Monthly Archives: April 2013

You who sit on Jesus’ front desk

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Has this happened to you?

A clerk was rude and you have not been back to that store.

A desk clerk at a motel ignored you and you took your business elsewhere.

The receptionist at the doctor’s office acted snarly and you are seriously considering finding another specialist.

An usher at a new church acted cold and unfriendly and you will not be returning to that church.

While you are pondering that ill-mannered treatment and your response to it, consider that as a follower of Jesus Christ, you sit on His front desk. You represent Jesus to the public. You are, so to speak, answering His phone and dealing with inquirers seeking Him.

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The art of lying: it takes a thief.

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“Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices….” (Colossians 3:9)

Got time for a lawyer story?

The lawyer told it at an early morning coffee time some of us were enjoying. Without permission to use his name, the story will remain anonymous for the time being. He said it happened in his office.

They sat in the lawyer’s office–the accused thief, his mama and his grandmama.  The lawyer said, “The police say you burglarized that store.”

“I didn’t do it! I wasn’t even there! I was someplace else!” the accused shouted.  At that, the mama and grandmama turned to each other and echoed softly but firmly, “He didn’t do it. He wasn’t even there. He was someplace else.”

The lawyer said, “The police have two fellows in custody who say you were their accomplice. They can identify you.”

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Our prayer assumptions

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“…they suppose they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).

We all suppose we will be heard for one reason or other, otherwise we’d stop praying.

What assumptions are you making? Here are a few erroneous positions we sometimes take.

WE EXPECT TO BE HEARD FOR OUR MANY WORDS.

I’ve actually seen books devoted to teaching us how to pray several hours a day. As if the Lord needs this and we gain some kind of medals by piling up the hours. Our Catholic friends are known to pray the Rosary hundreds of times in order to do something–convince God of our sincerity or earn His  favor, or something.

That said, I confess that often in the mornings when I am trying to get my mind awake and focused on the Lord in order to do some serious praying, I will repeat the Lord’s Prayer several times. This is not in order to build up anything with the Lord, but to break through my foggy brain.

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Shame and shamelessness.

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“I am not ashamed” (II Timothy 1:12).

No one enjoys being embarrassed. We do a hundred things to avoid it–take a daily bath, use deodorant, no longer wear some of the things in our closet, take care of the words we speak, admonish our children, and cut our lawns.

Shame is embarrassment on steroids. If embarrassment means to blush, shame means dying a thousand deaths while continuing to breathe.

To be ashamed is to be humiliated in front of people from whom you wanted acceptance or admiration or appreciation. You are devastated at the way people now see you; you wish to crawl into a hole.

Shame is a big issue with the Apostle Paul. Writing from his prison cell in Rome, in his final letter (or, at least, the last one we have of his epistles), he had this to say on the subject:

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Behold, the rabble!

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“And the rabble who were among them had greedy desires….” (Numbers 11:4)

When Israel left Egypt under Moses, the people of God were not alone. Accompanying them was a group of malcontents and hangers-on who apparently stayed with them all the way through the wilderness wanderings on into Canaan.

The Bible calls them “rabble.” They were along for the ride, glad for an excuse to break out of Egypt.

They were a persistent sore on the body of God’s people.

Their presence explains a lot of things.

Who were they?  Exodus 12:37-38 reads: “Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children, and a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.”

That’s all it says: “a mixed multitude.”

Not all were sons and daughters of Abraham or descendants of Jacob. We may assume they were a hodge-podge of humanity, people who for reasons of friendship or self-advancement or marriage had attached themselves to the Hebrews.

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Three irreducibles of the Christian faith

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“God is faithful” (I Corinthians 10:13).

1) If you do not like change, you do not want to start following Jesus.

Jesus Christ has great plans for your life, and if you hand “you” over to Him–and continue doing so every day of your life for the rest of your earthly journey–you will find that involves change, change, and more change.  We may call it growth or something spiritual like “sanctification,” but it’s all about change.

He loves you the way you are, but loves you enough not to leave you that way.

Here is how the Apostle Paul put it: “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18).

That is the plan.

You don’t like change, you say?

Then, do not come after Jesus.

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The angry pastor: trouble in the making

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“Now, in the last days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self…boastful, arrogant, revilers…ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited…. Avoid such men as these.” (II Timothy 3:1-5)

Veteran Christian workers get this a lot. People tell you of a conversation they had with you years or even decades ago in which you either said the magic words that changed their lives or came out with something that infuriated them then and continues to bug them to this day.

You don’t remember any of it.

In yesterday’s cybermail, I had two such messages, one of each kind. One young minister was thanking me and the other was venting. Both conversations had occurred nearly 10 years ago.

The second letter told of the time the writer sat in my office, seeking guidance for entering the ministry. According to his note, I asked what kind of church position he was interested in.  And that’s what ticked him off.

“I was morally outraged by the question,” he said.

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How to take an offering for the guest preacher

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“The laborer is worthy of his hire.” (I Timothy 5:18)

I’m finishing my fourth year as an itinerant preacher and have been the beneficiary of some great (i.e., generous, encouraging) love offerings and the victim of no poor offerings. (That was a good place to have said I’ve been victimized by some unscrupulous pastors or lay leaders, but thankfully, I haven’t. Every check given to me has been more than I deserved and well appreciated.)

On the other hand, I’ve seen the other side of it. I regret to say that a time or two, when I was pastoring, my church was struggling financially and we gave the guest preacher far, far less than he deserved.

Every minister understands this. If a church does all it can, that’s all anyone can ask. On the other hand, some have some funny ways of doing the Lord’s business.

Once, many years ago, I drove 150 miles round trip each evening to preach in a church, arriving around 4 pm in time to make some visits with the pastor, then to have supper with some church member, and get to church in time for the evening service. I’d get home around 10:30 each night. It was a demanding week. On Friday night, following the service, I joined the pastor and staff at the home of a leader who clearly was calling the shots. At one point, he called me off to the side and peeled off five $50 bills and handed me. I honestly thought he was paying for my mileage. But no, that was the offering.

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