Posted by David on July 21, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
For over forty years communication has been the center of my work. Teaching relies on communication. To me, preaching is teaching. Teaching communicates insights and understandings. Communication does more than transfer information. Communication also shares the insights and understandings information produces. No, I am not a master communicator. I am a student who hopes to continue learning.
I frequently am reminded that communication is a challenging, demanding, low success rate commitment. Why?
Some people hear what they expect to hear.
Some people listen when they decide beforehand the information will be relevant.
Some people hear to react rather than listen to comprehend.
Some people fear information they have not considered.
Some people are intimidated by old information that is new to them.
Some people listen to advance understanding.
None of this is new. The Old Testament and the Gospels speak of people who illustrate each observation. Most people misunderstood Jesus. His own disciples struggled with some of his teachings and actions. Yet, he still taught and did the things they did not understand. Why? He lived and taught to be people’s window to God.
We Christians teach to be windows to Jesus. When we point people toward an understanding of Jesus, Jesus points them to an understanding of God. The best picture of God the Father is seen in Jesus’ life and teachings.
The following are not intended as criticisms, but as illustrations. (1) Several told me they heard excellent things about my son Jon’s seminar/interaction sessions on personality types Saturday morning. Some said, “I am sorry I did not come –I did not know I could.” (2) I recently have heard several reports from people who did not know “Peak of the Week” occurs each Wednesday night. (3) For years I have been amazed at what some say I said in a lesson [both good and bad statements].
Communicating is difficult. Why? (1) Sharing unfamiliar information is difficult. (2) Sharing unfamiliar insights is equally (maybe more so?) difficult.
Two thousand years ago Jesus quoted a prophet’s writings. The prophet lived hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth. Jesus used the quotation to explain his use of parables. “With their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:15). Communication always has been difficult, even for Isaiah and Jesus.
Posted by David on July 14, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
Most of life’s realties are complicated. One such reality is Christian relationship. It is easy to say we should love each other as God loves each of us. It is hard to love. It is easy to say that the forgiveness we each extend should reflect God’s forgiveness. It is hard to forgive. It is easy to say each person has equal spiritual worth to God. It is hard to look at others as having “equal spiritual worth.”
It is simple to justify our attitudes and behavior by declaring God’s expectations are “unattainable goals” or “ideals rooted in perfection.” Christian attitudes and behavior are rooted in God’s ideal, perfect nature. However, that fact does not excuse ungodly attitudes and behavior in Christian interaction. To say, “Oh well, after all I am just human,” misses the point of being Christian. A Christian, by choice and desire, seeks to “partake of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). What a commitment!
Godly relationships come hard for us. We are prone to be arrogantly condescending or intimidated, to be a selfish victimizer or a fearful victim, to exude superiority or to radiate weakness, to assert privilege or to accept worthlessness, to domineer or to be filled with anxiety. When we are “stuck in the middle” of one of those migrations, we become frustrated, angry, and resentful.
Any of those attitudes results in behavior that negatively impacts godly relationships. In fact, godly relationships require us to grow beyond ungodly attitudes and behavior. Only God makes such growth possible. For God to make such growth possible, we must be honest with ourselves and God about ungodly attitudes.
It is hard to be a godly spouse, a godly parent, a godly child, a godly friend, a godly employer/employee, a godly neighbor, or a godly stranger. Godliness in those situations requires godly relationships. It is more than a matter of “what I believe” or “what I am.” It is also a matter of “how I treat others.” The “being” part is hard. The “treating others” part is even more difficult.
Christians must understand what it means to be “individually members of one another” (Romans 12:5). If a person is committed to godliness, God has no preference for personality types. Why? God has use for each of us. Regardless of personality type, each person devoted to godliness is the product of the Creator who designed us in His image and likeness. Devotion to God should prepare us to relate to each other.
Posted by David on July 7, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
The church created and sustains this misconception: salvation is simple. From that misconception too many Christians disastrously over-simplify salvation. “I do my part, God does His part, and salvation is a done deal. It is quite simple. Do what you are supposed to do and God does what He is supposed to do.” The concept: “my” part is baptism and church attendance.
