Archive for July 2024

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Leader Prayer Support

July 24, 2024

“Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity… Respect the government.” (1 Peter 2:13-15,17, The Message)

My longtime friend in ministry, Chuck Moore, wrote a piece about praying for our leaders. He makes the point that scripture commands us, pleads with us, to pray for those who govern us. He goes back to the Old Testament story of David when he had his chance to slay King Saul, but refused because Saul was God’s anointed. In fact, David felt guilty for even curring off a small piece of Saul’s robe.

“ He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” (1 Samuel 24:6)

Amid heated political rhetoric and an increasingly weird election cycle, my guess is that a small percentage of us have remembered to pray for our leaders and candidates-to-be-leaders. Those leaning left have not been prone to pray for the right, and the right, in like negligent manner, have not been praying for the left. The biblical mandate to pray is not dependent on who a person supports. It’s not even affected by who you DISLIKE! Just as we are told to respect our parents, we are commanded to respect our leaders. It is not dependent upon what their policies are, even if our faith beliefs don’t see them as morally right and unbiblical.

If we believe that prayer makes a difference, shouldn’t we pray for our leaders to be injected with the wisdom of God? And, hard as it is to believe, shouldn’t we pray that our own positions on issues would be scripturally correct, as opposed to, as citizens of this nation, what we think?

The unrest in our country has as much to do with elevating entitlement as it does with patriotism and allegiance. In New Testament times, the apostles and followers prayed for peace. Besides the 23 times Jesus uses the word peace, the other New Testament writings use it 70 times. Most of those are in greetings and goodbyes. “Peace be with you,” and “May the God of peace…” are a couple of those examples. It was a time of unrest and persecution, not a physically safe and secure times for the Jesus-followers. And yet, they prayed for peace. They knew Jesus was the Hope for their time. He is still that Hope who calls us to be peacemakers and prayer warriors. I love those words of Peter:

“It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society.”

No matter who you vote for, God gives you permission to pray for all those who lead us or seek to lead us. He gives you permission to do good even when those around you say it will do no good.

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Winning The Battle and Losing Respect

July 23, 2024

“But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3:15)

On July 21, 1925, John Scopes lost his trial and was fined $100. His offense was teaching evolution in school. The trial, taking place in the small Tennessee town of Dayton, attracted national attention, even being broadcast on radio coast-to-coast. William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor. He had run for president in three different elections and served as Secretary of State. Nationally-known attorney Clarence Darrow, was the lead person for the defense. He wanted to force the issue of teaching evolution in order to make a point about the closemindedness of fundamentalist Christians.

The court case known as “The Scopes Monkey Trial” had two effects that were opposite from each other. The fundamentalists won the battle but lost the people’s respect.

Ninety-nine years later, the battles continue. They’re disagreements over issues of conscience and faith. Struggles that take in gender, individual rights, government interference, neglect, how the United States is involved in skirmishes around the world, and the absence of morals at home. Social media and instant communication make them larger in stature than they are. People talk about it not being like it used to, but it really is. We just find out faster. The names of the issues have just been changed.

And just like The Scopes Monkey Trial, Christians sometimes win the battles but look somewhat idiotic as a result of it, like children having temper-tantrums instead of reflections of Jesus.

The words of 1 Peter remind us to be ready to give an answer but to do it with gentleness and respect. Answer without minimizing the intelligence of those who hold a different position. Converse without slamming, discuss without condemning, chat without belittling.

Our tendency is to win at all costs, but at what cost? Although my position on controversial issues may be unpopular with the cultural mainstream, I’m commanded to respond in ways that probably won’t win the argument. That last word, “argument,” should not be the scenario I seek, but it often is. Instead, I’m called to be the reflection of Jesus, my words and demeanor guided by the Holy Spirit. After all, as the scripture says, I have “the reason for the hope.” And yet, many followers of Jesus seem to operate out of a hopelessness that is infected with anger, arrogance, and a lack of empathy.

Honestly, there are a number of disrespectful, angry, cruel, mean-spirited people we, who strive to be reflections of Jesus, have to deal with…and that’s just some of the folk inside the church.

Ouch!

