Christ Crucified - What Is Your Response?

Christ crucified – a stumbling block to the Jews, nonsense to the Gentiles.

So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. 1 Corinthians 1:23 (NLT2)

Right out of the gate, Jesus was offensive to the Jewish rulers of his day. He exposed their hypocrisy, shined the light on their greed, confronted their abuse of power, pulled their pants down on their empty religiosity. They responded with the usual tactics of those in power, trick questions, false information, name-calling, intimidation, and eventually elimination. Never mind truth, integrity, and justice.

Right out of the gate, the Jewish people loved Jesus. He lived what He preached, spoke with real spiritual authority, refreshingly confronted their hypocritical leaders, healed people, fed folks, and demonstrated genuine divine power. They loved Him so much they wanted to make him king, although they changed their minds, rather quickly. Jesus ended up not being political enough, too slow, addressing their sins first, rather than personal, political, and national needs and dreams. They settled for a violent political rebel.

Jesus became a stumbling block to the Jews because He didn’t give them the priority they thought they deserved as God’s chosen people. He didn’t deliver on the changes they wanted, liberation from Rome, restoration of Davidic/Solomonic glory, a seat at the table with powers of the day. He didn’t fit their religious interpretations, their personal dreams, or their national aspirations. Just one of these is enough to make someone stub their toes on Jesus.

The Greeks dismissed Jesus as nonsense. The Apostle Paul was dismissed as a “babbler” when spoke to their intellectual elite about the crucified and risen from the dead Jesus, at the Areopagus. Anything that challenged tolerance of religious plurality was deemed nonsense; and it is not a far journey from nonsense to dangerous. Pilate, the Roman governor who signed off on Jesus' crucifixion order, escaped dealing with the truth of Jesus by declaring truth to be ambiguous. He felt the political heat and made truth secondary to politics, and it is not a far journey from there to the cross of Christ.

Jesus Christ was crucified because, “God loves this, our world, so no one who believes in Him will have to perish in the judgment of God, but instead will have eternal life” (John 3:16).

He died according to the plan and will of God. He died because you and I are sinners. He died because He did not fit the politics of Israel or Rome. He was put on a cross because He did neither fit the nationalistic and bloated theology of the Jews, nor the Greek’s intellectualism, spiritual eclecticism, and political pragmatism. He was crucified because He let no one highjack Him for their own personal and political ends. He died to save you and me, mankind, on the only terms it can be saved, God’s terms, Christ’s terms.

Startling, isn’t it, here we are 2000 years later, and the reality of our politics is that we still think our own wisdom is better than God’s, still try to highjack Jesus for what serves us and our agenda and politics, still have not come to grips with human depravity and our personal sin, still settle for human substitutes rather than to repent at the foot of the cross of Christ.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Time to Clear the Log Jam

It is always easier to point at the speck in another person’s eye than dealing with the log in your own, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's/sister’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's/sister’s eye” Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV, italics mine).

While fighting for “liberty and justice for all” (a noble and right cause) we don’t get to address one wrong only to justify another. We don’t get to stand up against vilifying one group of people only to turn around and to vilify another group. We don’t get to preach love for one another and turn around and okay hating police officers. Specks give us fuzzy vision, but logs render us blind. Jesus tells us to remember that we don’t get to fight injustice and be unjust ourselves, we don’t get to fight abuse of power by abusing power, we don’t get require of others what we do not require of ourselves, we don’t get to fight for equality under the law while being lawless ourselves, we don’t get hold others responsible while being irresponsible ourselves, we don’t get to blame others and not deal with our own logs.

The log-eyed have it right now, on the political right and left, on the liberal and conservative end. You can’t say that black lives matter, or that we need to treat immigrants like Jesus would, without an immediate backlash, being denounced, dismissed as liberal, and even being hated. You can’t stand up for policemen/women and law enforcement officers, the vast majority doing a very difficult job with integrity, without an immediate backlash, being accused of just not getting it, dismissed as being uniformed, and even being hated. You can’t stand up for Colin Kaepernick and his right to kneel without being accused of being unpatriotic, and you can’t stand up for Biblical/traditional marriage without being denounced as homophobic or a hater. The sad reality of this is that the very thing both sides passionately clamor for, liberty and justice, is being lost.

