Love Those Who . . .

I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing if I do not have love. 1 Corinthians 13:3.

What is love? Is it a feeling, an emotion, a desire, or a commandment? Now, there are different kinds of love, and you can put a different kind of love to each of the words above. But what kind of love is the Apostle Paul writing about? I don’t think it is the romantic type of love that I have for my wife, and I don’t think it is the fatherly type of love I have for my son. I don’t think and I hope it isn’t the type of love I have for barbecue. So what kind of love is it? The Greek word Paul uses is agape. Agape love is not just unconditional love, but is primarily a love of will, not the emotions. Love with emotions can fade over time, but love out of will doesn’t fade. God’s will to love us will never fade; it is His nature to love us that way. We are called to love in the same way. I see two major areas where we as Christians fail to give agape love. The first is in the political arena. To clarify something, I said we as Christians, and we includes me. I am not excluding myself from this at all, as I am guilty of doing these things as well. How many times have you seen a Christian bad-mouth a politician about his policies? I know I have seen it quite often, and I have done a fair share myself. I have heard many liberal Christians slam Bush and McCain the last 8 years, and I have heard many conservative Christians slam Obama over the past couple years. So why do we do that? What gives us the right to slander others? Now, God definitely wants us to be involved in politics and stand up for truth and morality. We should use our voice of freedom to support legislation and policies that please God. If God’s people sit back and say nothing, then those who are using their voice will get done what they want to see happen. However, the way in which we use that voice should also reflect the love that God has for ALL people, including those who disagree with us in the political arena. That’s where the line between standing up for truth and slandering others gets crossed. What message am I sending to unbelievers through the way I talk about the politician I don’t support? Christians love everyone as long as they think like them and act like them? Here’s an example: Most of you know that I am somewhat of a gun fanatic, which may be putting it mildly. The current administration doesn’t exactly agree with me on gun legislation. One thing I have to remind myself of is that even though I don’t support much or any of the gun legislation that is supported by the administration, God loves each and every one of those politicians. How am I conveying that message by the way I speak about them? I don’t want to get all philosophical on you and say, “What Would Jesus Do?” But, what would He want us to do? Do you know that slander is the same as the ninth commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor?” How often do we bear false witness against a politician? How often do we do it to our actual neighbor? I am guilty of that quite often. What would the world be like if God didn’t have agape love for us? How would it be if His love was based on his emotions? How long would have people existed? I am pretty sure that once the forbidden fruit was eaten in the garden, the earth would have opened up and swallowed Adam and Eve. So how about we think about what we are going to say about someone before the evil malicious words come out of our mouths. Let’s think using agape love, love that is not based off of our emotions, but based of off who we are as a new creation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Crisis of Belief

I was reading an article written by Josh McDowell in a Christian Counseling Today magazine recently. In the article it talked about how what teens that are active in the church and grow up in Christian homes believe. Many teens that are involved in youth groups, Sunday School, and other areas in church have very distorted beliefs about Christianity. Not just different denominational beliefs, but distorted beliefs about the Bible and God, the core issues. McDowell used research from the Barna Group, “Third Millennium Teens,” and shows some of the findings of the research in three different areas: God, Truth, and Reality.

The first area is God. This comes from an actual youth group from a Bible Church in Illinois. What do kids think about God? “God is like my grandfather, He is there, but I never see Him”. “God is an evil being who wants to punish me all the time.” Someone else said, “I think you are all right, because that is what you really believe.” All the youth agreed that God is whatever works for you.
Some more information about the Third Millennium Teens study:
80% of teens surveyed believe that God created the universe. 84% said that God is personally involved in people’s lives. Yet, 63% believe that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and all other people pray to the same god. 87% believe that Jesus was a real person who came to earth. 78% believe He was born to a virgin. However, 46% believed that He committed sins. 51% said He died and did NOT rise from the dead. 48% said that it doesn’t matter what religious faith you associate with, they all have the same principles and truth. 58% said that all religious faiths teach equally valid truths.
This study clearly shows that nearly 2/3 of Christian teens say there is no way to tell which religion is true. Their view of God is so distorted that they are not convinced that the Jesus of the Bible is the way, the truth, and the life.

