So Pokemon GO happened...

Wow! I have never seen such an outburst of communal gaming in my life. I am honestly shocked at the amazing popularity of Niantic's new Pokemon GO app. In fact, according to Forbes Tech, as of the timing of this post, "Pokemon GO was installed on 5.6% of all Android devices in the United States... Not only that, but on average users are spending twice the amount of time engaged with Pokemon GO than they are on apps like Snapchat." Talk about viral!

But to be honest, I have always felt like I was on the outside of the Pokemon crowd looking in. My wife recently started playing, and now goes on Pokemon GO walks with her students (deserving the youth leader of the year award). Even when I was younger, I played with my baseball cards while a lot of my school friends played with their Pokemon cards.

But something struck me today as I watched my wife leave for one of her Pokemon GO walks; I think there is a progression in the Pokemon experience that the Church can learn from. It all began on some cards. And people would sit around playing with the cards, simulating in their minds what it would look like if they were in a real Pokemon battle. And then, Pokemon came out with movies and shows about the original card game. But it wasn't until Pokemon GO that people actually got out into the world and got in the game, so to speak. Pokemon GO has inspired a huge following because players are now players in a real-time experience, where every move they make matters.

Like I said, I think the Church, the collection of the people who follow Jesus, can learn from this progression. Too often, we sit in our nice buildings and talk about what it would look like if we could actually experience what others have written about. And we have even progressed to making movies and skits and shows about others who have experienced what the Bible talks about. But for the vast majority of us, we have yet to get off our seats and get in the game.

Yet, this isn't because it's not possible yet. In fact, this kind of life is ready and available for all of us...and the servers never crash. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." Every single one of us can experience the most thrilling version of God's activity possible, one where God works through us. We don't have to simply settle for reading about God moving in and through someone else, we can experience it for ourselves.

However, even though making disciples happens while we are going, it doesn't happen on accident. Making disciples in an intentional process. It doesn't happen unless we plan on making disciples; we have to make a decision ahead of time to make disciples and grow disciples. Otherwise, it never happens...kind of like catching Pokemons in Pokemon GO.

So let's make a decision together today. Let's Pokemon GO... and make disciples!

There is a lot being said as of late about the transgender issue.

What if a guy wants to identify as a woman? What if a woman wants to identify as a man? What if a woman wants to identify as a cat? What if a female-identifying man wants to use a female restroom at a certain supermarket? What if a person wants to identify as a 7 year old version of himself?

And frankly, this is a conversation that makes me very anxious. I have loads of anxiety in me because I don't know how to respond. I am a pastor and there are lots of people who, if not yet, will soon look to me to provide a godly answer about how to respond to a transgender person as Jesus would. This scares me because there are so many bad ways to respond, but not a lot of good ways. On the one hand, I would never want to disagree with God's commands in what I say or do; on the other hand,  I would never want to tell someone who does not yet know Jesus that he doesn't love them or that he didn't die for their sins too.

In this conversation, there are lots of Christians who error on either side of this discussion. There are some Christians who will say that if a person chooses to deny the way that God created them and become transgender that they are no longer worthy of love or kindness. But there are other Christians who will not say anything at all and choose to defend man's desires over God's genius in creation. And this is not godly either.

So how do I respond when my response could very easily misrepresent Jesus?

I don't know. But I do know a few things:

First, those who identify as transgender are doing so because they they need love. They believe that they will receive more love (if even from themselves) by doing so. They are human beings who are created in the image of God. They are human beings who are created with a need to be loved, but have been hurt at some point in their life.

Second, Jesus died for them. They are human, and as such, are sinners. And because of that they are human beings for whom Jesus died. And God doesn't wait for someone to clean up their life before loving them. For example,

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

"And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, 'This man (Jesus) receives sinners, and eats with them...'"

Luke 15:2

Jesus identified with sinners because he was more concerned with seeking them and saving them (cf. Luke 19:10) than condemning them (cf. John 3:17). He identified with me, a sinner, because he wanted to start a relationship with me that lasts forever. And I am eternally grateful.

I don't really know how to respond to the transgender frenzy and the anger that is being stirred up on either side. I wouldn't know what to say to the little girl who identifies as a boy. I wouldn't know what to say to Bruce who identifies as Caitlin. And I definitely wouldn't know what to say to the woman who identifies as a cat.

But I do know this: I identify as a sinner...just like everyone else that has ever lived.

And Jesus receives sinners.

So many people have so many perspectives...

I don't think I have experienced so many emotions as a result of internet browsing in quite a long time. The recent Supreme Court decision to legally recognize gay marriage in all 50 states has produced the largest mixture of reactions that you could imagine. And unfortunately, a lot of it has gotten ugly, especially on the internet.

