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Archive for the ‘Commentaries’ Category

Finding God’s Favor

Posted in Commentaries, Tributes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 26, 2025| 1 Comment »

Like most kids who grew up in the 1960’s and 70’s, my parents had home movies they’d occasionally pull out and show on a big projector screen.  One that particularly sticks out in my mind is of my brothers and I playing on the street in front of my grandmother’s house in Brooklyn.  It was a cold, dreary looking day, and we were all in our winter coats, but we were running around with the sort of abandon that only young children seem to possess. 

I believe that I was about 5 yrs old in the film, which would make my brothers 6 yrs and 7 yrs old.  In particular it was my brother Tom (the oldest sibling) who stood out.  His big eyes and childlike manner in these movies were such a sharp contrast to the serious and pragmatic fellow he would eventually become.  These old reels were some of the only evidence that he’d not really started out that way.

Life has a way of pushing back against innocence and cultivating cynicism.  And for little boys, wide eyed compassion and sensitivity aren’t generally a sustainable course.  Very quickly it becomes clear that having such emotions or at least allowing folks to know that you have them, is a precarious path to take.  Early on, it becomes a matter of survival to learn how to hide your vulnerabilities and to always come from a position of strength.  For many young men that manifests in a form of aggressiveness that is generally accepted for young males.  For my brother Tom, it manifested in the form of intellect.

My brother had a brilliant mind and was usually one of the smartest guys in the room.  He also had the ability to express himself, which made his intelligence harder to ignore.  Because my father was in the Air Force, we changed schools constantly, but wherever we’d go my brother would quickly be viewed as the smartest kid in the class.  As the sensitive nurturing elements of his personality receded into dormancy, the power of his mind emerged.  He wasn’t just smart, he was a born leader, and soon that was all you could see.  

As a younger brother, who had no desire to be led by someone I thought of as a peer, I just viewed him as overbearing and bossy.   By the time we got to high school, his identity as the smart kid was already set in stone, and he further solidified it by dating the smartest girl in school.  In those days, if you had asked anyone who knew my brother to describe him with three adjectives, his intelligence would have been referenced with the first word.

Forty-five years later, as I sat through the various memorial services celebrating my brother’s (too short) life, I suddenly recalled those scenes of us frolicking on the street as kids, and I realized that not one person had made a singular reference to his intelligence.  Indeed, there was barely any mention of the impressive work he had done at Ball Aerospace (e.g., the Hubble Telescope, the Mars Rover), or any of his other accomplishments.  

As the montage of pictures scrolled across the screen, they were mostly scenes of Tom with his grandchildren, or his god children, or dear friends, or with his beloved wife.  In many of them he was dressed funny and clearly goofing around with that same sort of abandon that we’d had as children. 

When people eulogized him, it was his warmth, compassion, faith, and wisdom they spoke of.  And I found myself wondering how this transformation had occurred.  What was it that allowed my brother’s true heart to re-emerge over all these years.

The short and simple answer is that the God who gave Him that heart, also worked throughout his life to preserve it.  But at the center of God’s plan was Tom’s beloved wife Fawn. 

By the time they’d met in high school, Tom had developed a pretty sharp edge to his personality, yet around her, he was like Jello.  He was crazy about her from day one, and she was not the type of person to use that as leverage against him.  If there were ever two people who seemed destined for each other, it was these two, and absolutely no one was surprised that they married and spent a lifetime together.

Looking back, I realize that because Fawn loved my brother for who he was, she made it safe for the nurturing, loving, playful part of his heart to re-emerge.  Because she routinely engaged that part of his being, it regained strength and eventually became the hallmark of his legacy.  Though it sounds cliche, she brought out the best in him.  And to his credit, I believe that he did that for her as well.

As I pondered all this, I couldn’t help but think that this is exactly what God had in mind for marriage.  That these unions were meant to amount to more than just the sum of the parts.  That both partners would help each other become the people they were created to be. 

If Tom had chosen to spend his life with someone who only related to him on an intellectual level, he may well have become a stoic recluse. Thankfully, he found a loving soul, who was full of spirit, and every bit his intellectual equal. She loved his heart and nurtured it throughout their years together.

In my brother’s final days, the room was filled with people who loved him and whose lives had been touched by his.  And right by his side was his beloved partner Fawn.  Though we could wish for more days, it would be hard to imagine a better way to finish the race.

He who finds a wife of worth, receives the favor of the Lord (Prov.18:22)

A wife of noble character is worth far more than rubies (Prov.31:10)

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Praise and Worship

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 13, 2025| 5 Comments »

Another file from the achieves

Recently someone asked me, what is the difference between a “praise” song and a “worship” song?  I had to smile at that question, because I remember asking the same question several years ago.  At that time, I’d not really been exposed to much “praise and worship” music and so the distinction wasn’t obvious to me.  What I was told at the time was that the “fast songs” were the praise songs and the “slow songs” were the worship songs.  That wasn’t a very satisfying answer, but I decided not to worry about it and to move on. 

