Change the Rules; it’s the only sane thing to do!

I coach inner city baseball at a local city park. It is run through a recreation center by the city and all rec. centers have the same program with the same set of rules. I’ve done this for over five years (when my kids were younger in the 90’s and then again the last 4 years in a row). The rules are not generated by the local rec. center but by the city’s governing body which sends the rules to all the centers.
This is not normal little league baseball. Most of the kids don’t have gloves or balls and don’t have a clue how to use them. Since this is inner city, many don’t have nuclear families and there is no one to show them how to throw or catch or hit. My job as coach is less of a strategist than a glorified dad who teaches the basics like how to hold a bat or how to throw with your shoulder instead of your elbow.
The rules then are slightly different than little league baseball. First, there is a pitching machine, not a human pitcher. Secondly you only get five pitches regardless of whether you swing or not, no walks. Thirdly, and most significantly to this story, no player can play the same position twice in the same game. This gives the kids a wide spectrum of playing possibilities and experience. No one gets “stuck” all season playing catcher or right field.
I tend to be rather anal when it comes to following rules. I use my turn signals, I come to a complete stop at corners and I seldom speed up during a pink light to beat the signal. With that said you can understand that I follow the rule of rotating the kids every inning; and from game to game. One mother told me her child wasn’t going to catch but I said, everyone will catch at least once. She gave in and saw that this was the fairest way of dealing with the kids.
I’m telling you all this background because of a recent incident I had with another coach. We generally play a four or five inning game due to time constraints. I know baseball is one of a few sports that doesn’t use a time clock and it can go on forever, but we try to limit the games to one hour. The first three innings we were getting pummeled. We were losing nine to nothing when one of my kids mentioned to me that the other team had never changed player positions for the first three innings. I went to the other coach and told him that he was exerting an unfair advantage over my team. He wildly protested but I appealed to the Rec. center director and he sided with me. The final inning they didn’t score a run and we scored eight! We didn’t win the game but when we played on the same level it radically changed the dynamics of the game.
After the game the other coach came to me and began ranting about the rule. First he claimed he had coached for three years and knew nothing of the rule. I dismissed this politely in that every year we got a packet of coaching information and the rules are clearly stated, not only that but we are given a chart to show how to rotate our players. We also have a coaches orientation each year in which this rule is brought up to remind us.
The other coach then changed his tactics by arguing that he didn’t want his children (two were playing on his team) to play catcher and that is why he ignored it. I stared at him amazed at his rationale. Because he didn’t like the rule, he felt it his obligation to ignore it. Not only ignore it, but to play ignorant when he was confronted by it. He then wanted to negotiate with me that we both not play by the rule or that we lobby to change it immediately!
I informed him that I have successfully played by this rule for more years of coaching than he has in this league. I felt no need to change it for my advantage, in fact, I had learned how to coach around it by placing my better players in key slots in the later innings when the kids started hitting better.
My point in this diatribe is that what this coach was living by and promoting is the major opinion of most people in North America. Rules are relative and are meant to be bent or ignored based on how I feel about them. This is evidenced in how people drive, when they cut in line at the store or theatre, or how they treat other people. Just this past Wed. I was almost broadsided by a woman who decided that her red light didn’t apply to her and my green light was less important, as I was deemed less important, she ran the red light while talking on her cell phone and I had to slam on my brakes and turn out of the way.
People act in the manner of “rules are for others but not for me”. I am the measure of all things and I base my behavior and practices on my needs and feelings. No wonder we have a hard time with values and morals when it comes to life in general. Since all things are relative, so is God and His values. There is no right and wrong anymore, just what I can get away with. If you challenge me, I have a right to lie and distort the facts to defend myself.
May God have mercy on us, we’ll need it when He comes to judge the living and the dead!