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Lesser Things Than Good News

July 20, 2024

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:31-32)

Church business meetings are a necessary evil. However, evil is frequently the dominant feature of the gathering of the saints, and the salt that can become salty. Instead of direction and vision, the meetings have a way of diminishing into an analysis of the finances, what is being spent to pay the staff, and how the church constitution and by-laws are not being followed.

Doing business has its place. The healthy church deals with the necessary business, trusts and empowers its shareholders and volunteers to minister and serve, and talks about what it looks like to be a church driven by the Good News, the gospel.

Honestly, I can’t remember many meetings where the main, consuming conversational point of the saints was Jesus’s good news. It makes me wonder if we’re so uncomfortable with the gospel that we focus on lesser things. Or you might call it “non-eternal business.”

The gospel takes in the hard-to-believe news that the unloveable are loved, the unforgivable are forgiven, and the unworthy are redeemed. It’s much more comfortable to talk about the lack of quality in the restroom toilet paper rolls and the sad state of the local high school football team.

I confess that there have been many times when I have detoured from the good news to a topic that doesn’t penetrate my heart. It’s easy to steer away from the love story of God to an event that will be forgotten in the next few minutes.

I think of the configuration of most evangelical church sanctuaries, where the pews or chairs are arranged to face toward the pulpit. It’s a visible picture of who we have entrusted the telling of the Good News to…the preacher. He or she has been trained and educated to tell God’s story, and we’re comfortable with that scenario or, maybe better said, it’s more convenient that way.

It seems that those most comfortable with talking about the gospel are those who were as far away as the prodigal son, realized their lostness, and then found their way back to the arms of the Father. It’s hard to continue to talk about the pastries being served when you’ve been eating the scraps that even the pigs didn’t want.

Finally, it’s uncomfortable to talk about a God Who operates out of grace when we’re dealing with our personal vindictiveness, a God of love when we can’t even stand the person sitting in front of us in worship, and a God Who forgives when we crave revenge and ill on our neighbors.

Lesser things monopolize our time and focus and crowd eternal matters out of the agenda. We don’t have to be religiously weird, but there is more to life than the Sunday sports lineup, even if your team is called the Angels or the Saints.

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What Would Offend Jesus?

July 17, 2024

I’m at church camp this week. A mass of hyper-active, high energy, squirrel-ish kids and youth who are wondering if they can survive for a week without social media, AirPods, and other noises they’re addicted to.

We’ve already experienced a few things that are the norm for the younger culture: Flatulence at that climactic point in the message where Jesus is about to say something eternally important, squished up sickly-looking faces at the creamed broccoli on the dinner plate, and kids jumping and dancing as they sing an “active worship” song.

They discover at camp that there is very little that offends Jesus…at camp. Many wonder why so many things in their home churches are viewed as offensive. For example, why do some old-timers at church get all worked up when a young person wears a hat in worship? What difference does a hat make? After all, they take their hats off at the high school football game when the National Anthem is played but wear it for the rest of the night. Why can’t they wear their hats in church, take them off during a prayer, and then put them back on? Does the absence of a hat make them more attentive during the ten minutes of announcements, twenty minutes of singing, and thirty minutes of the pastor’s message?

So, what exactly does offend Jesus? Jesus was irritated by people who looked pious but were void of spiritual hunger and humility. His words in Matthew 23:27 caused a stir. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.“

Woe, doggies!

Right before that, he said, “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

That’s the thing about Jesus. He didn’t mind a little bit of mud, as long as the yearning of a person was for inner cleansing and transformation. In fact, he spit into some dirt, made a couple of mud eye packs, and put them on a blind man’s eyes. Interesting, he used an unsanitary method to heal a man’s inability to see, and wash away the limitations of his life.

What offends Jesus? Our blindness to the dirt in our souls.

The ways we are offended are so often based on culture, how we’ve been raised, and what looks good. Back in the 1900s mostly in Tennessee and Kentucky, many rural Baptist churches had a few holes cut in the floor of the sanctuary (worship room). Men sat on that side of the room, women on the other. The holes were for the tobacco chewers to spit during the service. No one was offended by it. It was a natural part of their culture. I doubt that Jesus was offended, either.

