Jesus 2.0?

Lately I've been struggling with some thoughts. Thoughts on being relevant to today's culture. More specifically, presenting Jesus in to today's culture in a relevant way. A number of churches are scratching their heads, thinking of ways to attract young adults. Praise teams and bands, donuts and coffee, Power Point and low lights. Some churches start a young adults class to have a few sometimes come.

My question is why? Why does reaching to young adults have to be so much work? Why does the Jesus I know, the God I serve need to be upgraded for this new millennium?
For the last 2000 years, give or take a few, people have been coming to Jesus without needing to be culturally relevant. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against doing all we can to reach the lost. We need to speak to people in the language they speak. But let's look at some of our heritage and the way they worked.

John the Baptizer was not culturally relevant. In fact, he was just plain weird. He dressed differently, ate differently, lived differently. He challenged people in uncomfortable ways, calling them to change their hearts and their lives. Yet people came in droves to listen to him and be baptized by him.

Jesus Himself was not hip. He called a Gentile woman a dog. He told people to leave their parents to follow Him. He called people sinners. And still people flocked to Him. People were so changed by Him they gave their lives for Him.

As we fast forward to today, I know people who minister in prisons, to homeless, drug rehab facilities, and nursing homes. People who don't have to change their style, their dress, or their language to do these ministries and people respond to them.

If Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life as He proclaims to be, is that not what people should respond to? Church isn't meant to be a social club. Church is a place where God is worshiped. Church is a place where those who are seeking God can find Him. Church is a place where those who are hurting can find helping hands and listening ears. That is why I lament when I hear people talking about how we can bribe people to come. If Jesus and the truth isn't enough, what does anything else matter?

So I struggle with how to be relevant in sharing Jesus in today's culture. I like modern Christian music, Christian fiction, and internet media. I use these to try to share with others my Savior Jesus who I've come to love. But is it really the music, books or internet that makes the difference? Isn't it really the same God who's words people have been reading and hearing for the last 7,000 years?

I believe Jesus is still relevant today, without the need of upgrading. People who are in need of a Savior really aren't interested in whether or not they are introduced to Him by music, book, internet, or TV. What they're interested in is finding the Savior they need. Just as God designed John the Baptizer to be unique, He has designed me uniquely. Presenting the truth of Jesus in a way that is true to myself and who God designed me to be is more affective than any gimmick, incentive, or program I can scheme up.

Walking Through the New Testament

It is a week into 2009 and I've decided to do something new this year. As I read through the New Testament of the Bible, I'm writing questions I ask myself about what I've read. The new thing is, I'm choosing to share the reading plan and the questions with anybody who is interested. I will be sending it out in a daily email beginning Monday, January 12. Join anytime along the way. If you would like to be included, simply send an email to:

phil_ink@yahoo.com

I will keep all email addresses private.

In addition, I've decided create a new blog, Walking Through the Bible, where I will post each day's reading and questions.

I would enjoy to have you share your insights with me as we walk through the New Testament this year.

"What do you want to do in 2009?"

I looked up at my wife. The curiosity she was wearing told me this wasn't just a conversation starter.

Blank.

That's what was in my mind as I looked for the answer. I've never been one for new year's resolutions. I think they are great for people who actually follow through with them. But the few times I've tried it, I usually started falling away by January 10th and forgot them by February. But this question wasn't a new year's resolution.

In 2000, I determined to read the Bible. The local bookstore had a Bible sectioned out with reading for everyday of the year. It took me a year and three months to read it, but I got all the way through it. Finishing brought something I didn't anticipate. A sense of pride in accomplishment. I thought to myself, "I should find something new each year." The next year, I picked up the mandolin and started learning. The following year, I took a writing class and started learning.

Inside I find a struggle. Part of me wants to sit back and see what life brings. Part of me wants to take control and determine what I will bring life. Fear tells me I may fail, or people will think I'm making the wrong choices, going the wrong direction. I also fear a life of stagnation and insignificance. Then comes the question, what is it I'm supposed to be doing with my life? What was I made for? What if I'm pursuing the wrong path?

Still choices must be made and paths chosen. In the past, I have thought to not choose and have found that to be a choice in itself. It's a choice that has left me feeling empty and useless. As I look back on last year, it is easy to see opportunities missed and choices not made. That familiar empty, useless feeling rears its head grinning its vile smile. It leers at me, telling me just how no good and worthless I am. But I know this dragon is only a shadow who's only strength comes from my willingness to believe it. I don't mean to say that seeing the missed opportunities and missed choices is to be avoided at all costs. Only that it cannot rule my thoughts.

Looking back at the past year, I see a number of opportunities taken and choices made. I chose to get married and I took the opportunity to move to Texas. These choices do come at a price, but every choice does. Choosing one means choosing against another. The question is, what will I choose? How will I choose it? Will I choose out of fear? I will I choose with a determination to live life on purpose?

What will you do in 2009?

Sticks and Stones...

...may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

It was 2nd grade in a new school. A group of us were thinking of animal names for each other that started with the same letter as our first. Brandon was a bear. Eric was an eagle. Phil... pig! Everybody found it funny, laughing and repeating it. Everybody except me. I was angry.

"I am not a pig!" I retorted, desperately looking for a different name. They didn't seem to notice I didn't like the name. In fact, the more strongly I insisted on not being called pig, the more they laughed and repeated it. "Pig" was an arrow to my soul, the laughter driving the arrow deep.

Dad was cooking spaghetti sauce as I told him the story. I didin't know what to do. Nobody had hurt me with name calling before and everything I tried only brought more. "Just remember, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Just because they say it, doesn't make it true."

I went away feeling defeated. The word picture was clear enough. My bones weren't broken, but my heart was wounded. Apparently, Dad didn't have a fix for that.

