Ain’t No Shame

Every once in awhile a little rant is called for. So here’s mine.
What ever happened to being called a Christian? Did I miss the ecumenical council that decreed the phrase “Christ follower” or “Jesus-disciple” be used for churchgoers under the age of 40? Of course, there’s nothing wrong with calling yourself a “Christ follower” or a “Jesus-disciple.” You can be a part of “Team Jesus” or walk in the “way of Rabbi Yeshua” if that floats your boat. There are plenty of justifiable phrases to go around.
Provided we don’t pick our phrases in order to avoid necessary unpleasantries.
I understand that “Christian” may feel stale, and that it carries baggage with some people. But the label is biblical (Acts 11:26). And the baggage is sometimes unavoidable. If you want to be a “follower of Jesus” instead of a “Christian” because the former implies only ethical emulation, while the latter suggests doctrinal and institutional commitment, then you need to check your motives not the baggage. Again, I don’t have a problem using “disciple of Jesus” to spice things up a bit. A phrase like that may even be prudent in extreme situations of persecution. But if we in North America are using it just to be trendy, or to gut Christianity of its theological center, or to simply avoid being one of those guys, we should really take a deep breath and learn to live with a term that’s been around since first century Antioch.
And while I’m at it, we should also be careful that we don’t make everything about “Jesus.” (Wait a second, did he just say that?!) Let me explain. I love Jesus. I love to pray to Jesus. I love to say the name “Jesus” in my sermons, a lot. I talk about following Jesus, worshiping Jesus, believing in Jesus, and having a big, glorious Jesus. No apologies necessary for saying “Jesus.” But then one time an older member of our congregation asked why I didn’t say “Christ” more often. I had never really thought about it before. I guess “Jesus” just packs a little more punch, has a little more edge, sounds a little fresher than Christ or Lord or the Son of God.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with referencing “Jesus.” The gospels do it a whole bunch. But we must not forget–and we must help our younger listeners remember–that we are not merely followers of a man named Jesus. We worship the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are disciples of this man Jesus, but this man is also our Savior and God. He is, after all, more than a carpenter.
Following Jesus is a movement. Believing in Christ is a faith. Let’s make sure we don’t have the first sentence without the second.
Don’t ditch the name that marks us out as his. Ain’t no shame in being called a Christian.
Kevin DeYoung

Antipsalm 23 vs. Psalm 23 - Part 1

David Powlison writes an Antipsalm 23:

I'm on my own.
No one looks out for me or protects me.
I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing's quite right.
I'm always restless. I'm easily frustrated and often disappointed.
It's a jungle — I feel overwhelmed. It's a desert — I'm thirsty.
My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can't fix myself.
I stumble down some dark paths.
Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.
But life's confusing. Why don't things ever really work out?
I'm haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.
I fear the big hurt and final loss.
Death is waiting for me at the end of every road,
but I'd rather not think about that.
I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort.
I'm alone ... facing everything that could hurt me.
Are my friends really friends?
Other people use me for their own ends.
I can't really trust anyone. No one has my back.
No one is really for me — except me.
And I'm so much all about ME, sometimes it's sickening.
I belong to no one except myself.
My cup is never quite full enough. I'm left empty.
Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?
Sartre said, "Hell is other people."
I have to add, "Hell is also myself."
It's a living death,
and then I die.

Powlison writes:

The antipsalm tells what life feels like and looks like whenever God vanishes from sight. As we hear about Garrett and the others, each story lives too much inside the antipsalm. The "I'm-all-alone-in-the-universe" experience maps onto each one of them. The antipsalm captures the driven-ness and pointlessness of life-purposes that are petty and self-defeating. It expresses the fears and silent despair that cannot find a voice because there's no one to really talk to.

. . . Something bad gets last say when whatever you live for is not God.

And when you're caught up in the antipsalm, it doesn't help when you're labeled a "disorder," a "syndrome" or a "case." The problem is much more serious: The disorder is "my life." The syndrome is "I'm on my own." The case is "Who am I and what am I living for?" when too clearly I am the center of my story.

Gran Torino

I took my daughter Jessica to see Gran Torino yesterday and I was impacted more the 2nd time I saw the movie. Some people may be put off by the language but I can remember my dad's friends and the men who worked at his shop, Freer Industries talk exactly the same way. There is a strong message that can be easily turned towards the gospel in this movie. Men of Clint Eastwood's generation and anyone who has worked in an auto plant or shop can relate.

