Category: Thursday Thought

Recently, I stumbled on to the writings of the Puritans.  One of my first  books: Richard Baxter's work titled, “The Causes and Danger of Slighting Christ and His Gospel.” 

Born in 1615, Baxter  was a a church leader, theologian and prolific writer.    For 25 years, he endured persecution and imprisonment for his stand on the gospel.  

I figure a guy who endured all that he did for Christ deserves my attention when he cautions that you and I who claim to know Christ just might be guilty of slighting Him—and His gospel.

Here's one example of what Richard Baxter means when he says we slight Christ.  It reads a bit like King James English—but you'll get the gist. Baxter writes….

It is a making light of Christ and Salvation when Men will profess their willingness to have Christ upon His own terms, and to forsake all for him.  But they nevertheless cleave to the world, and to their sinful courses…  This is the sin of making light of Christ and salvation. 

Ouch.  Baxter does not waste words. He goes on to say…

Men have houses and lands to look after, wife and children, and body and outward estate, and therefore they forget that they have  a God, a Redeemer, a Soul to mind.   These worldly things are near at hand, and therefore work naturally and forcibly .  But the other are thought to be a great way off, and therefore, too distant to work on their affections.

To read Baxter is to be convicted.  But you and I ought not to stop there.  How do we move closer to the biblical ideal of being in the world but not of it?  Baxter tells us…

Set a higher value on the Word of God….You cannot esteem Christ without esteeming His word.  Will you daily read it?  Will you resolve to obey it whatever it may cost you?

Those are questions each of us must answer for ourselves.  And let there be no mistake—someday we will have to give an answer.

They want you to feel relaxed.

They want you to feel like you're in a friend's living room.

But you're not.  

You are in a surgical waiting room.  You and fifty others, doing everything to avoid thinking about the surgery your loved one is undergoing.

On a sofa-like chair, one woman knits what appears to be a soft baby blanket.  An older gentleman is playing Sudoku, while his wife is engaged in a computer laptop version of Solitaire.

Off to the side, a woman sips coffee, staring pensively into the cavernous room.  Another lady scribbles crayons in a kids' coloring book.  (She does a nice job staying inside the lines). Still another snoozes.

In the back corner around a table sit three women–the high tech trio.  Between them are two laptops and an i Pad.  But they appear to be processing more dialogue than data.

All these people share one thing in common: they are waiting. Everyone of them holds a pager—and a slender strand of hope.

Any other day, this might be an inordinate wait time for a favorite restaurant.  But the only thing being served today is life-changing news: “We were able to get the tumor entirely”….or….”We're sorry, but the cancer has spread.”  The veneer of chatty good naturedness in the room is as thin as a sandwich bag.

Me?  I'm one of the fifty—waiting.  But I have something many of these people lack—a ring of prayerful brothers and sisters, from several area churches who have been with me all day long.  From morning until evening they stay…because their love for Christ extends their love to me and my wife—now in surgery.

Seeing the body of Christ in action—loving and serving quietly for no glory but the glory of God–is a humbling, heartwarming thing.  The faithful presence of this loving platoon—who come from an army of praying soldiers–makes sharing the surgeon's good news really great news.

Funny thing how knowing Jesus even changes the view from a waiting room.

Hi, my name is Jon and I have a new strategy for world evangelization–let me explain.

I believe we could reach a sizeable percentage of the world for Christ…if Christians started acting like Christ around service people.

What do I mean by “service people.”?

It's the guy that fixes your car. It's the lady with the accent that gives you your coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.  Service people.  I'm thinking about the waitress at your favorite restaurant hang-out.  The busboy that fills your water glass repeatedly—because you're so thirsty.

Give it a moment's thought, and you'll think of a bunch of these people.

Notice that I called them, “people.” 

Because all too, often, we don't think of them that way.  We treat them like mere servants.  After all, we're paying good money for that meal, so the waitress had BETTER get it right…..right?   Wrong. 

My brother once worked as a waiter for a successful Italian restaurant chain.  He told me that some of the worst tippers in the world…are born again Christians.

