Convince me I'm wrong

 I'm afraid I've been browsing church websites again. I'll stop short of using the phrase "I defy you to," but I think you will have a tough time finding a church website whose youth ministry page does not say something about "fun," "excitement," "high energy," etc. Those things are not wrong or even necessarily bad, but why do we have to insert those into most children's and youth ministries? Why can we just not make our ministries about exalting Jesus?

Why do I even care? Because we spend 12 years conditioning kids to feel that church (and therefore Christianity) is all about fun, excitement, energy, and feeling good. After that, they get into the "real world" and adult discipleship programs and suddenly they are no longer having fun. It's no wonder so many of them end up dropping out of church. How could we expect anything less when we've worked so hard to get them in the doors and keep them coming back with food, games, parties, trips, and big events but no expectations of what discipleship really means?

View the Future Wisely

 This morning I went over to Pecan Grove to pick up some more pecans. I've been twice this fall with great results both times. Today, however, was different. The nuts have already begun to go bad. For every good one I found, there were probably four or five that were already split open or mildewed. Realizing that I had waited too long to go back started a stream of thoughts.

The end of this year's pecan crop is a signal that fall is winding down and winter is only a couple of weeks away. Of course, here in central Texas winter doesn't change things too much. It does not get extremely cold and things are not covered in a blanket of snow and ice (at least not very often.) However, winter is a reminder that everything is constantly changing and there is nothing any of us can do to slow or stop the march of time.

Thinking about the changing seasons and the march of time, I  began to ponder the future in two ways. First, I wondered what changes the coming year would bring. In my family right now, there are multiple health concerns as well as financial concerns. Further, the larger socio-political issues of our day weigh heavily on my psyche. Basically, I was falling to the temptation of anticipating the future with worry.

On the other hand, I was excited about next year's pecan crop. I realized that had I invested a little more time and not procrastinated I could have harvested a bumper stash of the little treasures, and I was gleeful about the thought of picking up pounds and pounds of pecans next fall. This reveals another danger in a hyper-focus on the future. Namely, we can be so mindful of something yet to come that we fail to experience and enjoy the present. My parents used to tell me, "don't wish your life away." We can be so intent on wishing for the next thing which excites us that we overlook the present joys.

In a few minutes of time, I was guilty of two flawed ways of facing the future. The Bible offers us a more balanced approach to dealing with things to come. First, we should not worry about the future because God is in control. Jesus teaches about this in Matthew 6. Verses 25-26 say, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" He continues the discussion for several verses, but the idea is apparent. Worrying about things does not help anything. Better to trust God, seek Him, and live life one day at a time.

Second, while we should not worry about the future, we also should not ignore it. We need to anticipate the future enough to make reasonable plans. Further, the plans we make should be guided by our best understanding of God's leadership in our lives. James 4:13-15 says, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"

Time marches on indeed. As Christians we should plan reasonably for the future, but we should not worry about it or focus so intently on it that we miss the good things God has for us today. We should use our time wisely to build His kingdom, finding the joy He offers in each moment.

A Conversation That Did Happen

Student:  I'm so excited. I start my new job this week.
Youth Worker (and no it was not me):  Why do you need a job?
Student:  So I can make my car payments.
Youth Worker:  Why do you need a car?
Student:  So I can get to my job.

This seriously happened. I gotta say that in my experience the vast majority of teens who get part time jobs end up becoming FAR less involved in church. I realize that there are some teens who legitimately have to work to help their families with income. And I realize that there are (or at least can be) worthwhile benefits from student employment. But, Christian parent, consider the costs carefully before you let your teen start working.

We live in a dark, dark society. I believe strongly that our teenagers have three really important jobs already. These jobs are vital to and flow from our relationship with God. They are part of discipleship and should be guided by a mature Christian--namely the parents.  Job one, learn to function in a Christian family. Job two, learn to function as a church member. Job three, get an academic education that will prepare you to be a contributing member of society. These are three pretty big and time consuming tasks. When we stack other things such as sports and arts and employment on top of the main three, usually something has to give way. And from what I've seen, it is usually church or family.

Be careful what you are truly teaching your children. Don't let materialism or "the American dream" guide your decision making. The Christian life is not about health, wealth, and a great resume. It is about Jesus and his kingdom.

What if?