You have people saying what they feel, what they think, what they think they should think, and stuff that they don't even really know much about. It's like people have no filter when it comes to what they say online, in posts, in comments, and in direct messages even! And in the midst of all the proverbial dust that is getting kicked up, somehow we have begun to see so many different types of people saying all sorts of different things to other people "in Jesus name." And as I look through all these comments, it is obvious that Jesus couldn't have said all of those things, and most likely wouldn't say most of it. At least not the Jesus I read about in the Bible. And as a result of these kind of people, Jesus is made to sound a lot like a judgmental, cold-hearted, hateful person who pushes others away when he doesn't like them. And who is going to listen to or follow someone like that?

So I was super happy when my wife began to write down her thoughts on this complex issue. And with her permission, I would love for you to soak up her God-inspired wisdom.

                                                            

Since when has our culture come to a point where you have to be perfect to be accepted in a church? If this is the case then, somewhere along the line, we have interpreted the Bible incorrectly. We have not gotten past the Old Testament to see the good news in the New Testament. Mark 2:15-17 recounts the dialogue Jesus had with the Jewish religious leaders. All they said was “How could he stand it, to eat with such scum?” (The Living Bible). Jesus replied by saying, “Sick people need the doctor, not the healthy ones.” But yet the Christian culture has been acting a whole lot like the religious leaders who condemned “such scum.”

I was raised in a Baptist church and background. I don’t have anything against Baptists except the fact that I feel like they taught me to condemn the sinner and not the sin. I still cringe when I hear that somebody is gay or has gotten a divorce. But what I have been learning is that Jesus would never do that. He would love them first. Brant always says that all we ever do is to get people to change their behavior before they ever know Jesus, and they die without Jesus, all we have done is sent them to Hell better behaved than before. We must focus on showing them the love of Jesus before we ever try to change their behavior.

I have also learned that a denomination should not define you. We are followers of Christ. No matter what church you come from, we should all work towards the same goal and that’s to bring lost souls to Christ with love. I can see that our culture is changing a lot but I also see the church changing. Christians are starting to realize that we need to end our bad reputation of hurting people and instead love people for who they are.

Now to understand love you need to know God. Did you realize that if there were no God, there would be no understanding of love? “God is love” is what we hear but for some reason I didn’t ever take it seriously. Real love is not the conditional kind – “If you do this for me then I will love you.” Real love is the sacrificial kind where no matter if they take it or ignore it, you still love them. Maybe all of the divorces and all the hurt in our world are because people don’t know what love really means.

I want to encourage you to take one step as a Christian and love somebody without knowing his or her background. That should mean that we treat everybody the same no matter what. And maybe…just maybe that will change how people view Christians, and in turn bring people to Christ.

I tend to wander around in this thing called faith. I often figure things out as I am going, and it can be really frustrating, sometimes, to feel like everyone else knows more about following Jesus than I do

.

It is a struggle every day knowing that I am not as close to God as I really wish I could be. It is a struggle every wanting to see and hear this God that I try to follow. But then, when I am honest about my struggle, I am comforted by the assurance that I am not the only one who has ever been wrecked over this. 

There have been many saints who have wandered through these same murky waters. There are two lives in particular that I really look up to because they have traveled the lonely road of trying to figure out what it means to live for God despite not knowing what they were doing. These are my heroes.

1. St. Augustine

Growing up in Northern Africa, Aurelius Augustinus (aka Augustine) didn't have a lot of money. His parents spent more on his schooling than they could really afford. Augustine had a lot of second-rate school teachers in Thagaste. 

After a while, his family was able to afford to send him to Carthage, the best place in the world at the time to get a great education. But while he was there, he couldn't sit still. Though his mom prayed for him all the time, he had an insane craving for pleasure. He found himself a girl who became his concubine for many years. With this unnamed woman he had a son, Adeodatus. That same year, Augustine's father died. 

For many years, even though he was pursuing a higher understanding of religion, he couldn't shake his lifestyle of wanting more pleasure. This was his life for many years. But after a lot of frustrated searching and anxiety, Augustine had a crazy vision in his back yard. Before him he saw Lady Continence, who told him to take a leap of faith. He had been so agitated in body and mind that the vision came as a release. When he overheard the phrase "pick up and read" from a child at a nearby house, he grabbed his book of the Apostle Paul and read a passage. It seemed to be talking specifically to him. 

After that, he gave up all his worldly dreams. He quit his teaching job. He left Carthage, and the following Easter, he was baptized by Bishop Ambrose in Milan. Augustine and his mother decided to return to Africa, where they felt that they would be able to do the most good for God. There, he was very active in his church, and wrote a lot of things for the church so they could understand the Bible better. 

Over the last 17 years of his life, he had lost his father, his mother, and his son. He also lost his young, ambitious dreams of gaining the whole world. But he gained something far more important - a life that mattered and a hope that carried him through everything. He gained Jesus.

