Marriage.

No. That is my first comment on this blog. Because I know that some of you have already made assumptions based on what I titled this entry. I say no, not because I don't have a desire to get married, simply that at this juncture I am not. However, I have thought about it lately because of some devotional passages and conversations with friends. What I have concluded is that, sadly, we have a very low view of marriage in our current culture. Over the past few years I have witnessed a number of marriages end, people who were close to me and some who were not. And it breaks my heart each time I hear another story of a couple breaking up.

I believe that statistics are starting to tell us the we are leveling out in the divorce rate. Children are reacting somewhat to growing up in an era where divorce was rampant. The election of Barack Obama, and his outspoken stance that we need good fathers in our homes, I believe will have an impact on the family in certain sectors. But at the same, I work with students, and I know that so many of us are buying the lie that a marriage commitment is simply based on feelings. In a book I read recently, the author noted a survey of students who were asked when it was okay to have sex. The majority response was "If I love someone enough." The problem with that, she commented and I agree, was that our children have bought into the lie that feelings are more important that God's design and standard for marriage. For the many divorces I have seen, I think too many have let feelings be the barometer of success.

If we take this example to our relationship with Christ, we run into a problem. How many of us who call ourselves Christians would say that following Christ is always easy and feels good? Certainly not. And the Bible even paints a beautiful picture of a marriage between the Bride (The Church) and the Bridegroom (Christ). Charles Spurgeon comments that on earth Christ "exercises towards her (us, his bride) all the offices of a husband. He makse rich provision for her wants, pays all her debts, allows her to assume his name, and share in all his wealth. Nor will He ever act otherwise to her. The word 'divorce' He will never mention, for 'He hates divorce' (Malachi 2:16)." Women, how many want a husband like that? Men, how many want to love our wife like that? How wonderful, comforting and glorious is it to know that now matter how often we sin against God. No matter how many times we turn our back on him. No matter how often we run to "other lovers," he takes us back. He will never leave us. He will walk with us through the greatest pain of life. Make no mistake, when we turn our back on him and walk away, it pains him SO deeply. And there lies the reality that we have a God who can "sympathize with us in our weaknesses."

If you are reading this, my challenge to you and me, is that we would get a godly perspective on marriage. Commitment trumps feelings. Sacrifice trumps selfishness. Forgiveness trumps anger and bitterness. And humility is needed on the part of both, as we lay the one who knows us so deeply at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior.

Marriage is not easy... or so I hear. But I have high hopes when I finally find the love of my life. For now, I am learning to constantly surrender her to Jesus and become more like him.

Snow shoeing.

I have lived in Colorado for nearly four years. The national stereotype of the Colorado population is that everyone who lives here skiis or takes part in some form or winter outdoor extreme sport. I had some aspirations when I moved here that I would become a skiier or a snowboarder or whatever else was available. However, after one skiing experience in my first year where I was taken down the mountain on a snowmobile because I thought I was going to DIE, I gave up hopes of becoming an olympic champion. Not to mention the fact that skiing requires A LOT of money!

I have taken much more to the summer activities of the mountains: whitewater rafting and hiking. This past weekend at a good friend's bachelor party near Copper Mountain, I realized that there was an equivalent to hiking... snow shoeing. If you are not familiar with what this entails let me just paint a picture. Imagine you have all the gear necessary for skiing on your body, minus the helmet, but instead of putting on skiis you wear what could loosely be described as "clown shoes." Yes, the snow shoes makes your feet at least four times the size that you are accustomed to working with. This is to ensure that you will not fall through the deep snow. In addition, there are metal "spikes/claws" on the bottom of the shoe to keep you from slipping, or to fight off a bear if so needed.

We began our hike up a four mile trail in these snow shoes and I quickly realized that I inappropriately attached them to my feet. I had to stop about four times before the shoes were attached adequately and would not fall off. Meanwhile, the largeness of the shoes was causing me to walk in a leaping fashion forcing me to use muscles that would usually lay dormant during such an endeavor. About halfway through the hike, a sharp pain developed in my lower regions because of the good, albeit strenuous exercise. As I climbed and climbed I felt more and more like I was dragging one leg to the finish line and I hadn't even been injured! By the grace of God I got to see the beauty of creation at the end and during the hike, and I made it back to the bottom.