Smoking ministry

I know before I write this that what I’m about to share is controversial. I know some will read it through their own filters and see things differently than what I’m interpreting this from this event. But I am willing to take that risk. My eyes have been opening up in the past year or more to the workings of the Holy Spirit and I’m more willing to see His work in ways that I wasn’t prepared to see in the past.
We had a walk in visitor to our church last Sabbath. He just walked in during our Bible study time (Sabbath school class) and asked us if this was church. We invited him in and tried to integrate him into the lesson study. He seemed somewhat disoriented and it may have been because of drugs or a mental condition it was hard to tell. He seemed to have a hard time following the discussion.
Suddenly, without warning, he burst out in a diatribe of accusations against God’s character that would make a committed Christian cringe! He said God only loved special people, not everyone. He inferred that he, himself was not one of the special people that God loved and he based this on the fact that God hadn’t chosen to make his life easy. He inferred that if God loved him He would have taken away his alcoholic tendencies. He also referred to natural calamities as evidence that God doesn’t love everyone.
Listening to his complaints was hard and the first reaction was to defend God’s character. But as some tried to defend God, this young man’s agitation grew. He couldn’t see beyond his own pain to hear anyone’s rebuttal. Several people tried to explain their own journey with this young man to describe how God had loved them into His kingdom. He responded that no one could possibly know his life and his trials and therefore had no right to justify God’s actions. One person, a recent convert not yet baptized, was in tears as he shared how God had removed his addiction to weed that he had for 20 years as justification of God’s love for him.
It was interesting to watch as this new convert was literally in this young man’s shoes not six months before this time. Now he was defending God! There were three people who adamantly defended God verbally through rational, Biblical and testimonial evidence to no avail. I watched as all this unfolded and I saw in action something I have been preaching on for months. I saw something that has taken me years for fully comprehend. All the talk in the world has little effect until people see a difference in our actions and our lives.
The reason this young man came to church that particular Sabbath morning was he was hungry. He was out of work, out of money and out of food and he came with the hope that we had donuts and coffee. We found that out through his conversation and immediately we worked to get him some food from out food bank and we promised him lunch if he could stay till after the service.
He did stay and I was pleased at how the church treated him. Not with contempt or scorn but with genuine concern and love. I don’t know if he heard anything from the lesson or sermon, but he did see Jesus in the way people treated him.
No problems so far right? Now is when you will have to put on your sanctified vision of God’s love in operation. Very little of what transpired in worship and study affected him. But after church he stepped out on the front steps of the church. There stood another new attendee not baptized. This person I will call Jim was recently released from prison. His wife is a member and the church supported her while he was gone. The church also supported him while he was in prison with cards and visitation. He was trying to turn over a new leaf in his life and was attending church with his wife and kids. He was standing on the front steps having a cigarette.
The new visitor bummed a cigarette off of Jim and then Jim began to tell the visitor his story of drug use, prison time and the history of his failed life. He then told the young man, this church accepted me and cares for me, and they will do the same for you if you let them. Jim was witnessing for Jesus while smoking a cigarette with this man. Now you may not think much of his actions and look down on him for smoking, but that day, on the steps of an Adventist congregation, God reached out to connect with a young man where he was in order to show him how much God cares.
God loves humanity too much to not reach out to us at our level. But He also loves us so much that He won’t leave us in the pig sty either.

Too Dirty to be Cleaned?