The second area is Truth. I have heard kids say this in our youth group all the time, in fact I think every single youth has said this. When I ask someone what a verse means, almost all the time, they will respond with “What this verse means to me is . . .” What does that mean? Well, it means that they are looking not into the text, but into themselves for answers. Now, I realize that probably most of the time, they mean something like “I think it means…” and are simply wrestling with what the text is truly saying. But, how far do you go with that statement? If I ask a kid about drinking under the age, they may say, “Well, I think it is wrong for me to drink under age.” Ask about something even more Biblically based, like premarital sex. “Well, it is wrong for me to have sex before marriage, because I think it is against the Bible.” Okay, umm, what about Joe down the street? Is it wrong for him? What does this mean as a whole? Why are kids saying these “. . . wrong for me” and “it means to me . . .” phrases? Teens have been conditioned to believe that truth is not true until they choose to believe it. This explains why 81% of teens claim that all truth is relative to the individual and his/her circumstances. Andy Crouch says, “The historical truths of a biblical book is not the burning issue, but rather how the Scripture speaks to their situation.” So in other words, the fact of whether or not the Bible is legit isn’t the argument for teens, it is how it lines up with their situations and circumstances. They will use parts of this passage and parts of another to make a big pile of various Scriptures that they think fit them at that point in their lives.

The third area is Reality. 72% of teens believe that you can tell if something is morally or ethically right for you by whether or not it works in your life. Is it okay to cheat on a test if it makes you get into the college you want to get into? Is it okay to steal something if it makes your life easier? Is it okay to lie to a friend to avoid an argument? Many kids think that if it works right now, then yes, it would be right. That attitude doesn’t work in life, there are consequences to every thing that we do. God’s absolute ways are what works. His ways protect us and give us blessings. If you don’t follow God’s ways for this or that, there will be consequences and it will lead you down the wrong path, a path towards destruction.

So how do we as Bible believing Christians with a Biblical worldview help teens who have these beliefs? How do we share with them that truth is not relative, but rather absolute? How can we as a church help them?




The Crisis of Belief: What Teens Believe, by Josh D. McDowell, Christian Counseling Today Vol. 16, No. 3.

Barna Research Group, “Third Millenium Teens”

What Do I Think?

Thanks to all of you who participated in this Culture Question. I enjoyed reading your responses and I see that a lot of you see the need to engage culture in some way, while others of you feel that it isn’t necessary or even permissible. One thing I need to clarify is that culture is so much more than the evils of the world. I would venture to say that all the sinful and evil things a particular group of people do would maybe amount to one quarter of their actual culture. Food, drink, roads, cars, transit systems, architecture, language, clothes, music, movies, television, colors, texture, and even toilet paper are part of culture. I don’t believe we can say that culture is only the bad clothes, the bad music, the bad movies, the bad television shows, etc. If we limit culture to the bad and evil, then we enforce in a lot of non-Christian’s heads that Christians can be rude and seem holier than thou. This is a stereotype that we need to shatter with love and compassion for those in the culture who our lost.

To be honest, we all engage culture at some level. There isn’t a person in the world that has never engaged culture. We speak a certain language - that is culture. You eat certain foods - that is culture. You wear a certain type of shoes - that is culture. So we all engage culture in some aspect, but do we engage the culture when it counts for the Lord? You wouldn’t send your (hypothetical) Jr. High boy to the Philippines for a year long mission trip. At least I hope you wouldn’t. You also wouldn’t or at least shouldn’t keep that same boy, who is now out of college and studied on missions and the Philippine culture, from going there. He is now prepared and ready to go. Just as Rocky put it in his comment,

“While I might venture into a crack house to evangelize someone there (and of course not participate in the evil), I certainly wouldn't send my innocent pre-teen daughter to the same place. That same daughter though, after growing up and (maybe) becoming a, oh doctor say, I might encourage to do the same if so led by the Holy Spirit.”

So we have to discern if engaging a certain part of culture is something the Spirit is leading us to do, and if it is, then we do it. Because each person is different on spiritual maturity, each of us is going to have different degrees of engagement to the culture. But if we don’t engage past the talk, food and shoes, we will be missing out on opportunities that God has put before us. Remember what the Apostle Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 9:

19 “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

Paul’s goal was to save those who were lost, which should be our goal as well. If we don’t associate ourselves with the lost at some level, we will never be able to save them (of course, it is God who does the saving, not us, but I am using Paul’s words). Even though Paul is more mature than us in his faith, that doesn’t give us an excuse to not become something to someone so we can at least share the Gospel with them.