The leader of a major Christian organization once told me that he cringes at the knowledge that evangelical folks attending his national conference have the reputation for being the most demanding and least gracious of all the groups that show up at the hotel. And the list goes on and on—with my poor behavior…and yours.

But what if… instead of a reputation for being demanding or being cheapskates…we Christians were known by our love (um….the thing Jesus said we were SUPPOSED to be known by). 

What if we looked the busboy in the eye—and genuinely thanked him for filing our water glass? If Christians were known by the service industry for our “Please” and “thank you very much”  instead of our griping, it would open up a whole new platform for sharing Christ.

Think of it: The wrong food order comes to your table and instead of whining, you say, “Hey, no problem.  I'm in no danger of starving…”  Wow! 

But you know who are starving?  The service people around us.  They are starving for human affirmation….starving for the kindness that comes from being with Jesus.

Let's  you and I give them a taste of the Jesus life.

We can be sure they'll be hungry for more of Him.

When it comes to our kids, no name is apparently too special.  A recent article in the “The Week” confirms parents are no longer content naming their kids from a list of—quote–familiar names.  James, Kathy and Robert are out.   Aiden, Emma, and Gunner are in.  Christopher is more likely to go by “Topher.”   And even familiar names must now be spelled uniquely.

Those who track names as a profession tell us that an emerging trend is to give your child a LAST name for his or her first name.  Hence the rise of names like Wilson and Taylor.  There is also a spike in names that are gender neutral:  Jordan. Addison, Dakota…

In 1912, when the most popular names in America were John and Mary, parents of 80 percent of American babies chose from among the 200 most common names. Today less than half of girls and about 60 percent of boys are accorded a top-200 name.

So what's behind the push for all these new names?  Mostly, the experts tell us, a desire for our children to be unique.  Special.  

I find it interesting that as we move further away from a Christian consensus, we reach further and further for significance—specialness–even in the way we name our kids.

You might argue, “How can you prove that?”  Actually, I can't prove it.  And the truth is, probably a lot of the new names are simply the expression of a fresh breath of naming creativity. 

Yet I am still haunted by the reality that on the one hand, we have a Creative God saying, “In me, you are complete.  In me, you are special.”  On the other hand, we have a culture that says, “We reject God.  We'll find our sense of specialness wherever we can.”  I can't help but wonder if at least part of the craze for new names stems from an ancient hunger: the hunger of wondering if God really knows us individually.  And if He does…does He care?  

Pondering all the new names, I'm Jon—spelled without the “H.” And those are my thoughts.

I’m thinking of someone I love.  Someone on one of the branches of our family tree.  Because this person sort of intimidates me, I am friendly in person, yet don’t go out of my way to fully engage in conversation or in other social settings.  We are polite, genial, and…not as comfortable with each other as I might wish.

I suspect this might be a reliable snapshot—or at least, analogy—of how many of us feel about the Holy Spirit.  We know the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead.  But we’re sort of intimidated by Him.  We’re polite, but definitely not comfortable with the Holy Spirit’s invisible, supernatural qualities.  And so, rarely do we fully embrace or engage the Holy Spirit.  As I said, we’re just not as comfortable with each other as we wish.

Maybe, like me, you grew up in a conservative evangelical church that –wary of excesses in some circles—all but ignored the Holy Spirit.  Don’t get me wrong.  We’re entirely comfortable with the Holy Spirit convicting the world of sin, judgment and the world to come.  We’d just rather He not do what He does with too much supernatural flair.    Frankly, anything that hints at the miraculous that’s outside the covers of our Bibles—we figure is fodder for snopes.com.  We don’t trust it. 

But the truth is, the Holy Spirit will not be boxed in by our beliefs of narrowness.  And to largely dismiss the supernatural workings of the third member of the Trinity is to rob ourselves of a proper sense of the otherness of God. 

Our discomfort notwithstanding, the Holy Spirit sometimes does do miraculous things.  It’s time we embraced the Holy Spirit—and His supernatural workings.  Not for the sake of “the show” or the wonders themselves…but for the sake of acknowledging the otherness of God.

