Sometimes it is really hard to understand why God does what He does. But He is still God in every situation and everything He does is good, not matter how it empacts our hearts or lives.

Matt Chandler has been huge influence in my life toward a passionate love of Jesus and he is going through some really tough stuff at the moment. He had part of a malignant brain tumor removed (but the doctors couldn’t get it all), and no one knows what will come of it at this point. No one wants to say it, but he could die. He could die as a result of the tumor or in surgery or he could die peacfully in his sleep when he’s 83 after a lifetime of passionate service to the gospel.

But no one knows, and a malignant brain tumor is about as serious as it gets.  Through this situation I have cried my tears for me, for him, for his family, and for the church. And I caught myself asking God why. Why would He do this? Why would he take a man who at 35 has done more for the gospel than most people will do in their entire lives?

But that is before I was rebuked by the testimoy of Matt, himself, that he gave in a video before his surgery. I have never seen Christ so honored in the midst of such dire circumstances. If you haven’t seen the video, you really need to: you can watch it at http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=363.

He also posted a blog post on the morning of the surgery that made me weep all day.  You can read it here: http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=357.

The Dallas Morning News did a story on it and I think God was honored through it.

So please, pray for Matt and his family and the church. And pray for me, it is hard on me as well. But more than anything pray that Christ would be honored through all of this and that the gospel would shine brightly.

Christ is all.

Ten years ago “Thankful” by Caedmon’s Call was released and since then it has been one of my favorite songs. And as I thought this week about what makes me thankful; my famly, my friends, and the blessings that I have, I couldn’t help but think that better than all of those is the never ending grace that God continues to show me, even though “the same old struggles that plagued me then are plaguing me still.”

Sometimes it seems like the people that have, in the past, believed the most earnestly in the mission, are the same ones who jump ship so quickly when it gets rough.

That can make it hard to perservere, but my faith isn’t in a sinner’s ability to be holy and carry on the fight, but in a God who promises “that he who began a good work in [me] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

This post is sort of a response to a question that I have had myself as well as heard from many other people.  The question as best as I can phrase it is: why do some churches act like they would rather punch a person in the face over sin rather than extend love and grace, like Jesus did.  Here is my attempt at an answer (especially in reference to abortion)…

I think that churches are too concerned with people’s behavior and not concerned enough with their hearts.  There are too many churches that too quickly judge and condemn a sinner for sin (huh?).  And they are too slow to show grace (even though they freely recieved it from Jesus to begin with).  And this comes about when churches develop an attitude of superiority over the culture.  Christians begin to think that since they go to church and everyone has it together and no one struggles with sin, then they have to pretend that they are OK too or others might find out that they are phony.  But the truth is we are all phony.  We all struggle.  To pretend that we are OK in the midst of major battles with sin to appease the critical church leadership is ridiculous. 

Churches should encourage a community of compassion and grace and openness about sin.  Sin destroys people and the church most when we all pretend that there is no problem.  My point about compassion and grace is to say that all people struggle, and many teenagers will struggle with sex.  When they make a mistake and dishonor Jesus with their actions it should not be our first response to humiliate them by letting everyone know that “Jack is meeting with the pastor because he had sex, he’s in trouble”.  This is why we need transparency.  Teens and adults need to feel like being honest about their struggles will not lead to public humiliation and the back of the churches hand.  Instead, they should feel comfortable enough to discuss that they are struggling with sex or drugs or whatever.  It is when people are fearful of what others will think that causes them to try to hide their own sin.

So in effect, the attitude of judgment and condemnation from “holy” people can lead teens and adults to extremes in trying to hide their sin.  Which, in the case of sex, often leads down the road to abortion.  The irony here is that churches have such a strong anti-abortion stance, but are unwilling to admit that their members are sinners and struggle with sin, that they create an environment where it is not safe to struggle and people are then forced to deal with their sin in the only way that they know how (and because the church offers no answer, the culture fills the gap).  It doesn’t matter how well you teach them or how ridiculous you make the requirements to date (or court or whatever other legalistic word you use), all people struggle with sin and many struggle with sex.  To pretend otherwise is naive. 

I believe churches should teach the truth that God designed sex to be enjoyed in heterosexual marriage and that sex before marriage is wrong and it dishonors God, and abortion is wrong.  But they must not forget to even more passionatley teach the truth that the cross exists because of such failures.  Jesus died to forgive.  To forgive all sin.

A church cannot beat obedience into their people.  What they need to do is continually preach and teach the goodness and love of Jesus Christ in hopes that people’s hearts would be stirred with affection toward Him and that their hearts would be content in Him and that He would change them.

It comes down to this.  I believe that people are so afraid of the shame and judgement that they will get from church and “holy” people that they choose to hide (rather than confront and deal with) their sin.  And that desire for self preservation is so strong that it can lead young women to kill the life in them so that no one will know they had sex.  And then the church sends fools out with picket signs and terrible images of aborted children to scare people into obedience and heap shame onto the heads of those women who have had abortions and still struggle with it today.  The church should be more like Jesus.  It should be about hope and forgiveness.  It should be about love and compassion, and not just toward the lives lost to abortion but also to the women and men that must live with that decision the rest of their lives and struggle under the surface with the pain of so many people belitteling them with their judgmental talk.

