Don't let the past rob you of the present!

Today is Pearl Harbor Day.  Most of us are too young to remember that infamous day but I imagine it felt a great deal like 9/11 for those of us who lived through that morning and its aftermath.  My guess is that just about every generation and every individual life will live through days that impact them emotionally.  The end of WWII, the assassination of MLK or JFK, and Neal Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind" are days that will forever be etched in the minds and hearts of those who lived through them.  

But here's my challenge for us today--let's not live in the past no matter whether it was good or bad.  Some days in our past may have blessed us beyond measure--our happiness meter was off the charts.  Other days may have scarred us and wounded us so profoundly that we wonder how we can even go on another day.  But here's what I know in my mind, my heart and by my experience; whatever the past, good or bad, it's behind you.  You can't erase it or change it--it is what it is.  We should learn from it but we should never live there.

Paul, writing to his good friends in Philippi says, "This one thing I do, I forget what lies behind."  He doesn't mean that he blocks it from his memory; instead what he means is that he doesn't let the past dictate his present.  Have you every known someone who is always reliving past victories?  They live in years gone by when they had a good day or a good season.  It seems they miss the present by always living in a better past day.  Or have you known someone who is always reliving the past trauma of a bad decision, failure or event?  I don't mean to minimize people's past traumas--I know they are real and terrible.  But they are in the past and if I live there, for whatever reason, I forfeit my future.

To live in the present, to forget what lies behind--good or bad, is a choice.  The only person who can make that choice for you is you.  Someone has said, "Wherever you are, be all there."  I think that means in the flow of time too--be all in the 'present.'  Choose this day to stop living in the past and invest in today.  Whoever you are, invest in your friends, in people.  Don't let the past rob you of the most precious possession you have this actual day--relationships.

Many of you who might take a moment to read this know that I am a follower of Jesus.  You yourself might be one as well.  In the passage where Paul says he forgets what lies behind, he goes on to say this; "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  Paul says I invest my present by pressing forward in this upward call of God in Jesus.  You might ask, what is that call?  Just a few lines before this Paul says, "I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."   Here is that upward call Paul was pressing toward in the present-- to know Jesus.  The relationship that mattered most to Him was knowing Jesus and I might add, making Him known to others.  All the good in the past, all the trauma in the past--it was in the past.  What mattered most in the present was to know Jesus better.

Whether you are a Christ follower or not, don't let your past rob you of the beauty of this day.  And definitely don't let it keep you from seeking to know Jesus better and follow Him more completely.

I want to be happy-- don't you?

I want to be happy--don't you?  I think it would be a truthful statement to say everyone just wants to be happy--and all the time.  For many years I've heard Christians make a distinction between happiness and joy and that made sense to me.  After all, God calls us to rejoice always, to have joy always, and we all know that no one can be happy all the time.  How can I be happy when my loved one dies, or my child is fighting cancer, or I lose my job?  Right?  Therefore, we conclude, there must be a difference between joy and happiness.

Recently, I heard Randy Alcorn make a strong case for how Biblically, and throughout history, joy and happiness have been used as synonyms.  He shared that Oswald Chambers was the first to espouse the idea that "joy" and "happiness" are different; that is,  joy is that deep, abiding contentment that remains even in the most dire circumstances of life, while "happiness" is that more temporal, emotive feeling that makes us feel so wonderful.  Alcorn says that prior to Chambers, everyone used the words interchangeably-- to be happy was to be joyful and to be joyful was to be happy.

I've been thinking a great deal about happiness as of late and I think this confusion might lie in how we view this idea of happiness.  Let's be honest.  Happiness is not something I achieve and then I'm done--never to be unhappy again.  "Ok, now I'm happy--I don't have to think about that anymore!"  That's really not how it works.  Happiness and joy, as an emotional state, is constantly being challenged--at least it is in my life.   On our trip home from Alabama for Thanksgiving, we were caught in an accident and stuck on the interstate for over an hour, and then to top it off, immediately upon getting off the interstate I got a ticket for driving through a stop sign I didn't see.  I admit it--I was not happy and my wife even reproved me for my unhappiness over such temporal, unimportant things.  I think that it might be helpful for us to see happiness as a state of heart that needs to be continually replenished.  There are many difficulties in life that want to rob us of our happiness.  Some of those difficulties come at the end of bad choices we've made.  Others are absolutely independent of anything we've done, yet both have the same result of potentially draining away our happiness.

