Lights

Love everyone… This includes people who think differently than you, difficult people, and those who have hurt you.

Feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty.

Visit the prisoner.

Provide for the widow

Care for the orphan.

Invite in the stranger and immigrant.

Be hospitable.

Clothe the naked.

Care for the sick.

Stand up for the marginalized and defenseless ones.

Be humble.  Treat others as better than yourself.

Speak carefully.

Be slow to anger.

Don’t show favoritism towards the rich, famous, or powerful.

Don’t love money and don't be a slave to it.  Be wise and generous with your finances.

Practice justice.

Give mercy.

Shelter the homeless.

Don’t envy.

Don’t be selfish.

Make peace whenever possible.

Be gentle, kind, and caring.

Don’t be arrogant and boastful.

Be patient.

Use your gifts to help others.

Be self-controlled.

Don’t be hypocrites.

Speak the truth but don’t be a jerk about it.

Be trustworthy.  People should believe what you say.

Don’t talk bad about others.  Gossip and slander are destructive.

Do good deeds.  Even when it’s hard.  Even when others don’t.

Be respectable.  Live so you have a good reputation with others.

Do what is right, even if you suffer for it.

Don’t drink, eat, party, or anything else to excess.

Be clear-minded and alert.

Serve others even when it means sacrificing your own comfort, especially if it means sacrifice.

Treat those older than you with respect and those younger as brothers and sisters.

If someone has screwed up in life, restore them gently.

Don’t listen to liars, idiots, or those who stir up trouble.

Respect and obey the government so.  Even the ones you didn’t vote for.

Don’t fight with one another and don’t be quarrelsome and divisive.

Don’t sleep around, treat your body and others with respect.

Be a good example.

Take care of your own family, whether you like them or not.

Live with joy and contentment even in tough times.

Be generous and willing to share.

Respect your parents and treat your kids well.

Treat your spouse well.

Forgive those who have hurt you.  Quickly.

Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you.

Be honest in your business dealings.

Don’t be a slave to pleasure and entertainment.

Study God’s word and teach them to others.

Don’t put up with false teaching.

Pray.

It’s not about gimmicky services.  It’s not about ‘relevant’ music.  It’s not about being seeker sensitive.  It’s not about bigger and better props.  It’s not about rock star preachers and self-help messages.  It’s not about growth at any price.  It’s not about hooks to get them in the door so we can spring the trap on them.  It’s not even about us versus them. 

We shouldn’t have to paint up the gospel like a $20 hooker in order to try to attract people.  P.T. Barnum showmanship and used-car-salesman trickery have no place in the body of Christ.  If you believe that ostentatious glitter and flashy extravaganzas are what is required to for people to come to belief, then that suggests to me that you don’t believe that the gospel is enough yourself.

Neither should we be the obnoxious and arrogant evangelists who beat people with a twisted gospel or try to trick them into hearing it with cartoon tracts and baited questions.  Protest signs, angry words, and megaphones have no place here either.

It’s about a radically gentle, life-changing love that affects us enough to become living evidence to others.  It’s about individual, personal change and the struggle of daily turning towards God and His way, as evidenced in the list above.  It’s about walking together through good times and hard times.  It’s about turning away from the world of self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment, and selfish pleasure.  That was the message at the beginning and that is the only relevant message in a world of distraction and dissipation that we live in today.

If our lives actually reflected change, people might actually see our deeds and realize the truth of God’s message.  It’s almost as if that’s in the Bible (Matthew 5:16, 1Peter 2:12)

The message of the cross is offensive only because it acknowledges the evil in all of us, even those who think they are good people.  And,it offers grace to everyone, even those we don’t like or we don’t feel deserve it.  If we offend people with the gospel for any other reason, we are not being faithful to the message. 

Read the above list* again.  This is what a follower of Jesus looks like.  I think that the rest of the world would have much less problems with ‘Christians’ if more of us looked like this.

Do your deeds reflect God’s message? 

Do your actions demonstrate your faith?

Does your life show that you believe in something that matters?  Does your growth and discipleship demonstrate a way that might help others?  Do your actions exhibit a faith that is a light to others?

