Yep, He is Good!

I was sitting in my living room watching LSU play Kent State when I heard my wife yell, “You have got to come see this!” I went in and there was my baby girl taking her first steps. We were all excited. I sat down on the floor and she walked back and forth from me to my wife. Each time, we celebrated. She loved the attention and wanted to keep on going. This event is played out over and over again in homes all over the world. In fact, we sat in the same positions and did the same celebrations when our other three children began to walk. What made this so special is that she is not suppose to be walking, at least not according to the medical experts.

Our daughter had a difficult birth. During the process she was without oxygen for an unspecified amount of time and had to be fully resuscitated. She was immediately transferred to a children’s hospital and tests showed some damage to her brain. In addition, she was fragile due to some prenatal neglect and abuse. She would spend the first two months of her life in the NICU. Her first Christmas was not spent with her mommy, it was spent with hospital staff.

When we were called to adopt our little girl, we were given the whole medical report and outlook. As my wife sat and listened to two doctors, on a conference call, tell us of her condition, we were both saddened and frightened. Just the other day, I listened again to the recording of the conversation and am still shaken to the core when I think of all she went through. We were told that she may be delayed or have trouble with motor skills. We were told that she may never function “normally.” We were told that she may have cerebral palsy. We were told she may never walk.

In spite of all that we were told, God chose to do otherwise. According to His great mercy and grace, He chose to work in a different way than the medical professionals had predicted. So that, there we were sitting on the floor while our 9 month old (7 ½ months adjusted) took her first steps. That’s just one example of many of the things she is doing. Her pediatrician cannot explain it. Her neurologist cannot explain it. The folks from Babies Can’t Wait can’t believe it. Virtually everything that we were told about her has proven to not be the case.

It is here that I am tempted to go into praise as to the goodness of God. That is certainly appropriate. He is absolutely good. But, He would still be good if the doctors had been right. He would still be good through cerebral palsy. He would still be good if she had never taken a step. He would still be good if she were to never dance (she does). He would still be good if she never functioned “normally.” He is always good. He is always good because He is always God.

One of my favorite songs is titled, “As Long As You Are Glorified.” In the song, the writer expresses the nature of God’s goodness with these words:
                                 Are You good only when I prosper
                                 And true only when I’m filled
                                 Are You King only when I’m carefree
                                 And God only when I’m well
                                 You are good when I’m poor and needy
                                 You are true when I’m parched and dry
                                 You still reign in the deepest valley
                                 You’re still God in the darkest night

                                 Oh let Your will be done in me
                                  In Your love I will abide
                                 Oh I long for nothing else as long
                                 As You are glorified

Praying and Pleading For The Unborn

It was an unusually cool August afternoon here in GA. I was standing on a Lawrenceville sidewalk waiting for the next car to arrive, holding a large sign that showed a beautiful baby inside his mother’s womb. When the next car pulled into the lot, I watched to see where the young lady, and the man who accompanied her, would park. The parking lot is for a small strip mall. Would the couple park to go into Sears, Five Guys Burgers, the hair salon, or the abortion clinic? Even as I write this, I am still stunned by the casual nature of this tragedy. Only in America can one purchase a lawn mower, a burger, a hair cut, and kill a baby all on one small strip mall. The couple parked in front of the abortion clinic. I knew that the moment the lady stepped out of the car that I had about 30 seconds to say something, in an attempt to persuade her away from the murder that awaited on the other side of those doors. At that moment my job could be likened to trying to stop a run-away train. As she exited her car, I grabbed a microphone which was attached to a speaker. The microphone was so that we could be heard from the required distance we had to stand away from the premises. I called out to the woman, pleading with her to not go into the building. I told her that if she was there for an abortion that we had help available for her. I told her that she did not have to kill the baby. Then, as she was reaching for the door, I cried out, “Please, I beg you, let me adopt your baby! My wife and I will adopt your baby!” Tragically, she continued on into the clinic. I turned my attention to the young man and I pleaded with him. I told him that if the girl was there for an abortion we had help available for her, for them. I told him that we would adopt the baby and I begged him to go get her out of the clinic. He turned up the radio in his car in an attempt to drown out my voice. What followed, as you can imagine, was yet another life lost to the horror that is America’s holocaust. I wish I could say that this was an unusual encounter. But, we saw several ladies continue on into the clinic. Hopefully, some were impacted by our pleas. We will continue to go on Tuesdays, to pray and to plead, because life is too important to not. I cannot stop women from walking through those doors. But, by God’s grace, I can make sure they only do so while hearing a pleading voice, offering them help and begging them away from the clinic. My passion for the cause of the unborn is birthed out of my love for Jesus Christ and His love for all of us. Jesus loves and cares for the unborn and for the mothers who walk through the doors of those clinics. This is why I go and invite you to join me. It is why I encourage our church to support the Walton County Right to Life and the Pregnancy Resource Center of Walton. We stand together with these two great organizations for the cause of the unborn. I am thankful for our brother, Terry Queen, and his passion for this great cause. In light of that, I want to encourage you to attend, with me, the semi-annual meeting of the Walton County Right to Life on Thursday, September 19 at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be held at The Praise Center on Hwy 78 West. We will enjoy a time of worship together, hear a wonderful testimony, and a great message from Dr. Jody Hice. When the history of these days is recorded and the question has been asked about how the Church responded to the tragedy of the American holocaust, may it be said about us that we stood together, praying and pleading, for the end of this national tragedy that has claimed the lives of over 53 million babies.

Loving People and Chicken!

Today, I went to Chick-fil-a. I did not go out of hatred for anyone. I went because I support both Dan Cathy’s stated beliefs and his right to express those beliefs. Of course, I also went because they make a really great chicken sandwich. There are so many ways to talk about the recent controversy surrounding Chick-fil-a. However, there is one that is really burning in my heart. I want to spend a few minutes talking about our responsibility to those who struggle with the sin of homosexuality. I submit to you that in many ways we have failed these individuals. We have failed them by allowing this particular sin to be elevated into its own class of sin, while forgetting that all of us are sinners. Like all who struggle with homosexuality, I was born that way. I was born with a sin nature I inherited from our original parents, Adam and Eve. As I aged, I expressed that sin nature in all sorts of ways, even sexual immorality. While, I did not express my sin nature with homosexuality, I was every bit as guilty of unrepentant sexual sin and many other expressions of sin. I had desires and cravings which I selfishly fed. Paul put it well in Ephesians. He wrote, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph 2:1-3, ESV). You and I stood before God no less guilty than anyone who struggles with homosexuality. In fact, Jesus said that to even look with lust is to be guilty in the heart (Matt 5:28). I was born with a sin nature, as were you and everyone else. I believe we have also failed these people by insufficiently communicating the Gospel. You and I were born with a sin nature, and we need to be born again in Jesus Christ. Paul continued in Ephesians, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5, ESV). That is glorious truth! Yet, being saved does not mean that one will cease to battle temptation. We struggle with various temptations everyday. Satan is a master at knowing our temptations. And he will tempt us in the areas he perceives we are weakest. Thus, a man who gives his life to Jesus Christ may struggle with homosexuality the rest of his life. That individual, like the rest of us, needs to understand that we need Christ to get us through every struggle, every temptation. That individual needs to know that we are all a bunch of messy individuals, all with various sorts of struggles; redeemed and pursuing holiness by the grace of God. Too often, we try to make people think we have it altogether, when the fact is we don’t. We are constantly in need of our Lord and His strength. That is the whole point of the Gospel. God knew that we were a mess. So, He sent His Son to redeem us. He also knew that after we were saved, we would be messy and in constant need of His empowering grace in order to have victory in a world of sin. Collectively, we as Christians, are a people who have been saved by grace and brought together into His family, the Church. We need one another in our daily battles. We also need to be more transparent about our struggles. We need to quit pretending we have it all together. And we need to lovingly communicate the Gospel in its fullness. Does God love the individual who struggles with the sin of homosexuality? Absolutely! Just like He loves the person who struggles with the sins of pornography, promiscuity, and adultery. The entire point of the cross was to demonstrate God’s loving, viscous, and relentless pursuit of fallen people. Jesus did not come to save people who were good and well (there aren’t any). He came to save people who are messed up! He came to save people who have broken His law and deserve judgment. Thankfully, He poured that judgment out on Jesus Christ, who willingly served as our substitute. He is our ever-present help in time of need. Only in Him can we have victory over our daily temptations with sin. And when we fail, He wants us to run to Him and not from Him. So, yes I went to Chick-fil-a today. And I plan to go again and again. But, its not because I hate anyone. I will spend the rest of my life here in this world, and all of eternity in the next, perpetually aware that I am only saved by His grace. I was a wretched mess when He saved me, and I will be messy until He brings me home. Until then, I will rest in His gracious hand and pursue holiness by His loving grace. And I will seek to love all people and tell them how they can also have victory in Jesus. And I will do so as I "eat mor chikin."

