Engaging Scripture

The difficulty of finding wisdom

Have you found wisdom? Have you asked for it? Lucille Ball thought it was hard to come by.

2 Kings 3 tells the story, in the days after Solomon ascended to the throne of his father David, of the Lord coming to Solomon in dream telling Solomon he would give Solomon whatever he wished. He could have chosen riches or power, but Solomon famously chose wisdom. So God gave him wisdom, and the riches, power and fame followed abundantly.

God tells us in James 1:5 “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

How many of us wish God would answer our James 1:5 prayers like he answered Solomon’s?

Wisdom is a confusing thing. Does it come by experience? Age? Failure? Or maybe some people just have a larger dose of wisdom? Is it IQ? Is it education? Is it intellectual giftedness? A combination of all these? Perhaps wisdom comes in different forms and different means.

I googled “examples of wisdom” just for kicks, and on a Yahoo Answers page I found the following:

Knowing that a tomato is a fruit, yet having the wisdom not to put it into a fruit salad.
Bhudda’s teachings.
Submission to Allah’s Will.
Read the book of Proverbs! and what Proverbs says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Hindsight is 20/20.
Many other options, including one that is good for the snowy weather we had today: “Don’t eat yellow snow.”

Seems there’s many pathways to wisdom. In our ongoing study of 1st Corinthians, we’re going to study 2:6-16 in which Paul discusses how we find wisdom, as well as the various kinds of wisdom.

How have you found wisdom?

The Monday Messy Office Report – February 10, 2014

My Friday, tidy office is mysteriously messy by Monday. Here’s what I found today:

1. Two styrofoam cups with hot chocolate and stirring straws, the unmistakable evidence that my two youngest children stopped by at some point yesterday morning! Yesterday was a Coffee Break Sunday here at Faith Church, so I have to admit being a bit concerned about the timing of their visit. Here’s why: on Coffee Break Sundays, we pause our worship service, dismiss the preschool and elementary kids to their classes, and everyone else heads to the Fellowship Hall (adjoining the sanctuary) for snacks and fellowship for about 15-20 minutes. When we first started this (we got the idea from another church), I was nervous, like I am anytime we change things up, which we try to do on a regular basis. But people have expressed how much they enjoy it! So back to the hot chocolate. If my kids were dismissed to their classes, how did they get hot chocolate? Skipping out on Sunday School? Ha! I suspect they got it before worship started with every intention to finish it later. I can’t tell you how often I find half-empty cups of hot chocolate in my office…and they’re usually pretty nasty looking a day later.

2. A list of names of people interested in a community garden and a video about sustainable organic gardening. For a couple years now, we’ve been talking about offering garden plots to neighbors in our community. Faith Church has a huge back yard which is adjacent to a couple apartment complexes, which combined have over 600 units. Residents living there are not able to have gardens of their own. What if we were to cultivate a section of our grass, start garden plots, and have Faith Church gardeners serve as mentors to people in the community who would like to learn gardening? We’re going for it! Yesterday we had a brief meeting of people interested. I’m excited about where this could lead.

3. An envelope marked “Confidential”. Those envelopes always bring a knot in my stomach. What treasure might I find inside? In this case, I knew exactly what it was. Every five years, we ask all of our children and youth ministry volunteers to update their serving application and have a background check. People fill out the forms, seal them in envelopes marked “Confidential” and return them to me. We don’t have to do this. Our insurance company only strongly advises that we do it. But in our culture it is a reality if we want to help our families feel confident that they are leaving their kids in a safe environment. Interestingly, the Ethiopian Orthodox church that rents from us (meeting on Saturday mornings), doesn’t seem to be encumbered by these procedures.

4. Mail. I often pick up Saturday’s mail on Sunday morning. Just like you we get a LOT of junk mail at the church. And tons of catalogs from Oriental Trading. I’ve often wondered how much money they spend sending what seems like two catalogs every week? On Saturday we received a mailing from our seminary about their golf tourney! I am terrible at golf, but I love our seminary. My eight years there (part-time) were wonderful. The leadership, professors and staff there are doing an incredible job serving the Lord in the area of education. The cool thing about Evangelical is that you don’t have to be a pastor or missionary to study there. The seminary has loads of accessible learning opportunities. Check it out here.

