Remonstrance

The Word of the Lord:

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?
I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.
He has made everything appropriate in its time.
He has also set eternity in their heart…
Ecclesiastes 3:1-12 (NASB)

There is a beauty to the moments of our lives, and Jean’s life was full of beauty…
But our lives are not merely disconnected moments, because “He has also set eternity in their hearts.” This is why “a time to die” is unlike any other moment: it is final, unnatural, and even tragic. We mourn death because we were designed to live forever, and we know it.

But death is not God’s fault. It began way back here:

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB)

It wasn’t a “test” or a “trap”, but rather an opportunity to decide wether to live apart from God, or in loving relationship with Him. God says death occurs immediately when we are severed from Him. [Read more →]

Filed under : worthy Purpose // Add Comment »

Tags: death, funerals

Driscoll elaborates about the “Macho Man” video in Basecamp news, and it helps frame his earlier comments and adds insight for church growth and leadership… I’m on the hunt now for his materials on “assessment”. It’s only a few minutes long, and worthwhile:

 

 Church Needs Dudes: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you’re reading about “the Restless Reformed” in the zine, you’ll see what I mean. He throws a dose of Calvinism in there to keep it real…

Filed under : plans // 1 Comment »

Listen to Sea of Joy and what I’ve got burning inside…

 

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I just witnessed a worker bust out in tears over the joy of serving others. He once bragged he never cried, hadn’t cried for years, and it was foolish and useless. That was a year ago.

But tonight he wept a Sea of Joy over the kids he loved and served for years. Now growing older, these kids are becoming winners with spiritual hope — not just Kosmos hope — and a real future, unlike so many others he knew–even himself at that age. He wept at the honor God granted him to imprint their childhood with living spirit.

But his joy was mixed with grief. Now his “children” were walking into a fog of waiting hurt and scars that stay for a lifetime. One of them is my own child, and I know what he means: their sweet naivety will vanish soon. They’ll never again have those squeaky-high voices. He asked me if he will recognize them later, and will they remember him? These questions are difficult to answer.

He was a heartless punk who now feels that weighty love parents carry, deep inside. How strange for a non-parent to care this deeply. It is supernatural, a new life Jesus sparked in that young worker’s heart…and Paul felt it, even though unmarried:

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:1

I know how it feels, and even this young worker is cherished in my heart the same way, and I love him like a son. I prefer to say “Little Brother,” only because I never want to confuse those disciples or myself about who their true father is, waiting in heaven, and I also want them to come alongside and even peck at my character the way siblings do. I get it enough, but I could use more pecking, I’m sure.

This is what happens when “a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,” Jesus said: “It bears much fruit.” (Jn. 12:24) I’ve seen that young worker miss many Friday night adventures with his peers to spend with kids far below his level. And tonight, “it bears much fruit” in his heart.

Who is this dude?

Tonight I swim by moonlight in a Sea of Joy not easily forgotten.

Sea of Joy

Mark and Diana, Neil and Kalie…come dive in! The water’s fine!

Filed under : truth, worthy Purpose // 5 Comments »

So after staying up until dawn talking with a young Christian about his very tragic life and his new hope-filled spiritual life, I crashed at 8 am. Then at 9 am Father’s Day began with a boom! Sean and Conner came bouncing in with a breakfast-in-bed, hugs, cards, and irrepressible excitement about their plans for an action-packed Father’s Day.

Oh the joy of Father’s Day…

Why Complain?

But it’s impossible to complain about such tender mercies, of course. And it broke this old man’s heart the way his mostly-grownup boys worked earnestly all day (and night!) to edify him. It’s heartbreaking because so many Fathers Days are now gone, and so few remain like today. But I’ve seen more than my share, and what a joy Bryan brings this day, four (five?) years now.