Rescued!

It is a scene forever etched in my mind. It haunts me. No matter how hard I try I cannot escape the sight. The scene is of a little orphan boy, bent down, and digging through the trash. He is dirty, not just playing in the sandbox dirty, but filthy. His clothing barely qualifies as sufficient covering and yet he is among the few that even have rags to drape over himself. He is dangerously skinny due to malnutrition. His body if filled with infected sores that remain unattended to. He is lonely, but cannot cry, his tears have basically dried up. When he did cry, no one came to his rescue anyway. So, he continues day after day, rummaging through trash looking for something that he can eat. At night he cuddles in a dark corner of lonesomeness, and there he goes to sleep. I cannot see his face. I only see the boy. His story one of multitudes.

I begin to wonder, “Why don’t somebody do something! Why does God not provide something for him?” Unfortunately, I bought into the lie of the American dream. My thought has always been that I am suppose to be successful, have a big house, drive nice cars, take regular vacations, maybe even have a vacation home, wear nice clothes, eat at nice restaurants, have huge, enormous flat screen televisions, iphones, ipads, and have lots of other super nice things. I could even be real spiritual about it and talk about how greatly God has blessed me with all my stuff. I could talk about how God has provided for me and how He desires for me to live a good life, which includes all my stuff. I could talk about how God had given me so much because He loves me so much. Surely, God wants me to have, have, have---you know---live the good life!

But, there he is bent down rummaging through the trash for something to eat. And there I am wondering why God doesn’t do something. Then it dawns on me that God has done something, and He has provided for him. God rescued, saved, redeemed the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to be His hands and feet in the world. God cares for the poor and needy and imprisoned and stranger and widow and orphan. His plan for caring for them is for His Church to be His ambassadors, to do His work in the world. God has provided for these dear people. The problem is, he has given the resources to me and to you. While we continue to drink $4.00 lattes and make sure we keep our hair or golf appointments, there he sits digging through that trash.

Then God does something amazing. He brings that little dirty, smelly, diseased, orphan boy into a more clear view. Its almost as if someone is pushing the zoom button on a video recorder or camera. The little boy is still rummaging. Then a voice calls out, “I love you, come to me, I am here for you!” A hand reaches out toward the little boy. Finally, he turns so that I can see his face. And I am floored. Its my face! I am the little boy! The voice calling me is the Good Shepherd! He takes my hand, cleans me up, dresses me, and calls me His! No longer an orphan am I. He tells me that He is my everything, not stuff. And He supplies me, not so that I can live the American dream, not so that I can have, have, have. Rather, He desires for me to give, give, give. He desires that I do unto others, as He has done unto me. And so, I begin to think what a difference God could make through me if I began planning to live on less. What if I did not need a newer car, but drive an older one? What if I did not need to take regular exotic vacations? What if I did not need to eat at nice restaurants regularly? What if I did not need all of those clothes? What if I did not need a larger television, or even one at all? What if I really began to live as one that God has blessed so that I can be a blessing to others in His name. What if I intentionally lived lower so that others could live. That is what He did for us, is it not? (2 Cor 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich), ESV.