Now to clean this office up…

The Power That Fueled Lincoln’s Greatness

Do you ever wish you had more power for living?

I’m nearly finished reading Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk. Now 150 years since Lincoln’s passing, my suspicion is that most people view him in a mythic sense. But take a look at this photo of Lincoln inspecting a battlefield in 1862. Though grainy, it is very telling.

Allan Pinkerton (left), Abraham Lincoln, and John Alexander McClernand (right), October 1862

Granted, in 1862 things were generally not going to so well for the Union armies, and thus for Lincoln. But in our day, even when things are going poorly, we expect a Commander-in-Chief to also be the Morale-Booster-In-Chief, to put on a big smile at all times and rally the troops. Look at Lincoln’s face. Pretty drab, I would say. This might seem shocking to those of us who think of his amazing speeches, such as the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation, or to those of us who credit him with leading a divided nation during Civil War back to unity and inspiring the end of slavery, or to those of us who visit his massive statue at the Lincoln Memorial or see his face on pennies and $5 bills. Lincoln has become legendary, to many the best president ever.

There is another side to Lincoln’s story.

Shenk tells us in his book that depression, commonly called melancholy in those days, was a very visible part of Lincoln’s life, including during his years in public service. Lincoln struggled with severe depression nearly all throughout his life, and even on certain occasions nearly committed suicide. So it is perhaps equally shocking to hear Shenk say that depression fueled Lincoln’s greatness. How do you feel, what do you think, when you hear that?

Those struggling with depression have shared how debilitating it can be. No doubt, it was so for Lincoln too. But somehow he plodded on, especially during his tenure as our president, which is amazing because under his watch about 620,000 Americans died in the war. That number is staggering. Consider what it would feel like for 9/11 to happen every day for nearly 7 straight months. Also during this time, imagine the stress of the very real possibility that the nation seemed about to split apart permanently. How did this melancholic president stay the course? How did the depression not overwhelm him? And to the contrary, how did depression inspire him, even fueling his greatness?

We’ll discuss this further tomorrow when we continue our series studying the 1st letter Paul wrote to the Christians in the city of Corinth. In the middle of an extended discussion on unity, we have arrived at chapter 2, and Paul has some things to say about what fuels greatness in God’s eyes. What is true power for living?

Monday Messy Office … on Tuesday!

Today I’m starting a new series on the blog, my Monday Messy Office Report. One of my first tasks every Monday is to clean up my office. I am always amazed at what I find here when I arrive on Mondays. Something happens on Sundays, so that what used to be a (mostly) tidy office when I left on Friday turns into a mess by Sunday morning. Is it a Toy Story kind of office where my books and gadgets and office parapharnelia come to life and have a party while I’m gone? Nope, it’s just the craziness of Sunday!

So here goes…my first Monday Messy Office report…on Tuesday. Yesterday my wife left for a trip to Cambodia with Imagine Goods, and we got a snowstorm so the kids were off school and I worked from home. So this first post in the series is a day late.

Here’s what I found in my office:

1. A 100ft CAT5 cable, a USB superbooster/extender, and an HD webcam. We use this equipment in our sanctuary when we’re doing Skype calls with our missionaries during worship services. In the last two weeks we chatted with BJ Whitaker in Spain and Lamar & Janice Stoltzfus in Kenya! I love Skype, and I love the Whitakers and Stoltzfuses! Things got a bit hairy this past Sunday morning when we weren’t able to connect with the Stoltzfuses. Their daughter Alyssa, in college in Harrisburg, joined us for worship, and she had just gotten a call from her parents saying that the internet was down in Kenya. Can you imagine that? Thankfully, it was back up about 30 minutes after the service began, and we were able to connect. I’m so grateful for our sound/audio crew working that out, and I’m grateful for our missionaries.

2. Reports. Each week I get a giving report and an attendance report. I’m not a big fan of numbers as a measure of faithfulness to the Kingdom of God. Our society is really into the philosophy of “bigger is better”, and so it is very easy to feel that success for a church is growing your budget and growing your worship services. Growth might point to faithfulness to the Kingdom of God, but it also might not. Jesus called us to Love God, Love People, and make disciples. To accomplish that might necessitate that some churches actually get smaller.

3. A visitation report. We have a bunch of people who regularly visit the sick, the homebound, and others. I love that! Those who receive visits love that. And what we have found is that those making the visits receive love as well. If you would like to be a part of our visitation team, please let me know, and I’ll sign you up. This particular report was very encouraging.

4. A Child’s size clothes hanger. For the last few years on Super Bowl Sunday, we’ve had Super Mission Sunday here at Faith Church in the morning. It was another great time of hearing about God’s heart for the world and how we can get involved. Steve Baker from The Global Aid Network was with us, and did a great job sharing about how one outflow of the Gospel is that we who have become disciples of Jesus should show our love for God and the world by doing good, that others may become his disciples as well. We had a delicious brunch (thanks to our Mission Commission who did an amazing job!) after the service, and in preparation for the meal, they decorated the fellowship hall with global items. My wife brought a couple items to help with the decor, including two girls dresses she brought home for our daughter from past trips to Cambodia. Apparently one dress made it back home without a hanger…

And that is my messy office report for this week!

The Church’s Frightful Kodak Moment

This week at Faith Church we take a pause from our study of 1st Corinthians because it is Super Mission Sunday. We welcome Steve Baker from The Global Aid Network, and we are excited to learn about their ministry. We’ll also have a Skype conversation with Lamar & Janice Stoltzfus in Kenya! After worship, stay for a brunch during which time we’ll learn more about GAiN. In the meantime, check out this great article. Let’s discuss!

Holy Soup

We walked through the nearly empty, formerly flourishing space of the Kodak manufacturing plant near our home. The plant manager, a friend from church, sadly described how Kodak plants had been downsizing and closing ever since the advent of digital photography.

“We have a wish here,” he said. “We just want to be the last one standing.” Kodak since abandoned most of its space on this campus. This week the company announced the latest job eliminations.

My friend from church is gone. And I wonder. Is the church the next to go the way of Kodak? I see some chilling parallels.

Kodak dominated the photographic scene for over 100 years. It commanded an 89 percent market share of photographic film sales in the United States. Almost everyone used the brand. And the company’s advertising language of a “Kodak moment” became part of the common lexicon.

What happened since then has become…

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What is the most foolish thing you’ve ever done?

As I write this, I’m sitting in the lobby of Firestone, waiting as they change the oil in my car. On the lobby TV, they are showing a program about drunk people. It is the top 20 videos of drunk people acting incredibly foolish. One plastered guy they just showed was passed out in the driver’s seat of his parked car, with the keys in the ignition, the care turned on, with his foot pressing the gas pedal, with the engine redlining, and smoke pouring out of the seams of the hood! And the driver is totally asleep. The people taking the video can’t believe what they’re seeing, and they mercifully turn off the car, but probably not in time to save the driver a burned up engine.

I could tell you a few more stories from the TV, show but I’m sure you get the idea. Getting drunk is foolish.

There are many things that people do that are completely foolish. One of the guys from our men’s ministry created a video, part of which shows the foolish things that men sometimes do when fixing things. View it here.

There are many crazy things that we humans do that deserve the label “foolish”. I know I can think of some things I’ve done. I’m sure you can think of a few of your own, a few times that maybe you deserved that label! Anyone want to share with us the most foolish thing you’ve ever done?

We have a pretty clear idea what it means to be foolish. But would you ever call being a Christian, following Christ, a foolish thing? Would you say that the message of Christ is foolish?