All these years later I can testify to the fact that the act of praising and worshiping the Lord has revolutionized my relationship with Him.  It has birthed a love of prayer in me and helped me to understand that God still speaks to His children.  Because of the important role this has played in my journey, I wanted to give a thoughtful answer. 

While I had to admit that I wasn’t positive, I shared that I tend to view a praise song as one that I sing about God (e.g. “Our God is an Awesome God, He reigns in heaven above…”) while I view a worship song as one that I sing to God (e.g. “I surrender all, I surrender all, all to You my Blessed Savior, I surrender all…”).  While that may not completely cover it, I thought it was a better answer than the one I got. 

That led to some more discussion, which eventually led to the question, “is there any difference between praising and worshipping”?  Unlike the first question, I had a much higher degree of confidence in that answer and I thought it might be worthwhile to share some of those thoughts.

To praise somebody (or something) is to find them commendable, to react favorably, to show approval…  This is undoubtedly a positive thing.  The Psalms tell us that the Lord inhabits the praise of His people and that is certainly of infinite value; but the act of worship goes far deeper.  Worship entails elements such as respect, reverence, honor and even devotion, which are several degrees above simply being commendable. 

I believe that to truly worship something, we must view it as being greater than ourselves; but even that may not be enough.  I recognize that Michael Jordan is a far greater basketball player than I could ever dream of being, yet this still doesn’t compel me to worship him.  I believe that another essential element of true worship is submissiveness; that before we can really worship something, we must be willing to humble ourselves and to put ourselves in submission to it. 

There are many people and things that I have found praiseworthy, many that I have recognized as being greater than myself, but none besides the Lord that I would be willing to put myself in submission to and to truly worship. 

Jesus told the woman at the well that His Father seeks “true worshippers” and He went on to explain that since “God is Spirit”, “His worshippers must worship in Spirit and in truth”.  As I was reminded of these passages, I felt like the Lord said, “Many is the man who praises Me with his lips, but refuses to bow his heart before Me”. 

There are many people who recognize the goodness of God and who are even willing to acknowledge that before men, but few who are willing to submit their will to His.  In my own walk of faith I have grown wary of any person who calls themselves a child of God, but has no passion for worship.  I believe that our will and our nature make worship an essential part of our walk with the Lord. 

I find that I daily have to resubmit myself to His Lordship.  The word says that the fear (i.e. awe) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  I believe that awe is bore out of a recognition that God is so much greater than we are, that His ways are high above our ways and that we are totally dependent upon His mercy and grace.  I believe this awe causes us to submit, but that it is in coming under His Lordship that we discover His great love and mercy; which causes us to love Him, trust Him, and inevitably to worship Him. 

He is not only worthy of our praise, He is worthy of our worship as well.  Indeed, “All to you my blessed Savior, I surrender all”.

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The Government of God

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , on March 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Jesus explained the government of God when He told His disciples that, “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does (John 5:19)”.  Paul further explained that the head of every man is Christ, and that the head of Christ is God (1Cor.11:3). 

By walking in perfect submission to the leadership of the Father, Jesus gave us a clear demonstration of, “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” which allowed Him to rightfully claim, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father (John 14:9).

As amazing as that claim was, He also told His disciples that it was better for them that He go, so that the Holy Spirit could come (John 16: 7-11), which speaks of God’s provision for us to experience the government of God as well. 

Once again, Paul expounds that Jesus has been given all authority, and that He is the head of the body (Eph.1:22-23), which ultimately is our source of life (Col.2:19).

I submit that the Lord has no interest in some earthly replica of His government or kingdom.  We are not building some new hierarchy or structure we are submitting to the Kingdom rule that already exists in heaven between the Father and the Son.

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Legacy

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 8, 2025| 1 Comment »

If you live long enough, your life is bound to stand for something.  Even without any conscious thought, the consistent patterns that repeat themselves throughout a lifetime point to the things we truly value and expose the content of our character.  They ultimately create the subtext of our story, which could rightfully be considered our legacy.  Those of us given the privilege of reaching old age frequently get the opportunity to consider the legacies of those who came before us, which quite naturally encourages the consideration of our own.

There are some who seem to be driven by their desire to cultivate a specific legacy, seeking out opportunities to prove themselves and to frame the narrative of how they might be remembered.  Unwittingly, that drive can actually work against them, and undermine the story they hope to tell.  

An example of this would be those who wish to be remembered as “successful” or as a “winner”.  While they may spend their lives accumulating accomplishments and leave behind trophy cases of awards and accolades, that only tells a part of their story.  If the cost of achieving such things was meaningful relationships, and/or if their need to win caused them to treat people like pawns in a lifelong chess tournament, that will likely become the bigger story.  The record books may acknowledge them as a “winner”, but they will be remembered for being ruthless and uncaring.

