Call Tychicus or his sister (How are you doing?)

So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. Ephesians 6:21 (ESV)

How are you doing? What are you doing? Those are two good questions to ask yourself, and those who care about us want to know the answers to those two questions.“ Tychicus … will tell you everything.” Full disclosure, real transparency, complete and honest answers. No safe answers, partial admissions, changing topics, hee-hawing around, hiding, or running for the fig leaves.

So, how is it with you? What are you doing these days? If Tychicus had full access to your life, what would he report? What would you want to hide from him? What would you be too embarrassed to tell him? What would you be ashamed of? Would you secretly hope for Tychicus to leave sooner than later before he found how you were really doing, before you had to tell him what you were actually up to? Would Tychicus find an open book, a closed book, or a quickly hidden book?

What we don’t want people to see or know about us says a lot about us. The less transparent and accountable our lives are the more we have to fake it, pretend, equivocate, and obfuscate. We will develop a public image (what we want people to see and know) and a hidden/private image (who we really are and what we are actually doing). The more this invades the inner circles of our relationships the lonelier we become and the more we are in trouble.

So, how is it with you? How is it with your soul? What’s going on in your life? What are you doing? The Apostle Paul gave Tychicus full access to his life and gave him permission to give a full report, to tell “everything,” the good, bad, and ugly, the struggles, the challenges, the problems, the worries, the failures, the ….Jesus is the only person ever who didn’t have to hide anything because there was nothing to hide, not a single sin, no failures, regrets, bad motives – nothing. He was genuine, spotless through and through. He was “tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin” Hebrews 4:15 (NIV).

Jesus did that in obedience to God for you and me, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV), because He wants you and me to know the joy, liberty, the peace of living without needing to hide anything.

“Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with” James 5:16 (MSG), is James’ advice to all followers of Christ, and all who want to live life with freedom of transparency, freed from sins we are trying to hide and which will keep us bound and afraid as long as we hide them. So, how is it with you? What are doing? Really!

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

P.S. Call Tychicus, or his sister.   

Loving Jesus means loving His Church

Loving Jesus means loving His Church!

He (God) is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 1:22-23 (MSG, parenthesis mine)

God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:10-11 (NLT2)…

Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. Ephesians 5:25-26 (NLT2)

“I love Jesus, but I don’t care much about organized religion,” sounds pious, but is a bunch of hogwash. It is like saying, “I love Jesus, but I have no use for the Bible.” God/Jesus is organized, all of creation is organized, but the church, which Jesus founded, died for, loves, and is still building is somehow unorganized? It defies both logic and scripture.

“I love Jesus, and my church is out there in nature.” Your church might be out there on some beautiful mountain top but Jesus’ church, the one He laid down his life for and is constantly interceding for is not there, because Jesus church is made up of people, saved sinners, who congregate, want to grow in their knowledge and application of the word of God, and who minister together.

“I love Jesus, but that doesn’t mean I have to go to church.” Yes, it does (Hebrews 10:24-25), because the Holy Spirit has made you part of Christ’s body, Christ’s church, from the moment you believed in Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:13). A Christian “goes to church” because s/he is part of and belongs to the church, in order to contribute to the life of the church all that God has shaped and the Holy Spirit has gifted him/her for. To merely think of church in terms of “going to church” is being ignorant of the nature, purpose, and importance of the church.

I love Jesus, but I had all the church I’ll ever need as a kid. My parents drug me there every time the doors opened.” Three things: 1. Good for your parents. 2. You are no longer a kid, time to grow up and take responsibility for your spiritual life, and your obedience to Christ. 3. You can’t tank up on church like you fill a gas tank, we need church like one body part needs all the others in order to thrive and live (1 Corinthians 12).

Hopefully, if you have children, you will raise them to love Jesus and all that He loves, including His church.“I love Jesus, but I have been hurt by the church.” That one hurts, because far too often this has been a true statement and because I have experienced it myself. You can get hurt in church, and sooner or later you will get hurt in church. That never excuses any dysfunction and sinfulness in the church, but it is the reality of people of all kinds of backgrounds, various levels of spiritual maturity, … sharing life together and daring to become like Jesus.

I have been in ministry for over 40 years, 36 of them as a pastor, and during that time I have witnessed plenty of ugliness in the church, enough to the check out on the church many times over. I can only imagine how grieved Jesus, who sees and knows the sum-total of all Christian sinfulness, wickedness, carelessness, and ugliness, must be. And yet, He has not chucked the church but instead continues to love and refine her.