David Murray identifies six streams of happiness that are available to all people everywhere.  He says all of us experience nature happiness, social happiness, vocational happiness, physical happiness, intellectual happiness, and humor happiness.  I think it's easy to understand what Murray is saying--good jokes, good friends, and a good back massage all make us feel happy--they add to our "happiness tank."  People recognize this and are always trying to find happiness in these six areas and more, which is why we visit the Grand Canyon and go to hear comedians.  All too many of us are too often thinking, "If I could just find the right relationship, or have this one thing, or have 'that' job or 'this' amount of money, I'd be happy."  We strive for those things because deep down we believe those things will give us lasting, enduring, happiness.   Sometimes we actually achieve the things we pursue; but invariably and unfortunately, the happiness they bring is often fleeting and we set out to refill our happiness tank, this time with something else that will prove itself equally transient.

But Murray identifies one more stream of happiness which he calls "spiritual happiness," and this happiness comes only from having a relationship with God through Jesus.  This source of happiness is always available, and it's what I believe Chambers was seeking to identify when he said that joy and happiness were different.  Here's what spiritual happiness is:  it is the joy and happiness that comes from knowing that God loves me, that my life matters and has purpose, and that God Himself is watching over my life.  What I mean by that last statement is that God in His love for me is overseeing my life so that I can trust Him that everything is going to be okay in the end.  Romans 8:28 promises that "all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose."  But here's the challenge-- I have to choose that spiritual happiness and joy.  I have to decide that I'm going to walk in it, no matter what.  Just having experienced an added hour of interstate driving to an already super long drive, followed up with an immediate moving violation ticket for running a stop sign, I tell you that is no easy task!  So how do I always walk in happiness and joy? Here are two suggestions that I'm trying to practice myself.

Use your feelings of unhappiness as a warning.  If you are a Christ follower and you are unhappy, somewhere along the line you've lost sight of Jesus and that spiritual flow of happiness, and you are focused on the bad.  Remember, God says he loves you and nothing happens to you that He's unaware of or isn't supervising.  If He's allowed it, He will use it for good.  I'm not saying the thing is good--I'm saying God will use it for good.  Trust Him.

Stop, pray and choose happiness!  You can do it.  You can choose joy even in the hardest and most difficult times of your life.  You may have to choose it over and over but you can.  Pray it out loud.  Remind yourself that God loves you and you can trust Him.  "Rejoice, and again I say rejoice!"

It didn't take me but a few seconds to realize my wife was right.  I had allowed some petty things to rob me of my joy and happiness.   I'm pretty sure it won't be the last but I want to be a happy and joyful person-- all the time.  Join me in that pursuit.

Say "Thanks!"

Today is Thanksgiving so what does that mean?  Unfortunately for many of us it's a day to over eat, or simply "couch potato" our day away in front of the TV, or shop until we drop.  One really good thing about Thanksgiving is that many us try hard to spend it with family.  But let me encourage us all to remember the very name of the day--Thanksgiving.  Today is a day to say thank you, to express gratefulness.  All too often we celebrate Thanksgiving in so many ways, but never actually say thank you to anyone.  Let me challenge you to make a point to say thank you to the following persons today.

Begin by expressing gratefulness to God--both personally and as a family.  There are countless reasons for which we should be thankful to God so think deeply and thoughtfully.  Make thankfulness a focus of your personal time with God and then, before you eat the main meal together, spend time as a family praying and expressing thanks to God.  A helpful suggestion might be to go around the room and ask everyone to share one thing from this past year for which they'd like to thank God.

Take today as an opportunity to say thank you to your parents.  Some of you reading this will have already lost your parents to death and you can still remember them with gratefulness.  But if your parents are alive, thank them.  Be specific.  As a parent myself I tend to remember and focus on my failures.   Our gratefulness can bless our parents and encourage them that they did some things right.

