Grace Finds Us

     Sometime this year I plan to take my 14-year-old son Ben to New York City for a little man-cation. I am trying to build a coming-of-age experience with each of my children during their eighth-grade year, before they start high school.
     Two years ago, I took my oldest son to the Baltimore Orioles' spring training in St. Petersburg, FL, and in two years I will hopefully get to take our third child on a fun trip.
     When Ben and I go to New York, he will see for the first time the Ground Zero memorial, Times Square, and maybe even a Broadway play. Who knows what other firsts we will experience?
     In this country, we value the freedom and the ability to go and see places we have never seen before, to experience things we have never before experienced. We treasure the gift of self-determination, the ability to control our future and shape our destiny.
     When we talk about grace, it does not work this way. Grace is a gift from God that we can neither plan for or control. And all Elvis jokes aside, there is no place on a map called Grace-land that you can just hop in your car, drive to, and find.
     Now, we can certainly put ourselves in situations that are conducive to experiencing the grace of God: Renewal weekends, Bible studies, mission trips, and times of prayer. We can surround ourselves with people of faith, perform acts of service, and study our Bible. But when it comes down to it, grace is revealed to us and given to us by God. Grace finds us; we do not find grace.
     Why is this important? Today it seems we want to control everything in our lives, including God. We want God to bend to our schedules. We want God to show up when we need him and where we need him, and when he does not show up as we had hoped for or planned, we grow discouraged and disillusioned.
     A life of faith is so much more than an on-demand service contract. A living faith means trusting that God's grace will find us when we need it most, even when we veer far off course to a different destination.

A Blessing for Pastor Saeed

     I am continuing to follow the storyline of Saeed Abedini, an American pastor who is suffering persecution in an Iranian jail. The news updates are coming from the American Center for Liberty and Justice (http://aclj.org/). I struggle to trust this Web site fully, because it was founded by Pat Robertson, but sometimes we just have to trust the accounts we receive.
     What is the alternative? To trust CNN?
     As I read about Pastor Saeed's story, I am led to prayer a blessing upon him. The blessing is adapted from Ephesians 3:14-17, which is one of the most powerful blessings ever prayed: "May Pastor Saeed be strengthened in his inner being with power through Christ's spirit. May Christ dwell in his heart through faith. And may he be rooted and grounded in love, even as he is humiliated and abused for his faith in Jesus Christ."
     We can pray the same prayer for his wife and children.
     I don't know what else we can do for Pastor Saeed, but it seems that Christians have been given the gift of prayer when we face circumstances we cannot control. Each of us can sign the petition (savesaeed.org), in the hopes that international pressure can change this situation, but perhaps the most potent tool at our disposal is the gift of prayer.
     Please join with me in lifting Saeed and his family in prayer, like Paul, "on our knees before the Father."

A Story Worth Following

     Dallas-Forth Worth has a new Christian radio station on the air and I could not be happier. It's not that I will no longer tune in to KLTY, but it's nice to have a choice with Air-1 now on the radio dial. They have more of an alternative Christian edge and play songs you won't hear on KLTY. And every time I flip back and forth between the two stations, Air-1 seems to be playing more music than commercials (which is, of course, a nice thing).
     What struck me today an Air-1 had nothing to do with music, though. They are tracking the storyline on Saeed Abedini, an American Christian pastor who returned to his homeland of Iran to plant churches or otherwise preach the Gospel. Abedini was recently sentenced to eight years in an Iranian prison, and musicians like Toby Mac and the guy from Mercy Me (Bart something) are pleading with us to track Abedini's story. They are advocating for him, encouraging us to lift him in personal prayer and to plead for justice.
     This is a storyline worth following. It's not a soundbite highlighting the latest escapades of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, the Bachelorette, or Lindsey Lohan. It's not a sports storyline about the upcoming NFL combines or the NCAA basketball tournament. It's not talking heads on CNN or Fox News revisiting the same news story from 100 different angles. In other words, it's a storyline worth following.
     Entertainment Tonight and ESPN's Sports Center all have their place, I guess; they distract us from stressful days and they give us something to laugh about after a long day at work. But we need more storylines in the news that are truly significant, storylines that can actually edify us.
     I don't know all of the in's and out's regarding Saeed Abedini. There are many other storylines out there to track, but this seems to be one worth following. You can sign an online petition at http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-iranian-abuse-imprisonment. More than 200,000 (including yours truly) have now signed it.