My heart was pierced by all my crazy “kids” who gave me a “Thanks, Dad!” picture…

Twenty years ago I would've been thrilled to know the Lord might use me with these guys. Not today. I love each of them. But each one proves (and knows) my failure to love! Read on and see why this must be so...

What a day! Fun-in-the-sun (golfing!), fine cuisine (Bob Evans carryout), useful gifts (travel alarm clock), hilarious repartee (they “take it” when the old man clowns around–and dish it back!)

If you watch Dirty Harry with the Millennial Generation you must explain “the old days” (70s) when criminals were treated like victims at the dawn of our “Politically-Correct” era. It explains why everyone cheered Harry’s “dirty” tricks: “Feel lucky today, punk?” Yes! Blow his head off!

But the Millennial Generation is not quite so inflamed by P-C nowadays.

Fathers Day for Millennials

Then one of our newer, crazy live-in teens popped in. He couldn’t understand why a “Hallmark-manufactured-holiday” was such a big deal. He was also strangely indifferent about his dad today. Oh what an education that was, because he isn’t from a broken home, and his dad qualifies as a decent father by most people’s standards. This is Millennial Generation talk?

Actually, it hit me last night watching the remake of Yours, Mine and Ours that my boys may not see Fathers Day celebrated like this when they get to my age. It wasn’t a blockbuster movie, but it was charming, and the kid actors were heartbreakers (for a parent-audience).

Their dad sacrificed the power and crowning achievement of his Coast Guard career so he could love and serve his wife and their 18 kids. A post-millennium movie with morality?

I so badly wished this was commonplace beyond Hollywood dreams, but it delivered a sharp smack of surreal Postmodern naivete: can a Postmodern, single mom actually pull together 10 ethnically-diverse kids into the loving, serving family the move portrays? I’m skeptical. Whose ethics win? The Postmodern mom couldn’t answer that question in the movie, even with Hollywood’s best imagineers at work.

she holds the magic 'talking stick' which removed chaos from their Postmodern conundrum.

The Converging Winds of Goodness…

Then I was overwhelmed by the the Body of Christ and the love of Christ which shaped my family so much. It really wasn’t great parenting, even though we parents can certainly muck it up or make things better. What broke my heart watching that movie was the realization that Darlene and I were carried by strong winds of great fortune. I know this because I see how few enjoy such privilege.

It was the love of Christ and the Body of Christ which showered my handicapped firstborn with grace at his graduation and 18th (and many other) birthdays. They supported him all these years for no good, deserving reason. I’m witnessing it again for my handicapped youngest son.

Kyle too received far more grace than he could ever find elsewhere. I believe the typical Tribal American family life would propel Kyle into a lifetime of tyranny. But the Body of Christ is building him into a sacrificial servant of Christ, which he longs to become (and is becoming).

It was also the crap of our crappy fellowship that saved them! Yep.

Our fellowship is a great “House of Pain” where cross-currents of love and hatred, war and peace, miracles and defeats are blended, high-speed. My kids are spoiled by good fortune, and too often they behave like royalty in search of a kingdom. Fortunately, the strains and heartbreak of this fellowship restrained their exaltation.

They were at the center of random emotional storms passing through our fellowship. They were variously persecuted because their parents were crack-head Jesus-loving-radicals. They were bereft of many weekends and nights because mom and dad were saddled with various ministries. I could build a long price list, but God does it better:

“we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus…” 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (NASB)

It sounds melodramatic, but it isn’t, really. They were saved from their (self-perceived) royal blood by “the dying” thing, as Paul says.

Kyle told me early and often that living sandwiched in-between Sean and Connor was the best place for a princely prince to learn gratitude and sacrifice. Dar and I were crazy to move those boys away from Columbus and friends and so much vital support, especially for my handicapped boys.

The unsettling maelstrom of ministry put us in a precocious position: poop or get off the pot!