Who has invested time and energy in your life?  Who went out of their way to pour into you and help you become who you are today?  Have you ever thanked them?  Take this day to make a phone call or write a note that says "thank you for helping me become who I became!"  When I was in college I met a pastor by the name of Sam Tatem.  I can't even remember how we met, but Sam would often write me  notes of encouragement and those notes meant more to me than I can even explain to you.  Sam is gone now, and I can't tell him personally, but there are others who helped me become who I am.  Mark Griffith, Chip Phillips and Don Frensley are some of the men who poured into me.

Has anyone loved you when you were unlovely?  Anyone stuck by you when you were being stupid and really deserved to be abandoned?  Today is Thanksgiving-- say thank you to that person.  Call them and tell them how much it means to you that they didn't give up on you.

Are you a Christ-follower?  Who led you to Jesus?  Today would be a good day to thank them.  Did someone disciple you?  Help you to grow as a Christian?  Why not write them a note or give them a call and say thank you?

Today is a day to give thanks-- let's actually do it.  There is nothing wrong with football, feast and family but let's go further and make this a day of true "Thanks-Giving!"

    

Don't give up!

It was a Monday morning when my friend Scott called me and asked me to go with him to take some groceries to a needy family in the county—actually they were my neighbors.  I willingly went; I thought we’d be in and out in just a few minutes but he had other ideas.  Only the wife was home and Scott was determined to reach out beyond just the gift of food.  I remember him continually telling the lady how we cared and wanted to help and asked her over and over again if there was anything we could do to assist them.  By this point I was sitting in a chair and to my chagrin, I was irritated with Scott for prolonging the visit.  We had reached out several times to this family but they had never responded with any openness.  In my mind, we had done our good deed and we were now wasting our time and I was ready to go.  But then, all of a sudden, something happened.  The woman began to cry.  I can clearly hear her words even now, “Thank you for caring for us!  Thank you for caring!”

In that moment, filled with shame at my own selfishness and lack of compassion, God began to speak to me.  He told me I give up on people way too soon and he brought to mind another couple I’d been reaching out to but had given up on.  There in that seat I repented, I changed my mind and heart, and decided I would not give up on people and made a commitment to visit that same couple that very night.

It was a cold, winter evening when we showed up at their door.  They weren’t expecting us but graciously let us in.  I remember they didn’t have any central heat and they only had one kerosene heater in the living room.  They had even blocked off other rooms with sheets where there weren’t doors.  That night I told them about Jesus and His love for them.  I spoke of God’s concern and His desire to forgive them and make them His own children.   It was amazing to me what happened next--with deep emotion they both received Jesus as their Savior.   We gathered around their coffee table on our knees and they expressed their faith through prayer and I followed that by praying for them.  For one who follows Christ, it was a sacred moment but it didn’t end with my prayer as the husband asked me, “Can I pray again?”  I told him he most assuredly could and then bowing his head again, he prayed.  His prayer was short and I assure you these were his exact words-- I’ll never forget them; “Dear Lord, thank you for not letting them give up on me! Amen.” 

 In one day God had spoken to me as clearly as I’d ever heard him—twice no less.  “Jimmy, don’t ever give up on people.”  I wish I could say that from that day I’ve always been faithful to that directive.  True confessions—some people make it hard not to give up.  They test the metal of my resolve but then God reminds me of that day and I press on.

Maybe you are tempted to give up on a friend, a neighbor, a child or even a spouse.  The decisions they are making, the choices they are choosing and the constant refusal to make positive and lasting change causes you to want to throw up your hands and walk away.  Don’t!  Please don't!  I don't mean that you should enable bad behavior or facilitate errant choices but what I do mean is continue to love them, to invest grace in them, to challenge them and even to pray for them.  Don't give up on them in your heart.  Not too long ago I was feeling a bit discouraged that someone I was investing in wasn’t making much change.  I was telling a friend about that and what he said reminded me of the lesson God taught  me so many years ago; “Jimmy, I’ve discovered that things can change in a person’s life in an instance.  Always remember, the end has not been written.”  What a great reminder. 

So I leave you with this encouragement—don’t give up!  Never, ever give up hope that people can change because the end has not been written!

