I'm Taking My Ball And Going Home :-p

I had an interesting interaction yesterday. I ran into an atheist. It’s not an uncommon occurrence, but this “conversation” will be one that I may never forget. (I know it’s a long read, but it’s worth it)

I use many different social networks. At last count, I had accounts on seventeen different sites that allow interaction between folks. I don’t have all of those accounts because of a false sense of importance or popularity. I don’t have those accounts to carry out some clandestine or secretive interaction with folks- in fact, I try to use the same user ID’s (either my name or the America Ministry name) on all of those accounts. The purpose for all of those accounts is to interact with as many people as possible to spread the Word of God and tell them of the wonderful sacrifice that Jesus made for all us. In other words, I take a “shotgun “ approach with a part of my ministry and then focus on the individual when the questions start being asked.

One of the networks I use is Google+. Many people have heard of it, but very few have tried it. It combines all of the best features of Facebook and Twitter with very cool privacy features. One of the cool features is that you can search for people by an interest (hobby, favorite sports team, etc.). I am just getting real comfortable with it, and yesterday I was looking for some like-minded folks (as in fellow Christians) to strike up a conversation with.

So, there I was, searching through a number of faith related public posts when I found a very negative comment about Christians. I clicked on it and brought up the entire chain. The initial post in that thread was a very bitter diatribe in response to someone posting the odds of a single person fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies as Jesus had. For those of you that don’t know, the odds are in the neighborhood of 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. The numbers were accurate, but the response was one that we are all too familiar with- “who could be stupid enough to think that a supernatural being has ever walked the earth.” I’m not quoting directly- more on that later.

My curiosity always gets the best of me when I see things like that, so I expanded the thread to follow the conversation. The conversation was just what I expected to see- the Christians were defending their faith to the death (including an absolutely wonderful teenager), and the atheists were simply finding different ways to say it was impossible for a being like Jesus to ever exist and that it was all a fabrication and conspiracy. They gave no facts or supporting information to their view, and just proceeded to do the internet version of sticking their tongues out, trying to appear intellectually superior because they knew it was impossible for Jesus to do the things He did. I abhor that superior mentality, and never tire of taking it on. So I decided to throw my two cents in.

Being a public post, anybody could respond. So I did. I responded to one of the atheists (we’ll call him George). George has just posted another version of, “You are stupid to believe.” Our conversation went something like this (again, not direct quotes):

Me: I see you don’t believe in Jesus. How about Aristotle?

George: Huh?

Me: Do you believe that Aristotle existed?

George: What do you mean?

Me: Do you accept the fact that Aristotle lived and died?

George: Yes. Why?

Me: How did you come to the conclusion that he lived?

George: History books

Me: Did those same history books expose you to his teachings?

George: I don’t get it. Where are you trying to go with this?

Me: Here’s exactly where I’m going. You have been bashing folks for believing that a supernatural being ever walked this earth, despite hundreds of existing manuscripts that were written in the first 200 years after the events of the life of Jesus Christ, long before the church became any kind of political or social power in society. Yet you openly admit to believe the existence and teachings of a man whose reputation is built on a small handful of manuscripts that weren’t written until 1,400 years after he died. Based on those facts, who would appear to be the gullible one here?

I never heard from George again. The silence was deafening. I wasn’t getting any thread update notifications, as I was during the back and forth debate. A few hours later, I decided to go back and reread the thread. I couldn’t, because the ENTIRE THREAD HAD BEEN DELETED! I can’t quote from it because it doesn’t exist anymore. The original poster, the one who was bashing someone for their knowledge of the odds of fulfilling the prophecies, had removed the entire conversation from view once an undeniable truth was used to undermine his foolish beliefs.

It would have been so easy to just skip over that thread, thinking that someone else would take care of the problem. It would have been easy to think that I had dealt with that mentality so many times in the past and that I wasn’t in the mood to do it again. We all encounter people like this on a daily basis. When we do, we need to do everything in our power to defend our faith and meet the enemy where they stand. At times, we act like the Bible is the only source of power we can rely on and ignore all of the facts and evidence left in the wake of Jesus. At times, the way to get a person to ask the right questions might be to present them with the real world logic they are trying to use against you. If they dismiss the Word of God as fiction, use the real world evidence that can't be dismissed. Once they consider the truth from their real world perspective, they may start to comprehend the error of their ways (just ask Josh McDowell).