I believe Jesus is weeping as He is looking down like He did over the Jerusalem of his day (Luke 19:41). They were coming to John the Baptist in droves, hungry for national change, hoping God was going to something big (Luke 3:1-14). John tore into them, their hypocrisy of wanting change without changing themselves, for trying to act pious while abusing power. He told them God would cut down the logs (them) and hold them responsible.

“What do we need to do?” they wanted to know.

“Take personal responsibility and use your extra not to hoard but to help, be part of creating equity! To improve people’s lives," he told them. “Don’t abuse your public office and the power it gives you to twist the rules and exploit it for personal gain,” he fired back at the tax collectors. “Don’t abuse your badge, don’t abuse the power that comes with your uniform, don’t pervert justice,” he spelled it out for the soldiers (the police in their day).

He was confronting them all because just like today, log-eyedness was ruling the day, creating the narratives, fostering endless finger-pointing, justifying lawlessness, flaunting hypocritical piety (both religious and political), excusing personal responsibility, and twisting or ignoring what is right before God. So, what about them logs, that blind our eyes, darken our minds, justify our wrongs, shape our actions?

A great place to start dealing with them is Jesus’ longest recorded sermon, called the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7 (Its shorter parallel is found in Luke 6:20-49). I think it tells us a lot about what God dreams of regarding our personal lives, culture, and society. In the end, Jesus makes it plain that merely hearing/reading and trying to understand, though necessary, are is not enough. We must catch the vision of it, the hope of it, the necessity of it, the rightness of it, and then radically live it.

To God be all glory.

Love you, Pastor Hans

Justice Matters - Black Lives Matter

Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully. Proverbs 28:5 (NIV)

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:2-3 (ESV)

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. Isaiah 59:14-15 (ESV)

Every one of us, regardless of the color of our skin, should be weeping, should be outraged, and should be calling for justice. We all should be demanding change, rushing to be part of the solution, and stand alongside our black brothers and sisters as we bitterly mourn Ahmaud Arbery, whose violent death barely caused a ripple until the sick recording of the lynching in broad daylight was finally released - and the death of George Floyd, who died pleading for his life while a policeman’s knee slowly choked the life out of him. We should be brokenhearted as we witness violence birthing more violence, injustice breading more injustice, and stones are being thrown at each other instead of working together to build a nation “with liberty and justice for all.”

Each of these deaths is outrageous by themselves, but sadly, they are just the most recent and most public in a long history of racism, injustice, and police brutality. Neither Ahmaud Arbery nor George Floyd should have died, they should be alive and well today. We need to decide when enough is enough.It should not be difficult to stand beside our fellow Americans and shout with them, “Black lives matter!” in light of the long reality of injustice this cry represents. Immediately countering with, “All lives matter,” or “Blue lives matter,” is tantamount to telling them, “Just shut up.” Of course, all lives matter, blue lives matter, but the very nature of injustice is that some lives matter more than others.

Injustice is always an abuse of power. One of the greatest statements about ancient king David, a man after God’s own heart, is “So David reigned over all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people” 2 Samuel 8:15 (ESV, emphasis mine). Since we are privileged to live in a country led by a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” (Abraham Lincoln), we, every citizen, are responsible to hold our governmental institutions and powers accountable to use those powers entrusted to them in just and equitable ways. That’s not a knock on our police officers and all those who work in our justice system, but rather it validates the importance of a police force and justice system that does not tolerate injustice, inhumanity, and abuse of power.

It’s so easy to talk about these complex issues, but it is quite another to engage myself in ways that help, that are part of the solution, that bring about change and empower equal justice for all. As multifaceted and overwhelming as all of this is, we dare not flee into disengagement or mere talk. Even without having all the solutions:

• I need to recognize that justice is also a spiritual issue. Just by reading the Scriptures above, I know I can only fully understand justice in seeking God through Christ, and that God expects me to personally practice and engage with justice regarding others.