Twenty-eight years and very grateful!

In three days, on November 5^th, twenty-eight years ago, Anne and I were voted in as the pastor and wife of the Bacon’s Castle Church family.  I was young—twenty- seven years old—very idealistic and hopeful.  I’d like to believe I still am but I know all these years have tempered me with a dose of realism.  It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve lived longer in Surry than all other places combined.

                                                                                                                           

Shepherding and leading at Bacon’s Castle has been one of the greatest joys of my life, though it’s not always been easy.   I have often felt overwhelming gratefulness fill my heart for the privilege that’s been mine.  As I was reflecting over these many years, I wanted to tell you some things for which I’m very grateful.

I guess personally, I’m most grateful to God and to you for the friendships and relationships that He has given me over my years of serving.  For almost three decades I’ve walked alongside some men and women who have become as close to me as brothers, sisters, and friends can become.   Thomas Aquinas said, “There is nothing on earth to be more prized than true friendship.” There is little for which I am more grateful than you my friends, my family.

As I reflected on being your pastor all these years, gratefulness for how you’ve loved and treated my family overwhelms me.  You’ve loved my Anne and my kids—my family.  You’ve treated them as your own.  Many of you have invested time and training in their lives.  You’ve prayed for them, supported them in their endeavors-- from high school sports, to college, to careers.   I think some of you have loved them as much as Anne and I have!

I’m grateful for how you’ve followed my leadership.  I wish I were a stronger and better leader—I think our church might reflect that today if I were.  But what leadership gifts I do have, you have supported and nurtured.   In the early years, when I was young and you didn’t know me, we had some struggles.  And, not that along the way we’ve never had any others; but mostly over the years you’ve trusted my heart, and that will always mean more to me than I can ever express.  

This is humbling to admit, but I’m thankful for all the times you’ve forgiven me when I’ve dropped the ball or let you down.  In these last twenty-eight years I’ve had plenty of chances to mess up, even hurt you, and far too many times I’ve done just that but yet, so many of you have stood by me, forgiven me, and even encouraged me nonetheless.  Anne alluded to it the other Sunday when she shared, but the hardest part for me as a pastor has been to watch people leave our family for this reason or that.  I’m sure that some have legitimate grievances with me—my sin may have hurt them—but so many of you have not let that deter us or destroy our love or our church family.   You’ve pardoned me and loved me and I’m grateful for that forgiveness.

I could definitely go on with this, for there is so much more that makes me grateful as I think of Bacon’s Castle.  Your love for our guests when they come, your love for children and your desire to be a church committed to God’s Word and His Will are just a few of the things that make me thankful.   But when I think back over the last twenty-eight years I’m so very grateful to God for the opportunity He’s given me to have a part in what He’s been doing in your lives.  God has given me the privilege of leading some of you to know and trust Christ, and those opportunities came to me because I am a pastor—not all of them but many of them.  He’s given me the chance to pour my life into many of yours, to help you learn and grow in your walk with Jesus.   As a pastor, He’s allowed me to be there and cry with you when it hurts and laugh with you when the joy is overwhelming.  It’s a privilege for which I’ll always be thankful to Him.

People often ask me if I’ll stay here with the Bacon’s Castle family until I die.  That I don’t know.  Who knows, there may come a time when you and I think it is best that I step aside from being a pastor.  But this I do know, no matter what the future holds, I’ll always be grateful for this privilege that’s been mine.

Christianity in Black and White

In 1987 Anne and I rolled into the parsonage of Bacon's Castle Baptist Church as the freshly minted pastor of this rural congregation.  I had high expectations of changing the world one life at a time and ground zero for change was our community and most specifically our church family.  I grew up in Latin America and I had the privilege of growing up with great ethnic and racial diversity in a school with people from all over the world.  I had grown up reading about the black and white separation in our country, and the racial laws that divided our land just two decades before, but I had never realized how deep seated that divide really was until I moved to Surry.    The hunt clubs were divided by race.  The Masons were divided by race.  But what troubled me the most was that every Christian church in Surry was divided by race.  How could it be that the church that Jesus started, that reconciled Jews and Gentiles together in one body, one gathering, could be so divided by skin color?