Don’t get me wrong- the Bible is the ultimate written source of power for us. But God does not stop there when it comes to arming us for the battle against enemies. The physical evidence to support the Gospels is overwhelming and can stop the “intellectual” in their tracks. Become familiar with the historical facts. Use them to your advantage. When you take the battle on the terms of the non-believer and use the kind of facts that they can’t dispute, they will disappear in a heartbeat. And sometimes they’ll take their posts with them.

Mr. (Im)perfect

“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:21-24

Like many people, I commute to work every day. Unlike most people, my commute is 65 miles one way. I’ve been doing this since June 2002, and by best guess I’ve made the round trip just over 2,000 times. That means that my commute has consisted of over 260,000 miles over the last nine plus years. And my track record is almost perfect- I’ve never had a ticket of any kind and have never even been pulled over by the police. I consider myself to be a very conscientious and safe driver. Almost perfect.

On February 8, 2005, I was involved in a single car accident on my way to work. My driving perfection was no more. And the aftermath was interesting to watch. My family became more apprehensive when I drove to work in bad weather and people at church put me in their prayers (some to this day). I can admit that it changed my approach to driving in bad weather. The focus was on the one instance where I missed the mark. Despite a 99.975% success rate in getting back and forth to work, and the fact that I had driven 99.99992% of the total mileage without incident, people focused on the one time I missed the mark.

The accident was traumatizing. It would have been real easy to never drive again, fearful that the same thing was just around the corner for me. I was out of work for a month, and the medical bills (even with insurance) and cost of replacing the car put us in a bind financially. It created a lot of stress and anxiety for my family and friends, as they saw me in pain and completely vulnerable for the first week or two of my recovery. There are members of my church that continue to pray daily for my safe passage back and forth, almost seven years later. All of this because I missed the mark one time.

Instead of throwing in the towel, I dusted myself off and went about the task of starting a new perfect streak. While everyone else focused on the one negative trip, I recognized it for the blip on the radar that it truly was.

In our spiritual lives, sin is nothing more than missing the mark. We can discuss for days what actions actually constitute sin, but in the end it is anything that makes us fall short of the life Jesus taught us to lead. Any time we stumble in our faith, we miss the mark. If we miss the mark in any way, our perfect streak ends. The reality is that any “perfect streak” we have spiritually is going to be measured in seconds or minutes or hours (at best). I say this because we miss the mark on a very regular basis. To hit the 99.975% mark that I have driving back and forth to work, I would only sin 21.6 seconds of every day. I’m pretty sure I used that allotment before I was fully dressed this morning. So, no matter how hard I try, I’ll never come close to the level of near-perfection that I task myself with. I will spend a lifetime restarting my streak, over and over again.

Just like the reaction of my family and friends had when I rolled my car, each time I miss the mark will have an impact on those I love the most. It does not matter if they are present or not, or if they are directly impacted by whatever sin I commit. In the end, my actions have a direct bearing on the lives of those I love most. I can think that I am hiding it from the world. I can believe that nobody knows my deepest, darkest secrets. I can justify my actions my actions and words by thinking that I don’t care how others perceive me. I would be wrong on every count. Every thought I make, every action I take, every word I speak defines who I am as a person, parent, spouse and friend. People’s ability to trust and love will be based on the opinion they form about me. If I do something serious enough (like rolling a car over on the side of the highway), they are going to worry that I may not be able to fully recover from my transgressions. They will never look at me the same ever again.

This being the case, I always have to put my best foot forward and let people know that while I make mistakes and miss the mark, I am trying to become a better person all the time. I am trying to become a little more like Jesus every day. I vow to avoid missing the mark wherever possible. I make it a point to pick myself up, dust off and move forward. We all miss the mark. It is how we deal with it that determines if we grow closer to God.

Spiritual Health

I had the opportunity over the weekend to lead the service at my home church, Fountain Valley Baptist Church. It was my second time in the pulpit and I had a great time. The Message deals with the things we need to do to improve our spiritual health.

A note about the video- while the audio is not bad, the picture is pretty useless- it was the first time we had tried anything like this and I wasn't familiar with the recording software. As a point of reference (which will make the message a little easier to understand), to the right of center is a table of healthy foods, and to the left a table of junk foods.

