Halloween before the face of God?

Every time this season rolls around I kinda cringe. The halloween season is upon us. What is a Christian to do. There are three main ways that I think Christians respond.

1. Abandon the holiday all together
2. Don't participate personally but use the opportunity to hand out tracts or give the gospel message to people that knock on their door
3. Embrace it and participate
4. (There is a fourth option that I will discuss in a later blog)

I think that any discussion about halloween needs to consider where it comes from and thus what it represents. There are a multitude of sites that claim to trace its history. Here is one as an example http://www.halloween-website.com/history.htm. 

The problem for the Christian is that to embrace this is to embrace a pagan holiday that is focused on evil. Now I know that some of you might say that its just clean fun. Some people play with Ouija boards and claim that it is just fun as well. I don't think most Christians have any confusion about Ouija boards. But what if the maker of Ouija boards gave you chocolate every time you played? Would we suddenly want to Christianize it. I think that the main reason most Christians get involved is that they don't want their kids to miss out on all of the fun and the candy. Yet is fun and candy a reason to get involved with something that is ostensibly a descent into things that are dark and fearful?

If Jesus stood before you and asked you to teach your children to think about things that are good and beautiful (Philippians 4:8) would you respond with halloween as an example of that? It seems like quite often the reasons that we engage in an activity are directed more out of a desire for fun than out of a serious consideration of how this impacts our life before Christ. What at first blush may seem innocuous has a seriously corrupt core. This day is centered on celebrating things that are a result of sin. Would we have any of the things that halloween celebrates if there were no sin in the world? If the answer is no then we must ask, "Should we join in such a celebration?"

Just look at the decorations that people put up if you have any questions about what the holiday is focused on. In the midst of such base things there is real opportunity. That opportunity is found in the people that come to your door. Here are kids that may need the gospel. They might want candy but a gospel tract or a simple gospel presentation might be exactly what those kids need to hear. We are called to be in the world but we are also called to not be of the world (1 John 2:15-16). This season of the year is an incredible opportunity to share the gospel and to teach our children to focus on God and all the great and glorious things that He has created.

Inception: a reflection of longing for more

I saw the movie "Inception" a few weeks ago. The movie is a reflection of our post modern sensibility. Essentially we like to believe that reality is what we make it out to be. Inception turns that inside out and asks us if reality is really all its cracked up to be. Perhaps the reality in our minds is a better place to be.

What really struck me though was how the dream state in the movie was the thing that people longed for. There is a point where we see people lying in beds hooked up to drugs that allow them to dream. We are told that they have gotten to the point where they can no longer dream without the drugs. Supposedly this heightened dream reality is so great that it is worth giving up more and more of real life to live in the dream world. One of the students that is introduced to this world says that they are going to quit because of some things that were going on. Decaprio's character says with confidence that she will be back basically because the experience is too compelling. Sure enough she comes back.

Each person is enamored with what can be in the dream world. The characters reflect a dissatisfaction with how things are in reality. This is a true reflection of the heart of man. We all know that something is missing (Romans 8:19). We all feel the pain that tells us to long for something more something better. The problem for the unsaved man is that his longing looks like this:

I want something to satisfy. I will embrace anything that promises satisfaction with the hope that it will somehow make me fulfilled. I will accept anything that is except the all Sovereign God of the Bible that demands my soul, my life, my all. I will maintain my autonomy thank you (or at least what I believe is my own semblance of that autonomy). Romans 1:20, 24-25

 The true follower of Jesus has discovered that the longings they had prior to meeting Christ have been fulfilled. The true follower has been made whole and can testify to the satisfaction that is theirs in God. We were made for Him and our hearts are truly in a state of longing until they are satisfied in Him. If you believe you have committed your life to Jesus and yet you still feel the emptiness and longing that you always did then perhaps your pursuit of God has been corrupted by our culture. To really grapple with this I would point you toward my book, "The God Focused Life". There is a lot of help here for pointing you toward the God who will truly satisfy your soul. So if you have not yet done so, join me on the journey to live a God focused life.

Emotional reminders of our insufficiency

Today was an admittedly challenging day. I looked at our bank account. (When your unemployed this can be a discouraging thing to do.) While I know that it is God that supplies our needs sometimes I get hit with a tsunami of emotion when I contemplate the gravity of it all. After applying for what seems like hundreds of jobs one begins to feel a bit rejected. My pride quickly kicks in and begins to feel injured. Thoughts like "No one wants me", "I'm just not good enough" and "Perhaps if I had just contacted this person or that one". All of this is really an emotional roller coaster that takes off from the platform of self, climbs the mountain of pride and quickly plunges into the maddening spiral of self in the pit of pity. Thank God for His grace, and the examples that we have in His precious word. Paul talked about being buffeted by a messenger of Satan. He requested that it be taken away. God's responded that His grace was sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). God's grace is just as sufficient today. These times of my failing are valuable reminders of my insufficiency. They cause me to depend even more on Jesus. Without Him this time of challenge would be truly overwhelming. Because He has so graciously granted me a heart that desires to focus on Him, He saves me from myself. The Holy Spirit draws my eyes to my magnificent God and plants my feet on the solid rock of Jesus. If you find the trials overwhelming turn to our Lord and use our insufficiency to embrace the sufficiency that can only be found in Him.