Twenty-eight years ago I wrote a vision statement of what I believed God wanted to do with Bacon's Castle and one part of that was reconciling this racial divide.  I remember picturing a morning worship service at Bacon's Castle that was composed of black and white believers who loved Jesus and loved each other just as much.  Early on I prayed hard, and worked even harder, to bring that vision to fruition.  In the late 1980's, seventy believers from our church family joined me one Sunday as we went over to a sister church composed of African-American believers, and asked for forgiveness.  We went primarily to ask for forgiveness for the past racial sins of our church family; truly it was a blessed day as we were received with such a loving heart.  We did many things in those years to open the doors of Bacon's Castle to racial reconciliation--combined worship services, exchange of pulpits, praying together, and observing the National Day of Prayer together.  Today, almost three decades later, Bacon's Castle shares a great relationship with most all the Christian churches in Surry, black and white, and though we have a few African-American members, we have not been able to change the racial culture of our church.  Most of us are white-- of European descent.

Did you know that statistically only seven percent (7%) of churches ever manage to reach an ethnic/racial divide of 70/30%?  That means that only seven churches out of 100 ever have a congregation where three out of every ten members are different from the majority.  It's not a very high bar but even at that, most of us don't meet it.  Why?  Why doesn't it happen naturally?  After all, in the county where I live the population is racially about half and half-- half black and half white.  Most people say it has to do with culture-- the culture of the church.  Black and white Christians do things differently, so we're all more comfortable in what we know, and that keeps us separated.  That may be true, but isn't racial unity in the body of Christ more important than our comfort?  Isn't the gospel powerful enough to help us find a middle ground in how we do things?  Let's face it, the reality is that racial reconciliation isn't very important to us.  It's something that we think would be ok if it happened but not anything that we are willing to fight for, sacrifice for or pursue with purpose and passion.  We don't think that our present racially divided churches reflect poorly on the gospel or on our Savior Himself.

But I think it does.  I fact, I think our segregation as believers based on race is even sinful.  At least it is a reflection of our sinfulness and selfishness.  I believe we need to fight to change the status quo but the question is how?  How do we change this voluntary segregation?  Believe it or not I think I have the answer.

  

A couple of weeks ago I attended the funeral visitation for the mother of a pastor friend.  She was a godly woman and the church was packed for hours as people remembered her with praise and love.  There were persons from many different churches across the county—many churches that is except the white churches.  It stood out that I was the only white person at the service.  That struck me—why were there not more white believers there to honor this great and saintly, African American woman?  Only one reason—we don’t have relationships across this racial divide that are lived out socially.   Yes, we have relationships at work or in some civic organizations, and we even have them across churches, but we don't have them as friendship relationships that are lived out in our homes.  This pastor, whose mom had passed, has been my friend for almost thirty years.  We pray together almost weekly but when I mentally examined our relationship I realized that he and his wife have never been to my house for dinner and an evening of games.   Let me be honest, I don’t think we’ve ever had any African-American couple in our home for dinner and games.  It’s not that I wouldn’t want to—I think I'm being honest when I say I would want that!  But what hasn't happened is that Anne and I have never done anything intentionally to bring us together socially as friends-- it’s not been a priority.  

I said I believed I have an answer; here it is.  Begin to work on cross racial friendships by inviting folks to your home for a meal and games.  We love the card game "Golf"-- try it.)  It's just that simple-- we have to make an effort as believers to build friendships that cross those divides.  Let me ask you, if you are white, when was the last time you had any black friends over to share a meal and evening together? If you are black, when was the last time you invited any white friends over for supper and friendship?  If you are like me, it's probably far too little.  Some of you might honestly say, "I don't have any friends of a different race to invite."  Well, that's the point; so start with some acquaintances.  How about a neighbor that you know but don't know very well?  




This post has gone on long enough but if you happen to have read this far, and you happen to be a follower of the Lord Jesus, I want to encourage you, even exhort you, to pursue the tearing down of this racial divide in our local churches.  Do you remember Reagan telling Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall?"  Let's tear down this wall of racial divide.  Fight for it.  Pursue it with me.  Join me in doing it one friendship at a time!