What I’m about to share with you is a true story. You can’t make this stuff up sometimes. Last fall I went out to a friends place in the country to target shoot some guns. Now I know that some of you may not approve of this activity and I understand. The point of the story is not the shooting, but where this took place.
We drove to the back of his forty acre farm on a wet fall day. Halfway up the small hill, my truck was throwing major amounts of mud all over the place. My truck was only 3 months old at the time with less than 5000 miles so you can probably understand that I wanted it to look nice. Coming back down the hill after our little afternoon excursion added even more mud to the already caked on stuff from a few hours before. I am sure that there was eight inches or more of mud in the wheel wells when we finished.
Driving down the road threw off some of the mud especially from the tires but the wheel wells were not really cleaning up. As we drove home my kids asked if we were going to wash the truck. “Of course” I said, as we drove along; “I go to this drive through car wash all the time, in fact I have a special card.” When we drove up to the entry of the car wash we all jokingly noted a car in front of us that didn’t look like it even needed to be washed. An old lady was driving this car that looked as if it hardly ever left the garage. We laughed about the irony of her car and my truck in line at the car wash.
We didn’t realize that we wouldn’t be laughing long. The manager took one look at my truck and came over and said: “I’m sorry sir, but we can’t wash your truck, it’s too dirty.” He said we needed to go and pre-wash it somewhere and bring it back and then he could wash it.
I responded, “Why would I come back if I had to wash it somewhere else?” He became defensive and told me I didn’t need to take such an attitude. My daughter then said, “Dad, there’s a sermon in this story.”
There sure is! I wondered how many people have left a church, any church in any town of any denomination, and were told in various ways they were too dirty to attend and that if they got cleaned up, they could come back and worship with them. Maybe someone commented to them about their dress and adornment? Maybe someone mentioned something about their children’s behavior? Maybe something was said about food brought to potluck? Maybe nothing was mentioned at all and that sent a message?
Body language is louder than anything we say. In fact studies show that body language is 80% of our communication. This can happen with our eyes, our posture or facial expressions. If we think it, it shows somewhere in our body language.
Have you ever done a check on your dirt limitations of your church? Ever done one on your self?

Seventh-day Adventist

I had a recent epiphany that I want to share. It may not be profound for you or it may even seem ridiculous but I’m going to share it anyway. I am a Seventh-day Adventist. Some may not know what that entails so I want to give a brief explanation of the meaning of the name.

First of all, Seventh-day refers to Genesis 2 where God blessed the seventh day and made it holy in the Garden of Eden. He not only designated this day as holy for unfallen man, but God allowed man to take this gift out of the garden and into a world of sin. The day was to be a day of relationship with God. Mankind would need that reconnecting day of relationship in a sinful world. There is another reason that man needed this day. It was to be an eternal reminder that God is the creator and man is the creature. It is a day that was intended to center man in his creatureness. Seventh-day then refers to the beginning of scripture and to a perfect world that became marred by sin, but through God’s plan of salvation would one day be restored. In fact, the rest of scripture would document the process that God uses to bring about that restoration.

Adventist means someone who is awaiting the advent or appearance of the Messiah. In this case since we believe as most Christians; Jesus has already come once. He became incarnate through the womb of a human and took on human nature to live with us and become the second Adam to pay the price we couldn’t pay. The Advent I’m talking about here is His re-appearing or what the Bible refers to as the second coming. Many mainline churches that celebrate the liturgical calendar know of the season of Advent. This season refers to the first coming of Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem. But the term Adventist in the name of our movement refers to Revelation when Jesus comes in glory to claim as His own what He won at Calvary.

So, the name Seventh-day Adventist has reference to Genesis and Revelation and therefore implies that we teach and believe in all that goes between the two. We are a people of the book. We believe God has revealed His character and His plan in the whole of Scripture and He is a God who does not change. He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. That’s why we take serious the prescriptions of the Bible.

As I was thinking about this my epiphany came. There is another group in scripture that could accurately be called Seventh-day Adventists. That is the people of Israel. They took their scriptures (what we call the Old Testament) very seriously. They were Sabbatarians and they looked forward to the advent of the Messiah.

This led me to all sorts of comparisons and contrasts. Israel is still waiting for the first Advent, while modern Adventists are still waiting for the second. Israel become steeped in their traditions as most religious movements do, this is also true for modern Adventists. Israel became so legalistic in their approach to God that they missed the Messiah; it is possible that modern Adventism is heading in the same direction.

The problem doesn’t lie in the revelation of Scripture nor in the God we worship. The problem isn’t inherent in religion per se, the problem lies with people. People tend to put God in a box and limit Him. It is an effort to control our environment. Humans don’t want a God that is too big because then we are not in control. All religious worship seems to boil down to controlling the deity. We attempt to do it through our prayers, our offering and our worship services.
I don’t have a solution to the problem, just questions. What if we let God be as big as He really is? What would that do to our response to Him? What would our religion look like if we stopped trying to control Him and let Him be in control? What if?

Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy

Recently I’ve been confronted with reading material and a seminar that has challenged my long term belief systems. No, I’m not throwing everything out and redefining my theology. Instead, my theology has been expanded, stretched, and challenged to make me look at my religion in a new way. The title of this week’s blog is from a sermon I did a couple of weeks ago and since I that time, I’ve read two different books that have used the same concepts.

Let me first deal with definitions. Orthodoxy, as found in the term Orthodox Church, means right thinking. Orthopraxy on the other hand means right doing. These two are not in contrast to each other but should be in harmony. Unfortunately Christians today spend most of their time and energy on orthodoxy. Let me share a quote from one of the books I recently read regarding the three great religions that have descended from Abraham: “It must also be recalled that beliefs and doctrines are not as important in Islam as they are in Christianity. Like Judaism, Islam is a religion that requires people to live in a certain way, rather than to accept certain creedal propositions. It stresses orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy." (Armstrong 2002, 66)[1]

Othropraxy, or right doing or behaving seems to be a missing element in Christianity. But it is and was a major component of Judaism, or the chosen people of God; the people to whom the Messiah came. Modern Christians have a hard time understanding how the Pharisees and Sadducees could work together in the Sanhedrin with such differing theological positions but this view helps us to see that what they believed was less important than how they lived their lives.
It seems that what you do is more important than what you believe! How you live your life speaks volumes regarding your belief system. The interesting thing about this is a Bible verse that comes to mind. Revelation 20:13 (NIV) says: “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.” Notice it doesn’t say you are judged by what you know, it says you are judged by what you do!

Another verse that comes to mind is dealing with a parable Jesus taught regarding the second coming and judgment. The parable is found in Luke 12 starting in verse 37. But I want to reflect on the commentary that Jesus gives regarding this parable found in verses 47 & 48. Jesus says: “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. "

To whom much has been entrusted, much will be asked. In this parable Jesus is speaking of both orthodoxy (knowledge given to people through God’s revelation) and orthopraxy (what you did with that knowledge). From this I must conclude that the pagan who lives and behaves up to the level of knowledge he is given through nature (Romans 1:18-20 speaks clearly of this) is better off than the Christian who has access to Scripture but refuses to do what Scripture says.

This is pretty heavy for a blog I know, but it is Biblical and this is where I’m being stretched. As Christians we have an obligation to live what we have been shown through Scripture. In fact, the parable of the sheep and the goats is quite clear on this matter. The separation of the sheep and goats is not based on what they believed, but on what they did with what they understood. How does the Gospel impact your actions? That is the question in the judgment. To say you are a Christian and to act like a heathen is misrepresenting God.

Why is this line of thinking pressing me at this time you might ask? Well it has a lot to do with a seminar I attended and the subsequent reading I did afterward. The seminar was on Islam and a Christian’s response. I was blown away by some of the concepts presented. Imagine that God loves Muslims and is working right now in their culture for their salvation! This is where the rubber meets the road. Many Muslims are living their faith (orthopraxy) better than most Christians!

We look down on some customs and teaching of the Islamic faith as barbaric; but what do they think of us? When you mention a Christian to a Muslim, they think swine eating, wine guzzling, adulterers. That’s their definition of a Christian. What does that image convey to you? What image should they have of Christians? Maybe Christians should be known for our modesty, our temperance and our healthy life styles as indicated by our Holy Book.

I want to use an illustration that might shock or trouble some of you. It has to do with the Catholic Church’s teaching on lent and the eating of meat on Friday. Whether you agree with this teaching or not is not the issue or the point I’m trying to make. Below is the news article found on the web on Tuesday, March 13, 2007. Read it and see if you can find out why this illustrates my point.

