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Alaska Team Leaving
Hi friends!
Today, our team of 14 people will be leaving California and heading up to Port Alsworth, Alaska to serve at Tanalian Bible Camp. Please pray for us!
If you want to check updates on the team, go to: www.alaska1.wordpress.com
Thanks!
Ken
Easy to Talk About “Being the Church”
We have been talking a lot over the last 2 months about what it means to “Be the Church”. After reading this post today from Dr. Russell Moore (dean of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), my heart has been greatly challenged to think about how serious I am taking God’s call to “Be the Church.”
Here are Dr. Moore’s thoughts…
(http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/05/10/loving-my-invisible-neighbor/)
It’s easy for me to love my neighbor. It’s easy, that is, as long as my neighbor is invisible.
By that I mean to ask, have you noticed how abstract and ethereal so much of our Christian rhetoric is on virtually every topic?
Some Christians rattle on and on about “The Family” while neglecting their kids. Some Christians “fight” for “social justice” by “raising consciousness” about “The Poor” while judging their friends on how trendy their clothes are. Some Christians pontificate about “The Church” while rolling their eyes at the people in their actual congregations. Some Christians are dogmatic about “The Truth” while they’re self-deceived about their own slavery to sin.
I think that’s a tendency for most of us, in some way or another. We affirm all the right things, whether in Christian doctrine or Christian practice, even fight with one another about them. But it’s all just up there in the abstract. These things are “issues,” not persons.
“The Family” never shows up unexpected for Thanksgiving or criticizes your spouse or spills chocolate milk all over your carpet; only real families can do that. “The Poor” don’t show up drunk for the job interview you’ve scheduled or spend the money you’ve given them on lottery tickets or tell you they hate you; only real poor people can do that. “The Church” never votes down my position in a congregational business meeting or puts on an embarrassingly bad Easter musical or asks me to help clean toilets for Vacation Bible School next week; only real churches can do that. “The Truth” never overturns my ideas and expectations; only the revelation of God in Christ does that.
As long as “The Family” or “The Poor” or “The Church” or “The Truth” are abstract concepts, as long as my interaction is as distant as an argument or as policy, then they can be whoever I want them to be.
The Spirit warns us about this. Jesus lit into the Pharisees for “fighting for” the Law of God while ignoring their financial obligations to their parents, all under the guise of their religious advocacy (Mark 7:10-12).
And James, particularly, shows us the difference between “fighting” for a cause, and loving people. “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15-16). “Be warmed and filled” is advocacy; “get in here” is love.
If our love is for invisible people, is it any wonder they’re dismissing an incredible gospel?
California Idols: Stuff
Although we laugh at cultures that bow down to wooden statues and stone carvings…calling them backward and archaic, we bow down to metal boxes on wheels and big wooden boxes on land. We have made idolatry sophisticated…we’ve made it look good! Yet, it’s still the same old idolatry.
Stuff…
Sinking $100,000 into a car that gets you from point A to point B? Deciding to cut back on your giving/tithing to God so that you can afford the bigger house with the nice backyard? Needing the newest gadget to stay up-to-date? Dropping serious $ for a new phone when the old one works fine?
Is it wrong to have a nice car, a comfortable home, or a new phone? No. Is it wrong to not be satisfied unless you have those things? Absolutely.
I’m not going to draw lines on what is excessive and what is ok. It would be hypocritical for me to do that. I have much more than most people in the world.
But I do know that it is way too easy for me to get seriously attached to possessions…they bring me comfort, they bring me status, they bring me approval from other people. I do know that it’s hard to remain content with just having what I need…I always seem to want more.
The Bible does not say, “It is wrong to have a house that costs more than $1,000,000.” Instead, it says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…but store up for yourself treasures in heaven.” (Matt. 6:19-21) Again, we can’t say, “it’s wrong to have a nice car or a mac book pro.” But we can challenge ourselves and each other to think about whether or not we are truly “laying up treasure in heaven.” Are we using our resources and our stuff for God’s kingdom…to help the world see that the reign of God is better than anything else? We can ask ourselves, “Am I seeking first the kingdom of God?”