And now they’re great poopers (in my view), nurtured by the most sacrificial, loving woman ever produced by God’s afflictions, perplexities, persecutions and “strike-downs…” She is an unappreciated, solitary-female saint surrounded by coarse male dogs, but her soft, nurturing heart never grew calloused or resentful. Darlene is like this:

¹⁰ Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. ¹¹ Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. ¹² She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. ²⁸ Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: ²⁹ “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
Proverbs 31:10-12, 28-30

Listen Up, All You Fathers-to-Be!

You soon-to-be-dads (Mark and Alex, you listening?) — I just can’t resist! It is Father’s Day, after all. Can I lecture just a little? Why not?

What a “storm of the century” fatherhood is! It is a wondrous storm. Everything makes sense with fatherhood. It crystallizes why God bothered to create us, and why He paid the personal price for our rebellion at the cross.

I know one thing: the “new and living way” of a Christian family is found in the following…

Love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

Wait, don’t lunge at this…

I always thought 1 Pet. 4:8 was teaching that godly parenting is loving parenting. This is true, of course, but dangerously incomplete. It is a view often held tenaciously by Tribal Christian families, despite the depressing evidence against it, that loving Christian homes produce loving Christians.

What the verse actually says is overlooked:

⁸ Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Be hospitable to one another without complaint. ¹⁰ As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:8-10 (NASB)

If victorious parenting relied on Darlene and I to provide the love which “covers a multitude of sins,” then our kids would be doomed! Quite the opposite, parents are usually the ones to perpetrate a “multitude of sins!”

What liabilities our parenting inflicts on defenseless, unsuspecting children! Decades pass before the kids learn how to successfully (not sinfully) defend themselves against our countless wrongs and deep, ingrained patterns of selfishness unique to our familial genome. (I now understand without malice why I and three other McCallum boys were so terribly iconoclastic.)

“It’s THEM Again!”

Fortunately, it was the penetration of our Christian home by the Body of Christ which brought enough love to “cover a multitude of sins.” Much like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, our lives were disrupted, but also healed.

I grew up and was discipled to “be hospitable…without complaint.” Dar and I came dangerously close to losing sight of this at times when we pulled into our Tribal shell.

But somehow the Lord just sent more “Body Snatchers” to drag us out of our mole hole.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers - always at our doorstep! (Jordan Yoerger?)

To be hospitable “without complaint” is difficult, I confess, but still there is a spiritual compensation which outweighs the price: “each one has received a special gift… employ it in serving one another.” The gifts and love of other Christians relieved Darlene and I from the pressures of covering all those “multitude of sins” alone. What flawed love would those kids know had it been up to Darlene and I?

Filed under : Uncategorized // 5 Comments »

In researching the popular Richard Dawkins crusade against (primarily) the Bible, I ran across this amazing video in which Dawkins displays a rather mean-spirited attack against some poor college girl for asking the question: “What if you’re wrong?”

Why didn’t he answer the question? I’ve asked myself if I’m wrong. Someone can ask me the same. Is it forbidden?

He displays the dogmatism of the Dark Ages: dare not ask if I might be wrong! Geesh. The Vatican dealt with Galileo this way.

The crowd’s reaction was scary: they loved his hatred! It was reminiscent of Adolf’s crowd-pleasing outbursts at Nuremberg. He degrades the girl (was she a Christian as he claimed?), and then he rails angrily against the “the joo-joo monster” and “flying spaghetti monster”, but it wasn’t scientific reasoning. It was an incoherent outburst against imaginary beasts. Hitler employed this tactic against Jewish people: lashing out against monsters he labeled “Jews” which don’t exist in the real world.

Just FYI: it’s called the “Straw Man Argument” which is an crude logical fallacy, but it’s also mean-spirited. He pretends the silly “joo-joo monster” is in the Bible, which is unreasonable. It is the classic language of racism.

Filed under : folly // 5 Comments »

Tags: apologetics, atheism, dawkins

It’s been on the “Best Seller” list for the New York times now for weeks. It’s forbidden to be read by Mark Driscoll (my fundy-hero). It’s a modern-day “Pilgrim’s Progress” …

What do you think about it? Have you heard about it? I’m interested to get some feedback on it. Read the USA Today article. If you’re dealing with Christianity, you’ll be asked about it, I’ll bet.

All the controversy is caused by this crazy little book, “The Shack”, where God is depicted as a black woman, and according to Christianity Today it poses a “Modalist View” of the Trinity (Modalism views the Trinity as one person who takes three different “forms” or “modes”, and it was denounced as heresy at Nicene and other church councils.)

the author -sexually abused (USA Today)

Says Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle: “If you haven’t read The Shack, don’t!” According to USA Today:

Driscoll, whose multi-campus non-denominational church is packed with 6,000 people each weekend in the least-churched corner of the nation, says he is “horrified” by Young’s book. He says “it misrepresents God. Young misses the big E on the eye chart.” - USA Today article.

Anyone come across other reviews about the book? Let me know!

Filed under : strange // 3 Comments »

Tags: reviews, theology

I just gotta blog about Michelangelo’s painting in the “Sistine Chapel” showing God creating Adam:

click the picture to see the details

Does anyone other than me see a problem with this picture?

Well, I’ve changed the diapers of three boys now, and I’m telling you I’ve never seen anything that small except, maybe, in the first six months. Now, I don’t presume to tell God what he’s doing, but I just gotta believe He would do a better job than that thing.

Then it hit me why Michelangelo drew it that way: some pope in the dark ages declared sex was the “original sin” that caused “The Fall.” Since Papal Bull (as the Catholic church labels it) is axiomatic and rarely deprecated, this weird view of human sexuality permeated everything back then–and still is Catholic dogma!

So of course this explains why Michelangelo thought God gave Adam only something big enough to pee with. They came up with so many wacko beliefs in the dark ages!

Now if Papal Bulls were wrong about Galileo (the Vatican admitted recently), wrong about the Spanish Inquisition (never reversed), wrong about all non-Catholics are doomed to hell (Vatican-reversed in ‘64), ((From Vatican II, Wikipedia: the Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christ, but who do not however profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter.”)) and wrong to ban private reading of the Bible (also reversed in ‘64), is it not possible this is the ‘Wrong Schlong’ after all?

Far less humorous but equally non-biblical was the Papal Bull that stipulates salvation requires good works. But it isn’t the exclusive purview of Catholicism, because many Protestants also think salvation requires good works. Weird the way that works.

(As an aside, I asked a couple of the leaders in Greg’s CG what they thought was wrong with the picture, and, well, let me just say it took a while for one of them to figure it out…hmmm.)

Filed under : humor // 13 Comments »

Tags: history

Christian hope turns failure into a profound mystery waiting for revelation.

With the “eyes of hope” I see the problem with failure lies in my fallen plans which were doomed from the outset, so brain-dead they were. Yet despite my fallen folly, hope says, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). When I see with the hope of Christ, it produces spiritual maturity:

But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Romans 8:25

This happened to me once…

The Tar-Pit

In 1994 I plunged into a black, sticky tar-pit and dragged my family and the poor Yoergers along. Greg and his buddies had the brilliant idea that somehow we might stop the bleeding while his little Cleveland Bible study (about 30 shell-shocked bodies) remained alive.

It was a mess, I knew that, but I didn’t notice the tar-pit or the bleached bones scattered everywhere. I plunged ahead.

The meeting was held in an old, run-down, dumpy house which was soon condemned (as pictured below).

The 1994 meeting place - 'it ends up being burned' (Heb.6:8)

This was ministry in Cleveland: growth that doesn’t grow.

It was mysterious. The work was fruitful and we doubled in size, but suddenly everything got stuck. We were excited by high conversion-growth, but the group stopped growing. We fluctuated around 50 to 60, stuck in a tar-pit, and we continued to see salvations. Why is this?