The church should be about grace and hope.  It should be a place where it is OK to struggle.  It should be a place where it is safe to talk about sin.  It should be a place where there is no shame for the past, where people experience grace and not judgement for what they’ve done.

But I’m one man, with one opinion and a blog that no one reads, how can I affect this kind of change?  The good news is that God is faithful and He will build His church and He will purify her.  May God fill us with grace and love for the hurting, and enable us to pass on the hope that we have in Him and that He would put to death in us the judgementalism that we demonstrate to the same people that we all once were.

Most of the pastors that I am influenced by are for the most part non-political in their messages, including John Piper. In the following excerpt, from last Sunday’s sermon, he addresses the issue of abortion. I’m sure that people on the other side of this debate will see this as politically driven, but I see it more along the lines a man that values all human life and wants to see as many as possible meet Jesus.

I’ve also got to say, that I don’t see how you can have a heart for people either in a general compassionate human way or in a soul loving Christian way and be pro-abortion. I don’t see how you could reconcile being for the death of those that God wills to save. And don’t hear me being one of those hard edged conservatives who hates everyone who has had an abortion, I am not. There is forgiveness in the cross. So there will be no judgment in me. But I feel that it is irresponsible and murderous for a society to support the deaths of so many little Rachael’s and Isaiah’s.

What do you think?

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I just wanted to ask all of you to pray for my Mother in Laws husbands daughter/family. Their names are Nikki and Steve. Nikki was due the day after me (Christmas), but ended up having little baby Henry about a week ago she was 26 weeks along, and the baby was 1lb 13 oz. We were just notified that baby Henry isn’t doing very well right now..Please keep this family in your prayers as they go through this difficult time.

I thought this post was interesting.  It is a list of some words (not necessarily theological words) and Piper’s definitions of them and references to those sermons or resources from where the definitions were taken. 

The author, Jamsco, did a good job of putting the definitions together, so I thank him.  Check out Piper Definitions, it’s not a very long post, but it sure did spark some long comments.  I know many of you think I am concisely challenged, but I’ve got nothing on a gal named Chris who commented on the post (again and again, longer and longer).

I was listening to a sermon today in which Matt Chandler mentioned a church who had put up a message on their church sign attacking the popular song by Katy Perry called “I kissed a Girl”.  I’m sure most of you have heard it, so I won’t address the content of it.  Anyway, a church in Ohio put up a message on their sign that read: “I kissed a girl and I liked it, Then I went to hell.”  How heartwarming.  And in fact the pastor said that that was the point.  Church pastor Rev. Dave Allison says the Bible is clear that homosexuality is a sin, so the sign is intended as a loving warning to teens.  (story)

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I know it’s been a while since we have posted anything about my pregnancy, so I thought I would finally get on the ball to give everyone an update. We found out about a month ago that God has blessed us with a baby boy..He is growing strong and healthy..my doctor calls him a soccer player because he just loves kicking me, I have been able to feel him moving around since I was 2 mos pregnant. This pregnancy has been quite a bit different from my first (pain wise). For the last 2 months I have had some severe back, neck and leg pains that have made it difficult for me to do much. Not a whole lot of fun, I am working with my doctor to get in to see a physical therapist to try and relieve some of the pain. So, we will see how that goes. Other than that we are all doing well.
Rachael is very excited to be a big sister. She loves hugging and kissing my stomach and talking to her baby brother. Every time I go to the doctors she askes me if I am going to get the baby taken out (it’s quite funny). So, now we have explained that the baby won’t be here until Christmas time (Dec 24 to be exact), not too much longer to go. We thank God for his grace upon our lives.

I think I’ve finally learned my lesson. I wish I had before. I am not a laptop surgeon. I’m not even a laptop surgeons’ nurse. If I were, laptops everywhere would have to watch out for me coming at them with a screw driver. Because, apparently, I don’t know what I’m doing.

You see, my laptop had a Dell employee’s eyelash stuck in the display. And on every bright screen it taunted and mocked me like a fly mocks a cat through the safety of a window. And I would not let that stand. So I took a screwdriver to it. But not in the the I’m-gonna-smash-my-laptop-in-with-this-screwdriver kind of way, but in the I-think-I-know-what-I’m-doing,-but-I-don’t kind of way. And in doing so, I sure taught that eyelash a lesson, it doesn’t belong in my laptop. But at the same time my computer taught me a lesson too. I could not, for all of my surgical expertise, get the monitor to work again.

Good thing the people at Dell were smarter than this end user. Were it not for the warranty I had on it and the technician who seemed disinterested at the fact that it had been opened and “serviced” by someone other than a Dell employee, I would probably be out a laptop and back to programming remotes, for work, with a hammer and chisel.

Anyway, it’s back up and going now. And if you ever hear me say that I am going to operate on my laptop again, feel free to smack me upside the head (preferably without a screwdriver in hand).