• I need to thoroughly study my Bible (God’s written word) so I can understand justice and what it demands of me as a follower of Jesus.

• I need to put my listening ears on and go to my black brothers and sisters and hear their side, their story, their hurt, their rage, their sorrow, their solutions.

• I need to be a voice for justice and equity with my friends, around my dinner table, and in the sandbox with my grandchildren.

• I need to speak up whenever and wherever ignorance, bigotry, cruelty, evil, and injustice rear their ugly heads, regardless of who I am with, and regardless of the cost.

• I need to pray for God to show me my blind spots, to see justice through His eyes, for courage, for change, for those in power, for our law enforcement officers in my own community and counties.

• I need to use the avenues available to me as an ordinary citizen to influence our government officials and institutions.

May God have mercy on us and help us. 
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   

Getting It Right

It is so easy to be wrong. Sometimes being wrong is not a big deal, like not listening to your wife and cooking a batch of chocolate chip cookies at 450 instead of 350 degrees. Sometimes being wrong has huge implications, like Chamberlain trusting Hitler and declaring, “Peace for our time,” or persistently denying or ignoring the existence of God, only to find yourself standing before the judgment seat of God.

Can you imagine being in our president’s or our governor’s shoes at this time? I am fairly certain that you wouldn’t want to get your handling of the COVID-19 crisis wrong. So much on the line for millions of people, for your political party, for your own political career. You would need input and advice from wise counsel in regard to public health issues, economic concerns, budget implications, public sentiment, political considerations, and so much more. Then you would have to weigh all this information and make timely decisions that the power of your office allows you to make. All the while, you would have no shortage of critics screaming that you are getting it all wrong.

I have not been entrusted with an ounce of authority regarding civil government and the public decisions that have to be made. But, I have been entrusted with authority to lead an assembly of believers known as the Lake Don Pedro Baptist Church according to the will of Christ (the head of the church) and the leading of the Holy Spirit according to the Scriptures (the Bible). How do we as Christians not get it wrong? How long do we suspend the assembling/being-together-life integral to our faith and being a church? How much submission to the authority of the state is appropriate for a church? At what point are we justified in rejecting governmental authority and take a stance of civil disobedience?

The opinions, voices, and criticisms within the church are as divided as they are in the general public. “The state has no authority regarding the church!” “No, we have to apply Romans 13:1-10 and 1 Peter 2:13-17!” “God will protect us and heal us!” “Our highest priority is to love our neighbor!” Allow me to tackle a few of these and the process give you some insight into what has been guiding me.

• Our highest, supreme, royal laws are to love God and to love our neighbor (Mark 12:28-34). Knowing this we are forced to live in continual dependence on the Holy Spirit and his Word (the Bible) to help us figure out how to practice both of these commandments and the tensions they can create. Loving my neighbor does not mean I stay silent about his/her racism etc., but it also means I will not endanger his or her health. At this point, we do know that close contact large group gatherings are particularly problematic in spreading COVID. In that sense it matters little what Walmart or Lowe’s is permitted to do by the state, it matters what scripture’s core laws compel us to.

• The Head of the Church is Christ (Colossians 1:13-20) not the state and any of its representatives (In fact, even the state is under the authority of Christ). This, however, does not mean the church can or should ignore all state authority, for instance, we should adhere to building codes, fire codes. However, regardless of any actions and orders of the state, the church is the custodian of the both the Gospel and the Faith (A Christian worldview) that permeates all aspects of life, and the church’s allegiance to and practice of these is uniquely subject to Christ alone. I have led our church to comply with the official orders not out of a recognition of the state’s authority over us but out of the freedom we have in Christ to do so.

• The church has from its beginning lived in tension and often open conflict with public and state authority (You do not have to look any further than Jesus). Christians throughout history have lived in and had to sort through that tension and conflict in order to have clear conscience with both God and man, often at a very high price. In this navigation we do well to remember to make every effort to be at peace with all men (Romans 12:18).

• Does God protect and heal? The answer is unequivocally, “YES!” Is God obligated to protect and heal even when we practice foolishness, ignore sound knowledge, and trample on established wisdom because we claim faith? The answer is unequivocally, “NO!” Faith never excuses foolishness, in fact, foolish faith is a stumbling block to reach the lost.

Since I am way past of this being a short pastor’s note, let me add a few things that irritate me.

• Christians navigating, opinionizing, speaking out based on their political persuasion and overdosing on news outlets and pundits rather than reading the Bible extensively, daily, with a willingness to apply it, even if it completely contradicts our politics and opinions.

• Christian pontificating that is devoid of actions, not reaching out, not sharing the Gospel, not helping in some shape or form.

• Christians without Kingdom of God vision, acting like this is all there is, afraid of all the things unbelievers are fearful of, content as long as they are okay and have it their way.

• Little, if any, acknowledgment of the value and work of the church by our governmental leaders, acting as if they have to invent what the church has done since it’s inception, loving, helping, taking care of people.

Finally, since this is no way of ending this pastor’s note:

• I thank God for all those in our government who are working incredibly hard to get it right, may God give them favor, insight, foresight, and some rest.

• I thank God for the encouragement of brothers and sisters who have reached out to Susie and me, who are daily looking to be used by God, who are searching the Scriptures in order to direct their own minds and lives, and who are praying with me for the church to get this right.

 To God be all glory. Love and miss you, Pastor Hans  

The Resurrected Resurrector

"Talitha koum!" ("Little girl, I say to you, get up!" – Mark 5:41), Jesus said to the twelve-year-old dead girl, before giving her back to her Mom and Dad alive and well. They had laughed at him before going into her room because he said, “She is merely sleeping,” but they knew she was dead.

"Young man, I say to you, get up!" (Luke 7:14), Jesus said to the widow’s dead son as those who were carrying out to bury him watched him sit up and start talking. Fear and praising God was the funeral procession’s reaction.

"Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43), Jesus shouted towards Lazarus’ opened tomb before the crowd saw man buried four days ago walk out dressed in burial wrappings. “But by now it will stink,” his sister warned before they rolled away the entrance stone.

Resurrection, hard to wrap your mind around it. It is not difficult to understand those who laugh at the notion because seen too many little caskets occupied by dead little boys and girls. Resurrection, easy to dismiss it as mere religious talk, sentimentalism, and cheap comfort because we have not seen the one riding in the back of the hearse join the wake, turning it from a mourning fellowship into a praising God party.Resurrection, rings unscientific, flies in the face of what we know about our natural world. We are familiar with the stench of death, telling us of irreversible decay, no one gets up from that, religious or not.When they laid Jesus’ dead body in the tomb there was no one to touch him, speak life-giving words, call him out, no mighty prophet, none of his followers, and certainly not his enemies. But he did rise, not as the three above who needed someone with power greater than death to restore their lives.

Jesus, the creator of all life (Colossians 1:13-19), the one who has life within himself (John 2:19-22; John 10:17-18), free from life-robbing and damning sin (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15), rose by his own divine power. And, Jesus Christ did not rise like the three above, merely restored to physical life and destined to die again, no, he resurrected to incorruptible, eternal life.

“Jesus told her (Martha, Lazarus’ sister), ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told him. ‘I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God’” (John 11:25-27, NLT2, parenthesis mine).

This Easter 2020 we will remember as the Coronavirus Easter with daily updates of total infections and deaths, and all of us very aware of our fragility and inescapable mortality. Ultimately no vaccine, no ventilator, no medical breakthrough will be able to rescue us from death, accountability before God, and eternal damnation. For that you and I need the power of the one who is the resurrection and the life, Jesus Christ.You and I have to decide whether to laugh him off, settle for a little religion every now and then, inform him of the impossibilities and scientific facts, or believe and trust him who alone conquered the grave, who is the resurrection and the life. So, what is your Easter, Jesus risen from the dead, reaction and response? Oh, that you will believe.

“And now, dear brothers and sisters (those who believe in, follow, and live for Jesus Christ), we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NLT2, parenthesis mine). 

Have a blessed Easter.
Love you, Pastor Hans    

This Is a Time for Real Wisdom, Not Theological Foolishness

According to Fox News, Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, said no "dictator law" could keep people from worshipping God, according to the local news… “The virus, we believe, is politically motivated,” Spell told WAFB. “We hold our religious rights dear and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says.” … Spell said his church, which normally has more than 1,000 attendees on Sunday across five locations, will be distributing “anointed handkerchiefs” to provide members with “healing virtues.”
(Article here: https://www.foxnews.com/us/coronavirus-police-church-defy-state-order)

Foolishness dressed up as faith is particularly disturbing because it hurts people, gives Christians a bad name, keeps people from believing and following Jesus, and distorts the truth and greatness of God. Christians are by very definition people of faith and are called to live by faith in Christ and the Word of God (the Bible), but we are also called to be wise, to be sober-minded, to be discerning, and to function according to knowledge and truth.

The Galatian believers got an earful from the Apostle Paul regarding theological foolishness, “You foolish Galatians,” (Galatians 3:1&3) he tore into them. Of course, Christians are not the only ones capable of theological foolishness, the atheist’s entire worldview rests theological fallacy, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ (Psalm 14:1).”

Jesus refused to act according to theological foolishness when Satan tempted him to jump off the top of the temple at Jerusalem because God had promised that the Messiah wouldn’t break a bone (Luke 4:1-13). Maybe the devil should have also offered him a prophylactic hanky. Jesus didn’t jump because he was theologically sound, he both knew and did not twist the scriptures. “You don’t put God to the test,” he informed Satan, or put another way, you don’t force God’s hand, you let God test you, not the other way around, God’s promises are not an invitation to presumption.

Theological foolishness also is prone to be selective about science or dismiss science altogether. Can God do the impossible? Absolutely! Is there such a thing as the miraculous? Very much so! But it is also true that for the most part and most of the time God is running this universe according to the way he designed it. Miracles are the exception, not the norm, it is what makes them miracles. Yesterday evening I hooked up an electric dryer. Let’s assume I had one of Reverend Spell’s anointed handkerchiefs in my pants pocket, would you believe that it would protect me from electric shock? Why not? I didn't because I know the basics of science when it comes to the electrical outlets in my house, especially 220 volts. Faith and science are not enemies or mutually exclusive, don’t buy into that kind of foolishness.You cannot grow in faith without growing in wisdom and knowledge. But don’t just take my word for it:

My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him. Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy. Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. Proverbs 2:1-11 (NLT2)

Let’s not be fooled by some “anointed handkerchiefs” or other nonsense, let’s not act godless, but let’s be wise, love our neighbor and bring glory to God in all we are going through right now.

Love you, Pastor Hans     

Learning God's Love - By the Way, Happy Valentines!

(Before you read this Pastor’s Note, find a Bible and read 1 John 4:7-21.) 

For as much as we love love, we sure struggle with it. Human history, every family, the majority of marriages, and almost all lovers testify to this fact. Love should be easier than our collective testimony certifies it to be. By the way, Happy Valentines!

Few things give clearer evidence to our fallenness, our depravity, our sinfulness than our struggles with love. It should be the easiest thing in the world, but somehow we manage it to louse it up, mess it up, twist it, pervert it, cheapen it, manipulate with it, so much so that we don’t trust love, at least not all the way. Too many are our bad experiences, our disappointments, our scars, our hurts. By the way, Happy Valentines!

“There is no fear in love,” right! At least not until the first time Dad or Mom loses their temper, breaks a promise, or until you discover your lover’s bad habits, his or her not so amazing side. Truth be told, by the time you turn my age, and usually, much earlier, we are much more prone to adjust our loving to our fears rather than adjusting our fears to our love. That’s because we get our hopes up, “maybe this time it will be different,” only to have them smacked down again. Of course, this reveals that at least in some small way we loved with some payoff in mind. By the way, Happy Valentines!

Few people have a problem with the truth that “God is love,” actually most of us love this truth. Of course, here too our depravity is revealed because we interpret it to mean, “I can do whatever I want and he will be okay with it because he loves me.” Do you hear the twistedness in this? The presumption? The depraved narcissism? No wonder we are so good at messing up love. By the way, Happy Valentines!

“There is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). So why are multitudes of spouses dancing on eggshells around each other, afraid to …? Of all we could fear in this life nothing should fill us with greater fear than God. Think about it, he knows our every last little dirty secret and could embarrass us more than anyone. He knows every single transgression of ours and could haul us into his court anytime. He has infinite power and can not only inflict us with punishment for every misdeed or snuff out our life, but he can also cast our soul into eternal hell. By the way, Happy Valentines!

If we are going to get love right, if we are going to learn to love perfectly, if we are going to love without fear, we are not going to find it in our sentimental but depraved notions of love or our selective (mis)interpretations of love in scripture. We will have to learn it from Almighty God through his Son, Jesus Christ, who in all his fearsomeness loved us first and loved us completely through the suffering and sacrifice Jesus. It is only at the foot of the cross of Jesus that lovers, spouses, and each one of us can learn to love without fear, to love like God and Jesus. By the way, Happy Valentines!

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans  

Love Your Neighbor! You Owe It

I say, “Obama,” you think _____________.
I say, “Trump,” you think _____________.
Chances are high, depending on your political persuasion, you’ve badmouthed one or the other, that you love one and despise the other, that you have respect for one while feeling at liberty to disrespect the other.

I say, “Taxes,” you think ____________.
I say, “You owe,” you think ____________.
Chances are high you have an opinion on taxes, and, living in the United States, chances are equally high that you are very familiar with owing, with indebtedness.

Romans 13:1-10 concerns itself with Christians living in the larger society, within the constructs of government, their surrounding culture, the country they live in. God, through the Apostle Paul, reminds us to  “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” Romans 13:7 (ESV).

Do your responses above reflect the spirit and demeanor of the Romans 13 passage? Are your conversations, tweets, and posts in compliance with the word of God, or do they reflect the culture at large or the subgroup you affiliate with? Do you have an honor and respect debt?

Even after you’ve paid all your bills, paid off your mortgage, and are square on your taxes you owe, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” Romans 13:8 (ESV), not according to some law passed by the legislature, but according to God’s law, “For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” Romans 13:1-10 (ESV).

Why do you and I owe love daily? Because we owe our very existence to God’s love and are daily recipients of his mercy and grace, "To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that. I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind” Luke 6:27-36 (MSG).

God has a vision for this world we live in, the countries we love, the communities we live in, and the lives we live (Read the Ten Commandments - Exodus 20:1-17, and the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7).

And, he expects the followers of Jesus to live out that vision right now, not in some distant future. He wants us to embrace the highest law now, not when things are hunky-dory, but amid ugly politics, chaos, violence, injustice, opposition, stress, worry, and even evil. Heavenly Father forgive me when my standards do not reflect yours, when I excuse myself from the supreme law, when I declare myself indebted to no one, when my daily life is without heavenly vision. Please me the courage, the tenacity, and humility to pay all I owe, especially my love debt. Amen.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans         

Vision 2020: Love Your Neighbor

VISION 2020: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR!All kinds of new laws went into effect today, January 1, 2020, fewer restrictions on marijuana, no hair discrimination in the workplace, the Real ID Security Act, the California Consumers Privacy Act, … Not that they are all bad or not needed, laws do have to keep up with changes, should strive for greater justice, protect freedom, and help us to function as a society.Romans 13 - is my New Year’s reading recommendation for you. It has everything in it to cheer you up: Governmental authority and leaders, taxes, rendering honor, and to top it all off, not getting drunk and going wild partying. Just exactly what you need to hear on one of the great hangover days of the year.In the middle of Romans 13, you will find an old law that should never come off the books, “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. For the commandments say, ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.’ These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law’” Romans 13:8-10 (NLT2).  All of God’s laws in regard to our interactions with others, concerning how to function as people and peoples have as their foundation “love your neighbor as yourself.” According to James, this is the highest, most supreme, “royal” law (James 2:8). The only greater law is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).Of course, because of our broken, narcissistic, sinful hearts, we read this outstanding law of "love your neighbor as yourself" and immediately make it about us, our need to love ourselves first, think of ourselves first, our own needs, our own limitations… But did you notice? This supreme command is about love lived out in concrete actions, specifically self-denying actions, that benefit our neighbor most of all. According to God’s wisdom, this forms the very bedrock of living together in harmony, peace, kindness, and prosperity.We are not living in a time when “loving your neighbor as yourself” is all of the sudden more important than it has been at any other time in history, but we are living in a time when loving yourself, your own group, your own people, is what comes first, the mantra drowning out the two most important and beneficial laws of human existence, interaction, and thriving, the most critical rules when it comes being and acting in the image of God (Genesis1:26).2020 needs you and me to love our neighbor as God intended and like our world and future depend on it.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans P.S. Maybe you are asking a question asked before, “Who is my neighbor?” For an answer read Luke 10:25-37.  

Christmas - A Call to Worship God Alone

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” …  going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2:1-2 & 11 (ESV, italics mine)

“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Deuteronomy 5:7-10 (NASB)

We are all worshippers; it is what God created us to be. This means we all worship someone or something. It is not a matter of if, but of who or what you worship. Maybe you’re already strongly objecting, “Not me, I’m not even religious!”

Worshippers bow down, prostrate themselves, pay homage to someone or something. They honor, respect, and submit to a reality greater than themselves. Their hearts embrace, ‘kiss’ (literally in ancient times), and acknowledge a superior power. You don’t have to be religious to that, you can even worship yourself, but that would be a serious delusion.The Eastern Wise Men who sought to worship the infant Jesus were not atheists, few people in the ancient world were, most likely they were polytheists (believing in many gods). What we know for sure is that they were intelligent enough to know that it makes no sense to worship just anything. They understood enough to know that whatever they worshipped had to be greater than the stars and universe they were observing. They followed the evidence the universe and all of nature presents, namely, that before and behind all we can see and observe must be something or someone much greater, much older, and much more powerful. They also understood that we don’t get to choose who or what that is because he/it already was, and all of the universe, including you and me, is subject to him/it. And, these wise men knew that the universe testifies to more than a lifeless beginning, it does not declare an it but a HIM, because it drips with wisdom, with design, with creativity, with imagination, and, especially for us to see here on earth, with life. The most natural response to these truths and realities is to worship at the feet of the one who made all of that.Modern man likes to think of him/herself as more advanced but in truth, we are not far removed from the those who worshipped and still worship rocks, fetishes, ancestors, handmade idols, nature, or gods who resemble narcissistic flawed human beings more than the divine, all of them part of this physical world and mere human imagination. We moderns have built different altars but of the same kind and with the same limitations, altars of scientific knowledge, academia (please note I am not against either), personal spiritual truth, or general godlessness that allows to us worship whatever we want. None of these can transcend this creation but are merely part of it.When those wise men worshipped Jesus, they worshipped him “who was and is and is to come” (Revelation 4:8), the one true beginning from whose heart, mind, and power everything we see and perceive with our senses has originated, who will judge the living and the dead, and who alone is worthy to be worshipped, “whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne (of eternity), who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created’” Revelation 4:9-11 (ESV).Christmas is and always has been a call to forsake idolatry, personal spiritual preferences, and ideas and instead worship Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, God with us, God Almighty, God alone.Merry Christmas. Pastor Hans     

Disciple, Disciple-Maker, Witness, Sent Servant, Ambassador

• Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)

Being a follower of Christ, a Christian means being a disciple-maker, which means leading others to faith in Christ, to follow Christ, and to grow in Christ. It means to go out by the authority of Jesus to reach the entire world with the Gospel of Christ and training all those who turn to Christ for salvation, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life.Disciple-makers have to, first of all, be disciples themselves, learning and observing all Jesus commanded ourselves, being genuine and committed ourselves. This doesn’t mean you have to wait to be disciple-maker until you have it all down perfectly (you never will), but it does mean we have to be ongoing learners and practitioners all the time and everywhere.