   
   

Regaining Your First Love

     We are studying Paul's Letter to the Ephesians during Lent this year, and during the course of my preparations I uncovered a fact about the Church at Ephesus that I had long ago forgotten. Ephesus is one of the seven churches addressed by John in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 2). It was commended by John for its hard work and patient endurance, along with its willingness to drive out "evildoers" and false teachers. It was also confronted for a major flaw: It had lost its first love.
     Man, if there was ever a Church that we can identify with as everyday Christians it is the Church at Ephesus.
     Your first love. You remember it, don't you? It was that time in your life when Jesus Christ was everything. You couldn't wait to open your Bible every day because you just knew that God was waiting for you inside the pages of Scripture. You couldn't get enough of Sunday mornings, and you came to church just a little earlier and stayed just a little later simply for the fellowship. And you were willing to go to the corners of the world to build huts, teach, or whatever the Lord asked of you.
     Your first love. That was a long time ago. Now it seems as if life has gotten away from you. A quiet time in the morning is a forgotten concept because you feel too dog tired to get out of bed 15 minutes early. Sunday mornings find you bee-lining for the parking lot, tugging on your wife to get in the car so you can get home to watch the football game. And the only far-away trip you can imagine involves a hut on the beach with a margarita in your hand.
     There's nothing wrong with a trip to Cancun, but you just know when you have lost your first love.
     Feels kind of sad, doesn't it?
     There is good news, though: It is never too late to rekindle your first love!
     Don't forget this fact. "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." (James 4:8) If we take a step toward God, we will find that he is already moving toward us, for God is as passionate for our affections as he ever has been.
     Regaining the spark of your first love. It can happen in a flash, almost as easy as losing your first love.

The Called Life

     When I graduated from seminary in 2004, I was instructed to "seek a call" (AKA find a job as a pastor in a congregation). For the life of me, all I could think about was getting a literal phone call from a congregation, extending a job offer to me. As a young dad, I was concerned with the practical aspects of my calling (finding work, supporting my family).

     A calling from God is bigger than these practical concerns. And callings from God are not limited to pastors. We all have a calling from God to use his grace in our lives "for the work of ministry" in the Church (Ephesians 4:12). Some of us are gifted to be teachers. Some of us are wired to be effective care-givers. Some of us have gifts of administration. All of these gifts help to "build up" the Body of Christ.

     We also have a calling to take the Gospel message into the world using the gifts that God has given to us. This can happen in many ways.

     A friend of mine has been called to bear witness to Christ in the world of fashion modeling. The world of fashion is full of challenges, mostly centering on the theme of sexuality. These are physically beautiful people -- the most beautiful people in the world -- and this work culture is replete with temptations and vices. But despite these temptations, this individual feels called to model the Christian life in the midst of this culture.

     Others may find themselves in the academic world, or the business world, or the food-service industry. It makes no difference what you "do" as a vocation, it can also be viewed as a calling from God, and not merely as a paycheck.

     Whatever graces we have been given, may you discover them and use them to honor the calling that God has placed upon your life. May God say of your life, "Well done, good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:23)

Losing Our Youth

I read an article this week contending that 70 percent of youth stop attending church when they graduate high school. If this conclusion is anywhere approaching the truth, it is a startling statistic! How can this be?

The author interviewed a sampling of youth and identified 10 primary reasons. Among them: the Church did not take their intellectual questions about the faith seriously; we sent them into the world unequipped; they never truly experienced true Christian community in the local congregation; and they encountered too much Law and not enough grace.

The saddest (and most preventable) of these, it seems, is the fact that many youth do not experience genuine Christian community in the local church. The author says it best: “They’ve never sat on a pew between a set of new parents with a fussy baby and a senior citizen on an oxygen tank.” In other words, it is common that we shelter/isolate our children/youth from the real-life events of the church (i.e. parents' decision to keep youngsters away from funeral services). We also do not encourage inter-generational relationships.

We are the Church, the family of faith, from the oldest to the youngest. It is important that we join together for the touchstones of life; that we celebrate together the birth of children, and that we cry together when one of our church family members passes into the cloud of witnesses.

There are many ways to include our youth into full participation in church life. If we choose not to provide opportunities for our children/youth to do this, we can't act surprised when they choose something other than church when they become adults.

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What are your thoughts? How can we allow/encourage our youth to experience genuine Christian community in our local congregations? What is genuine Christian community?