The election is coming!  The election is coming!  To hear some folks, the outcome of the upcoming election will determine whether the human race…and planet earth itself…will survive.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm concerned about the election, too.  I look forward to fulfilling my patriotic responsibility and casting a vote.  I'm researching the candidates, studying the issues.   But my concern about this election is much bigger than which candidate wins the White House, or which party controls congress.

My concern is that too many Christians view this election just like non-Christians: we put way too much hope in it.

To the extent that a government passes just laws and upholds biblical principles, its representatives are to be highly esteemed.   So it DOES matter who's in office.  But not in an ultimate sense.

Because there is no “correct” party.  No party that is not filled with crooked and corrupt characters who look good, smell good, sell good….but who are morally and spiritually bankrupt…even if they do have noble intentions.   Isaiah 64:6  “But we are all like an unclean rag.”

I've listened as our current President promised us hope and change…and seen America slide further down our moral mud slide.

And I've also observed what happens when Republicans control the White House and Congress: We continue down our moral mud slide.

So there IS no salvation for America in either party.  Sin resides in both.

The evidence notwithstanding, too many of us are too quick to put too much hope in government and political parties.  As Joe Stowell reminds us in his preaching, “We are a fallen race in a fallen place.”

America's ticket back to prosperity will not be found on any ballot other than than the votes you and I will cast with our daily lives in favor—or in disobedience against—God's written Word.

As for me, I want to join the short list of folks listed in Hebrews 11 longing for a better country—a heavenly one.

So until then, I intend to be a good citizen.  I'll pray and vote and do my best to image a loving God reaching out to a fallen world.  But I will NOT place my highest hopes on this—or any election.

Halloween. Like it or not, the season is here. Christians can disagree over whether it's okay to dress up or go trick or treating.  But I am not interested in that discussion at the moment.  My focus is much more fundamental.  I want to talk about evil itself.  The evil that is increasingly celebrated at Halloween.

The “Spirit” chain of Halloween stores has grown from 63 in 1999 to nearly a thousand this year!  In our neighborhoods, many homes now put more effort into decorating for Halloween than they do Christmas.

The other day I passed a car with a giant applique depicting a young woman with a bloodied axe.  Just what I want my four year old granddaughter to see.  And by the way—how would it somehow be “more acceptable” if she was fourteen?  Does the sight of a bloodied axe at fourteen become less evil?  I think not. 

Consider the exponential increase in Fright fests, gore stores and Haunted Houses.  I read online about a “Club AntiChrist” Halloween party. Among other things, it features a performance by Sexor…snake-hipped belly dancing from Hell.  Okay, so that's an extreme.

But horror isn't just for Halloween anymore.  Not just for movie theatres.  It's gone beyond Twilight and Freddy Kruger.  Now it's highly successful television fare.  Even favorites like the CSI series seem to cherish and embellish every possible moment of blood and gore.

As our culture has been desensitized, it takes more and more to truly shock us.  So the “slightly scary” of a generation ago, has been replaced by the ghoulish and ghastly.  

But to my point: how does any of this help a follower of Jesus follow Jesus?  You say, “Brother Jon, you're preaching to the choir.”  Not at all.  Christians are among the biggest consumers of this stuff!  (1:45)

Many listeners will disagree but I boldly make the statement anyway.  It is wrong for us to watch this stuff, to buy this stuff–in the theatres, on television, or at parties.  It's wrong. 

The culture’s comfort notwithstanding, our growing fascination with gory will NEVER bring glory to Jesus.  Ever.  Let's have nothing to do with the dark side. 

When did America begin to self-destruct spiritually?  Do you ever wonder?  I have.   Ask ten people and you'll get ten answers.

Some say it began in the 60s with the Beatles and permissive parenting.  That lead to drugs, free sex and a general contempt for authority. 

Others say, “No, it began before that.  It was the 50s—think Elvis and his wild hip gyrations.” 

Some point to the roaring 20s, with speakeasies and crime sprees and dime novels with questionable characters.

But Harvard historian Dani Shapiro offers a disturbing piece of evidence that dates much earlier yet.  It was the year 1860 when a young American toymaker named Milton Bradley schemed upon an idea for a successful board game. 

