My wife and I have committed to not end up like our parents. Over thirteen years, we have been in married couples groups, worked through personal studies, gotten counseling, and continually renewed our commitments to each other and to God.

We have watched many of our fellow couples follow a similar pattern and succeed. We have also watched many others give in to selfishness, boredom, dishonesty, and lack of effort. They aren’t together any more.

It can be done.

I wish I had spoken to those two girls. Someone needs to spread messages of hope.

Are You Being Served?

Over more than a decade in ministry, I have watched an interesting phenomenon occur. There are a group of church-attenders who leave another church, show up at ours, stay for awhile, and then leave to go to a new church down the road. There, presumably they repeat the process.
Upon their arrival, they generally have something negative to say about their previous church and upon leaving, they generally have something negative to say about us.

The most common reason that I have heard is, “I’m wasn’t being fed.” This is then followed by some need that they have that wasn’t being met by the church: “no one came up to me and talked to me on Sundays” or “my marriage was in trouble and no one helped me” or I really want a small group for singles over the age of forty.”

Each of these reasons goes back to the original, “I’m not being fed.” Can you hear the selfishness and laziness of that statement? Several of the Proverbs speak of the ‘sluggard.’ My favorite is, "the sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.” I love the picture here of this lazy guy putting his hand in the bowl of food and just being too lazy to lift it back up to his lips. The application here is obvious. “I’m not being fed” translates to, I want someone else to fill my needs and I am too busy to do anything about it myself.

The writer of Hebrews says, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.” Did you hear that? He says, “Quit being babies and grow up!” He tells them that they ought to be able to teach themselves and others by now, but they are so immature that they aren’t ready for it.

I cannot speak for every other church, but this one has some excellent teaching. Our preaching pastor is an expert in his field, he teaches other pastors how to preach. He is gifted at combining the art and science of hermeneutics and homiletics into an interesting and informative lesson. We also have small groups with good teaching in them. Also, almost every other church that I have visited falls into this category. The teaching is usually very good. It has been a rare occasion indeed when I have left a sister church taking issue with their teachings. This tells me that the food is there, it just isn’t making it to their lips.

The picture we need to get is of a giant Thanksgiving dinner. The whole family is there along with many guests. There is a spread of food on the table, enough to make it sag. There is turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce (the real kind with whole cranberries, nuts, and orange peels), green bean casserole, hot fresh bread with real butter dripping off of it, mincemeat, sweet potato pie, and all the other fixin’s that you could imagine. Much of the family and guests are eating, but there are a few that are just sitting there. Grown adults, salivating at the smells, their stomachs are grumbling, but they just sit there with their hands at their sides, their plates empty…waiting for someone else to put food in their mouth.

That is not what the Christian life is.

There is no call for servants of Jesus to sit there and let others do for them, in fact, quite the opposite. All of the New Testament is a call to action. It is full of verbs:
Make disciples, Serve one another, Be, Do, Love…

The message of God’s Kingdom is not, what has the church done for me lately; it is, How can I serve God and others. It has nothing to do with my own entertainment and everything to do with the sacrificial giving of my time, money, and self to God’s work.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul compares the church to a body. We are all parts (eyes, hands, feet, stomachs, etc) and all of us have parts to serve the body as a whole. It is time that we separate our consumer-driven culture from our church body. We are not a business, we are a Body, a community, a family.

Picture that Thanksgiving dinner again. This time, we work together. I’ll roast the turkey because I have a wonderful recipe for brining it that makes it extra juicy. Aunt Meg will bake the bread because that’s what she does. Dad will make the cranberry dressing using grandma’s old iron crank grinder bolted to the edge of the kitchen table. My friend Kris will bring over her fancy china and we’ll ask Denise and Hazel to make a beautiful centerpiece. Grandma Ruth Gonzeles will bring the giblet gravy and all the little girls will set the table while the boys bring in a bunch of mismatched chairs for everyone to sit on. Dan Vincent will make the pumpkin pies and Chip will say the blessing. Theo will show up bringing a homeless person that he just met and Earl will be ready to take the leftovers from the meal to the rescue mission. When the meal is done, we’ll all clean the dishes and then sit down on the porch and talk with each other while the kids play in the back yard.

That is the body of Christ, each person actively doing their part and all of us spending time in community…In communion.

If you want to be fed, pick up your Bible and start reading

If you want to be fed, volunteer at the church or at a service ministry.

If you want to be fed, begin introducing yourself to others at church.

If you want to be fed, join a small group Bible study.

If you want to be fed, stick around after church and get to know others.

If you want to be fed, you’ve got to do some of the work - feed yourself.

If you are one of those who tells me that you aren’t being fed, don’t be surprised if I don’t have a sympathetic ear. In this house, if you don’t work, you don’t eat! (2 Thessalonians 3:9-15)


Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 1Peter 4:10