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Catholics Denied Hot Dogs For Home Opener
First game falls on Good Friday. Bishop won't grant dispensation to eat meat at Jacobs Field.
By Darren Toms, Newsradio WTAM 1100Monday, March 12, 2007
(Cleveland) - What's a Catholic to do on opening day? Enjoy a fish sandwich. Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon tells Newsradio WTAM 1100 he will not grant dispensation for Catholics to eat hot dogs at Jacobs Field on opening day. This year, the Indians home opener falls on Good Friday. There was a similar case last year when St. Patrick's Day was held on Friday. Then Bishop Anthony Pilla allowed Catholics to eat corned beef on St. Patrick's Day. This is a tradition that goes back to the 1880's. It varies by diocese on whether to grant dispensation. But while St. Patrick's Day celebrates a saint, the same can't be said for the Cleveland Indians. So for the home opener, Catholics need to limit themselves to things like peanuts and cracker jacks.
(Copyright © 2007 Clear Channel. All rights reserved.)
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It appears from this article that when a teaching of the church or the Bible interferes with our desires or passions, we look for a dispensation. A dispensation only means an exemption from a law or oath. Christians spend all their time looking to define their orthodoxy only to request dispensations as to why they don’t need to practice orthopraxy! Let’s stop looking to define and let’s start living our faith. It seems to me that we should use both orthodoxy to listen to what God says and then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, use orthopraxy to do what God is calling us to do. Let’s hear the voice of God and obey. Not obedience that attempts to gain salvation, but obedience because of the great salvation we have been given. Recent trends in Christianity denigrate obedience as legalism. Was Jesus a legalist? He was obedient to His Father in far greater ways than we can conceive. Shouldn’t Jesus be our example? Having a faith relationship with Jesus is not a dispensation to live a life of rebellion and sin, defining what we want or do not want to do in our lives.

“All of life is a test, a test whether we will do it God’s way, or do it our own way!”

Remember, the issue in the judgment is not how much you know, it’s what have you done in practice with the knowledge you have. Are you following the Lamb wherever He leads or are you following your own sinful desires? There is only one path that leads to eternal life and the Bible says that path is narrow and few will find it (Matt. 7:13, 14).

[1] Armstrong, Karen, Islam; A short history. Chronicles book, 2002

HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?

I haven’t written a blog since returning to the states from my evangelistic trip to India back in February. I’ve missed writing it. So I’m going to attempt to write a blog a week as opposed to a blog a day that I was doing while I was gone. It seems like the blog was easier in India because there was always new stories and content to provide for those “back home” who were seeing India through my eyes and experience. But if I were to be honest, there is much content here to write about too; I just get too narrow focused and don’t see the big picture as I was doing while in a different culture and country.

I want to begin this blog by giving an update. I received an email from my new friends in India with some pictures that I want to share. There are two pictures that are very meaningful to me. Before I left India, I gave the local pastor enough money to purchase four goats for Kanatha and a bicycle for Danny to use to get to work and to school. Both of these people are very poor and they would never have been able to obtain these things on their own.

I don’t want this to come across as arrogant or prideful, but this was an important part of my experience and I want to share it with you. I walked in the midst of this village’s poverty and my heart constantly went out to these people as I compared my wealth to their poverty. I knew I couldn’t help everyone in the village, but I could send a message to others of how Jesus loved them and cared about them now, not just future salvation.

When I gave the money to the pastor, I took Kanatha aside with the pastor and talked to her about the gift I was giving. I told her that I couldn’t help everyone but I had chosen to help her. With the gift came responsibility I told her: “to whom much is given, much is expected and now she had an obligation to help others in her village as she had been helped.” I asked her to serve her Lord (Kanatha, if you remember, had been one of the first I baptized) and her village by sharing Jesus with her neighbors and the pray for the village.

I hoped she understood the lesson, I had a hard time reading her facial expression and I asked the pastor if something was wrong. She was lamenting the fact that her husband had died before this time and she wanted to share this with him. She was happy, but many emotions ran through her head.

How big is your God? This was the title of a sermon I preached two weeks ago at Walk of Faith. I had seen and experienced a VERY BIG God while I was in India; a God much bigger than most of Christianity seems to believe in. This big God that I got a picture of is bigger than the toothless, elderly grandfather who spoils his grandchildren and shows no discipline. The big God I experienced deserves more honor and obedience than the God most of Christianity portrays. The God in a box is what most Christians have defined and feel they can control. A God that many Christians feel little need to truly serve with all their heart, mind, and bodies.