Fasting

In this post I will lay out a few basics of fasting. This is, by no means, exhaustive. It is very basic. For a very good and exhaustive study on fasting I highly recommend John Piper’s book "A Hunger For God." It can be downloaded for free here: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/online-books/a-hunger-for-god.

Let me begin with a few things fasting is not. First of all, fasting is not a means for manipulating God. Some folks believe that if they just fast, it will force God to take notice. But that is not fasting, it is really nothing more than a hunger strike. God is not interested in our hunger strikes. He will not be manipulated. Secondly, fasting is not to be a means for validating our righteousness. This is exactly the idea Jesus addressed in the Sermon on The Mount concerning the Pharisees. They would fast in public so that people could see how “godly” they were. But Christ informed them, and us, that they were displaying pseudo-piety that could be summed up with the word hypocrisy. Third, fasting is not a weight-loss routine, which is one of the only times fasting mentioned in our times. So what is fasting with the proper motive? Let me sum it up in three basic ideas.

1. To Draw Closer To God.

In his book Hunger For God John Piper wrote, “The birthplace of Christian fasting is homesickness for God.” Fasting is ultimately about God. This is the heart of fasting, not making sure that people see us fast, not to validate our righteousness. Fasting is all about drawing closer to God. It is about whole-heartedly seeking His will. In fasting we seek to draw close to the heart of God. It always centers on God. Luke spoke of the elderly woman Anna in Luke chapter 2 saying that “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.” The key word in regards to fasting in that verse is the term worshiped. Fasting is an act of worship. Theologian John Wesley said of fasting, “First let it be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed in Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven.”

2. To Increase Our Sense of Dependance upon God.

In our affluent society we often forget just how dependent we are on God. When we are hungry, we rarely ask God to give us food, we get in the car and go get it. Jesus says that we are to pray for our daily bread. Bread not only represents food but is symbolic of all of our needs. Fasting reveals to us just how weak we really are, and that without God’s constant provision in our lives, we would not hold together. Fasting forces us to rid ourselves of the things we crave and appropriate our craving toward God. In the Sermon of the Mount, Christ said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled” (Matt 5:6). Jesus said in John 6:48-51, “I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread , he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Jesus basically said, “Hunger for me for I am the bread of life.”

He also told us to thirst for Righteousness. In John 4:10 Jesus told the woman at the well, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water ." Then pointing toward the drinking water he said, in verses13-14, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Jesus basically said, “Thirst for me for I am the living water and in me you shall never thirst again.”

Fasting causes us to abstain temporarily from the things that temporarily sustain us and points us to the One who ultimately sustains us, and that One is our Father in Heaven. Fasting points us to our desperate need for God.

That is why you see folks in the Bible fasting during some of the most trying times in their lives. Here are a few instances: David fasted when God caused his child born to Bathsheba to become ill. The Bible says in 2 Sam 12:16 "David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground." When Nehemiah heard of the desolation of Jerusalem, he knew that this was a problem that only God could fix and the Bible says in Neh 1:4 "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." When Daniel contemplated from the Scriptures that Judgement was coming upon Jerusalem the Bible says, Dan 9:2-3, "I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes." Then perhaps the best known fasting passage in the New Testament occurred as Jesus went in the wilderness to prepare for his time of tempting by Satan. The Bible tells us, in essence, that he readied himself for that temptation by fasting. It says, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.' 4 Jesus answered, 'It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" (Matt 4:1-4). Now, if fasting was an important part of Jesus’ relationship with the Father, demonstrating his reliance upon the Father, how much more are we dependent upon the Father and in need of practicing this spiritual discipline?