Seems he retooled a popular British board game called the “Mansion of Happiness.”  Players in this game sought to free themselves from vices and—at the same time—accumulate virtues.  All of this in order to outrun their fellow players—pilgrims if you will—on the road to heaven.  Hence the use of the term, “mansion.”  If it smacks of influence from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, there's no accident.  Consider the long shadow Bunyan cast.  Nearly 200 years after Pilgrims Progress was first published, it still influenced the entertainment of British culture.

But back to Milton Bradley.  He took the “Mansion of Happiness” concept and infused it with a focus on self-fulfillment through the acquisition of money. Historian Shapiro said Bradley–quote– “chucked the piety.  In his version, originally called the Checkered Game of Life, players raced through life's stages seeking maximum material wealth. Quite obviously” says the writer, “our ideas about life's purposes had changed.”

Sad, isn't it?  Our slippery slope has been a long time in coming. The Game of Life.  The world says the objectives have changed. Jesus begs to differ.

Leadership.  It's quite a buzz lately in Christian circles.  Have you noticed all the leadership chatter?

Consider the enormous popularity of Christian publications like…

• Leadership Gold
• Leadership Journal magazine.

Then there are all those Leadership conferences.

But go ahead and Google Christian conferences on “Following Christ”…and you won't find much.   Following lacks the flash and fun of being a leader.  And, in my opinion, therein lies the danger.

Now hear me carefully.  I'm not saying we don't need leaders, or that there shouldn't be any new training for leadership.  But I AM saying I think our current emphasis is probably out of whack. 

Is our biggest problem today in Christianity really a lack of good leaders?  I say it's a lack of good followers.  While there may be problems in leadership circles…we are dying for lack of obedience in the pew.  And in the end, the very best leader cannot conjure up an ounce of obedience. 

So why all the conferences and DVDs and books on leadership?

The ugly truth is, too many of us want to be leaders because leaders get to call more shots.  Leaders are entrusted with more power.  Bigger salaries.   Nicer perks.  Even in Christian organizations.  But that's the world's value system. 

The call of Christ is to be fishers of men, not leaders of men.

The Great Commission is about making disciples…followers…not leaders.

The truth is, when we have good followers, we will have good leaders.  Because an effective leader is nothing more than a follower who follows well—and who encourages others to do the same.

Yes…there's a place for vision casting and setting the pace…  But there's an even bigger call to quietly run the race with integrity and humility. 

It's time we stepped back a bit from our fascination with leadership.

It's time we stepped up our determination to follow Jesus all day… every day. No matter what the cost.

Only THEN will we create a new generation of leaders worth following.

By now news from the London Olympics is so old, it's not even in the rear view mirror.   We've moved on.  There’s a presidential election just before us…the NFL season is in full swing—complete with the REAL refs… These are the headlines that now dominate our attention.

But a misstep in marketing takes me across the pond nearly every day.  Let me explain. 

At the train station that I walk there lingers a set of illuminated photos of Olympic hopefuls–the heart of a bank's advertising campaign.

The campaign’s idea was to suggest that in choosing the bank on the sign…you’d be signing up with winners.  One might say the bank was using these athletes who were going for the gold…to go for YOUR gold.

Walking through the train concourse you come face to face with

Two brothers who've played tennis together since they were kids.

Several swimmers…

A marathon runner…

Track and field athletes

Now that the Olympics are more than over, I've lately been intrigued with the idea of finding out exactly how these athletes finished.   So one by one, I've Googled these athletes, tracking down how they actually finished.  Some did great.  Others didn't place.  Some were projected to medal in their event…and never got close.

In my opinion, this marketing campaign that has stayed well past its prime…has a message for followers of Jesus.

What about us?  How are WE doing in this race called the Christian life?  We who been given wonderful teaching in Bible-loving churches….we who have gone to Bible school….or been mentored by a strong Christian friend.  We who live in a nation with more resources and more opportunities for Christian advancement than any other on the planet….How are we doing?

What if it was YOUR image on the sign promoting Christianity’s effectiveness and impact?  What kind of advertisement would YOU be?  Would your life be the gold standard?  The silver?  If you’re like me….you know you’d fall short. 

But like it or not—we are in a race. People really ARE watching.  They’re really is a finish line.  And they’re really is a prize.