So, how can I turn my back on what Jesus loves so much and refuses to give up on? Jesus and his church are to be central in the Christian life, they are not meant to be mere add-ons. The testimony of the New Testament is that followers of Jesus reorganized their entire lives around Christ, His church, His word, His purposes, and all He loves, and they did it together.So, have you excused yourself from being part of the church, checked out on the church, defined the church differently than scripture defines it, minimized the importance of the church, been an accuser of instead of a participator in the church, someone who added a little church instead living a life as devoted to the church as Jesus?It is time to love Jesus and His church! It is time to become a full and life-long participator in the church! Do it!
To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans 

Dad, Texas or Albuquerque?

My Dad lived his entire life in Germany, but as a father he spent too much time in Texas instead of Albuquerque. His record as a dad is at best a mixed one. He was smart, educated, successful, hard-working, good at providing, involved and respected in the community and in church, trying to give his sons opportunities in life, all the while abusing alcohol, beating the living daylights out of us, flying off the handle at a moment’s notice,  and doing a good job at what God warns dads against, “Fathers, do not exasperate (embitter, aggravate, provoke) your children, so that they will not (become discouraged) lose heart” Colossians 3:21 (NASB, parenthesis mine).

I didn’t share this about my Dad to make him look bad or to somehow get back at him, he died and was buried a long time ago. What I am wondering about today is my own Dad record because every dad has one. I can tell you this, if you are a father of a child, your Dad record has a huge impact. My father impacts me to this day, and it took me an awfully long time to deal with the crap of his Dad record. But I am responsible for my own Dad record, and the impact I am having on my kids’ lives.

A man once stopped by the church looking for help. He wanted to buy a bus ticket to somewhere in Texas. He said it was the next stop in his journey of finding himself. I asked him how finding himself was going. He told me he was having the time of his life. I asked him to tell me a bit more about his life. He didn’t really want to, but he finally told me he had a wife and three kids in Albuquerque. I offered to buy him a ticket to Albuquerque, so he could get back to be near his kids, get a job, and help provide for them. He didn’t like that at all, he needed more time to find himself. I told him he was full of it and he would have to find his own way to Texas. He stormed off telling me I wasn’t much of preacher, and he might be right.

I told you about this traveling man in case, like me,  you are father, because once you are one (whether or not you planned to be one makes no difference) you have God-given dad responsibility. If you put a child into this world, doing right by that girl or boy, in a way that will make God nod with approval, is one of your chief and life-long responsibilities. If you have a child, you will have a Dad record, the only question will be what kind – mixed, decent, so-so, awesome, godly, absent, uninvolved, abusive, cold, tender, the worst, the best … There are too many dads in Texas when they are needed in Albuquerque.

I have been privileged, blessed, to be a Dad for 37 years now. I am telling you so you know that they have been out of diapers for a long time, in fact, they are out of our house, which was the plan, and I am proud as can be of them. But I am not done being a Dad, I am still adding to my Dad resume (and Opa/Grandpa record, which is also part of the Dad resume). What kind of older and all-too-soon old Dad will I be? I really am concerned about that. I have seen too many Dads blow it in the tail-end of life, get off the godly trail, forsake being a blessing, quit being a spiritual example, and instead celebrate the selfish life, become hard and difficult to deal with, and move to Texas when they should be in Albuquerque adding to their Dad (Grandpa) resume.

I think Dads from Albuquerque lived and wrote the following: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:1-6 (NIV)

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. Psalm 15:1-5 (NIV)

A good Dad leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. Proverbs 13:22a

Dad, Grandpa, it is not too late to move back to Albuquerque. 

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Extraordinary Kindness, part 2 - It's not theoretical, It needs no excuses

But—When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:4-5 (NLT2)

Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. Luke 6:35 (NLT2)

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32 (ESV)

No one had to teach her, my incredibly sweet and cute granddaughter (my favorite) to whack her brothers, bite them, snatch their stuff, ruin their creations, and pay them back for any misdeeds of their own. She knew how to dish out unkindness and withhold good instinctively, as, by the way, you and I do as well. Having to be told to be kind, to do good means that that unkindness, not doing good comes all too natural for us.

My little ladybug of a granddaughter knows how to be kind and unkind though she doesn’t even know the words, she just knows the actions and reactions and most often dishes them out according to what serves her best and how she feels at the moment. She knows how to give both kind and unkind looks. She knows how to use her tiny vocabulary in kind in unkind ways, her hands and feet sure know how to do both, and she knows different impacts kindness and unkindness, doing good and withholding good have, which, by the way, you and I do as well.

It is amazing to me how immature and undisciplined grown adults, myself included, can be when it comes to being kind and doing good. It is even more amazing to me that Christians, who have crystal clear instruction, who know the will of God when it comes to being kind and doing good, act like two-year-olds. Your eyes, are they kind, look at people and things with kindness? Or, are they skilled at throwing daggers, burn with anger, look down on, and look away to ignore and hurt? If looks could kill.