2. Rich Mullins

Rich Mullins was a musical prodigy who rose to Christian music fame and fortune only to walk away and live on a Navajo reservation. 

An artistic genius, raised on a tree farm in Indiana by a callous father, Rich wrestled all of his life with the brokenness and crippling insecurity born of his childhood. A lover of Jesus and a rebel in the

church, Rich refused to let his struggles with his own darkness tear him away from a God he was determined to love. As he struggled with success in Nashville and depression in Wichita, Rich desired most of all to live a life of honest and reckless faith amidst a culture of religion and conformity.

He was a prophet and a poet and a beggar, more comfortable with the homeless than the wealthy, more in love with Jesus than religion, more interested in the music than the song. He felt too much, and held too much. He searched desperately his whole life for a way to belong down here, but he never did. He was just passing through.

He said at one of his concerts one time, 

“I’m all the time being asked by people, ‘How do you feel closer to God?’ And I kind of always want to say, ‘I don’t know.’ When I read the lives of most of the great saints, they didn’t necessarily feel very close to God. When I read the Psalms, I get the feeling like David and the other psalmists felt quite far from God for most of the time. Closeness to God is not about feelings. Closeness to God is about obedience. It’s just as simple as that.”

Because of his life of love, Shane Claiborne said this about him,

“Rich Mullins is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known. Interesting because he was honest — not perfect. He made you feel like Jesus was part of the band, telling stories around the fire, laughing with you at the bar. He made you feel like you could own your darkness and be honest with your doubts. He knew that inside each of us there is a sinner and a saint at war, and on good days the saint prevails, and on bad days –Jesus loves sinners. He was as winsome as a kid and as wise as a chief. This film captures the life of one of the most important people in the history of modern evangelicalism, a ragamuffin that our children and our grandchildren need to know about.”

This was a man who loved God no matter how he felt, no matter what other Christians were doing, and no matter what lies he heard from the enemy. He was committed to following Jesus no matter the cost.

And I, too, want that to be said of my life.

One of the of the biggest things that God is teaching me this week is the distinction between believing in him and following him. As I was reading in John this morning, this verse hit me and would not leave my mind all morning. John 8:31-32 says, 

"So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, 'If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." 

There are many times in my life that I am tempted to take it easy in my faith, to slack off in my spiritual disciplines, or to be less alert in spiritual warfare, but Jesus says that his disciples will continue in his word. Those who continue to follow Jesus are those who are his disciples, and that is the goal of my life - to follow Jesus every day without taking a break. To that end, I have intentionally decided to do some things every day to keep me following Jesus.

1. Looking for just one thing each day from the Word. I think we often get overwhelmed with everything there is to learn in the Bible and everything we have to do to be a "good Christian" that we just forget everything. But one of the most powerful pieces of advice I have ever been given was when I went off to camp one summer. This sweet lady in our church wrote me a card that week and told me to just try to pick out one thing that God was teaching me that week. So I did and my life was totally changed that week. So now I try to do that whenever I read the Bible. Just pick out one thing that God is showing me that day.
2. Looking forward to small blessings. My dad always used to say to my family, "Anticipation is in and of itself a sensory delight." In other words, it feels good to look forward to something. And the more you look forward to something, the more you enjoy it. And the more you enjoy something, the more grateful you are for it. Bottom line: When I anticipate the little things that God is going to do for me every day, I will notice them, enjoy them, and be grateful for them. And believe it or not, I feel like God is blessing me more just because I choose to look forward to and notice his blessings more often.
3. Chatting with other who are following Jesus. Almost nothing encourages me to follow Jesus more than hanging out with someone else who is following Jesus. Some of my best friends in this entire world are those who love Jesus with all of their hearts and are serving him passionately wherever their lives take them. Just a simple chat or just a little time spent with Christine, Benjamin, Mark, David, or Ryan makes me want to love Jesus even more. It's amazing the power of choosing good friends.
4. Talking to God in the middle of normal things. Obviously it is good to plan specific times to pray every day, like in the morning, at meals, and before bed. You have probably heard all that before. So I am not going to dive into that. But I think that we often forget to relate to God as the real person that he is. He has feelings too. He cares about the things in your life. He likes to do stuff with you. And he wants to talk to you like a friend (cf. John 15:15). So when I talk to God in the middle of every day, normal things, I am living out the reality that he loves me, cares about me, and wants to be with me. And that just makes me want to love him and follow him more.

So what about you? What are the little things you do each day to follow Jesus?

Is there an area of your life that you know you need to start following Jesus in?

Don't wait until tomorrow to experience the blessing of a life well-lived. Follow Jesus every day starting today.