In my years as a pastor, I had people in my congregations who were offended by praise music, MIDI music systems, coffee and/or donuts and/or cookies in the sanctuary, ushers not wearing suits and ties, women ushers, kids not being quiet in worship, moving the fake organ pipes, bulletin mistakes, using the New International Version bible, using The Message paraphrase bible, guitars, drums, new people serving in some capacity, and dried out communion bread.

On the other hand, I’d be hard-pressed to remember people being upset by pride, gluttony, greed, lust, and envy. It’s easy to focus on the outer things we don’t have difficulty with, but others do. That means each one of us has a different shade of whitewash that Jesus sees, and maybe…we’re blind to.

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Wisdom and Old Age

July 12, 2024

“The glory of young men is their strength,
    gray hair the splendor of the old.” (Proverbs 29:20)

“Old age is upon me, and I shan’t outrun it. Perhaps I may act juvenile and fool it, or ignore it and it will go away. Maybe I can hide and it won’t find me, or tone up my body or botox my face and it will mistake me for discovering the fountain of youth. However, wisdom hints to me that I take old age by the hand and walk in peace toward the sunset.” -Rev. Bill Wolfe, 7/12/24

The doubts about an octogenarian president have topped the news headlines each day. Everyone from the towel boy at the health club to the well-groomed barber to the twentysomething guy wearing sandals and swim trunks in front of me at Chick-fil-A have opinions.

Me, I have emotions. They are mostly the kind that are displayed in sad-looking emojis that communicate despair, dread, and doubt. They are emotions that have me facing the sunset that draws nearer and the reality of death down the road a lesser bit than yesterday. But more than that, they are emotions that cause me to face that point where every AARP, Medicare, Social Security, pension-backed grey hair comes to. There are certain things I can no longer do like I used to, and there are other things I’m capable of doing, but OTHERS doubt that I can handle them more easily than I ever have before.

For you see, wisdom is much harder to see than frailty. The slowing of my walking pace is more evident than the wisdom I possess because of a wealth of past experiences.

As more people urge our president to step to the side, those of us who are in the twilight years of our lives are anxious. Many of us wonder if someone will try to push us to the side in the coming days as our culture becomes increasingly enamored with the excitement of youth that is often blemished with stupidity.

Perhaps the president is too stubborn to admit that he needs to step to the side, or maybe folk who are more thirsty for power than loyalty are forcing the issue. Either way, those of us who are too far behind age-wise are wondering if there is someone who has started doubting us.

And the attached quandary goes along with that: Maybe it’s time for me to step aside from some position or responsibility I’ve held for the past decades.

As my poem at the beginning said, “Old age is upon, and I shan’t outrun it.”

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Leaning Kinda

July 11, 2024

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It’s hard for me to lean and not fall over these days. There are dizzy blondes and lightheaded seventy-year-olds. I fall into the last category. (I think that was an unintended pun.)

I can still lean, but leaning too far puts me out of balance and causes me to question my I.Q. I get light-headed when I lean over to tie my shoes. I think I’m about due to make the transition to slip-ons. In other words, for many reasons and in many ways, I’m a “kinda-leaner.”

If I translated that into spiritual terms, I would say that I lean on the Lord but mostly stand firm in my own understanding. The more I lean, the more uncertain my footing becomes. Excessive leaning increases the potential for looking stupid and/or weird.

Most of us, probably all of us, who characterize ourselves as followers of Jesus, have not leaned on the Lord at times…”too many to count” times…in our lives. The same can be said of churches as well. For example, church business meetings are more about the business than the leaning. Just as followers of Jesus are prone to being “kinda leaners”, churches are guilty of kinda seeking the leadings of the Lord.

Granted, there are throngs of people who mistake whims for leadings and would be willing to misinterpret Jesus having the herd of pigs jump off a cliff as a message from the Lord to go ahead and lean out over the edge. Let’s be honest! Sometimes, churches are a nesting place for whackos and fruitcakes.