In the end, we don’t get to write our own legacy.  It is ultimately defined by those we leave behind.  In many ways it is the foundation we’ve established for them to build upon (or teardown), and the mark we’ve made on their hearts.  If our life was nothing more than an endless pursuit of our own happiness, it seems doubtful that anyone would take the time to consider what it meant.  Indeed, a life consumed with self is the emptiest existence one could choose.  If we could grasp this concept early in life, it might drastically alter our value system, thereby rewriting the subtext of our story.

I’ve frequently taught my children that at the end of this life there will only be two things that really matter.  One is “who you loved,” and the other is “who loved you!”  When you’re lying on your deathbed, your money, your diplomas, your gold medals, your Oscars, your Nobel Prizes… won’t be of any consolation.  In that moment, all the stuff that once seemed so valuable becomes meaningless, as we realize that only those things rooted in faith, hope and love can pass over the threshold with us.

It is in such moments that many a rich man discovers his poverty, and that many a poor man discovers the riches of a life well lived. 

Today, as my dear brother Thomas lives out the final moments of his story, he is surrounded by people who he deeply loves, and who deeply love him.  People who he has invested his heart in, and who cherish the moments they’ve had together.  Though my brother has many other accomplishments, and things he could be admired for, these are the only things that matter today.  As he stands on the threshold of eternity, he can look back into the loving eyes of those whose lives have been touched by his, and he can look ahead, into the loving eyes of the Father who awaits his embrace.  

I can’t imagine a better way to end one’s story.  

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The Spirit of Religion

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , on February 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

(Another one from the achieve)

There is a demonic force that thrives in religious atmospheres, and for the purposes of this writing, I will refer to it as the “spirit of religion.” Because it so often comes dressed in robes and vestments, it is easily mistaken for orthodoxy.

The spirit of religion seeks:

  • to put boundaries around what is infinite
  • to place conditions on that which is unconditional
  • to discredit anything that cannot be rationalized and reproduced
  • to have us view other people as our source of connection to God, as opposed to viewing God as our source of connection to other people
  • to redefine the “work of God” as something other than believing in the One whom He sent
  • to inspire the church in the construction of an earthy replica of “the kingdom”, so that the genuine Kingdom does not come
  • to keep us grasping, when we should be releasing

The spirit of religion opposes:

  • spontaneity, because it understands the power that is released when God moves “suddenly”
  • anything that puts our focus on the person of God, because when the body becomes connected to the head, all things become possible

The spirit of religion wants the church to accept:

  • comfort as a substitute for healing
  • ideas as a substitute for revelation
  • activity as a substitute for fulfilling one’s true purpose
  • stimulation as a substitute for manifestation
  • recreation as a substitute for rest
  • instant gratification as a substitute for renewed strength
  • things done in the name of Jesus as a substitute for things done in His character
  • intermediaries as a substitute for direct & personal connection
  • symbols as a substitute for a living God
  • earthly prosperity as a substitute for spiritual authority
  • good form as a substitute for real substance
  • morality as a substitute for being led by the Holy Spirit
  • petition & declaration as a substitute for genuine communication with God
  • the exaltation of men of God as a substitute for the exaltation of God Himself
  • spiritual gifts as a substitute for Gods’ tangible presence
  • government as a substitute for community
  • accomplishment as a substitute for transformation
  • what is seen as a substitute for what is unseen
  • rituals as a substitute for relationship

The spirit of religion is always present at the funeral of revival

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True Value

Posted in Commentaries, Heart of "The Father", tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

(Another writing from the archives)

This article reminded me of something the Lord showed me several years ago, which I added below.

“Picked up for 3 bucks, Chinese bowl goes for $2.2 million at auction”

   By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

A Chinese bowl that a New York family picked up for $3 at a garage sale turned out to be a 1,000-year-old treasure and has sold at auction for $2.2 million.

The bowl — ceramic, 5 inches in diameter and with a saw-tooth pattern etched around the outside — went to a London dealer, Giuseppe Eskenazi, at Sotheby’s auction house in New York on Tuesday.

Sotheby’s said the bowl was from the Northern Song Dynasty, which ruled China from 960 to 1127 and is known for its cultural and artistic advances.

The auction house said the only other known bowl of similar size and design has been in the collection of the British Museum for more than 60 years. The house had estimated that this one would sell for $200,000 to $300,000.

Sotheby’s did not identify the sellers, but said they put the bowl up for auction after consulting with experts. The family bought the bowl in 2007 and had kept it on a mantel in the years since. There weren’t any additional details made public about the garage sale where they had purchased the item.

Years ago, the Lord showed me a picture of an oil painting, sitting on an old, chrome framed, yellow vinyl, kitchen chair.  The chair was sitting out on the lawn, with masking tape across one corner of the paintings frame. 