Paul says it is. In our ongoing study of 1st Corinthians, Paul has begun addressing some concerns he has with the Christians in Corinth. Last week (here and here) we saw him begin talking about divisions and unity in the church. With that theme as the larger umbrella, he addresses some foundational ideas. This week he calls following Christ a foolish thing! Do you agree with him? And why would he say that? What does that have to do with unity in Christ.

Join us Sunday as we talk about being foolish.

Are we majoring on the minors? – 1st Corinthians 1:10-17

Yesterday during our continuing study of 1st Corinthians, we talked about BNPs! After a very encouraging greeting, Paul begins to deal with the problems coming out of the church in Corinth. First up, people claiming that they are followers of certain Big Name Preachers of their day. Apollos, Peter, Paul himself and even Jesus.

It seems that groups were forming in the church, divvied up by who got baptised by one of these famous preachers. Then there was the uber-spiritual group who said they followed Christ! Paul confronts them all.

Even the group that followed Christ?

Yes, even them.

His point was that even those who sounded spiritual on the outside, claiming to follow Christ, were being divisive, creation a faction. Paul’s solution is to remind them to pursue a passionate unity of the heart and mind. He goes on to say that his purpose wasn’t to baptise, but to preach Christ. His focus was on the mission of God. And that is the one thing that we Christians from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives can unify around.

But that will only be possible unless we are a people committed to unity of heart and mind. We need to major on the majors and minor on the minors.

The problem is that too often we major on the minors. We can spend a lot of time and energy on lesser matters. Some theologians over the centuries have tried to develop a system for understanding what the major doctrines are and what the minor doctrines are. A common way to describe this is to use a pyramid with three levels. On the top we have primary issues, which are the majors. The next level are secondary issues, which are still important, but they are minors. The third level, a very minor, and people will have wildly divergent points of view on them.

In the EC Church, our top tier is what we ask people to agree to when they become members of one of our churches. The list is very small:

1) Belief in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord;

2) Belief that the Bible is the inspired Word of God;

3) Commitment to daily Christian growth;

4) Commitment to giving Jesus Christ your time, talent and treasure;

5) Support of the local church and the ministry of the Evangelical Congregational Church

denomination;

6) Faithfulness in attendance and participation;

7) Baptism.

Our second tier issues are found in our Articles of Faith, and our third tier issues are found in our Discipline, which is our book of order.

What you notice about the triangle is that the sections get larger as you go down the levels. There are very few major issues, but we have scads of secondary and tertiary minor issues. Here’s where the problems happen. When people try to expand the top tier of their pyramid! Majoring on the majors means that we’ll keep our top tier relatively small, but we will focus the vast amount of our time, energy and money there. We will refuse to create factions based on second or third tier issues. We will work graciously with people, even if they don’t agree with our opinions on the minors.

So are you majoring on the majors? Does this raise any concerns or your questions in your mind? Let’s discuss it further.

Big Name Preachers we love!

So who is your favorite Big Name Preacher???

Do you listen to any Big Name Preachers (BNPs) on TV? Radio? Online? Podcasts?

I hear people talking about Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Beth Moore and Charles Stanley. A lot people have said they really like his son, Andy, too. Who do you like? I recently heard of a BNP called Bishop Noel Jones, and I checked out a sermon online…wow! It was great. I found this list of the 25 most influential BNPs of the last 25 years. How could I forget Billy Graham? He’s the biggest BNP of all. When I first became pastor, and we were having the church’s outdoor sign changed to reflect the pastoral change, I thought it might be fun to put Billy Graham’s name on there! In the end we decided not to include a name. I’m not a BNP, but I sure do like some of them.

I used to listen to the Mars Hill Podcast faithfully. NOT the one in Seattle, mind you, where you where BNP Mark Driscoll preaches. I can’t stand Driscoll. Maybe we should also discuss the BNPs we don’t like! Wouldn’t that be fun? But I love Rob Bell, the guy who preached most of the time on the Mars Hill (Grand Rapids) podcast a couple years ago. There were a lot of weeks that he was not preaching, and that kinda bugged me. But one time, he preached the whole sermon while people were up on stage building with Legos! Awesome. I was so disappointed when he left Mars Hill Grand Rapids!. So I don’t listen to that podcast anymore.