Let me know what you think about this. I would still like to see your insight, which I appreciate so much as I seek to minister to the youth in this generation as God would lead me.

Artist Of The Week

Artist: Matthew West
Album: Something To Say
Song: Safe & Sound


I know I have had Matthew West on here as Artist of the Week and I try really hard to not have someone on here more than once. But, here is the exception. He wrote a song to his little girl, a lullaby, Safe & Sound. This song really touched me when I heard it the first time, it is something I want to memorize and sing to Asher as I put him to bed. The lyrics of the song really define how I want to raise up Asher, to come to realize what Christ did for him on the cross.

He definitely gets 5 out of 5 dundies on all aspects.

So sit back, click on Artist of the Week and watch the video on youtube.

Can’t believe you’re here now
Tiny dream come true
The answer to a prayer now
I’m so in love with you
Couldn’t wait to meet you
Hope you like your name
I get the funny feeling
Life will never be the same

Safe and sound
You’re here with me now
Like I hoped you’d be
Safe and sound
You’re here with me now
And that’s all I’ll ever need

The world’s a scary place here
But baby it’s alright
I’ll make sure the coast is clear
So you can just sleep tight
But if you’re afraid of monsters
Like everybody is
I’ll be right beside you
Closer than a kiss

Safe and sound
I’m here with you now
And you will always be
Safe and sound
I’m here with you now
And that’s all you’ll ever need

Someday I’m gonna teach you
The reason why we pray
So that heaven’s love may reach you
Every single day
So, baby close your eyes now
And say a prayer with me
Lord, I lay me down to sleep now
But I know I will be

Safe and sound
You’re here with us now
And we will always be
Safe and sound You’re here with us now
And that’s all we’ll ever, all we’ll ever need
You’re all we’ll ever need

The Culture Question

It has been a long while since I last wrote anything on here. I have been busy with youth group activities such as a mission trip to Utah and to church camp in Missouri. So now, my relaxing summer can officially start! In about a month, all church activities start back up, so I better make the most of it. I have a bunch of church work to do, but I have something I have wanted to ask all of you, so please respond by commenting on this article or commenting on facebook.

At camp we had a speaker, a great speaker. I heard him a couple of years ago and it was very encouraging. This year, he did a great job as well. But I have one question, an issue I would like your input on. Before I go into the question, I want to tell you about the missionary speaker they had there as well. He is with New Tribes Mission and is going to go to the Philippines as a missionary. The NTM policy and practices make it where you study the culture of the people who are you going to for a number of years, up to 3 or 4 years, before you bring up the issue of Christ and His saving grace. You go to their culture, study it, talk like them, dress like them at times, and participate in activities with them so you can better understand how to witness to them. This builds a strong relationship with them. They will more likely listen to someone who has spent the time to build that relationship with them.
Now I totally agree with the philosophy of NTM. They have learned from mistakes of people in the past who have tried without success to witness to the tribal peoples of the world. I think that what they do is important and imperative. If you don’t study them, you won’t make it, and you won’t be able to effectively fulfill the great commission.
This brings me back to the speaker at camp. He urged us to not listen to the music of the world, not wear the clothes of the world, and not get drawn into the culture of the world. This is where my issue has come up. If the missionary going to the Philippines spends time in the culture to better evangelize to them, why can’t we here in the U.S.? Should we use the music and the clothes of this culture to study them so we can better reach them with the saving grace of Christ? Do we use things of this culture, go into the culture, and get drenched in culture to reach those who are lost in the culture? What do you think the Bible has to say about that? What do you think God thinks about this?