In ancient (and even present-day) cultures, people don’t bow down to a wooden statue because they love that statue in and of itself. Instead, they bow down to it because it represents a god and they want that god to give them something…to watch out for them.
Likewise, no-one really worships a car or a house. Instead, we believe that the car or the house will give us something…maybe it’s comfort or status (honor) or approval from others. That’s the real idol…not the stuff itself, but what we are seeking from the stuff.
What do you think?
What do people try to gain from lots of stuff or nice stuff? What do they think it will bring them?
How do you help someone stop worshiping that idol? What would you tell them?
California Idols: Kids’ Success
This is something I wrote last November for a personal blog…
As I sat at Starbucks this morning, trying out the new Thanksgiving brew from the new Christmas cups, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation between two couples about their sons and baseball. Essentially, they were conversing about their sons’ involvement with travel baseball teams and their hopes for their sons’ futures. They were there before I sat down and continued to talk about this for the next hour and a half…the philosophy of coaching, the age when you should get your son involved in travel ball (8 years old!), training techniques, their most recent trip to Coopertown, and more. Without knowing these people and their thinking (a huge disclaimer), it appears that they have wrapped their lives around the baseball careers of their 12 year old sons…practices 5-6 days a week, year-round training, multiple trips across the country, and a lot of money.
Unfortunately, this conversation is all too common in Southern California (and probably across the US). I’m not against travel sports (I played club soccer…therefore it can’t be wrong) and I’m all for using God-given ability, but some families in my city have turned the athletic success of their kids into an idol. Some may do it for the guaranteed college scholarship, some to live through their kid’s achievement, and some for the recognition it will bring among their peers…who doesn’t want to say at your next Christmas party, “Johnny’s bowling team won the World Amateur Bowling Championship again this year!”. The hope of gaining these idols of success, achievement, security from a scholarship, or recognition control people…these idols control their time and their money. As parents, it’s easy to write it off as, “I just want what’s best for little Jerry.” However, so often our identity and happiness is wrapped up in seeing our kids succeed.
While it’s easy to point the finger at the moms and dads yelling at the refs on the sidelines, we all do this same thing. We make our kids’ academic success into an idol, their social success, and even their spiritual health. We make our joy and meaning dependent on whether or not they get into that college, they have friends who like them, or they end up being a godly young man or woman.
Is it wrong to desire success for our kids and help them achieve it? Absolutely not…the problem comes when our life, meaning, and joy becomes contingent upon their success. Often without realizing it, we have made their success into our god…responsible to give our lives meaning, purpose, and joy.
The problem is that when we do this, instead of helping our kids…we crush them. When the expectation is placed upon them, often unsaid, to bring you ultimate joy and meaning in life, you are placing a weight of expectation on them that they cannot handle. They cannot give you the ultimate joy and meaning you seek. All the sacrifice you make for them to succeed may look good on the outside. But without knowing it, you may be crushing them instead of helping them live. Even though its somewhat cliche, there is a lot of truth to the overplayed theme in movies of sons who are driven away by their father’s unrealistic expectation. Father’s turn their sons into gods…looking to them for meaning in life…and in effect crush their sons by the weight of expectation.
This same crushing expectation will ruin careers (when your joy and meaning is dependent on your own career success), will ruin relationships and marriages (joy is dependent on your spouse), and ultimately yourself (when joy is dependent on your own personal success).
There is, however, One who wants to take the weight of your expectation and can actually bear it. He calls us to come and cast our cares upon Him. He will give rest to the weary soul that has been trying to carry this weight. Our loving Father is the One who is actually able to offer ultimate joy, meaning, significance, and life. He calls to us,
“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.” (Isaiah 55:1-3)
How does our Father offer this ultimate joy, life, and meaning so that we can truly enjoy our sons and not crush them by expectation? He offers it by crushing His own Son so that we would not need to crush ours. Rather than placing our need for joy and meaning on our own sons, God the Father placed our need for joy and meaning on His own Son, Jesus. And Jesus delivers. Rather than being ultimately destroyed, Jesus rose three days later in victory and is able to carry the extreme weight of our expectation and need for joy and life. Therefore God tells us, “Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
When we look to our heavenly Father for ultimate joy and meaning, then we will be able to truly enjoy our careers, our marriages, and our kids. Instead of crushing them, we will give life to them and enjoy them as they were designed to be enjoyed.
Only when God is your ultimate joy and hope will you be able to truly celebrate your son’s next home-run.
California Idols: The Body
Take a trip to the beach, the gym, or even to the supermarket and it doesn’t take long to see that our culture has made an idol out of “the body.” People spend hours trying to make their body look chiseled, tanned, blemishless, the right shape, and fit. From the rave of 100-Calorie snack packs in grocery aisle to the surge of gym-memberships every January, people are concerned about their bodies.
Now I’m not against working out, gym-memberships, or trying to eat healthy. In fact, I believe that as Christians, part of our obedience to God is taking care of our bodies. God made us to have physical bodies. In fact, when we go to heaven, we will not float around as spirits, but will one day have perfect physical bodies. God loves the human body…after all, He made it! It’s His greatest work of art…His greatest masterpiece on earth…the highlight of creation! Even though our current bodies are growing older and weaker because of sin, we are still to be good stewards of our bodies and seek to live as long as we can to achieve the mission God has given us. Rather than making an idol of the body, Christians have sometimes valued the body too little. Many Christians have developed the mindset that only what is spiritual matters and therefore have let their bodies go to waste. This is just as wrong as making an idol of the body. We should care about our physical bodies because God cares about them!
However, in Southern California, it is also very common to see our human body, its health, and what it looks like become a big idol. Here’s how it happens:
- “I will be happy and find acceptance if I can just get that six-pack.”
- “I will be happy and feel like my life is worth living if I can look like that model.”
- “I will be happy if I can just eat in a way that will keep me healthy.”
- “I will be happy if I can live till I’m 95 years old.”
Is it wrong to desire beauty, good health, or strong muscles? No! But the problem comes when gaining these things become the ultimate source of happiness and meaning in life.
This drives many young girls to seek for the perfect body…often developing disorders and distorted views of themselves. The magazines, tv shows, and commercials all propogate (sometimes unknowingly) a lie: look like this and you will be happy. Be this strong, and your life will have meaning.
We need to fight these lies and call ourselves to believe what’s true…that God is our ultimate source of joy and meaning and happiness.
What do you Think?
What other ways has the “body” become an idol?
What “core/root” idols are people sometimes seeking when they make their body an idol? (i.e. “acceptance from others”, “control over their life”)
Why should we take care of our bodies?
California Idols: The Idolometer
So…
This week’s blog will be a little bit shorter than last weeks. I got a little bit carried away last week and ended up writing a novel instead of a short thought for the week. I’m not sure if anyone actually endured the word-onslaught to read the post…way to go if you did! All that to say…I will be attempting to keep these posts shorter, sweeter, and more digestible.
This week I want to take a break from focusing on specific idols and talk a bit about how to find out what our idols actually are. Assuming that we desire to find our joy, meaning, and life in God (rather than some idol), how do we find out if something has become an idol to us? How do we know if the facebook is our way of seeking the idols of comfort or control?
I would like to suggest (actually, I will suggest) that the discipline of “Fasting” can work as an “idol-ometer”, revealing to us whether or not something has truly become an idol to you.
Fasting (abstaining from something good) forces us to test whether or not “God is truly my life and happiness.” If I can’t fast from something (which means I can’t let it go), then it may be, and probably is, and idol in my heart.
Do you want to know if facebook has become a way to get your idol? Fast (abstain) from it for a week…or even a month! Do you want to know if you truly believe that Jesus is your life and your source of joy? Fast from the good gifts God has given you and see if you can still have joy.
What do you think?
What do you think about this “Idol-ometer”?
What things would you choose to give up for a while? (fast)
If you couldn’t give up facebook for a period of time, what do you think might be the root idol you are seeking to gain through 3 hours a day on facebook?
California Idols: Success
The movie, “Chariots of Fire”, is one of my favorite movies. It makes me want to go run every time I watch it. This movie tells the true story of runner Eric Liddell, a man who loved God and was a gifted runner. Liddell is known for refusing to run on a Sunday during the 1924 Summer Olympics…a decision which cost him the race, but which God blessed by giving him the opportunity to run another race which he won. On the same English team as Liddell is another runner, named Harold Abrahams. Although they are good friends, Abrahams is not a God-worshipper and stands in stark contrast to Liddell throughout the whole movie.