The core of “my” salvation involves God, Jesus Christ, God’s Spirit, and “me” on a continuing basis. Apart from the core are other factors. Some factors encourage “me” toward God: Christian fellowship, godly examples, maturing in understanding God’s word, maturing in understanding God’s will and purposes, and maturing in identifying good and evil. Some factors encourage “me” toward evil: temptation, victimization by ungodly forces, hungers to indulge physical desires, false concepts of security, and a world that says many forms of evil are good.
Salvation involves an event of coming to God. God’s power in a specific moment transitions “me” from Satan’s kingdom and rule to God’s kingdom and rule. However, the event begins “my” salvation and marks only the beginning of a lifelong commitment and relationship with God through Christ.
For salvation to be reality, several things must occur. If in faith “I” respond to what God did in Jesus’ death, God gives me the gift of salvation (Ephesians 2:4-10). God always is the source of power; “I” never am (Ephesians 3:20, 21). “I” respond to God’s offer. The power that provides “me” a saved relationship with God is always from God, never “me.”
“I” choose God as “my” ruler instead of the forces of evil (Romans 6). “I” place the resurrected Jesus as Lord of “my” entire existence (1 Peter 3:14-16). “I” remain acutely aware of what God did and does for “me.” In obedience surrender, “I” use all of “my” life to serve God’s purposes. “I” never reduce this merely to rules and regulations. It is a whole life commitment that allows God to remake “me” (Ephesians 4:20-24).
This remaking [transformation] is a cooperative project between God and “me.” “I” give Him “my” mind to remake and to focus on His will (Romans 12:1,2). He through His Spirit lives in “my” life. From the moment of “my” forgiveness, His presence [Spirit] is His gift to “me” (Acts 2:38). In cooperation with His presence in “my” life, “I” grow to be a different person as “I” permit the Spirit to bear fruit in “my” life (Galatians 5:22-24). “My” body is His presence’s temple (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). When Christ returns, “I” will be judged by “my” appreciative service to God who allows Jesus to be “my” Savior (2 Corinthians 5:10). In every consideration, God provides “me” salvation as a gift. “I” responsibly surrender and cooperate with God as He transforms “me.”
Posted by David on June 30, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
Everyone looks for peace. People look for it in different places. Everyone wants peace. The only people who abandon that search are convinced they cannot have it. Because of this conclusion, they settle for forms of temporary escape from the moment’s struggles.
For what is everyone looking? Because “peace” is one word, many are convinced that everyone looks for the same thing. That conviction deceives. It is not unusual for people’s concepts of peace to differ radically.
Some people’s concept of peace is focused on “me.” “Peace is having no one hassling me about anything–including my wife, my husband, my children, my parents, my brothers and sisters, my neighbors, my friends, my boss, or my fellow workers.” Peace is having the freedom that permits “me” to do anything “I” want to do without others bothering “me.”
Some people’s concept of peace focuses on needs. “I never am caught up! My husband needs too much! My wife needs too much! My kids need too much! Everyone who impacts my life needs too much! For me, peace would be escaping all these needs!”
Concepts of peace multiply: the absence of conflict; the absence of violence; the absence of grief; the absence of guilt; forgetting the past; not fearing the future; escaping sickness; eliminating conflict between the important people in my life; significantly reducing hate, greed, and inhuman treatment of others in our society or our world; etc.
All these concepts of peace frequently share a common denominator. This is the concept: peace is the absence of struggle. Our definitions of struggle vary greatly. Often peace destroys or resolves the source of our struggles.
Were I to form a list of Bible people who had peace, high on that list would be Jesus and Paul. I use them now because of their contrast. Jesus experienced the struggles produced by his disciples’ small faith, the Pharisees’ opposition, people’s poor focus on life, misrepresentations, and temptation. His death was violent, misunderstood, and lonely.
Paul’s pre-Christian past was horrible. His post-Christian reality was filled with conflict and danger. Often those who benefited most from his sacrifices caused his greatest grief.
Yet, each man had an enormous sense of personal peace. How could they endure such struggle and have such peace? Simple — peace is not the absence of struggle. Peace is found in an eternal relationship with God that gives life an indestructible meaning. In God, you gain identity. In God, you live for eternal values. That is peace’s foundation.