unChristian

Do you ever find yourself thinking that things are just different than they were 10 years ago? The world is constantly changing, not just the physical earth, but the culture we live in. I can remember it was only 7 years ago I got my first cell phone. I was fresh out of college and I actually needed one. Now, if you don’t get a cell phone by your freshman year in High School, you are behind the times. When I was in college, the cool thing to do was IM on ICQ. We thought that life was great, especially when you are ICQing the person in the room next to yours. We always thought that was fun, although we usually felt stupid and stopped because we were only 15 feet away. Nowadays, kids sit on the same couch and text each other. You can whisper to them and they would hear you. This is normal for the teens and tweens of today. Facebook and MySpace are the normal ways of letting others knowing what you are doing. And if that wasn’t enough, we now have Twitter so we can instantly know what the people we are following are doing. We can constantly be in “the in” on what others are doing. Gone are the days of just wondering what your friends are doing and waiting till Friday to talk to them again. Culture has changed so much in the past 10 years, and it has changed immensely in the last 20 years. What is it going to be like in 10 more years? What am I as a Christian supposed to do in this ever changing culture? I know that we can’t change the Gospel. It HAS to stay the same; it is unchanging and has surpassed many cultural changes. It will stay strong regardless, so what do we do? Just stand back and leave it? That would go against Jesus’ last words to His disciples. We are to go and make disciples. So how do you make disciples in an ever-changing land? In a land where “God” has become “god” and we elevate people to that position fairly often? The norm many years ago was that Christians would go to church and if they felt a calling to do something for God, they would begin a Vocational ministry. Vocation referred to doing God’s work. Go into the ministry. That is how you would make a difference. Now, in a culture where people don’t want to go to church because Christians are so unChristian, what do we do? I think that Vocation can be a slap in the face of many Christians. The notion that people who are in the ministry are somehow above the school teacher who shows their students to love of God or the Wal-Mart cashier who puts a little bit of Christ’s love in each of the sacks for the customers, is absurd. There are people in the “non-vocational” area of work that lead more people to Christ and disciple more people than many pastors out there. There are kids in the public school system that evangelize and lead more students to Christ than many youth pastors. You can’t tell me that they are not doing the work of God, not going into Christian service. That IS Christian service. The thought of Vocation needs some improvement, that form doesn’t work like it used to. Even John Newton knew that. He told William Wilberforce to not go into the ministry, but do the work of God in British parliament. The ever changing culture needs Christians willing to put on their name plate at their bank, to put on their apron at the restaurant, to put on their uniform and pick up the mop bucket at the public school. In a society where people who are aged 16-29 think that Christians are unChristian, we need to go into the unChristian areas to proclaim the Gospel. Don’t expect them to come to the church. God didn’t expect us to come to Him. He sent His Son to us.

Shiners

I have only had two black eyes in my life that I can remember. The first one happened when I was in Jr. High. My brother and I were wrestling around (my parents liked this form of entertainment). Who wouldn’t like to watch two bumbling idiots wrestle around? The rule was, when punches started flying, it would end. Well, a punch flew, my brother popped me in the face, and I got a black eye. But I got the last laugh. My brother fractured his hand on my head. So I guess I won! Then the second black eye came last week. We were at a boys retreat playing watermelon rugby. Need I say more? Well, I guess I should. My teammate thought it would be fun to fling someone around to tackle them. Fine and dandy, it is fun to see teenage boys be flung around like rag dolls. Well, the flinging stopped suddenly. I guess I should say I stopped it. His shoulder was flung into my face. This kid is like 7 feet tall and weighs like 120 pounds. (I am exaggerating a bit), His bony shoulder did a number on my face.
It is kind of weird walking around church and around town where people know you are a youth pastor and seeing that you have a black eye. They last a lot longer than I remembered and get uglier as time goes on. But you know what? A black eye is a small price to pay to have a fun game of watermelon rugby. We had a lot of good memories at this boys retreat. We learned that computer monitors, although they are made of really thick glass, are no match for a bullet. We also learned that you can start a fire with a .22 and an exploding target. We doused the wood with lighter fluid, stuck on the target, and shot it. Another thing we learned is that paintball guns don’t always work. The one time you want them to work is when you are ambushing unsuspecting teenagers. We learned that CO2 powered airsoft guns hurt a lot worse than the regular spring ones. We also found a good way to use up old panty hose: Put a cup of flour in them and start hitting people with it. Ultimately we learned how to be Warriors for Christ, to know our enemy and to defend ourselves from him. It made for a lot of good memories, and well, the black eye I can always blame on my wife.