Basically, Harold Abrahams runs with a chip on his shoulder…through running, he hopes to prove to his father, to his peers, and to the world that he is successful. As a Jew in the early 20th century (who many people wrongly hated), Abrahams was out to prove himself and be seen as successful. He believed that if he was seen as successful, he would find meaning in life and have joy. Success was his idol…and it owned him.
Part-way through the movie, a lady names Sybil asks Harold Abrahams if he loves running. Abrahams replies, “I’m more of an addict. It’s a compulsion within me, a weapon I can use.” Sybil asks him, “Against what?” Abrahams replies, “Being Jewish I suppose.”
Later in the movie, as Abrahams prepares for a huge race in the 1924 Olympic games, he confesses this to his teammate Aubrey:
“And now in one hour’s time I will be out there again. I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor; 4 feet wide, with 10 lonely seconds to justify my whole existence. But WILL I? Aubrey, I’ve known the fear of losing but now I am almost too frightened to win.”
It’s pretty clear that running was Abrahams’ tool for gaining success. He believed that if he gained success, he would find happiness, joy, and life. He states this really clearly when he says, “with 10 lonely seconds to justify my whole existence.” Abrahams believed that meaning in life would be found in the success of winning a race. Success was Abrahams’ controlling idol. It owned him and drove him to train harder than anyone else to gain it.
The sad reality is that when Abrahams gained success, it didn’t bring true life and happiness. He was still left feeling empty and hopeless and driven to win more races, thinking that would bring life and joy. Because Abrahams worshiped success, believing it would make his life meaningful and give it joy, he was never able to enjoy running. He never felt the true joy of running, but instead was an addict to it and was so scared that he would lose. Instead of bringing joy and making his life meaningful, this idol brought fear and did not allow him to enjoy the gift of running that God had given him.
In contrast to Abrahams is the runner Eric Liddell. Liddell worshiped God above all else. He found his life and his joy in God and not in the success of his races. When asked why he runs, Liddell replies, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” Liddell did not run to gain success, he ran out of worship to God. He saw that his gift as a runner was a gift from God and he used that gift as a way to worship God. The need to win the race or have success did not own Liddell like it owned Abrahams. In fact, he was willing to forfeit a race when it would have required him to run on the Lord’s Day. Liddell later went on to give up running in order to go and serve as a missionary in China. Because Liddell worshiped God and not success, Liddell was actually able to enjoy running!
So, what’s the point?
If you believe that “Success” will bring you joy and give your life meaning, then it is your idol and it will own you. This will mean…
- That you will do anything to gain this “success.” You will make it the priority, giving up everything to gain it. It will occupy your thoughts and your time.
- You will give up important things like gathering with the church family in order to pursue this idol. Maybe you will constantly forsake gathering with the church in order to pursue academic success, studying for hours and hours. Maybe you will stop reading your Bible because you don’t have time with all the sports training and practices you are doing.
- You will be fearful of not gaining success. Fear of losing a game or failing a test will grip you and control you.
- You will not be able to use your academic and athletic gifts for God and you will not be able to enjoy them.
- You will constantly chase after something, but never gain it. Harold Abrahams said it well, “I’m forever in pursuit and I don’t even know what I am chasing.”
If you believe that God is your ultimate source of joy and He gives your life meaning… And, if you trust that your life has meaning and you are justified through Jesus, not your own actions, then…
- You will be willing to give up a grade or a sport in order to follow and obey God. (just like Liddell chose not to run on Sunday).
- You will be able to use your gifts (athletic, academic, acting, etc..) to serve God and to worship Him.
- You will actually be able to enjoy the sport you play or the classes you take or the play you’re in.
- You will be okay if you don’t get the grade you wanted, make the team, or win the game. You won’t lose hope and go into despair.
What do you think?
What do you think?
What are other ways, besides running, that we pursue the idol of success?
How do you know if you chasing after the idol of success?