• “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." Acts 1:8 (NASB)

Every disciple of Christ is also a witness of Christ, of the fact that Jesus is alive, that he conquered sin, death, and the grave. A good witness needs two things, a testimony and integrity, truth and credibility. Jesus told his disciples that through the Holy Spirit he would empower them to be his witness. Interestingly the Holy Spirit is called Holy, true holiness includes absolute integrity, it is spotless, The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13). Since he empowers us to be Jesus’ witnesses, we can assume he will continually work towards us embracing holiness and truthfulness, to have a genuine testimony and integrity.

• So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." John 20:21 (NASB) "For even the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 (NASB, parenthesis mine)

Every disciple of Jesus, everyone who testifies of Jesus is meant to act like Jesus, to carry out the will of God like Jesus, to be a servant to both God and people like Jesus. We are on God’s, Jesus’ mission.

• We are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (NLT2)

Christians are Christ’s representatives, ambassadors of God’s kingdom. We are meant to be about Christ’s interests, Jesus’ politics, Jesus’ message to the whole world.

• Disciple, disciple-maker, witness, sent servant, ambassador – GO!

 To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans      

Power Outage - Are You Connected?

God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you; unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done. Psalm 62:11-12 (NLT2) With a big, audible click the power went off. PG&E (our power company) pulled the plug and no one knows for how long. Safety blackout, it is fallout from the huge and devasting fires that have ravaged our state (California) the past couple of years, and it is a first for us.Susie and I live in a house where, except for the woodstove and water, everything depends on electricity, the lights, water heater, cookstove, fridges, freezer, other appliances, computers, and modems, … So, with the power out we are having to improvise, make do in other ways. We are now depending on our little 1,600 (2,000 peak) watt camping generator. As I type this pastor’s note, it is purring away outside feeding a power cord connected to an outlet strip I borrowed from the garage. The outlet strip feeds other power cords we keep switching around between lights, coffee maker, chargers, and refrigerators and freezer because 1,600 watts don’t power all that much. The water heater, dishwasher, washing machine, cookstove, and oven will lay dormant until the power is restored.With a limited power supply comes a different way of doing things, that’s for sure. If we run out of gasoline then we will be down to no power at all, the food in the freezer and fridges will spoil, computers and phones won’t get recharged, the battery lanterns will grow dim and dark. Hopefully, the blackout will be over before any of that happens.God is the ultimate source of power, whatever power there is in the universe has its origin in him. Think about that for a minute, let it sink in. Every little watt of electricity you and I have used traces back to God himself. Think about the consequences of being disconnected from God, how much it complicates life, increases how much time and effort we have to spend on even basic tasks. Consider, how much in your life and our world spoils because of not being connected to the one true and living and almighty God.I have already thought about getting another generator I can run in tandem to power the house in future power outages. I have, even before this blackout, already begun to save up to go solar. Foolishly, we bring the same mentality to God. Foolish, because there is no substitute for God, living disconnected from him guarantees a more complicated, burdensome, cord-dragging, life with way too much spoilage. Foolish, because being disconnected from God is not like PG&E pulling the plug but is entirely self-inflicted. Ask yourself, “In what ways and what areas of my life am I living disconnected from God?”Finally, what do you do when you find yourself disconnected from God? You reconnect, that is what you do. How?

• Be honest and admit it that it is entirely your own fault.
• Be willing to abandon your disconnected-from-God lifestyle.
• Take up God’s offer to reconnect you through his Son Jesus Christ, who is the reconciler, the reconnector (Romans 5:10, 2 Corinthians 5:20), and ask him to do so.
• Start, or start over, living a life that stays as close to Christ every single day.
• Watch your life begin to light up.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans