The hardest thing in the world to believe

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“If it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2)

I have little trouble believing in God and about the same ease in believing in Jesus. I believe the Bible and am confident I’m saved and that my sins are dealt with forever and there is no condemnation for those in Christ.  I believe every word in those grand old hymns we sing and never preach a thing I don’t believe with my whole heart.

However.

The one thing I have the hardest time accepting is that after we die, some essential part of us remains intact and suddenly materializes in some celestial place called Unimaginable. And that there we will see our loved ones and our Lord and receive rewards for how we have lived this life and dwell there forever and ever in some kind of endless day.

Call it the Father’s House (Psalm 23:6 and John 14:2) or “a kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34), paradise (Luke 23:43), or home (II Corinthians 5:6-8), it’s still asking a lot from us to believe in Heaven .

It’s easier to believe that death ends everything. That’s how things seem.

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How to tell if you’re ready for the next level of service in the Kingdom

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“Now, the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at Him.  And He said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God'” (Luke 16:15).

The director of missions (a local denominational leader, for readers unfamiliar with Southern Baptist terminology) told me about a visitor he had one day, a fellow making himself available to pastor a church.

The DOM (I’ll call him Will) said, “Tell me about your present church involvement.”

The visitor said, “I’m not actually involved in a church at the present time.  I’m just visiting around.”

Will: “How long have you lived here?”

The man: “Five years.”

Will said, “May I ask why you haven’t joined a church and become active?”

The man said, “Because my presence would intimidate a pastor.”

Will said, “My friend, I would never recommend you as a pastor of a church.  Not in a million years.”

The visit ended quickly.

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When you’re doing your best work for the Lord, you may be enjoying it the least.

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“…we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;  perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (Second Corinthians 4:8-10).

Think of this as a letter, a reply to several people in the  ministry who are so stressed out–and angry and discouraged and frustrated–they are considering jumping ship, throwing in the towel, and a lot of other metaphors that mean quitting and going back home..

Don’t quit, friend.

When you find yourself working in a place where God sent you and doing the work which God gave you everything else is secondary.

The fact that the church keeps changing your job description and expecting more and more from you is just a fact of life.

The fact that the pastor you work for has become a tyrant is interesting, but not much more than that.

The fact that the personnel committee is making ever-increasing demands on you while curtailing the little support you were receiving is of concern, yes, but it’s not determinative.

That Sister Dee Structive is stirring up gossip about you and trying to undermine  your ministry just makes your service for the Lord all the sweeter.

And that’s my point.

When the people you look to most for support and encouragement in ministry turn against you and you find yourself all alone out there on the stage, you are about to do your best work for the Lord.

Don’t blow this now, child of God.

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The Number 1 failing of church finance committees when money is scarce

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“Prescribe and teach these things.” (I Timothy 4:11)

“Ladies and gentlemen of the church staff, we your church’s financial leaders have called  you together today to inform you of some unfortunate changes we’re going to have to make since our church’s offerings have been running low.”

That’s how the ministers on the church staff regularly learn of cuts being made in the budget, their ministries, their income, their benefits.

The church contributions are running low, so the committee looks for a place to cut.

This is how it’s done. And it has to be the worst way imaginable to deal with a financial crisis in the church.

There are several problems with this machete approach….

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What the pastor owes the church staff

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“My pastor called me in and informed me that the church is hurting financially, therefore my pay would be cut by (so much) and my health insurance is being terminated.”

In the last year, at least a half dozen staff ministers have written to me describing this very scenario.

The first they knew of the change is when the pastor “called them in and informed them.” If you think that sounds like a plantation manager informing a lowly day-laborer, you’d be about right.

What are you thinking, pastor?   Where is your heart?

You have just told us far more about yourself, pastor, than about the church or the staff member.

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How to change the culture of a church

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“I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).

I received a note from a young pastor in another state, along with his resume’. He said, “I’d be interested in coming to your city to pastor. However, I do not want to waste my time on a congregation of self-focused, carnal and complacent church members. I feel led to pastor a church poised for growth, where the people want to reach the lost for Jesus.”

I wrote back, “That would be nice. But if we ever have such a church, you’ll have to get in line, friend.  Every pastor in the country will be clamoring to go there.”

It would be nice to serve a church made up of spiritually mature and responsive believers.  It would be heavenly not to have to lead troublesome business meetings where the deacons want to go one direction, the personnel committee another, and the congregation wanting nothing to do with either.

Most churches I know are not “poised for growth,” but are dealing with issues of one kind or other.

That’s why God has to “call” pastors to these churches. No one knowing what he is doing would voluntarily go to any of them.

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Why God tells us to be perfect but doesn’t expect it

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(Part 2 on this subject)

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Would the Lord issue a command He does not expect to be obeyed?

We may as well raise the question before some reader does it for me and uses it to dismiss everything that follows.

Short answer: He’s trying to get something across, to teach us something important, by issuing the command.

Longer answer: everything that follows.

In His”Sermon on the Mount,” the Lord Jesus sets the bar alarmingly high for all who would live as His disciples.

–When persecuted, we are to rejoice (Matthew 5:12).

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Do what you do best, pastor: be you.

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Pastor, you have not been called by the Lord to be Abraham or Moses, David or Jeremiah.

He did not call you to be David Jeremiah, either.

Not Charles Stanley, or Warren Wiersbe.  Not Mark Driscoll, Stephen Furtick, Andy Stanley, or Louie Giglio–and not their clone.

Speaking of Louie, he says, “You are not a reprint or a lithograph. You’re a one-of-a-kind, original creation of God.”

What a marvelous creative inventive (someone get Roget’s Thesaurus down and finish this list!) God we have.  Billions and billions of human beings, no two alike, each one an original! Each one known by Him, and each loved, with a unique place in His divine plan.

Mull on that a while.

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Perfectionism: The cruelest burden we place on one another

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“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect….” (Matthew 5:48)

First, let’s get the theological argument out of the way.

Let’s make this perfectly clear: God knows you are not perfect and will never be this side of Glory.

And even clearer: “God does not expect sinlessness out of you and me. He is under no illusion about us.”  See Psalm 103:14 “He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” And Romans 3:10 “There is none righteous, no, not one.”

Got that?  The illusion of sinless perfection is all ours, my friend.

We read Matthew 5:48 and come away with the erroneous conclusion that God ordered us to be perfect, that perfect means sinlessness, and therefore we can be sinless.  But since we cannot achieve perfection–no one you know has ever pulled it off–then He has given us an impossible standard to live by, one that crushes us and frustrates us and forever disappoints Him.

The result would be that we forever live with a disgusted God and in fear of the celestial woodshed, the destiny of children who bring in failing grades.

Yuck. What kind of theology is this?  And yet, you and I know people who believe this and call themselves Bible students, serious disciples of Jesus, and even evangelists (“sharers of the good news”)..

Now, let’s drop the other shoe here…

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