What I realized in this experience, being the theologian/pastor that I am, is my ultimate depravity. In the midst of pain and hard work, the only thing I could think about was my pain. As the beauty of creation swirled around me and declared the glory of the Living God, all I could think about was myself and when the hike would end. We all have to confront our sinfulness every day, and perhaps God was teaching me a faith lesson through snow shoeing. In our daily lives, it is so easy to be caught up in the worries and stresses of life that we forget God is sovereign. God is bigger than any pain or strain or problem that comes our way. And living a life that is Christ centered requires us to be dependent on our Savior. I once heard a great definition of stress and worry from Francis Chan: When we get stressed out and worried we think we are more important than we actually are, and that God is not big enough to handle our problems.

So... I recommend the activity of snowshoeing to you. If may be painful but it will show us some great truths about life: our own depravity and the greatness of God. May you cling to the hand of your Savior today!

Knowing God.

Yesterday I shared some thoughts on the sufficiency of Christ and his work on the cross. My mind has been running extra fast on theological thoughts because I am in the process of preparing my doctrinal statement for heavy scrutiny by the Denver Seminary faculty. While I think this process is good and extremely beneficial, it has also helped to uncover some spiritual things in my own life, particularly in the area of knowing God. Those of us that have attended seminary will inevitably at some point, go through a complex of thinking we know God better than those around us. I certainly have. Being able to parse Greek verbs and make long theological explanations to simple questions gives off an attitude of superiority. However, I would submit that wherever we are in our relationship with God… humility needs to be first and foremost. An so, God smackd me in the face as I meditated on a chapter of J.I. Packer’s “Knowing God” this morning. He asserts that despite all our knowledge about God, we may not actually know him as well as we think. Here are four tidbits from the chapter that show the evidence of knowing God…

1. Those who know God have great energy for God.

If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus, do you have great energy to do his work? I’ll admit, there have been times in my life that I have felt like I had seemingly unending energy for the work of the Gospel. And there have been times when quite the opposite were true. But if we do not have energy to serve our Lord, how are others to see that we know him? Truly knowing God is seen when we expend every ounce of our energy serving him.

2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God.

Last week in the high school small group that I lead we took some time to pray and declare God’s greatness. This is a great way to start our prayers as we meditate on who our God is… but do those thoughts dominate our minds throughout the week? If we want to know God we need to allow all our thoughts to drift to our Great God.

3. Those who know God show great boldness for God.

This includes but is not limited to sharing our faith with those around us, even if it means rejection. Those who know God are not afraid to speak on his behalf and let that boldness be evident in their life. Maybe that happens at school, work, or in a family that doesn’t know the Lord. Maybe that boldness happens in how we handle our finances or our future. While the boldness can be manifested in many ways… it remains that if we know the Lord, we will not be afraid to admit it.

4. Those who know God have great contentment in God.

Hmmm… perhaps this is the most difficult one. I know in my own life I show little contentment. I am always looking to buy the next sleek technological device, or take a cool trip, or complain to God that I don’t have some of the things that I want. God’s answer most often to me is… MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. We often want more, but if we know God it will be seen in our contentment of him.

I would encourage your to meditate on Philippians 3:7-11.

Sufficient.

Sufficiency. I want us to think about that word for a minute. What does it mean? It used to mean that something was "enough." However, our current American, indivualistic, bigger is better, I want just as much as the next person as skewed our understanding of the word. As a society we have lost sight of what it means to have enough, look at where we are in the economy. People weren't satisfied with a one bedroom condo, they need to have a three bedroom with a full basement ranch house even if it was out of there price range. We go out to eat a buffet style restaurants and each several plates when we can really only handle one. We will but the newest plasma screen HD TV even though our savings is running dry... but we have plenty of credit. We are more concerned with our outward appearance than our inward motivations.