If your friends, coworkers, family, and neighbors didn’t know you went to church services, would they still know you were a follower of Jesus?

Perhaps it is time for each individual in the church and the church as a whole to take Peter’s advice in 1Peter 3:3-4.

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. ⁴Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

Let us become lights to this world through our quiet but active devotion to our God and to the people around us.  Let each of us be like a simple, single candle burning in the darkness instead of trying to be garish neon facades like the Las Vegas strip.

* this list is a compilation of exhortations and admonitions taken from the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament.

Ten Things I Wish for the Church

Ten Things I Wish For the Church

I did not grow up as a Christian. I just didn’t know anything about God. When I began to follow Jesus in my early 20s, I did not take his call passively. I got involved, I got moving, I got to work. Often, when I look at the church, I see people who sit in pews for an hour and then rush off back to their lives that are basically non-christian.

It makes me sad to see the waste of it all. If God’s people really took His call seriously on their lives, some amazing things could happen in our churches, neighborhoods, our nation and our world.

I wish…

Number 10: I Wish that Christians would give their time to God. Our society is so driven by busy-ness, rushing around to the next meeting, working two jobs, and getting our kids involved in every extracurricular activity possible, investing countless hours driving them everywhere and never mind their spiritual growth, their moral values, their peace of mind (or yours). Stop. Slow Down. Say no. Take time. Turn off the Television. Quit doing every hobby on earth. Tithe your time, that is give up enough of your busy-ness that you can use 10% (at least) of your time to do God’s work, to discuss values with your kids, to just spend time making a difference. AND, don’t forget to take some additional time in peace, rest, retreat, prayer, and relaxation.

Number 9: I Wish that Christians would break their love of money. This is another area where we have followed our society. We spend and spend and spend and then borrow more so that we can keep spending. We have to have Televisions in every room, the latest cars – two of them (along with the latest car loan), the biggest house (along with that gigantic mortgage), the coolest gadgets, iPods, Rock Band, vacations, maxed-out credit cards, travel, etc. etc. etc. Quit spending every dime you have and begin giving 10% (at least) to God’s work. Give to your local church, give to missions, give to homeless shelters, give to charity, etc. Heck, buy some groceries for the single mom next door. Then, save another 10% over and above any retirement account that you have. Then, live within the rest without borrowing.

Number 8: I Wish that Christians would remember why they came to God in the first place and then share that good news with their friends and neighbors. This doesn’t mean grabbing a bullhorn and heading for the street corner. It means engaging people you care about in honest, heartfelt discussions about spiritual things.

Number 7: I Wish that Christians would understand that following Jesus has little or nothing to do with politics. You may be guided by your faith as you vote, but I don’t remember Jesus saying anything about legislating the Kingdom of Heaven.

Number 6: I Wish that Christians would disciple. Jesus called us to do this in Matthew 28:19. Spiritual and personal growth is supposed to be a part of our Christian walk. That means personal, small group, or one-on-one exhortation outside of the Sunday sermon. Do you have a more mature Christian speaking into your life? Are you working with someone else?

Number 5: I Wish that Christians would teach the Word to their children. I have worked with youth and children for more than a decade and I see a consistent truth: Kids whose parents study the Bible outside of church and talk about spiritual things with their kids have better, well adjusted, and active Christian kids. Those who expect the youth group to teach their kids are the ones whose kids leave the faith as young adults. Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Parents, takes some time each week (if not daily) to read the Bible together and talk about it. This takes us back to Number 10 above, you have to make time for this. The added benefit, is that it will help you, help your marriage, and bring your family together.

Number 4: I Wish that Christians would remember Christ’s gentle message of grace to the hurting, the lost, and the sinners. He reserved his anger and rebuke to those that were using religion to press down on those same hurting, lost, and sinners. This is an important message for the abortion debate, the homosexual marriage debate, and any other place where we come into conflict.

Number 3: I Wish that Christians would remember that faith calls for action. Read and follow the words of James 1:27, Mark 12:31, Malachai 6:8, James 2:14-18, Matthew 25:35-26, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 6:2-4. Serve, volunteer, give, love, help. Don’t just sit in the pew on an occasional Sunday and believe that you have done your Christian duty for the week. Read Matthew 25:41-46 and take the warning to heart, God takes this very seriously.

Number 2: I Wish that Christians would remember that we are all human. Christian sometimes try to act like everything is OK, keeping their mask on even though they are hurting inside. This pushes new people away because they look at their own lives and realize they can’t be perfect. This is also an issue with leaders. People put pastors on a pedestal and then are hurt when the pastor falls. We are all sinners, saved by grace.

Number 1: I Wish that Christians would return to the strong community of the early church where we lived together, ate together, and served together weekly if not daily. Maybe it is a big-city thing, but it seems that everyone lives separate lives except for Sunday from 10:00 – 11:15.

This is the last installment in my Top 10 in 10 Days. I hope that you have enjoyed it. I have appreciated the response. My goal was to get my Christian and non-Christian friends all thinking about God, religion, the Bible, and spiritual things in their lives. This is an important area of life that many people neglect.

My next post will be next Monday in the A.M.

Ten Books of the Bible that are Worth Your Time to Read

Ten Books of the Bible that are worth your time to read.

If you didn’t know it, the Bible is not one book. It is a library of 66 books that tell God’s story collectively. The books are written in three different original languages over a span of 1600 years by more than forty men on three different continents. These books were written by scholars, prophets, shepherds, fishermen, generals, physicians, tax collectors, tentmakers, prisoners, servants, and rabbis.

Though I would say the entire Bible is worth reading, I have included below some recommended books that are definitely worth your time to read.

Number 10: The Gospel of Luke. This is the longest of the Gospels. It was written by Luke, a Physician assigned to research the eyewitness testimonies of Jesus and his ministry. It contains the most information about Jesus.

Number 9: Judges. I recommend this book regularly to Junior High boys when they tell me it is boring to read the Bible (as a Junior High boy, everything is boring if it requires reading). This book is great for boys because it has swords, battles, blood and guts, tentpegs through the skull, daggers in the belly, and people chopped to pieces. It’s like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie without the bad accent.

Number 8: Esther. I recommend this book to every Junior High or High School Girl that I ever meet. It’s a great book to show that a girl can be brave and do amazing things for God. It’s one of my favorites too, because it contains the greatest ironic plot twist ever. It’ll leave you cheering for the good guys.

Number 7: James. This is an awesome book for all Christians because it is a call to put your faith in action. No sitting on your butt in pews in this book. Get off your freakin duff and do God’s work.

Number 6: Proverbs. Because we all need some wisdom. This is a great book to read in a month because it has 31 chapters. Read one chapter a day and I guarantee you’ll be wiser by the end of the month. It has great advice on money, laziness, gossip, and marriage, as well as information on running a kingdom (that could certainly be applied in the business world.) Check out some of my favorites: Proverbs 21:9, Proverbs 26:15, Proverbs 26:11, and my favorite life verse as a husband: Proverbs 5:18-19.

Number 5: 1 Corinthians. Corinth was a place in ancient Greece that was like Las Vegas today. I like this book because these people were way more screwed up than me. It give me hope.

Number 4: Ezekiel. Strange book. Strange prophet. Ezekiel was a priest and prophet who God made do some strange things in order to get the message across. He got to play army men, he packed his bags and dug a whole through the city wall and took his luggage out that way, he laid on his side for a long time, he ran around the city waiving a sword at some hair, he baked a poop cake (see: http://rodg3r.blogspot.com/2009/09/continuing-with-my-top-10-for-10-days.html number 1). It had to be fun to be a Hebrew then, “I wonder what crazy old Zeke is gonna do today?”

Number 3: Galatians. This is a great book about grace, about freedom from religiousity, about freedom from adding a bunch of rules to your faith.

Number 2: Ecclesiastes. A great book that showed they had postmodernism back then too. The king realizes that life is pointless if we are all just going to die anyway, so he tries to find meaning. He tries partying till his head hurts, sex till that got old, shopping like crazy, working his butt off, learning and education until his brain was full, and doing great public works and charity. All still seemed pointless until he realized that we need God to make it all mean something.

Number 1: John. Now be careful here. There are actually four books of John: the Gospel of John, 1John, 2John, and 3John. I am recommending the Gospel of John here. John was the youngest of Jesus’ disciples and wrote his eyewitness testimony in hopes that we would read it and believe in Jesus. A great book and great news inside.

I invite you to check out these books and many of the others. Ephesians and Romans are good instructions on the Christian life. Revelation is interesting just because of some of the weird stuff in there. Joshua is a good adventure story. Isaiah has lots of prophecy that came true later. Amos is all about justice. Matthew and Mark tell you more about Jesus. Acts tells you about the beginnings of the church. Trust me, there is lots of great stuff in there if you just check it out.

If you are interested in going through any of these books together, let me know. Not only is it my job, but it is something I love to do.

Tomorrow: The last and final installment of this Top 10 in 10 Days series: Ten Things I Wish for the Church.

Ten Things in the Bible that People Always Seem to Get Wrong

Ten Things in the Bible That People Always Seem to Get Wrong

Whether it is cultural bias, twisting scripture to prove their own selfish points, or good old fashioned ignorance, there are some scriptures that people always seem to get wrong. Here are ten of the most common:

Number 10: Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Mom loved to quote scripture to get you to clean behind your ears. The problem is, it ain’t in the Bible.

Number 9: God helps those who help themselves. Nope, that ain’t in there either.

Number 8: Judge not, lest ye be judged. Matthew 7:1-5. I’ve included this in other lists. This is not an instruction forbidding wise judgment, but an instruction against hypocrisy.

Number 7: The entire book of Revelation. Lots of people read parts of this book and then figure that they know how it’s all going to end and how God is coming back. They see black helicopters and marching soldiers and the Antichrist in everybody from Hitler to Saddam Hussein to Barack Obama.

Number 6: Health & Wealth Gospel. Flip on channel 21 and chances are you’ll see someone telling you that if you have just enough faith, then God will make you rich and healthy and happy. That’s great, but that isn’t in the Bible. O, they will take various scriptures such as Isaiah 53:5 or Matthew 7:7-8 to prove their point, but only by twisting the original meaning and ignoring verses like Luke 18:18-23, 1Timothy 6:9-11 (see below) and John 15:19-20.

Number 5: 1Timothy 6:9-11 Money is the root of all evil. Actually, the verse says, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Hmmmm Enron, Bernie Madoff, our current mortgage crisis…. It’s almost as if God knew what He was talking about!

Number 4: Matthew 18:19-20. Where three or more are gathered in my name, I am there with them. This is used in a lot of beautiful communion meditations to say that God is present when we meet together for fellowship. It is also used as a health and wealth scripture. But, if you take this back to Matthew 18:15-20, then you see he is speaking about discipline for those who are refusing correction, specifically, someone who has sinned against a brother and then is recalcitrant about fixing it.

Number 3: Thou shalt not kill. Another verse that everyone seems to know in the King James. It is actually a law against murder, not all killing. A soldier doing his job is not covered by this law. A person using deadly force to defend their life or the life of another is not covered by this. A police officer or an executioner doing their duty are not covered by this.

Number 2: 1Timothy 2:11-13 Women don’t serve in church. I have, at times, run into people (mostly women, believe it or not) who don’t believe that women should serve in church, speak in church, or do anything else that might smack of leadership or teaching because of this scripture. In doing so, they disregard Mary, Phoebe, Priscilla, Lydia, Junia, Deborah, Esther, and a whole mess of other ladies in the Bible who did serve God, who did lead God’s people, who did teach, preach, prophesy, etc.

Number 1: Speaking of gender issues. Ephesians 5:22-24. Wives must submit to their husbands or else!!! This verse has been used countless times as an excuse for an overbearing jerk of a husband to beat his wife, dominate her, and/or control her life. Conveniently, he will always skip Ephesians 5:21 and Ephesians 5:25-29. Men are actually held to a much higher standard of submission to their wives in these verses.

Tomorrow: Ten Books of the Bible that are Worth Your Time to Read

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