A Lesson in Grace

     I just finished watching the funeral service for Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, the man who was recently shot by an acquaintance at a Dallas-area shooting range. The service was obviously very moving and meaningful on many levels, but what I found especially meaningful was their choice of musician -- Randy Travis.
     Recently, Travis has had his fair share of trouble with the law. It can't be more than two or three months ago that he was found drunk and passed out in a church parking lot. I think there were some other embarrassing episodes in his recent past as well.
     When I saw him singing at this service today (on television), my first thoughts were, "Why Randy Travis?" and "Why invite someone who has experienced such trouble to sing at a high-profile funeral service?"
     I am still a bit perplexed at the decision, but maybe it has something to do with the song that Randy Travis sang today at the funeral service -- "Amazing Grace."
     When it comes down to it, none of deserve to be in a worship leadership role. Everybody on that stage today, whether it was the preacher or the eulogist, "falls short of the glory of God." In fact, I do not deserve to preach, pray, and otherwise lead people in worship on Sunday mornings. It is the amazing grace of God that allows broken people (like Randy Travis, like me, like you) to lead others in songs that celebrate God and give thanks for his mercies.
     As Paul reminds us, "It is by grace that you have been saved." And as Randy Travis reminded me today, God can still uses broken people to sing his praises. Once we are forgiven, God does not go about, "diggin' up bones" from our past, and I guess neither should we.

Hold the Water

     My son and hundreds of other youth are on an awesome retreat this weekend with a local congregation. On the permission card I filled out, they ask parents the question: "If your son/daughter makes an important decision this weekend, do we have your permission to baptize him/her?"
     My answer? No. Not necessary.
     You see, my son was baptized as an infant, marked with the covenant of God's grace and calling. In my son's baptism, God made him a promise: I will be your God forever. God also made my wife and I a promise on that day, that like he did for Abraham and Sarah, he would be the God of my children (Acts 2:39).
    This is not to say that my children would not need to accept/profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It just means they do not have to go through the whole water sign again. It is not necessary. They have already been marked by the covenant, and we are already seeing God be faithful to promises he made to us and to our children. To baptize them again would be to say, "God, I don't trust that you really meant what you said the first time around."
     Baptism is a sacred, one-time event. Paul says as much when he writes, "there is one God, one faith, one baptism ..." (Ephesians 4:4-5). Now, is it the end of the world if they would be re-baptized? I would have a minor spiritual conniption, I must confess, but it would not be the end of the world.
     It is just not necessary.
     I pray that this weekend rocks for these youth. I pray that hundreds accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I pray that they leave this weekend ignited for Christ. I pray that those who have not been baptized are thoroughly immersed and raised to new life in their baptisms.
     For my son, at least, and perhaps for others, the water is no longer necessary. The Holy Spirit has already taken over.
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What do you think? Is it necessary that we be baptized again with water, if we were already baptized as infants or adolescents? What is your story?

Enthusiastic About My Denomination?

    I was given a precious gift today. It's a pin with the words, "I'm Enthusiastic About the PC(USA)."
    The PC(USA) stands for Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. It is the denomination that ordained me as a minister in 2004. It is the denomination that provides me with the privilege of doing pastoral ministry. It is the institution that oversees my pension and benefits. And in my ordination vows, I promised to promote its "peace, unity, and purity."
    The PC(USA) is also a proudly progressive denomination. Whether the issue is pro-choice vs. pro-life, sexual ethics, Israel-Palestine, or really anything, you will find my denomination taking the more progressive stance.
     It is almost automatic.
    Much of the time, I find myself on the opposite end of the theological spectrum from the majority viewpoint in the denomination. There are many days I wonder, "How did I end up in this place?" There are some days I become so disenchanted and ashamed.
     But the more I admit my cynicism and negativity, the more I am reminded that I need to stop complaining. My denomination -- even though it has in many ways lost its compass -- enables me to do ministry. I am able to serve a congregation of wonderful people. I am able to preach and to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a paid profession. I am able to take home a good paycheck and provide for my family (including braces for my children and medical care ... at least for now). And maybe, just maybe, I will be able to collect a few dollars from my pension when I retire (if I am still alive and kicking).
     Am I enthusiastic about the PC(USA)? Not really, but I am trying. If there are reasons why I am enthusiastic, they are utilitarian in nature: The denomination provides a broad umbrella of accountability and support for both local congregations and pastors.
     Maybe this is reason enough to remain enthusiastic.