3. To Give More Attention To Prayer With God.

We can pray without fasting, but we cannot fast, biblically, without praying. In every biblical account of fasting, it is always accompanied with prayer. In fasting we devote special concentrated time to prayer. We pray when we would normally eat, as we seek the Lord’s heart and will. All of the great heroes of the faith have been folks who fasted and prayed with a great deal of intensity and determination as they sought the Lord’s will. Prayer was indeed their lifeline. Communication with the Lord is nourishment for the soul. Fasting expresses a special hunger for God, calling upon Him to be our nourishment.

Christ Crucified

In 1 Cor 1:22-25, Paul wrote, 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

I love this simple declaration of Paul the Apostle. The Apostle held to a strong belief in the sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He believed that in the Gospel was the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). The proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was his consuming passion. He told the Corinthians in 1 Cor 2:1-2, 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Paul knew something that we, in our generation, are apt to forget: the sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else can transform lives. Yet, we tend to underestimate this gospel at the very least, or worse, we tend to deny its power by our actions.

I read a story this week of a small English village that had a small chapel. The chapel was made of stone and had ivy covered walls. Over the arch when the chapel was originally built were inscribed the words "We Preach Christ Crucified" so that everybody whoever entered would know what they were there for. And there was a generation of Godly men that did precisely that. They preached Christ crucified. But times changed and the ivy grew and pretty soon it covered the last word and the sign said "We Preach Christ." And the Godly men changed. And there were other men who came and they preached Christ: Christ the example, Christ the humanitarian, Christ the ideal teacher. The years passed and the ivy grew covering the name of Christ and finally it said "We Preach." And they did, they preached politics, economics, social gospel, and whatever.

That sounds like a parable of our day and time. Today there is much preaching of Christ the republican, Christ the democrat, Christ the capitalist, Christ the socialist, Christ the humanitarian, Christ the giver of stuff, or no Christ at all. In many places it is more subtle than others. For instance, it may be that the preaching of Christ crucified has been so clouded with smoke machines and other gadgets that its lost in the chaos. For others, there is a desire to attempt to soften the sting that comes with the preaching of the gospel. Still others fall into the trap of giving the people what they want to hear. Yet Paul said, " For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." Why would Paul make such a determination to preach Christ crucified in a cultural setting that was so opposed to the Gospel? Because Paul knew that it was the Gospel he had been commanded to preach and the Gospel was their only hope. Besides, the preaching of anything else would be to declare that the Gospel is not enough. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon put it well when he said, "I do believe that we slander Christ when we think that we are to draw the people by something else but the preaching of Christ crucified"

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Today (Sept. 20), marked the official end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), a policy implemented in 1993 as a compromise between those who wanted to allow open service by homosexuals in the military and those opposed to it. The end of DADT marked a significant victory for the Obama administration as the fulfillment of a campaign promise made by the Senator in 2008.

I guess I could spend my time here lamenting this event. Certainly it troubles me. I could spend time pointing out the biblical mandate of the one man/one woman marriage relationship and the sinfulness of homosexuality. But, as I am well aware, I am preaching (actually writing) to the choir. Therefore, let me focus on something the choir (including myself) needs to hear.

I fully support the end of a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Now that i have your attention, let me explain. I am certainly not talking about the military policy, but another, more sinister DADT policy. The one I speak of is an unwritten policy, practiced not by the government, but by the local church. I am referring to the DADT policy in regards to evangelism, lovingly sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world.

You see, such things as the end of the military's DADT policy are simply symptoms of a larger problem, the ever increasing spiritual lostness of American culture. Homosexuality is just one among a mulititude of sins for which Christ died. The answer to lostness is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But this Gospel must be proclaimed in order for the spiritual lostness to be impacted. In Romans 10, Paul wrote, (13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?...ESV). We must understand this truth, unless we preach, they will not hear. If they do not hear, they will not believe. If they do not believe, they will not call on His name. If they do not call on Christ, they will not be saved. The eternal destiny of millions is at stake. So, lets put an end to the church's DADT policy and proclaim Christ, that His name will be glorified among the nations, and multitudes will join us in praising Him for eternity. (Rev. 7:9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen").