MENTOR SHORTAGE

In the last few years before he died, one of the ideas that Scott Adams sought to popularize was the existence and value of certain "Internet Dads". 

These were (mostly) men who use their online presence to disseminate fatherly wisdom rather than outrage. They are influencers, true, but only in the most positive directions. They aren't looking to get rich; they want to spread sanity and propagate critical thinking. 

Adams numbered himself among the Internet Dads. He certainly functioned as such for me. 

Not in a spiritual sense, though, since Adams was an atheist. (Although I would say he was as close to the Kingdom of God as an atheist can get.) Critical thinking and human psychology were his specialties, and he altered my perceptions of reality on a regular basis. 

I've always been a bit jealous of the relationship between the Apostle Paul and Timothy, Paul's "son in the faith". 

If I ever had a father in the faith, it was for a single brief year during college when an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship staff member, Tom Shepherd, took an interest in my budding spiritual life. 

And even now, at 58 years down the path, if I should come across a real-life mentor tomorrow, I would latch on and not let go. 

To be clear, I don't feel as though I were singled out for spiritual neglect - mentorship in the faith is a rare thing in the modern church. 

All of this is to say that the Lord seems to be fostering a genuine passion in me to be a mentor to others at this stage of my life. 

Recently I've taken great joy in some real-life mentoring situations, and it seems to me that in a world largely devoid of spiritual fathers and sons, mentoring can in fact be scalable - through the internet. 

The existing Internet Dads I know of all tend to focus on finances, entrepreneurship, politics and similar secular concerns.

Perhaps there is space for a spiritual Internet Dad. 

BACK IN THE SADDLE

Shout out to my cousin Jennifer who recently reminded me that I had not written on my blog since my birthday in April. 

I didn't intentionally stop writing here - I just got busy and tired and fell out of the habit. 

Plus, I didn't have a particular focus for my writing ever since I threw in the towel on my dissertation work at Christmas. The question which lingered in the aftermath was this: What was the point of my doctoral work if I never get to the degree?

I had started my studies under the conviction that it was God's will that I pursue a Doctor of Ministry through Wesley Biblical Seminary - especially when He arranged for it to be 100% free. 

But then at Christmas this year - four years into the process - I decided that I didn't care to spend hundreds of hours in a library in order to finish. Especially since I felt like I had gained much already AND I'm too old to waste time.

The question then became this: How do I take what I gained as-is and put it to good use for the Kingdom - without writing a formal dissertation?

I'm back at the computer tonight because I went for a 5 mile walk this morning. It was a neighborhood stroll that may turn out to be the most profitable walk of my life. 

The past 5 months of disjointed thoughts and priorities all came together into a much more cohesive picture. 

Cohesive enough that I now have no excuse to continue dragging my feet. 

I will gladly share more tomorrow after a good night's sleep. 

LIFE IS GOOD

Some reflections from this morning on being 58 years and 1 day old:

On some future birthday, I will think that 58 is young. 

I will say, "I remember when I turned 58. I started the day with 170 push-ups and then walked 4 miles in under an hour. And I weighed in at 198.6 pounds - not too bad for someone who is 6'3."

The number on the scale today reminded me that I graduated in 1986 and that this coming summer - if someone gets it planned - I will be attending my 40th high school reunion.

I would like to go to that reunion just to testify that my life has only gotten better and better since those high school days. 

God is good.

My marriage is better than ever. My kids are making me prouder with each passing day. 

Spiritually, I am more alive than ever and have a growing clarity about matters of faith and God's will. The Bible is more fascinating to me than ever.

Physically, I have no major complaints. There's not a single prescription drug in my medicine cabinet. 

When it comes to work, I am generally content. And if I there is any dissatisfaction, it is the useful type, pushing me to seek ways of gaining greater fulfillment in what I am currently doing. 

So, life is GOOD.

All things considered, I give my 50s two thumbs up thus far. 

P.S. Look - I even still have HAIR. I am blessed. 

ASKING HARD QUESTIONS

As pastor of Sardinia Baptist Church, I got a cold call today from a town two hours away - a missionary-to-be looking for financial support to get him and his family to the mission field.

I admired his gumption, but as we talked, I had more and more questions.

Let's call him Joe.

Joe needs to raise roughly $11,000 per month to put his family on the field. That's pretty steep!

And the mission field? 

Hawaii! 

Joe might have an easier time if God was calling him to the French Riviera! At least that would be overseas. 

Joe wants to plant churches there among the local Japanese community.

I asked, "Have you ever planted a church?" 

No.

Are you working to plant a church among the immigrant community where you live right now?

No, but I am very active in my home church.

Are there already churches among the Japanese living on Oahu? 

Yes.

Shouldn't they be the ones planting new churches? Why is an outsider better suited than a local Christian? Could the local believers be trained in church planting by you going on a short-term trip?

There were no good answers for these questions.

I was talking to Melissa over coffee after she got home from school. She had another question I hadn't even thought of:

Why doesn't Joe just take a job in Hawaii and plant a church on the side?

I am all for missions, of course, but my time in Haiti gave me a healthy skepticism when it comes to missionaries and their sending organizations - their competency, motivations, and methods. 

Sometimes missionaries end up on fields where they have no business. And lots of money is flushed down the drain. And damage done to God's Kingdom. 

All because nobody asked the hard questions. 

RIGHT WAY AROUND

We should always be suspicious whenever the church regularly uses language found nowhere in Scripture.

You can look up all the uses of the word "heaven" in the New Testament and not find it to ever be used as part of a phrase like "going to heaven". 

Not once.

You will find one verse which speaks of "ascending to heaven", though. 

It's John 3:13 - "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man."

And maybe you don't want to go there anyway - at least not yet:

2 Peter 3:10-13 - "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

The bad news is ... you aren't going to heaven when you die.

The good news is that heaven is coming to you. (Once everything gets wrapped up.)

Making sure you get this the right way around has more profound ramifications for your theology than you might first suspect.

"Many Christian traditions have seen the ultimate goal of life as being for us humans, somehow, to go and be with God, in heaven. But the great story the Bible tells, from Genesis to Revelation, is about God's purpose and promise to come and live with us." N.T. Wright, God's Homecoming, p.10

NOBODY ASKED ME

A pastor friend and I are engaged in a texting discussion over the nature of salvation. 

In our last exchange he asked:

If someone came to you and asked, "What must I do to be saved from hell, receive eternal life, and be declared righteous before God?" what would you tell them?

I have tried to give this some serious consideration.

But the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous the entire premise became.

I have never been asked this question in the past four decades in which I have taken my faith seriously, and I doubt I will ever hear it the rest of my life.

In fact, I doubt this question has EVER been legitimately asked - unprompted - in the past 2,000 years.

Just look at it:

"What must I do to be saved from hell, receive eternal life, and be declared righteous before God?"

Only people who are ALREADY Christians talk this way. 

No unbeliever asks this question.

Which prompts a question from me - and surely, I am not the first to ask it: 

Why are we promoting a gospel that answers a question nobody is asking? 

SALVATION BEGINS NOW

If a person’s motivation for “believing in” Jesus is avoiding the punishment of hell or gaining the reward of heaven, it’s no wonder that, either way, he or she might need reassurance repeatedly after the big "decision". How many times will they need to be told, "Don't worry, your place in paradise is secure"? 

A certain level of uncertainty is entirely understandable for those who conceive of salvation as belonging entirely to the future. After all, you have the rest of your life to sit and wonder and worry. 

But, biblically speaking, salvation starts now. And that's good news because condemnation had started long, long ago - the moment Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We have all been born outside the Garden of Eden, outside of the direct presence of God. We are sad creatures: made for a particular purpose - to be the image of our Creator - but unable to achieve that purpose because we're bent inward. 

In this state, we are easily manipulated and deceived by the spiritual powers of this world, held in slavery to sin, and subject to death. 

The good news is that our Creator sent his only Son in human flesh to redeem humanity and the entire creation. To rescue us. To put us back on course. 

Ever since Jesus first started preaching the coming (re)establishment of God's Kingdom on earth, people have been challenged to leave behind their sad, but familiar, routine in the dominion of darkness in order to follow the new King into the light. 

And even though each new wannabe citizen of the Kingdom comes with a criminal record, the King has made it possible to wipe every slate clean. If you want in, there's no baggage holding you back. Inside the Kingdom is Life, the way it was meant to be.

One day, when the King descends to earth with all of Heaven, it will be absolutely perfect - no sadness, no sin, no more death. Until then, the citizens carry on the process of redeeming all of earth, in the King's name and through the power of his Spirit. It is exciting, challenging, and dangerous work. The world pushes back.

In Luke 19, Jesus tells Zaccheus, “Today (Now!) salvation has come to this house ... for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the (Previously!) lost.”

This proclamation was prompted when Zaccheus called Jesus "Lord" and then declared his intention to give half his wealth to the poor and to make restitution to anyone he had wronged. 

Nobody in that house - nor Zaccheus nor Jesus Himself - had any reason to doubt Zaccheus's salvation. 

He had already begun living it.