How to Get Unstuck

     When it comes to physical exercise, I am a streaky individual.
     When I am on a roll, I am on a roll, and operate by that law of physics: "Bodies in motion tend to stay in motion."
     When I am stuck, I am stuck, and the converse is true: "Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest."
     I have discovered a helpful strategy, though, of getting un-stuck. For the past three months, I have worn work-out clothing to the fitness center where my son has swimming practice. While I sit and wait for his practice to end, I typically I work on my laptop, read the newspaper, or doodle on my iPhone. The thinking was that if I at least look the part of somebody who works out, eventually I will put down my laptop and iPhone, stop watching people exercise, and actually take advantage of this rare opportunity in my daily schedule.
     Last night, it finally worked. I finally said to myself, "Mark, it's time to do something!" and I went outside and ran about two miles. I don't know where this will all lead, but I broke free from the mud for one night!
     Start small. Start slow. Do whatever it takes to get unstuck. This is the lesson I was reminded of last night.  I will continue to dress the part this week and hope my momentum can continue.
     The same principle applies in other areas of our lives, it seems. If we struggle to read the Bible, maybe we start by simply putting it on the nightstand next to our bed for the first week. Maybe in the second week we open it and simply look at the open book from afar. And maybe, just maybe, by week 3 we actually pick it up and begin to read.
     Or how about starting a new hobby like gardening. Once we start to poke around in the dirt with the hand-shovel, something may trigger inside of us -- a creative burst of energy. And the next thing you know, we can't put that shovel down!
     Getting started with something new is the hardest thing, but each day is a new chance, a new opportunity. As Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "His mercies, they are new every morning."
     Maybe I am placing the bar too low. Maybe we don't need to start so slowly with new endeavors that are healthy for us. But the way I see it, start where you are and not where you think you should be. If you are stuck, it may take a wiggle and a jerk, rather than spinning your wheels, if it gets you out of the mud.
     What about you? How do you start something new? What are the best ways to get unstuck and back on the road toward healthier living?
   

The Worst of the Worst

     I am grateful for an early morning men's Bible study that I attend twice a month. It is an opportunity for me to be "one of the guys" and to study the Scriptures for myself (rather than for a sermon or lesson than I am preparing at the church). I need this in my life, just like any other guy.
     This morning we started our journey through Paul's Letter to the Romans, covering the first two chapters. What strikes me is how unashamed Paul is not only to share the Good News message of the Gospel, but to call everybody and their brother a sinner. This is the starting point for us, if we are going to understand why Jesus came. And as Paul teaches us, we all fall short of the glory of God.
     We hear this phrase an awful lot in the church today, but do we really grasp how true it is? We all fall short of the glory of God -- non-believers and believers alike.
     In chapters 1 and 2, Paul speaks to several groups of sinners. The first (1:18-32) is the non-Christian; the people of the world who behave wickedly (murder, strife, deceit, gossips, the foolish, et. al). As Christians, we objectively (and oftentimes judgmentally) refer to this group as those people, and say things like, "Can you believe how they behave. I'm so glad I don't behave like them."
     The second group (1:32) is the non-believers who not only act wickedly, but who "applaud others who practice" wicked living. These folks do not merely act in a wicked way, or make mistakes in life; they rejoice in this wickedness and applaud when others join them in the gutter.
     But before we feel too cozy in our righteousness as believers, Paul reminds us that as believers, we too fall short of God's righteousness. We also, even though we are saved, continue to live rebelliously and participate in many of the same things that those people engage in.
     The final category of people in chapters 1 and 2 -- what I call the worst of the worst -- is the believer who judges other people as wicked while he exhibits that same wicked behavior. For example, the Christian who judges the homosexual or the divorcee and then goes online and surfs porn. Or how about the person who teaches generosity to children during a Sunday School lesson and then is ruthless in his business dealings at work for the rest of the week.
     Paul writes, "You say, 'We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.' Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?" (Romans 2:2-3) He also says, "... It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified."
     This is not Paul back-tracking from the Gospel of grace and lifting up a model of works-righteousness. This is just a point of fact. If I am a believer and I know the Gospel of truth, then that truth needs to be reflected in the ways I conduct my life.
     We could walk away from these first two chapters a little discouraged, saying things like, "Man, what a bummer. Now I feel like a real loser. Thanks for the pick-me-up, Paul." If you feel like this, keep in mind that we need to begin with this fact, that we all fall short of the glory of God. Only then can we receive the Good News that awaits us in the latter chapters of Romans.
     Hang in there. The Good News is coming!