What's Really Permanent

"Therefore my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain"
1 Corinthians 15:58

Just think, if Christmas didn't really happen, if God didn't really become human, if Christmas is just some kind of nice story, then the joy of Christmas, all the partying and celebrating is only temporary but the suffering of this world is permanent.

But if Christmas really happened, and God really became a human being at Christmas, and He broke into this world to redeem us, then the suffering of this world is only temporary and the joy of the new heavens and the new earth and the city of the living God along with all the angels who rejoice is permanent!

Interlink

Just got back from Minneapolis and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. The conference I attended was sponsored by Interlink networks. The present membership consists of Ascension Fellowship International, Grace Churches International, Lifelinks International, Truebridge, Lifelink and Masterbuilders which I am a part of. Interlink is a network of like-minded apostolic streams relationally joined together to proactively advance the Kingdom of God. We are committed to building with a vision for the New Testament model of apostolic life in our churches and streams. For more information go to www.interlinknetworks.org

Thoughts On The Day

Outstanding day. I went for an hour walk in the mall of America came back to he hotel and went swimming. The teachings this morning were excellent, we heard about dealing with difficult people and dealing with Absalom's in the Church. There was a lively discussion after each teaching and great fellowship with the brothers. I'm looking forward to tonights session. This has been an energizing time and I feel like I will go home with some valuable input and reconnection's with some brothers I haven't seen in years.

Great Mesage Heard Tonight

Tonight we heard an excellent message from Paul Reed from Ireland on courage and leadership, acting like men. Paul spoke of many of the myths the church has embraced that have distorted who God is. One key to being a man is being able to articulate your weaknesses and not hiding them. He said that Christs wounds are his glory and that our wounds are for our enlargement.

A group of us went out to celebrate Mike Giordano's 50th birthday. We went over to Outback Steak House and raised a glass of wine to honor Mike. I'm back in the room typing this and then off to bed. meetings begin at 9am. This has been excellent so far and I'm looking forward to what I'll hear tomorrow.

Peacemakers

Wow! Its Tuesday already, Monday was so packed with meetings I didn't have time to blog. Just finished this morning meetings where we talked about courageous leadership and being a peacemaker. Neil Silverberg spoke on peacemaking and said you are either a peacemaker, someone who goes along to get along, wont rock the boat,make waves challenge anything, this is not real peace but fake. Or you are a peace breaker, someone who is always on the attack, cannot be corrected, is very defensive and insecure has to have everything go his way. This person leads out of their own fears and insecurities and has to attack everyone else because their lack of agreement is a threat to them. Then there are the peacemakers, Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers they will be called the sons of God. They will be persecuted because most people don't want peace they just want their own way.
In a few hours I'm going to walk around the Mall of America which is huge and has an amusement park in the middle of it.

Sunday Thoughts

Its Sunday afternoon on another Lions free Sunday, I am getting ready to head to the airport. I am leaving a cold snowy Detroit and heading for a colder with more snow Minneapolis MN. Why? That's a good question, I'm going to a meeting of several leadership teams that oversee groups of churches. I am looking forward to seeing several brothers that I only see once a year. I will be updating the blog from Minneapolis so stayed tuned in. The Pistons lost a bad game to the Knicks this afternoon but the Red Wings won last night, a bright spot on the Detroit landscape. The Lions are playing the Vikings so I hope they win because I cant stand the Vikings.

Real Turkeys

It's 6pm Sunday night I'm getting ready to watch the Detroit Pistons play the Timberwolves. When the boys were young we would go see the Pistons at the Pontiac Silverdome where we could get tickets for $5.00 each. These were the years prior to the Bad Boys winning their two championship's. My favorite holiday is coming up this week Thanksgiving. The family gathers at my mom's house for a unbelievable meal. The only sad part of this is the Detroit Lions. They lost again today rushing out to a 17 to 0 lead in the 1st quarter only to be outscored 38 to 3 the rest of the way. Turkey day tradition has always been watching the Leos, but they are so bad and they play against the Titans who lost their 1st game today to the Bret Farve Jets- go Jets! I like Bret Farve so I think I'll root for the Jets the rest of the season. Sadly the turkeys people will be eating on Thursday wont be the only turkeys getting stuffed.