What if life is not all about winning? What if it is not even about scoring more points? What if life is not about making more money, or even any money? What if life is not about being able to retire comfortably? What if life is not about making better grades, or even knowing more? What if life is not about being unforgettable or popular, or making a name for yourself at all? What if life is not about raising little renaissance kids? What if there is no prize for the kid with the most extracurricular hours? What if life is not about being entertained Monday through Saturday, much less on Sunday? What if life is not about how much fun you can have or how happy you can be? What if life is not about your freedom? What if life is not about how new your car is or how big your house is? What if it is not even about how clean your house is or how green your lawn is? What if life is not about being the best? What if life is not about your hobbies? What if life is not about having a prestigious job, or even a good job? What if life is not about decreasing your carbon footprint? What if life is not about people liking you? What if there is no prize for the one with the most toys? What if being first means being last? What if being great means being a slave?

What if life is just not about you (me) at all?

Well?







Matthew 6:33.

Should we or shouldn't we?

So, I've sort of gotten myself into this debate--imagine that, moi in a debate--and I'm going to use this forum to discuss it. I need to let you know a few things up front. First, I tried to keep my mouth shut about it (I know, it is hard for me to believe too) because this general idea about what is acceptable entertainment for Christians has been beaten to death in cyberspace and other media, but I've heard enough falsehood that I feel the need to respond. Secondly, I'm addressing these thoughts to Christians. Third, its going to take more than one post to explain my position. Fourth, I realize that in some ways parts of this discussion involve gray areas; those things for which we might exercise Christian liberty. I don't want to break fellowship with those of you who disagree with me on this. I don't want us to look down on each other because of our differences.

So, what the poooh am I talking about? Well several of the females in my life have become big fans of the Twilight books. Someone in that population actually questioned whether it was a good thing for Christians to be reading a book about vampires. Naturally, the rest of them are trying to legitimize the books and their infatuation with them. Rather than argue with all of them about it, I've decided to just write my thoughts here and be done with it.

Right off the bat let's establish that the person who said this is not part of the occult is wrong. According to Merriam Webster Online occult is defined as: " matters regarded as involving the action or influence of supernatural or supernormal powers or some secret knowledge of them —used with the ". Clearly, vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, witches, fortune tellers, horoscopes, etc. all fall within the realm of the occult.

So, how should we think about such issues? We should go to God and his word for guidance. Deuteronomy 18:10-13 says, "10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God." In this text God is preparing the Israelites to enter the promised land and is giving them a lot of rules and principles to live by. The tribes that would become the Israelites new neighbors were completely pagan and God knew that if his children picked up any of the pagan practices that it would be to their own detriment. He was trying to keep his children pure for their own good and for the good of his larger plan in the world.

Admittedly, vampires are not specifically in that list. However, the vampire legends and occult practices are in the same vein as these things; especially, the idea of consulting the dead. I know people don't consult vampires, but they fall into that idea that if the dead are interacting with the living it must be a demonic deception.

These kinds of things are condemned in the New Testament as well. Revelation 21:8 says, "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

Many of the things listed in this passage are still practiced today in occult circles. They are essentially ways of investigating the supernatural world or trying to use the supernatural to manipulate the natural. They are all void of God. The only sources available to us regarding the supernatural are God and his angels and Satan and his angels. Since the practices listed here are an abomination to God we must conclude they come from Satan.

The first argument I heard from the Twilight-ophiles was that vampires are not real so this literature cannot be condemned along with the things these verses are condemning. I will admit that is a pretty good argument. Personally, though I don't feel like it works.

First, there might be a sense in which vampires are real. Historians think that the vampire legends got started when people observed corpses that had not decomposed as much as expected. The superstitious people explained this by coming up with ideas about soul-less bodies who had somehow come back to life to torment the living. That may be how the myths came about. But what if there were other cases of demon possession that caused people to behave in ways that we would associate now with "vampire" behavior. After all, Satan is in the business of counterfeiting God. It would be like him to want humans to think he could cause a body to be alive.

Also, we know that there are occult practitioners who have taken the vampire legends and tried to animate them. There are folks who sort of adopt the vampire lifestyle so to speak as part of their spiritual lives. I guarantee you these people are not worshipping God. And as you can see from the verses above, God is not pleased when we substitute other spiritual entities for him because he knows that it will end in our destruction.

So I think that even though vampires are probably not real, the idea of vampires is real. There are people who place vampires above God. In general vampires are representative of evil, they are antithetical to Jesus in most vampire mythology, they represent a demonic rip off of true life and the true God. They are not something to glorify. But can they simply be harmless entertainment? I'll continue rambling about that another day.