Meeting anticipation

We had relatives come for a visit today. They had not yet had a chance to meet our twin girls that joined us about 5 and 1/2 weeks ago. While we anticipated their visit and looked forward to it I was struck by the joy and obvious anticipation they had in meeting our new additions. As I reflected on this I realized that this type of anticipation is the same as what we will experience as we cross into eternity and have the chance to finally meet our Lord Jesus and our Heavenly Father. Only the anticipation and joy in meeting Him should exceed anything that we long for here. Why? Because it is only in Him that all things that we experience even exist. It is only in Jesus that we have any hope of eternity at all. It is only in Jesus that we will be made sons and daughters of God. It is a grand and glorious desire. To see Him and to be able to know Him is truly more magnificent than we can comprehend. It exceeds our wildest dreams or expectations. It is the grandest hope of all hopes. If your heart does not burn with a longing for Him, then seek Him. Ask Him to instill in your heart a greater desire. We are in a battle against the flesh (Romans 8:13). It is truly a battle to set our hearts and minds on God (Romans 13:14). So take on the battle. Become engaged in the fray. Turn your heart and mind to a focus on our Lord Jesus. It is only in Him that we will gain an anticipation and longing that will drive us toward eternal life and health and peace.

Do we love God???

Coming up on the weekend I thought a good question to ponder is, "Do we love God?" There is a legitimate reason to ask this question. Many of us talk about loving God as if it is an assumed reality if you are a Christian. The truth of the matter is that the command to love God and to love your neighbor or enemy is the most repeated set of commands in the New Testament. When I have to repeat something over and over again to my kids it is usually because they are not doing it. We have an incredibly strong propensity to be self centered as a people. This can be traced back to the fall. The lie of Satan was that we would be like God (Genesis 3:5). Since that time it seems like man is always seeking to be a god unto himself. And so we have this self-centered propensity in general in our society. We have in essence become god's unto ourselves. How does this impact our Christianity? Well lets look at our churches. What do they cater to? The perceived needs of the people usually. We spend a great deal of time focusing on creating programs and services that appeal to the people. We rarely ask the question, "Would this program or service appeal to Jesus?" Our main concern is not offending someone which is usually a euphemism for not ever confronting anyone or dealing with real issues. The main role of the Church is to gather people together at the feet of Jesus, to seek Him as our God and Savior. Jesus knew that we would struggle with giving up the god of self. What did Jesus call us to? He said that we should take up our cross daily and follow Him(Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). The cross is a symbol of death. Paul clarified the metaphor in Galatians 2:20 when he says that we are crucified with Christ but that it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us. If that is not clear enough Paul defines what being crucified means in Galatians 5:24 when he says if you belong to Christ you crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. Now obviously if this happened instantly we would not have the commands to love God and our neighbors or enemies repeated again and again. The reality often is that we like God and all that Christianity has to offer, but all this other stuff well that’s for the really committed. I have even heard people refer to it as second level Christianity (Although I have never seen that in the Bible). These are the same people who will tell you they love the Lord. Do they? Do we? Just in case we were confused about the cross thing, Jesus said in Matthew 10:38 “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” So the question to ponder this weekend is, "Are we willing to take up our cross and seek to love God?" Join me on this journey after God as we seek to live life focused on Him.

Extreme fighting for Jesus???

A headline caught my eye today that I just could not resist weighing in on. The video report was titled Jesus was the ultimate fighter. I looked up the guy's web site http://xtremeministries.com/ and was struck by the main thrust of the rationalization. Are you ready? The goal is to make the gospel relevant or attractive to a certain segment of people. What amazes me about this approach is that you could use the relevancy card for anything. Let's start gangsters for the gospel, because even gangsters need Jesus. How about prostitutes for pentecost. They use their business to bring guys in and then when they are finished they give them the gospel. Come on when we go down this road we essentially are saying that the gospel is not relevant enough by itself. Apparently the Holy Spirit cannot change a heart without us hanging something relevant around the gospel. It is so completely ridiculous that I find it amazing. First of all you and I do not change people's hearts. The Holy Spirit does the work. I don't have a problem with someone being a Christian and playing at a sport like extreme fighting. The problem comes into play when we change it into something that goes beyond a Christian that plays a sport. Somehow now it needs to be a Christianized sport? I don't get it. People can be Christians. Sports cannot be Christian. They are a thing and have no soul. We don't need a sport or a certain style of music or a network marketing business or a political platform to carry the gospel. We need people to get their eyes off of all of these temporal things and fix them on Jesus. The creator of the universe came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the most magnificent being that has ever existed. He offers to rebels that are completely corrupt, the potential of reconciliation to God through repentance of sin and commitment to Him. I don't know how you can make that more relevant. Really anything that would be added by us only distracts from that message. We must keep our eyes on the Savior. Our only hope is found in Him.

Happiness: SELF focused vs. God focused - Part 3

This is a continuation of a post I started 2 days ago. The other day Lucy Danziger published an article called, "4 Simple Secrets to Feeling Happier Every Day." Lucy is the Editor-in-Chief of SELF magazine. I will continue addressing the points of her article until they are covered. Point 3 in her article is, "Find your 'mouse hole!'" Basically the gist of it is to get away and recharge. There is a basic seed of good advice here. But being a Christian we can take it to a whole new level. Jesus in the sermon on the mount said, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6) We could say that Jesus is saying sure go ahead get alone somewhere. Since your Father is there and you are not really alone pray. Embrace Him. Talk to Him. Commune with your God. Jesus promises that God will reward us. Sometimes we get some preconceived idea of what we want for a reward. Perhaps we want an answer to our prayer. Perhaps we want God to do things the way we think is best. But if we are really seeking God and not asking Him for things then what is the best reward we could get? The greatest possible reward we could be given in all the universe would be God. Learn to seek God. Learn to want God, and you will find God as your reward when you consistently pursue a God focused life.