Three Really Good Things That Can Keep You From Heaven

It’s hard to believe that good things can keep people from knowing God and out of heaven, but it's true.  Some who claim to follow Jesus say we shouldn’t even worry about heaven.  I’ve recently heard the assertion that many of us who follow Christ only emphasize “heaven” and ignore the every day life of following Jesus.  Well I hope that’s not true, but to minimize the importance of eternal life is to reject much of what our Savior said.  Jesus often said things like this; “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”   It’s amazing how often Jesus spoke of keeping our eyes, our focus, on eternity.  Paul, one of the greatest Christian leaders of the early church, said that “if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

So heaven is important and you should want to be there as you close your eyes in death, but there are three really good things that can keep you out if you are not careful.

Growing up in Jesus' church is a good thing that can keep people out of heaven.  Honestly, growing up with godly, Christ-following parents is a blessing one can’t minimize.  Having the nurture of a Biblical, loving local church is priceless.  But just like with so many good things, there can be a down side too.   Have you ever heard the old adage, “You can’t see the forest for the trees?”  Is it possible that we can be so close but miss the big picture?  Too often our children grow up in church hearing all about Jesus yet somehow the gospel never takes root in their hearts.  It’s almost like we inoculate them to their personal need of a Savior and to the wonder of God’s grace.  Over and over again I hear adults who grew up in church confuse the gospel with moralism, where moralism is a belief that moral goodness, or at least moral relativism, i.e. ‘I’m better than other sinners,’ is the basis of God’s choice in salvation.  It is not.

This is why parents and churches should make the gospel clearly distinct from the call we make to moral integrity.  We need to view our children as sinners in need of a Savior and not as little saved people by virtue of their connection to our church family.

The ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ can be a good thing that can keep people out of heaven.  “Wow,” you say, “how can prayer ever keep someone from knowing God?”  Easy!  When we equate “praying a prayer” with salvation, we run the danger of deceiving people that they have come to know God and have been forgiven by Him, when in reality they have not.  Jesus never said, “Pray this prayer to be saved.”  Instead the Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved!”  Or it puts it this way, “But as many as received the Lord Jesus, to them God gave the right to become the children of God.”  Salvation is not a gift that comes by praying a prayer but by faith in the Lord Jesus.  So is it wrong to pray and ask Jesus to save us?  Of course not.  Prayer can be a great way to express faith but if we put too much emphasis on the prayer itself, we can make it a stumbling block to some folks.  I’ve heard people say, “Of course they are saved—they prayed the sinner’s prayer!”  I appreciate the sentiment but salvation is evidenced in faith that leads to a transformed life, not in a prayer someone once prayed.   Here’s how the apostle John put it;  “But if we claim to know him and don’t obey him, we are lying and the truth isn’t in our hearts. …if we say we are his, we must follow the example of Christ.” (1 John 2:4,6)  We should encourage people with assurance that comes, not from praying a prayer, but from faith in Jesus that leads us to love like Jesus, believe like Jesus and walk our lives as Jesus walked.

Baptism can be a good thing that can keep people out of heaven.  Baptism is an important act that Jesus commanded us to observe as a way of testifying to our faith.  It’s a great illustration of Christ’s work on the cross for us as we are united with Him in His death, burial and resurrection through faith.  But baptism often becomes a performance that people believe transfers salvation.  Many religious people call it a sacrament and actually, without qualm, believe it conveys salvation.  But even among those who find themselves in evangelical churches, too often their hope is in this religious performance.

One of the best ways to insure that baptism doesn’t become a stumbling block to heaven is to make sure that people clearly understand God’s gospel.  If people truly grasp the good news, they will never rely upon their baptism, or any other religious performance, to make themselves right with God.

So if relying upon church, a sinner's prayer or baptism can keep us out of heaven, what will open the door to heaven?  In a nutshell, only Jesus can.  In fact, in the Bible Jesus says that He and He alone is the actual door to heaven.   If you haven't found that door, check out the claims of Christ and just as importantly, check out the evidence for that which He asserts.

Don’t let a good thing keep you from the most important thing.  Nothing is more important that knowing God and being ready for heaven.