Sadly, the church has come to mirror this cultural trend. As a body we are concerned with flashier Powerpoints, larger sanctuaries, and Starbucks style coffee areas. As individuals, we have bought into the world's sales pitch that if we only "do more" then God will accept us and reward us. But that is not the Gospel. That is a self-centered way of ensuring our place in heaven. Some might say "If I only do more, give more, sacrifice more then I will earn the right to be called a child of God." All those things are good, but our hope for the future rests of the sufficient work of Jesus on the cross. Nothing we have done or will ever do can earn God's love... it is a free gift that was given to us by the sacrifice of the our Savior. When he spoke the words "It is finished," it truly was done. Everything sin that we have committed in our life was paid for with Christ's blood.

When we think that we are more important than we actually are, Jesus whispers these words to us...

"My grace is sufficient for your, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

It is not our power, but his that will get us through the day. When we surrender to him and declare our dependence then Jesus and can truly guide us.

Jack Is Back.

A new day, a new Bauer. That is the tagline for the new season of 24 that began last night. If you read my blog about "24 Redemption" back in November, you know that I am an avid 24 fan. In fact, I just completed my DVD collection of the first five seasons... so if anyone wants to borrow them I am willing to loan them out (Season six was the weakest and I am comfortable not owning that one)!

The new season looks very promising... from the first two hours. Much of what has come to be expected of 24 has been revamped. There is no longer a CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit), the show takes place in Washington DC (Not LA), and there are lots of new faces including a female President (Are they trying to predict the future again?). One thing that hasn't changed is that many people are still questioning Jack Bauer and not listening to his judgment calls. And, even though they won't say it, Jack is being employed by the FBI on a "provisional basis" for the day (hmmm.... sounds familiar). As always, the purpose of the day is for Jack Bauer to save the world from the bad guys.

I am excited for all the new changes, which most likely are in place to correct the short comings of season six (Not to mention the addition of Renee Walker who is totally cute and totally going to hook up with Jack!). It will be interesting to see how all the varying plot lines play out, but the first two hours have raised many questions that leave the viewer wanting more... I will be on my couch with Chinese food at 7:00 tonite and every Monday night from here until May.

One of the greatest strengths of 24 has been their ability to comment on and mirror current events. With torture a hot topic in the political realm these days, the show decides to open Season Seven with Jack at a Senate hearing for his use of Guantanamo tactics to obtain information. Later in the show Jack comments that two worlds have been created: "Our world, and the people we are trying to protect... we owe them the truth." This is why Jack Bauer is the most intriguing and honorable character on television and why so many people are drawn to him: he is a man of honor who we will always take at his word (something he doesn't give lightly). I recently read an article which Kiefer Sutherland (Now an exec. producer of the show) gave to TV Guide. In the interview he admitted that Season Six got "off the mark." But, he said that he "still believes in Jack Bauer." I think America, as many points of debate that come our way, is looking for a hero like Jack Bauer who loves his country and is willing to "adapt" to the changing times and do what is necessary to protect America.

Funny, but I think that Kiefer's sentiment is shared by those of us who are in ministry. The greatest task of the 21st Century Church is to adapt so that it can effectively minister in the new cultural surroundings. In addition, just as Bauer's line of work can get messy so can ministry. It is not always easy to to the right thing or the thing that the Lord is calling us to do, but it necessary. Sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes we make mistakes... but thank God for his GRACE! The tagline mentioned above was "A new day, a new Bauer." Through Jesus' forgiveness we are made new, despite our failings. As ministers we place our hope, not in Jack Bauer, but in the figure that he may symbolically represent, Jesus Christ. I will forever be amazed and grateful for what Jesus did on the cross. He did what it took to save us... he satisfied the wrath of God, took away our sin, defeated sin, hell, death, and Satan through his atoning work and made us new! Because of the cross we are secure and sure of eternal life with our Heavenly Father. Jack Bauer may be a great hero... but Jesus is the ultimate hero.

Watch 24... and think about what Jesus did on the cross as you watch.

Death by Love.