As I pondered what the scene meant, I remembered hearing stories about people who’ve cleaned out attics and inadvertently sold valuable masterpieces, by artists like Rembrandt or Picasso; sometimes getting as little as five or ten dollars at a yard sale.  Obviously, the people, who found those old pictures, had no idea of their value; and as I continued to meditate on this, a deeper understanding began to emerge.

The most obvious meaning of this picture was that God considers each of His children to be a masterpiece, regardless of whether they’ve ever been treated like one.  Sadly, when you’ve been handled like old junk, it becomes easier to believe that’s what you are.  But in truth, the real value of a masterpiece is not diminished by the failure of its beholder to understand its worth.  It is the one who undervalues the artifact who ultimately suffers the loss.

Few would argue God’s credentials as a “Master” Creator; but just as it is with the Master Painters here on earth, some might want to quibble over His “greater” and “lesser” works.   Yet to the artist, each work is an expression of their inner being, each is valuable and irreplaceable.  One painting might get more attention than another, one may bring more profit, but each one is of equal value in reflecting the heart and vision of its creator.  Undoubtedly, if those who looked upon such a painting, with untrained eyes, had known the name of the artist, they may have had some greater sense of its worth.

Genuine art lovers can often pick up subtle details in a picture that an unskilled or maybe even an uncaring eye might miss.  They can often derive much more significance from a work than someone who only scans for the obvious; and so it is with us. 

We may not always see the beauty in people, but how often have we really looked for it.  We may not always understand what the Creator was trying to convey to us, but simply knowing who created them should make these works valuable to us.  While this may be difficult with some people, it may be most difficult as we look in the mirror.  I sense that God’s heart is just as grieved when we don’t understand our own value to Him, as when we don’t see the value in others.

I believe that God wants us to be like the lovers of great art; to look deeply into His creation and to find Him in it.  The scripture says that the invisible qualities of God are found in the things He created and that we were created in His own image. 

I sense that He is calling us to look past the obvious (love covers a multitude of sins) and to find the beauty He’s placed inside of each one of His children.  Once we find it, I believe that He would have us cultivate (i.e. to shine the light on and water) it.  Isn’t that what Jesus did? 

He didn’t focus on the flaws or mistakes; He treated each one as precious and valuable.  We can see that people were transformed by that (e.g. the woman at the well, the woman taken from the bed of adultery, the woman at the well, Zacchaeus…). 

Jesus told the apostles that people would know His followers by the way that they loved each other.  Is that how people know us church folk?  How much of a difference would it make if we sought the beauty that God placed in each person and if we truly valued them as a unique creation, from the hands of a Master Artist.  If our hearts are going to align with His, we are going to have to become more passionate about those He created.

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The Original Sin

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I grew up with the story of Adam and Eve, and their exploits in the Garden, which seemed pretty basic at the time.  There was good fruit, bad fruit, and God’s clearly stated expectations.  Man disobeyed those directions, chose the bad fruit, and sin was introduced to the world. 

My take away was that life is pretty much a struggle between good and evil, that choosing evil is sin, and that sin is what separates us from God.  From that I derived that the mission was to do “good” and not evil, so that at the end of this life I’d wind up with the good folks in heaven.

Throughout my formative years, this was my conception of what “Christianity” was all about.  As I stepped into adulthood and made my own way in the world, I left the church life behind.  I suppose if you would have asked me, I still considered myself a Christian, just not a church goer.  I tried to be a good person, and to live by the golden rule, but there was little evidence of the belief I claimed.

Years later, as I reached my early thirties, the life I’d built began to crumble, which forced me to reconsider my conclusions both about myself and about God.  I remember hearing someone quote the Matthew 7 passage that says, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven (vs. 21).”  That was scary, because it seemed to be aimed at people who counted themselves as followers.  Even more terrifying was the ending of the passage, where despite the good things they had done in His name, they were disqualified because He never “knew” them (vs 23).

This immediately challenged my concept of what God was after.  The folks He was addressing in the text seemed to believe in Him, and to be doing good things in His name.  As far as I knew, that was what we were supposed to be doing.  And these verses were clearly saying that there’s more to it than that. 

Something like panic began to rise up in me, and I knew I’d better read this book (i.e. the Bible) for myself.  What I found not only changed my concept of the mission, it redefined what I consider “sin”.

When I revisited the story of the garden, I was surprised at how different it seemed.  Most important, was the realization that the choice Adam and Eve faced wasn’t between the fruit of what is good, and of what is evil, it was fruit from the Tree of Life, or fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

The tree of life is pretty straight forward, it’s really just a picture of Jesus.  It offers us provision from the Giver of life, but like any fruit tree, we’ll need to come back daily to sustain ourselves.  He became our daily bread.  He is the vine and we are the branches.  The fruit is good because He is good.

Less obvious is the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.  After all, doesn’t God want us to know the difference between good and evil.  If life is really a battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, isn’t this essential information?  Why should God forbid that we eat of this tree?

