WILLING TO CHANGE

Today I heard a podcast guy say we should feel free to put our opinions out there in public only if we are also willing to change our minds.

Easier said than done.

But what this man said is exactly the way I try to approach putting my opinion out there: "This is what I think, but I may well be wrong." I enjoy a good debate. 

It's rare these days to find someone who reciprocates. Who doesn't go straight to ad hominem attacks. Or go stomping off angry.

If you and I disagree about something, I WANT to hear your side. I EXPECT to hear your side. And I will listen intently.

And sure, I would love to change your mind. But I don't HAVE to. 

And I truly don't expect to.

But I have been known to change my mind. I call it "learning". 

Anyway, the podcast comment reminded me that I should now and then say that this is also my intended approach here. I may sound very opinionated. Because I am. 

But I don't assume I am right about everything. My mind changes.

I welcome pushback. Friction is the only way that iron sharpens iron.

THE LEASH

This morning Ginger yanked the leash out of my hand as we walked out the front door. There was a cat across the street. Ginger went from 0 to 60 in two seconds.

But I yelled "Stop!" and I was stunned when she turned back towards me immediately.

She has come a long way in two years. 

In Haiti, she roamed the mountainside every day while my family and I were at Cap-Haitien Christian School. She knew nothing of leashes. 

Until the day she left Haiti. The first time she ever broke free from a leash was at the airport in Florida. She has a skinny head, so it didn't take her long to discover that if she turned around and backed away from me, her collar would slip off over her head. 

Melissa and I stopped at a Walmart to buy her a harness that wrapped around her chest before we drove north towards Indiana.

Of course, a dog has no clue that the leash is there to keep her close to her owner's side. That it's a dangerous world full of speeding cars. That it's possible to get lost and never find your way back to your family's house.

After a year and a half in Indiana, Ginger loves the leash. When she sees me reach for it, she goes wild. For pure enjoyment, in her mind, there is nothing that even compares to exploring the neighborhood by my side. 

After this morning's incident, I can actually imagine a time when I could unconditionally trust her to walk by my side without the leash. A time when she has become so obedient that she doesn't even need the leash any longer. (A few years from now.)

We could do away with the leash because "by nature" she would be doing what the leash was meant to insure. 

I am just starting a deep dive into the book of Romans and I haven't yet reread Paul's whole discussion of the Law and what role it plays in the believer's life. I - like many others - have always had a hard time wrapping my brain around what he teaches. 

But this morning it occurred to me: maybe God's law is like the leash... 

A RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD

It is not surprising that the Apostle Paul begins the detailed explanation of his theology in Romans with salvation. It is a logical place to start.

He writes, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16a)

But where does Paul go next? Forgiveness? Repentance? Asking Jesus into your heart?

No. Paul continues: "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last." (1:17a)

The opportunity for "a righteousness from God" is at the front-end of Paul's recounting of the good news. 

This is a real righteousness. A righteousness to be lived out in our lives on a daily basis. With God's help.

This is made clear in the rest of the chapter.

The common theology of "I'm not perfect, just forgiven" masks a desire to have a righteousness imputed to us from God (to get us across the finish line and into heaven), but without a genuine lived-out righteousness as well.

The sort of righteousness that steers us away from greed, envy, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, arrogance, disobedience, faithlessness, and heartlessness (verses 29 to 31). 

We dare not neglect this "righteousness from God" that is at the center of the good news we claim to believe. 

HAPPINESS?

In an article entitled "The Happiest Nations on Earth are Strongly Secular", author Phil Zuckerman makes the case that religion isn't necessary for happiness.

Zuckerman is the author of several books. The titles clearly indicate a life devoted to a particular cause: What It Means to be Moral, The Nonreligious, Living the Secular Life, Faith No More, and Society Without God.

Upon examining a list of the happiest countries, the author notes that the majority are thoroughly secular in their mindsets.

To his credit, Zuckerman does acknowledge that "to assert that they are happy because they are secular is not statistically warranted; it would be a bald case of apparent correlation but not proven causation." 

However, Zuckerman continues. "That said, for those who persistently claim that religion is a necessary component of a healthy, happy society – insisting that if religious faith and involvement fade, the results will be deleterious – well, that position is demonstrably untenable; the data presented in this latest World Happiness Report, with highly secular nations consistently holding the top positions, render the argument that society needs religion in order for its citizens to thrive, as simply not true."

"Bible study, church attendance, prayer, faith – clearly such things can decrease and diminish, without causing widespread anguish or depression. Indeed, it seems that just the opposite can be the surprising result."

So the world doesn't need religion?

I see two major flaws with Zuckerman's conclusion.

1) It is extremely shortsighted. "These nations are happy right now, so who needs faith?" Does he anticipate what may come in 2 or 3 decades? 100 years? 

2) It misunderstands the role of salt and light. Who said Christianity produces happiness? 

Peace, yes. Purpose, sure. Even joy. But happiness?

The Apostle Paul wrote, "If our hope in Christ is for this life alone, we are to be pitied more than all men." (1 Corinthians 15:19) Christianity certainly didn't bring 24/7 happiness to Paul.

It brought suffering more than happiness.

But it also brings something more important than happiness. 

It brings Truth. 

SAINTS

 Not long ago I wrote about how often the Bible uses the term "disciple" to designate a follower of Christ and how we tend to prefer "Christian" or "believer".

Here's a New Testament word for a believer that is even less popular than "disciple": Saint.

If calling ourselves "disciples" makes us uncomfortable, the word "saint" makes us positively recoil.

"Oh, I'm no saint," we will say. 

Really? Why not?

The Apostle Paul addresses his letter to the Romans like this: "To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints". (1:7)

To be saints is our calling!

But "saint" doesn't mean "a person who is perfect in every way". 

"Saint" means one who is "set apart by (or for) God, holy, sacred".  

We need to reclaim "saint" in its original meaning. Because as followers of Christ, we ARE set apart for God's purposes. 

If we don't understand that - if we don't live that as our reality - we are in grave spiritual danger. 

SLOPPY PRAISE

I am a walking stereotype of the English teacher who silently judges everyone else's spelling, punctuation, and grammar. It is a heavy cross to bear from day to day.

But it's not just Facebook and email. It's Sunday morning worship too.

In particular, contemporary praise songs. And I am not just talking about typos on the overhead screens. (Our church has a pretty sharp PowerPoint proofreader, so that's a relief.) 

No, I am talking about the lyrics themselves.

It's one more reason for me to prefer the old hymns over the K-LOVE stuff that now dominates American worship services. The old-timers knew their conventions of standard English as well as they knew their theology. Modern Christian lyricists struggle with both.

Here's a test to see if you were paying attention in 8th grade English. What is wrong with the following lyric:

You see it, right? 

You get bonus points if you are able to label "created from dust" specifically as a "misplaced modifier". In other words, its position in the sentence implies it is describing Jesus, who "came and lived among us".

But if you believe Jesus was "created from dust", we need to have a serious talk about your theology. 

Here's another example from a different song. A mess of a stanza:

"Lord, I confess I've been the prodigal,

Made for your house but walked my own roads.

Then Jesus came and tore down my prison walls.

Death came to life

When He called me by name."

I can see at least three problems. 

1) Shift in audience. It starts by addressing God: "Lord, I confess". But then it switches to speaking of Jesus in the third person. Is Jesus not Lord?

2) Mixed metaphor. Is there a prison in the story of the prodigal son? Nope. 

3) Frustrating ambiguity. What in the world does "death came to life" mean? The context implies it is a positive thing, but how can that clause be read in a positive sense? Maybe the author meant "death became life"? I don't know.

Nobody knows.

It's sloppy song-writing. And worship should not be sloppy. 

THANKSGIVING VS. PRAISE

Praise and thanksgiving are quite different.

I find that gratitude is a fairly common and natural part of my prayer life. 

But pure praise? There's an imbalance that I should rectify.

I want to increase the amount of praise in my prayer time because I have come to the conclusion that praise is even greater than thanksgiving.

Gratitude is about our personal experience of God:

"Thank you, Lord, for helping me do well in my job interview."

"Thank you, Father, for healing my grandma."

"Thank you, Jesus, for the food in front of us."

Praise is bigger. Because praise is about God's character overall and not just how he relates to me.

"I praise you, Lord, that you are the Great Physician."

"I exalt you, Father, for your great power and unconditional love."

"I magnify your name, God, because you are King of Kings and Lord of Lords."

In any particular moment, we might not feel like we experiencing God's provision, healing, or guidance, but we can still praise Him for being the Provider, Healer, or Guide.

Because it is who He is, in every moment.

 

MUST BE

The last chapter of Acts begins with Paul and 275 others crawling onto the sands of Malta after enduring weeks of stormy seas and a horrific shipwreck.

The local islanders show "unusual kindness" to these battered men and build a fire to dry them off and warm them up.

When Paul reaches for an armload of brush to add to the fire and a poisonous snake sinks its fangs into his hand, jaws drop all around.

The islanders say to each other, "Can you imagine this guy surviving a shipwreck only to die from a snake bite? Justice is out to get him. He must be a murderer."

But Paul literally shakes it off and warms himself by the fire. 

When he doesn't swell up or fall over dead, the islanders now conclude, 'He must be a god."

We are all susceptible to "must be" thinking. That is, "There is only one possible explanation ... and I know what it is."

This is one form of what author Scott Adams calls "Loserthink". He calls these "must be" conclusions a "failure of imagination". 

Adams writes, "To keep yourself out of mental jail, continually remind yourself that the most likely explanation for many -- if not most -- situations in life is something you didn't imagine." 

To truly understand what was going on with Paul in that moment, the islanders would have needed to read Acts starting from chapter 1, verse 1. Unfortunately, Luke hadn't written it all down yet. 

But even if he had, the islanders - being human - would still have taken the short cut in their reasoning. He must be a murderer. He must be a god.

Pay attention over the next 24 hours to how often your friends, co-workers, and family draw "must be" conclusions about various situations. You'll be astounded.*

(You do it too - it's just so much easier to see in other people.)

God only knows how often our "must be" completely misses the mark ...

__________________________

*And if you want to hear a dozen "must be" conclusions per minute, listen to political pundits.

FACEBOOK FACADE

Yesterday I stalked the Facebook profile of a pastor I used to work with. 

I had heard he had left his wife to move in with another woman. As one might reasonably expect, in doing so he severed the ties between himself and his wife, his children, and his grandchildren.

Apparently he has no contact with any of them.

Since Facebook is the version of our lives we put on display for the rest of the world to see, I confess to having a morbid curiosity about what his "wall" would look like. (We weren't currently friends on Facebook because we were never friends in real life.) 

If it were me, my wall would have gone blank the day I stepped away from the marriage. When you walk away after detonating an emotional bomb in the midst of everyone dearest to you, how do you get onto Facebook with random pictures of your cat ever again?

Yet there he was. With pictures of his pets, selfies while giving blood, and posts taking a moral stand against Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill. 

And a particular post wishing that everybody could find love and friendship like he has. This post is accompanied by a photo of him with a woman I don't recognize. 

After processing my feelings, I can sincerely say I don't stand in judgment of him. 

My heart aches for his wife and children and grandchildren. 

And, ultimately, my heart aches for him as well. If your professed faith in Christ isn't lived out in the relationships with those people closest to you, how can it possibly be real? 

Regardless of how you present it on Facebook. 

ROUGH AND FINAL

This week I am experimenting with my blog writing. 

Instead of only writing late at night, I am quickly typing a rough draft of an idea in the morning and then returning to revise in the evening. 

It shows promise for improving my writing here. And it has opened my eyes to the reality that writing a first draft and writing a final draft of anything are two completely different animals. 

Both animals are necessary. But it's best to put some distance between them.

I should already know this reality - I have taught it many times over the years. But I am a slow learner. 

Even so, when something I have "known" for years finally sinks in to some fundamental level in my soul, I get excited. 

Bad writing has to come before good writing. I am excited. This is finally getting ingrained in me. 

TOO FAR

There are some striking similarities between the Apostle Paul and Jesus. 

Both were constantly on the move, speaking to large crowds. Both regularly angered the establishment. (In fact, the very same people.) Both were frequently threatened with violence and inspired plots against their lives. 

Both were ultimately put on trial with trumped up charges.

But here's a similarity that is not as obvious: Although neither would shy away from speaking the truth that would really get under their audience's skin, they each found certain topics that triggered absolutely murderous reactions. 

For Jesus, the touchy phrase was "Your sins are forgiven". 

For Paul, "God sent me to the Gentiles." 

Acts 22 tells how a Roman commander in Jerusalem gave Paul the opportunity to speak to a crowd of his accusers. So he discussed his Jewish background and related great detail about his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. 

But then Paul said the Lord told him, "Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles" (v.21) and the crowd lost it!

"The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, 'Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!'" (v.22)

How strange that they could handle talk of Jesus being the Messiah, but they drew the line at salvation being offered to Gentiles!

It's a good reminder that as we share Christ with others, a person's reason for rejecting the gospel may not be immediately obvious. And it may not even be what we anticipate. 

But if we listen carefully to their anger, we might discover what their true hang-up is.

HOW TO TURN A CULTURE

Today I dove into my first book about John Wesley. It's a history book covering the state of England's culture before and after the revival that Wesley instigated.

So far, I am neck deep in the "before". That would be the early 1700s.

I have to say, it's pretty shocking stuff. My mental image of British culture is "stiff upper lip" types sipping tea, eating crumpets, and speaking proper English. 

Here's what I don't picture:

• Widespread drunkenness on gin.
• Open corruption among government officials.
• Rat infested prisons.
• A list of 160 offenses for which even children could be publicly executed by hanging.
• Large crowds showing up for those hangings, creating a party atmosphere.
• Three out of every four children in London dying before their fifth birthday.
• Orphanages where babies were intentionally starved to death.
• Brutal forms of entertainment involving deaths of animals.
• And, of course, all the horrors of the slave trade.

As I am reading, here is where my mind goes:

A) Modern American culture is bad, but maybe not as bad as English culture once was. There's hope for us yet.

B) If Wesley had a hand in turning British culture around, it was not primarily through political activism. And it was not exactly through preaching against particular cultural sins.

It was through his efforts at introducing people to Christ AND then developing them as disciples.

Christians today talk a lot about the culture war. 

If we were serious about winning the culture war, we would be devoting more effort to evangelism and discipleship.

STUDYING WESLEY

Amazon brought me some of the books for my second semester classes. It looks like I will be a John Wesley expert soon.

I am (mostly) looking forward to it. I imagine one can learn many useful things from a deep dive on John Wesley's life and his approach to ministry and theology.

I got my M. Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary years ago and talk about Wesley was prominent there, of course. But at the time I was narrowly focused on youth ministry. I may not have paid as close attention to the man as he deserves. 

I know he was smart and sincere about his faith. I know he was methodical about spiritual discipline. Also, he faced a whole lot of conflict in his lifetime, but it never caused him to back down from the work of building the Kingdom that he felt God had called him to.

I am curious to see where my opinion of Wesley and what he accomplished in his lifetime will stand a few months from now. 

WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?

I found myself this morning in Hopkinsville, Kentucky at an organic farming conference. (I will explain later!) You might find this hard to believe but the keynote speaker was absolutely fascinating.

His name is John Kempf and he managed to combine charm, passion, and science. And some of his claims just floored me. 

If they were widely embraced, they would shake up the farming industry here and around the world. Traditional nitrate fertilizer and pesticide companies would take a major hit. 

For instance, Kempf claims that if a plant is healthy (i.e. getting all that it needs from the soil where it finds itself), it will be naturally resistant to disease and insects. Fungus will not take hold. Beetles will not munch on the leaves.

Think of it - Kempf is saying that if farmers manage their soil well, they will have no need of pesticides!

And he has the experimentation and the data to back up his convictions. 

Interestingly, although this conference was as secular as can be, Kempf is a man of faith and, upon seeing a large number of Mennonite and Amish farmers in his audience this morning, took Christians to task for faulty theology that keeps us from properly caring for the earth as we should.

He said he meets too many Christians who believe

1. Man has dominion over the earth.
2. The earth is cursed.
3. It is all going to be burned up someday anyhow. 

And consequently even people of faith don't treat the earth as if it were God's property that we are simply stewarding. 

Even though I am not a farmer, I plan to check out his podcast. Food production and soil management practices affect each of our lives in profound ways, even though they are hidden from our daily consciousness. 

THE DOWNSIDE OF SOCIAL PROOF

I read a fascinating article the other day by Katie Herzog about a professor accused by a colleague of inappropriate behavior. The woman who lodged the complaints got her picture on the cover of Time Magazine as a part of the MeToo Movement.

But four independent (and painstakingly thorough) investigations ruled that the professor did not break any school rules, much less any laws.

The professor was able to keep his job but the destruction of his reputation has made his life miserable.

Recently, years after the original false allegations, Herzog visited campus and found a group of 40 students protesting this professor. They didn't want new students to be unaware of what this professor had "done". 

She asked one of the student organizers if he had ever read any of the 4 reports which exonerated the professor and the student confessed that he had not.

Herzog writes, "What he had read were the articles about it in the media, and what he'd heard were the rumors that trail [the professor] around like an unwanted guest."

Herzog ends her article with this kicker from that same student: "If I hear something from multiple people, I have no reason to doubt it."

It is wise to remember that there is no actual PROOF in "social proof". 

SPONTANEITY II

All good things must come to an end. Our "get away" in Kentucky becomes a lovely memory at checkout tomorrow morning. It has been an outstanding couple of days. 

There have been horses...

And caves. (We enjoyed the extended historic tour at Mammoth Cave yesterday afternoon.)

And campfires in "our" backyard with smores...

And the horses again. Maceo and Spider. 

And walks in perfect springtime weather down deserted country roads...

And more caves. Today we toured Crystal Onyx Cave and it was packed full of interesting formations.

It was a private tour - just the three of us and the guide. She told us EVERYTHING and the tour lasted 30 minutes longer than advertised. 

Happy girl. (We missed the older three, now back at college to finish their semesters.)

Happy couple.

I am predicting the next few months are going to get steadily busier for me. I am looking forward to telling you about some new developments ... life is getting weird. (In a good way!)

I am in uncharted waters and I love it. 

But all that comes in the future. Tonight I am enjoying one last evening of spontaneity. 

THE UPSIDE OF SOCIAL PROOF

"Social Proof" is the label for a commonly experienced human behavior: individuals often outsource decision-making to the crowd. It is a mental shortcut. It replaces "doing your own research". 

Oftentimes it is useful.

You are in an unfamiliar town and you are looking for a good restaurant. You know from past experiences that there are restaurants where the service is bad, where the food is overpriced, where the portions are too small, or where the building wouldn't pass a health inspection. You are hoping to avoid any of that. 

Do you have time to visit the local health department? To gather employment records from each establishment to discern relative employee turn-over rates? To order a small portion of french fries at each spot in order to rank them on taste and value? 

No.

You drive past several restaurants and reject the ones with too few cars in their parking lots. If you have a smart phone, you get onto Google maps and search "restaurants near me" and when the map pops up, you look at the customer ratings for each. You find one that is 4.8 stars and off you go.

Either way, you just outsourced your decision to the crowd because your brain figures the majority is always correct. 

But what about the downside? Does social proof always steer us in the right direction?

SPONTANEITY

On the spur of the moment, Melissa and Sarah and I decided to head south for a few days of spring break.

A whopping 2 and a half hours south. In Horse Cave, Kentucky. We're hoping to explore Mammoth Cave National Park.

Every once in a while spontaneity works. The weird and unexpected thing about today was that it worked over and over again.

Our first impromptu decision was to get lunch at a Haitian restaurant in Louisville, about the halfway point in our drive. 

The rice and beans and creole chicken and fried plantains were awesome. But I think the meal left the three of us all happy-sad. 

Or maybe sad-happy. It was hard to tell.

Anyway, once back on the road it didn't take long before we reached the airbnb house Melissa had located online yesterday. 

The pictures weren't all that appealing, but there weren't too many options in our price range. So we had booked it.

When we walked inside ... Surprise - the pictures didn't do the place justice. It's a cozy little farmhouse. Very comfortable and very "away from it all". 

And it has a couple of friendly horses in the field next door. 

By the time we got settled in, it was late in the afternoon - a little too late to see a cave or any of the other touristy sites, so we decided to make Sarah happy and go rock shopping.

This is Sarah's happy place:

Her Grandma Gross would have approved! Sarah walked out with 5 or 6 new rocks. Pretty easy to make this girl happy.

Back at the farmhouse, Melissa put dinner in the oven and the three of us went walking down the lane.

Gorgeous spring weather. Rolling hills. The slanted light from the setting sun. And a couple of beautiful ladies by my side. 

What could be better?

As for tomorrow? There's no plan. 

Here's hoping it works out half as well as today's lack of planning!

GOD OF THE WIN/WIN

The 20th chapter of Acts finds Paul stopping in Troas for a week of marathon preaching. 

The night before he plans to leave town, he meets with local disciples on the top floor of a 3 story building. And he's got a lot to say. 

He preaches until midnight.

In the lamplight, a young man named Eutychus is sitting on a windowsill, and he's getting drowsy. When he nods off, he tumbles backwards out the window and is dead on impact with the ground below. 

Can you imagine the turmoil as everyone ran down the steps to get to Eutychus?

Paul is among the crowd gathered over the body, and when the boy is pronounced dead, the preacher throws himself on top of the body and puts his arms around him. Then he pronounces, "He's alive!"

Eutychus apparently joins everyone back upstairs to share in communion before Paul continues to preach ... until the sun rises.

Imagine how different it could have been. The whole evening could have lived on in everyone's memory as a tragedy. Everyone would have left shaken and distraught. Some may have even blamed Paul. And what would the death of Eutychus have done to the crowd's faith in God? 

It would have completely overshadowed every last thing that Paul had found so urgent to teach before his departure.

As it turned out, Eutychus's resurrection must have expanded every witness's faith exponentially. It must have reinforced everything Paul had preached about. 

To me, the lesson is this: the Lord has power to turn a Lose/Lose situation into a Win/Win. 

In fact, it's one of His specialties ... especially when human beings are utterly powerless to do so. 

NOT VERY BUSY

All day I have been thinking about my friend's post on Facebook.

She and her husband and their precocious preschooler woke up to falling snow.

My friend's husband said to their little one, "God made each snowflake unique, Lydia. What does that tell you about God?"

To which Lydia replied: "That He's not very busy today."

A small reminder that two people can look at the same circumstances and yet draw very different conclusions!

DISCIPLES

The term is used 26 times in the book of Acts.

For instance:

The number of disciples was increasing. (6:1)

The Twelve gathered all the disciples together. (6:2)

Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. (9:1)

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. (9:10)

A disciple named Tabitha. (9:36)

A disciple named Timothy. (16:1)

The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (13:52)

The disciples would not allow Paul to appear before the crowd. (19:30)

And 16 of the 26 come after this particular reference:

The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. (11:26)

The word "Christian" only appears here and one other time in Acts (26:28) and once in 1 Peter (4:16). 

So ... a couple of questions: Why do we in modern times refer to ourselves almost exclusively as "Christians" and so seldom as "disciples"?

How did "disciple" fall out of use?

And what did we lose when we lost the term "disciple"?

FRICTION 2

Of course I am not saying that ALL friction is the result of us dutifully following God's will. We can certainly bring conflict into our lives by our own mistakes and our own sinful behaviors and attitudes. Plenty of conflict. 

But we should never assume that someone battling through conflict is necessarily outside God's will or responsible for "bringing it upon himself".  

FRICTION

As I have slowly read through Matthew and now Acts, it is really striking just how much conflict and controversy was generated by the preaching of God's Kingdom and, later, the preaching of Jesus as the Christ.

Ridicule. Mockery. Beatings. Stonings. Shunnings. Imprisonment. Crucifixion. 

In fact, I am forced to conclude that any true Kingdom work is going to result in conflict and controversy, even today. 

Why wouldn't it? Humans are naturally resistant to God's will. Even fellow believers. Even you and me!

If we weren't, why would we be instructed to pray on a regular basis that the Father's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven?

When I was younger - and less familiar with the Bible - I figured times of smooth-sailing were proof of God's blessing. The evidence that I was at the center of God's will.

These days I can't really imagine carrying out God's will in any meaningful way without it bringing conflict and controversy. At least in spurts. 

As the Kingdom of God advances, there is always going to be powerful friction in the opposite direction - from both inside us and outside us. From believers and non-believers. From individuals as well as structures. 

If we hope to serve God in a meaningful way, we need to be ready to face the conflict that comes our way. 

We need not run from it.

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; 

be strong!" - 1 Corinthians 16:13

RE-BAPTIZED

I was baptized as a baby ... some 53 years ago.

I am too old to act on the thought now, but in my younger days I often considered getting "re-baptized". 

I wanted to be baptized on the basis of my own choice. I wanted to make my own profession of faith. 

Over the years I heard a few pastors say that getting re-baptized was not a problem, but most seemed to stand firmly against it. 

Your baptism was "a one-time thing" and is unrepeatable.

It seems funny to me now, but I don't remember anyone trying to make a Scriptural case for or against it. (Although I did hear arguments against infant baptism in general.) 

Then I came across Acts 19:1-7. 

IF I desired to make a case FOR re-baptizing, this is the passage I would turn to. 

Chapter 19 opens with Paul coming into Ephesus and finding a dozen disciples there. He asks if they have received the Holy Spirit and they reply, "Huh?"

So Paul asks, "Then what baptism did you receive?"

Their response? "John's baptism". 

Now John's baptism would have been public and it would have involved getting dunked in water.

But Paul says, "John's baptism? That was about repentance. He told people to believe in the one coming after him, Jesus." 

THEN HE BAPTIZES THEM "into the name of the Lord Jesus"! (19:5)

Afterwards, Paul lays hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit and begin speaking in tongues and prophesying. 

So couldn't one argue from this that in Paul's mind it was essential that those being baptized understood what they were testifying to? It's obviously more than water and more than ritual. 

And doesn't Paul demonstrate that if those who have been baptized previously didn't "get it" the first time a re-do is in order?

What do you think?

FREE THE INMATES

In his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams describes a medical issue he had in the early 2000's. It caused him to lose his voice entirely. 

Eventually he was diagnosed with a rare condition called spasmodic dysphonia. 

For two years he was silent. He was told there was no cure. 

These days he spends nearly an hour speaking solo on his podcast each day. Literally 7 days a week. 

His attitude about what he was going to do with his healing is what caught my eye:

"I decided that after I cured myself, somehow, some way, I would spread the word to others. I wouldn't be satisfied simply escaping from my prison of silence; I was planning to escape, free the other inmates, shoot the warden, and burn down the prison." (p.83)

Now as believers we don't "cure ourselves", but imagine if each individual set free from the curse of sin and death would take the same attitude! 

Free the other inmates! Burn down the prison!

1,000

My first post on this blog was written on November 7th, 2010.

It was a few weeks after I returned from my first trip to Haiti. Melissa and I were feeling the call to move our family there. I wasn't sure what to do next, but I knew I needed to lighten the load. I had to get rid of some stuff.

So I decided that each day I was going to find something around the house to either give away, throw away, or sell. And I would document it on a daily basis. 

It made for an interesting ongoing experience (for me, anyway) and resulted in the daily documentation of all sorts of weird possessions that I was ready (usually) to part with. 

Anyway, that's where I started. It's been a wild 11.5 years. 

Today, Blogspot tells me that this is my thousandth post.

I am celebrating by drinking 30 milliliters of Nyquil and going to bed. 

And tomorrow I will write #1,001.  

SPRING BREAK

Not much to say tonight. Just grateful to have Caleb and Hannah and Samuel all home for spring break the same week. 

Unfortunately, while the three college students have their break this coming week, Sarah's high school doesn't start its break until the following week. 

It would have been nice to travel somewhere together as a family, stay in a big hotel and eat at restaurants all week.