[Read more →]

Filed under : character // 18 Comments »

Tags: brokeness, hope, leadership, missions

I won’t spoil our opportunity at CT to dig into the details of this, so I’ll just summarize it:

The Identity of Hope

The role of spiritual hope in sanctification is so vital that God anointed a special prophet, New Testament-style, to write the definitive book on hope. Weaving through all the great themes in Hebrews, hope is the “New Covenant life.”

“Christian! Your new identity is hope,” Hebrews says. This hope is eternal: it transforms, overcomes, and produces.

The flow in the book of Hebrews (top to bottom)

Here’s how Hebrews builds hope:

The hope of our amazing identity in God’s Eternal Plan, firmly established by Jesus (chapters 1-2). The person, authority and victory of Jesus adopts us into the family of God as heirs.

Live in hope today! (Chapters 3-6.) The road is open, the way is clear, all is ready but the only barrier is unbelief and unwillingness to follow Christ “behind the curtain” into new life.

Hope supercedes the Mosaic Covenant and replaces it (chapters 7-10). Established long ago, this hope is the superior, substantive, God-designed road to life.

Hope overcomes anything and changes everything (chapters 11-13). Hope produces a victorious, joyous and fruitful lifestyle despite the worse opposition in a way the Old Covenant never did.

In short, New Covenant Hope is fixed on our new identity in Jesus, while the Old Covenant was driven by works and rituals and all about receiving forgiveness. New Covenant Hope goes far beyond forgiveness, was fully obtained by placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus at the cross. What remains unfinished is obtaining our inheritance, and therefore it is a superior hope. This is the argument made by the author of Hebrews.

Think about it. Check it out. See if it’s true.

Effects

As the writer intended, the effect of his letter is life-transforming to those with a spiritual heart open to change:

• When burdened with guilt or failure, I am living under Old Covenant hope (7:19; 10:1-3).
• When I am consumed with my own self-worth, I am still living under Old Covenant hope and struggling with “Milk Truths” about the finished work of the cross (5:13; 6:1).
• When worried about the future, I am fixing my hopes and dreams on something uncertain which cannot possibly be my real hope (12:26-28).
• New Covenant hope builds substance in my life (6:10-12) and I become useful and significant to people God has placed in my life (6:7).
• People are scared of me or shun me if I’m living under the performance and works of Old Covenant hope (12:18-21).
• People enjoy being around me when I am pursuing New Covenant hope (12:14).
• When I “settle down” I’ve lost sight of New Covenant hope (11:9,10).
• I cut the ties to my past living under New Covenant hope (11:15-16).
• My sinful habits become boring and dissatisfying under New Covenant hope (11:25-26).
• I experience real joy even in the midst of terrible suffering under New Covenant hope (12:2).

Here’s the big question: does anyone else see “hope” mentioned in Hebrews?

Filed under : worthy Purpose // 16 Comments »

Tags: central teachings, exegesis, hope

“Driven and courageous” describes a Christian living in hope:

So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. Hebrews 6:18 (NLT)

Courageous Hope

“Great confidence” is knowing that I stand right here, held by the “unchangeable” oath of God, knowing “it is impossible for God to lie!” With “great confidence” Martin Luther stood alone against the Holy Roman Empire and stood before a throng of menacing Cardinals at Worms to declare, “Here I stand. I will not recant, so help me, God.” His hope was tied to God’s character, not the powerful armies of the Holy See.

Luther at the Diet of Worms

With “great confidence” we too can stand face-to-face with whoever may persecute us for sharing the love of Christ. This includes old relationships with long histories of defeat and intimidation:

For He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NASB)

This courage is the outcome of biblical faith, and the proof of faith, as I wrote earlier. Cowardly Christians are still babes floundering with the elementary issues of faith and have not yet settled the issue of who to trust. [Read more →]

Filed under : character // 18 Comments »

Tags: faith, hope