Posted by David on June 23, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
You know the feeling, don’t you? You have it often, don’t you? Sometimes, maybe weekly? Sometimes, maybe daily? Regardless of frequency, each of us DO experience such feelings! We all do! This is NOT one of those “once in a lifetime” experiences!
When do you have this feeling? What situations create the ‘overwhelmed’ feeling? For many of us, examining our whats should be an enlightening challenge. What goes on in our minds [our thinking] and our hearts [our emotions] to open the door to our ‘overwhelmed’ feelings? Listing the situations that generate that feeling likely will produce two reactions — insight and fear.
First make the list. Initially, do not try to categorize the experiences. Just finish this sentence: “I feel ‘overwhelmed’ when ?” Be honest with yourself. God already knows the what and the why of ‘overwhelmed’ feelings. Only we [as individuals] will see our list [unless we make it available to others]. Since God already knows our what and why, and since it is a “for our eyes only” list, the only deception at risk is self-deception.
All forms of deception are horrible, but perhaps no form of deception has as many consequences as does self-deception. One cruel consequence of self-deception is the ‘overwhelmed’ feeling. [Self-deception is not the only cause of the ‘overwhelmed’ feeling. For example, trying to do too much also produces that feeling.]
After you make your complete list, place your causes in categories. Do you see a pattern? Do you see inter-relationships among your categories? Do you place pressure on yourself in your attempts to please others? Are you trying to make yourself indispensable by being too helpful to be rejected or ignored? Are you trying to control others through your ‘overwhelmed’ feelings? Are you trying to prove something? If you are, what are you trying to prove and to whom? Do you pretend you are proving something to yourself when you really are seeking others’ approval? Are you trying to escape an internal, mental label that haunts you? Are you giving control to unreasonable people with unrealistic demands?
Paul comforted Christians in Philippi with these words: (Philippians 4:7) And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Proper knowledge of God generates peace. Know God, and find peace. ‘Overwhelmed’ feelings are not rooted in a healthy relationship with the God of peace.
Posted by David on June 16, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
We often consider appetite to be a curse. It can be destructive, but it more commonly blesses. Appetite loss is a symptom of numerous unhealthy conditions. No appetite is the symptom of serious health problems. Good health includes a healthy appetite.
Regarding appetite, physical well being and spiritual well being share much in common. In a sermon, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).
His statement is part of a list called the beatitudes. Often studies of this list focus on individual beatitudes without first seeing the overall picture. While the study of each beatitude is beneficial, it is essential to see the overall picture the beatitudes, together, draw. Jesus verbally pictured healthy dedication to godly existence.
In healthy dedication to godliness, spiritual appetite serves an essential role. A satisfied appetite for righteousness results from hungering and thirsting for righteousness. If there is no appetite for godly existence, one will not experience spiritual health.
Spiritual “junk food” cannot produce spiritual health. Declaring spiritual “junk food” to be “God’s healthy diet” cannot produce spiritual health. Our appetite must be for righteousness. It cannot be an appetite for (a) the past, (b) a defense of traditional forms, (c) a promotion of preferences, (d) an advocacy of “my” conclusions, or (e) fads. It must hunger for God’s priorities and purposes.
Have you examined your spiritual health lately? How is your spiritual appetite? For what do you hunger? What satisfies you? Do you hunger for a deeper understanding of Jesus? Do you hunger to pray? Do you hunger to study the Bible? Do you hunger to allow Jesus actually to be Lord of your life on a daily basis? Do you hunger to encourage God’s Spirit as he encourages you?
Do you have little or no spiritual appetite? Do you distance yourself from God? Is spirituality primarily appearing at some church building on Sunday morning? Do you enjoy being “away” from Christians? Do you handle crises alone? Is prayer a last resort? Are God’s purposes consciously excluded from your decisions? Do “fun times” occur with people who do not care about God? Do you consider godly matters boring?