Most of the time, however, as followers of Jesus, we’re just paranoid about learning. The Proverb says, “…in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” As I read that, it tells me that the Lord will direct me. It reminds me of a vivid picture I have in my way distant past of my dad teaching me to ride a bike without training wheels. Even though I couldn’t see him, he held onto the bottom of his seat cushion. I was as terrified of the downhill slope on the side of our house as a blind man on the edge of a snake pit, but my dad kept telling me that he wouldn’t let go. He told me to keep my hands on the handlebars and trust that he had me. He kept me going on a straight path.

May the Lord remind us to lean ahead as He holds us in His grasp.

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Scapegoats and Sacrifices

July 7, 2024

“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat.  He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins— The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:20-22)

Scapegoats are biblical. They fulfilled a purpose. Someone or something had to take the blame for the bad judgments of the Israelites. In certain situations, individuals would take the punishment, but there were corporate sins and rebellious attitudes that cast a dark cloud over the whole nation. Enter the scapegoat, a goat that everyone could visibly identify as being “the one.” He took the blame so they didn’t have to. I suppose for a short time, the guilty felt unburdened and free. The scapegoat whio had become the focus of their problems had taken away their problems.

Of course, the problems would re-emerge after a while and the people would have to look for another scapegoat to take the blame.

Our culture has brought back the custom of scapegoats. From Steve Bartram’s interference with a foul ball that could probably given the Chicago Cubs Game 6 in the National League playoff series and taken them into the World Series, to who to blame for high inflation, to who caused the test scores of students to drop, we’re a society that looks for that one person or group of people to take the blame.

Of course, the blame game gets ramped up during political campaign season. In a recent Colorado congressional race, you would have thought each of the candidates from the same political party were the Devil Incarnate.

In Old Testament times, the scapegoat was taken away from the people and into the desert. He was left there, the carrier who took responsibility for the people’s sins.

When Jesus carried his cross to the place of the Skull, our sins were upon Him. He took them to the cross with Him. As Isaiah 53:6 tells us, “…and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” He carried our sins once and for all.

Unlike the scapegoat led out into the desert, Jesus had a choice about being the carrier of our sins, and He chose to take them with Him. As I said at the beginning, scapegoats are biblical. They are also relevant for life today. When something goes wrong, we look for someone to blame.

Jesus, who had no sin, took the blame for my failures. Romans 5:7-8 sum it up:

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

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The Yellow Squiggly Line

July 2, 2024

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:25)

Yesterday, I was traveling down Interstate 25 through Colorado Springs, and in the middle lane, a yellow line suddenly appeared. It wasn’t a yellow line that had been carefully painted by a road crew to mark the edge of the road or a no-passing zone. This line appeared to be something that had gradually leaked out of the back of a truck. It had a shakiness to it, like the squiggly graphing line that comes from a lie detector test.

The yellow line continued down the highway for the whole distance of my drive. Six miles later, when I exited the road, it was still snaking its way south. I wondered if the driver would pull into his driveway another few miles away, hitch his pants up, and walk to the back of his pickup to retrieve his five-gallon can of yellow paint, only to discover he now has six ounces left to do the job.

Metaphorically speaking, the yellow squiggly line represents several things. On the downside, it reminds me of the mess of my life, the ways I’ve left chaos in the wake behind me. As Romans 3:23 says, “All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” In different ways, we have left a trail of trash. We’ve made a mess of things, a mess of opportunities, a mess of relationships, and a mess of situations. Like the yellow squiggly line, people view our transgressions and wonder why we would have done or said something or acted the way we did.

We leave an impression behind us whether we know it or not. The words we speak, our attitudes, the kindness we show, and the characteristics we are known for all leave a trail of significance or disappointment. Sometimes, and for some people, that trail of significance goes on and on for a long time. It’s only for a while for other people, as their connection with us only lasts until the next exit ramp.

The amazing thing about the God we serve is that He comes behind us and wipes up the messes. Like the road cleaning crew, God causes the yellow line of our failures to disappear. As Isaiah 43:25 says, “…he remembers them no more.” Isaiah 44:22 has Him saying to us, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.”

Our lives often look ugly, but God cleans us up, and not just partially, but thoroughly. He takes care of the yellow squiggly lines. There are many days where, at least for me, He’s having to do some major clean up.

Thank you, Lord!

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