It’s the serpent that answers this question.  He tells Eve that if they eat of the fruit, they will become like God.  In other words, they won’t have to rely on Him for this knowledge, they’ll be able to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. 

Ultimately, it was the choice between being completely dependent upon God, and viewing truth through the lens of their relationship with Him, or living life on their own terms (i.e. independently from God) and by their own sense of what seems “good”.  Sin entered in when mankind chose the latter. 

The punishment wasn’t because God was mad at them, He was actually giving them the life they chose (i.e. the desires of their hearts).  A life lived by their own wits, and sweat, and sense of what was right.

I often hear people speak of sin in the third person, as though it is a separate entity, like a demonic spirit that tricks us into disobedience, or some stray cloud of evil that temporarily shrouds our vision, but that is deceptive.  The appeal of such an aesthetic is that it makes sin seem less personal, thereby making us seem less accountable. 

Like Adam, we want to rationalize that we’re not really disobeying God, as much as we’re just victims of an unfortunate set of circumstances (Gen.3:12).  But like him, we are making a definitive choice that has very real implications. 

As I read the whole of scripture, and have endeavored to walk with the Lord, it’s become clear that sin is much more than simply choosing to do evil or to disobey God’s commands.   Minute by minute we have the same choice as they did.  We can submit ourselves to the Lord’s leadership and live our lives through the context of His heart, or we can engage the world through the filter of our own perceptions, and persist in self-rule. 

God lets us know that His thoughts are much higher than our thoughts (Isa.55:9), that He can do exceedingly more than we could ever imagine (Eph3:20), and that the wisdom of men is foolishness to Him (1Cor.1:25).  Further, he warns that our perceptions are severely limited (1Cor.13:9), that apart from Him we can do “nothing” (John 15:5), and that the way that seems right to us will ultimately lead to death (Prov.14:12).  He literally sets before us life and death, blessings and curses (Deut.30:19).  But then He allows us to choose the path we follow (Josh 24:15).

Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).  He also let His disciples know that the way that leads to life is narrow, and that only a few actually find it (Matt.7:14). 

So, when we choose to rely on our own perceptions (i.e. thoughts, experience, knowledge, sense of justice, understanding, perspective, attitudes…) to guide us, we are willfully deviating from the way He made for us.  He is not distancing Himself from us, we are separating from Him.  I have come to believe that this is the very essence of sin.  Our penchant for choosing the way that seems right to us is fundamentally rooted in pride, which God detests (Prov.16:5).

This is why Jesus said that anyone who wasn’t willing to take up their cross daily (i.e. die to self), and follow Him (i.e. submit to the will of the Father) is not worthy of Him (Matt.10:38).  It is also why He said that the only way to find the abundant life He died to give us, is to surrender our life to Him (Matt.10:39).

Jesus demonstrated the life He’s calling us to when He expressed His unwillingness to do anything He didn’t see His Father do first (John 5:19), so that at the end of His life He was able to say that if you’d seen Him, you’d seen the Father (John 14:9).  He has destined us to be transformed into that same image (Rom.8:29).

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross made a way for us, and His Spirit stands at the ready to share everything we need for godly living (2Peter 1:3), but the decision to yield our hearts belongs to us. 

Moment by moment, we can be driven by our own thoughts or guided by His thoughts (2Cor.10:5).  We can relate to people based on our feelings about them or we can manifest His heart for them (John 13:34).  We can view the world through the lens of current events, or from His eternal perspective (2Cor.4:18). 

If sin was simply about obeying commandments, then the rich young ruler should not have gone away sad (Luke 18:18-29).  But Jesus asked him to lay down the very things that identified him both as rich, and as a ruler, which was a price he wasn’t willing to pay.  I’ve no doubt He is asking the same of us. 

Yielding our mind, will and emotions to Him is ultimately the way to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength (Matt.22:37).  At this point in the journey, I’ve come to believe that the mission is to keep my heart (i.e. mind, will & emotions) in step with His heart, which allows me to be available for whatever He chooses to do.

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The 7 Cultural Mountains Strategy

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2025| 1 Comment »

(Written several years ago)

Over the last several years the “7 Cultural Mountains” doctrine has become very popular in many circles. Ostensibly, it explains both the loss of “Christian” influence within the culture and gives “the church” a strategy for a return to prominence. At first blush, it sounds fairly plausible, but upon closer examination, significant flaws emerge.

For those who are not completely versed in this paradigm, it is based on the premise that there are seven primary areas that tend to shape any culture; which are government, religion, education, the family, business, arts & entertainment and media.  These areas have been dubbed cultural molders, pillars of culture, or more popularly the “7 Cultural Mountains”.  The idea is that if you can have an effect in those areas, you will in fact impact the culture as a whole. 

If you extrapolate from this solid base assumption, you can begin to trace the fall of the Christian influence within the larger American culture to its breakdown within these seven specific categories.  A study of the last half century in America’s history would certainly seem to confirm the steady descent of the Judeo-Christian influence within the culture; and it begs the questions, “What caused this descent?” and “How do we as Christians regain a place of influence within our culture?”  It is in the answer to these two fundamental questions that I find the most problematic elements of this movement.

The generally accepted answer to the first question is that Christians have separated themselves from the culture and essentially abandoned the other six cultural mountains in favor of camping on the religion mountain.  This claim is generally supported by pointing to the Christian subculture created by things like books, music, movies… that are specifically marketed to the church.  But a broader look at the people who count themselves as “Christian” in America doesn’t seem to support that premise at all. 

If Christians have truly segregated themselves to the religion mountain, then there ought to have been a marked shift toward orthodoxy in the church, instead of the rampant abandonment of traditional church doctrines and it ought to be easy to find groups of highly devout Christians, sequestered away from the culture at large (akin to the Amish people); but that doesn’t appear to be the case either.  Considering that more than three quarters of adult American’s profess to believe in some form of God and that most of those profess some form of Judeo-Christian basis for that belief, such a mass cultural exodus would be difficult to conceal. 

As I look around, I see people who claim some form of Christianity in positions of prominence throughout the culture.  The mayor of my town, the governor of our state, and the President of our country are all professed Christians; so is the Senate Majority Leader and so are the majority of people who hold government office in this country.  Many of teachers at my children’s public school are Christians, as are several of the players from the last Super Bowl teams, so was the winner of this year’s Daytona 500, and at the Grammy awards, several of the artists thanked their “Lord and Savior”.  Wherever you go in this country and no matter what field you look into, you can find Christian people in a position to influence their environment. 

The idea that the church has separated itself from the culture would seem to imply that Christians in America are so committed to their principles that they are unable to relate to the things of the world, but the overwhelming evidence suggests that the opposite is true.  Statistics for things like sex outside of marriage, divorce, abuse, addiction to internet pornography… indicate no discernable difference between the church and the world.  I would submit that the failure of the church to effectively engage the culture has more to do with the fact that the American brand of Christianity has become so dilute and compromised that the church as a whole has become undistinguishable from the culture.  I also believe that for those who have not compromised, the chasm between the pure truth of God’s word and what the culture holds as truth, has become so wide that they doubt their ability to bridge the gap.

A possibly more dramatic example of the flaw in concluding that Christians have cloistered themselves on the religion mountain can be drawn by an examination of the religion mountain itself.  If Christians have put all their eggs in that basket, than this is the one area of culture that they should firmly control; but the truth is that their influence appears to be diminishing just as rapidly on this mountain as it has on all of the others; as traditional forms of religion give way to the rise of Humanism, Scientology, Mormonism, Islam, New Age and Wicca. 

If we have drawn the wrong conclusion about the question of how we got to this point then undoubtedly our answer to the question of, where we should go from here, will be off base as well.  If the conclusion is that we’ve disconnected ourselves from the culture, than the answer is sure to be aimed at establishing a stronger connection; but if our problem is in fact that we’re already too connected to the culture, then such a strategy could be a recipe for disaster. 

As I review the strategy that’s being developed for “taking back the cultural mountains”, I caught myself trying to find some biblical context for it.  Undoubtedly we are meant to have an impact on the culture around us, but my understanding of scripture would indicate that this impact was meant to be a by-product of our on-going, dynamic connection to God and was never meant to be the object of our pursuit.  If Jesus was out to conquer the culture, why wasn’t He born in Rome or at least in Jerusalem; why did He spend His brief season of ministry with ordinary people instead of appealing to those in positions of power; and why don’t we see the apostles doing those kinds of things either. 

It is the enemy’s game to make us feel as though we lack what we need to live the life that God has ordained for us and yet this strategy seems to be predicated on the idea that “if we only had the right people, with the right credentials, in the right places, then we could impact the culture for Christ.”  If that is what it takes, then how did Jesus change the world with twelve uneducated men, who possessed little earthy influence?  This proposed strategy seems to be more rooted in futurist philosophies than in biblical principle. 

The sad news from my perspective is that we’re already in a position to impact the culture if only we’d surrender ourselves to God and to His purposes.  We seem to think that we can win the world with our ideas, but the word tells us that to those who are perishing, the cross is foolishness and it’s too easy for the world to see the disparity between what we preach and how we live. 

Our role has always been to be “salt” and “light”.  Salt was never intended to be the main course; it was only intended to flavor the things it touches.  Light itself is rarely the center of attention, but its presence is illuminating to everything it reaches.  If we’d simply live what we profess to believe, our culture would be revolutionized.  If we loved our wives like Christ loved the church, women everywhere would want to marry a Christian man.  If we loved our neighbors as ourselves, people would want us to live on their street.  If our “yes” meant “yes” and our ‘no” meant “no”, businesses would want us as their employee’s.  If we could be identified as Christians because of the way we loved & supported each other, we wouldn’t have any trouble getting people to come to church.  If people could see the character of Christ within us, they’d be drawn to it.  Unless the world sees something within our existence that they want for their own, they have no reason to accept that our version of the truth is any more credible than theirs. 

The danger in this doctrine is that it threatens to keep the church focused on the culture instead of the Author and Finisher of our faith; and as humans we tend to become whatever we behold.  It also threatens to keep us focused on what is seen, instead of looking to the unseen realm, which is where both our weapons and our enemy exist.  This philosophy seems to hinge the healing of our land on our ability to change the minds of the ungodly, while God’s word ties the healing of our land to His children changing their minds. 

It strikes me as more than a little ironic that the period in which Christianity reached its most prominent position within culture has come to be known as the dark age of the church.  Unless the church that bears the name of Jesus Christ becomes connected to Him in a way that causes His image to be accurately projected to the world, it will continue to be irrelevant to this or any other culture.

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Blurred Vision

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , , on February 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

(Written many years ago)

One of the most effective tools of our enemy is the subtle redefinition of terms, especially those with biblical significance.  Within this pattern we see a word from scripture infused into our cultural vernacular, where it can take on all sorts of new connotations (i.e. it is secularized).  As such a term gains new relevance, there is often a renewed emphasis on its use within the church; but many times the word is not restored to its original context.  An example of such a term is, “vision”.

Like many words, “vision” can have different meanings based upon its context.  It can simply mean how well we see (i.e. our visual acuity); or it can refer to a dreamlike state where images permeate our conscious mind; or it can refer to our long term goals and the strategies we have for achieving them.  I believe that this final context is the most popular, and that its attractiveness can largely be traced to the business world. 

It is our human tendency to make successful people and/or entities into icons; and increasingly entrepreneurs have reached celebrity status within our society.  They are often hailed as visionaries based solely on their perceived success, and often in spite of their character.   These czars of popular culture rarely resist the urge to share their “vision” and often find a crowd willing to fall in line behind them. 

Unfortunately the church is amongst the leaders in this trend; as church growth experts study the successes of corporate entities in hopes of replicating their success within the church.  Though on a purely practical level this would seem to be a reasonable strategy, spiritually it is fraught with pitfalls.

While many might rationalize that there is nothing wrong with the church employing successful methodologies from the world; such a belief ignores that at the foundation of every methodology is a philosophy or ideology; and that embracing the method in the natural generally equates to embracing the corresponding philosophy in the spiritual (i.e. in essence we put our faith in it). 

The other problem is the aim of these strategies.  Corporate entities in the world are looking to attract consumers, to grow their businesses and to appeal to the masses.  Churches who’ve successfully deployed such methods have often achieved those same ends; producing consumers instead of disciples.

In the corporate world, the leaders (or visionaries) come together and cast the vision for the organization.  This is the exercise of visualizing where they want to go, what they want to achieve and then developing a strategy for getting there.  Once again this seems to be a very sensible approach for any corporate entity, including the church; but it ignores many principles of scripture. 

God clearly states that our ways are not His ways; that the wisdom of men is foolishness to Him and He warns us not to be taken captive through “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ”.  He tells us not to be focused on what is seen (i.e. in the natural), but to be focused on what is unseen (i.e. the spiritual).  He tells us that not only is our struggle in the spiritual realm, but also that our tools, weapons and authority are in that sphere as well.  Sadly, when the church chooses to study and deploy worldly strategies to gain influence in the natural realm, we unwittingly lay down our weapons and forfeit our authority in the spiritual realm.

The scripture I’ve most often heard quoted in regard to the word “vision” is from Proverbs 29 (KJV), where it says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”.  I’ve heard many leaders use this scripture in the context of talking about long term goals and strategies, but that doesn’t seem to be an appropriate application.  The Hebrew word translated as “vision” in the King James actually speaks of a revelation from God; and other translations actually use the word “revelation”. 

If our long term goals and strategies were established through revelation from God, it could be argued that these meanings are synonymous; but in terms of teaching the scripture, there is a large difference between the idea that people perish because they don’t have long term goals and strategies, and that people perish because they don’t get revelation from God.  The Lord has not entrusted the leadership and guidance of His children to anyone apart from Himself and thus the vision for our lives and His church must come directly from Him.

Just as the term vision has taken on a new context, so has the term “visionary”; whereas there was once a very spiritual connotation to the term, it now seems that anyone who has an active imagination or the ability to “visualize” their ideas can be viewed as a “visionary”.  The problem with such visionaries is that they can tap into any number of sources for their vision. 

Visions that are not birthed from the Spirit of God, but are instead derived from our minds, emotions, observations, experiences, imaginations… could more accurately be called goals, plans, wishes, dreams or fantasies.  Surprisingly, Proverbs 28 (NIV) addresses the idea of fantasies when it says, “one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty”.  In light of these two scriptures (i.e. Prov. 28 & 29), it would seem vital that we discern the origin of our “vision”; because apart from divine inspiration, a visionary will inevitably build a monument to themselves.

It is very much within our nature to want detailed information about the future; as such detailed plans for the future can seem very appealing.  But God’s interest in developing our faith makes such detail counterproductive.  He told Abraham to leave his home, but He did not tell him where he was going; He gave Joseph a dream of the future, but no road map or time table for getting there; When Paul had the desire to go preach in Asia, the Spirit would not let him, instead he was given a dream of a man in Macedonia and nothing more… over and over we see God give His servants a vision and then expect them to rely on Him to guide them to that vision.  Even Jesus said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see the Father do first. 

While God can and does give us a vision for the future, we must understand that our view of it is partial at best (i.e. we know in part, we prophesy in part, we see as through a glass dimly).  While the world casts a vision and then stays focused on it, we as children of God must remain focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  If we become too locked into our vision, we can easily become task driven instead of driven by the Holy Spirit; goal oriented instead of people oriented and so focused on our long term goals that we miss what God is doing today. 

If we find ourselves stepping over, around, or through, people to bring about our vision, I’d suggest that we’ve lost our eternal perspective.  I do believe the Lord has a vision for our lives and His church, but that the biggest obstacle to His plan is our plan.  Without His guidance, the best we can achieve is a bigger and busier church.  Yet with His guidance, we can change the world.  Unless the house is built using the Lords plan, we labor in vain.

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Child’s Play

Posted in Commentaries, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 30, 2025| 1 Comment »

At the time of this writing, my two youngest granddaughters are 2 and 3 years old respectively.  Though they are cousins, they have spent a tremendous amount of their young lives together, and relate to each other more like siblings.  When they are apart, they pine away for each other, and whenever they come together, it is with great enthusiasm and affection.  But I’ve noticed that it doesn’t take very long for that initial excitement to wear off, and for contentiousness to rise up in its place.

It tends to start with one of them noticing what the other one has in their hands, or maybe what they’re wearing, and wanting it for themselves.  In such moments, you can offer them something else, but once they get their eyes (and hearts) fixed on that one “thing”, it becomes the only thing that will do.  There can be doll houses, and scooters, and stuffed animals, but they will suddenly be in a death match over some little plastic piece from yesterday’s Happy Meal.

One may like hamburgers, while the other prefers chicken nuggets, but when they’re together they insist on having whatever the other one is having, even if they won’t actually eat it.  If you don’t get them both the same thing, one will feel as though you have somehow favored the other, and treated them unfairly. 

When we have only one of the girls, they can go through long stretches of the day being fairly content, but when they are together, it is difficult to go 15 minutes without some form of conflict.  Despite their genuine affection for each other, this endless cycle of comparing, coveting and competing tends to steal the joy of their time together.

Anyone who has spent much time around toddlers, or young children would likely attest to the fact that this kind of behavior is typical, especially amongst children who grow up together (e.g. siblings).  But something that is rarely acknowledged is how intact this pattern carries over into our adult interactions. While we may eventually learn not to throw ourselves on the floor and cry over the sippy cup, we often remain just as prone to our emotional tantrums, which can be even more destructive than those of our childhood.

This becomes most evident when we try to gather with people we claim to care about, whether that is our family, our neighbors, or in our churches.  Though we enthusiastically endorse the concepts of tight-knit families, healthy communities, and Christian fellowship, we struggle to achieve or sustain any of them.  Like my granddaughters, we like the idea of being together, yet rarely experience the fulfillment that was meant to accompany it; because like them, we fall into this perilous cycle.

Jesus said the way people would be able to distinguish His followers from other groups would be by the way they loved one another, and that is a standard the “Christian” community has rarely risen to.  Indeed, “church people” are more typically known for their divisive and contentious behavior.

While some might want to rationalize that this is simply a maturity issue, I would beg to differ.  In my experience, the most seasoned congregants are frequently the most zealously quarrelsome, and sadly, gatherings of religious leaders are generally the clearest example of the compare-covet-compete dynamic.

As western Christianity continues to abandon concepts like dying to self, and being transformed into Christ’s image, in favor of promoting ideals like empowerment, and self-actualization, this issue is bound to get worse.  “Self” is the toxin that ultimately poisons unity.

We see this played out in the entertainment world, as young musicians band together in order to create something transcendent.  At first, they openly share their gifts, and often go through years of struggle together to achieve their dreams. But upon finding success, this bond is frequently destroyed by power struggles, greed and envy. 

Similarly, young athletes will often team together in pursuit of a championship.  On the way up, players will make sacrifices and accept the role the team needs them to play. But after a taste of success, everyone wants to be treated like a star, and the team chemistry is destroyed.

As disciples of Christ, we cannot afford to continue to fall into this standard pattern of human behavior.  Unless and until we confront the issue of “self”, we have no hope of ever functioning as a body, where each part provides something for the greater good of the whole (Rom.12:3-8, 1Cor.12:12-26).

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