Losing My Mind

Its very early Wednesday morning 12:45am. I just got done formatting an external hard drive for the family computer. I am not good with this stuff. I don't do plumbing electrical painting fixing landscaping working with tools, you name it I'm not good at it. Our family computer got some kind of bug or virus so a friend of mine wiped the hard drive clean but was able to save all the music and photos. I ordered the hard drive from ecost.com to save money it is recertified. But it was in the wrong format. What do I know for formats! I was running a program windows one live care and trying to back up the hard drive. My computer told me the format was fat32 and that was not good for windows I needed to change it NTFS, what do I know for NTFS? I was following the instructions that I had to write out because the printer is not working yet because I cant find the disk that came with it. I follow the instructions and get to a question What is the volume of the drive? I dont know. I tried it twice and got nowhere. So I went to my computer on windows and clicked on the new drive to try to get information. The info was in a pdf format but the computer didnt have adobe on it. So I went to adobe to download the software but because I was using firefox there were other directions I had to follow, are you kidding me? It takes forever to download adobe because of my slow good for nothing at&t dsl. I watch some Letterman finish the install of adobe. Now I am reading and trying to follow instructions. They tell me to go to some support site and read how to format the drive. Again I had to write down a page of instructions because the printer doesnt work. I work through the instructions and reformat the drive, yea! Then I go back into windows one care to back up the hard drive. This only took 1 & 1/2 hours, I finished about 12:30am. Hey I didnt even tell you about the leaking faucet in the bathroom that didnt have a shut off valve for the hot water, and i'm trying to figure out the pipes in the basement, I think i'm losing my mind.

Self Righteousness against the Self Righteous

Responding to some discussion related to Tim Keller's excellent new book, The Prodigal God, Tullian Tchividjian has an important post here. An excerpt:

There’s an equally dangerous form of self-righteousness that plagues the unconventional, the liberal, and the non-religious types. We anti-legalists can become just as guilty of legalism in the opposite direction. What do I mean?

It’s simple: we can become self-righteous against those who are self-righteous. Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” which screams, ”That’s right, I know I don’t have it all together and you think you do; I know I’m not good and you think you are good. That makes me better than you.” See the irony?

In other words, they’re proud that they’re not self-righteous!

Listen: self-righteousness is no respecter of persons. It reaches to the religious and the irreligious; the “buttoned down” and the “untucked.” The entire Bible reveals how shortsighted all of us are when it comes to our own sin. For example, it was easy for Jonah to see the idolatry of the sailors. It was easy for him to see the perverse ways of the Ninevites. What he couldn’t see was his own idolatry, his own perversion. So the question is, in which direction does your self-righteousness lean?

Thankfully, while our self-righteousness reaches far, God’s grace reaches farther. And the good news is, that it reaches in both directions!

Thoughts on this Past Weekend

It's Monday moaning, and I thought I would write a few words about this weekend. Friday night I watched a movie called "Redbelt" written and directed by David Mamet. Mamet has written and sometimes directed some of my favorite movies. Movies like House of Games, Ronin, The Winslow Boy, Heist, Spartan, The Spanish Prisoner and The Edge. I really enjoyed this movie. Saturday I had breakfast with some of the men from the Church and then they came over to my house to do some things I'm just not gifted to do. This work day was part of Pastor's appreciation, the Sunday before there was a special meal after Church featuring soul food. The rest of Saturday I spent getting ready for Sunday. I spoke on the problem of foolishness from Psalm 14. There is a deep vein of foolishness in every human being. Every child that is born is born a fool, its the responsibility of parents to drive it out. Its easy to see foolishness in children and then deal with it but when you see foolish in adults its very difficult to deal with. After Church we had a team meeting of ministry leaders,and then out to lunch. I then went home and watched the second half of the Detroit Lions loss. Its very difficult being a pro football fan in Detroit. Fortunately we have the Red Wings and the Pistons.

Gettin Appreciated!

This past Sunday was Pastors Appreciation Sunday. I am very blessed to be called to Shepard the people of Grace Christian Fellowship. I want to thank my Church family for all their love and support. I was given a 160 GB I pod and the money to get some accessories. I have wanted an I pod for a long time. I have a huge collection of music Cd's, I've already loaded about 900 songs and still have over 145 GB of space left. I was also given a blues music weekend get-away to go to Chicago and listen to some live blues. I also hope to look up my old friend Sam Lay. Sam is the greatest shuffle drummer to ever play, I am blessed that I had the opportunity to play music with him.