A healthy appetite for righteousness includes (a) awareness of God’s accomplishments for us in Jesus’ death; (b) life’s deepest sense of indebtedness; (c) a profound grief for the evil in us; (c) a constant realization of dependence on God; and (d) the joy of salvation combined with the fulfillment of freedom from evil because of Christ’s forgiveness.
Posted by David on June 9, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
The Bible study of Christian ethics studies the principles and concepts that are godly behavior’s foundation. The Bible study of Christian morality studies the behavior those principles and concepts produce. The mature Christian accepts those principles and concepts and applies them to each situation encountered in his or her life. Living a godly life is much more than yielding to a set of rules and regulations.
Serious Bible teachers experience the same frustration. The frustration: many Christians view godly principles and concepts as hypothetical. To them, these principles and concepts are not intended to deal with the actual. They are intended only for the hypothetical. These principles and concepts become hypothetical when reality challenges them. Maturing in Christ-like perspectives is demanding! The highway to that maturity confronts many question marks and temptations.
Years ago [in another city] I was physically assaulted in a public parking lot in the early afternoon in the full view of pedestrians and passing motorists. The situation was completely unexpected. Instantly the hypothetical became the actual.
To be physically assaulted is unnerving. To be assaulted because someone who knew you disagreed with you is very unnerving. To remain seated on the wet ground while someone stands over you, cursing you, doing all is his power to anger you, wanting you to fight him is indescribably strange. Every sense of physical security vanished!
Were Jesus’ teachings hypothetical? When an actual situation challenged Christ’s principles and concepts, were those principles and concepts real? Or, were they just thoughts concerning hypothetical situations?
We emphasize godly principles and concepts that easily can be focused on the hypothetical. Often those principles and concepts do not become mental and spiritual tools that exist to deal with reality. Real life and spiritual life become unrelated realities.
How do spouses treat spouses in a crisis? How do parents work with children in the face of serious trouble? How do children react to parents when real oppression exists? How do Christians treat each other when there is strife in a congregation? How do we react to enemies in or out of the Christian community? How do the godly act when the ungodly oppress them? When evil is in control, how do those who are in Christ react?
Do Christians use evil’s tools to confront evil? That is never a hypothetical question. It is a real life decision. From earliest Christianity, it always has been. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
Posted by David on June 2, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
In everyone’s life, a person once close to us deeply wounded, insulted, and offended us. For any person to “be nice” because he or she concluded it was the “right thing to do” is an offensive, detestable, obnoxious act. In a relationship, when “I” am not valued as a person, “I” am deeply offended and feel horribly exploited.
The deeper the relationship “I” thought “I” shared with the offender, the more offensive his or her act is. When anyone is intimately involved in a deeply personal relationship with a person who treats us in that manner, we are deeply offended and wounded. Love quickly becomes disgust. What were joyful acts become contemptible acts that produce disgust. Additional “acts of kindness” performed as “the right thing to do” are now contemptible behavior [a significant reason for the difficulty in restoring broken marriages.]
Can you explain key differences between Jehovah God and idols? Consider one of the many. God emphasized this key difference to Israel in the ten commandments: “I am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). This is stated in God’s rejection of idolatry. Understanding God being “jealous” is directly related to understanding why idolatry insults God.
Idolatrous gods were typically capricious, disinterested, easily offended, and had to be pacified to keep them happy or to receive their favor. Jehovah God is attentive to His people, not capricious. He is patiently interested in our existence. Our challenge is to maintain a profoundly appreciative, respectful love relationship with Him, not to pacify Him. The more one realizes the magnitude of God’s love, the more he or she loves God.
In Hosea 6:1-3, Hosea informed Israel they genuinely had upset God. God was disgusted with them! They reacted to God as if He were an upset idol. “We must calm God down! He is upset with us, but if we just do the right things He will settle down. In fact, He will be nice to us. That is certain!” The result: their attitude deepened the alienation by increasing the insensitivity of their insult.
We should belong to God! He made us! He is our origin physically and spiritually! Humanity began in a deeply personal relationship with God (Genesis 1:8). God wants that relationship back! He does not want us to tolerate Him, or pacify Him, or put up with Him! He wants us to love Him in the manner He loves us!