The latest book I have been delving into is Mark Driscoll's Death By Love. Let me commend this to you as an awesome read... go to the Westminster Online bookstore and BUY IT! www.wts.com. It is one of the most practical explanations I have ever read about the atonement. Reading through a few chapters I even wanted to accept Jesus again for the first time. Driscoll has the gift translating deep theological truths into solid life applications....

This book will certainly convict you of any sin you have in your life and make you think deeply about why and how Jesus died. Jesus took the wrath of God on himself and became our substitute. He conquered sin, death and Satan with a mighty blow and stands between us and them as our warrior savior. No matter how much anyone wrongs us, we must remember that Jesus is our New Covenant Sacrifice and satisfied the penalty for all our sins. If someone hurts us, they may deserve punishment... but Jesus already took the punishment and died a horrible death so we do not have to. By doing so he took away our sins and made us clean! Jesus is our Savior!

Too many times, whether we have a long past or not... we forget that we need Jesus. So many of us, including myself, create functional saviors in our lives... whether at that is TV, alcohol, friends, drugs, sex, money, work, etc. We allow things to come into our lives that will make us feel better, things that we think will "save us" from the problems that are in our lives. But the only true answer to those problems is Jesus. Let us get out of his way, stop trying to be the hero and let the one who can do it all take over. Look to the cross of Jesus. 

Behind Closed Doors.

I am always fascinated when I hear that a sports team has had a "closed door" meeting. In this case, "closed door" means that the media is not allowed in the clubhouse. Usually this occurs after a surprising loss or when it looks like the team is going in a wrong direction and probably won't make the playoffs. At the news conference after the "closed door" meeting the first question to the manager is something like "So what did you say to your team... joe, bob, wilt... whatever the coach's name is?" I get frustrated every time I hear a ridiculous reporter ask this assonine queston... because if the manager wanted you to know what he said he would have allowed you to come into the clubhouse in the first. In response to this absurdity the manager usually offers some standard response that generally revolves around what is going on. Or, if the manager has a lot of gusto he/she will respond like this: "That's between me and my team." Of course the reporter takes this response as a personal attack because he/she thinks they are entitled to know everything. The fact of the matter is that the manager gave the truthful answer, it was none of the reporter's business what he said and, thus, the reason the meeting was "closed door."

I have recently been thinking an awful lot about prayer lately and am challenged by Jesus' instructions on prayer in Matthew 6. This is the only place in the Bible where some actually teaches us how to pray. Jesus first tells us not to pray in public like the hypocrites who like to be seen. He goes on to tell us that when we pray, we need to go into our room and close the door (6:6). Before Jesus even teaches his disciples how to pray, he tells them WHERE they should pray. Why? Because Jesus is trying to get across the idea that prayer is a personal thing between us and God. The purpose of prayer is for us to connect in an intimate way with our Creator... the God who loves us. Prayer is a time for us to lay our hearts bare and share the deepest part of ourselves with our God. 

However, so many of us (including myself) don't get this. We still come to God with our long list of needs and problems... expecting God to wave our magic wand and change everything. But that's not how it works. I absolutely believe that God will intercede on our behalf, but he is more concerned with his relationship to us. And if we are not concerned about our relationship with God... he will feel distant, the same way a relationship, friendship, or marriage can become distant when we do not spend time with the other person. 

I think part of the reason we don't fully open up to God is that we like to think we can handle everything on our own. Tim Keller in his book The Prodigal God, said that is the essence of our sin. Sin is not about disobeying a list of rules, the bottom line of sin is that we want to be our own savior. When we are our own savior then we don't need God. When we don't need God the only alternative is for us to save ourselves... and I don't know about you but I don't trust myself that much. Jesus needs to be the hero of our story and he needs to save us from ourselves, as Mark Driscoll would say. 

This is where prayer comes in. When we spend time with our Savior and Lord everyday... behind closed doors... we realize just how much we need him. The things we share with our God behind closed doors are things that we would not share with the public media. They are, as the manger with gusto would say, "Between us and our God." In this Jesus words ring true... when you pray go into your room, close the door, and get real with God.