I fear that as Christians, we have lost sight of the bigness of God as demonstrated by our spiritless and powerless lives. A small God that Christians have defined and give lip service to but hasn’t caused real life changing service in their lives. This God no longer speaks to them or has authority over them, but they go on living and defining their lives as the pagans do. NO, worse, they live a life that is less devoted than a pagan. In fact, I would submit, pagans who know less than what many Christians claim are less guilty than the ones who claim Jesus as LORD and Savior!

How big is your God and how is it shown in your life of devotion and service?

Until next week, may your God be bigger and bigger as you grow to love Him and serve Him.

Pastor Kevin

farewell to village

It’s Sunday night as I’m writing this and we have traveled all day. We got up at 5:30 a.m. after I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. and I’m really tired. We are in Delhi tonight but we are leaving for Jaipur tomorrow where the palace is located. We leave at 6:30 a.m. and take a four hour bus ride. We will stay overnight in Jaipur and then leave for Agra on Tuesday for the day. Agra is where the Taj Mahal is. We return to Delhi on Wed. to spend the day sightseeing before we leave for home. We fly out of Delhi at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday and arrive back in the states around 2:00 p.m. Thursday. Remember there is a 10.5 hour time zone difference and our air time is 17 hours. I won’t get home till the late hours of the night on Thursday.
Let me tell you a little about what transpired yesterday. It was a full day to say the least. I went to the English speaking church with another Pastor yesterday morning not expecting to preach, but to sit back and relax. When I got to Sabbath school, the Pastor of the church asked me to preach. I had met him earlier in the week and he was more than willing to give up his pulpit to me.
I want to tell you the whole story about what happened in worship that morning but it might be better left to tell in person. But there was a reason God asked me to preach. And there were people in the congregation that needed to hear what I spoke on. I spoke on the cross of Christ and its importance in our preaching and evangelism. AND, I didn’t need a translator!
Right after church I was escorted to the home of one of the team members for a farewell party. I ate home cooked Indian food and was treated like a king. They gave me gifts and I gave them gifts for their support of me at this village. We took lots of pictures and there were speeches. When that was all over, I was informed that I needed to visit each home of the group members (eight of them) and to say a blessing for each home. That took the rest of the afternoon.
We then went to site for the last time. I was tired before I got there. When we arrived at the site, our host wanted to have a tea party for me and the team. Needless to say I did no visiting in the homes last night. We finished the tea party just in time to start the meeting.
We set up the equipment and there were more speeches. I was honored again with a shawl and a necklace. The team gave me an engraved plate as a memento of this experience along with a national Indian flag. I was wondering where I was going to pack all of this stuff they gave me? When we finally began, we were late. We showed the Jesus DVD in its entirety. It was longer than I expected and we didn’t finish the video till 9:15 p.m. We normally ended at 8:30 on other nights. Then it was time for me to say goodbye. I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to how I held up.
Then we had another round of goodbyes and pictures. Many from the village wanted to have a photo taken with me. Kanatha and Ambiga had tears in their eyes when they came to say goodbye. They even shook my hand which is the closest thing of physical contact between men and women that is allowed in this culture.
The driver took my translator and Bible worker and I back to the hotel. There I asked the two of them to come up to my room where I had another special gift for just them. At the room, Pastor Prince my translator stuck out his hand to shake mine then fell into my arms hugging me and I think he even wept a little (like all good strong men he hid it well). My Bible worker, Amani, couldn’t hide it. She cried like a baby. Once again, I wanted to hug her but it was not going to be. Amani always bowed low to me when she met me or said goodnight but never really spoke to me in English before last night. She said: "goodbye pastor and thank you".
I was really exhausted and emotionally drained after they left. I then started to try and pack all the stuff I was given plus some souvenirs. Even with leaving some stuff I brought along, I had a hard time closing my bags; plus they were really heavy.
I hope to get this posted before we leave the hotel tomorrow. This will be the last post until I get home. I can’t wait! I miss my wife and I’m ready for some home cooking, my own bed and to play hockey again. I’m even ready for some snow! (sorry Jack but I like the stuff) I am going to hibernate for a couple of days when I get home to recover from the jet lag. I may or may not see you on Sabbath depending on how tired I am.
May God bless you and keep you.
Pastor Kevin