Last night, I was lamenting again hurtful things people had said. "Why are people so hurtful with the things they say?" I asked God. The theater of my mind was replaying samples of people lashing out with words like trapped, wounded animals. Lashing out at people who were different. Different in their political views. In views of God. Different in opinion.

As the movie in my mind continued, I realized I have been that trapped, wounded animal. I have lashed out at people I love, trying to protect my wounded soul from them. Words come out with no thought for what they mean or how they will be received. I laugh to words that wound someone's soul. Is the wounding funny? No, but I haven't stopped to think if what's been said is hurtful.

The movie in my mind came to end end. I sit in silence, pondering what I've just seen. Today, I am choosing to end hurtful, negative talk in my life. I want to build people up, not tear them down.

"May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14 NLT

Labor Day

So today is Labor Day. As I spent the day not laboring, I started thinking. I started thinking, what is it that I'm laboring for? Why is it that I work? The initial answer that came to mind was so I can afford to have fun! In a way, this saddened me.

Am I living for only to be entertained?

The movies Braveheart, Gladiator, and Luther inspire me. I watch as men live for something great. They live to change the world they live in, even though it costs them as much as their own lives. At the end of the movie, I desire to live a life that will impact my world like that.

Somehow, being entertained just doesn't do that. It serves nobody but myself. And the truth is, I'm not happy with the service I've been getting.

Still, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of the cost of it. As disappointing as this self serving life is, it is comfortable. The question is now, which will I choose? A life of disappointed comfort or a life that costs me, even my own life?

One day Jesus was asked about God's Kingdom. In His reply, He told them that those who cling to their lives will find it slipping through their fingers, lost. And those who gave their lives freely would find it had been saved for them.* The truth is, living for God costs everything and nothing at the same time. It costs me everything this world has to offer now, but not living for God will cost me everything He has to offer forever. When I think of it that way, I find that I really don't have anything.

Now I want to challenge you. Are you living only to be comfortable? Will you be satisfied when you are old and lying on your death bed? Will you look back and see the times in your life when you could have lived to make a difference, made an impact for good in your world and lament you were too afraid or too comfortable? Or will you live such a life that even though it costs you dearly you will stand tall knowing that you have lived and your life has mattered?

Living for God is the only life that will make an eternal difference in this world. Let's really live.

*Check out Luke 17.

A Question of Trust

Can I believe God loves me and not trust Him to take care of me?

The question came as I was wrestling with whether to trust God with something important. I say I believe God loves me. I say I believe He has my best interest in mind. Yet somehow, I'm uncertain. Like a kid who is told to eat his broccoli because it's good for him, I think, yeah but it can't taste as good as cake.

Sometimes it's easy to trust God, but in other times I'm just not quite sure. I grew up afraid I would end up marrying an ugly woman. Somehow I got it into my mind that marrying a pretty woman was like eating cake instead of broccoli. That there could be a pretty woman that was also on God's approved list was unthinkable. After all, to want to marry a pretty woman is selfish. For years I wrestled, afraid to persue what I wanted and afraid to end up with what God wanted.

So we come back to the question. Can I believe God loves me and not trust Him to take care of me? Does a God who wants my best interest desire to stick me with a wife I don't want? Somehow this doesn't add up to me.

"When your son asks you for fish or for bread, do you give him a snake or a stone?" Jesus asks. "If sinful people know how to give good gifts to their children, wouldn't God who is perfect give good gifts to His children when they ask?" (See Matthew 7:9-11).

Later Paul asks, "If God was willing to give His own son to die for us, why would He refuse to give us a good gift of lesser cost?" (See Romans 8:32)

The only way I can believe God loves me and not trust Him to take care of me is to believe He's too weak to take care of me. An all powerful god who doesn't have my best interest in mind clearly does not love me. Can I look at the sacrifice of Jesus and believe God doesn't love me passionately? That He isn't willing to spare any cost to get me back?

Does God love me? Do I trust Him?

What Is Love?

I wanted to write something very profound about love. I wanted to write something about love that would make people rethink what they've been told about love. But, as I sit here and pontificate, I find I'm just frustrated by the subject. I mean, what does it mean to love? Really love? In the movies, I see two people who fall madly in love with each other and wonder why that never happens to me. The guy, of whom I am insanely jealous, and a gorgeous woman are drawn to each other to live happily ever after. Sure, they have some troubles along the way. The guy says something stupid, or he thinks he sees her going for someone else. But in the end, it's usually a misunderstanding that gets cleared up and the rest is smooth sailing.

Maybe love is like the Force from Star Wars. It's something you're born with. You don't get to choose whether you get it or not, it chooses you. Once you discover you have it, the world obeys your every command. If you didn't get it, then you're sorry, out-of-luck.

Maybe love is like money. If you're smart, you find ways to earn it and save it. Some people are naturals, but those who aren't can learn. If you work hard enough, you'll make it. With exception to those who just don't get it, or who are completely irresponsible and just throw it away.

What if love isn't romantic? That's often how I think of it. Does that mean there are different kinds of love? Or is romance something I have with a person I love? As a romantic, the very thought of romance being something I choose feels sacrilegious. Romance is supposed to be mysterious. Two people who are connecting with each other with an intimate unspoken language. If I choose it, I've robbed it of its magic.

In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye asks his wife, "Do you love me?"

"Do I love you?"

"Do you love me?" he asks again. She goes on to list all of the things she does for him. Cooking dinner, washing clothes, cleaned house, raising children and milked cows. "But do you love me?" he asks.

She searches her heart to find she does love him. And he loves her.

What if love isn't an emotion, even though I have feelings about people I love? What if love is shown more in how we choose to treat each other, what we do for each other than in the words we use? What if real love costs more than money? What if real love costs part of the soul? What if the ultimate cost of love is one's life?