A Little Peace and Quiet

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Mark 6:31

It has been almost a year since the last time I posted here. A lot has gone on, but looking forward is much more rewarding than trying to summarize the past.
Tonight, I start writing this blog from a Homestead Suites in Denver. No, I didn’t get thrown out of the house, and I didn’t run away. For the fourth time in the last six years, I have the honor of attending a Promise Keepers Men’s Conference this weekend. About a thousand men were there tonight and my brain is already on full overload from the messages I heard. I witnessed about 100 men accept Jesus and the worship band was smokin’ hot. All in all, a great night of worship, discipleship and fellowship in the Lord with a thousand of my brothers. I enjoyed the solitude I had with God. Solitude with God in the middle of a huge crowd? Is that even possible? Absolutely!
You see, this year’s conference is much different for me. In years past, a group of men from my church have made the journey together. Our assembled brotherhood would get together for a few hours before the conference, sit together throughout the conference and spend hours debriefing after the conference. We grew closer as a group and the energy we went back to the church with was amazing. However, as the years have passed, that group of men has grown smaller and smaller. What started as a group of about a dozen men six years ago dwindled to just three of us last year. This year, I am the only member of my church attending. My intent is not to dwell on or examine the reasons for the decline in attendance. The purpose of the history lesson is to show that this year I became a group of one.
Attending the conference solo is a new experience for me. I typically require the reinforcement, peer pressure and security of a large group at these types of events. I’ve had the opportunity to attend similar events by myself and have always found an excuse to not go. Excuses don’t play well in a group of men. And yet here I sit, all by myself with nobody to justify my reasons for not coming or leaving early. I am solo for the conference. While I could be discouraged or upset about this, it has turned out to be a true blessing for me. I say this because I have been able to take this time to solidify my personal relationship with my God. I have used previous conferences to seek some aspect of myself that needs improvement. I have attended PK in the past to be a part of strengthening the brotherhood in our church, growing closer to the men that I serve side-by-side with. This year, it’s different.
It’s different, because amidst all of the energy and shouting and laughing and crying that is unavoidable at a conference like this, I have found myself in that “quiet place” that not only allows me to hang on every word of every message I have experienced, I have found myself going to God. I go to God to understand the message that He is putting in our hearts, and how He wants me to apply that message as I go back into the world. This year, it is not about how I will change, but how I will help others to change.
In the passage above, Mark is looking for us to find a “quiet place.” In life, finding true peace and quiet can be almost impossible. We fill our lives with so many activities and responsibilities that “quiet” only seems to happen when we close our eyes at the end of the night. Our goal should be to find that quiet spiritual place in the midst of all the chaos that surrounds us. Much like I have discovered this weekend, “quiet” is a n attitude. Once we surrender ourselves and listen for the Lord, the noise of the world can disappear in an instant and we can find solace in the quiet spiritual place that is created in its place. If we demand that absolute quiet is required to rest, we run the risk of missing some of the best opportunities to embrace the things that are truly important and demand our full attention. “Quiet” should be more a state of mind and less of an environmental requirement. If you can find the quiet, the rest all falls into place.
These conferences can be controlled pandemonium from a planning perspective. I had to make the hotel reservation, pack an overnight bag, make sure that I got out of work on time, get to the hotel, check in, get to the conference, get back to the hotel, set the alarm to make sure I was on time today (and then oversleep by an hour anyway), grab some breakfast and coffee, get back to the church for the start of day two, and shortly will be making the long trip from Denver back home. In short, a lot of steps that have to fall into place in order to enjoy the weekend. Yet, in spite of all the planning and moving around, I feel more rested than I have in a long time. Why? Because I discovered that spiritual quiet place that gives me rest. I have found what Mark wrote about.
My advice to you today is to make sure you find your own way to the quiet place. Don’t make excuses, don’t allow the world around you to dictate when and where you get there. Life is going on all around me today- I have dealt with job and the world a number of times on a Saturday morning. But I have also found my way to the quiet place. And as I leave this place today, I do so with the understanding of how God plans to use me in the lives of others. Watch out world, because the purpose is clear. I never would have discovered it if I had not taken the time to find solitude in the midst of thousands. You can do the same.