BUT, I wouldn't give up our crowded little house, burgers on the grill, and sitting around the fire pit on the back deck with some extra friends.

And that was today.

And today was so good.

Thank you, Lord! I have all that I need to be content.

SOAP

Maybe even better than re-living all my favorite novelty songs from my childhood on Spotify was discovering some songs I had never heard before by some of my favorite artists - many long dead and gone.

Allan Sherman died young - 48, I think. You might not recognize the name but maybe you remember his most famous song - the one about an unhappy boy at summer camp: Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah. (If you haven't heard of it, where have you been? It's got its own Wikipedia page!) It made it to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 List in 1963 - only kept from the #1 spot by Stevie Wonder. 

Anyway, on Spotify I came across one of Sherman's songs I had never heard before. It was set to the tune of Chim Chim Chiree and it reminded me of something else I always appreciated about novelty music as a genre...

Novelty music has always been a great place for social commentary. I appreciate humorists who can get me laughing while also getting across an important truth.

Sherman's Chim Chim Chiree is about advertising and how easily we fall for what the world is selling us. The last stanza was my favorite*:

I've lived all my life

In this weird wonderland -

I keep buying things

That I don't understand,

Cause they promise me miracles,

Magic and hope,

But somehow it always 

Turns out to be soap.

More relevant today than ever! 

___________________________

* It's even better if you conjure up the melody as you read the lyrics - especially the way the tune puts an emphasis on the word "soap". Brilliant!

NOVELTY SONGS

Since I am primarily working from home now, I recently went looking for something to break up the silence of the house. 

(I mean besides Sugar and Ginger's incessant barking at anything that moves outside the living room window.) 

I was excited to see there was a free version of Spotify, as I had always assumed it was a paid app. 

There was one outcome of checking out Spotify that should not have surprised me: I went down a music rabbit hole. 

When I was a kid - I have no recollection how it started - my musical genre of choice was not oldies, rock, country, gospel, or classical.

It was novelty songs.

Songs like Purple People Eater. The Monster Mash. Disco Duck. Ahab the Arab. The Witch Doctor.

Artists like Ray Stevens, Allan Sherman, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones, Roger Miller, and Julie Brown. And later, absolutely anything by Weird Al Yankovic.

I guess I appreciated how these artists poked fun at a music industry that was too often incredibly self-serious. (As our culture entered the era of Boy George and Madonna.) 

And maybe also how they took their musical abilities, their lyrical talents, and their moments in the spotlight and used them to make people laugh rather than make themselves rich. (Although a few did both.)

There's something really admirable about that. 

ASH WEDNESDAY

Come Ash Wednesday, Melissa and I find ourselves wishing we were part of a church that was a bit more ... liturgical.

Did the modern American church have to jettison ALL tradition in order to be cool and contemporary?

And out of all the seasons on the Christian calendar, why did we preserve Advent alone? (And am I being overly critical or does it often feel like Advent is just the churchy equivalent to "only 4 more shopping weeks until Christmas"?)

Anyway, it would be nice to see an Ash Wednesday service on our church calendar, but there isn't one. I don't suppose there are too many left out there. 

But I suppose that Lent was always a tough sell, being the season of "repentance" and all. 

As a modern American Christian, I am not too keen on the idea that I have any repenting to do. 

How about you?

Maybe that's why we need Lent back on our calendar...

A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT

I have spent the last month fretting over a research paper for one of my classes. The prof is a tough grader and it has been a long time since I wrote a 10 to 12 page paper. In recent days, I have made massive changes to the structure of the whole thing - I go round and round on the order of the sections.

I had made a commitment to myself that I would go back and look at the professor's comments on my previous papers to get an idea of what to improve for this one.

But that made me nervous. (Even though I got an A on the last two - insecurities run deep.) 

So I procrastinated on looking at the comments.

Now the paper is due at midnight tonight, it is 8:00 am, and I finally decided it was now or never for looking at comments. 

I scrolled all the way through the pages and saw no comments ... except at the bottom of the last page.

"Well done. A!"

And all of a sudden I have renewed energy for finishing this paper off and getting it submitted...