I also LOVE Ravi Zacharias. I first heard him preach at Urbana in 1993, and I was blown away. Pretty much all the other BNPs there were crap, but Ravi…wow. We were hanging on his every word, and when he was done, we wanted him to continue. Forget the other preachers and music…get Ravi back on rocking the pulpit. So I got a copy of that message, and I bet you I have listened to it at least 100 times. I’ve heard him preach a few more times in person since, and I have listened to tons of his sermons online. He is the bomb. He brings it. He nails it.

So I guess you could say I am of Rob Bell and Ravi Zacharias.

Which BNPS are you of?

PS – Ever heard of Apollos? Cephas? I heard some people really liked those BNPs too. More about that on Sunday! Join us at Faith Church for more on BNPs.

On being in Christ – 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

As Paul gets set to start confronting the Corinthians for their less-than-holy behavior, he starts off with a couple reminders that frame the context. First, what we studied in 1 Cor 1:1-3, that in Christ they are holy and called to be holy. Second, yesterday’s passage 1 Cor 1:4-9, a very encouraging section. I think I ought to print it out and post it on my office wall. In the sermon, we went line by line through it. Take a look at the words, read them slowly, as they are awesome:

⁴I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— ⁶God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. ⁷Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Isn’t that excellent? Take note at how many times he uses the words “in Christ” or “in him”. Look at how he reminds them of God’s empowerment in their lives, giving them gifts, keeping them strong, and blameless. And then he finishes with a flourish talking about God’s faithfulness, especially that they are in fellowship with Christ.

How often do you think about your relationship with the Lord? The Corinthians needed a reminder of how they had a relationship with Christ, and that God was actively at work in sustaining that relationship. I can imagine the Corinthians nervously receiving Paul’s letter. They knew things had gotten out of control in the church. They knew that they had allowed things to veer far from how Paul had taught them. I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few of them were feeling convicted even before they read the first word. At least they didn’t throw the letter in the garbage before reading it!

So what would God say to you? Would you say your relationship with the Lord is close, distant, dry, thriving? What God would say is pretty much what Paul says here in 1 Cor 1:4-9. Be encouraged!

If you need to confess and repent, do so, and be encouraged that you are in fellowship with Christ.

If you need to spend more time with him, do so, and be encouraged that he is actively involved in your life!

You Suck?

Beautiful words, aren’t they?

Has someone ever told you that you suck? I’m not talking about the kidding “you suck!” after you just pranked them. And I’m not talking about the “you suck” after you just beat your friend in a race. I’m talking about the mean-spirited, angry, spiteful “You suck!” The kind that hurts. Sometimes it is audible, but more often it is spoken without words, but just as clearly. For example, there are loads of people and corporations that want to tell us what they think of us. One of my favorite videos that explains this is:

As you hear in the video, advertisers want us to believe that we suck, but if we buy their products we’ll feel great…that is until the product we bought is obsolete a couple months later, and the new version comes out and we suck again because we have the old version.

And then all the celebrities and their awards shows remind us that they are great, and we worship them because we suck and it makes us feel good to watch them. But we’re not so beautiful and wealthy as they are, so we suck.

And then there are all the politicians with power in the government, reminding us that we are hopeless to change the world because we suck. But we feel good when we get in their corner. But they never really change much, and we still feel powerless, and that sucks.

Sometimes our bosses, sometimes our friends and family, and sometimes we ourselves tell us that we suck.

So basically, we suck.

Or do we? If we listen to all those voices, we will believe that we suck.

Maybe you believe those voices. Maybe you haven’t heard the voice of the Lord in while. Maybe you can’t remember what he feels about you. How does God feel about you?

As Paul continues his letter to the disciples in Corinth, it is the voice of the Lord that he wants them to hear. And he wants them to hear it loud and clear. Maybe read 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 to hear that voice. Then join us on Sunday as we study this passage further.