When in our lives or worship, we lovelessly, faithlessly “go through the motions” to keep God from being “upset with us,” we infuriate God. Our acts, though perhaps correct within themselves, are a profound insult. Have you read Isaiah 1:11-17 lately? Surely, we always must seek to do the right things. Yet, our faith must never be in what we do. Our faith must always be in the God we love.
May we never seek to pacify God. May we ever love God — more and more!
Posted by David on May 26, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
The essence of a Christian leader’s task is to confront evil’s devastation with God’s hope. Through Jesus Christ, God can redeem and deliver anyone from the evil’s devastation. Jesus Christ provides God’s hope to any person–including those who exist in the blackness of despair’s deepest pit. The deepest darkness makes Jesus’ light shine brightly. Through an amazing contrast, evil’s darkness highlights God’s love!
My problem: I forget that truth. I confess without hesitation that evil consumes me. Surely I could give a long list of ungodly things I have never done. I also could give a long list of ungodly things I do not do. I could give a lengthy list of “good” things I do. I could give a significant list of spiritual understandings that bless me with an increased spiritual maturity.
Yet, when my mind and emotions are contrasted with Jesus’ life and heart, those lists become meaningless. Jesus reminds me that evil invades every area of my existence.
Spiritual growth produces at least two amazing experiences. First, the more Christians grow toward God, the more aware they become of their evil. Second, the more mature Christians become in Christ, the more they realize their complete dependence on God’s grace. They continually are amazed at God’s vast forgiveness because they continually are amazed at the vastness of their own evil.
Incredibly, we expect others in Christ to have no evil. Evil in the godless amazes us. Evil in the uncommitted shocks us. But evil in Christians disillusions us. We readily admit that evil exists in us. We readily admit dependence on God’s forgiveness. Yet, we are convinced evil should not [must not!] exist in other Christians.
I forget that God’s greatest opportunities are produced by evil’s darkest moments: Israel’s slavery in Egypt; Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal; Daniel’s encounter with the lions; Jesus’ crucifixion; Paul’s sufferings; John’s exile.
God calls us to be His church because evil is FORGIVEN. When evil preys on your weaknesses, you do not need my contempt. You need my encouragement in Christ. When evil preys on my weaknesses, I do not need your contempt. I need your encouragement in Christ. We share forgiveness and hope because we experience forgiveness and hope.
Posted by David on May 19, 2002 under Bulletin Articles
Who can exaggerate the importance of high school senior year experiences? So much happens “for the last time.” The senior has been in school two-thirds of life with his or her life evolving around school. If that experience occurred at one place in one school system, he or she spent two-thirds of life (to that point) associating with a core group of acquaintances and friends. Graduation “destroys” that association by sending people in all directions. Every event of the senior year is a “bigger than life last time occurrence.”
Eons ago, when I was a senior in a small high school (with less than 20 graduating seniors), an event of enormous importance involved class rings. Many families faced stressed finances. Only seniors ordered rings. The school placed those orders. The rings’ arrival was a moment of enormous importance! No senior should be denied the “right” to have a class ring! This “forever” possession was an essential “right of passage” to be worn a lifetime. I suspect some families made big financial sacrifices to purchase a ring.
I wonder how long most people wore their rings? For years mine slumbers somewhere out-of-sight. Have you seen anyone older than 30 wearing a high school class ring? Perhaps, but it is not common.
Was that ring truly important? That depends on when you ask the question. If you ask a senior (at least when I was 18), yes, it was. At that age, it was life’s essential possession. Decades later, it was not life’s essential possession–no way!
For many years, with me (and I suspect for many others), it has been an unimportant possession. In the past forty plus years, my life (and yours) has faced many “new” realities. “New” realities diminished the importance of the ring’s reality. The value of the ring did not change. New realities changed my perception. The ring’s significance diminished because its place on the list of life’s realities changed.
This understanding does not focus on the possessions and events of high school seniors. It focuses on total life events and possessions at every age. The ultimate event will be meeting God “face to face.” When this occurs, how many “urgent” and “extremely important” physical matters instantly will become insignificant?
By the way, have you looked at your high school yearbook lately?
Congratulations to our seniors! Seniors, for you, life is beginning, not ending!