In August of 1965, Paul Simon of Simon & Garfunkel released an album entitled The Paul Simon Songbook. The first track of this album was the now-famous "I Am a Rock." This song has gone on to become quite legendary in the annals of rock music. But when I read through the lyrics of this song for the first time as a high schooler, I was quite amazed at how depressing the logical outcome of this song was. He wrote,

"A winter's day in a deep and dark December; I am alone, gazing from my window to the streets below on a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow. I am a rock, I am an island.

I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty, that none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock, I am an island.

Don't talk of love, but I've heard the words before; it's sleeping in my memory. I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died. If I never loved I never would have cried. I am a rock, I am an island.

I have my books and my poetry to protect me; I am shielded in my armor, hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain; and an island never cries."

 As a Christian, I realize that this is not the reality of my life. Though things may be tough, I am not called to retreat and back away. I am called to stand out and transform the world around me. Much like Simon was lamenting, I don't belong. But unlike him, this is a very powerful identity that has been given to me. I stand out so I can transform the world.

To everyone in the Church, I want to encourage you, you are not a rock, nor are you an island. Instead, you have been set apart to be much more like an iPod. How you live has kingdom effects and those effects can be heard loud and clear.

An island is definitely set apart, but not in the way that we are supposed to be set apart. It just is away from everything. It doesn’t try to get in anyone’s business, but will certainly make you feel good if you come to it to relax. Unfortunately, some churches are like this.

A rock is set apart. People usually try to avoid rocks (driving, biking, kayaking, etc.). Rocks can hurt. But they can also look pretty when they all gather together and do nothing and stay out of your way. Unfortunately, some churches are like this too.

But we are not called to be like and island or a rock. In many ways, instead, we are called to be a little bit more like an iPod. An iPod is the source of something that can totally transform someone’s day: music. When people encounter good music, a day of clouds and rain can flip upside down and a smile can come back to their faces. Music has the power to totally change your perspective; it just needs to be played. Turn the iPod on. Put in the headphones. Bam!

In a similar way, the church is a lot more like an iPod than like an island or a rock. We have something inside of us that can totally transform the world. We just need to let it out and press play.

In what ways are you pressing play today?

   I have been reading in 1 Corinthians recently, and a few days ago, I read chapter 8. While I usually do not stop reading after three verses, I did this day. The first three verses of the chapter hit me really hard. I could not go on. I just had to sit there and meditate on it. It turned into a meditation I kept coming back to throughout the day. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 says this:

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we have all knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

   This hit me hard because I am in a full-time pursuit of knowledge. I am studying at one of the elite ministry training schools in the world. I am on track to get a master's degree in two or three years from now. I am in a fast and furious frenzy to get lots of knowledge in a short amount of time. But this kind of knowledge could be dangerous if given the wrong place in my heart.

"I am smart. I know more than you.
Therefore, I have more power than you.
As a result, I am more important.

   In this passage, Paul contrasts two kinds of knowledge. He says knowledge makes arrogant. Here he is talking about "head knowledge." This is the kind of knowledge you would be talking about if you said, "I know that 2 + 2 = 4." This can be dangerous if allowed to gain the throne of your heart. It says, "I am smart. I know more than you. Therefore, I have more power than you (the old adage 'Knowledge is power,' is quite true). As a result, I am more important." This is when knowledge can get dangerous.

   The second kind of knowledge Paul discusses in this passage is "relational knowledge." It is the knowledge demonstrated in knowing God. This is the kind of knowledge you would be talking about if you said, "I know my dad." This is how we ought to know. When we know really know God, our pride is crushed because of how awesome God is, and love springs forth from our hearts.

   I believe it is totally possible that you can be a Christian, and have knowledge about God, but not really know him. I am not saying that you don't know him vaguely and distantly and don't have at least some diminutive relationship with him. Every Christian at least has that. But just like a friend you knew in first grade that you don't really know anymore and haven't talked to since then, it is possible to not really know God that much after knowing him initially when you were saved. And I think that Paul is trying to warn the Corinthian Christians against falling into the enticing trap of knowing about God but not really knowing God.

   This passage hit me really hard because I have certainly felt that relational distance from God lately because I have not spent much time with him. I overwhelmed my calendar with studying about him so much that I neglected getting to know him better. So this is what I wrote in my journal:

The kind of knowledge that really matters is knowing God. Lord, as I pursue academic excellence today, please let me excel far more in my knowledge of you. If you took school away from me, or worse, if you allowed me to fail at school, and in the process I got to know you much better, I would be supremely satisfied. Would you please draw near to me today? I desire you more than academic prowess, but I seem to still be distant from you, honestly. Please help me to draw near to you, precious Lord, I pray, no, I plead. I need you more than my next breath, more than anything.

   What about you? How well do you know God? Be honest. Are you satisfied with that?You will never get closer to him until you are honest about where you are now. Begin praying for the Lord to change your heart and draw you ever nearer to him. And you find that in his amazing grace, he will give you more than you ever asked for.