Your ears, are they good at detecting when and where kindness is needed? Or, are they deaf to the frequencies of kindness, only open to what they want to hear, often rejoicing in the sounds of misery and pain of others. They had it coming.Your mouth, is it fluent in the language of kindness, the healing, peacemaking, encouraging, and blessing power of words? Or, is it a double-edged sword that continually honed by anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, frustration, evil, and the grind of our world? It’s just words, I didn’t mean anything by it.

Your hands, are they good at giving, helping, reaching out, tenderness, involvement? Do they have the callouses of doing good? Or, are they good at taking, hoarding, stiff-arming, finger-pointing, handling remote controls, the grime of selfishness and manipulation thick under your fingernails? No one told me. I‘ve been so busy, can’t you see.

Your feet, are they good at stopping at the intersections of life calling for kindness and goodness? Do they love to run into the direction of kindness and where doing good is needed? Or, do they balk at the one-way street of kindness, when there is no immediate payoff, when the cost is high, when kindness doesn’t fit your schedule or mood or sense of justice and fairness? It’s a two-way street, you know. Your wallet, does it have kindness in it, dream of it, and remind you to do good every time you take it out? Or, is it fluent in toddler, “MINE,” constantly dreaming of what to get next, of something fun, of having more than enough, or just plain more? One day. I’m barely making it as it is.

Would you read the scriptures at the beginning of the pastor’s note again? They both command and instruct us to be kind, to do good. They do not furnish any excuses for being unkind and not doing good. I need to remember that next time I am tempted to be unkind and try to excuse it. They tell us that God/Jesus did not determine his kindness, his goodness, his mercy, and his forgiveness by our worthiness, our gratefulness, our responses or reciprocity.

One more thing, as a follower of Jesus, a Christian, I have no excuse to be unkind. I have known how to be kind going way back to when I was just wee little and still cute, I know how to be kind because throughout my life I have been at the receiving end of kindness, and foremost, God has poured the full measure of his kindness and goodness into my life through Jesus Christ from the moment he saved, wicked, undeserving, ungrateful, stuck-on-self Hans.

Be extraordinarily kind.
Pastor Hans   

"I'm going fishing" - Don't do it

“I am going fishing,” Peter said, and the six with him said, “We’ll come too.” (John 21:1-22, I encourage you to read it yourself)

Physically we have the ability to move forward, backward, and sideways, but not up and down like a hummingbird. In life, however, we are familiar with forward, backward, sideways, and up and down. I don’t know if three years earlier Peter parked his fishing boat in a boathouse, left it in a slip at the pier, turned it upside down at the beach, or covered it with a tarp in his back yard or driveway.

The last few months and particularly the past weeks had been crazy for them, a confusing rollercoaster ride, an incredibly stressful, challenging, and difficult stretch of life, lacking clarity, familiarity, and stability. So, they went backward, back to the old and familiar, that which their families had done for generations. They turned the pages of their lives back to before they heard Jesus say, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).

What did you walk away from when you heard Christ calling you to follow him? What life did you leave behind? What did you set aside, put under a tarp, park in the backyard of your life? But now you’re back to it after your life with Jesus ran into hardship, tragedy, stress, suffering, and overwhelming challenges, leaving you confused, disoriented, yearning for familiarity.It was a mirage, because we somehow clean up the old life in our minds. We forget how difficult it really was, how devoid of real and lasting meaning, how many nights you come from fishing with nothing, nothing but business worries, nothing but weariness, nothing but frustration.

“Did you catch anything?” Jesus yelled from the shore.
“No,” came the grumpy reply.

Somehow, they didn’t remember the grumpy of the old life either. “Try the other side,” Jesus sent back across the water. “What the *@#&^!” Somehow, they forgot how rough, even vile, the old life could make you.

“What the *@#&^! Where did all these fish come from?” Somehow, they forgot how glorious was when Jesus interrupted your old life, when he spoke to you, directed you, surprised you. “It’s the Lord,” one of them connected the dots.

“Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” Jesus asked gone-back-to-fishing Peter.“I do,” “I do,” “You know,” were Peter’s replies.“Feed my sheep,” “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus let him know (sheep being people, believers, his followers). Peter might have remembered that Jesus’ first invitation to follow him included that he would make him a “fisher of men,” but not the old life, the old boat, who he once was with just a little Jesus in it. Not the kind of living that is filled with the old but doesn’t concern itself with Jesus, his kingdom, his sheep.

Jesus told Peter again, “Follow me,” because he had gone back to fishing. Peter was going backward instead of forward; he had revived the old regardless of how unsatisfying and spiritually impotent it was. He, like you and I, needed to come to grips with that loving Jesus and the old life are incompatible, that following Jesus and living the old life are mutually exclusive, that he had to sell out and sell the boat.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans