One potato, two potato...

I need to follow up on something I said earlier today in the previous blog post, Pew Potatoes.

There was a riff of one-liners in the middle of the post that I was very proud of. That should have been my first sign that it was wrong. Pride goeth before the fall.

Here's the entire sequence:

Being a Christian isn’t like being a bowler. It’s not something you do to pass the time; it’s not a hobby, it’s not an avocation, it’s not a social club.

If your Bible isn’t open on any day besides Sunday, you’re not really a Christian; you’re just here for the potato salad.

If prayer is something you never do outside the church building you attend, you’re not really a Christian; you’re just a person trying to keep from feeling guilty on Sundays.

If your behavior during the week would make your pastor cringe, you’re not really a Christian; you’re just acting the role on Sunday mornings.

If you can’t describe what it is that Jesus wants you to do and be as a follower of His,you’re not really a Christian; you’re more like a blind man trying to pass a driving test.

If you miss church on Sunday because of what you chose to do on Saturday night…you’re not really a Christian; you’re whatever you were on Saturday night.

If you go to church but you’re not really a Christian… you’re a hypocrite. You’re better off not lying about it anymore and just tell the truth about not being a Christian.

But if you are a Christian…then you have a job to do. One job.

The Great Commission.

I stand by the general point, which is that you're not a Christian just because you go to church on Sundays, or whatever. If you're really a Christian, then you pray more than just on Sunday...you pray wherever you are all week long...your behavior matches what the Lord told us in the "good book" to do...you know what the Lord expects us to do and be,,,all of that is valid.

But if you go to church and you're not really a Christian, that doesn't make you a hypocrite! The church is a hospital for sinners, not a sanctuary for saints. If a church is worth anything, it welcomes ALL parishioners into its services. If you are new to the faith, or even an agnostic or atheist, any church that claims to be Christian should welcome you with open arms. If you are dressed to the nines, or dressed from the 99-cent store, they should welcome you like a lost brother or sister. If there is an odor wafting from your body that signifies a possible allergic reaction to showers? All right, you may have to apologize to whomever you end up sitting next to, but come on in!

The point is this: The people who need to be at church the MOST are usually the ones who COME to church the LEAST. They're the ones we should be welcoming with open arms! 

However...

If you ARE a Christian, and if you aren't living like a Christian, then you need to find the Holy Spirit in your soul and let Him guide you. And if you can't find Him in there, it's time to get on your knees and pray for Him to make Himself heard in your soul. 

Then...hush....

Pew Potatoes

“Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience. They'll stay faithful as long as it's safe and doesn't involve risk, rejection, or criticism. Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going.”                         - Charles Stanley

            We have one job as Christians – to create more Christians. The final sentences in the Gospel of Matthew are Jesus’ Great Commission to His disciples – meaning, all of us – following His resurrection and just before His ascension to heaven: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

            When Christ said this to His disciples, He didn’t mean it as, “Y’know, it shore would be nice if….”. He didn’t mean it as “Hey, if you find the time, couldja?…”. He didn’t say, “Therefore go and make pizza for dinner. And when you happen to be standing at the water cooler with Charlie on Monday, say a good word for Me, okay?”

            He meant, this is your new occupation. Everything else in your life is now secondary.

“So guys, if you feel comfy telling someone about Me during the regular course of your life, that would be nice of you. If your denomination does baptisms, and if the Trinitarian nature of God fits in with your worldview, then great, include those aspects in your effort. Be careful not to suggest that they follow My commandments too closely, though. That would just be weird. You don’t want to be weird.”                 - Adam Ford, describing “Matthew 28:19-20, American Popular Version”

But it’s the common perception. It’s where the term “Jesus Freak” came from. It’s why people hide in the basement when the proselytizing sects come knocking door-to-door. It’s why Tim Tebow is looked upon as an oddball in American sports.

One of my pastors calls these people “pew potatoes”. You know the type – God forbid you are the type à they come to church most Sundays, nod politely at the sermon, pitch a couple of bucks in the collection plate, sing with the congregation and then go home to live their lives in peace and watching their football games, oblivious to the Lord in their lives the other 166 hours of the week, comfortable that they’ve checked the “go to church” requirement off their to-do list for the week.

As if they have no other responsibility to God than that checkmark.

As if God only cares about them on Sunday mornings. Or they should only care about Him on Sunday mornings.

As if that’s all there is.

I pray that I’m “preaching to the choir” here, as they say, but if you’re a pew potato, you’re just about better off actually becoming non-Christian than the kind of “lukewarm” worshiper that John wrote about in Revelation 3:15-17, as an angel from heaven described the church in Laodecia:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.”

Being a Christian isn’t like being a bowler. It’s not something you do to pass the time; it’s not a hobby, it’s not an avocation, it’s not a social club.

If your Bible isn’t open on any day besides Sunday, you’re not really a Christian; you’re just here for the potato salad.

If prayer is something you never do outside the church building you attend, you’re not really a Christian; you’re just a person trying to keep from feeling guilty on Sundays.

If your behavior during the week would make your pastor cringe, you’re not really a Christian; you’re just acting the role on Sunday mornings.

If you can’t describe what it is that Jesus wants you to do and be as a follower of His, you’re not really a Christian; you’re more like a blind man trying to pass a driving test.

If you miss church on Sunday because of what you chose to do on Saturday night…you’re not really a Christian; you’re whatever you were on Saturday night.

If you go to church but you’re not really a Christian… you’re a hypocrite. You’re better off not lying about it anymore and just tell the truth about not being a Christian.

But if you are a Christian…then you have a job to do. One job.

The Great Commission.

“God's plan for enlarging His kingdom is so simple - one person telling another about the Savior. Yet we're busy and full of excuses. Just remember, someone's eternal destiny is at stake. The joy you'll have when you meet that person in heaven will far exceed any discomfort you felt in sharing the Gospel.”                                    - Charles Stanley

           As Christians, we have several “maintenance” chores we have to perform – we attend church, yes; but that’s mostly an avenue towards our personal relationship with the Lord. Without going into a long theological harangue, essentially that requires daily prayer, regular Bible reading, and learning to live the way He has asked us to live our earthly lives, in preparation for the eternal one the saved elect have to look forward to.

           But that’s just the ‘daily maintenance’, as I said.

We have one job to do, assigned to us by Christ Himself. In Mark 16:15, after He has risen from the grave, and virtually His last command to His disciples,

“Go into all the world, and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

“Proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation.” That means to everybody. If you want to practice by telling the Good News to fellow Christians who already know and are saved, that’s a great way to start. One of my pastors likes to test the congregation by spot checking how many of us can tell the Gospel in ninety seconds or less, because he figures that’s a reasonable length of time to come up on the job, in line at the DMV, at the grocery store, wherever. I think that’s a great target time – short enough to prevent turning people off, long enough to get out the critical details:

There are only two alternatives when we die, and the only chance we have of reaching the acceptable one is through Jesus Christ, whose death and resurrection paid the penalty for the sins that every one of us have made, which will otherwise damn us to Hell. We must confess our belief that Jesus died for our sins, and we must accept Christ as Lord of our lives (and not just on Sundays, either!).

[That’s a lot less than ninety seconds, but then I tend to ramble and gesticulate a lot…]

As I said, practice on your church buddies, even though they’re already on your side. Jesus was notorious for getting in people’s faces about the Truth, and we need to be as well. You don’t need to go overturn money lender’s tables in the synagogue, as He did, but you do need to find opportunities to ask the introductory questions when you can.

Tell your enemies, too. After all, they can’t hate you any more than they already do, right? And if they become Christians, they can’t stay your enemy, can they?

And most important of all – live it. My fourth grade son complained about an acquaintance of his who wears a cross around his neck and says he’s a Christian, but on the playground, he bullies other kids, uses curse words, and is generally rude and obnoxious. My fourth grader says to me, “Dad, he says he’s a Christian… but I don’t think he really is one, y’know?”

I know, son. I know.

Being a Christian, as the very name implies, means following the role model of Christ. We will fall short, make no mistake about that. But starting from our own desire and dedication to turn away from sin, strengthened by the Holy Spirit from within, we hope each day to become…slightly closer to that ideal every day. You don’t have to be perfect – but you DO have to put the effort in! (“Christians aren’t perfect; just forgiven” isn’t just a slogan…God will forgive your sins, your “errors” if you make them while trying to do right.)

So, live your life according to Christ’s teachings. Spread the Good News – the Gospel of Jesus Christ – wherever you can.

That’s our job.

Saw these magazines at the store yesterday...

...and wondered what God thinks when He sees us "taking evolution into our own hands" or stretching the definitions of gender "beyond HE or SHE".

"Alright, that's enough. Everybody! Out of the pool!"

You read my posts last week about the approaching End Times Great Tribulation... It's not hard to watch the direction we are taking our technological achievements and our social 'awakenings', and think that we've reached beyond the limits of what God would want us to explore or expand.

Our first experiments in these directions have been mild enough - heart transplants, trans-sexuality, etcetera. But the possibilities follow Moore's Law just as surely as computer prices do: technology accelerates at rate that doubles every eighteen months. The pace of our ability to "outstrip God" will double every year-and-a-half. 

If we're asking these questions now, we're going to be twice as far down that road in the fall of 2018.

Review my previous End Times piece - that's where I believe God's limits lie.

It's not just the signs in the Middle East. It's the shape of all society that leads towards the End: our movement towards the One World Government, towards One World Religion, towards the Universal Banking system we've just about got in place already. 

It's the prolific expansion of false prophets, specifically the prosperity gospel preachers who tell us that God wants you to have material wealth when the Bible demonstrates exactly the opposite in its Word (consider the Apostles and judge what God gives His chosen people). Which side of the battle do you think wants you to believe in prosperity gospel? Christ...or Satan?

It's also the otherwise accurate Christian churches who are "giving in" to the pressures of society - despite the Scriptural condemnation of homosexual behavior (NOT of homosexuals! Get that straight, pardon the pun! Christ tells us to LOVE ALL, regardless of sins, and we ALL sin!), there are churches holding gay and lesbian weddings within their auspices. I actually have no problem with a gay marriage, but not under the banner of a Biblical church. The government has made provisions for justice of the peace weddings for a purpose such as this one.

It's the otherwise accurate Christian churches who will change the Word of God to fit their purposes and prejudices. It's the otherwise Christian churches who deny the End Times prophecies or deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ or deny things which have been written into the Bible to suit their own comfort level who are condemning themselves and their parishioners to Hell when the White Throne judgment comes.

In a book I'm close to finishing, called A Commission From God, I suggest that despite the surveys which suggest that 68% of so-called Christians believe they're going to Heaven when they die (compared to just 2% who believe they're bound for Hell), it is in fact the other way around: I will be greatly surprised if it isn't closer to 2% going to Heaven and the vast, VAST majority descending with the goats to Hell.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13-14)

Jesus was even clearer in Luke 13:23-28 →

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.

The Lord will not recognize many who claim His Name. Consider the Pharisees and the Sadduccees of Christ's time: as John The Baptist warned them in Luke 3:8...

"And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."

Those men were SO sure of their salvation, and they were SO wrong.

What about you?

Dealing with God's challenges

I had the joy of spending a weekend with the beautiful woman I've been dating since last May - my age, a lovely mother of six, although she started building her family right away whereas I waited until 32 to have my first child. The result is that although we coincidentally both had four boys and then twin girls, my oldest is twenty and my twins are eleven, while her oldest is thirty and married with a five-year old of his own, and her twin girls are juniors in high school, the same age my second son would've been had he lived. (And my twins and her twins utterly adore each other! The four of them went with my lady to the premiere of Beauty And The Beast a week ago, and ended up in a slumber party making friendship bracelets until four in the morning!)

Back to the story...

I had the joy of spending the weekend with my beautiful lady in nearby Jackpot, Nevada, one of the "resort" towns built on the edge of Nevada to lure folks from the neighboring states in to gamble. We didn't spend a dime gambling - smoke filled rooms do nothing good for either of us - but the food and ambiance were worth the journey.

While we might adhere to the Lord's admonition about pre-marital sex, it doesn't mean we don't share rooming arrangements and body warmth and affection. Normally at home, because of my TAM, I sleep in my recliner - for reasons I don't completely understand, lying flat is much more painful than being in a "lazyboy" position, with a slight fetal curve and supporting pillows under my legs and in the small of my back. But until now I'd been able to sleep in a bed when the situation called for it.

Until now. 

I discovered Saturday that the flat bed is no longer a possibility for me if I intend to sleep. I could "jury-rig" a recliner-like set up on the bed by stealing all but one of the pillows (plus the seat cushions from the funky chair-thing in the room) and setting it up to mimic my chair. It wasn't painful, but it wasn't stable either, so sleeping was near-impossible. I did sleep for an hour or two out of exhaustion, but it was lying flat and sleeping through the pain, not without it.

My days of using a bed are apparently over. 

And that's going to make travelling difficult. It was something she and I spent a great deal of time discussing, as she would be the one I'd generally be travelling with these days. Could my recliner make road trips? How many hotels had recliners to use? Is there something available that's more easily transportable that we could look into buying? She's already gone to the trouble (when she recently bought a new couch for her living room) to find one with a recliner setting in case I stay over at her place. But travel was already difficult on me physically; without a way to get some recovery rest on the far end of a trip, travel was going to be just about impossible.

The question becomes this: Lord, how do I use this challenge to glorify Your Name?

All of our challenges are exactly that: challenges. Tests. Obstacles to give us the chance to refine our character to make us more Christlike in our walk with Him. If life were going to be easy, He would have brought us Home already. The only purposes of remaining on earth as a Christian are to refine our character to bring us closer to the person God wants us to become when we reach His realm, AND to spread the Gospel of Good News to those who aren't yet saved, or whose salvation is marginal or weakened by sin and backsliding.

Obstacles are gifts from God.

Thank you, Lord, for this obstacle to my comfort.

For without it, I wouldn't be learning what You need me to learn. I don't yet know what that is, but I have to find out. That's my job as a Christian. 

My Weekly Footy Meanderings

(Published in The Roar)

            As quick hitting as a Bulldog end-to-end, here’s our weekly look at the ins and outs, ups and downs, backs and forths, and highs (no lows) of the AFL’s “Gender Pivot” weekend:

            …The AFLW final did not disappoint. Adelaide absolutely deserved the victory (35-29), but the Lions didn’t take their first defeat easily. Erin Phillips was her usual amazing self, and the 15,000+ in attendance helped make it feel like a men’s final out there. (An interesting note: the men's Q-Clash that followed had fewer in attendance!) It was the first footy game my ladyfriend Dana had ever seen in its entirety, and she’s hooked on the athleticism (women and men both). Well done to all involved.

…By the way, it’s not a coincidence that the two most physically fit teams met in the grand final. Play your league in eight consecutive weeks of daytime games in an Australian summer and you’ll treasure fitness too. (And it’s been beaten like a dead horse, but when your team’s split between Adelaide and Darwin all year, coaching them to a title is nearly miraculous. That's right - ten of Adelaide's players are based a thousand miles north of Adelaide during the week!)

            …But it was a sobering reminder that the women are second class citizens in sport. “We can’t get the field ready for a Grand Final, AFL – after all, it’s only been three weeks since Adele – but don’t worry, mate: the boys will have their field ready to go.” Contrary to opinion, I don’t blame the league on this. The Brisbane men all sang the same tune in their analysis: footy in Q is an afterthought, women’s even more so.

            …So, Hawthorn’s toast, Port and the Dees are finals bound, the Giants are headed for the wooden spoon, and Chris Fagan is the next Luke Beveridge. Or, it’s only round one and everyone just needs to simmer down a bit. But I loved seeing that beautiful red on the Melbourne men’s unis that the women sported. It’s an exquisite rebranding that doesn’t actually change the Demon look.

            …I know it’s hard not to tap the brakes on the Saints right now, less because of the 120-90 loss to the Demons but because their touchstone, the ageless Jack Riewoldt, went down with what thankfully was not an ACL but nevertheless looks rather serious. I’d like to remind you of R3 last year, however, when another up-and-coming team lost its captain in a loss to the defenders, and all looked lost for them. In the end, I think the Bulldogs will take what they got.

… Alex Rance worried me Thursday night. It’s one thing to have an off-night, and certainly he’s had enough great nights to be forgiven a bad one, but he just looked a step behind all night long against an undermanned Carlton team (Richmond won easily, 132-89) who really had nobody up front worthy of being feared. Four-time all-Australian defenseman Rance is only 27 but he looked old, and if I were a Tiger supporter, that would worry the shorts off me.

            …Warning: American bias approaching. There are plenty of athletes in my home country who were shuttled into basketball when their shoe size exceeded what was available in the box stores, but whose engines and footwork might make them better suited for the footy pitch. I don’t know for sure if Magpie Mason Cox is a project or a pipe dream, but I’m obviously rooting for the man. Friday’s performance against an excellent Doggie defense provided evidence both ways – moments of promise, moments of despair. (There are four or five Americans playing footy at the level right below the AFL, learning and waiting their turn to play at the highest tier.)

            …Unless you wear Pie stripes, you had to feel good for Travis Cloke. The early opportunity to put one through the big sticks against his former team in the first quarter from fifty was tailor-made for drama, and Cloke didn’t disappoint, slamming it through the pipes thirty meters up. I’m one who views free agency as a necessary evil, a freedom the players deserve but one that risks us being forced to root for laundry instead of our boys. But one of the huge upsides are moments like that one – 66,000 black and white faithful booing their former star and being silenced by a champion’s goal. That’s what makes sport emotionally fulfilling.

            …A side note about the booing. Booing in that situation is part of the game. But every time I hear it, I hope and pray that it’s being done as professional gamesmanship and not as personal vindictiveness. Cloke would have been a fool to have stayed in an environment where his skills were obviously no longer valued, and to latch on with the reigning premiers was a bonus. Be upset with Magpie management if you’d like, but boo Cloke for entertainment purposes only. Any situation that even remotely smells of the criminal treatment Adam Goodes got during his final year, regardless of your opinion of the man, is reprehensible.

            …Dustin Martin lo-oo-oves his new teammates. More than anything else, having Dion Prestia in the mid opened up Martin to roam around and do what Gazza Ablett did for so long, and what Lance Franklin and Patrick Dangerfield are now doing more and more – play the position of “star”, wherever on the field that entailed him being. Can’t wait to watch him this season.

            …I’ve no problem with the no third-man up rule on bounces (or “fake” bounces). But when the ball’s being thrown in from the side, over the umpire’s head, just let anyone get the ball. Time after time, I saw rucks frantically running to reach the wildly mis-thrown ball. I can’t even blame the thrower – it’s got to be near impossible to gauge an over-the-head backwards chuck within a few feet. Just let whomever it comes to go after it, save yourselves the five seconds of figuring out who’s “nominated” to ruck, and move on.

            …Adelaide’s resounding victory reminds us that you can’t anoint any team in March. GWS should still be the league favorite (losing to a finalist on the road isn’t a huge black mark), but the Crows are one of six or more teams that should be aiming for a cup ceremony on the last day of September.

            …Feel good stories abounded. After the gloom and doom around the Lions the last couple of years, the women’s success may have rubbed off on the men, whose first half may be the best they’ve played in years. Great to see Jarryd Roughhead play well after a brave year away fighting cancer. Sam Reid’s comeback in Sydney after injury was superb. Debutants like Sam Petrevski-Seton, Sam Powell-Pepper and Ben Ainsworth excelled. Carlton’s hoping to clone Jake Weitering seventeen times. And if you don’t want to feel good about the return of Essendon’s WADA “victims/criminals”, feel good for the guys like Zach Merrett, David Zaharakis, Brendan Goddard, Joe Daniher, and all the other Dons who had literally four years of their careers wasted without any chance at finals until now. They may not get this year either, but now they can dream again.

            …Love the attendance throughout the weekend – all ten games. I suspect having the AFLW this summer has whetted the appetite for the men’s game. 15K for the ladies at Metricon let to 33K at Sydney; 36K and 22K at Etihad; 44K at Adelaide, 34K at Domain, and 73K, 66K, and 78K at the MCG. Four hundred thousand patrons watched the men’s debut weekend. It should remind all of us what we love about this game – the balletic athleticism, the strength and skill on display in all ten games that made me anxious and excited to watch the next 198.

          Scores this weekend: Richmond d. Carlton 132-89. Western d. Collingwood 100-86. Melbourne d. St. Kilda 120-90, a mild upset and breaking a 14-game streak. Port Adelaide d. Sydney 110-82, a huge upset. Essendon d. Hawthorn 116-91, a big deal. Brisbane d. Gold Coast 98-96, another huge upset; Brisbane led 45-1 at one point in the first quarter. West Coast d. North Melbourne 136-93. Adelaide d. GWS Giants 147-91, surprising for the size of victory. And Geelong d. Fremantle 115-73.